Preston County, West Virginia Biography of WILLIAM FORREST DAILEY, M. D. This biography was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: ********************************************** ***The submitter does not have a connection*** ********to the subject of this sketch.******** ********************************************** This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume II, pg. 560-561 Preston WILLIAM FORREST DAILEY, M. D. Since 1894 the time and talents of Doctor Dailey have been subject to the call of duty in the medical profession. Except for brief periods all his practice has been in the Terra Alta community, and he has been a resident of Preston County since 1889. Doctor Dailey was born in Forest County, Pennsylvania, June 17, 1868. His father is the venerable James Dailey, a retired lumberman now living at Buckhannon, West Vir- ginia, where for some years he served as justice of the peace. James Dailey was born in Jefferson County, New York, in June, 1836, and when about twenty-four years of age entered the lumber business, which thereafter was his active vocation. He was a manufacturer of lumber in Pennsylvania and in West Virginia, his plants in the latter state being at Rowles- burg and Newburg. During the Civil war he served with the New York Zouaves in the Fifth Army Corps and was a partici- pant in thirteen battles, One of these was Gettysburg, where he was stationed at the post of danger on Little Round- top. He was also taken prisoner, and for ten months en- dured the indescribable tortures of Andersonville. Aside from the honorable part he took in preserving the Union he has never been interested in the practical side of politics, merely voting the republican ticket. James Dailey married Elizabeth Williams, who was born and reared in Clarion County, Pennsylvania. They have been married now for more than fifty-five years. Their children are: Doctor Dailey, of Terra Alta; Mrs. Olive Hammond, who died in 1919 at Moundsville; James Thomas, an attorney at King- wood; Mrs. Martha J. Francis, of Connellsville, Pennsylvania; and Jerome Dailey, present prosecuting attorney at Buck- hannon. William F. Dailey spent most of his boyhood in Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, where he attended public schools, the academy at Corsica, and after coming to West Virginia was a student in the Wesleyan University at Buckhannon. He graduated in medicine from the University of Louisville in 1894, and at once located at Terra Alta. In 1896 he interrupted his practice to do post-graduate work in Johns Hopkins University at Baltimore. In 1898 he responded to the call of patriotic duty and entered the military service for the Spanish-American war. In June, 1898, he was appointed assistant surgeon in the Second West Virginia Volunteer Infantry, spent a brief time in camp at Charleston, then at Camp Meade at Middletown, Pennsylvania, and went into winter quarters at Greenville, South Carolina. While there orders were received to prepare for transport to the zone of hostilities, but this order was rescinded, and realizing that he would not get into active service Doctor Dailey then re- signed. Before returning home he went to New York and spent three months in the Post-Graduate School of Medicine, from which he received a diploma. He undertook to estab- lish himself in practice at Moundsville, but after a month became ill and this caused him to return to the mountain country and now for over twenty years he has steadily practiced in Terra Alta, enjoying a large private clientage and for twenty years has also been a Baltimore & Ohio Rail- way surgeon. He is a member of the Railway Surgeons' Association, the County, State, Tri-State and American Medical Associations. Other than professional interests have claimed a portion of his abilities. He is vice-president of the First National Bank of Terra Alta and a stockholder and director in the Rowlesburg Wholesale Grocery Company. He cast his first presidential vote as a republican, and has never deviated from that allegiance. In 1908 he was nominated without opposition as candidate for the House of Delegates, was elected, and in the session that began the following year helped elect Speaker Strickland and served on some important committees, including public health. He attended strictly to his duties in the Legislature, but declined to serve a second term. Doctor Dailey is a York Rite Mason, a member of the Lodge and Independent Order of Odd Fellows, a past chancellor of the Knights of Pythias in Terra Alta and is deeply interested in fraternal work. He was reared in the Presbyterian faith. In Preston County in October, 1900, he married Augusta Todd Adair, daughter of Joseph and Ella (Gill) Adair, of Ellicott City, Maryland. Mrs. Dailey was born in the old Adair house in Terra Alta in 1878 and was educated in the public schools and county normals. Doctor and Mrs. Dailey had two children: their daughter, Eleanor Elizabeth, was born April 25, 1910, and died May 2, 1916. Their surviving son, William Lorenz Adair, born April 15, 1903, is now a student in the University of West Virginia at Morgantown.