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BARBOUR COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
Valerie & Tommy Crook
vfcrook@trellis.net
November 10, 1999
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 309
Barbour
CHARLES W. SHOMO is a business man of sound judgment
who has had responsibilities of an executive nature in the
community of Junior for a number of years. He was the
first president of the only banking institution in the town,
and is now its cashier the Merchants and Miners Bank.
He was born on a farm near the little town, October 13,
1873, and is a son of George N. and Virginia (Viquesne)
Shomo. His mother was a sister of Jules A. Viqnesne else-
where mentioned in this work. Other pages likewise refer
in some detail to the history of the Shomo family. George
N. Shomo died at the age of fifty-six, and his widow still
lives at Junior, at the age of seventy. Their children were:
Charles W., William R., a farmer near Junior; Benjamin
Frank, of Junior; Cora, wife of J. C. Bibey, of Junior;
Goldie, who married John Montgomery and died at Junior,
leaving three sons; George W., station agent of the West-
era Maryland Railroad Company at Junior; Eugene, a coal
miner of Junior; and Carrie, who died as the wife of
Charles F. Bennett.
Charles Winslow Shomo grew up on the old home farm,
gained his elementary education in the public schools, at-
tended summer normals, and prepared for his business
career with a course in Elliott's Commercial College at
Wheeling. He taught school six terms, and for a time was
in charge of the school where he had learned his early les-
sons. He finished teaching in the West Junior School. Giv-
ing up a career as an educator, he turned to business as
store manager for the Miller Supply Company at Junior.
He was with that firm three years and then became office
man for the Gage Coal and Coke Company, a corporation
with which he remained from 1911 to 1919.
Mr. Shomo helped promote and organize the Merchants
and Miners Bank at Junior. The bank was chartered in
1917 and opened for business March 4, 1918, with Mr.
Shomo as the first president, while the other officers were
A. W. Windom and A. K. Perry, vice presidents, and H. H.
Andrews, cashier, with Robert E. Davis and Howard D. Cox,
directors. The president of the bank now is A. K. Perry,
vice president, Howard D. Cox and G. Frank Row, and since
1919 Mr. Shomo has assumed the active executive duties of
cashier. Other directors are J. W. Miller, B. F. Shomo and
W. J. Corley. The bank retains its original capital of
$25,000. The total resources at the end of the first year's
business was $95,000, and this item has since reached the
figure of $260,000. The bank has paid dividends from the
beginning, and the deposits at a high mark reached $225,-
000. It has a surplus of over $7,000.
Mr. Shomo has been a member of the Common Council
of Junior, city recorder and for five terms was mayor. He
is also very familiar with the municipal history of the
town. He is a republican, having cast his first vote for
Major McKinley, and has served as district committeeman
and delegate to conventions. He is a charter member of the
Knights of Pythias Lodge at Junior, a past chancellor and
has sat in the Grand Lodge. He is active in the Methodist
Episcopal Church and is church treasurer and has served
as superintendent of the Sunday school.
May 31, 1896, at Junior, he married Miss Maud M. Elbon,
daughter of S. R. and Mary C. (Williams) Elbon. Mrs.
Shomo was born on a farm in Valley District in April,
1880, the second in a family of four children. The only
child born to the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Shomo was a
daughter. Hazel Beatrice, born in 1897, and died in October,
1900.
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