Individual Details
Robert G. Dakan
(3 Nov 1861 - Jul 1942)
ECHO WEEKLEY 12-3-1914
Express Office at Rosbys Rock, WV
An express office will be opened at Rosbys Rock next week by the Wells Fargo company. R. G. Dakan has been appointed agent.
The R. G. Dakan business provided full service to the surrounding farming community. Besides the general store and mill, he was engaged in a large volume of buying and shipping wool, mine props, and livestock. He also operated a livery stable when Rosbys Rock was the center of oil and gas activities.
Rosbys Rock was developed as a thriving center at the turn of the century.
The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
ROBERT GILLESPIE DAKAN has developed at Rosbys Rock, Marshall County, a large and prosperous general merchandise business, in which he is now associated with his sons Joseph E. and George B., under the firm name of R. G. Dakan & Sons. Mr. Dakan was born at Glen Easton, this county, November 3, 1861, and is a son of John M. and Eliz Terell Dakan, the latters father, Amos Terrill, having been an influential citizen of his day in Pleasant Valley, Marshall County. John M. Dakan passed his entire life in Marshall County and was eighty-two years of age at the time of his death. His father, William Dakan, came from Pennsylvania and became a pioneer settler in Marshall County, the Terrells likewise having come from the old Keystone State, and the wife of Amos Terrill having been a member of the old and prominent Braddock family of Pennsylvania. Amos Terrell reclaimed and developed one of the excellent farms of Marshall County, and was one of the expert hunters of wild game in this section in the early days, he having died at the age of seventy-eight years. John M. Dakan learned and followed the carpenters trade, and later he engaged in farm enterprise, besides conducting a general store at Rosbys Rock. For a number of years he conducted a hotel at Weston, Lewis County, and he passed the closing years of his life in the home of his son Robert G., of this sketch, his wife having preceded him to eternal rest by about three years and having been about eight years of age at the time of her death. John M. Dakan was left an orphan in early youth, and he depended upon his own resources in making his way in the world. He was a man of sterling character and ever commanded unqualified popular esteem. Of his children eight attained to years of maturity, and of the number two sons and four daughters are living in 1921, the elder of the two sons being Joshua, a resident of Limestone, Marshall county.
Robert G. Dakan gained his early education in the common schools of his native county and as a boy began to assist in his fathers store. In 1878 he went with his parents to Weston, and there he assisted in his fathers hotel until 1880, when he returned to Rosbys Rock and became clerk in the general store of William Lutes, whose daughter he later married. He has continued his active association with the mercantile business at this place during the long intervening years, and now has the distinction of being the oldest merchant on the Fourth Division of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, between Wheeling and Grafton. In 1882, when Mr. Dakan purchased the business of his father-in-law, his was one of three stores at Rosbys Rock, the other two having been conducted by S. J. Elliott and L. G. Martin, both of the others stores having eventually been purchased by Mr. Dakan, who consolidated the stocks of goods with that of his original establishment. He has been a successful buyer and shipper of grain and live stock, besides which he is associated with Mr. Cox, of Cameron, in the buying and shipping of wool upon an extensive scale, the firm having shipped more than 300,000 pounds in the season of 1921, and its average annual expenditure for wool being $100,000. For several years Mr. Dakan was a member of the firm of Dakan and Sivert, which conducted a store at Moundsville. The mercantile trade of R. G. Dakan & Sons at Rosbys Rock has grown to large volume and extends over a wide radius of country tributary to this thriving village. The two sons were admitted to partnership in 1917. Mr. Dakan has been prominent in the local councils of the democratic party, and able to overcome the large republican majority. For the past twenty years he has served as delegate to the state conventions of his party in West Virginia.
At the age of twenty-one years Mr. Dakan married Miss Elizabeth J. Lutes, and of their four children the eldest son, Henry G., died at the age of thirty-two years, he having had active charge of his fathers farm at the time, and his widow and four sons being still on the farm, the sons being Harold, Robert, Lawrence, and Howard. Bessie, eldest of the children, is the wife of C. E. Bonar, of Lisbon, Ohio; and Joseph E. and George B. are partners in their fathers mercantile business. Joseph E. married Rhea Gorby, and they have one son, Joseph E., Jr., George B. married Miss Eliza Kull, and they have one son, George Bruce, Jr.
Express Office at Rosbys Rock, WV
An express office will be opened at Rosbys Rock next week by the Wells Fargo company. R. G. Dakan has been appointed agent.
The R. G. Dakan business provided full service to the surrounding farming community. Besides the general store and mill, he was engaged in a large volume of buying and shipping wool, mine props, and livestock. He also operated a livery stable when Rosbys Rock was the center of oil and gas activities.
Rosbys Rock was developed as a thriving center at the turn of the century.
