West Virginia Statewide Files WV-Footsteps Mailing List WV-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 99 : Issue 136 Today's Topics: #1 Meredith J. Simms Fayette County W ["Chris & Kerry" To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <002401bf3e59$a6464de0$32431104@ChrisKerry> Subject: Meredith J. Simms Fayette County West Virginia Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc. Chicago and New York, Volume II pg.62 Meredith J. Simms, now a prominent citizen of Charleston, achieved his conspicuous place in business and public affairs in Fayette County, West Virginia, where for thirty-five years he was active as a merchant, banker and was also president of the County Court. The Simms family is an old one in America, of an English ancestry running back for four or five centuries. The grandfather of Judge Simms was P. William Simms, who was born on the Gauley River in West Virginia, February 2, 1804, was a farmer and blacksmith by occupation, and died in 1895. He married Elizabeth Dorsey, a native of Greenbrier County. One of their eight children was Franklin Pilcher Simms, who was born on the Gauley River in 1831, and for many years owned and operated a large farm in Nicholas County. He married Eliza Simms, who died in 1910. Meredith J. Simms, one of the thirteen children of his parents, was born on a farm in Nicholas County, April 9, 1862. After 1873 the family moved to Fayette County, where he finished his public school education, and he began his business career in 1886 at Montgomery as bookkeeper for the Straugham Coal Company. He resigned in 1889 to become postmaster through appointment of President Harrison, and after retiring from that office four years later he engaged in merchandising and in the wholesale bottling business, and gradually his interests took on a wide scope, involving affairs of great financial prominence in that section of the state. He was formerly president of the Montgomery & Cannelton Bridge Company, and was also president of the Montgomery National Bank. He relinquished these various interests when he moved to Charleston. Judge Simms was a delegate to the National Republican Convention in 1896 when William McKinley was nominated, and to the convention of 1912 when William H. Taft was nominated. He was for four successive terms, twenty-four years, a member of the County Court of Fayette County, and was president or judge of the court about twenty years. On account of this judicial service he is always known as Judge Simms. He is a member of the Elks Order. At St. Albans, West Virginia, January 3, 1887, he married Alwilda Ramson, daughter of William and Mary (DeFore) Ramson. She was born in Jackson County, West Virginia, December 25, 1860, and is likewise descended from a long line of ancestry reaching back to pre-Colonial days. Mary DeFore was of Huguenots descent, the founders of the family in America having been among that colony of Huguenots who came from France to Charleston, South Carolina, in 1689. The DeFore family later located in Appomattox County, Virginia. Five children were born to Judge and Mrs. Simms, as follows: Forest DeFore, born December 29, 1887, died February 16, 1914. Ira, born December 22, 1889, married Ruth Shrewsbury, of Charleston, and has a son, Meredith, now five years of age. Ira served with the American army during the Mexican border troubles and following this volunteered for service in the war with Germany, being assigned to the aviation service. Mary Mabel, born January 28, 1892 died September 20, 1894. Maude was born May 13, 1895. Agnes Gene, born June 28, 1897, is now the widow of Dr. Ira M. Derr, whom she married June 3, 1918. Doctor Derr enlisted in the service of his Country, was commissioned a first Lieutenant, and assigned to duty at Spartansburg, South Carolina, where he died in the service, November 6, 1918. Judge Simms with his family removed to Charleston in 1920 to make his permanent home. His residence occupies a beautiful and spacious site on Columbia Boulevard, at the corner of Vine Street, on the banks of the Kanawha River and overlooking the beautiful valley. It is one of the handsomest homes in the city, with spacious lawns and grounds. In conclusion the writer cannot fail to draw some significance from the immediate and generous welcome given to Judge Simms and family on their removal to Charleston. This has been in the nature of a tribute to his high standing as a successful man of affairs. Though in the city less than two years, he has served as a member of the Charleston City Council, is active vice president of the West Side Business Men's Club, is a member of the Charleston Chamber of Commerce and the Real Estate Board. While he does not consider himself an active business man, he still has large interests in real estate and to some extent in oil development. ______________________________X-Message: #2 Date: Sat, 4 Dec 