From "HISTORY OF THE UPPER OHIO VALLEY,"  Vol. I, page 700.
Brant & Fuller, 1890.


W. O. GRIMES


No business man in Marshall county is more thoroughly respected than 
W. O. Grimes, dealer in general merchandise at Glen Easton.  He is 
the son of John and Barbara (Hubbs) Grimes, the former of Washington 
county, Penn., and the latter of Belmont county, Ohio.  His 
grandfather, Isaac Hubbs, was a soldier in the war of 1812.  Owing to 
the fact that schools were few and far between, and the teachers, in 
many cases, incompetent, Mr. Grimes received a limited education.  
His further advancement in this line was shortened by the brave step 
he took when but nineteen years of age, at which time he enlisted in 
the Third West Virginia infantry, Company I, and served with them 
until the discharge of the regiment in 1864.  But, still faithful in 
his country's hour of need, he re-enlisted in Company H, Seventeenth 
West Virginia infantry, and with it passed through the remaining 
trying years of the war, participating in the following engagements:  
Battles of Droop Mountain, Harrisburg, McDowell, and all of the 
principal battles in which his regiment was involved.  Mr. Grimes was 
an actor in the historic "Salem Raid," on which they were cut off 
from all supplies, and were forced to pull the heavy artillery over 
the mountains by hand, having no shoes for their feet, no food to 
satisfy the cravings of hunger, fording rivers through the ice, their 
feet frozen and their poor starved bodies benumbed with the biting 
cold.  It is honor enough for one man to be able to say that he 
formed one of the heroes of that expedition.  After the war Mr. 
Grimes traveled through the west for twelve years soliciting orders 
for nursery stock, in which he was very successful.  He then returned 
to the place of his selection, where he was married to Miss Martha 
Burley, the daughter of John and Susan (Ogle) Burley, old and highly 
respected residents of the county.  Mr. and Mrs. Grimes are the 
parents of four children: Susan, Charles, Elizabeth and Carton.  
After his marriage he operated a farm for four years, then sold out 
and moved to Missouri, where he worked a farm for two years.  Again 
returning to Marshall county, he launched into the general 
merchandise business at Glen Easton, where he has since remained, 
having been very fortunate in his business.  Mr. Grimes is in the 
prime of life, having been born in 1842.  He is an honored member of 
the G.A.R., post No.77, and of the I.O.O.F., and is a staunch 
republican. 

     
(Linda Fluharty)