This file was submitted by CJ
Towery, E-mail address: <ctowery@weir.net>
The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch.
The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume II,
page 234
JOHN C. GILMOUR is one of the prominent men in the coal industry of Logan
County, and from his progressive record so far his many friends are justified in predicting for him a splendid future. He is mine superintendent
at Chauncey on the Chesapeake and Ohio, about eight miles from Logan and
a mile and a half from Omar Post Office.
Mr. Gilmour was born in Scotland May 5, 1886, son of John C. and Harriett
(Hutton) Gilmour, also natives of Scotland. His father was an experienced
coal miner in the old country, and made his first visit to the United States
in 1884. Subsequently he secured properties and became an operator in the New
River Coal District in 1902. He was one of the pioneers in developing the
Cabin Creek coal field, opening the Cherokee Coal Company's property at Leewood
in that district. For many years he was one of the leading operators in this
section.
John C. Gilmour, Jr., acquired a common school education in West Virginia,
his mother coming with him to this country when he was an infant. He also
attended city schools and spent two years in Marshall College at Huntington,
and in 1904 completed a commercial and bookkeeping course in the Sadlers
Bryant and Stratton Business College at Baltimore. Prom 1904 to 1910 his
work was bookkeeping and store employment. In 1910 he became superintendent
at Quincy, West Virginia, for the Quincy Coal Company, remaining there two
years, for one year was superintendent for the Hughes Creek Coal Company,
and for fifteen months was with the Virginia Coal Company at Coal Fork, West Virginia. Then followed an interval of seventeen months when he was
out of the coal industry and was business manager and auditor for Sheltering
Arms Hospital at Hanford, West Virginia.
On September 6, 1916, he began his duties at Chauncey, as superintendent
of mines for the Litz-Smith Island Creek Coal Company. He offered his services to the Government during the World war, but he was told that
he could do the best possible work by remaining at the mines and keeping
up coal production.
In 1913, at Charleston, he married Miss Irene Johnson, daughter of J. W.
and Annie (Harris) Johnson, both West Virginia people. Her father is connected with the Transfer Company at Logan. Mr. and Mrs. Gilmour have
one son, William C. Mr. Gilmour is a Royal Arch Mason, also a thirty-second
degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner. |