WV-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 00 : Issue 184 Today's Topics: #1 BIO: WILLIAM HOMER WILSON, M. D., [Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000722220422.00c9ac90@mail.earthlink.net> Subject: BIO: WILLIAM HOMER WILSON, M. D., 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. 528-529 Kanawha WILLIAM HOMER WILSON, M. D. The First National Bank of St. Albans, of which Doctor Wilson is president, is an institution that has combined conservative banking with effective service to the community. A number of the best known citizens in that part of Kanawha County have been executive officers and directors of the bank. The bank was established in January, 1910, and its capital is still maintained at $25,000, while the surplus and profits are nearly equal to the capital. The organizer of the bank was C. J. Pearson, who was its president until 1921. When he removed from St. Albans and resigned he was succeeded in August, 1921, by Dr. W. H. Wilson, who was one of the original directors and had been vice president for one year before his election to the presidency. The original vice president was M. W. Stark, who about two years ago left St. Albans. The first cashier was R. C. Sweet, who sold his interest to S. D. McGee, who for two years has been vice president and cashier. The bank now has total re- sources of about $500,000, and the deposits equal over eighty per cent of the resources. The bank has steadily paid dividend, and its stock is worth over $200. Dr. W. H. Wilson was born at St. Albans, November 14, 1875. Oliver T. Wilson, his father, a building contractor, was also born at St. Albans, son of Samuel and Parthia (Teays) Wilson. Samuel Wilson came from Virginia when a young man and was a farmer and tobacco manufacturer. He died at the age of ninety-two, and his son Oliver T., at the age of seventy-three. Oliver T. Wilson married Mary C. Carpenter, and she is living. Dr. W. H. Wilson grew up at St. Albans, where he at- tended the public schools, and in 1898 graduated from the Baltimore Medical College. He was at Washington the day the first shot was fired in the Spanish-American war. For three years he practiced as assistant physician in the insane asylum at Spencer, and another three years in the Hospital for the Insane at Huntington. This was a wonderful ex- perience and a valuable training preceding his private prac- tice. Since 1904 he has been engaged in a general practice at St. Albans, and is an able physician and surgeon as well as a successful banker. He is a member of the Kanawha County, West Virginia State and American Medical Asso- ciations. Doctor Wilson has served several times on the St. Albans Council and also as mayor. He has been vice president and president of the Board of Trade, and is president of the High Lawn Land Company. He is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, a member of the Knights of Pythias and president of the Rotary Club. Doctor Wilson married Kate L. Lackey, of St. Albans. ______________________________ X-Message: #2 Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2000 22:24:33 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000722220422.00c9fe20@mail.earthlink.net> Subject: BIO: CLAUDE FREDERICK CUNNINGHAM, Cabell 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. 528 Cabell CLAUDE FREDERICK CUNNINGHAM is an engineer by pro- fession, was associated with railroad and other construction work for a number of years, and since locating at Hunting- ton has carried on a large business with his private capital in the buying and selling of timber and mineral lands. He is also the present county surveyor of Cabell County. Mr. Cunningham, who was born at Wallace in Harrison County, West Virginia, represents a branch of the Cunning- ham family that came out of Ireland to Virginia in Colonial times. His great-great-grandfather was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. His grandfather, Walter J. Cunning- ham, was born in old Virginia in 1832, and spent the greater part of his life as a farmer in Marion County, West Virginia, where he died at Peoria in 1903. He was a Union soldier in the Civil war. He married a Miss Walker, a native of old Virginia, who died in Marion County. Ekana F. Cunningham, father of the Huntington business man, was born in Marion County, November 9, 1848, and as a young man removed to Harrison County, where he married and where he followed the trade and business of carpenter in the vicinity of Clarksburg. In 1911 he moved his family to Clarksburg, and died in that city November 6. 