WV-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 00 : Issue 69 Today's Topics: #1 BIO: ROY LESTER WEAVER, Ritchie Co [Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.20000319004144.0087dbd0@trellis.net> Subject: BIO: ROY LESTER WEAVER, Ritchie County WV 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 III, pg. 363-364 ROY LESTER WEAVER is one of the fortunate farmer citizens of Ritchie County, living at Harrisville, and is now practically retired from the responsibilities of agri- culture, since his farm of sixty acres is devoted to the production of oil, there being ten high class wells on it. Mr. Weaver was born in DeKalb District of Ritchie County, August 26, 1878, son of Jacob and Elzena (Mason) Weaver, the former a native of Gilmer County and the latter of Ritchie County. His father spent his early life on a farm, had only the advantages of the common schools, but be taught for several years. After his marriage in Gilmer County he located on lands in the woods, cleared it, and in time his prosperity was represented by the owner- ship of two farms, one of sixty-nine acres and the other of fifty-one acres. All of this land was underlaid with oil and gas. When he left the farm he removed to Webster County, and he died at Huntington, where his widow is still living. He was an active member of the Methodist Church, was affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and is a republican in politics. Of their six children five are liv- ing: Roy Lester, Lemond, Brack, Ollie and Berdie. Roy Lester Weaver spent the first twenty-one years of his life on his father's farm in Gilmer County, shared in its duties while attending school, and he then took up fanning as his real vocation. He continued actively as a general farmer until the development of oil was begun on his land. Mr. Weaver has a large revenue from his oil wells, and he is interested as a stockholder in the National Woolen Mills and in another corporation at Charleston. He is one of the good and reliable citizens of Ritchie County, is a republican, and he and his family are mem- bers of the United Brethren Church. On June 1, 1905, he married Miss Maude Stonaker, a native of Gilmer County. Mr. and Mrs. Weaver have eleven children: Overt B., Vergie A., Leo and Leon, twins, Mil- dred, Orpha, Harley, Blair, Gladys, Evadale, and Roy, Jr. ______________________________X-Message: #2 Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2000 17:43:48 -0500 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.20000319174348.008c5cb0@trellis.net> Subject: BIO: WILLIAM N. MACTAGGART, Raleigh County WV 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 III, pg. 365-366 Raleigh WILLIAM N. MACTAGGART. Though he has been an American all these years he can remember, William N. Mac- Taggart was born in Scotland, and he has some of the pro- nounced Scotch characteristics. He is conservative, is a man of forceful character, and his associates esteem his judgment and experience as the last resort in practically every matter connected with coal operation and mining engineering. Mr. MacTaggart is the local superintendent and engineer in charge of the vast properties of the Beaver Coal Company, with headquarters at Beckley in Raleigh County. He was born in the City of Glasgow, January 29, 1868, son of John and Mary (Neilson) MacTaggart. His parents came to the United States about 1870. His father while in Scotland was an accountant for coal mining companies, but. in the United States he took up mining as a practical voca- tion, and was a mine foreman and superintendent, spending one year at Sharon, Pennsylvania, and then removed to the coal district around Jeansville, Pennsylvania. He was killed in a mine accident there in 1881. William N. MacTaggart attended the common schools of Jeansville, and was only eight years of age when he did his first work at a coal mine, picking slate. This was night work, and he continued to attend school during the day. At the age of eleven he was made trapper and driver, and then successively was employed as trackman, dug coal as a practical miner, served as foreman and superintendent, and with increasing experience in all phases of coal min- ing he felt the need of a better education, and for two years he pursued an academic course in Grove City College in Western Pennsylvania. Following that he secured a position as rodman with an engineering company, and after mastering the fundamentals of engineering he was made chainman and then transit man. For three years he was in the service of the Lehigh Valley Coal Company as a mining engineer at Hazelton, Pennsylvania. In 1899 he came to West Virginia as mining engineer for the Fair- mont Coal Company, and was in the service of this corpo- ration four years. During a period of almost twenty years since then, Mr. MacTaggart has had his headquarters at Beckley, where he has been superintendent for the Beaver Coal Company. He looks after the property of