WV-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 00 : Issue 189 Today's Topics: #1 BIO: GEORGE R. KREBS Wetzel Co. WV [Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000723015937.00c8c100@mail.earthlink.net> Subject: BIO: GEORGE R. KREBS Wetzel 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. 572-573 Wetzel GEORGE R. KREBS has gained prestige as one of the able and successful civil and mining engineers in his native state of West Virginia, and maintains his home and professional headquarters in the City of Charleston. Mr. Krebs was born at New Martinsville, Wetzel County, this state, on the 5th of March, 1872, and there he acquired his early education. In preparation for his chosen pro- fession he entered the University of West Virginia, in which he completed a scientific course that included thorough in- struction in civil and mining engineering, he having gradu- ated as a member of the class of 1899, with the degree of B. S. He forthwith became associated with railroad con- struction service, and in 1899-1900 was resident engineer for the White Oak Railroad, a branch of the Chesapeake & Ohio Bailroad extending from Glen Jean to Oakwood. In 1901-2 he was identified with the construction of the "Bend's Scenic Railroad," this work being one of the most difficult ever attempted in railroad construction to afford facilities for coal-mining operations in West Vir- ginia. For two years Mr. Krebs was superintendent of mines for the New River Coal Company, for which he had charge of the construction of shafts, drifts, tipples, etc. In 1910 he became junior member of the firm of Clark & Krebs, which has developed a large and important pro- fessional and constructive business in the domain of min- ing engineering. In its operations the firm at times finds it essential to employ numerous assistants, entailing a pay- roll output of fully $8,000 a month. Mr. Krebs is a member of the Alumni Association of the University of West Virginia, in which institution he be- came affiliated with the Sigma Chi fraternity, and he is an active member of the Charleston Chamber of Commerce, as well as of the Lions Club of this city. In the Masonic fraternity he has received the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite and is a noble of the Mystic Shrine. His wife, whose maiden name was Lettie Carr, is a daughter of the late Dr. C. Carr, of Clay, Clay County. Mr. and Mrs. Krebs have four children: Grenville R., Donnie, Mary Dean and Helen. In the World war period Grenville R. Krebs was in the aviation service of the United States Navy for a period of three years. Mr. and Mrs. Krebs are affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, being members of the Humphreys Memorial Church. Mrs. Krebs is an active worker in the Order of the Eastern Star. She has served as secretary for the past eight years of that order. She is also an active worker in her church and its various organizations. ______________________________ X-Message: #2 Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2000 02:02:52 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000723020017.00cb7ed0@mail.earthlink.net> Subject: BIO: ROBERT SUMMERS NEELY, D. D. S., Summers 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. 574 Summers ROBERT SUMMERS NEELY, D. D. S., is engaged in the successful practice of his profession at Hinton, judicial center of Summers County, and he is one of the progressive and influential young men of his native county, where the year 1922 finds him in active service as chairman of the republican county committee. Doctor Neely was born at Pipestem, this county, May 22, 1890, and is a son of Levi Matteson Neely and Alice Virginia (Martin) Neely, both likewise natives of Sum- mers County, where the respective families were founded many years ago. William R. Neely, paternal grandfather of the doctor, was born in Indiana and became one of the successful pioneer farmers of Summers County, West Virginia. Richard Martin, maternal grandfather of Doctor Neely, was a loyal soldier of the Union in the Civil war, and is now one of the venerable and honored citizens of Hinton. Levi M. Neely was reared and educated in Sum- mers County, and has long been numbered among the successful exponents of farm industry in Pipestem Dis- trict. He is a stalwart republican, and his religious faith is that of the Baptist Church. His first wife, Alice V., died in 1901, at the age of thirty-five years, and later he was united in marriage with Mrs. Willie Neely, a widow. Of his eight children six are living: William Clyde and Richard Claude are twins, and they are associated in the clothing business at Hinton, individual mention of them being made on other pages of this volume; Dr. Robert S., of this review, was the next in order of birth; Zina Carl is a business man in Hinton; Mabel is the wife of William C. Eubanks, of Huntington; Dewey G. is a clerk in the clothing store of his brothers; Luther F., who died in 1906, at the age of twenty-three years, was at the time engaged in the contracting business at Kansas City, Mis- souri; and Herbert L., who died at the age of thirty-five years, was superintendent for a prominent firm of con- tractors in the City of Washington, D. C. After having attended the public schools of Hinton Dr. Robert S. Neely was for some time a student in the Concord State Normal School, and in preparation for his chosen profession he entered the dental department