WV-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest                           Volume 00 : Issue 185


Today's Topics:
  #1 BIO: CHARLES E. KREBS, Wetzel Co.    [Valerie & Tommy Crook <vfcrook@ear]
  #2 BIO: JESSE G. LAWSON, Harrison Co.   [Valerie & Tommy Crook <vfcrook@ear]
  #3 BIO: ORIN C. BRADLEY, D. V. S., Mo   [Valerie & Tommy Crook <vfcrook@ear]
  #4 BIO: THE MCBEE FAMILY, Monongalia    [Valerie & Tommy Crook <vfcrook@ear]



______________________________X-Message: #1
Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2000 22:31:14 -0400
From: Valerie & Tommy Crook <vfcrook@earthlink.net>
To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com
Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000722220422.00ca2100@mail.earthlink.net>
Subject: BIO: CHARLES E. KREBS, Wetzel Co. WV
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 530
Wetzel


CHARLES E. KREBS, of Charleston, is a mining engineer
and geologist of thirty years' experience and an acknowl-
edged authority among the engineers and economic geol-
ogists in the coal districts of West Virginia. He is also
an authority on oil and. gas deposits in West Virginia,
and a member of the Western states.


Mr. Krebs was born at New Martinsville, Wetzel County,
West Virginia, May 19, 1870, a son of John W. and Eliz-
abeth (Hubacher) Krebs.   His grandfather, Nicholas
Krebs, was a native of Alsace-Lorraine, served as a soldier
under the great Napoleon at the battle of Waterloo, and
a year after that battle came with his family to America
and settled in Ohio, where he lived until his death, in
1855, at the age of seventy years. John W. Krebs was
born in Ohio, and spent his active life as a farmer and
carpenter in Wetzel County, West Virginia, where he
died in 1908, at the age of seventy-seven years.


Up to the age of sixteen Mr. Krebs lived on a farm,
attended common schools, and from sixteen to nineteen
he taught in rural schools. He then entered West Virginia
University, where he pursued a scientific and engineering
course, and graduated with the degree Bachelor of Science
in Civil Engineering in 1894.


The work he has done since graduation comprises a
notable volume of professional interests. Up to 1897 he
was engineer on location and construction of the Charles-
ton-Clendenin & Sutton Railroad from Charleston to Elkins.
During 1898-1900 he was a mining engineer in the New
River coal field. In 1900 he became a member of the
firm Clark & Krebs, and for eight years did prospecting
and development work on coal properties, railroad con-
struction, the building of coke ovens and the study of the
different coal measures in West Virginia and Kentucky.
In 1908 Mr. Krebs was appointed assistant geologist of
the West Virginia Geological Survey, and worked as as-
sistant to the distinguished Dr. I. C. White, West Virginia's
grand old man of science.  For six years he gathered
ata, made investigations of the resources of West Vir-
ginia, and submitted these data for publication to Doctor
White.   The detailed reports published by the survey,
based on the data supplied by Mr. Krebs, are as follows:
Detailed report of Jackson, Mason and Putnam counties,
1911; Cabell, Wayne and Lincoln counties, 1913; Kanawha
County, 1914; Boone County, 1915; Raleigh, Summers and
Mercer counties, 1916.


Since 1915 Mr. Krebs has been engaged in general
geological work and mining engineering in West Virginia,
Ohio, Kentucky and several Western states. He has made
a specialty of reports and valuation of coal, oil and gas
properties. In 1919 he published the Fuel Ratio of Coal,
showing the qualities of the West Virginia coals as com-
pared with those of Ohio. During the years 1921-22 he
assisted the state tax commissioner of West Virginia in
making a small valuation of the coal lands in West
Virginia for state taxation purposes.


