Grant County, West Virginia Biography of Harman Frank GROVES ************************************************************************** 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, , March 2000 ************************************************************************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 346-347 HARMAN FRANK GROVES. The superintendent of schools of Grant County, Harman Frank Groves, represents one of the old and honored families of this region of West Vir- ginia, his remote ancestor and the family founder here being his great-grandfather, Noah Groves. Noah Groves traced his genealogy back to the Saxons, where the name seems to have started with the Groffs, then was corrupted or changed to Graves, again changed to Grove, and finally to its present spelling, Groves. They have been strictly farm- ers and rural people through the generations to the present, and have invariably followed rural pursuits until the present generation of John Groves, some of whose children have departed from family traditions and customs and allied themselves with professional vocations. Harman Frank Groves of this review was born in the "Ridge country," six miles northwest of Petersburg, Grant County, and there resided until nearly reaching his major- ity. His grandfather, Alex Groves, was born in 1814, in Grant County, West Virginia, and followed farming throughout his career in Grant County, where he was a pioneer. His industry gained him independent means, and in his daily life he so comported himself as to gain the confidence and esteem of his associates. He died suddenly when sixty-five years of age. Politically he was a repub- lican. He and his worthy wife were the parents of the following children: Ellen, who died of diphtheria when six years of age; Ashford, a farmer in the "Ridge" section of Grant County; George, who spent his life in the locality of his birth and died there; Joseph, who spent his life as a stockman and shipper, and died from an injury received while following his daily occupations; Abel, who was a farmer in the "Ridge" locality and there died; John, the father of Harman F. Groves, and Annie, who married C. H. Feaster and died in Grant County. John Groves was born near the foothills of the Alle- ghany Mountains in Grant County, March 4, 1865, and has spent his entire life within a few miles of his birth- place. He is a product of the country school, and during his active years he applied himself industriously to the cultivation of his acres, but is now in retirement and a resident of Petersburg. He has demonstrated his good citizenship in a number of ways and has acquired local influence which he exerts in behalf of those he deems worthy of support, and in politics is a stanch republican. He has made no public avowal of membership in any re- ligious body and has no fraternal affiliations. Mr. Groves married Miss Mahala Jane Phares, who was born near Spruce Mountain in Pendleton County, West Virginia, a daughter of William Phares and his wife, who had been a Miss Mallow. The Mallows were an old-time pioneer family of Pendleton County, where members of the family had resided since the days of Indian warfare. To Mr. and Mrs. Groves there were born the following children: Myrtle Alice, who is the wife of C. O. Turner, of Forman, Grant County; Harman Prank, of this review; Bertha Susan, the wife of Earl Trenton, of Keyser, West Virginia; Nellie, who married H. C. Trenton, of Cumberland, Maryland; Clarence B., who is identified with the "Ridge" community as a farmer; Gracie, who was the wife of Jesse Idleman, of Scherr, West Virginia; Thomas, who is engaged in agri- cultural operations on the old home place; Edith, wife of Olin Weese, now a resident farmer of Monticello, Indiana, and Johnnie, who died in infancy. Harman Frank Groves was born August 4, 1888, and secured his education in the country schools and a normal school in Grant County. He was only seventeen years of age when he was given his first charge as a teacher, the Burgess School, and for five years thereafter he continued in rural school work. He then entered the Shepherdstown State Normal School, where he took one year's work, but the constant confinement and too close application to his studies caused his health to fail, and he was forced to spend two years in recuperating his strength. At this time Mr. Groves was elected county superintendent of schools, and while engaged in the duties of the office, traveling about the county and being in the open air, where he encountered new scenes and had new experiences, he recovered normal health, and still continues his supervision work over Grant County. He has not given up the idea of the completion of a college course for himself, as he is carrying on a corre- spondence course, is a student at St. John's Academy, and is a teacher in its normal training course. He will have attained his ambition and hold a diploma of the Shep- herdstown Normal School by 1924. Mr. Groves was elected county superintendent to com- plete the