Greenbrier County, West Virginia    Biography of John B. LAING

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Submitted by Valerie Crook, <vfcrook@earthlink.net>, July 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. 188


JOHN B. LAING, of Lewisburg, judicial center of
Greenbrier County, has made a record of constructive
enterprise as a coal operator and railroad builder in
West Virginia, in which state the family residence was
established when he was an infant.  His father, James
Laing, was born and reared in Scotland, and came thence to
the United States in the year 1867. In Pennsylvania this
sterling young Scotsman became identified with coal-mining
enterprise, and there was solemnized his marriage with Miss
Susanna Kay. In 1878 they came to West Virginia and
settled in Fayette County. In 1888 removal was thence
made to Raleigh County, where James Laing had charge
of the opening up of the mines of the Royal Coal & Coke
Company, which was the first coal corporation to initiate
mining operations in that county.  In 1896 Mr. Laing
opened the first shaft and first slope on the Chesapeake &
Ohio Railroad, at Sun, on Loup Creek in Fayette County.
Here he organized the Sun Coal & Coke Company, and here
he continued operations until 1904, when he removed to
Lewisburg, his death having here occurred in 1907. He was
possessed of the thrift and the mature judgment that are
characteristic of the Scotch type, and ordered his life on a
lofty plane of integrity and honor—a man who was re-
served, unostentatious, tolerant and kindly and animated by
fine principles of personal stewardship, he having been a
devout member of the Presbyterian Church, as is also his
widow. Of their eight children the firstborn is Janet K.;
Margaret died in infancy; and the names of the other
children are here recorded in respective order of birth:
John B., Thomas K., Anna J., James K., Susanna K. (wife
of Dr. R. L. Speas), and Bess Belle (Mrs. Charles M. Mc-
Whorter).

John B. Laing was born in Mercer County, Pennsylvania,
September 23, 1876, and, as before stated, was an infant at
the time of the family removal to West Virginia. He re-
ceived the full advantages of the public schools of this
state, and at the age of twenty years became associated
with his father in coal operations. In this connection he
opened the mine at Sun and the Lanark Mine on Piney
Creek in Raleigh County. He remained at Sun after the
removal of his parents to Lewisburg, but since selling the
mine property at the former place he has maintained his
home and business headquarters at Lewisburg.  He has
given much of his time to the development of coal proper-
ties in the western part of Greenbrier County, under the
corporate title of the Nelson Fuel Company and here is
controlled by the company one of the best coal properties
in the state, beside one of the last of the great smokeless
fields to be developed, the product being a smokeless fuel
of the best grade. In the development of this property it
was found essential to provide a railroad outlet, and the
result was that in 1919 the Greenbrier & Eastern Railroad
Company was organized, its line having been completed in
1921 and this important work having been done under the
direct and effective supervision of Mr. Laing. The road is
eleven miles in length and at present connects with the
Sewell Valley Railroad, an independent branch of the
Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. This connection is at Meadow
Creek. Mr. Laing erected the first all-steel tipple-in Mon-
roe County, it having five loading tracks (in addition to
supply track) for the making of prepared coal. He is
president of the Greenbrier & Eastern Railroad Company,
is vice president of the Lewisburg & Ronceverte Electric
Railway Company, is president of the Lewisburg Seminary,
a director of the Bank of Lewisburg, and is president also
of the McKinley Land Company, the Laing Mining Com-
pany, and the Craig-Giles Iron Company. It is uniformly
conceded that he has done more for the development of the
natural resources of Greenbrier County than has any other
one man or minor group of men, and he has made definite
incidental contribution to the civic and material advance-
ment of the state in general.

April 20, 1898, recorded the marriage of Mr. Laing and
Miss Margaret Nelson, and they became the parents of
three children: Martha Spence, James and Andrew, the
younger son having died in 1918, at the age of fifteen
years. Mr. Laing is a Shriner Mason and a member of the
Presbyterian Church.