WV-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 00 : Issue 167 Today's Topics: #1 BIO: JAMES M. CLARK, Kanawha Co. W [Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000710222024.00c6a570@mail.earthlink.net> Subject: BIO: JAMES M. CLARK, Kanawha Co. WV Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 498 Kanawha JAMES M. CLARK. As may be readily understood, the profession of mining engineer is one of major importance in connection with the industrial activities of West Vir- ginia, and here one of the leading representatives of this profession is James M. Clark, senior member of Clark & Krebs, Inc., civil and mining engineers, with headquarters in the City of Charleston. Mr. Clark was born on a farm near Westfield, Union County, New Jersey, April 6, 1866, and is a son of the late James L. and Hannah Clark. He received his early educa- tion in the schools of his native state, and in April, 1887, the month in which he attained his legal majority, he came to West Virginia and entered the employ of his cousin, Robert G. Goodrich, a leading mining engineer at that time residing in Fayette County. It was in this connec- tion that Mr. Clark received his technical and practical ex- perience in mining engineering. In 1890 he and his cousin entered into professional partnership, under the firm name of Goodrich & Clark, with headquarters at Elkhorn, Mc- Dowell County. Two years later Mr. Clark retired from this firm and engaged independently in practice as a general mining engineer, with headquarters at Kanawha Falls. On the 1st of January, 1900, he formed a partnership with Charles E. Krebs, and in November, 1908, the firm estab- lished its office headquarters in the City of Charleston, the firm being now incorporated and its business being of broad scope and importance. In 1915 Mr. Clark was appointed city engineer of Charleston, and within his term of service in this office nearly $1,000,000 worth of street paving was done and the city levee wall on Kanawha Street was con- structed. Mr. Clark is a scion of a family that was founded in America in the early Colonial days and that gave patriot soldiers to the war of the Revolution. He is affiliated with the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution as a charter member of the West Fields Chapter of the New Jersey Society. He is a charter member of the Kiwanis Club at Charleston, and here is a deacon in the First Pres- byterian Church. On the 18th of September, 1895, was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Clark and Miss Pattie Farley, of Kanawha Falls, and she passed to the life eternal in November, 1921, her surviving children being four in number: James M., Jr., is in 1922 a student in the University of Cincinnati, Ohio; Lawrence Willis and Frances Alden graduated from the Charleston High School as members of the class of 1921; and Nancy Margaret is a member of the class of 1923 in the high school. ______________________________ X-Message: #2 Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2000 22:23:16 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000710222056.00c73ba0@mail.earthlink.net> Subject: BIO: SIEGEL WORKMAN, Boone Co. WV Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 499 Boone SIEGEL WORKMAN, United States marshal for the South- ern Judicial District, is not only a very capable official, but one of the most efficient men and good citizens of Boone County. For years he has been one of the leading repub- licans of this part of the state, and his wife is also effec- tively interested in public matters. He was born in Boonc County, December 10, 1880, a son of John L. and Harriet L. (White) Workman, natives of Giles County, Virginia, and West Virginia, respectively. The Workman family was established in Virginia at a very early day, its members having taken part in the development of the country through its various phases. John L. Workman was a farmer, and when the war broke out between the North and the South, he entered the Union Army and served until peace was de- clared. After his honorable discharge he settled in Boone County, West Virginia, and resumed his farming. He was an ardent republican, and zealous in behalf of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he was long a member. Reared in Boone County, Siegel Workman attended its public schools, and, entering Marshall College, took a gen- eral course for one term, and then the commercial course. Returning to Boone County, he went into the timber and lumber business with Win. Osborn as his partner, and this connection was maintained from 1902 to 1908, when it was dissolved, and Mr. Workman became assistant cashier of the Madison National Bank, and held this position until April 1, 1922, when he was appointed to his present important office, to succeed his old partner, Mr. Osborn. Mr. Workman was a member of the Republican State Central Committee, serving from 1912 until 1920, and chairman of the Repub- lican Central Committee of Boone County. Mrs. Workman is a member of the Associate State Central Committee of Women, and was the only woman in Charleston in the fall of 1920 who was willing to go into Logan County and work for the success of the republican ticket. In 1917 Mr. Workman married Miss Eva Echols, a daugh- ter of Louis F. and Viola (Long) Echols, of Madison. Mr. Echols is county assessor of Boone County, and one of the leading farmers of this part of the state. For many years he was a dominating figure in the lumber business in his part of the state, and is a man of great influence in the republican party. Mr. and Mrs. Workman have one son, Siegel, Junior, born August 6, 1918. Mr. Workman is a thirty-second degree Scottish-rite Mason, and belongs to the Mystic Shrine. The local lodge of the Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks also holds his membership. In every- thing he has undertaken he has displayed commendable energy and unquestioned ability, and is one of the rising young men of Boone County, whose name is going to be associated