West Virginia Statewide Files WV-Footsteps Mailing List WV-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 99 : Issue 141 Today's Topics: #1 BIO: WRIGHT, Roy T.-Mercer Co., WV [PJSTON@aol.com] #3 BIO: DOWNS, William Smith-Monongal [PJSTON@aol.com] #4 BIO: John F. Ferrell ["John \"Bill\" Wheeler" <wheeler@g] #5 BIO: ARNETT, Lonna Dennis-Monongal [PJSTON@aol.com] #6 Fw: Floyd D. Stollings ["John \"Bill\" Wheeler" <wheeler@g] Administrivia: To unsubscribe from WV-FOOTSTEPS-D, send a message to WV-FOOTSTEPS-D-request@rootsweb.com that contains in the body of the message the command unsubscribe and no other text. No subject line is necessary, but if your software requires one, just use unsubscribe in the subject, too. To contact the WV-FOOTSTEPS-D list administrator, send mail to WV-FOOTSTEPS-admin@rootsweb.com. ______________________________X-Message: #1 Date: Sun, 5 Dec 1999 22:25:26 EST From: PJSTON@aol.com To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <0.bc1fd6b2.257c86a6@aol.com> Subject: BIO: WRIGHT, Roy T.-Mercer Co., WV Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume II pg 94 +95 Roy T. Wright, general manager of the Pawama and Algonquin mines, vice president of the Bank of Matoaka and president of the Wright Drug Company, came into this district in 1902 as a member of the First Engineering Corps for the Pocahontas Coal & Coke Company, and his initiative and ability have since advanced him to a leading place in the affairs of this part of Mercer County. He was born near Princeton, that county, July 24, 1882, son of E. C. and Mary S. (Ellis) Wright, the former a native of Wythe County, Virginia, and the latter of Monroe County, West Virginia. E. C. Wright came to Mercer County in 1866 with his father, Thomas Wright, who settled on a farm near Princeton and spent the rest of his life as a farmer and cattle raiser. Thomas Wright was a veteran of the Confederate army. He was killed by accident while working in the timber at the age of eighty-four. E. C. Wright followed farming for many years, but since 1907 has been a resident of Matoaka and is in business as a funeral director. He is a Methodist, much interested in Sunday School work, is affiliated with the Masons, Knights of Pythias, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Moose and other societies and is a democrat. His family consists of two sons and three daughters, the other son L. A. Wright being in charge of the Wright Drug Company. Roy T. Wright acquired his early education at Princeton, finishing school at the age of eighteen, after which he spent a year on the farm. His first connection with the coal industry was in the service of the Sagamore Coal Company on Crane Creek, following which he went with the Pocahontas Coal and Coke Company, and since his first work at Matoaka he has enjoyed increasing responsibilities, serving as superintendent, manager and engineer, and has been connected with the Winonah, Hiawatha, and Smokeless companies the Springton Colliery Company, and since 1918 has been in active charge of the coal properties above mentioned and has other interests in the coal industry as well. Besides the Bank of Matoaka and the Wright Drug Company he is manager of the Matoaka Electric & Power Company, is president of the Mercer Hardware & Furniture Company, president of the Matoaka Insurance Agency. Mr. Wright in 1900 married Miss Mary Harriet McClaugherty, who was born at Princeton, daughter of James McClaugherty. They have three children: Bernice, a student in the Martha Washington College at Abingdon; Harry and Agnes, both in high school. The family are Methodists, and Mr. Wright is affiliated with the Elks and Knights of Pythias, is a Scottish Rite Mason and a member of the Mercer County Country Club. ______________________________X-Message: #3 Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1999 10:39:13 EST From: PJSTON@aol.com To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <0.c1deafe.257d32a1@aol.com> Subject: BIO: DOWNS, William Smith-Monongalia Co, WV Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume II pg 95 William Smith Downs, a civil engineer of Morgantown, is division engineer of the west Virginia State Road Commission. He is a native of West Virginia, born at Martinsburg in Berkeley County, March 15, 1883, a son of the late Joseph A. and Caroline J. (Evans) Downs. This branch of the Downs family was established in what is now West Virginia by Henry Downs, who came into Berkeley County in 1812 from Prince George County, Maryland, five generations removed from the present. Davenport Downs, grandfather of William S. Downs, removed from Berkeley County, West Virginia, to Iowa, in 1852. He served in the war between the states and died in Iowa shortly after its close. The Evans family was established in what is now West Virginia by John Evans and his wife, Mary, who came to America from Wales and settled in Berkeley County before the Revolutionary war. He built the old Evans fort which stood on what is now the Winchester Turnpike, about two miles south of the present City of Martinsburg. Tillottson Fryatt Evans, the maternal grandfather of William S. Downs, was born in Berkeley County, as was also his wife, Jane Orr. He spent his life there engaged in farm pursuits. Joseph A. Downs was born