Marion County, West Virginia Biography of Capt. Rollo J. CONLEY ************************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: Material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor. Submitted by Valerie Crook, , March 1999 ************************************************************************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 42 CAPTAIN ROLLO J. CONLEY, a veteran of two wars, and for many years a prominent officer in the West Virginia National Guard, is a Fairmont lawyer, and has practiced his profession in that city since 1909. Captain Conley is a member of an old Pittsburgh family, but was born during the two years that his parents lived in Fulton, Illinois. His birth occurred March 27, 1874. He is a son of Joseph X. and Marietto (Gay) Conley, a grand- son of Joseph and Mary (McRoberts) Conley, and great- grandson of Hugh Conley. Joseph Conley was for many years in the drug business at Pittsburgh, where he died in 1854. Joseph X. Conley, who was born at Pittsburgh April 21, 1851, learned the drug business and for several years continued in that line in the West. On returning to Pitts- burgh he resumed the same line of business. While in the West he married Marietta Gay, a native of Connecticut and daughter of Rev. William Gay, who for fifty-nine years was a Presbyterian minister. Rollo J. Conley was educated in the city schools of Pitts- burgh, in Slippery Rock State Normal School in Pennsyl- vania, and finally in the law department of West Virginia University. On leaving normal school he entered the rail- way mail service. He was in the employ of the Government fourteen years, and for the last several years devoted his leisure time to the study of law in the offices of Judge W. S. Meredith of Fairmont, rounding out his studies with a course in West Virginia University Law School. He was admitted to the West Virginia bar in 1909, and since that year has been gaining a steadily increasing practice in his profession, and has relations with a number of prosperous business undertakings. He is secretary-treasurer of the Willetts Clay Company, secretary-treasurer of the Hall Garage Company, vice president of the Acme Book Com- pany, secretary of the Martin Brothers Drug Company, and director of the Fairmont Building and Loan Association. Captain Conley has a highly creditable record as a soldier. At the time of the Spanish-American War he ob- tained a leave of absence from the mail service and en- listed in the Tenth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer In- fantry. As a buck private he spent fifteen months in the Philippines, where he was on duty during the Philippine insurrection. On the return trip home his regiment was given shore leave in Japanese ports. Captain Conley in 1912 entered the West Virginia National Guards as a private in Company H of the First Regiment and after various promotions was made judge advocate general, with the rank of major. In 1918 Captain Conley resigned from the National Guard and accepted a commission as cap- tain in the Quartermaster's Department of the National Army, and in that capacity spent one year in France. He returned home in August, 1919, and was mustered out. Captain Conley was one of a party of 150 members of the American Legion which visited the battlefields of France and Belgium during the summer of 1921. Everywhere they went they were feted, and were received with welcome by both high and low, being entertained by the municipal authorities of many cities, and also by King Albert of Belgium, President Millerand of France and Marshall Foch and others. Captain Conley is a past commander of Heint- zeiman Post No. 17 of the American Legion, and is judge advocate general of the West Virginia Department of Vet- erans of Foreign Wars. Fraternally he is affiliated with Fairmont Lodge No. 9, A. F. and A. M., Fairmont Commandery, Knights Templar, Mountain City Lodge, Knights of Pythias, Fairmont Lodge of Elks, the Kiwanis Club and the Chamber of Commerce. He and Mrs. Conley are members of the Presbyterian Church. November 21, 1899, Captain Conley married Georgia E. Hall, daughter of Sylvanus W. Hall of Fairmont. The four children of their marriage were: Virginia, born April 23, 1901, died July 12, 1901; Joseph, born August 28, 1902; Frank, born January 11, 1907; and Rollo Hall, born No- vember 10, 1912.