HON. BELVARD J. PRICHARD The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 260-261 Wayne County HON. BELVARD J. PRICHARD, president of the Wayne County Bank and president of the Southern West Virginia Oil and Gas Corporation, located at Wayne forty years ago as a young lawyer, and while steadily maintaining a reputation for skill and efficiency as a civil and commer- cial lawyer, his interests have become widely extended not only in the industrial field but as a forceful influence in all matters of progress in his section of the state. Mr. Prichard represents a pioneer family of West Vir- ginia and Eastern Kentucky, and was born June 10, 1856, near Garner, on Little Sandy, in Boyd County. His first American ancestor was William Prichard, who left Wales when a boy of fourteen, accompanied by his brother John, and, getting on board an Italian vessel, was taken across the sea and left on the shores of Virginia about 1745. William Prichard finally went to Russell County, Virginia, where he was living at the beginning of the nineteenth cen- tury, and subsequently moved to what is now Boyd County, Kentucky, where he died in 1819. His children were John, James, Lewis and Elizabeth. Of these Lewis was the father of Dr. Lewis Prichard, long prominent as a banker of Charleston, West Virginia. James Prichard, son of William, was born in Russell County, Virginia, in 1796, and as a boy saw service in the War of 1812 as a coast guard at Norfolk, Virginia. About 1820 he came down the Big Sandy and settled at Buchanan in Lawrence County, Kentucky, where he became a citizen of distinction, planter and slave owner, and it is said that ho never sold a slave, and negroes were so at- tached to him and his family that after liberty was given them they declined to part. James Prichard was a practical ideal of the peacemaker in his neighborhood, and was well qualified for the office of justice of the peace, which he filled. He also served as county assessor. He married Eliz- abeth Stewart, who was born in Giles County, Virginia, in 1804. They were active Methodists, and their family con- sisted of eight sons and one daughter. One of the sons was Dr. William Allen Prichard, who was born near Buchanan in Lawrence County, Kentucky, August 4, 1823, and died at Garner February 2, 1900. He graduated from the Eclectic Medical Institute at Cin- cinnati in 1854, and for many years practiced his profes- sion at Garner. He served one term in the Kentucky State Legislature, was a member of the Royal Arch Chapter of Masons at Ashland, a stanch democrat and a contributing member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Doctor Prichard married Samantha Jones, who was born in Lee County, Virginia, September 17, 1830, and died September 13, 1916. She was the mother of six children: James M., a physician in Lee County, Virginia; Mrs. James W. Mul- lan, of Catlettsburg, Kentucky; Belvard J.; Mary E., who died at the age of twelve years; Helen, wife of Samuel D. Finley, of Bolts Fork, Kentucky, and both now deceased; Robert A., a resident of Wheaton, Missouri. Belvard J. Prichard acquired his early education in the public schools of Eastern Kentucky, attended an academy at Ashland, the National Normal University at Lebanon, Ohio, and Center College at Danville, Kentucky. In tlie course of these educational advantages he taught three ru- ral schools. He began the study of law in the office of his uncle. Keener F. Prichard, and Judge John Elliott at Cat- lettsburg, and in 1879 received his law degree from the University of Louisville. Mr. Prichard began practice at Greencastle, Indiana, where he was associated with C. 0. Matson, afterward an Indiana Congressman and also nom- inee of his party for governor. Reasons of health caused Mr. Prichard to give up his promising professional con- nections in Indiana, and in 1881 he located at Wayne, Wayne County, West Virginia. His first associate here was William Merreil in the firm Prichard & Merrell, later he was a member of Prichard, McAlister & Fry, and sub- sequently Judge Tiernan became senior member of the firm Tiernan, Prichard & Fry. As his practice increased Mr. Prichard confined his efforts more and more to his spe- cialty as a civil and commercial lawyer. With his rising professional prominence came honors of a public nature, and for two terms he was mayor of Wayne, and in 1888 was elected a member of the State Senate, serving as chairman of the committee on counties and munic- ipalities and the finance committee. In 1914 he was again urgpd to become a candidate for the Legislature, and was nominated by the democratic party, his nomination being en- dorsed by the republican and progressive parties. He re- ceived every vote in the county except 191. He went to the Legislature primarily to fight the pending bill designed to cut off a part of Wayne County, and he permanently blocked that piece of legislation. In 1916 Mr. Prichard became a member of the County Court, but resigned be- fore serving his full term. The Wayne County Bank was organized in 1904, and Mr. Priehard has been president of this institution ever since. In 1908 he organized the Belvard Oil & Gas Com- pany, of which he became president, in 1909 organized the Central Wayne Oil & Gas Company, and in 1912, the Wayne Light, Heat & Water Company. These three companies have since been merged together as the Southern West Virginia Oil & Gas Corporation, of which Mr. Prichard is president. He also organized the East Lynn Coal Com- pany and the Big Sandy, East Lynn and Guyon Railroad Company, and among other enterprises he has promoted is the Wayne Brick & Tile Company. He has been an en- thusiastic advocate of good roads construction for a num- ber of years. Fraternally he is a Royal Arch Mason, hag been grand master of the State Lodge of Odd Fellows, and has filled all the district offices in the Knights of Pythias. In 1880 Mr. Prichard married Catherine Finley, daugh- ter of Eb Finley. Mrs. Prichard died in 1901, the mother of five children. The oldest, E. F., is an accountant at Macon, Georgia; Dr. Allen C. was in the World war as first lieutenant, then as captain, and, finally, as major. He was on the battle front at St. Mihiel and the Argonne, being dangerously wounded in the latter, action, and is now prac- ticing medicine at Hot Springs, Arkansas. The third child, Stella M., is the wife of Gordon Davis, of Huntington, West Virginia. The son Oscar died at the age of nineteen, and the youngest, Sallie, is the wife of C. W. Harp, of Lex- ington. In 1902 Mr. Prichard married Etta R. Rucker, daughter of John W. and Emma Bell Rucker, of Lawrence County, Ohio. To this marriage have been born three sons, Belvard R., Marion J. and Russell G.