Rees,
Have you by chance tried the WV dept of archives? Probably administered by the WV Sec. of States office I would guess. That is where old death records for the state of Illinois are stored. Could be the same in WV and again if you have not searched the census records you might have luck there also. You can do that through ancestory.com or with some searching you can do it for free yourself. One other thing, you know where he lived and I would think that somewhere there would be a city directory to look at that might be on microfilm. I found many of my Maternal relatives that way in those old directories. They at least allow one to fill in the blanks so to speak. If he was a local business man, the local paper of the time should have the obit and it is now probably on microfilm also and in the possesion of some nearby college perhaps.
FC