Randolph County, West Virginia Biography of Marvin Lucius TAYLOR This file 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 III, pg. 201 MARVIN LUCIUS TAYLOR, vice president and general man- ager of the Morgantown Coal Company, is a native of West Virginia and a scion of the fourth generation of the Taylor family in this commonwealth. Isaac Taylor, his great-great- grandfather, was born in Kentucky in 1781 and later settled on the Cheat River in Randolph County, Virginia (now West Virginia), about the opening of the nineteenth cen- tury. There in 1803 he married Elizabeth Hays, whose father was a pioneer settler on Smith's branch of the Cheat River. Their son, Nimrod, was born in Randolph County in 1815, and his wife, Margaret, likewise was a native of that county, where her parents were early settlers. Washington Coyner Taylor, son of Nimrod and Margaret Taylor, was born in 1838, and in 1861 he married Jane, daughter of Elijah Nelson. Their son, Elam Elijah, was born in Randolph County in September, 1862, and became one of the prominent and influential citizens of his native county, where he served in various offices of public trust, including those of constable, justice of the peace, county surveyor and county road-engineer, of which last mentioned office ha was the incumbent at the time of his illness which caused his death in 1913. In 1885 he married Lydia Ann Coberly, daughter of Levi and Mary (Canfield) Coberly, and after the death of her husband Mrs. Taylor married again, becoming the wife of William B. Maxwell, a prominent attorney of Elkdns, West Virginia, where they still reside. Marvin L. Taylor, son of Elam E. and Lydia A. Taylor, was born at Elkins, county seat of Randolph County, on the 1st of October, 1886. His early education included the discipline of the high school in his native city, where in 1904 he entered Davis & Elkins College. After a prepara- tory course in this institution he was matriculated, in 1906, in the University of West Virginia, where he took up a course in civil engineering. He was not graduated, how- ever, as he left the university in 1911 to become assistant road engineer of Eandolph County under the regime of his father. In 1913 he became chief engineer of the Rockcastle River Railroad in Laurel County, Kentucky, but in the spring of the following year he accepted the position of examiner of surveys in the United States forest service in Randolph and Tucker counties, West Virginia. In the spring of 1915 Mr. Taylor became associated with the Monongahela Valley Engineering Company of Morgantown, and while thus allied he also served, 1916-17, as city engineer of Elkins, besides which, in 1915, he was county bridge-engineer of Randolph County. In 1917 he became vice president and general manager of the Morgantown Coal Company, and president of the Baketa Motors Com- pany of this city. He is a member and former director of the Morgantown Chamber of Commerce, a member of the local Kiwanis Club, a life member and a member of the Advisory Board of the Old Colony Club, besides which he is a member of the Morgantown Country Club, and is affiliated with the Sigma Phi Epsilon college fraternity, the Masonic fraternity and the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows. He is a director of the American Wholesaler Coal Association, 1921-1922. In April, 1922, he organized the Taylor Fuel Company at Morgantown, W. Va., of which he is general manager. Mr. Taylor married Miss Lena Leota Holt, daughter of William B. and Martha O. (Hyman) Holt, and she is a popular figure in the representative social activities of Morgantown.