Mingo County, West Virginia Biography of IRELAND JAMES 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. 591 Mingo IRELAND JAMES has been a resident of West Virginia since boyhood, is now a leading exponent of the real estate business at Williamson, Mingo County, and is a former member of the State Legislature. Mr. James was born in Martin County Kentucky, on the 5th of September, 1887, and is a son of David and Mary Ann (Hall) James, both likewise natives of the old Blue Grass State. David James was engaged in the real estate business in Martin County, Kentucky, a number of years, and in 1898 he turned his attention to the timber business, with logging operations in the vicinity of Dingess, Mingo County, West Virginia. After four years of activity in this line of enterprise he removed to Williamson, where he en- gaged in the real estate business, in connection with which he platted and placed on the market an attractive sub- division to the city. He continued his active association with the real estate business and did much important de- velopment work until 1920, when he retired. He and his wife are still residents of Williamson, and both are members of the Baptist Church. In 1904 Ireland James graduated from the Williamson High School, and after being associated with his father's real estate operations for a time he served four years as crew dispatcher for the Norfolk & Western Railroad. For the ensuing four years he was a locomotive fireman for this line, and he then resumed his active alliance with his father's real estate business, with which he had continued to be connected during the period of his railroad service. The father and son conducted also a grocery business, but this they sold in 1920, when the father retired from active business. Since that year Ireland James has successfully continued the substantial real estate business in an indi- vidual way, and he is one of the leading representatives of this important line of enterprise in Mingo County. He is affiliated with both the York and Scottish Rite bodies of the Masonic fraternity, and also with the Mystic Shrine. He and his wife hold membership in the Baptist Church, and he is a republican in political allegiance. Mr. James has been active in the local councils of the republican party, and served one term as representative of Mingo County in the State Legislature, to which he was elected in 1915. At Louisa, Kentucky, in 1914, Mr. James wedded Miss Alice Vinson, a daughter of Lazerus and Vicann (Wiley) Vinson, both natives of that state. Mr. and Mrs. James have no children. The James family, of English origin, was early represented in Virginia and Kentucky, and on the maternal side Mr. James is of Irish lineage.