WV-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 00 : Issue 4 Today's Topics: #1 bio: Stapp, Harry, Kanawha Co. [Elizabeth Burns ] #2 bio: Higgins, William, Monongalia [Elizabeth Burns ] #3 bio: Crogan, Hubert, Preston Co. [Elizabeth Burns ] #4 bio: Brown, Joseph, Preston Co. [Elizabeth Burns ] #5 bio: Browning, James, Preston and [Elizabeth Burns ] ______________________________X-Message: #1 Date: Sun, 02 Jan 2000 23:55:12 -0700 From: Elizabeth Burns To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-id: <387047D0.3525B38D@mainex1.asu.edu> Subject: bio: Stapp, Harry, 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, pg. 216-217 Harry R. Stapp early distinguished himself as a very able and skillful factor in the insurance business and his experience in that line eventually led him to Dayton Ohio where he became associated with the Delco Light Corporation. For the past five years he has been manager of the Delco Light Corporation at Charleston and has general supervision of the entire business of that corporation in the state. He is a leader in Charleston affairs, and is one of the prominent officials of the Kiwanis Club. Mr.Stapp was born at Columbus Junction, Louisa County, Iowa in 1880. This branch of the Stapp family is descended from the original Germans who founded the first colonies from that country in Pennsylvania. The grandfather of Harry R. Stapp was Reuben Staff, who moved from his home at Allentown, Pennsylvania, in the late '30s to the territory of Iowa. He was one of the first settlers of what later became Louisa County on the eastern border of the state. The Stapp family has been for many years and still are large owners of rich Iowa farmland in Louisa County. The father of Harry R. Stapp is John Jacob Stapp who married Miss Ogler. Harry R. Stapp was reared and educated in Iowa and in 1898 as a young man of eighteen, volunteered for service in the Spanish-American War. He was in the Fiftieth Regiment of Infantry from Iowa. After his honorable discharge he taught school in his native state for about two years, and then for two years lived in Chicago and secured his training and early experience in the insurance business. Soon afterward, Mr. Stapp was sent to London as a special representative of the New York Life Insurance Company to institute a change in the mode of accounting of the company's executive offices in England. The first object of his mission having been accomplished, he remained in the British metropolis as a special representative of his company and altogether spent three years in London and on the European continent. When Mr. Stapp returned to America in 1906 he was appointed manager at Indianapolis for the Travelers Insurance Company of Hartford. He remained at Indianapolis five years leaving there to take charge of the local life insurance company at Dayton Ohio. The factory and general offices of the Delco Light Corporation are at Dayton and Mr. Stapp gave up the insurance business to become associated with this nationally known industry, manufacturing electric lighting plants. Mr. Stapp came to Charleston in 1917 as manager of the Delco distributing plant of the city and from Charleston has general direction of the Delco Light products distribution and business throughout the state. He regards Charleston as his permanent home, has bought property in the city and is one of the active progressive and public-spirited members of the community. Mr. Stapp sponsored the original organization of the Kiwanis Club in West Virginia, which began, with the organization of the Wheeling and Charleston clubs in 1918. The District of West Virginia was formed in September 1919 and Mr. Stapp was elected and served as the first district governor of the Kiwanis Clubs for this state. He is affiliated with the Masonic Order, holding the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite and is a member of the Mystic Shrine, the Elks and the Chamber of Commerce. While in London, England he married Miss Kathleen Beeston. This is a family of distinction in London and her brother L.J. Beeston is a well-known English author. ______________________________X-Message: #2 Date: Sun, 02 Jan 2000 23:55:47 -0700 From: Elizabeth Burns To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-id: <387047F3.CA702CEC@mainex1.asu.edu> Subject: bio: Higgins, William, Monongalia 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. 217 William R. Higgins The production of coal in commercial quantities in the Scotts Run section of Monongalia County is largely a matter of recent years. A pioneer coal miner and operator in that section and the man to whom more credit is due than to anyone else for the development is William R. Higgins. Mr. Higgins has lived in Cass District most of his life, has been a miner as well as a farmer and his practical work as a miner early took the direction of opening up and working new and unexploited fields. Mr. Higgins is proprietor of the Oak Hill Mining Company and is secretary of the Higgins Coal Company. The Higgins Coal Company has been producing coal since 1917, while the Oak Hill Mining Company opened its first mine in 1920 and now has a capacity of four cars per day. Mr. Higgins has 200 acres of land bordering Scotts Run, which land is underlaid with coal, and altogether five companies are producing from the several veins, the upper one being the Waynesburg, eight feet thick and it is Waynesburg coal that is being produced by the Oak Hill and Higgins companies. The second vein is