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HARRISON COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
Tina Hursh
frog158@juno.com
September 29, 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 111
Pg. 364
Laco Loy Young, sheriff of Harrison County, is a brother to the secretary of
state of West Virginia, and both have been men of power in county politics and
local affairs for a great many years.
Sheriff Young was born on a farm in Barbour County, West Virginia, December 7,
1869, son of David Sylvester and Sarah Ann (Pickens) Young. His father, a
native of Old Virginia, was a child when his parents, William W. and Hettie
(Griffith) Young, moved to Harrison County, West Virginia, where they lived out
their lives. They were Scotch Presbyterians. William W. Young became a farmer,
also learned the blacksmith's trade, and was one of the pioneers of that
occupation in Harrison County. The mother of Sheriff Young was born in West
Virginia, daughter of John and Hannah (Corder) Pickens, who came from Old
Virginia. She died at the age of fifty-five, leaving four children: Laco L.;
Addie V., deceased; Edna M., wife of A.G. Whitesell, of Weston; and Houston
Goff, who is now in his second term as secretary of state of West Virginia and
is still a resident of Harrison County. The father of these children is still
living on the old homestead not far from where the grandfather settled in
Harrison County. David S. Young was a teamster in the Union Army during the
Civil War.
Laco L. Young grew up on the homestead in Harrison County, made good use of his
advantages in the rural schools, and finally attended the Holbrook Normal
University. When only sixteen he was given his first school to teach, and for
six years he played an effective part in the educational program of his
community. His chief occupation throughout his career, however, has been
farming, and he is one of the men who have achieved something more than an
ordinary success in agriculture. From the farm his interested have taken on a
broadening scope and he is interested in the wholesale meat business at
Clarksburg.
Mr. Young for a number of years has been actively interested in the success of
the republican party in Harrison County, but not until 1920 did he come forward
as an active candidate for himself. In that year he won the republican
nomination for sheriff, and at the November election received the largest
vote given to any man on the county ticket. Sheriff Young is a Methodist and a
member of the Knight of Pythias.
In 1891 he married Miss Byrdie Stout, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Abner S. Stout,
of Harrison County. To their marriage were born ten children: Their son
Clayton G. Young in now deputy sheriff under his father, is an ex-service man,
and for thirteen months was overseas with the Third Army Division. He is an
active member of the American Legion Post of Clarksburg.
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