page_title: Henry Bell Gilkeson
section_title: Banking and business career
hierarchical_section_title: Henry Bell Gilkeson / Banking and business career
caption_attribution_description: English: A photograph of the Wirgman Building (previously known as the Valley Bank Building and the Bank of Romney Building) in Romney, Hampshire County, West Virginia, United States. The Wirgman Building was built in 1825 and razed in 1965 for the construction of the current Bank of Romney building.
context_page_description: Henry Bell Gilkeson was an American lawyer, politician, school administrator, and banker in West Virginia.
  Gilkeson was born in Moorefield, Virginia, the eldest child of a dry goods merchant, and was raised in Romney. Following his graduation from Hampden–Sydney College, Gilkeson became a schoolteacher and served as superintendent of the Hampshire County Schools district from 1877 to 1879. Gilkeson later studied law and started a law practice in Romney. Following the death of John Collins Covell in 1887, Gilkeson served as the principal of the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind until 1888.
  Gilkeson served in the West Virginia Legislature as a state senator representing the 12th District in the West Virginia Senate and as a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates. Gilkeson served as the mayor of Romney beginning in 1885, and the first president of the Bank of Romney.
context_section_description: Gilkeson served on the board of directors as the first president of the Bank of Romney after it was granted its charter by the West Virginia Legislature on September 3, 1888, and was opened later on December 20, 1888. During Gilkeson's tenure as president, the Bank of Romney occupied two rooms on the ground floor of the Wirgman Building, where the city's previous bank, the Bank of the Valley of Virginia, was located prior to the American Civil War. Gilkeson served as the president of the Bank of Romney until his retirement in 1913, when he was succeeded by John J. Cornwell, 15th Governor of West Virginia. In November 1906, Gilkeson, R. W. Dailey, Jr., P. J. Ruckman, and Joshua Soule Zimmerman were incorporators of the Mill Mountain Orchard Company, which operated orchards along the top of Mill Creek Mountain west of Romney.
caption: Photographed in 1937, the Wirgman Building in Romney housed the Bank of Romney from 1888 to 1965. The structure was razed in 1965 for the construction of the current Bank of Romney building.
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