JOHN WESLEY LUTHER

The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 369
McDowell

JOHN WESLEY LUTHER, a former member of the State
Senate of West Virginia, had the distinction of estab-
lishing at Welch the first undertaking business in McDowell
County, and he has here continued in this line of business
since 1903, besides which he was a stockholder and the
president of the Welch Furniture Company.

Mr. Luther was born on a farm on Twelve Pole Creek,
Wayne County, West Virginia, July 26, 1874, and is a son
of David H. and Rebecca R. (Stock) Luther, the former of
whom died at the venerable age of eighty-four years, on the
day that Col. Theodore .Roosevelt was elected president of
the United States. Mrs. Luther was born in 1835, and her
death occurred January 13, 1919. Her first husband was
Wesley Harman, and two children were born of this union.
As the wife of David H. Luther she became the mother of
seven children. Of the children of the second marriage
John Wesley and George B. were twins, the latter having
lost his life in an automobile accident January 16, 1921, at
Huntington, in which city he was associated with the Hunt-
ington Lumber & Supply Company.

The Luther family was founded in what is now West
Virginia at the time when Gen. George Washington was-
here engaged in making surveys, and thus few families in
this section of the original Old Dominion commonwealth can
claim prior pioneer honors. The original representatives of
the family came here from the State of New York, and the
genealogical line traces back to sterling German and Irish
stock. Settlement was made by the Luthers in the present
Wayne County, West Virginia, and there both David H.
Luther and his wife were born. Representatives of the
family have been residents of the Ceredo and Twelve Pole
Creek districts of Wayne County and also of the City of
Huntington. David H. Luther was a gallant soldier of the
Union during virtually the entire period of the Civil war,
and gained the rank of sergeant. He was a republican in
political adherence, and his wife was a member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church.

John W. Luther gained his early education in a log school-
house not far distant from the old homestead in Wayne
County, and at the age of nineteen years he went to Chanute,
Kansas, and found employment in the service of the Mis-
souri, Kansas & Texas Railroad, in which connection he was
finally made track foreman and placed in charge of a work
train. He remained nearly three years in the Sunflower
State, and upon his return to West Virginia he became an
attendant in the Spencer Hospital. Two years later he was
given general supervision of this institution, and in this
office he served effectively for a term of five years, within
which he gave special attention to the study of anatomy.
In 1903 he passed a successful examination in anatomy
before the state board, as a prerequisite to establishing him-
self in the undertaking business. Later, in the year 1910,
he attended the Barnes School of Anatomy and Sanitary
Science in the City of Chicago, in which institution he took
a post-graduate course in 1912.

In 1903 Mr. Luther came to Welch, where he soon after-
ward formed a partnership with C. D. and R. G. Brewster
and engaged in the furniture and undertaking business, he
being the technical and executive manager of the under-
taking and funeral-directing department. In 1910 the busi-
ness was incorporated under the title of the Welch Furniture
Company. Mr. Luther has conducted an independent under-
taking enterprise since January 3, 1918, with an establish-
ment which is of modern standard in equipment, facilities
and service.

Mr. Luther has taken lively interest in political affairs,
served two years as a member of the city council of Welch,
and has been notable for progressiveness and public spirit.
He has been influential in the local councils and campaign
activities of the republican party, and in 1916 was elected
to represent his district in the State Senate, in which he
made a record of effective service in behalf of wise legisla-
tion, he having been a member of the Senate committees on
finance, public institutions and railroads during the first
legislative session, and in 1919 having been a member of
the finance committee, the sanitation committee and the in-
surance and compensation committee, of which last he was
chairman.

In the Masonic fraternity Mr. Luther is a past master
of the Blue Lodge and has been a delegate to the Grand
Lodge of West Virginia, and he is a member also of the
Chapter of Royal Arch Masons in his home city, besides
which he is a past noble grand of the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows, and served fifteen years as secretary of its
lodge at Welch. He is affiliated also with the Benevolent
and Protective Order of Elks and the Junior Order United
American Mechanics, is an influential member of the Welch
Chamber of Commerce, and attends and supports the Meth-
odist Episcopal Church, South, of which his wife is a
member.

November 6, 1901, recorded the marriage of Mr. Luther
and Miss Minnie Waren, who was born in Roane County,
this state, a daughter of Rev. D. B. Waren, a retired clergy-
man of the Methodist Protestant Church. Mr. and Mrs.
Luther have no children.