Fayette County, West Virginia Biography of Lucian Emrow POTEET ************************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: Material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor. Submitted by Valerie Crook, , July 1999 ************************************************************************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 163 LUCIAN EMROW POTEET is a native of West Virginia, was educated for the law and practiced his profession for about ten years, but since then has been a prominent figure in real estate business and real estate development at Charles- ton. He is president of Poteet & Woodroe, Incorporated. He and his partner have been associated in the real estate business for a number of years, but in October, 1921, they incorporated under the above title and the corporation is an instrument through which they carry out a broad and well considered program of civic and building develop- ment, particularly designed to supply the home building and housing facilities which Charleston so much needs. Besides performing a general brokerage business the company has taken up the laying out and development of subdivisions, and maintains a well organized building department. Dur- ing the past dozen years Charleston has grown from a city of 12,000 to over 75,000, with a proportionate wide range of increasing valuations for property frontage. The addi- tion of new industries has proceeded faster than housing development, and no organization has entered the field to supply this evident need under more auspicious circum- stances than Poteet & Woodroe, Incorporated. Mr. Poteet was born on a farm in Fayette County, West Virginia, in 1878, son of John and Frances (Painter) Poteet. His father was a soldier in the Confederate army throughout the war, and the Poteets have been represented in all the American wars beginning with the Revolution. The Poteet family is of French Huguenot origin, and the first of the family to come to America identified themselves with the French Huguenot colony at Charleston, South Caro- lina. A number of the descendants are still living in South and North Carolina. Mr. L. E. Poteet is related to two distinguished educators who, however, spelled their name Poteat, E. M. Poteat, a former president of Furman Univer- sity and an eminent leader in the Baptist Church, and W. L. Poteat, president of Wake Forest College, North Caro- lina. Lucian E. Poteet grew up on a farm. To secure as good an education as possible is traditional in the Poteet family, and he studied under Professor W. G. Brown and Professor Bernard H. White at Oak Hill Academy, attended Barbours- ville College in this state, and then entered the University of West Virginia, where he took both the academic and law courses, graduating from the law school in 1899. Mr. Poteet practiced law successfully for eight years in Fayetteville and Fayette County. On retiring from practice he estab- lished his home in Charleston in 1908, and since then has been in the real estate business, at first in the firm of Poteet & Woodroe and now as president of Poteet & Woodroe, Incorporated. In civic and state affairs Mr. Poteet's special hobby is good roads. A magnificent improvement of the highways in and around Charleston has been effected since he came to the city, and he has been active in furthering all those enterprises. He is chairman of the good roads committee of the Chamber of Commerce, and is on the board of direc- tors of that institution. He is also a member of Midland Trail Association. Mr. Poteet married Miss Pearle E. Blake, of Charleston. Before her marriage she was one of the popular teachers in the city schools.