Barbour County, West Virginia Biography of Edmond WHITEHAIR 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. 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 III, pg. 339-340 EDMOND WHITEHAIR, though past the age of three score and ten, still bears a part in the business affairs of Philippi. He was a boy soldier of the Union in the Civil war, and for the greater part of his active career lived in Preston County, where the Whitehairs are one of the oldest and most prominent families. The family history is given with more detail on other pages of this publication. Edmond Whitehair was born near Terra Alta in Preston County, January 19, 1848, son of Daniel and Sarah (Mes- senger) Whitehair. His mother was a daughter of Edmond and Louisa (Hardesty) Messenger. Edmond was one of a family of eight sons and four daughters, and his boyhood was spent on the farm close to the little city on the moun- tain top. At that time country schools were poorly equipped and conducted only a few months of each year, and it was from such schools that Edmond Whitehair acquired his education. He worked with his father, and though only thirteen years of age when the Civil war broke out, he was eager to get into the service, and after being rejected on account of his age he was finally accepted in February after bis fifteenth birthday. At Grafton he enlisted in Company I of the Seventeenth West Virginia Infantry, under Captain Samuel Holt and Colonel Day. He joined his company at Wheeling, did some training there, was in training at Clarksburg, and during the remainder of the war was on scouting duty. There were many Confederate prisoners gathered in, some of them being deserters from the Confederate Army while others were bona fide soldiers. The Seventeenth Regiment was ordered back to Wheeling and Company I was discharged in July, 1865. After his return to Terra Alta Edmond Whitehair joined Senator Jones in the "shook" business, making shocks for molasses and sugar barrels. This was an industry with which he was identified about eight years. Mr. Whitehair then returned to farming, and was an active factor in the agricultural community near his birthplace for many years. On leaving the farm he retired to Terra Alta, and about twelve years later, in 1904, came to Philippi, where he purchased the marble business of Mr. Joseph Crim, acquiring the plant and goodwill. He took charge and has since con- ducted this local industry, known as the Tygart Valley Marble Works, a corporation of which Sylvanus Talbott is president, Ira H. Byers, secretary, and Mr. Whitehair, treasurer and general manager. The company is capitalized at $5,000, and it does a business over a large adjacent sec- tion of West Virginia and extending into Pennsylvania and Maryland. Mr. Whitehair was one of the promoters and stockholders of the First National Bank of Terra Alta, and is also a charter member and one of the stockholders of the Peoples Bank of Philippi. He is a republican, having cast his first vote for General Grant, and has supported the national ticket for half a century. He was a member of the City Council of Terra Alta and president of the Board of Educa- tion of Portland District, Preston County, for fourteen years, resigning that office when he came to Philippi. In this city he has served two terms as a member of the council, but after his second term declined to serve longer. Mr. Whitehair has been a member of the United Brethren Church for half a century and has been superintendent of the Sunday School. He is affiliated with the Grand Army of the Republic. In Preston County he married Miss Lucinda Freeland. Her father was Benjamin Freeland, who married a daughter of Samuel Messenger. Mrs. Whitehair died seven years after her marriage. She was the mother of three children. Her son Walter was killed in an explosion at Cumberland, Mary- land, leaving a wife and four children, whose names are Nora, wife of Clarence Mullendor, Blanche, Stanley and Mrs. Mildred Jennings. The only daughter of Mr. White- hair by his first marriage is Lizzie, wife of M. N. Taylor, of Terra Alta, and the living son is Samuel Whitehair, of Philadelphia. For his present wife Mr. Whitehair married in Garrett County, Maryland, Susan Sanders, daughter of John F. and Elizabeth (Baker) Sanders. Mrs. Whitehair was born in Garrett County February 22, 1851. The one child of Mr. and Mrs. Whitehair is Missouri, wife of Floyd H. Smith, of Philippi, and they have one child a daughter, Pearl, a student in the Philippi High School.