Upshur County, West Virginia Biography of STANLEY B. HERSMAN This file 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. 433 Upshur STANLEY B. HERSMAN, the efficient superintendent of the West Virginia Central Gas Company, maintains his residence and official headquarters at Buckhannon, Upshur County, and is one of the progressive business men of the younger generation in this city. Mr. Hersman was born on a farm near Berlin, Lewis County, West Virginia, on the 17th of June, 1888, and is a son of Mark and Oliver R. (Hinzman) Hersman. Mark Hersman was born in Lewis County, March 4, 1844, a son of George and Sarah (Starcher) Hersman, whose mar- riage was solemnized June 17, 1834. George Hersman was a son of Mark Hersman, who was born August 11, 1790, and whose marriage to Polly Kiger occurred April 4, 1811. Mark Hersman's father, Christopher Hersman, was a son of Matthias Hersman, who was born and reared in Germany and who became the founder of the family in America, he having come to this country in 1763 and having settled in Hampshire County, Virginia, where he reclaimed and developed a farm and where he passed the remainder of his life, which was prolonged to the re- markable age of 125 years. Christopher Hersman be- came a farmer and trader in Pennsylvania, and his son Mark became an exponent of farm industry in Ohio and what is now West Virginia. George Hersman, grandfather of the subject of this review, was numbered among the substantial farmers of what is now Lewis County, West Virginia, and there his son Mark was born and reared on the home farm. Mark Hersman had the genius of success, and exemplified the same in his progressive and extensive operations as a farmer near Berlin, Lewis Coun- ty, where he became the owner of a valuable farm prop- erty of 340 acres. He was a loyal soldier of the Union in the Civil war, in which he served two and one-half years. He was affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, was a re- publican in politics, and both he and his wife were active members of the Methodist Protestant Church. Of their twelve children the following are living at the time of this writing, in 1921: Mollie is the wife of Theodore Queen, of Hodgesville, this state; Blaine is superintendent of the West Virginia & Maryland Gas Company at Eowles burg, Preston County, this state; Miss Nita was the next in order of birth; and Stanley B., of this sketch is the next younger; C. Sarah is the wife of Olin Rohr, of Ber- lin, Lewis County; and Grace is the wife of Harrison Lewis, of that place. The boyhood and early youth of Stanley B. Hersman were diversified by work on the home farm and attending the public schools of his native county. At the age of eighteen years he entered the employ of a gas company, and he has since continued his connection with the gas industry in this state. He has been a resident of Buck- hannon since 1919, and is the valued superintendent here of the West Virginia Central Gas Company. He owns a farm of about eighty-five acres near Berlin, Lewis County. Mr. Hersman is past chancellor of the Knights of Pythias Lodge at Buckhannon, is affiliated also with Franklin Lodge No. 7, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, is a stanch democrat in politics, and he and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church. September 19, 1909, recorded the marriage of Mr. Hers- man and Miss Maude F. Sutton, and they have four chil- dren: Harry, Harold, John and Grace.