Biography of Charles B. Smith - McDowell Co. WV


The History of West Virginia, Old and New 
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., 
Chicago and New York, Volume III, 
pg. 445-446


CHARLES B. SMITH, the resourceful and popular general 
manager of the Elkhorn Coal & Coke Company and the 
Pall Run Collieries Company, with headquarters at May- 
beury, McDowell County, was born at Abbsvalley, Virginia, 
July 14. 1884. He is a scion of Scotch and Irish ancestry. 
and both his paternal and maternal forebears settled in 
Virginia in an early period. Mr. Smith is a son of John 
Marion and Margaret (Taylor) Smith, both natives of Vir- 
ginia, the father having been a merchant at Ahbsvalley and 
later having been for many years established in the whole- 
sale coal and feed business at Salem, that state. John M. 
Smith was a gallant young soldier of the Confederacy in 
the Civil war, as a member of thp Sixteenth Virginia In- 
fantry, recruited in Tazewell County. In battle he was 
shot through the breast, the bullet coming out of his back, 
but upon his recovery from this remarkable and severe in- 
jury he returned to his regiment, with which he served un- 
til the close of the war.
The early education of Charles B. Smith was acquired in 
the public schools of Salem and Graham, Virginia, and in 
the high school at Graham, that state. He then entered 
the historic old University of Virginia, in which he was 
graduated in 1907, with the degree of Civil Engineer, For 
seven months thereafter he was an engineer on road-con- 
struction work in Cuba, and upon his return to the United 
States he entered professional service in the West Vir- 
ginia coal fields. For three months he was employed as an 
engineer for the Red Jacket Coal Company, and for eight 
years thereafter he was mining engineer for the Empire 
Coal & Coke Company. At the expiration of this period 
he assumed his present office, that of general manager of 
the Elkhorn Coal & Coke Company. He is known as an 
able executive, as a man of exceptional technical ability in 
his profession, and as the genial, whole-souled and consid- 
erate personality who gains and retains the high regard of 
those employed under his supervision.
Mr. Smith is a man of fine physical powers, and is fond 
of out-door sports and recreation. He is a member of the 
Bluefield Country Club and is affiliated with the Benevo- 
lent and Protective Order of Elks. His parents were mem- 
bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and his 
wife is a member of the Presbyterian Church, in the faith 
of which she was reared.
In 1915, at Glad Springs, Virginia, Mr. Smith wedded 
Miss Edna Bonham, daughter of Ballard M. and Emma 
(Crotty) Bonham, her father having been for many years 
engaged in the hotel business and being now deceased. Mr. 
and Mrs. Smith have two children: Charles B., Jr., and 
Margaret Taylor.


Submitted by Valerie F. Crook <vfcrook@earthlink.net> 

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