U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Hyer, Jacob S. (1849-1903) ------------------------------------------------------------------- History of Braxton County and Central West Virginia by John Davison Sutton Sutton, West Virginia, January, 1919 Page 391 Jacob S. Hyer, son of Adam J. and Hannah Rodgers Hyer, was born in Braxton county, Jan. 10, 1849. He was reared on a farm until his thirteenth year. It was his industry and close application to business that induced his parents to send him to Weston where he could have better educational advantages. The opportunities thus afforded were very diligently improved. After he left school, he secured a position with George A. Jackson in the clerk's office, and later he entered the mercantile store of A. A. Lewis as a clerk. After the close of the Civil war, Mr. Hyer came back near his old home, and went into the mercantile business at Flatwoods run, on the Elk, at a place now called Hyer. After successfully conducting the business there for a few years, he moved his store to Sutton where he expanded in business and soon became the principal merchant of the town. He helped organize the old Sutton Bank which was the first bank established in the county, and became its President, a position which he held until his death in 1903. He was a candidate on the Republican ticket for House of Delegates, and while the county was largely Democratic, he reduced the majority and lacked only a small number of votes of being elected. He was the nominee of his party in 1892 for the office of State Auditor, and once more reduced the majority in the sections where he had been best known for many years. Mr. Hyer was connected with school work in this town for many years. He was a member of the Masonic order, and the last few years of his life, was a member of the M. E. church, and was liberal of his means, and active in promoting the interests of the church. He married in 1878 a daughter of Charles E. Singleton, and after a short period, this highly esteemed lady was taken from his embrace, and he was left with two children, George Edwin and Charles J. In 1886, Mr. Hyer married for his second wife, Mary C, the daughter of Wm. Hawkins of Buckhannon. By this union, he had the following children, Harry Jackson, Thomas Hawkins and Lulu Winifred. Mr. Hyer accumulated a large estate, and was considered one of the finest business men and financiers in the central part of the state. He died at his home in Sutton July 7, 1903, of typhoid fever, greatly beloved by his country-men. ------------------------------------------------------------------- If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access other biographies for Braxton County, WV by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/wv/braxton/bios.html -------------------------------------------------------------------