West Virginia Statewide Files WV-Footsteps Mailing List WV-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 99 : Issue 148 Today's Topics: #1 BIO: Alcinus F. McMillen ["John \"Bill\" Wheeler" To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <000001bf4427$e9345ec0$c0dfbec6@wheeler> Subject: BIO: Alcinus F. McMillen 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 ll. pg. 118-119 Alcinus F. McMillen, of Masontown, is an old-time educator and surveyor and civil engineer, but for a number of years past his studious energies have been directed along the line of scientific as well as practical farming. Mr. McMillen has been a leader in the modern agricultural movement in this section of Preston, County, and his farm is interesting as a practical experiment station for the testing out of methods and crops best suited to this region. The family history of the McMillens in Preston County, runs back to 1790. In that year Robert McMillen, who had served as a soldier on the American side in the Revolutionary War, patented 500 acres of the virgin soil near Friendship Schoolhouse in Valley District. His old cabin stood near the residence of William H. Every, now one of the prominent old residents of the county. It was close to the river where fishing was good and where game was plentiful, and the climate somewhat milder than further up the valley. Robert McMillen was one of the first to begin the cultivation of the soil in that locality. He was buried not far from the scene of his labors and activities. Among his numerous children were William, James, Robert and Elizabeth. William McMillen, representing the second generation of the family in Preston County, was born in the wild and somewhat romantic spot where his father settled. he grew up with little knowledge of books but became skilled in the arts of woodcraft and frontier accomplishments. While still a youth he learned to handle a gun expertly, and was the chief dependence of the family for its meat supply. When he settled down to locate at Masontown, on the farm now occupied by his grandsons, Newton W. and Alcinus F. He married Sarah Cobun, daughter of Simon Cobun, and member of another early pioneer family of Preston County. William McMillen and wife lived out their lives on the Masontown farm and are buried in the cemetery on said farm, half a mile from the village. The children were: Robert; James, who served in the Union Army during the Civil War, reared a family near or on the patented land of his grandfather and is buried in Mount Zion Cemetery; and Sarah, who became the wife of William Anderson, and both are now at rest in the cemetery on the home farm near Masontown. Robert McMillen was born October 24, 1824, and lived just half a century, passing away October 24, 1874. His education was such as could be obtained from the schools of that day. He was a good farmer and was constant and devoted to the life and leadership of the community. For many years he was one of the most ardent workers in the Methodist Church, and exerted a constant influence in behalf of education and morality. He helped build school houses and churches and had a kindly interest in the welfare of the younger generation as well as that of his own. He could make an effective speech when the occasion demanded, and he usually led the singing at church. Physically he was a man six feet one, weighed about one hundred-fifty pounds, and had a florid complexion and red hair. Robert McMillen married Nancy Hartley, of Masontown. Her father, Edward Hartley, founded this numerous and prominent family in this vicinity. Nancy Hartley was born November 23, 1826, and died October 9, 1901, at the age of seventy-five. Her children were:Newton W., a farmer a mile north of Masontown; Alcinus Fenton; Rev. Edward W., a Methodist minister at North Platte, Nebraska; John L. , of Masontown; Dr. Robert M., of Wheeling; Charlotte, wife if John S. Miller, of West Liberty, Ohio County, West Virginia; and Emily Bell, who married O.D. Sims, of Short Creek, near West Liberty. Alcinus F. McMillen was born December 4, 1853, and his home through practically all his life has been at the place where he was born. He attended the free schools, took a course in the Fairmont State Normal, and at the age of twenty began teaching. His service as a teacher, covering a period of twelve years, was in the schools of Masontown, Reedsville, Kingwood, Rowlesburg and elsewhere. The intervals of teaching he employed in farm work and surveying. Mr. McMillen had the mathematical and mechanical gifts required of an expert civil engineer. His reputation in this field brought him engagements so that he was employed in the surveying of timber and coal lands in Virginias, Tennessee and North Carolina as well as in his home state. For sixteen years he was county surveyor of Preston County, and was also the first county road engineer, serving from 1909 to 1911. The duties of his office were especially strenuous when coal development began in the county, and while preparations were underway for the milling of timber lands. After his long and effective service with his surveying instruments he was quite ready to