Paul B. Senter

PAUL B. SENTER, is one of the prominent younger business men in his native city of Bristol, where he is secretary of the Bristol Door and Lumber Company. This is one of the largest organizations of its kind in the state and does a business over a number of states east and west. Mr. Senter was born at Bristol, May 2, 1887. The Senter family is of English-French ancestry and has been in Virginia since Colonial times. His grandfather, William T. Senter, was a native of Smyth County, and for many years was engaged in the tanning industry in that county and subsequently moved to Bristol, where he was a prosperous merchant until his death at the age of eighty-two. He served in the artillery all through the war between the states as a Confederate soldier. His wife, Sarah Rector, was also a native of Smyth County, and she died at Bristol. James H. Senter, father of Paul B., was born in Smyth County, November 19, 1848, and was a young man when he moved to Bristol. For a number of years he was a passenger conductor with the Norfolk and Western Railroad. He was a democrat, a member of the State Street Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of Bristol, and was affiliated with Shelby Lodge No. 162, Free and Accepted Masons, E. 11. Gill Chapter No. 50, Ro al Arch Masons, Johnson Commandery No. 14, Knights Templar, all at Bristol. James H. Senter, who died January 25, 1919, married Harriet McCrary, who was born near Bristol, Tennessee, in Sullivan County, that State, August 20, 1859, and now lives at Emory, Virginia. Their oldest son is Rev. Samuel T. Senter, D. D.,, pastor of the Court Street Methodist Episcopal Church, South, at Lynchburg. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from King College at Bristol, Tennessee, and is also a graduate of Vanderbilt University, and noted as one of the able men in the ministry. The second child, Glenna, is the wife of John L. Hardin, professor of English in Emory and Henry College. Paul B. is the third child, and the youngest, William W., was in the aviation service for a year in France, and is now in the hardware business at Hazard, Kentucky.

Paul B. Senter during his boyhood at Bristol attended the public schools, graduating from high school in 1904, and has had about twenty years since leaving school in which to achieve for himself a distinctive position in business affairs. For four years he was in the office of the McCrary Lumber Company at Bristol, and for four years was secretary and treasurer of the Sells Lumber and Manufacturing Company of Johnson City, Tennessee. Since 1913, a period of ten years, he has been connected with the Bristol Door and Lumber Company, and since 1919 has been its secretary and a director of the company. This is one of the leading companies manufacturing interior hardwood trim in the Appalachian District. The plant and offices are at the corner of William and Goodson streets in Bristol. Great quantities of hardwood lumber are manufactured every year and the company specializes in hardwood interior trim, including sash and doors. The products are shipped all over the Middle West and Eastern States. The officers of the company are: W. O. Came, president; H. G. Peters, vice president; P.B. Senter, secretary; and L. W. Arthur, treasurer.

Mr. Senter is a democrat, is a member of the State Street Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of Bristol, and is a member of the Bristol Chamber of Commerce and the Kiwanis Club. He is affiliated with Bristol Lodge No. 232, Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, and is a past chancellor of Bristol Lodge No. 37, Knights of Pythias. His home is on Georgia Avenue in Bristol. In his native city Mr. Senter married, June 14, 1913, Miss Anna Lee Moneyhun, daughter of John T. and Mattie Rogers Moneyhun, residents of Bristol, Tennessee. Her father is a traveling salesman. The four children born to Mr. And Mrs. Senter are: Josephine born September 16, 1914; James Bradley born April 5, 1916; Charlotte borne Novemebr 4, 1918; and John Paul born October 26, 1920.