WV-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 00 : Issue 177 Today's Topics: #1 BIO: PERRY FRENCH MARKS, M. D. Roa [Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000717221423.00c8b100@mail.earthlink.net> Subject: BIO: PERRY FRENCH MARKS, M. D. Roane 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. 541-542 Roane PERRY FRENCH MARKS, M. D. While he has very heavy responsibilities as the only physician and surgeon at Walton, Doctor Marks is also a leading farmer in that part of Roane County and is a prominent young man whose activities have earned him the highest esteem. Doctor Marks was born at Burning Springs, Wirt County, West Virginia, May 10, 1879. He comes of frontier stock. His great-grandfather, named Thomas Marks, was a native of France, and was a follower of General Lafayette in the expedition to the American Colonies in their straggle for independence. When the war was over he remained in America and ultimately settled in Gilmer County, West Virginia, where he spent the rest of his life on the frontier. His son, Morgan, was born near Glenville and. spent most of his career in Gilmer County, where he owned and conducted a large farm. He died near Arnoldsburg in Calhoun County in 1890. His wife, Sarah Jones, was also a native of Gilmer County, and died at Gandeeville in 1890. Cornelius J. Marks, father of Doctor Marks, was lorn near Glenville in Gilmer County in 1845, grew up there, and as a young man removed to Gandeeville in Roane County, where he married and where he owned and operated a large and valuable farm. He was a Union soldier at the time of the Civil war, enlisting in 1862 in Company B, of the 9th West Virginia Infantry. In the battle of Cloyd Mountain he was struck four times by enemy bullets, being wounded in the shoulder and in the chin. He voted as a republican, and was a member of the Masonic fraternity. Cornelius J. Marks, who died at Gandeeville in 1912, mar- ried Louise Hays, still living at Gandeeville. She was born near Richardson in Calhoun County in 1844. Her children were: Howard, who operates the homestead farm and lives with his mother; Roanna, who died at Richardson in 1910, wife of Frank Connolly, a farmer in that section; Floyd, who died at the age of three years; Chessie, who is the wife of Dr. W. C. Camp, a prominent physician at Spencer; Perry French; Harry, a barber at Blue Creek in Kanawha County; George, an attorney by profession and now doing the work of an oil company in Louisiana; William, a farmer near Walton; Walter, who died at Colorado Springs in 1911, was a teacher in Mingo and Roane counties; Nellie died at the age of twenty-one and MeKinley, at the age of fifteen. Doctor Marks showed a studious disposition as a boy, and his inclinations were for a profession rather than the career of a farmer. He grew up in the country, attended the rural schools, and at the age of nineteen began teaching. This work he continued in Roane County for six years. He then entered the medical department of the University of Louisville, where he graduated M. D. in 1907, and took another general medical course at Louisville in 1910. Doctor Marks for a brief time in 1907 was contract physician for the Gauley Consolidated and Bell Creek Coal Company at Belva in Nicholas County, and during the same year re- moved to Walton, where now for fifteen years he has been the doctor for the community, the only member of his profession in that locality. His modern home and offices are on Cunningham Street, and he also has 140 acres of land there and eighty acres near Gandeeville. In farming he makes a specialty of fine stock, raising Hampshire sheep and Hereford and thoroughbred Jersey cattle. Doctor Marks has served as president of the Board of Education of Walton for six years, and has represented his district in the county, state and senatorial conventions of the republican party. He is affiliated with Walton Lodge No. 150, F. and A. M., Spencer Chapter No. 42, R. A. M, Kanawha Commandery No 4, K. T., West Virginia con- sistory No. 1 of the Scottish Bite at Wheeling, Beni- Kedem Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Charleston. He is also an Odd Fellow, and is a member of the Roane County Medical Society. Doctor Marks is a stockholder in the Poca Valley Bank of Walton and the first National Bank of Spencer. During the war he was an active worker in behalf of the various patriotic drives, and was himself in the draft, but could not respond to the call to the colors because of influenza which he had contracted during the fall of 1918. At Point Pleasant in Mason County July 17, 1907, Doctor Marks married Miss Josephine Byrd. Mrs. Marks is a graduate of the Mountain State Business College at Parkers- burg, and for eighteen months before her marriage was a stenographer at the Spencer State Hospital for the Insane. She now performs the duties of postmistress at Walton. Doctor and Mrs. Marks have two children: Perry F., Jr., born December 31, 1911; and Cornelius F., born April 5, 1915. ______________________________ X-Message: #2 Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2000 22:16:21 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000717221558.00c9c430@mail.earthlink.net> Subject: BIO: WALTER S. HALLANAN, Cabell 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. 543 Cabell WALTER S. HALLANAN. State Tax Commissioner Walter S. Hallanan, one of the youngest and most popular officials at the state capitol, has had a remarkable career as a journalist and public official. Born at Huntington, West Virginia, in 1890, he is the son of Dr. Thomas and Martha (Blake) Hallanan. His father died October 15, 1921, at the Hallanan homestead in Barboursville, after a long and distinguished career as a physician and writer. His mother still resides at Barboursville. Most of Mr. Hallanan's life was spent in Cabell County. He was educated in the public schools at Huntington and afterward was graduated from Morris Harvey College at Barboursville. Immediately after finishing college he en- tered the newspaper field, being employed as a reporter on the Huntington Herald. He shortly afterward became editor of the paper, and in 1909, when the paper con- solidated with The Dispatch, he became managing editor of The Huntington Herald-Dispatch, one of the state's leading dailies. Mr. Hallanan first attracted state-wide attention in con- nection with his handling of the publicity bureau of the Republican State Committee during the campaign of 1916. The republican forces in the state were divided on the Taft-Roosevelt