CLINE FAMILY ASSOCIATION

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Jerry Paul Cline, Esq.

jcline@clinefamilyassociation.com

For the website on the Cline Johnsons, go to:

 www.clinejohnson.com

Jerry P. Cline was born in New Jersey.  His father, Larry W. Cline, was raised in Tazewell County, Virginia and moved to New Jersey after his service in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. 

Jerry earned his B.A. from Rutgers University and his J.D. from Capital University Law School.  He is currently a member of the Ohio Bar and an attorney with the law firm of Fisher Phillips LLP in Cleveland, Ohio.  His practice focuses on labor & employment law, workers' compensation and litigation.  He and his wife and their five children currently reside in Avon Lake, Ohio.

Jerry's passion for genealogy began by researching his Cline branch's peculiar tradition of using both the Cline and Johnson surname.  This tradition began in Virginia in the year 1820 with the birth of Jerry's great-great grandfather, William Cline, alias William Johnson. 

Jerry, along with his brother Chris Cline, has spent much of his spare time for the last twenty-eight years conducting genealogical research on the Clines and Johnsons.  In the Summer of 2008, after analyzing personal property tax records of Logan County, VA and Tazewell County, VA, Jerry and Chris Cline determined conclusively that William Cline (Johnson) was related to the Peter Cline family, and not to other Cline families of the region.  In August, 2008, a y-chromosome DNA test between Harry Dale Cline (see bio below) and Jerry's father was conducted by Ancestry.com.  On September 10, 2008, Ancestry  confirmed beyond any doubt that the Cline Johnson's descend through a direct, paternal line back to Peter Cline, Sr.  Later research and correspondence with Harry Dale Cline has confirmed that William Cline's father was Michael Cline, son of Peter Cline, Sr. 

Christopher M. Cline

Christopher M. Cline was born in New Jersey and attended the University of Virginia at Clinch Valley, in Wise County Virginia and completed his education at Kean University in Union, New Jersey with a major in History. Chris is a Regional Sales Manager for a technology company that focuses on the sale of hardware, software and services to Fortune 500 companies. Chris resides in Granville, Ohio with his wife Sue and daughters Brittany and Kaitlyn.

Chris' passion for genealogy began, like his brother Jerry’s, with the research of a dual name tradition used by his branch of the Cline family.  In the Spring of 1993, while attending the University of Virginia in Wise County, Chris spent a great deal of time visiting many of his older relatives who still resided in the area, including his Great Aunt Minnie.  Aunt Minnie was the youngest child of John Henry and Sarah Cline Johnson. Aunt Minnie spoke of the family's peculiar dual name tradition and provided colorful stories about old family members. Chris spent many hours at the area courthouses researching old records in an attempt to solve the Cline Johnson mystery.

In 2008, and after many years of genealogical research, Jerry and Chris Cline determined through an analysis of personal property tax records and through a y-chromosome DNA test, that the Cline Johnson's descend through a direct, paternal line back to Peter Cline, Sr.  through Michael Cline. 

Harry Dale Cline

hdcline@lightlynx.net

Harry Dale Cline was born and has lived his entire life at Baisden, at the head of Gilbert Creek, Mingo County, West Virginia.  He was the first of four children born to Harry G. Cline and Delena M. Cline.

He attended the Cline Elementary School at Baisden, named for his grandfather, Mose "BR" Cline, and graduated from Gilbert High School.  He attended Southern Community College in Logan, West Virginia for two years before graduating from United Electronics Institute, Charleston, West Virginia with an Associate Science Degree in Electronic Technology.  His initial employment was with the family's privately owned coal mining business in Mingo County and he subsequently became a partner in the company.  He left the business in 1993 for employment with another firm.

When Harry Dale was born, five of his great grandparents and all of his grandparents were still living.  His close childhood association with some of these grandparents and great grandparents was a major influence in creating his interest in genealogy.  Furthermore, several of these grandparents and great grandparents were Cline descendants.  Harry Dale's wife Wanda is a descendant of Peter Heck Cline and Mary Polly Smith.  They have a son, Nicholas, age 17.

During the past twenty-two years. Harry Dale has spent thousands of dollars and thousands of hours researching the Cline family.  He has spent numerous weekends and seveal annual vacations in the West Virginia State Archives, and the regional county court houses and libraries.  He has collected details of family histories through personal and telephone contact with hundreds of people in the region.

Today, Harry Dale Cline is by far the most thorough of the Peter Cline researchers, and his personal knowledge of the families in the Tug River region is unexcelled.  He has reviewed and made major contributions to every generation covered in the book, Clines and Allied Families of the Tug River Region of Kentucky and West Virginia, Gateway Press, 1998, by Cecil Cline and with Harry Dale Cline.

In Memoriam - Cecil L. Cline

Cecil Cline was a NASA scientist, Korea war veteran and author of the two most important books on the Peter Cline family:  Clines and Allied Families of the Tug River Region, published in 1998, and the second, Peter Cline, Revolutionary Soldier, published in 2003.

Cecil Cline was born and grew up on Bull Creek, a tributary of the Tug River at Mohawk, McDowell County, West Virginia, a third great grandson of Michael Cline.  He was the third of twelve children born in a four-room frame house in an area that did not have school bus access to high school until 1938, or electricity until 1945.

After four years service in the Army, of which almost 18 months were spent in Army Hospitals recovering from gun shot wounds received while in Korea, he obtained an Engineering Degree from The Ohio State University in 1959.

He was a manufacturing research engineer at oak Ridge, Tennessee, a Project Engineer for Lockheed Missiles and Space Company (LMSC), Sunnyvale, California, a Senior Design Engineer for North America Aviation, Columbus, Ohio, a research Engineering Supervisor at LMSC, an Engineering Manager at Lockheed Georgia Company, Marietta, Georgia, a Special Projects Production manager at Dorsey Trailers, Elba, Alabama, and Plant Welding Engineer at American Car and Foundry, Huntington, West Virginia.  He published several research paopers in national engineering journals and presented numerous papers at anational engineering conferences.  He was a contributing author to the American Welding Society handbook section on Aerospace Welding.  He obtained NASA contracts to develop some of the manufacturing processes for the Saturn 5 Launch Vehicle and served on a Saturn 5 Manufacturing Advisory Committee.

In 1974, he established a specialty manufacturing company to build and repair mining equipment, and later split the company into two divisions to manufacture components parts for the tractor trailer industry.  He later formed a separate company to serve as a marketing agent for the products and services of the manufacturing company.  He obtained a pilot's license and purchased an airplane in oder to maintain a personal contact with his cuswtomer base, which was primarily eat of the Mississippi.  Wehn he sold the business in 1987, the company was shipping in excess of 400 tons of fabricated products each week.

Cecil was married to the former Rebecca Tilley, of Greensboro, North Carolina.  She attended North Carolina State University and is a retired AT&T manager.  They lived in Naples, Florida. Cecil passed away on March 16, 2017. He will be sorely missed.

Cecil's Cline books and other works can be viewed and purchased on his website:

www.cecilcline.com

In Memoriam - Marlin G. Cline, Ph.D.

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