Biography of John Flood Land - Mercer Co. WV

The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923,  The American Historical Society, Inc.
Chicago and New York,  Volume ll.
pg. 115


    John Flood Land had the wisdom to identify himself when a young man
with the expanding destinies of Bluefield, where he has lived for nearly
thirty years, and is owner and director of one of the leading general
insurance agencies in this section of the state.
    Mr. Land was born in Campbell County, Virginia, March 28, 1874, of old
Virginia stock. His father's people came originally from Whales, while his
mother's ancestors were English. His parents, C.H. and Sarah E. (Martin)
Land, were both born in Virginia, his father being a tanner and farmer.
During the Civil War he was in the Confederate Army from the beginning
until the end, in the quartermaster's department.
    John Flood Land acquired a common school education in Campbell County
and attended the new London Academy. Leaving school at the age of
seventeen, he came to Bluefield and went to work as a clerk for his oldest
brother in the Surface and Land Supply Company. This firm did an extensive
business supplying merchandise and other materials to the contractors who
were then building the streets and railroads in this section. John F. Land
had charge of the general supply store. He remained with the firm eight
years and in 1899 entered the insurance business with the  S.M. Smith
Insurance Agency in Bluefield. He continued with Mr. Smith about six years,
and then become one of the organizers of the Citizens Underwriters Agency
of Bluefield. Selling his interest in this in 1912, he organized the
Bluefield Insurance Agency, which he now controls and to which he devotes
all his business time and energy. This is an agency with an extensive
business and handling all classes of insurance !
service except life, the total aggregate of its annual premiums running to
about $86,000.
    In 1915, at Lynchburg, Virginia, Mr. Land married Miss Ella Victoria
Woolevine, daughter of John D. and Olie Woolevine, natives of Virginia.
They have two children, John F., Jr., and Mary Ella. The family are members
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Mr. Land is a Royal Arch, Knight
Templar and Scottish Rite Mason and  Shriner, and is secretary of the
Masonic Temple at Bluefield. he is also secretary of the Elks Lodge and a
member of the Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club.


Submitted by John "Bill" Wheeler <wheeler@gru.net>

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