Tucker County, West Virginia Biography of WILFORD E. WEIMER 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. 483-484 Tucker WILFORD E. WEIMER is one of the men who have been identified as active citizens and business men with the growth and prosperity of Davis in Tucker County from almost the beginning of its existence as a center of trade and population. While a busy man for upwards of forty years in the material affairs of the place, and still active therein, his name is especially well known in the politics and civic relations of the town and county. Mr. Weimer was born in Allegany County, Maryland, February 11, 1864. His father. Perry Weimer, was a na- tive of Somerset County, Pennsylvania, and he moved from there to Maryland and lived at or near Frostburg in that state until his death in 1912, at the age of seventy-six. In early life he was a tanner, and from 1870 until his death was engaged in the lumber business. He was a democrat, actively interested in several campaigns, and served as justice of the peace. He was a Lutheran by religious training, but for many years was a member of the Metho- dist Episcopal Church, South. Perry Weimer married Catherine Zebaugh, whose father was a Swiss cheese maker, and on coming to this country settled near Grantsville, Maryland, and while erecting a cheese factory was acci- dentally killed. Mrs. Perry Weimer is now living at Cum- berland, Maryland, at the age of eighty-four. Her children were: Wilford Edgar; Charles H., who died at Elkins, West Virginia, leaving a family; Mrs. Anna Morris, of Elkins; Harvey T., of Morgantown; Ira J., deceased; Cora L., wife of George Payne, of Cumberland; Maggie M., wife of Lee Shaw, of Cumberland; and Catherine M., wife of Drape Wilcox, of Cumberland. Wilford E. Weimer was born at Frostburg, but was reared on a farm near that town in Maryland. He acquired a country school education during short winter terms, and found plenty of work to do on his father's small farm. At the age of sixteen he went into the woods and the saw milling industry, acquiring his first experience in that line in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. His father being con- nected with the same employment, he readily acquired a knowledge and expert skill in saw-milling and the lumber business, and from a common laborer was given responsi- bilities so that in the end he had a knowledge of nearly everything connected with logging and lumbering. On November 26, 1885, Mr. Weimer located at Davis in Tucker County, and after a time he became a clerk in a store at Davis, spending about two years with the firm of Ash & Lashley, and another year with J. N. Oliver, and for eleven years was in the service of the Thompson-Wilson Company. On leaving that firm he returned to the timber business as a contractor, taking contracts for furnishing pulp wood, for logging and peeling tanbark. He also had facilities for heavy draying, and gradually got into business as a local dealer in coal, wood and ice, and still continues in that line. Since 1916 he had also been in the automobile and garage business. For a time he was local agent for the Ford car, and he now represents the Buick car and is sole owner of the Mountain City Garage. When Mr. Weimer came to Davis there were only fifteen buildings on the present townsite, including the railroad building. The first year he and his party were here they lived in camp cars. The whole region was a cut-over tract, with hemlock and spruce stumps and logs covering the ground and forming an almost impassable barrier. Mr. Weimer helped organize and incorporate the town, was a member of the council two years and at different times for nine years was mayor. When he entered the council the village had a debt of $5,500. When he left the office of mayor the tax levy for city purposes was 25 cents on the hundred dollars instead of a dollar on the hun- dred, and the city treasury had a surplus of $2,300. That is a record of municipal administration that few towns can equal, and Mr. Weimer may take a justifiable pride in the accomplishment. Besides this fact of economical handling of the city resources the town had received much sewer con- struction and a new bridge across Beaver Creek, and other improvements had been made and paid for. Mr. Weimer has also been in county office, and while road development and improvement was getting started he had charge of the county roads for five years. When he began this work there was not a highway adopted for use of the automobile or automobile traffic. He built a number of dirt roads through the county, and continued his work until he became a member of the County Court. He was elected county commissioner in the fall of 1918 as the successor of Hayes Ashelman, and is now one of the seven members of the court. During the four years he has been in office nine miles of concrete road have been completed and other contracts have been let under the State and Federal aid arrangement. The streets on two sides of the Court House have been paved by the county, and a Court House clock installed. Mr. Weimer began voting as a democrat, casting his first presidential ballot for Mr. Cleveland. He has always re- tained a high estimate of the statesmanship of Mr. Cleve- land, and with him he classes such men as Roosevelt, Hiram Johnson and John J. Cornwell of West Virginia. For a number of years, however, he has been a republican, has attended a number of conventions in the state, and has supported the aspirations of the republican governors from the time of Governor Dawson. He was eommitteeman from Tucker County in the Second Congressional Committee for a time. Mr. Weimer is a past grand of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and past chancellor of the Knights of Pythias, and has represented both orders as a delegate in the Grand Lodge. At Piedmont, West Virginia, in June, 1890, Mr. Weimer married Maggie Eggleston, daughter of John and Mar- garet (Jenkins) Eggleston, both natives of Scotland. Mrs. Weimer was born in Allegany County, Maryland, in 1874. The two children of Mr. and Mrs. Weimer are Margie and Maud, the latter still in school at Davis. Margie is the wife of Ralph Penrod, of Jeannette, Pennsylvania.