of the University of Cincinnati, Ohio. He later transferred to the Ohio College of Dental Surgery, and in this institu- tion he was graduated as a member of the class of 1914. Upon thus receiving his degree of Doctor of Dental Sur- gery he forthwith opened an office at Hinton, where he has since continued his successful professional work as one of the representative dentists of his native county. He has insistently kept in touch with the great advances made in both operative and laboratory dentistry, and in this connection it should be noted that he has taken effec- tive post-graduate courses in leading dental colleges and clinic in Philadelphia, Chicago, Cincinnati and Boston. In his large and important practice he has had as his pro- fessional coadjutor since 1919 Dr. D. B. Keaton, under the firm name of Neely & Keaton. While still a boy Doctor Neely became associated with his brothers Claude and Clyde in the retail grocery business, and when he finally sold his interest in this business he utilized the money thus received to defer the expenses of his course in dental college. He is a member of the Greenbrier Valley Dental Society, the West Virginia State Dental Society and the National Dental Society. From his early youth he has been an ardent worker in the ranks of the republican party, and after service as a member of the city republican com- mittee of Hinton he became a member of the county commit- tee, of which latter he is now chairman, an office in which he has shown much finesse in maneuvering political forces at his command. The doctor is one of the vigorous mem- bers of the Hinton Chamber of Commerce, is a charter member of the local Rotary Club, is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and in the Ma- sonic fraternity he is affiliated with both York and Scottish Rite bodies, including the Commandery of Knights Templars at Hinton, the Consistory, A. A. S. R., at Wheeling, and also the Temple of the Mystic Shrine in that city. He holds membership in the Presbyterian Church, and his wife is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The year 1915 recorded the marriage of Doctor Neely and Miss Nell McDowell, daughter of J. W. McDowell, who resides in Monroe County and who is serving as deputy collector of internal revenue. Dr. and Mrs. Neely have two sons, Robert S., Jr., and William Edward. ______________________________ X-Message: #3 Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2000 02:02:30 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000723020036.00cc0da0@mail.earthlink.net> Subject: BIO: RAYMOND W. JOHNSON, 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. 575-576 Barbour RAYMOND W. JOHNSON, of Philippi, has a genius for business. That is demonstrated in the remarkable success he has made from a start from nothing to an independent fortune when in years he is just about where most men are getting fairly settled into their vocations. He educated himself commercially as experience demanded knowledge, planned his career and worked to the plan. He is a native of Barbour County, and a representative of one of the older families here. His great-grandfather, the first of the name in Barbour County, came from Ire- land and was one of the eleven brothers who settled in dif- ferent portions of West Virginia, one locating in Harrison County, another at Cove in Taylor County, one near Mor- gantown and some in the Valley of Virginia. The grand- father of the Philippi business man was John G. Johnson, who was born in Glade District of Barbour County and spent all his life there. His was a career of usefulness and good citizenship. He owned a farm and also owned and operated a water mill at the head of Teters Creek on Mill Run. In connection with the grist milling machinery he installed carting machines, the only ones in this region. The old grist mill is still being operated, but the carting machinery has long since disappeared. John G. Johnson was a staunch democrat and Methodist. He married Kate Parsons, daughter of Job Parsons. The town of Parsons was named in honor of this family. Their children were: Richard M.; Levi, who is one of the old farmer residents of Glade District, where he was born; Robert F., who lives on the old homestead and runs the mill there; William Worth, who moved to the State of Idaho and died there; Eliza, who married Jacob V. Wilmoth and spent her life in Barbour County; Caroline, who died at the old family home, the wife of Arthur Hudkins; Emily, who married George Skidmore and lived and died near Elkins; and Lu- cinda, who was the wife of James Elliott and died in Bar- bour County. Richard M. Johnson, father of Raymond W. Johnson, was born in Glade District May 10, 1840, and devoted his career to farming and the manufacture of lumber. He acquired a fair education, was a very ardent democrat, but never went into public life. He is a member of the Methodist Episco- pal Church, South, and with his wife resides at Parsons, Tucker County, West Virginia. His wife was Nancy Gainer, a native of Barbour County, born November 14, 1841, a daughter of Samuel P. Gainer. She is a member of the same church as her husband. Their children were: Orvilla D., who died unmarried; Orlando, associated with his brother Raymond at Philippi; James, a farmer in Glade District; William Worth, a garage man at Buckhannon; Troy, a farmer in Randolph County; Johnny G., who died unmarried; and Raymond W. Raymond W. Johnson