1999 09:08:49 -0500 From: "Chris & Kerry" To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <000801bf3e61$171ba220$69421104@ChrisKerry> Subject: Col. William Leckie Welch County, West Virginia Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc. Chicago and New York, Volume II pg.62 & 63 COL. WILLIAM LECKIE was one of the big, strong, kindly and generous men of the West Virginia coal fields. A native of Scotland, son of a Scotch miner, he came to the United States when a young man, finished his education in American schools and by private study, worked in and around mines for a number of years, and rose from various positions of responsibility to be a leading mine operator. He developed some of the best coal openings in Southern West Virginia. William Leckie was born in Ayreshire, Scotland, on October 4, 1857, a son of Samuel and Katherine McClellan Leckie. He was the oldest of fourteen children. As a boy he worked on a farm and in the coal mines of Scotland. At the age of twenty-one he came to America and located in Shenandoah, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. His father and mother brothers and sisters followed about six months later. William Leckie entered the mines as repairman, and by industry and economy he earned the money to enter Dickenson Seminary at Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where he was a student for two and a half years. In 1882 he was appointed fire-boss for the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron company; a year later he was with the Buck Mountain Coal Company as inside foreman; and as ambition and faithfulness won for him recognition and rapid advancement he became, successively, district superintendent for the Lehigh & Wilkes-Barre Coal Company; general superintendent of the Lehigh Valley Coal, York! Farm & Blackwood Collieries; general superintendent of the Webster Coal & Coke Company; and, finally, general manager of the Loyal Hanna Coal & Coke Company. On November 26, 1881, William Leckie married Annie M. Kolb, daughter of the Rev. F. H. Kolb, a Presbyterian minister, of Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. An interested sharer in his work and witness of his experiences was Mrs. Leckie, and the inspiration of his ambitions and best endeavors. She made it a rule always to be present at each opening, when the first car of coal was taken out. In 1901 William Leckie came to the Pocahontas Coal Fields as superintendent of the Pocahontas Collieries Company, the pioneer mines of this famous field. He developed and built up these mines, which were later bought by the Pocahontas Consolidated Collieries Company. He remained in this position until 1907, when he went into business for himself and established the following operating companies, of which he was president and general manager: The West Virginia Pocahontas Coal Company, with mines at Leckie, West Virginia and general offices in New York, the Lathrop Coal Company and Panther Coal Company, mines at Panther, West Virginia, the Leckie Collieries Company, mines at Aflex, Kentucky, and Leckie Fire Creek Coal Company and Douglas Coal Company, with, mines at Fireco, West Virginia, the general office of the last four being at Welch, West Virginia, where Mr. Leckie lived for many years. He was also the chief incorporator and president of several land-holding companies, the! Pond Creek Coal & Land Company, the Leckie-Ramsay Coal Company, the Cub Creek Coal Company, and the Leckie Smokeless Coal Company, the latter company owning a large acreage of undeveloped coal lands in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. The Leckie Coal Company, a selling agency, with offices at Norfolk, Virginia, and Columbus, Ohio, handles the output of the operating companies. Mr. Leckie was president of the First National Bank of Anawalt, West Virginia, of the Bluefield National Bank at Bluefield, and a director in the First National Bank of Welch. Colonel Leckie was a life-long Presbyterian, and was an elder in the church at Welch. He was a member of all the Masonic orders, of the Bluefield Lodge of Elks, also of the Rotary Club, the Chamber of Commerce and the Country Club of Bluefield. Only a few short weeks before his death Colonel and Mrs. Leckie moved to their new home on Oakhurst Avenue in Bluefield, and it was there that he died on November 16, 1920. Five of a family of six children survive him: Nellie, wife of Dr. S. J. Kell, of Bluefield; Andrew F., of Welch; and William S., of Williamson, who now have the management, of the coal properties; Douglas E., who is in the real estate business in Bluefield; and Miriam, who is the wife of Dr. M. B. Moore, of Huntington. Colonel Leckie never forgot his own early struggles as a miner. He understood the miner's viewpoint, and he made the living and social conditions of his camps one of his first considerations in building up an operation. Much