Lincoln County, West Virginia Biography of GARFIELD L. PAULEY This biography was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: ********************************************** ***The submitter does not have a connection*** ********to the subject of this sketch.******** ********************************************** This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume II, pg. 566-567 Lincoln GARFIELD L. PAULEY. Within recent years the interest of the public has been awakened and stimulated in the matter of improving the country schools, so that they are today, all over the country, in much better condition than ever before, and the efforts of educators and citizens are directed toward a further raising of their standard. One of the men of Lincoln County who is attaining some very grati- fying results in this important connection is Garfield L. Pauley, county superintendent of schools and an educator of experience and popularity. Garfield L. Pauley was born in Lincoln County, Septem- ber 6, 1881, and comes of old and honored families of the South, his mother's people being prominent in Kentucky and his father's in Virginia. The McChires are of Irish descent, and the Pauleys of Dutch origin, and both lines have been established in this country for many generations. Mr. Pauley is a son of Lafayette W. and Martha F. (Mc- Clure) Pauley, both of whom were born in West Virginia. Lafayette W. Pauley was a farmer and lumberman. He remained loyal to the Union when war was declared be- tween the two sections of the country, and enlisted in Com- pany I, Second West Virginia Volunteer Infantry, in which he served as a second lieutenant under Capt. Charles Smith, was wounded at the second battle of Bull Run, but his in- jury was but a light one, a shell wound in the shoulder, from which he fully recovered, and after he was honorably discharged, at the close of the war, he returned home and resumed his farm work. He was a great worker in the Bap- tist Church, in which he was a deacon, and a leader in the prohibition movement in West Virginia, much of his time during his last years being devoted to this cause. Garfield L. Pauley attended the common schools of Lin- coln County, and when he was sixteen years of age he went to work in a general store at Siota Post Office. After about a' year there as a clerk he went into the timber and saw- mill business, and continued to work in it until he was twenty-six years old, but during all of this time he contin- ued his studies, for it was his ambition from childhood to fit himself for the profession of teaching. Passing the nec- essary examinations, he secured his teacher's certificate and entered the educational field, continuing in it for eleven years, or until his election in 1918 to the office of county superintendent of schools for Lincoln County. During the time he was teaching he was elected a justice of the peace, but resigned that office before the close of his first year in office. On July 11, 1902, Mr. Pauley married at Snowden, West Virginia, Miss Alice Harless, a daughter of James H. and Mary E. (Mann) Harless, both natives of Virginia, who moved to West Virginia. Mr. Harless was a farmer, tim- berman and also conducted a general store at Snowden. Mr. and Mrs. Pauley have eight children, all of whom are at home, namely: Earl, Opal, Zoma, Lyman, Brookie, Arno, Doc and Dell. Mr. Pauley belongs to the Missionary Bap- tist Church. Fraternally he maintains membership with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pyth- ias and the Improved Order of Red Men. Not only is he rendering a great service through his office, but he is also exerting an influence for good in his community through his strong personality and his rigid stand for those princi- ples and things which make for good citizenship and true Christianity, and few men in this region stand any higher in popular esteem.