Jefferson County Historical Society
2007 Officers, Board Members, and Committees

Officers

President: Carmen Weber Creamer, President of the Society,  holds a B.A. and Carmen Weber Creamer, President of the Society,  holds a B.A. and an M.A. in Anthropology, with a specialization in Archaeology, from Ohio State University. In addition, she has graduate training in Historical Archaeology from the College of William and Mary and in Public History from Temple University. After a 20+ year career in historic archaeology, most notably as the City Archaeologist for Philadelphia, PA, she and her husband John moved to Jefferson County to raise their son Philip on their farm, Locust Grove, which has been in John’s family since the 1840's.

Vice President: Dr. James Gregg Gibson. Jim is a 10th generation native of Jefferson County and the son of Urath C. Gibson (herself a former board member) and the late Newton M. Gibson. Jim was born in Jefferson County (in the old Yellow Hospital in Charles Town), attended primary and secondary school at Harpers Ferry and graduated from the Mercersburg Academy in Mercersburg, PA and WVU School of Dentistry. He is a direct line descendant of the Buckles, Engle, Darke, Moore, Swearingen, and Hollingsworth families. The Captain James Gibson 1812 Society was named for his great, great, great, grandfather. He is married to Barbara Phillips Gibson and has maintained a restorative and esthetic dental practice in Martinsburg since 1971. The Gibsons have restored and placed on the National Register of Historical Places a 5 unit section of Baltimore Row in Berkeley County and the 1790’s Allstadt House and 1820’s Allstadt Ordinary in Jefferson County. Jim served as Chairman of the committee that produced the Jefferson County Historical Society’s video/DVD – “The Land Between the Rivers” released in 2001. Jim is a member and past president of the Eastern Panhandle Dental Society, a member of the Stuart-Mosby Society, the Martinsburg Rotary Club, Harpers Ferry Men’s Cooking Club, and the Eastern Panhandle Experimental Aircraft Association. His personal interests are travel, historic restoration, and flying. Jim lives at Needwood Farm (a 7th generation family farm) on the Shepherdstown Pike between Harpers Ferry and Shepherdstown and has three grown children, all dentists.

Treasurer: Ms. Barbara Phillips Gibson has familial connections to the Hatfields of Hatfields and McCoys fame. Barb spent her early years were in Pike County, KY, attending elementary school in Lexington as her dad obtained his engineering degree at the University of Kentucky. She earned a BS from WVU in Human Resources with an emphasis in retail buying and design and an MS in Strategic Leadership from Mountain State University in Martinsburg. While in college, she worked for the Mechanical Engineering Department and in the summer of 1969 was sent to NASA’s Langley Facility to work with a group of post-grad engineers on a federal transportation project. She denies any truth to the rumors that she was responsible for the success of the Apollo moon landing.

She met her husband Jim, the Society’s Vice-President, at WVU and following graduation, she worked in the President’s budget office implementing the transition from payroll ledgers to computers. Since Jim always thought “the sun rose and set in Jefferson County,” following his graduation from dental school they returned to Needwood near Harper’s Ferry, a seventh generation family farm. They both love old houses and have been responsible for listing seven homes in the National Register. Over the years, Barb has taken an active role in the community, being a Sunday School teacher, a Girl Scout Leader, a PTA President, a soccer coach for four years, a member of the 1st environmental council in Martinsburg, President of the Berk-Mar Garden Club, and President of the Boarman Art’s Center. While on the executive board, she chaired the Art’s Center Christmas Show for 3 years.

Barb is a long-time member of the Society and after being elected treasurer a few years ago, has strived to keep the Society’s finances in perfect order. She has also worked side-by-side with Jim for forty years as the office/business manager of their dental practice in Martinsburg. Dental genes rule in the Gibson family for their three children, Heather, Andrew, and John Thomas, are all practicing dentists, truly a jaw-dropping accomplishment.

