Wetzel County, West Virginia Biography of Gilbert B. MEREDITH ************************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: Material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor. Submitted by Valerie Crook, , March 1999 ************************************************************************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 51-52 GILBERT B. MEREDITH. While by no means an old man, in fact only in the prime of his usefulness, Gilbert B. Meredith has had a veteran's experience in the oil industry, and has been a worker in several of the prominent West Virginia fields and for leading oil and pipe line corporations for a third of a century. He is field superintendent for the Hope Natural Gas Company, with home at Smithfield. Mr. Meredith was born at Alma in Tyler County May 7, 1872. Meredith is a Scotch name, but the family has been in America since Colonial times. His grandfather, David Meredith, was a native of Noble County, Ohio, was a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church and when in middle life he moved to Tyler County, West Virginia, and carried on the work of the ministry there until his death at Alma in 1888. His son, Absalom P. Meredith, was born near Fairmont in Marion County in 1837, and was a boy when his parents moved to Tyler County, where he was married and where he followed farming at Alma until 1890. In that year he moved to another farm at Center Point in Doddridge County, and continued farming until his death in 1906. He was a republi- can, a very active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. During the Civil war he served in the Union Army the last three years, enlisting in the Seventh West Virginia Infantry, in Company A. He was present at the second battle of Bull Run, at Gettysburg, and a number of other engagements and was once taken prisoner. Absalom P. Meredith married Miss Catherine Riley, who was born near Sistersville in Tyler Coun- ty in 1839, and died at Weston in 1911. The children born to them were: Charles, a building contractor at Spencer, West Virginia; Laura, twin sister of Charles, is the wife of John Kelly, an employe of the Carter Oil Company, living at Pike in Ritchie County; Jennie A. is the wife of John W. Horner, a farmer near Pennsboro in Ritchie County; Gilbert B. is the next in age; James A., Supreme Judge of West Virginia, lives at Charleston, West Virginia; Rufus D., twin brother of James, is an oil well driller at Bartlesville, Oklahoma; Emma is the wife of Campbell Martin, manager of the Gasoline plant of the Carter Oil Company at Pike in Ritchie County; William H., a resident of Brownwood, Texas, and leaser for the Atlantic Refining Company; and Emery, an oil and gas well driller living at Newark, Ohio. Gilbert B. Meredith grew up on his father's farm in Tyler County, and his education in the common schools ended when he was fourteen. He soon afterward went to work in the old Turkey Foot oil field of Hancock County. The first summer he was waterboy on the pipe line. This was followed by an experience as a general roustabout, and he remained in that field six years, and in 1892 started as a day laborer with the Eureka Pipe Line Company at Smithfield. Four years later he became a roustabout for the Flaggy Meadow Gas Com- pany, and when the interests of this company were taken over by the Hope Natural Gas Company in 1902 he was made a gang foreman, but soon worked up to the responsi- bilities of field superintendent, and has held that post for this corporation eighteen years. Under his supervision are a hundred and fifty employes. Mr. Meredith superintends the drilling of wells and the laying of pipe lines in the Wetzel District and is also in charge of a compressing station at Wallace. His business headquarters are near the Baltimore & Ohio Depot at Smithfield. He is also a director of the Bank of Jacksonburg, owns a modern home at Smithfield and is owner of some land in Texas. Mr. Meredith is one of the influential republicans of this section of the state. Since 1920 he has been a member of the Republican County Committee and prior to that for tour years was a member of the Congressional Committee of the Second District. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and is affiliated with Mannington Lodge No. 31, A. F. & A. M., Fairmont Chapter No. 9, R. A. M., West Virginia Consistory No. 1 of the Scottish Rite at Wheel- ing, Osiris Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Wheeling, and is a past grand of Smithfield Lodge No. 308, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. During the war he cast all his influence and much of his working time in behalf of the Government to promote the sale of Liberty Bonds and assist in all the other patriotic drives in his community. At New Martinsville he married Miss Alice E. Hassig, daughter of Jacob and Rebecca (Smith) Hassig, both de- ceased. Her father was a farmer in Tyler and Wetzel counties. Mr. and Mrs. Meredith have three children: Catherine, born November 14, 1902, a graduate of the Smithfield High School and now a teacher in the public schools of that city; Doyle W., born March 17, 1904, a junior in the Smithfield High School; and Bruce, born September 17, 1905, a sophomore in high school.