Mason County, West Virginia Biography of WILLIAM J. WALDIE 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 III, pg. 443 Mason WILLIAM J. WALDIE is one of the progressive business men of Point Pleasant, county seat of Mason County, where he is president of the Point Pleasant Lumber Com- pany, a corporation that was formed in 1921 and that bases its operations on a capital stock of $50,000. In addi- tion to being president of the company Mr. Waldie is also its treasurer and general manager, E. H. Woelffel being vice president and M. G. Tyler, the secretary of the cor- poration. The large and well equipped retail yard of the company at Point Pleasant has already built up a most substantial and prosperous retail trade in the handling of lumber and general linea of building materials. Mr. Waldie was born in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, in 1865, his father having been engaged in the meat-mar- ket business at Carnegie, that county. Mr. Waldie early gained practical experience in connection with lumber pro- duction, and as a youth was employed in the lumber woods and yards of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Oregon. He finally became a lumber salesman and later engaged in the retail lumber trade in his old home city of Carnegie. In 1907, at the height of the oil boom in Hancock County, West Virginia, he engaged in the lumber business at Hol- lidays Cove, that county. Later he went to the State of Oregon, where he had charge of lumber yards operated by the Stanley-Smith Lumber Company, in the employ of which corporation ho continued five years. In the ensuing two years he built up a fine trade for the retail lumber yards of which he had charge at Norwalk, Ohio, and he next went to Houghton, on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where he was placed in charge of the retail department of a lead- ing lumber concern, besides having general supervision of logging operations, with a force of 100 men. His service in this connection continued three years. In the course of twenty-five years he had made not infrequent visits to friends in West Virginia, and the impression he thus gained of the advantages and attractions of this state finally led him to establish his home at Point Pleasant and to organize the lumber company of which he is now the president and the business of which, under his vigorous management, has grown to substantial volume, with con- stantly cumulative tendencies. The yards of the company are situated in the north part of the city, above high-water mark on the river and thus immune from flood damage. Mr. Waldie is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, and he and his wife are active members of the Methodist Church at Point Pleasant, which he is serving as a stew- ard and as teacher of the men's class in the Sunday school. He is an enthusiast in hunting and fishing, and while re- aiding in Northern Michigan was a member of the Hough- ton Gun Club. He has many fine trophies acquired in his hunting expeditions, including deer heads handsomely mounted, and he has made many interesting hunting trips, in Michigan and other states, in his vacation periods, the while he is deeply concerned in game protection and preser- vation and the proper enforcement of game laws. Mr. Waldie married Miss Elizabeth Dawson, of Carnegie, Pennsylvania, and they have three children: Thomas is associated actively with the lumber company of which his father is president. He was identified with the Govern- ment ship-building activities at Portland, Oregon, and after the close of the war he was identified with business inter- ests at Hood River, that state, until about the opening of the year 1922, when he came to Point Pleasant and became associated with his father's lumber business. Stanley en- tered the nation's service, from Michigan in connection with the World war, and was assigned to the Motor Trans- port Corps. Jean, the only daughter, is the wife of Jamie Miller, of Norwalk, Ohio.