Recording Secretary: Historian Doug Perks is the director of the Charles Town Library, and has served on the boards of the Historic Shepherdstown Commission, the Harpers Ferry Historical Association, and the Jefferson County Historic Landmarks Commission. Doug designed the Parks As Classrooms Educator's Guide and the Niagara Movement Educator's Guide for Harpers Ferry National Historical Park; coordinated the J. R. Clifford Youth Discovery Tent during the August, 2006, Niagara Movement Centennial Commemoration at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park; and coordinated the School House Ridge Elementary Program - a hands-on education experience in Civil War History for all Jefferson County 5th grade students. He has also developed and coordinated Burr Farm Days for all Jefferson County 4th grade students and the Prepared For Success- the History of Storer College program for Jefferson & Berkeley County 8th grade students while serving as education coordinator for the Harpers Ferry Historical Association.  Doug presents community lectures on local history, and writes the Mr. Jefferson's County column for the Guardian, the newsletter of the Jefferson County Historical Society.

Corresponding Secretary: is a direct descendant of John Augustine Washington.  She is secretary/treasurer of the Charles Town Tree Board and a former Charles Town Historic Landmarks Commissioner. Betsy enjoys renovating old houses, gardening and reading. She is a member of the Dolley Madison Garden Club and secretary/treasurer of the Friday Book Club and the treasurer of the Old Opera House board. She started the Charles Town Christmas Parade of Horses in 1996 and chaired Christmas in Historic Charles Town in 1998.

Curator: Hugh Voress. Hugh is a native of Charleston, WV. He holds a BA degree from WV University and a Masters in Bacteriology/Biochemistry from Kansas State University. He is a veteran of World War II, serving three years in the Army Air Corps medics. He served 30 years as a Technical Information Officer with the Atomic Energy Commission and one of its successor agencies, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He has been the Membership Chairman for the Jefferson Co. Hist. Society for over 20 years. He has been very interested in the history of Jefferson Co., WV and served on the Bicentennial Committee of Charles Town in 1986 and the Bicentennial Committee of Jefferson Co. WV in 2001. He is an avid genealogist and has prepared numerous family histories. He is a treasurer of the General Adam Stephen Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution as well as the WV State Registrar of the West Virginia Society, Sons of the American Revolution. He is a member of the Charles Town Library Board and has been active with the Meals on Wheels program, having driven for them for the past 25 years..

Members

Bill Drennen. A native West Virginian, Bill earned a BA in architecture at Yale in 1964, was ordained a minister of Universal Life Church in 1969, and earned an MA in humanities at Marshall University in 1993. He served in the U.S. Navy in Panama and Vietnam and then was employed in various capacities as founding Vice-President of Communications Corps, Inc. in Washington DC, helping to create over 100 films. He later served as President of the Briar Mountain Coal and Coke Company in Charleston, WV. In 1989 he joined the State Historic Preservation Office staff and was later appointed Commissioner of Culture and History for West Virginia until 1997. Between 1997 and 2002 he served as a history instructor at West Virginia State College. Having just retired as a minister in the Universal Life Church, he now devotes his time to writing and meditating on human evolution and is currently employed by Home Hill Corporation, C&D Enterprises, Ltd., and Greg Didden Associates, Inc.--Realtors. He is also a consultant with Drennen & Jones: “Integration in America, and inter-racial communications. Bill is a former president of the Jefferson County Historical Society and a member of several local organizations, including the Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Charleston Milling, Faces of Appalachia Advisory Board, Rotary Club of Shepherdstown, Cress Creek Country Club, and Gateway New Economy Council.

Curt Mason, who coordinates the Society's web site and edits "The Guardian," the Society's newsletter, grew up in Southern California in the ‘50’s and is a US Navy veteran. He earned a BS from Oregon State University, a Masters Degree in Physical Oceanography from Texas A & M, and retired from the federal government after thirty-six years as a coastal oceanographer. His primary areas of expertise included beach erosion, coastal storm impacts, and tidal inlet processes.
     Curt is married to Suzette Kimball, deputy director of the U.S. Geological Survey, and they have three children and six grandchildren. He is President of the Shenandoah Region of the Antique Automobile Club of America, Vice-President and art and music program coordinator of the South Jefferson Public Library Commission, and a member of the Rotary Club of Shepherdstown and the BMW Car Club of America.
     Since 2003, his burgeoning interest in historic preservation led him to restore two properties listed in the National Register of Historic Places: The Hermitage, his boyhood home and the oldest standing structure in Pasadena, CA, and his residence, White House Farm, in Summit Point, WV, one of the oldest homes in West Virginia. Lately, as communications coordinator for the Society he has been active in making the public aware of opportunities to participate in historical and cultural activities throughout Jefferson County.

