Marshall County, West Virginia - Biography of James Sansome Lakin.

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Submitted by Valerie Crook.


The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume II,
pg. 520-521
Marshall

JAMES SANSOME LAKIN, president of the state board of
control, was born at Moundsville, West Virginia, the son
of Rev. Calvin H. and Catherine Finney Lakin. He is a
direct descendant of Abraham Lakin (born 1713, died
1796), who received from King George of England title
deeds for a tract of land in Frederick County, Maryland,
which has passed from father to son through many genera-
tions and is still in the Lakin name, being now the home-
stead of William Gerry Lakin.

Rev. Calvin Harrison Lakin, the father of the subject of
this sketch, was born near Freeport, Ohio, on June 29,
1838, and married Catherine Finney, of Tuscarawas County,
Ohio, on March 26, 1863. He retired after a half century
of honorable and active service as a minister of the Gospel
of Jesus Christ in the West Virginia and Iowa conferences
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, including a term ot
years as presiding elder of the Oakland, Maryland and
Huntington, West Virginia districts, residing at that time
in Huntington, where he died in February, 1918. He lies
buried in Spring Hill Cemetery by the side of his beloved
wife, who preceded him to the grave in October, 1910.

James S. Lakin received his education in Fairmont State
Normal School, at Fairmont, West Virginia, and Ohio
Wesleyan University, at Delaware, Ohio. While attending
the last named institution he met a young woman student
named Lura Oliva Lakin, daughter of George W. Lakin,
of Columbus, Ohio, who became his wife on November 14,
1889.  To them three children have been born, James
Offutt, Marion Elizabeth and Florence Catherine. On De-
cember 21, 1921, James Offutt Lakin married Miss Mar-
guerite Baker, of Morgantown, West Virginia, the daughter
of General and Mrs. George C. Baker of that city. Mar-
guerite Baker Lakin graduated from Smith College, North-
ampton, Massachusetts, in 1921.   Marion Elizabeth
graduated from the same college in 1922. James Offutt
graduated from West Virginia University in 1922, and
Florence Catherine attends Charleston High School, from
which she expects to graduate in 1923.

For a number of years Mr. Lakin was engaged in the
mercantile and timber business, with headquarters at Terre
Alta, West Virginia. He was president of the First Na-
tional Bank of Terra Alta and a director of the Terra
Alta Bank. His interest and activity in politics and public
affairs have been of the most ardent nature. He was for
several terms a member of the Republican Executive Com-
mittee of Preston County. In 1912 he was chairman of the
Republican State Committee, and in 1920 he was elected a
delegate to the Republican National Convention at Chicago
and represented West Virginia there as a member of the
"Big Four" delegation. In 1900 he was appointed by
Gov. Albert B. White as a director of the West Virginia
Asylum at Huntington, West Virginia, and was reappointed
in 1904 by Gov. W. M. Dawson. In 1905 he was a can-
didate on the republican ticket for Congress in the Second
Congressional District of West Virginia, to succeed Hon.
A. G. Dayton, who had been appointed to a federal judge-
ship, but was defeated by a very narrow margin by Col.
Thomas B. Davis of Keyser, West Virginia, a brother of
Hon. Henry G. Davis. His service as a member of the
board of directors of the West Virginia Asylum and his
other business qualifications led Gov. W. E. Glasscock
to appoint him in 1909 as one of the three members of the
newly created state board of control, which was to have
full charge of the business and financial affairs of all state
educational institutions, now twelve in number, and the
complete control and management of all of West Virginia's
penal, charitable and correctional institutions, now fourteen
in number. He has been a member of that board ever since,
having been reappointed in July, 1921 by Gov. E. F.
Morgan for his third consecutive term. When the board
first organized on July 1, 1909, he was elected president,
and has served in that executive capacity continuously, ex-
cepting the four years of Gov. John J. Cornwell's ad-
ministration.   The other members of the board were
Thomas E. Hodges, of Monongalia County, and John A.
Sheppard of Mingo County. During the past thirteen years
the following men have served with him as members of
that board: Dr. E. B. Stephenson, of Kanawha County,
Dr. J. M. Williamson, of Marshall County, William M. O.
Dawson, of Kanawha County, A. Bliss McCrum, of Preston
County, J. Walter Barnes, of Marion County, and John
Sherman Darst, of Kanawha County. In 1913 Gov. H. D.
Hatfleld appointed Mr. Lakin a member of the Public
Service Commission, of which he was elected chairman, but
it was held that he was ineligible because of a provision in
the law governing the State Board of Control. He was
thereupon reappointed by the governor to the last named
board and reelected president. In addition to these duties
he was appointed by Governor Cornwell during the World
war as chairman of the State Committee on Proposed Con-
struction, and later as a member of the State Mental Hy-
giene Commission.

Mr. Lakin is identified with the activities of the First
M. E. Church of Charleston. He is a thirty-second degree
Scottish Rite Mason, a Knight Templar, a Noble of the
Mystic Shrine, a member of Charleston Lodge, Benevolent
and Protective Order of Elks, and of the Knights of
Pythias and of the Edgewood Country Club.

Immediately after the Spanish-American war Mr. Lakin
was authorized, along with Dr. Buckner Fairfax Scott, by
Gov. George Wesley Atkinson to organize Company M of the
First West Virginia Infantry, National Guards.