Tyler County, West Virginia    Biography of William Ellsworth LONG

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Submitted by Valerie Crook, <vfcrook@earthlink.net>, May 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. 151

WILLIAM ELLSWORTH LONG. As farmer, business man,
banker and county official William Ellsworth Long has
made splendid use of the special opportunities that have
come to him in his active career. He represents an old
and prominent land holding family of Tyler County, but
apart from the credit due to the achievements of others
of his name his own career has been of sufficient impor-
tance to stand alone among the very influential citizens
of the county.

Mr. Long was born at Wick in Tyler County, April 25,
1870. His grandfather, George Long, was a native of
Greene County, Pennsylvania, and was among the pioneer
settlers of Tyler County, Virginia, now West Virginia.
He married a native daughter of Greene County, Lydia
Johnson. Soon after his marriage he came on horseback
from Greene County to Tyler County, West Virginia. He
was a man of great industry, possessed sound business
ability, and at one time owned more good farming land
in Tyler County than any other individual. During the
Civil war he was a drum major in the recruiting service for
the Union armies. Both he and his wife died at their
old homestead at Wick, and of their eight children three
are still living: Johnson G.; Ruth, wife of Benjamin F.
Clovis, a farmer at Glenville in Gilmer County; and George
W., a retired farmer at Middlebourne.

Johnson G. Long was born at Wick, March 12, 1845, and
has spent practically his entire life on one farm in that
vicinity. Farming has been with him a real business, and
he has conducted his operations on an extensive scale and
though retired is still living at his country home. He is
an honored veteran of the Union Army, having enlisted
and served the last two years of the war in Company E of
the Fourteenth West Virginia Infantry, participated in
the battle of Gettysburg and was with Sherman on the
March to the Sea. As a republican he has been elected
to and has filled a number of local offices, and for a num-
ber of years was a member of the Board of Education for
the Meade district. Johnson G. Long married Angeline
Smith, who was born at Sancho in Tyler County in 1846 and
died at Wick, December 25, 1909. Of their nine children
William E. is the oldest. Martha F, is the wife of Emer-
son Hill, a veterinary surgeon at McKim, Tyler County;
Mary A. is the wife of James H. Robinson, a painter and
farmer at Wick; Okey W. is a farmer and raiser of
thoroughbred sheep at Wick; Minnie G., who died at Mc-
Kim, October 10, 1905, was the wife of Rymer Mead, now
living in Harrison County; Myrtle is the wife of Samp-
son C. Gorrell, a farmer on Sancho Creek, who has made
more than a local reputation through his pure blooded cat-
tle and sheep; Maude, single and a trained nurse; Lydia
A., the eighth child, died in infancy; and Golden R., op-
erating the home farm at Wick, married Bessie Hadley, of
Sancho.

William Ellsworth Long attended the rural schools of
Tyler County and finished with a business course in Moun-
tain State Business College at Parkersburg. Up to the
age of twenty-three he found his work and interests on
the old homestead. Then for nine years he was in the
employ of the Eureka Pipe Line Company, the last five
years as construction foreman. In 1900 he was elected
county assessor of Tyler County, serving a four-year term,
and up to 1902 continued his duties with the Pipe Line
Company. In 1904 he was re-elected assessor for a sec-
ond term of four years. From this county office he was
promoted by election in November, 1908, to sheriff, and
served the constitutional limit of four years, from 1909
to 1913. On retiring from the office of sheriff Mr. Long
bought a farm half a mile west of Middlebourne, and
owned and conducted this property until he sold in Jan-
uary, 1921. In the meantime, in 1916, after an interval
of four years, he was recalled to the office of sheriff, and
served a second term, beginning in 1917 and ending in
1921. Since retiring from the office of sheriff Mr. Long
has been a concrete contractor, handling a large volume of
work in Middlebourne and over Tyler County.

In the banking affairs of the county he has been a
director of the Bank of Middlebourne since 1909. This
bank was organized in 1898 and is the second oldest bank
in the county. Mr. Long has been president of the bank
since January, 1914. He is owner of much real estate
in Middlebourne, including a modern home on Main Street.

Mr. Long has always been interested in the success of
the republican party. He was for two terms sergeant-at-
arms of the State Senate, from January, 1907, to January,
1909, and again from January, 1915, to January, 1917.
He is a member of the Christian Church, Sistersville Lodge
No. 333, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the
Middlebourne Lodge of Odd Fellows, and the Knights of
Pythias.

April 25, 1899, Mr. Long married Miss Lucy M. Seck-
man at Alma in Tyler County, where her parents, John
and Adaline (Crane) Seckman still live on their farm.
Mr. and Mrs. Long have one daughter, Mabel, born June
27, 1900, a graduate of the Mountain State Business Col-
lege at Parkersburg.