WV-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 00 : Issue 200 Today's Topics: #1 BIO: JOHN K. HOBAUGH, Wyoming Co. [Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000801193107.00bd5480@mail.earthlink.net> Subject: BIO: JOHN K. HOBAUGH, Wyoming Co. 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. 613-614 Wyoming JOHN K. HOBAUGH. Prominent among the men whose activities are felt in the coal mining industry of Wyoming County is John K. Hobaugh, superintendent of the Miller Pocahontas Coal Company at Corinne, one mile east of Mullens, on the Winding Gulf branch of the Virginia Rail- road. Practically his entire life has been passed in this industry, with all the details of which he is thoroughly familiar. He was born at Sunnyside, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, August 29, 1877, and is a son of David and Nancy (Kelley) Hobaugh. David Hobaugh spent his life in connection with mining in Pennsylvania, and died in 1914, when sixty-four years of age, his wife having passed away in 1902, at the age of fifty-two years. One of the men of integrity, who had the full confidence of his fellow-citizens, he served capably for a number of years as justice of the peace and wielded an influence for good in his community. He was active in both church and Sunday School work, as was his worthy wife, both being of the Methodist faith. Fraternally Mr. Hobaugh was identified with the Senior Order of United American Mechanics and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. There were four sons and three daughters in the family. One of the sons, H. B. Hobaugh, was for a few years identified with the West Virginia mines, being a fore- man in the mines at Mount Hope and also acting in the same capacity on the White Oak branch of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. John K. Hobaugh attended the public schools of Sunny- side, Pennsylvania, and later supplemented his education with a course on mining subjects received through the International Correspondence Schools of Scranton, Pennsyl- vania. When still a boy he began to help his father in the mines, and passed through all the positions in his upward climb, being successively a trapper, coal miner, fire boss, foreman and superintendent in Pennsylvania before he came to West Virginia, in February, 1913. At that time he came to Fayette County and was superintendent of the Summer-Lee and Lochgalley mines, owned by the New River Coal Company, a concern with which he remained for five years, then becoming superintendent of the McKell Com- pany mines for two years. When he left that company it was to join the Miller Pocahontas Coal Company, which is connected with the Deegans interests, and during his superintendency many improvements have been made in the way of equipment and general conditions. Mr. Hobaugh has always been sensible of the value of education, and built the schoolhonse at Corinne and the one at Monticello. Corinne has become, largely through his efforts, a model coal camp, and was recently incorporated with a full set of officers. Mr. Hobaugh is a member of the Senior Order of United American Mechanics, the Knights of Malta and the Loyal Order of Moose. He is a republican in polities, and is progressive in action and in ideas. In 1917 Mr. Hobaugh married Miss Ada Newman, a daughter of Asa Newman. ______________________________ X-Message: #2 Date: Tue, 01 Aug 2000 19:43:08 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000801193225.00bd5a50@mail.earthlink.net> Subject: BIO: JOHN L. ELLISON, Summers Co. 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. 629 Summers JOHN L. ELLISON, is one of the progressive and suc- cessful merchants of Summers County, his well equipped general store being at Avis, a tributary town to Hinton, the judicial center of the county. Mr. Ellison was born at the family home at Ellison Post Office, in Jumping Branch District, Summers County, and the date of his nativity was September 23, 1875. He is a son of Lorenzo D. and Mary Jane (Wills) Ellison, and is a descendant of Joseph Ellison, who, in company with a brother, came from England to America about 1780 and became one of the early settlers in what is now Monroe County, West Virginia. He was captured by Indians and taken to Flat Top, but contrived to escape, this capture having been made in one of the last raids made by the Indians in this section. The Ellison family has been actively concerned in social and industrial development and progress in Monroe, Summers and Randolph counties, and the family name has been honored in the annals of West Virginia since the early pioneer period. Lorenzo D. Ellison was born in Jumping Branch Dis- trict, Summers County, February 22, 1858, and he is now engaged in the mercantile business at Avis. His father, John F. Ellison, likewise was born and reared in Summers County, where his death occurred July 27, 1899, he having been a gallant soldier of the Union in the Civil war. His father, John Franklin Ellison, was