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Wales, his business duties required his frequent presence in Westphalia, Munich and other places in Germany, and also in Northern Hungary. His technical knowledge and experience made his services in great demand, and for many years he was practically an international authority in the tin plate business. While his private business affairs were prosperous, he had the spirit of the traveler, and it was his zest for travel and new scenes that brought him to the United States in 1894. He lived for several years at New Castle, Pennsylvania, and afterwards
came, to Youngstown.
David Gottlieb Jenkins received his second name from a boyhood friend of his father, a German, and the godfather of Judge Jenkins. Judge Jenkins acquired his primary education in Germany and Hungary, and was about fifteen years of age when the family came to America. He graduated from the New Castle High School in 1900 and the following year came to Youngstown. His first work here was in the laboratory of the Ohio Works, and from 1903 to 1905 he was editor of the Youngstown Labor Advocate. He then studied law, and attended the Ohio Northern University Law Department at Ada, where he was a student under former Governor Willis. He was admitted to the bar in December, 1906, and after practicing one year was appointed assistant city solicitor. In 1909 he was elected city solicitor and re-elected without opposition in 1911. His most important work as city solicitor outside of the regular office routine was in formulating the Narls for the creation of the Milton reservoir, the source of Youngstown's water supply. In 1918 he was elected to fill the unexpired term of Judge W. P. Barnum as judge of the Common Pleas Court, and while one of the younger Common Pleas judges in Ohio his work has abundantly justified his choice. Judge Jenkins is widely known as an authority on history and economics. He has contributed articles on these subjects to leading journals and magazines, and has delivered addresses covering the above subjects in various sections of the country.
Judge Jenkins married in 1915, Edna J. Williams, daughter of Thomas B. Williams, of Youngstown. They have three children : Bronwen Elise, Elwyn Vernon and Ivor Neville. The family are members of the Episcopal Church. He is a Royal Arch Mason and Knight of Pythias, and is the present district representative of the Odd Fellows at the Grand Lodge.
JOHN A. FITHIAN. Both as a member of one of the learn professions, and as an alert and successful business man, John A. Fithian is a decided asset to his community, and is recognized as one of the representative men of Youngstown. He was born in the same house at Youngstown, as his mother, 1615 Poland Avenue, April 26, 1870, and is a brother of James Bruce Fithian, in whose biography appears the family history.
Growing up at Youngstown, John A. Fithian attended the Grove City College where he took special courses, and following his completion of them, he learned telegraphy and became an operator for the Bessemer Railroad, with which he remained for three years. Mr. Fithian then became bookkeeper for the Poland Coal Company of Youngstown, and was also connected with the coal interests of the Tods and Stambaughs, and after these were sold to the Pittsburgh Coal Company, he became teller for the Dollar Savings Bank. - After five and one-half years in that institution, Mr. Fithian accepted a similar position with the newly organized City Trust & Savings Company and held it for four and one-half years.
Leaving the banking business, Mr. Fithian bought the real estate and insurance business of Pfau & France and has conducted it ever since, represent. ing seventeen insurance companies, and conducting his affairs under the name of The Fithian Agency, In the interval Mr. Fithian read law in the night school of the Young Men's Christian Association and was admitted to the bar in 1915, and since then has practiced his profession to a considerable extent, he being especially expert on realty and insurance law. He belongs to the Mahoning Valley Bar Association. In addition to all of these interests, Mr. Fithian is secretary of The Miller Bros. Coal Company and secretary and treasurer of The Fithian-Miller Realty Company.
On October 26, 1897, Mr. Fithian was united in marriage with Miss Jennie 0. Miller, a daughler of Andrew J. and Hattie (Johnson) Miller. Mr Miller was a labor contractor for Andrews Bros. Mill at Haselton, Ohio, and later one of the cily commissioners; he died July 5, 1918. Mr. and Mrs, Fithian became the parents of two sons, namely: J. Adelbert, who was born in Iwoa, has completed the high school course; and Paul M., who was born in 1906. Mr. Fithian belongs to the Masonic fraternity, being a member of the Western Star No. 21, Youngstown, Ohio. Both he and his wife are active members of Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church of Youngstown, he serving on its official board, and she as an official of the missionary society, and both are highly regarded in church circies as they are elsewhere because of their earnest ness and sincerity. For a number of years Mr. Fithian has been a member of the Real Estate Board, the Chamber of Commerce, the Kiwan Club, Youngstown Auto Club and Young Me Christian Association, and in this connection, otherwise, has done much to boost Youngstown and effect further improvements.
REV. MAURICE FRANCIS GRIFFIN, has done a great work at oungstown as pastor of St. Edward's Catholic Church. He is big and strong, a natural leader among men, and his personality and wonderful smile have drawn people to him from all ranks and classes and given him a great influence for good in this community.