Mr. Krebs is a member of the American Institute of
Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, and has been secre-
tary of the Charleston section of that association. He is
also a member of the West Virginia Coal Mining Institute.
Before a convention of coal and mining engineers at
Huntington in September, 1921, he read a carefully pre-
pared article on coal deposits and production of Southern
West Virginia.  He is a member of the Presbyterian
Church, is a Knight Templar and Thirty-second degree
Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, and is a charter member
of the Rotary Club.


In 1899 Mr. Krebs married Miss Donnie Carr, of Clay
County, West Virginia.  She died two years later. In
1905 he married Josephine Stephens, of Paden City, West
Virginia. They have one son, Charles Gregory, born Decem-
ber 10, 1907, and is now attending high school. 
______________________________


X-Message: #2
Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2000 22:33:05 -0400
From: Valerie & Tommy Crook <vfcrook@earthlink.net>
To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com
Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000722220422.00ca3260@mail.earthlink.net>
Subject: BIO: JESSE G. LAWSON, Harrison Co. WV
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 531-532
Harrison


JESSE G. LAWSON, president and the organizer of the
First National Bank of Bridgeport, Harrison County, has
been one of the world's constructive workers, has enjoyed
his work and has found life full of compensation. He has
shown a fine sense of civic and personal stewardship, and
has been specially interested in educational affairs.


Mr. Lawson is a native son of Harrison County, his birth
having occurred on the family homestead farm on Bushy
Fork of Elk Creek, seven miles south of Bridgeport, on
the 17th of February, 1856. He is a son of Abner and
Magdalena (Nutter) Lawson, who passed their entire lives
in Harrison County, where the respective families were
founded in the early pioneer days. Abner Lawson was one
of the substantial farmers and honored citizens of Harrison
County, and was influential in community affairs of public
order.


After receiving the discipline of the rural schools Jesse
Of. Lawson was for two terms a student in West Virginia
College at Flemington, Taylor County. Later he continued
his studies in well conducted "pay schools" in his native
county and in Lewis County, and he put his acquirements
to practical test when he became a teacher in the rural
schools, his first term of school having been taught in
Lewis County, in 1877, and he having later been a successful
teacher in the schools of Harrison County. He continued
his activities in the pedagogic profession for twenty years,
was progressive in his attitude, broadened his studies to
meet the requirements of the advancing standards in local
educational affairs, and did a service of enduring value
as is ever true when practical aid is given in teaching the
youth of any locality in any period. Mr. Lawson's deep
appreciation of the value of popular education has caused
him to maintain at all times a deep interest in the further-
ing of educational work in his home county and state.


In 1896 Mr. Lawson was elected assessor of what was
then known as the lower assessment district of Harrison
County, of which office he continued the incumbent four
years, besides which he served four years as deputy asses-
sor. While engaged in teaching he maintained his home on
his well improved farm on Bushy Creek, a property which
he still owns, though Bridgeport has been his place of
residence since March 17, 1898.


In 1920 Mr. Lawson became one of the leading promoters
in the organization of the First National Bank of Bridge-
port, and through his vigorous and well ordered campaign
was effected the sale of all of the stock of the new institu-
tion, which received its charter on the 19th of October of
that year and which bases its operations on a capital stock
of $50,000. He was elected president of the bank, and as
its chief executive has directed its policies with character-
istic discrimination and ability. In politics Mr. Lawson
gives staunch allegiance to the republican party, he is af-
filiated with the Masonic fraternity, and he and his family
hold membership in the Methodist Protestant Church at
Bridgeport, he being a teacher in its Sunday School and
the leader of the parents' class in the same.


