THOMAS E. BIBB spent a score of years in the lumber and coal industry,
but finally turned all his energies and
his capital to merchandising and has built up in the Beckley Hardware
Company one of the most successful wholesale organizations in this rich
and populous section of the state.
Mr. Bibb was born in Fayette County, West Virginia, in August, 1865. His grandfather Bibb was born and reared in Amherst County, Virginia, moved to West Virginia about 1830, and served in the Civil war. He married a Miss Gatewood, of English ancestry. One of their sons was Rev. Martin Bibb, widely known all over the South as a minister of the Baptist Church. Thomas E. Bibb's parents were Benjamin and Mary (Wilson) Bibb, natives of Virginia. His father, who was a farmer and school teacher, served for sixteen years as superintendent of schools of Fayette County, and is still living, at the age of eighty-four.
Thomas E. Bibb acquired all his education in Fayette County, and his
father was his chief teacher. He left
school at the age of twenty and went to work on the farm, then engaged
in the lumber and timber business, and for seventeen years was connected
with the coal industry as sales agent at Rush Run and Royal in Raleigh
County. He then returned to the lumber industry for three years, and in
1910 located at Beckley and established the Beckley Hardware and Furniture
Company. His business is now the largest wholesale house in this great
coal district, and there is no larger house nearer than Charleston.
On April 10, 1888, in Fayette County, Mr. Bibb married Ella M. Love,
daughter of S. H. and Lucy (Dickerson)
Love, both of Fayette County, where her father was a farmer and school
teacher. Mr. and Mrs. Bibb have reared an interesting family. There were
six children, Edgar E., Carlyn A., Mildred, James B. and Clarence. Harry
is deceased. The two sons, Edgar and Carlyn, have become actively associated
with their father in business, and both are sterling young business men
and citizens of Beckley. Edgar married Ella Campbell, daughter of
a former sheriff of Raleigh County. Carlyn, who is unmarried, is
road salesman for the Beckley Hardware Company. In October, 1917, he entered
Camp Leo for training, was sent for a time to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and then
returned to Camp Lee, and in June, 1918, went overseas. For six weeks he
was in the Argonne Forest fighting.
Mr. Bibb is a Baptist, is a Royal Arch and Knight Templar Mason and
Shriner, and his sons Edgar and
Carlyn are also Masons and Shriners. In politics he is a democrat.
The family are prominent socially in Beckley.
In 1914, at Catlettsburg, Kentucky, he married Miss Nellie King, daughter
of Robert and Naomi King, of Beck-
ley. Their two children are John B., Jr., and Ruth. Mr. Clifton is
a Presbyterian, a member of the Masonic Lodge, the Kiwanis Club and in
politics is a democrat.
Submitted by Valerie Crook <vfcrook@earthlink.net>
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