Randolph Stalnaker

Randolph Stalnaker (* 8. June 1845 or 1847 in Greenbrier County , Virginia ; † 20th March 1927 ) was an American politician of the Democratic Party , among others 1881-1885 Secretary of State of the State of West Virginia was.

Life

Stalnaker grew up in Greenbrier County in what is now West Virginia and completed his education in neighboring Monroe County . In 1861 he joined the Confederate States Army as a volunteer at the beginning of the Civil War , but was released shortly afterwards because of his age. In 1863 he returned to military service and was appointed to the staff of General Alexander W. Reynolds in the further course of the war , before he was an adjutant in the Hounsell cavalry regiment from 1864 until the end of the war in 1865. After the war ended, he settled in Wirt County , where he took on various jobs in the growing oil industry of that region. A little later he moved to Lewisburg and opened a company for the timber industry and timber trade. At that time, Stalnaker, who was involved in the Chamber of Commerce and Freemasonry , was one of the founders of the West Virginia China Company .

In 1876, Stalnaker was appointed private secretary by the newly elected Governor Henry Matthews . After the railroad companies went on strike in the late 1870s, he became a militia officer and was promoted from governor to major for his service . In 1881 he was appointed Secretary of State as successor to Sobieski Brady by the new Governor Jacob B. Jackson and held this position until the end of Jackson's tenure in 1885, when Henry S. Walker succeeded him.

Then Stalnaker was as a special agent of the legal department of the railway undertaking Baltimore and Ohio Railroad operates. He later lived in Wheeling before he settled in Beverly in 1918 after his marriage to Mabel Burns Baker .

Web links

• Randolph Stalnaker in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• Short biography on the West Virginia Secretary of State homepage
• Entry on The Political Graveyard