University of Virginia Library

JOSEPH T. ENGLEBY

Joseph T. Engleby, the subject of this sketch, was
born in Almakee County, Iowa, in 1856, being a son
of Thomas and Elizabeth (Beveridge) Engleby, and
to-day he is regarded as
a leading and influential
citizen of the city of his
adoption. Early in life
he located in Lonaconing,
Maryland, where
for a number of years he
was engaged in mercantile
pursuits. In 1882, he
removed to Roanoke
where he started a roofing,
heating, and plumbing
business, which was
later incorporated under
the firm name of Engleby
& Brother Company,
with warerooms and offices
at 15 and 17 Salem
Avenue, West, of which
concern he is the president.
Since coming to Roanoke, Mr. Engleby has
been an important factor in the upbuilding of the city.
He was one of the organizers of the Volunteer Fire
Department and for six years was Assistant Chief of
the Fire Department and member of the old Vigilant
Fire Company. He served the city three terms in the
City Council, being elected from the old First Ward,
afterwards designated as Highland Ward.

Joseph T. Engleby was a promotor and an officer of
the Roanoke Light Company, and was largely instrumental
in the merging of that concern and the Roanoke
Street Railway, operated by horses and steam, into
the Roanoke Railway and Electric Company, when
the more modern power of electricity was adopted in
the running of cars. Some twenty years ago, when it
seemed that Roanoke would lose the terminus of the
Roanoke & Southern, now the Winston-Salem Division
of the Norfolk & Western Railway, according
to a current issue of the Evening World published then,
Mr. Engleby and his brother, John Engleby, with
whom he was, and is now, associated in business,
together with L. L. Powell and William M. Yager,
with the enterprise characteristic of those gentlemen,
guaranteed the sum of $50,000, which had the effect
of giving to Roanoke a southern outlet, and which
has recently resulted in the establishment of a trunk
line from Columbus, Ohio, to the Atlantic Seaboard
at Charleston, South Carolina, through the receht
building of a connecting link known as the "South
Bound." Mr. Engleby was afterwards a member of
the Board of Directors of the Roanoke & Southern,
representing the interests of Roanoke City.

In the year 1883, he married Estella G. Staples,
daughter of William and Patience Staples, of Frostburg,
Maryland. The children born to this union are
as follows: Clara D., Emma E., Ellen M., Minnie,
William Staples, a graduate of Washington and Lee
University, and a member of the law firm of Woods,
McNulty & Engleby, Frank A, and Joseph T., Jr.

Religiously he is a member of Greene Memorial
Methodist Church and a member of the Board of
Stewards.

Socially he is a member of the Woodmen of the
World.

For twenty-nine years, the subject of this sketch
has been identified with the upbuilding and progress
of the city of Roanoke. The business firm of which he
is the head, and the controlling spirit, has an established
trade, not only in Roanoke, but throughout
Southwest Virginia, where they have handled and
executed large contracts. In all departments of the
firm about eighty men are given constant employment.

He is Vice President of the Roanoke Auto. Association,
Chamber of Commerce and Director Retail
Merchants Association.