Father Griffin was born in Toledo, Ohio, July 1 1880, son of Maurice Francis and Margaret (Daly) Griffin. Both his grandfathers were Union soldiers and five of his uncles were also in that war. His grandfather Michael Daly spent a year as a prisoner in Andersonville, and was on the ill-fated Sultana, the steamship laden with wounded Union soldiers which while returning to the North was blown up in the Mississippi River. Maurice F. Griffin, Sr., who died in 1906, at the age of sixty-nine, was an iron and steel worker and at the time of his death
YOUNGSTOWN AND THE MAHONING VALLEY - 51
was superintendent of the Toledo Foundry and Machine Shops. The family moved from Toledo to Franklin County, Ohio, in 1861. Father Griffin was one of a family of four children. He and his sister Helen are the only ones now living, and his sister and his mother reside in the father's rectory at Youngstown.
Father Griffin acquired his early education at Toledo, graduating from the Central High School in 1899. He was awarded the English scholarship at the Western Reserve University, where he was a student two years and began the study of law. Later he entered Notre Dame University, pursued the philosophic course three years and received a degree, and after his theological work at the seminary was ordained by Bishop Hickey in 1908. Soon afterward he was assigned to St. Columba's Church at Youngstown, and in August, 1916, was appointed pastor of St. Edward's parish. He has done much organization work and his services have been particularly helpful in the administration of St. Elizabeth's Hospital.
HENRY WICK. In Youngstown, the name "Wick" is a synonym for fiscal integrity and unusual ability, for high character, and for public spiritedness. Among the many members of this family who have contributed richly to the success and soundness of Youngstown's business institutions and the quality of her citizenship, one of the most prominent was Henry Wick, born May 13, 1846, a son of Hugh Bryson and Lucretia Winchell Wick, and a grandson of Henry Wick, the founder of the family in Youngstown, and his wife Hannah Baldwin Wick.
Born in Youngstown, Henry Wick spent substantially the whole of his life in that city. He received his early education in the public schools of that city and in Western Reserve College.
He began business as a coal operator and was most active in the development of the coal mines of the Mahoning Valley and the Pittsburgh field. Later he became interested in the iron business. He organized and operated the Youngstown Rolling Mill Company, one of the most successful of the earlier producers in this line. He was one of the incorporators of The Ohio Iron and Steel Company and, for many years, its vice president. Much of the conspicuous success of this company is attributed to his wise counsel. He organized also the Ohio Steel Company, the first company to manufacture Bessemer steel in the Mahoning Valley. Of this company he was president from the time of its organization until it was merged a few years later with other companies to form the National Steel Company. He then was president of the National Steel Company and continued to act in that capacity until this company, in turn, was absorbed by the Carnegie Steel Company and finally by the United States Steel Corporation. Still later, Mr. Wick bought the Elyria Iron and Steel Company of Elyria, Ohio. He re-organized this company, greatly increased the capacity of its plant, and, acting in the capacity of president, had general supervision of its operations up to the time of his death.
In addition to these, the more conspicuous of his business undertakings, he was interested directly and indirectly in a great many others. He was a partner in the well known and notably successful banking firm of Wick Brothers & Company, and an officer in the Wick National Bank, which was the successor of that firm. Also, he was a director of the First National Bank, the Dollar Savings and Trust Company, the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, and many other of Youngstown's well known business institutions.
For many years he was engaged in lumbering, metal mining and ranching in the far West. A lover of nature and all that went with it, he was intensely interested in agriculture and live stock, and in later years owned and operated on a scientific basis several large farms near his home city.
It is difficult, even today, to turn anywhere in Youngstown without being confronted with some monument to Mr. Wick's business genius. His talents were as varied as the opportunities which came to his door, and he made exceptionally good use of both.
Henry Wick was a vital and compelling force. He was a tireless worker and a natural leader of men. He was a hater of sham and show, and a lover of truth and justice. He was loyal to friends and just to every one. He had a veritable passion for home and for the near ones who are the life of home. His domestic life was one of peculiar charm and unusual happiness. He was an active and influential member of the First Presbyterian Church, and an interested and liberal contributor to substantially all of the welfare agencies of his home city, and an active worker in many. Politically, he was a republican. A vigorous advocate of prohibition, he for several years was the leader of the dry forces in his home district.
Mr. Wick died of pneumonia in December, 1915. His wife, Mary Arms Wick, a real partner, whose beautiful character, high purposes and unwavering devotion had been a living inspiration throughout the whole of his intensely active career, followed him within five days. Both Henry Wick and this noble woman, who was his wife, will long be remembered for the uplifting influence which they exerted and the visible good they wrought.
THOMAS MCNAMARA, JR., has practiced law steadily in the Mahoning Valley for thirty years, has won high distinction in his profession, and perhaps no more effective tribute can be paid him than that he has pursued his work with a singular devotion almost uninfluenced by the many tempting offers of political honors such as most lawyers regard as attractive rewards of their profession.
