Lewis County, West Virginia    Biography of JAY L. POLING

**************************************************************************
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, <vfcrook@trellis.net>, July 1999
**************************************************************************

The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., 
Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. pg. 181-182


JAY L. POLING, deputy sheriff of Lewis County, has
been actively identified with business enterprises at Wes-
ton, the county seat, and is one of the well known and
popular citizens of the city. Mr. Poling was born in Bar-
bour County, West Virginia, on the 8th of February, 1877,
and is a son of Rev. Hamilton Poling and Alma (John-
son) Poling, the former of whom was born in Rockingham
County, Virginia, in 1837, and the latter was born in Bar-
bour County, Virginia (now West Virginia), in 1838. The
father was educated in a leading college maintained under
the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Vir-
ginia, and he became a clergyman of this church, in the
active work of whose ministry he continued thirty-six
years, his death having occurred February 22, 1912. After
his marriage he held various pastoral charges in Virginia,
West Virginia and Pennsylvania, and he served in the
Confederate army during virtually the entire course of the
Civil war. He was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity.
His wife is a daughter of Peter T. Johnson, who was one
of the first to make a survey across the Blue Ridge Moun-
tains and who became a pioneer settler and extensive land-
holder in Barbour County, West Virginia. Eev. and Mrs.
Hamilton Poling became the parents of six sons and three
daughters, and the following are living at the time of this
writing: Nicholas C. owns and operates a large farm in
Barbour County; Sylvester is engaged in the mercantile
business at Parsons, Tucker County; Delia is the widow
of John Haynes and resides at Morgantown, this state;
M. D. is foreman for the Cherry River Lumber Company;
and Jay L., of this review, is the youngest of the number.

Jay L. Poling gained his early education in the public
schools of the various towns where his father held pastoral
charges, and supplemented this by attending a normal
school.   Thereafter he was for several years identified
with the lumber business at Weston, where mercantile and
other lines of enterprise likewise received his attention for
varying periods.  In January, 1917, he was appointed
deputy sheriff, in which position he served four years under
Sheriff B. B. Hale, and since which he has held the same
position under Sheriff O. P. White. He is a democrat
of utmost loyalty, is a past master of Walkersville Lodge
No. 46 Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, besides being
affiliated with the Scottish Rite Consistory in the City
of Wheeling, and with the Shrine of Nemesis Temple.
He is also affiliated with the Weston Lodges of the Knights
of Pythias and Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Mrs.
Poling is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South, and holds membership in the Order of the
Eastern Star and the Woman's Temple at Parkersburg.

February 27, 1897, recorded the marriage of Mr. Poling
and Miss Edna Weaver, of Monongalia County, and they
have six children: Grace graduated in the Weston High
School and thereafter attended summer normal school, she
being now a successful teacher in the public schools;
Harry and Mabel likewise are graduates of the Weston
High School, in which Arthur, the next younger, is a student
in 1921; and the two younger members of the parental
home circle are Doris and Chloe.