West Virginia Statewide Files WV-Footsteps Mailing List WV-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 99 : Issue 38 Today's Topics: #1 BIO: Homer B. WOODS, Ohio County, [Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.19990923063618.00f902f0@trellis.net> Subject: BIO: Homer B. WOODS, Ohio County, WV Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 259-260 Ohio County HOMER B. WOODS, a leading citizen of Harrisville, Ritchie County, is presiding on the bench of the Circuit Court of the Third Judicial Circuit, comprising Pleasants, Ritchie and Doddridge counties, and he has made a splendid record both as a lawyer and a jurist. Judge Woods was born on a farm in Ritchie County, near Harrisville. July 16 1869, and is a son of Rev. Philip A. and Salina (Wells) Woods. Rev. Philip A. Woods was born in Pennsylvania, January 4, 1828, and was about eighteen years old when the family came to what is now West Virginia and settled in Ritchie County. He gained his edneation principally in Pennsylvania, where he at- tended a private school and also Allegany College, after which he was ordained a clergyman of the Baptist Church. He continued in the service of the ministry during the remainder of his active career, and held various pastoral charges in the central part of West Virginia. He became a staunch advocate of the principles of the republican party, and his memory is revered by those who came within the compass of his benignant influence. Both he and his wife were well advanced in years at the time of their deaths. They became the parents of six children. Judge Homer B. Woods gained his youthful education in the public schools of the various places in which the family resided in connection with his father's pastoral charges in the central part of the state, and he was but sixteen years old when he initiated his career as a teacher, his service in the pedagogic profession having been suc- cessfully continued several years. In the meanwhile he attended Marietta College, and in preparation for the legal profession he took a course in the law department of the University of West Virginia. While pursuing his studies in the law school he was elected superintendent of the public schools of Ritchie County, and after having served two terms in this office he continued his services as a teacher for several years, within which he was prin- cipal of the Harrisville High School and later of that at Pennsboro, likewise in Ritchie County. He was admitted to the bar in 1892, and thereafter continued in the private practice of his profession at Harrisville until 1896, when he was elected prosecuting attorney of his native county. He held this position two successive terms and retired therefrom in 1904, in which year he was elected to the bench of the Circuit Court. Judge Woods was unanimously nominated by the repub- lican party, in August, 1920, as a candidate for the third term as judge of the Third Judicial Circuit. His splendid "previous record on the bench is not only attested by this nomination but also by the action of the democratic party which met in convention in the same month and made no nomination to oppose him, and at the same time unani- mously adopted the following resolution: "Whereas, at the Republican Judicial Convention, the Honorable Homer B. Woods was nominated for the Judge of this judicial circuit, and "Whereas, we, the legally constituted delegates and representatives of the Democratic party in and for the third judicial circuit, in convention assembled, believing that the judiciary should be composed of able and honor- able men, well versed in the law and experienced in court procedure, and who would wear the ermine untarnished by partisan prejudice or political influence, and we, hav- ing confidence in the ability, integrity and fitness of the said Honorable Homer B. Woods for the high office of Judge; and to the end that the judiciary may be removed from and elevated above partisan political contests; be it resolved, that this convention doth decline to nominate a candidate for judge of the third judicial circuit." Judge Woods was. therefore, unopposed at the polls in the November election in 1920, and is now serving his third term on the bench. Judge Woods is a stanch republican, and he and his wife are active members of the Baptist Church. He is affiliated with Harrisville Lodge No. 98, A. F. & A. M., and Odell Chapter No. 28, B. A. M., is a past grand of the local lodge of Odd Fellows, his wife being a member of the adjunct organization, the Daughters of Rebekah, and he is an influential member of the Modern Woodmen of America, in which he has served as counsel of the local camp and also as counsel of the head camp of the organ- ization in West Virginia, in which he is now a member of the committee on appeals and grievances. September 10, 1892, recorded the marriage of Judge Woods and Miss Winifred Davis, daughter of the late Thomas E. Davis and a representative of one of the oldest and most highly honored families of Ritchie County. Of the six children of Judge and Mrs. Woods five are living: Ralph D. is a graduate of the law department of the Uni- versity of West Virginia; Homer B., Jr., who graduated in the high school and who became a