Mr. McNamara was born in Niles, Ohio, December 26, 1865, a son of Thomas and Elizabeth (McMahon) McNamara. His parents were born and reared in Ireland and came when young people to the United States. Thomas McNamara, Sr., spent his active life as a farmer in Trumbull County and lived on his old homestead about fifty years. He died there in December, 1919. His predominant characteristics were his rugged, sterling honesty, simplicity of character and kindly disposition. A Catholic, and as one of the early settlers of Niles, he was the first to break sod for the original Catholic Church of that
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city. He was quiet, unassuming, neighborly, and did his part in public benefactions and always commanded general esteem. He neither sought nor held public office. His wife died in May, 1910. Of their nine children seven reached mature years, and five are living.
Thomas McNamara, Jr., spent his boyhood on a farm, attended district schools, and afterwards graduated from the Ohio Northern University at Ada in 1889 with the Bachelor of Science degree. He studied law at the Cincinnati Law College, which graduated him in 1891. Mr. McNamara has always practiced his profession alone, and during the past thirty years his name has been frequently linked with large and important cases in the courts of Youngstown and in higher tribunes. He is a member of the State and County Bar associations.
Again and again appointments and nominations of a high character have been tendered him, all of which he declined because of his growing private practice, though such appointments would have been regarded by many an ambitious lawyer as satisfactory rewards and real distinctions. Mr. McNamara has been quite active in the democratic party as a worker in the ranks, and served as a delegate to the National Convention at St. Louis which nominated Alton B. Parker and also to the convention in the same city in 1916 when Mr. Wilson was renominated.
In November, 1898, Mr. McNamara married Miss Adelaide McMillen of Youngstown. They have four children, Thomas, John, Adelaide and Eleanor.
CHARLES F. WILKINS, secretary and general manager of the Wiklins-Leonard Hardware Company, is one of the substantial business men of Youngstown who merits the confidence he inspires. He was born in Fairfield County, Ohio, on August 24, 1866, a son of Isaac A. and Anna M. (Hart) Wilkins, both of whom were natives of the same county as their son. There they were married and, settling upon a farm, became useful members of their community. He died in 1909, she surviving him until 1918, when she too, passed away.
Charles F. Wilkins was reared in his native county and learned the fundamentals of farming from his father while he was attending the neighborhood school. When he was nineteen years of age he secured a teacher's certificate and for two years taught in the country districts, and then, in 1886, decided to try his fortune in a larger field, selecting Youngstown for the experiment. At first he was employed by the Morris Hardware Company for the meager salary of $25 per month, and remained with that concern for seven years gaining during that period a thorough knowledge of the hardware business, which has proven very valuable to him in his later operations. In 1892 he joined the J. H. & F. A. Sells Company of Columbus, Ohio, as a traveling salesman and represented it on the road for one year, and seven years for the H. W. Lenkemeyer & Son, of Cleveland, covering Northern Ohio and Eastern Pennsylvania, and then resigned and returned to Youngstown, where he immediately organized the Wilkins-Leonard Hardware Company, with a capital stock of $50,000, which was taken by the friends he had made during his former seven years' residence at Youngstown. This fact rs very significant, and is about as fine a testimonial any man need want of the confidence felt in his ability. From the beginning Mr. Wilkins has been secretary and general manager of the company, and as such has so shaped its policies that it has had a prosperous career, the volume of business showing a natural and very healthy increase year by year. He has always taken a fatherly interest in his employes and endeavors to so develop their capabilities as to make them not only useful to the concern, but to their community at large.
On September 27, 1898, Mr. Wilkins was united in marriage with Miss Vernice M. Darrow, a daughter of David R. and Laura N. Darrow, who, for the past thirty years have been engaged in the market gardening busines at East Youngstown. Prior to her marriage Mrs. Wilkins was a teacher in the public schools of Youngstown. Mr. and Mrs. Wilkins have one son, Donald F., two children having died. James D. died aged twelve years, and Jul, A. died aged nine months. Mr. Wilkins belong to Youngstown Lodge No. 103, Independent Old Odd Fellows. He is amember of the official boa: of Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church of Youngstown. One of the boosters of Youngstown, Mr. Wilkins has long been an active member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Builders Exchange and is a director of the Credit Men's Association. Having risen from the bottom, Mr. Wilkins understands the needs of his over fifty employes, and is proud of the fact that all he is today is the result of his own industryo thrift and perseverance, and is constantly trying to demonstrate to others that the same opportunities are waiting for them if they are willing to make the same exertion to grasp them that he did.
ALFRED C. COOK. A man of excellent business ability and judgment, upright and just in all of his dealings, Alfred C. Cook has had a varied experience during his active career, and is now most acceptably filling the position of superintendent of Safety Welfare and Claims Department of the Youngstown District of the Carnegie Steel Company. A son of the late Peter Cook, he was born, February 4, 1873, in Brookfield Township, Trumbull County, Ohio, of German lineage.
