Harold R. Markell

Businessman

-- From History of West Virginia, Old and New and West Virginia Biography -- Chicago: American Historical Society, 1923. v.2, p. 365

HAROLD R. MARKELL is the president of the Packard Motor Company of Wheeling. He was born in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada, by the beautiful St. Lawrence River, on June 21, 1887. Mr. Markell completed his schooling at Morrisburg Collegiate Institute and started his business career with the Metropolitan Bank of Canada. He later went to the far West and for six years managed several different branches of the Northern Crown Bank in the provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. During the latter period of his sojourn in Saskatchewan he gained his initial experience in the selling of automobiles, and in 1914 became associated with the Packard Motor Company at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In July, 1915, his company decided to open a branch at Wheeling, West Virginia, and he was chosen as manager of the new branch. Packard's business at Wheeling has enjoyed a steady expansion until in the spring of 1922 Mr. Markell formed a new $100,000 corporation, of which he is now president and Mr. George Row is secretary and treasurer. The new Packard Company is, at the time of going to press, erecting at Pleasant Valley, Wheeling, an automobile sales and service station which will be second to none in the Ohio Valley. The building is to have a frontage of 135 feet and a depth of 200 feet. It will require an average of about twenty-five employees.

In 1917 Mr. Markell married Elizabeth Cassell Stamm, daughter of Frank H. Stamm and granddaughter of Peter Cassell, and so is closely related to two of Wheeling's oldest and most influential families. Mr. and Mrs. Markell have two children, Betty Jane and Virginia.

During the past several years Mr. Markell has taken a considerable interest in club life and is now a member of the Fort Henry and Country Clubs, is a Scottish Rite Mason, a Kiwanian and a director of the Motors Trading Corporation.

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