was born in Glade District May 15, 1887. He was a farmer's son and lived on the farm un- til he was sixteen. When he left home he had only the edu- cation supplied by the country schools. .For three years he worked in the lumber woods. He had been accustomed to hard labor from early youth, and the strenuous work of the field and the woods was the school in which his destiny was shaped. He drove team and sawed timber, and after leaving the woods he engaged in the livery and dray busi- ness at Parsons. This was the enterprise which supplied him with the capital he brought to Philippi in 1910 and turned to account in the livery business. Five years later he sold out in response to the demands of the farm and en- gaged in the garage business. With N. S. Parks as a partner he built at the entrance of the old historic bridge of the city a brick garage 50x150 feet, with a two story front. For the first two years he had the local agency for the Chevrolet car, and since then has been the authorized Ford agent for this locality. This business is known as the City Garage, of which he is active manager. His business interests have been accumulating rapidly in recent years. In 1920 he resumed the lumber business as a manufacturer. He operates his mill on Laurel Moun- tain and ships the product in the rough. He still continues his farming operations in Glade District and has another farm in New Interest District of Randolph County. At times he has bought and sold real estate and has improved much property in Philippi. On June 4, 1907, at Cambridge, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Mr. Johnson married Cedocia May. Her father, Salathiel May, married Miss Arbellon Wolf, both natives of Preston County, West Virginia. Mrs. Johnson, who was born October 26, 1884, had the following brothers and sis- ters: Miss Isis May; Lenora, wife of Albert Harper; Cyrus, who lives on the Eastern Shore; Ella, wife of Clay Scott and a resident of Philippi; Mrs. Anice Hoddonott, of Cambridge, Maryland; Percy May; and Lloyd, who died in infancy. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have two sons, Johnny Lester, born September 19, 1908, and James Vance, born June 17, 1912. Mr. Johnson is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and Modern Woodmen of America. While his ancestors were all democrats, he has been a republican since casting his first ballot for president. ______________________________ X-Message: #4 Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2000 02:10:35 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000723015946.00c967f0@mail.earthlink.net> Subject: BIO: ALBA VERN JOHNSON, 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. 573 Kanawha ALBA VERN JOHNSON. South Charleston, one of the youngest and most vigorous industrial towns in the state,' has had its big growth during the last five or six years. Several of the large industries have plants there, and the city is a distinct municipality from Charleston. In this community A. V. Johnson located in 1918 as a druggist, has built up a very profitable business in that line, and has be- come a leader in town affairs, Mr. Johnson was born in Meigs County, Ohio, and since an early age has been making his own way in the world. He graduated in 1902 from the College of Pharmacy at Scio, Ohio. He first came to West Virginia in 1906, and for a year was a pharmacist with the Fields Pharmacy. He was then absent from the state until 1917, and ten years of that time he conducted a drug business in Western Texas, in Reeves County. Shortly after returning to West Vir- ginia in 1917, he opened a well stocked and attractive drug store in South Charleston. He is also the principal owner of the Dillingham Lumber Company, operating a saw mill on Blue Creek, West Virginia. This plant has a capacity of 150,000 feet of lumber per month, and the lumber is manufactured from timber owned by the company and is sold at wholesale. Mr. Johnson has also been a director since the organization of the First National Bank of South Charleston, of which Quince Jones is president. He is a member of the City Council, and was recently reelected to that body. He is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, also a York Rite Mason and Shriner, being affiliated with the various bodies at Charleston. In his native county Mr. Johnson married Miss Ethel Wright. They have had the following children: Elsworth, Frederick Wright, deceased, A. V., Jr., Theodore and Geraldine. ______________________________ X-Message: #5 Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2000 02:10:35 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000723015948.00ca5b20@mail.earthlink.net> Subject: BIO: CHARLES A. GATES, 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. 