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CABELL COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
Tina Hursh
frog158@juno.com
January 21, 2000
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.
Chicago and New York, Volume II
pg. 79
W.C. Wickham Renshaw is a leading member of the bar at Huntington, former
representative in the Legislature, and is a man of unusual gifts and
accomplishments. Prior to becoming a lawyer he was in the civil engineering
profession.
Mr. Renshaw was born of American parents but his birth occurred in a foreign
land. He was born at Oratava, Teneriffe, Canary Islands, November 19, 1882.
His grandfather was William Renshaw, a native of Madrid, Spain, of English
ancestry. For many years he was in the British diplomatic service, and some
of the more important posts which he held were in Spain and Venezuela. He
married a Spanish lady, Miss Beatrice De Medicis. Robert H. Renshaw, father
of the Huntington lawyer, was born at Bristol Pennsylvania, in 1833, but was
reared at Caracas, Venezuela, where he aquired his early education. He
graduated A.B. from Harvard University in 1855, and for several years practiced
law at Baltimore. During the Civil War he was a captain in the Confederate
Army, and following the war he settled down to farming in Clarke County,
Virginia, where he remained until 1900 and then retired to Charlottesville,
where he died in 1910. He was a democrat, a member of the Episcopal Church
and the Masonic fraternity. His first wife was Miss Lucy Carter, a native of
Virginia and their only child, Charlotte, died in infancy. His second wife was
Maria Carter, of Philadelphia. To this union were born two children: Charles
C., now sales agent for a coal company in Philadelphia, and Maria deceased.
The third wife of Robert H. Renshaw was Anne Carter Wickham, who was born in
Hanover County, Virginia, in 1851. W.C. Wickham Renshaw is their oldest child;
Frank is a civil engineer at Huntington; Robert is a road building contractor
in Snow Hill, Maryland; and Julia is the wife of Alfred R. James, and
architect at Cleveland, Ohio. Mrs. Renshaw was married in 1920 to Dr. W.E.
Byerly, retired professor of mathematics of Harvard University, and now lives
in Waverly, Massachusetts.
W.C. Wickham Renshaw grew up in Virginia, attended private schools, including
the Clay Hill Academy in Clarke county, and in 1902 graduated Master of Arts
in the University of Virginia at Charlottesville. He is a member of the
Alpha Tau Omega Greek letter fraternity. For three years he taught at
Chattanooga, Tennessee, and then followed his career as a civil engineer, a
profession that engaged him in various districts of Tennessee, Virginia, and
West Virginia. He first came to West Virginia in 1899.
Mr. Renshaw continued his profession as a civil engineer until 1914, in which
year he was admitted to the bar and since then has been busy with his work as
a lawyer. He is a member of the firm Vinson, Thompson, Meek & Renshaw, with
offices in the Holeswade Building.
Mr. Renshaw was elected to represent Cabell County in the House of Delegates
in November, 1916. During the session of 1917 he was chairman of the taxation
and finance committees, and a member of the judiciary, mines and mining,
labor and other important committees. He was elected as a democrat. He is a
member of the Episcopal Church, the Kiwanis Club of Huntington, the Guyandotte
Club, Guyan County Club of Huntington, The West Virginia and American Bar
Association, and is a director in the Huntington Development and Gas Company
and president and director of the Guyan Big Ugly & Coal River Railroad.
His home is at 1105 Eleventh Street. In November, 1911, at Richmond, Virginia,
Mr. Renshaw married Miss Martha Chaffin, Daughter of Richard B. and Sarah
(Harvie) Chaffin.
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