West Virginia Statewide Files WV-Footsteps Mailing List WV-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 99 : Issue 139 Today's Topics: #1 Bio: William S. Stenger of Wheelin ["Chris & Kerry" To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <002301bf3f28$1e56a5e0$77431104@ChrisKerry> Subject: Bio: William S. Stenger of Wheeling WV 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.66 & 67 WILLIAM S. STENGER. One of the, most successful concerns in West Virginia handling motor trucks and equipment is the Stenger Motor Company of Wheeling, a business founded and built up with steadily increasing prosperity by William S. Stenger, a young business man of great energy who has had the faculty of doing well anything he undertook. He is a member of a very well known family in the Wheeling District. He was born in Ohio County, West Virginia, May 20 1885. His grandfather, John Stenger, was born in 1837 in Pennsylvania and soon after the Civil war moved to the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia and spent the rest of his life as a farmer in Ohio and Brooke counties. He died at Beech Bottom in Brooke County in 1897. His son, John J. Stenger, was born in Belmont County, Ohio, in February 1862, spent his early life there, married in Wheeling, and for twenty-five years was employed in the sheet department of iron and steel rolling mills. Since 1907 he has been busied with his farm at Short Creek, West Virginia. He has grown a large acreage in wheat and also has a peach orchard of twenty acres. John J. Stenger is a Catholic, a democrat, and member of Carroll Council No. 504, Knights of Columbus, Wheeling. He married Jane Myles, who was born at Wheeling in August, 1862. Of their children the oldest is Catherine, wife of Bernard Baker, a stationary engineer living at Warwood, Whee! ling. The second in age is William S. John J., Jr., is associated with the Stenger Motor company. Vincent J. went overseas with the One Hundred and Eighteenth Engineers and died in England in 1918, the age of twenty-eight. Herbert M. and Earl are with their father on the farm. Raymond E. is a student in St. Charles College at Baltimore. William S. Stenger acquired his early education in the public schools of Wheeling, graduated from the Cathedral High School in 1904, and during the next five years be managed his father's retail dairy in Wheeling. From 1909 to 1916 he farmed on his own account in Ohio County, and in the latter year he opened at Wheeling a business known as the Sandow Motor Sales Company. In the summer of 1921 changed the name to the Stenger Motor Company, of which he is sole properietor. His garage, salesrooms and offices are at the corner of Eleventh and Water streets. The Stenger Motor Company is the local distributing agency for the Gramm-Bernstein Motor Trucks, Pilot cars, sells tires and standard parts for motor trucks, and Mr. Stenger has developed a business that is recognized as an indispensable service to all truck owners at Wheeling. Mr. Stenger is a republican, a member of the Catholic Church and Carroll Council No. 504, Knights of Columbus. His home is at 118 Twenty-first Street in Norwood. November 24, 1909, at Wheeling, he married Miss Sadie E. Smith, daughter of John E. and Mary Catherine (Raab) Smith, of Short Creek, where her mother lives. Her father was a farmer and died at Short Creek. Mrs. Stenger completed her education in the West Liberty Normal School. To their marriage have been born six children: Ralph, born in September, 1910; Sarah, January 13, 1912; Gertrude, in May, 1913; Ruth, in November, 1914; Blanche, in August, 1917; and Angela, in September, 1919. ______________________________X-Message: #2 Date: Sun, 5 Dec 1999 09:17:21 -0500 From: "Chris & Kerry" To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <002c01bf3f2b$722f2860$77431104@ChrisKerry> Subject: Bio: Maj. John C. Bond Pendleton County WV 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.67 MAJ. JOHN C. BOND, state auditor of West Virginia, is a comparatively young man but with a record of activities that constitute real distinction. He began earning and paying his own way when a youth. He has been a teacher, newspaper editor and manager, and prior to his election as state auditor had served as adjutant general of West Virginia and is an ex-service man and officer of the World war. Major Bond was born in Pendleton County, West Virginia, in 1880, son of William H. and Rebecca (Judy) Bond. His grandfather, Capt. John S. Bond, was a