West Virginia Statewide Files  WV-Footsteps Mailing List
WV-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest				Volume 99 : Issue 108

Today's Topics:
  #1 BIO: GOLDEN FRANK ROW, Barbour Cou   [Valerie & Tommy Crook <vfcrook@tre]
  #2 BIO: ELIJAH ELSWORTH CLOVIS, M. D.   [Valerie & Tommy Crook <vfcrook@tre]
  #3 BIO: NELSON B. MICHAEL, M. D., Bar   [Valerie & Tommy Crook <vfcrook@tre]
  #4 BIO: CHARLES W. SHOMO, Barbour Cou   [Valerie & Tommy Crook <vfcrook@tre]
  #5 BIO: WILLIE J. WILLIAMS, Barbour C   [Valerie & Tommy Crook <vfcrook@tre]
  #6 BIO: GEORGE W. SHOMO, Barbour Coun   [Valerie & Tommy Crook <vfcrook@tre]

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______________________________X-Message: #1
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 21:18:55 -0500
From: Valerie & Tommy Crook <vfcrook@trellis.net>
To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com
Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.19991110211855.00bc96e0@trellis.net>
Subject: BIO: GOLDEN FRANK ROW, Barbour County 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. 307-308
Barbour

GOLDEN FRANK ROW.  The important industrial town
of Junior stands on and adjacent to the original hold-
ings of the pioneer Row family in this section of Bar-
bour County, and some of the family were identified
with merchandising there before the present name was
given the village.  Golden Frank Row is one of the
younger generation of the family, and while he has been
a miner, educator and in other lines of usefulness, his
chief interest for some years past has been conducting
a store.

His pioneer ancestors here were his grandfather,
Andrew Jackson Row, and his great-grandfather, Ben-
jamin Row, who came from Page County, Virginia, and
the latter built a mill on the Tygart Valley River and
continued its operation until his death, when he was
succeeded in its ownership by his only son, Andrew J.
Benjamin Row, is buried on the hill within the corpora-
tion limits of Junior. Andrew J. Row was a merchant
as well as a miller, and he continued in business at Junior
for a number of years. He died there in 1905, at the age
of seventy-three.  He was a member of the Dunkard
Church and in politics a republican. Andrew J. Row mar-
ried Delila Williams, and she was the mother of the fol-
lowing children: William A., Mrs. Mary Brady, James
B., Mrs. Celia Wilson, Mrs. Virginia Thorn, Mrs. Roxanna
Arbogast and Mrs. Margaret Thornhill. The second wife
of Andrew J. Row was Mary K. Fitzgerald, and the
children of that union were: Belle, who married S. S.
Bolton; Fannie, who became the wife of A. K. Perry;
and Icie, wife of B. F. Shomo.

William A. Row was born in Barker District of Barbour
County, November 27, 1856. He attended local schools, and
through all his active years has been connected with farm-
ing and mining. He became president of the Row Coal
Company. He has always voted as a republican, and is a
member of the German Baptist Church. William A. Row
married Sarah E. Coffman, daughter of Frank Coffman.
Their children were: William J., a farmer and minister of
the Church of the Brethren at Junior, who married Pearl
Hayes; Cora V., of Junior, widow of Charles Hillyard; Ada
D., who married W. R. Shomo, of Junior; Mattie, wife of
William Corrick, of Cumberland, Maryland; Golden P.;
Leonard H., connected with the mines- of Junior, who mar-
ried Hazel Powley; Miss Zeta, a former teacher at Junior;
Miss Hallie; and Gladys, wife of William McNemar, of
Junior.

Golden Frank Row was born in Barker District, October
6, 1884, and the public schools gave him his early advan-
tages and his work training was largely the labor of the
farm until he went into the mines. He did work in the
mines as early as the age of thirteen, and for six years
was a factor in the actual mining at Junior. He turned
from that vocation to become a house painter and paper
hanger, and he supplied most of the service in this line
in his community for about seven years. Following that he
became a teacher in the Junior School, and taught there
four terms. Since then he has been a merchant, engaging
in that line of business in the early winter of 1913.