of his success is attributed to his capacity for leadership of the men in his employ. He was a disciplinarian, but not a whip-cracking task-master; he was easy to approach and his sense of justice and generosity won the loyal friendship of his employes and kept his operations free from labor troubles. He was a broad-gauged, whole-souled man and a good citizen, thoroughly imbued with the highest spirit of Americanism. ______________________________X-Message: #3 Date: Sat, 4 Dec 1999 09:34:36 -0500 From: "Chris & Kerry" To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <001101bf3e64$b104d980$69421104@ChrisKerry> Subject: Marion Tivis Ball of Williamson, Mingo County, West Virginia Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc. Chicago and New York, Volume II pg.63 Marion Tivis Ball. An exemplification of self-made manhood is found in the career and person of Marion T. Ball, of Williamson, Mingo County. A man of prominence and influence in his community, he has risen solely through the medium of his own efforts and well-applied industry, for he entered upon his career with nothing but an indifferent education to aid him and was forced to depend wholly upon his own resources. Mr. Ball was born February 21, 1861, in Pike County, Kentucky, a son of Jesse and Jane (Keith). Ball, natives of Virginia. The Ball family is one that dates its ancestry back to early Colonial days in Virginia, while the Keiths originated in Ireland. Jesse Ball was a minister of the Methodist Episcopal faith, which he followed in Virginia. His nine children were reared in Kentucky. The youngest child in a large family, with the only means of support the meager and uncertain salary of a country preacher, Marion Tivis Ball had few of the pleasures and advantages that are considered youth's inalienable right in these days. In fact he considered himself lucky to be able to get an education in the country school, which he finished when he was fourteen years of age, with the exception of some irregular attendance during the winter months on several later occasion. When he was fourteen he began to add to the family income by working in a sawmill, and during the six years that he was thus engaged mastered the business in numerous of its particulars. He then took up carpentry as a vocation, and this occupation he followed with success for some twenty years. Next, he accepted a position with the Hurst Hardware Company of Williamson, and while associated with Mr. Hurst in the furniture division of the store, became familiar with the undertaking business. In 1913 Mr! . Ball purchased the undertaking department of Mr. Hurst's establishment, and since then has devoted his time to this vocation. Mr. Ball has the tact and diplomacy necessary for his chosen line of work, into which he brings the latest methods for the reverent care of the dead. In 1881, while a resident of Pike County, Kentucky, Mr. Ball was united in marriage with Dorcas Casebolt, a daughter of William and Lottie Casebolt, natives of Kentucky, and to this union there have been born five children: Robert Edgar, associated with his father in the undertaking business at Williamson, who married Willa Lowther; Virginia Stella, who married Lee Fentor Morris, of Williamson, and has one child, Nancy Lou, born in 1921; Lewellyn Ferne, who married Guy Hobson Hughes of Williamson; Goebel Keith and Marion Tabor. The family belongs to the Presbyterian Church except Mr. Ball, who is an adherent of the Methodist Episcopal faith. He belongs to the Kiwanis Club, and as a Mason holds membership in the Blue Lodge and Chapter at Williamson, the Knights Templar at Huntington, the Scottish Rite at Wheeling and is a member of Beni-Kedem Temple, A.A.O.N.M.S. of Charleston, West Virginia. His support is always given to worthy civic movements, and he can be counted upon to c! ontribute to those measures which have for their object the raising of standards of morality and citizenship. ______________________________X-Message: #4 Date: Sat, 4 Dec 1999 09:45:17 -0500 From: "Chris & Kerry" To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <003001bf3e66$2f1a43e0$69421104@ChrisKerry> Subject: Correction - Col. William Leckie of Welch, McDowell County, West Virginia Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc. Chicago and New York, Volume II pg.62 & 63 COL. WILLIAM LECKIE was one of the big, strong, kindly and generous men of the West Virginia coal fields. A native of Scotland, son of a Scotch miner, he came to the United States when a young man, finished his education in American schools and by private study, worked in and around mines for a number of years, and rose from various positions of responsibility to be a leading mine operator. He developed some of the best coal openings in Southern West Virginia. William Leckie was born in Ayreshire, Scotland, on October 4, 1857, a son of Samuel and Katherine