WV-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest                           Volume 00 : Issue 216


Today's Topics:
  #1 Bio: James O. HILL - Logan county    [Tina Hursh <ribbit@clubnet.isl.net]
  #2 Bio: John Dieckmann - Ohio county    [Tina Hursh <ribbit@clubnet.isl.net]
  #3 Bio: John C. Linthicum - Hampshire   [Tina Hursh <ribbit@clubnet.isl.net]
  #4 Bio: Joseph L. McClung - Greenbrie   [Tina Hursh <ribbit@clubnet.isl.net]
  #5 Bio: Charles W. Blair - Cabell cou   [Tina Hursh <ribbit@clubnet.isl.net]
  #6 Bio: Jenkin J. Gilmore - Logan cou   [Tina Hursh <ribbit@clubnet.isl.net]


______________________________X-Message: #1
Date: Sat, 23 Sep 2000 19:28:38 -0500
From: Tina Hursh <ribbit@clubnet.isl.net>
To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com
Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.20000924002838.00698038@clubnet.isl.net>
Subject: Bio: James O. HILL - Logan county
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"


The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.
Chicago and New York, Volume 111
Pg. 368



James O. Hill, M.D., has been engaged in the successful practice of his
profession at Logan, county seat of Logan County, since 1912, and has
specialized in obstetrics and the diseases of children.  He was born on his
father's farm in Putnam County, this state, May 20, 1881, and is a son of
George F. and Nancy S. (Bailey) Hill, the former of whom was born in what is
now West Virginia and the latter in Virginia.  She was nine years of age
when her parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Bailey, came to West Virginia, about
1867, and established their home in Putnam County, where they passed the
remainder of their lives.  Tradition in the Hill family is to the effect
that three brothers of the name came to this country from their native
Ireland and first made their way to Pennsylvania, whence they continued
their journey by boat down the Ohio River to what is now Point Pleasant,
West Virginia.  Two of the brothers continued their way and supposedly
settled in the eastern part of Virginia, the one who remained in what is now
west Virginia having been the ancestor of the subject of this review.  The
father of Doctor Hill served many years as a member of the School board of
his district, was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and
both he and his wife became specially earnest and active members of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South.


Doctor Hill acquired his earlier education in the public schools of Putnam
and Jackson counties, later continued his studies in Marras & Harvey
College, at Barboursville, and in 1912 graduated from the medical department
of the University of Louisville, Kentucky, in the meanwhile having there
gained valuable experience by serving one years as a hospital interne.  In
the year in which he thus received his degree of Doctor of Medicine he
established his home at Logan, and here has developed a large and
representative practice of general order, with special attention given to
obstetrics and diseases of children, in which department of practice he has
gained high reputation.  In 1915 and 1917 the Doctor did effective advance
work in the Post-Graduate Medical College in the City of New York.  In the
World was period he served as a member of the Medical Examining Board that
had charge of examination of recruited soldiers in Logan County, and was
active and influential in furthering the success of the local dries in
support of the Government was loans, Red Cross work, etc.  He is actively
identified with the Logan County Medical Society and the West Virginia State
Medical Society, has received the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite
of the Masonic fraternity, besides being a noble of the Mystic Shrine, and
he and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.


The year 1914 recorded at Loan the marriage of Doctor Hill and Miss Lena
Ferrell, daughter of Anthony and Elizabeth (Mullins) Ferrell, both natives
of West Virginia and both still residents of Logan County.  Doctor and Mrs.
Hill have two daughters: Elizabeth Ann and Nancy Susan.


