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UPSHUR COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
Valerie & Tommy Crook
vfcrook@earthlink.net
July 17, 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. 512
Upshur
JAMES J. DECK, PH. D., who holds the chair of modern
languages in the West Virginia Wesleyan College, con-
ducted under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal
Church at Buckhannon, Upshur County, is a man of spe-
cially high intellectual attainments and has achieved marked
success in connection with education work in the land
of his adoption.
Doctor Deck was born in the canton of Zurich, Switz-
erland, on the 6th of January, 1861, and is a son of
John J. and Anne (Heidegger) Deck, both of whom
passed their entire lives in Switzerland. The father grad-
uated from the great University of Halle, Germany, and was
ordained a clergyman of the Evangelical Reformed Church,
to the service of which he gave his active life, with
utmost consecration and zeal.
Doctor Deck was reared in the City of Zurich, Switz-
erland, and in the local schools his discipline included the
gymnasium, corresponding to college in the United States.
His higher academic education was obtained in the Uni-
versity of Zurich, from which he received the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy, and in the College of St. Francis
Xavier in New York City, in which he completed the
regular course and was graduated, his intention at the
time having been to enter the priesthood. The Doctor
was twenty years of age when he came to the United
States and entered the college in the national metropolis,
in 1881.
From 1883 to 1896 Doctor Deck was at the head of the
department of chemistry in Georgetown University, District
of Columbia, and from 1898 to 1900 he was a private
tutor in higher branches of study at Washington, D. C.
In the latter year he accepted the position of instructor
in Greek at Taylor University, Upland, Indiana, but in
the following year was called to the chair of languages in
West Virginia Wesleyan College at Buckhannon, with which
institution he has since continued his effective service and
as a member of the faculty of which he now holds the
chair of modern languages. The Doctor is an honored
member of the West Virginia Annual Conference of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, and both he and his wife
are active and influential in various departments of church
work. He is past master of Franklin Lodge No. 7, Ancient
Free and Accepted Masons, at Buckhannon, past high
priest of Upshur Chapter No. 34, Royal Arch Masons, in
which he is again serving in this office in 1922, is the present
commander of Buckhannon Commandery of Knights
Templar, and is affiliated also with the Scottish Rite of
the time-honored Masonic fraternity, besides which he is
a charter member of Buckhannon Chapter No. 18, Order
of the Eastern Star, of which he is a past patron and
of which his wife likewise is an active member. In polities
Doctor Deck gives his allegiance to the republican party.
In July, 1898, was solemnized the marriage of Doctor
Deck and Miss Catherine F. Fitzgerald, who graduated from
the high school in the City of Washington, D. C. They
have three children: Ida M., who was born August 14,
1899, is a graduate of Miss Ellet's private school for girls
at Washington, D. C., and of the Damrosch Institute of
Musical Art, New York City, as a member of the class
of 1921, where she is continuing her musical studies under
the direction of Doctor Goetschius at the time of this
writing, in 1922. Raymond S., who was born December
26, 1900, graduated from the college with which his father
is connected at the present time, and later received from
the West Virginia Wesleyan College the degree of Bachelor
of Arts, he being now principal of the high school at
Williamsburg, Greenbrier County, West Virginia. Stanley
W., who was born June 16, 1902, graduated from the
Buckhannon High School and is a member of the class of
1924 in Columbia University, New York City.
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