From "HISTORY OF THE UPPER OHIO VALLEY,"  Vol. I, pages 341-342.
Brant & Fuller, 1890.


FRANK P. JEPSON

Frank P. Jepson, cashier of the Bank of the Ohio valley, is one of 
the most prominent young businessmen of Wheeling.  He was born at 
Baltimore, Md., July 11, 1853, but being brought to Wheeling by his 
parents one year later, he was reared in this city, and here received 
his education.  His has been an active life from childhood.  He was 
under instruction in a private school from his third to fifth years, 
and was then placed in the Second ward public school, and being 
promoted to the Fifth ward school remained there until he was 
thirteen years of age.  He then left school, and shortly afterward, 
in 1861, President Lincoln having appointed Thomas Hornbrook surveyor 
of customs of Wheeling, entered the office of that official.  The 
latter resigned the office upon the advent of the Johnson 
administration and engaged in the real estate business, and young 
Jepson then became his office boy.  On April 1, 1867, Mr. Jepson 
though not yet fourteen years of age, became messenger for the First 
National Bank of Wheeling.  He soon evinced qualifications for higher 
positions and passed rapidly through the various grades as a bank 
clerk, book-keeper, teller, etc., the bank meanwhile becoming merged 
in the Bank of the Ohio Valley, until on February 9, 1880, he was 
appointed cashier, a position he still holds.  He is one of the 
youngest cashiers of the city, and it may justly be added that he is 
one of the most efficient.  The confidence generally reposed in his 
integrity and capacity was manifested by his appointment by the city 
council in 1881 as one of the three commissioners of loans, in which 
capacity he negotiated a loan of $196,000.  Being commissioned for a 
similar duty in 1885 he negotiated a loan of $270,000, and was 
recently appointed one of the three commissioners to negotiate the 
bridge loan.  He has been honored with various other trusts.  During 
the last four years he has been a member of the board of trustees of 
the city gas works, and for two years has served as president of that 
body.  He was commissioned a notary public by Governor Wilson in 
1885, was appointed an aid on the governor's staff in 1887, with the 
rank of colonel, a position he resigned in 1888, and on April 1, 
1889, he was appointed by the governor as director of the second 
insane hospital for the term of six years. In 1889, Mr. Jepson was 
the projector of the Wheeling Ice and Storage company.  He has not 
taken part in politics as an aspirant for office, but as a political 
leader has wielded much influence, and has held the secretaryship of 
the democratic executive congressional committee for the first 
district, from 1886 to 1888.  Mr. Jepson is prominent as a Mason, 
which fraternity he joined in 1874.  He is a member of Wheeling 
lodge, No. 5, of Wheeling Union chapter, No. 1, and of Cyrene 
commandery, No. 7, K. T.  He was the treasurer of Wheeling lodge for 
several years and is now treasurer of Cyrene commandery.  During the 
floods of 1884 he served as chairman of the Masonic relief committee, 
and as such visited the sufferers along the river as far down as the 
Kentucky line, dispensing the funds in the hands of the committee.       
Mr. Jepson was married in 1876 to Ida E., daughter of Col. Joseph H. 
Pendleton, a member of the Virginia legislature during the war, and 
sister of Hon. John O. Pendleton, congressman-elect for the first 
district. 


(Linda Fluharty)