Mingo County, West Virginia Biography of WADE HAMPTON BRONSON This biography was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: ********************************************** ***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 II, pg. 570 Mingo WADE HAMPTON BRONSON is one of the older residents of Williamson, becoming acquainted with that village as a boy before the advent of the first railroad. His ambition to study law was frequently thwarted by lack of funds, and only after overcoming a number of difficulties was he ad- mitted to the bar. Since then he has been steadily making his way to the front rank of lawyers in this section of the state, and is the senior member of the prominent firm of Bronson & Straton at Williamson. Mr. Bronson was born at Warfield, Kentucky, November 13, 1880. His father, J. L. F. Bronson, was born in 1837 in South Carolina, and was a soldier in the Confederate army. After the war he settled in Kentucky, and he died in 1886, when his son "Wade was six years of age. The mother, whose maiden name was Lou Salyers, was born in Louisa, Kentucky, in 1853, her parents having come from Virginia. Besides Wade Hampton there were two other sons and one daughter. Wade Hampton Bronson acquired his early education in the public schools of Warfield, Kentucky, and was about fifteen years of age when he came to Williamson with his mother in 1895. In 1898 he entered the Concord Normal School at Athens, West Virginia, and remained a student there two years, and then earned a salary as an employe of his brother, then clerk of the Circuit Court of the district including Mingo County. In 1901 he entered the law school of the University of Virginia, and remained there one year. He then resumed work in the office of his brother, but carried on his legal studies at the same time, and in March, 1903, after examination, was qualified and admitted to the bar of West Virginia. In the fall of that year he returned to the University of Virginia, and soon proved his capacity to keep up with his studies in the senior class. Having gained the equivalent of a university law course, and having already been admitted to the bar, he did not deem it neces- sary to remain to obtain the law degree. He therefore re- turned to Williamson and became a partner in the law office of Attorney John B. Wilkinson. The latter was elected to the bench in 1904, and Mr. Bronson then formed a part- nership with Mr. S. D. Stokes, under the name of Stokes & Bronson. In 1914 this firm was dissolved by mutual consent. Mr. Bronson was then alone until 1916, when he was elected prosecuting attorney of Mingo County. He was reelected, but resigned after having served four years and three months. On retiring from office he formed his present partnership with Mr. Straton, under the name of Bronson & Straton. Mr. Bronson is secretary, treasurer and a director of the North Matewan Land Company, is secretary and director of the Williamson lee & Coal Storage Company, local counsel for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, Western Union Telegraph Company, Sycamore Coal Company, Chat- taroy Coal Company and other coal companies. During the World war he was government appeal agent of the Local Draft Board, was a "Four-Minute" speaker and leader in several of the drives. He is a member in the local and state bar associations, a democrat in politics, is affiliated with O'Brien Lodge No. 101, A. F. and A. M., at William- son, is a member of the Kiwanis Club and the Presbyterian Church. On June 23, 1909, Mr. Bronson married Edith Embleton, of Montgomery, West Virginia. She was born in Mason County, this state, of English ancestry. Their five children are: Margaret, born April 7, 1910; Wade, Jr., born Sep- tember 6, 1911; Elizabeth, born November 23, 1913; Robert and John, born January 3, 1917.