Jefferson County, West Virginia Biography of Theodore McKim CONNER This biography was submitted by Sue Schell, 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 II, Pg. 395 & 396 BIO: Theodore McKim Conner, Jefferson Co., WV Theodore McKim Conner was one of the prominent and highly honored citizens of Harpers Ferry, Jefferson County, and was serving as postmaster of this historic little city at the time of his death. His widow, who had been his valued assistant in the postoffice, succeeded him in this office and is postmistress here at the present time. Mr. Conner was born at Winchester, Virginia, in the year 1852. His father Patrick Conner was a native of Ireland, and was a young man when he came to the United States and established his residence in Virginia, both he and his wife having long maintained their home at Winchester, where they remained until their deaths. The subject of this memoir was educated in the schools of his native place, and 1880, when twenty-eight years of age, he established his residence at Harpers Ferry, where he became a representative business man and one of much influence in civic and political affairs. In 1889 he purchased the hotel which still bears his name. At the time when he bought this property the city was in the midst of a serious flood, and the water had risen to the height of the second floor of the hotel. He remodeled and refurnished the hotel, and made it one of the popular and well ordered houses of public entertainment in this section of the state, the hotel having continued to be conducted by him until the close of his life. He was a stockholder and director in a number of important industrial and commercial corporations, and was a member also of the directorate of the Bank of Harpers Ferry. Mr. Conner was unfaltering in his allegiance to the democratic party and was influential in its local councils and campaign affairs. In 1916 he was appointed postmaster of Harpers Ferry, and of this position he continued the efficient and popular incumbent until his death in 1920. On the 4th of August, 1900, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Conner and Miss Laura Yantis, who was born and reared at Harpers Ferry and who is a daughter of the late Solomon Yantis, a memoir to whom is given in the preceding sketch, so that further review of the family record is not demanded in this connection. The discipline which Mrs. Conner received in the public schools of her native city was advanced by study under the direction of private tutors, and at the age of eighteen years she became a popular teacher in the schools of her native county. She served as assistant postmaster under the administration of her father and later under the regime of her husband, so that she was fully qualified when she was appointed acting postmaster after the death of her husband. Under this appointment she served two years, and then, in March, 1922 she was regularly appointed and commissioned postmistress. Mrs. Conner takes lively interest in all that concerns the well being of her native city and county, and here her circle of friends is coincident with that of her acquaintances. She is a stockholder in the Harpers Ferry Bank and the local electric light company, and is one of the representative members of the local Woman’s Club.