WV-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 00 : Issue 174 Today's Topics: #1 BIO: ULYSSES SIMPSON JARRETT, Kana [Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000716212154.00cc99e0@mail.earthlink.net> Subject: BIO: ULYSSES SIMPSON JARRETT, 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. 520-521 Kanawha ULYSSES SIMPSON JARRETT. For over thirty years Mr. Jarrett has been a working force in all that concerns the growth and progress of the little community of St. Albans. In that time St. Albans has grown from a very small village to one of the thriving little cities of Kanawha County. He was in charge of the business of the railroad at this point for a number of years, has been a merchant, head of the city government, and is now postmaster. Mr. Jarrett was born on Cabin Creek, Kanawha County, June 26, 1870. The Jarrett family has been represented by several branches of the name in Kanawha County since pioneer times. One of the original settlers was Owen Jar- rett, who came from Greenbrier County, and was the second man to settle on Elk River at Jarrett's Ford in Kanawha County. He died at the age of fifty-three. Eli Jarrett, a son of Owen, spent his life at the old farm and died in 1897. His wife was Nancy Newhouse, daughter of Michael Newhouse. She died in 1899, at the age of eighty-eight. Her children were Squire Bennett, Eli T., John T., Mark S., Mary E., who married Marshall De Pew of Roane County, Caroline, who married Burdett Price of Elk River, and Nancy Catherine, who married D. S. Jarrett. Another repre- sentative of the name was William R. Jarrett, a grandson of William Jarrett and a son of Strawther Jarrett. Wil- liam R. spent his life mainly on Elk River, and in his last year kept a hotel on Kanawha Street in Charleston. His son Strawther, born in 1848, and died June 22, 1898, was a cooper by trade and made salt barrels and later was identi- fied with gas production. He married Nancy Young, and their son, William R., has been in the postoffice service at Charleston since 1895 and became superintendent of mills in 1908. The parents of U. S. Jarrett were Addison and Margaret (Keeny) Jarrett. Margaret Keeny was a daughter of Moses Keeny, representing another old family. Addison Jarrett spent thirteen years of his life in Missouri, near St. Joseph, and was a member of the Home Guard there during the Civil war. He returned to West Virginia about 1868 and located at Cabin Creek. He was a carpenter, and he worked at this trade for thirty years with one coal com- pany. He died at the age of seventy-four and his wife, at seventy. Their two sons were John A., a former sheriff of Kanawha County, and U. S., who was named for General Grant, then President. U. S. Jarrett attended country schools, at the age of fifteen learned telegraphy, and for twenty years was in the service of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Company as telegraph operator and agent. He was assigned to duty at St. Albans in 1889 as operator, and became agent in 1893, continuing in that capacity for eight years. When he came to St. Albans in 1889 the place had a population of only 100. There are now between 3,000 and 4,000 people living in this community. After leaving the railroad service in 1901 Mr. Jarrett was in the hardware business, was also deputy revenue agent, for a time resumed work as a tele- graph operator, and during Taft's administration was appointed postmaster. He held that office until the change of administration, and later was called back to the duties of postmaster for a year and a half during Wilson's second term. Soon after the Harding administration came in he was selected as postmaster, and his present term began January 1, 1922. The business done by the postoffice while he has been connected with it is a graphic illustration of the growth of St. Albans itself. The receipts of the office are two times now what they were when he first became post- master. The receipts now average about $12,000 per year. There are four clerks and two rural carriers. Mr. Jarrett has been interested in all civic movements in St. Albans, and he served eight terms as mayor and twice as a member of the city council and also a city recorder. He is a member of the Baptist Church, and is a past master of the Masonic Lodge and has represented it in the Grand Lodge. Mr. Jarrett married Clara A. Henley, whose father, Capt. C. W. Henley, was a Confederate officer and later a builder of railroad tunnels along the line of the Chesapeake & Ohio. He died at the age of seventy-four. Mr. and Mrs. Jarrett have one daughter, Margaret J., now a student in Lewisburg Seminary. ______________________________ X-Message: #2 Date: Sun, 16 Jul 2000 22:29:47 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000716222947.00b995f0@mail.earthlink.net> Subject: BIO: EVERETT MCDOWELL HARMAN, Mingo 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. 