Susannah Buckles Flanagan.

James (Jim) L Glymph Jr. JCHS Magazine Editor.  Jim Glymph came to Jefferson County with his father in 1964 to develop Riverside and later Avon Bend, both Shenandoah River communities. In 1994, Mr. Glymph moved to Avon Bend to live. He retired from the Federal government in 1998 after 33 years as a data/database administrator and was also an adjunct assistant professor in Information Technology at the Northern Virginia Community College for over 20 years. As the great grandson of a Confederate veteran, his real passion is the War For Southern Independence. He is a relic hunter, collector, and historian of the period. A portion of his collection is in the Jefferson County Museum. Jim is a member of the Henry Kyd Douglas Camp, Sons of Confederate Veterans, the General Adam Stephen Chapter, Sons of the American Revolution and is president of the Old Charles Town Library board.

Bob O’Connor earned a bachelor's degree from Northern Illinois University. He has 25 years experience working in Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia in tourism and public relations. He currently employed by the Jefferson County Convention and Visitors Bureau. He is a board Member of the Washington Heritage Trail organization.  He is responsible for founding the Independence Day Patriotic Symphony Concert and Fireworks and the Memorial Illumination, both at Antietam Battlefield. He is the author of three historical novels and one non-fiction book including "The Perfect Steel Trap Harpers Ferry 1859", a historical novel about the John Brown raid, trial, and execution; "The Virginian Who Might Have Saved Lincoln", the story of Ward Hill Lamon, who was born in Jefferson County and was Lincoln's personal bodyguard; "Catesby: Eyewitness to the Civil War", the story of a colored blacksmith who lived at Beall Air as a slave to Colonel Lewis Washington; and the non-fiction book "The U.S. Colored Troops at Andersonville Prison.” Bob has just completed "The Centennial History of Ranson, West Virginia -- 1910-2010" which will be published in early 2010.

Evelyn M .E. Taylor. Evelyn is an author of African American church history and an administrator at the Brookings Institution in Wash., D.C. She is also a third-generation missionary, as her mother and paternal grandmother were missionaries before her. She has served on short-term missions to Kenya, South Africa, India, Jamaica and Canada. Since the late 1980's, she has worked with local and regional prison ministry initiatives, coordinated women’s ministry conferences and retreats, and frequently conducted seminars mainly in women’s ministry both regionally and internationally. Since 1997, Evelyn has chaired the Charles Town Historic Landmarks Commission. She serves as a member of the board of directors of the Middle Atlantic Regional Gospel Ministries, Inc, is a member of the Jefferson County Board of Education’s Diversity Committee, and the N.A.A.C.P. Trained as an educator, she holds degrees from Shepherd College (B.A.) and the University of the District of Columbia (M.A.), and has studied at Washington Bible College, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Graduate School, and the Writer’s Center in Bethesda, MD. She has published several articles and books concerning the history of African Americans in West Virginia and was honored by the West Virginia State Women’s Commission as one of 31 women included in American Sampler: West Virginia’s African American Women of Distinction.

Walter Washingtonis a direct descendent of two of General George Washington’s brothers: Samuel (1734-1781) and John A. Washington (1736-1787). Mr. Washington earned a law degree from American University and is a practicing attorney in Charles Town. He is a member of the Boards of the Jefferson County Historical Society (JCHS) and Virginia University Hospitals and is Secretary of West Virginia University Hospitals East. He also owns Harewood, Samuel Washington's home built in 1770 near Charles Town and the only Washington home built in Jefferson County which is owned by a Washington family member.

Committees.

The standing committees of the Society called for in the by-laws are the Executive Committee, chaired by the President, Carmen Creamer; the Nominating Committee, chaired by the Vice-President, Jim Gibson; and the Publications Committee, chaired by Hugh Voress;. The others are established and maintained as needed by the President and at present include the following committees and chairs: Finance, Barbara Gibson; Programs, Betsy Wells; Marketing/Communications, Curt Mason; Education and Tourism, Doug Perks; Historic Preservation, Walter Washington; Editorial (The Magazine), Jim Glymph; Membership, Hugh Voress; and Archives and History, Hugh Voress.