Upshur County, West Virginia Biography of Thomas Edward HODGES This file was submitted by CJ Towery, 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 II, page 238-240 THOMAS EDWARD HODGES was one of those rare men who seem able to translate broad and generous ideals into deeds of practical and useful service. It was not any one achievement that distinguished him, but rather a lifetime of consecutive work and performance of duty. He was a popular figure in the sense that he lived with and worked among the people and exerted a constant influence and helpfulness in whatever relationship he was placed. This quality of his character should be emphasized even beyond the fact that he gained some of the highest offices in his native state. In his case the facts that constitute the formal material of biography are as follows: He was born on his father's farm near Buckhannon in Upshur County, December 13, 1858 one of the three children of John Henry and Melissa Margaret (Humphreys) Hodges. The environment in which he lived during his boyhood was not one from which he could have derived any of the talented and permanent influences that moulded his career. It was rather the aspirations and energy within him that reached out and procured peculiar values from normal advantages. He at-tended district schools, then entered the old French Creek Academy, where he was graduated in 1877, and in the same year entered the West Virginia University where he was graduated A. B. in 1881. In 1884 he received the Master of Arts degree from the University. In the meantime, beginning in 1881 and continuing until 1886, he was principal of the Morgantown public schools. Many years later, in recognition of his high scholarship and attainments, Waynesburg College bestowed upon him the degree Doctor of Science in 1909, and Washington and Jefferson College constituted him a LL. D. in 1919. From the public schools of Morgantown lie became principal of Marshall College, the State Normal School at Huntington, in 1886, and that institution thrived under his management for ten years. In 1896 he was recalled to West Virginia University as Professor of Physics, a chair he held until 1909. In that year Governor William E. Glasscock appointed him a member of the State Board of Control, a new organiza-tion to which was assigned the duties of administering state institutions. A year later he resigned to accept the presidency of West Virginia University, though by law he could not enter upon the duties of that office for one year, a time he utilized partly in travel abroad. July 1, 1911, he began his duties as University head and was formally inaugurated November 3d of that year: Some of the reasons that made his choice a very popular one are suggested in the following quotations from the Charleston Gazette of that time: "The action of the State Board of Regents in selecting Thomas E. Hodges to take the place at the head of the State University to be made vacant by the resignation of President D. P. Purinton was the most definite piece of wisdom that has taken place in the history of the state's educational system. There is no higher man in the state than Tommy Hodges, and there is no man who is so definitely identified with all that is good in the State University. There is not a single student past or present of the university who has ever known Tommy Hodges who is not rejoicing at the choice of the regents. Tommy Hodges is the student's friend. He has the interests of the students at heart." While the West Virginia educator commented on his selection in these words: "He is regarded as one of the few men possessed of all the qualities necessary to make a good university president. He is, moreover, particularly well fitted for the presidency of the head school of West Virginia. Born and bred within her borders, he has imbibed the spirit of growth which has become characteristic of the state in every phase of life and he truly appreciates the magnitude of her possibilities. A man among men, a scholar among scholars, suiting his action to his word, he will be able to meet every demand made upon him occasioned by the new career upon which the university has entered. He is wisely progressive and possessed of strong convictions, but he will never bring a revolution of destruction leaving waste and failure in his wake. He will conserve and organize all the resources of the university and direct its energies toward doing the greatest possible service to the state." All this promise was abundantly fulfilled during the three years he was university head. Then, in 1914, he yielded reluctantly to the persistent demand of his party and resigned to become democratic nominee for Congressman at Large. He made a splendid campaign but was defeated by Howard Sutherland. In July, 1915, Mr. Hodges accepted the unsought appointment as postmaster of Morgantown, and to the duties of that office be devoted the last years of his life. Dr. Hodges was chairman of the Democratic State Committee in 1908, and in that year was a candidate for the gubernatorial nomination, and in 1912 was again urged to accept the nomination for governor, but declined. Aside from his prominence in educational and political circles Doctor Hodges was a very able banker and financier. In 1896 he assisted in organizing the Morgantown Savings & Loan Society, and was its secretary until 1909. This corporation became the largest of its kind in the Upper Monongahela Valley, and its success meant the more to Mr. Hodges because through it he was able to aid many Morgantown people in building their homes. He was one of the organizers in 1906, and from that year president of the Bank of Morgantown. He was a director of the Farmers' and Merchants' Bank, and treasurer of the Chaplin Collieries Company. Doctor Hodges graduated at college as a "distinguished cadet" and later for some years was identified with the West Virginia National