Fayette County, West Virginia Biography of William O. HUNDLEY This file 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. 275-276 WILLIAM O. HUNDLEY. In the person of William O. Hundley the oil and gas interests of Cabell County have a capable and energetic representative of the younger genera- tion at Huntington. While he is a recent acquisition of these linea of business, he has already indicated that his career therein will be an unqualified success, and as secre- tary and treasurer of the Big Ben Petroleum Company he occupies a recognized position among the active men in these branches of industry. Mr. Hundley was born February 12, 1890, in Fayette County, West Virginia, and is a son of Henry T. and Jane L. (Honaker) Hundley. His grandfather, Lieu Hundley, was born in 1834, at Salem, Virginia, and as a young man became a pioneer of Fayette County, where he spent the remainder of his active career as a successful agriculturist. He died at Scarboro, West Virginia, in 1892. Henry T. Hundley was born in 1858, in Fayette County, Virginia (now West Virginia), and was educated in the rural schools and brought up to the vocation of farming, which he has followed throughout his life. He has always lived in Fayette County, where he is the owner of one of the best kept farms in that section of the state, and now makes his home at Fayetteville, where he is respected and esteemed as a substantial and successful man and public-spirited citizen. He is a democrat in politics, and his religious faith is that of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of which he is a very active supporter. Mr. Hundley married Miss Jane L. Honaker, who was born in 1860, near Charles- ton, Kanawha County, West Virginia (then Virginia), and to this union there were born children as follows: Dosha, who is unmarried and makes her home with her parents; Lieu Zingle, a general merchant of Fayetteville; Henry C., also a merchant of Fayetteville and a veteran of the World war, in which for ten months he served as a sergeant in the engineering corps and was stationed at Camp Humphreys, near Washington, D. C.; William O., of this review; Lillie D., the wife of Lemon A. Skaggs, of Huntington, who for the past seven years has been a clerk in the shops of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway; Minnie May, of Huntington, a teacher in the public schools; Rosa, a student in the high school at Huntington; Ada and Anna, who are attending the graded school at Fayetteville; and French, employed by the Bachman Coal Company at Bachman, Fayette County. William O. Hundley was educated in the rural schools of Fayette County and reared on his father's farm, where he remained until twenty years of age. At that time he left agricultural pursuits to embark in the automobile business at Fayetteville. During the next ten years he continued in the same line, and despite his youth and his limited capital at the outset of his career he achieved a remarkable success. In the meantime, in 1916, during the border trouble with Mexico, Mr. Hundley served for a year in the United States Army as chief mechanic, first under General Polk and later under General Pershing, having charge of a motor train of thirty-three trucks. In 1921 he disposed of his automobile business at Fayetteville, although he still retains the owner- ship of a public garage building at that place, and came to Huntington, where he turned his attention to the oil pro- ducing industry. He assisted in organizing the Big Ben Petroleum Company, an oil producing company which has proven a very successful venture. The property now being operated, consisting of 372 acres, is located in Warren County, Kentucky, and has fifteen producing wells. The concern is incorporated under the laws of the State of West Virginia, and the officers are: S. H. Honaker, Hunt- ington. president; T. H. Laing, Huntington, vice president, and William O. Hundley, secretary and treasurer. The offices are situated at Rooms 203 and 204 Lewis-Samson Building. Mr. Hundley has always been a stanch democrat, and while a resident of Fayetteville served as a member of the city council for two years. He is a member of Lafayette Lodge No. 57, Fayetteville, in which he has numerous friends and also has several civic and social connections. Mr. Hundley is the owner of a modern residence at 825 Twenty-fifth Street, Huntington, a comfortable and attractive home located in one of the preferred residential districts of the city, in addition to which he owns other real estate at Huntington. On April 1, 1917, Mr. Hundley was united in marriage at Charleston, West Virginia, with Miss Elsie Bias, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James B. Bias, of 1615 Tenth Avenue, Huntington, Mr. Bias being an employe of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Company. Mrs. Hundley is a graduate of the Huntington High School and a woman of many graces and accomplishments. To Mr. and Mrs. Hundley there have been born two children: William O., Jr., born February 25, 1918; and Leonard Bay, born May 8, 1920.