Mr. Row was secretary, treasurer and general manager of
the Row Coal Company, incorporated November 27, 1918,
with a mine at Dartmoore, near junior. This property was
sold in June, 1920, to W. J. Flanagan of Pittsburgh, and
was then incorporated as the Ida May Coal Company. Mr.
Row helped organize in 1918 the Merchants and Miners
Bank of Junior, is a stockholder, is second vice president
and a director. On July 28, 1917, he was commissioned for
a term of ten years as notary public.

While a busy man with his private affairs, Mr. Row has
performed some kind of public service practically since
reaching manhood. He cast his first presidential vote for
William Howard Taft, and has been influential in the
republican party in his district. In June, 1919, he was
appointed postmaster of Junior, as the successor of F. A.
Matthew. He was one of the few republicans appointed
to postmastership during the democratic administration.
Besides acting as postmaster he has served since his elec-
tion in 1918 as a member of the Barker District Board of
Education, and in 1921 was appointed registrar of vital
statistics by State Registrar Carl F. Raver, his duties being
to record and report births and deaths and to issue burial
permits.

At Junior, April 14, 1910, Mr. Row married Irma Yaple,
daughter of William and Ellen (Bennett) Yaple. She was
born in Athens County, Ohio, September 25, 1885, and had
a grammar school education. Mrs. Row died October 14,
1918, leaving her husband and young children to mourn her
loss. The children born to their union were: Maurice F.,
born February 11, 1911; Harold W., born May 12, 1912;
Jessie, born September 6, 1913, and died in infancy; Orion
Yaple, born May 7, 1915; and Eileen Ellen, born April
5, 1918.

______________________________X-Message: #2
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 21:48:02 -0500
From: Valerie & Tommy Crook <vfcrook@trellis.net>
To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com
Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.19991110214802.00e426a0@trellis.net>
Subject: BIO: ELIJAH ELSWORTH CLOVIS, M. D., Barbour County WV
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Folks, I'm on a Barbour County run with these bios, so bear with me!
vc

*****************
The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 308-309
Barbour

ELIJAH ELSWORTH CLOVIS, M. D. The State Tubercu-
losis Sanitarium at Terra Alta was established in 1911,
and the initial quarters were first opened for the recep-
tion of patients in January, 1913. From the beginning the
superintendent of the sanitarium has been Doctor Clovis,
a West Virginia surgeon and physician who successfully
combated the white plague as his personal enemy, and soon
after recovering came to his present office and respon-
sibilites.

Doctor Clovis was born at Hebron, West Virginia, August
27, 1879. His grandfather, Solomon Clovis, was a native
of Pennsylvania and many years before the Civil war
moved from Greene County, that state, and bought Falls
Mills at Shiloh, West Virginia. Later he located at Hebron,
where he became a manufacturer of brick and tile, also
conducted a tan yard, and continued active in those lines
of business the rest of his life.  He married Elizabeth
Wrick, a native of Hebron in Pleasants County. Their
children comprised three sons and four daughters, and the
three sons and one daughter, Mrs. Semantha Wagner, are
still living. The sons are Benjamin, Theodore and Amos.
The two older sons were Union soldiers in the Civil war.
Amos Clovis was born in Pleasants County in 1854 and he
took up farming as his vocation instead of giving his
attention to the factory or the merchant's counter. He
was active in this line until advanced years came on, and
he still lives on the farm. He and the other members of
the family have been very stanch republicans, but none
of them have been active in political affairs. Amos Clovis
is a member of the Church of Christ. In Hebron he mar-
ried Martha J. Fleming, who was born at Fairmont in
1856, daughter of Enoch Fleming. Their children are:
W. Edward, who has the Ford automobile agency at St.
Marys, Dr. Elijah Elsworth; Cora wife of Homer F. Simon-
ton, of St. Marys; Harry T., of St. Marys; and Lawrence,
a drug clerk at Huntington.

Elijah Elsworth Clovis grew up around Hebron, where
the country air and the life of the farm contributed to
his physical development. He attended the public schools,
taught school four years in a country district, and at the
same time carried on his studies in high school branches
preparatory to entering medical college. Doctor Clovis was
graduated in 1905 from the College of Physicians and Sur-
geons at Baltimore, where he specialized in diseases of the
chest. After graduation he practiced five years at Hebron,
giving up his professional work when threatened with a
breakdown from tubercular trouble. He employed his will
power and his professional knowledge in his own behalf,
and for two years lived in the healthful atmosphere around
Asheville, in Western North Carolina. He practically re-
covered his normal health there and then returned to West
Virginia, and in August, 1912, entered upon his duties as
superintendent of the Tuberculosis Sanitarium at Terra
Alta.

