Taylor County, West Virginia    Biography of Melvin NEWLON

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Submitted by Valerie Crook, <vfcrook@earthlink.net>, March 1999
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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. 108

MELVIN NEWLON, now principal of the Tyrconnell School,
has been long and favorably known in Taylor County as
an educator, farmer and public official. He recently re-
tired from the office of county sheriff, and was also county
assessor.

Mr. Newlon was born near the Village of Simpson in
Taylor County, June 2, 1873, son of Alfred and Elizabeth
(Yates) Newlon. His mother was a daughter of Martin
L. Yates, member of an old family of the county. Alfred
Newlon was born in Taylor County; spent his life in the
Simpson community as a farmer, and was one of the hon-
ored old soldiers of that community. At the time of the
Civil war he joined the Third West Virginia Infantry and
later the Sixth West Virginia Cavalry. For three and a
half years he was with his regiment fighting the Con-
federates, and for a year after the war was out on the
plains fighting Indians in Kansas, Wyoming and Nebraska.
While never wounded, he suffered exposure from freezing
weather, and this injured his health and made him prema-
turely old. In politics he was an uncompromising republi-
can and a member of the Baptist Church.

Alfred Newlon was killed while driving a wagon over a 
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad crossing in April, 1901, when
just sixty years of age. His wife died in 1910. They
were the parents of two sons and seven daughters. Five
of the daughters are living: Lucy, wife of Homer Selvey,
of Grafton; Nancy L., wife of Charles Davis; Hallie, wife
of Gail Goodwin; Gertrude, who married Harry McCay;
and Miss Effie, of Grafton. The sons are Melvin and Del-
let, the latter a former county superintendent of schools of
Taylor County and a farmer.

Melvin Newlon in his early youth was a farmer and coal
miner. He had an ambition to rise above his environ-
ments, and he secured a liberal education in old West Vir-
ginia College and Wesleyan University at Buckhannon. At
the age of eighteen he taught his first term of school in
the Fetterman District. For fourteen consecutive terms
he taught in the Court House District. When not teaching
he worked about coal mines, driving mules or digging coal
in the summer season. It was at the conclusion of his
sixteenth term of school work that he became a regular
employe of the Grafton Coal and Coke Company, and later
of the Maryland Coal Company of West Virginia, and was
in the service of these corporations for a number of years.
From this business he was called into politics by the vote
of his fellow citizens, and was elected on the republican
ticket to the office of county assessor in 1912, succeeding
Luke Haymond in office. In 1916 he was elected sheriff to
succeed Lee Bennett, and began his four year term in
January, 1917. He was sheriff of the county during the
World war, but the term of his administration was peace-
ful and orderly, and at the end of four years he turned
over the office to W. J. Mays, and soon afterward resumed
school work as principal of the Tyrconnell School.

Mr. Newlon is an enthusiastic republican, casting his first
presidential vote for McKinley in 1896. He is affiliated
with Flemington Lodge No. 152, Independent Order of
Odd Fellows, Wendel Lodge No. 126, Woodmen of the
World, and since the age of fourteen has been a member
of the Baptist Church. In Taylor County, November 27,
1900, he married Miss Gertrude M. Lake. She was born
in the Simpson community, daughter of H. A. and Belle
(Davis) Lake. Her mother was a daughter of Mack Davis,
an old hotel man of Simpson, who came from Virginia.
Mrs. Newlon was the oldest of three children, the other
two being James A. and Dakota Lake, of Simpson. Mrs.
Newlon was a pupil of her husband while he was getting his
early experience as a teacher. Mr. and Mrs. Newlon have
three children: Roy M., a graduate of the Grafton High
School, and now teaching his second term at Wendel; Edith
Belle, member of the class of 1923 in the Grafton High
School; and Martin L., at home.