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HANCOCK COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA - BIOS: BAMBRICK, George Loren
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
Valerie & Tommy Crook
vfcrook@trellis.net
September 26, 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. 273
Hancock County
GEORGE LOREN BAMBRICK. Few members of the Hancock
County Bar have advanced more steadily to leadership than
George Loren Bambrick, of New Cumberland, the prime
secret of his uniform success being the union of remark-
able business judgment and a keen legal insight into the
most involved transactions. In addition to being promi-
nent in his profession he has also been active and con-
structive in civic affairs and at various times has been
the incumbent of public office.
Mr. Bambrick was born in Wayne County, Iowa, Sep-
tember 4, 1869, a son of Lewis S. and Sarah M. (Baxter)
Bambrick, natives of Hancock County, West Virginia.
Thomas Bambrick, the grandfather of George L., was born
in Ireland, where he received his education and as a young
man became a teacher and surveyor. He came to West
Virginia about 1820, and at first taught school, but later
turned his attention to farming, which he followed in con-
junction with his work as a surveyor and in which he
traveled all over the county. A man of superior education,
he was called upon to do much legal work of the period,
especially before the creation of the County Court, and
largely in this way came favorably before the people. He
became the author of the bill creating Hancock County,
which was cut off of Brooke County, sat in the Virginia
House of Representatives at the time the county was
created, in 1848, as a delegate, and named the county Han-
cock in honor of John Hancock, first president of the
Continental Congress. He was a stanch democrat. When
he died, at the age of eighty-four years, the county lost
one of its strong characters.
Lewis S. Bambrick, like his father, was a teacher in his
earlier years, but later turned his attention to farming
and continued to be engaged therein without interruption
in Hancock County with the exception of two years spent
in Wayne County, Iowa. He is now living retired at the
age of eighty years, but continues to take an interest in
matters, especially those pertaining to civic affairs, and
holds membership on the Board of Equalization. He is a
democrat. Mr. Bambrick married Sarah M. Baxter, daugh-
ter of Samuel Baxter, who was born in Brooke County
and at marriage came to Hancock County, where he spent
the rest of his life in progressive operations as a farmer
and sheep and cattle breeder, and died at the age of eighty-
four years. Mrs. Bambrick died at the age of sixty-six
years, a happy married life of about forty-five years.
George Loren Bambrick, as had his forebears, entered
upon his career as a teacher, and for two years engaged
in educational work in the rural districts. He then entered
the University of West Virginia, where he finished his law
course in 1896, was given his degree of Bachelor of
Laws, and at once engaged in the practice of his calling
at New Cumberland, where he has been successful in build-
ing up a desirable clientele and making steady advance-
ment in his calling. A stanch democrat in politics, he has
been active in public affairs, served eight years as city
attorney of New Cumberland and four years as prosecuting
attorney in a county which is normally republican by a
majority of two to one, and was special judge of the Cir-
cuit Court during the sickness of an incumbent judge.
In 1904 he was his party's candidate for the office of state
senator, but met with defeat. As a fraternalist Mr. Bam-
brick is a thirty-second degree Mason, a Knight Templar
and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine.
Mr. Bambrick married Miss Christine Donehoo, and to
this union there were born two children, Eleanor McCown
and George Donehoo. Mrs. Bambrick is the youngest daugh-
ter of the late Hon. John R. Donehoo, who at the time
of his death, in 1917, at the age of eighty-two years, was
the oldest member of the Hancock County bar, of which
he had been a member for more than a half a century.
He had studied law under Charles Russell of Wheeling,
was at one time editor of the New Dominion at Morgan-
town, and served in various official capacities, including
state senator and member of the Board of Trustees of
the Romney State School. In politics he was a democrat.
Recognized as a master of the English language, he was
very able in writing opinions, as well as in translating
Latin and other languages, and his articles were widely
read. One of his sons, the late Rev. J. DeQ. Donehoo,
was a graduate of. Washington and Jefferson College and
became a minister of the Episcopal Church, serving various
charges in Louisiana and Texas. He was also an author of
some note, and his "Apocryphal and Legendary Life of
Christ" is well known. Mrs. Bambrick is a graduate of
the Washington (Pennsylvania) Seminary, and her mother,
who bore the maiden name of Eleanor McCown, was a
graduate of the Steubenville (Ohio) Seminary.
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