This institution had provision for only sixty patients
when it was opened in January, 1913. By June of that
year the full quota of patients had been received. Subse-
quent additions were made to the facilities by sixty more
beds in 1916, forty more in 1919 and forty in 1920, so
that at present there are accommodations for 200 patients,
and there is a long waiting list of applicants, indicating
the need for such an institution and also for additional
facilities of that kind. During the past nine years the
sanitarium has treated more than 2,000 patients, and a
large number of them have been out five or six years after
being discharged as cured.

Doctor Clovis, on account of his position and also his
individual attainments, is one of the widely known pro-
fessional men in the state. He is president of the Preston
County Medical Society, a member of the West Virginia
State and American Medical associations and the Amer-
ican Sanitarium Association. He was made a Mason at
Hebron and is a past master of that lodge, a member of
Osiris Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Wheeling, and is
affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and Independent Or-
der of Odd Fellows. He is a member of the Official Board
of the Terra Alta Methodist Church.

At Hebron January 1, 1904, Doctor Clovis married Miss
Clara McKnight, who was born there, a daughter of James
B. McKnight.  Mrs. Clovis finished her early education
in the Carroll High School, and was a teacher before her
marriage, doing her last work in the grade school at Whis-
key Run, Ritchie County. Doctor and Mrs. Clovis have two
daughters, Mildred and Madaline.

______________________________X-Message: #3
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 21:46:55 -0500
From: Valerie & Tommy Crook <vfcrook@trellis.net>
To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com
Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.19991110214655.00e42500@trellis.net>
Subject: BIO: NELSON B. MICHAEL, M. D., Barbour County, 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. 308
Barbour

NELSON B. MICHAEL, M. D. The good service proceeding
from his knowledge and skill as a physician and surgeon
Doctor Michael has exercised chiefly for the benefit of the
people of the prosperous little mining community of Junior
in Barbour County. His father was also a physician, and
the family is one of the older ones of Preston County.

His grandfather, William G. Michael, was born in the
vicinity of Brandonville, Preston County, and devoted his
active life to the farm. He was in the Union army at the
time of the Civil war, and received an injury while on
duty, though not on a battlefield. He frequently attended
the reunions of his comrades, was a republican and a mem-
ber of the United Brethren Church. He died on his farm
near Fellowsville about 1881. William G. Michael married
Mary Forsyth, and they had a family of five sons and four
daughters.

Dr. John F. Michael, father of the physician at Junior,
was born near Fellowsville in Preston County, April 17,
1842, and his varied gifts made him a useful man through-
out his career. At the time of the Civil war he enlisted
in the Seventeenth West Virginia Infantry and served three
years as a Union soldier. In one battle he was wounded
in the thigh. Soon after the war he married, and then
employed his liberal education to teach school for a num-
ber of years and also farmed, for about a dozen years he
operated a grist-mill between Tunnelton and Fellowsville.
He left milling to begin the study of medicine, reading in
the office of Doctor Kennedy at Grafton, and with Doctor
Harvey at Tunnelton, and later entered the College of Phy-
sicians and Surgeons at Baltimore, where he graduated in
1883. He returned to his home community to practice, and
was one of the busy professional men of Preston County
for a quarter of a century. After two or three years he
moved from his home in the country to Fellowsville, and a
short time before his death he went to Morgantown to live
with a son, E. W., where he died September 26, 1910.

Dr. John F. Michael married Annie Myers, daughter of
Daniel Myers, who married a Miss Wiles.  Mrs. John
Michael is still living, and divides her time among her
children. These children comprise a notable family of nine
sons, and there is not a daughter in the family. A brief
record of the sons is as follows: Rev. Albert E., a Metho-
dist minister near Fairmont, who married Sarah Cin Clair
and has three children: Doctor Willis S., who is a graduate
of the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Baltimore,
in practice at Bower, West Virginia, and married Lena Roy
and has three children: Ezra W., of Phoenix, Arizona, who
married Delia Bollyard; Oliver O., of Pittsburgh, who mar-
ried Sarah Shahan and has four children; Doctor Nelson
Burton; J. Frank, veterinary surgeon of Buckhannon, who
married Annie Pratt; Jasper K., unmarried and associated
with his brother in Arizona in the real estate business;
Charles Walter, a Baltimore and Ohio Telegraph operator
at Terra Alta, who married Annie Watkins, who died leav-
ing four children; Harvey R., telegraph operator of the
Baltimore and Ohio at Piedmont, who married Mattie Moore
and has two children.

