Webster County, West Virginia Biography of ELBERT W. GUM 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 II, pg. 523 ELBERT W. GUM is one of the representative young men of the Village of Camden on Gauley, Webster County, where he is cashier of the Lanes Bottom Bank. Mr. Gum was born at Monterey, Virginia, November 4, 1895, a son of William E. and Sallie M. (Taylor) Gum, the former of whom likewise was born at Monterey, on the 10th of May, 1873, and the latter of whom was born in the same year, in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, where their marriage was solemnized. The father is now a progressive farmer and contractor at Monterey, Virginia, is a republican in political adherency, is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which latter he is a past noble grand, and he and his wife are active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Of the nine children the subject of this review is the eldest; Walter C. was graduated in the high school and thereafter attended Randolph-Macon College, Ashland, Virginia, and also Emery University at Atlanta, Georgia; Grace graduated in the high schools and attended also one of the normal schools of Virginia; Harry, likewise a high school graduate, attended the Massey Busi- ness College, Richmond, Virginia; Fred graduated from the high school, in which Robert is a student at the time of this writing, in 1922; and the younger members of the parental home circle are Mildred, Paul and Pearl. Reared on the home farm and profiting by the advantages of the public schools of his native place, Elbert W. Gum thereafter completed an effective course in the Dunsmore Business College. He gained valuable experience in the banking institution at Monterey, Virginia, and subsequently took a position in the offices of the Kanawha Banking & Trust Company in the City of Charleston, West Virginia. Three months later, within a few months after the nation became involved in the World war, Mr. Gum enlisted for service in the Three Hundred and Thirteenth Ambulance Company, with which he was on active duty in France from July 10, 1918, to June 1, 1919, he having been with his command in the Argonne sector and having there been asso- ciated with the defensive activities of the Allies, and his experience covered much of the strenuous tension incidental to the great conflict. After his return to the United States and the receiving of his discharge Mr. Gum resumed his position with the Kanawha Banking & Trust Company, with which he continued his service until March 1, 1931, when he assumed his present responsible office, that of cashier of the Lanes Bottom Bank at Camden on Gauley, his wife being a stockholder in this institution. Mr. Gum is a democrat, and in the Masonic fraternity is a member of Highland Lodge No. 110, A. F. and A. M., also has received the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite, besides being identified with Beni-Kedem Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Charleston. He married Miss Myrtle Brook, of Charleston, she being a graduate of the high school and having attended Marshall College. Mrs. Gum is a most popular figure in the leading social activities of her home community.