Ohio County, West Virginia      Biography of William Lawrence BRICE

This biography was submitted by Kerry Armour,
E-mail address:  <cmac4330@chesapeake.net>

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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.
Chicago and New York, Volume II
pg.67 & 68

WILLIAM LAWRENCE BRICE is the present general manager of the Wheeling
Register. He became manager under his uncle, the late James B. Taney.
He therefore continues the distinctive relationship maintained by the
Taney family to this old institution of journalism.

The Wheeling Register was established during the Civil war times, in
1863, and has been published continuously for over half a century.
Lewis Baker was one of the, founders, and continued the management
as principal owner until 1884. At that time the Register was acquired
by Taney Brothers, and the Register has been owned and published by
the West Virginia Printing Company since that year. The Register was
managed first by James B. Taney, from 1884 until 1893, when Mr. Taney
was appointed consul-general to Ireland under President Cleveland in
his second term of office. His brother, Charles Henry Taney, succeeded
him as general manager of the Register, and continued in same capacity
until his sudden death on February 20, 1912. James B. Taney again became
manager upon the death of his brother Charles, and at the same time the
subject of this sketch was made assistant general manager and continued
until the death of James B. Taney in May, 1915

William Lawrence Brice was born at Wheeling, August 15, 1874. He is a
great-grandson of a prominent pioneer character in this section of West
Virginia, John Brice, a native of Pennsylvania, who was the founder and
first pastor of the historic "Stone Church," a Presbyterian society
organized at the "Forks of Wheeling" as early as 1787. The material
of the old Stone Church is still part of the structure known as the
Stone Church at Elm Grove. John Brice died at West Alexander,
Pennsylvania. His son, John Brice, Jr., was born in Pennsylvania
in 1796, and subsequently removed from Ohio County, West Virginia,
to Belmont County, Ohio, where he was a farmer. He died in Belmont
County in 1881. His wife was Nancy Byers, a native of Washington
County, Pennsylvania, who died in Belmont County, Ohio.

Sylvester L. Brice, father of William L. Brice, was born in Belmont
County, February 19, 1840, and finished his education in the Normal
College at Lebanon, Ohio. In 1861 he joined Company F of the Fifty-second
Ohio Infantry, and was all through the Civil war, participating in the
battles of Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge and in the
campaign of Sherman to the sea. Following the war he located at Wheeling,
studied pharmacy, and from 1867 to 1893 conducted a successful drug business
in the city. After that he lived retired until his death on December 26,
1910. S. L. Brice was for several terms a member of the City Council in
both branches, was city collector of taxes, was an influential republican
and a member of the Masonic fraternity. His wife was Ella Taney, a sister
of Charles H. and James B. Taney. She was born at Newark, New Jersey, but
has lived in Wheleing since infancy. William L. Brice is the oldest of
three children. His brother, Malcolm Taney Brice, is news editor of the
Wheeling Register. The only sister, Eleanor, is the wife of a prominent
Wheeling attorney, Henry M. Russell.

William Lawrence Brice was educated in the public schools, in Linsly
Institute, and in 1893, at the age of nineteen, entered the newspaper
business as a reporter on the Register, under his uncles. He has given
his full time and service to the fortune and prosperity of the Register
for nearly thirty years.

Mr. Brice, who is unmarried, is a democrat in polities, a member of St.
Matthew's Episcopal Church, Wheeling Lodge No. 28, B. P. 0. B., Wheeling
Country Club, Fort Henry Club, and on many occasions has found and
exercised the opportunities to be a useful citizen of the community. He
is a director of the Wheeling Chamber of Commerce, a director of the
Citizens People's Trust Company, and during the World war was a member
of various committees and employed the full force of the Register's
influence in behalf of the Government. Mr. Brice resides at 930 North
Main Street.