On the 8th of September, 1897, was solemnized the mar-
riage of Mr. Lawson and Miss Minnie C. Henry, of Tyrcon-
nell, Taylor County, she being a daughter of John H. and
Eliza (Marker) Henry. Mr. and Mrs. Lawson have three
children: Marion G., who remains at the parental home,
is a musician of exceptional and well developed talent;
Magdalena H. is, in 1922, a student in Western Maryland
College at Westminster, Maryland, where she is preparing
herself for teaching; and John H. Abner is a member of
the senior class in the Bridgeport High School. 
______________________________


X-Message: #3
Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2000 22:33:23 -0400
From: Valerie & Tommy Crook <vfcrook@earthlink.net>
To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com
Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000722220422.00ca32b0@mail.earthlink.net>
Subject: BIO: ORIN C. BRADLEY, D. V. S., Monongalia Co. WV
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 532
Monongalia


ORIN C. BRADLEY, D. V. S., is one of the skilled and suc-
cessful veterinary surgeons of Monongalia County, where he
controls a substantial practice, with residence and profes-
sional headquarters at Crossroads, Battelle District, on one
of the rural mail routes from Wadestown, and about thirty
miles west of Morgantown, the county seat.


Doctor Bradley was born in Venango County, Pennsyl-
vania, and the place of his nativity, Bradleytown, is a village
that was named in honor of his grandfather, John J. Brad-
ley. The latter's son and namesake, John J., Jr., passed his
entire life in that immediate section of the old Keystone
State, and there his son, Doctor Bradley of this sketch,
was reared to adult age. He made good use of the educa-
tional advantages afforded him and at the age of eighteen
years began teaching in the district schools of his native
county. Thereafter he continued his studies in the Penn-
sylvania State Normal School at Edinboro, and in preparing
for his profession he took a course in a leading veterinary
college in the City of Toronto, Canada, and in the National
Veterinary College at Washington, D. C., in which latter he
was graduated in 1892, the school later becoming affiliated
with Georgetown University. Instead of receiving the gold
medal customarily awarded for highest class standing in the
college Docotor [sic] Bradley was more emphatically honored by
the faculty of the institution in being accorded the highest-
grade diploma, together with the degree of Doctor of
Veterinary Surgery. Nine years after his graduation the
Doctor took an effective post-graduate course in the Chicago
Veterinary College, which holds highest rank of all institu-
tions of the kind in the United States.


In 1894 Doctor Bradley established himself in the practice
of his profession at Mannington, Marion County, West Vir-
ginia, where he remained until 1905, when he removed to
his present place of residence in Monongalia County. In
1900 he served as mayor of Mannington, the charter of
which city had been amended in such a way as to lead to
a period of splendid civic and material advancement, in
which Doctor Bradley, as mayor, played an influential part.
At Crossroads Doctor Bradley owns and resides upon a fine
farm of 418 acres, to the active management of which he
gives his attention, besides continuing in the practice of
his profession and having been for fifteen years associated
with oil-production industry, in which connection he is
president of the Moon Oil & Gas Company, which is con-
ducting successful operations on three large farms near
Salem, Harrison County.  Doctor Bradley became asso-
ciated also with the late G. M. Allender, of Fairmont, in
oil operations in Harrison and Monongalia counties, with
about eighteen wells and with two strings of drilling tools.
This enterprise was conducted under the firm name of Brad-
ley & Allender until the death of Mr. Allender in 1916,
when Doctor Bradley purchased the interests of his de-
ceased partner.  He gives much of his time to his oil-
producing interests. He has high standing in his profes-
sion, has done considerable professional service for the
state and is a valued member and for two years president
of the West Virginia State Veterinary Association. Doctor
Bradley is one of the progressive business men and loyal
and public-spirited citizens of his adopted state, finds his
chief recreation in hunting and fishing expeditions, is
specially vigorous in supporting the construction of good
roads, is a Knight Templar Mason and in the time-honored
fraternity has received also the thirty-second degree of the
Scottish Rite.