1921. He was a republican, a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and in 1865 he enlisted and served during the few remaining months of the Civil war. Ekana F. Cunningham married Selana Hannah, who was born in Har- rison County in 1844 and died at Bulltown in Braxton County in 1900. Their children were: Mattie, who died when one year old; Claude Frederick, who was born June 30, 1883; Clyde, who died at the age of four years; Clint, who died when nine years old; and Maude, wife of Charles Gaines, dispatcher for the Street Electric Railway Company at Clarksburg. Claude Frederick Cunningham spent his younger life in a county district of Harrison County, attending school there and later, as his practical work and experience showed the need of it, he took correspondence courses and civil en- gineering with the American Correspondence School of Chicago and the International Correspondence School of Scranton. In the meantime, in 1903, at the age of twenty, he went to work in the engineer corps of the Wabash Railway, serving 1 1/2 years in the capacity of rodman, for one year was instrument man with the C. C. & C. Railroad, for two years was transit man with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, and was then promoted and for four years was stationed at Barboursville, West Virginia, as resident engineer. In the meantime he had studied diligently in the general field of engineering, and had completed his correspondence courses in 1908. When Mr. Cunningham resigned from the Chesapeake and Ohio service in 1912 he took work as assistant engineer with the Louisville and Nashville Railroad at Birmingham, Alabama for three months, but in August of the same year came to Huntington, where he had an extensive business in the general practice of civil engineering until 1915. Since that year he has devoted his chief time and his capital to the real estate business, buying farms, coal lands and timber lands, handling all such transactions on his own account and doing no brokerage business. His offices are in the Stevenson Building at 1123-27 Fourth Avenue. Mr. Cunningham was elected county surveyor of Cabell County in November, 1920, beginning his term of four years on January 1, 1921. He is a republican, and in the order of Masonry is affiliated with Minerva Lodge No. 13, A. F. and A. M., at Barboursville, Lodge of Perfection No. 4, and Knights of Rose Croix No. 4 of the Scottish Bite at Huntington, West Virginia Consistory No. 1 at Wheeling, and ia a member of the Masonic Club of Wheeling, and Huntington Lodge No. 313, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. On October 14, 1911, at Huntington, Mr. Cunningham married Miss Beulah Thompson, daughter of Robert T. and Ada (Burns) Thompson, residents of Cincinnati, where her father is a passenger conductor with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad. Mr. and Mrs. Cunningham have one son, Jack, born April 4, 1918. ______________________________ X-Message: #3 Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2000 22:29:55 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000722220422.00ca1ea0@mail.earthlink.net> Subject: BIO: FRANK P. REASE, Barbour 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. 530-531 Barbour FRANK P. REASE, who is familiarly known by his title of captain, which he gained in his youth as a captain of a river boat, has been a prominent figure in connection with civic and industrial development and progress in West Virginia, where he is one of the representative and influential citizens of Belington, Barbour County. Captain Rease was born near Corning, Steuben County, New York, October 6, 1862, and is a son of Peter and Lucy N. (Watrous) Rease, the former of whom was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the latter in Susquehanna County, that state. Peter Rease was born in the year 1808, and he became a successful merchant at Corning, New York, where also he conducted a hotel and was engaged in the manufacturing of lime, his death having there occurred in June, 1873, and his widow, who was born February 12, 1814, having died in 1888. Both were earnest communicants of the Protestant Episcopal Church and he was a democrat in politics. Of their children the eldest, Morris, who served as captain of engineers in the Union army in the Civil war, eventually became chief engineer of the Union Pacific Rail- road, and he retained this position until his death at St. Louis, Missouri. Louise married B. N. Wentz, and after his death became the wife of A. J. Owen, her death having oc- curred at Wyalusing, Pennsylvania. Henry, a Union soldier in the Civil war, took part in the historic Red River cam- paign under General Banks, and died while in service and is buried at New Orleans. Helen is the wife of William H. Herrick, of Hollywood, California. Frank P., of this review, is the youngest of the number. Capt. Frank Pierce Rease gained his early education in the public schools of Corning, New York, where he com- pleted the curriculum of the high school. In connection with his father's business activities he early became iden- tified with the operation of canal boats, and he served as captain of boats plying between Corning, New York, and Newark, New Jersey, in the transportation