Cabell County, West Virginia Biography of Mathew MISER ************************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: Material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor. Submitted by Valerie Crook, , July 1999 ************************************************************************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 166-167 MATHEW MISER. There has been no lengthy interval since he was thirteen years old when Mathew Miser has not been identified with some useful occupation or busi- ness in the City of Huntington. His early experience was in the railroad shops, and then for a long period of years was on the road as a commercial salesman. His business today is the public business of the city, as commissioner of streets and sewers. Mr. Miser is a native of Cabell County, born at Le Sage, September 18, 1879. His grandfather, John Miser, was a native of Pennsylvania, and as a young man removed to Germano, Ohio, where he owned and operated a large farm until his death. Andrew Jackson Miser, father of the city commissioner of Huntington, was born at Ger- mano, Ohio, in 1840, was reared and married there, and as a young man enlisted in the Sixth Ohio Infantry, and served as a Union soldier until the close of war. In the fall of 1865 he married, and then located at Millersport, Ohio, where he conducted a general blacksmith and wagon making shop. In the early '70s he came to Cabell County, West Virginia, continued his trade at Le Sage, and on March 20, 1891, removed to Huntington, where shortly aft- erward he was elected justice of the peace, and served that office for about ten years, until his death on May 27, 1901. He was a man of substantial character, business-like and efficient in everything he undertook and popular as well. He was a republican, a member of the German Lutheran Church, was a charter member of Huntington Lodge No. 313, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and was the first member of that lodge to die. His first wife, whom he married in Ohio, was Miss Zeller, a native of Jefferson County, that state. She died at Le Sage, West Virginia, and of her six children the four now living are: Andrew C., a blacksmith of Huntington; Charles, a machinist at Huntington; Commodore Hall, a molder living at Cleveland; and Mary, wife of William M. Lake, a painter in the coach department of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad at Hunting- ton. In 1877 Andrew J. Miser married at Le Sage Miss Sarah Johnson, who was born in Cabell County in 1857, and is now living at Huntington. She became the mother of four children: Mathew; James G., a plumber who died at Hunt- ington in 1921, at the age of thirty-nine; Harry Blaine, clerk at Huntington; and Robert E., who died at Hunting- ton in 1917, at the age of twenty-two, was a pipe fitter and had charge of a crew of men for the Westinghouse Company during the construction of the Huntington shops of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. Mathew Miser attended school at Le Sage, and was about twelve years of age when the family moved to Huntington. The following year ho began earning his own living, and for six years worked in the shops of the Chesapeake & Ohio and for two years longer in the Huntington plant of the American Car & Foundry Company. For a year or so after working hours he devoted his time to the study of pharmacy, and he had practical employment as pharmacist for three years in the drug store of C. A. Yates at Hunt- ington. Then he went on the road as a traveling salesman, as representative for J. N. Murdoch, wholesale druggist of Parkersburg. For this firm he covered an extensive terri- tory in the southern part of the state for ten years and nine months. He resigned to assist in organizing the Hunt- ington Drug Company, and while the organization was underway he served as treasurer during 1913, but when the business was established he resigned that office to go on the road as its traveling representative, again cover- ing Southern West Virginia and built up an extensive clien- tele for the company. He remained a member of the board of directors. Mr. Miser was drafted for the municipal service of Hunt- ington in 1918, and elected commissioner of streets and sewers, public utilities and public buildings and public grounds. He entered the office for a term of three years in June, 1918. In 1919 the city charter was amended, changing it from a non-partisan to a partisan form of gov- ernment. In 1921 Mr. Miser was made commissioner of streets and sewers for a term of one year, which expires the second Monday in June, 1922. Under the new charter there is another commissioner for public utilities and pub- lic buildings. Mr. Miser has his offices in the city hall. He was a member of the last city council before the adop- tion of the commission form of government in 1909. Mr. Miser is a republican, is on the Official Board of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Huntington, is affiliated with Western Star Lodge No. 11, A. F. and A. M., Huntington Lodge No. 6, E. A. M. Huntington Commandery No. 9, K. T., Huntington Lodge of Perfection No. 4 of the Scottish Rite, and Beni-Kedem Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Charleston. He also belongs to Huntington Council No. 53, United Commercial Travelers, Huntington Camp No. 8373, Modern Woodmen of America, and Hunt- ington Lodge, Ancient Order of United Workmen. He is a member of the Huntington Kiwanis Club. Mr. Miser has acquired considerable real estate in the city and county, and his home is a modern residence at 512 Fourth Street. On March 27, 1904, at Ironton, Ohio, he married Miss Erma Messenger, daughter of Hiram and Margaret (Mc- Whorter) Messenger. Her mother lives at Huntington, where her father, who was a carpenter, died. Mrs. Miser finished her education in Marshall College at Huntington. They have one child, John Allen, born April 18, 1906.