successful teacher, received appointment to the United States Naval Acad- emy, Annapolis, Maryland, and was attending that institu- tion at the time of his death, at the age of twenty years; Miriam graduated in the Harrisville High School and in 1922 is a student in the Cincinnati (Ohio) Conservatory of Music; Robert J. is a high school student; and Samuel T. and Winifred are grade pupils in the public schools. The eldest son, Ralph D., entered the nation's military service in connection with the World war, gained the rank of first lieutenant, and was in service in turn at Camp Dodge, Iowa, the Central Officers' Training Camp at Waco, Texas, and the Second Training Camp at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indianapolis, Indiana. The war came to a close before there came a call for his command to enter service overseas. He is an active member of the American Legion, and is now engaged in the practice of law at Harrisville. ______________________________X-Message: #2 Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1999 06:39:19 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.19990923063919.00f94b40@trellis.net> Subject: BIO: William A. SHANNON, Hampshire County, WV Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 261-262 Hampshire County WILLIAM A. SHANNON for a long period of years, in fact since early manhood, has been in the service of the Balti- more & Ohio Railway Company. For over ten years he has been the railway station agent at Springfield in Hamp- shire County. His name introduces one of the oldest of the pioneer families of this section of West Virginia. The founder of the name was his great-great-grandfather, who came from Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, and settled about a mile below the old farm at Springfield. William A. Shannon as a boy could see the ruins of his old pioneer home. He was a blacksmith, and a number of his descendants followed the same trade. His pioneer ancestor was buried in the old graveyard at Springfield in 1792, his grave being marked by a common stone slab. The next ancestor was his son, Thomas Shannon, who likewise was a blacksmith and de- voted his active life to his trade in his shop on the Spring- field townsite. He was laid to rest in the same graveyard as his father. Thomas Shannon married a Miss Walker, and among their children were: James, who settled at West Union, West Virginia; Andrew; and Mrs. William Donald- son, wife of a large slave holder and wealthy farmer be- tween Springfield and Green Spring in Hampshire County. Andrew Shannon, grandfather of the railway station agent, was born at Springfield, and died there in 1850, at the age of fifty-two. He also followed his father's trade, and was the village blacksmith of his generation. He was never in public service of any kind. He married Mary Cross as his first wife. She came from Wood County. They had four sons, Benjamin, who was a Springfield black- smith and a magistrate when he died; Thomas, the only soldier representative of the family who volunteered for the Mexican war, and removed to Ohio and died at Nelson- ville in that state; Robert, who also went to Ohio and prac- ticed medicine at Circleville; and James. James Shannon was born August 5, 1824, and was only a few weeks old when his mother died. He had only a sub- scription school education, but his inquiring mind led him to investigate and acquire a knowledge of many subjects outside his Immediate experience. He became a black- smith, and for many years worked as a partner with his brother Benjamin at Springfield. He was a member of the school board, a Presbyterian, a loyal and faithful Christian in all his years, was a Southern man in sympathy and a democrat in politics. He died in 1908. His wife was Eliza- beth Somerville, who was born in October, 1821, and died New Year's morning of 1900. She was the daughter of William and Elizabeth (Phillips) Somerville, who came to Hampshire County from Frederick County, Virginia, and settled at Romney, where the daughter Elizabeth was born. William Somerville was a saddler and harness maker, and died in 1865, at the age of eighty-three. The children of James Shannon and wife were: Charles, who followed his father's trade for a short time and later became a merchant at Springfield, where he died; Miss Mary, of Springfield; Emma, wife of Charles Towers, of Baltimore; Sallie, who died at the age of sixteen; William Andrew; and Hannah, Mrs. Elwood Parsons, of Springfield. William A. Shannon was born August 25, 1861, and was reared and educated at Springfield. At the age of twenty- one he entered the service of the Baltimore & Ohio Railway Company as a track man, was promoted to section fore- man, then to supervisor, and in October, 1911, took over the duties of station agent at Springfield as successor of J. D. Pownall. He has given over forty years to the serv- ice of the railway company, has performed his duties with a high degree of fidelity and efficiency, and has also per- formed a good part as a public spirited citizen of his home community. For twenty-eight years Mr. Shannon has been a member of the Springfield School Board, and is its president. He is a democrat, is an elder in the Presbyterian Church of Springfield, a