Logan County, West Virginia Biography of BENJAMIN B. WILSON This file was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the sketch subject. 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 III, pg. 472 Logan BENJAMIN B. WILSON. For a man of his years Benjamin B. Wilson has had an unusual series of responsibilities in the coal mining industry. He comes of a family of miners and coal operators, and has had personal experience in nearly every branch of the industry. He is now superintendent of the C. J. H. Coal Company at Peach Creek in Logan County. This mine was opened recently, and all its modern equip- ment was installed under his supervision. Mr. Wilson was born on a farm at Covington in Tioga County, Pennsylvania, December 11, 1884, son of Thomas and Jennet (Clendening) Wilson. His father was born in the North of Ireland, and was two years of age when brought to the United States. The mother was born in Scotland, and was a young girl when her people came here. She is now living, at the age of seventy-eight, at Logan, West Virginia. Thomas Wilson, who died in Pennsylvania in 1894, at the age of sixty-eight, was at that time a resident of Clearfield County. He was a farmer, was a miner and mine superintendent, and inherited that voca- tion from his father before him. Thomas Wilson was a Federal soldier in the famous Bucktail Regiment of Penn- sylvania, and served three years, rising to the rank of lieutenant. He was in several of the Virginia campaigns, and also at the battle of Gettysburg, and was twice wounded. He voted as a republican, was a member of the Presby- terian Church, and was affiliated with the Masonic Order, Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias. Thomas Wilson had a family of seventeen children, five of whom are still living: H. T., president of the H. T. Wilson Coal Company, with mines near Logan, and he was a pioneer in the coal industry in this section of the state, being first interested at Dingess in Mingo County. His home is in Cleveland. Ella Wilson is the wife of Andrew Mitchell, a mine foreman for the Wilson Coal Company. Mary is the wife of Arthur Evans, a miner and farmer at Glenrichey, Pennsylvania. Thomas, the youngest of the family, is sales agent for the Wilson Coal Company at Detroit. Benjamin B. Wilson attended school in Tioga County and also the Mansfield High School. He completed his educa- tion at the age of seventeen, and at the age of eighteen became a mule driver in a Pennsylvania mine. In 1901 he came to H. T. Wilson's operation known as the Camp Branch Coal Company at Dingess. While there he kept store and was general utility man for three years. He then returned to the mines in Pennsylvania, but a year later reached Logan County, West Virginia, as mine foreman for the Draper Coal Company. He held that position five years, and for two years was mine foreman and six years superintendent for the H. T. Wilson Coal Company. His next work was as superintendent of mines numbered 7, 9. 14 and 15 for the Main Island Creek Coal Company at Omar. He left that work just seven months before opening the C. J. H. Mine. That seven months he spent in the business of writing in- surance for the West Virginia and Kentucky Insurance Company. In 1910 he married Julia McDonald, daughter of Bryant McDonaId, a pioneer family in the Guyandotte Valley. She was born near the mine location of the C. J. H. Coal Com- pany, at the mouth of Peach Creek. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson have two children, Thomas and Francis. Mrs. Wilson is a member of the Baptist Church. He is a Master Mason and an Elk.