West Virginia Statewide Files WV-Footsteps Mailing List WV-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 99 : Issue 13 Today's Topics: #1 BIO: Samuel STEPHENSON, Clay Count [Valerie & Tommy Crook Subject: BIO: Samuel STEPHENSON, Clay County, WV The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 236 Clay County SAMUEL STEPHENSON. Owing to his connection with numerous business enterprises of an important character, his public spirit and his general activity along various channels, Samuel Stephenson is acknowledged to be one of the leading citizens of Charleston. He has been interested in oil and coal production, was the erector of the Union office building, now occupied by the Union Trust Company, of which he was an incorporator and is a director, and is one of the principal owners of the Coal Fork Lumber Com- pany, one of the leading lumber manufacturing concerns in the state. Mr. Stephenson was born in Nicholas County, West Vir- ginia, March 10, 1859, a son of Andrew J. Stephenson. His father was also born in that county, and in 1864 moved to Clay, Clay County, where he became a prominent figure in public affairs. While he was a democrat in a republican community, he was greatly popular with his fellow-citizens, and for many years served as county and circuit clerk, and at all times proved an able and accommodating official. His death was caused by a fall, October 29, 1893, when he had reached the age of seventy-four years. Samuel Stephenson grew to manhood at Clay, where he received a good practical education and as a young man spent several years in teaching school. He then entered the field of lumbering, in association with his brother Forsythe, a manufacturer, who made a specialty of portable mills and operated in various communities. Later Mr. Stephenson formed a partnership with Gen.. James Avis Holley in 1902, in coal and timber lands. Together they bought land in Boone County, where Mr. Stephenson still has extensive holdings. They also drilled the first gas wells in the Putnam and Lincoln fields, and for ten years were very active in this line of endeavor. During this time Mr. Stephenson assisted in the organization of the Holley Oil and Development Company and the Kanawha Valley De- velopment Company, but later sold out to the Wayland Oil Company of New York. He has also prospected in various other fields in West Virginia, and still owns oil lands that have not been developed. In 1911 Mr. Stephenson erected what at the time was the leading office building of Charles- ton, and which is still one of the finest, the Union Trust Building, a thirteen-story structure, representing an invest- ment of $385,000. This was sold by Mr. Stephenson to the Union Trust Company, of which he was one of the original incorporators. Mr. Stephenson was also a director in the Charleston National Bank, and has taken stock in other enterprises. In 1918 he was one of the ineorporators and is still one of the principal owners of the Coal Fork Lumber Company, one of the principal lumber manufacturing com- panies of West Virginia, which owns some 40,000,000 feet of timber, cuts about 40,000 per day, and gives employ- ment to approximately 100 men. Mr. Stephenson has taken an interest in political affairs and once was the democratic nominee for state senator and once for sheriff, but met with defeat on both occasions because of his party's minority in the county. During the mayoralty administration of General Holley, Mr. Stephenson was a member of the city council and assisted in making the city "dry." While the mayor was aligned with the "wet" forces, Mr. Stephen- son's long experience in handling large bodies of men had confirmed him in the belief that prohibition was best, and he was one of the main factors in making Charleston a temperance city. He also served as deputy United States revenue collector. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church and always willing to give his support, moral and financial, to any worthy movement. He has reached the thirty-second degree in Masonry and is a member of the Commandery, Consistory and Shrine, but has not made a hobby of fraternalism. While essentially an out-of-doors man, he is not a sportsman in the generally-accepted mean- ing of the word. Mr. Stephenson married Mrs. Cynthia Belle (Vickers) Sayre, of Kanawha County, who had two children, by her former marriage: Ira G., an oil and gas operator; and Nona Belle, the wife of Dr. John T. Sharp, of Charleston. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Stephenson: Byron Jackson and Ruby Dell. ______________________________X-Message: #2 Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1999 19:24:30 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook Subject: BIO: Chester Maston WIKEL, Summers County, WV The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 236-237 Summers County CHESTER MASTON WIKEL. The fiancial interests of any live and growing community are of such importance that particular attention must be paid to the character and standing of the men connected with the institutions to whom these interests are entrusted. Pineville is the home of some of Wyoming County's wealthiest men, who expect to have their banking attended to with dispatch- and safety, and they are satisfied that all requirements of modern financial life are fully met by the First National Bank of Pineville, particularly because of the men who compose its staff. One of these men, who has won the confidence of the entire com- munity, is Chester Maston Wikel, cashier. Mr. Wikel was born on a farm in Summers