Mason County, West Virginia Biography of JAMES W. WINDON 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. 418 Mason JAMES W. WINDON, cashier of the Point Pleasant Na- tional Bank, at the county seat of Mason County, has been an active executive of this institution from the time of its incorporation, as indicated in the foregoing record con- cerning the bank. He was born at Pleasant Flats, this county, in the year 1860, and is a son of John W. Windon, whose father, Joseph Windon, was a young man when he came from one of the more eastern counties of Virginia, in company with the father of James Copehart, and became one of the early settlers in Mason County. Here Joseph Windon married Miss Susan Mitchell, and they established their home on a large farm on Pleasant Flats, in the Ohio River bottoms, eight miles north of Point Pleasant, where he developed a fine property and became a successful agri- culturist and stock-grower, a portion of the old homestead being still in the possession of the Windon family and the old home place being owned by the son James. Joseph. Windon died at the age of seventy-five years, and his wife likewise attained to advanced age, both having been active members of the Presbyterian Church. John W. Windon was reared on the old home farm and received the advantages of the local schools of the period. For a time he owned and operated a flour mill in Jackson County, and after selling this property he returned to Mason County and engaged in farm enterprise near Flat Rock, on Oldtown Creek, his operations having been of extensive order and he having been one of the representa- tive farmers and influential and honored citizens of his native county at the time of his death, when seventy years of age. His first wife, whose maiden name was Mary Hogg, died when a young woman, and he later wedded Miss Jane Clendenin, who proved a devoted foster-mother to the three children of the .former marriage, she having had no children of her own and having preceded her husband to the life eternal. Thomas, eldest of the children, owns and resides on the old homestead farm of the Hogg family, the same having been inherited by his maternal uncle, John T. Hogg; James W., of this review, was the second in order of birth; and Fannie is the wife of John Kincaid, a farmer near Hickory Chapel, Mason County. On the old home farm James W. Windon passed the period of his childhood and early youth, and his educa- tional advantages were those of the schools of his native county. For several years he was a salesman in a whole- sale grocery establishment at Parkersburg, and thereafter he held a position in the office of the Burns Lumber Com- pany at Sadie, Braxton County, this company having had mills on the present site of Nitro, on the Big Kanawha River, this Town of Nitro having been developed by the United States Government in connection with its activities in the great World war. In 1895 Mr. Windon came to Point Pleasant and entered the employ of S. L. Parsons, manufacturer of and dealer in lumber and railroad timber, his services having included inspecting as well as office work. Later he was employed in the offices of the Equity Milling Company at Point Pleasant, and he next went to Cincinnati, Ohio, in the employ of the T. J. Hall Company, coal operators and dealers'. He was a valued office employe in this connection until he returned to his native county, where he accepted the post of assistant cashier of the Point Pleasant National Bank at the time of its organiza- tion, in 1901, and where he soon afterward was made cashier, as noted in the preceding article. He has been secretary of the Progressive Building & Loan Association since 1905, the year which marked its organization, and this association has erected many buildings and otherwise contributed much to the civic and material advancement of Point Pleasant. In addition to these interests Mr. Windon also conducts a successful general insurance agency at Point Pleasant. He has served as secretary of the local Board of Education and as a member of the board of trus- tees of the battle monument at Point Pleasant, marking the site of a battle that occurred in 1774. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, and he and his wife are popu- lar factors in the representative social activities of their home community. Mr. Windon married Miss Ida L. Bel- knap, of Cincinnati, Ohio, no children having been born of this union.