Mingo County, West Virginia Biography of JOSEPH BUTCHER STRATON 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. 587-588 Mingo JOSEPH BUTCHER STRATON, junior member of the repre- sentative law firm of Bronson & Straton, with offices in the Patterson Building at Williamson, judicial center of Mingo County, was born at Myrtle, this county, September 10, 1888, and is a son of the late Allen Butcher Straton, who was born in Logan County, this state. The family was es- tallished on the Guyandotte River in this section of West Virginia for more than a century. It is evident that the Straton family was here founded when this section, then a remote part of Virginia, was little more than a wilderness, and in the succeeding generations the family name has been closely and worthily identified with the record of civic and material development. Allen B. Straton was engaged in both the hotel and the insurance business, and was one of the well-known and honored citizens of Williamson at the time of his death. Here his widow still resides, and he is survived also by four sons and three daughters. The maiden name of Mrs. Straton was Sarah J. Deskins, and she was born in Wayne County, this state, of sterling American lineage of several generations. Joseph B. Straton was seven years of age at the time of the family removal to Williamson, and after here profiting by the advantages of the public schools he continued for three years a student in Alderson Academy at Alderson, Monroe County. Thereafter he passed two years in the Ohio Military Institute in the City of Cincinnati. He next passed two years at the historic old University of Virginia, where he took studies in the academic department, but gave most of his time and attention to the pursuing of a course in the law department. He thereafter continued the same system of study in the University of West Virginia. During the summer vacations from 1902 to 1907, inclusive, he held a clerical position in the railroad yards at William- son. At the Ohio Military Institute he became a member of the Alpha Chi Sigma fraternity, and at the University of Virginia he became affiliated with Delta Chi. At the University of West Virginia he was elected a member of the Mountain Club, an honorary society. During three years of his college work he was pitcher of the baseball club. In September, 1912, Mr. Straton was admitted to the bar, and forthwith opened an office at Williamson, where he built up a substantial and representative individual law practice and gained secure standing at the bar of his native county. On the first of January, 1920, he became a member of the present law firm of Bronson & Straton. The political convictions of Mr. Straton caused him to be staunchly aligned in the ranks of the democratic party, and he has held various official positions. In 1917 he repre- sented Mingo County in the State Legislature; in July of that year he became city attorney of Williamson, in which position he served until 1919; and from June 1, 1919, until he resigned, April 1, 1921, he served as assistant prosecut- ing attorney of Mingo County. Mr. Straton is a member of the American Bar Associa- tion and the Mingo County Bar Association, holds member- ship in the local Kiwanis Club, and is a Scottish Rite Ma- son, in which his basic of ancient-craft membership is in O'Brien Lodge No. 101, Free and Accepted Masons, at Will- iamson. During the nation's participation in the World War Mr. Straton was food administrator of Mingo County, and also was active in the local drives in support of the Government war loans and in other patriotic work. March 3, 1915, recorded the marriage of Mr. Straton and Miss Mae Sullivan, who was born at Milton, Cabell County, this state, her father having been born in Ireland and her mother being a representative of an old and honored Vir- ginia family. Mr. and Mrs. Straton have no children.