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GRANT COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
Valerie & Tommy Crook
vfcrook@earthlink.net
July 4, 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 III,
pg. 415-416
Grant
JOHN A. KIMBLE. The chief officer of the courts and
law enforcer of Grant County is Sheriff John A. Kimble, a
fearless and alert official whose work in office has justified
fully the confidence of the citizens who put him there with
their votes. For many years he was associated in the tim-
ber and lumber industry, and was in that business during
the early years of his residence at Bayard.
Mr. Kimble was born in Pendleton County, April 4, 1863.
His father, also named John A. Kimble, was born in Ger-
many and as a young man came to the United States. In
Pendleton County he married Miss Sarah Shirk, who was
of Scotch ancestry. His father devoted his active years to
farming, and at the time of the Civil war he enlisted as a
Union soldier and died just about the close of the struggle.
His widow was left the task of rearing her young children,
and she did her part by them nobly. She finally married
Isaac Harman, and by that union had one child, Rosa, wife
of John Judy, of Maysville, West Virginia. The children
by her first marriage were: William R., of Pendleton
County; Wellington F., a fanner in the same county;
Phoebe J., who married Jacob Harman and died in Pendle-
ton County; Rebecca, wife of David Harman and a resi-
dent of Denver, Colorado; and John A.
Sheriff John A. Kimble spent the first thirteen years of
his life in Pendleton County. He then left the home of his
mother, and at that early age began making his own way
in the world. His first employment was at Flinstone, Mary-
land, where he was waterboy for a tanbark crew, gathering
tanbark for the market. He continued his work until the
close of the fall season for gathering bark, and then came
up the Potomac Valley to the vicinity of Luke, Maryland,
where there was in operation a saw mill of the Davis Coal
and Coke Company. For two years he operated the gang-
saw of this mill. His next removal took him to Mount
Pleasant, Ohio, where he worked as a farm hand and utilized
some of the experience gained as a boy on the farm. For
this work he was paid wages of $25 a month and board.
After a year he continued his western experiences, and for
about a year worked on a farm at Spring Hill, Johnson
County, Kansas. From there he went on to Texas, joining
a brother at Austin, and was in that state some seven or
eight months. For a time he rode a cow pony for his
brother, and he knows something of the life of the cow-
boy. Having in the meantime seen a great deal of the
West and the Southwest, he returned to Maryland, and
again resumed work with the Davis Coal and Coke Company
in their saw milling plant at Deer Park, and later at Chafee
on the Western Maryland Railway. From there he came
to Grant County, West Virginia, and had charge of the
timber property for the Wilson-Colston Company, and then
removed to Henry, called Hamilton, and had charge of the
timber and mill of the firm of Miller and Levering for eight
years. While there he married, and when he left the service
of the lumber company he located at Bayard, and has ever
since been an influential factor in that community.
At Bayard he entered business, conducting a livery and
a retail lumber yard. He followed this enterprise for
about six years. Since then his time has been almost fully
taken up with public office. For a dozen years he was
postmaster of Bayard and deputy sheriff of the county, be-
ing appointed postmaster under the Roosevelt administra-
tion. He was deputy sheriff until his elevation to the posi-
tion of high sheriff. He won the republican nomination
for sheriff against three competitors in 1920, and was
elected over his democratic opponent by more than 1,200
votes. He succeeded Sheriff W. H. Munsing in office in
January, 1921. Sheriff Kimble has discharged his respon-
sibilities as sheriff in a way to merit the esteem of all good
people and to entitle him to the respect and awe of law
breakers. He was personally instrumental in bringing to
light the details of the Harman Bell murder and getting
the guilty parties brought to justice. The manufacture of
illicit liquor in Grant County is rapidly disappearing, since
the law violators understand that the sheriff means to en-
force the law impartially and firmly.
Mr. Kimble is a republican, cast his first presidential
vote for James G. Blaine at Bayard, and for years was a
consistent admirer Of Colonel Roosevelt and supported him
as a progressive candidate in 1912.
He still retains some important business interests at
Bayard, having some holdings in the lumber business there,
is a partner in the Barrett Hardware and Furniture Com-
pany and one of the first stockholders of the Bayard Na-
tional Bank and one of its directors. He is a past noble
grand of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, past master
of Bayard Lodge. Knights of Pythias, and a member of
the D. O. K. K. The family are Presbyterians.
On February 14, 1892, Sheriff Kimble married Miss
Sarah E. Bartley, who was born in Deer Park, Maryland, in
1868, daughter of John F. and Sadie E. (Thrasher) Bart-
ley. Her father was born in Virginia, served as a Confed-
erate soldier in the war, and was a farmer. The children of
Sheriff and Mrs. Kimble are: Beulah, who married J. B.
Blocher, of Pierce, West Virginia, and has one child, Billie
Blocher; Twila, a graduate of the Keyser High School and
now connected with the Bayard Hardware and Furniture
Company; and Juanita, a student at Dayton, Virginia.
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