WV-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 00 : Issue 1 Today's Topics: #2 bio:Brown,Benjamin, Kanawha Co. [Elizabeth Burns ] #3 Bio: Jansman, Edward, Cabell Co [Elizabeth Burns ] #4 Bio: Baker, Robert, Grant Co. [Elizabeth Burns ] #5 Bio: Early, Carl, Mingo Co. [Elizabeth Burns ] #6 Bio: Rice, Charles, McDowell Co. [Elizabeth Burns ] ______________________________X-Message: #2 Date: Sun, 02 Jan 2000 11:40:59 -0700 From: Elizabeth Burns To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-id: <386F9BBB.8F46358@mainex1.asu.edu> Subject: bio:Brown,Benjamin, Kanawha Co. 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 Page 210 Benjamin Beuhring Brown, named for his uncle and who remains, as representative of the third generation to continue the family traditions in the bar of Kanawha County, became a member of his father's firm, Brown, Jackson & Knight in March 1919. He entered law practice with every educational advantage having graduated from Charleston High School in 1910, from Princeton University in 1914 with an A.B. degree and from Harvard University Law School in 1917 with an LL.B. degree. In the early years of the World war he attended two summer training camps at Plattsburg and as soon as America entered the struggle against the Central Powers he volunteered and went to France, where he served for a year with the Marines in the Second Division, A.E. F., whose proud record is written indelibly in the hearts of the American people. Benjamin B. Brown married Miss Hester M. Newhall of Lynn, Massachusetts. They have two children, Gertrude Woodbridge and James Frederick Brown, the latter having been born on December 31, 1920, nearly a year before the death of his grandfather whose name he bears. As one whose career showed leadership and ability, the late James F. Brown's ideals are well worthy of consideration. He stood for the greatest possible individual liberty consistent with the rights of others and with the least possible governmental interference. He believed the interests of the people were best subserved by strict adherence to the principles of the Bill of Rights, and in strict limitation of the Federal Government to the powers expressly granted by the states. In regard to the legal profession he believed in greater stability for the laws, that there should be less of experimenting in legislation and a curb put on judicial legislation under color of "construction." His especial interest was along historical lines, particularly as regards the several systems of government now being tried out, and their practical results in the countries to which they have been applied. He traveled widely, both at home and abroad, having visited nearly every country in the world and was a keen observer of all the different peoples and conditions he saw, reasoning deeply into their religious, economic and political aspects. His diligence, perseverance, high character and many contacts with all classes of people made him what he was-an original thinker of the soundest judgment, a master mind in the study of human nature, one of the greatest lawyers his state has ever produced, and a model to be followed in his community. ______________________________X-Message: #3 Date: Sun, 02 Jan 2000 11:41:53 -0700 From: Elizabeth Burns To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-id: <386F9BF1.86609835@mainex1.asu.edu> Subject: Bio: Jansman, Edward, Cabell Co 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. 210 Edward B. Jansman. A chemist and veterinarian, former consulting veterinarian under the state commissioner of agriculture, Doctor Jansman is a well known citizen and business man of Huntington, where he is secretary and treasurer of the unique establishment known as "Farmers," the leading cleaning, pressing and dyeing business in that part of the state. He was born at Covington, Kentucky, August 25,1885, only child of Benjamin and Catherine (Runey) Jansman. His father, who was born at Covington in 1847 and died in that city in 1890, was for many years a tobacco dealer. The widowed mother is now living at Ashville, North Carolina, and was born at Covington in 1863. Edward B. Jansman received his education in the schools of Cincinnati, attending high school there, and in 1906 graduated with the degree D.V.M. from the Cincinnati Veterinary College. In the same year he entered the service of the United States Government in the Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Animal Husbandry as a research worker, and was in that service for twelve years. The territory in which his duties lay was chiefly Ohio and West Virginia. Doctor Jansman in 1916 removed to Huntington and remained two years longer in the Government service. In 1916 he was appointed consulting veterinarian under the commissioner of agriculture by Governor H.D. Hatfield. Dr. Jansman in 1918 bought an interest in the "Farmers" and became chemist as well as secretary and treasurer of the corporation. The business is incorporated under the laws of West Virginia, and the officers are: A.J. Hogan of New York City, president; Frank Enslow, vice president, and E.B. Jansman, secretary and treasurer. The plant and offices are at 814 Sixth Avenue and the company