U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Lough, Myron Carleton (1870-1937) ------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 420-422 Myron Carleton Lough was born four miles south of Philippi, June 25, 1870, and is a member of the Baptist Church and of the Junior O. U. A. M. He Was reared on a farm. Until sixteen years of age his winters were spent in the country schools and his summers on his grandfather's farm. He began teaching in his seventeenth year. When he was eighteen he led the county in the teachers' examination, giving him a standing in the teachers' ranks. He attended the summer normal school taught by Prof. J. F. Ogden, at Philippi, W. Va., for three years, and received much inspiration from that noble man. At the age of twenty he entered the Business College run in connection with the West Virginia Normal and Classical Academy at Buckhannon. He paid his tuition there by teaching in the school. In the spring of 1891, one month before he was twenty-one years of age, he was elected County Superintendent of Free Schools of Barbour County, on the Republican ticket. In the fall of the same year he entered the M. E. Conference Seminary at Buckhannon, from which institution he graduated in 1894, having completed both the scientific and normal courses, with the degree of Bachelor of Pedagogy. The next year was spent at the same institution, and he was graduated from the classical department. While at the Seminary he was on three annual contest debates, winning two and losing one. He has the record of being on for more public performances than any -person who has ever graduated at the Seminary. He was the orator of the class of 1894. In 1895 he received a scholarship at Denison University, Granville, Ohio. He attended that institution one year. His reputation as an orator and debater followed him there. He was chosen to represent the leading society of the University and won a cash prize of $40 — no small honor for a West Virginia boy. In the summers of '95 and '96 he and Mr. C. I. Zirkle taught very successful summer schools at Belington, Barbour County. At the close of their last normal there, Messrs. Lough & Zirkle purchased the Philippi Republican, Mr. Lough being elected principal of the Graded Schools at Belington at the same time. In 1897 he was elected to his present position, that of teacher in the Fairmont State Normal School. While teaching at Fairmont he has been pursuing work leading to the Bachelor of Arts degree, at the West Virginia University. He is now a Senior at that institution. He will take the degree the present year, as he has been granted a leave of absence from the Normal School until the spring term of 1900. Take it all in all, Mr. Lough's life has been a very busy one, as will be noticed from the great number of things he has accomplished while securing his education. He has earned every dollar of money spent on his education and is now entirely out of debt. He claims December 25, 1898, as the happiest day of his life, for it was upon that day that the sweetheart of his youth, Miss Emma Parks, also of Barbour County, became his wife. They seem to have many years of usefulness before them. Mr. Lough is a graceful and forceful writer, both in prose and verse. The following is from his pen: THEY'RE SMARTER'N US. I've read the papers a good deal of late Of boys with nothing who've made themselves great. It makes me so blamed discouraged sometimes, Out here on the farm of brambles an' vines. That I almost wish I'd never been born. All day a-plowin' an' hoein' the corn Ain't very much fun to a feller like me, Who'd like to be something, but knows he can't be. I tell you what, Jim, I'm down in the mouth, When I read of the boys in the North an' the South Who've ris from the lowest an' porest of homes, While I'm left a-diggin' in these ol' stones. An' Jim, my ol' boy, you're right here with me, There's a reason fer 't all, as plain as can be: We'd as well give in, an' without any fuss, They're smarter'n us, Jim, They're smarter'n us. I read t'other day that our own congressman Was once a young lad all yellow an' tan With the rays of the sun; that he worked all the day From morning till night; never had time to play: But now jes look at him and see what he's done. Can't explain it, you say? 't's as easy as fun. I've thought it all out an' see it, you mus'. He's smarter'n us, Jim, He's smarter'n us. An' our President, Jim, was once a pore lad, Worked hard ever' day in good weather and bad; How he ris is a wonder in some people's mind, 'N' how he managed through all a plain way to find To come to the front. But, Jim, I know, An' if you think a minute, you'll see it's so, That no matter'n what else he put his trus' He's smarter'n us, Jim, He's smarter'n us. There is many another as I've hearn tell With odds against 'em who've come out well; But we're too old, Jim, an' its now too late Fer us to be tryin' to change our fate. All we can do, then, at this late day Is to comfort ourselves as ever we say, "We know it's not fair an' we think its not jus'." But they're smarter'n us, Jim, They smarter'n us. Some people may say that's a pore excuse; But I've seen it tried, and what's the use Of a feller who's built for the farm and the plow To make a to-do an' a great pow-wow An' try to be somethin'. Jim, do as you please, I'll not try to catch 'em, but live at my ease, An' run my ol' plow, just to keep off the rus'. For they're smarter'n us, Jim, They're smarter'n us. Great people are not always happy, I'm told, But ever are greedy and graspin' fer gold; An' seekin' fer honors still higher than they Have ever seen a comin' their way. Forever impatient an' lookin' ahead, They'll never be satisfied till they are dead, An' all of their bones hev returned to the dus', But they're smarter'n us, Jim, They're smarter'n us. An' will they be satisfied when they are dead? Will each have a golden crown then on his head? 'F it's true what I've heard 'bout a few of them, Jim, 'T strikes me their chances '11 be pretty slim. But they ought to be satisfied, don't you tbink so? For all through this wilderness down here below, Whether counted as wrong, er reckoned as jus', They've been smarter'n us, Jim, Been smarter'n us. ------------------------------------------------------------------- MARRIAGE-LICENSE, Barbour County, WV Page 272 Husband: Myron Carlton Lough, age 28 Wife: Emma Frances Parks, age 24 were married Dec 25, 1898 at Hendrick's in Tucker Co., W.Va. by Rev. Amos Robinson, Baptist Minister of Elkins, W.Va. DEATH-CERTIFICATE, Marion County WV #17865 Full-name: Myron Carleton Lough Birth: Jun 25, 1870 in Philippi, W.Va. Death: Dec 21, 1937 in Fairmont, Marion County, WV Marital-status: Married, Emma Parks Occupation: Real Estate Father: Noah Lough, born in Philippi, W.Va. Mother: Louise Jones, born in Philippi, W.Va. Cause-of-death: Coronary Thrombosis Burial: Woodlawn Cemetery, Fairmont, W.Va. DEATH-CERTIFICATE, Marion County WV (Book 12, page 104) Full-name: Emma Parks Lough Birth: July 10, 1874 in W.Va. Death: Oct 16, 1967 at home, 515 Fourth St., Fairmont, WV Marital-status: Widowed Father: William Parks Mother: Mary Smith Informant: Lucille Vedder of Washington, D.C. Cause-of-death: Acute heart failure, Chronic Arthritis Burial: Woodlawn Abbey, Fairmont, W.Va. ------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 -------------------------------------------------------------------