______________________________X-Message: #2
Date: Sat, 23 Sep 2000 19:28:41 -0500
From: Tina Hursh <ribbit@clubnet.isl.net>
To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com
Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.20000924002841.006a15c4@clubnet.isl.net>
Subject: Bio: John Dieckmann - Ohio county
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"


The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.
Chicago and New York, Volume 111
Pg. 369


John Dieckmann.  At Park View, on the National Road, about 5 miles from the
center of the City of Wheeling and within the corporate limits of the city,
Mr. Dieckmann is successfully established in business a s a florist.  Here
he has maintained his headquarters since 1909, his original business having
been founded in the City of Wheeling in 1904.  At Park View Mr. Dieckmann
purchased twenty-five acres of pasture land, and here he has developed one
of the largest and most modern flower-propagating plants in the state.  In
his greenhouses he now has 100,000 square feet under glass.  In the
supplying of the finest of cut flowers and decorative plants for both lawns
and homes he has built up a large and successful business, and he is a
recognized authority in floriculture.  He came to Wheeling in 1901, and from
the position of employee with a company in the floral business he became a
stockholder in the company and finally became sole owner of the business, he
having had a capital of only $500 when he intiated his business career in
the city.  He now has secure standing as the largest and most successful
flower-grower in the state, and the development of the splendid business has
been the result of his technical ability, close application and progressive
policies.


Mr. Dieckmann was born near Hamburg, Germany, in 1870, and was there reared
and educated.  There he gained an experience of more than ten years in the
nursery and floriculture business, and in 1895 he came to the United States
and found employment at Wadsworth, Ohio, at $1.50 a day.  Later he was laced
in charge of a leading floral business at Cleveland, Ohio, and he conducted
an independent business at Akron, that state, for two years, saving the
little reserve capital of $500 with which he initiated his business career
at Wheeling, West Virginia.  He supplies the local florists in Wheeling and
other cities of the state, and makes shipments also to Steubenville and
other places in Ohio.  In the activities of the business he retains an
average of twenty-one employees.  His attractive residence is on the grounds
of his fine floral plant, and in the basement of the house his business
offices are maintained.  Hi is a director in the bank at Fulton, and is an
elder in St. Marks's Lutheran Church at Elm Grove.


At Wadsworth, Ohio, Mr. Dieckmann married Miss Lucy Pfeiffer, who was born
in that town, of German parentage.  They have three sons: Ernest John, a
high-school graduate, is, in 1921 a student of floriculture at Cornell
University, Ithaca, New York; William Pfeiffer is a student in the Capital
University at Columbus, Ohio; and Herbert is a member of the class of 1922
in Triadelphia District High School of Wheeling.


______________________________X-Message: #3
Date: Sat, 23 Sep 2000 19:28:42 -0500
From: Tina Hursh <ribbit@clubnet.isl.net>
To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com
Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.20000924002842.0068ed10@clubnet.isl.net>
Subject: Bio: John C. Linthicum - Hampshire county
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"


The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.
Chicago and New York, Volume 111
Pg. 369 & 370



John C. Linthicum, now serving his third term as mayor of Romney, has been a
resident of that city for over twenty years, for a long time was in the
service of the state government at the Institution for the Deaf and Blind,
and his active career throughout has been strongly tinged with the public
service.


He was born at Moorefield, West Virginia, September 17, 1869.  His
grandfather, Joel Linthicum, was a shoe maker of Hampshire County, and died
in Romney about 1878.  He married a Miss Davis, and their children were:
William, who died I Illinois; Elijah, who spent his active life at Decatur,
Illinois; James, a retired shoemaker living near Richmond, Virginia; Joseph
M.; Benjamin, who died at Romney; Mollie, who married Frank Maloney and died
in Hampshire County; Margaret, wife of Joseph M. Poling and a resident of
Romney.


Joseph M. Linthicum, father of Romney's mayor, was born in Hampshire County,
September 10, 1843. As a youth he learned the trade of shoemaker and leather
tanning, and worked at one or the other of these occupations throughout his
active life.  He is now living retired at Keyser.  During the war between
the states he was member of a Virginia regiment in the Confederate Army, and
took part in several of the campaigns of the Army of Northern Virginia.  He
was never wounded or captured, and served throughout as a private.  Joseph
M. Linthicum married Elizabeth Hyder, daughter of Thompson Hyder.


