Barbour County, West Virginia Biography of Bernard E. WILMOTH 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. 329 BERNARD E. WILMOTH. A distinction significant of serv- ice rendered, duty, loyalty and efficiency, belongs to Bernard E. Wilmoth, in that he is the oldest locomotive engineer on active duty on the Monongah Division of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. He has worked forty years as a railroad man, and for a quarter of a century has been a resident of Belington in Barbour County. Mr. Wilmoth was born in the old town of New Interest, Randolph County, West Virginia, May 24, 1864. His father is Isburn Wilmoth, the venerable and aged citizen of Graf- ton, whose life has been spent chiefly as a brick mason. He early took up contracting, and much of his work in building at Elkins and also at Grafton is still in evidence. He has been a good business man, faithful to his obliga- tions, but has sought no honors of politics or public life. He is a democrat and a Methodist. Isburn Wilmoth mar- ried Rebecca Stalnaker, who was reared in Randolph County, and was a distant cousin of Garrison J. Stalnaker, men- tioned elsewhere. She died at the age of fifty-two. Her children were: Perry L., who lost his life by accident in Sturgeon Lake, Minnesota, and was unmarried; Charles E., who died in 1919, a locomotive engineer on the Cum- berland Division of the Baltimore and Ohio; Lucy, who died unmarried in a hospital at Clarksburg; Bernard E.; French, a locomotive engineer living at Grafton, with a run on the Buckhannon branch of the Baltimore and Ohio; Dollie, unmarried and is the companion of her aged father; Walter, who is unmarried and is a house painter at Grafton. Bernard E. Wilmoth lived in Randolph County until he was ten years of age, when his parents established their home at Grafton in Taylor County. He grew up there, acquired a common school education, and at the age of sixteen started out to earn his living by practical work. For a time he was employed in a livery stable. worked twelve months with an engineer corps in the preliminary survey and finally with the locating survey at Grafton for the Greenbrier Railway. He was then made tie inspector for the railroad, and two months later was given the congenial task of firing the first locomo- tive to run over the new road. After eighteen months he was promoted to engineer, and now for forty years he has been in charge of the throttle of an engine until he has become the oldest in the service on the Monongah Division of the Baltimore and Ohio. Most of his service has been between Grafton and Belington, and for a time he had the run between Belington and Morgantown and from Belington to Fairmont. His work is now with the Berryburg branch. Mr. Wilmoth in 1913 finished one of the fine and sub- stantial homes of Belington. It is an eight room brick veneer building, comfortable, attractive and a perfectly appointed home. Mr. Wilmoth is a charter member of the Citizens National Bank of Belington, is one of its di- rectors, is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and fraternally is a Lodge and Chapter Mason, an Odd Fellow, and since reaching his majority has been affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, of which he is a past chan- cellor. As a young man he also received his card in the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, and is one of the older men in that organization. In September, 1889, at Grafton, Mr. Wilmoth married Mary Williams, who was born at Buckhannon, West Vir- ginia, July 13, 1869, daughter of Jerome B. Williams. Her mother was a Miss Hyer. Mrs. Wilmoth was the youngest of four daughters, and her two surviving sisters Mrs. Dora Butcher, of Weston, and Mrs. Rose Lilly, of Grafton. The only child of Mr. and Mrs. Wilmoth is a daughter, Sevva R., who graduated from the Belington High School, later from Westminster College in Mary- land, where she rounded out her education in vocal music, and she is now one of the High School teachers at Belington.