Tyler County, West Virginia Biography: John Willard CUSHING ************************************************************************** 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. 131-132 JOHN WILLARD CUSHING was one of the first drillers attracted to the newly opened oil fields at Sistersville, and has been operating there and in adjoining fields for thirty years. He is one of the prominent oil men of this section and is active in the commercial and industrial enterprises that have made Sistersville one of the growing and pros- perous cities of the state. Mr. Cushing comes of a family of oil field workers, and was born in the heart of the old Pennsylvania petroleum district, at the Village of Petroleum Center in Venango County, December 27, 1870. He is of Irish ancestry. His grandfather, Morris Cushing, was born in County Tip- perary in 1813. He married Bridget Donohue, of the same county. In 1851 they brought their family to America, locating in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, where they lived on a farm for a number of years. About 1866 they moved to Venango County, Pennsylvania, where Morris Cushing lived retired until his death in 1878. His widow died at Duke Center, Pennsylvania, in McKean County, in 1913. They were the parents of eight children and the four still living are: Mrs. Bridget Kelly, of Cleveland, Ohio, whose husband was a railroad man; Mrs. McElwee, of Clairmore, Missouri; Will, superintendent of the West Virginia Natural Oil & Gas Company at Claysville, Penn- sylvania; and Timothy, who is in the oil well supply busi- ness at Tulsa, Oklahoma. John Cushing, father of John W. Cushing, was born in County Tipperary in 1844, and was seven years of age when his parents went to Canada. He grew up there on a farm, and at the age of eighteen went to Venango Coun- ty, Pennsylvania, where he married and became a teamster in the oil fields. In 1877 he moved to Bradford in Mc- Kean County, where he continued the same line of work, and in 1892 established his home at Washington, Pennsyl- vania, where thereafter he was an employe of the Manu- facturers Light & Heat Gas Company until his death in March, 1920. John Cushing was a democrat and a mem- ber of the United Presbyterian Church. He married in Western Pennsylvania, Maria Jane Reed, who was born at Dempseytown, Venango County, in 1847, and died at Washington, Pennsylvania, in 1906. Of her children, John Willard is the oldest. Mary Jane is the wife of J. Wiley Sanders, a retired farmer living at Washington Pennsyl- vania; Morris E. was an oil well driller and died at Wash- ington at the age of twenty-two; Lester R. was also a driller in the oil fields and died at Spencer, West Virginia, aged twenty-nine. John Willard Cushing spent his early life in Venango McKean and Washington counties, Pennsylvania. He at- tended the rural schools of Venango, the public schools at Bradford, and at the age of eighteen finished his educa- tion in the Bradford Business College. On going to Wash- ington he spent a year working on oil leases, and then for three years was in the oil fields of Lima, Ohio. The first oil discoveries around Sistersville were made about 1890-91. In 1892 Mr. Cushing came to Sistersville, and during the following five years assisted in drilling a number of wells. After that he set up in business for himself as an oil well contractor, and worked in the fields of Tyler County and also in Ohio. He has been a pro- ducer since 1900. His varied interests in oil and other industrial affairs are indicated by his official connection with the following: Director in the Petroleum Explora- tion Company of Sistersville; director in the Wiser Oil Company of Sistersville; director of the Amity Gasoline Company of Sistersville; vice president of the Sistersville Boiler Works; director in the McJunkin Machine Company of Sistersville; stockholder in the Oil Review Publishing Company of Sistersville; and stockholder in the Tyler Traction Company. Mr. Cushing has his offices in the Farmers & Producers Bank Building and owns a modern home at 307 Hill Street. He is a republican in politics, a member of the Presby- terian Church, and is affiliated with Phoenix Lodge No. 73, A. F. and A. M., Sistersville Chapter No. 27, R. A. M., Mountain State Commandery No. 14, K. T., and Nemesis Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Parkersburg. He belongs to the Sistersville Country Club and the Kiwanis Club. In 1895, at Sistersville, Mr. Cushing married Miss Cleo Fry, daughter of Joshua and Mary E. (Wherry) Fry, the latter living with Mr. and Mrs. Cushing. Her father was a teamster and died at Denver, Colorado. Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Cushing: Cleo Luella, who died at Sistersville in 1918 at the age of eighteen; John W., born in April, 1905, now a senior in high school; and Harry Fry, born September 30, 1908, a pupil in the gram- mar school.