The History of West Virginia, Old and New

Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,

Chicago and New York, Volume III,

pg. 365

ROBERT M. FRENCH has earned real distinction in the financial life of
Raleigh County. Throughout his active

manhood he has been in the service of the oldest bank of the county,
the Bank of Raleigh, and is now cashier of

that institution, which ranks among the strongest banks in this section
of the state.

Mr. French was born at Logan, West Virginia, December 17. 1888, son
of Millard F. and Ellen (Wilburn) French, both natives of Virginia. His
ancestors were soldiers in the Revolution, and his grandfather was Henderson
French, a farmer and blacksmith. Millard F. French was a physician, and
practiced a number of years at Logan and later at Beckley, where he died
in 1908. He was an elder in the Christian Church and a member of the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows. The mother is still living at Beckley.

Robert M. French as a boy attended the common schools at Logan, graduated
in 1907 from the State Normal School at Athens, and also spent two years
in West Virginia University at Morgantown. About the close of his university
career Mr. French entered the Bank of Raleigh as bookkeeper.  Two
years later he was advanced to assistant cashier, a post he held six years,
and since then has been cashier, and for eight years has been one of the
bank directors. The Bank of Raleigh was established in 1899, and its stockholders
and directors have included many of the most substantial men of Raleigh
County. During the World war Mr. French was connected with all the bond
drives in Raleigh County.

At Athens, West Virginia, in 1912, he married Hattie L. Vermillion,
daughter of S. I. and Rhoda (Bird) Vermil-

lion, natives of West Virginia. Her mother is now deceased. Her father
is a surviving Confederate veteran who

served with the Virginia Regiment of Cavalry, and among other battles
was at Gettysburg. He followed farming as his active vocation. Mr. and
Mrs. French have two children, Robert M., Jr., and Elizabeth Ann. The family
are members of the Christian Church, and he is a Royal Arch Mason, a Knight
of Pythias and a member of the Rotary Club.

Submitted by Valerie Crook

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FRANCIS HENDRICK
(HENDRIX)

Francis Hendrick (Hendrix), born about 1802, was married on 29 March
1820 in Giles County, Virginia, to Margaret “Peggy” Stewart who was born
about 1802.  Peggy was the daughter of Ralph Stewart and Mary (Clay)
Stewart.  Francis most likely was the son of Daniel and Ann (Keatley)
Hendricks.  Francis and Margaret’s daughter Nellie (Ellen) Hendrix
married John Dickens.

Copy of Marriage Bond

Dennis Dickens, a cousin of mine who is now deceased, told
me that Nellie Hendricks had brothers Henry, Gus, Pete, Remley, and James
K.  The Hendricks, according to Dennis, lived on Hendricks Ridge
at Knob Fork in Wyoming County.  I have located some Raleigh County
information on three of these brothers.   I have found information
on a Remley Hendricks in Wyoming County.  I believe that Remley
is Nellie’s brother.  I have located information on Pete R. Hendrix
in the 1920 Boone County, West Virginia Soundex.   However, Pete’s
age of 65 (year of birth 1855) would make him too young to be Nellie’s brother.  I
am not certain how Pete fits into the family.

I did find one other record for Pete R. Hendricks.  He
furnished the information for the marriage license of Lorenze Dow Massey
and Rachel Elizabeth Williams on 1 May 1880.

I have located Francis Hendrix in the following tax and census
records:

1824 Logan County, Virginia, Tax List
Name: Francis Hendricks
White males over 16: 1
Blacks over 12: 0
Blacks over 16: 0
Horses, Asses, Mares, Mules, and Colts: 2

1827 Logan County, Virginia, Tax List
Name: Francis Hendricks
Males over 16: 1
Blacks over 12: 0
Blacks over 16: 0
Horses, Asses, Mares, Mules, and Colts: 1

1830 Logan County Census
Details not available.

1833 Logan County, Virginia, Tax List
Name: Francis Hendricks
Males over 16: 1
Blacks over 12: 0
Blacks over 16: 0
Horses, Asses, Mares, Mules, and Colts: 2

1835 Logan County, Virginia, Property Tax List
Name: Francis Hendricks
Males over 16: 1
Blacks over 12: 0
Blacks over 16: 0
Horses, Asses, Mares, Mules, and Colts: 2

1840 Census
Not located.

1850 Raleigh County, Virginia, Census
Francis Hendricks 48
Margaret 48
Augustus 21
Gordon 18
Emily 16
Margaret 14
Anna 12
Mary 10
George 8
Francis 8
Cordella 6
Julia 4
James 2

