Taylor County, West Virginia Biography of Columbus T. BARTLETT ************************************************************************** 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. 1 COLUMBUS T. BARTLETT, former county court clerk of Taylor County, has devoted twenty years or more of his active life to the sales and other interests of the wholesale grocery business in West Virginia. His grandparents were Thomas T. and Jemimah Bartlett, who settled at Webster in Taylor County prior to the Civil war, their home being on the banks of the little run alongside which the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad was constructed after they established their home there. They finally moved to Barbour County, and the grandfather died at his home on Pleasant Creek at the age of eighty-four. His children were: Mary, who married William Lake; Matilda, who became the wife of Lloyd Chenoweth; Virginia, who married Green Carter; Elizabeth, who married Shadrach Cole; Eppa G.; David; Benjamin; Joseph and Josephine, twins, the latter becoming the wife of W. H. Davis; and Sarah, who married C. M. Davis. Eppa G. Bartlett, father of Columbus T., was reared at Webster, was a merchant for a short time at Simpson, for many years operated a sawmill for the manufacture of lumber in Taylor and Barbour counties, and finally returned to his farm on Pleasant Creek in Barbour County, where he died in 1894, at the age of fifty-two. He married Henrietta Bartlett, daughter of Hamilton and Catherine (McKinney) Bartlett. She died in Fairmont in September, 1918, at the age of sgventy-one. Their children were: Columbus T.; Camden H., of Fairmont; Lee T., who died unmarried in 1900 and is buried at Simpson; Hattie, Mrs. J. Bert Exline and a resident of Belington, West Virginia. Columbus T. Bartlett was born on Pleasant Creek, near the Taylor-Barbour County line, but since early boyhood has been a resident of Taylor County. He finished his edu- cation in West Virginia College at Flemington under the direction of that able educator Professor Colgrove, and then for several winters taught school. He left that to engage in what has proved the chief business of his life, the wholesale grocery trade. For six years he was traveling salesman for the Joseph Speidel Grocery Company of Wheeling, and left that firm to join another well known grocery house, the Hornor-Gaylord Company of Clarksburg. He was on the road for this firm continuously thirteen years, until called away by the duties of public office. In November, 1914, Mr. Bartlett was elected clerk of the County Court, and on January 1, 1915, succeeded Hayward Fleming in that office. His term of six years included the World war period, involving many extra duties in connection with the work of the Draft Board and other war movements. While he was in office one document for record was filed containing $2,720 in revenue stamps, marking a record in this county of that kind. Soon after leaving office Mr. Bartlett returned to his old home at Webster, and has since resumed his service with the Clarksburg wholesale grocery house as an adjuster of accounts and claims. He has for years been an active worker in the democratic party, casting his first presidential vote for Cleveland in 1888. As a traveling man he became affiliated with the United Commercial Travelers, and formerly was a member of several fraternities, but his membership is now confined to Masonry. He is affiliated with Mystic Lodge No. 75, F. and A. M., at Grafton, the Royal Arch Chapter of the same city, and West Virginia Consistory No. 1 of the Scottish Rite at Wheeling. May 30, 1885, in Taylor County, he married Miss Minnie St. Clair, who was born in that county February 27, 1865, daughter of Thomas B. and Drusilla (Shaeffer) St. Clair, the former also a native of Taylor County and the latter of Penn- sylvania. The other St. Clair children were: James W., of Albany, Indiana; Loretta, of Harrison County, widow of Jackson Findley; Arlington, of St. Clairsville, Ohio; Osee, of Simpson; and Semei, of Martins Ferry, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Bartlett have three married daughters and a number of grandchildren. Grace, who married Robert Senior, of Toron- to, Canada, is the mother of Jauneta, Robert Paul and June Genevieve. Ottie Ruth married Clinton W. Fawcett, of Fairmont, and their children are Clinton Robert, Charles Thomas and James Howard. Gladys Dove, the youngest daughter, is the wife of Earl Waller, of Webster.