Monongalia County, West Virginia Biography of Dayton P. RUNNER ************************************************************************** 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. 105 DAYTON P. RUNNER. The Runner family has been in Monongalia County for considerably more than a century. They have been substantial farmers, and Dayton P. Run- ner, of the present generation, has found in farming a satisfying as well as a profitable business. He conducts a dairy farm four miles east of Morgantown, in Morgan District. He was born August 1, 1861, on an adjoining farm, and is a son of William Runner and a grandson of Henry Run- ner. William Runner was a native of Frederick County, Maryland, and was a boy when the family came to West Virginia, about 1815, and settled on a farm in Morgan District. William Runner learned the carpenter's trade, but for the most part farmed. He lived for many years near Morgantown and had owned several pieces of property, including the farm adjoining the present home of his son Dayton P. Here he died about 1881, at the age of eighty- three, while his brother, Lewis W., survived him twenty years. Dayton P. Runner was reared and educated in Monongalia County and at the age of twenty went out to Colorado. After a year he returned, and for forty years his efforts and energies have been well extended in the rural com- munities around Morgantown. His home has been at his present location for eighteen years. He has 108 acres, the principal business being dairying. He has a good herd of cows, including some high grade Jerseys, and retails bot- tled milk to customers. His average production is about fifty gallons daily. Mr. Runner is a member of the Board of Education in his district, is a republican and belongs to the Methodist Protestant Church at Mount Union. At the age of twenty-five he married Jennie Sinder, who grew up in the same locality as her husband. She was a child when her father, dark Snider, died, and her mother, Maria Chisler, died at the age of fifty. Without children of their own Mr. and Mrs. Runner have cared for four boys and girls. One of them, W. O. Plumm, is now a part- ner with Mr. Runner. Clara Snider, a niece of Mrs. Run- ner, has been in their home for the past eight years and is attending high school. Mr. Runner has brought his land to a high state of fer- tility and his methods of cropping have produced satisfac- tory yields of the grains on land that many of the old timers considered suitable for grazing purposes alone.