County, West Virginia, November 9, 1879, and is a son of John A. and Rhoda M. (Hutchison) Wikel. John A. Wikel was born in Monroe County, now West Virginia, a son of Everett H. Wikel, and was a child when taken by his par- ents to Summers County. He has been a life-long agricul- turist, and is still living at the old home place on Little Wolfe Creek, in Summers County, West Virginia. Although both he and his father were opposed to secession, John A. Wikel volunteered for service in the Confederate army during the war between the states, and his father was subsequently drafted and served in the same command. During one of their engagements a cannon-ball, passing between them, wounded Everett in the leg and carried away the sole of John's army boot. At the close of the war John was a prisoner at Fort Delaware. Mr. Wikel is a republican in political sentiment. Rhoda M. Hutchison was a daughter of John M. Hutchison. Three sons and three daughters were born to Mr. and Mrs. Wikel, all living: Myrtle and Everett H., who reside at home; Chester Maston; Amy, the wife of G. C. Saunders, of Summers County; and John C. and Essie, at home. Chester M. Wikel attended the public schools of Summers County, subsequently taking special work at the summer normal school and then pursuing a commercial course at Bryant & Stratton's Commercial College at Louisville. In the meantime he had taught two terms in a rural school, but when his commercial- course was completed he gave up teaching and accepted a position with the Bank of Summers, now known as the National Bank of Summers, at Hinton, the county seat, where he spent two years. His next con- nection was with the Clark James Manufacturing Company of Hinton, with which concern he remained six months, then spending a like period in the postoffice at Hinton. In 1908 Mr. Wikel joined the First National Bank of Logan as bookkeeper and assistant cashier, and remained with that institution fourteen months, following which he went to Dorchester, Virginia, and for about five years was chief clerk for the Kemmerer interests on the Clinch Valley Railroad. In 1914 he joined the First National Bank of Pineville, with which he has since been identified in the capacity of cashier. He has done much to increase its business and insure its place in public confidence, and has won a large number of sincere friends both for himself and for the institution which he represents. Mr. Wikel is a Master Mason, having joined that order at Norton, Virginia. In politics he is a republican. On December 24, 1919, Mr. Wikel was united in mar- riage with Miss Dottie Edna Hash, of Wyoming County, West Virginia, and one daughter, Virginia, and one son, Bernard Alexander, have been born to this union. Mrs. Wikel is a member of the Baptist Church. ______________________________X-Message: #3 Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1999 19:25:06 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook Subject: BIO: Tom H. McRA, Kanawha County, WV The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 237 Kanawha County TOM H. McRA is one of the youngest business men in the state as the responsible head of a wholesale concern handling a remarkable volume of business over a large section of the state. This is the Kanawha Wholesale Grocery Company, which in the face of the business de- pression following the war has steadily grown and prospered so that every dollar of its capital is working and represents a solid investment. The company was organized July 1, 1919, with a capital of $100,000 and an initial investment of $50,000. The first staff of salesmen comprised four men. The company has rapidly extended its trade in all directions from Charleston, and now has $140,000 invested, and a staff of fourteen employes. The head of this company represents a branch of the Highland Scotch clan, whose name is variously spelled, as McRae, McRea and also McCray. They have been in West Virginia for over 100 years. Farquher McRa came from Edinburgh, Scotland, about 1790, and from Baltimore moved to the Village of Morgantown about 1794. He was a tailor, bringing his goods and outfit across the mountains on horseback. A thrifty business man, he was worth the considerable fortune of $16,000, and he built a hotel which stood until recent years at the site of the present Madera Hotel, near the courthouse in Morgantown. Duncan McRa, son of Farquher, was born in 1786 and died in 1825. He married Rebecca Carter, of Marion County, who was born in 1792 and died in 1848. One of the children of Duncan and Rebecca McRa was Oliver Perry McRa, who was born December 16, 1819, and died December 25, 1897. He was a remarkable man in many ways, and it is said that he could build a house, build a chimney, make any kind of farm implement used at that time, make a pair of shoes or cooper a barrel. He served in the Union army during the Civil war, was frequently a school officer, taught school, as did five of his children, was for over forty years an exhorter in the Methodist Church, was legal adviser for all his section and ministered to the sick, the suffering and the dying without waiting to be called upon. Oliver P. McRa married Jemima Jacobs, who was born March 17, 1819, and died February 19, 1898. They were married in 1844. She was a daughter of Elijah and Mary (Doolittle) Jacobs, pioneers of Monongalia County. The children of Oliver P. McRa were: Edgar, born in 1845, a Civil war veteran and died in 1916; Wait- man, born in 1848 and died in 1873; Elijah, born in 1850, a veteran teacher, justice of the peace, for thirty-three