Taylor County, West Virginia Biography: Harry E. FLESHER ************************************************************************** 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. 24-25 HARRY E. FLESHER, through almost half the life of the institution has been superintendent of the West Virginia Industrial School for Boys at Pruntytown. He began teaching when a boy. The history of the school is sketched by Dr. Callahan else- where in this publication. However, it may be stated here that it was established by legislative act of 1889, and located at Pruntytown, Taylor County donating for the purpose, buildings and property that had formerly been used for the old county seat. The name Reform School was changed to the present title in 1913. The school was opened July 1, 1890, and the successive superintendents have been C. C. Showalter, David Shaw, J. C. Gluck, 0. E. Darnall, and D. S. Hammond, who was succeeded in 1907 by Mr. Flesher, whose service covers a period of fifteen years. In recent years the state has pursued a more intelligent and liberal policy toward such institutions. Since Mr. Flesher became super- intendent the farm area has been increased from that of 170 acres to two thousand, and the population of the school has almost doubled, it being now about four hundred. There is a ten-month school, with graded courses of study, conducted by trained woman teachers. An appropriation of $100,000 has been made available for a new central school building to be erected in 1923, and the construction of a superintendent's home makes available additional facilities for the boys. Farming is the primary industrial occupation of the school, but opportunities are being increased tor mechanical training. There is no competition with free labor, except as it may come in the manufacture of material for state use. Nearly every- thing required by the boys is made in the school, including shoes, clothing, flour, plumbing, plastering and painting. Harry E. Flesher was born near the village of Ellenboro, Ritchie County, March 28, 1872, and represents one of the very old families of the state. His great-great-grandfather, Henry Flesher, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and for his services located a grant of eight hundred acres of land in Lewis County. After settling there he was shot by Indians, but recovered. He was buried within what is now the city limits of Weston. He had numerous sons and daughters, the descent coming down through his son Adam and his grandson Isaac. Crayton Flesher, a son of Isaac and father of Superin- tendent Flesher, was one of four brothers who fought on the Union side in the Civil war, the others being Adam, Porter and Hamden. All survived except Hamden, who was killed in a battle in Pocahontas County, and his body now rests in the National Cemetery at Grafton. Crayton and his younger brother, Adam, as youths walked from Janelew to Parkers- burg, where the former apprenticed himself as a carpenter and the latter as a saddler and harness-maker. They were journeymen at their trades when the Civil war came on. After the war Crayton Flesher was a farmer, merchant and building contractor in Ritchie County, and died in 1879. He married Harriet R. Taylor, daughter of J. T. Taylor, of Pleasants County, and she is still living at Williamstown. Her six sons were: Clinton W., an attorney at Gassaway, West Virginia; Harry E.; Thornton E., a farmer near Marietta Ohio; Forest F., in the oil fields of Louisiana; Okey J., con- nected with the automobile industry at Jackson, Michigan; and Crayton 0., who was drowned when a young man. Harry E. Flesher was about seven years old when his father died, and he had to develop a sense of personal respon- sibility very young. He .had little more than a common- school education himself when he taught his first term of country school at the age of fifteen, and he continued teaching while attending the Fairmont State Normal School, and sometime after completing his work there was formally grad- uated in 1897. From rural schools he took charge as principal of the high school at Keyser for eight years, and for two years was superintendent of schools at Kingwood, just prior to becoming superintendent of the state institution at Prunty- town. He is a republican voter without participation in politics, is a Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, a past noble grand of the Odd Fellows and past chancellor of the Knights of Pythias, and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He presides at all the church, Sabbath School and chapel services at the school. February 13, 1912, in Middlesex County, Virginia, he married Miss Martha Johnston Glenn, who was born and reared in that county, daughter of Richard M. and Ann Maria (Blake) Glenn. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Flesher are: Martha Glenn, born in 1913; Harry Edgar, born in 1914; Bettye Games, born in 1917; and James Lakin, born October 15, 1921.