WILLIAM A. ISETT

William A. Isett, president of the Bank of the Ohio Valley and 
prominently identified with various other enterprises of Wheeling and 
vicinity, was born in Wheeling, December 17, 1838, and is a son of 
Dr. William A. Isett, for many years a physician and druggist of this 
city.

Dr. William A. Isett, father of our subject, was born at Carlisle, 
Pennsylvania, in August, 1806, and came to Wheeling as a young man.  
He engaged in the practice of his profession and it was not long 
before the drug firm of Isett & Clemens was established.  This firm 
continued for several years until terminated by the death of Dr. 
Clemems.  Dr. Isett then disposed of the store, and was made 
assistant postmaster of Wheeling, an office he held until his death, 
July 11, 1848.  In politics he was a Democrat.  He married Susan 
White, a daughter of John White, who was a merchant during the early 
days of Wheeling and for a time identified in the fur business with 
Stephen Girard, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Mrs. Isett  was born 
at Lancaster, Fairfield county, Ohio, March 8, 1808, and died May 13, 
1866.  Four children were the result of this union;  Virginia W., 
deceased;  William A.; John W., deceased; and Sallie A., who married 
W. J. Sitler, of Robinson, Crawford county, Illinois, and has a son, 
William A., who is now studying law and is a young man of much 
promise.

William A. Isett, the gentleman whose name heads these lines, was 
educated in the public schools of Wheeling.  In 1859 he commenced his 
business career in the retail grocery business on Market street in 
center Wheeling, continuing for two years.  He was then bookkeeper 
for Cushing & Company, paper manufacturers, until 1861, after which 
he served in like capacity for George K. Wheat.  January 1, 1869, the 
firm of Wheat, Isett & Naylor was formed, and for ten years continued 
as wholesale notion dealers, their place of business being on Twelfth 
street near the present location of the Bank of Ohio Valley.  In 1879 
Mr. Isett sold his interest to John S. Naylor, and the business 
continued as Wheat & Naylor until succeeded by the firm of John S. 
Naylor & Company.  Mr. Isett was one of the original incorporators of 
the Wheeling Pottery Company, associated with George K. Wheat, 
Charles W. Franzheim, William Kirback and others, and has been 
secretary since the organization of the company.  He was president of 
the Ohio Valley Glass Company two years.  This company wound up its 
business in the "seventies."   The Riverside Pottery Company was 
organized in 1898 by C. W. Franzheim, J. A. Miller and William Isett.  
Mr. Isett is vice-president and treasurer of the company.  In 
addition to his extensive pottery interests he has been largely 
identified with the steel and iron interests of this vicinity for 
some thirty years.  He has been connected with the Wheeling Steel & 
Iron Company since 1892.  For the past twenty-five years he has been 
president of the bank of Ohio Valley, succeeding in that office John 
K. Botsford, deceased.

Mr. Isett married, May 20, 1879, at the residence of George K. Wheat, 
Anna V. Pearce, of Lancaster, Ohio.  Her parents died when she was 
young;  she was reared by relarives and in time located in Wheeling.  
Religiously, Mr. Isett was reared a Methodist.  He erected a fine 
home in the first ward, on the property formerly owned by Thomas 
Sweeney, grandfather of Mayor Sweeney, where he now reides.
    

From "History of Wheeling City and Ohio County, West Virginia and 
Representative Citizens," by Hon. Gibson Lamb Cranmer, 1902.

(Linda Cunningham Fluharty)