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This biography was submitted by Valerie Crook,
E-mail address: <vfcrook@earthlink.net>
The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch.
The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 314
Preston
CHARLES E. TREMBLY. The first settled communities
were planted in Preston County in the closing years of the eighteenth century. The work of development has been
continuous since then, being participated in by several generations from the first pioneers. The land has been cleared,
the resources exploited, roads and railroads have been built, towns have sprung up, and, while not one or the oldest of
these, Terra Alta, situated on the mountain skyline has been a place of trade and community life for a long period
of years. That it is now one of the progressive and thriving small cities of the state is due to forces put in motion
by a younger group of citizens within the past two decades. One of the active leaders, in fact one of the indispensable
men in the newer life of the mountain town, has been Charles E. Trembly, banker and man of affairs. Mr.
Trembly from the first had the outlook of one who is not satisfied with half plodding performance, and the spirit of
progress strong within him he has linked with a similar spirit in others like minded, and together they have
accorded a respectful hearing to old tradition without being bound to its rate of progress, and the sum total of what
they have accomplished comprise the improvements and the institutions of which Terra Alta is most proud as a
progressive municipality.
Mr. Trembly represents one of the oldest families of
Preston County and was born on a farm near Albright April 14, 1873. His Americanism is the product of almost
two centuries. About 1730 the first of the Trembly family came from Scotland and settled on the eastern shore at
Trembly's Point, near Elizabeth, New Jersey. It is said the house in which he lived is still standing. This Scotch
immigrant was descended from French Protestants who during the era of religious persecution fled from the
Province of Rochelle, France. One of the New Jersey family, Benjamin
Trembly, just before the outbreak of the American Revolution, moved on west in company with some of
the McGrew family and settled around Cumberland, Maryland. Samuel Darby, a Scotchman from the same New
Jersey colony, accompanied them, but did not arrive in Preston County until after Trembly, who established his
family at Bruceton Mills, while the Darbys located at Millers, west of Clifton Mills. Patrick McGrew came on in
1786 and located a mile south of Brandonville. Thus by previous associations there was a link between these three
prominent families in the wood and mountain region of Western Virginia.
Benjamin Trembly was born April 13, 1763, at Trembly
Point, and was drowned at Ice's Perry in Cheat River in 1818. His wife, Eunice Pennington, represented a leading
family of New Jersey. Their children were: Josiah, John, Mary, Sarah, James and Ephraim. The son John was born
March 20, 1786. He married Sarah Darby at Bruceton Mills, and in 1811 bought the Trembly farm near Albright.
He remained there half a century and died in 1863, while the Civil war was in progress. His three children were:
Eunice, who became the wife of John Bishop; Samuel and Benjamin, twin brothers.
Benjamin Trembly, who was born October 16, 1816,
married Mary Hartman. They lived their lives about Albright, and their children were George H., Joseph, Sarah, who
became the wife of Guy A. Bishop, Michael, John, Samuel and Adam.
George H. Trembly was born near the little Cheat River
Village of Albright April 7, 1837, and died in 1899. January 9, 1868, he married Eva Charity Smith, who was born
near Albright February 3, 1849, daughter of Jacob Smith. The children of this marriage are: Frank H., of
Jacksonville, Florida; Jay S., of Terra Alta; Charles E.; and Ella M., wife of A. W. Hawley, of Morgantown.
Charles E. Trembly while growing up at Albright had
a great ambition to get a liberal education, and after much persistence, thrift and earning his own way, he
accomplished that end. He attended the public schools, at the age of twenty-one graduated from the Fairmont State
Normal School, subsequently was a student in the Peabody Normal College at Nashville, Tennessee, and in 1899
graduated in the scientific course from the University of West Virginia. The qualifications represented in this
liberal education were a splendid preparation for the work of education which he had chosen, and in 1898-99 he was
assistant principal of the Davis High School, and for three years was acting principal, until he resigned in 1902 to
become a citizen of Terra Alta and assistant cashier of the Terra Alta Bank. Mr. Trembly has been a factor in the
success and prosperity of this institution as one of its managing officials for twenty years, and since November 14,
1910, has been cashier. Throughout this time he has kept in touch with men similarly minded with regard to what
constitutes the commercial and civic prosperity of the community. He has been a member of the City Council and
recorder, and the steady influences and efforts emanating from him and his associates have brought to Terra Alta
such modern facilities as water works, gas light, street paving and other improvements.
In Preston County August 5, 1915, Mr. Trembly
married Miss Marjorie Crane, daughter of Dee Crane, who is potato expert with the University Extension Bureau of
West Virginia. They have a son, Gray Crane. Mr. Trembly is a past master of the Masonic Lodge, is affiliated
with West Virginia Consistory No. 1 of the Scottish Rite at Wheeling, is a past chancellor of the Knights of Pythias
Lodge, an Odd Fellow, and has served officially as an elder in the Presbyterian Church. |