the company, comprising 50,000 acres of coal and timber lands, producing on the average 3,000,000 tons of coal annually, besides lumber. There are twenty coal companies operating under lease from the Beaver Company. These operating companies are the Raleigh, the Beckley, the Slab Fork, the Sullivan, the E. E. White Coal and Coke Company, the Gulf Smokeless Coal Company, the Bailey-Wood Coal Company, the Pember- ton, the McAlpin, the Gulf Coal Company, the Elkhorn Piney Mining Company, Pemberton Fuel Company, Piney Creek Coal Company, Douglas Coal Company, Bowyer Smokeless Coal Company, Ragland Coal Company, Summit Coal Company, Viacova Coal Company, Beard Coal and Coke Company and Battleship Coal Company. In 1896, at Jeansville, Pennsylvania. Mr. MacTaggart married Bertha Hamer, daughter of William and Bertha Hamer. Her father was in the coal business in Pennsyl- vania. The five children of their marriage are Paul, Jean (deceased), Isabel, Margaret and Bertha. The Beaver Company donated the site at Beckley for the new hospital known as the Kings Daughters Hos- pital of Beckley. Mr. MacTaggart is a Presbyterian, is a member of the Kiwanis Club and is president of the Beck- ley Club. ______________________________X-Message: #3 Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2000 17:44:12 -0500 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.20000319174412.0087dbd0@trellis.net> Subject: BIO: JOHN B. CLIFTON, Raleigh County WV 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 III, pg. 366 Raleigh JOHN B. CLIFTON. One of the youngest coal operators in Raleigh County, John B. Clifton as a boy took up rail- roading, spent several years in growing responsibilities in the railroad service, and had the expert qualifications as a traffic man when he turned to the coal industry. It has been his fortune to associate with prominent men, and among them he is regarded as one of the coming leaders in the coal industry of West Virginia. Mr. Clifton was born at Ridgeway, Montgomery County, Virginia, July 27, 1891, son of James W. and Mary K. (Kelley) Clifton, both natives of Virginia, and his father a farmer. He is of English ancestry. John B. Clifton attended the common schools of Montgomery County until he was sixteen years of age, then learned telegraphy, and his first assignment of duty was as an operator on the Nor- folk & Western. He served with that road from 1907 until 1910, and then became general operator for the Vir- ginia Railway, his duties taking him all over the line. Beginning in 1912, he acted as car distributor for the road, but resigned in 1915 to go into the coal business on the Stone Coal Branch of the Chesapeake & Ohio. At that time he became part owner of the Beckley Smokeless Coal Company. He sold his interest in that organization in 1919, and since then has helped organize and has been active as a business representative and as a member of pro- ducing and sales companies operating in the Raleigh County field. These include the Raleigh Smokeless Coal Company, Guyan Collieries Company, Wilton Smokeless Coal Company, Wood-Peck Fuel Company, Red Ash Coal Com- pany. Mr. Clifton also has interests in South America, the Raleigh Smokeless Fuel Company maintaining an office at Rio Janeiro, Brazil. In 1914, at Catlettsburg, Kentucky, he married Miss Nellie King, daughter of Robert and Naomi King, of Beck- ley. Their two children are John B., Jr., and Ruth. Mr. Clifton is a Presbyterian, a member of the Masonic Lodge, the Kiwanis Club and in politics is a democrat. ______________________________X-Message: #4 Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2000 17:44:36 -0500 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.20000319174436.00838140@trellis.net> Subject: BIO: HUGH JARVIS, Harrison Co. WV 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 III, pg. 366 Harrison HUGH JARVIS, vice president of the Union National Bank in the City of Clarksburg, Harrison County, has been one of the two men primarily influential in the upbuilding of this institution, which is one of the most substantial and important in his native county. Mr. Jarvis was born on a farm near Shinnston, this county, December 16, 1870, and is one of a family of seven children born to Lemuel D. and Martha (McCann) Jarvis. The father long held prestige as one of the progressive exponents of agricul- tural and live-stock industry in this section of the state, was influential in public affairs in the community and served as sheriff of the county. He was seventy-seven years of age at the time of his death. His parents were Joseph and Lucy (Beall) Jarvis, and his paternal grand- father was Solomon Jarvis, who came from Maryland and settled in what is now Harrison County, West Virginia, as early as 1788, when this section was little more than a frontier wilderness. The family name has been closely and worthily linked with civic and material development and progress in the county during the long intervening