John C. Linthicum spent his early life at Moorefield, attended the
Moorefield Academy, and at the age of sixteen left school and learned the
trade of harness maker with his father.  As a journeyman he followed this
trade both in and out of his home state, and in 1901 came to Romney and took
charge of the shoe and harness department of the West Virginia Schools for
the Deaf and Blind.  That was his work for fifteen years, and for eight
years of the time he was also chief enjineer of the schools.  Since leaving
the state service in 1916 Mr. Linthicum has conducted an insurance and coal
business at Romney.


In 1921 he was put in charge as foreman of construction for the girls'
dormitory of the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind, and in that
capacity he supervised the construction of the new building, beginning in
March, 1921, until it was completed on July 1, 1922, at a cost of $110,000,
the contract being carried through several thousand dollars under the
appropriation made for the work.


Mr. Linthicum was for several terms a member of the City Council and was
chairman of the water committee.  He had the responsible directions of the
work of constructing the water system of Romney, completed in 1912.  He
served seven years as city treasurer, and was elected to the office of mayor
in 1920, 1921, and 1922, succeeding Joseph A. Kelley in that office.


Mr. Linthicum is an active republican, casting his first vote for Benjamin
Harrison in 1892.  His first elective office was as recorder of Romney, to
which he was chosen in 1908.  Since 1916 he has been a member of the Grand
Lodge of the Ancient Order of United Workmen and is grand guide of the Grand
Lodge.


At Westernport, Maryland, October 30, 1892, John Carson Linthicum married
Miss Kate M. Bowen, who was born at Springfield, West Virginia, and
represents two old and well-known families of Hampshire County.  She is a
daughter of Dr. C.G. and Mary C. (Parsons) Bowen, her mother being a
daughter of David Parsons.  Mrs. Linthicum was the third in a family of
seven children, was born May 9, 1865, and her brothers and sisters were:
John, Mary, Anna, Charles, William and Susan.  Mary is Mrs. Joseph
Greenfield, of Cumberland, Maryland; Anna is unmarried; and Susan is the
wife of P.T. Lacey of Cumberland, Maryland.  To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs.
Linthicum were born two children, on dying in infancy.  The daughter, Mary
Elizabeth, was educated in the Potomac Academy, which was recently remodeled
as part of the school for the blind, and she is now employed in the Romney
Post Office.


______________________________X-Message: #4
Date: Sat, 23 Sep 2000 19:28:39 -0500
From: Tina Hursh <ribbit@clubnet.isl.net>
To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com
Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.20000924002839.006926f4@clubnet.isl.net>
Subject: Bio: Joseph L. McClung - Greenbrier county
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"


The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.
Chicago and New York, Volume 111
Pg. 368 & 369


Joseph Laconia McClung.  A representative of a prominent old Greenbrier
County family, Joseph Laconia McClung is a graduate Doctor of Dental Surgery
from Baltimore, and for a number of years has been securely established in
his professional work at Huntington.


