Jackson County, West Virginia Biography of JOHN BRITTON 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. 473-474 JOHN BRITTON, chief of the Charleston Police Depart- ment, is a marked proof of the value and necessity of long practical training for the higher officials of the city government. He has won advancement to the head of his department because of his courage as an officer and his ex- ecutive talents, and his courteous and pleasing personality. Chief Britton was born at Warren, Pennsylvania, in 1883, and is a son of Alfred and Sarah E. (Freeman) Britton. Alfred Britton was born in Quebec, Canada, and as a youth learned the painting trade, which he followed prin- cipally in furniture factories as foreman of inside paint- ing. For some years he was employed in furniture fac- tories at Grand Rapids, Michigan, but in 1895 came to Charleston to assume the management of the Ohio Valley Furniture Company's factory, owned by George Fullerton, of Gallipolis, Ohio, at that time the leading industry of the city, with from 300 to 400 employes. After managing this enterprise for seventeen years Mr. Britton retired and lived quietly until his death in May, 1918, when he was seventy- one years of age. His first wife, Sarah Freeman, died when her son John was but three years of age, and Mr. Britton later married Mary E. Edwards, of Pennsylvania, who sur- vives him, as a resident of Charleston. John Britton secured a public school education and as a young man learned the trade of inside painting with his father, under whom he worked in various factories. Event- ually he purchased the Great Southern Hotel, on Kanawha Street, in 1912, and conducted it for two years, when he be- came president of the Kanawha Taxicab Company, operating a line of ten taxis. He remained in this capacity, and then, under Mayor Breece, because assistant street commis- sioner. Later he was a plain clothes man on the police force, subsequently became a patrolman under Chief A. I. Mc- Cown, and was later promoted captain of police, a capa- city in which he served during the remainder of the ad- ministration. When he left the force temporarily he be- came chief for the Rollins Chemical Company of South Charleston, with twenty-four men under his supervision, dur- ing the war period. Leaving this concern, he went to Nitro, about ten miles from Charleston, on the Kanawha River, where the United States Government was operating an am- munition plant, and under Major Baer, in charge of the organization of the police department at that place, was made a lieutenant on the force, which consisted of about 400 men. He was later transferred to Cabin Creek, where he acted as captain until the signing of the armistice, and then went back to the Rollins Chemical Company as chief. In May, 1919, when Grant P. Hall became mayor of Charles- ton, he was called back to this city as captain of police, and continued in that capacity until February, 1920, when he became chief of the Nitro Police Department, with a force of eighty-men. On August 27, 1921, he was recalled to Charleston to become chief of the police department, which has sixty officers and thirty patrolmen. Chief Britton has placed the department on a well-trained, efficient basis, and has been tireless in his efforts to preserve law and order. He has continually strengthened his reputation as a fine disciplinarian, and upon the occasion of unusual disturbance of the public peace and in the unraveling of several noto- rious crime problems his coolness and bravery and his skill as a detective have stood him in good stead. A man of splendid physique, he possesses also a pleasing personality that commands respect and holds warm friendships. Chief Britton married Lillie B. Canterbury, and they have two sons: Basil and Giles Polly.