born in 1790, and died in 1877, he having been a son of Joseph, the founder of the family in the frontier wilds of what is now West Virginia. The grandfather of the subject of this review had become a man of substantial wealth prior to the Civil war, but depredations made by Confederate soldiers, combined with other war depressions entailed to him large property and financial losses. Lorenzo D. Ellison conducted for two years a general store in Jumping Branch District, and February 5, 1907, he became associated with his son John L. in the same line of enterprise at Avis, his interest in the business having been sold to his son John L. in 1911, and he later having engaged in business at this place, where he still conducts a general store. He has served as a mem- ber of the City Council of Avis, and is one of the influential citizens of this place. The marriage of Lorenzo D. Ellison and Miss Mary Jane Wills, daughter of Lee Wills, was solemnized November 4, 1874, and of the eight sons and two daughters of this union all are living except one son. John L., the immediate subject of this sketch, is the eldest of the number; W. L. is chief clerk for the Loup Creek Coal Company at Page; W. H. is associated with his father in the mercantile business at Avis; C. E. is a resident of Avis and is a carpenter by trade and vocation; R. L. and Edward M. are in the employ of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Company, as is also Fred, who is a conductor, his twin brother, Lonnie B., having died at the age of eight years; Viola is the wife of D. L. Lane, of Avis; and Anna is the wife of Clay Shipp, who, like Mr. Lane, is in the service of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. John L. Ellison so profited by the advantages of the public schools of his native county that he made himself eligible for pedagogic service. For five years he was num- bered among the successful teachers in the rural schools of Summers County, at a salary of twenty-five dollars a month, and in the meanwhile he continued his association with farm enterprise. He gave five years to successful work as a traveling portrait salesman, and he then established him- self in the general merchandise business at Avis, where he has built up a substantial and prosperous enterprise, based on fair and honorable dealings and effective service to an appreciative patronage. He has served as a member of the Republican County Committee, a member of the City Council of Avis, and has been influential in the local councils and work of his party since his early youth. In 1920 he was appointed a member of the Board of Equaliza- tion for Summers County for a term of six years, and he is serving also as a notary public. Both he and his wife hold membership in the Missionary Baptist Church. May 27, 1894, recorded the marriage of Mr. Ellison and Miss Rosa E. Lilly, daughter of Samuel and Anna Lilly. She was born November 20, 1875, and her death occurred August 16, 1901. Of this union were born four children: William C., now a conductor on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, with residence at Avis, was for fifteen months in active service with the American Expeditionary Forces in France in the World war, he having been assigned to the medical department of the Sixth Division; Clara Mabel died at the age of ten years; Mina Claire is the wife of Frank A. Spades, a conductor on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, and they reside in the City of Charleston; and Ola likewise is a conductor for that railroad, with residence at Russell, Kentucky. On the 17th of April, 1912, Mr. Ellison wedded Miss Stella Barker, who was born in Summers County on the 17th of April, 1882. Mrs. Ellison is a daughter of John W. and Mary Malissa (Meadows) Barker. His father, who had been a prosperous farmer and also engaged in the jewelry business, was a resident of Baltimore, Maryland, at the time of his death, March 7, 1911, his widow being now at the old homestead in Summers County. The Barker family was founded in Virginia in the Colonial period, and representatives of the same were pioneers in what is now West Virginia. Prior to her marriage Mrs. Ellison had been for five years a popular teacher in the schools of Summers County. Mr. and Mrs. Ellison have two children, John O. and Mary Pauline, aged respectively eight and six years, in 1922. ______________________________ X-Message: #3 Date: Tue, 01 Aug 2000 19:42:37 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000801193229.00c2fcf0@mail.earthlink.net> Subject: BIO: HARRY JAMES EDMONDS, Summers Co. 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. 