Marion County, West Virginia Biography of OLIVER NELSON KOEN 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 III, pg. 581-582 OLIVER NELSON KOEN. A native of Mannington, while some of his years and some of his interests have been elsewhere, Mr. Koen has been and is primarily concerned with the life and enterprise of his home community, and in a very important sense he has been one of the constructive influences in the development of that thriving little city of Marion County. Mr. Koen was born at Mannington, October 28, 1845, son of Samuel H. and Mary (Nay) Koen. His parents were also born in what is now Marion County, both of them within three miles of Mannington. Samuel H. Koen, who died at the age of sixty-seven, was of English ancestry, was a successful farmer and merchant, and at one time owned land upon which the central part of Mannington is built, His general merchandise store on his land originated the community known as Koon 's Corner, Koon being the former style of spelling the family name. Oliver Nay, the maternal grandfather of Oliver N. Koen, was also a large land owner in this vicinity, and some of his land is included in the western portion of Mannington. Oliver Nelson Koen had a common school education. In 1861, before he was sixteen years of age, he enlisted in Company B of the Sixth West Virginia Infantry in the Union Army. He was in service three years, until receiv- ing his honorable discharge in August, 1864. He shared in the interesting record of that regiment, and when he had thus discharged his debt to the country he returned home and became a merchant. Mr. Koen sold goods at Manning- ton for nineteen years, and on leaving that business he became a landlord, conducting the Commercial Hotel for fourteen years. The old Commercial is now part of the Bartlett Hotel, being the same section which fronts on Main Street. Mr. Koen after retiring from the hotel busi- ness moved to Colorado and spent two years developing some land for irrigation. He now owns thirty-five hun- dred acres near La Mar in that state. On returning from Colorado he again engaged in the hotel business at Man- nington, in his old home, changing the name to the Koen Hotel. Very soon after bis return the oil boom struck Mannington, and he was one of the first to invest his capital in the development operations, and has been exceptionally successful in that line. In 1898 Mr. Koen and his brother T. F. Koen engaged in the house furnishing business at Wheeling, under the name of the Palace Furniture Company. This enterprise was a prosperous one and was conducted by them jointly until the death of his brother in 1904. Soon afterward Mr. Koen disposed of his interest in the business and for sev- eral years past his investments have been largely concen- trated in the immediate vicinity of Mannington. In 1869 Mr. Koen married Miss Florida B. Knotts, daugh- ter of John and Rebecca (Kidwell) Knotts, of Fairmont. Her father was a West Virginia merchant. Mr. and Mrs. Koen had three children, their son Harry dying at the age of eight years, another child dying in infancy, while the only survivor is Daisy Leonore, wife of Glover Beardsley. Mr. Beardsley is a graduate of Yale University, and is now manager for the Otis Elevator Company in the New York City zone. Mr. and Mrs. Beardsley had two children, An- nette and Nelson Porter. Mr. and Mrs. Koen, who are among the most highly respected residents of Manning- ton, are active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he is one of the trustees of the society.