James McGrew

Who was James McGrew?

James Clark McGrew was an American politician, merchant, banker and hospital director from Virginia and West Virginia.

Born near Brandonville, Virginia, McGrew attended common schools as a child and later engaged in mercantile pursuits and banking. He was a delegate to the Virginia Secession Convention in 1861 where he voted against secession, was mayor of Kingwood, Virginia from 1863 to 1865 and was a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates from 1863 to 1865. McGrew was managing director of the West Virginia Insane Hospital for four years before he was elected a Republican to the United States House of Representatives in 1868, serving from 1869 to 1873. He was again mayor of Kingwood, West Virginia in 1879 and 1880 and afterwards resumed banking in Kingwood from 1886 until his death there on September 18, 1910. He was interred in Maplewood Cemetery in Kingwood.

The James Clark McGrew House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.