Pleasants County, West Virginia Biography of John L. HISSOM ************************************************************************** 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. 37-38 JOHN L. HISSOM. Many residents of Tyler and Pleasants counties recall when John L. Hissom was one of the most popular school men in these sections, and his last school work was done at St. Marys. When he left the school room he took up the lumber business and now has the only business of the kind in Pleasants County, and has an extensive trade both retail and wholesale. In other ways Mr. Hissom has been a man of leadership and influence in this section of the state. His ancestry is English, but members of the family have been in this country since Colonial times. They first settled in old Virginia, where Mr. Hissom's grandfather, David, was born. As a young man he went to the Ohio Valley and for many years lived on a farm in Monroe County, Ohio, but spent his last days in Tyler County, West Virginia. He was a veteran of the War of 1812. His wife was a Miss Bowen, a native of Ohio. Their son, William S. Hissom, was born in Monroe County in 1828, and for many years conducted his farm in that county, but in 1888 moved to Tyler County, West Virginia, and continued farming there until his death in 1900. He was active in the Methodist Episcopal Church and a democrat in politics. He married in Monroe County, Sarah A. Hubbard, who was born at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in 1832, and died in Tyler County in 1890. Their children were six in number: Manford C., a farmer in Clarington, Ohio; Oscar E., a steamboat mate who died at East Liverpool, Ohio, in 1916; John L; Alvin D., a farmer in Tyler County; Hattie Elizabeth, who died in Tyler County, wife of Robert 0. Gathers, a farmer; and Ephraim T., a farmer who died in Tyler County in 1900. John L. Hissom was born in Monroe County June 28, 1862, and was reared and educated there. He attended rural schools, a normal school at Woodsfield, and in the winter of 1884 taught his first winter term in Mount Zion School in his native county. The following four years he was in the Mount Aetna School in the same county, after which he came to West Virginia, and during 1889-90 presided over the Star School in Tyler County, for one term was principal of the school at Friendly, and for six terms was teacher of Oak Grove. His first teaching in Pleasants County was one term at Pleasants Ridge, and then for three years he was principal of the graded schools at St. Marys. For a year after he retired from educational work Mr. Hissom was editor of St. Marys Oracle, the oldest paper in Pleasants County. Then, in 1903, he established his present business as a retail and wholesale dealer in lumber, and carries a complete and well selected stock of lumber and building materials, owning his offices and yards at Barkwill and Court streets. Mr. Hissom is also a stochkolder in the Pleasants County Bank and is a stockholder and secretary of the United Tele- phone Company at St. Marys. He owns considerable real estate, including his modern home on Court Street and a farm in Tyler County. Mr. Hissom acted for two years as a member of the City Council at St. Marys. He is a democrat, a steward in the Methodist Protestant Church, is a past grand of St. Marys Lodge No. 22, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and a member of the Knights of the Maccabees. It should also be said to his credit that during the war he used his financial means to support the Government and took part in the various local patriotic drives. Moreover, one of his sons was fighting the German Kaiser in France. In 1885, in Monroe County, Mr. Hissom married Miss Eva Wright, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Wright, now de- ceased. Her father was a farmer. Mrs. Hissom died in Tyler County in 1889, and was survived by two daughters: Miss Nellie T., who died at the age of thirty-one, and Nora D., wife of Jack B. Horner, a mill worker at Washington, Penn- sylvania. In 1891, in Tyler County, Mr. Hisson married Miss Lottie J. Craig, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Craig, now deceased. By this marriage Mr. Hissom has two sons, William C. and Olin S. William, who was born June 20, 1892, was educated in the schools at St. Marys and is associated with his father in business. He married Ethel Adams, a native of Pleasants County, and their three children are Kathryn, born January 17, 1913; Billie, born September 10, 1915, and Charles, born July 4, 1919. The second son, Olin, was in France twelve months with the Expeditionary Forces, partici- pated in the Argonne Drive, and was mustered out with the rank of sergeant. He now is connected with the lumber business.