former superintendent of the Sunday school and is now assistant superintendent. At Springfield, November 27, 1884, Mr. Shannon married Miss Fannie C. Parsons, daughter of William C. and Louise (Jarboe) Parsons, her mother a daughter of Washington Jarboe. Her father was born near Springfield and her mother at Piedmont, West Virginia. William Parsons was a Confederate soldier. Mrs. Shannon was born September 16, 1864, seventh in a family of thirteen children, eleven of whom grew up and nine are still surviving, namely: Elwood, of Springfield; Mrs. Nannie Parker, of Lincoln, Nebraska; Mrs. Shannon; Mrs. Sallie Hughes, of Moundsville, West Virginia; William, of Cumberland, Maryland; Miss Louise, of Springfield; John, of Piedmont; James and Charles, both of Springfield. Mr. and Mrs. Shannon have one son, Augustus, born De- cember 25, 1885. He was educated in the public schools, is a traveling salesman, and during the World war served as a member of the Hampshire County Draft Board. ______________________________X-Message: #3 Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1999 06:36:48 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.19990923063648.00f90b10@trellis.net> Subject: BIO: John A. McALLISTER, Logan County, WV Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 260 Logan County JOHN A. McCALLISTER is superintendent for the Faulk- ner Coal Company at Huffco in Logan County. His home is in Huntington. Mr. McCallister has been acquainted with practical mining operations for forty years, and his name is widely and favorably known among the prominent coal interests represented in the southern part of West Virginia. The Faulkner Coal Company is one of the operations carried on by the W. E. Deegans Consolidated Coal Company. Mr. McCallister was born at Big Sewell Mountain, Fay- ette County, West Virginia, November 13, 1868, son of William and Rebecca (Campbell) McCallister. His father was a farmer and shoemaker, and finally left the farm to locate at Sewell, a station on the Chesapeake & Ohio Rail- road. He was a democrat, and with his wife worshiped in the faith of the Baptist Church. They had ten children, six sons and four daughters. The son Edward was for five years foreman of the Paragon Mines on Ram Creek, and is now a mine foreman in the New River District. John A. McCallister attended school at Fayette County, and was only a boy when his parents died. His education was abbreviated by the necessity of doing something for his own support. At the age of fourteen he went to work as a trapper in the mines at Sewell, and his experience in- cluded bailing water, hauling coal, mule driving, and finally he was made boss driver, a job he held three years. For seven years he was a coal loader. Then, after an experi- ence of a few months in the mines at Jellico, Tennessee, he became assistant foreman of a mine on Loup Creek, West Virginia, and from there went to the Paragon Mines on Ram Creek as foreman. He spent eight years in the service there and was promoted to superintendent. His next work was with the E. R. Johnson Coal Company be- low Peach Creek, on the Guyandotte, as superintendent, and he was also superintendent of the operations at Peach Creek. He spent about ten months there, and then became assist- ant superintendent at Toplin, and in October, 1921, took up his present duties with the Faulkner Coal Company. While living at Paragon he was a member of the school board. Mr. McCallister married in 1898 Hester H. House, daughter of Robert House. Her father was a native of England, and Mrs. McCallister was born in West Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. McCallister have nine living children, three sons and six daughters. The sons Kenneth G. and John L. are in the grocery business at Huntington. Mr. and Mrs. McCallister are Methodists, and fraternally he is affiliated with Longdale Lodge No. 14, F. and A. M., on Ken- neys Creek, the Scottish Rite bodies of the Consistory at Wheeling, the Mystic Shrine of Charleston, the Independ- ent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. In politics he is an independent voter. ______________________________X-Message: #4 Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1999 07:17:14 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.19990923071714.00f909d0@trellis.net> Subject: BIO: William BANFIELD, Hancock County, WV Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 255-256 Hancock County WILLIAM BANFIELD. Prominent among the men who have contributed to the business development of Follansbee may be mentioned William Banfield, general manager of the Follansbee Brothers Company Steel plant, who has numerous other important business connections. Mr. Banfield was born in Monmouthshire, England, in 1854, and at the age of eighteen years immigrated with his father to the United States. Upon their arrival in this country father and son secured employment in the first tin plate mill erected in this country, located at Leechburg, Pennsylvania, where William Banfield was a heater and roller for seven years and was then made manager, a position which he held for six years. In October, 1885, he removed to Irondale, Ohio, and with others estab- lished the Irondale Boiling Mill Company, having