at Wapello, Louisa County, Iowa. His mother having died when he was an infant, he was reared by her people, received a collegiate education and became a teacher by profession, practically spending his entire life in the schoolroom and dying at Martinsburg, West Virginia, in 1900. He married Caroline J. Evans, daughter of Tillottson Fryatt and Jane (Orr) Evans. After graduating from the high school of Martinsburg, William Smith Downs entered the West Virginia University, from which he was graduated in 1906 with the degree of B. S. C. E. and from that institution in 1915 received his C. E. degree. Since leaving the university Mr. Downs has been continuously identified with engineering concerns and interested in the development of the state. During 1906-1907 he was chief draughtsman for the Morgantown & Kingwood Railway, and from then for several years was associated professionally with Julius K. Monroe at Kingwood. From 1911 to 1915 he was engineer in charge of foundation investigation and resident engineer of the Hydro-Electric Company at Cheat Haven, West Virginia. From 1915 to 1917 he served as county road engineer for Monongalia County and since 1917 has filled the office of division engineer of the West Virginia State Road Commission. On June 22, 1910, Mr. Downs married Miss Nellie J. Albright, who is a daughter of L. M. and Jennie (Gibson) Albright, of Kingwood, West Virginia, and they have three children: William Richard, born December 27, 1912; James Albright, born February 18, 1914; and Jane, born September 25, 1918. Mr. Downs has never cherished political ambitions but, nevertheless, is an earnest, well informed citizen who gladly cooperates with others in advancing the interests of his native section and state. He is well known in engineering circles here and elsewhere and is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. ______________________________X-Message: #4 Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1999 20:16:30 -0500 From: "John \"Bill\" Wheeler" <wheeler@gru.net> To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <000901bf4050$b49ccec0$1adfbec6@wheeler> Subject: BIO: John F. Ferrell Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" The History of West Virginia. Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc. Chicago and New York, Volume ll., pg. 111 John F. Ferrell. An interesting example of the power of hard work and continuous energy in molding the destiny of the individual and also of other persons and affairs around him is the career of John F. Ferrell, of Logan. The sphere of his activities has been the timber and lumber industry. There was probably no part of the heavy labor involved in logging among these West Virginia hills which escaped his early experience. It is literally true that he has come up from the ranks to the present responsibilities as general manager and one of the owners of the Logan Planing Mill, one of the largest industries of its kind in this part of the state. Mr. Ferrell was born at his father's farm at Chapmanville, April 28, 1878, son of B.C. and Sarah (Dingess) Ferrell. His mother, who is still living, at the age of sixty-six, was born on Crawley Creek, six miles from Chapmanville, daughter of John Dingess, a native of the same locality who died while a soldier in the confederate Army. At one time the Dingess family owned all the land from the present location of Logan to the mouth of Big Creek. B.C. Ferrell, who died in January, 1909, at the age of fifty-five, was born at Chapmanville, son of Samuel Ferrell. who came from Russell County, Virginia, in 1841, and acquired a large amount of valuable land in these valleys. The original homestead of the Ferrells is still owned in the family. Samuel Ferrell was opposed to slavery, was a consistent member of the Christian Church, and the camp meeting grounds of that denomination were on his land. He was a strong republican. B.C. Ferrell was a farmer, stock raiser and dealer, and before the days of railroads he drove his stock over the mountains to market in Roane County. He was a member of the Christian Church and was a democrat. Samuel Ferrell had a family of five sons and one daughter. Besides B.C. another son, Squire died at the age of sixty years. The three living sons are O.F.,L.B., and R.L., and the daughter, Nancy Jane, is the wife of John Godby, all prosperous farmers. B.C. Ferrell and wife had a large family of sons and daughters; John F., the oldest; Roxie, wife of O.C. Winter of Huntington a traveling salesman; W.V., at the old home place; Sarah Ann, who died at the age of fifteen; Wallace E., traveling representative for the Logan Planing Mill and a resident of Huntington; Mary, wife of A.S. Christian, living at the old Dingess place at the mouth Crawley Creek; Belle, wife of Kyler Porter, an operator for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad at Chapmanville; Peter M., living with his mother at Chapmanville; and Julia, who died at the age of three. John F. Ferrell grew up at Chapmanville, acquired his early schooling there, but his better education has been achieved since he married and is due to his application to business and also to studies taken up and carried on in the intervals of other work. He was only fifteen when he went to work in the timber, felling