From "HISTORY OF THE UPPER OHIO VALLEY,"  Vol. I, pages 698-699.
Brant & Fuller, 1890.


JOSEPH W. GALLAHER

Joseph W. Gallaher, a successful business man of Moundsville, and 
prominent in affairs of state  and local politics and government, was 
born in Ohio county, W.Va., August 23, 1826, a son of John and Rachel 
(Hurst) Gallaher, the former of whom was a native of Ireland and the 
latter of Maryland.  In 1834 Mr. Gallaher came to Moundsville, and 
here he received his education in the common schools, and the academy 
of Revs. Nicholas Murray and Irwin Carson.  He embarked in business 
on his own account in 1848, and in the square where his store is now 
located, he has been engaged in merchandise, wool and grain for the 
past forty-two years.  His notable force and strength of character 
and integrity, have made him prosperous in business, and the same 
qualities, added to an unfailing tact in dealing with men, and 
fluency as a public speaker, have brought him to great prominence in 
the political life of West Virginia.  His first public office was a 
membership in the old county court of Virginia for six years.  He was 
afterward mayor of Moundsville, and in 1856 he was on the Fillmore 
ticket as a candidate for presidential elector for the Fifteenth 
district of Virginia.  He was among the first who resolved upon the 
reorganization, after the war, of the democratic party of West 
Virginia as a controlling influence in the state, and as a member of 
the first state executive committee, and secretary and treasurer of 
the same for ten or twelve years, he was a power in the organization 
of his party.  In 1868 he was a delegate and vice president from 
Virginia to the democratic national convention which nominated 
Horatio Seymour, and in 1872, he with Judge A. F. Haymond, 
represented the second senatorial district in the constitutional 
convention of West Virginia which framed the present constitution of 
the state; in which he served on the committees on taxation, finance, 
corporations, education and schedule.  In 1876 he was appointed by 
Gov. Jacob one of the committee of three to equalize the state 
assessment of lands.  He served as president of the board of 
directors of the West Virginia penitentiary for ten years.  Mr. 
Gallaher's readiness and tact as a speaker is frequently called upon, 
as it was in 1869, as a member of a committee to visit Columbus, 
Ohio, and present Judge Thurman, who had assisted in the recent 
campaign, with a fine goldheaded cane.  Socially Mr. Gallaher is very 
popular.  In church matters he is an attendant of the Episcopal 
church, of which his wife is a member and he a vestryman.  He was 
married in November, 1866, to Emily J., daughter of Col. John 
Thompson, of Belmont county, Ohio, and they have two children, John 
T., now in the senior class of Lafayette college, Penn., and Joseph 
W., Jr., in business with his father.
     

(Linda Fluharty)