WV-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 00 : Issue 24 Today's Topics: #1 Bio- Forney Wade Morgantown, WV [Joan Wyatt ] #2 BIOS: ALEXANDER, Andrew Sterrett, [Vivian Brinker To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <388854F7.86C3283C@uakron.edu> Subject: Bio- Forney Wade Morgantown, WV Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; x-mac-type="54455854"; x-mac-creator="4D4F5353" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society Inc. Chicago and New York Volume11 Page 24 Bio- Forney Wade, Morgantown, WV Forney Wade. One of the leading and successful business men in Morgantown is Forney Wade, who as sales manager of the Central Automobile Corporation is one of the best known and most popular automobile men of the State of West Virginia. Mr. Wade has been identified with this line of business for more than ten years, during which period he has made the most of his opportunities and has taken advantage of his chances to better his personal condition while at the same time adding to the prestige of his company. In this dual ambition he has been eminently successful, and in the meantime has not overlooked or neglected his opportunities to serve this city in the role of public-spirited citizen. Mr. Wade was born August 14, 1880, near Mt. Morris, Pennsylvania, but in Monongalia County, West Virginia, and is a son of the late Jess and Sarah Jane (Clovis) Wade, both of whom were born in the same county. Jess Wade was a life-long farmer and a man of industry and good character, who had the respect of his neighbors and a good record of citizenship. The boyhood and youth of Forney Wade were passed on the home farm, but his ambitions did not run along the line of agricultural endeavor, and after securing a public-school education, at the age of nineteen years, he left home and, learning carpentry, went to the West and spent three years in working at that trade in Illinois and Iowa. Returning to Monongalia County in 1902, in partnership with his brother, Jarrett Wade, he engaged in the building and contracting business, and the association continued until the death of his brother in 1905. Mr. Wade continued in the same line, with a modest degree of success, until 1911, when he changed his activities into another field of endeavor. For some time he had been interested in the automobile industry, and had been cognizant of its constantly-growing importance in the business world and in 1911 he and Ben Garrison, a son of M.S. Garrison and now service manager of the Central Automobile Corporation, joined forces and in a small way engaged in the automobile business at Morgantown as agents for the Central Automobile Company, Inc. In 1917 this company was dissolved, but was immediately reorganized as the Central Automobile Corporation, which now handles Ford cars and parts in the counties of Harrison, Monongalia and Marion, with service stations at Morgantown, Fairmont, Mannington and Clarksburg. This $200,000 corporation has the following offficers: Dell Roy Richards, president; A.W.Bowlby, vice president and treasurer; D.C.Garrison, secretary; Charles G. Baker, attorney; Forney Wade, sales manager; and Ben Garrison, service manager. In the capacity of sales manager Mr. Wade has contributed materially to the success of this concern and at the same time has evidenced the possession of qualities which place him among the capable automobile men of this section. He is a member of the Masons Odd Fellows and Elks at Morgantown, and belongs to the Rotary Club and the Chamber of Commerce. His religious faith is that of Methodist Protestant Church. In 1906 Mr. Wade married Miss Harriette F. Sayer, daughter of William Sayer, of Orion, Illinois. ______________________________X-Message: #2 Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2000 15:50:11 -0600 From: Vivian Brinker To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <000121155011.9371@RAVEN.CCC.CC.KS.US> Subject: BIOS: ALEXANDER, Andrew Sterrett, Kanawha County The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume II. pg. 188 ANDREW STERRETT ALEXANDER, judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Kanawha County, is a Charleston lawyer and banker, and is one of a number of prominent representatives of this name and family running back into the earliest pioneer times of what is now West Virginia. He is descended from Archibald Alexander, who came from Scotland in 1737. His son Mathew lived at Waynesboro, Virginia, and by his marriage to Margaret Black was the father of Samuel Alexander, grandfather of Judge Alexander. Samuel Alexander was born at Waynesboro May 17, 1784, and subsequently removed to Mason County, West Virginia, where for many years he was a justice of the peace and was also made sheriff, though on account of age his son William performed the active duties of the office. The wife of Samuel Alexander was Elizabeth Arbuckle, who was born July 15, 1790, at Fort Randolph, and died July 26, 1860. She was married in 1812. Her father, William Arbuckle, was born in Betetourt County, March 3, 1752, and in 1778 moved to Fort Randolph, now Point Pleasant, West Virginia. He lived there fifteen years and then went to Greenbrier County, but in the winter of 1796-97 returned to the Kanawha Valley and settled on his extensive estate some fifteen miles above Fort Randolph, where he spend the rest of his life. William Arbuckle married Catherine Madison, a daughter of Humphrey Madison, niece of Bishop John Madison and Governor George Madison, and cousin to President James Madison. Her mother, Mary Dickinson, was a daughter of John Dickinson, one of the signers of the Constitution of the United States. The first husband of Catherine, William McClanahan, was killed at the battle of Point Pleasant October 10, 1774. William Arbuckle Alexander, father of Judge Alexander, was born in Mason County November 3, 1816. He was the son who performed the active