Jackson County, West Virginia Biography of GEORGE E. STRALEY 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. 425 GEORGE E. STRALEY, cashier of the First National Bank of Ripley, has been actively identified with that institution for ten years, and is one of the prominent young business leaders of Jackson County. He was born on a farm near Ripley, December 2, 1884. His great-grandfather, Christian Straley, was a native of Germany and founded the family in West Virginia, in Lewis County, where he was a farmer and where he lived out his life. Stephen Straley, his son, was born in Lewis County in 1801, and as a young man moved to Jackson County and founded the Straley homestead a mile and a half north of Ripley, where he continued to live until his death in 1885. He married Mary Alkire, who was born in Lewis County in 1813 and died in 1875. Of their family of three daughters and four sons the only survivor is Charles P. Straley, who still lives at the old homestead north of Ripley, where he was born October 9, 1856. He has been a farmer in that community all his life, and is a democrat and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He married Lucy Ramey, who was born in Jackson County in September, 1856. George E. Straley is the oldest of their children. Paul is unmarried and helps operate the home farm. Mary is a teacher in Marion County and has done advanced work in summer sessions of the State University. Charles V. is a student in the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia. George E. Straley was educated in rural schools, in the West Liberty State Normal School, attended the University of West Virginia at Morgantown in the summer of 1910, and at the age of twenty began teaching. For one year he did work in the rural schools of Jackson County, for two years was a teacher in the public schools at Ripley, and another two years in Pocahontas County. Mr. Straley in 1911 entered the Valley Bank of Ripley as assistant cashier, and has continued with that institution, which since August 4, 1915, has been the First National Bank. He became cashier in 1916. Mr. Straley is also a stockholder in the O. J. Morrison Store Company of Charleston, in the People's Department Store at Ripley, and takes a public spirited part in all the general improvement projects in his community. He is now serving in his fourth year as a member of the City Council of Ripley, and for the past three years has been secretary of the Board of Education. He is a demo- crat, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, is affiliated with Ripley Lodge No. 16, A. F. and A. M., and is a past chancellor of Walker Wright Lodge No. 95, Knights of Pythias. He did much work of a patriotic nature during the war, helping fill out questionnaires, and was also a member of the several committees for the Liberty Loan drives. In 1910, at Ripley, Mr. Straley married Miss Madaline Taylor, daughter of William and Alice (Riley) Taylor, the latter a resident of Akron, Ohio. Her father died on his farm near Ripley. Mr. and Mrs. Straley have two children, Marguerite, born July 1, 1912, and Robert, born September 1, 1916.