Mingo County, West Virginia          Biography of Alexander BISHOP

This file was submitted by Valerie Crook,
E-mail address:  <vfcrook@trellis.net>

The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch.

This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit
organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved.

Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval
system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other
means requires the written approval of the file's author.

This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside
a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at

http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm

The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 209

ALEXANDER BISHOP is both vice president and cashier of
the First National Bank of Williamson, county seat of
Mingo County, of which he was one of the organizers, and
is also secretary and treasurer of the War Eagle Coal Com-
pany and an official in several other coal producing com-
panies, of minor order.

Mr. Bishop was born in Pike County, Kentucky, as were
also his parents, Miles and Nancy Jane (Motney) Bishop:
who still maintain their home in that county, where the
father has long been a representative agriculturist and
stock-grower. The father of Miles Bishop was born and
reared in Ireland, and upon coming to America first settled
in Virginia, whence he later removed to Kentucky and be-
came a substantial farmer in Pike County. The Motney
family was founded in Virginia in the Colonial period of
our national history.

Alexander Bishop, the eldest in a family of eight sons
and six daughters, was reared on the old home farm, gained
his early education in the rural schools and later contin-
ued his studies two years in the Presbyterian College at
Pikeville, Kentucky. In his youth he applied himself vig-
orously to farm work and logging, and in 1895 he left
college to become a traveling salesman for a wholesale
shoe house. About one year later he accepted the position
of general manager of the mercantile establishment of Var-
ney, Williamson & Company at Williamson, West Virginia,
and in 1899 he entered the employ of the Williamson Bank.
of which he served as bookkeeper and assistant cashier until
June 1, 1903, when the bank liquidated its business and
passed out of existence. Mr. Bishop then became associated
with other representative business men in the organization
of the First National Bank of Williamson, of which he
was elected cashier, an office of which he has continued the
efficient and valued incumbent to the present time, besides
which he is serving also as vice president of the institu-
tion, to the upbuilding of whose substantial business he
has contributed in large measure. He has become one of
the leading business men and most loyal and progressive
citizens of Williamson, and his capitalistic interests in-
clude his connection with coal-mining industry in this sec-
tion of the state, as intimated in the opening paragraph
of this review.

Mr. Bishop was elected a member of the County Court
of Mingo County, has been its president since 1918, and his
present term will expire in 1923. He served about ten years
as a member of the city council, and has been at all times
an apostle of progressiveness in community affairs. He is
an active member of the local Kiwanis Club, is affiliated
with O'Brien Lodge No. 101, Free and Accepted Masons,
is a democrat in politics, and both he and his wife are
members of the Presbyterian Church in their home city.

Mr. Bishop married Jane Maynard, who was born in
and is a representative of one of the oldest and most hon-
ored families of Pike County, Kentucky, and the two chil-
dren of this union are: Elwyn, who was born August 28,
1900; and Mary June, who was born May 22, 1920.