 1898 - 1962 (63 years)
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| Name |
Ernest Shelton (Creed) Lickliter |
| Birth |
8 Oct 1898 |
MacDonald, Fayette Co., WV  |
| Gender |
Male |
| Death |
6 Sep 1962 |
Beckley, Raleigh Co., WV |
| Person ID |
I9514 |
forneyclark |
| Last Modified |
10 Jun 2026 |
| Father |
James "Jim" Creed, b. ABT. Apr 1878, Carter Co., TN d. 17 Dec 1902, Fort Yates, ND; burial: Keokuk National Cem., Keokuk, IA (Age 24 years) |
| Mother |
Margaret "Maggie" Greever, b. 4 Nov 1881, Montgomery, Fayette Co., WV d. 24 Aug 1938, Beckley, Raleigh Co., WV (Age 56 years) |
| Marriage |
2 Jan 1898 |
MacDonald, Fayette Co., WV |
| Family ID |
F3753 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Family |
Beatrice Toney, b. 12 Apr 1894, Raleigh Co., WV d. 7 Jan 1954, Beckley, Raleigh Co., WV; burial: Sunset Mem., Beckley, Raleigh Co., WV (Age 59 years) |
| Marriage |
ABT. 1917 |
| Children |
| | 1. Helen Lickliter, b. 8 Jun 1918 d. 12 Aug 1999, Kettering, Montgomery Co., OH (Age 81 years) |
| | 2. Bobbi Ann Lickliter, b. 6 Aug 1921 d. 15 Mar 2006, Burial: Barrancas National Cem., Naval Air Station, Pensacola, FL (Age 84 years) |
| | 3. Ernest "Junior" Lickliter, Jr., b. 15 Jun 1923 d. Sep 1977 (Age 54 years) |
| | 4. Ray McQue Lickliter, b. 10 Oct 1927, Beckley, Raleigh Co., WV d. 26 Jun 2001, Charleston, Kanawha Co., WV; burial: Sunset Mem. Park, Beckley, Raleigh Co., WV (Age 73 years) |
|
| Family ID |
F2640 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Last Modified |
10 Jun 2026 |
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| Notes |
- Source:
"Ernest Creed aka Ernest Lickliter" by Nyla CREED DePauk: [Ernest Shelton (Creed) Lickliter was the biological son of James "Jim" Creed (1878-1902) & Maggie Greever and the adopted son of Joseph Emmett Lickliter]
Contents of the above genealogy of Ernest Shelton (Creed) Lickliter came from the combined efforts of Nila Creed DePauk, Judy Lickliter Fach, Larry Creed, Julie Williams Kodak, & Daniel Lickliter:
Name of Ernest Shelton (Creed) Lickliter & dates & places & the following information:
"James Creed - Father of Ernest Creed aka Ernest Lickliter":
"James 'Jim' Creed was born about April 1878, in Carter County, Tennessee. As a young man, he relocated to West Virginia. He seems to have lived at Bramwell, McDowell County, for a period of time. Then he shows up at Macdonald, Fayette County. While working at the coal mines at Macdonald, Fayette County, he married Maggie Greever on January 2, 1898. They were married at Macdonald by W. N. Bibb. James and Maggie had one child: Ernest Shelton Creed.
James and Maggie’s marriage was dissolved and annulled and her maiden name restored on March 1, 1899. Maggie received custody of their son.
James died December 17, 1902, at Fort Yates, North Dakota, according to military records. His grave was relocated on November 14, 1905, to the Keokuk National Cemetery, 1701 J Street, Keokuk, Iowa 52632. He is buried at Section H, Site 276. Keokuk National Cemetery is located in Lee County, Iowa.
Maggie Greever was the daughter of John Greever and Anna Brooks according to her death certificate. She was born November 4, 1881, at Montgomery, Fayette County, West Virginia, and died August 24, 1938, at Beckley. Maggie married second Joseph Emmett Lickliter on December 23, 1899."
AND
"Ernest (Creed) Lickliter: Born: 8 October 1898 in West Virginia; Married: about 1917; Died: 6 December 1962 in Beckley, Raleigh County,West Virginia."
AND
"Ernest was in a mining disaster on August 6, 1926, and lost the sight of his right eye and almost entirely lost the sight of his left eye. He lost the use of his right hand; the arm and hand were paralyzed."
Source:
From the "Post Herald and Register. Beckley, W. Va. Sunday Morning, March 18 1956
Blind, Broke at 25, Beckley Man Successful as Contractor By KITTY THOMPSON
(DFC: I believe Judy Lickliter Fach did the transcription from the Post Herald and Register.)
''Fear of failure or criticism destroys man, and I fear neither," Ernest Lickliter, Beckley contractor replied when asked how he could actively run a construction business and be totally blind.
