Monongalia County, West Virginia Biography: Hon. Joseph Henry McDERMOTT ************************************************************************** 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, , March 1999 ************************************************************************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 20-21 HON. JOSEPH HENRY MCDERMOTT. The builders of em- pires have their counterparts in the men who establish, organize and develop vast commercial and industrial enter- prises that make communities centers of thriving trade and carry their names to various other parts of the world. Such men must possess many qualities. Their insight into business conditions must be keen and far-reaching, their knowledge of men profound, and their ability to grasp opportunities, unlimited. Without commercial and industrial interests no community progresses, for such enterprises are the very life of a city. The investment and attraction of capital, the employment of labor, and the consequent opening of new avenues of endeavor to meet newly-created demands, all infuse blood into the veins of a section and endow it with renewed vigor and strength. Morgantown is an excellent example of the above statement, and one of the men who has been largely responsible for the desirable condition of affairs now existing in this thriving community is the Hon. Joseph Henry McDermott, a leading operator in the oil and gas industries, and a man whose connection with pol- itics has made his name nationally known. Mr. McDermott was born near Meadville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania, July 28, 1871, a son of Thomas and Samantha (Johnson) McDermott. Thomas McDermott was born in Canada, a son of John and Mary (Kennedy) McDermott, the former a native of Roscommon and the lat- ter of Sligo County, Ireland. His father was a pioneer lumberman of Ontario, having a residence on Georgian Bay in that province, where John and Mary McDermott passed the remainder of their lives. Thomas McDermott came to the United States for the purpose of becoming a Union soldier during the war be- tween the states, and enlisted at Buffalo, New York, in 1865. Before he got to the front, however, hostilities had ceased, and after he had received his honorable discharge he engaged in the lumber business near Meadville, Penn- sylvania, making staves which he shipped to Titusville, Pennsylvania, where they were converted into oil barrels. In 1876 he entered into contract work in the Bradford (Pennsylvania) oil fields for ten years, and was afterwards engaged in contracting in Butler County, Pennsylvania, and at Pittsburgh and Little Washington, that state, and then came to Mount Morris, West Virginia, whence he came to Morgantown in 1889. Going from Morgantown to Fair- mont in his later years, he died at the latter city in 1911, after some years of retirement. His widow, who still makes her home at Fairmont, West Virginia, was born in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Samuel and Nancy (Laughlin) Johnson, she being a member of the old and prominent Laughlin family of Pennsylvania. Joseph Henry McDermott attended the public schools of his native community, and at the age of fifteen years joined his father in the latter's business, continuing with him in all of his operations until the elder man's retirement, when the son assumed the responsibility of the entire operations. At the present time, however, he confines his gas and oil operations to the Monongalia County fields, with other in- terests in California. He is president and owner of the J. H. McDermott Company, president of the Moore Tex Oil Company, president of the New York and California Oil Company and president of the Armor Cord Rubber Company of Morgantown, operating in California, and holds financial interests in other companies. In the domain of politics and public affairs Mr. McDer- mott is one of the leaders of the republican party of West Virginia and of the nation. In 1904 he was elected to the West Virginia Senate, serving in the sessions of 1905, 1906, 1907 and 1908, and was president of that body in 1907. He was a Taft presidential elector in 1908, receiving seventy- seven votes more than any other man on the entire repub- lican ticket, either state or national. He was elected a member of the Republican National Committee for West Virginia in 1918, and re-elected in 1920, and continues a member of that organization. He has been active in stake politics since the time of United States Senators Nathan B. Scott and Stephen Elkins, and managed the campaign of United States Senator David Elkins when the latter was serving in France. Mr. McDermott is a member of the DuQuesne Club, of Pittsburgh; the Edgewater Country Club, of Charleston, West Virginia; and the Country Club, of Morgantown. He also holds membership in Union Lodge No. 4, Free and Ac- cepted Masons, of Morgantown, and has received all the degrees up to the thirty-second, including the Scottish and York Rites and Knights Templars in West Virginia. He is a member of the Mystic Shrine and one of the few living charter members of the Scottish Rite in this state. Mr. McDermott served as quartermaster general with the rank of captain on Governor Atkinson's staff at a time when the staff was a part of the National Guard. Following Governor Atkinson's term as governor, Mr. Mc- Dermott was made a member of the brigade staff, with the rank of captain, and Governor Dawson appointed him one of five captains to serve as the governor's military ad- visory board. Mr. McDermott married Miss Louise Jane McLane, the daughter of Dr. Charles H. McLane, a well-known physician and surgeon of Morgantown, and to this union there have been born two children: Jane and Joseph H., Jr.