U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Gall, David W. (b. 1851) ------------------------------------------------------------------- The History of Barbour County, West Virginia, From its Earliest Exploration and Settlement to the Present Time by Hu Maxwell The Acme Publishing Company, Morgantown, W.Va., 1899 Pages 375-387 Hon. David W. Gall, born in Barbour County July 25, 1851, son of John J. and Rebecca (Sayre) Gall, is of French, German and English descent. His early life was spent on a farm. His early education was neglected, except instruction given by his mother and sister. When he entered the public schools his progress was rapid, and he soon was a teacher. He entered the West Virginia College at Flemington where he completed his education, but before leaving college he entered the field of journalism by establishing the Plaindealer at Philippi, November 29, 1873. While performing the duties as an editor he was preparing himself for the practice of law, and in 1881 passed an examination before Judges John Brannon and A. B. Fleming, of the Circuit Court and Judge Okey Johnson of the Supreme Court. Mr. Gall has always been public-spirited, and has taken an interest in the affairs of his native town, having been three times elected member of the Town Council and twice Mayor. He has also been active in church work, and in 1890 was elected lay member of the general conference of the M. E. Church, South, at St. Louis. Thirteen consecutive years he served as superintendent of the Sunday School at Philippi, and was once elected president of the Barbour County Sunday School Convention. In 1890 he was nominated by the Democrats in the 10th District for State Senator. At the previous election the district had given Hon. Thomas E. Davis, Republican, 825 majority; but Mr. Gall went in to win, and transformed the 825 Republican majority into 36 Democratic majority. He carried Barbour by 83 majority, while the congressional candidate, Hon. W. L. Wilson, received only 35 majority. In the Cleveland campaign of 1892, he was chosen chairman of the Democratic County Executive Committee, and with his associates on the committee, so successfully managed the campaign that the entire Democratic ticket was elected, a thing which had not before occurred in years. Mr. Gall, in 1891, delivered a memorial address at the decoration of graves of Odd Fellows at the Bluemont Cemetery at Grafton. The people of Barbour are indebted to him for much that was accomplished (and much that was prevented) at the sessions of the Legislature of 1891-3. The independent school district at Belington, and also that at Elkins, were largely due to his efforts. There was a determined fight made against independent school districts. He succeeded in breaking that opposition. A peculiar combination was made against his bill, and an effort was made to compel him to support measures, distasteful to him. At that time an effort was made to raise the school tax five per cent, and he was opposed to it. "When his bill for the independent school district had passed the Senate, it was laid on the table in the Lower House. This was done with the hope of forcing him to support the measure for increasing the taxes in return for assistance in passing his own bill. But he refused to do it, and in a commendable fight won a clear victory. In the senatorial contest of 1893, he was for Senator Faulkner, believing by that choice that he was reflecting the sentiments of his constituents more nearly than he would do by voting for Hon. J. N. Camden. He was a strong candidate for President of the Senate in 1893, and he would have been elected had he permitted his friends to support him for the place. In the same year he was a prominent candidate for the Collector of Internal Revenue for West Virginia, but failed in the appointment. However, he was appointed the head of a division in the Treasury Department at Washington until October 5, 1897, when he was reduced to a clerkship, class 3, because a Republican was preferred as Chief of Division. In November, 1898, he was removed from the service. When he retired from the office, sixty of his clerks signed the following testimonial and presented it to him: "We, the clerks in the office of the Auditor for the Post Office Department, who have been on the work of the Inspecting Division, from July 1, 1893, to October 5, 1897, or any part of the time, bear testimony to the honorable and impartial manner in which D. W. Gall, the then Chief of the Division, conducted the business. During- that entire period, or the time that we were in this Division during Mr. Gall's official life there, we cannot recall a single dishonorable act done by him, either officially or personally. He advanced the work of the Division, elevated the standard and conducted the affairs of the office so as to make things harmonious and pleasant. He showed a high degree of efficiency and retired from his official position with the esteem of all." Mr. Gall was one of the delegates appointed by Governor Atkinson to the Pure Food Congress at Washington in 1898. Although not in the service of the Government he still resides in Washington, but claims Philippi as his home. He was married in June, 1876, to a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. G. Reger, and to them were born a daughter and two sons: Minnie R., J. Camden and Albert D. His newspaper life of twenty-five years, was a trying one. When he began the publication of the Plaindealer there was no other paper in the county, and the people were unaccustomed to a local paper, and did not appreciate its value. But Mr. Gall had the pleasure of seeing his town and county develop. Soon after he started his paper, a very strong and persistent rival came into the field in the Jeffersonian, but competition only stimulated Mr. Gall to greater exertion, and, after ten years of struggle, he became the owner of both papers, merged them into one, the Jeffersonian- Plaindealer, which name it retained until the first part was dropped by its present owner. From the establishment of the paper, 1873, until he sold it, 1898, he was actively connected with its publication, except while a civil service employee, holding the Philippi post office, during Cleveland's first term, being the first Democratic post master there since 1861. He is an Odd Fellow and a Mason (thirty-second degree) and is president of the board of trustees of Fraternity Cemetery at Philippi. ------------------------------------------------------------------- MARRIAGE-REGISTER, Barbour County, WV Page 90, Line No. 42 David W. Gall (age 24) and Hennie Reger (age 24) were married June 3, 1876 in Philippi at the residence of the bride's father by Robert Scott ------------------------------------------------------------------- If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access other biographies for Barbour County, WV by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/wv/barbour/bios.html -------------------------------------------------------------------