Crow, George B.

Passed: 1942-02-01

Age: 95

Source:

Death Notice: 1942-02-01

Obituary Date:

Information: GEORGE B. CROW OF RIPLEY DIES - PROMINENT BUSINESS MAN ANSD CIVIC LEADER PASSES AT AGE 95 - George B. Crow, 95, of Ripley, retired banker and educator and one of Jackson county's most prominent citizens, died Monday morning at his home.  Mr. Crow had been in failing health several months but had been bedfast only eight days.  He had been making his home with a daughter, Mrs. Harry S. Armstrong, of Ripley.  Mr. Crow was president of the O. J. Morrison chain of stores in this state since the firm's founding in 1910.  He retired in 1927 but had remained active until four years ago.       He was born in Monroe county (now Noble county), Ohio, Nov. 9, 1846, and his parents moved to Ripley when he was four months old.  His father, George Crow, settled on the old homestead farm near Angerona, Jackson county, and three times was a state legislator from Jackson county.  Mr. Crow was graduated from Bethany college in 1868 and for many years had been that institution's oldest living alumnus.  He married Miss Margaret Polsley of Mason county in February, 1870.  She was a daughter of Daniel Polsley, West Virginia's first lieutenant governor.  Three of eight children born to them survive.  Mrs. Crow died in 1917.      Mr. Crow was Jackson county superintendent of schools from 1872 to 1875, during which he held the first teachers county institute in West Virginia, and in 1890 was elected county clerk, serving three consecutive terms totaling six years.  He founded the Jackson County Herald, a weekly Democratic newspaper, March 1, 1876, but sold it in 1883, when the publication became Republican.  In 1892, he helped organize the Ripley Building and Loan Association.  Mr. Crow was one of the founders of the old Citizens State Bank of Ripley in 1909.  It was merged with the present First National bank in 1927, when he was elected president.  He was vice president of the Citizens bank for 18 years. An active Democrat, Mr. Crow was a member of the West Virginia delegation to the 1920 Democratic convention at San Fransisco and to the 1924 convention in New York.  He was a member of the Episcopal church.  Besides his daughter at Ripley, he is survived by two sons, George Samuel Crow of Charleston and R. C. Crow of Letart, and a number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  Funeral services will be held Wednesday at 2 p.m. at St. John's Episcopal church in Ripley.  Rev. Frank T. Cady will officiate and burial will follow in Pine Hill cemetery. The body is at the Vail mortuary in Ripley.