Mingo County, West Virginia Biography of THOMAS A. SHEWEY 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. 596-597 Mingo THOMAS A. SHEWEY has the characteristics and the ample experience that combine to make him one of the efficient and popular executives in connection with coal-mining operations. He is manager of the Grey Eagle Mine of the Grey Eagle Coal Company at Grey Eagle, in the extreme lower end of Mingo County, West Virginia, and also of the Dempsey Coal Company, the mine of which ia situated in the adjoining Kentucky County of Martin, the tipple of this mine being over the line in West Virginia. The Grey Eagle Mine was opened in 1908 and the Dempsey Mine, in 1919, under the direct management of Mr. Shewey, who has been actively identified with operations in this field since 1916. Mr. Shewey, who maintains his home and executive head- quarters in the Village of Grey Eagle, was born on his father's farm in Bland County, Virginia, December 13, 1877, and is a son of Walter and Ellen (Fry) Shewey, the former of whom died in 1915, at the age of fifty-eight years, and the latter of whom remains on the old home farm, she having attained to the venerable age of seventy-eight years (1922). Mrs. Ellen Shewey is a daughter of Abram Pry, who was born in Wythe County, Virginia, and who died in Bland County, that state, in 1920, at the remarkable age of ninety-eight years, his active career having been one of close association with farm enterprise. Walter Shewey was a son of Washington Shewey, who was an early settler and representative farmer in Bland County and who also served the United States Government as collector of internal revenue. When the Civil war was precipitated Washington Shewey was so determined not to be drawn into the Con- federate service, owing to his intense loyalty to the Federal Government, that he set forth with wagon and ox team and made his way across the plains to the gold fields of Montana, where he gained pioneer honors. He eventually returned to Virginia, where he passed the remainder of his life. He was a stalwart republican, as have been the other men of the family in later generations, he was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Walter and Ellen (Fry) Shewey became the parents of four sons and one daughter: Charles A. is a merchant at Carus, Bland County, Virginia; William F. is engaged in the cotton-seed oil business in Kansas City, Mis- souri; David F. is a farmer of Virginia; Thomas A., of this sketch, was next in order of birth; Maude is the wife of P. A. Conner, and they reside in the State of Florida. Thomas A. Shewey attended graded school in his native county, and at the age of twenty years was graduated in the high school at Sharon. Thereafter he was for two years a student in the department of liberal arts in Grant Uni- versity, Athens, Tennessee, and in 1902 he came to the Pocahontas coal fields of West Virginia. He became a salesman in the general store conducted by the Mill Creek Coal & Coke Company at Cooper, McDowell County, and six months later he was transferred to the company's engineer- ing department. He severed his connection with this com- pany two years later and entered the employ of the Cirus Coal & Coke Company at Big Four, McDowell County, where he remained seven years - first as bookkeeper and thereafter as manager. During the ensuing seven years he was manager of the Margaret Mining Company at War Eagle, Mingo County, and since 1916 he has been connected with the Grey Eagle Coal Company, of which he is mine manager, as is he also of the Dempsey Coal Company. He has been actively concerned in virtually all of the great coal development in this section of West Virginia. Mr. Shewey is uncompromising in his allegiance to the republican party. His basic Masonic affiliation is with Vivian Lodge No. 105, Ancient Free & Accepted Masons, at Vivian, Mc- Dowell County, besides which he is a member of the Chapter of Royal Arch Masons at Northfork, that county, the Com- mandery of Knights Templars at Bluefield and the Temple of the Mystic Shrine in the City of Charleston. The year 1910 recorded the marriage of Mr. Shewey and Miss Mae Peetry, daughter of Mrs. Virginia Peetry, and the three children of this union are Virginia, Thomas A., Jr., and Frederick.