native Pennsylvania, settled in Pendleton County in the early '50s, and during the Civil war was a captain of Home Guards. John C. Bond was reared on a farm, worked in the fields, in lumber mills, as a railroad brakeman, and in the meantime was acquiring his education in public schools and finally in the Fairmont State Normal from which he graduated in 1902. After teaching he took up newspaper work, became editor and general manager of the Fairmont Times, and left that city in 1907 to come to Charleston as editor and general manager of the Charleston Daily Mail. Giving up the heavy routine of this responsibility in 1909, he became a general correspondent and political writer, and became widely known for his knowledge of state politics and political personalities. In the meantime for several years Major Bond was active in the affairs of the National Guard. His first military experience came during the Spanish-American war of 1898, when he joined the First West Virginia Volunteer Infantry. In the National Guard his reputation was based his on his expert skill with the rifle. He represented the West Virginia National Guard in various rifle tournaments at Camp Perry, Ohio, Seagirt, New Jersey, and Jacksonville, Florida. In 1914 he was appointed adjutant general of West Virginia, with the rank of brigadier general of the National Guard. As adjutant general it devolved upon him in 1916 to mobilize the National Guard for service on the Mexican border. Later, when the National Guard was mustered into the United States service, in April, 1917, he resigned and soon afterward was accepted for service in the National army with the rank of major. He was assigned to duty as assistant adjutant of the Thirty-eighth Division at Camp Shelby, Mississippi. There he was one of the three officers detailed by the War Department from the Thirty-eighth Division to attend the Army General Staff College, A. E. F., at Langres, France. He left for overseas on this assignment early in February, 1918. Major Bond graduated from this college with a diploma from the general staff recommending him for general staff duty with troops-the highest recommendation given by the general staff and most unusual honor for a soldier f! rom civil life. He graduated May 29, 1918, and from that date was in constant service on the various battle fronts until the armistice. Major Bond was with the First Division in the Montdidier-Noyon sector, and was transferred about July 1st to the Thirty-fifth Division, on duty in Alsace, near the Swiss border. Later, with the same division, he engaged in the St. Mihiel drive, which was the American army's first major offensive, and subsequently was with the Thirty-fifth Division in the Meuse-Argonne battle. Major Bond's Victory Medal has four bars, indicating that he was engaged in three major offensive operations and one defensive. His defensive work was in the Somine-Dieu in Lorraine and in the Kruth sector in Alsace. Major Bond returned home early in 1919 and was discharged at Hoboken in February. He had devoted practically five years to the National Guard or National army service. He soon afterward became a clerk in the office of the secretary of state at Charleston, and early in 1920 announced his candidacy for the republican nomination for state auditor. He won this honor at the primaries and was elected in November, 1920. Major Bond is a man of military training, has the military habit of efficiency, knows West Virginia affairs and politics, and his skillful administration of the auditor's office so far has fully justified the confidence reposed by his election. He has one of the most important of the executive offices at the capitol, the state auditor having general supervision not only of state accounts in general but such special departments as that of fire marshal, sheriff, corporations, warrant, insurance, lands. Major Bond is a Scottish and York Rite Mason and Shriner, and is a member of the Methodist Church. He married Miss Blanche Hume, and they have a son, Paul Hume Bond. ______________________________X-Message: #3 Date: Sun, 5 Dec 1999 09:23:45 EST From: DBri185263@aol.com To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <0.a80f1554.257bcf71@aol.com> Subject: Aldmishia Long Wilfong Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit "Any time I got in trouble at home, I'd run to Grandma's, no one got spanked at Grandma's," remembers Mrs. Jeri Pennington, as she tells stories of her beloved grandmother, Mrs. Aldmishia Wilfong. Now