Ohio County, West Virginia    Biography of Frank Roache SCROGGINS

**************************************************************************
USGENWEB NOTICE: Material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, 
as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is 
obtained from the contributor of the file.

These pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation 
by other organizations.  Persons or organizations desiring to use this 
material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of 
the contributor.

Submitted by Kerry Armour <cmac4330@chesapeake.net>, March 2000
**************************************************************************

The History of West Virginia, Old and New 
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc. 
Chicago and New York, Volume II 
pg. 158 & 159


FRANK ROACHE SCROGGINS, proprietor of the White Laundry in the City of Wheeling,
is one of the progressive and successful business men of his native city, his
birth having occurred in Wheeling on the 17th of January, 1868. His father, 
George Washington Scroggins, was born at Wheeling in 1843 and here passed his
entire life, his death having occurred in 1896. George W. Scroggins initiated
his productive career by serving as a water boy around the local boat yards, 
and in the Civil war period he aided in the manufacturing of bullets. He became
an expert stationary engineer, and served sixteen years as engineer of the city
waterworks of Wheeling, of which position he was the incumbent at the time of 
his death. In his young manhood he was a member of the volunteer fire department 
of his native city. He was a democrat ill politics and was a member of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, as were both his first and second wives. Mr.
Scroggins first wedded Caroline Nidick, who was born at Trail Run, Monroe County,
Ohio, and whose death occurred in 1873. Of the children of this union the eldest 
is William J. foreman in his brother's White Swan Laundry; Allen C. likewise
remains in Wheeling, and is steward for the local Theatrical Club and for the 
Fraternal Order of Eagles; Frank R., of this review, was the next in order of 
birth; Charles Scott is a foreman in the White Swan Laundry. For his second
wife the father married Lovenia Loverage, and she now resides at Pittsburgh, 
Pennsylvania. Daisy, first child of this second marriage, died at of twenty-
eight years; George is a resident of the City of Pittsburgh, where he is
engaged in the trucking ness; and Reed B. is a stationary engineer in the 
waterworks of Pittsburgh.

The public school of Wheeling afforded Frank R. Scroggins his early education, 
and he was but eleven years when he found employement in a local glass factory. 
After the passing of five years he began an apprenticeship to the trade of 
machinist, and his Service in this connection continued from the time he was 
sixteen until he was twenty years of age. From 1888 to 1891 he was stationary 
engineer in the employ of Lutz Brothers, and for sixteen months thereafter was
in charge of the washing department and also served as engineer of the Troy
Laundry. From 1892 to 1895 he was general manager of the Wheeling Laundry, and
he then established the White Swan Laundry, of which he has continued the executive
head during the intervening period of more than a quarter of a century and which
he has kept at the highest standard in equipment and service. The offices of this 
popular laundry are at the corner of Tenth and Market streets. Mr. Scroggins 
started his independent laundry business on a modest scale, in a basement at
his present location, and his original corps of employes consisted of one man 
and one woman. He has built up one of the leading enterprises of this kind in 
the state, the mechanical equipment and all accessories of the White Swan Laundry 
being of the most modern type and the establishment giving employment to seventy
persons.

On the National Turnpike, in the Tenth Ward of Wheeling, Mr. Scroggins purchased
a fine lot, 140 by 830 feet in dimensions, on which he erected a modern laundry 
building 100 by 200 feet in dimensions, the only building in existence, so far 
as is known of that dimension, whose interior is not supported by a single post.
It is a one-story and basement structure, with a separate building for the power
plant. Here he will have one of the most complete and modern laundry plants in 
West Virginia, in fact one of the show houses in modern laundry construction in 
this country, and in connection with the general laundry business he will establish
an up-to-date dry-cleaning and rug-cleaning department. His success has been well 
earned, as he started in business with a capital of only $212, has been progressive
and energetic, has ordered his business with utmost integrity and fairness, and 
has developed an enterprise that in 1920 represented gross earnings of $150,000.
His new laundry plant represents an investment of an amount equal to this.

Mr. Scroggins is independent in politics, is affiliated with the Royal Arcanum,
and is one of the loyal and vigorous members of the local Rotary Club, in which 
he is chairman of the boys' work committee and takes lively interest in its work.
The family home is an attractive modern house at 757 Market Street.

Mr. Scroggins was zealous in the local patriotic activities during the World 
war period, aided in the campaigns in support of Government loans, Red Cross 
service, etc., and supplied to the United States Navy a valuable set of binoculars,
which were eventually returned to him, together with $1.00 and a certificate 
as reward of merit from the Navy Department. It is needless to say that he
prizes both the certificate and also the binoculars, the latter of which were
in active use in the navy.

Although Mr. Scroggins left school when a mere boy, his alert mind and his 
appreciative instinct have enabled him through reading and study at home,
which he still continues, and through other effective self-discipline, to 
round out a symmetrical education of practical order. His paternal grandfather,
John Peyton Scroggins, of Scotch-Irish ancestry, was one of the pioneers of 
Wheeling, where he served a long period as bank messenger and where his death 
occurred he having been a native of Ireland.

In 1889 Frank R. Scroggins wedded Miss Catherine E. Neimer, daughter of the 
late Philip and Margaret Neimer, of Wheeling, Mr. Neimer having been a shearman
in the local sheet-iron mills, in which he met his death in an accident. Mr. 
and Mrs. Scroggins' only child, Franklin Pierce, died at the age of 4½ years.