Wheeling Building Material Co.

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Wheeling Building Material Co.

-From the Charleston Daily Mail, Monday Evening, February 26, 1917, pg. 7

"Charters of incorporation were issued by the secretary of state today to the following companies... Wheeling Building Material Co., of Wheeling, to do a building material manufacturing business; authorized captial, $30,000; incorporators, Harold W. Becker, Ernest S. Bullard, Mrs. Harold W. Becker, E. R. Bullard and Mrs. E. R. Bullard, of Wheeling."

An advertisement was run in the Wheeling Intelligencer, March 13, 1917, announcing the new company, which would go on to advertise heavily on the phase "both phones 41."

Quoted in an article written by M. A. Berns for the June 20, 1917 issue of the publication Rock Products and Building Materials, Wheeling Building Material Co., President, Harold W. Becker said, "The growth of a flourishing and profitable building supply business never just ‘happens.’ It can always be traced back to certain wise policies and methods.”

The article stated:

In the case of the Wheeling Building Material Co., Wheeling, W. Va., some of the reasons for success are: A yard location permitting the most economical handling of incoming shipments and local deliveries; consistent advertising of its telephone number and prompt service, bringing a large volume of telephone business; a credit policy that encourages prompt payment but gives reasonable leeway; a graduated charge for deliveries based upon division of territory into zones. . .

"Our advertising makes capital of our location,” continued Mr. Becker. “Our barn, facing the car line and the National Pike, carries our name and two slogans, ‘Build to Last’ and ‘Both Phones 41,’ with the figure “41' so large that it cannot be missed by a passerby.

Consistent Advertising Builds Business

“Our newspaper ads as well as our signs, blotters and other forms of advertising feature fireproof building material and our telephone slogan, 'Both Phones 41.' We use 12-inch, 4-column ads several times a week and in every Sunday edition of the best Wheeling papers. Featuring our telephone number has encouraged telephone orders until this is a large proportion of our business. We have found that it permits operation with a smaller force and therefore cuts the cost of doing business.”

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The Charleston Daily Mail, in it's Thursday Evening, January 7, 1932 edition reported that Mr. Becker was arrested after "acting queerly" at a trial and placed in a "special cell" for "suffering acute delirium."

Witness' Testimony Recalled By Judge
Wheeling, Jan. 7 (AP).—Judge J Harold Brennan, hearing the Hawley will case contest, instructed the jury to disregard the testimony of Harold W. Becker, 42 years old, after Becker had been arrested. The judge said Becker, who is president of the Wheeling Building Material company and one of the principal witnesses in the case, had acted queerly in the courtroom. After his arrest, doctors who examined Becker in a special cell, said he was suffering from acute delirium.

On June 16, 1935, the Charleston Daily Mail reported:

ESCAPED INMATE OF HOSPITAL CAPTURED
Clarksburg, W. Va., June 13 (AP)—Harold W. Becker was taken from a bus en route to Wheeling tonight by Clarksburg police and returned to the Weston state hospital where he escaped this morning. Police said that Becker had cursed his wife who is now living here and that she made the complaint that lead to his capture. Becker was a trusty at the Weston institution and "just walked off," police said. His home is at Wheeling.

The Wheeling Building Manufacting Co. is last listing in the Wheeling City Directory in 1934 under the direction of Mr. Becker wife, Mrs. Azelia Becker, at 60 Peninsula St.