629-630 Summers HARRY JAMES EDMONDS, is the popular general manager of the Hinton Fruit & Produce Company, which now controls a substantial and prosperous business, with headquarters in a well equipped establishment at Hinton, the county seat of Summers County. The enterprise was initiated by its present manager in the year 1908, and in 1910 the business was incorporated under the present title. All of the stock in the company is held in the possession of the Edmonds family, the other interested principals being Ed- ward T. and George A. B. Edmonds. The Edmonds family was founded on the east coast of Virginia prior to the war of the Revolution, and the family name has been one of prominence in connection with development and progress in what is now West Virginia. The old home was in Accomac County, Virginia, and thence came the represen- tatives in the western part of the Old Dominion, now West Virginia, members of the family having been active in the furtherance of coal-mining industry in the New and Kana- wha River Districts of the latter state. He whose name initiates this review was born October 12, 1877, in Accomac County, Virginia, and he is a son of John W. and Nancy (Burton) Edmonds, the former of whom now resides at Hinton and the latter of whom passed to the life eternal in the year 1920. Harry J. Edmonds is indebted to the schools of his native state for his early education, and in 1900 he took a position in the office of G. M. Surpell, an executive of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, at Norfolk, Virginia, where he remained until 1908, when he came to Hinton and established, on a modest scale, the business of which he is now the manager and which has under his direction expanded to most sub- stantial proportions. The company has a branch house at Norfolk, Virginia, and another at Huntington, West Vir- ginia, where the business is conducted under the title of the Guyan Fruit & Produce Company, under the manage- ment of Edward T. Edmonds, the house at Norfolk being conducted under the management of John B. Edmonds. Mr. Edmonds is a democrat, but has had no desire for the activities of practical politics, as he is essentially and unreservedly a business man. He is liberal and public- spirited in his civic attitude, is actively identified with the Rotary Club at Hinton, and he and his wife are zealous members of the Presbyterian Church in this city, he being an elder in the same and also the teacher of a large class in its Sunday School. In the year 1909 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Edmonds and Miss Margaret Savage, daughter of J. A. D. Savage, of Accomac County, Virginia, and she is a popular figure in the representative social activities of her home community. ______________________________ X-Message: #4 Date: Tue, 01 Aug 2000 19:48:46 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000801194846.00c41b80@mail.earthlink.net> Subject: BIO: ASHTON FILE, Raleigh Co. 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. 635 Raleigh ASHTON FILE. As a strong and active member of the Beckley bar during the last twenty years, Ashton File wields an influence in his community that only men of marked strength of character and ability can exercise in a pro- gressive community where competitive genius points the way and sets the mark of progress. He has been a witness to and participated in the rapid development of this great coal mining section of the state where he is justly looked upon as a leading citizen and lawyer. Mr. File is the fourth child in a family of nine children and was born on a farm in Buckingham County, Virginia January 3rd, 1879, and is a son of Ashton and Elvira (Tucker) File. Ashton File, Sr., is a son of William and Sarah (West) File and was born at Barham, County Kent, England, in 1846 and came to America in 1869, locating in Prince Edward County, Virginia, where his wife was born December 1, 1848. They were married December 26th, 1871, and in 1872 removed to Buckingham County, where they have since resided with the exception of about four years spent in Chesterfield County. Mrs. File is a daughter of Henry Tucker and Louisa A. (McGehee) Tucker. Henry Tucker is a son of Joseph and Christiana Tucker and was born in Prince Edward County, Virginia, September 10, 1797. Ashton File received his early education in the public schools of Virginia and worked on his father's farm until twenty years of age, when he came to West Virginia and entered the office of his uncle, Henry J. Tucker, of Mount Hope, Fayette County, who was then a lawyer, but who, previous to entering the legal profession, had had a wide experience as a civil and mining engineer and had been state mine inspector during governor Wilson'a administra- tion. There Mr. File learned land surveying arid read law, following which he attended the law school at West Virginia University, from which department he graduated as a mem- ber of the class of June, 1901, and was admitted to the bar in Fayette County, in September, following. For the first few years following his admission to the bar, the greater part of his time was spent in land surveying and in that way accumulated a sufficient competence to establish and maintain a moderate law office and keep the wolf from the door during the first years of his practice. In the spring of 1902 he removed to