living at Nella's Rest Home in Elkins, Mrs. Wilfong celebrated her 100th birthday February 2. The log house in which the late Samuel and Margaret Pennington Long were living one hundred years ago is still standing. It is located between Harman and Dry Fork and althought unoccupied, is still reasonably sound. "Grandma was never happier than when there were lots of people around," Jeri said. "In fact, she practically raised me and two of her other grandchildre." Only one of her six children is now living, but most lived within three miles of her home and Jeri and her cousins, Ed Johnson and James Wilfong, Jr., were with their grandmother as much as possible--often serval weeks at a time. Modern luxuries were unappealing to Mrs. Wilfong and she flatly refused to allow her children to install indoor plumbing or wire here home for electricity. She resided in the log home until she became the bride of Joseph A. Wilfong who, along with farming, was a track-walker for a railroad company. Jeri Pennington was a small child at the time of her grandfather's death, November 27, 1947. She vaguely remembers sitting on his lap while he ate Ritz crackers. "He loved those thinkgs," she chuckled. He had undergone surgery and was not well. During their married lives they lived in Jennington and Lead Mine and, during the years Jeri remembers, were living at Dry Fork. Lack of modern conveniences never daunted Mrs. Wilfong's spirit. A jovial woman, she worked in the woods like a man and loved it. If she needed a new chair she cut down a tree, sawed the wood and built it herself. The seat was caned from green hickory she had cut and soaked. "She uses a piece of glass, like a broken windowpane, to dress the wood. She could make wood as smooth whit a peice of glass as most people can with sandpaper," Jeri said. Mrs. Wilfong made here own wooden spoons, new handles for her axes and hammers, and even her own rug hooks. Longevity is not unusual to Mrs. Wilfong's family. Her sister, Mrs. Mary Catherine (Cass) White lived to be nearly 101 years old. Their homes were just a half mile apart and they worked together each spring shearing their sheep. they used hand clippers, then washed the wool, carded it and spun it. They also made their own soap and candles. Mrs. Wilfong has had more than 125 direct descendants. Mrs. Russel (Cena) Johnson of Harman is the only one of her six children surviving. One son, alan, died in infancy; another, George, died of rheumatic fever at 17 years of age. Her other children who are deceased include Mrs. Liza Wilfong Cross and James and Garnett Wilfong. James Wilfong's children were: Buck, father of three; Nancy, mother of four, grandmother of three; Toots, mother of three; Lena, mother of three; Henry; Carl, father of two; Clarence, father of three; Doris, mother of four; and Margaret. Garnett's children include: Bus, father of four, now residing in California; Pat, mother is six, of Delaware; Walt, father of four, Uniontown, Pennsylvania; Jeri, mother of two, Lansville; Dick, Falls Church, Virginia; Shirley, Ohio; Art, deceased; Violet Smith of Ellamore, mother of one; Elaine Wilfong of Harman. Liza Wilfong Cross was the mother of nine children, two of whom are deceased. The others are Ronald, father of fice; James, father of three; Delmar, father of one; Eve, mother of three; Twila, mother of two; Ken, father of two; and Bernard. Mrs. Cena Wilfong Johnson who nowlives in Harman is the mother of: Ed, father on one, Vail, mother of four;Lil, mother of one and grandmother of eight; Martha, mother of eight, grandmother of four; William, father of three; David, father of eight; two of Cena's children are deceased. Although Mrs. Wilfong has difficulty recognizing people now, and her memory is not so clear, it has not been many years since she told her granddaughter about her schooling. During the six months when school was in session the teacher lived with the families of their pupils. She often spoke of one, David Ball. Mrs. Wilfong was past 90 when it was necessay for her to move into the home of her daughter-in-law, Mrs. James (Rosa) Wilfong. At 92 she was still boiling her own maple sugar. At 97 she was still insisting she would like to go to here own home and p lant a garden have her own cow. She lived with her daughter-in-law about three years before it was necessary to place here in the rest home. Until about a year ago she could walk and is till out of bed in a wheelchair every day. The nurses say she is in very good health and describe her as a pleasant woman. Having lived 100 years probably does not impress Aldmishia Long Wilfong. Time has never been of much importance to her. Never in her life has she owned a clock.