Biography of William John Pritchard

WILLIAM JOHN PRITCHARD learned mining in Wales, and
for some years had the role of an ordinary miner in the
Pennsylvania fields. His long and commendable career of
industry has brought him a position among the leading
operators and mine owners in the Pocahontas fields of
Southern West Virginia.

 Mr. Pritchard, whose home is at Bramwell, Mercer 
County, was born at Llandovey, Wales, in March, 1863, and
his parents were also natives of the same country. Mr.
Pritchard had a limited education in Wales, and was about
eighteen when he came to America in 1881. For several
years he was a coal miner in the Pennsylvania fields near
Wilkes-Barre, and rose to the responsibility of mine foreman
there. In 1889 he came to West Virginia and went to work
for the pioneer in the development of the Pocahontas coal
fields, the late John Cooper. Under Mr. Cooper he be-
came mine foreman, and remained with him about three
years. His next period of service was with the Algoma
Coal and Coke Company as mine foreman, and was there
superintendent until this company sold its properties.

Mr. Pritchard on leaving the Algoma Company became
general manager of the Thomas Coal Company and opened
their properties, and for a number of years has been gen-
eral manager of all the Thomas coal interests, distributed
among the Crystal Coal and Coke Company, Thomas Coal &
Coke Company and Flat Top Coal and Mining Company.
Mr. Pritchard also controls and is president of three impor-
tant properties in Kentucky, the Superior Harlan Coal
Company, Virginia Fuel Company and Algoma Block Coal
Company. In West Virginia he is president of the Burn-
well Coal and Coke Company and the Long Flame Coal
Company.

After devoting his tireless energies for almost forty years
to the heavy work of the coal industry Mr. Pritchard came
to a serious breakdown in physical health, and at the pres-
ent writing many of his responsibilities have been assumed
by his son, W. E. Pritchard. Mr. Pritchard is a member
of the Presbyterian Church, and is affiliated with the
Masonic Lodge and the Bluefield Country Club. In 1888,
at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, he married Miss Ann Harris
Thomas, whose parents also came from Wales. Mr. and
Mrs. Pritchard became the parents of seven children: Mar-
jorie, who has two children by her first marriage, named
William and Florence Becker, is now the wife of Newton
Roberts, secretary and treasurer of the Thomas interests
there. William Edward, the oldest son, is now acting man-
ager for his father. He is a Royal Arch Mason, and by
his marriage to Romaine Thornberry, of Wayne City, West
Virginia, has two children, Romaine and William. Elizabeth
is the wife of Joseph Bowen, of Simmons, West Virginia,
and their children are Joseph, Ethel, William Henry and
Ann. David Thomas Pritchard, who is a Knight Templar
Mason and Shriner, married Glenna Pack, daughter of J. C.
Pack, of Bramwell. The next child, Daniel Harris Pritch-
ard, is unmarried, lives at Cincinnati, and is a Scottish Rite
Mason and Shriner. Robert Campbell Pritchard is a Royal
Arch and Knight Templar Mason, also a Scottish Rite
Mason and Shriner, and married Mary Harmon, of Taze-
well, Virginia. The youngest child is Thomas Harold
Pritchard, unmarried.


From The History of West Virginia, Old and New, page 48

Submitted by Valerie F. Crook <vfcrook@trellis.net>

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