505 Mingo EVERETT MCDOWELL HARMAN was born September 22, 1880, at Ennis, West Virginia, and is a son of Frank P. and Eugenia A. (Edwards) Harman, natives of Floyd County, Virginia, and a member of an old and honored family of the Old Dominion. His father, one of the pioneer West Virginia coal operators, still possesses large and valuable coal interests, and among other interests is presi- dent of the Lynn Coal and Coke Company of Matewan, West Virginia, the Turkey Gap Coal Company of Dott, this state, and the Premier Pocahontas Colliery Company. During the greater part of the time he makes his home at Washington, D. C., and was at one time president of the Commercial National Bank of the national capital, but resigned several years ago. He came into the Pocahontas District at the time of its discovery, in 1886, and, in fact with Bowen and Cooper shares the credit for having discovered this field. He himself opened up all the properties of which he is presi- dent, and turned over to his son for opening the holdings in the Pigeon Creek District. The education of Everett McDowell Harman was acquired in the public school at Salem, Virginia, the high school at Lynchburg, that state, and the Virginia Polytechnic, a semi-military institution, where he pursued a two-year course in civil engineering, but did not graduate. On leav- ing school he went to New Mexico, where he spent about one year on a ranch owned by his father, and then returned and went to work for the Freeburn Coal and Coke Company in Pike County, Kentucky, where he remained about a year. His father then selling that property, Mr. Harman came to West Virginia with the Premier Pocahontas Colliery Company, in the capacity of assistant superintendent, a position which he retained for two years, his next location being at Matewan, where he took charge of the Lynn and Allburn Coal and Coke Company as superintendent. In May, 1921, Mr. Harman located at Burch Post Office and opened the Puritan Mine, thus securing the credit for open- ing the first mine in the Pigeon Creek District. In opening the Pigeon Creek property Mr. Harman has what is known as the Thacker seam and the Winifred seam, both of which will ship from the one tipple. The first ship- ment from this district was made July 30, 1921. The prod- uct is a high volatile coal, and the property will produce 3,000 tons daily. In the operation of the Puritan Mine Mr. Harman is on the ground daily, mingling with his men and looking after their interests in a way seldom noted among the proprietors. He is unmarried, belongs to a number of organizations, and is extremely popular wherever known. ______________________________ X-Message: #3 Date: Sun, 16 Jul 2000 22:29:47 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000716222947.00b9a390@mail.earthlink.net> Subject: BIO: WILLIAM H. SPIKER, Preston 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. 507 Preston WILLIAM H. SPIKER is a leading merchant and business man at Clifton Mills in Preston County. His family is an old and honored one in that section of West Virginia, and further reference to it is made on other pages of this publication. William H. Spiker was born in Pleasant District, No- vember 2, 1872. His father is the venerable John J. Spiker, of Bruceton Mills, a retired farmer and hotel man and a veteran of the Civil war. William H. Spiker is a brother of Calvin F. Spiker, also of Bruceton Mills. William H. Spiker was seven years of age when his parents moved, in 1879, to Grant District, where he ac- quired most of his education in Mountain Grove School, with also two terms of normal institute work. For two terms he taught in Pleasant District and then for a dozen years followed the vocation of farming. When he left farming he engaged in merchandising at Bruceton Mills as successor to the firm of Wolfe & Heimbaugh, at the old Harader stand, where since 1909 he has conducted a thriving and prosperous business