573 Kanawha CHARLES A. GATES. An acute, cool-headed man of busi- ness may command respect because of his great capacity for managing vast enterprises and his power to change circumstances and conditions to suit his will, and may have as chosen associates others of like caliber and similar power and interests; but in order to secure the confidence and esteem of his fellowmen he must have other qualities of a tenderer fiber. This applies particularly to Charles A. Gates, of Charleston, who for so long a time was prominently identified with affairs of the most vital business interests in the city. In control of important concerns for years, he proved his business sagacity and foresight beyond question, and at the same time his interest in everything calculated to advance the general welfare was such as to gain him un- qualified respect and friendship. Mr. Gates was born April 21, 1858, in Ohio, and came to Charleston in 1883. Here he founded a retail grocery busi- ness of which he was the head for twenty-eight and one- half years, during which time he built it up to be the leader of its kind in the city. The C. A. Gates Grocery Com- pany, Incorporated, was located at 110 Capitol Street, in the Gates Building, which he had purchased, and he con- tinued as its active head until 1910, in which year he sold out and turned his attention to the production of oil and dealing in real estate. In company with John Davidson he organized companies conducting development operations in Ohio and West Virginia, especially on Blue Creek in the latter state, and dealt extensively in real estate properties. He is still interested in oil production, is the owner of the Gates Building at Charleston and is a director in the Citizens National Bank, but makes his winter home at Fort Pierce, Florida, and is busily engaged in managing his 160-acre orange grove. Mr. Gates has always been a supporter of all worthy movements of a civic, commercial and educational character, and is an active member of the Kanawha Pres- byterian Church, in which he served as treasurer and mem- ber of the Board of Trustees for many years. At Wheeling, West Virginia, Mr. Gates married Miss Clara I. Cole, who was reared at Wheeling, and they be- came the parents of two children: Mabel L., who is the wife of Mason Crickard, assistant cashier of the Union Trust Company of Charleston; and Charles B., both born at Charleston. Charles B. Gates attended the public schools of Charles- ton, following which he pursued a special law course at Washington and Lee University, then becoming associated with his father in his various interests. He is accounted one of the energetic and capable business men of his city. During the World war he was commissioned a first lieutenant of field artillery in the First Officers' Training Camp at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indianapolis, Indiana, but did not see overseas duty, his service being confined to various camps in this country, including Camp Jackson, South Caro- lina. Mr. Gates married Miss Harriet K. Hostetter, of Han- over, Pennsylvania, and they have one son, Charles B., Jr. ______________________________ X-Message: #6 Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2000 02:10:35 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000723020047.00b8a900@mail.earthlink.net> Subject: BIO: RALPH O. NEWCOMB, 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. 576 Kanawha RALPH O. NEWCOMB. In the modern home building era in and around Charleston Ralph O. Newcomb has fig- ured conspicuously as a contractor and builder, and also as an independent capitalist. His technical reputation and his long business experience have enabled him to launch building programs which are directly and vitally associated with the improvement of the beautiful Kanawha Valley. Mr. Newcomb was born at Parkman in Geauga County, Ohio, in 1876, and was educated and passed his early business career in Ohio. He attended the public schools of his home town, Hiram College of Ohio, from which he graduated A. B., attended the Ohio State University at Columbus, and is a law graduate of the University of Cincinnati. Mr. Newcomb did not take up the practice of law, being diverted therefrom by active associations with the building business at Cincinnati, beginning about 1905. He conducted a growing business as an architect and builder at Cincinnati, and in the spring of 1918 came to Charleston on a special mission to direct the con- struction of a number of residences for the Libby-Owens Glass Company at Kanawha City, one of the prosperous industrial suburbs of Charleston. After completing this contract, being deeply impressed by the solid and sub- stantial character of Charleston as a city and the pos- sibilities of its future growth and development, be de- termined to remain and take a part in the building up of the city and the contiguous Kanawha Valley. The beautiful and extremely picturesque locations for home building afforded along the river appealed strongly to the lover of beautiful homes, and Mr. Newcomb set about the development of Kanawha City as a residential center. Here he has invested a large amount of capital in the building of modern and handsome homes, most of them on large tracts of land he purchased for this pur- pose. Most of these residences are sold to home owners on moderate terms. While this has been the scene of his principal opera- tions since coming to Charleston, Mr. Newcomb as an architect and builder has erected a number of costly and modern residences in Charleston itself. Among these may be mentioned, as indicating the character of his wort, the Joshua Davis home, Mrs. Cyrus Hall's home, the S. B. Henshaw home, also the attractive homes of W. E. Council and A. J. Humphreys. Mr. Newcomb is a member of the Chamber of Com- merce, was one of the founders of the Kanawha Country Club of Charleston, a member and ex-president of the Kiwanis Club, and a director of the Charleston Chapter of the American Red Cross. He married Miss Phonsie Weinheimer, of Cincinnati, Ohio, and has a son, Ranald Newcomb, now attending Hiram College.