Pleasants County, West Virginia Biography of Jonathan Corbley POWELL ************************************************************************** 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, , April 1999 ************************************************************************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 79 JONATHAN CORBLEY POWELL, prosecuting attorney of PIeasants County, is now in his second term, and his record is a most interesting and unusual one. He was elected prosecuting attorney before he finished his law course in the State University, and early in his first term turned over the responsibilities of the office to his assistant and for practi- cally two years was in the uniform of an army officer, so that during more than halt of his term he was prosecuting attorney in name only. Mr. Powell was born in PIeasants County November 9, 1892, and evidently his range of experience for a man of thirty has been exceptional. His grandfather, Jonathan Powell, was born in England in 1831, and as a young man came to American and settled in Monongalia County, West Virginia. He was a farmer, timberman and steamboatman. In 1867 he bought land in PIeasants County, and two years later located on that land, near the mouth of Sugar Creek, making his home on this place until his death, which occurred May 24, 1917. He owned a large amount of land, carried on extensive operations as a farmer, and also did a large business as a timberman. He was a democrat and a member of the Methodist Protestant Church. Jonathan Powell married Minerva Summers at Little Falls in Monongalia County, where she was born in 1840 and died at the old homestead in PIeasants County in March, 1916. She was the mother of four children: Alice, wife of Theodore Birkhimer, a mer- chant at Cloverdale, PIeasants County; James B., a merchant at Federal, West Virginia; Thomas B., a merchant at Parkers- burg; and George B., a farmer and merchant at Sugar Valley, West Virginia. James B. Powell, father of Attorney Powell of St. Marys, was born in Monongalia County August 23, 1857, and is still living at Federal, near the old homestead in Pleasants County. He acquired a common school education in Monon- galia and Pleasants counties, was married in the latter county, and has followed farming. He owns a farm in Lafayette District, and is also a merchant there and a stockholder in the Pleasants County Bank of St. Marys. James B. Powell is a democrat, and is a trustee and active supporter of the Methodist Protestant Church. He married Miss Alice Jennie Lucas, who was born in PIeasants County August 24, 1869. Two sons were born to their marriage. The older, Edmond Perry, died September 14, 1913, at the home farm at the age of twenty-six. Jonathan Corbley Powell was reared on the farm of his father, attended rural schools, completed a business course in a business college at Marietta, Ohio, in 1908, during 1909-10. was a student in the preparatory department of West Virginia University at Morgantown, and finished his literary education in the Fairmont State Normal School in 1912. In 1913 he entered West Virginia University, law department, graduating LL. B. with the class of 1917. Mr. Powell was first honored with the office of prosecuting attorney of PIeasants County in November, 1916. He was inaugurated January 1, 1917, and at once appointed an assis- tant to conduct the office until June 17, 1917, when, having graduated, he took personal charge. In the meantime America had entered the war with Germany, and, his appli- cation being accepted, he entered the Second Officers Training Camp at Port Benjamin Harrison, Indiana, August 24, 1917. He was in training there and was commissioned second lieutenant November 23, 1917, being ordered to report to the Eighty-fourth Division at Camp Taylor, Kentucky, and was assigned to Headquarters Company of the Three Hundred and Thirty-sixth Infantry. April 22, 1918, he was trans- ferred to Camp Gordon at Atlanta, being made an instructor in the Infantry Replacement Troops in the Manual of Courts Martial in the Smoke, Gas and Flame School, Second Divi- sion. June 17, 1918, Lieutenant Powell was transferred to Camp Hancock, Augusta, Georgia, school of machine gun fire, and on July 25, 1918, was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant and assigned as a company commander and in- structor in the Fourth Officers Training School in Machine Gun work at Camp Hancock. He also instructed in the branches of manual of court martial and in the machine gun work and in the gas, flame and smoke school and was instructor in hand grenades. His work at Camp Hancock was of a very arduous nature, and he was exceptionally gifted for the varied duties to which be was assigned. Lieutenant Powell received his honorable discharge Feb- ruary 6, 1919, and at once returned to St. Marys and took over the duties of prosecuting attorney in person. November 3, 1920, he was re-elected for another term of four years, his term running from January 1, 1921, to January 1, 1925. Mr. Powell is a republican, and a member of the County and State Bar Associations. He is a stockholder in the Archer Cord Tire & Rubber Company at Minneapolis. Among other real estate he owns at St. Marys is a handsome stucco residence, which he completed for his own family in 1921. Mr. Powell is present noble grand of St. Marys Lodge No. 22, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. July 20, 1918, at Augusta, Georgia, he married Miss Lillian Grey Hackney, daughter of James M. and Martha J. (Grey) Hackney, of Morgantown, where her father is a contracting carpenter. Her father graduated A. B. from West Virginia University in 1892. Mrs. Powell is a graduate of the Morgantown High school and was in the junior class of West Virginia University when she was married. She had also taught three terms in the Morgantown public schools. Mr. and Mrs. Powell have two daughters, Rosemary, born April 27, 1919, and Margaret Grey, born October 13, 1921.