Beckley and formed a law partner- ship with Thomas K. Laing, who had been his class mate. This partnership was dissolved in 1907, and Mr. File formed a partnership with his brother William H. File, which con- tinned for ten years and was dissolved, and since that time he has followed his profession independently. In recent years Mr. File has devoted himself to land and corporation law, in which he has a large and lucrative practice. He is a member of the Raleigh County Bar As- sociation, the West Virginia Bar Association, and the American Bar Association. He is a democrat and a member of the Presbyterian church, Mason and Elk. On June 14th, 1911, Mr. File was united in marriage with Miss Frances Nancy Wiggin, daughter of Henry Dwight and Mary (Strutevant) Wiggin, of West Newton, Massachusetts. They have two children, Dwight Ashton and Mary Frances. ______________________________ X-Message: #5 Date: Tue, 01 Aug 2000 19:48:46 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000801194846.00c42ba0@mail.earthlink.net> Subject: BIO: ROBERT TAYLOR BAIR, Raleigh Co. 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. 646 Raleigh ROBERT TAYLOR BAIR. One of the most prominent of the building agencies in the development of the city of Beckley has been the firm of Bair Brothers, Inc., dealers in lumber, building material and kindred supplies, owners of the Bair Building and agents for Ford, Buick and Lincoln automobiles and Republic trucks. The secretary and treasurer of this concern is Robert Taylor Bair, who has been a resident of this city since 1899 and whose rise in the business world has been truly typical of real American enterprise, industry and perseverance. Mr. Bair was born on a farm near Washington Col- lege, Washington County, Tennessee, September 10, 1880, a son of George W. and Mary (Beard) Bair, and was named in honor of the famous Tennessee chief executive, Governor Robert Taylor, whose family home was in the same community. George W. Bair was born in Floyd County, Virginia, and followed farming until his death in 1887, at the age of forty-eight years, or when his son, Robert T., was only seven years of age. He was a democrat in politics. Mrs. Bair was born in Washington County, Ten- nessee, and died in 1891, aged fifty-three years. Like her husband, she was a member of the Presbyterian Church. They were the parents of eight children, of whom seven grew to maturity, and of these three now live at Beckley; George W. and Robert T., of the firm of Bair Brothers; and Mrs. J. C. Maples. Robert Taylor Bair attended the public school at Wash- ington College, and after the death of his parents lived at the home of his sister, Mrs. Maples, in the meantime being employed on the farm, in the timber and at sawmills at several points. Mr. Bair came to Beckley in 1899 with his brother Sydney. They had very little money to pay rail- road fare, but this did not affect their case, as there was no railroad at that time over which to travel and they consequently made the journey afoot. Sydney Bair was the owner of a sawmill and Robert worked for him for about a year, following which he and his brother, George W., bought a worn-out mill that was regarded as useless for the sum of $250, on credit. By making some ingenious changes they managed to get the old mill working and on making a little money bought a better structure and began purchasing boundaries of timber, which they converted into lumber. Still later they established a planing mill, and from that time to the present, their growth and devel- opment has been consistent. They have furnished the lumber and other building material for many of the mines in this district, used in building mine structures, tipples, store buildings and miners' homes and also the building material utilized in the erection of many of the leading structures of Beckley and other towns in this territory. They have prospered exceedingly and their prosperity is well merited. From 1907 to 1912 Robert T. Bair was superintendent of the United Lumber Company, at Uniontown, Pennsyl- vania, this company being owned by the Palmer Seaman interests. He has seen all the mines opened up in this locality, has witnessed the building of the railroads and has seen Beckley grow from a sparsely-settled hamlet into a full-fledged city of importance in its part of the state. He has contributed materially to this development, and the Bair Building, erected by him and his brother in 1921, is one of the substantial structures of the city. He has been active in civic affairs and holds membership in the Beckley Chamber of Commerce and the Beckley Kiwanis Club, and as a fraternalist is affiliated with the Blue Lodge and Chapter of Masonry. In 1899 Mr. Bair was united in marriage with Miss Mabel Kent, daughter of S. H. Kent, of Beckley, and to this union there have been born two sons: Adolph, who is attending Blacksburg Military Institute, is the [The remainder of this bio is missing from my book along with four pages of text. vfc]