Logan County, West Virginia Biography of JOHN CLAYPOOL 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 II, pg. 571-572 Logan JOHN CLAYPOOL. The Claypools have played a vigorous part in the development of Logan County, for more than fourscore years. Three generations of the family have been represented here. They have cleared away the woods, im- proved farms, worked up the timber resources, have been business men and influential factors in their home districts. One of the present generation is John Claypool, member of the real estate and insurance firm of Claypool & McGuire at Logan. His grandfather was named John Claypool, was a native of Tazewell County, Virginia, and with his family moved to Huff's Creek in what is now Logan County in 1840. At that time he paid $500 for 500 acres of land. It was covered with heavy timber, and almost his first task was to clear away a portion of the wood so as to have room to cultivate a small crop. In time he made a farm and steadily grew in prosperity. The land which he acquired as a pioneer is today easily worth a million dollars. It has two coal operations on it, one by the Logan Elkhorn Corporation and the other by the Faulkner Coal Company. When the Clay- pools were enjoying their pioneer home in Logan County their nearest rail transportation was at Marmot or old Brownstown. They hauled salt and other supplies from there. John Claypool died at the age of eighty-two, in 1878. He was the father of three sons and one daughter, and the last survivor of these children was William Claypool. William Claypool, who represents the second generation of the family, was born near Tazewell Court House, Vir- ginia, February 28, 1832, and was about eight years of age when he came to Logan County. He was a man of strong and virile qualities, which made him conspicuously useful in spite of the fact that they were never polished by educa- tion. All told, he attended school only three weeks, and he could barely read or write. However, he had an intuitive knowledge of mathematics and could instantly compute interest and the cost of cattle, in which he dealt on a growingly increasing scale. He was a shrewd, keen trader, prospered in his business affairs, and had overflowing physical energy. He stood six feet tall. His enterprise was not confined to his own affairs. He built the Claypool Methodist Church, donated land on which the Claypool School is located and served as a trustee of the church. He and the other Claypools were absolutely opposed to secession, and William always voted as a republican. Though he had prospered without an education, he did not for that reason believe that his own children should go without advantages. He did a great deal to maintain a good school in his home community, boarding the teacher of the district free of charge and also furnishing a mule for the teacher to ride to school, and by this liberality he secured for his own and his neighbor's children a better instructor than had many similar districts. William Claypool died at the old home- stead at Mallory in 1901. He married Amanda Buchanan, who was born at Matewan, in what is now Mingo County, daughter of John Buchanan, who was a Confederate soldier. After the death of her husband Amanda Claypool married H. C. Avis, of Logan, president of the Guyan Supply Com- pany. The four children of William Claypool and wife were: John; Mary, wife of C. Abdo; G. R., who is secre- tary, treasurer and general manager of the Guyan Supply Company; and R. H., who was connected with the Guyan Supply Company, was a commercial traveler, and died of influenza in 1918. John Claypool, the Logan real estate man, was born on the site of the present town of Mallory, on Huff's Creek, March 22, 1876. He was one of the children who benefitted by the advantages of the Claypool School, later attended the Oceana High School in Wyoming County, and at the age of twenty, one leaving school, he went to work for Adkins & Garred on Huff's Creek. He remained with them as book- keeper, also as timber and lumber inspector, for five years, and he inherited some of his father's keen ability of a calculator and learned to estimate the value of trees as quickly as his father computed the value of a steer. On leaving that firm Mr. Claypool opened a store at Man, at the mouth of Huff's Creek. His stock of goods had to be hauled from Dingess in Mingo County, thirty miles across the mountains, since at that time no railroad had come down into the valley. He remained in business there three years, and then for a time was in the timber and sawmill business on Huff's Creek. He manufactured large quantities of lumber and sent rafts of timber down the Guyan River and also to Catlettsburg, Ashland and other points on the Ohio River. Mr. Claypool since 1909 has been a resident of Logan, and since then has done an extensive business in the buying and selling of real estate and the handling of insurance. He has operated in the real estate market of several towns, and has handled many tracts of coal lands. In 1903 he married Lettie Spratt, daughter of A. D. Spratt, of Gilbert. She died in 1918, the mother of five children, Marie, Ruby, Amanda, Frank D. and John E. In 1919 Mr. Claypool married Mrs. Daisy Miller, a daughter of W. H. Buchanan, of Pearisburg, Virginia. They are members of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church, and fraternally he is affiliated with the local lodge of Masons, Athens Chapter, R. A. M., Hunt- ington Commandery, K. T., and Huntington Consistory, thirty-second degree, at Huntington, West Virginia, and he is also a member of the Elks, Knights of Pythias and Independent Order of Odd Fellows. In politics he is a republican.