WETZEL COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA - BIOS: CORLISS, Charles (published 1923)
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Submitted by
Valerie Crook
vfcrook@trellis.net
September 16, 1999
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 235-236
Wetzel County

CHARLES CORLISS, whose experience in the building of
public works is practically nation wide, has for some years
been settled down as a resident and business man at West
Virginia and has been one of the principals in developing
an important industry for the supply of building material
at New Martinsville, where he is president of the Ohio
River Gravel Company.

Mr. Corliss was born in Monroe County, Wisconsin, May
7, 1864. His father, Samuel Corliss, who was born in
Vermont in 1841, was a rugged New Englander and early
identified himself with the arduous work of the great lumber
woods. As a young man he went to Wisconsin, became a
timberman and was active in the lumber industry of that
state for many years, his home the greater part of the
time being in Monroe County. He was a republican in
politics and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Samuel Corliss died in Wisconsin in 1907. He married
Mary Williams, who was born in England and died in
Wisconsin in 1907. They became the parents of two sons,
George and Charles. George is a railroad man living at
Minneapolis.

Charles Corliss acquired a public school education in
Monroe County, Wisconsin, but at the age of fifteen was
earning his own way. For four years he was employed in
sawmills and the lumber camps of Wisconsin. After that
he took up the somewhat itinerant occupation of employ-
ment on various public works, including bridge building,
and this experience in time took him over practically all
of the United States and even into old Mexico. Mr. Corliss
has been a resident of West Virginia since 1911. For four
years he was superintendent during the construction of
the dam at Woodland. Then, in 1916, he moved to New
Martinsville and established the Corliss Sand Company.
In August, 1919, he incorporated the business and in Jan-
uary, 1921, consolidated it with the New Martinsville Sand
Company. The company is now known as the Ohio River
Gravel Company and was organized on January 1, 1922,
consolidating with the Wheeling Sand and Gravel Com-
pany, the Armstrong Sand Company of Wheeling, the New
Martinsville Sand Company, the Marietta Sand Company
of Marietta, Ohio, and the Parkersburg Sand Company of
Parkersburg, West Virginia. The officials are:  Charles
Corliss, president; George Ross, of Parkersburg, vice presi-
dent and general manager; A. P. Turley, of Parkersburg,
secretary and treasurer. The company has all the facilities
for the rapid and economical handling of sand and gravel,
digging it by dredge and elevator from the Ohio River.
The capacity of each plant is a thousand tons per day
for sand and gravel. This material is shipped to Fair-
mont, Clarksburg, Weston, Buckhannon, Elkins, Grafton
and, in fact, all over Northern West Virginia. The plant
and offices are on the banks of the Ohio River in the north
part of New Martinsville.

Mr. Corliss is an established resident of New Martins-
ville, owning a modern home at 915 North Third Street.
He is a republican voter, a member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church and is affiliated with the New Martins-
ville Kiwanis Club and Phoenix Lodge No. 72, Knights
of Pythias, at Memphis, Tennessee. In 1911, at St. Louis,
he married Mrs. Dina Falentine Stocker, who was born in
Germany and came to the United States at the age of
seventeen. Her parents were Mr. and Mrs. John H. Falen-
tine. Her mother is now deceased, while her father still
lives in Germany. Mr. and Mrs. Corliss have one son,
Robert, born August 8, 1913.