under the firm name of William H. Spiker. His is a general business enterprise, affording an effective service not only for imported supplies and goods but also as a means of marketing the surplus products of the community. He operates a trading outfit between Clifton Mills and Uniontown, Pennsylvania, and buys practically any merchantable commodity offered for sale and sends it to market over the railroads. Mr. Spiker has also done an effective part in local citizenship. He has served as a member of the Board of Education, was for six years postmaster of Clifton Mills, under the Taft and a portion of the Roosevelt administrations, and is notary public of the community, receiving his commission from Governor Cornwell. In Preston County, April 8, 1896, he married Miss Birdie Liston, daughter of Abraham and Lyda (Wolfe) Liston, and granddaughter of Henson Listen and Jacob Wolfe. This is the old and prominent Wolfe family of Preston County. Henson Liston was a Union soldier in the Civil war, spent all his life in Preston County and is buried in the Liston graveyard near Rockville. Abraham and Lyda Liston had the following children: Mrs. Birdie Spiker. who was born in Grant District, January 10, 1876; Callie, Mrs. H. V. Rhoardrs, of Haydentown, West Virginia; Lloyd, a minister of the Church of the Brethren, living near Moun- tain Grove, where for many years he has been a school teacher; Hosea, a coal miner near Morgantown; and Charles, a carpenter at Morgantown. Hosea and Charles Liston were soldiers in the World war, Hosea in the Motor Battalion and Charles in the Infantry. Both were over- seas and at the front. Charles participated in the battles and campaigns of Belleau Wood, St. Mihiel and the Argonne. Both brothers were overseas about two years and returned to the United States in 1919. Mrs. Spiker was educated in the country schools of Grant District. They were married by Rev. C. E. Feather, of the Methodist Church, in which denomination Mr. Spiker was reared. Mr. and Mrs. Spiker have two children, Ora M. and Lena May. ______________________________ X-Message: #4 Date: Sun, 16 Jul 2000 22:30:48 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000716223028.00ba4100@mail.earthlink.net> Subject: BIO: EUGENE CARL FRAME, Marion 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. 508 Marion EUGENE CARL FRAME, a prominent member of the Marion County bar and a loyal and popular citizen of Fairmont, the county seat, was born at Coolville, Athens County, Ohio, September 2, 1872, and is a son of Augustus J. and Har- riet (Smith) Frame. Augustus J. Frame was born at Coolville in 1835, and his death occurred in 1908. His father, John Frame, was a young man when he came from his native Ireland and settled in Athens County, Ohio, where he passed the remainder of his life. Augustus J. Frame became a successful merchant and influential citizen of Athens County, where he held public office-county treas- urer and county auditor-for a total period of twenty-six years. His wife was born at Letart, Meigs County, Ohio, in 1841, and died in 1884. Eugene C. Frame attended the public schools at Cool- ville and Athens, Ohio, and in addition to taking a course in the law department of the University of West Virginia he furthered his technical knowledge by the study of law in the office of Berkshire & Sturgiss, a leading law firm at Morgantown. He was admitted to the bar in 1895, and he gave twenty years of effective service as official court re- porter in Monongalia, Marion and Harrison counties. Dur- ing Judge Sturgiss' administration as United States dis- trict attorney Mr. Frame was his official secretary and law clerk. Since 1897 he has been engaged in active practice at Fairmont, and within this period he has been a prominent figure in much of the important litigation in the courts of this part of the state. In 1911 he became junior mem- ber of the law firm of Showalter & Frame, and this effective alliance continued until January 1, 1921, when the senior member of the firm, Judge Emmet M. Showalter assumed his seat on the bench of the Criminal Court of Marion County. Since that time Mr. Frame has continued his prac- tice in an individual way. Mr. Frame is a past master of Fairmont Lodge No. 9, A. F. and A. M.; is a past high priest of Oriental Chapter No. 6, R. A. M.; past eminent commander of Crusade Commandery, Knights Templars; and in Sovereign Con- sistory No. 1 