be relieved and retire to the less arduous pursuits of agriculture. As a farmer he has not kept strictly within commercial lines and with commercial objects in view, but has frequently done a season's work with every prospect of failure in order that he might demonstrate a new principle or method. The methods of former years in farming were much different from those practiced by him today. The shovel plow was a commom implement then, and the harrow was seldom used to pulverize the soil. Harvesting progress has been marked by the successive introduction of the sickle, the cradle, the self binder, and finally, the tractor has enormously increased the power and effectiveness of all farming machinery. In early times when the soil was new it was exceedingly productive, and the scratching of the surface was all that required to produce crops.It was manure years after the Civil War before the need of fertilizer appeared, and with fertilizer came the new invention, of manure spreader and the use of lime to sweeten the soil, especially for grass crops. Clover and timothy have been the standby crops for hay, but Mr. McMillen was one of the first to experiment with alfalfa, which required special treatment and conditions to secure a permanent stand. with the use of extra lime and inoculation alfalfa has proved its money-making qualities here as elsewhere and Mr. McMillen has frequently cut three tons per acre. His success has encouraged his neighbors in the same direction. Mr. McMillen has also done much practical experiment work with seed potatoes, until he has found the variety and strain best adopted to this region and is now regarded as the formost authority on potato culture in this section of the state. Mr. McMillen has been ready with personal work, influence and his purse to promote the institutions of school and church. The erection of a high school and the building of a new Methodist Church were both accomplished through popular subscriptions, and the McMillen donation to both was ample and unstintedly made. Mr. and Mrs. McMillen for many years have been faithful workers in the Methodist denomination. March 22, 1887, he married Miss Christie Guseman, who was born in Monongalia County, April 29, 1859, daughter of John W. and Carrie (Snider) Guseman. Carrie Snider was a daughter of John and Julia (Hess) Snider. John W. Guseman was descended from Abraham Guseman, and was a son of Jacob Guseman. Abraham came from Germany and located at Baltimore in 1776. John W. Guseman and his wife had fourteen children, and the nine still living are Samuel R.. Mrs. Christie McMillen, William A., Mrs. Ella Ashburn, Robert, Mrs. Ida Smith, Amos E., Pryor and Stanley Guseman. Of the children of Mr. and Mrs. McMillen the oldest, Herbert was born December 25. 1887. He was a graduate of the University of West Virginia, for a time was in the employ of the National Carbon Company at Niagara Fall, but is now at home farming during a leave of absence. He married Edith Protzman, of Monongalia County, and they have two children, Jean and Christie, The second child, Mabel, a graduate of the West Liberty Normal School, is the wife of Claude C. Spiker, of a well-known Preston County family and professor of romance languages in the University of West Virginia. Professor and Mrs. Spiker have a son, Robert Claude. The third child, Harry McMillen, is actively associated with his father on the farm. He married Mary Long and has three children: Byron, James and Kyle Clinton. The youngest of the family is frank Vincent, connected with the farming interests of Manitoba, Canada. ______________________________X-Message: #2 Date: Sat, 11 Dec 1999 18:59:39 EST From: PTyler107@aol.com To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <0.3798504f.25843f6b@aol.com> Subject: BIO: A.M. Hewitt, Huntington 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 III, pg. 120-121 A. M. Hewitt. That all men do not find the niche for which they consider themselves especially fitted is largely due to their inability to fit themselves for those niches which they could occupy with profit and honor. They do not concentrate themselves upon that which they understand and for which nature and training have made them ready, but diffuse themselves over too wide a territory, and in the end accomplish little or nothing. The successful man in any line is he who develops his latent strength by the use of vigorous fitness, innate powers and expert knowledge, gradually attaining to a proficiency not possible in the beginning. Each line of endeavor demands certain special qualifications. Some men are born executives, being able to direct others to carry out plans for which are formulated in the active brain of the leader; while others can only follow. A man who does not possess this power to promote and direct is wise indeed if he bends all his energies to attaining an executive position, for in it he can reach heights he could attain in no other way. Among the able executives of Huntington who have made their mark in the business world by concentrating upon a given line of endeavor, one who demands more than passing attention at this time is