WV-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 00 : Issue 208 Today's Topics: #1 Bio: Fairfax, John Matthew Gay - P [Tina Hursh To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.20000815213033.006af79c@clubnet.isl.net> Subject: Bio: Fairfax, John Matthew Gay - Preston co. Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc. Chicago and New York, Volume 111 Pg. 367 John Matthew Gay Fairfax. The community of Reedsville has in the person of John Matthew Gay Fairfax not only a splendid example of sturdy citizenship but is the representative of one of the most distinguished families of Old Virginia and Maryland. He is a grandson of Colonel John Fairfax, who at one time was manager of the estate of General Washington, and whose duties brought him to the Washington lands west of the Alleghanies and eventually he settled here permanently, the story being more fully told in the record of another of his descendants. John M. Gay Fairfax was born at the Fairfax farm, now the Arthurdale farm, a son of the late George Washington Fairfax, who died near Reedsville October 25, 1885, at the age of seventy-three. The wife of George W. Fairfax was Margaret S. Gay. Her father was Robert Gay and her mother was a Stewart, accounting for that name in her own christian name. Margaret S. Gay was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, in 1819, and came to the United States with her parents at the age of twelve, in 1831. She died February 13, 1859. Her three children to grow up were John M.G., Emma R., who married D.G. Watson and died in Reedsville; and Anna C., now Mrs. John Shields, of Mendocino County, California. John M. Gay Fairfax was born July 10, 1847, and his early youth was spent at his birthplace. He finished his early education in E.K. Lozier's Commercial College in Baltimore, and was a bookkeeper in that city until that occupation proved too confining for his health. He then returned home, and subsequently became a teacher in the free schools, teaching his first term near home. He taught one school in Taylor County and the remainder of his five years of educational work was passed in Preston County. He then spent a summer in the employ of the Keystone Bridge Company at Pittsburgh, the next year dug coal for a Uniontown coal company in Westmoreland County, near Scottsdale, and subsequently was employed as an engineer by the Overholt Distilling Company. He then went to Louisville, Kentucky, and for eight months nursed his uncle, William Gay, in his last illness. About that time he chose a profession, entering the Philadelphia Dental College, and continued his studies until he was qualified to practice. He was a dentist at Gladesville and in his home community, and was active in the profession before the introduction of the marvelous modern dental tools and apparatus and nearly all his work was hand work and of a quality that seldom failed. Eventually Mr. Fairfax resumed farming, at first on the estate of his father near Reedsville, and he than bought the David C. Miles farm and later the Heidelberg farm, where his activities have continued since. Grain growing and stock raising have been his chief productive efforts, and though now almost seventy-five he is still alert, vigorous and closely attentive to all the details of farm management. He possesses a rugged constitution, and still enjoys life for its own sake and for the opportunities of useful toil and effort it affords. Mr. Fairfax for many years was active in county politics. His father was a democrat, and he himself cast his first presidential ballot for Governor Seymour of New York. He was hostile to the proposed fusion nomination of Horace Greeley for president, knowing the abolition record of that candidate and realizing that his acceptance of the nomination was confession of an overwhelming ambition for the presidency. He did no vote in the general election of the year, but since then has consistently aided every candidate of his party and has been a delegate to various conventions, both local and state. In 1896 he supported Bryan and the free silver issue, and he continued lending his influence as well as his vote to campaigns until advancing age caused him to give up all political activity except voting. He is a Presbyterian, and joined Valley Lodge No. 97 of the Odd Fellows at Reedsville I March, 1889, and is a past grand representative and has attended many meeting of the Grand Lodge. Mr. Fairfax a number of years ago became associated with the late B.M. Despard in the coal business. They optioned and sold 5, 000 acres of coal in Preston County, and he still owns a similar number of acres in Taylor County. He is a charter member of the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Reedsville, was one of the most active in promoting that institution and is still on its Board of directors. At Cumberland, Maryland, March 17, 1876, Mr. Fairfax married Miss Sadie Reed, daughter of Peter and Mary J. (Gilbert) reed, of Franklin County, Pennsylvania. She