issue, and to his tact and ability in main- taining the common interest of both factions in the state ticket is credited the success of the republican party in West Virginia during the campaign. West Virginia was the only normal republican state which elected a repub- lican governor that fall. Mr. Hallanan gave up journalism in 1913, when he was appointed private secretary to Governor Henry D. Hat- field. On March 1, 1917, near the close of Governor Hatfield's term of office, he was appointed state tax com- missioner. In September, 1921, at the annual meeting of the National Tax Association, Mr. Hallanan was elected a member of the executive committee of the association. By virtue of his office as state tax commissioner Mr. Hallanan became prohibition commissioner of West Vir- ginia, and his record as a law enforcement officer and his splendid administration of the duties of the tax com- missioner's office have won for him universal trust and admiration. Mr. Hallanan was a member of the West Virginia Elec- toral College in the presidential campaign of 1920. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and is an active participant in church affairs. Mr. Hallanan married Miss Imogene Burns, of Hunt- ington, West Virginia, and in October, 1921, their marriage was blessed by a son, Walter S. Hallanan, Jr. ______________________________ X-Message: #3 Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2000 22:16:57 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000717221633.00c6c6a0@mail.earthlink.net> Subject: BIO: HERMAN MORRISSEY BROWN, Cabell 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. 543-544 Cabell HERMAN MORRISSEY BROWN, who is giving most effective administration as superintendent of construction for the International Nickel Company at Huntington, was born at Liberty (now Bedford), Virginia, on the 25th of May, 1884. His father, Charles C. Brown, now a resident of Roanoke, Virginia, was born at Panther Springs, Tennessee, in 1852, and was there given his early education. After the close of the Civil war his parents moved to Prospect, Virginia, and later he became a locomotive fireman for the Norfolk & Western Railroad, with headquarters at Lynchburg, Vir- gina. He won advancement to the position of engineer, and is now trial engineer for the same railroad company, with residence at Roanoke, where he and his wife have main- tained their home since 1886 and where he is an active mem- ber of the Masonic fraternity. At Liberty, Virginia, was solemnized the marriage of Charles C. Brown and Miss Millie E. Morrissey, who was born at Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1857, and of their children the subject of this review is the eldest; Albert is general foreman at the roundhouse of the Norfolk & Western Railroad at Bluefield, West Virginia; James W. is assistant chief clerk to the superintendent of motive power for the same railroad at Roanoke, Virginia; Charles C., Jr., is secretary to the superintendent of trans- portation of the same railroad; and Eleanor remains at the parental home. Herman M. Brown attended St. Andrew's School at Roanoke, Virginia, until he was sixteen years old, and thereafter he worked in turn in a foundry and a blacksmith shop in that city. In 1901 he found employment as a laborer in the service of the Norfolk & Western Railroad, and later served an apprenticeship as a machinist in the shops of the company. At the completion of his apprentice- ship he took a position as a draftsman in the offices of this railroad company at Roanoke, and the opportunity present- ing, he entered the engineer of tests department, conducting a seven months test in one of their fast passenger trains operating between Richmond and Norfolk, Virginia. Leav- ing the services of the N. & W., he entered the services of the American Locomotive Company and later allied with the automobile industry, which at that time was just be- ginning. Later he entered the services of the C. & O. Eail- road Company at Richmond, Virginia as draughtsman, from which position he was promoted to roundhouse foreman at Huntington, and in October, 1907, he was made general fore- man at Thurmond, West Virginia, where he remained two years, the next year having been passed in a similar position at Handley. He was then transferred to Hinton, this state, and became master mechanic. In 1911 he was made master mechanic of the Cincinnati division, with headquarters at Covington, Kentucky, and in 1912 he returned to Huntington, where he served as shop superintendent for the same com- pany. During the war he was of service to the Government at Watervleit Arsenal. On January 1, 1921, he resigned his position and accepted his present office, that of superin- tendent of construction for the International Nickel Com- pany, a position that he is well qualified to fill due to pre- vious opportunities offered and which has been demonstrated in the beautiful plant that is now rapidly nearing com- pletion. The general offices of the above company are at 67 Wall Street, New York City. He is at the present time superin- tending the construction of the company's new plant at Guyandotte, a suburb of Huntington. Here will be the company's only rolling mill, and the plant will be one of the largest and most important placed in operation by this corporation. A force of 400 men will be required to initiate operations, and with the normal expansion of the business this force will be materially increased. Mr. Brown is a stockholder in the Guyandotte Bank and is vice president and chief designer for the Fordette Engine Company of Huntington. He is a democrat. He and his wife are communicants of the Catholic Church, and he is a director of the Huntington Chamber of Commerce, and is affiliated with Roanoke Council No. 562, Knights of Columbus, at Roanoke, Virginia, and with Hinton (West Virginia) Lodge, No. 821, B. P. O. E. He maintains his permanent residence in Huntington, and is the owner of his modern home property, at 1411 Sixth Avenue. On the 12th of June, 1908, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Brown and Miss Catherine Mae Furlong, at the Sacred Heart Church, Norfolk, Virginia. She is a daughter of James P. and Jane Furlong, the former of whom, a ship chandler by vocation, died at Norfolk, Virginia, and the latter now resides at Willoughby Beach, that state. Mr. and Mrs. Brown have three children, whose names and dates of birth are here recorded: Charles James, July, 1910; Mary Eleanor, May 25, 1914; and Herman M., Jr., January 25, 1920.