WV-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 99 : Issue 5 Today's Topics: #1 BIO: Chilton Kenna [Valerie & Tommy Crook Subject: BIO: Chilton Kenna OXLEY, Cabell County *************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 234 Cabell County CHILTON KENNA OXLEY is vice president and general manager of the corporation of Oxley, Troeger & Oxley, which conducts one of the leading clothing establishments in the City of Huntington, the modern and finely equipped store being at 917 Fourth Avenue, and the interested prin- cipals in the company being likewise identified with the Oxley-Boone Company, which conducts a clothing store at 420 Ninth Street in this city. Mr. Oxley was born on a farm near Griffithsville, Lin- coln County, West Virginia, on the 10th of July, 1878, and his personal names were given in honor of Hon. William E. Chilton, former United States senator from this state and now a resident of Charleston, and the late Hon. John E. Kenna, of Charleston, who was one of the distinguished men of the state and who represented West Virginia in the Senate of the United States. Thomas L. Oxley, father of the subject of this review, was born at Rocky Mount, Virginia, in 1826, and died at Scott Depot, Putnam County, West Virginia, in 1909. He came to what is now West Virginia within a short time after his marriage and settled on Horse Creek, near Grif- fithsville, Lincoln County, where he acquired a large tract of land and developed a productive farm, this land having later become very valuable on account of its coal deposits. In 1896 he left his old homestead and removed to Scott Depot, where he passed the remainder of his long, useful and honorable life. He was a democrat, served two terms as sheriff of Lincoln County, and was influential in com- munity affairs. Both he and his wife were zealous mem- bers of the Baptist Church, and his was the distinction of having been a loyal soldier of the Confederacy in the Civil war. His wife died on the old homestead in Lincoln County in 1880. Matilda, eldest of the children, now resides at Huntington, she being the widow of James C. Reynolds, who was a successful merchant at Milton, this state; Dr. Silas W., an able physician and surgeon, died at Hamlin, Lincoln County, in 1887; Marinda died in childhood; Watt S. is the senior member of the clothing concern of Oxley, Troeger & Oxley of Huntington; Archibald L. was a teacher in the public schools at the time of his death, in 1897; Demetrius C., a telegraph operator by vocation, died at Maiden, West Virginia, in 1907; and Chilton K., of this sketch, is the youngest of the number. Chilton K. Oxley is indebted to the schools of Lincoln and Putnam counties tor his youthful education, and he continued his association with the activities of his father's farm until he was eighteen years of age. When but nine years of age Mr. Oxley determined to become a merchant, and even thus early was shown his predilection for this line of business, besides which he showed his self-reliant initi- ative ability. He went up into the hills of Lincoln County, there cut down small poplar trees, and with this material constructed a little building which he equipped as a store and which received the "patronage" of other youngsters of the community. At the age of eighteen years Mr. Oxley found employ- ment in the general store conducted by E. L. Hollinsworth at Milton, Cabell County, his wages at the start being $10 a month. He continued this connection two years and then, in 1899, obtained a position in the clothing establishment of G. A. Northcott & Company of Huntington, with which concern he remained thirteen years and gained a thorough knowledge of all details of the business. In 1912 he be- came the organizer of the present corporation of Oxley, Troeger & Oxley, which is incorporated under the laws of the state and which now conducts one of the leading cloth- ing and men's furnish-goods establishments in the City of Huntington. His brother Watt S. is president of the com- pany, he himself is vice president and general manager, and John T. Troeger is secretary and treasurer. Mr. Oxley is a progressive and public-spirited citizen; is a democrat in politics; is an active member of the Hunt- ington Business Men's Association, of which he was presi- dent in 1916; is a member of the Huntington Chamber of Commerce; and is a director of the West Virginia Retail Clothiers Association. He and his wife are members of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, North, at Hunting- ton, and he is serving as a member of its board of trus- tees. He holds membership in the Guyan Country Club. Mr. Oxley is the owner of valuable real estate in Hunting- ton, including his attractive home property at 622 Trenton Place. In the World war period his patriotic spirit and loyal liberality were distinctly in evidence. He was a member of the executive committee of the Cabell County Chapter of the Red Cross, aided actively in the local cam- paigns in support of the Government bond issues, etc., and made his individual contributions most liberal. September 17, 1902, recorded the marriage of Mr. Ox- ley and Miss Frances Eskey, daughter of John N. and Jennie Eskey, who now reside at Hampton, Virginia, Mr. Eskey