in the Sewickley and most of that is still owned by Mr. Higgins. The Pittsburgh vein was sold many years ago and is being worked on an extensive scale by the Purslove Coal Company. The fourth and lowest vein is known as the lower Sewickley and has not as yet been touched by the mining operations. The Waynesburg vein is comparatively new coal but has many superior qualities as steam coal while the others may be better for coke ovens. The Waynesburg coal is sold largely for heating purposes and the two mines have been distributing their products to twenty markets and the use has resulted in almost every instance in repeat orders. Only one other man could claim priority over Mr. Higgins in pioneer work of mining and disposing of the Waynesburg coal in this region. Scotts Run coal development is till in its infancy, but proves to be one of the most productive and valuable coalfields in the state. The Morgantown and Wheeling Railroad traverses the entire length of the Run, affording readily accessible transportation to markets both near and far. Mr. Higgins was born in Cass District of Monongalia County in 1856, son of John Higgins who also spent most of his life here as a miner and farmer and died at the age of seventy-six. He was a native of Greene County Pennsylvania, where his father died when he was an infant and the widowed mother then brought her children to Virginia. John Higgins from boyhood had to look after himself. He married Sarah Lawless of Cass District, daughter of James Lawless, a farmer there. William R. Higgins had limited advantages in the common schools and at the age of eleven began working for wages. He worked in mines and also assisted his father in clearing away the timber to open fields for cultivation. He worked in a number of different mining localities and for several years was a teamster in the oil fields. Forty years ago he began buying land, his capital at the time permitting only small purchases, but he has kept adding until he now holds a large acreage, particularly valuable because of its natural resources. The Christopher Mine and the Bunker Mine are also on his land. Mr. Higgins married Miss Delia Alice Cole of Cass District. They have one daughter and two sons, L.J. and John M. both associated with their father in the Higgins Coal Company and Miss Jessie, at home. ______________________________X-Message: #3 Date: Sun, 02 Jan 2000 23:56:21 -0700 From: Elizabeth Burns To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-id: <38704815.DB19EDD2@mainex1.asu.edu> Subject: bio: Crogan, Hubert, Preston 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. 217-218 Hubert Garret Crogan is one of the popular and successful younger members of the Preston County bar and has been practicing law at Kingwood for the past ten years. He is a nephew of the distinguished Kingwood lawyer and banker, Patrick J. Crogan. His grandparents were James and Rose (Doyle) Crogan natives of County Roscommon, Ireland who were married in Maryland and on moving to West Virginia settled on a farm near Newburg, where James Crogan died in 1858. John F. Crogan, father of Hubert G., was the oldest of four children and was only eight years of age when his father died. He had to become the chief reliance of the family in the matter of labor required for operating the farm. He was born in Maryland, but practically all his life has been spent in Preston County, where he had only the advantages of the country schools during and after the war. He is a farmer, has been employed on public works and is still living at the old homestead at Newburg. John Crogan has done his duty as a public-spirited citizen and has been a member of the County Court and a member of the Board of Education of Lyon District. He is a republican. He married Catherine Frances Wilson. Her father, Eugenus Wilson was born in Monongalia County West Virginia and followed the pursuits of farmer, cabinetmaker and operator of a feed and flouring mill, the scene of these activities being in Reno District, south of Tunnelton. Eugenus Wilson married Julia Jeffreys and of their thirteen children the survivors are: Mrs. Amanda Bolyard of Reno District; Mrs. Melissa Fortney of Independence West Virginia; Mrs. Adaline Shaw of Morgantown; Mrs. Samantha Spring of Fairmont; Sarah, wife of Jacob Bolyard of Grafton; and Mrs. John F. Crogan. John F. Crogan and wife had the following children: Addie, wife of Thomas E. Pyles of Newburg; Hubert G; Lloyd F., of Hiawatha Utah; Walter G. of Grafton; Bessie M., widow of Oliver M. Bell of Newburg; and John Dewey, a student at Toledo University in Ohio. Hubert G. Crogan was born on the old homestead at Newburg, April 3, 1880. He attended the country schools, and as a boy showed a faculty of rapid mastery of subjects of knowledge. When he left home he became a country schoolteacher and out of his earnings advanced his education by attending the West Liberty State Normal School where he was graduated in 1907. Then for a little more than a year he was assistant postmaster of Tunnelton, and resigned to enter the law school of West Virginia University at Morgantown. Mr. Crogan graduated in law in June 1910 and then located at Kingwood and began practice with his uncle. His practice embraces cases both in the civil and criminal branches of the law and he is a member of the Preston County Bar Association and a leader in the republican politics of the county. Mr. Cogan cast his first presidential vote for Colonel Roosevelt. He has been secretary and is now chairman of the Republican County Executive Committee. December 14, 1919 Mr. Crogan married Miss Hazel Snyder, daughter of Allison W. and Laura (Jenkins) Snyder, farmers near Albright in Preston County. Mrs. Crogan is one of six children. To their marriage was born on October 8, 1920, a son Patrick Richard Crogan. ______________________________X-Message: #4 Date: Sun, 02 Jan 2000 23:56:54 -0700 From: Elizabeth Burns To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-id: <38704836.7FBFD190@mainex1.asu.edu> Subject: bio: Brown, Joseph, Preston 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. 