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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
March 18, 2000
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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. 350
HERMAN J. POLING. While he has carried more or less
active business responsibilities, Herman J. Poling is a
lawyer, and his hard-working abilities have won him a
deservedly high place in that exacting profession in his home
county of Barbour. He is a member of the Poling family
that has been identified with the farming and civic interests
of the county for a number of generations.
He was born in Glade District, Barbour County, April
26, 1885. His grandfather was Jonas Poling, a farmer
in that locality, and his father, William J. Poling, was
born on the same homestead in Glade District. As his
boyhood coincided with the period of the Civil war he was
denied any liberal educational advantages. His life has
been spent in farming, and for the most part he has de-
rived his living from live stock. He has served as trus-
tee of the White Oak School District. William J. Poling
married Amanda Jane Shaffer, who was born in Cove
District of Barbour County, one of the three sons and
five daughters of John C. Shaffer, a native of the same
locality and a farmer there. The children of William J.
Poling and wife are: Herman J.; Lora and Nora, twin
sisters, the former deceased; Nettie; and Dottie, wife of
Camden Mouser, of Philippi district.
Herman J. Poling acquired a country school education,
and subsequently attended the Wesleyan College at Buck-
hannon and the Fairmont Normal School, where he gradu-
ated in 1909. He taught his first term of school when
seventeen years of age, resumed that work after graduat-
ing from the Normal School, and was principal of the
Academy High School. In the spring of 1910 he entered
the law department of the University of West Virginia,
finishing his law course in 1912. After graduating and
being admitted to the bar he located at Durbin, where
he taught his last term of school in the country and also
did some law practice. He then removed his offices to
Philippi, and has been engaged in a growing general prac-
tice. Among his interests outside the fixture lines of his
profession he is a partner with H. S. Haller in the Boulder
Coal Company, and they bought the property and developed
the mine, equipped it with electrical machinery. This
mine was opened in February, 1917, and was a constant
tribute through the period of the World war. Mr. Poling
is director and attorney for the Peoples Bank of Philippi,
is director, secretary, treasurer and attorney for the Ty-
gart Valley Water Company, is a stockholder in the Fed-
eral Carbonic Gas Company of Fairmont, and is owner
of considerable real estate in Philippi and some farm
land devoted to the grazing industry along the Belington-
Philippi Road in Barker District.
In politics Mr. Poling is a democrat, casting his first
vote for Mr. Wilson in 1912. He has interested himself
in several campaigns, is congressional committeeman for
the Second Congressional District, and has represented bis
party in conferences and conventions. He is a member
of the Kiwanis Club at Philippi, is a past noble grand
of the Lodge of Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and
a member of the Encampment, is affiliated with the Mac-
cabees, the Knights of Pythias, the Modern Woodmen of
America and the Junior Order United American Me-
chanics. He was reared in the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South. In May, 1919, Mr. Poling married Miss Mary A.
Poling, a native of the Valley District of Barbour County
and daughter of Remus Poling. Her father, who married
a Miss Ware, is a farmer at Boulder. Mrs. Poling is one
of a large family of three sons and eight daughters. Mr.
and Mrs. Poling have a son, Herman J., Jr., born May
19, 1921.
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