Gilmer County, West Virginia    Biography of Bantz W. CRADDOCK

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Submitted by Valerie Crook, <vfcrook@trellis.net>, April 1999
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., 
Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 70

BANTZ W. CRADDOCK, of Glenville, judicial center of
Gilmer County, is one of the representative members of
the bar of his native town and county, and the popular es-
timate here placed upon him is vouchsafed in the fact that
ho is serving as prosecuting attorney of the county at the
time of this writing, in 1922.

Mr. Craddock was born at Glenville on the 22d of November, 
1887, and is a son of Joseph M. and Vergie B.
(Wooddell) Craddock, the former of whom was born at
Glenville, in 1863, and the latter of whom was born in 1864.
The father received the advantages of the schools of his
native county, and as a young man taught four terms in
the rural schools. He founded the Glenville Stranger, of
which he continued the editor and publisher for twenty
years. He is now one of the influential citizens of Clarks-
burg, Harrison County, and formerly served as mayor of
that city. He is a staunch democrat and a liberal supporter
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of which his
wife is an earnest member. Of the six children the eldest
is Winnie, who is the wife of 0. M. Ewing; Bantz W., of
this sketch, was the next in order of birth; Eula is the wife
of J. C. Ewing; Ava is the wife of  C. C. Stanard; M.
Pauline is the wife of C. E. Elliott; and Thelma D. is the
wife of J. C. Crews.

In the public schools of his native village, Bantz W. Crad-
dock continued his studies until his graduation, and in Jan-
uary, 1907, he took a clerical position in the Kanawha
Union Bank, in which he continued his service until the
autumn of the following year, when he entered the law de-
partment of the University of West Virginia. In this in-
stitution he was graduated as a member of the class of
1910, followed by his admission to the bar of his native
state. He served his professional novitiate by practicing
one year at Martinton, and since July, 1911, he has been
established in professional work in his native village of
Glenville. His ability and personal popularity soon en-
abled him to build up a representative practice, and he con-
tinued his general professional work until 1916, when he
was elected prosecuting attorney of the county. He made
an admirable record in this office and in 1920 he was re-
elected for a second term of four years.

Mr. Craddock is a loyal advocate of the principles and
policies of the democratic party, is a past master of Gil-
mer County Lodge No. 118, Ancient Free and Accepted Ma-
sons, and has received the eighteenth degree of the Scottish
Rite of Masonry, besides being affiliated with the Order of
the Eastern Star, the Knights of Pythias, the Modern
Woodmen of America, the Knights of Maccabees, the Jun-
ior Order of United American Mechanics, and two college
fraternities, Sphinx and Phi Sigma Kappa. His wife holds
membership in the Order of the Eastern Star and also in
the Methodist Episcopal Church.

December 5, 1913, recorded the marriage of Mr. Craddock and 
Miss Hallie J. Whiting, who had been a student
in the State Normal School at Glenville and who had been
a successful and popular teacher in the public schools prior
to her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Craddock have three chil-
dren: Bantz W., Jr., Marjorie E. and Samuel N.