being a retired mechanic and having been formerly employed in the United States shipyards. Mr. and Mrs Oxley have no children. *************** ______________________________X-Message: #2 Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1999 16:35:11 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook Subject: BIO: Maxie C. MAGEE, Ohio Coounty *************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 231-232 Ohio County MAXIE C. MAGEE, vice president and cashier of the Wheeling Bank & Trust Company, is one of the younger men in the financial life of the Wheeling District, and was called to his present post because of his undoubted qualifications and wide experience and knowledge of bank- ing affairs. Mr. Magee was born at Brookhaven, Mississippi, March 15, 1885. His father was a Mississippi planter. He had the best educational advantages afforded a son of well-to- do parents. He attended public schools and graduated from the University of Mississippi, at Oxford, with the class of 1909. He combined two years work in one while at the university. Following his university career Mr. Magee became traveling auditor for a cotton exporting firm, visiting various cotton centers in the South. This was his work until 1915. In that year he entered the service of the Federal Reserve Bank at Cleveland. The Federal Reserve system was just being organized, and the most important part of the task yet remained to be accomplished, namely, to convince the individual bank in each district as to the merits and ad- vantages of membership in the Federal Reserve system. Mr. Magee was selected as one of the publicity repre- sentatives of the Federal Bank of Cleveland, and his work corresponded with that of a traveling salesman without anything to sell, engaged in an educational campaign to make the merits of the Federal system thoroughly under- stood and appreciated. The district of the Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank comprised all of Ohio, fifty-six counties in Eastern Kentucky, six in West Virginia and nineteen in Western Pennsylvania. During the next several years Mr. Magee visited about two thousand banks in this district, carrying on his organization and educational campaign. One of his official visits brought him in touch with the officers and directors of the Wheeling Bank & Trust Company, and while he won them over to member- ship in the Federal Reserve system, at the same time he left impressions that resulted in their calling him to an executive place in the bank, and in July, 1920, the day after he resigned from the Federal Bank of Cleveland, he accepted his post as vice president and cashier of the Wheel- ing institution. The Wheeling Bank & Trust Company has capital of $300,000.00, surplus and undivided profits of $500,000.00, and its executive officers and directors comprise the following well known citizens: Alexander Glass, chair- man of the board; S. W. Harper, president; S. O. Laughlin, vice president; M. C. Magee, vice president and cashier, while the directors are W. H. Bachman, C. P. Billings, J. A. Bloch, A. F. Brady, Jr., R. E. Breed, D. A. Burt, H. C. Hazlett, W. B. Higgins, C. J. Kepner, Arthur Laughans, S. P. Norton, A. B. Paxton, A. C. Stifel, C. A. Vaden, A. C. Whitaker, W. P. Wilson and M. C. Magee. Mr. Magee is a member of the Fort Henry Club and Kiwanis Club, and the St. Andrew Society of the Episcopal Church. In 1910 he married Miss Vera Roberts, of Union City, Tennessee. *************** ______________________________X-Message: #3 Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1999 16:43:01 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook Subject: BIO: Floyd H. HARLESS, Kanawha County *************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 235 Kanawha County FLOYD H. HARLESS, a Charleston attorney, where he has been in active practice for over ten years, has the honor of being state councillor for West Virginia of the Order United American Men. As head of this order in the state he is greatly interested in spreading its principles and making the order a vehicle of genuine service and usefulness as a defender and propagator of real Americanism and good citizenship. Mr. Harless inherits some of the strong and sturdy char- acter of his ancestors, who have lived in the Mountain State for several generations. He was born on the Harless homestead on the Straight Pork of Mud River in Lincoln County in 1884. His parents, G. W. and Louisa E. (Humphrey) Harless, are still living, the former a native of Lincoln and the latter of Kanawha County. Harless is a name of German origin, but the first American ancestor settled in Virginia about the time of the Revolution. He reared a family of eleven sons and two daughters. Four of these children lived to be over 100 years old, and in all the generations the Harlesses have been noted for long life. The grandfather of the Charleston lawyer was Rev. Edwin Harless, who lived to be over ninety years of age, and for seventy of those years was an active Baptist minister. Floyd H. Harless attended the country schools of Lincoln County, Marshall College at Huntington, and studied law in West Virginia University at Morgantown. He finished his law course in 1910, was admitted to the bar the same year, and at once located at Charleston, where among many of the state's foremost lawyers he has won creditable dis- tinction by his abilities and has been favored with a grow- ing general practice. His practice is in the various County, State and Federal courts. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias and Odd Fellows. *************** ______________________________X-Message: #4 Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1999 16:30:54 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook Subject: BIO: John A. WATSON, Hancock Co. *************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 227-228 Hancock County JOHN A. WATSON, whose fine homestead farm on the Ohio River in Hancock County, is in close proximity to Brownsdale, here occupies a house that was erected by his maternal grandfather, John Arbuckle, he having built the house in Hancock County in the early '50s and his death having occurred at the time when the Civil war was in progress. His daughter Margaret was the mother of him whose name introduces this paragraph. As a youth he learned the machinist's trade, and since 1878 he has maintained his permanent home at the ancestral place in Hancock County. In the year 1882 Mr. Watson here married a daughter of the late John Brown, who was a member of one of the most honored pioneer families of this county. Mrs. Wat- son passed her entire life in Hancock County, and here her death occurred in July, 1915. Of the two children the elder is George, who is a bachelor and who has active management of the home farm, while Miss Mary, the only daughter, has had supervision of the domestic economies and social affairs of the home since the death of the loved wife and mother. *************** ______________________________X-Message: #5 Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1999 16:43:38 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook Subject: BIO: Patrick W. FLOURNOY, Kanawha County *************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 235 Kanawha County PATRICK W. FLOURNOY. The character of the men of a community may be correctly gauged by the standing of its business houses, whose growth has been stimulated by progressive and intelligent methods, or held back through lack of proper development. No town or city can reach its highest standard of development unless its men in all lines co-operate to give an honest service for value received. Such men can be counted upon to promulgate and support worthy measures looking toward securing for their com- munity solid improvements and the bringing into it of solid business houses that will add to its prosperity. They give solidity to commercial organizations and contribute liberally toward worthy movements of an educational and religious character. Judged by these standards, one of Charleston's useful citizens is Patrick W. Flournoy, whose long associa- tion with the Charleston Hardware Company, of which he is the president, has brought him into close connections with the mercantile trade of Charleston and Southern West Vir- ginia. Mr. Flournoy was born in Charlotte County, Virginia, in 1873, and is the son of a druggist whose father was a physician. He received a public school education and at the age of Sixteen years joined an engineering party en- gaged in work on the Norfolk & Western Railroad, with which he came to Charleston, arriving in this city on election day, November, 1892. Here he secured employment with the Goshorn Hardware Company, the oldest concern of its kind at Charleston, by which company he continued to be employed until the organization in 1901 of the wholesale firm of the Charleston Hardware Company, founded by F. H. Markell, manager. The business was capitalized at $50,000, and there were about forty stockholders, among them Mr. Flournoy, who straightway began to secure addi- tional stock. T. E. Embleton was the first president. After two years Mr. Markell resigned and was succeeded by Mr. Flournoy, who later became president. He continued to buy more stock until finally he became principal owner of the business, of which he is now president, although it continues to be conducted under the original name. The capital stock is now $100,000 and the capital and surplus, $400,000, all of which has been built up from the original capital of $50,000. The company owns its own warehouses on the railroad, as well as its other property, and deals in general hardware and mine supplies, catering to the needs of the mines of Southern West Virginia, mainly, although its territory is not entirely restricted to this area. The plant consists of five stories and a basement, in which there are thirty employes, in addition to which there are seven traveling salesmen. The first year's sales of the business amounted to $100,000, while at the present time the annual sales approximate $1,000,000, and the business is being con- stantly developed and enlarged. Mr. Flournoy gives his entire attention to this business, which has reached its pres- ent large proportions principally because of his business ability, foresight, acumen and clear-headed judgment, to- gether with his industry and well-known business integrity. Mr. Flournoy has always been a supporter of