Tucker County, West Virginia Biography of OSCAR D. LAMBERT 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. 587-588 Tucker OSCAR D. LAMBERT, scholar and educator, is one of the best qualified school men of the state. His practical teach- ing experience has been largely in his home county of Tucker, where his people have been well known and promi- nent for many years. His first American ancestor came from England and set- tled on a farm in what is now Pendleton County, West Vir- ginia. Agriculture has been the favorite vocation of most of his descendants. One of his sons was James Lambert. The grandson was James H. Lambert, grandfather of the Tucker County educator. James H. Lambert was born in 1832, in Pendleton County, and founded the family in Tucker County about 1860. He was a farmer and stock man, a timber dealer, and served as captain of the Home Guard during the Civil war. He and other members of the family were staunch Union men, and his brother Nathaniel bore arms as a Federal soldier through the war. James H. Lambert had a good education acquired by private study as well as in the country schools. He was a republican, and served several years as a member of the Tucker County Court. His death occurred January 1, 1912, in Randolph County, though his farm which he developed out of the woods was in Dry Fork District of Tucker County. He married America Yoakum, whose death occurred five years before that of her husband. Of their nine children eight grew up: Alfred, who died in Randolph County, leaving four children; James B., mentioned below; Columbus, a farmer in Dry Fork District of Tucker County and a jus- tice of the peace; Lorenzo Dow, a farmer at Rawlings, Maryland; Provy, wife of Warren Swearingen, of Dry Fork District; Nathaniel, a merchant at Canton, Ohio; Ella, wife of Jacob Montony, of Dry Fork District; Floda, who married Doctor G. W. Wyatt, of Randolph County; and Edward, who died just about the time he reached his ma- jority. James B. Lambert was born December 11, 1852, and was about eight years of age when the family left Pendleton County and settled in Tucker County. He acquired a com- mon school education, taught school about six years, and also acquired a good knowledge of the subject of surveying and did a large amount of work in that field. His home was in Dry Fork District until 1918, and then for three years he lived at Kenton in Hardin County, Ohio. In 1921 he returned to Tucker County, and is now a resident of Par- sons. He cast his first presidential vote for Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876, and since that year has not failed to cast a vote at each presidential election and always for the re- publican candidate. In Tucker County in 1875 James B. Lambert married Alice Bonner, daughter of Solomon and Mary (Bright) Bonner. Her father, a native of Harrison County, was a farmer and a practical civil engineer and surveyor, a profession he followed in connection with farm- ing. He died in 1894 at his home in Dry Fork District. His wife died some years earlier. They had the following children: Seymour, a farmer in Tucker County; Archibald, a farmer in the same county; James, who died in 1912, leaving a family of five children; Rebecca and Mary, who married brothers, Washington and Henry Snider; Mrs. James B. Lambert, who was born in 1856; and Margaret, who married W. A. Ault, of Tucker County. Oscar D. Lambert, son of James B. and Alice Lambert, was born June 2, 1888, and spent his early life at the old farm in Dry Fork District He attended country schools there, and at the age of eighteen began teaching in his home district. For several years he taught school and at- tended school, and in that way he provided his own oppor- tunities for a higher education. After his second term as a teacher he entered the Shepherd College Normal School at Shepherdstown, and remained until graduating in 1911. Following that for two years he was principal of the graded schools at Jenningston, and then entered West Virginia University at Morgantown, where he finished the A. B. course and graduated in 1916. After leaving the university Mr. Lambert was an in- structor in the Elkins High School, then for one year was at Rowlesburg and another year at Jane Lew, and again interrupted his career as a teacher to enter the University of Chicago for advanced work in the department of his- tory. He specialized in American history and government. After a portion of the school year he returned home and served as supervisor of schools in Fairfax District. In the early summer of 1921 he returned for another quarter of graduate work in the University of Chicago, at the end of which he received his Master of Arts degree. The winter of 1921 Mr. Lambert spent at St. Petersburg, Florida, where he devoted much of his time to collecting historical data along certain lines. In the early spring of 1922 he returned to West Virginia, and at this writing lives with his parents at Parsons. He is unmarried. As a teacher he has been identified with the local and State Teachers Associations. While in the University of Chicago he wrote a history of colonial manufactures in Pennsylvania as a thesis contributing toward his Master's degree. Mr. Lambert is a republican, casting his first vote for Colonel Roosevelt in the progressive campaign of 1912. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and a teacher in the Sunday School. During the war he was reg- istered and was classified in the fifth class. He was a member of the Four Minute Men, and made many speeches in behalf of the Red Cross and Liberty Loan drives.