CALHOUN HIGH SCHOOL'S OLDEST GRADUATE PASSED IN 2015 - Eileen Hamilton Whitman (1919-2015)

(06/30/2016)

2015 The oldest living Calhoun County High School graduate has passed, a graduate of the Class of 1936. Eileen Hamilton Whitman of Charleston was 96. She faithfully returned to the school's annual Alumni Day for years. Ola Jarvis Stafford recalled Eileen from her early days in Grantsville. "Their house on Main Street (Hamilton) burned down." she said. George Hamilton, her father, was of the Hamiltons of Grantsville. The Hamilton family, longtime shakers and movers in Calhoun, have faded from the Calhoun landscape. Eileen was born in Grantsville in 1918, the daughter of George W. (1893-1947) and Losie Esperance Knotts Hamilton (1896-1970), having also lived at Minnora. George was the son of well-known Grantsville citizens John M. and Minnie Cook Hamilton, George and his wife having eight children in addition to Eileen. Eileen attended Glenville State College, returning to Calhoun to teach a one-room school on Little White Oak, and was later an attache to Senator L. J. Morris of Grantsville. Later she was employed by the WV Dept. of Welfare and the WV State Road Commission, before marrying Layton Whitman, they having ten children, all living. George Hamilton, her father, owned a confectionery and general store in Grantsville which was destroyed by fire in the early 1900s, while also teaching in one-room schools. He rebuilt his store, but then his home on Main Street burned to the ground in 1927, after which the Hamilton family moved to Minnora, purchasing and operating a store there that also burned in 1930. The Hamilton's always stressed education, and their children attended college, most pursuing professional careers. A memorial service is set for Saturday. Read complete obituary under OBITS. THE HAMILTONS OF CALHOUN - Remembering "Boxcar" THE ILL-FATED COOKS OF GRANTSVILLE - Cook Hotel Early Landmark, Civil War Veterans Died Young MINNIE HAMILTON - Beyond The Call

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