purchased the former plant of the Pioneer Iron Works. The above company, under the name of Wallace, Banfield & Company, Limited, made fine grades of black and galvanized iron and soft sheet steel, and it became one of the leading in- dustries of Jefferson County. In 1892 they converted part of their plant into a tin mill, being the first to become extensive manufacturers under the McKinley Tariff. In 1899 the American Tin Plate Company purchased and dis- mantled the plant, and Mr. Banfleld, with others, erected sheet mills at Chester, West Virginia, but these were also acquired by the American Tin Plate Company at the time of their completion. Mr. Banfleld was chosen and served as district manager for this concern about five years, at the end of which time he removed to Steubenville, in 1907, subsequently becoming associated with the Follansbee brothers in building the tin plate mills at Follansbee, of which he has since been general manager. The Follansbee Brothers Company, started to erect a mill at Follansbee, West Virginia, in 1902, and the six tin plate and two sheet mills were put into operation in 1904, with 600 employes. There were three buildings, about 200 x 40 feet, occupying approximately two acres of ground. In 1911 two sheet mills were added. In 1906 the company had commenced the steel plant, having two twenty-five ton open hearth furnaces, to which a third was added in 1911 and a fourth in 1918. Three more sheet mills greatly increased the company's capacity in 1915, as well as a galvanizing shop. There are about 1,200 men on the pay-roll, which in 1920 was over $2,000,000. The weekly output approximates 400 tons of tin plate and 1,000 tons of sheet steel. The company has erected ninety houses, which it has sold to its employes on reasonable terms, and the friendliest of feelings exist between the corporation and its men. The Follansbee brothers, of whom there were formerly four, but now only three, were merchants of Pittsburgh prior to en- tering their present line. They now have a similar mill at Toronto, Ohio, with about the same capacity. An auxiliary company of the Follansbee Brothers Com- pany is the Sheet Metal Specialty Company, which was established in 1906 on a small scale with about fifteen men employed. In December, 1906, the plant was destroyed by fire, but was rebuilt on a larger scale and since then has been enlarged at different times, now having four two-story buildings, 50 x 150 feet each, with from seventy to eighty employes engaged in making sheet metal ovens and stovepipe and elbows. In 1921 this company took over a two-story building 180 x 130 feet, formerly operated by others for several years in making metal specialties, and this is now utilized for the manufacture of milk and garbage cans, with some fifty employes. This latter acquisition added about an additional half to the company's output, sold to jobbers, which is now about 350 cars. The buildings of this plant have some 65,000 square feet of floor space, and the annual pay-roll amounts to $105,000. The officers are: John Fol- lansbee, president; L. A. Diller, secretary and manager; and D. Reed, treasurer. Mr. Banfield is also president of the East Ohio Sewer Pipe Company at Irondale, Ohio, one of the important local industries of that place, president of the Union Savings Bank and Trust Company at Steubenville, and a director of the Citizens Bank of that place. He likewise is an elder of the Second Presbyterian Church at Follansbee, West Virginia, and now makes his home at Follansbee. ______________________________X-Message: #5 Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1999 07:17:14 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.19990923071714.00f94da0@trellis.net> Subject: BIO: Hon. Belvard J. PRITCHARD, Wayne County, WV Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 260-261 Wayne County HON. BELVARD J. PRICHARD, president of the Wayne County Bank and president of the Southern West Virginia Oil and Gas Corporation, located at Wayne forty years ago as a young lawyer, and while steadily maintaining a reputation for skill and efficiency as a civil and commer- cial lawyer, his interests have become widely extended not only in the industrial field but as a forceful influence in all matters of progress in his section of the state. Mr. Prichard represents a pioneer family of West Vir- ginia and Eastern Kentucky, and was born June 10, 1856, near Garner, on Little Sandy, in Boyd County. His first American ancestor was William Prichard, who left Wales when a boy of fourteen, accompanied by his brother John, and, getting on board an Italian vessel, was taken across the sea and left on the shores of Virginia about 1745. William Prichard finally went to Russell County, Virginia, where he was living at the beginning of the nineteenth cen- tury, and subsequently moved to what is now Boyd County, Kentucky, where he died in 1819. His children were John, James, Lewis and Elizabeth. Of these Lewis was the father of Dr. Lewis Prichard, long prominent as a banker of Charleston, West Virginia. James Prichard, son of William, was born in Russell County, Virginia, in 1796, and as a boy saw service in the War of 1812 as a coast guard at Norfolk, Virginia. About 1820 