Doctor McClung was born at Rupert, Greenbrier County, October 26, 1877.  The
McClung family is of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and there were seven brothers of
the name who came to Virginia in Colonial times.  The grandfather of Doctor
McClung was Hinton McClung, a native of Old Virginia and an early settler in
Greenbrier County, where he was a farmer.  He married Miss Jones, also born
in old Virginia, who died in Greenbrier County.  Their son Madison McClung,
father of Doctor McClung, was born in Greenbrier County in 1838, was reared
and married there, and owned and operated and extensive farm.  After 1894 he
farmed in Putnam County, and after he retired from his farm in 1917 he lived
in Huntington until his death on February 1, 1919.  He was a democrat, has
served four years in the Civil war as a Confederate soldier, was a very
earnest member of the Baptist Church and was affiliated with the Masonic
fraternity.  Madison McClung married Martha Martin, who was born in
Greenbrier County in 1845 and died at Hurricane, Putnam County in 1913.  He
father, John Mack Martin, was born in old Virginia in 1823, was a circuit
rider of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and carried on his work in many of
the mountain communities of Western Virginia, where he was widely known and
greatly beloved.  He died at Hurricane in 1900.  His first wife and the
mother of Martha Martin was a Miss Crane, a native of old Virginia, who died
in Greenbrier County.  Madison McClung and wife had thirteen childre, tow of
whom died in childhood, and a brief record of the others is given:  Nora,
wife of Leonard Shawver, a farmer of Crickmer, Fayette County, West
Virginia: Clownie V., who was connected with the International Harvester
Company and died at Hurricane at the age of forty-five; Mintie, wife of
William F. Wilson, building contractor of Louisa, Kentucky; Laura, who died
at Hurricane at the age of twenty-four; Samuel Tilden a physician, who died
in Colorado, aged twenty-six; Richard, for a number of years a civil service
employee of the Government, living at Huntington; Joseph L.,; Albert, a
foreman for the Norfolk and Western Railway of Portsmouth, Ohio; Mrs. Dena
Leighton, of Huntington widow of a railroad contractor; Maude, who died at
Huntington at the age of twenty-seven, wife of Hugh Irwin, now a locomotive
engineer, living at Russell, Kentucky; and Mrs. Mona Slacke, wife of a
railroad machinist living at Handley, West Virginia.


Joseph Laconia McClung acquired his early education in the rual schools of
Greenbrier and Putnam counties.  He grew up on his father's farm and at the
age of twenty-one began teaching, and for two years taught in Putnam County
and two years in Fayette County.  After leaving the work of the school room
he entered the University of Maryland at Baltimore for his dental course,
and graduated in 1905 with the degree D.D.S. Doctor McClung practiced six
years at Olive Hill, Kentucky, and four years at Mount Sterling, Kentucky,
and since 1914 has been one of the permanent dentists of Huntington.  He is
a member of the National Dental Association, is a stockholder and formerly
was vice president of the Mid West Oil Company and has other interests in
oil and coal companies. 


He is a democrat, a member of the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church and assistant
secretary  of the Sunday School, is affiliated with Mount Sterling Lodge,
A.F. and A.M., in Kentucky.  Among other real estate in Huntington is his
home, located in a restricted residential section, at 1221 Ninth Avenue.  On
October 11, 1905, near Hurricane, west Virginia, Doctor McClung marries Miss
Stella Smith, daughter of John P. and Sarah (Martin) Smith, residents of St.
Albans, West Virginia.  Her father is a farmer.  Doctor and Mrs. McClung
have one child, Daryl Smith, born August 24, 1906.


______________________________X-Message: #5
Date: Sat, 23 Sep 2000 19:28:44 -0500
From: Tina Hursh <ribbit@clubnet.isl.net>
To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com
Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.20000924002844.0069bc78@clubnet.isl.net>
Subject: Bio: Charles W. Blair - Cabell county
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"


The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.
Chicago and New York, Volume 111
Pg. 370


Charles W. Blair has been active in insurance circles at Huntington and West
Virginia for nearly thirty years.  He is senior member of the firm of Blair
& Bluffington, handling what is perhaps the largest business in fire
insurance in the city.


Mr. Blair is an Ohio man by birth, born at South Webster, Scioto County,
March 14, 1867.  His father, Joseph W. Blair, was born in Adams County of
the same state in 1832, and as a young man removed to Scioto County, where
he married and where for many years he conducted a mercantile store at
Webster.  He was a republican, served several terms as township treasurer,
and was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.  Joseph W. Blair, who
died at Webster, Ohio, in 1887, married Harriet Cole, who was born in Scioto
County in 1836 and died at Wellston, Ohio, in 1918.


