Preston County, West Virginia Biography of H. Foster HARTMAN 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 III, pg. 338 H. FOSTER HARTMAN, a former sheriff of Preston County, has for many years been one of the keen and resourceful business men of that section of the state. He was a merchant before reaching his majority and is now pro- prietor of a prosperous lumber and planing mill business at Kingwood. Mr. Hartman was born on a farm near Tunnelton in Preston County December 25, 1880. His grandfather, Henry Hartman, was a farmer at Craborchard in the same county, and was buried in that locality. He was twice married and had two sons and four daughters. George W. Hartman, father of the Kingwood business man, was born in the Whetsell settlement of Preston County, grew up on a farm and acquired a common school education, and was a Union soldier in the Civil war, being in Company F of the Sixth West Virginia Infantry. He saw some of the fighting within the borders of his native state, and at the end of the war he came out of the army, and thereafter his chief interests were centered on farming, though he also in- vested some of his capital in merchandising as a means of getting his sons in business. He was without ambi- tion for public office, voted as a republican, and was a leader in the Camp Chappel Methodist Church, and is buried in the churchyard there. George W. Hartman, who died December 7, 1917, married Susan Bonafield, daugh- ter of Thornton and Sarah Bonafield. Her father was a life-time farmer, and was probably born in Preston County. Mrs. George W. Hartman died February 9, 1913, and her children, besides H. Foster, were: Edward Thornton, of Boston, Massachusetts; Arnold W., of Tunnelton; Mabel, wife of B. T. Gibson, of Masontown, West Virginia; L. Bert, of Tnnnelton; Alice, wife of Bruce Falkenstine, of Mountain Lake Park, Maryland; and Lessie, of Kingwood. H. Foster Hartman grew up on the old farm near Tun- nelton and acquired a common school education there. At the age of nineteen he went to Lenox and took charge of the mercantile business known as George W. Hartman & Son, owned by his father and brother. He was conducting this store when he reached his majority, and subsequently bought the stock and altogether was a merchant there three years. When he sold out this business he moved a portion of the stock to Terra Alta, but after a time closed out his line of general merchandise and made the candy and ice cream feature his line. About three years later he sold to Ezra B. Hanger, and then went on the road as a traveling salesman for the Bowlesburg Wholesale Grocery Company. He had been on the road about a year when be decided to make the race for sheriff. It was an inter- esting campaign before the primaries, and there were five candidates, so that Mr. Hartman's qualifications and pop- ularity were thoroughly tested. He was elected sheriff in the fall of 1912. Mr. Hartman had east his first vote for President in behalf of Colonel Roosevelt in 1904. The year 1912 was the year of the great split in the republican party, and the division extended to Preston County, where however, Mr. Hartman succeeded in defeating his com- petitor by a good margin. He entered the office as suc- cessor to Charles Spindler, and served the legal limit for sheriff, four years. On retiring from the office of sheriff Mr. Hartman turned his attention to business interests he had already acquired, a garage and planing mill. He soon sold his garage, but the planing mill is still a prominent factor of his enter- prises. This factory is located at Albright, near King- wood. In April, 1921, he purchased the old site and building of the Kingwood Glass Company, and now uses that for handling a large stock of lumber and builders' supplies. Besides this substantial participation in the commercial life of Kingwood, Mr. Hartman is a stockholder in the Bank of Kingwood, is a stockholder and director of the Englehart Woolen Mills Company, and a director and stock- holder in the Bowlesburg Wholesale Grocery Company, which he formerly represented as a traveling salesman. At Lenox, Preston County, April 23, 1901, Mr. Hartman married Miss Belle Kelley, who was born and reared in the Lenox community, daughter of Winfield Scot and Sarah Elizabeth (Feather) Kelley. Mrs. Hartman was past nine- teen when she married. They have three children: Ruby Beatrice, attending the Martha Washington Seminary at Washington, D. C.; Donald Kelley, a student in Kingwood High School; and Harland Spencer. The Hartman family are Methodists, and Mr. Hartman is one of the Official Board of the Kingwood Church. His home is one of the very modern and attractive ones in the county, and in other ways he has contributed to the sub- stantial improvement of the city.