years. Mrs. Martha (McCann) Jarvis still maintains her home at Clarksburg, has been a resident of Harrison County from the time of her birth and is now one of the most venerable and loved native daughters of the county, she being in her eighty-ninth year at the time of this writing, in 1921. Her parents, James and Achsah J. (Price) McCann, were sterling pioneers of the county. Hugh Jarvis was a mere boy at the time of the family removal from the farm to Clarksburg, the county seat, where he profited fully by the advantages of the public schools. As a youth he entered the employ of the Balti- more & Ohio Railroad Company, with which he continued in service several years, during the greater part of which he was cashier at the Clarksburg station. Later he re- ceived appointment to the position of deputy clerk of Harrison County, and he initiated his banking career by accepting the position of cashier of the West Union Bank at West Union, Doddridge County. In 1900 he became associated with Paul M. Robinson, of whom individual mention is made on other pages, in organizing and found- ing the People's Banking & Trust Company at Clarksburg, with Mr. Jarvis as cashier. Later Messrs. Jarvis and Robinson became actively concerned in the organization and incorporation of the Union National Bank of Clarks- burg, in 1905, and the new institution absorbed the busi- ness of the People's Banking & Trust Company and also that of the Traders National Bank of Clarksburg. The consolidation proved a stroke of business expedience and good judgment, as is attested by the splendid success that has attended the Union National Bank, of which both Mr. Jarvis and Mr. Robinson became vice presidents at the time of incorporation. Under their direct and effective management and progressive policies the bank has become one of the largest and strongest financial institutions in Northern West Virginia. In 1912 the bank erected for its own occupancy a handsome and modern office building, known as the Union Bank Building, and the same would be a credit to a city of first metropolitan rank. Aside from his banking interests Mr. Jarvis is the owner of valuable farm property and is one of the many extensive cattle-growers of Harrison County. He has other capitalistic investments of important order, and takes deep interest in all that concerns the welfare and progress of his home city and native county. In the York Rite of the Masonic fraternity his maximum affiliation is with the local Commandery of Knights Templar, and he has received the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite, besides being a member of the Mystic Shrine. He and his wife are active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In the year 1900 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Jarvis and Miss Harriett Maxwell, a daughter of Porter and Columbia C. (Post) Maxwell, and the children of this union are three in number. ______________________________X-Message: #5 Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2000 17:45:48 -0500 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.20000319174548.008729b0@trellis.net> Subject: BIO: JOHN WYSOR DAVIN, Fayette Co. WV 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 III, pg. 367 Fayette JOHN WYSOR DAVIN is a young man who has won con- secutive advancement in connection with railroad service, and is now chairman of the car-allotment commission of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, with official headquarters at the passenger station building of this railway in the City of Huntington. He still resides in the old homestead of the family at Montgomery, Fayette County, where he was born on the 10th of March, 1892. John Davin, father of him whose name initiates this re- view, was born in Ireland, in 1848, and died at Mont- gomery, West Virginia, in 1912. His father, Michael Davin, was born in Ireland, in 1810, and died near Boone- ville, Missouri, in 1899. he having immigrated with his fam- ily to the United States about the year 1849, and having become a farmer near Latonia, Kentucky, whence in 1874 he removed to Missouri and settled near Booneville, where he became a specially successful farmer and where he and his wife passed the residue of their lives. John Davin was an infant at the time of the family removal from the Emerald Isle to the United States, and grew to adult age on the home farm in Kentucky. He did not go to Missouri with his father, but came to West Virginia and assisted in the construction of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. Later he engaged in the coal business at Montgomery as a pioneer operator in the coal fields of that district, and ho was one of the influential citizens and business men/of Montgomery at the time of his death. He was a demo- crat in politics. He married Miss Mary E. Montgomery, who was born in Virginia in 1859, and whose death oc- curred at Montgomery, West Virginia, in 1920. Of their children the