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BARBOUR COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
Valerie & Tommy Crook
vfcrook@trellis.net
November 10, 1999
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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.
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