Logan County, West Virginia Biography of GEORGE R. 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. 572 Logan GEORGE R. CLAYPOOL is secretary, treasurer and manager of the Guyan Supply Company at Logan. He possesses ideal qualifications for a business man and worker in a section of country that is of comparatively recent develop- ment. Physically powerful, he was an adept in the rough work of the timber and lumber camps for several years, and has been a man of force in whatever he has undertaken. Mr. Claypool was born at what is now Mallory in Logan County, September 24, 1882, a son of William and Amanda (Buchanan) Claypool. William Claypool, who died in 1901, at the age of fifty-nine, was eight years of age when his father, John Claypool, moved from Greenbrier County to Logan County, establishing his home on a farm. John Claypool later served as a commissioned officer in the Con- federate army. William Claypool was a farmer. Before railroads penetrated this district the Claypool home was the place of entertainment always sought out by the travel- ers running through this region, and its generous hospitality was shared by ministers of the gospel, commercial travelers and all classes of men whose business took them into this neighborhood. After the death of William Claypool his widow married H. C. Avis, and they now live at Logan. William Claypool and wife had three sons and one daugh- ter: John, of Logan, formerly a merchant and now in the real estate business; George R.; Roscoe, who was a traveling salesman and died at Huntington in 1918, at the age of thirty-one; and Mary, wife of Charles Abdo, of Logan. George B. Claypool attended school at Mallory and the Oceana High School in Wyoming County. Leaving school at the age of eighteen, he became a clerk in the store of his brother John at the mouth of Huff's Creek. He remained there five years, laying the foundation of his business ex- perience. He then opened a store of his own at Cyclone, also on Huff's Creek. This store was established before a railroad came down into Logan County. He hauled all his goods from Dingess on the Norfolk & Western Railroad, a distance of thirty miles. After six years as a merchant Mr. Claypool took up the timber business. He engaged his own labor and also his capital in this enterprise, cutting off a tract of timber and working it up in his own sawmill. He rafted a great deal of lumber down the river. While his splendid physique and perfect health made him well fitted for the lumber industry, Mr. Claypool has been equally successful as a merchant. After two years in the timber business and three years on the farm he came to Logan, and for a time was a sales- man in the store of William Ghiz. He then organized the Guyan Supply Company, wholesale dealers in groceries, flour and feed, and the business of this firm is now distributed all over the adjoining coal fields. Mr. Claypool for eight years was a member of the Board of Education in the Triadelphia District of Logan County. After moving his home to Logan he became a member of the city council, and in August, 1921, when the commission form of government was adopted, he became one of the city commissioners. He is a director of the First National Bank and has supplied capital and his personal influence to the development of several coal properties. In 1904 he married Miss Vinia Altizer, daughter of P. G. Altizer. She died in 1910, leaving three daughters, Orpha, Opal and Gladys. In 1914 Mr. Claypool married Minnie Patterson, daughter of John Patterson, of Bar- boursville. Mr. Claypool is a member of the board of stewards and board of trustees of the Methodist Church at Logan. He is a Royal Lodge Mason, is a past grand of Logan Lodge of Odd Fellows, and is a republican.