unexpired term of Superintendent Slusher in 1912. He was elected to the office in 1914, and again in 1918, his present term expiring in July, 1923. His administration has been characterized by an intense interest in the prog- ress and effectiveness of the public schools, in the training of teachers for better service and creating a higher spirit of citizenship for the county than it has shown heretofore. While he was filling the unexpired term of his predecessor he carried through the latter's plans and policies, which included the building of country school libraries and the improvement of teachers' institutes. His own plans include increasing the efficiency of the teaching force through such means of professional growth as organized reading circle work, and the reading of professional magazines and books and papers on educational subjects. Also to change the character of the local teachers' institute work in order to provide for the presentation of some of the most vital local phases of the educational question, such as improving school property with regard to the character and type of buildings, better school attendance, increased efficiency on the part of teachers and a closer intimacy and more vital relationship between the public school and the home. As proof of the practicability of his plans the results worked out show the organizations are formed and doing systematic reading circle work; that a large number of up- to-date and approved school buildings have been erected; that the character of institute work is attracting a wide interest among the teachers; that educational meetings, with special speakers, are arranged and carried out from year to year; that unified action on the part of the school boards has been brought about through county board con- ferences, and that many teachers have been encouraged to enroll in accredited schools and colleges. At this time the main objective of Mr. Groves as county superintendent of schools is the establishment of a perma- nent teachers' training school at the county seat, one within easy reach of the teachers of Grant, Pendleton, Hardy and Hampshire counties. A temporary school of this nature is already in operation and is accomplishing gratifying re- sults. Also, it is his ambition to equip teachers, first, pro- fessionally for their work as such; second, to enable them to meet the legal requirements of school legislation; and, last but not least, to increase the efficiency of citizenship as a means of the solution of the problems of our complex rural social life. All of this tends to prepare the county for rural school consolidation, the realization of which is in the not far distant future. In the matter of interesting pupils of the county in farm club work Mr. Groves has not failed to give encouragement and support to the establishment of many girls' and boys' clubs, and, likewise, community clubs for parents. While this work is directed by the county agricultural agent, it could not have accomplished the results shown to date without the cooperation of the school superintendent. Grant County has already sent prize-winning pupils to the prize- winners' course at West Virginia University, Morgantown, and the interest in scientific farming and in the raising of blooded live stock has been wonderfully stimulated thereby. Mr. Groves was the prime mover in the establishment of the farm bureau in Grant County. In company with the state organizer of this movement he drove all over the county, encouraging the farmers everywhere to subscribe to the movement. Mr. Groves' active work as a citizen and community man has not stopped with his labors in behalf of the schools. He is identified with church and Sabbath school work, for five years has been president of the Grant County Sunday School Association, and has assisted actively in building up the work of the Sunday school here to the point where it is about to be a "front line" county, lacking only, at this time, eight organized classes in as many additional schools. In politics Mr. Groves is a republican by birth, training and conviction, but has not engaged in professional polities. He has been elected superintendent of schools three times on his personal merits, and supports every good measure and movement for the upbuilding of civic, moral and educational life. On December 25, 1916, Mr. Groves married at Riverton, West Virginia, Miss Catherine Harman, who was born February 21, 1891, a daughter of John A. and Izurna (Dove) Harman, natives of Pendleton County. Mr. Harman is a merchant and farmer of Riverton, and represents a pioneer family of Pendleton County. His children are: Bessie, the wife of Curtis Hammer, of Cumberland, Mary- land; Fred D., of Elkins, West Virginia; Catherine, who is now Mrs. Groves; Dr. Robert, who graduated from Mary- land University in 1922 and is now engaged in the prac- tice of medicine, and Curtis, who is interested in the mer- cantile business with his father. Mr. and Mrs. Groves are the parents of one son, John Harman, born April 13, 1918.