| Sources |
- [S3021] USGenWeb Archives- Mingo County.
Alonzo C Pinson, sheriff (1) fact
20250712GHLn-
20250712GHLn- http://files.usgwarchives.net/wv/mingo/bios/pinson.txt
Mingo County, West Virginia
Biography of ALONZO C. PINSON
This biography was submitted by Valerie Crook,
E-mail address:
***The submitter does not have a connection***
********to the subject of this sketch.********
This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit
organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved.
Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval
system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other
means requires the written approval of the file's author.
our front door is at
http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm
The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume II,
pg. 587
Mingo
ALONZO C. PINSON, sheriff of Mingo County, and one of
the popular citizens of Williamson, the county seat, was
born in Pike County, Kentucky, December 26, 1876, and is
a son of Thomas B. and Louisa (Matney) Pinson, the for-
mer of whom was likewise born in Pike County and the lat-
ter of whom was born in Virginia, both families having
been founded in America many generations ago. It is sup-
posed that the lineage of the Pinson family traces back to
Spanish origin and that the first representative of the line
in America was a Spaniard named Pinzon, who came over
with Columbus. Thomas B. Pinson long held prestige as
one of the substantial farmers of hia native county.
The sheriff of Mingo County profited by the advantages
of the public schools of his native county, and his disci-
pline included four months' attendance in high school. At
the age of sixteen years he initiated his service as a teacher
in the rural schools, and he continued his successful peda-
gogic work four years. He then came to Mingo County,
West Virginia, and became manager of the general store
of Morgan & Judd at Matewan. Later he became manager
of a branch office of the Yellow Poplar Lumber Company at
Buckhannon, where he remained one year. In 1899 he came
to Williamson, where he continued to be employed as clerk
in a general store until 1905, when he resigned to give his
attention to his duties as mayor of the city, to which posi-
tion he had been elected by a gratifying majority. In 1903
he had served as city recorder, and he was a member of
the city council in 1904, at the time of his election to the
office of mayor, in which he served seven consecutive terms,
or until 1915, when he was retired by the provisions of the
act passed by the State Legislature that changed the mu-
nicipal government of Williamson to the commission form.
His long tenure of office shows alike the efficiency of his
administration and the estimate placed upon him by the
community. After completing his regime as mayor Mr.
Pinson was here engaged in the real estate business three
years, besides conducting a retail grocery business. He then
became a traveling salesman for the Williamson Grocery
Company, with which concern he continued hia connection
until he assumed the office of county sheriff, on the 1st of
January, 1921.
Mr. Pinson is affiliated with O'Brien Lodge No. 101, Free
and Accepted Masons, at Williamson, with the local chapter
of Royal Arch Masons, with the Temple of the Mystic
Shrine at Charleston, and has received the eighteenth de-
gree in the Scottish Rite of the time-honored fraternity.
He is a popular member also of the Williamson Lodge of
the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. During the
World war he served as a member of the draft board of
Mingo County. He is a staunch democrat, and he attends
and supports the Presbyterian Church, of which hia wife is
an active member.
On December 4, 1902, Mr. Pinson was united in marriage
with Miss Belle Maynard, who was born and reared in
Pike County, Kentucky, a representative of a family early
founded in America. Sheriff and Mrs. Pinson have no chil-
dren.
- [S3021] USGenWeb Archives- Mingo County.
William Preston Taulbee Varney (1) fact
20250709GHLn-
20250709GHLn- http://usgwarchives.net/wv/mingo/bios.htm
http://files.usgwarchives.net/wv/mingo/bios/varney.txt
Mingo County, West Virginia
Biography of WILLIAM PRESTON TAULBEE VARNEY
This biography was submitted by Valerie Crook,
E-mail address:
**********************************************
*The submitter does not have a connection*
to the subject of this sketch
**********************************************
This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit
organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved.