1860 Wyoming County, Virginia, Census
Craney, Wyoming County, Virginia
25 July 1860 – page 48, #335-293
Francis Hendrix 58 m born VA blacksmith $0 $160
Margaret 57 f born VA
Gordon W. 20 m born VA farm laborer
Francis 20 m farm born VA laborer
Cordiela 17 f born VA
Julia 15 f born VA
James 13 m born VA
Silas R. 13 m born VA
Julia A. 11 f born VA

Submitted by:  Nyla CREED DePauk
Email:  Ncreed1@aol.com

Fitzhugh Lee Banks

Written by Shirley File Robbins

Dr. Fitzhugh Lee Banks was born September 25, 1885 in Wolftown,
Virginia, the last of five children of James William and Cornelia Burnett
Banks. Educated at Randolph Macon Academy in Bedford, VA, and the Medical
College of Richmond, Class of 1909, he married Mary Boardman Smith, born
in Madison County, Virginia July 19, 1887, on October 19, 1910.  Mrs.
Banks was the daughter of Francis Percival Smith and Matilda Ella Simms.

Dr. Banks opened his first practice of medicine at Gordonsville, Orange

County, Virginia. Fitz and Mary’s three children, William Smith Banks

(1911), Francis McRae Banks (1913 – 1982), and Shirley Hamilton Banks
(1915 – 1990 ) were born there.

In 1922 Dr. Banks moved to West Virginia to become the company doctor
for the Slab Fork Coal Company.  Then, after practicing in Maben,
WV, he settled in Beckley as an Eye, Ear, Nose & Throat specialist. 
He had gone to New York City, living with a medical school classmate, to
be trained in that specialty. He received his 50 year pin from the Medical
College of Virginia in 1959. He had been in practice as a general practitioner
for 20 years, and an Eye, Ear, Nose & Throat Specialist for 30 years.

Dr. Banks was a member of the West Virginia Medical Association, the
Black Knight Country Club, The Elks Club, and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. 
He was known for his love of literature and history, particularly the Civil
War period, his passion for pike fishing, and stories of his ancestors. 
He was the great- great- great grandson of Dr. Thomas Walker and Joshua
Fry.  Dr. Walker was a physician, surveyor, explorer and statesman. 
He is known to have traveled the Raleigh County area in about 1750. 
He was also a guardian for Thomas Jefferson. Dr. Banks would tell that
with pride; most who heard the story thought he said “gardener for Thomas
Jefferson”.  Fitz, as he was called by family and friends, always
laughed at that comment.

He died in Richmond, Virginia on February 27, 1966.

 

The History of West Virginia, Old and New

Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,

Chicago and New York, Volume III,

pg. 366

Raleigh

JOHN B. CLIFTON. One of the youngest coal operatorsin Raleigh County,
John B. Clifton as a boy took up railroading, spent several years in growing
responsibilities in the railroad service, and had the expert qualifications
as a traffic man when he turned to the coal industry. It has been his fortune
to associate with prominent men, and

among them he is regarded as one of the coming leaders in the coal
industry of West Virginia.

Mr. Clifton was born at Ridgeway, Montgomery County, Virginia, July
27, 1891, son of James W. and Mary K.

(Kelley) Clifton, both natives of Virginia, and his father a farmer.
He is of English ancestry. John B. Clifton

attended the common schools of Montgomery County until he was sixteen
years of age, then learned telegraphy, and his first assignment of duty
was as an operator on the Norfolk & Western. He served with that road
from 1907 until 1910, and then became general operator for the Virginia
Railway, his duties taking him all over the line.  Beginning in 1912,
he acted as car distributor for the road, but resigned in 1915 to go into
the coal business on the Stone Coal Branch of the Chesapeake & Ohio. 
At that time he became part owner of the Beckley Smokeless Coal Company.
He sold his interest in that organization in 1919, and since then has helped
organize and has been active as a business representative and as a member
of producing and sales companies operating in the Raleigh County field.
These include the Raleigh Smokeless Coal Company, Guyan Collieries Company,
Wilton Smokeless Coal Company, Wood-Peck Fuel Company, Red Ash Coal Company.
Mr. Clifton also has interests in South America, the Raleigh Smokeless
Fuel Company maintaining an office at Rio Janeiro, Brazil.