McClellan Leckie. He was the oldest of fourteen children. As a boy he worked on a farm and in the coal mines of Scotland. At the age of twenty-one he came to America and located in Shenandoah, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. His father and mother brothers and sisters followed about six months later. William Leckie entered the mines as repairman, and by industry and economy he earned the money to enter Dickenson Seminary at Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where he was a student for two and a half years. In 1882 he was appointed fire-boss for the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron company; a year later he was with the Buck Mountain Coal Company as inside foreman; and as ambition and faithfulness won for him recognition and rapid advancement he became, successively, district superintendent for the Lehigh & Wilkes-Barre Coal Company; general superintendent of the Lehigh Valley Coal, York! Farm & Blackwood Collieries; general superintendent of the Webster Coal & Coke Company; and, finally, general manager of the Loyal Hanna Coal & Coke Company. On November 26, 1881, William Leckie married Annie M. Kolb, daughter of the Rev. F. H. Kolb, a Presbyterian minister, of Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. An interested sharer in his work and witness of his experiences was Mrs. Leckie, and the inspiration of his ambitions and best endeavors. She made it a rule always to be present at each opening, when the first car of coal was taken out. In 1901 William Leckie came to the Pocahontas Coal Fields as superintendent of the Pocahontas Collieries Company, the pioneer mines of this famous field. He developed and built up these mines, which were later bought by the Pocahontas Consolidated Collieries Company. He remained in this position until 1907, when he went into business for himself and established the following operating companies, of which he was president and general manager: The West Virginia Pocahontas Coal Company, with mines at Leckie, West Virginia and general offices in New York, the Lathrop Coal Company and Panther Coal Company, mines at Panther, West Virginia, the Leckie Collieries Company, mines at Aflex, Kentucky, and Leckie Fire Creek Coal Company and Douglas Coal Company, with, mines at Fireco, West Virginia, the general office of the last four being at Welch, West Virginia, where Mr. Leckie lived for many years. He was also the chief incorporator and president of several land-holding companies, the! Pond Creek Coal & Land Company, the Leckie-Ramsay Coal Company, the Cub Creek Coal Company, and the Leckie Smokeless Coal Company, the latter company owning a large acreage of undeveloped coal lands in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. The Leckie Coal Company, a selling agency, with offices at Norfolk, Virginia, and Columbus, Ohio, handles the output of the operating companies. Mr. Leckie was president of the First National Bank of Anawalt, West Virginia, of the Bluefield National Bank at Bluefield, and a director in the First National Bank of Welch. Colonel Leckie was a life-long Presbyterian, and was an elder in the church at Welch. He was a member of all the Masonic orders, of the Bluefield Lodge of Elks, also of the Rotary Club, the Chamber of Commerce and the Country Club of Bluefield. Only a few short weeks before his death Colonel and Mrs. Leckie moved to their new home on Oakhurst Avenue in Bluefield, and it was there that he died on November 16, 1920. Five of a family of six children survive him: Nellie, wife of Dr. S. J. Kell, of Bluefield; Andrew F., of Welch; and William S., of Williamson, who now have the management, of the coal properties; Douglas E., who is in the real estate business in Bluefield; and Miriam, who is the wife of Dr. M. B. Moore, of Huntington. Colonel Leckie never forgot his own early struggles as a miner. He understood the miner's viewpoint, and he made the living and social conditions of his camps one of his first considerations in building up an operation. Much of his success is attributed to his capacity for leadership of the men in his employ. He was a disciplinarian, but not a whip-cracking task-master; he was easy to approach and his sense of justice and generosity won the loyal friendship of his employes and kept his operations free from labor troubles. He was a broad-gauged, whole-souled man and a good citizen, thoroughly imbued with the highest spirit of Americanism. ______________________________X-Message: #5 Date: Sat, 4 Dec 1999 09:51:19 EST From: PJSTON@aol.com To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <0.efaae4f8.257a8467@aol.com> Subject: BIO: ASHCRAFT, William Harrison-Monongalia Co., WV Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume II pg 92+93 William Harrison Ashcraft, cashier of the Commercial Bank of Morgantown, at the judicial center of Monongalia County, was