years secretary of the Board of Education of Clinton District in Monongalia County, and he and his sister Virginia still occupy the old homestead in that county; Mrs. Susan Lucretia Phillips, born in 1852, and died in 1903, and one of her sons was in the regular army in the Philippines, and two of her grandsons were in France during the World war; Rev. Thomas R. McRa, born in 1854, for over thirty years an active minister of the Methodist Church in Ohio, and has a son, Richard, also a minister and another son, Donald a teacher; Mary Rebecca, who died in infancy; Sylvester, who also died in childhood; Miss Virginia, living with her brother at the homestead; and Duncan McRa. Duncan McRa, born July 14, 1863, is now a resident of Charleston, and has devoted most of his life to journalism. He was educated for the law, practiced for some years in Preston County, and is the acknowledged historian of that county. He is a graduate of the State University, was a teacher, is the author of several books, is former secretary of the State Republican Committee and for four years was chief clerk in the secretary of state's office during the administration of Governor Dawson. Tom H. McRa is a son of Duncan and Ella (Liston) McRa. He was born in Preston County in 1892, and while attending school he worked in a retail store. For six years he was assistant buyer for the State Board of Control. He then became an office man with the Charleston Grocery Com- pany, and in 1919 organized the Kanawha Wholesale Grocery Company and has been president and general manager during its rapid growth and development. He is a member of the Charleston Chamber of Commerce, of the West Virginia Wholesale Grocers Association and the Na- tional Wholesale Grocers Association. Mr. McRa married April 5, 1921, Mamie L. Loy, of Paw Paw, Hampshire County, West Virginia. ______________________________X-Message: #4 Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1999 19:25:43 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook Subject: BIO: Jacob F. CALLISON, CLay County, WV The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 237-238 Clay County JACOB F. CALLISON. Gradually and on the basis of the soundest commercial principles Jacob F. Callison has de- veloped one of the most prosperous hardware stores in the state, at Charleston. It is known as the Farmers Hardware Company, of which he is president and chief owner. His success as a merchant is due not only to thorough training but also to the faculty of hard work and closest application to all the details. This company was incorporated in 1913, with a capital of $25,000. Three years before that, in 1910, Mr. Callison and S. R. Pierson, both commercial salesmen, combined their modest capital of $1,000 a piece and established the firm of Callison & Pierson and made their start in the hardware trade at Charleston: A year later Mr. Callison became sole owner, and in 1913 incorporated. The vice president of the company is C. P. Pickens, though he is not active in the business. Mr. Callison's company now operates on a capital stock of $50,000. Sales for the first year were only $5,000, and the annual volume of business is now $150,000. Two assistants were required at the beginning and there are now nine, and the business also comprises a jobbing department. The company specializes in the farming trade. They occupy a double store-room on the ground floor, with a second floor over one and a large warehouse on the railroad. Mr. Callison was born at Clay Court House, West Vir- ginia, in 1866, son of a farmer, and he lived in the atmos- phere of a farm until he was about twenty-seven years of age. He acquired only a common school education, and he did a great deal of hard farm work and the labor of lumber camps as a youth. When he left home he went on the road as a commercial salesman, selling flour and feed and later groceries, until he and Mr. Pierson left the road and put their capital into the business that is now the Farm- ers Hardware Company. Mr. Callison for years allowed the profits from his business to be used as investment for further expansion. While a leading merchant and absorbed in the manage- ment of his store, he is thoroughly public spirited and has performed much public service in Charleston. He served four years as a member of the council, four years as city treasurer, and was deputy sheriff for four years in Clay County. His father and other members of the family were Confederate soldiers, and his early political training was as a democrat, and in that party he has been very active as a private and also as a delegate in conventions. Mr. Callison is a Knight Templar Mason and Shriner, and is prominent in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, at Charleston, having been chairman of the official board and a member of the board of stewards. He married in Clay County, Miss Dora Stephenson, and they have a daughter, Mavis Stephenson Callison, who is now in high school. ______________________________X-Message: #5 Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1999 19:31:37 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook Subject: BIO: Col. John Baker WHITE, Kanawha County, WV The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 238 Kanwaha County COL. JOHN BAKER WHITE is a Charleston lawyer and has been in close touch with men and affairs of the state for thirty years. He gained his rank of lieutenant colonel while in the army service in France, and his military record is one of unusual service and distinction. Soon after his admission to the bar