worthy move- ments tending to advance the best interests of the com- munity. He is a Knight Templar and also a Scottish Rite Mason, a Noble of the Mystic Shrine, and a member of the Edgewood Country Club. Mr. Flournoy married Miss Grace Hathaway, a resident of Cincinnati at the time of their marriage, but a native of England, and to this union there has been born one son, Patrick W., Jr. *************** ______________________________X-Message: #6 Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1999 16:31:03 -0400 From: Valerie & Tommy Crook Subject: BIO: Austin H. BROWN, Hancock Co. *************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 228-229 Hancock County AUSTIN H. BROWN resides in the fine old family home- stead, a stone and brick structure on one of the well-im- proved farms of Hancock County, and in this dwelling he was born July 17, 1875, his father likewise having been born in this house, which is situated 4-1/2 miles north of New Cumberland, the county seat. The stone part of the building was erected in 1821 by Jacob Nessly, who came here as a pioneer of the year 1785 and who here became the owner of 5,000 acres of land, which he obtained by trading a rifle to an Indian. The historic old house faces the Ohio River. The brick addition to the original struc- ture was erected in 1865, and the entire building, of most substantial order, is well preserved. The original tract of land continued along the shore of the Ohio River and extended as far as Georgetown, Pennsylvania, there hav- ing been about forty miles of shore line and the tract hav- ing been comparatively narrow. By the payment of 100 English pounds sterling Mr. Nessly later extended the width of his holdings by the purchase of an additional tract of 1,500 acres. Nessly came to this section from Eastern Pennsylvania, in accord with the advice of his father-in-law, who was a man of wealth. This young pio- neer first erected a log cabin at the month of Yellow Creek, but soon removed two miles further south, to the site of the present house. Mr. Nessly developed a productive farm and continued his general supervision of the same until his death, at an advanced age, the closing years of his life having been passed in the home of one of his daughters, on the opposite side of the river, at Port Homer, Ohio. It is related that on one occasion, when he was on a trip on the Ohio side of the river he was pursued by Indians, but saved his life by taking refuge in a rocky cave, across the river from his own dwelling, he later having chiseled on a rock at this cave his name and the date of this inci- dent. Barbara, daughter of this sterling pioneer, became the wife of Col. Richard Brown, who was of Holland Dutch ancestry and who served as a patriot soldier and officer in a Maryland regiment in the War of the Revolution, his wife having inherited the old homestead and both having there passed the remainder of their lives. Colonel Brown had local renown as a fighter in personal contests, and many tales are told of his prowess along this line. Adam Poe, was at one time a dinner guest at the Nessly home, and the two subsequently diverted themselves by engaging in a spirited fight, the result of which was that Poe had to be put to bed. A brother of Poe later appeared on the scene, while Adam was still at the Nessly home, and when he learned of the recent conflict and its result he boasted of his own ability as a fighter, with the sequel that he endured worse punishment at the hands of the doughty colonel than had his brother, he likewise having been cared for in the Nessly home after having thus failed to best his antagonist. On another occasion Colonel Brown, while on a trip back from Philadelphia, was followed and challenged by a man, and in the ensuing fight the colonel broke this man's neck with a blow. The eldest of the sons of Col. Richard Brown was Jacob Nessly Brown; John, the second son, settled at the mouth of Tomlinson's Run and was a young man at the time of his death; George continued his residence near the old homestead until his death, when past eighty years of age; and James likewise attained to venerable age, he having owned and occupied a part of the ancestral farm estate. Jacob Nessly Brown married Ann Myler, and they re- sided on the old home farm. He owned and operated a flour mill at Wellsburg, twenty miles distant from his home, and on the farm he operated a distillery, besides developing a clay bed on the place and supplying clay for the manufacturing of jugs at Wellsburg, this having been the initiation of the clay industry and the original jugs having been used for the whiskey containers. On his farm Mr. Brown originated and developed the "Willow Twig" apple, he having planted a large orchard, having main- tained his own nursery and being credited with the origina- tion of the above mentioned variety of apples, which be- came the standard in this section, his orchard having pro- duced an average of 20,000 bushels of apples annually. The old home farm of Mr. Brown now comprises only sev- enty-two acres. Mr. Brown died in 1879, after having passed the eightieth milestone on the journey of life, his wife having passed away in 1865. Their daughter Barbara became the wife of Archibald