On Aug. 6, 1926, Lickliter was an employee of the Price Hill Collieries Co. An electrician, he went into the mines that day to help blast down a coal seam and an explosion occurred.
One of his eyes was blown completely out and the sight of the other eye was destroyed. In addition to these injuries, his right arm was badly hurt and his chest was ripped open by the blast.
Blood poisoning later set in and he lost the use of his arm. Lickliter was 25 years old at the time.
"Everyone thought I was going to die," he said, "but I knew I wouldn't. I believe I would have if it hadn't been for the love of my family and friends. I lived because someone wanted me to."
Lickliter and his wile, the former Beatrice Toney of Beckley, had two children at the time of the accident, and "times were bad then," he said.
In and out of several hospitals following the accident, Lickliter went also to Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore Md. for treatment. The vision in his left eye could not be restored however.
"When I came home, Lickliter said," after being in the hospital, I felt that everything was lost and I had no confidence. One day I just made up my mind to leave the house by myself and I did. I found I could tell when an object was in my path, and my other senses were exceptionally strong."
After that, he said, he made up his mind to have no fear of "failure or criticism."
The family was living on Wilkes Street at that time, and one day the house caught on fire, "it was badly damaged," Lickliter said.
"I decided then to repair the house," Lickliter said," and I gathered me up a crew of men and started construction."
When the house was repaired, Lickliter said, "I decided to go into the construction business.
"I received credit from lumber companies in Raleigh County, loan companies and a local bank. They never questioned my credit," he said, "and I had nothing to put up for collateral.
"However," he said, "I never once failed to pay back what I borrowed, and it was always on time too. At times I owed as much as $50,000."
"I had some knowledge of engineering," he said, "since I had studied it some, and when someone wanted to build, a house I sent them to Phil Wilson, who drew up the blueprints for me."
"Then," he said, "Mrs. Wilson would read the blueprints to me and my wife. When I heard those blueprints it was just like a blueprint on television. I had it pictured on my brain."
Between the years of 1937 and 1943 Lickliter built some 65 to 70 homes in Beckley, "on about every street in town." He has built homes throughout the county too.
Lickliter reports that all his houses were approved by the Federal Housing Authority, "and I never, once had to have them reinspected. They passed the first time."
Included often in his service as a contractor was the furnishing of a lot, supervising the construction and then going over each part of the house to inspect it. "When necessary," he said, "I climbed on top of the house for the inspection."
"My crews didn't try to fool me either," Lickliter said. "because I could feel a mistake with my fingers, which are as sensitive as anyone's eyes."
Lickliter gives much of the credit for his successful business to his wife, who read construction books and law book to him, and kept all the time book and business information. "I never could have done it without her," he said.
"She kept a good set of book too," he said, "and any public accountant could read them and translate them."
The couple had four children and started two of them in college.
The only assistance he ever received was from the state, back in 1927 when he received $16 a week. Out of this, he paid $25 a month on his home, carried insurance and raised the family.
Lickliter's wife died in 1954 and since that time he has been retired, "since I have no one to go over the plans with me or keep the books, but I have supervised the construction of some houses for friends since then, and when spring comes I will do a few more that I have contracted," Lickliter said.
Having worked at various jobs since he was 10 years old, Lickliter said, "I had always made good money before the accident, but I didn't know to save any of it."
He credits much of his success in the construction business to having dealt with reliable people. "I never built cheap houses," he said, "and sometime when necessary I carried mortgages for people. All of the bigger ones were paid back except a $1,500 one and a few smaller ones, but I never pressed them."
Most of the people who didn't pay their mortgages were involved in some sort of financial troubles, Lickliter said, and accounts for the reason the issues were never pressed.
Lickliter is proudest of the fact that he has never that he has never had to ask for charity or assistance from anyone. He takes care of himself, but has a housekeeper to come in and clean and cook. Whenever he wants to take a trip to any place out of state, he gees by himself.
Lickliter can speak of his blindness with a bit of humor too. He told of being on a construction job in Beckley one day when he needed a bucket of paint.
One of the members of his crew had left the five-gallon bucket down the street and Lickliter said I'll go get it." This he did, and on the way back, bumped into a lady, spilling paint all over her new dress.
"She was foreign," Lickliter said, "and cursed me in every language she knew. All I could do was stand there and laugh at her," he said.
"Another time," he said with no embarrassment," "I stepped right down into a manhole."
His hobby is raising roses, and "I have hundreds of them," he says. He also listens to television and can "see" every scene on his brain.
Summing up his life and his success as a contractor after becoming totally blind, Lickliter says "Life is only what you make it, if you have faith you can do anything."
His children are R. M. Lickliter, Ernest Lickliter Jr., and Mrs. Bobbie Ann Boggs, all of Beckley and Mrs. Helen Lilly of Ohio.
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