Nelson B. Michael was born near the village of Fellows-
ville, December 9, 1874, his birthplace being within three
miles of that of his father. He had learned to support
himself and provide for his needs before he became a physi-
cian, and was a teacher before he entered medical college.
He acquired his own education in public schools and in the
Fairmont State Normal School. He taught for five terms,
his last work as a teacher being done at Thomas, West Vir-
ginia. He left there to enroll as a student in the Maryland
Medical College at Baltimore, from which he graduated in
1904. Doctor Michael practiced for two years at Rock Cave
in Upshur County, and in 1908 moved his residence to
Junior. He carries on an extensive practice, largely among
the miners of this locality for eight years, until the mines
closed down. He then moved to Hendrick in Tucker County,
where he practiced three years, after which he returned to
Junior, and now regards that as his permanent home.
Doctor Michael is a member of the Tri-County, West Vir-
ginia State and American Medical associations. He has
been town health officer of Junior, also a member of the
Common Council, but has never been in polities beyond
voting the republican ticket, beginning with the McKinley
campaign of 1896. Doctor Michael is not a member of
any fraternity, and he and his wife are Methodists.

On July 29, 1908, at Hendricks, West Virginia, Doctor
Michael married Rachel Roy, daughter of Washington J.
and Catherine (Simmons) Roy. She was born in Tucker
County, October 25, 1881, and was educated in the public
schools. Of the two children of Doctor and Mrs. Michael,
Blake Allison, the youngest, was born May 7, 1910. Loyal,
the first born, died aged five months.

______________________________X-Message: #4
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 21:55:51 -0500
From: Valerie & Tommy Crook <vfcrook@trellis.net>
To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com
Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.19991110215551.00e426a0@trellis.net>
Subject: BIO: CHARLES W. SHOMO, Barbour County, 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. 309
Barbour

CHARLES W. SHOMO is a business man of sound judgment
who has had responsibilities of an executive nature in the
community of Junior for a number of years. He was the
first president of the only banking institution in the town,
and is now its cashier—the Merchants and Miners Bank.

He was born on a farm near the little town, October 13,
1873, and is a son of George N. and Virginia (Viquesne)
Shomo. His mother was a sister of Jules A. Viqnesne else-
where mentioned in this work. Other pages likewise refer
in some detail to the history of the Shomo family. George
N. Shomo died at the age of fifty-six, and his widow still
lives at Junior, at the age of seventy. Their children were:
Charles W., William R., a farmer near Junior; Benjamin
Frank, of Junior; Cora, wife of J. C. Bibey, of Junior;
Goldie, who married John Montgomery and died at Junior,
leaving three sons; George W., station agent of the West-
era Maryland Railroad Company at Junior; Eugene, a coal
miner of Junior; and Carrie, who died as the wife of
Charles  F. Bennett.

Charles Winslow Shomo grew up on the old home farm,
gained his elementary education in the public schools, at-
tended summer normals, and prepared for his business
career with a course in Elliott's Commercial College at
Wheeling. He taught school six terms, and for a time was
in charge of the school where he had learned his early les-
sons. He finished teaching in the West Junior School. Giv-
ing up a career as an educator, he turned to business as
store manager for the Miller Supply Company at Junior.
He was with that firm three years and then became office
man for the Gage Coal and Coke Company, a corporation
with which he remained from 1911 to 1919.

