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WAYNE COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA - BIOS: PRICHARD, Hon. Belvard J.
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
Valerie & Tommy Crook
vfcrook@trellis.net
September 23, 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. 260-261
Wayne County
HON. BELVARD J. PRICHARD, president of the Wayne
County Bank and president of the Southern West Virginia
Oil and Gas Corporation, located at Wayne forty years
ago as a young lawyer, and while steadily maintaining a
reputation for skill and efficiency as a civil and commer-
cial lawyer, his interests have become widely extended not
only in the industrial field but as a forceful influence in
all matters of progress in his section of the state.
Mr. Prichard represents a pioneer family of West Vir-
ginia and Eastern Kentucky, and was born June 10, 1856,
near Garner, on Little Sandy, in Boyd County. His first
American ancestor was William Prichard, who left Wales
when a boy of fourteen, accompanied by his brother John,
and, getting on board an Italian vessel, was taken across
the sea and left on the shores of Virginia about 1745.
William Prichard finally went to Russell County, Virginia,
where he was living at the beginning of the nineteenth cen-
tury, and subsequently moved to what is now Boyd County,
Kentucky, where he died in 1819. His children were John,
James, Lewis and Elizabeth. Of these Lewis was the father
of Dr. Lewis Prichard, long prominent as a banker of
Charleston, West Virginia.
James Prichard, son of William, was born in Russell
County, Virginia, in 1796, and as a boy saw service in the
War of 1812 as a coast guard at Norfolk, Virginia.
About 1820 he came down the Big Sandy and settled at
Buchanan in Lawrence County, Kentucky, where he became
a citizen of distinction, planter and slave owner, and it is
said that ho never sold a slave, and negroes were so at-
tached to him and his family that after liberty was given
them they declined to part. James Prichard was a practical
ideal of the peacemaker in his neighborhood, and was well
qualified for the office of justice of the peace, which he
filled. He also served as county assessor. He married Eliz-
abeth Stewart, who was born in Giles County, Virginia, in
1804. They were active Methodists, and their family con-
sisted of eight sons and one daughter.
One of the sons was Dr. William Allen Prichard, who
was born near Buchanan in Lawrence County, Kentucky,
August 4, 1823, and died at Garner February 2, 1900.
He graduated from the Eclectic Medical Institute at Cin-
cinnati in 1854, and for many years practiced his profes-
sion at Garner. He served one term in the Kentucky State
Legislature, was a member of the Royal Arch Chapter of
Masons at Ashland, a stanch democrat and a contributing
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Doctor
Prichard married Samantha Jones, who was born in Lee
County, Virginia, September 17, 1830, and died September
13, 1916. She was the mother of six children: James M.,
a physician in Lee County, Virginia; Mrs. James W. Mul-
lan, of Catlettsburg, Kentucky; Belvard J.; Mary E., who
died at the age of twelve years; Helen, wife of Samuel D.
Finley, of Bolts Fork, Kentucky, and both now deceased;
Robert A., a resident of Wheaton, Missouri.
Belvard J. Prichard acquired his early education in the
public schools of Eastern Kentucky, attended an academy
at Ashland, the National Normal University at Lebanon,
Ohio, and Center College at Danville, Kentucky. In tlie
course of these educational advantages he taught three ru-
ral schools. He began the study of law in the office of his
uncle. Keener F. Prichard, and Judge John Elliott at Cat-
lettsburg, and in 1879 received his law degree from the
University of Louisville. Mr. Prichard began practice at
Greencastle, Indiana, where he was associated with C. 0.
Matson, afterward an Indiana Congressman and also nom-
inee of his party for governor. Reasons of health caused
Mr. Prichard to give up his promising professional con-
nections in Indiana, and in 1881 he located at Wayne,
Wayne County, West Virginia. His first associate here
was William Merreil in the firm Prichard & Merrell, later
he was a member of Prichard, McAlister & Fry, and sub-
sequently Judge Tiernan became senior member of the firm
Tiernan, Prichard & Fry. As his practice increased Mr.
Prichard confined his efforts more and more to his spe-
cialty as a civil and commercial lawyer.
With his rising professional prominence came honors of
a public nature, and for two terms he was mayor of Wayne,
and in 1888 was elected a member of the State Senate,
serving as chairman of the committee on counties and munic-
ipalities and the finance committee. In 1914 he was again
urgpd to become a candidate for the Legislature, and was
nominated by the democratic party, his nomination being en-
dorsed by the republican and progressive parties. He re-
ceived every vote in the county except 191. He went to
the Legislature primarily to fight the pending bill designed
to cut off a part of Wayne County, and he permanently
blocked that piece of legislation. In 1916 Mr. Prichard
became a member of the County Court, but resigned be-
fore serving his full term.
The Wayne County Bank was organized in 1904, and
Mr. Priehard has been president of this institution ever
since. In 1908 he organized the Belvard Oil & Gas Com-
pany, of which he became president, in 1909 organized the
Central Wayne Oil & Gas Company, and in 1912, the Wayne
Light, Heat & Water Company. These three companies
have since been merged together as the Southern West
Virginia Oil & Gas Corporation, of which Mr. Prichard
is president. He also organized the East Lynn Coal Com-
pany and the Big Sandy, East Lynn and Guyon Railroad
Company, and among other enterprises he has promoted
is the Wayne Brick & Tile Company. He has been an en-
thusiastic advocate of good roads construction for a num-
ber of years. Fraternally he is a Royal Arch Mason, hag
been grand master of the State Lodge of Odd Fellows, and
has filled all the district offices in the Knights of Pythias.
In 1880 Mr. Prichard married Catherine Finley, daugh-
ter of Eb Finley. Mrs. Prichard died in 1901, the mother
of five children. The oldest, E. F., is an accountant at
Macon, Georgia; Dr. Allen C. was in the World war as first
lieutenant, then as captain, and, finally, as major. He was
on the battle front at St. Mihiel and the Argonne, being
dangerously wounded in the latter, action, and is now prac-
ticing medicine at Hot Springs, Arkansas. The third child,
Stella M., is the wife of Gordon Davis, of Huntington,
West Virginia. The son Oscar died at the age of nineteen,
and the youngest, Sallie, is the wife of C. W. Harp, of Lex-
ington. In 1902 Mr. Prichard married Etta R. Rucker,
daughter of John W. and Emma Bell Rucker, of Lawrence
County, Ohio. To this marriage have been born three sons,
Belvard R., Marion J. and Russell G.
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