Greenbrier County, West Virginia Biography of HON. JOHN CALVERT DICE This biography was submitted by Sandy Spradling, E-mail address: 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 History of Greenbrier County J. R. Cole Lewisburg, WV 1917 p. 224-226 HON. JOHN CALVERT DICE. Hon. John Calvert Dice, postmaster of Lewisburg, and Judge Charles Samuel Dice, sons of Rev. John Cunningham Dice, at one time presiding elder of the Lewisburg (W. Va.) district of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, are descendants of a long line of ministers, with ancestry of German origin on the paternal side, the name originally having been written Deiss. Tradition locates three brothers of this family who came from York county, Pennsylvania, to the present Pendleton county, West Virginia, but of these nothing is definitely known execpt that Mathias Dice served in the French and Indian war, and he, at least, arrived in Pendleton county in 1757. The present postmaster of Lewisburg, the Hon. John Calvert Dice, received a thorough literary preparation for work in after life, first under able tutors, then by attending some of our higher institutions of learning, and of which many of them are found in our land. He was born in Hamilton, Loudoun county, Virginia September 27, 1872. After graduating from the high school' in Staunton, he attended Randolph-Macon College at Ashland, Va. And thus equipped for giving instruction, he taught school for twelve years in Virginia and West Virginia, after which he was for two years private secretary to Hon. Joseph E. Willard, of Washington, D. C., now ambassador to Spain. In 1899, Mr. Dice moved to Lewisburg and was principal of the high school for three years, and for twelve years succeeding became engaged in general insurance business. In 1910, Mr. Dice was elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates by the Democrats of Greenbrier county, and re-elected in 1912. Whik in the Legislature he was the recognized Democratic floor leader of the session, also member of many important committees, one of which was that of the chairmanship of the fish and game committee. He was appointed by Governer Glasscock to help draft the workmen's compensation act, to which much travel, time and study was given. From 1907 to 1909, he was mayor of Lewisburg. He served for six years as president of the board of education of Lewisburg, and for four years as a member of the county board of examiners and has for the past fifteen years taken an active interest in every movement looking toward the welfare of his town, county and State. He was appointed posttmaster of Lewisburg by President Wilson July 1, 1915, which office he now holds. On November 28, 1900, Mr. Dice married Jane Stuart Price, daughter of John S. and Susan McElhenney Price, and grand-daughter of Governor Samuel Price and of Rev. John McElhenney, D. D., who was pastor of the Old Stone Presbyterian Church at Lewisburg for fifty years. Mrs. Dice is president of the Lewisburg Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy, and state registrar of the same order. Mr. Dice is a director in several corporations and a member of the insurance committee of the State Board of Trade. He is a Mason, a member of Greenbrier Lodge, No.42, at Lewisburg; Ronceverte Chapter, No.21, Royal Arch Masons, at Ronceverte; past eminent commander of Greenbrier Commandery No. 15, Knights Templar, Lewisburg, and Beni Keden temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles Mystic Shrine, Charleston. He is also a steward in the Methodist Episcopal Church South.