---March 21, 1973, bye Mariwyn McClain Smith >From the book: ...and live forever A Compilation of Senior Citizens Articles from the Parsons Advocate pages 420-422 ______________________________X-Message: #4 Date: Sun, 5 Dec 1999 09:25:00 EST From: DBri185263@aol.com To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <0.8bb764d5.257bcfbc@aol.com> Subject: William Harvey Pennington Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit When the responsibilites of the man of the house fall on the shoulders of a nine-year-old boy, marriage and a family may not seem so appealing when he becomes a young man. William H. Pennington, 81 years old, of Parsons was nearly fifty years old before he settled down. Two sons and four daughters were born to the late George Washington ("Wash") and Mary White Pennington, but William and three of his sisters were the only living children at the time of their father's accident in 1900. He was employed at a lumber company in Hulings, the community now known as Hambleton. Apparently it was the fire reported in the September 6, 1900, issue of The Parsonss Advocate: "The Otter Creek Boom and Lumber Company's big mill at Hambleton and ten million feet of lumber in their yards were destroyed by fire last Saturday, September 1. A full force was not working, only the planers were running and one boiler fired." According to Homer Fansler's History of Tucker County, the mill was "...the largest and finest of its kind in West Virginia. Mr. Pennington was caught hen a brick wall fell on him. He was bedfast for a long period of time and was never able to walk again without the help of a crutch or cane. With the help of the neighbors in the village of Bretz, young Bill was able to continue school most of the time, but after he returned home it was his job to tend the horses, cows and hogs and chop the wood for the "Indianola wood stove" his mother kept in the kitchen. "I despised division," he admitted, but otherwise enjoyed going to school and is grateful to the neighbors who cut the lumber and hauled it to the house for him. He finished about 8 years of school at Bretz. Two of the Pennington children, George and Cleana, died in infance. Other sisters included Mrs. Carrie Wilson of Fork Mountain, near Parsons; Mrs. Flossie McDaniel of Clarksburg; and Miss Stella Pennington, deceased. Training in the army was uncomplicated in 1917. It took only three weeks of preparation at Fort Lee, Virginia, to teach men how to fight in France. The soldiers were taken from Fort Lee, down the James River to Newport News, Virginia, where they boarded a boat built in Italy to transport animals. Mr. Pennington is of the opinion that the meat they served "slumgullion," may also have been originally for those same animals! The sixteen-day journey was nearly complete when, on a beautiful Sunday morning as the soldiers where getting ready for Sunday school. Mr. Pennington strolled out onto the deck. He was standing with one hand resting on a gun when suddenly a scope appeard a few inches out of the water, shortly ahead of their boat. The force of the swinging gun, which sent three-inch bullets to clip off the scope, sent Mr. Pennington flying along the deck floor. "We looked like a moving city," he said as he described teh eighteen passenger boats, sixteen submarines which circled them constantly, and the two battleships and one special boat hired to transport Red Cross nurses. The fleet of boats stopped for about an hour, until the water turned green with oil, before resuming their journey into the Biscay Bay. Mr. Pennington spent eighteen months in France with the 42nd Division. Although he saw action, he was never involved in hand-to-hand combat. He was stationed for a time near Metz, Germany, where he met a young girl in a restaurant who latermarried an American and upon arriving at a relative's home, recognized Mr. Pennington's photo hanging on the wall. One photo he has shows the men on parade shortly after the armistice was instituted under the capable hands of General John Joseph Pershing. "Ever see him? I'll say! Those little black beady eyes could look right through you!" After returning to his home in Bretz, Mr. Pennington went to work making mortar for Bil Swartz. After two years he tld Mr. Swartz he was ready to get "on the wall" and was