firstborn was Charles Ashley, who died in 1881, in infancy; Miss Florence E. remains at the old home in Montgomery; Harlow A. resides at Logan, this state, and is an assistant superintendent in the employ of tlie Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Company; Lottie is the wife of Dr. Horace H. Smallridge, a representative dentist in the City of Charleston; Annie is the wife of Lon G. Smallridge, a merchant in the City of Tacoma, Washington; John W., of this sketch, was the next in order of birth; Thomas L. remains in the old home town of Montgomery, and represents the Bankers Life Insurance Company; and Miss Margaret remains at the old home in that place. In the public schools of Montgomery John W. Davin acquired his early education, and there also he attended the branch school of the University of West Virginia. In 1909 he became yard clerk for the Chesapeake & Ohio Rail- road Company at Handley, Kanawha County, and his abil- ity and effective service eventually led to his promotion to the position of local car distributor in the Kanawha coal district. In 1916 he was transferred to Huntington, and later in the same year was here promoted to the position of chief car distributor. In June, 1919, he resigned this place and became traffic manager for the Amherst Fuel Company at Lundale, Logan County, but in December of the following year he resigned this post and resumed his alliance with the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, for which he has since served as chairman of the car allotment commis- sion, with executive headquarters in the City of Huntington. Mr. Davin takes loyal interest in public affairs and is independent in politics. He is affiliated with Coal Valley Lodge No. 74, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Montgomery, where also he is a member of Fayette Lodge No. 29, Knights of Pythias, besides which he is a member of Charleston Lodge No. 202, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, in the capital city of the state. ______________________________X-Message: #6 Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2000 17:45:03 -0500 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.20000319174503.008725d0@trellis.net> Subject: BIO: THOMAS E. BIBB, Raleigh Co. WV 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 III, pg. 366-367 Raleigh THOMAS E. BIBB spent a score of years in the lumber and coal industry, but finally turned all his energies and his capital to merchandising and has built up in the Beck- ley Hardware Company one of the most successful whole- sale organizations in this rich and populous section of the state. Mr. Bibb was born in Fayette County, West Virginia, in August, 1865. His grandfather Bibb was born and reared in Amherst County, Virginia, moved to West Virginia about 1830, and served in the Civil war. He married a Miss Gatewood, of English ancestry. One of their sons was Rev. Martin Bibb, widely known all over the South as a minister of the Baptist Church. Thomas E. Bibb's par- ents were Benjamin and Mary (Wilson) Bibb, natives of Virginia. His father, who was a farmer and school teacher, served for sixteen years as superintendent of schools of Fayette County, and is still living, at the age of eighty- four. Thomas E. Bibb acquired all his education in Fayette County, and his father was his chief teacher. He left school at the age of twenty and went to work on the farm, then engaged in the lumber and timber business, and for seventeen years was connected with the coal industry as sales agent at Rush Run and Royal in Raleigh County. He then returned to the lumber industry for three years, and in 1910 located at Beckley and established the Beckley Hardware and Furniture Company. His business is now the largest wholesale house in this great coal district, and there is no larger house nearer than Charleston. On April 10, 1888, in Fayette County, Mr. Bibb married Ella M. Love, daughter of S. H. and Lucy (Dickerson) Love, both of Fayette County, where her father was a farmer and school teacher. Mr. and Mrs. Bibb have reared an interesting family. There were six children, Edgar E., Carlyn A., Mildred, James B. and Clarence. Harry is de- ceased. The two sons, Edgar and Carlyn, have become actively associated with their father in business, and both are sterling young business men and citizens of Beckley. Edgar married Ella Campbell, daughter of a former sheriff of Raleigh County. Carlyn, who is unmarried, is road salesman for the Beckley Hardware Company. In October, 1917, he entered Camp Leo for training, was sent for a time to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and then returned to Camp Lee, and in June, 1918, went overseas. For six weeks he was in the Argonne Forest fighting. Mr. Bibb is a Baptist, is a Royal Arch and Knight Templar Mason and Shriner, and his sons Edgar and Carlyn are also Masons and Shriners. In politics he is a democrat. The family are prominent socially in Beckley.