Hendrie; Virginia never married, and she had charge of the old home farm for thirty years, she having been seventy-five years of age at death; Richard H. is more specifically mentioned in a later paragraph; Ann became the wife of William L. Brown, they purchased a part of the old homestead and there they passed the remainder of their lives, a nephew, Charles M. Brenneman, having succeeded to the ownership of the farm; Alice was a young woman at the time of her death; George, who became a representative lawyer in the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, died a bachelor, as did also Jacob, who remained with his sister Virginia on the old home farm; and Edward removed to Bloomfield, Ohio, in which state he passed the remainder of his life. Miss Virginia Brown showed marked ability in the man- agement of the old homestead farm, as foreman of which she retained a colored man, William Wilson, who came from Albemarle County, Virginia, and who served as a youthful soldier in the Twelfth West Virginia Infantry in the Civil war, then commanded by Col. R. Hooker Brown, father of him whose name initiates this review. Wilson was about sixteen years old when, after the close of the war, he accompanied Colonel Brown to Hancock County and entered the employ of the latter's sister, Miss Vir- ginia, with whom he remained until her death. He then purchased a part of the old Brown farm, and he is today one of the highly respected and very substantial citizens of Hancock County, his fidelity to the Brown family hav- ing never wavered and his service to the family having been of most conscientious and appreciative order. Col. Richard Hooker Brown was graduated in the Duff Business College in the City of Pittsburgh, and he dis- tinguished himself as a gallant soldier of the Union in the Civil war, in which he became colonel of the Twelfth West Virginia Volunteer Infantry, his service having con- tinued until the close of the war. In 1867 Colonel Brown married Miss Elizabeth Pugh, daughter of David and Nancy (Allison) Pugh, Mrs. Brown having been reared at Pugh- town, Hancock County, a place named in honor of the family of which she was a representative. Colonel Brown added the brick portion to the old stone house in which he was born, and he served as county commissioner prior to the creation of Hancock County as did he also after the organization of the new county. He served one term as county sheriff, but in the meanwhile continued his resi- dence on the old home farm. Here his death occurred on the 19th of March, 1910, and his widow passed away on the 20th of January, 1917. Of their twelve children all but one attained to maturity: Walter died in young man- hood; Anna is the wife of A. H. Bowker, of Rochester, New York; King resides at Chester, West Virginia; J. Campbell is a merchant at East Liverpool, Ohio; Austin Hooker is the immediate subject of this sketch; Alice died within a short time after her marriage to Frederick Por- ter; Margaret is the widow of Joseph Hough and resides at Chester, Hancock County; Frank is a mill man at War- ren, Ohio, and his twin brother, Edward, died in child- hood; Barbara is the wife of Harry Darrington, an oil refiner, and they reside in the City of Chicago, Illinois; Richard is a railroad man at Wellsville, Ohio; Benjamin is a merchant at Toronto, Ohio. Austin Hooker Brown was reared in his native county, and after the discipline of the rural schools he received that of the high school at Wellsville, Ohio, and was for two years a student in the West Virginia State Normal Schools at West Liberty and Fairmont, and attended the University of West Virginia one year. He gained youth- ful experience in the produce trade at Pittsburgh and Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and from 1905 to 1913 was en- gaged in the wholesale produce business at Steubenville, Ohio. Since the latter year he has resided on and given his attention to the management of the old homestead farm on which he was born and where he has precedence as one of the leading horticulturists in this section of the state, his fruit orchards producing an average of nearly 1,000 barrels annually. He has excellent storage provisions and has developed an appreciable business as a dealer in apples. He is one of the liberal and progressive citizens of his native county, was for nine years president of the school board of his district, is secretary of the Farm Bureau of Hancock County, and is a stalwart republican in politics, as was also his father. He and his wife are active mem- bers of the Methodist Protestant Church, and attend the Nessly Chapel, which was named in honor of the pioneer, Jacob Nessly, who donated the ground on which the chapel is situated. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, including the Commandery of Knights Templars at Steu- benville, Ohio. In 1902 Mr. Brown wedded Miss Eleanor Gallagher, of West Newton, Pennsylvania, she having been educated in the Pennsylvania State Normal School at California and having been a popular teacher prior to her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Brown have one son, William James, who was graduated in high school and who is, in 1922, a student in the University of West Virginia. ***************