Edward Gregg Donley
Monongalia Co. WV

The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York
Page 176



   The law is known as a stern mistress, demanding of her devotees
constant and unremitting attention and leading her followers through
many mazes and intricacies before they reach the goal of their desires.
This incessant devotion frequently precludes the possibility of the
successful lawyer indulging in activities outside of the straight path
of his profession, especially if his vocational duties are of an
extensive and important character. Yet there are men who find the
opportunity and inclination to devote to outside interests, and who by
the very reason of their legal talents are peculiarly and particularly
equipped to perform capable and useful service therein. Edward Gregg
Donley has been known for twenty-two years as a close devotee of the
law. A master of its perplexities, his activities have been directed
incessantly to the demands of his calling. Yet he has found the leisure
to discharge in a highly eloquent manner the duties dictated by a high
ideal of citizenship, and he is, therefore, probably as well known at
Morgantown as a public-spirited factor in civic affairs as he is as a
thorough,profound and learned legist.
   Mr. Donley was born in Greene County, Pennsylvania, March 23, 1878, a
son of the late David L. and Louisa (Evans) Donley. This branch of the
Donley family was founded in America by James Donley, who came over from
Ireland in about the year 1785. While he was not a soldier of the
American Revolution, he was with Washington's Army and was with the
troops sent to quell the "Whiskey Insurrection" in Western Pennsylvania.
Like numerous others of these soldiers, after receiving his honorable
discharge from the service at Pittsburgh he went to Greene County,
Pennsylvania, where he established a permanent home. His son, Joseph R.
Donley, was a store-keeper at Jimtown, Monongalia County, Virginia, in
1830, as shown by the early records of that county.
   David L. Donley, the son of Joseph R. Donley, and father of Edward
Gregg Donley, was born in Greene County, Pennsylvania, in 1836, and died
at Morgantown, West Virginia, in 1908. He was for many years a
successful agriculturist, stock grower and banker in Greene County, and
was very active in oil, his farm having been situated in the oil
district in Pennsylvania which was the scene of the first big oil strike
in 1887. The mother of Edward G. Donley was born in Monongalia County,
West Virginia, in 1845, and died in Oklahoma in 1911. She was the
daughter of Alexander Evans, who owned a farm in Cass District,
Monongalia County, as early as 1845. His mother was a daughter of Capt.
James Vance of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary war, and fifty
years after the close of that struggle was granted a pension for his
service as a commissioned officer.
   Edward G. Donley received his early education in the public schools
of Pennsylvania and Kansas, following which he entered the University of
West Virginia, from which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor
of Laws in the class of 1899. In that year he was admitted to the West
Virginia bar and entered practice at Morgantown as  senior member of the
firm of Donley & Hatfield, which association continues. His advancement
in his calling has been consistent, serving to place him among the
leading members of the Monongalia County bar. He has a large,
remunerative and representative business, and well merits the high

esteem in which he is held by his clientele and by his fellow-members at
the bar.
   In 1907 Mr. Donley was elected a member of the Morgantown City
Counsel, serving in that capacity for three years, and in 1910 was
elected mayor, an office to which he was re-elected in 1911. His public
service was characterized by a high conception of duty and a capable and
conscientious activity in the discharge of his duties. He is a charter
member, president and attorney of the Athens Building and Loan
Association, one of the largest institutions of its kind in the city;
president of the Blue Flame Fuel Company, a wholesale coal company, was
formally a director in the Federal Savings & Trust Company, is a
director of the Rosedale Company, and the Commercial Bank of Morgantown,
and is financially interested in other corporations at home and abroad.
He belongs to the Phi Kappa Sigma college fraternity, of the Monongalia
County Bar Association and of the Morgantown Chamber of Commerce, in all
which he has numerous friends. He is a member of the Official Board of
the Episcopal Church.
   Mr. Donley married Miss Eleanor Tucker, daughter of Julius Tucker,
formally of Greene County, Pennsylvania, and to this union there has
been one son born, Robert Tucker, who graduated from Morgantown High
School, class of 1920, and in 1921 is a sophomore at the University of
West Virginia. Mrs. Donley's grandmother, Eleanor Rose, was a cousin to
President William McKinley, whose mother was a member of the Rose
family.