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CABELL COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA - BIOS: HENSLEY, Edmund L.
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
Valerie Crook
vfcrook@trellis.net
September 19, 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. 246-247
Cabell County
EDMUND L. HENSLEY. Among the labors to which men
devote their activities there are none which have a more
important bearing upon the business and financial welfare
of any community than those of the business educator. The
community which may boast of able and energetic workers
in this field seldom want for enterprise and civic zeal. In
his connection mention is made of Edmund L. Hensley, pro-
prietor of the West Virginia Business College of Hunting-
ton, a man of broad, varied and thorough experience, who
has developed an institution that is accounted one of the
leaders of its kind in the state.
Mr. Hensley was born in Bath County, Kentucky, July 31,
1881, a son of Edmund C. Hensley. His great-grandfather,
Samuel, came from near Jamestown, Virginia, and took up a
claim at or near the present site of Catlettsburg, Kentucky,
prior to or about the time of the Revolutionary war, in
which community was born the grandfather of Edmund L.
Hensley, Richardson Hensley, in 1821. He became a pioneer
near Holbrook, Kentucky, where he was engaged in farming
all his life, and in his death, which occurred in 1888, his
locality lost one of its enterprising agriculturists and de-
pendable citizens.
Edmund C. Hensley was born December 14, 1848, at Hol-
brook, Kentucky, and was reared and educated in that
community, but as a young man went to Bath County,
where he was married and where he carried on agricultural
pursuits for many years. In 1904 he retired from active
pursuits and settled at the home of his son, with whom
he now lives. He is a democrat in politics and a, member
of the Christian Church, of which he is a strong supporter.
Mr. Hensley married Miss Lydia Hall, who was born in
Bath County, Kentucky, in 1853, and died in that county
in 1893. Of their two children, Edmund L. and Elbert, the
latter is a graduate of Bethany (West Virginia) College,
and is now a minister of the Christian Church at Sparta,
Kentucky.
Edmund L. Hensley received his education in the public
schools of Salt Lick, Bath County, Kentucky, where he was
graduated from the high school with the class of 1899, and
for a number of years taught in the rural districts of that
county. In 1904 he left the educator's profession tempo-
rarily, accepting employment with the Cherry River Boom
and Lumber Company of Richwood, Nicholas County, West
Virginia, but in 1909 again became an instructor, when he
went to Clarksburg, West Virginia, and taught in the
West Virginia Business College until 1911. In that year
he removed to Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, and became prin-
cipal of the commercial department of the high school, a
position which he retained for one year, and January 1,
1913, came to Huntington as instructor in the West Virginia
Business College. During the summer of the same. year he
became proprietor of this institution by purchase, and since
has built up this college to one of the leaders of its kind in
the state. It has more than a state-wide reputation, as
its pupils are attracted not only from all over West Vir-
ginia, but from Ohio, Kentucky and other states as well.
The college occupies the entire third floor of the Miller
Building and is complete in every department. Mr. Hensley
is independent in polities, and a member of the Christian
Church, in which he officiates as a deacon. He holds mem-
bership in the Huntington Chamber of Commerce and the
Huntington Business Men's Association, and is active in
civic affairs. His comfortable home is located at 1110
Eleventh Avenue, in a desirable residence district of the
city.
In 1911, in Braxton County, West Virginia, Mr. Hensley
married Miss Bessie Riffle, who was born in Braxton County,
and is a normal school graduate. She was a school teacher
prior to her marriage to Mr. Hensley, and is now his assist-
ant in the college. Two children have been born to Mr. and
Mrs. Hensley: Edmund, born November 1, 1912; and
Eluda, born May 13, 1914, both attending the Huntington
schools.
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