born in this county, on a farm near Halleck in Clinton District, October 12, 1879, and is a representative of two of the old and honored families of this section of West Virginia. His paternal grandfather, Harrison Ashcraft, a native of Wales, came with his parents to the United States, and eventually established his home in Marion County, West Virginia. Rollo Trickett, the maternal grandfather, is supposed to have been born in America, and was of English parentage. He became a farmer in Preston County, West Virginia, which was at the time still a part of Virginia, and at the time of the Civil war he removed to Monongalia County, where he passed the rest of his life. Dextrous T. Ashcraft, father of William H. of this review was born in Marion County, this state, December 14, 1852 and in his youth he learned the carpenter's trade, to which he continued to give his attention in Marion County until his marriage. He then engaged in farm enterprise in Monongalia County, where he has continued as a prominent and substantial representative of farm industry. His wife, Amanda, was born in Preston County, January 14, 1853, a daughter of Rollo Trickett, mentioned in the preceding paragraph. William H. Ashcraft so fully profited by the advantage of the public schools of his native county that he proved himself eligible for pedagogic service. After five years of successful work as a teacher he entered the University of West Virginia, but before completing the full course in the same he withdrew to enter business. September 1, 1901, Mr. Ashcraft became bookkeeper in the Second National Bank of Morgantown, in which he was promoted to teller in 1903 and assistant cashier in 1906. He continued his connection with this institution until September 15, 1920, when he resigned to accept his present post, that of cashier of the Commercial Bank, which was then in process of organization. He had active charge of the opening of the new bank March 26, 1921, this being the youngest of the financial institutions of the county but its solidity and representative personnel of its executives and stockholders give it secure place in popular confidence and support. Mr. Ashcraft is a member of the Morgantown Chamber of Commerce, and he and his wife are zealous members of the First Baptist Church, of which he was treasurer for more than twenty years. June 15, 1906, recorded the marriage of Mr. Ashcraft with Miss Alice Maude Gilmore, daughter of Col. T.J. and Sarah (Epper) Gilmore. Colonel Gilmore came to Morgantown from Albemarle, Virginia, and became a prominent railroad contractor. ______________________________X-Message: #6 Date: Sat, 4 Dec 1999 10:05:22 -0500 From: "Chris & Kerry" To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <006701bf3e69$0c0b0440$69421104@ChrisKerry> Subject: Edward K. Mahan of Huntington, Cabell County, West Virginia Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc. Chicago and New York, Volume II pg.63 & 64 EDWARD K. MAHAN. West Virginia is still one of the more important states of the Union in the production of hardwood, and one of the largest organizations in the state for the manufacture and handling of such resources is the Peytona Lumber Company, of which Edward K. Mahan, of Huntington, is president. Mr. Mahan's great-great-grandfather came from the North of Ireland to America in Colonial times and founded the family in Virginia. The grandfather of the Huntington lumberman was Nelson Mahan, who was born in Virginia in 1806, lived for a number of years in Monroe County, West Virginia, in 1842 moved to Kanawha County, and died at Charleston in 1888. His principal business was contracting for public works, and among others he constructed the locks and dams on the Coal River. His wife was Sarah Legg, who also died at Charleston. John W. Mahan, father of Edward K., was born in Monroe County, March 24, 1841. He was a lumber manufacturer with mills at Catlettsburg, Kentucky, and in Fayette County, West Virginia, where a village grew up around his mills named in his honor, Mahan. From 1891 until his death his home was at Huntington in Cabell County, but he died in a hospital at Charleston August 5, 1905. He had a record of a Confederate soldier of the Civil war, serving throughout that conflict with the border rangers under General Jenkins and General McCauslands. John W. Mahan married Romaine Myers, who was born at Gallipolis, Ohio, in 1850 and died at Washington, D. C., June 9, 1916. They were the parents of five children: Romaine, wife of Dr. William E. Philes, a physician and surgeon at Washington, D. C.; Ed ward K.; Mabel F., living at Washington, D. C., widow of George T. Paige, a resident of Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Jane, wife of an attorney, Marion Eustace, at Caldwell, Idaho; and Clara, wife of Arthur B. York, an attorney at Staunton, Virginia. Edward K. Mahan was born at Madison in Boone