trees, sawing the logs, and his own labor has helped remove the timber from extensive portions from Elk Creek and Big Ugly Creek. Mr. Ferrell has owned probably twenty saw mills, and during the period of the great war he operated five mills of his own. The company owning and operating the Logan Planing Mill was organized January 11, 1916, and acquired the property formerly known as the Lawson Planing Mill. Mr. Ferrell from the first has been active manager of the plant. They are manufacturers of building material, consisting of yellow pine from the long leafed district of the South, fir and fruit from the Northeast, and also native timber. While much of the output is consumed locally, this is one of the firms that do a heavy export business, selling export as far away as Australia. Mr. Ferrell while a member and chairman of the School Board in Chapmanville District was certainly responsible in no small degree for the fine schools established and maintained there. On May 9. 1899, at the age of twenty-one, he married Miss Dekia Garrett, daughter of Rev. W.G. Garrett, who was a widely known minister of the Christian Church in this section. Mr. and Mrs. Ferrell are the parents of eight children. The daughter Garrett is the wife of Walter T. Mitchell, an overseas veteran, and they are now in Prescott, Arizona, where Mr. Mitchell is recovering from illness contracted during the war. The other children are all in the home circle and their names are Jane, Ruth, Eloise, Sarah, James, John and Iola. An adopted son, Roy was killed on the battle front in France, November 9, 1918, just two days before the signing of the armistice. Mr. and Mrs. Ferrell are members of the Christian Church and he is a past grand of the Independent Order of the Odd fellows at Logan, belongs to the Elks and is a democrat. He resides at 825 Ninth Street, West Huntington, West Virginia. Mr. Ferrell at the time of his marriage had a cash capital of $7.55. Out of this he paid five dollars to the minister for performing the ceremony. They bought their housekeeping outfit on credit, and restricted themselves to the essentials, buying only half a set of knives, forks, plates and cups and saucers. Their bedstead cost $2.50, and it was equipped with a shuck mattress, while his mother gave them a feather bed. Mr. and Mrs. Ferrell have been real partners in every phase of their married life. For two years Mr. Ferrell did the heavy manual toil of the timber work, also worked inside. At that time he owned four mules, and he would get into the timber with his teams before daylight and continue until long after dark. Mrs. Ferrell fed the team when he returned home and also the following morning before he started out. It was as a result of such co-operation that they got their start. ______________________________X-Message: #5 Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1999 19:25:08 EST From: PJSTON@aol.com To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <0.67b0d681.257dade4@aol.com> Subject: BIO: ARNETT, Lonna Dennis-Monongalia Co., WV Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume II pg 95 Lonna Dennis Arnett. A member of an honored pioneer family of Monongalia County, Lonna Dennis Arnett had been identified with library work for more than twelve years, and since 1910 has held the position of librarian of the University of West Virginia at Morgantown. A man of wide experience in his field of endeavor, he is likewise a close and careful student and thorough investigator, and the benefit of his research and study is always at the disposal of those who come into contact with Mr. Arnett in his courteous and efficient discharge of the duties of his office. Lonna D. Arnett was born near Arnettsville in Grant District, Monongalia County, May 14, 1870, and belongs to a family which was established in this county by James Arnett, a native of Loudoun County, Virginia, of English parentage. Following the close of the American Revolution James Arnett came to Monongalia County and settled on about 400 acres of land in Grant District near where the present Village of Arnettsville is situated, and there passed the rest of his life in the pursuits of agriculture. A part of his original farm is still held by his descendants. Andrew Arnett, a son of James the pioneer, was born in 1760, and died in 1820. He married Elizabeth Leggett. Thomas Arnett, a son of Andrew and Elizabeth, was born on the farm in Grant District August 9, 1816. He followed farming and also operated water-power grist mills on Indian Creek for a time. He married Zarilda Price, a daughter of William W. Price. William C. Arnett, son of Thomas and Zarilda, was born at Arnettsville, March 30, 1840, and died on his farm January 15, 1916. Like his father, he followed farming and to some extent operated mills on Indian Creek. In 1864 he enlisted in Company B, Sixth Regiment, West Virginia Volunteer Infantry, a regiment with which he served until the close of the war between the states. He was a Methodist in religion and a republican in his political sentiment. In 1868 he married Mary Thorn, daughter of Dennis Thorn, who with his father, settled near Laurel Point, West Virginia, some time between 1820 and 1830. Mrs. Arnett survives and continues to reside on the home farm. Lonna Dennis Arnett, son