Born, reared and educated in Baden, Germany, Peter Cook there learned the trade of a stone mason. Immigrating to the United States when a young man, he located first in Sharon, Pennsylvania, where he followed his trade, and was likewise a contractor for forty years. In the latter capacity, he erected improvements on the Custer estate, which formerly belonged to the Perkins family. Industrious and thrifty, he bought a farm in Brookfield Township, Trumbull County, Ohio, on which he and his family settled, and from his home he made daily trips to his place of business in Sharon. There he continued his residence until his death, in August, 1918, at the venerable age of eighty-seven years. He married Margaret Denninger, who died in July, 1918, at the age of eighty-five years, having then enjoyed a happy married life of sixty-five years. Ten children
YOUNGSTOWN AND THE MAHONING VALLEY - 53
were born of their union, five of whom are now living.
Having completed the course of study in the country schools of Brookfield, Alfred C. Cook attended a business school in Youngstown, borrowing from his father sufficient money to pay his expenses, a sum that he subsequently repaid from his earnings. At the age of sixteen years, he began his career as clerk in a general store, being first employed in Greenville, Pennsylvania, and later in Warren, Ohio, in both places having charge of the dry goods department. Making a change of employment and residence, Mr. Cook came to Youngstown as an employee of the Prudential Insurance Company, and later assumed charge of the Royal Union Mutual Insurance Agency. Accepting a position with the Carnegie Steel Company next, he was variously employed in the Ohio Works, serving in the Bessemer Department, in the superintendent's office, and as night foreman in the rolling department. On April 19, 1903, Mr. Cook was unfortunate enough to meet with a serious accident that came very near making him a permanent cripple.
In the spring of 1904, after having been disabled for thirteen months, Mr. Cook was placed by Joseph McDonald, superintendent, in charge of the Ohio Works ball team, a team standing high at that time in the baseball world. In 1905 he became claim agent for the Youngstown District of the Carnegie Steel Company, and was also made superintendent of its Welfare and Safety Department, positions for which he is fully qualified, and which he is filling to the entire satisfaction of all concerned. During the World war, he was director of the Red Cross organization of the city, and still retains the position. On November 19, 1908, Mr. Cook was united in marriage with Miss Adelaide Beil, a daughter of Jerry Beil, of Youngstown, and of their union two children have been born, Donald Raymond, born in 1913, and Keith Everett, born in 1919. Fraternally Mr. Cook is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He also belongs to the Chamber of Commerce; to the local Welfare Association ; to the Ohio Safety Engineers ; to the Industrial Engineers; and to the National Safety Council.
LIONEL EVANS. A lover of nature in all its forms, and especially interested in the development and growth of plant life, Lionel Evans, superintendent of the parks of Youngstown, is amply qualified by study, natural tastes and broad experience for the position he is so ably filling, the great work he has accomplished in the direction of affording enjoyment to the masses, and developing their power to appreciate the beautiful, being recognized by the general public. A native of England, he was born in Middlesborough, being the youngest of a family of eight children born to David and Rachael Evans, who were born, reared and married in Wales, his birth having occurred August 27, 1880.
After locating in Middlesborough, England, David Evans was employed in the iron and steel works until 1882, when he immigrated with his wife and children to Ohio. Settling in Youngstown, he found employment as a heater in the Mahoning Valley Iron Works, with which he was identified for many years.
Brought up in Youngstown, Lionel Evans attended the Shehy and Oak Street schools, and while yet a young lad began working in the Mahoning Valley Iron Company's Plant, first as errand boy for the superintendent, later being a piler, then assistant heater and heater. In 1910, after that plant had become the Republic Plant, Mr. Evans resigned to accept his present position as superintendent of the Youngstown parks. Previous to that date, however, he had represented the Second Ward in the city council for nearly three years, serving as a member of the committee on parks, new streets and public improvements.
Youngstown had but two parks when Mr. Evans assumed the position of superintendent, Wick and Lincoln parks, but under his supervision four others have been established, Crandall, Pine Hollow, South Side and Mill Creek. In the latter named nature has done her most to make the park charming, and man has very wisely made little attempt to improve it. Aside from these beautiful parks Youngstown has seven play grounds for the children, all improved and beautified under the supervision of Mr. Evans, which are a credit to the city. Mr. Evans is an active member of the American Association of Park Superintendents, with whom he meets each year.
On September 3o, 1903, Mr. Evans was united in marriage with Mae A. Maxwell, daughter of John Maxwell, and they have one child, Margaret. Religiously Mr. and Mrs. Evans are members of the Baptist Church. Fraternally Mr. Evans belongs to the Free and Accepted Order of Masons, belonging to all the local bodies of the order with the exception of the Shrine ; and is a member of the Knights of Pythias. He likewise is identified by membership with the Youngstown Chamber of Commerce.
