Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 4.djvu/632

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

born August 30, 1910; Donnell Middle- ton, born October 10, 1913. 2. William Aurelius. born May 30, 1882. 3. Harold Holmes, born April 2j, 1887. 4. Theodore Woodward, born January 5, 1890. 5. Mar- garet Middleton, born February 4, 1892. 6. Esther Houghton, born October 15, 1896.

George Wellington Koiner. The founder (if the Kuiner family in Virginia came from W'interlingen. Germany, in 1740; his an- cestors were Huguenots from France, and from him sprang many men prominent and honored in all the generations following. Representative in the present day of that frugal, industrious, thrifty stock that has l)een valual)le to every community in which they have settled, is George Wellington Koiner, the prese4it and for the past lifteen years state commissioner of agriculture. The term. New South, is often heard and little understood, but it is the vim, energy and progressiveness of such men as Mr. Koiner that is making Virginia a leader in the movement, that is creating not only a new South, but a new North and a new West. Agriculture has been raised to the dignity of a profession, while the scientist is finding the study of soils, climate and plant food worthy of the closest study and deepest research. In this particular field Mr. Koiner stands supreme. He has turned the depart- ment of agriculture from a comfortable political haven into a living vital force for good, and brought to the farmers of his state aid in their business, and knowledge to intelligently convert such aids into cash assets. While Europe has sent to the United States many men who have been valuable citizens, and while Germany has contributed many of the vast army of men who have won fame and fortune in their adopted land, there never was a more happy day for the state of Virginia, considered from a financial standpoint, than the day the old German Huguenot emigrant, Michael Koiner, and his French Huguenot wife, Margaret (Diller) Koiner, settled within her borders. A descendant was a George Koiner, major in the war of 1812 (and an- other, Jacob Koiner. served as ensign), and his son, Absalom, represented Augusta county in the \'irginia state senate ; was chairman of the finance committee, and for some years was chairman of the Demo- cratic state committee. Another son of

Major Koiner was Gyrus, father of George W. Koiner.

Major George Koiner was born in Au- gusta county, Virginia, and there was one of the successful farmers and breeders of fine stock. He was a member of the Evan- gelical Lutheran church, as was his wife, Polly, and their children, Julia. Gyrus. Mar- garet.

Cyrus Koiner, son of Major George and Polly Koiner, was born in x\ugusta county, \ irginia, in January, 1834. He became a successful farmer and stock breeder. He was a man of kindly heart and good judg- ment, rearing his sons to habits of industry, endurance and perseverance. He was a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and made the Bible the rule and guide of his household. He married, Kath- erine Zirkle, born in September, 1839, a woman of warm-hearted impulse, cultured, and so thoroughly devoted to her family that the influence of her Christian life and teaching has never departed. The moral and intellectual stimulus of her teaching is glowingly acknowledged by the elder son, George Wellington, and by the younger son, Arthur Zirkle, a distinguished surgeon, now deceased, it was realized and proudly ad- mitted. These were the only children of Cyrus and Katherine Koiner, but their lives have been of inestimable value to their fel- lowmen. Arthur Zirkle, the younger, born November 5, 1855, died at Roanoke, Vir- ginia, March 21, 1893, after a life of dis- tinguished usefulness as physician and sur- geon.

George Wellington Koiner, eldest son of Cyrus and Katherine (Zirkle) Koiner, was born on the farm in Augusta county, Vir- ginia, September 2, 1852. He attended the public schools of the county, preparing therein for college with the aid of good !)ooks and home training. He was early taught the great lessons of industry and perseverance by both the precept and ex- ample of his honored father, and he imbibed from good works of biography and history the needed stimulus ever presented by lives of successful men. Books of science gave the trend to his thought and ambition, by which rural Virginia has so greatly profited. So from an earnest Christian home, the lad of sixteen years, fortified with all that is excellent in such a home, went forth to the license of college life. He entered Roanoke