Ohio County, West Virginia Biography of Lee Roy CRAGO ************************************************************************** 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 , March 2000 ************************************************************************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume II pg. 273 LEE ROY CRAGO, is rounding out a quarter of a century of continuous service with the Wheeling Works of the La Belle Iron Works, one of the oldest and most noted institutions in the iron and steel industry of the Wheeling District, with which a number of prominent Wheeling men have been identified and in which some of the greatest steel and iron men of the country have been trained. Several interesting distinctions are associated with the name Crago in the Wheeling District. While Lee Roy has given his active career to the La Belle Iron Works, one of his brothers is present city manager of Wheeling, and his father was one of the ablest educators the northern Panhandle of West Virginia ever had. This educator was the late Felix Hughes Crago, who was born July 7, 1836, near Carmichaels in Greene County, Pennsylvania, and grew up on a farm just outside that village. He graduated from Greene Academy at Carmichaels and also was a student in Waynesburg College. Soon after getting his degree at Waynesburg College he entered the Union army, and served nearly four years. He was promoted to second lieutenant, then to first lieutenant, and at the close of the war had charge of his company. His command was Company D of the Twenty-second Pennsylvania Ringold Cavalry. Following the war he was in business at Carmichaels for a time, but soon began teaching at Beallsville, Pennsylvania. For nearly half a century his work and his enthusiasm were absorbed in educational affairs. It was Professor Crago who opened the West Liberty Normal School at West Liberty, West Virginia, in the capacity of its first principal, in 1871. Three years later he removed to Moundsville, West Virginia, as superintendent of schools there. After eight or nine years he went to Wheeling, was principal of the Webster School in that city two or three years, and for thirty-one years was principal of the Eighth Ward School, and the many hundreds of successive students in that school cherishes special gratitude for the influence he exerted upon their young lives. For one year he was superintendent of schools at Buckhannon, but with this exception his life for over thirty years was devoted to educational interests in Wheeling. He had perhaps the unique record of having taught institute in every county in the state during the summer months. Felix H. Crago died July 29, 1917, at the age of eighty-one. He married Mary Elizabeth Carman, who was born at East Richmond in Belmont County, Ohio, June 24, 1847, daughter of William C. and Eliza (Cooper) Carman. She was well educated in the common schools of Belmont County and in Franklin College of that state, and then entered the West Liberty Normal School of West Virginia, where she graduated in 1873, while Mr. Crago was still principal. She afterward taught in the public schools of Moundsville. Felix H. Crago was of Scotch-Irish descent and Mary E. Carman was of a mingled English and Scotch ancestry. The great-grandfather and the mother of Felix H. Crago were born in this country; while the great-grandfather and grandmother of Mary E. Carman were native Americans, and all subsequent ancestors are of American nativity, so that the present generation is quite thoroughly American. Mr. Lee Roy Crago has the following brothers living: Jesse H., connected with the sales department of the Follansbee Brothers Company of Pittsburg; Charles G., a printer, now foreman of the Great Falls Tribune at Great Falls, Montana; and Homer C., who is the present city manager of Wheeling. The one sister living is Eva Laura Crago, a teacher in the Wheeling High School. Lee Roy Crago was born at Moundsville, West Virginia, September 17, 1878, but has lived nearly all his life in Wheeling and was educated here in the public schools, graduated from high school in 1897. Soon after leaving school he became connected with the La Belle Iron Works as storekeeper. He was successively advanced to timekeeper, paymaster, and for several years has been chief clerk of the Wheeling plant. The La Belle Iron Work are an industry now seventy years old. The Wheeling plant for several years has been devoted chiefly to the making of nails and all kinds of plate, such as steel skelp, shovel plate, tack plate, automobile stock and similar products. Mr. Crago is a member of the Wesley Methodist Episcopal Church of Wheeling. August 5, 1907 at Wheeling, he married Miss Birdie D. Fisher, of that city. They have five children: Felix Hughes, Birdie Lee, Dorothy Evelyn, Lee Roy, Jr., and Paul Carman Crago.