Pleasants County, West Virginia Biography of Jesse Earle RILEY ************************************************************************** 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. 76 JESSE EARLE RILEY, superintendent of city schools of St. Marys, was at one time probably the youngest teacher in West Virginia, qualifying for his first school when he was only fifteen. He has been alternately a student and teacher ever since, is a Master of Arts from Bucknell University, and has an enviable record as a teacher and school admin- istrator. Mr. Riley was born in Taylor County, West Virginia, near Bridgeport, March 27, 1888. In the same vicinity was born his father, James Riley, in October, 1848, and the grandfather also bore the name James and was born in old Virginia in 1828. The Rileys came from Ireland and were Colonial settlers in Virginia. James Riley, Sr., as a young man moved to the vicinity of Bridgeport, was married there, and lived his life as a successful farmer. He died in 1913. James Riley, Jr., learned a mechanical trade, but for the greater part of his active life owned and managed an extensive farm near Bridgeport and since 1921 has lived retired at Shinnston in Harrison County. He is a democrat, and a very active member of the Baptist Church. He married Louisa Withers, who was born in old Virginia in November, 1850. Their family consisted of eight children: Effie, wife of Jonah Currey, a flour miller at Bridgeport; Leola, who died at Enterprise, West Virginia, in 1909, aged thirty-five, wife of Jesse Anderson, a farmer near Boothsville, West Virginia; Charles, a farmer who died near Bridgeport in 1908, at the age of thirty-three; Leonard, a mechanic and contractor at Shinnston; Marion, a general contractor at Shinnston; Ora, wife of Minor Currey, who is in the lumber business at Shinnston; Jesse Earle; and Truman, a general contractor at Bridgeport. Jesse Earle Riley attended the rural schools of Taylor County, graduated from Broaddus Institute, then located at Clarksburg, with the class of 1909, and received his A. B. degree from Bucknell University at Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1914, and won his Master of Arts degree from the same institution in 1916. He was a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity at Bucknell. During 1915 Mr. Riley also took special work in history and economics in West Virginia Uni- versity at Morgantown. As a youth of fifteen he was ap- pointed to preside over a rural school in Taylor County, and taught in rural districts four years. In 1914 he became an instructor in Latin and registrar of Broaddus Institute, remaining there a year. For two years he was teacher of science in the high school of Portsmouth, Ohio, then super- intendent of schools at Harrisville, West Virginia, two years, principal of the high school of New Martinsville two years, and in June, 1921, came to his present duties as superin- tendent of city schools of St. Marys. St. Marys has a well organized school system, there being six schools, a staff of twenty-five teachers, and a scholarship enrollment of seven hundred. Mr. Riley is a member of the West Virginia State Educa- tional Association, and during the war had an effective part in stimulating patriotism and teaching Americanism in the schools and was also a worker in the various war drives at Harrisville. He is a democrat in politics, a member of the Baptish Church, and is affiliated with Shinnston Lodge No. 24, F. and A. M. Mr. Riley is a stockholder in the Riley & Riley Company, general building contractors at Shinns- ton, an organization in which the active members are his brothers, previously mentioned. At Washington, D. C., in 1917 Mr. Riley married Miss Ethel Heiter, daughter of James 0. and Daisy (Kleckner) Heiter, residents of Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Riley is a graduate of the Domestic Science Department of Bucknell University, and for one year before her marriage was dietitian in the university. The three sons of Mr. and Mrs. Riley are William, born July 27,1918, John Warren, born February 3, 1920, and Ellwood Withers, born November 20, 1921.