A. M. Hewitt, president and treasurer of the D. E. Hewitt Lumber Company. Mr. Hewitt was born at Conneautville, Pennsylvania, December 5,1866, a son of Daniel Elmer and Cora M. (Walton) Hewitt. His grandfather, Francis Marion Hewitt, who is of English descent and still a resident of Conneautville, was born July 26, 1838, probably in Ohio, but for the greater part of his life has made his home at Conneautville, where he was a lumber manufacturer in pioneer days. He is a veteran of the Civil war, having fought as a Union soldier all through the struggle between the North and the South. Mr. Hewitt married Penelope Lampson, who was born at Pierpont, Ohio, and died at Conneautville. Daniel Elmer Hewitt was born May 23, 1865, at Conneautville, Pennsylvania, and was reared and married in his native community, where he learned the lumber business with his father. That business he followed throughout along and eminently successful and useful career. In 1888 he removed to Butler, Pennsylvania, where he became head of the firm of R. F. Wilcox & Company, wholesale lumber manufacturers, but in 1890 moved back to Conneaultville, although retaining the same position with the same concern. Mr. Hewitt came to Huntington in 1903, and founded the D.E. Hewitt Lumber Company, of which he president until his death, and which he developed into one of the leading lumber enterprises in West Virginia, dealing in hardwoods as a wholesale manufacturer. Mr. Hewitt was president of the Kermit State Bank of Kermit, West Virginia, and president of the Buck Creek Coal Company. In politics he was a republican, and his religious connection was with the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Huntington, the movements of which always received his hearty and generous support. He held membership in the Masonic fraternity, being a Knight Templar mason, and also belonged to Beni-Kedem Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Charleston. Mr. Hewitt married Miss Cora M. Walton, who was born November 11,1865, at Conneautville. She still survives at Huntington, while Mr. Hewitt died at Columbus, Ohio, December 1,1921. They were the parents of three children: A.M. of this notice; Irene, the wife of George H. Parker, manager of the Kentucky Actuarial Bureau at Louisville, Kentucky; and Lina, the wife of Robert J. Foley, a coal operator of Huntington. A.M. Hewitt attended the public schools of Conneautville, Pennsylvania, and after his graduation from the high school there in 1903 entered his father's office at Huntington and began to learn the lumber business from the bottom. He worked his way up the ladder to the position of secretary and treasurer, and at the death of his father became the president and treasurer of the D.E. Hewitt Lumber Company. This concern manufactures a line of West Virginia hardwoods, and at present is operating 17,000 acres of forests. It is incorporated under the state laws of West Virginia, and maintains offices at 1003-4-5-6 First National Bank Building, Huntington. The officers are: A. M. Hewitt, president and treasurer; G. H. Parker, vice-president;and E. F. Sticklen, secretary. Mr. Hewitt is also a director in the Kermit State Bank of Kermit, West Virginia, and president of Buck Creek Coal Company of Huntington. Mr. Hewitt is a republican, but save as a good citizen has had little to do with political affairs. He is a member of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Huntington. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, a member of Huntington Lodge No. 53, A. F. and A. M.; Huntington Chapter No. 6, R. A. M.; Huntington Commandery No. 9, K. T.; Beni-Kedem Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Charleston; West Virginia Consistory No. 1, Wheeling, thirty-second degree; and of Huntington Lodge No. 313, B. P. O. E. He has several other connections, among them the Guyandotte Club and the Huntington Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Hewitt owns a modern residence at No. 1116 Twelfth Avenue, in a desirable residence district of Huntington. On November 18,1915, at Huntington, Mr. Hewitt was united in marriage with Miss Ruth Campbell, daughter of Hon. Charles W. and Mrs. (Ratcliff) Campbell. Mr. Campbell is one of the distinguished attorneys of the Cabell County bar, and at present is serving as mayor of Huntington. A review of his career appears elsewhere in this volume. Mrs. Hewitt is a graduate of Belcourt Seminary, Washington, D.C., and of the Conservatory of Music, Cincinnati, Ohio, and is talented both in vocal and instrumental music. She and her husband are the parents of three children: Nancy Frazier, born September 30,1917; Marion born January 13,1920; and Ruth, born September 20,1921. ______________________________X-Message: #3 Date: Sat, 11 Dec 1999 18:59:36 EST From: PTyler107@aol.com To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <0.264838b2.25843f68@aol.com> Subject: BIO: W.S. Phelps, Bluefield 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 III, pg. 121-122 W. S. Phelps has had a long and active commercial career, and for a number of years has been a merchant at Bluefield, where he is proprietor of the Phelps