Colonel White in 1898 entered the Spanish-American war as captain of infantry in the First West Virginia Regiment. He served a year with his regiment and after his honorable dis- charge he severed his connection with the National Guard, in which he had been an officer for ten years, rising from private to major. On December 6, 1917, by special permission from the President, Colonel White entered the World war as major in the Judge Advocate General's Department, after several attempts to enter the line through the training schools, from which he was barred on account of age. He was immediately ordered to London as judge advocate of Amer- ican troops in Great Britain and Ireland. His duties kept him in London continuously until June, 1919, when the base section having been closed he was ordered to Gen- eral Headquarters in France, and thence sent to the Third Division Headquarters at Coblenz as judge advocate gen- eral of what was known as the "Marne Division." He continued his service in that capacity until September, 1919, and soon afterward was mustered out and trans- ferred to the Reserve Corps of the United States Army, where he still remains. His promotion to the rank of lieutenant colonel came in April, 1919. Colonel White has the honor of being one of the com- paratively few Americans who received from King George in behalf of the British Empire the Distinguished Service Order, and his name is carried on the British military records as Lieutenant Colonel John Baker White, D. S. O. While in London and on his subsequent travels through Europe and around the world Colonel White enjoyed nu- merous fine courtesies of a social nature at the hands of British military officers and prominent people, bestowed in the generous and whole-hearted way that is the tradi- tional manner of the English gentleman. He was a guest and was himself the host at a number of functions at which were entertained men of the most marked distinc- tion in England. At one of these, the Raleigh Tercentenary Meeting at the Mansion House (Lord Mayor's residence) in October, 1918, Colonel White delivered an especially fortunate and felicitous address on Sir Walter Raleigh, other speakers on the occasion being Viscount Bryce, Hon. A. J. Balfour, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Ed- mund Gosse, Gen. Sir Tan Hamilton, Mr. R. P. Skinner the American consul, His Grace the Archbishop of Canter- bury, and the Lord Mayor of London. After being relieved of active military duty in Europe Colonel White made a most interesting journey around the world, visiting Egypt, Palestine, India, Burmah, Malay Peninsula, Java, China, Japan and the Philippines, and returned to America in June, 1920, soon afterward resum- ing his law practice at Charleston. Colonel White was born at Romney in Hampshire County, West Virginia, August 24, 1868, son of Capt. C. S. and Bessie (Schultze) White. His mother came from Edin- burgh, Scotland. The Whites are an old and prominent Scotch family, and several of Colonel White's early an- cestors were graduates of Scotch universities. The ancestral home was at Paisley, Scotland, and one branch of the family was established in America about 1720. One of the first generations in America was represented by Dr. Robert White, son of Dr. John White of Paisley, and Dr. Robert was the father of John White, great-great-grand- father of Colonel White of Charleston. John White was a member of the first Bench of Magistrates of Winchester County, Virginia, 1754. His son, Judge Robert White, of Winchester County, was a major in the Revolutionary Army, a charter member of the Society of Cincinnati and was judge of the General Court of Virginia for about thirty years. The grandfather of John Baker White of Charles- ton was also named John Baker White, and for about forty years he filled the office and performed the duties of clerk of the Court of Hampshire County. The honors and responsibilities of this office were continued by his son, the late Capt. C. S. White, for thirty-six years. Capt. C. S. White was a gallant Confederate soldier and was twice wounded. He served first as a private and sergeant major in Stonewall Jackson's command until severely wounded and later was captain of Company C, Twenty-third Virginia Cavalry, Imboden's Brigade, Early's Division. He cut his way out at Appomatox and never surrendered. John Baker White was reared in Hampshire County, but left high school at the age of sixteen to make his own way in the world. He soon afterward came to Charles- ton, and for seven years was connected with the office of Secretary of State and was secretary to Governor Mac- Corkle during the latter's term as Governor of West Vir- ginia, from 1893 to 1897. Colonel White studied law in the office of Chilton, MacCorkle & Chilton in Charleston, was admitted to the bar in 1897, and has since practiced with honor and success except for the period he was in the army. While Charleston was under the commission form of government he served four years, from 1907 to 1911, as a member of the Board of Affairs of the city and frequently acted as mayor pro tem. Colonel White, is a member of the Order of Cincinnati, the Sons of the Revolution, the Military Order of Foreign Wars, Spanish War Veterans, American Legion, also a Knight Templar, and Shriner and a Thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason. ______________________________X-Message: #6 Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1999 19:32:11 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook Subject: BIO: The Charleston Lumber Company