In April, 1905, Doctor Bradley wedded Mrs. Alice (Barr)
Carrothers, widow of A. J. Carrothers, of Crossroads, Monon-
galia County, where he had been a representative agricul-
turist and stock-grower of his native county. He was born
near Morgantown and his death occurred in 1896. Mr.
and Mrs. Carrothers became the parents of four children,
Edna, Mary, John and Audrey. For a portion of the time
after their marriage Doctor and Mrs. Bradley resided at
Fairmont in order that the children might there attend
school, the summer seasons being passed on the farm at
Crossroads. Mrs. Bradley passed to the life eternal in the
year 1910, and the Doctor kept his stepchildren together
and cared for them with true paternal solicitude. Edna,
eldest of the children, is, in 1921, a student in Boston Uni-
versity, where she is taking a course that shall prepare her
for religious service in the rural districts of her native state,
she having already taken active part in Sunday-School
work in West Virginia. Mary, who is a graduate nurse
of marked ability, is now engaged in public-health nursing
service in the mountain districts of West Virginia. John
is actively associated with the work and management of the
home farm.  Audrey graduated from Mount de Chantel
Academy at Wheeling, is a talented teacher of music and
is at the head of children's Sunday School work in Monon-
galia County. 
______________________________


X-Message: #4
Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2000 22:33:38 -0400
From: Valerie & Tommy Crook <vfcrook@earthlink.net>
To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com
Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000722220422.00cc82a0@mail.earthlink.net>
Subject: BIO: THE MCBEE FAMILY, Monongalia Co. WV
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. 532-533
Monongalia


THE MCBEE FAMILY, originally Macbees, are of Scotch
Highland extraction. The history of the family in West
Virginia begins in the days of the Revolution in which some
members were engaged. Sometime previous to 1790, a sister
and five brothers crossed the Blue Ridge from Virginia,
one of the boys stopping in Baltimore. The other four
settled at Cheat Neck, and on the property now owned by
John Pringle. They built a block house for defense against
the Indians, remains of which may still be seen. One of
the four, William, started back to Virginia after the com-
pletion of this fort, and was never heard of afterward.
Another of them, Philip, later moved to Grant County, Ken-
tucky. The two who remained here were Alexander, nick-
named "Sonny" and Zadok. To their sister's husband,
Joseph Pope, Jr., Governor Robert Brooke granted a patent
bearing the date October 6, 1788, for 400 acres of land
on Booth's Creek. This tract is now owned in part by
Sanford and Zadoc Thomas, great-grandsons of Zadok, who
died in 1819.


Alexander died in 1828, leaving four children, Mary,
who married John England, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania;
William, Walter and Zadoc Thomas. It is with son Zadoc
Thomas and his descendants that this history is chiefly con-
cerned. He was born at Clinton Furnace, May 16, 1814,
and died there March 23, 1895. His wife was Sarah Steel,
daughter of Thomas and Eleanor (Thorn) Steel. She was
born at Steele Farm, now owned by Brice De Vault,
October 12, 1809, and died December 23, 1858. Thomas
McBee was a man of most exemplary character. He put
into daily practice his belief that everyone should be honest
and industrious, and he was faithful in carrying out every
obligation he ever assumed. He was a stanch democrat, and
was for years a deacon in the Goshen Baptist Church. Of
his four children the oldest was Thomas H. The second,
Cordelia A., born January 1, 1842, was married to Eugene
Lanham March 13, 1866, and she died December 20, 1913,
leaving five children, named Flora, Thomas, Frank, Harvey
and George. Caleb Nelson, the third of the family, born
September 17, 1843, was a Union soldier in Company C
of the Fourteenth West Virginia Infantry, and died Novem-
ber 14, 1864, from wounds received at the battle of Carter's
Farm in Virginia July 24, 1864. He died at Clayersville,
Maryland, and was buried in the McBee family cemetery
at Ridgedale. The youngest of the children of Thomas
McBee was Elizabeth, who was born June 15, 1847, was
married December 31, 1868, to Thomas Price, and died
May 15, 1902, being survived by children Darius, William,
Fleming, Marshall, Walter and Tana.


