Excerpt from The Monticola, 1915 In September 1889. Mr. Lakin became the partner of D. E. Offutt of Oak land, Md in a mercantile business carried on at Terra Alta, W. Va., under the firm name of Offut and Lakin. He had full charge of the business until 1909, when he gave up his work to enter upon his duties as member of the State Board of. Control, and 'was succeeded by his brother Finney L. Lakin as man ager. The business was successful from the beginning and is now conducted in a substantial three story brick building. From a strictly mercantile busi ness at the beginning, the firm soon branched out into business in coal, timber. And other lines. And now owns large acreages of timber land in West Virginia, Virginia and Arkansas. In connection with his business success 'mr. Lakin naturally became interested in banking. He was elected President of the First National Bank of T'erra Alta and also became one of the, Directors of the Terra Alta Bank. He has always shown a lively interest in political and public affairs and was for a number-of years a member of the Republican executive committee of Preston County. In 1900 he was appointed by Gov. A. B. White to act as director of the West Virginia Asylum at Huntington, and in 1904 was re appointed by Gov. W. M. O. Dawson. In 1905 he was the Republican candi date for Congress in the Second Congressional District of West Virginia to succeed Hon. A. G. Dayton, who had been appointed to a federal judgeship. In this campaign he was defeated by a small majority by Colonel Thomas B. Davis of Keyser, W. Va., a brother of Hon. Henry G. Davis. In 1909, he was appointed by Gov. W. E. Glasscock to serve as one ofthe three members of the newly-created State Board of Control' to have charge of the business and financial side of all state institutions. His associates were John A. Sheppard, a prominent attorney, now of Huntington, and Thomas E. Hodges, now President of the University. By them he was elected President of the Board; in this position he has shown remarkable ability as an organizer and his service has been continuous excepting a brief leave Of ab sence during the political campaign of 1912 during which he served as chair man of the Republican state executive committee. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.