Mason County, West Virginia Biography of WALTER A. WINDSOR This file 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. 638-639 WALTER A. WINDSOR. Point Pleasant, an important little city and Ohio River port, at the mouth of the Kana- wha River, claims as the most extensive and important of its industrial enterprises that conducted by The Marietta Manufacturing Company, of which Mr. Windsor is the presi- dent. Under the title of W. F. Robertson and Company, this business had its inception in 1852, when river naviga- tion was an enterprise of major civic and economic import- ance. In 1887 The Marietta Manufacturing Company, suc- cessor of the original concern, was incorporated with a capital stock of $100,000, but it was not until the year 1915 that the factory and headquarters of the company were transferred from Marietta, Ohio, to Point Pleasant, West Virginia, a charter being granted to the company by the latter state and the capital of the corporation later being increased to $200,000. J. S. Spencer, one of the most liberal and influential citizens of Point Pleasant, is one of the principals in the company, as is also Judge George Pof- fenbarger, who is serving on the bench of the West Vir- ginia Supreme Court. Walter A. Windsor became presi- dent of the company in 1912, under the Ohio charter, and he has continued the executive head of the West Virginia corporation. C. O. Weissenburger is vice-president and treasurer, and S. C. Wilhelm is the secretary. The manu- facturing plant of the company at Point Pleasant was erected in 1916. It consists of substantial, modern mill buildings, giving an aggregate floor space of 100,000 square feet. The plant has excellent frontage on the Ohio River, with the best of launching facilities. The concern is one of the foremost in the manufacturing of steamboats, barges and smaller water craft to be found on the course of any of the navigable rivers of the United States, and the plant has facilities for the full equipping of vessels, as builders of engines, boilers and all requisite accessories, with a gen- eral foundry and machine shop and provisions for the effec- tive handling of structural steel work of all kinds, so that the province of operations is thus greatly broadened. The company retains an average force of 600 employes, and in the manufacturing of tow boats of the best grade the com- pany has developed an appreciable export trade. In 1921 three such vessels from this important plant were shipped to the Madalena River, Columbia, South America. Here are manufactured the most powerful types of tow boats, both stern and side wheel, as well as screw propellers, built on inland rivers, and provided with wonderful triple-ex- pansion engines. Here are manufactured also the most powerful types of tandem compound engines for use on in- land rivers, no other builders in the Union turning out such engines of as great power. The plant is the largest of its kind on western rivers, and here also splendid constructive service was given in connection with the nation's activities in the great World war. Here were at that period produced 20,000 horse-power in marine engines for ocean vessels and also 10 batteries of water-tube boilers. The plant of the company was officially enlisted in the Government service as Class A, No. 1, and no man needed in the operations of the plant was permitted to enlist in the army or navy. This vigorous and progressive West Virginia corporation has handled the largest and most important of contracts in its special field of production, and the great importance of such an industry in connection with civic and material prosperity and progress at Point Pleasant may be readily recognized. Walter A. Windsor was born at Marietta, Ohio, in the year 1888, and is a son of A. Windsor, who was identified with marine manufacturing interests in Ohio throughout his active career, as was also his father, A. Windsor, Sr., the latter having established his residence at Marietta, that state, in an early day. Walter A. Windsor gained practical experience in the shops and yards of the Marietta Manu- facturing Company while its plant was still maintained in his native city, and his technical and academic education is of advanced order, as evidenced by the fact that he has received the degrees of B. A., LL. B., M. E., S. N. A. and M. E.-one or more of these from Marietta College and the others from Harvard University. He also attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the city of Boston. He is a member of the bar in the State of Ohio. In his home city of Point Pleasant Mr. Windsor is an active member of the Kiwanis Club and the Business Men's Club, and here he is a communicant of Christ Church, Protestant Episcopal. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity. In his vigorous business policies, his cultural influence and his pleasing personality Mr. Windsor has become a most popu- lar factor in the business and social life of Point Pleasant, and his name still appears on the roster of eligible young bachelors in this place. He is a trustee of Marietta Col- lege in his native city, and through his collegiate associa- tions maintains affiliation with the Delta Upsilon and the Theta Epsilon fraternities.