Webster County, West Virginia    Biography of John S. COGAR

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Submitted by Valerie Crook, <vfcrook@trellis.net>, March 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 III, pg. 91-92

JOHN S. COGAR is distinctively one of the leading mem-
bers of the bar of Webster County, of which he is serving
as prosecuting attorney at the time of this writing, in 1922,
and his loyalty to his native county and town, Webster
Springs, the county seat, has been signally manifested in
his continuous centering of his activities and interests in
the community that has represented his home during his
entire life thus far.

Mr. Cogar was born at Webster Springs and his early
education was acquired in the public schools of his native
county. That he made good use of his advantages is shown
by the fact that at the age of seventeen years he became a
successful teacher, as principal of the village schools of
Webster Springs, his entire pedagogic service having been
rendered in his native town. In consonance with his well
formulated ambition he finally entered the law department
of the University of West Virginia, in which he was gradu-
ated as a member of the class of 1892 and with the degree
of Bachelor of Laws. He soon afterward opened an office
at Webster Springs, and in 1893 he here formed a pro-
fessional partnership with Senator E. H. Morton, with whom
he continued his alliance until 1896, when he was elected
prosecuting attorney of the county. At the expiration of
his term in this office he was nominated, at the democratic
senatorial convention held at Weston, as candidate for
representative of the old Tenth Senatorial District in the
State Senate, and notwithstanding the fact that the district
was strongly republican, he made so effective a campaign
and has such secure place in popular esteem in the district
that the republican majority was cut down by two-thirds in
the ensuing election, in which his defeat was compassed
by a small majority. In 1904 he was made the democratic
nominee for representative of Webster County in the House
of Delegates of the West Virginia Legislature, to which he
was elected by a substantial and gratifying majority. He
served during the sessions of 1904-5 and made a character-
istically effective record in the advancing of constructive
legislation and the conserving of the interests of his con-
stituent district. He has since given his exclusive attention
to the work of his profession, and in November, 1920, he
was again elected prosecuting attorney of the county.

The year 1893 recorded the marriage of Mr. Cogar and
Miss Emma L. Koozer, of Clearfield City, Pennsylvania, and
they have two daughters. Beatrice, whose educational ad-
vantages included those of the Webster Springs High
School, the West Virginia Wesleyan College, the University
of West Virginia and Columbia University, New York City,
is at the parental home and is a popular figure in the
representative social and cultural activities of the com-
munity. The younger daughter, Lillian Lee, is the wife
of Mendham Parmlee Wilson, of Augusta, Georgia, and is
a specially talented musician, in both vocal and instrumental
interpretation.