This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside
a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at
http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm
The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume II,
pg. 588-589
Mingo
WILLIAM PRESTON TAULBEE VARNEY, vice president and
cashier of the Day and Night Bank of Williamson, Mingo
County, has been closely associated also with important
commercial and industrial enterprises in this section of West
Virginia. He was one of the promoters and organizers of
the Pond Creek By-products Coal Company, is secretary
and treasurer of the Leckieville Land Company, and is presi-
dent of the Ira Coal Company and the Tug Valley Fuel
Company. In his home city he is a loyal member of the
Kiwanis Club, his political allegiance is given to the demo-
cratic party, he and his wife hold membership in the Bap-
tist Church and he is affiliated with O'Brien Lodge No.
101, Free and Accepted Masons, as well with other York
Rite bodies and with Lodge of Perfection No. 4, Ancient
Accepted Scottish Rite, at Huntington, and with the Tem-
ple of the Mystic Shrine in the City of Charleston. Mr.
Varney gave active service in local patriotic wort in the
World war period, especially in furthering the campaigns
in support of the Government war loans, the service of the
Red Cross, etc.
Mr. Varney was born on a farm in Pike County, Ken-
tucky, October 28, 1886, and is a son of Asa Harmon Var-
ney and Nancy (West) Varney, both likewise natives of
Pike County, the West family, early founded in Virginia,
having numbered representatives among the first to settle
in Pike County, Kentucky. Asa H. Varney was actively
engaged in farming and school teaching for the long period
of forty-four years, made a splendid record in the pedagogic
profession and was honored by being presented by Ken-
tucky a life certificate that entitled him to teach in any
county of the state which he might choose. In all of his
years of teaching he never failed to attend the annual
teachers' institutes until the final _ one before his death,
when ill health caused his absence. The Varney family was
founded in Virginia in the Colonial period of our national
history. Of the children of Asa H. and Nancy Varney four
sons and four daughters are living. W. P. Taulbee Varney
early began to assist in the activities of the home farm,
and he continued to attend the district schools of his native
county until he was seventeen years old. Thereafter he
passed a year in the graded schools at Pikeville, the county
seat, and three years as a student in Pikeville College. In
the meantime he taught about five months of each of three
summers in the rural schools, and in January, 1907, he
came to Williamson, West Virginia, and took a position in
the weighmaster's office of the Norfolk and Western Rail-
road. In the depression in the railroad business that came
in the following year he lost his position, and he thereupon
returned with his family to Pike County and resumed his
service as a school teacher. Somewhat more than a year
later he returned to his former railroad position at Will-
iamson, was transferred to Portsmouth, Ohio, in 1910, and
in 1912 was appointed weighmaster of the Norfolk & West-
ern at Williamson. At the expiration of one year Mr. Var-
ney resigned this office to take the position of bookkeeper in
the National Bank of Commerce, in which he was eventu-
ally advanced to the position of cashier and with which he
continued his connection until the spring of 1919, when he
became associated with other citizens of the county in or-
ganizing the Day and Night Bank, of which he was made
cashier and, in the latter part of the same year, the vice
president also. He has since retained these executive offices
and has been the foremost factor in developing the substan-
tial business of the representative financial institution. He
is one of the loyal and progressive citizens of Mingo County,
and has a secure place in popular confidence and good will.
On June 7, 1907, Mr. Varney wedded Miss Emma Pinson,
who likewise was born and reared in Pike County, Ken-
tucky, where the marriage was solemnized. The Pinson
family is one of long American lineage and one of its rep-
resentatives, Alonzo C., is now sheriff of Mingo County.
Mr. and Mrs. Varney have three children: Golfrey Wendell,
born August 25, 1908; Frances Helen, born June 7, 1912;
and Anna Margaret, born September 26, 1919.
____________
20250709GHLn-
Emma Pinson LDBG-193
birth: 30 March 1888, Pike, KY
res: 1940, Magisterial District 6, Pike, KY
death: 27 April 1961, Mingo, WV
burial: Williamson, Mingo, WV
father: James M. Pinson KNHL-R2G
mother: Charity Lowe LBQQ-BD1
spouse: William Preston Taulber Varney 98Y8-ZJS
|
1876 - 1944 (68 years)