was born in that county October 18, 1856. Two sons were born to Mr. and Mrs. Fairfax. George W. was killed in a runaway when thrown from his cart at the age of sixteen. The surviving representative of the family and the chief lieutenant of his father on the farm is Ralph Bernard Fairfax, who was born September 23, 1881, and has spent all his active life on the home farm. He served as democratic committeeman for Valley District. August 29, 1902, he married Miss Nellie M. Dent of Morgtantown. They have an interesting family of four young children, Margaret G., William Dent, Mary Virginia and Francis Gaylord. ______________________________X-Message: #2 Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2000 16:30:35 -0500 From: Tina Hursh To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.20000815213035.006a6ec8@clubnet.isl.net> Subject: Bios: Markell, Harold R. - Ohio county Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc. Chicago and New York, Volume 111 Pg. 367 Harold R. Markell is the president of the Packard Motor Company of Wheeling. He was born in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada, by the beautiful St. Lawrence River, on June 21, 1887. Mr. Markell completed his schooling at Morrisburg Collegiate Institute and started his business career with the Metropolitan Bank of Canada. He later went to the far West and for six years managed several different branches of the Northern Crown Bank in the provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. During the latter period of his sojourn in Saskatchewan he gained his initial experience in the selling of automobiles, and in 1914 became associated with the Packard Motor Company at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In July, 1915, his company decided to open a branch at Wheeling, West Virginia, and he was chosen as manager of the new branch. Packard's business at Wheeling has enjoyed a steady expansion until in the spring of 1922 Mr. Markell formed a new $100,000 corporation, of which he is now president and Mr. George Row is secretary and treasurer. The new Packard Company is, at the time of going to press, erecting at pleasant Valley, Wheeling, and automobile sales and service station which will be second to none in the Ohio Valley. The building is to have a frontage of 135 feet and a depth of 200 feet. It will require an average working force of about twenty-five employes. In 1917 Mr. Markell married Elizabeth Cassell Stamm, daughter of Frank H. Stamm and granddaughter of Peter Cassell, and so is closely related to two of Wheeling's oldest and most influential families. Mr. and Mrs. Markell have two children, Betty Jane and Virginia. During the past several years Mr. Markell has taken a considerable interest in club life and is now a member of the Fort Henry and Country Clubs, is a Scottish Rite Mason, a Kiwanian and director of the Motors Trading Corporation. ______________________________X-Message: #3 Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2000 16:30:40 -0500 From: Tina Hursh To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.20000815213040.0069d438@clubnet.isl.net> Subject: Bio: Heatherman, Kenna J. - Logan county Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc. Chicago and New York, Volume 111 Pg. 368 Kenna J. Heatherman, M.D., is engaged in the successful practice of his profession at Omar, Logan County, where he is official physician and surgeon for the Main Island Creek Coal Company and the Middle Fork Coal Company, besides which he is secretary, treasurer and manager of the Chafin-Jones-Heatherman Coal Company, a new operating corporation which made its first shipment of coal from its mine at Peach Creek, Logan County in March, 1922. Doctor Heatherman was born at Bramwell, Mercer County, West Virginia, on the 8th of December, 1889, and is a son of William T. and Harriet Ann (Gilmore) Heatherman, the former of whom was born in West Virginia and the latter in Ireland, the father being now superintendent of mines at Powhatan, near Bramwell, in which former place he and his wife maintain their home. The Heatherman family ancestry is of Scotch-Irish origin. Doctor Heatherman acquired in the schools at Powhatan, McDowell County, his early education, and in 1908 he graduated in a preparatory school in the City of Baltimore, Maryland. He then entered the medical department of the University of Louisville, Kentucky, and in this institution he was graduated in 1912, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He engaged in practice at Glenalum, Mingo County, West Virginia, and mine physician for the War Eagle Coal Company, and there he remained until January, 1918, when he removed to Omar to assume mine practice of the various mines controlled by the Main Island Creek Coal Company. He has proved personally and professionally equal to the responsibilities placed upon him in connection with a large and important mine practice, which includes many surgical cases, and he utilizes the hospital facilities