Mr. Shomo helped promote and organize the Merchants
and Miners Bank at Junior. The bank was chartered in
1917 and opened for business March 4, 1918, with Mr.
Shomo as the first president, while the other officers were
A. W. Windom and A. K. Perry, vice presidents, and H. H.
Andrews, cashier, with Robert E. Davis and Howard D. Cox,
directors. The president of the bank now is A. K. Perry,
vice president, Howard D. Cox and G. Frank Row, and since
1919 Mr. Shomo has assumed the active executive duties of
cashier. Other directors are J. W. Miller, B. F. Shomo and
W. J. Corley. The bank retains its original capital of
$25,000. The total resources at the end of the first year's
business was $95,000, and this item has since reached the
figure of $260,000. The bank has paid dividends from the
beginning, and the deposits at a high mark reached $225,-
000. It has a surplus of over $7,000.

Mr. Shomo has been a member of the Common Council
of Junior, city recorder and for five terms was mayor. He
is also very familiar with the municipal history of the
town. He is a republican, having cast his first vote for
Major McKinley, and has served as district committeeman
and delegate to conventions. He is a charter member of the
Knights of Pythias Lodge at Junior, a past chancellor and
has sat in the Grand Lodge. He is active in the Methodist
Episcopal Church and is church treasurer and has served
as superintendent of the Sunday school.

May 31, 1896, at Junior, he married Miss Maud M. Elbon,
daughter of S. R. and Mary C. (Williams) Elbon. Mrs.
Shomo was born on a farm in Valley District in April,
1880, the second in a family of four children. The only
child born to the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Shomo was a
daughter. Hazel Beatrice, born in 1897, and died in October,
1900.

______________________________X-Message: #5
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 21:56:03 -0500
From: Valerie & Tommy Crook <vfcrook@trellis.net>
To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com
Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.19991110215603.00e43ec0@trellis.net>
Subject: BIO: WILLIE J. WILLIAMS, Barbour County, 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. 309-310
Barbour

WILLIE J. WILLIAMS. With the coal mining that con-
stitutes the principal industrial activity of the Junior local-
ity in Barbour County Willie J. Williams has been identified
nearly all the years since he attained his majority, first as a
practical miner and later as an operator. He is president
of the Mildred Coal Company there.

Mr. Williams was born in Valley District of Barbour
County, October 21, 1877. His father, Andrew Jackson
Williams, was born in Bath County, Virginia, and as a
young man accompanied his parents to West Virginia, the
family locating near Laurel Hill Mountain, where his father
spent the rest of his life as a farmer. Besides Andrew
J. the other children were Robert S., George and Benjamin,
all of whom went to the Western States; Mary, who mar-
ried Milton Curtis and lives at Rich Mountain in Randolph
County; Sarah, who became the wife of Mark Carter and
died at Coalton, West Virginia; Celia, who married Bud
Wright and both died near Belington; and Mrs. Noah Sluss,
who lives in California,

Andrew J. Williams had only a limited education during
his boyhood, and his working energies were bestowed almost
entirely upon the farm. He was a Union man during the
Civil war, and some of his brothers were in the Union Army.
He died at his old home in Valley District in 1898, at the
age of sixty-three. His wife was Julia Row, daughter of
Benjamin Row, and she died, the mother of the following
children: Mary, wife of S. B. Elbon, of Junior; Sarah, who
married John Shomo; Henrietta, who became Mrs. Peter
F. Ware; Lillie, who married Charles Shomo; Grant, twin
brother of Lillie, now deceased; Julia and Celia, twins, both
deceased, Celia, having been the wife of Warren Corley and
Julia, wife of I. D. Shomo; James M., who died at Junior;
Lorenzo, also deceased; Dora, wife of Samuel Ball, of
Kingsville, West Virginia; and Willie Jackson.

Willie J. Williams spent his early life on the home
farm in Valley District, and his education came from
the old German school in that locality.  As a school
boy he became acquainted with systematic labor on the
farm, and on reaching his majority began his career in the
mines. His first employment was as a coal digger on
the property of the Miller Coal & Coke Company, which
subsequently was sold to the Gage Coal and Coke Com-
pany and finally to the West Virginia Coal and Coke
Company. He was in the employ of all these organizations.

The Williams Coal Company was organized in 1917 by
Willie J. and Grant L. Williams, Mittie Wiseman and
Loma Lipscomb. These owners had in partnership some
coal lands, and developed operations near those of the
Gage Coal and Coke Company. During the World war
the mine was operated first as a wagon mine and later
under an arrangement with the Gage Coal and Coke Com-
pany. Willie J. Williams was manager.  In 1920 the
Mildred Coal Company opened its mine, and since No-
vember, 1921, Mr. Williams has been manager of the
property and president of the company. This is one of
the few coal mines in active production during the winter
of 1921-22.

