EDWARD CLARK COLCORD, SR

The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 521
Kanawha

EDWARD CLARK COLCORD, SR. A resident of St. Albans
since 1889, Edward Clark Colcord, Sr., came to this state
as a timber expert, and for many years has been general
superintendent of the lumber, coal and land interests of
the Bowman Lumber Company. At the same time he has
been an enlightened and progressive leader in the affairs
of his community, and several times has gone to the Leg-
islature from Kanawha County.

He was born in Franklin County, Vermont, September
4, 1851. Now past the age of three score and ten an'd
still active, he comes of a long lived and vigorous family,
some of whom have reached the age of ninety. He is a
son of John and Sylvia Prudentia (Bowman) Colcord.
It is an old family in New England, established there
before the Revolution. John Colcord served as a member
of the State Legislature during the Civil war. His wife's
father, Eben E. Bowman, was a contractor in the con-
struction of the Erie Railroad. Mrs. Sylvia Coleord died
at the old homestead when past ninety.

E. C. Colcord, Sr., at the age of seventeen went to the
Northwest with an engineering corps, and about 1872 be-
came interested in the lumber industry at Eau Claire, Wis-
consin, then and for years afterward one of the largest
centers for the production of Northern White Pine lumber.
He also became interested in lumber manufacture at Wil-
liamsport, Pennsylvania, and while there became associated
with a group of capitalists who were interested in the
purchase of timber lands in West Virginia. The Bowman
Lumber Company began the buying of lands in this state
in 1886. The first mill was constructed in 1888 and produc-
tion began in the spring of 1889. The company were far
sighted and desired to secure land not only valuable for
the timber, but also for coal. Mr. Colcord made personal
inspections of large areas in the mountains of West Vir-
ginia, and purchased over 50,000 acres. In 1892 he took
charge of all the Bowman manufacturing operations. In
connection with this large business he has had much to do
with the commercial and civic affairs of St. Albans. He
is one of the original directors of the Bank of St. Albans,
and is president of the St. Albans Board of Trade. He
is a Knight Templar Mason, a Noble of the Mystic Shrine
and a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

As a republican he was elected to the House of Delegates
in 1900 for the session of 1901, and in 1902 was elected
a member of the State Senate, serving from 1903 to 1905.
In 1908 he was again elected a member of the House.
For many years he has been a member of the State Board
of Equalization. While he has thus been in the service
of the state government, his keenest interest is in his home
town. St. Albans is one of the choicest residence towns
in the state, owing largely to the high stock of citizenship
that has been developed there.

In 1883 Mr. Colcord married Mary Agnes McManigal,
of Williamsport, Pennsylvania. She died in 1919. She
was a very active .member of the Presbyterian Church.
They were the parents of a family of seven children. The
oldest is Edward Clark, Jr., now manager of the Bowman
Lumber Company at St. Albans.  Francis C. and his
brother Eugene L. are the owners and operators of the
Colcord Coal Company in Raleigh County. Sylvia Prudentia
is the wife of M. W. Stark, a lumber manufacturer,
formerly at St. Albans with the American Column and
Lumber Company and now a resident of Columbus, Ohio.
Mary Agnes is a graduate of the Dickinson Seminary at
Williamsport and the Colonial School at Washington, and is
at home. Tritain Coffin is a mining engineer. William
Allison, the youngest, is associated with his brothers in
the Colcord  Coal Company. 

Submitted by:  vfcrook@trellis.net (Valerie F. Crook) 

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