Biography of J. Ernest Lambert - Mercer Co. WV


The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume II,
pg. 618-619


J. ERNEST LAMBERT, treasurer and manager of the Vir-
ginia Supply Company, dealers in lumber and building
materials at Princeton, Mercer County, was born in Rock-
ingham County, Virginia, November 20, 1876, and is a son
of William J. and Barbara Jane (Michael) Lambert, each
of whom attained to the age of seventy-seven years, the
father's death having occurred February 2, 1908, and that
of the mother on May 2, 1921.  William J. Lambert
gave his entire active career to the basic industry of
agriculture, and was one of the prosperous farmers of his
native state, both he and his wife having been born in
Augusta County, Virginia. He was opposed to secession of
the southern states in the climacteric period culminating
in the Civil war, and was one of only two men in his
community to vote against secession. When the war was
precipitated, however, he was loyal to his home state, and
represented the same as a soldier in the Confederate Army,
though his military enthusiasm was diminished by his firm
belief that the principle of secession had been wrongly
adopted by the South. He was a republican in political
allegiance after the war, and he and his wife were mem-
bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He was a
member of a remarkable family of twenty-two children,
his father having been twice married.

John Ernest Lambert, one in a family of seven children,
attended the free schools of his native county and also
a well conducted "pay school" in the Valley of Virginia.
Thereafter he learned the carpenter's trade, at which he
worked four years in the City of Nashville, Tennessee.
By this means he defrayed the expense of his course in the
Dinsmore Business College at Staunton, Virginia, and upon
leaving this institution, at the age of twenty-six years,
he came to the coal fields of West Virginia as timekeeper
for the Pocahontas Consolidated Collieries Company at
Maybeury, McDowell County, where he remained four years.
Thereafter he entered the employ of J. W. Doss, a con-
tractor and builder, and assisted in the erection of a bank
building at Roife and a hotel building at Keystone. Later
he formed a partnership with Mr. Doss, and in 1907 he be-
came associated with the Rosi Construction Company and
assisted in the erection of the high school building at
Bluefield. In 1909 he formed a partnership with Hoge
Mason, and they came to Princeton and engaged in the
lumber and brick business, the enterprise proving suc-
cessful and leading to the organization of the present Vir-
ginia Supply Company, which is one of the substantial and
well ordered concerns of its kind in this section of the
state. Mr. Lambert has taken loyal interest and part in the
development of the coal fields of Southern West Virginia,
and has assisted in the construction of hundreds of build-
ings in various parts of this section of the state. In polities
he is a progressive republican, he is affiliated with Algoma
Lodge No. 94, F. and A. M. at Northfork, West Vir-
ginia, and with Athens Chapter No. 26, and he and his
wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church,
South.

In the year 1908 Mr. Lambert married Miss Cosa Warf,
who was born near Marion, Virginia, and who is a daughter
of Andrew Warf. Mr. and Mrs. Lambert have no children.



Submitted by Valerie Crook <vfcrook@earthlink.net> 

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