of William C. and Mary, attended Fairmont (West Virginia) Normal School, and was graduated from the University of West Virginia with the degree of Bachelor of Science as a member of the class of 1898. Following this he attended Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, from which he received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy as a member of the graduating class of 1903, and for several years thereafter was engaged in teaching school. In 1909 he took up library work in the Bureau of Education Library at Washington, District of Columbia, and in the fall of 1910 became librarian of the University of West Virginia, a position which he has since retained. He is a member of the West Virginia State Library Association and the American Library Association, and holds membership also in the Sigma Chi Fraternity. In political allegiance he is a republican, and his religious faith is that of the Methodist Episcopal Church. On August 18, 1903, Mr. Arnett was united in marriage with Miss Ethel Toy, daughter of Powell B. and Marietta (Love) Reynolds, of Morgantown. Her father, who received the degree of Doctor of Divinity and for many years held a professorship at the University of West Virginia, is now deceased, but her mother survives and is a resident of Morgantown. ______________________________X-Message: #6 Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1999 20:28:38 -0500 From: "John \"Bill\" Wheeler" <wheeler@gru.net> To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <002401bf4052$6526c9c0$1adfbec6@wheeler> Subject: Fw: Floyd D. Stollings Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc. Chicago and New York, Volume ll., pg.110 Floyd D. Stollings, who has been a prominent and influential figure in connection with the timber business in West Virginia and also in the handling of coal lands, has the distinction of maintaining his home in a town that was named in his honor, the attractive village of Stollings, Logan County. He was born near Chapmanville, this county in January. 1853 and is a son of Nelson and Lurania(Workman) Stollings, the former of whom likewise was born near Chapmanville and the later of whom was in Boone County, where her death occurred in 1890 and where her husband died in 1900, at the venerable age of eighty-four years. Josiah Stollings, grandfather of the subject of this review, owned large tracts of land near Chapmanville, and was one of the representative pioneers of Logan County. The Stollings came from North Carolina and were numbered among the first settlers in the Guyan valley in what is now West Virginia. Abraham Workman, maternal grandfather of Mr. Stollings likewise came to this section in an early day, his former home having been in North Carolina, near the Virginia line. Nelson Stolling finally established his home on a farm in Boone County, about midway between Chapmanville and Madison, and he met with heavy property and financial losses at the time of the Civil War. He became a mail contractor and transported the mail from Logan to Charleston and also between Logan and Wayne, besides which he established a postoffice at Tracefork, a village now known as Manila, in Boone County.After the close of the war Nelson Stollings as prosperous in his activities as a farmer, trader and mail contractor. He was born in the year 1816 and his wife in 1821, both having been earnest members of the Missionary Baptist Church and his political allegiance having been given to the democratic party. Of their seven children Floyd D., of this sketch, is the only one now living. The oldest son, Thomas B. though under the age at the time, enlisted for services as a confederate soldier in the Civil War. Floyd D. Stollings gains his early education in the schools of Logan and Boone Counties, and his initial work of independent order was the service which he gave as postmaster at Tracefork. From 1874 to 1876 inclusive, he was in the panhandle district of Texas, and upon his return to West Virginia he engaged in the mercantile business in Boone County. He next turned his attention to the timber industry and instituted operation of Twelve Pole Creek and Guyandot River. He first bought popular and walnut timber, which he would raft down to the Ohio River, down which stream the fleet of logs were towed by boats to market points. In his operation, which became of large scope, he maintained his headquarters at Catlettsburg, Kentucky, which was the headquarters for all of the old timber men operating on the Twelve Pole and Guyandot rivers. Mr. Stollings has bought and sold many thousand acres of timber and coal lands, has cut the timber from much land that he later sold to coal operators, and among his purchases was 500 acres where the village of Stollings is now situated, this town having been founded in 1900, which was named in his honor and to the development of which he has contributed in general measure, he having established his home after many years' residence in Boone County. He is a democrat in political allegiance and his wife is a member of the Christian Church. The year 1873 recorded the marriage of Mr. Stollings and Miss Luella Stone, daughter of the late William N. Stone of Boone County. Of this union were born five sons and five daughters, two of the sons being deceased.