Thomas H. McBee was born at Clinton Furnace June 14,
1838, and in many ways his life was typical of the sturdy
example set him by his father. He was reared on the
farm, had a subscription school education and in 1861 en-
listed to help preserve the Union. He served with Company
A of the Third West Virginia Infantry, later being trans-
ferred to the Second West Virginia Cavalry, and while in
the army he participated in the battles of McDowell's Bluff,
Cross Keys, Rappahannock, Bull Run, Hedgesville, Rocky
Gap and Drop Mountain. December 27, 1864, he married
Amelia Cartwright, daughter of Jacob and Rebecca Cart-
wright, of English ancestry. Amelia was born April 4, 1841,
at Rosedale, across the Monongahela River from Point
Marion, in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. Following his
marriage Thomas H. McBee moved to a farm at Halleck in
Clinton District of Monongalia County, where he became one
of the most prosperous farmers and business men in that
section, always a man of influence in his community. Phys-
ically he was a magnificent specimen of manhood, standing
six feet, 2% inches, weighing 250 pounds. His inexhaustible
energy he applied to farming and business in a way to
return success, and out of his prosperity he was able to
assist his neighbors and to give all his children who de-
sired it a college education. A stanch republican, he was
proud of the fact that he had helped preserve the union
of states and delighted in the companionship of his old
army comrades. He was a member of the Baptist Church.
He died December 13, 1900, and on January 9, 1909, his
wife Amelia, passed away at Morgantown. Of their ten
children five reached mature years. The oldest of these,
Charles L., is a resident of Morgantown and by his mar-
riage to Allie Dorsey has three children, Maude, Bobert
and Mazie. The second. Perry Caleb, who graduated in
1896 from the University of West Virginia, spent twenty
years of his life as a city school superintendent in this
state, earning a high place in educational affairs.  He
served one term in the State Legislature as representative
from Monongalia County, and at the time of his death,
May 5, 1918, was actively engaged in the coal business,
owning and operating the Mile Ground Coal Mine Com-
pany. He married Ethel Carle, who survives him. The
third child, Repta, lives with her brother Doctor McBee.
Claude studied in West Virginia University, graduated from
Delaware, Ohio, Business College, was for several years
connected with the public schools and is now in the coal
business at Morgantown. He married Lena Griffin of Ken-
tucky.


Thomas Judson McBee the youngest of the family, passed
his earlier years on his father's farm near Halleck, West
Virginia. He attended public school there, was a student
in the University of West Virginia during 1900-01, and in
1905 received his M. D. degree from the College of Physi-
cians and Surgeons at Baltimore.  Following this his
hospital experience was in the Mercy Hospital at Baltimore,
and from 1906 to 1911 he practiced his profession at
Elkins. For the past ten years his home and professional
headquarters have been at Morgantown.


At the time America joined the allies in the war against
Germany Doctor McBee was appointed by the Governor as
medical member of the Monongalia County Draft Board.
He resigned in August, 1917, to become a casual officer
in the Medical Corps of the Army, and was soon assigned
to the British Royal Army Medical Corps.  With the
British he saw service in England, Ireland and Italy, and
later was recalled to the American Army and assigned to
the New York Post-Graduate Unit at Base Hospital No. 8
at Savenay, Prance. One incident of his service was super-
vising as medical officer the transport of a shipload of
wounded soldiers back to the United States. He received
his honorable discharge at Camp Dix on March 6, 1919, and
at once returned to Morgantown and resumed his profes-
sional work.


Doctor McBee is a member of the County, State and Amer-
ican Medical Associations. He is a past commander of Gen-
eral Daniel Morgan Post No. 548 Veterans of Foreign Wars,
department surgeon of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of
West Virginia, and is affiliated with Morgantown Union
Lodge No. 4, A. F. and A. M., and Morgantown Lodge No.
411, B. P. O. E. He is a member of the Kiwanis Club.
His career as a professional man and as a medical officer
in the World war is highly creditable to the McBee family,
which is one of the oldest and most honored in Monon-
galia County.