Notes for: Ira Dow Gaston

Dow Gaston, as he was known, retired from the Equitable Gas Company in 1949 with 28 years of service. He was a member of the Cabin Run Methodist Church; the Friendship Lodge No. 56 A.F. and A.M., and Order of the Eastern Star Chapter No. 56, both of West Union; the Clarksburg Lodge of Perfection; Clarksburg Chapter of Rose Croix; Wheeling Council of Kadosh; and Wheeling Consistory. [Obit] He served on the Doddridge County Board of Education. [West Virginia Blue Book, 1948, p. 378 & 495]

The small grocery store located next to the family home on Oxford Road at Cabin Run was built in 1949, largely from wood salvaged from an abandoned one-room school building at the Doddridge County community of Grove. The store was operated by Ira Dow Gaston and family until shortly before his death. The store and home then stood vacant until June 1974, when daughter Geneva and her husband Armand Brown moved from Ohio to reside in the family home and operate the store. The store was closed for the last time on May 31 1985, and the building was dismantled in July 1993, with much of its original wood salvaged for reuse.