Mingo County, West Virginia Biography of Martin Van Buren CRIGGER ************************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: Material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor. Submitted by Valerie Crook, , March 1999 ************************************************************************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 17 MARTIN VAN BUREN CRIGGER is one of the mining execu- tives of Mingo County, being Superintendent of the Wygarb Mining Company's property on Tug River, two miles below Williamson. This mine was opened and has been in opera- tion since 1904. L. E. Armentrout is president of the Wygarb Company. Mr. Crigger was horn at Speedwell, Wythe County, Vir- ginia, April 29, 1885, son of Joseph H. and Mary Hicks Crigger. His father was born in Wythe County, Virginia, in 1853, and is now living in Fries, Grayson County, that state. Mary Hicks was a native of Illinois, and died in 1904. at the age of forty-seven. Joseph H. Crigger spent an active life as a farmer, is a Methodist, an enthusiastic republican, and is affiliated with the Redmen and I. 0. 0. F. fraternities. He and his wife had two children, Martin and Carrie, the latter the wife of James L. LaRue, of Fries, Virginia. Martin Van Buren Crigger, whom his friends always know as Van, acquired a public school education in Wythe County, Virginia. He has carried his education into mature years, being a reader and a student of mining and technical works. At the age of sixteen he began service for the Nor- folk & Western Railroad Company and construction work in the coal fields. For three years he was a foreman, and was then employed as engineer at the power plant of the TT. S. Coal and Coke Company at Gary, McDoweIl County. Three years later he went to Rawl, Mingo County, as elec- trician for the Crystal Block Coal and Coke Company, and at the end of three years was promoted to mine superin- tendent, and continued in that capacity for the Crystal company for four years. At the end of that time he bought a farm in Jackson County, Ohio, but in a brief time had get aside his ambition for agriculture as a permanent vocation, and a year later returned with renewed enthusiasm to the coal mining industry. It was at that time that he became superintendent of the Wygarb Mine in Mingo County. In 1908 Mr. Crigger married a former schoolmate. Miss Dencie Jones, daughter of George W. Jones, of Speedwell, Wythe County, Virginia. They have five children, four sons and a daughter: Hubert, Eugene, Van, Jr., Catherine and Price. Mrs. Crigger is a member of the Methodist Church. He is active in the fraternities of Elks and Masons, being a member of the Lodge and Chapter at Williamson, the Knights Templar Commandery at Huntington, Wheeling Consistory and Charleston Temple of the Mystic Shrine. In politics he is a republican.