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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 26, 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. 324
ORION H. GALL, cashier of the First National Bank of
Belington, has been actively associated as a young man
with the commercial interests of this thriving city, though
nearly two years out of his young manhood were given to
the service of his country at the time of the great war.
Almost immediately on his return from France he took up
the duties of a civilian, and soon afterward came to his
present post with the bank.
The Galls are a prominent old family of Barbour County.
His ancestry runs back some four or five generations to
George Gall, who was a Virginian and a soldier of the
Revolution. A son of this soldier was John J. Gall, the
founder of the family in West Virginia. His early home
was near the Natural Bridge in Virginia, and from there
he moved to West Virginia and established his home in what
is now Barbour County, on Elk River, and from that region
his descendants have scattered over this state and other
states. George W. Gall, grandfather of the Belington
banker, was sixteen years of age when the family moved
to Barbour County. He was a strong Union man, but two
of his brothers were soldiers under Stonewall Jackson.
John Jay Gall, father of Orion H., was born at the
Village of Arden in Barbour County November 15, 1851.
He is now past three score and ten, but is still active in
his work as a general farmer and stock man. He has been
one of the more successful stock raisers in this county
handling a good grade of beef cattle. He has taken an
interest in the affairs of his community, has served as a
member of the School Board, is a democratic voter and a
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. John
J. Gall married Elizabeth Carpenter in Barbour County,
daughter of Allen and Harriet (Hoffman) Carpenter. Their
children are: Alva D., of Hammondsville, Ohio; W. Brad-
ford, of Belington; Marvin, of Morgantown; Dessie, wife of
Charles S. Row, of Belington; Orion H.; Audra A., a
teacher in the public schools of Barbour County; Dewey
L., a traveling salesman living at Morgantown; and Hugh,
who is still in school and assists his father on the farm.
Orion H. Gall was born near Arden in Philippi District
August 1, 1893, but subsequently his parents moved from
Laurel Creek to Bill's Creek in Barker District, where
he spent the greater part of his early life. He had the
opportunities of the public schools, but his education and
training have been primarily a matter of practical ex-
perience. At the age of eighteen he began teaching in
the country, and was one of Barbour County's educators
for four years. He left the schoolroom to go into the
service of the First National Bank of Belington as a
bookkeeper, and kept up this work steadily until he left
after Christmas in 1917 to join the colors.
Mr. Gall enlisted at Pittsburgh, and from there was
sent to Camp Joseph E. Johnston near Jacksonville, Florida,
where he was first assigned to Receiving Company No. 31,
then to Clerical Company No. 2, and in May, 1918, was
assigned to Supply Company No. 314. With this last named
company he sailed from Newport News on the transport
Martha Washington, was landed at Brest June 19, 1918, and
during the remainder of the period of hostilities was at
Gievres in the General Intermediate Supply Depot. The
company remained on duty there until June, 1919, when
Mr. Gall was transferred to the Quartermaster's Detach-
ment, which put the camp in condition to turn over to the
French Government. This transfer was completed August
21, and then he and his comrades left for Brest and sailed
on transport Aeolus, August 26, reaching Brooklyn on Sep-
tember 5, was in Camp Merritt until September 11, and
then moved to Camp Dix, where he received his honorable
discharge September 13, 1919. On the 19th of the same
month he arrived home, after an absence of nearly two years.
Mr. Gall was a private until June, 1919, when he was made
sergeant and was discharged with that rank.
For a time after returning home he was bookkeeper for
the Kane & Keyser Hardware Company of Belington, but
on April 1, 1920, took up his work as cashier of the First
National Bank. He is also one of the bank's directors.
The First National Bank of Belington was chartered in
1903, with a capital of $40,000.00. It has capital and
surplus of $50,000.00, deposits of upwards of $300,000.00
and total resources of over $400,000.00. The president
is B. B. Rohrbough, J. E. Keyser is vice president, and the
assistant cashier is W. W. Thomas.
Mr. Gall, is a democrat, casting his first presidential
ballot for Woodrow Wilson. He is secretary of the Busi-
ness Men's Club of Belington, and is affiliated with the
Masonic Order. He is unmarried.
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