Submitted by Valerie Crook

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in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. 
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must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative
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CHARLES L. HEABERLIN

Biographical Sketches of Members of Congress, Members of the
Legislature, Officers of the State Governement and judges of
the Supreme Court of Appeals, West Virigina, 1917

Source:
West Virginia Legislative Hand Book and Manual and Official
Register, 1917,Compiled and Edited by John T. Harris, Clerk of
the Senate, The Tribune Printing Co., Charleston, West Va.
pgs. 719 – 770

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
pg. 738

HEABERLIN, CHARLES L. (Republican.) Address: Beckley,
West Va. Born in Hancock county, Tennessee,February 12,
1883. Shortly afterward his father moved to Wise county,
Virginia. The son was educated there in the free schools and
in the high school at Wise, the county seat; now engaged in
general insurance and is Vice President and General Manager
of the Home Insurance Agency at Beckley; has been a citizen
of West Virginia since 1900; worked several years in coal
mines; was elected as one of the delegates from Raleigh in
1916; committee assignments, 1917: Taxation and Finance,
Insurance, Forestry and Conservation.

Submitted by: Valerie Crook

Email: vfcrook@trellis.net

VICTOR E. SULLIVAN

Biographical Sketches of Members of Congress, Members of the
Legislature, Officers of the State Governement and judges of

the Supreme Court of Appeals, West Virigina, 1917.

Source:

West Virginia Legislative Hand Book and Manual and Official
Register, 1917, Compiled and Edited by John T. Harris, Clerk

of the Senate, The Tribune Printing Co., Charleston, West

Va. pgs. 719 – 770

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

748

SULLIVAN, VICTOR E. (Republican.) Address: Raleigh,

West Va. Born at Powellsville, Scioto county, Ohio,

August 15, 1854; educated in the public schools of

Scioto and Gallia counties; has been a resident of West

Virginia fourteen years, locating first in Fayette county

and later in Raleigh; is a mining superintendent,

receiving his occupational experience in Ohio and West

Virginia; has been Chairman of the Republican Committee of

Raleigh county for five years; elected to the House in

1914; re-elected in 1916; in 1917 had the following
committee assignments: Prohibition and Temperance, Counties,

Districts and Municipal Corporations and Printing and

Contingent Expenses.

Submitted by: Valerie Crook

Email: vfcrook@trellis.net

This article was reproduced with the punctuation
and
capitalization used by the original author.
Transcribed by Jo Alice Bradley
Heck

    

Obituary

        Rebecca Jane Clay, daughter
of Charles L. and Awry Clay, was born in Pike county Kentucky June 25, 1828.
When but a baby her parents left their Kentucky home, and came to Wyoming
county, W. Va., to make a new home in the Mountain State, and as this home
was being built, one by one, sisters and brothers were added to the family
until there were four boys and six girls.
        During this home life in Wyoming county,
the subject of this sketch, then a little girl of twelve years, at a camp
meeting held in their community, heard and heeded the call of Jesus Christ
to “Follow Me,” and then and there accepted and publicly confessed Him as
her Savior, and united with the Methodist church and began the christian life.
        After living in Wyoming county some
eighteen years, her parents sought a new home, coming to Raleigh county and
locating at Brackenridge. While living there another sister and brother came
into the home. Brackenridge was their home but four years when they moved
to Sand Lick where they made their home until death, August 1, 1852.
        While living at Brackenridge, the
subject of this sketch, Rebecca, the oldest daughter, was married to James
Cantley, and they spent the first two years of their married life at the
Cottle place, now better known as Saxon. While living here their first child,
Nettie J., was born. They next for a part of one year at what is now known
as the old flats, and during their brief stay there they were blessed with
the second baby Nancy Jane.
        From that place they moved to the
present home, where Mrs. Cantley spent the rest of her days. Two other children
came to live in this little family, Ellen and James. Ellen, however, after
four years, went to live with him Him who said, “Suffer the Little Children
to Come Unto Me.”
         When Lincoln issued the call
for 75,000 volunteers in 1861, James Cantley responded to that call, left
his faithful wife and beloved little ones to go out never to return for in
the battle of Cross Keys, Sheandoah Valley, Va., he received a wound that
soon proved fatal. He was taken to the Harrisburg hospital, and after ten
days started for home, getting as far as Cumberland, Md., where his strength
failed, and he departed this life and was buried at that place.
        Mrs. Cantley, now a widow with the
three little ones, took up the battle of life, with its toils and bravely
met the responsibilities, doing as best she could-trusting always in Him to
whom she had yielded her life as a child. Her friends and neighbors pay her
the splendid tribute of calling her a good, kind christian woman. She departed
this life “looking unto Jesus, the Beginner and Finisher of her faith,” on
May 26, 1910, aged 81 years, 11 months and 1 day, leaving to morn their loss,
two daughters, one son, sisters, brothers, twenty grand-children, thirty-one
great-grand-children, and many other relatives as well as a great host of
friends.