with much higher honors than those already be- stowed upon him. Boone is his home county, and he is very proud of it, and anxious to insure its welfare in every par- ticular. Both he and his wife are ardent in their interest in politics, and she is one of the members of her sex who is justifying in marked degree the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. They are deservedly popular with all classes, and have friends of moment all over the state. ______________________________ X-Message: #3 Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2000 21:10:02 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000710210842.00b93bf0@mail.earthlink.net> Subject: BIO: GEORGE W. JENKINS, JR, Kanawha Co. WV Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed ********************* The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 494-495 Kanawha GEORGE W. JENKINS, JR. Among the school men of West Virginia perhaps none have heavier responsibilities than George W. Jenkins, county superintendent of the largest county in the state - Kanawha, with upwards of 800 teach- ers under his supervision. He is now in his second term, having been first elected to the office in 1914, so that all the extraordinary burdens and problems arising from and incident to the war period were added to the regular routine. Superintendent Jenkins has been in school work nearly all his life since boyhood. He is a native of Kanawha County, born on a farm six miles west of Charleston, at Guthrie, on May 25, 1887, son of George W. and Martha (Lynn) Jenkins. His father was born in the same house in 1848, only a short time after his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Jenkins, came to this locality from old Virginia. Thomas Jenkins settled in the woods, cleared away the timber to get a space for cultivating crops, and for a number of years operated a cooper shop on his farm. He died at the age of eighty-five. He was a leader in the local Methodist Episcopal Church. George W. Jenkins, Sr., is still living at the old homestead where he was born, and to it most of his active labors were devoted. He has been prominent in local affairs, serving as justice of the peace, for twenty years as Overseer of the poor for Union District, and he has acted as local crier in the United States District Court, being first appointed to that office by the late Judge Benjamin Keeler, and after his death was reappointed by Judge McClintic. He is a republican in politics. George W. Jenkins, Sr., was only thirteen years of age when the Civil war broke out, but subsequently he enlisted in Com- pany A of the Seventh Virginia Cavalry, and was the "baby" of his regiment and in service until the close of the war. His wife, Martha Lynn, was a neighbor girl, born on Sugar Creek, and she died about three years ago. There were nine children born to George W., Sr., and Martha Jenkins: Stacia, Mrs. Phil Stalnaker, of Charleston; Walter, a farmer; Ora, Mrs. George Hendrick, of Charles- ton; Mollie and Mattie, twins, the former the wife of Jo Eith, and the latter Mrs. Bascom Young; Eli, a farmer at Guthrie; Minnie, wife of Howard Casdorph; George W., Jr.; and Bessie, wife of Oscar Thaxton, of Charleston. George W. Jenkins, Jr., was educated in the country schools, in the Charleston High School, and had a com- mercial course. He taught ten years in the rural and graded schools of Kanawha County and for a time was principal of the Sugar Creek School. In 1914 he received the republican nomination for county superintendent of schools, was elected, and in 1918 re-elected. Mr. Jenkins is managing editor of the West Virginia School Journal and Educator, the state school paper. He married Miss Elsa Riley, of Ripley, Jackson County. She was educated in Marshall College at Huntington and West Virginia University, and was formerly a teacher in Kanawha County. Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins have three chil- dren : Frances Lynn, Ernestine and Helen Irene. Mr. Jenkins is a member of the Knights of Pythias and Mrs. Jenkins is a Pythian Sister, and both are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. ______________________________ X-Message: #4 Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2000 06:10:52 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000710222124.00c6cb40@mail.earthlink.net> Subject: BIO: FRED E. SUMMERS, Kanawha Co. Wv Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 501 Kanawha FRED E. SUMMERS. One of the newest and most distinc- tive of the department stores of Charleston is the F. E. Summers, a business that in two years' time has put itself among the most successful in the state. This business was incorporated in July, 1920, with a cap- ital of $100,000. It is a new business throughout. It now represents an investment of about $100,000, and the store occupies a four-story building and basement 120x36 feet, and since the first of the year the volume of sales have doubled. There are about twenty-five employes. Mr. Sum- mers promoted the business, coming to Charleston after a long experience as a merchant in the coal district. He is president and general manager, while his active associate is W. F. Hall, who is office manager, treasurer and vice president of the company. Mr. Summers was born at Lockwood in Nicholas County, December 29, 1885, and after a common school education he began at the age of fourteen to operate a railroad com- missary in a railroad construction plant. He has been in merchandising all his life. He was with the Loup Creek Colliery Company at Page, four years, with the McCall Coal and Coke Company at Kilsyth, four years, with the Pem- berton Coal & Coke Company at Affinity, as manager and buyer for two stores, four years, and then with the New River and Pocahontas Coal Company as manager of two stores which did an annual business of over $600,000. This was the experience he brought with him to Charleston in 1920. Personal attention to details, carefully selected stock sold on a small margin of profit, and