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CABELL COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA - BIOS: IRVIN, Frank W. (published 1923)
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Submitted by
Valerie Crook
vfcrook@trellis.net
September 15, 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. 220
FRANK W. IRVIN is one of the younger group of business
men in Huntington, but has been exceedingly busy in im-
proving his opportunities since he left school, and for the
past two years has been in business as an electrical con-
tractor, in the Irvin-Hall Electrical Company.
Mr. Irvin was born at Huntington, December 10, 1890.
His grandfather was a native of Pennsylvania, born in
1820, and his enterprise brought him a wide and varied ex-
perience. As a young man he went South and bought a
plantation in Louisiana. This property he lost during the
Civil war, and he became a Union soldier, rising to the
rank of colonel. After the war he lived in Iowa for a
short time, and then established his home on a ranch and
a farm near Hutchinson, Kansas, living there when that
town was out on the frontier, and he had a part in sup-
pressing border troubles. After many years as a Kansas
farmer he removed to Los Angeles, and retired and died in
that city in 1905. He was a republican and a member of
the Episcopal Church.
Walter L. Irvin, father of Frank W., was born in Iowa
in 1865, grew up in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, and as a
young man came to Huntington, where he married and
where for several years he worked in the general store of
his brother-in-law, E. E. Ward. From that he went into
the service of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad in the freight
department, and was promoted from time to time and was
chief clerk when he died at Huntington in 1897. He was
one of the prominent republicans of the county, and at one
time was candidate for the office of County Court clerk of
Cabell County. He was a member of the Episcopal Church
and was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fel-
lows. Walter L. Irvin married Carrie H. Lallance, who
was born at Syracuse, Ohio, June 4, 1868, and is living at
Huntington. Her two children are Frank W. and Doris,
the latter the wife of John O. Deering, an insurance man
at Huntington.
Frank W. Irvin acquired a public school education at
Huntington, and attended Marshall College in that city
through his sophomore year. He left college in 1908, and
for two years following was a clerk in the White Sulphur
Springs Hotel in this state, and for another two years was
assistant manager of the J. G. MacCrory's Company of
Huntington. He then entered the service of the Chesa-
peake & Ohio Railroad, and was an electrician with that
road until 1920, acquiring a very thorough and well rounded
knowledge of everything connected with the electrical in-
dustry. On March 1, 1920, the Irvin-Hall Electrical Com-
pany began business, his partner in this enterprise being
E. R. Hall. This firm has the facilities and the expert or-
ganization that fit them for handling electrical contracts of
every type. They have done wiring and electrical installa-
tion for several large manufacturing and industrial con-
cerns. The offices of the company are at 928 Fifth Avenue.
Mr. Irvin is a republican, a member of the Episcopal
Church, and is affiliated with Hnntington Lodge No. 33,
Knights of Pythias. In August, 1915, at Huntington, he
married Miss Georgia Lanthorne, daughter of Ezra R. and
Rose (Jeffers) Lanthorne, residents of Huntington, where
her father is a grocery merchant. Mr. and Mrs. Irvin have
two children, Frank, Jr., born February 20, 1918, and
James Maurice, born August, 18, 1920.
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