G. A. Reaugh     

MARTIN VAN BUREN GODBEY

Biographical Sketches of Members of Congress, Members of the
Legislature, Officers of the State Governement and judges of the

Supreme Court of Appeals, West Virigina, 1917

Source:

West Virginia Legislative Hand Book and Manual and Official
Register, 1917,Compiled and Edited by John T. Harris, Clerk of

the Senate, The Tribune Printing Co., Charleston, West Va.

pgs. 719 – 770

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

pg. 724

GODBEY, MARTIN VAN BUREN. (Republican.)
Born in Raleigh county, December 19,1879; educated in the public
schools, at Marshall College and at Grant University; a physician
and surgeon; received the degree of M. D. from Maryland Medical
College; elected to the House of Delegates from Boone county in
1908; a member of the State Board of Health 1909-13; elected to
the State Senate in 1914, from the Eighth District; in 1917 had
the following committee assignments: Forestry and Conservation
(Chairman); To Examine the Clerk’s Office (Chairman); Railroads,
Insurance, Mines and Mining, Medicine and Sanitation, Public
Printing, Rules, Virginia Debt. Appointed Chief Medical Examiner
of the Workmen’s Compensation Fund, May 1,1917.

Submitted by: Valerie Crook

Email: VFCROOK@TRELLIS.NET

The History of West Virginia, Old and New

Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,

Chicago and New York, Volume III,

pg. 365-366

Raleigh

WILLIAM N. MACTAGGART. Though he has been an American all these years
he can remember, William N. MacTaggart was born in Scotland, and he has
some of the pronounced Scotch characteristics. He is conservative, is a
man of forceful character, and his associates esteem his judgment and experience
as the last resort in practically every matter connected with coal operation
and mining engineering. Mr. MacTaggart is the local superintendent and
engineer in charge of the vast properties of the Beaver Coal Company, with
headquarters at Beckley in Raleigh County.

He was born in the City of Glasgow, January 29, 1868, son of John and
Mary (Neilson) MacTaggart. His parents came to the United States about
1870. His father while in Scotland was an accountant for coal mining companies,
but, in the United States he took up mining as a practical vocation, and
was a mine foreman and superintendent, spending one year at Sharon, Pennsylvania,
and then removed to the coal district around Jeansville, Pennsylvania. 
He was killed in a mine accident there in 1881.

William N. MacTaggart attended the common schools of Jeansville, and
was only eight years of age when he did

his first work at a coal mine, picking slate. This was night work,
and he continued to attend school during the day.  At the age of eleven
he was made trapper and driver, and then successively was employed as trackman,
dug coal as a practical miner, served as foreman and superintendent, and
with increasing experience in all phases of coal mining he felt the need
of a better education, and for two years he pursued an academic course
in Grove City College in Western Pennsylvania.  Following that he
secured a position as rodman with an engineering company, and after mastering
the fundamentals of engineering he was made chainman and then transit man.
For three years he was in the service of the Lehigh Valley Coal Company
as a mining engineer at Hazelton, Pennsylvania. In 1899 he came to West
Virginia as mining engineer for the Fairmont Coal Company, and was in the
service of this corporation four years.

During a period of almost twenty years since then, Mr. MacTaggart has
had his headquarters at Beckley, where he has been superintendent for the
Beaver Coal Company. He looks after the property of the company, comprising
50,000 acres of coal and timber lands, producing on the average 3,000,000
tons of coal annually, besides lumber. There are twenty coal companies
operating under lease from the Beaver Company.  These operating companies
are the Raleigh, the Beckley, the Slab Fork, the Sullivan, the E. E. White
Coal and Coke Company, the Gulf Smokeless Coal Company, the Bailey-Wood
Coal Company, the Pemberton, the McAlpin, the Gulf Coal Company, the Elkhorn
Piney Mining Company, Pemberton Fuel Company, Piney Creek Coal Company,
Douglas Coal Company, Bowyer Smokeless Coal Company, Ragland Coal Company,
Summit

Coal Company, Viacova Coal Company, Beard Coal and Coke Company and
Battleship Coal Company.

In 1896, at Jeansville, Pennsylvania. Mr. MacTaggart married Bertha
Hamer, daughter of William and Bertha

Hamer. Her father was in the coal business in Pennsylvania. The five
children of their marriage are Paul, Jean

(deceased), Isabel, Margaret and Bertha.

The Beaver Company donated the site at Beckley for the new hospital
known as the Kings Daughters Hos-

pital of Beckley. Mr. MacTaggart is a Presbyterian, is a member of
the Kiwanis Club and is president of the Beckley Club.

Submitted by Valerie Crook

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USGENWEB NOTICE:  These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced
in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. 
Persons or organizations desiring to use this material,

must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative
of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof
of this consent. Files may be printed or copied for personal use only.

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