DELOS KINNEY MOSER. A distinctive service, and appreciated as such by the community of Warren, has been the twenty-one years in which Delos Kinney Moser has been chief of the Warren City Fire Department. In fact he has been head of the fire department since it was put on a paid basis, and his record as a fire fighter goes back many years previously, while in service as a volunteer.
Mr. Moser was born in Warren on October 22, 1862, the son of Owen and Laura (Lane) Moser. His grandfather, Philip Moser, was of an old Pennsylvania family of Dutch ancestry, and was born at Allentown, Pennsylvania. He settled in Warren, Ohio, in 1834, and later he moved to a farm in Lordstown Township, Trumbull County. Owen Moser was born at Allentown in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, in 1828, and was brought to Trumbull County when a small child. He became widely known in after years as a landlord, and was in the hotel business at Warren and other points. He died at Warren in 1913. His wife, who died at Warren in 1912, was born in Brookfield Township, Trumbull County, in 1829, daughter of John and Ann Lane, who were settlers on a farm in Brookfield Township from Connecticut.
Delos Kinney Moser acquired a good education in the Warren public schools. He had an active business
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experience for many years. For fourteen years he was employed by the Packard Manufacturing Company, then spent two years with Charles B. Loveless rn the lumber business, and for two years more was in the retail grocery business. Throughout his business association, beginning in 1882, he was an active member of the old Warren Volunteer Fire Department. His efficient service with that organization made him the logical choice in 1898, when the city organized a paid, fire department, for the position of chief. During his administration of over twenty-one years the department has vastly increased in equipment, personnel and all around efficiency, and Mr. Moser may be justly proud of his record.
Mr. Moser is a member of the International Association of Fire Engineers and of the Ohio State Firemen's Association, serving the latter in the capacity of secretary for thirteen years, and in 1914 that' association presented him with a handsome gold chief's badge, in token of his splendid service. He is also affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of Columbus and the Modern Woodmen of America, and is a member of St. Mary's Catholic Church.
Mr. Moser married Miss Rose Gorghill, a sister of James P. Gorghill, of Warren. She died in 1890, leaving one son and a daughter, Philip and Isabel. The son is now an engineer in the heating department of the General Fire Extinguisher Company of Warren. He married Mary Colter, of Youngstown, and their family of three sons and three daughters are : Rosemary, Philip, Catherine, Delos, Isabel and Thomas. Mr. Moser's daughter, Isabel, is the wife of Charles R. Saxon, and they have a son, Richard Palmer. Mr. Saxon is now a resident of Birmingham, Alabama, and is assistant treasurer of the Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railway Company.
OTTO KAUFMANN AND EDWARD S. KAUFMANN. The name of Kaufmann is connected with one of the large manufacturing concerns of Youngstown, which has been developed to its present proportions through the initial efforts of Otto Kaufmann, and the supplemental work of the men he has associated with him in its conduct. Otto Kaufmann was born in Germany on October 24, 1866, a son of Ferdinand and Fanny (Altschul) Kaufmann, both of whom died in Germany, where the father was prominent in mercantile circles. He and his wife had eight sons and two daughters, namely: Dr. Theodore Kaufmann, mayor of Heidelberg, Germany, is a prominent attorney and politician; Ludwig, Fritz, Richard, Ernst and Rudolph, all of whom are successful merchants ; Albert, who is a portrait painter; and Otto, whose name heads this review.
In 1885 Otto Kaufmann came to the United States, the deciding factor in his leaving his native country being his distaste of the prevailing military system. Prior to leaving he was employed as a clerk in a bank with the noted international financier Otto H. Kahn, who left for England at the time Mr. Kauffmann came to America. On account of the custom then prevailing of sending clerks to foreign banks to learn their systems, Mr. Kaufmann experienced no difficulty in securing a leave of absence, arrangements having been made for his going on west to Chicago where a position was to be given him with the First National Bank of that city. However Mr. Kaufmann had other plans and, instead of going on to Chicago, remained in New York City and secured a position with the New York City Button Works as bookkeeper. After four years he was made superintendent of the factory, having charge of 600 people, rising in salary from $6 to $50 per week. He continued with this firm until 1900, when he was made a partner, the association continuing till 1904 when the firm was disbanded, and Mr. Kaufmann then began the manufacture of incandescent gas mantles, under the name of the Challenge Manufacturing Company, of which Mr. Kaufmann was made president. Subsequently his company purchased the plant of the American Incandescent Lamp Company, and slill later the entire business was sold to the Block Light Company of New York, of which Mr. Kaufmann was made general manager of the manufacturing plant. In 1906 he became general manager of the entire business, succeeding Mr. Block, Edward Steindler of New York becoming its president.
