William Sydney Laidley

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William Sydney Laidley

When the laws were in the process of adaptation to the revised Constitution of 1872, one of the faithful members of the Legislature from Kanawha county was Wm. Syndey Laidley. He was born June 27, 1839, in Cabell county, Virginia. His paternal ancestors, who originally spelled the name 'Laidlaw,' emigrated from Scotland to America in the year 1774, almost in the dawn of the Revolution. He was educated in Marshall College, at Huntington, and in September, 1863, moved to Charleston, Kanawha county, and read law with the very able George W. Summers, and at the death of his judicial instructor, in 1868, was his partner in legal practice. Then he formed a professional partnership with the late Col. Wm. H. Hogeman and continued the business relation until the latter's demise, in January, 1885. He was a valuable working member of the House of Delegates in 1872-3; has been for the past fifteen years connected with the municipal government of Charleston, as Councilman and City Solicitor, and has done much toward the prosperity and adornment of the Capital of the State.

Taken from Prominent Men of West Virginia, Geo. W Atkinson and Alvaro F Gibbens, W.L. Callin Publishing, Wheeling, WV, 1890.