made an apprentice until he joined a bricklayer's union. Hardly a street in Parsons or Elkins does not have a home or business office which Mr. Pennington helped build. He served as foreman during the building of Parson High School and helped build the IOOF Hall; in Elkins he worked on the Montgomery Ward and A&P Store and the class buildings at Davis and Elkins College. "I helped build practically all of Elkins!' he said proudly. The largest building he ever worked on was the Chrysler Building in New York City. He spent the summers of 1927 and 1928 there while the "straw bosses yelled at us from morning to night." He'd forgotten to ask what his salary woud be and when he opened his first pay envelope and discovered $88.00 for the 42 hour week, he decided he could take all the yelling the straw bosses could dish out. The second summer he was joined in New York City by his teacher, Bill Swartz, whose fortune didn'tcome as easily as Mr. Pennington's. As he and his fellow workers on the Coney Island job were waiting to be paid, armed thugs walked off with the envelopes of cash. Mr. Pennington remained in the city until the Chrysler Building was "topped out." He liked working there, it was a haven of steel skeltons up and down both sides of the streets waiting to be bricked, but it was less expensive to live at home and he did not return there the next summer. He was living in the city at tiem Charles A. Lindbergh left there, May 20, 1927, accomplishing the first transatlantic nonstop flightin history from New York to Paris. The parade, on Lindbergh's return, was a disappointment to Mr. Pennington as the crowds were so dense it was impossible to get even a glimpse of the famous airman. Mr. Pennington has flown in airplanes and helicopters serveral times while working for Richard (Dick) Benson in Elkins. He isn't overly enthusiastic about them. William H. Pennington and Miss Lillian Currence were married in Oakland, Maryland, in 1948. They made their home in the house where she was born on Central Avenue in Parsons. Mrs. Pennington died in December of 1967. Although they never had any children of their own, Mr. and Mrs. Pennington helped raise their niece, Lewana Logan. She was brought to their home as a two-week-old infant and remained with them until she had completed the second grade. Now Mrs. Lewana Bohon, she is a nurse and resides in Baltimore. Mr. Pennington admits he may be prejudiced, but says that Lewana's two daughters, Suzi and Stephanie, are "Two of the cutest girls I've ever seen." A recent eighteen-day stay in the hospital put an end to Mr. Pennington's annual trips into the woods. He was an avid hunter for many years. About ten years ago he leased a camp at Canaan Valley where he and several of his friends would stay during hunting season. His doctor advised him to stay out of the woods, and although the thought of joining his nephew was tempting, he stayed at home. The nephew returned to Clarksburg without a deer and Mr. Pennington told me confidently that if he'd been up on Backbone Mountain with him they would have seen one! It is difficult to imagine a man living alone in the neat home on Central Avenue. Not only are the lawn and flower bed tidy and clean, the inside too is well cared for. When I asked if he did all his own housework, he chuckled and said he just waits until he's used up all the dishes then calls in someone to clean. Mr. Pennington is downtown often, visiting friends. He enjoys reading and television and each Thursday evening attends meetings of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.---December 7, 1972, by Mariwyn McClain Smith >From the book: ...and live forever A Compilation fo Senior Citizens Articles by Mariwyn McClain Smith pages 384-388 ______________________________X-Message: #5 Date: Sun, 5 Dec 1999 09:26:10 EST From: DBri185263@aol.com To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <0.858d3754.257bd002@aol.com> Subject: Madison B. Pennington Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Senior Citzen Madison B. Pennington, 82 years old, of Davis, is able to recall the terms of thirteen United States presidents beginning with William McKinley who inauguated in 1897 when Pennington was just 8 years old. A liftetme residents of Tucker and neighboring counties, he was born August 13, 1888, to Martin and Louise Flanagan Pennington at Stringtown. His mother died when he was an infant and he was raised by his grandmother until his father remarried. His father's second wife