The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.
Chicago and New York, Volume II,
pg. 216-217

Harry R. Stapp early distinguished himself as a very able and skillful
factor in the insurance business and his experience in that line
eventually led him to Dayton Ohio where he became associated with the
Delco Light Corporation.  For the past five years he has been manager of
the Delco Light Corporation at Charleston and has general supervision of
the entire business of that corporation in the state.  He is a leader in
Charleston affairs, and is one of the prominent officials of the Kiwanis
Club.

Mr.Stapp was born at Columbus Junction, Louisa County, Iowa in 1880. 
This branch of the Stapp family is descended from the original Germans
who founded the first colonies from that country in Pennsylvania.  The
grandfather of Harry R. Stapp was Reuben Staff, who moved from his home
at Allentown, Pennsylvania, in the late '30s to the territory of Iowa. 
He was one of the first settlers of what later became Louisa County on
the eastern border of the state.  The Stapp family has been for many
years and still are large owners of rich Iowa farmland in Louisa
County.  The father of Harry R. Stapp is John Jacob Stapp who married
Miss Ogler.

Harry R. Stapp was reared and educated in Iowa and in 1898 as a young
man of eighteen, volunteered for service in the Spanish-American War. 
He was in the Fiftieth Regiment of Infantry from Iowa.  After his
honorable discharge he taught school in his native state for about two
years, and then for two years lived in Chicago and secured his training
and early experience in the insurance business. Soon afterward, Mr.
Stapp was sent to London as a special representative of the New York
Life Insurance Company to institute a change in the mode of accounting
of the company's executive offices in England.  The first object of his
mission having been accomplished, he remained in the British metropolis
as a special representative of his company and altogether spent three
years in London and on the European continent.

When Mr. Stapp returned to America in 1906 he was appointed manager at
Indianapolis for the Travelers Insurance Company of Hartford.  He
remained at Indianapolis five years leaving there to take charge of the
local life insurance company at Dayton Ohio.  The factory and general
offices of the Delco Light Corporation are at Dayton and Mr. Stapp gave
up the insurance business to become associated with this nationally
known industry, manufacturing electric lighting plants.  Mr. Stapp came
to Charleston in 1917 as manager of the Delco distributing plant of the
city and from Charleston has general direction of the Delco Light
products distribution and business throughout the state.  He regards
Charleston as his permanent home, has bought property in the city and is
one of the active progressive and public-spirited members of the
community.

Mr. Stapp sponsored the original organization of the Kiwanis Club in
West Virginia, which began, with the organization of the Wheeling and
Charleston clubs in 1918.  The District of West Virginia was formed in
September 1919 and Mr. Stapp was elected and served as the first
district governor of the Kiwanis Clubs for this state.  He is affiliated
with the Masonic Order, holding the thirty-second degree of the Scottish
Rite and is a member of the Mystic Shrine, the Elks and the Chamber of
Commerce.  While in London, England he married Miss Kathleen Beeston. 
This is a family of distinction in London and her brother L.J. Beeston
is a well-known English author.


Submitted by:  burns@asu.edu (Elizabeth Burns)

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