County, West Virginia, August 16, 1878. In 1904 he removed to Mansfield, Ohio, and was in the wholesale lumber business. In 1906 he assisted in organizing the Peytona Lumber Company, becoming its secretary, and since 1915 has been its president. This company, with business offices in the Robson-Pritchard Building at Huntington, has mills and other facilities for the manufacture and, wholesale handling of hardwood lumber and do an immense business in this line. Mr. Mahan is also a stockholder and director in the Huntington Banking and Trust Company, and is president of the Elk Creek Lumber Company. His home is at 2678 Third Avenue in Huntington. In March, 1901, at Catlettsburg, Kentucky, Mr. Mahan married Miss Victoria Williamson, daughter of Benjamin and Pauline (Taylor) Williamson. Mr. and Mrs. Mahan have one child, Virginia, born May 9, 1902. ______________________________X-Message: #7 Date: Sat, 4 Dec 1999 10:02:30 EST From: PJSTON@aol.com To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <0.b546c9b8.257a8706@aol.com> Subject: BIO: ALLEN, Sylvester P., M.D.-Webster Co., WV Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume II pg 92 Sylvester P. ALLEN, M.D., has the sterling personal characteristics, the professional ability and the substantial practice that mark him distinctly as one of the representative physicians and surgeons of Webster County, where he maintains his home and professional headquarters at Webster Springs, the county seat. Doctor Allen was born in Doddridge County, this state, on the 20th of April, 1872, and is a son of Stephen and Mary (Frum) Allen, both representatives of honored pioneer families of that part of Virginia which now constitutes the State of West Virginia. Stephen Allen was born in Doddridge County, January 24, 1836, and his wife was born in Taylor County, March 16, 1838. The parents were reared under the conditions that marked the pioneer period in the history of what is now West Virginia, their marriage was solemnized in Taylor County, and thereafter they established their home on a farm in Doddridge County. In 1874 removal was made to Harrison County, and in 1880 the family home was established in Braxton County, whence removal later was made to Webster County, where the father continued his association with farm industry until the time of his death. He was a republican in politics, and both he and his wife were earnest members of the Baptist Church. Of their eight children four are living (1922); Rebecca is the wife of Daman Ash; Samantha F. is the wife of James W. McCray; Sylvester P., of this sketch, is the next younger; and S.M.P. is the wife of David F. Heafner. Sylvester P. Allen was reared to the invigorating discipline of the farm, attended the local schools in the different counties in which the family resided during the period of his boyhood and youth, and in the furtherance of his higher education he entered the Central Normal College of Kentucky, in which excellent institution he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Science. He depended entirely upon his own resources in defraying his expenses at this college and also at the Kentucky School of Medicine at Louisville, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1901 and with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. On the 11th of July, 1901, Doctor Allen opened an office at Webster Springs, and here he has since continued in the successful general practice of his profession, in which he has shown both marked ability and a fine sense of professional and personal stewardship. In his various activities of study and research that have kept him in touch with advances made in medicine and surgery he has taken an effective post-graduate course in the medical department of the University of Louisville. He is a member of the Webster County Medical Society and the West Virginia State Medical Society. The doctor is a stalwart republican, and in Webster County, which is strongly democratic, he was elected county clerk by a majority of 166 votes, he having retained this office six years and having given a most effective administration. In the time-honored Masonic fraternity Doctor Allen is affiliated with and is a past master of Addison Lodge No. 116, A. F. and A. M. at Addison, Webster County' Sutton Chapter No. 29, R. A. M., at Sutton Commandery No. 16, Knights Templars, besides which he is a Noble of Beni-Kedem Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Charleston and the Scottish Rite Consistory at Wheeling. Both he and his wife are active members of the Baptist Church in their home village. In 1904 was solemnized the marriage of Doctor Allen and Miss Lenora Miller, who had attended both the State Normal School at Fairmont and the University of West Virginia and who had been a successful and popular teacher prior to her marriage. The only child of Doctor and Mrs. Allen died in infancy.