Wood County, West Virginia Biography of HARRY OTIS HITESHEW 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 II, pg. 538 Wood HARRY OTIS HITESHEW, a Parkersburg lawyer, is a member of the firm Kreps, Russell & Hiteshew, which represents some of the best abilities and resourcefulness of the West Virginia bar. Mr. Hiteshew has long been a power in Parkersburg politics and local affairs, and is a member of a family that has been prominent in this part of the Ohio Valley since earliest pioneer times. For several generations the Hiteshews lived in Maryland and were Quakers. The grandfather of H. O. Hiteshew was Isaac Hiteshew. The father was Isaac Wesley Hiteshew, who was born in Maryland and became one of the pioneer train- men of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. He was a conductor on the Frederick Division and had charge of the train which carried the soldiers to Harper's Ferry at the time of John Brown's raid. During the Civil war he was in charge of a train between Baltimore and Harper's Ferry. He came as a passenger on the first train into Parkersburg, and thereafter made his home in that city until his death on February 26, 1898. For a number of years he was in the wholesale produce and feed business, and later was a farmer. He was a democrat in politics and in religion was affiliated with the Episcopal Church. At Parkersburg October 17, 1871, Isaac W. Hiteshew mar- ried Columbia Ann Bradford. She was born at Parkersburg August 16, 1845, daughter of Otis Little and Emeline M. (Talbott) Bradford. To this marriage were born four sons; William B., Charles Talbott, Holmes Moss and Harry Otis. Through his mother H. O. Hiteshew is a lineal descendant of that distinguished Puritan Governor, William Bradford, of the Massachusetts Colony. Without taking up in detail the genealogical account it is interesting to note that William Bradford had a son William, a grand-on William and a great- grandson William; the latter had a son John and a grandson John; the latter was the father of Robert and the grandfather of Robert. The last named Robert Bradford, in the eighth generation from Governor William, was born at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1750, was a Captain in the American forces during the Revolution and brevetted major at the end of the war, and soon afterward moved to the Northwest Territory to take possession of the square mile of land granted him. He built a log house immediately opposite the foot of Blenner- hassett Island, and in 1790 built a house at Belpre, just across the river from Parkersburg and lived, there until his death in 1823. His son Otis Little, maternal grandfather of H. O. Hiteshew, was born at Belpre in 1799, but spent the greater part of his life in Parkersburg, where he was long prominent in the river trade. Harry Otis Hiteshew was born at Parkersburg November 12, 1882. He attended the public schools, and took both the literary and law courses at the West Virginia University, graduating in law in 1903. For a year he remained at Morgan- town as an associate of former Governor William E. Glass- cock, and in the fall of 1904 returned to Parkersburg. Here he practiced with A. Gilmer Patton until the latter's death, and then became junior partner of Hiteshew and McDougle. The firm dissolved partnership when Mr. McDougle was elected to the bench. Since then the firm of Kreps, Russell & Hiteshew has been organized. For many years Mr. Hiteshew has been intimately identi- fied with republican politics in Parkersburg. However, he has not sought political honors outside the strict lines of his own profession. In 1905 he was appointed commissioner of accounts. He was elected prosecuting attorney of Wood County in 1908 and re-elected in 1912, and altogether has served eight years, being the only man ever re-elected to two successive terms in this office in Wood County. Mr. Hiteshew is a Knight Templar Mason and Shriner, a member of the Elks, the Chamber of Commerce, is a trustee of the Kiwanis Club and belongs to the Kappa Alpha college fraternity. He is a member of the Episcopal Church. April 26, 1910, at Parkersburg, Mr. Hiteshew married Ethel Sabin White, daughter of Governor A. B. White. They have one daughter, Grace Talbott Hiteshew.