In 1908 Mr. Kaufmann visited Youngstown lo look over the plant of the Cremo Light Company which appealed to him very strongly so he boughl the interests of this company, renewed its lease of the plant, and returning to New York, advised the board of directors to build a factory at Youngstown and move to that city because of its more central location for shipping purposes. Acting upon his advice, the company bought three acres of land at Youngstown, upon which a plant was erected to suit its purpose, although the original building barely covered one acre. After removal was made to Youngstown, the business expanded to such an extent that more buildings had to be up and now the plant covers fully two acres. Steindler died in 1912, and in 1915 the busin was reorganized as the Block Gas Mantle Co pany, with Otto Kaufmann as president; Edward Kaufmann, vice president, and Thomas W. Woo ward, secretary. The authorized capital stock $1,000,000, of which $301,000 is issued—$50,000 p ferred, $251,000 common.
The Block Gas Mantle Company is a close corporation. It acquired the mining properties of morazite sand owned by the National Light & Thori Company of Youngstown. Employment is gilt to from 300 to 400 persons. There are branch fices at Chicago, New York and San Francisco, a very large export business is carried on that tends all over the world. This company erected plant at Youngstown for the manufacture of th rium nitrate and cerium nitrate which before war were manufactured exclusively in Germ The Block Gas Mantle Company is the second la est concern in the United States engaged in the p duction of gas mantles. In addition to the mad the company also produces a large number of lamps.
Otto Kaufmann was married to Rose Haber New York City, and Mr. Kaufmann has four so namely: Edward S. who is mentioned below; W Liam D., who was S., in 1904, is attending a
mili-
YOUNGSTOWN AND THE MAHONING VALLEY - 55
tary school at Bordentown, New Jersey; Ferdinand, who was born in 1911; and Theodore, who was born in 1912. Mr. Kaufmann is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and the Automobile Club. He is exceedingly charitable, and has served as chairman of the finance committee of the Federated Charities for some time, and is a trustee and vice president of the Jewish Temple Rodelf Sholem, chairman of the relief for Jewish war sufferers and represents the State of Ohio in the American Jewish Committee. Mr. Kaufmann has paid special attention to those charities having for their object the caring for dependent children, and was one of the incorporators of the Jewish Inf ants' Home at Columbus, Ohio, of which he is treasurer. His annual contributions to the National Charities aggregate a large amount, and his personal donations are without doubt of much greater magnitude than are ever made public. Big of heart, he cannot see distress without doing all in his power to relieve it, and there are many who hold his name in reverent affection because of the great goodness of the man.
Edward S. Kaufmann, son of Otto Kaufmann and vice president of the Block Gas Mantle Company, is a graduate in chemistry from the Chicago University, and a registered pharmacist of the State of Ohio, but has entered into an active participation in the work of his company. During the late war he spent twenty-two months in France as a member of the famous Eighty-Third Division, with the rank of sergeant. Like his father he is an enthusiastic booster for Youngstown, and prepared to give his home community the benefit of his best efforts.
Mr. Kaufmann and wife aside from their work in Jewish societies also help all worthy causes irrespective of race or creed.
SAMUEL W. SIGLER township trustee and retired merchant of Newton Falls, Trumbull County, Ohio, is one of the leading and most public-spirited men of that place. In his business activities, which brought him eventually to a comfortable monetary state in retirement, he showed much ability, enterprise, initiative and versatility; demonstrated his capability in many capacities—as an educator, as a traveling salesman, and as an aggressive, alert and honest merchant ; and as a citizen he has manifested a sincerity of community interest and an effectiveness in public work such as must of necessity have brought him the appreciation of his fellow-townsmen. He was a councilman for many years; is serving his third term as trustee; and in the matter of good roads, of education and other community movements of consequence he has been a well- recognized leader. In one very important connection he proved himself to be an American citizen of undoubted loyalty and thoroughness, for during the progress of the recent strenuous and serious struggle in Europe he participated usefully and whole-heartedly in all phases of home work of war purpose, especially in connection with the campaigns to secure the stupendous loans required by the national government for the purposes of the war. His meritorious co-operation in such work brought Mr. Sigler national acknowledgment, he being one of those worth-while American citizens upon whom the medal of the United States treasury department was conferred in appreciation of their outstanding service to the national administration in matters pertaining to the several Liberty Bond issues. Such an acknowledgment must be especially gratifying to Mr. Sigler and to his friends, in view of the fact that the Sigler family is German in origin, although of so distant an origin that the fact could have but little bearing upon the thoughts and ties of recent American generations of that family. In fact there are few American families so old in American antecedents, the Sigler (Zeighler) family having a record of American residence such as any American scion of it might justly be proud, the record going back as it does to almost a century before the time of the Revolution—to the year 1700, when the American progenitors (seven brothers) of that family settled in the Dutch colony of New York, formerly known as New Netherlands, and there the family for some generations lived. The Ohio record of the Sigler family goes back to pioneer days, the grandfather of Samuel W. Sigler of Newton Falls having come with an ox-team, probably from Connecticut, and settled on wild land in Fowler Township in about the year 1800. So that Samuel W. Sigler has good right to a place in the current edition of Mahoning Valley history.
