Pleasants County, West Virginia Biography of Guy Carleton MACTAGGART ************************************************************************** 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. 108-109 GUY CARLETON MACTAGGART is now in his third term as county superintendent of schools of Pleasants County. He began his career as a teacher at the age of eighteen, has had a successive and successful experience as a teacher in a number of districts in the county, and he brought to his office as county superintendent not only the qualifications of an able educator but a thorough knowledge of school conditions of this section. Mr. MacTaggart was born in Grant District of Pleas- ants County, January 23, 1885. He is of Scotch ancestry. His grandfather, Hugh MacTaggart, was born in Scot- land in 1819, son of William and Jennie MacTaggart, who three years later, in 1822, came to America and settled on Short Creek near Wheeling, but after a few years moved to Willow Island in Pleasants County, where William Mac- Taggart acquired a large amount of land and engaged in the sheep industry on an extensive scale. He and his wife died at Willow Island. Hugh MacTaggart grew up there, married and then removed to the vicinity of Eureka in Pleasants County, where he carried on his operations as a farmer. He died at his home near Eureka in 1909, at the age of ninety. His wife was Dicinda PhiIIips, a native of Ohio. William P. MacTaggart, father of Superintendent MacTaggart, was born May 21, 1854, near the farm where he now resides, located a mile and a half west of Eureka. Farming has been his life occupation and from it he has provided amply for himself and family. He owns both a hill farm and river farm. He is a republican, and a leader in the Baptist Church of his home community. William P. MacTaggart married Ida Virginia Rhymer, who was born at St. Marys, October 20. 1855. Of their children Guy Carleton is the oldest. The second, William Carey, died at the age of nine years. Grace is the wife of Winton E. White, a farmer at Point Pleasants in Mason County. Miss Maude is at home. Laura, a former teacher, is now attending the Mountain State Business College at Parkers- burg. Miss Mary teaches the Wolf Bun School in Pleas- ants County. Miss Dicie is at home. Georgia is the wife of Ralph A. Smith; an employe of the Octo Gas Company at Flushing, Ohio. Guy Carleton MacTaggart was educated in the rural schools of Pleasants County and the public school at St. Marys. He left school at the age of eighteen, and his first work as a teacher was done in the Spice Run School. Then followed a term in the Raven Rock School, two terms at Mount Olive, his home school, three terms at Eureka and one term at Belmont, all in Pleasants County. Mr. MacTaggart, in November, 1912, was elected county superintendent of schools to fill a vacancy caused by the death of his predecessor. For that reason he began his duties immediately, and in 1914 was elected for the full four year term and in 1918 for a second full term, run- ning from 1919 to 1923. His offices are in the Graded School Building on Washington Street in St. Marys. He has under his supervision seventy-six schools, seventy-six teachers, with a scholarship enrollment of 2,500. He is a member of the State Educational Association and Ohio Valley Round Table, and keeps in touch with all the progressive movements in educational affairs. He was a member of the County Council of Defense at the time of the war, a Four-Minute Speaker, and did all the work he could for the successful prosecution of the war. He is a republican, a member of the Baptist Church, is affiliated with St. Marys Lodge No. 41, P. and A. M., Sistersville Chapter No. 27, R. A. M., Mountain State Com- mandery No. 14, K. T., and Nemesis Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Parkersburg. Mr. MacTaggart's home is at Eureka, where he owns a modern residence. He married at Eureka, November 29, 1917, Miss Judith A. Ruckman, daughter of Aaron and Rhoda (Outward) Ruckman. Her mother died in 1916 and her father is a farmer at Eureka.