Barbour County, West Virginia          Biography of Harry F. BRITTINGHAM

This file was submitted by Valerie Crook,
E-mail address:  <vfcrook@trellis.net>

The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch.

This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit
organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved.

Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval
system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other
means requires the written approval of the file's author.

This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside
a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at

http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm

The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 297

HARRY F. BRITTINGHAM is a veteran in the service of the
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and since 1914 has taken care
of the company's business at Philippi as agent. Except for
two years he has been with this railroad in West Virginia
since 1902.

He was born at Pocomoke City, Maryland, August 12,
1881. The family is of English origin, and his first Ameri-
can ancestor settled on the eastern shore of Maryland. His
grandfather, Capt. William P. Brittingham, was a boat
captain on Chesapeake Bay and a native of Maryland. He
and two of his brothers were Union soldiers in the Civil war.
By his marriage to Mary Daugherty he had eleven children,
and his sons were Edward, who spent his life in Philadel-
phia; Harry, a resident of Jersey City, and George R.

George R. Brittingham, father of the Philippi railroad
man, was born at Poeomoke City, was reared and educated
there, and for many years was engaged in the barber sup-
ply business, his home being now in Baltimore. He mar-
ried Laura B. Melvin, daughter of Josiah Melvin, of Wor-
cester County, Maryland, and they had nine children, the
seven survivors being Harry F.; George W., claim agent
of the New York Central Railroad at Toledo, Ohio; Ray-
mond M., yard master for the New York, New Haven and
Hartford at Waterbury, Connecticut; Maurice, a hardware
merchant at Baltimore; Russell, associated in business with
his brother Maurice; Clarence and Lillian V., high school
students at Baltimore.

Harry F. Brittingham was reared at Poeomoke City,
where he attended the public schools, and subsequently took
a business course in Bryant and Stratton's College at Wil-
mington, Delaware. Soon after completing this course he
entered the service of the Norfolk and Western Railway
Company as rate clerk at Bramwell, West Virginia, and
was in that service five years.  Then, in 1902, he be-
came chief clerk in the freight office of the Baltimore
and Ohio at Clarksburg, and was transferred from there
to Grafton as car distributor. In -1907 he left the rail-
road to become an instructor in the commercial depart-
ment of Wesleyan College at Buckhannon, where he
remained two years.  Then returning to railroad work,
he was appointed agent at Wilsonburg, and from there
came to Philippi in 1914 as successor of J. L. Ernest,
who removed to Belington. Mr. Brittingham has popular-
ized himself and the railroad by his efficient work at Phil-
ippi, and is deeply interested in community affairs. He is
a member of the Kiwanis Club, and during the World war
was a member of some of the relief committees. He is a
past chancellor of Philippi Lodge No. 61, Knights of
Pythias, and sat in the Grand Lodge at Parkersburg in
1918. He is also a Maccabee and is a member of the Offi-
cial Board of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

In Mercer County, West Virginia, November 22, 1909,
Mr. Brittingham married Effie May Honaker, daughter of
Rev. John H. and Sarah (Belcher) Honaker. Her father
is a retired Methodist minister of Mont Calm, West Vir-
ginia, and both he and his wife were born in this state, and
their children are: Dr. George Honaker, of Chicago; Wil-
liam B., a retired coal operator of Huntington; Jasper, a
merchant at Mont Calm, West Virginia; Mrs Alice Neal,
of Mercer County; Mrs. Sallie Necessary, of Huntington;
and Mrs. Brittingham. Mr. and Mrs. Brittingham have one
son, Clayton W., born December 22, 1911. Mr. Britting-
ham and wife recently completed an attractive new home
at Philippi, a two story cement block house conveniently
situated to the Baltimore and Ohio Station.