of lumber, steel rails and limestone. He was captain of a boat when but sixteen years of age, and continued his service until he was nineteen, when he was made superintendent of the Corning quarry which supplied stone for the building of the State Reformatory at Elmyra and for the Beecher Church in that city. Leaving this position, he became outside superintendent of mines for the Fallbrook Coal & Railroad Company at Fallbrook, Pennsylvania, where he re- mained two years. This was during the reign of the "Molly Maguires," an unlawful organization which at- tempted to dictate policies in operating mines and the members of which became outlaws by the thousands, the while they terrorized mining communities and shed much innocent blood. Captain Rease gained the enmity of this organization and caricature of skull and cross- bones was placed on the door of his home as a warning. After leaving Fallbrook he was transferred to Corning as baggage master and freight agent on the railroad oper- ated by the same company, and finally became a train conductor. January 1, 1880, he became general super- intendent of the Butler Colliery Company at Pittston, Penn- sylvania, in the service .of which corporation he continued twelve years. He then, in 1892, came to West Virginia to assume charge of development work for the United States Coal & Iron Company in Randolph County, where he opened the company's first mine and erected its first tipple, at Harding. He became concerned also in the construction of the company's service railroad, and soon after the com- pletion of the Roaring Creek & Charleston Railroad, the Roaring Creek & Belington line also was constructed, this work having been done under the auspices of the Berwind, White Coal Mining Company, which bought out the other concern. The Belington & Beaver Creek Railroad was next built, between Belington and Weaver, to open up the coal owned by Captain Rease himself, the road having been built by Rease and Weaver. Captain Rease managed the mines and several railroads until 1901, when the properties were sold, the railroad lines being absorbed by other railroad companies. Captain Rease then turned his attention to other devel- opment work, including the construction of the Consumers Heat, Light, Water & Power Company's plant at Beling- ton. He was the originator of the enterprise for utilizing the power of the Middle Fork of the Tygart River in the developing of a system for the supplying of water and elec- tricity for adjoining cities and towns of this section of the state. In this connection the Highland Water and Power Company was organized. They made surveys through Fair- mont, Grafton and other places, and then sold the con- trolling interest to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, which has failed thus far to institute further development work. Captain Rease is still interested in mining properties that are producing coal successfully, and is still Southern representative of the Berwind, White Coal Mining Company. He was associated in the establishment of the first banking institution at Belington, and was president of the Beling- ton National Bank until its consolidation with the First National Bank, of which he continues a director. He has lived at Belington since it was a village of less than 100 population, and has been an Influential force in the devel- opment and upbuilding of the now thriving little city, of which he has served several terms as mayor, besides having been president of the Board of Education. He cast his first presidential vote for Samuel J. Tilden, and has since continued unfaltering allegiance to the democratic party. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity. On the 7th of January, 1873, at Corbettsville, New York, Captain Rease wedded Miss Anna C. Corbett, who was born at Corbettsville, that state, April 10, 1852, a daughter of Ira and Juliette (Bowes) Corbett. Mr. Corbett was born in Broome County, New York, and was there a successful farmer and extensive lumber manufacturer. Mrs. Rease was the sixth in a family of five sons and five daughters, of whom two sons and four daughters are living at the time of this writing, in 1922. Captain and Mrs. Rease be- came the parents of three children: Lena is the wife of A. H. Woodford, of Belington, and they have three chil- dren; Adelaide died in young womanhood; and Louanna is the wife of Rev. A. C. Carty, chaplain at the United States Navy Yard at Philadelphia, they having one child. ______________________________ X-Message: #4 Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2000 22:32:44 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000722220422.00ca3100@mail.earthlink.net> Subject: BIO: FRENCH ARLINGTON YOKE, Monongalia 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. 