Furniture Company. Mr. Phelps was born October 14, 1867, at Boone Mills, Virginia, son of A. J. and A. A. (Boone) Phelps, the former native of Tennessee and the latter of Boone Mills. All his ancestors were early Virginians, some of them being in the Revolutionary war. On his mother's side Mr. Phelps is descended from the family that comprised the Boone settlement in Virginia in early Colonial times. A. J. Phelps served as a Confederate soldier four years, all through the war, and the rest of his life was devoted to farming. W. S. Phelps acquired a common school education at Boone Mills, and as a youth went to work for the Fishburn Brothers, tobacco manufacturers and dealers at Roanoke, Virginia. He continued in the tobacco business for sixteen years as a salesman, covering practically the entire Middle West, with headquarters at Memphis. On leaving the tobacco business he chose Bluefield as the city with the greatest opportunities for the future, and entered the furniture business. He has built up a splendid enterprise in that line, and in 1909 incorporated the Phelps Furniture Company, in which he has the controlling interest. November 17, 1897, at Roanoke, Virginia, Mr. Phelps married Miss Eula Richardson, daughter of D. P. Richardson, who is living in the same house where she was born at Roanoke. Mr. and Mrs. Phelps are members of the Baptist Church. He is a Royal Arch Mason and a member of the United Commercial Travelers, the Chamber of Commerce and the Falls Mills Fishing Club. ______________________________X-Message: #4 Date: Sat, 11 Dec 1999 19:46:07 -0500 From: "John \"Bill\" Wheeler" To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <000801bf443a$4a5c0600$18dfbec6@wheeler> Subject: BIO: Rogers Pharmacy 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 ll. pg. 119-120 Rogers Pharmacy. The Rogers Pharmacy at Morgantown is one of the most perfect establishments of its kind in West Virginia. The proprietors are two brothers, Paul M. and William M. Rogers. Western men by birth, although their father at one time lived in Morgantown, and their mother was born in West Virginia. Their father Daniel R. Rogers, was born in Connellsville, Pennsylvania January 8, 1855. He attended public schools, the state University of West Virginia at Morgantown, where he began his medical studies, and later graduated from Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia with the class of 1880. For four years he practiced at New Martinsville, West Virginia, where his wife, Margaret E. Martin, was born, June 20, 1858. They were married September 15, 1886. After leaving West Virginia, Doctor Rogers moved to Nebraska, and for forty years has carried the duty and burdens of an active practitioner at Ragan, that state. Of their children the oldest is Anne A., The widow of Dr. B.B. Cox, one of Morgantown's honor men in the World War. He was attached to Base Hospital No. 103 at Dijon, France, when he was killed. The one child in this family is Margaret Evelyn Cox. Thomas C., the second oldest, is cashier of the Bank of Ragan. He married Jean McKee, of Alma, Nebraska, and has two children, Daniel and Everett. The next in age is Paul M. He and William N. are the proprietors of the Rogers Pharmacy. The two youngest of the family are Margaret N. and William M., who are twins. Margaret N. is a member of the faculty of Mannington, West Virginia, High School, and is a graduate of the University of West Virginia. Paul M. Rogers was born in Ragan, Nebraska, August 13, 1891. He attended public schools there, graduated from the Kearney Military Academy at Kearney, Nebraska and took his professional work in the University of Nebraska, graduating in pharmacy. He then left Nebraska and for three years was employed as a pharmacist in Pennsylvania, first at Brownsville, then at East Liverpool, Ohio, and then at Charleroi, Pennsylvania. From there he came to Morgantown. William M. Rogers was born at Ragan, Nebraska, October 27, 1896, attending the same schools as his brother, graduating from the Military Academy and receiving his degree in pharmacy from the State University in 1917. After graduation, he went West instead of East, and for three years was a pharmacist at Las Vegas, New Mexico, and while there organized a transfer business consisting of a fleet of trucks operating to points within 20 miles of Las Vegas. This is still a flourishing business at Las Vegas. In 1921 the Rogers Brothers opened their present place of business at Morgantown. Both are thorough pharmacists and also able young business men as well, and they have left nothing undone that will afford the most complete service in the preparation of drugs for physicians, and they have introduced into Morgantown as complete stock of surgical supplies as is seldom found in a city of this size. While they emphasize the thoroughness of the service as pharmacists and druggists, they have also given their store other features that attract the public, including the serving of soft drinks. Their fountain is one of the most elaborate and costly made, the base being of pure Italian marble. It is a business highly creditable to the proprietors and to the city.