Tyler County, West Virginia Biography of CHARLES STEPHEN MEREDITH This biography 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. 549-550 Tyler CHARLES STEPHEN MEREDITH, of Spencer, is a building contractor and has been associated with a firm that has handled many of the largest contracts both in general building and in road construction in this section of West Virginia. Mr. Meredith was born in Tyler County, West Virginia, July 3, 1868. He is descended from one of three brothers that came from Wales in Colonial times, one locating in Pennsylvania, another in Maryland, and the third in West Virginia. His grandfather, Davis Meredith, was born in Ohio in 1815, spent his early life as a farmer in Noble County, that state, and in 1855 moved to Tyler County, West Virginia, where he continued farming and also his labors as a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He died at Centerville in Tyler County in 1895. His wife was Naomi Snodgrass, who was born in 1817, and died at Centerville in 1883. Absalom Meredith, their son, was born in Noble County, Ohio, in 1842, and was thirteen years of age when his parents settled in Tyler County, where he finished his education, where he married and devoted all his active years to the pursuits of agriculture. Late in life he removed to Wetzel County, where he lived on his farm until his death in 1904. He was a republican, a Methodist, a member of the Odd Fellows, and in 1883 joined Company C of the Seventh West Virginia Infantry and was in the serv- ice of the Union cause until the end of the war. Absalom Meredith married Catherine Riley, who was born in Tyler County in 1836 and died at Weston in Lewis County in 1912. They were the parents of a large family of children: Laura, wife of John Kelley, an oil field worker living near Ellen- boro in Ritchie County; Jennie, wife of John Horner, a farmer in Ritchie County; Gilbert B., district superintendent of the Hope Natural Gas Company and living at Smith- field, West Virginia; Rufus D., an oil and gas well drilling contractor at Claremore, Oklahoma; James A., twin of Eufus, an attorney at Fairmont, West Virginia, and ap- pointed by Governor Morgan, judge of the Supreme Court of West Virginia; Emma B., wife of Campbell Martin, a farmer near Ellenboro; Harry, a leaser for the Sun Oil Company at Sweetwater, Texas; Emery, an oil well driller in Ohio. Charles S. Meredith grew up in Tyler County, where he attended country schools and spent two years in the Middle- bourne Normal School, leaving that institution in 1892. At the age of twenty-one he began teaching in the country districts of Tyler County, and altogether taught for twelve years. In 1901 he removed to Calhoun County, and was a farmer in that section four years. Since 1905 Mr. Meredith has been a resident of Spencer, for four years he was a merchant here, and since then has been in the general contracting business. In 1909 he became associated with C. H. Rhodes and A. C. Thomasson, under the firm name of the Spencer Brick & Concrete Com- pany, but since 1912 the business has been conducted as the Spencer Brick Company. A lengthy catalog might be com- piled of the important work this firm has done. This list includes the buildings of the First National Bank, the Whiting Hotel, the new High School, the Dye Garage, the C. H. Holswade garage, the new City Building, all in Spencer, besides a number of other business and residence structures, while they have also constructed bridges and many miles of road throughout Roane and surrounding counties. Mr. Meredith owns a fine home at 214 Front Street. He was for two years town recorder of Spencer, is a re- publican, a trustee and steward of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Fraternally he is affiliated with Moriah Lodge No. 38, A. F. and A. M., Spencer Chapter No. 42, R. A. M., West Virginia Consistory of the Scottish Rite at Wheeling, Nemesis Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Parkersburg, is a past grand of Campbell Lodge No. 101, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Spencer, and a member of Spencer Lodge No. 55, Knights of Pythias, and Spencer Lodge No. 6576, Modern Woodmen of America. During the war he put the demands of patriotism first, and was active in pro- moting the success of all the drives for the various purposes in his home county. In 1903, in Tyler County, he married Miss Callie F. Hassig, who was born in that county. Mrs. Meredith is a member of the Methodist Church and the Modern Brother- hood. Her father, Jacob Hassig, was born in Monroe County, Ohio, in 1830, spent his early life there as a fanner, and about 1870 moved to Tyler County, West Virginia, where he continued farming on an extensive scale. He was a democrat and a very active member of the Chris- tian Church. Jacob Hassig, who died at Spencer in 1912, married Rebecca Smith, who was born in Belmont County, Ohio, in 1839, and died in Tyler County in 1910. Their children were: William, a farmer who died in Tyler County at the age of fifty-one; Laura, who died in Tyler County aged twenty-seven, wife of James Feist, a farmer still living in that county; Delia, wife of John Fuchs, an employe of an oil company in Tyler County; Charles, of New Martinsville, West Virginia; Mrs. Meredith; Alice, wife of Gilbert B. Meredith, previously mentioned; Miss Charlottie, who was a Red Cross nurse in the hospitals of france fourteen months and is now night superintendent of the Ohio Valley General Hospital at Wheeling; Ross with an oil company living in Wetzel County. Mr. and Mrs. Charles S. Meredith are the parents of three children: Alice, who graduated from West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon, is the wife of Dr. Prince W. Houchins, a dentist at Kimball, McDowell County; Gilbert E., who was in a training camp at Morgantown during the war, is a truck driver at Charleston, West Vir- ginia; Paul E., born June 18, 1907, is a student in the Spencer grade school.