Logan County, West Virginia Biography of John F. FERRELL This file was submitted by John "Bill" Wheeler, 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 ll., pg. 111 John F. Ferrell. An interesting example of the power of hard work and continuous energy in molding the destiny of the individual and also of other persons and affairs around him is the career of John F. Ferrell, of Logan. The sphere of his activities has been the timber and lumber industry. There was probably no part of the heavy labor involved in logging among these West Virginia hills which escaped his early experience. It is literally true that he has come up from the ranks to the present responsibilities as general manager and one of the owners of the Logan Planing Mill, one of the largest industries of its kind in this part of the state. Mr. Ferrell was born at his father's farm at Chapmanville, April 28, 1878, son of B.C. and Sarah (Dingess) Ferrell. His mother, who is still living, at the age of sixty-six, was born on Crawley Creek, six miles from Chapmanville, daughter of John Dingess, a native of the same locality who died while a soldier in the confederate Army. At one time the Dingess family owned all the land from the present location of Logan to the mouth of Big Creek. B.C. Ferrell, who died in January, 1909, at the age of fifty-five, was born at Chapmanville, son of Samuel Ferrell. who came from Russell County, Virginia, in 1841, and acquired a large amount of valuable land in these valleys. The original homestead of the Ferrells is still owned in the family. Samuel Ferrell was opposed to slavery, was a consistent member of the Christian Church, and the camp meeting grounds of that denomination were on his land. He was a strong republican. B.C. Ferrell was a farmer, stock raiser and dealer. and before the days of railroads he drove his stock over the mountains to market in Roane County. He was a member of the Christian Church and was a democrat. Samuel Ferrell had a family of five sons and one daughter. Besides B.C. another son, Squire died at the age of sixty years. The three living sons are O.F.,L.B., and R.L., and the daughter, Nancy Jane, is the wife of John Godby, all prosperous farmers. B.C. Ferrell and wife had a large family of sons and daughters; John F., the oldest; Roxie, wife of O.C. Winter of Huntington a traveling salesman; W.V., at the old home place; Sarah Ann, who died at the age of fifteen; Wallace E., traveling representative for the Logan Planing Mill and a resident of Huntington; Mary, wife of A.S. Christian, living at the old Dingess place at the mouth Crawley Creek; Belle, wife of Kyler Porter, an operator for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad at Chapmanville; Peter M., living with his mother at Chapmanville; and Julia, who died at the age of three. John F. Ferrell grew up at Chapmanville, acquired his early schooling there, but his better education has been achieved since he married and is due to his application to business and also to studies taken up and carried on in the intervals of other work. He was only fifteen when he went to work in the timber, felling trees, sawing the logs, and his own labor has helped remove the timber from extensive portions from Elk Creek and Big Ugly Creek. Mr. Ferrell has owned probably twenty saw mills, and during the period of the great war he operated five mills of his own. The company owning and operating the Logan Planing Mill was organized January 11, 1916, and acquired the property formerly known as the Lawson Planing Mill. Mr. Ferrell from the first has been active manager of the plant. They are manufacturers of building material, consisting of yellow pine from the long leafed district of the South, fir and fruit from the Northeast, and also native timber. While much of the output is consumed locally, this is one of the firms that do a heavy export business, selling export as far away as Australia. Mr. Ferrell while a member and chairman of the School Board in Chapmanville District was certainly responsible in no small degree for the fine schools established and maintained there. On May 9. 1899, at the age of twenty-one, he married Miss Dekia Garrett, daughter of Rev. W.G. Garrett, who was a widely known minister of the Christian Church in this section. Mr. and Mrs. Ferrell are the parents of eight children. The daughter Garrett is the wife of Walter T. Mitchell, an overseas veteran, and they are now in Prescott, Arizona, where Mr. Mitchell is recovering from illness contracted during the war. The other children are all in the home circle and their names are Jane, Ruth, Eloise, Sarah, James, John and Iola. An adopted son, Roy was killed on the battle front in France, November 9, 1918, just two days before the signing of the armistice. Mr. and Mrs. Ferrell are members of the Christian Church and he is a past grand of the Independent Order of the Odd fellows at Logan, belongs to the Elks and is a democrat. He resides at 825 Ninth Street, West Huntington, West Virginia. Mr. Ferrell at the time of his marriage had a cash capital of $7.55. Out of this he paid five dollars to the minister for performing the ceremony. They bought their housekeeping outfit on credit, and restricted themselves to the essentials, buying only half a set of knives, forks, plates and cups and saucers. Their bedstead cost $2.50, and it was equipped with a shuck mattress, while his mother gave them a feather bed. Mr. and Mrs. Ferrell have been real partners in every phase of their married life. For two years Mr. Ferrell did the heavy manual toil of the timber work, also worked inside. At that time he owned four mules, and he would get into the timber with his teams before daylight and continue until long after dark. Mrs. Ferrell fed the team when he returned home and also the following morning before he started out. It was as a result of such co-operation that they got their start.