Person:William Dickinson (19)

Information on William Dickinson

William Dickinson Jr. (1798–1881) was born and reared in Bedford County, where he practiced law. He came to Kanawha in 1861 to handle the legal matters in the dissolution of the Dickinson-Shrewsbury partnership, which the courts finalized in 1866, after both partners had died. With his share of his father’s estate, in 1867 William Jr. largely founded the Kanawha Valley Bank, later One Valley Bank and now part of BB&T. Son John Q. was president from 1882 until 1925 and grandson John L. from 1925 until 1949. Henry Clay Dickinson, another son of William Dickinson Jr., was the mayor of Charleston when he died in 1871. Dickinson family descendants have figured prominently in the affairs of the bank and the community down to the present. Source: West Virginia Encyclopedia, Dickinson Family article written by Gerald S. Ratliff