529 Monongalia FRENCH ARLINGTON YOKE. There is no class of men in the country today who are performing a more important service than that which has for its object the proper instruc- tion of the rising generation through the medium of the public-school system. The conscientious educator of the twentieth century does not consider his obligation to his pupil by any means discharged when he has heard him recite, or has imparted to him the subject matter of the textbook. These duties are really of a secondary importance compared with the urgent need for awakening in the plastic mind a desire for further information and an appreciation of the high ideals in every walk of life. One of the young men of Monongalia County whose life so far has been de- voted to the highest kind of educational work is French Arlington Yoke, superintendent of the Piedmont city schools, whose success in his chosen calling is generally recognized, and whose usefulness as a citizen is unques- tioned. French Arlington Yoke was born on Stone Coal Creek, Lewis County, West Virginia, April 18, 1891, and he is a son of Solomon Gordon Yoke, and grandson of John Yoke, the founder of the family in West Virginia, who came of English, Irish and Dutch descent. Professor Yoke can trace his family back in this country to an ancestor whose service as a soldier in the American Revolution gives to him and the other members of his family the right to mem- bership in the Sons of the American Revolution and the Daughters of the American Revolution. Solomon Gordon Yoke was born in the same locality as Professor Yoke, the year of his birth being 1850. His educational training was limited to that given in the com- mon schools, but he has always been a reader and student, and had little difficulty in qualifying himself for teaching school, and for eighteen years was numbered among the successful educators of Lewis County. During all of that time he was also engaged in farming, and after he retired from the schoolroom he devoted all of his time to agricul- ture until he moved to Morgantown to engage in the broker- age business. He is a democrat, and has served Lewis County as its assessor. For many years he has been a con- sistent member of the Methodist Protestant Church. He married Helen N. Wolverton, a daughter of James and Elizabeth (Ferrel) Wolverton. James Wolverton was born in Scotland, but was brought to the United States by his parents when he was still a child, and he was reared at Big Bend, Calhoun County, West Virginia, where he was mar- ried. He took no active part in the war of the '60s, but was a prominent man of his locality, where he served as a magistrate, and he was influential in the ranks of the demo- cratic party. In religions belief he was a Baptist. His life was devoted to farming, and he died at Big Bend. Mr. and Mrs. Solomon G. Yoke became the parents of the following children: Frank R., who is superintendent of the schools at Weston, West Virginia. Grace Elizabeth, who married W. H. S. White, president of Shepherd's College of West Virginia; and French Arlington, who is the youngest born. Growing up in the midst of a highly intellectual atmos- phere it was but natural that French Arlington Yoke should enter the profession which had claimed his father for so many years. After graduating from the preparatory school of the University of West Virginia, at Morgantown, he completed the literary course in that institution, and re- ceived his degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1915, since which time he has been actively engaged in educational work. His first school after leaving the university was that of West Union, and he remained there as superintendent. In 1917 he came to Piedmont to succeed W. H. S. White, his brother- in-law. Professor Yoke belongs to the county, state and national educational associations, and is a valued member of all of them, his original ideas and thorough grasp of the problems of the work giving him a high standing among his brother educators. On October 27, 1915, Professor Yoke married at Oakland, Maryland, Helen Jo Lenhart, of Kingwood, West Virginia, a daughter of James A. Lenhart, of that city, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work. Professor and Mrs. Yoke have one son, Kent Arlington, who was born Septem- ber 22, 1919. Professor Yoke belongs to the college fratern- ity Phi Sigma Kappa. He has traveled the Masonic route. from the Blue Lodge through the York Rites to Osiris Temple, Mystic Shrine, of Wheeling, West Virginia, and he belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias. Drawn in the Selective Draft, Profes- sor Yoke was placed in Class 4 and was expecting to be called to the colors when the armistice was signed. Pro- fessor Yoke is earnest, sincere and thorough in his work, to which he is devoting the abilities of a really superior mentality, and the parents of Piedmont are fortunate indeed in having their children under his wise and watchful care and subject to the stimulus of his constant efforts in their behalf.