at Huntington, Hatfield and other points. The Doctor was anxious to enter the Medical Corps of the United States Army in connection with the world war, but field-production was a matter of major importance during the climacteric period and he was held to his executive professional duties at the mines, where the government considered his services of equal value. He is a member of the Logan County medical Society, the West Virginia State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. The Doctor is affiliated with the Pi Mu medical college fraternity. At Lousville, Kentucky, in 1912, Doctor Heatherman married Miss Pearl May Arbuckle, daughter of J.M. and Jane Arbuckle, the Arbuckle family having been one of prominence in Indiana. Mrs. Heatherman's death occurred at Omar, and she is survived by two children, Kenna J., Jr., and Harriet Jane. ______________________________X-Message: #4 Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2000 16:30:38 -0500 From: Tina Hursh To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.20000815213038.0069f584@clubnet.isl.net> Subject: Bio: Jones, William T. - Logan county Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc. Chicago and New York, Volume 111 Pg. 367 & 368 William T. Jones, of Omar, Logan County, is general manager of large and important coal-mining properties in this district and, though he is still a young man, he has had exceptional wide and varied experience in connection with the coal-producing industry. Mr. Jones was born in the City of Washington, D.C., on the 14th of May, 1889, and is a son of Richard and Josephine (McAuliffe) Jones, the former a native of the State of Maryland and the latter of the District of Columbia, the father having become a successful and representative wholesale grocery merchant in the national capital. William T. Jones is indebted to the parochial and public schools of his native city for his early education, which was supplemented by his attending Mount St. Joseph College in the City of Baltimore, Maryland. After leaving this institution he entered the employ of the Union Mining Company at Mount Savage, Maryland, where, as a mining engineer, he assisted in track construction, bedsides serving as assistant mine boss. He continued three years in the employ of this company and thereafter was for a time assistant foreman with the Davis Colliery Company. He next became assistant to A.J. King, who was in the consulting engineering business in Charleston, West Virginia, for 3-1/2 years. He then came to Omar, Logan County, in the capacity of mine inspector and engineer for the Main Island Creek Coal Company. His efficiency led to his advancement of the Coast of superintendent, and in 1919 he was made general manager of all the company's properties and productive activities in the district, where he is now manager of the Proctor Coal Company, the five Block Coal Company, the Superior Eagle Coal Company, the Middle Fork Mining Company, the Omar Coal Company and the Madison coal Company, in all thirty-one mines, besides which he is vice president of the Chafin, Jones & Heatherman Coal Company of Peach Creek, this county, an operating corporation which made its first shipment of coal (eight cars) on the 1st of March, 1922. Don Chafin is president of this company, and Dr. K.J. Heatherman, secretary, treasurer and general manager. Fidelity as well as ability and effective service have brought about the advancement of Mr. Jones, and he has made and is making a splendid record as one of the world's productive workers. He and his wife are communicants of the Catholic Church, and he is affiliated with the Knights of Columbus and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. At Charleston, in the year 1817, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Jones and Miss Rose Crump, daughter of James and Mary Crump, both natives of West Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Jones have two daughters: Josephine and Mary Jane. ______________________________X-Message: #5 Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2000 01:16:34 -0400 From: "Koren Fae Rawlings" To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <004501c00741$28010cc0$be264dc6@default> Subject: Fw: [INDIAN-CAPTIVES] Making of America library(link) Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit -----Original Message----- From: richhart To: INDIAN-CAPTIVES-L@rootsweb.com Date: Tuesday, August 15, 2000 1:20 PM Subject: [INDIAN-CAPTIVES] Making of America library(link) >Passing it along :-) >glory bee > >Making of America On-Line Library > > > My Colburn surname e-mail list offered this resource. >It might be a useful tool for your genealogical research. >This is an online library of historical articles from magazines >dating from 1831, so far. If you select the browse link, >you can scan the available contents. > > http://moa.umdl.umich.edu/ > > Be sure and bookmark that site for return visits because >they are constantly adding new material. > > >