The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 238 Kanwaha County THE CHARLESTON LUMBER COMPANY, of which W. L. Savage is president, is one of the old established concerns in the capital city, and the business today comprises a large retail yard, handling every class of building material, and also a planing mill. The company was incorporated in 1897, with George Faloon as president, and A. Baird as secretary. This com- pany took over the Meeker & Company sawmill and planing mill, with its retail yard and some fifteen or twenty em- ployes. That business had been in existence about ten years, and was the outgrowth of a still older concern, the Deveraux Lumber Company, established about 1885. A. Baird was manager of the Charleston Lumber Company until 1906, when W. L. Savage was made president and S. C. Savage, vice president, and eventually they secured all the stock formerly owned by Baird. The company for a number of years were producers of rough lumber, operating a band sawmill with a capacity of 40,000 feet per day. When the supply of timber was decreased to a point where the sawmill could not be profitably operated that department of the business was closed out, but a planing mill has been con- tinued, the rough lumber being secured from various mills in the hardwood sections of West Virginia. There are about 100 employes in the planing mill department, and this mill produces everything used in connection with house building. The company still operates a retail lumber yard, and the business represents an investment of about $400,000. The active men in the business today are the Savage brothers. Both are natives of Jackson County, Ohio, and came to West Virginia in 1876. Their father, W. A. Sav- age, was for twenty years one of the prominent oil pro- ducers, opening up many new wells in Texas. The family have lived at Charleston since 1876. ______________________________X-Message: #7 Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1999 19:33:07 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook Subject: BIO: Buckner CLAY, Kanawha County, WV The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 238-239 Kanwaha County BUCKNER CLAY. While he has been a successful member of the Charleston bar nearly twenty years, Buckner Clay has a name that suggests Kentucky lineage and history. He is in fact one of the younger members of the distinguished Clay family of Kentucky, and the early associations of his life and the beginning of his career as a lawyer were in old Bourbon County. He was born near Paris, Bourbon County, Kentucky, De- cember 31, 1877, son of Col. Ezekiel and Mary (Woodford) Clay. He is a descendant of John Clay, who came to Amer- ica from England in the first years of the Virginia colony. In a later generation was another John Clay, whose son, Henry Clay, was the father of Charles Clay, born January 31, 1762. Charles Clay married Martha Green, and their son, Gen. Green Clay, was one of the most distinguished figures in pioneer Kentucky. He was born in Virginia, was a soldier of the Revolution, was the first deputy surveyor of Kentucky, for many years a member of the Legislatures of Virginia and Kentucky, and commanded the Kentucky militia in the War of 1812. He died in 1828. Gen. Green Clay was the great-grandfather of the Charleston attorney. He married Sallie Lewis, and their home was in Madison County, Kentucky, near Richmond. Their son, Gen. Cassius M. Clay, was a soldier, attaining the rank of major-general in the Civil war, was an editor and publisher, and served as minister to Russia by appointment from President Lincoln. Brutus J. Clay, grandfather of Buckner Clay, was born in 1808, was educated at Center College, and in 1827 set- tled in Bourbon County and for years was a leader in agriculture and the live stock industry of the Blue Grass section of Kentucky. In 1853 he was elected president of the State Agricultural Association. He entered the Thirty- eighth Congress in 1862 as representative from his kinsman Henry Clay's district. He died in 1878. He was twice married, his wives being Amelia Field and Ann M. Field, sisters. They were descendants of a distinguished family, and it is interesting to note that one of them, John Field, served as an officer in the British army in the western cam- paigns, beginning in 1754, and was a participant in the battle of Point Pleasant, West Virginia. The famous Amer- ican, Cyrus W. Field, was a member of this branch of the Field family. Col. Ezekiel F. Clay, father of Buckner Clay, was a son of Brutus J. and Amelia Clay, and was born in Bourbon County, December 1, 1840. He left college to enter the Confederate army, became a colonel of cavalry, and was a gallant officer until taken prisoner in the spring of 1864. After the war he settled on his estate, known as Runny- mede, in Bourbon County, a place he made celebrated as the home of some of the finest Kentucky thoroughbreds. Col. Ezekiel Clay married in 1866 Mary L. Woodford, a daughter of John T. and Elizabeth (Buckner) Woodford, representing another noted family of Kentuckians. The fourth of their six children is Buckner Clay. Buckner Clay graduated from Kentucky University A. B. with the class of 1897, and received his degree in law from the University of Virginia in 1900. He was admitted to the bar at Paris, Kentucky, but in June, 1903, came to Charleston, where for a number of years he has been the junior member of the law firm of Price, Smith, Spilman & Clay. *********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. 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