Mineral County, West Virginia Biography of FRANK H. BABB 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. 598-599 FRANK H. BABB, has been a resident of Keyser over twenty years. His chief business has been real estate and insurance, but he is also a banker, and he served three terms as mayor of Keyser. He represents a family that has been in this section of West Virginia for more than a century. It was his great-grandfather probably who came from Germany and established the family in Pennsylvania. His grandfather, Peter Babb, was the founder of the family in West Virginia, coming from Luzerne County about 1818. Some of the land owned by the Babbs in that state had been exchanged for land in Western Virginia. The family crossed through Maryland to reach their new home in what is now Grant County. The old homestead thus acquired and developed during succeeding years was main- tained by the Babbs until 1919, when Obed Babb, a son of Peter, retired and moved into Keyser, where he has since lived retired. Peter Babb died at the age of fifty- one. His experiences were almost entirely those of the somewhat isolated country community in which he lived, and his time and labor were devoted to his farm. He is buried on the land he owned, the Cherry Lane Stock Farm in Grant County, near the post office of Martin. Peter Babb married Phoebe Scott, who died before him. Their children were: James, who during the Civil war, while attempting to recover some sheep stolen from him, was shot and killed by the thief; Milton, who spent his mature life in Champaign County, Illinois, and who is survived by two sons, one a prominent lawyer in Idaho and the other a banker at Champaign; Catherine, who married Okey Johnson, a farmer and stockman of Grant County, where they spent their lives; Jane, who died in Keyser when nearly ninety years of age, wife of Henry Suit, a cattle man of Grant County; Daniel William, who for many years was asso- ciated with his brother Obed in farming and stock raising and who died in Grant County, where his widow still re- sides; Obed; and Sallie B., who married Thomas E. Cars- kadon, a great leader in the prohibition party and then candidate on that ticket for the presidency, both he and his wife being now deceased. Obed Babb, father of Frank H., was born December 21, 1833, and for more than eighty- years his home was in the immediate vicinity of his birthplace. He was a youth at a time when subscription schools were the only provision made for the education of children, and he at- tended a private school near Moorefield. For many years he was associated with his brother Daniel W. in farming and also in the livestock business. They were drovers to the Baltimore Market, and they handled stock on a large scale, cattle, horses and mules. Obed Babb continued to keep in close touch with this business until he was past eighty- seven, and there is probably no man of his years who can surpass him as a judge of live stock. He proved his title to a leading citizen of his locality, where he was active in community affairs. He was prominent in the Methodist Episcopal Church, was an original republican, voting for John C. Fremont in 1856, but has never responded to any of the invitations to become a candidate for office. Obed Babb married Miss Mary Hennen, of Morgantown, daughter of George and Justina (Shay) Hennen. She was born in Monongalia County in September, 1846. All her life has been devoted to her home and children and the moral and church interests of her community. Her chil- dren are: Doctor Walter M., of Keyser; Ernest Peter, a resident of Keyser and officially associated with the West Virginia State Agricultural Department; Frank Hennen; Justina, wife of J. W. Sherr, of Cincinnati, Ohio; and Mabel, who married Clarence H. Vosler and died in Grant County, leaving one son. Frank H. Babb was born at the old home June 24, 1875. His activities were centered in that locality until he was thirty-six years of age. He attended the common schools and spent two years in an elective course at West Virginia University. On returning home from the university he be- came associated with his father in the business of handling live stock. After five years he retired and moved to Keyser to take up an entirely different line of business. On moving to Keyser in 1901 he engaged in the real estate and insurance business. Mr. Babb promoted Lillard's Addi- tion to Keyser, laid off and sold the Reynolds Addition and also the F. H. Babb's Fort Hill Addition. He has one of the standard fire insurance agencies in this section of the state, representing several of the old line companies, and also handles surety bonds and other forms of general insurance. Mr. Babb was one of the original stock- holders in the Peoples Bank of Keyser, was soon elected a director, and he became its president as successor to Thomas B. Davis, one of the prominent men of this region, and a brother of the late Henry G. Davis of Elkins. Mr. Babb has been a republican, casting his first presi- dential vote for William McKinley. He was assistant clerk of the Senate in 1901, but has not been active in partisan politics. He was elected mayor of Keyser in 1912 and re-elected in 1913. During his second term he took the lead in getting the Legislature to give Keyser a new charter providing for a commission form of government, and as mayor of the old regime he installed this new gov- ernment and was elected the first commission mayor. At the end of his third term he retired. Mr. Babb married Miss Gertrude Scherr at Charleston, April 9, 1902. At that time her father, Arnold C. Scherr, was filling the office of state auditor, an office he held from 1901 to 1909. Mrs. Babb was born in Grant County, Feb- ruary 16, 1878, and was liberally educated, attending the Allegany County Academy in Cumberland, Maryland, and later Briarly Hall near Poolsville, Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Babb have two children, Mary Catherine, a student in the Potomac State School, and Arnold, attending the Keyser High School. During the World war Mr. Babb was president of the Red Cross of Mineral County, organizing many chapters and branches and devoting much of his time to the work of that organization. 'He was also a leader in the various Liberty Loan campaigns, and kept the interests of the Government paramount throughout that critical period.