of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of the Masonic fraternity at Wheeling he has received the thirty-second degree. In November, 1921, he was made deputy grand master of the Masonic Grand Lodge of West Virginia. In 1895 Mr. Frame wedded Miss Nellie Lee Haymond, daughter of Lindsey B. and Alice (Comerford) Haymond, of Fairmont. Mr. Haymond was one of the leading mem- bers of the Marion County bar and was serving as prose- cuting attorney of the county at the time of his death. He was a son of the late Judge Alpheus F. Haymond, who served twelve years on the bench of the Supreme Court of West Virginia and who is more specifically men- tioned on other pages of this work, especially in the per- sonal sketch of Judge William S. Haymond of Fairmont. Mr. and Mrs. Frame have two children: Lindsey A., who was born October 31, 1896, graduated from the Fair- mont High School and the State Normal School in this city, and thereafter continued his studies in the University of Ohio. When the nation became involved in the World war he enlisted in the United States Navy, in which he served as gunner's mate. He is now engaged in the fruit-orchard and poultry business at Hancock, Maryland. He married Miss Mary Emmet, of Columbus, Ohio. James C., the younger son, was born September 9, 1899, and is a graduate of the Fairmont. High School and the State Normal School, as well as of the University of Ohio, and he is now associated with his brother in business at Han- cock, Maryland. ______________________________ X-Message: #5 Date: Sun, 16 Jul 2000 22:31:03 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000716223028.00ba5100@mail.earthlink.net> Subject: BIO: FRENCH M. FARNSWORTH, Upshur 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. 511-512 Upshur FRENCH M. FARNSWORTH is a doctor of dental surgery, carrying on a successful practice at Buckhannon. He is a son of Dr. F. F. Farnsworth, one of the officials of the State Health Department at Charleston. French Farnsworth was born at Holly Grove in Upshur County, August 11, 1891, son of F. F. and Lasora (Martin) Farnsworth. His father was born at Buckhannon, April 2, 1869, and his mother, at Holly Grove, November 25, 1868. Dr. F. F. Farnsworth was reared at Buckhannon, is a gradu- ate of Union College and the Maryland Medical College, and has had a highly successful career both in his profession and in educational and public affairs. He practiced nine years at French Creek in Upshur County, West Virginia. Altogether he devoted seventeen years to teaching and school administration, being superintendent of the Buck- hannon schools from 1900 to 1903. For several years he has been director of the Bureau of Venereal Diseases under the State Health Department at Charleston. Doctor Farns- worth is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church; is a master Mason and a prominent republican. He was a mem- ber of the Legislature in the session of 1913, and for three years was president of the State Board of Health, being appointed by Governor Hatfield. Dr. F. F. Farnsworth has four children: Dr. French M.; L. E., station agent at Clay Court House, West Virginia; Ora, a graduate of the Charleston High School and now employed in the Public Health Department at Charleston; and Dorsy A., who is a graduate of the Charleston High School and a student in the Indiana Dental College. French M. Farnsworth was reared at French Creek, finished his literary education in the Glenville Normal School, and in 1912 graduated from the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery. For the past ten years he has enjoyed a large practice as a dentist at Buckhannon, and is a mem- ber in good standing of the Monongahela Valley State and National Dental societies. He is a stockholder in several business enterprises in Buckhannon. On August 4, 1913, Doctor Farnsworth married Edna Bunten, a graduate of Shepherd College. They have one son, Neil B., born June 18, 1918. Doctor and Mrs. Farns- worth are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he has served on the official board. In Masonry he is affiliated with Franklin Lodge No. 7, A. F. and A. M., Upshur Chapter No. 34, R. A. M., Buckhannon Commandery No. 25, K. T., and in the Scottish Rite is affiliated with Mizpah Lodge of Perfection No. 5 and the Knights of the Rose Croix No. 5 at Clarksburg. Both he and Mrs. Farns- worth are members of the Eastern Star.