he came down the Big Sandy and settled at Buchanan in Lawrence County, Kentucky, where he became a citizen of distinction, planter and slave owner, and it is said that ho never sold a slave, and negroes were so at- tached to him and his family that after liberty was given them they declined to part. James Prichard was a practical ideal of the peacemaker in his neighborhood, and was well qualified for the office of justice of the peace, which he filled. He also served as county assessor. He married Eliz- abeth Stewart, who was born in Giles County, Virginia, in 1804. They were active Methodists, and their family con- sisted of eight sons and one daughter. One of the sons was Dr. William Allen Prichard, who was born near Buchanan in Lawrence County, Kentucky, August 4, 1823, and died at Garner February 2, 1900. He graduated from the Eclectic Medical Institute at Cin- cinnati in 1854, and for many years practiced his profes- sion at Garner. He served one term in the Kentucky State Legislature, was a member of the Royal Arch Chapter of Masons at Ashland, a stanch democrat and a contributing member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Doctor Prichard married Samantha Jones, who was born in Lee County, Virginia, September 17, 1830, and died September 13, 1916. She was the mother of six children: James M., a physician in Lee County, Virginia; Mrs. James W. Mul- lan, of Catlettsburg, Kentucky; Belvard J.; Mary E., who died at the age of twelve years; Helen, wife of Samuel D. Finley, of Bolts Fork, Kentucky, and both now deceased; Robert A., a resident of Wheaton, Missouri. Belvard J. Prichard acquired his early education in the public schools of Eastern Kentucky, attended an academy at Ashland, the National Normal University at Lebanon, Ohio, and Center College at Danville, Kentucky. In tlie course of these educational advantages he taught three ru- ral schools. He began the study of law in the office of his uncle. Keener F. Prichard, and Judge John Elliott at Cat- lettsburg, and in 1879 received his law degree from the University of Louisville. Mr. Prichard began practice at Greencastle, Indiana, where he was associated with C. 0. Matson, afterward an Indiana Congressman and also nom- inee of his party for governor. Reasons of health caused Mr. Prichard to give up his promising professional con- nections in Indiana, and in 1881 he located at Wayne, Wayne County, West Virginia. His first associate here was William Merreil in the firm Prichard & Merrell, later he was a member of Prichard, McAlister & Fry, and sub- sequently Judge Tiernan became senior member of the firm Tiernan, Prichard & Fry. As his practice increased Mr. Prichard confined his efforts more and more to his spe- cialty as a civil and commercial lawyer. With his rising professional prominence came honors of a public nature, and for two terms he was mayor of Wayne, and in 1888 was elected a member of the State Senate, serving as chairman of the committee on counties and munic- ipalities and the finance committee. In 1914 he was again urgpd to become a candidate for the Legislature, and was nominated by the democratic party, his nomination being en- dorsed by the republican and progressive parties. He re- ceived every vote in the county except 191. He went to the Legislature primarily to fight the pending bill designed to cut off a part of Wayne County, and he permanently blocked that piece of legislation. In 1916 Mr. Prichard became a member of the County Court, but resigned be- fore serving his full term. The Wayne County Bank was organized in 1904, and Mr. Priehard has been president of this institution ever since. In 1908 he organized the Belvard Oil & Gas Com- pany, of which he became president, in 1909 organized the Central Wayne Oil & Gas Company, and in 1912, the Wayne Light, Heat & Water Company. These three companies have since been merged together as the Southern West Virginia Oil & Gas Corporation, of which Mr. Prichard is president. He also organized the East Lynn Coal Com- pany and the Big Sandy, East Lynn and Guyon Railroad Company, and among other enterprises he has promoted is the Wayne Brick & Tile Company. He has been an en- thusiastic advocate of good roads construction for a num- ber of years. Fraternally he is a Royal Arch Mason, hag been grand master of the State Lodge of Odd Fellows, and has filled all the district offices in the Knights of Pythias. In 1880 Mr. Prichard married Catherine Finley, daugh- ter of Eb Finley. Mrs. Prichard died in 1901, the mother of five children. The oldest, E. F., is an accountant at Macon, Georgia; Dr. Allen C. was in the World war as first lieutenant, then as captain, and, finally, as major. He was on the battle front at St. Mihiel and the Argonne, being dangerously wounded in the latter, action, and is now prac- ticing medicine at Hot Springs, Arkansas. The third child, Stella M., is the wife of Gordon Davis, of Huntington, West Virginia. The son Oscar died at the age of nineteen, and the youngest, Sallie, is the wife of C. W. Harp, of Lex- ington. In 1902 Mr. Prichard married Etta R. Rucker, daughter of John W. and Emma Bell Rucker, of Lawrence County, Ohio. To this marriage have been born three sons, Belvard R., Marion J. and Russell G.