Samuel W. Sigler was born in the Sigler homestead in Fowler Township, Trumbull County, Ohio, on October 18, 186o, the son of Leicester and Hannah J. (Horton) Sigler, and grandson of Urial Sigler, the pioneer settler of the Sigler family in the Mahoning Valley. Urial Sigler settled in Fowler Township, Trumbull County, and married into the Hall family of Fowler Township, his wife having probably been born in Fowler Township, where they lived for the remainder of their lives, and where their children, five sons and five daughters, were born. Urial Sigler reached the age of fifty-nine years, and although the data now available do not state that his wife died in the same year, they state that she died "at about the same age." Urial Sigler cleared an extensive acreage, owning in later life 220 acres of good agricultural land; in fact only one farmer of that township owned a larger acreage. He was a man of estimable private life, loved his home, and worked industriously to properly raise his large family. He took little part in public life, concentrating his energy upon the development of his own farm, and in clearing 220 acres of wild land he contributed appreciably to the development of the section. His five sons were: Artemas, who went in young manhood into Michigan, settling at Adrian, of that state, where he died; Gilbert, who lived in Fowler Township for the greater part of his life, his death, however, occurring in Cleveland, Ohio ; Austin, who be-, came a wealthy merchant, for a while living in Fowler Township, but subsequently living in Cortland Village, Bazetta Township, where he had residence for the remainder of his life, died suddenly in the Warren courthouse, and his store is still continued by his sons, Eugene and Grant; Leicester, regarding whom more is written hereinafter; George, who
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lived and died in Fowler Township. George was a retail merchant in Fowler Township, and also managed the home farm, which is still in the possession of his son. Wayne.
Leicester Sigler, father of Samuel W., was born in Fowler Township, Trumbull County, Ohio, on January 25, 183o. He died on January 18, 1899, aged sixty-nine years. His life was passed mostly in farming pursuits in Fowler Township, but in early manhood he was for some years a traveling salesman. As a jewelry salesman he traveled extensively in eastern states for a Warren jeweler, father of Jules Vantrot, who still conducts a jewelry business in Warren, and regarding whose family and its association with past days of that city note will be found elsewhere in this edition. Leicester Sigler was wont to set out on his extensive business trips with a large stock, probably to a value of from $5,000 to $8,000, and would return when all had been sold. It was on one such trip that he met Hannah J. Horton, who eventually became his wife. She was born in Chautauqua County, New York, and there she was married to Leicester Sigler. Soon afterward Leicester Sigler bought a farm in his native township, and there for the remainder of his life he lived. He was an enterprising farmer, and by good business acumen was able to get a good return from his labors. The commercial spirit of his younger days manifested itself in him often after he had settled down to farming. He did much retailing of farm produce in the industrial centres, mainly at Sharon, Pennsylvania. He kept a large herd of milch cows, an average probably of fifty, and the yield of that herd he converted mainly into cheese, which he stored until the fall and then took to market. He was still on his farm, taking active part in its management, in the year of his death, 1899. His widow still survives, and is still in comparatively good health, bearing in mind her extreme age, eighty-seven years. Since the death of her husband she has been cared for by her son Samuel W., who took over the operation of the home farm. There were two children born t© Leicester and Hannah J. (Horton) Sigler : Samuel W., of whom more follows ; and Guy H., deceased. The latter Was never robust, and died when he was thirty-nine years old. For some years he was a farmer in Hartford Township, Trumbull County.
Samuel W., elder son of Leicester and Hannah J. (Horton) Sigler, has lived an active and useful life. Born in Fowler Township in 1860, he was raised on the parental farm, attended the township school, and lived with his parents until he was twenty-five years old. After passing through the local schools he had resolved to enter the teaching profession, and for that purpose took the course at the Normal School at Lebanon, Ohio, under Professor Holbrook, who became widely known as an author of school text books. He had previously also attended the academy at Hartford, Ohio, so that eventually he was well qualified as an educator. He was apparently an alert youth and an apt student, for he was only sixteen years old when he secured a teacher's certificate. Altogether, he was an educator for eleven years, in district and graded schools, for two years being a teacher in the graded schools at Berg Hill. His subsequent career was somewhat varied, but withal creditable and successful. For a which he engaged in the sale of agricultural implements and later merchandise. In 1901 he became inde pendently established in a merchandizing business a Newton Falls, Ohio, and has been one of the leading merchants of that place since that year. He still operates the farm left to him by his father, so that in all he is a busy map. He has also shown a commendable public spirit ; has entered unselfishly and effectively into the administrative responsibilities of the township ; and generally has shown himself to be' a good citizen. He has been a township trustee for many years ; has been a councilman ; and in movements of consequence to the community he has been most active. His public record shows that his efforts were instrumental in securing good roads through the township, and in that connection he did especially productive work during the time Thomas Madden, of Niles, was county commissioner. The part he took in the movement which resulted in the building of the Community Building at Newton Falls was a creditable one, and he has ably co-operated in the endeavors of the Board of Education.
