Dickenson County Virginia USGenWeb Archives Biographies.....Pressley, William Walter 
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Joy Fisher http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00001.html#0000031 February 15, 2008, 10:10 pm

Author: Leonard Wilson  (1916)

WILLIAM WALTER PRESSLEY

THE Pressley family is numbered among the early Colonial settlers in Virginia,
the name of Colonel William Pressley, of "Northumberland House," appearing first
in the Northumberland County records for the year 1657. His son, Captain Peter
Pressley, was an officer in the Colonial Militia, and the family attained
prominence in the affairs of the Colony.

    William Walter Pressley, born at Sand Lick (now Birchleaf), Dickenson
County, Virginia, was a son of Joshua D. Pressley, farmer and trader, and his
wife, Eliza J. Counts, daughter of William L. Counts, who died in 1911, at the
ripe age of ninety-six years. The Counts family, of German origin, was among the
pioneers who took up land in Russell County, Virginia.

    W. W. Pressley has attained a remarkable measure of success in business,
considering his environment, and perhaps that success is due largely to the
blending in his veins of those English and Teutonic strains of blood which for
centuries have beeu the greatest moving force in the world.

    Young Pressley attended the District Schools of his native County, and in
1896 was a student at the High School in Clintwood, Virginia. He taught school
for several terms, and began his business career by entering the service of the
Antler Coal and Coke Company, at Welch, West Virginia, as store manager.
Realizing the value of a thorough commercial training and a knowledge of
shorthand in business, he took a course at the Commercial College of the
University of Kentucky, from which institution he was graduated in 1902. He then
accepted a position with the Mahan Lumber Company, near Charleston, West
Virginia, and was subsequently identified with the Clinchfield Coal Corporation
at Clintwood, Virginia, for two years.

    Mr. Pressley is a graduate of the American Institute of Banking and is a
close student of the science of profitable management of money and monetary
affairs, and of the systematic control and regulation of revenue and
expenditure. On the 6th of January, 1906, he was elected Cashier of the
Dickenson County Bank, Inc., a position he has continuously occupied with marked
ability. The Dickenson Bank is one of the most prosperous financial institutions
in the southwestern section of Virginia. It is capitalized at $25,000.00 and has
now a capital and surplus of nearly $75,000.00, the increase being derived
exclusively from the earnings of the Bank.

    Mr. Pressley is recognized by his townsmen as a public-spirited citizen who
can be depended on to render useful service to the community when needed,
irrespective of any direct benefit to himself. For twelve years he has served as
Trustee of the Dickenson County High School, and for a like period has been a
member of the County School Board.

    He has given his political allegiance during his whole life to the
Democratic party and has served as Chairman of the Democratic Committee for four
years. In this section of Virginia, where political battles are waged most
fiercely, a leader must be constantly on the firing line throughout the contest.

    In fraternal circles Mr. Pressley is identified with the Masonic Lodge, the
Modern Woodmen of America and the Red Men. His church connection is with the
Missionary Baptist Church, of which he is one of the Deacons.

    Mr. Pressley married, September 9, 1907, at Clintwood, Virginia, Miss Julia
Colley, daughter of B. B. and Nannie Colley. They have two sons, Charles Burns
and Harry Lee, both still young.

    In the prime of life, Mr. Pressley occupies an honored position secured by
intelligent and faithful service, and has before him the promise of a most
brilliant career. His interest and work has been most useful to the community of
which he forms a part, and he is already a locally prominent citizen of a State
noted for the ability and achievements of its sons.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

MAKERS OF AMERICA
BIOGRAPHIES OF LEADING MEN OF THOUGHT AND ACTION

THE MEN WHO CONSTITUTE THE BONE AND SINEW OF AMERICAN PROSPERITY AND LIFE

VOLUME II

By
LEONARD WILSON,
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

ASSISTED BY PROMINENT HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL WRITERS
Illustrated with many full page engravings
B. F. JOHNSON, INC.
CITY OF WASHINGTON, U. S. A.
1916

Copyright, 1916
by
B. F. Johnson, Inc.


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