Ohio County, West Virginia    Biography of French D. WALTON

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Submitted by Joan Wyatt <mewyatt@uakron.edu>, March 2000
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.
Chicago and New York, Volume 11

French D. Walton- Wheeling WV


   French D. Walton has affected a crystallization of his former years
of newspaper experience by establishing in the City of Wheeling an
important business enterprise, which he conducts under the title of the
Wheeling Publicity Bureau. He was born in this city, October 23,1875,
and is a son of John and Allie (Ebbert) Walton. The latter died when
French D. was but six weeks old. John Walton was born at Woodfield, Ohio
in 1842, was reared and educated in the old Buckeye State and
represented the same as a gallant soldier of the Union in the Civil
War,shortly after the close of which he came to Wheeling, West Virginia,
where he eventually he beacme a leading member of the bar of Ohio County
and where during the last fifteen years of his life he held the office
of chief deputy of the Circuit Court for this county. He was a stanch
democrat, was an earnest member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and
was long and actively affiliated with the Masonic fraternity. He was one
of the honored and well known citizens of Wheeling at the time of his
death in 1898.
   At the inception of the Civil was John Walton enlisted in the
Twenty-fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry; and his active service covered
virtually the entire period of the war, save for the intervals when he
was incapacitated by wounds. His regiment took part in the various
engagements of the Army of the Potomac, he was twice wounded, and as a
result of the severe wounds he received at the battle of Gettysburg he
suffered the loss of part of his left foot. He vitalized his interests
in his old comrades by his affiliation with the Grand Army of the
Republic. Of his three children the first, William, died in childhood;
Lotta is the wife of Edward S. Campbell, a traveling salesman, and they
reside in Wheeling; and French D., of this sketch, was an infant at the
time of his mother's death, as previously noted.
   In the public schools of Wheeling French D. Walton continued his
studies until he was sixteen years of age, and he then took a position
in the tea store of the C.D. Kenny Company, where he continued to be
employed three years. He then initiated his career in connection with
newspaper work by becoming a reporter on the Wheeling News, with which
he continued his connection five years. On account of ill health he next
entered the service of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, in a
position that did not list so heavily against his physical powers, but
as soon as expedient he resumed his active alliance with newspaper work
as a reporter for the Wheeling Intelligence. He continued with this
paper until 1905, when he accepted the post of cashier in the freight
office of the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad. In 1907 he resigned this
position to take that of court reporter for the Ohio State Journal at
Columbus, Ohio, but one year later he returned to Wheeling and became a
reporter on the staff of the Daily News. Thereafter he served in turn as
city editor and telegraph editor of the Wheeling Intelligence, and later
was telegraph editor for the Wheeling Daily News. In 1918 Mr. Walton
became assistant general manager of the Wheeling Chamber of Commerce,
and of this executive office he continued the incumbent until 1920, on
the 5th of August of which year he established the Wheeling Publicity
Bureau, of which he was the sole owner and the active manager. This
bureau has the best of modern facilities for the effective conducting of
publicity campaigns in connection with commercial, industrial and
mercantile enterprises and for other promotive service of the first
grade. Here are prepared and issued booklets, folders, form letters,
etc. and Mr. Walton specializes also in writing publicity articles for
newspaper, magazines and trade journals. The Wheeling Publicity Bureau
is a center for well directed general advertising and promotive service,
has a department devoted to addressing and mailing commercial letters,
with a complete multigraphic equipment. In short, Mr. Wilson has
capitalized his long and successful newspaper experience in a prosperous
and valuable business enterprise of his own. He maintains his well
appointed headquarters at 205-206 Court Theater Building.
   Mr. Walton is aligned in the ranks of the democratic party, is a
member of the Official Board of the Methodist Episcopal Church in his
home city, besides being assistant superintendent of its Sunday School,
is past chancellor of Mystic Lodge No. 24, Knights of Pythias, and is an
active member of the local Kiwanis Club. He owns his attractive home
property, in the Edgedale District of Wheeling. In the World War period
Mr. Walton gave characteristically earnest service in the furtherance of
local patriotic objects, was publicity secretary in the Government loan
drives, Red Cross campaigns, etc., in Wheeling and Ohio County, and did
all in his power to advance the work to which he thus set himself.
   February 28,1898, recorded the marriage of Mr. Walton and Miss Edna
R. Watkins, daughter of the late Charles H. and Annee (Marsh) Watkins of
Wheeling. Mr. and Mrs. Walton have three children: John Marsh, who was
born November 26, 1900, is a graduate of the Linsly Institute at
Wheeling, later continued his studies in the University of West
Virginia, and there, at the age of eighteen years, he became a member of
the Students Army Training Corps when the nation became involved in the
World war, he being now in the employ of the Clarke Paper Company of
Wheeling; French D., Jr., who was born November 10, 1901, is an
assistant in his father's offices; and J. Elwood, born October 23, 1904,
is, in 1921, a student in the Triadelphia District High School.