was the former Amelia Wolford of Dry Fork. There were six children born to the second marriage and Mr. Pennington's half brothers and half sister are: Mrs. Bill (Margie) Kuhlman, of Hyattsville, Maryland; Mrs. Gordon (Lectie) Bonner, of Eglon; Alta Cooper, who is deceased; Asa Pennington, of Canaan Valley; Claude and William Pennington, both of Eglon. Married before his nineteenth birthday, his bride, the former Mammie Ethel Elza, was only fifteen. They were married 63 years and were the parents of five children: Mrs. Pennington died March 16, 1970, the last member of her immediate family. The Pennington's children are: Mrs John (Lois) Pennington and Mrs. Howard (Annabelle) Dunmire, both of Hambleton, Mrs. Virla Paugh, of Davis and Clarence Pennington, of Cleveland, Ohio. One daughter, Evelyn Mae, died in infancy. There are seventeen grandchildren and twenty-two great grandchildren. Having worked in coal mines, pulp mills and driving cattle, he worked in Benbush in 1922. The census shows the population of that town to have been 500 just two years prior to that time, and he recalls when the coal cars were hauled by mules. He also remembers when he town of Laurel Hill was built. He tells of working in the pulp mill in Davis and remebers when apples were brought into the mill to sell to the workers. According to Homer Floyd Fansler's History of Tucker County: "The Manufacture of paper was a major industry in Tucker County for 32 years. During 19 of those years two pulp mills, employing approximately 800 men, were in operation. The mill at Davis, owned by the West Virginia Pulp & Lumber Company, operated from 1900 to 1927, when it went out of business and was dismantled and sold." According to Mr. Pennington, Lean Shaffer had a slaughterhouse between Davis and Thomas and he and Jake Shaffer drove cattle to be butchered. Although not as wellas he was some time ago, Mr. Pennington is able to live alone and enjoys puting out a garden and tending to his flowers. Each month when his son and daughter-in-law visit from Cleveland he joins them in a fishing trip. He finds pleasure in reading his Bible, seeing church services on television, and attends church when he is able. He particularly enjoys gospel singing.----June 24, 1971, by Mrs. Clarence (Esta) Pennington. >From the book: ...and live forever A compilation of Senior Citizens articles from the Parsons Advocate by Mariwyn McClain Smith Pages 181-182 ______________________________X-Message: #6 Date: Sun, 5 Dec 1999 09:27:00 EST From: DBri185263@aol.com To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <0.c5c00356.257bd034@aol.com> Subject: William Asby Pennington Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit William Asby and Florence Jane Pennington celebrated their 69th wedding anniversary June 26. They were married in Hambleton in 1901. On their 65th wedding anniversary their picture was put in the West Virginia Hillbilly by their niece, Maxine Goff Morgan of Arlington, Virginia. She said, "Uncle Will's most recent occupation was farming: but in his earlier years he worked in the tanning and lumber businesses." Mrs. Pennington was born April 30, 1884 in Clover. Her Marents wer John and Cecelia Ellen Walton Phillips. Her nine brothers and sisters were: Alby Phillips, Rawlings, Maryland; Mrs. Beatrice Goff, Arlington, Virginia; Mrs. Audra Barr, Defiance, Ohio; and the six deceased include, Howard Clyde who died as a child; Whitman Phillips, Mrs. Dora Johnson, Mrs. Ethel Horton, Mrs. Laura Mortimer, and Mrs. Rita Garnett. William A. Pennington, 91 years old, was born August 31, 1879, in Parsons. His parents were Vincent E. and Emeranda R. Johnson Pennington. He had eight brothers and sisters, all of whom are deceased: John Pennington, Robert Pennington, Mrs. Margaret Elbon, Mrs. Mary Summerfield, Clara Pennington, Mrs. Martha Fridley, Mrs. Eliza Goodwin, and Ellen Pennington. They had two children, Cecil Leon Pennington, who died in 1956, and Mrs. Claude Earl (Irma Marie) Brant, who lives in Ridegeley. They have nine grandchildren and nineteen great-grandchildren. Mrs. Pennington used to keep busy crocheting and making quilts, but now she can only do a little gardening. She is completely deaf, and her husband is blind. When her hearing aid is not working properly, they lead a life on uncommunicable refrain----August 13, 1970, by Valerie Cuonzo >From the book: ...and live forever A compilation of Senior Citizens Articles from the Parsons Advocate by Mariwyn McClain Smith pages 33-34