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PRESTON 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. 338
H. FOSTER HARTMAN, a former sheriff of Preston County,
has for many years been one of the keen and resourceful
business men of that section of the state. He was a
merchant before reaching his majority and is now pro-
prietor of a prosperous lumber and planing mill business
at Kingwood.
Mr. Hartman was born on a farm near Tunnelton in
Preston County December 25, 1880. His grandfather, Henry
Hartman, was a farmer at Craborchard in the same county,
and was buried in that locality. He was twice married and
had two sons and four daughters. George W. Hartman,
father of the Kingwood business man, was born in the
Whetsell settlement of Preston County, grew up on a farm
and acquired a common school education, and was a Union
soldier in the Civil war, being in Company F of the Sixth
West Virginia Infantry. He saw some of the fighting
within the borders of his native state, and at the end of
the war he came out of the army, and thereafter his chief
interests were centered on farming, though he also in-
vested some of his capital in merchandising as a means
of getting his sons in business. He was without ambi-
tion for public office, voted as a republican, and was a
leader in the Camp Chappel Methodist Church, and is
buried in the churchyard there. George W. Hartman, who
died December 7, 1917, married Susan Bonafield, daugh-
ter of Thornton and Sarah Bonafield. Her father was a
life-time farmer, and was probably born in Preston County.
Mrs. George W. Hartman died February 9, 1913, and her
children, besides H. Foster, were: Edward Thornton, of
Boston, Massachusetts; Arnold W., of Tunnelton; Mabel,
wife of B. T. Gibson, of Masontown, West Virginia; L.
Bert, of Tnnnelton; Alice, wife of Bruce Falkenstine, of
Mountain Lake Park, Maryland; and Lessie, of Kingwood.
H. Foster Hartman grew up on the old farm near Tun-
nelton and acquired a common school education there. At
the age of nineteen he went to Lenox and took charge of
the mercantile business known as George W. Hartman &
Son, owned by his father and brother. He was conducting
this store when he reached his majority, and subsequently
bought the stock and altogether was a merchant there three
years. When he sold out this business he moved a portion
of the stock to Terra Alta, but after a time closed out
his line of general merchandise and made the candy and
ice cream feature his line. About three years later he
sold to Ezra B. Hanger, and then went on the road as a
traveling salesman for the Bowlesburg Wholesale Grocery
Company. He had been on the road about a year when
be decided to make the race for sheriff. It was an inter-
esting campaign before the primaries, and there were five
candidates, so that Mr. Hartman's qualifications and pop-
ularity were thoroughly tested. He was elected sheriff in
the fall of 1912. Mr. Hartman had east his first vote for
President in behalf of Colonel Roosevelt in 1904. The
year 1912 was the year of the great split in the republican
party, and the division extended to Preston County, where
however, Mr. Hartman succeeded in defeating his com-
petitor by a good margin. He entered the office as suc-
cessor to Charles Spindler, and served the legal limit for
sheriff, four years.
On retiring from the office of sheriff Mr. Hartman turned
his attention to business interests he had already acquired,
a garage and planing mill. He soon sold his garage, but
the planing mill is still a prominent factor of his enter-
prises. This factory is located at Albright, near King-
wood. In April, 1921, he purchased the old site and
building of the Kingwood Glass Company, and now uses
that for handling a large stock of lumber and builders'
supplies.
Besides this substantial participation in the commercial
life of Kingwood, Mr. Hartman is a stockholder in the
Bank of Kingwood, is a stockholder and director of the
Englehart Woolen Mills Company, and a director and stock-
holder in the Bowlesburg Wholesale Grocery Company,
which he formerly represented as a traveling salesman.
At Lenox, Preston County, April 23, 1901, Mr. Hartman
married Miss Belle Kelley, who was born and reared in the
Lenox community, daughter of Winfield Scot and Sarah
Elizabeth (Feather) Kelley. Mrs. Hartman was past nine-
teen when she married. They have three children: Ruby
Beatrice, attending the Martha Washington Seminary at
Washington, D. C.; Donald Kelley, a student in Kingwood
High School; and Harland Spencer.
The Hartman family are Methodists, and Mr. Hartman
is one of the Official Board of the Kingwood Church. His
home is one of the very modern and attractive ones in the
county, and in other ways he has contributed to the sub-
stantial improvement of the city.
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