218 Joseph G. Brown, assistant editor of the Preston County Journal at Kingwood has had intermittent associations with the practical side of journalism for a number of years. He has also been a farmer and has usually made a success of whatever he has undertaken. His career is the more interesting because it serves to recall one of the very earliest families of Preston County. His ancestor James Brown, was a native of Ireland and became prominently identified with some of the Irish secret societies against England. This activity becoming known, a reward of 100 pounds was placed upon his head, dead or alive, and he sought safety by fleeing to America. Thus in 1786 only a few years after the close of the Revolution, he established his home in Preston County near Kingwood and his descendants have lived here now for 135 years and through many avenues have contributed to the substantial growth and prosperity of the community. James Brown lived out his life as a farmer at what is still known as the old Brown homestead near Kingwood. This pioneer married Rachel Hawthorne. A brief word of their children is as follows: Robert, who lived at Kingwood and was the grandfather of the late Senator Dolliver of Iowa; Thomas who spent his life at the old homestead; John, who moved to Cincinnati; Joseph who was sheriff of Preston County before the Civil War and also lived at Kingwood; William G. Sr. who became a Kingwood lawyer was for several terms prosecuting attorney, was elected and served several terms in Congress, was first a democrat and then a republican, with rather liberal views and was father of the late William G. Jr. who died while a member of the House of Representatives at Washington. Mrs. Jane Bowen, who left West Virginia and moved to Wisconsin and Anna who married Elisha M. Hagans and moved to Chicago. The second generation in this branch of the family is represented by Joseph Brown who was born at the old homestead at Kingwood and was sheriff of the county and lived a long and useful life here. He died in 1870 at the age of seventy-one. His wife was Mary Stone, who came from the vicinity of Richmond Virginia. Their children were: James W.; Elisha M.; Mrs. Anna M. Elliott and Mrs. Julia R. Smith. James W. Brown who was born at Kingwood, March 30, 1832 took up merchandising and farming as his business vocation, and he was deputy sheriff under his father before the civil war. While in the State Militia he was commissioned colonel and ever afterward was known as Colonel Brown. In 1864 he moved out to Des Moines, Iowa, and for four years was a merchant in that city, as a member of the firm LeBoskett, Rude and Brown. He then returned to West Virginia and his home was on a farm near the old homestead until his death in May 1902. Colonel Brown was a democrat, a member of the Baptist Church, and was affiliated with the Masons and Odd Fellows. He married Miss Martha Brown, who was descended from John C. Brown, a son of the pioneer James Brown. She is still living at Kingwood at the age of eighty-seven. Colonel and Mrs. Brown had five daughters and four sons: Mrs. C.M. Fleek of Janesville Wisconsin; Mrs. John W. McDonald of Tampico Mexico; Mrs. C.F. Copeman of Irwin Pennsylvania; Mrs. B.L. Brown of Kingwood; Albert A. of Albright West Virginia; John C. who died at Rowlesburg in 1912; Miss Emma V. who died in 1915; Joseph G. and Elisha Sargent who is still on the family homestead. Joseph G. Brown, the editor was born at Terra Alta, Preston County, November 12, 1859. From the age of five to nine he was with his parents in Des Moines Iowa and he first attended school there. Most of his early life however was spent on the home farm and he took part in its work. In 1878 at the age of nineteen, he gained his first acquaintance with the printing business with the West Virginia Argus at Kingwood, whose proprietor was the late Henry Clay Hyde. Later he again took up farming for ten years and when he resumed his association with the printing art it was at Philippi and later at Parsons West Virginia. The death of his father in 1902 called him to the management of the home farm. He has been assistant editor of the Preston County Journal since 1918. Mr. Brown who has never married, is a democrat, in line with his ancestry, and cast his first vote for General Hancock for president. He has always been deeply interested in the church of the choice and is an elder in the Presbyterian congregation at Kingwood. ______________________________X-Message: #5 Date: Sun, 02 Jan 2000 23:57:30 -0700 From: Elizabeth Burns To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-id: <3870485A.C0DD5E58@mainex1.asu.edu> Subject: bio: Browning, James, Preston and Monroe 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. 