duties of sheriff under his father, and subsequently became sheriff of Putnam County when it was created from portions of Mason and Kanawha. He received from his father an extensive tract of land in Frazier Bottom, where in 1860 he built a large brick residence and where he lived until his death on April 1, 1885. He was elected to the State Senate in 1871. On December 15, 1860, William A. Alexander married Leonora C. Ruffner, daughter of Augustus and Mary E. (Rogers) Ruffner and granddaughter of Dr. Henry Rogers of Kanawha County. Andrew Sterrett Alexander, a son of these parents, was born in Putnam County August 7, 1867. As a youth he attended public schools, worked on the farm, taught school, and in 1890 graduated from the law department of the University of West Virginia and in the same year was admitted to the bar at Charleston. Two years later he was elected prosecuting attorney of Putnam County and re-elected for a second four year term in 1896. Judge Alexander was democratic nominee for the Senate in 1900 and 1904, and in 1905 he removed to Charleston, where a large and profitable clientage sought he professional energies. He was appointed city solicitor in 1907 and for a second term in 1911. He was also one of the incorporators and the secretary and treasurer of the Southern States Mutual Life Insurance Company, now the George Washington Life Insurance Company, when it was first organized. He was elected judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Kanawha County in November, 1916, and began his eight year term January 1, 1917. Judge Alexander is also vice president and director of the Kanawha National Bank of Charleston, was organizer and first president of the bank of Winfield in Putnam County, and is director of the Putnam County Bank at Hurricane. In October, 1921, the rare honor, that of thirty-third degree in Scottish Rite Masonry, was conferred upon Judge Alexander by the Supreme Council of Scottish Rite masonry for the Southern Jurisdiction at Washington. He is a Knight Templar Mason, a past commander of Kanawha Commandery No. 4, and is a past potentate of Beni-Kedem Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, at Charleston. Judge Alexander is an elder in the First Presbyterian Church at Charleston, and his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were Presbyterian elders in their time. Judge Alexander married in Greenbriar County Elizabeth S. Mann, granddaughter of William Mann, a pioneer of that county and daughter of Mathew Mann, who was a farmer and banker. Judge and Mrs. Alexander have three children: Andrew Sterling, Leonora Ruffner and Mathew Mann Alexander. ______________________________X-Message: #3 Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2000 22:37:26 -0600 From: Tina Hursh To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.20000122043726.0069ff48@clubnet.isl.net> Subject: Bio: Joseph D. Miller - Monongalia 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 II pg. 78 & 79 Joseph Donley Miller, D.O. The marvelous progress made in medical science during recent years must interest every normal individual, be his own condition of health what it may. Among the different schools of medicine, as a healing art perhaps none have made greater strides forward in the last decade than that of Osteopathy. It is almost fifty years since its founder, the late venerated Dr. Andrew Taylor Still, first announced its benefits had to be demonstrated in the face of what may be denominated fanantical opposition. Changed, indeed, is its present status, when a successful practitioner is found in every progressive community all over the world, when its richly endowed colleges offer unsrupassed advantaged in the way of hight scientific medical training, and its beneficent results may be found in the practical banishment of the most dreaded foes of health that have so long afflicted misguided humanity. For fourteen years Morgantown, West Virginia, has been the home of a very able Osteopathic practitioner, Dr. Joseph Donley Miller, who may justly be called the pioneer in his school of medicine here, being preceded only by several practitioners whose stay was very short. The success that has attended Doctor Miller's effort has firmly established Osteopathy in this community. Doctor Miller is a native of West Virginia, born in Cass District, Monongalia County, May 4, 1862. His parents were James E. and Ruhama (Donley) Miller. His paternal grandfather was Amherst Miller, who settled at Osage, Cass District, at and early day, where he built and operated the first flour and carding mill in Monongalia County. He married into the prominent Locke family, and left descendents. James E. Miller was born in Morgantown and grew to manhood there. He operated his father's mill at Osage for several years, but in 1876 removed to Mount Morris, Greene County, Pennsylvania, whre he built a flour mill of his own and operated it for many years. He married Ruhama Donley, who was born at Mount Morris, where she still resides, being now in her eightieth year. Her father, Joseph R. Donley, was well known in Green County. The father of Doctor Miller died at Mount Morris. Joseph Donley Miller was fourteen years old when his parents moved to Mount Morris, Pennsylvania, where he continued his public school education already under way at Osage. It was in 1903, while residing in Core, West Virginia, that he became enough interested in Osteopathy to begin serious study of the science, and later became at student in the American School of Osteopathy at Kirksville, Missouri, from which institution he was graduated in 1906, with the degree of D.O. He entered upon the practice of his profession at Mount Morris, but in Apri, 1907, removed to Morgantown, West Virginia, which city has been his field of professional work ever since. In recognition of his skill as an exponent of Osteopathy Doctor Miller has been highly honored