employs thirty-five hands. Doctor Jansman is a member of the Credit Men's Association, the Business Men's Association, and the Chamber of Commerce, also the Rotary Club, and the Guyandotte Country Club. He as a leader in local war work, assisting in the drives for funds. Later he devoted much time to training disabled soldiers in the technical processes involved in dry cleaning, so that men suffering total disability for other occupations could earn a living at this work. In September 1911, at Cincinnati, Doctor Jansman married Miss Annette E. Phelan, a native of that city. She is a graduate of Notre Dame College of Cincinnati. The only child of Doctor and Mrs. Jansman is Lois Kenrick, born in August 1912. ______________________________X-Message: #4 Date: Sun, 02 Jan 2000 11:42:33 -0700 From: Elizabeth Burns To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-id: <386F9C19.98D4D2B@mainex1.asu.edu> Subject: Bio: Baker, Robert, Grant Co. 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. 210-211 Hon. Robert W. Baker. There are certain individuals who seem always to have time to carry on progressive enterprises and movements, whether of a private or public nature. Hon. Robert W. Baker is pre-eminently one of this class, and fortunately for the advancement of his community's best interests does not stand alone. He belongs to the group of able citizens whose civic interest is equal to their business and professional enterprise and who are devoting every energy possible to the improvement of the public service. A man of broad education and fine, sympathetic nature, as well as of strength and capability, Mayor Baker is admirably fitted to be identified with the progressive guard of such a city as Petersburg. Mayor Baker was born September 8, 1880, in the house at Petersburg which he now occupies as his home, and is a son of Bernard J. and Mary C. (Welton) Baker. His grandfather, Eli W. Baker, was born in Pendleton County, Virginia (now West Virginia), in 1809, and came to what is now Grant County as a young man. Near Petersburg he was united in marriage with Miss Frances Shobe, a daughter of Jacob Shobe, one of the early farmers of this region and subsequently established a hat shop at Petersburg, having learned the hatter's trade at Franklin. In politics he was first a whig. When the issue of the War Between the States came up for discussion, he sympathized with the South, but refused to follow to the extent of the secession, although his son James W. went into the Confederate Army and served throughout the struggle in the uniform of the "grey." Eli W. Baker died in 1881, at the ripe age of seventy-two years, the same age as that at which his wife died, although she lived five years longer. They were the parents of the following children: James W., the Southern soldier, who spent his private life as an agriculturist; Catherine, who married George W. Moomau and spent her life at Petersburg; Carrie, who became the wife of William Clark and died at Petersburg; Bernard Jacob, the father of Robert W. Baker; Edward C., a resident of Petersburg; Margaret, who died at Petersburg, unmarried; Henry F., also of this place, a notary public and court commissioner; and Virginia, the wife of Hon. Lewis J. Forman of Petersburg. Bernard J. Baker, cashier of the Grant County Bank was born at Petersburg, March 9, 1849 and spent his more than seventy years of life within the limits of this community. He grew up in the home of a hatter, but his father abandoned that trade after the close of the war between the North and South and turned his attention to merchandising, being at the time of his death a member of the firm of Baker and Company, in which his son was associated with him. Bernard J. Baker was educated in the school common to the community of Petersburg, this being supplemented by a commercial course in Eastman's Business College at Poughkeepsie, New York. When he went into business it was as a merchant in association with his father, and after the elder man's death he continued the business under the firm style of Baker and Company. This enterprise is still in existence and Mr. Baker has been engaged as a businessman in that and other fields for more than fifty years, within 100 feet of the bank where he is now on duty as cashier. Mr. Baker became actively identified with banking affairs when he organized the Grant County Bank, the first banking house in Grant County, this being opened in 1902. Prior to this time the banking of this region had been done at Moorefield and Keyser, but the organization of the Petersburg institution, concentrated banking largely at this point from far and wide. The bank was originally capitalized at $25,000 and was increased to double that capital in 1908. The first president was Lewis J. Forman, the first vice president, J.W. Day and the first and only cashier, Mr. Baker. The presidency, likewise, has never changed, but there have been several vice presidents, A.A. Parks, W.A. Ervin and the present incumbent D.P. Hendrickson. In his politics Mr. Baker voted first for president in 1872, when he cast his ballot in favor of Horace Greeley. In 1876 he voted for Samuel J. Tilden and four years later for Gen. W.S. Hancock, and in 1884 helped to elect the first democratic president after the Civil war. He has continued to support the same ticket without interruption every since. Mr. Baker was prone to political activity as a young man and in 1876 was elected to the State Senate, where he spent four active and useful years, being present at the two sessions of the body and a member, among others, of the judiciary and educational committees. In the matter of electing a United States senator he supported the candidacy of Hon. John McGraw of Taylor County. Mr. Baker has kept aloof from secret orders. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church and one of its elders, a capacity in which he has served for many years, and is the oldest member of the congregation as well as the oldest member of the Official Board in point of service. On November 25, 1875, at Petersburg, Mr. Baker was united in marriage with Miss Mary C. Welton, a daughter of Solomon and Sarah (Clark) Welton, Mr. Welton having been an early merchant of Petersburg. Mrs. Baker was born in what was then Hardy County, but is now Grant County, as was her father. She and her husband are the parents of two sons: Bernard, a merchant and farmer at Petersburg and Robert W. After completing the public school course at Petersburg, Robert W. Baker enrolled as a student at Potomac Academy, Romney and graduated from that preparatory institution at the age of nineteen years. At that time he entered upon the study of law at Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia and in 1904, satisfactorily passed the bar examination at Morgantown, given by the law faculty of West Virginia University, and his license to practice law was issued by the Supreme Court of the state. He began his professional career at Petersburg, among the neighbors and acquaintances of his boyhood and later life, and tried his first case in the Circuit Court. His practice has been largely of a general character, although the defense of those charged with crimes has constituted a considerable proportion of his work, and through his able qualities as a lawyer and his stable, popular traits as a man he has continued his progress both in the development of a professional reputation and a profitable legal business. Ever since the attainment of his majority, Mr. Baker has been a factor in local politics. As a leading democrat he has been party chairman of Grant County, has been the county's representative on the senatorial and congressional committees and attended all the conventions of his party while the convention system was in vogue. He was a spectator at the Baltimore convention that nominated Woodrow Wilson for the presidency, as well as the convention at St. Louis that gave the nomination to Judge Alton B. Parker in 1904. Mr. Baker was first elected mayor of Petersburg in 1909, and served for five consecutive terms, during which almost all of the public improvement done in the city was accomplished, including the installing of water and sewer systems and an electric light plant, the building of sidewalks, etc. and all of this at an expense that was worthy of much credit for the administration's economizing power. He left the mayor's office in 1914 and was absent until January 1, 1922, when he was the unanimous choice of the city for the mayoralty. The preceding city administration had voted a bond issue of $12,000 for improvements in the sewers, water and walks, and this money is being expended by the administration in the construction of these various improvements. Mayor Baker is attorney for the Baltimore and Ohio Railway Company at Petersburg and has numerous other important connections. On February 29, 1908, Mr. Baker was united in marriage at Petersburg with Miss Cornelia S. Taylor, a daughter of John E. and Annie (Wilson) Taylor, of Hampshire County, West Virginia and North Carolina respectively. Mr. Taylor was a tanner by trade and conducted and for a time operated the Petersburg tannery. Mrs. Baker is one of nine daughters in the Taylor family and was educated in the public schools. To Mr. and Mrs. Baker there have been born the following children: John Bernard; Robert W. Jr.; Wilson, who died at the age of five years; Bettie; Edward; William, who died at the age of one year; McDonald; Paul; and Cornelia. ______________________________X-Message: #5 Date: Sun, 02 Jan 2000 11:43:16 -0700 From: Elizabeth Burns To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-id: <386F9C44.D664D219@mainex1.asu.edu> Subject: Bio: Early, Carl, Mingo Co. 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. 