The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
ROBERT GILLESPIE DAKAN has developed at Rosbys Rock, Marshall County, a large and prosperous general merchandise business, in which he is now associated with his sons Joseph E. and George B., under the firm name of R. G. Dakan & Sons. Mr. Dakan was born at Glen Easton, this county, November 3, 1861, and is a son of John M. and Eliz Terell Dakan, the latters father, Amos Terrill, having been an influential citizen of his day in Pleasant Valley, Marshall County. John M. Dakan passed his entire life in Marshall County and was eighty-two years of age at the time of his death. His father, William Dakan, came from Pennsylvania and became a pioneer settler in Marshall County, the Terrells likewise having come from the old Keystone State, and the wife of Amos Terrill having been a member of the old and prominent Braddock family of Pennsylvania. Amos Terrell reclaimed and developed one of the excellent farms of Marshall County, and was one of the expert hunters of wild game in this section in the early days, he having died at the age of seventy-eight years. John M. Dakan learned and followed the carpenters trade, and later he engaged in farm enterprise, besides conducting a general store at Rosbys Rock. For a number of years he conducted a hotel at Weston, Lewis County, and he passed the closing years of his life in the home of his son Robert G., of this sketch, his wife having preceded him to eternal rest by about three years and having been about eight years of age at the time of her death. John M. Dakan was left an orphan in early youth, and he depended upon his own resources in making his way in the world. He was a man of sterling character and ever commanded unqualified popular esteem. Of his children eight attained to years of maturity, and of the number two sons and four daughters are living in 1921, the elder of the two sons being Joshua, a resident of Limestone, Marshall county.
Robert G. Dakan gained his early education in the common schools of his native county and as a boy began to assist in his fathers store. In 1878 he went with his parents to Weston, and there he assisted in his fathers hotel until 1880, when he returned to Rosbys Rock and became clerk in the general store of William Lutes, whose daughter he later married. He has continued his active association with the mercantile business at this place during the long intervening years, and now has the distinction of being the oldest merchant on the Fourth Division of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, between Wheeling and Grafton. In 1882, when Mr. Dakan purchased the business of his father-in-law, his was one of three stores at Rosbys Rock, the other two having been conducted by S. J. Elliott and L. G. Martin, both of the others stores having eventually been purchased by Mr. Dakan, who consolidated the stocks of goods with that of his original establishment. He has been a successful buyer and shipper of grain and live stock, besides which he is associated with Mr. Cox, of Cameron, in the buying and shipping of wool upon an extensive scale, the firm having shipped more than 300,000 pounds in the season of 1921, and its average annual expenditure for wool being $100,000. For several years Mr. Dakan was a member of the firm of Dakan and Sivert, which conducted a store at Moundsville. The mercantile trade of R. G. Dakan & Sons at Rosbys Rock has grown to large volume and extends over a wide radius of country tributary to this thriving village. The two sons were admitted to partnership in 1917. Mr. Dakan has been prominent in the local councils of the democratic party, and able to overcome the large republican majority. For the past twenty years he has served as delegate to the state conventions of his party in West Virginia.
At the age of twenty-one years Mr. Dakan married Miss Elizabeth J. Lutes, and of their four children the eldest son, Henry G., died at the age of thirty-two years, he having had active charge of his fathers farm at the time, and his widow and four sons being still on the farm, the sons being Harold, Robert, Lawrence, and Howard. Bessie, eldest of the children, is the wife of C. E. Bonar, of Lisbon, Ohio; and Joseph E. and George B. are partners in their fathers mercantile business. Joseph E. married Rhea Gorby, and they have one son, Joseph E., Jr., George B. married Miss Eliza Kull, and they have one son, George Bruce, Jr.
Events
| Birth | 3 Nov 1861 | ||||
| Marriage | 6 Feb 1883 | Marshall Co., West Virginia - Elizabeth Jane Lutes | |||
| Death | Jul 1942 |
Families
| Spouse | Elizabeth Jane Lutes ( - ) |
| Child | Henry G. Dakan (1887 - 1919) |
| Father | John Martin Dakan (1826 - 1909) |
| Mother | Eliza Terrill (1826 - 1905) |
| Sibling | Jaspar Dakan (1851 - 1851) |
| Sibling | Amos Preston Dakan (1853 - 1877) |
| Sibling | Elizabeth Dakan (1854 - ) |
| Sibling | Joshua Dakan (1856 - 1922) |
| Sibling | Ella Dakan (1859 - 1903) |
| Sibling | Jennie L. Dakan (1864 - ) |
| Sibling | Rebecca Dakan (1866 - 1939) |
| Sibling | Manford Dakan (1871 - 1879) |
| Sibling | Laura Dakan (1873 - ) |