U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Layden, D. (b. 1844) ------------------------------------------------------------------- Men of West Virginia, Volume II Biographical Publishing Company George Richmond, Pres.: C. R. Arnold, Sec'y and Treas. Chicago, Illinois, 1903 Pages 733-734 D. LAYDEN, one of the oldest residents and a prominent and substantial citizen of Marmet, Kanawha County, West Virginia, largely interested in coal developing and other enterprises, was born in 1844 in Ireland. He is a son of Dominic Lyme and Bridget (Hagerty) Layden, both of whom spent their lives in Ireland. In his own home our subject was thoroughly educated by his mother, who was a woman of superior qualifications, and by her was taught the languages, which for some years brought him large means and ample chance to visit almost all parts of the world. Through her instruction he was able to fill the position of interpreter for a firm that dealt in cattle and in his line of work he visited 17 different countries, including Australia, the West Indies, America, South Africa and Asia. Mr. Layden speaks seven different languages. On April 13, 1863, Mr. Layden landed in the city of New York and for some time was located at Scranton, Pennsylvania. In 1865 he settled at Malden, on the Kanawha River, in West Virginia, and in 1870 he moved to Brownstown, a town that is now known as Marmet. In 1867 he moved to Charleston where he engaged in merchandising. Later when he located at Marmet there were but nine houses in the village and the one store was kept by Henry P. Clarke. In 1870 he embarked there in a general mercantile business and has been interested in almost all of the leading business enterprises of the place. He is a very large land owner and has dealt largely in the same and for the past 20 years has operated his own coal mines. Mr. Layden is the largest tax payer in the town which he has so materially helped to develop. When he went there, almost as a pioneer, the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway had not been commenced. In 1870 Mr. Layden was united in marriage with Mary Higgins, who was born in Alleghany County, Virginia, and 10 children have been born to them, nine of whom still survive. Mr. Layden is widely known and most highly esteemed. In politics he has always been a Democrat. ------------------------------------------------------------------- If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access other biographies for Kanawha County, WV by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/wv/kanawha/bios.html -------------------------------------------------------------------