Monongalia County, West Virginia Biography of Robert Clinton DANCER This file was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to 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 III, pg. 233-234 Monongalia County ROBERT CLINTON DANCER is president and general man- ager of R. C. Dancer, Incorporated, a business that stands in the very front rank among the wholesale wall paper houses of the Ohio Valley. The business, in fact, is national in scope. Mr. Dancer was some years ago a modest merchant in wall paper and floor coverings at Mannington, West Virginia, but later moved his business to Wheeling, where it has enjoyed its greatest growth and prosperity and has become exclusively a wall paper house. One of the fundamental principles for success in mer- chandising is giving and maintaining the personal touch between the merchant and his customer. With the devel- opment and complex organization of merchandising, to a point where the merchant is really a big executive who seldom meets even a small percentage of his "trade," a substitute for the personal touch has been found in the product of the busy typewriter and in that vital and vigorous form of communication generally described as advertising. Advertising is, in fact, the great modern means utilized by merchant manufacturer in telling his customers what he has to sell and vouching for its merits. In the development of this modern phase of the mercantile business Mr. Dancer has achieved a most unusual success, and that success has been instrumental in the growth of his great business at Wheeling. In the interest of his business he has for about a year issued a monthly publica- tion known as "the Sample Stand," and through this, in addition to his large volume of private correspondence, he is able to keep his customers and trade friends apprised of new developments in the wall paper business and his own qualifications to supply the needs of the trade. The novel quality of his little publication has attracted many favorable comments from some of the foremost manu- facturers, importers and dealers in wall paper throughout the country. Here it is possible to quote only one of the many letters Mr. Dancer receives commending his publica- tion. The following is a paragraph from the secretary of one of the large manufacturers of paper hanging at Buffalo: "Such an attractive means of communication with your customers, advising them educationally and other- wise, for the good of their business, is something which should result in much mutual benefit, and we think you have gotten off to a good start. In practice, yon are a good subject for membership in Rotary, whose motto is: 'He profits most who serves best.' " Mr. Dancer was born at Mannington, West Virginia, May 29, 1875. His father, Jesse Dancer, was born in this state in 1826 and spent his entire life in Mannington and vicinity. He was a carpenter by trade, for some years had charge of the building of bridges for the Baltimore & Ohio Railway Company, and also erected many residences and business houses in Mannington. He died in that city in 1889. He had served the last two years of the war in the Union Army, was always a stanch republican, was at one time mayor of Mannington and a leading member of the Presbyterian Church of that city. He was affiliated with the Masonic order. Jesse Dancer was twice married. By his first wife he had eight children, and three of them are still living. W. S. Dancer, a contracting carpenter at Fairmont, West Virginia; Maggie, wife of James Koon, a farmer at Weston; and Mrs. Henry Tutt, wife of a marble cutter living at Grafton. The second wife of Jesse Dancer was Sarah Helms, who was born in West Virginia, in 1844 and died at Mannington in 1909. Robert Clinton Dancer is the only child of this marriage. He spent his early life at Mannington, attended public school there to the age of fourteen, and learned business through a long and diligent practice as an employee of the Snodgrass Brothers' general store. He remained with that firm in a working capacity for ten years, and he and H. B. Beaty then bought out the business and conducted it from 1900 to 1905. In 1905 the partnership of Dancer & Burgess was formed at Mannington, and they engaged in the wholesale and retail wall paper and floor covering business. In 1909, seeking a more central city for their growing business, they removed to Wheeling, and in 1914 the partnership was dissolved and since then Mr. Dancer has been the active head of the establishment. For some years the business has been exclusively wall paper, and this is without doubt the largest wholesale concern in West Virginia in this line. The store and offices are at 1121 Market Street, the store extending to 1118 Main Street. Mr. Dancer handles one of the finest lines of wall paper in the United States, and he does a large business even in New York City and as far west as the Pacific Coast. In December, 1920, he incorporated as R. C. Dancer, In- corporated, of which he is president and general manager. Mr. Dancer is also a director of the Quarter Savings & Trust Company of Wheeling. He is a republican, a mem- ber of Wheeling Lodge No. 5, F. and A. M., West Virginia Consistory No. 1, of the Scottish Rite, Wheeling Lodge No. 28, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and is a mem- ber of the Rotary Club, the Wheeling Country Club and the Fort Henry Club. His home is at Birch Lynn, Wheel- ing. In 1905, at Mannington, Mr. Dancer married Miss Bessie Craker, daughter of John and Rose (Skinner) Craker, now deceased. Her father was an oil operator. Mrs. Dancer is a graduate of Keemar College of Hagerstown, Maryland. ***************