Biography of James Robert Laird - Tazewell Co. VA


The History of West Virginia, Old and New 
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc. 
Chicago and New York, Volume II 
pg. 159

JAMES ROBERT LAIRD. In a business way James Robert Laird is widely known
both in West Virginia and old Virginia through his active associations as
an organizer and executive in some very successful and financial
organizations. Business responsibilities have accumulated rapidly for Mr.
Laird during the last fifteen years of his life, while the period before
that was evidently one of intensive training and preparation for these
duties. He is also conspicuous as a lay member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South.

Mr. Laird was born in Tazewell County, Virginia, June 21, 1879, son of
Samuel H. and Rachel (Witten) Laird, natives of Virginia, where his father
was a farmer and school teacher, and identified with the educational
affairs of Tazewell County for many years.

James Robert Laird was reared in a home of modest comforts and had to make
practical use of his talents before he finished his education. He left high
school in 1896, and then took up the general insurance business at
Tazewell, a business line he followed for several years. It was in 1911
that he began widening his scope of efforts, in which year, in addition to
his insurance work, he established a mortgage loan and real estate agency
at Bluefield, West Virginia, and an automobile sales agency at Tazewell,
Virginia, each of these concerns requiring separate offices. Mr. Laird is a
prominent factor in the automobile business, having established the
Tazewell Motor Company and several other motor sales companies and
wholesale gas companies, and is vice president of all these growing and
prospering concerns.

Mr. Laird has been a resident of Bluefield since 1911, in which year he
organized the Virginia Realty Loan Company, of which he is president. He is
also president of the Federal Lumber Company of North Tazewell, Virginia,
and has recently organized and become the first president of the Bluefield
Trust Company.

In 1901, at Tazewell, Mr. Laird married Miss Eva St. Clair Tynes, daughter
of Maj. A. J. and Harriett (Fudge) Tynes, natives of Virginia. Major Tynes
established the first woolen mill in Tazewell County, about 1865. He was an
officer in the Confederate Army during the Civil war, his regiment being
commanded by General McCausland. Mr. and Mrs. Laird have four children:
Houston T., a student in Washington and Lee University; Mary and Frances,
twins; and James Robert, Jr.

Mr. Laird is a member of the Masonic Lodge, Chamber of Commerce, Bluefield
Country Club and the Old Colony Club. One of the causes nearest to his
heart is the Mission Schools for the mountain boys and girls, and he has
given liberally not only of his money but his time to this great work of
education. As a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, he had the
honor of being elected on the first ballot as delegate for the General
Conference of the Church held at Hot Springs. This was the quadrennial
conference in which is formulated the general policy of the business side
of the church and its laws and rules governing the churches, and the
election of Mr. Laird as a lay delegate is an honor that comes to but few
men in a lifetime.


Submitted by Chris & Kerry <cmac4330@chesapeake.net>

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