Guard, serving successively as major and colonel in the Second Regiment of Infantry and as brigade instructor of Small Arms Practice with the rank of major on the staff of the general commanding the West Virginia Infantry Brigade. He was also at one time commandant of the West Virginia University Cadets. He served on the Board of Eastern Colleges in intercollegiate athletics, was a member of the College Board of the Presbyterian Church, for six years Was a trustee of Davis and Elkins College, and was a member of the Board of Trustees of West Virginia Odd Fellows Home. He was a Mason, a Phi Beta Kappa honor man and a member of the Kappa Alpha fraternity and the Morgantown Rotary Club. Doctor Hodges was an impressive speaker and in constant demand as a lecturer before educational meetings throughout West Virginia and neighboring states. He had become a member of the Presbyterian Church at French Creek in 1876, and was one of West Virginia's most prominent laymen in that denomination. For many years he was an elder in his church at Morgantown. October 5, 1882, Doctor Hodges married Mary Amelia Hayes, daughter of Manliff Hayes, of Morgantown. He is survived by Mrs. Hodges and two children: Grace, wife of Oscar F. Gibbs of Columbus, Ohio; and Charles Edward Hodges. Thomas Edward Hodges died at Morgantown July 13, 1919, in his sixty-first year. For all the numerous activities that have been briefly reviewed it was the elements of his character that made him one of the great figures in West Virginia life. An editorial tribute in the New Dominion read as follows: "It was the grand old man of education in West Virginia that passed on yesterday when Colonel Thomas Edward Hodges died. No man in Morgantown had more friends or more deserved them, for Colonel Hodges was first of all a friend of Morgantown and of all the good souls in it. "He was a tireless worker for the advancement of his fellowmen. To do the kindly, friendly thing-that seemed to be his first impulse. Whether in the highest chair of the State University, of which he was a prime factor in its development, or as local postmaster, his foremost thought was to be of service. A companion of great and renowned men, he was still a friend to the friendless, and who can doubt that his very thoughts and his heart of love helped to make the world a happier place to live in His time, his talents, his dollars were always available and his good cheer was inexhaustible. He was one of the "old timers" of the best sort and lived his square and honorable life according to the best traditions of the Mountain Side. "As an educational figure he won national fame; as a church worker he was the coadjutor of the leaders of his denomination; as a politician he was the trusted advisor of the democratic party of the state. He was the beloved father of a family of whom be was proud and who live to do honor to his name. It can truly be said of Colonel Hodges what cannot be so truly said of many men-that his life was a well rounded success. Men may come and men may go, but there never will be another just like Colonel Hodges. The whole state will lament his going and cherish his memory." Perhaps a better and closer approximation to the essential elements of his career and character is contained in another editorial tribute, published after his death by the Morgantown Post: "There is not a city, town or village in the state of West Virginia where men and women, some of them past middle age, others just fairly beginning life's active duties, will not pause to recall with kindly affection their associations in one capacity or another with Thomas Edward Hodges, whose splendid earthly career ended Sunday morning. In the larger cities there will be hundreds to whom his death will mean a personal loss, while in the small country village there may be only one or two who were privileged to know him, but without exception their sentiments will be the same. Not many men so live and act that this remarkable tribute may be justly paid them, but there is none who will question the propriety of its application here. In the field of scholarship he had earned the title of doctor. In military rank he was a colonel because of military service faithfully performed. In service to his state he was properly referred to as honorable. To thousands whom he had instructed he was professor. In business associations, in muilitary service, as lecturer, publicist, and political leader he numbered thousands among his associates, acquaintances and friends, but those to whom his life and character meant most, and to whom his death will bring sincerest sorrow, are the students who knew him outside of the class room as 'Tommy' Hodges. And this is because in his big, whole- hearted, sympathetic way, he understood the heart of youth. His faith in young men aud young women was boundless, and this they understood and loved him. "He achieved in many fields a distinction for which most men strive for but one. His scholastic, civic and religious attainments were extraordinary. His wholesome optimism, his limitless energy, his fondness for clean sport, his sound business judgment and probity, his spiritual understanding, his devotion to his church and family, his high patriotism, his faith in humanity, his unwillingness to believe evil, his staunch friendship, and his devotion to right as he saw it, were all attributes worthy of admiration, but in his genuine affection for the young men and women who came to him for instruction, and his unfailing sympathy with all of their activities and aspirations, his clear understanding of their hearts and his willingness to serve them, not only as their instructor but as their friend and associate, is builded his best and most lasting memorial. The state and this community have lost a magnificent type of citizen in the death of Doctor Hodges; the students of former years mourn the death of a friend and comrade."