Hermis was an engineer on the C&O Railroad out of Prince, WV.  The C&O hauled coal around that New River Gorge and on to the rails east and then west . . . 


"During the early 1930s when it seemed the whole country was retrenching, C&O was boring new tunnels, adding double track, rebuilding bridges, upgrading the weight of its rail, and rebuilding its roadbed, all with money from its principal commodity of haulage: Coal. Even in the hard years of the Depression coal was something that had to be used everywhere, and C&O was sitting astride the best bituminous seams in the country."


As a young man, he rode horseback from his home in Indiana, into West Virginia where he settled in Hinton with Ella Mariah Lilly.  When he first laid eyes on her, he determined to make her his bride.  Their family grew large, and a few years after the last was born, they moved to Beaver where Hermis was closer to the yard. 


The men called him H.B.       Mom called him Hermis.                I called him Dad.