218-219 James D. Browning, who recently retired from the office and responsibilities of sheriff of Preston County has been a farmer for the most part, and the duties and obligations that have come to him from time to time have been discharged each and all so earnestly and faithfully as to make him one of the conspicuous men in this section of the state. Mr. Browning is not only a native son of Preston County, but belongs to one of the first families to acquire a claim in this portion of the frontier. The founder of the family and his ancestor was the famous hunter, Meshach Browning, who was one of the advance couriers of civilization, preceding most of the Trans-Allegheny pioneers. He was a great hunter, a master of all the arts of the frontier and fortunately possessed the literary accomplishments that enabled him to leave the details of his experience and many pictures of frontier life in a volume entitled "Forty-four Years of a Hunter's Life." For the benefit of his numerous posterity who have never seen this interesting volume it may be recalled that the frontiersman was born in Frederick County Maryland in 1781, son of Joshua and Nancy Browning. His parents were small farmers; honest and industrious people and their unsullied names were about all they could pass on to their sons. The Browning home was in Garrett County Maryland, subsequent to its removal to Frederick County, but when the boundary between Maryland and West Virginia was finally surveyed it was found that the Browning estate was in Preston County West Virginia. Meshach Browning married Mary McMilan and their hold home was at Sang Run, about four miles east from the West Virginia state line. The old hunter is buried at Hoyes Maryland. He was the father of six children and his sons, James, were grandfather of Sheriff Browning of Kingwood. James Browning possessed some of his father's pioneer spirit and also participated in the hunting expeditions that were an essential part of the life of his time. His real occupation was that of a farmer and he established his home in Preston County and is buried at Terra Alta where many of his relatives and members of his own family are buried. His wife, Minnie Benard, had lived in the vicinity of Keyser West Virginia. The children of this old couple were Meshach Notley, Isaac, J. Ferdinand, Rebecca, who married John H. Feather, Mary, who is the wife of Smith Kelley, Susan, who became Mrs. Adam Parsons, Minnie, who was married to Dr. M. Fichtner,and Louise, Mrs. Charles Jackson. All the daughters married Preston County men and many of their descendants are still in the county. Notley Browning, father of James D. Browning was born in Preston County in December 1839. He grew up in a district yet untamed and had much of his grandfather's disposition to hunt. He killed a great many bear and other big game, and his hunting and trapping excursions were a source of profit as well as a diversion from the other cares of life. He farmed rather extensively, owned thousands of acres of land and made many real estate deals. His interests in politics was that of a republican voter. Meshach Browning, the pioneer was of a family Catholic in faith but later generations sought membership in the Protestant church and Notley became a Methodist. The wife of Notley Browning was Susan C. Fichtner, who father, Daniel Fichtner, a physician, moved from Somerset County Pennsylvania to Preston County West Virginia and lived out his life there. Notley Browning died February 14, 1917 when well on toward fourscore while his widow passed away in July 1919. This couple had only two sons, James Daniel and B. Franklin. The latter is a farmer and merchant at Terra Alta. James D. Browning, who therefore represents the fourth generation in the history of Preston County, was born near Cranesville, September 19, 1866. He attended the country schools, had an increasing part in the labors of his father's farm and since reaching his majority his business has been farming and merchandising at Cranesville. Since retiring from the office of sheriff he has resumed farming, and plans to make that the principal vocation of his remaining years. He had been out of merchandising for a time when it was suggested that he enter the race for sheriff of the county. It was a gratifying surprise that he secured the nomination practically without effort and in the fall of 1916 was elected as the successor of Sheriff H. Foster Hartman. His official term included the war period and there were some crimes due to strikes and labor unrest, but on the whole his term of four years was without notable incident and he showed himself a firm master of every exigency. Mr. Browning was elected as a republican and has been an active member of that party since he cast his vote for Harrison in 1888. He has represented the county as a delegate to numerous local and state conventions and has the acquaintance of some of the state party leaders. Mr. Browning is affiliated with the Independent Order to Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias and his family are Methodists. In Preston County he married Miss Effie Van Meter who was born near Cranesville, December 4, 1877, daughter of Robert and Martha (Feather) Van Meter, her mother being a daughter of James and Christina (Summers) Feather. Robert Van Meter was an Evangelical minister, and was born in Mason County West Virginia while his wife was born near Cranesville. Mrs. Browning, the only child of her parents was educated in the common schools. Mr. and Mrs. Browning have four children: Nellie, Harold, Notley and Hugh Browning. Nellie is married, being the wife of Forest Cuppett of Cranesville.