Randolph County, West Virginia    Biography: W. G. WILSON

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Submitted by Valerie Crook, <vfcrook@earthlink.net>, March 2000
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 368

W. G. WILSON is an attorney by profession, and he car-
ried on a prosperous practice as a lawyer at Elkins during
its village days. A resident of the town and city for over
thirty years, he has been a prominent factor in all its growth
and progress. He is best known, however, as a banker, and
from the inception of the Davis Trust Company more than
twenty years ago has been the managing official of that,
one of the most prosperous banking and trust companies
of the state.

Mr. Wilson was born December 20, 1864, at Fairmont,
Marion County, son of Isaac and Harriet (Wilson) Wilson.
His parents had the same family name but were not re-
lated before their marriage. They were born, reared and
married in Pennsylvania, and soon afterward moved to
West Virginia.

W. G. Wilson was one of eight children, and as a boy
attended the public schools at Fairmont and later completed
his education in the State Normal School. He pursued the
study of law for a time in West Virginia University, and
left there before completing his course and for three years
lived in the western states of Kansas and Colorado, where
he was in the real estate business. On returning to West
Virginia he resumed the study of law under Judge Mor-
row at Fairmont. He was admitted to the bar there in 1889,
and in March, 1890, located at Elkins, some ten years be-
fore it became the county seat of Randolph County. That
period of ten years sufficed to give him a sterling repu-
tation as a lawyer and also brought him association with
some of the prominent interests in Elkins.

The Davis Trust Company was established in 1901. The
first president was United States Senator H. G. Davis.
The vice president was United States Senator Stephen B.
Elkins. However both of these distinguished statesmen had
little to do with the practical management, which devel-
oped upon Mr. W. G. Wilson, who became vice president,
secretary and treasurer and active manager. The purpose
of organizing the Trust Company was to handle the estates
of T. B. Davis, Senator H. G. Davis and Senator Elkins.
These were probably the largest estates ever settled in
West Virginia by any trust company. The company is cap-
italized at $250,000, pays regular dividends, has accumu-
lated a surplus of about a quarter of a million and has
resources of approximately $2,000,000. Mr. Wilson from
the first has been the real manager of the company and has
been its president since about 1911.

For many years he has been a leader in the republican
party of his district and state. In 1900 he was elected to
the House of Delegates, and served as speaker in the ses-
sion of 1901. He was closely associated with the manage-
ment of the senatorial campaign of the late Senator S. B.
Elkins as well as the campaign of Davis Elkins, the present
United States senator. Mr. Wilson was a delegate to the
republican convention at Chicago in 1920, when Mr. Hard-
ing was nominated for President.

Mr. Wilson is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason
and Shriner. He married in 1908 Miss Mabel Fout, daugh-
ter of the late John Fout, long a prominent merchant at
Elkins.