Biography of William Pinckney Haller

WILLIAM PINCKNEY HALLER though only forty years of
age has had an almost continuous association and worked
in connection with the coal mining and other industrial
affairs of Southern West Virginia for nearly thirty years.
He is especially well known in Mercer County, being auditor
of the Matoaka Electric Power Company, of the Panama,
the Algonquin and Wright Coal Companies, his home and
business headquarters being in the village of Matoaka.

Mr. Haller was born at Huntington, West Virginia, Feb
ruary 5, 1882, son of William J. and Margaret (Hat
field) Haller. His father, who died in 1912 at the age
of fifty-eight, entered the employ of the Chesapeake and
Ohio Railroad Company as a young man in the capacity
of telegraph operator at Hawk's Nest. Subsequently he
joined the motive power department, was promoted to
master mechanic, and at intervals served in that capacity
at Richmond, Huntington and Cincinnati. For a time he
was master mechanic of the Illinois Central Railroad with
headquarters at Memphis. William J. Haller was a demo-
crat in politics, for many years enjoyed membership in
the Masonic fraternity and belongs to the Protestant
Episcopal Church. He was born at Wytheville, Virginia,
son of Dr. William P. Haller. Mrs. Margaret (Hatfield)

Haller was born at Barboursville, West Virginia, and
continues to reside at Huntington. She is an earnest
communicant of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Of her
three living children the oldest is John J., an employe
of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad Company at Hunt-
ington. The only daughter is Mrs. W. T. Smith of Hunt-
ington.

William P. Haller acquired his public school educa-
tion at Huntington and Kenova, West Virginia, and at
Memphis, Tennessee. When he was twelve years old he
went to work in the offices of the Norfolk and Western
Railroad at Kenova. A year later he was assigned to
clerical work in the coal fields. For a time he had charge
of supplies for the Pond Creek and Island Creek Coal
Companies, during the period of construction work in
1908. Since 1915 his home has been at Matoaka. In addi-
tion to being auditor of the Matoaka Electric Power Com-
pany and the coal company above mentioned, he is asso-
ciated with the Mutual Building & Investment Company,
the Odd Fellows Building Corporation and the Matoaka
Cemetery Company. He has served as secretary-treasurer
of the Matoaka Board of Trade and the Matoaka Business
Men's Club, and in 1919, he gave a very vigorous and
progressive administration as mayor of this little industrial
city.

Mr. Haller is a democrat, is a member of the Protes-
tant Episcopal Church, and is affiliated with Bailey Lodge
No. 137, F. and A. M. at Rock, West Virginia, he being a
Royal Arch Mason, a member of Athens Chapter No. 26
Athens, West Virginia, is a past chancellor commander
and keeper of records and seals of the Knights of Pythias
and is a member of the Independent Older of Odd Fellows
and the Loyal Order of Moose.

In 1909 he married Miss Marie Tuma Curtin, daughter of
Patrick Curtin of Wytheville, Virginia. They have one
son and three daughters.


From The History of West Virginia, Old and New, page 74

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

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