Charles W. Blair was educated in the public schools of Webster, and after he
was eighteen he taught three years in Scioto County, Ohio.  He then removed
to Portsmouth, where for two years he was deputy county clerk, and left that
office to engage in the insurance business.  He remained at Portsmouth until
1893, and in August of that year located at Huntington, where he has been a
busy member of insurance circles ever since.  For a number of years he was
an independent adjuster of fire losses.  Mr. Blair covered the West Virginia
field as special agent for on of the leading English companies for several
years, and his activities in both field work and local work has established
his position as one of the leading fire insurance men of the state.  Some
years ago he formed a partnership with P.C. Buffington, under the name Blair
& Buffington.  They handle general insurance, and represent some of the
leading English and American companies.  The offices of the firm are in the
First National Bank Building.  Mr. Blair is also secretary and treasurer of
the Ophir Oil Company, operating in the Eastern Kentucky field.  In politics
he is a republican, is a member of the the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South, and fraternally is affiliated with Huntington Lodge No. 53, A.F. and
A.M., West Virginia Consistory No. 1 of the Scottish Rite at Wheeling,
Beni-Kedem Temple of the Mystic Shrine of charleston, and is a member of
Huntington Lodge No. 313, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and the
Guyandotte Club of Huntington.  He is a member also of the Allegheny and
Cheat Mountain clubs of his state and is an enthusiastic sportsman.  His
chief sport is fishing, and besides slipping away from business whenever
opportunity presents itself and trying his luck in the West Virginia streams
each year when summer vacation time comes he goes on an annual camping and
fishing trip to the Yellowstone Park and points in Wyoming, up in the
mountains, where the streams run clear and cold and where the elusive
Rainbow and Cutthroat Trout are to be found.


Mr. Blair married at Huntington in 1900 Miss Lide T. Thackston, daughter of
Benjamin H. and Eugenia (Miller) Thackston. K Mrs. Blair's father was one of
the early professors of Marshall College, and died in Huntington in 1918, at
the age of eighty-five years.  Her mother is still living, residing with her
daughter in Huntington.


______________________________X-Message: #6
Date: Sat, 23 Sep 2000 19:28:45 -0500
From: Tina Hursh <ribbit@clubnet.isl.net>
To: WV-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com
Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.20000924002845.00695cac@clubnet.isl.net>
Subject: Bio: Jenkin J. Gilmore - Logan county
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"


The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.
Chicago and New York, Volume 111
Pg. 370



Jenkin J. Gilmore, after completing a very liberal education, returned to
West Virginia and entered the coal industry, and is one of the well known
mine superintendents in Logan County.  His headquarters are at Barnabas on
the Omar branch of the Chesapeake & Ohio, about twelve miles from Logan.


Mr. Gilmore was born January 1, 1888, at Bramwell in Mercer County, West
Virginia.  He is of Scotch and Irish ancestry, and a son of Milton and Alice
(Becker) Gilmore.  His parents were both born in Virginia.  His father , who
died in 1907, was a member of a Virginia regiment in the Civil war, and for
many years was associated with the mining interests of the firm of Freeman &
Jones at Bramwell.


Jenkin J. Gilmore acquired a common and high school education at Bramwell,
finishing his high school course in 1903.  For three years he pursued
advanced training in Mount St. Joseph School at Baltimore, Maryland, and in
1908 graduated in a bookkeeping and general business course at Eastman's
Business College of Poughkeepsie, New York.  On returning to West Virginia
he was given work that constituted a general training in the mining industry
under Colonel Tierney in the Pocahontas coal field.  At the end of three
years he had been advanced to mine boss and foreman for the Pocahontas
Consolidated at Cherokee, where he remained two years.  In 1915 he came to
the Logan Field for the Main Island Creek Coal Company, where his first work
was building a supply house.   He was then made mine boss or foreman, and
since 1919 has been mine superintendent for the Main Island Creek Coal
Company at Barnabas.  During the was he made every effort to get into
service, but was ruled out, since his work in the coal fields was more
essential to the winning of the war.


In 1917,  at Catlettsburg, Kentucky, he married Miss Edna Easley, daughter
of Frederick and Lou (Hatcher) Easley, the former a native of Virginia and
the latter of West Virginia.  Mr. and Mrs. Gilmore have one son, Frederick.
Mr. Gilmore is a Catholic, while his wife is a Presbyterian.  He is
affiliated with the Knights of Columbus.