Upshur County, West Virginia    Biography of Robert Allen ARMSTRONG

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Submitted by Sandra Reed <sandrar@emwv.com>, May 1999
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., 
Chicago and New York, Volume II, pg. 

Robert Allen Armstrong, has achieved many of the genuine honors and attainments
of scholarship, but with them has gone a devoted service in the cause of education,
social and intellectual ideas, so that it is not difficult to understand the
appreciation and admiration given him throughout the State of West Virginia.  

Doctor Armstrong, who for many years has been head of the English Department 
of West Virginia University, was born at Frenchton, Upshur County, West Virginia,
September 23, 1860, son of Jared M. and Eliza (Bennett) Armstrong.  His father 
was born in Highland County, Virginia, in 1814, son of John and Elizabeth (Wilson) 
Armstrong, who in 1840 moved over the mountains to Lewis County, now Upshur County,
West Virginia.  Jared Armstrong died in June, 1899.  His wife, Eliza, was the 
daughter of David and Mary (Stuart) Bennett.  

Robert A. Armstrong is an alumnus of West Virginia University, having graduated 
A. B. in 1886 and received his Master of Arts degree in 1889.  From 1886 to 1893 
he was principal of the West Liberty State Normal School.  When he entered 
teaching he regarded it as a temporary vacation until he could qualify as a 
lawyer, and in 1890 he was admitted to the West Virginia bar, though it is
probable he has never represented a single client.  Since 1893 Doctor 
Armstrong's services have been with West Virginia University.  He was professor
of English from 1893 to 1901, was Vice-President of the University during 1897-99 
and since 1901 has been Professor of English language and literature and head of 
the English department since 1903.  In 1921, during the summer term, he served as
exchange Professor of English in the University of Missouri.  

Doctor Armstrong in the course of his career has utilized a number of vacations 
and absence periods for postgraduate study.  He attended the University of 
Chicago in 1898, was a student in Columbian, now George Washington University,
in 1900, and during 1902-03 was in Harvard University, where he received the 
Master of Arts degree in 1903.  Allegheny College bestowed upon him L. H. D. 
degree in 1908.  

Doctor Armstrong has been chaplain of the University since 1910.  Since 1886 he
has been an Instructor in Teachers Institutes of West Virginia, Pennsylvania,
Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.  He was Secretary of the West Virginia State Board 
of School Examiners from 1899 to 1909, was editor of the West Virginia School 
Journal from 1904 to 1921, was Democratic nominee for the State Superintendent
in 1900 and again in 1916, was a member of the West Virginia School Book 
Commission in 1917-22, was a member and president of the School Board of
Morgantown Independent School District in 1912-17, was President of the West 
Virginia Sunday School Association in 1902, President of the West Virginia
Educational Association in 1907-08, a delegate to the General Conference of the
Methodist Episcopal Church in 1900 and 1904, is President for 1921-22 of the 
local branch of the American Association of University Professors, and is a
member of the National Education Association and the Kappa Alpha and Phi Beta
Kappa fraternities.  

With all his other duties and Doctor Armstrong has found time for original and 
constructive literary work.  He is author of a Geography of West Virginia-supplement
to the National Geography, published in 1899; Life Out of Death, 1906; The 
Law of Service, 1907; Historical and Literary Outlines of the Bible, 1907; 
Dramatic Interpretations of Shakespeare's Tragedies, 1907; Mastering the Books
of the Bible, 1916.  He was editor of a volume of Eclectic English Classics, 
published in 1912, and has contributed many miscellaneous articles to 
educational journals.  

For six years he was in the military service of the state, being a Captain in 
the National Guard from 1887 to 1889 and Major of the First Regiment from 1889
to 1893, when he resigned.  He is a Knight Templar Mason and Knight of Pythias.  

December 28, 1900, Doctor Armstrong married to Carrie Louise Dent, of Grafton.
She died in 1903, leaving a daughter, Virginia Dent Armstrong, who was born in
1901.  On June 11, 1914, Doctor Armstrong married Myra L. Shank, of Auburn,
New York.  They have three children: Roberta Jean, born in 1915; Barbara Allen,
born in 1917; and Keith Stuart, born in 1919.