211-212 Carl Brooks Early. While age and ripened experience are usually assumed in relation to exceptional business responsibilities, it has been proved that they are not absolutely essential in all cases. An example may be cited in Carl Brooks Early, cashier of the National Bank of Commerce at Williamson, West Virginia. Mr. Early in addition to this responsible position occupies numerous others, which identify him officially with industries and undertakings of great magnitude in West Virginia. Carl Brooks Early was born in Giles County, Virginia, August 27, 1890, and is a son of David A. and Sarah (Brooks) Early, one of their family of three sons and two daughters. His father was born in Pulaski County, Virginia, December 20, 1854, a member of an early settled family there of Scotch-Irish extraction. The mother of Mr. Early was born in Giles County, Virginia, June 13, 1859 and now resides at Bluefield, West Virginia. Carl B. Early had excellent school privileges. His preference was for a business rather than professional life and his capacity was first tested as a clerk in the employ of the Pulasky Mining Company at Pulaski, Virginia, where he remained until 1909, when he went to Bluefield, West Virginia, as bookkeeper in the First National Bank, which position he resigned in September 1910, in order to accept that of assistant cashier in the First National Bank at Welch, West Virginia, where he continued until July 1916, at which time he came to Williamson and entered upon his duties as cashier of the National Bank of Commerce. By the summer of 1918, Mr. Early had become well and favorably known in banking circles throughout the state, but on August 3 of that year he enlisted for service in the World war, like many other patriotic young men unselfishly setting aside all matters of personal importance in the face of the great calamity that had fallen upon his country. He was given rank as first lieutenant and ordered to Washington, D.C. where he remained until February 1, 1919 and until his honorable discharge performed the duties of disbursing officer at Saltville, Virginia. He returned then to Williamson and resumed his duties as cashier and director of the National Bank of Commerce. Other official positions which claim his time and attention include: Treasurer of the Indian-Pocahontas Coal Company; treasurer of the Indian Fuel Company; treasurer of the Valley Investment Company; vice president and treasurer of Harkins and Company and treasurer of the Pigeon Creek Realty Company. In the management of the business pertaining to these various important concerns, Mr. Early has displayed acumen and foresight that would be creditable to a veteran captain of industry. In political life Mr. Early is a republican. For several years he has been a member of the Board of Review and Equalization of Mingo County. He is a member of McDowell Lodge, No. 112, F. and A.M. Howard Chapter, No 28, R.A.M; Bluefield Commandery and the Mystic Shrine at Charleston. He belongs to Post Ephraim Boggs No. 49, American Legion and to the Chamber of Commerce and Kiwanis Club. ______________________________X-Message: #6 Date: Sun, 02 Jan 2000 11:43:51 -0700 From: Elizabeth Burns To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-id: <386F9C67.9A9139BD@mainex1.asu.edu> Subject: Bio: Rice, Charles, McDowell Co. 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. 212 Charles L. Rice began his career in the great coal mining sections of McDowell County, but for a dozen years past his more extended business connections have been as a lumberman and contractor and in construction engineering, the headquarters for his operations being in the capital city of Charleston. Mr. Rice was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia in 1880 and when he was a child his parents S.G. and Nannie (Green) Rice, native Virginians, removed to Roanoke, that state. Here he grew up and secured his early education and as a young man entered the coal business, a connection that took him to McDowell County West Virginia in 1900. After about ten years in mining operations he removed to Huntington and became a member of the Huntington Lumber and Supply Company, the Minter-Holmes Corporation, extensive manufacturers and dealers in lumber, with main offices in Huntington and plants at Kenova and Williamson, West Virginia and Jackson, Kentucky. After a residence at Huntington for seven years Mr. Rice removed to Charleston and was an active factor in the organization of the Kanawha Valley Lumber Company, which began business in February 1918. Mr. Rice is vice president and general manager of this company, which has an extensive and modern plant in West Charleston on an ideal industrial site long the Kanawha and Michigan Railway and extending west from Patrick Street. It is a general wholesale and retail lumber business, one of the largest of the kind in the state. Since coming to Charleston, Mr. Rice has had a personal and financial interest in the general building and construction business, and in that capacity has been a factor in the remarkable building expansion going on in the city since war time. He organized and is president of the American Engineering and Construction Company, whose special field is business and industrial buildings, coal plant construction and kindred work. The American Clay Products Company, of which he is president, manufactures brick and hollow tile and has created a new and very important industry in West Virginia. The company has a brick plant at Lewis, Virginia and a plant for the manufacture of hollow tile at Teays, West Virginia. Mr. Rice is active in various civic business organizations at Charleston, including the Chamber of Commerce, Kiwanis Club and is a thirty-second degree Mason and Shriner. He married Miss Maud Diskins, a native of Kentucky. Their two children are Daniel E. and Virginia.