Mineral County, West Virginia Biography of Luke MCDOWELL ************************************************************************** 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, , July 1999 ************************************************************************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 190-191 LUKE MCDOWELL. Education, like many other vital in- terests of mankind, has been undergoing great changes of objective and method in recent years. That the new ele- ments, proved and tested as to their results, are getting introduced into many conservative and old-time sections of West Virginia is due in no small measure to the progressive attitude and enlightened leadership of such school men as Luke McDowell, who has been an educator at heart all his active years and who several years ago was promoted to the responsibility of county superintendent of Mineral County. Mr. McDowell was born near Burlington, Mineral County, June 15, 1876, son of Thomas and Mary (Rogers) Mc- Dowell, his mother being a daughter of William and Mary (Parker) Rogers. The McDowells originated in County Londonderry, Ireland. The first American of the name was Joseph McDowell, who was also of Scotch ancestry, while his wife was of English stock. Thomas McDowell was born in New York City, May 9, 1828. His parents came to West- ern Virginia and settled on a farm when Mineral County was included in Hampshire County. The grandfather of Joseph McDowell had been a railroad laborer, but after settling in Mineral County exchanged that work for farm- ing. Thomas McDowell received his education before the days of free schools, and his time and labor were devoted to the tilling of the soil. He was a member of the Vir- ginia Militia before the Civil war, and was commissioned captain of a company by Governor Joe Johnson of Virginia. He lived a quiet, efficient and steadfast life in his com- munity, was a good citizen and believed in progress, and for years was a class leader and an officer in the Ridge- ville Methodist Church. His scholarship was of no mean quality in Biblical literature, and he wrote and left behind him some manuscripts that betray a wide knowledge of the Bible and religious subjects. He began voting as a demo- crat, but voted for Lincoln in 1864, while his father had voted for Breckinridge for president in 1860. When Thomas McDowell was eighty-eight years of age he walked five miles to cast his ballot for the republican ticket in the election of 1916. This venerable old citizen of Mineral County passed away September 30, 1920, at the age of ninety-two. His wife died April 14, 1907. A brief record of their children is as follows: Martha E., widow of J. W. Roberts, living at McCoole, Maryland; Joseph W., farming the old homestead; Alexander S., who died February 18, 1922, leaving a large family at Dartmoor, West Virginia, where he was blacksmith for the Davis Coal and Coke Com- pany; Angeline, who died at Moorefield, West Virginia, in 1909, wife of W. P. Simmons and mother of two sons and two daughters; Marion, wife of L. A. High, Charleston, West Virginia; John T., who is owner of the old farm of his parents and one of the successful fruit growers in that section of the state; Henry L., of Keyser; Bessie, Mrs. J. T. Grove, of Luke, Maryland; Luke; and Miss Tirza, at home. Luke McDowell acquired a public school education, and after completing the eighth grade passed satisfactory ex- amination for a teacher's certificate. His first school was taught at the age of nineteen, in the Red Star School in Welton District of Mineral County. He continued teaching for several years, but after his marriage, as a means of supporting his own home, he took up carpenter work and also learned cabinet making in the Keyser Table Factory. Through employment at these mechanical trades he was able to supplement his wages as a teacher in the winter, but for several years he gave up teaching altogether in favor of his trade. He resumed school work in the rural districts, and it was while teaching at Paris that he put into practice some of the fundamental principles of modern education of the hand as well as the mind. Largely at his own initiative and expense he put up a little work shop where he could train the boys in the use of tools. He did this in order to create a greater interest and make school more attractive to the boys. With tools provided by him and some by the community and with his own skill as a practical cabinet maker he made this department a marvel of efficiency and instilled a new life and vitality into school. It was this work, then in a small country community, that brought him to the attention of the Board of Education of Keyser, and led to his accepting their offer that he become the teacher of manual training in the schools there. He continued as instructor of manual training for the Keyser schools four years. On July 1, 1918, he left that work to accept appointment as county superintendent of schools as the successor of A. E. Sites, deceased. At the close of the unexpired term he became a candidate to succeed himself, and was elected in the fall of 1918. Since he has been superintendent he started the agitation for consolidation of rural schools in New Creek District. The movement was somewhat premature, and owing to strong opposition the plans were dropped until the community could be educated to accept consolidation as a proper means for securing better schools in the country districts. Mr. McDowell has accomplished a great deal of splendid work while county superintendent, though he has had unusual obstacles to con- tend with. He went into office while the World war was in progress and when many of the best qualified teachers had been attracted into other fields. He has worked hard and, in the main, successfully to give the schools competent and well trained teachers. He has also introduced the practice of awarding certificates of excellence to the pupils through- out the county who showed the greatest proficiency in any one branch, whether it be penmanship, mathematics, history, and this has done much to encourage pupils who have a real bent for some particular line, though they could never hope to excell in all the branches and studies that comprise a school curriculum. Mr. McDowell is a republican, casting his first vote for McKinley in 1900. He is a past grand and has been secretary of Queens Point Lodge No. 78, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, is a past consul of Camp No. 8070, Modern Woodmen of America, and is recording steward of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Keyser and superintendent of its junior Sunday school. At Keyser, March 9, 1898, Mr. McDowell married Miss Mary E. Davis, who was born in the Burlington community of Mineral County, February 24, 1876, daughter of William and Martha (Stewart) Davis, and second in their family of children. The oldest is James T. Davis and the other two are Mrs. H. W. Clark and Mrs. J. W. Minear. Mrs. Mc- Dowell acquired a rural school education, and she began teaching in the same school where her husband had taught his first term, but after this term closed she was married and has since had a busy routine of caring for her home and rearing her own children. These children are: Marie, a graduate of the Keyser High School, who taught for one year and is now office assistant to her father; Russell, a graduate of the Keyser High School and in the employ of T. B. Rogers & Son of Keyser, merchants; Lester, also a high school graduate and now a freshman in the Potomac State School; Elizabeth and Lucille, both attending high school; and James Henry.