THOMAS E. BIBB

The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 366-367
Raleigh

THOMAS E. BIBB spent a score of years in the lumber
and coal industry, but finally turned all his energies and
his capital to merchandising and has built up in the Beck-
ley Hardware Company one of the most successful whole-
sale organizations in this rich and populous section of the
state.

Mr. Bibb was born in Fayette County, West Virginia, in
August, 1865. His grandfather Bibb was born and reared
in Amherst County, Virginia, moved to West Virginia
about 1830, and served in the Civil war. He married a
Miss Gatewood, of English ancestry. One of their sons
was Rev. Martin Bibb, widely known all over the South as
a minister of the Baptist Church. Thomas E. Bibb's par-
ents were Benjamin and Mary (Wilson) Bibb, natives of
Virginia. His father, who was a farmer and school teacher,
served for sixteen years as superintendent of schools of
Fayette County, and is still living, at the age of eighty-
four.

Thomas E. Bibb acquired all his education in Fayette
County, and his father was his chief teacher. He left
school at the age of twenty and went to work on the farm,
then engaged in the lumber and timber business, and for
seventeen years was connected with the coal industry as
sales agent at Rush Run and Royal in Raleigh County. He
then returned to the lumber industry for three years, and
in 1910 located at Beckley and established the Beckley
Hardware and Furniture Company. His business is now the
largest wholesale house in this great coal district, and there
is no larger house nearer than Charleston.

On April 10, 1888, in Fayette County, Mr. Bibb married
Ella M. Love, daughter of S. H. and Lucy (Dickerson)
Love, both of Fayette County, where her father was a
farmer and school teacher. Mr. and Mrs. Bibb have reared
an interesting family. There were six children, Edgar E.,
Carlyn A., Mildred, James B. and Clarence. Harry is de-
ceased. The two sons, Edgar and Carlyn, have become
actively associated with their father in business, and both
are sterling young business men and citizens of Beckley.
Edgar married Ella Campbell, daughter of a former sheriff
of Raleigh County.  Carlyn, who is unmarried, is road
salesman for the Beckley Hardware Company. In October,
1917, he entered Camp Leo for training, was sent for a
time to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and then returned to Camp
Lee, and in June, 1918, went overseas. For six weeks he
was in the Argonne Forest fighting.

Mr. Bibb is a Baptist, is a Royal Arch and Knight
Templar Mason and Shriner, and his sons Edgar and
Carlyn are also Masons and Shriners. In politics he is a
democrat. The family are prominent socially in Beckley.