a complete organiza- tion for courtesy and good service have made it one of the most popular stores in the capitol. Mr. Summers married Miss Emma Sampson, of Russell- ville, West Virginia, and they have two sons. Mr. Sum- mers is a Knight Templar, Mason and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine, and is a member of the Central Methodist Episcopal Church, South. ______________________________ X-Message: #5 Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2000 06:29:36 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000710210150.00bb9360@mail.earthlink.net> Subject: BIO: ADAM ROBERT SHEPHERD, Kanawha Co. WV Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 494 Kanawha ADAM ROBERT SHEPHERD. Members of the Shepherd family have played a prominent part in the affairs of Kanawha County for many years. The father of the pres- ent generation was instrumental in providing Charleston with its first public school, and also maintained a school of the highest class for the special training of young men. In lines of business the name has been hardly less con- spicuous. In public service A. R. Shepherd has an unusual record in the Legislature, in the fiscal management of county affairs, and he is now county assessor. A. R. Shepherd was born at Charleston, April 7, 1868. His father, John Shepherd, was born in Prince Edward County, Virginia, and finished his education in Hampden Sidney College. He came to Charleston to establish a high class private school, and that school trained the sons of many of the leading families of that day. As a member of the Board of Education he built the first school in Charleston, the old Union School Building. After that he taught a private school. About 1878 John Shepherd estab- lished a nursery eight miles out, in Union District. Ten years later he bought land in what is now South Charleston, and continued the nursery business there until 1905. After that he lived retired until his death in 1911, at the age of seventy-eight. He lived to see a considerable part of his old farm improved by buildings, marking the progress in the development of the important industrial suburb of South Charleston. His song succeeded to his nursery business, and continued it until the growth of South Charleston made it necessary for them to abandon the land for that purpose. John Shepherd married Louise Aultz. Her father, Adam Aultz, came when a young man from Rockbridge County, Virginia, and acquired some 1,100 acres of land nine miles out of Charleston. He was a slave owner, conducted farm- ing operations on an extensive scale, and was one of the most influential men in that section of the state. He died in 1868, at the age of seventy-eight. Louise Aultz was born on the farm in Kanawha County, and spent all her life there. She died in 1909, at the age of sixty-eight. Her five children are still living: Dr. C. W., of Spring Hill, Kanawha County; L. Ella, who was a teacher for twenty- five years in Kanawha County, and now lives on part of the old homestead; A. R. Shepherd; John King, living on part of the old home in South Charleston; and Mattie, wife of J. L. Paulley, of Raleigh County, West Virginia. A. R. Shepherd had a common school education, and for ten years, beginning at the age of twenty-one, he was asso- ciated with his father and brothers on the farm and in the nursery business. For sixteen years he conducted the Spring Hill General Mercantile establishment at Spring Hill in Kanawha County. He was made postmaster of that village in 1896, under McKinley's administration. Mr. Shepherd sold out his business at Spring Hill in 1915. For the following four years he was chief inspector under the State Public Service Commission. In 1920 he was repub- lican candidate for assessor, was elected and took over that office on January 1, 1921. He is now administering the assessor's office for the larg- est county in the state, and the business of the office requires ten assistants. Kanawha County has 40,000 sepa- rate parcels of real estate property and 36,000 personal property entries. The county is the largest in total valua- tion in the state, the total being $200,000,000 more than any other county. The great concentration of wealth in Kanawha County is due not only to the City of Charleston, but also to the oil, gas, coal and other mineral resources here. The business of the assessor's office is greatly in- creased by the necessity of inspection of every piece of property so as to avoid inequalities in placing the assess- ments. Mr. Shepherd recently read a paper on this sub- ject before the State Board of Assessors, and his views resulted in a new rule being made governing the assessment of coal and oil lands. His experience in the handling of public office began in 1907, when he was a member of the State Legislature and when the true valuation law was adopted. He served six years as county commissioner. Three years of this term he was president of the board. When he went into office the county had a floating debt of $235,000, and the county paper was worth only 80 cents on the dollar. While he was on the board the indebtedness was paid and a balance of about $100,000 was left in the treasury, and at the same time the tax rate was lower than ever before. Those in a position to judge, and in fact all property owners in Kan- awha County, recognize the fact that Mr. Shepherd in public office handles the business as he would a business of his own. He has been a prominent republican, a delegate to a number of conventions and was chairman of the senatorial committee and a member of the county committee. He has always been opposed to the liquor traffic, and while county commissioner refused to grant saloon licenses. Mr. Shepherd married Elizabeth Ellett, of Richmond, Virginia. Her brother-in-law, B. N. Burruss, was the business partner of Mr. Shepherd at Spring Hill. Mr. and Mrs. Shepherd have one son, Ellett N., who graduated from the Charleston High School in 1922. Mr. Shepherd is a Mason. ______________________________