on numerous occasions by representative organizations of his school of medicine. He is ex-president of the West Virginia State Osteopathic Association, is a member of the American Osteopathic Association, the Pennsylvania State Osteopathic Association, and of the Western Pennsylvania Osteopathic Association. In 1890 Doctor Miller married Miss Mary Tennant, daughter of John and Phoebe (Mason) Tennant, of Green County, Pennsylvania, and they have one son and one daughter: Harry Irving and Lois Lynn, the latter of whom was born October 3, 1899, attended the Morgantown High School, and at present (1921) is a student in the University of West Virginia. Harry Irving Miller, D.O. was born at Core, West Virginia, August 29, 1891, attended the common schools, the high school at Morgantown and the normal school at California, Pennsylvania, and later became a student in the American School of Osteopathy at Kirksville, Missouri, from which college he was graduated in January, 1914, with the degree of D.O. He entered into practice at Lebanon, Missouri, where he remained until August, 1918, when he answered the call of the Government for medical men for service in the World war, and from that date until his honorable discharge on December 1, 1918, was stationed at Camp Lee, Virginia. He returned then to Lebanon, Missouri, but in May, 1920, came to Morgantown to become his father's partner in Osteopathic practice, and since that time the professional style has been Miller & Miller. He is a member of the West Virginia State, and the American Ostiopathic associations, and like his father, belongs to the Greek letter college fraternity, the Phi Sigma Gamma. He also is active in the Chamber of Cemmerce and belongs to the order of Elks at Morgantown. Doctor Miller and his family are members of the Methodist protestant Church. As a citizen deeply interested in the welfare and progress of his home city, he is an active factor in teh Chamber of Commerce. His fraternal connections include the Odd Fellows and the Order of Meccabees. ______________________________X-Message: #4 Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2000 22:37:27 -0600 From: Tina Hursh To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.20000122043727.00699970@clubnet.isl.net> Subject: Bio: W.C. Wickham Renshaw - Cabell 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 II pg. 79 W.C. Wickham Renshaw is a leading member of the bar at Huntington, former representative in the Legislature, and is a man of unusual gifts and accomplishments. Prior to becoming a lawyer he was in the civil engineering profession. Mr. Renshaw was born of American parents but his birth occurred in a foreign land. He was born at Oratava, Teneriffe, Canary Islands, November 19, 1882. His grandfather was William Renshaw, a native of Madrid, Spain, of English ancestry. For many years he was in the British diplomatic service, and some of the more important posts which he held were in Spain and Venezuela. He married a Spanish lady, Miss Beatrice De Medicis. Robert H. Renshaw, father of the Huntington lawyer, was born at Bristol Pennsylvania, in 1833, but was reared at Caracas, Venezuela, where he aquired his early education. He graduated A.B. from Harvard University in 1855, and for several years practiced law at Baltimore. During the Civil War he was a captain in the Confederate Army, and following the war he settled down to farming in Clarke County, Virginia, where he remained until 1900 and then retired to Charlottesville, where he died in 1910. He was a democrat, a member of the Episcopal Church and the Masonic fraternity. His first wife was Miss Lucy Carter, a native of Virginia and their only child, Charlotte, died in infancy. His second wife was Maria Carter, of Philadelphia. To this union were born two children: Charles C., now sales agent for a coal company in Philadelphia, and Maria deceased. The third wife of Robert H. Renshaw was Anne Carter Wickham, who was born in Hanover County, Virginia, in 1851. W.C. Wickham Renshaw is their oldest child; Frank is a civil engineer at Huntington; Robert is a road building contractor in Snow Hill, Maryland; and Julia is the wife of Alfred R. James, and architect at Cleveland, Ohio. Mrs. Renshaw was married in 1920 to Dr. W.E. Byerly, retired professor of mathematics of Harvard University, and now lives in Waverly, Massachusetts. W.C. Wickham Renshaw grew up in Virginia, attended private schools, including the Clay Hill Academy in Clarke county, and in 1902 graduated Master of Arts in the University of Virginia at Charlottesville. He is a member of the Alpha Tau Omega Greek letter fraternity. For three years he taught at Chattanooga, Tennessee, and then followed his career as a civil engineer, a profession that engaged him in various districts of Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. He first came to West Virginia in 1899. Mr. Renshaw continued his profession as a civil engineer until 1914, in which year he was admitted to the bar and since then has been busy with his work as a lawyer. He is a member of the firm Vinson, Thompson, Meek & Renshaw, with offices in the Holeswade Building. Mr. Renshaw was elected to represent Cabell County in the House of Delegates in November, 1916. During the session of 1917 he was chairman of the taxation and finance committees, and a member of the judiciary, mines and mining, labor and other important committees. He was elected as a democrat. He is a member of the Episcopal Church, the Kiwanis Club of Huntington, the Guyandotte Club, Guyan County Club of Huntington, The West Virginia and American Bar Association, and is a director in the Huntington Development and Gas Company and president and director of the Guyan Big Ugly & Coal River Railroad. His home is at 1105 Eleventh Street. In November, 1911, at Richmond, Virginia, Mr. Renshaw married Miss Martha Chaffin, Daughter of Richard B. and Sarah (Harvie) Chaffin.