Henry Bell Gilkeson

Henry Bell Gilkeson was born in Moorefield, Virginia (now West Virginia) on June 6, 1850.[1][2] He was the eldest child of Robert B. Gilkeson and his wife, Sarah E. Gilkeson, both of Scottish ancestry.[1][3][4] His father was a prominent dry goods merchant in Romney, where Henry and his brother, Edward, were raised.[1][4][5]

Gilkeson graduated from Hampden–Sydney College in Hampden Sydney, Virginia, in 1872.[2][6] While a student, he was inducted as a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity.[7] Gilkeson completed a special course in engineering at Yale University.[8] He also received further education in Germany.[8]

Following his graduation from Hampden–Sydney College, Gilkeson became a schoolteacher and later served as superintendent of the Hampshire County Schools district from 1877 to 1879.[2][9][10] Before 1886, Gilkeson was elected a member of the Romney Literary Society together with his brother.[11]

Administration Building of the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind in Romney, West Virginia in 1880. Gilkeson served as the schools' principal from 1887 to 1888.

Following his tenure as superintendent of Hampshire County Schools, Gilkeson undertook the study of law and started a law practice in Romney; he subsequently became a prominent lawyer in the community.[4][9][13] His law office was located on Main Street in Romney, two blocks from the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind.[13] Due to his preeminence in the legal field and high standing in the community, Gilkeson served as dean of the Hampshire County Bar Association.[17]

Gilkeson was twice elected to represent Hampshire County as a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates for the 1883–85[18][19][20][21] and 1909–11 legislative sessions.[7][22][23] As the leadership of the House of Delegates was being determined at the 1884 Democratic Party State Convention in Wheeling, Gilkeson was a leading contender for a speaker candidacy, but fellow Romney native Robert White was selected as the party's candidate instead.[24]

On August 13, 1890, the Twelfth Senatorial District Democratic Convention nominated Gilkeson to fill the vacant West Virginia State Senate seat of Samuel Lightfoot Flournoy.[25][26][27] Gilkeson was elected to fill the seat during the general election of 1890 and served the remainder of Flournoy's senate term until 1893.[7][25][28] At the time of his appointment, the Twelfth Senatorial District consisted of Grant, Hampshire, Hardy, Mineral, and Pendleton counties.[29] In 1892, Gilkeson was appointed to the Committees on the Judiciary, Public Buildings and Humane Institutions, Federal Relations, Forfeited, Delinquent, and Unappropriated Lands, and Clerks Office.[30] In addition to serving in the state senate, Gilkeson also held the position of mayor of Romney, West Virginia, beginning in 1885.[31]

Photographed in 1937, the Wirgman Building in Romney housed the Bank of Romney from 1888 to 1965. The structure was razed in 1965 for the construction of the current Bank of Romney building.

Gilkeson served on the board of directors as the first president of the Bank of Romney after it was granted its charter by the West Virginia Legislature on September 3, 1888, and was opened later on December 20, 1888.[4][32][33] During Gilkeson's tenure as president, the Bank of Romney occupied two rooms on the ground floor of the Wirgman Building, where the city's previous bank, the Bank of the Valley of Virginia, was located prior to the American Civil War.[32][33] Gilkeson served as the president of the Bank of Romney until his retirement in 1913, when he was succeeded by John J. Cornwell, 15th Governor of West Virginia.[4][33][34] In November 1906, Gilkeson, R. W. Dailey, Jr., P. J. Ruckman, and Joshua Soule Zimmerman were incorporators of the Mill Mountain Orchard Company, which operated orchards along the top of Mill Creek Mountain west of Romney.[35]

Gilkeson resided in Romney for the majority of his life and was involved in most of the community's organizations as either a leader, officer, or stockholder.[17] Gilkeson's son Henry Bell Gilkeson, Jr., died on November 16, 1901, from injuries sustained by falling against a piece of sharp iron, which penetrated his stomach.[36][37] Gilkeson's wife, Mary Katherine, predeceased him in February 1910 following the effects of a surgical procedure she had undergone in Cumberland, Maryland.[37][38]

In his later years, Gilkeson developed allergic rhinitis and experienced a "physical breakdown" following the death of his son, Robert William Gilkeson, on October 2, 1918, during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive of World War I and shortly before the Armistice with Germany.[2] Robert William Gilkeson was a second lieutenant in Company C of the 316 Engineers, and was interred in the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial near Romagne-sous-Montfaucon.[37] Robert William Gilkeson was a 1907 graduate of his father's alma mater, Hampden–Sydney College.[6]

On account of his increasingly failing health, Gilkeson spent the summer of 1921 in Mountain Lake Park, Maryland, to recuperate.[2] About a week before his death, Gilkeson fell down a flight of porch steps at his vacation residence, fracturing a number of bones.[2] He died on September 29, 1921, in Mountain Lake Park, and his funeral was held on the anniversary of his son's death on October 2, 1921.[2] Gilkeson is interred with his wife Mary Katherine and son Henry, Jr., at Indian Mound Cemetery in Romney, West Virginia.[37]

In recounting Gilkeson's achievements to the Conference of Superintendents and Principals of American Schools for the Deaf following his death, West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind instructor Charles D. Seaton said of Gilkeson:[39]

In 1980, Gilkeson's son-in-law George Sloan Arnold bequeathed the $1.5-million George S. Arnold Trust to Hampden–Sydney College, his shared alma mater with his father-in-law and brother-in-law Robert William Gilkeson.[6] At the time, it was the largest amount given by a living person and the institution's second-largest gift in its 204-year history.[6] Arnold gave the trust in honor of the Gilkeson family.[6]

Gravestones at the Gilkeson family plot in Indian Mound Cemetery in Romney. From left to right: Henry Bell Gilkeson, Mary Katherine Paxton Gilkeson, Laura Paxton Gilkeson Arnold, George Sloan Arnold, Robert William Gilkeson, and Henry Bell Gilkeson, Jr.

Gilkeson was active in the Presbyterian Church in Hampshire County and served as a trustee for the Presbytery of Winchester along with Samuel Lightfoot Flournoy.[8][40] In 1881, Gilkeson and his fellow trustees were instrumental in securing from Amos L. and Allie G. Pugh a house and a large, partially wooded land lot in Capon Bridge for use by the Presbytery as a centrally located manse in Hampshire County.[40] Gilkeson remained a trustee of the Presbytery from 1876 until his death in 1921.[41] He was also a commissioner of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States representing the Presbytery of Winchester, and attended the assembly's meeting in Jackson, Mississippi, May 15–25, 1902.[8][42]

Gilkeson was married on November 19, 1884, to Mary Katherine Paxton (1853–1910), daughter of Jordan J. and E. J. Paxton of Iron Gate, Virginia.[1][37][38][43] Their wedding ceremony was officiated by Reverend George W. Finley of Romney at the residence of Mary Ann Lipscomb at 1537 I Street, N.W. in Washington, D.C.[43] Mary Katherine had been employed as a teacher under Lipscomb at Waverly Seminary.[43] Following the ceremony, Gilkeson and his wife embarked upon a tour of the Northern United States.[43] Gilkeson and his wife Mary Katherine had three children together:[1][8]

• Laura Paxton Gilkeson Arnold (August 18, 1885 – 1973), married Romney lawyer George Sloan Arnold (1885–1986)[44][45]
• Robert William Gilkeson (July 25, 1887 – October 2, 1918)[2][37]
• Henry Bell Gilkeson, Jr. (February 8, 1890 – November 16, 1901)[36][37][46]

• Media related to Henry Bell Gilkeson at Wikimedia Commons