Taylor County, West Virginia Biography of W. P. SAMPLES This file was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the sketch subject. 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. 259 W. P. SAMPLES has been an active member of the Graf- ton Bar since 1906, and his career both as a lawyer and citizen has exemplified all the qualities that insure success and esteem. Mr. Samples had become a resident of Grafton before beginning practice there. He was born at Mineral Point in Harrison County May 7, 1876, son of James W. Samples. His father was born in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, April 6. 1844. acquire a liberal education, being one of the first students in the West Virginia State University, and later graduated at Marshall College. His career was one long and steady devotion to educational work, and he was the oldest member of the teaching profession in Harrison County when he died in 1918. at the age of seventy-three. He married Elizabeth Virginia Morris, daughter of George Morris, a farmer at Grassland in Har- rison County. Mrs. James W. Samples, who survives her husband, was born in Harrison County, February 10, 1855. She became the mother of the following children: Manna- duke, of Salem, West Virginia; Heman S., of Norman, Oklahoma; Eve Lee, wife of Truman Coffman, of Salem; Guy E., at the old homestead in Harrison County: Gertrude S., of Seattle, Washington; Mrs. Ocie M. Goodwin, who died at Dallas, Texas, February 20, 1916; Charles Roy, of Norman, Oklahoma; and Percey Hale, the youngest, who met a soldier's death October 14, 1918, in the Meuse sector on the Argonne front, and his body since being returned to this country lies in the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Salem. William P. Samples was reared to manhood at Mineral Point, and the duties that gave him a sound physique were those provided by the farm. He attended the common schools, one term in the Fairmont State Normal, and about that time he became a volunteer in the Spanish-American war, enlisting at Fairmont in June, 1898, in Company A of the First West Virginia Infantry, under Captain Sabel and Colonel Spillman of Parkersburg. The regiment was in training at Chickamauga Park, Knoxville, Tennessee, and finally at Camp Conrad, Columbus, Georgia, where the troops were awaiting orders when the war closed. Mr. Samples was mustered out at Columbus February 4, 1899. He is a member of the United Spanish War Veterans-at- large at Washington. After leaving the army he continued his education as a student for two terms at Salem College and two terms in West Virginia University. He then returned home and spent some time as a clerk at Grafton. While in the uni- versity he passed his bar examinations and was admitted to the bar in September, 1906, and at once established his office at Grafton. He tried his first law suit here in the Circuit Court, and his qualifications early brought him a promising practice. His practice is general in both the State and Federal Courts, and he has been admitted on motion to practice at the Federal bar. Among other cases of importance Mr. Samples was one of the counsel asso- ciated with E. G. Smith and Stephen G. Jackson, of the law firm of Smith and Jackson of Clarksburg, for the Gentry Brothers Show Company, which sued the City of Grafton for damages resulting when one of the company's wagons fell off the bridge over Berkeley Creek. Mr. Samples and associates won their case and a judgment for $2460.00 for their clients. Mr. Samples was employed as general counsel for Isaac C. and William M. Ralph- snyder. claimants of the estate of Adolphus Armstrong. This litigation covered a period of ten years, finally settled by agreement between the heirs. Mr. Samples' clients ob- tained as their share fifty-two and two-ninths of the estate. An important factor contributing to this was the appoint- ment secured by Mr. Samples of William M. Ralphsnyder as administrator of the estate of Louisa Ann Armstrong of Monroe County, Ohio, said to have been the sole heir of Adolphus Armstrong. All attempts to remove Mr. Ralphsnyder from his post as administrator failed, and the larger part of the Adolphus estate finally reached the Ralphsnyders because of this. In 1918 Mr. Samples organized the Newlon Coal Com- pany, a partnership, for the purpose of producing Pitts- burgh coal at Simpson. West Virginia. In 1921 he organ- ized the Adelaide Coal Company, a corporation with a capital of $25.000 00. for the purpose of producing coal on the Galloway Branch of the Baltimore & Ohio at Astor. He is secretary and treasurer of both these companies. Mr. Samples is a member of the Taylor County and West Virginia Bar Associations. He is a past grand of Central Lodge No. 98. Independent Order of Odd Fellows, is a member of the Encampment and Rebekahs. and for three years was district deputy of the Fifth District. He is a member of Greenhill Methodist Protestant Church in Harrison County. At Grafton July 31, 1902, he married Miss Adelaide Wyckoff, a native of Rosemont, West Virginia, and daugh- ter of D. B. and Virginia (Bailey) Wyckoff. Mr. and Mrs. Samples have two children: William W. and Virginia.