Mr. Williams has been a regular republican since cast-
ing his first vote for McKinley in 1900. He is a mem-
ber and has served as steward of the Methodist Episcopal
Church.

At Junior, February 3, 1899, Mr. Williams married
Mrs. Lillie Williams, widow of his deceased brother Grant,
and daughter of Jacob Spotswood Thacker of Philippi.
By her first marriage she had three children: Grant L.,
Mrs. Mittie Wiseman and Mrs. Loma Lipscomb.  Mr.
and Mrs. Williams have the following children:  Pax, a
miner of Junior; J. Hop, J. Spotswood and Phletus.
Grant L. Williams, son of Mrs. Williams by her first
marriage, wag a soldier in the World war, and was on
the firing line ready to go over the top when the hour
of the armistice arrived. After returning home he took
up mining, and is now mine foreman of the Mildred
Mine.

______________________________X-Message: #6
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 21:56:44 -0500
From: Valerie & Tommy Crook <vfcrook@trellis.net>
To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com
Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.19991110215644.00e422a0@trellis.net>
Subject: BIO: GEORGE W. SHOMO, Barbour County, 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. 310
Barbour

GEORGE W. SHOMO. In his younger years George W.
Shomo had considerable experience as a farmer, barber
and coal miner, none of which satisfied him as a per-
manent occupation.   Railroad service proved more at-
tractive. He entered it through the telegraphic branch,
and for over fifteen years has been one of the efficient
men of the Western Maryland Railroad Company. After
several shifts elsewhere he came back to his home town
of Junior, where he has been agent for the railroad and
at the same time a valued citizen of the community.

Mr. Shomo was born on a farm near Junior, March
15, 1882, and is member of one of the old and well known
families of this section of Barbour County. While on the
farm he attended local schools, and at the age of eighteen
took up the work of the barber's trade in a shop at
Junior. He worked at that occupation four years, and
then for two years was a miner, digging coal for the Davis
Colliery Company at Junior. He left the mines to secure
a technical and business education in the Morris School of
Telegraphy at Cincinnati, where he finished his course in
the Spring of 1906.

With this training he made application for service with
the Western Maryland Eailroad, and was first assigned
to duty as assistant agent at Hendricks, West Virginia.
He remained there two years as assistant agent and a
year and one half as operator, and then after a brief
service as relief agent at Harding returned to his native
town and began his duties as agent April 19, 1911, suc-
ceeding S. S. Bailey. It has been his ambition to make
his efficiency in behalf of the railroad company a source
of effective service to the town and community, and that
ambition has been well realized.  During the past ten
years he has acquired other interests, and was one of the
promoters and is a partner in the Big Chief Mine. He
served as mayor of Junior in 1913, and had been selected
as recorder of the town of Hendricks just before leav-
ing there. He is a charter member and still a stockholder
in the Merchants and Miners Bank of Junior.

Mr. Shomo is strong in the faith of the republican
party and cast his first presidential vote for Roosevelt in
1904. He is a Knight of Pythias, and for a quarter of a
century has been a Methodist, has been teacher in the
Sunday school and is superintendent of the home
department of the Barbour County Sunday School Associa-
tion.

May 29, 1902, at Belington, when he was twenty years
old, Mr. Shomo married Miss Edna B. Bolton, daughter
of Napoleon B. and Louise (Johnson) Bolton. The Bol-
tons are an old family of this section. Mrs. Shomo was
born August 8, 1881 on a farm between Philippi and
Belington, third in a family of five children. The others
were: Rev. John 0., for some years a Methodist minister
and now engaged in the centenary work of his church;
Ella, wife of John Thompson, a farmer near Belington;
Miss Myrtle, teacher in the public schools of Belington;
and Lula, wife of Jesse Glenn, of Belington. Three chil-
dren were born to Mr. and Mrs. Shomo, but all of them
died in infancy. Mrs. Shomo was a teacher before her
marriage and was active in school work for eight years.
She joins with her husband in a deep interest in the
church and Sunday School.