Politically Mr. Sigler is a republican. His father was a democrat, and in early manhood he, also, supported that party, but for the last twenty-five years he has been an ardent republican. As a republican he first cast his vote for McKinley, who became President, and he has since taken active part in republican work in his district, although he has never sought political office. As an American citizen of whole-hearted loyalty he took a prominent part in the various war work in home sectors during the World war. He was identified with local committees in every drive for Liberty Bond sales, and his effective work for the national cause eventually found national recognition, Mr. Sigler treasuring the medal conferred upon him by the United States treasury department.
He married, in 1882, November 9th, Lottie M., daughter of Darius and Olive (Tew) Baldwin, of Fowler Township, and granddaughter of Ephriam Baldwin, who came from Connecticut and was among the early settlers in Fowler Township. Darius Baldwin was born in Fowler Township, and spent the greater part of his life in that township, in 1886, however, going to California, where he lived for twenty years, until his death in 1906, when he was eighty-one years old. After that event his widow came north, and for the remainder of her life lived with her daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. S. W. Sigler, in Newton Falls. She reached the venerable age of ninety-one years, her death not occurring until May, 1919.
R. B. STAUFFER is treasurer, director and shop manager of the Ohio Structural Steel Company at Newton Falls. He was associated with his brother, M. H. Stauffer and with Mr. Heltzel in organizing this industry in 1919, and brings to the business a long individual experience that has made his service invaluable to the company. He gives his personal supervision to all the shop work, and he makes his
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home at Newton Falls, which he believes is one of the coming centers of industry in the Mahoning Valley.
Mr. Stauffer was born at Nuremberg in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, October to, 1887. He learned the blacksmith's trade in the railroad shops at Sayre, Pennsylvania, and remained, in those shops for twelve years, until he resigned and came to Newton Falls. Mr. Stauffer is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Woodmen of the World. He married at Berwick, Pennsylvania, Miss Maud Thomas, and they have two children, Bessie and Maybell.
GIPSON PERRY GILLMER. One of the men of the Manning Valley who has won recognition as an able attorney and progressive citizen is Gipson P. Gillmer, of Warren. A product of the valley, his career has reflected credit not only on himself but upon the entire community—a community noted for its able professional and business men.
Gipson Perry Gillmer was born on the Gillmer homestead in Newton Township, Trumbull County, Ohio, on July 31, 1872, a son of James A. and Laura (Byers) Gillmer. James A. Gillmer was born in Newton Township in 1841, the son of Alexander Gillmer, a native of New England, and a pioneer of Trumbull County. Laura Byers was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, of Holland-Dutch descent. Both parents are still living.
Reared on the homestead, Gipson P. Gillmer attended the district schools and Newton Falls High School, and was graduated from the Northern Indiana University at Valparaiso, Indiana, in the scientific course, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, in 1899. He then took a two years' post-graduate course in the classics at Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, receiving a certificate. For some years Mr. Gillmer was an educator, teaching in Newton Township, Newton Falls, was principal of the Gustavus Township High School, principal of the mathematical department of the Niles, Ohio, High School, and superintendent of the public schools of Waynesburg, Pennsylvania.
Mr. Gillmer read law with T. H. Gillmer of Warren, attended the Cincinnati Law School, and was admitted to the bar in June, 1903, entering upon the practice of law at Niles, Ohio, the same year. In 1905 he was elected city attorney of Niles, and was re-elected to that office in 1907. In 1908 he was elected prosecuting attorney of Trumbull County, and re-elected in 1910. Upon assuming the duties of the latter office he entered upon the practice of his profession at Warren, and in 1913 opened an office in this city, removing permanently to 'the county seat in 1919. As county prosecutor Mr. Gillmer made a fine record for his utter fearlessness and courage, and did much to enforce the law and maintain order during his occupancy of the offrce.
In 1908 Mr. Gillmer was one of the men who organized the DeForest Sheet & Steel Plate Company of Niles, and continued on the directorate until the business was sold to the Republic Iron & Steel Company in 1919. He is a director in the Union Savings & Trust Company, of Warren, and also a director in the Dollar Savings Bank Company, of Niles. For many years Mr. Gillmer was a trustee of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Niles and was chairman of the building committee when the present handsome stone church edifice was built, and he is now a member of the Warren First Methodist Episcopal Church. He is a past president of the Warren Rotary Club, a member of the Niles Board of Trade, a member and attorney of the Warren Automobile Club, and a member of the Trumbull Country Club. He belongs to Old Erie Lodge No. 3, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons ; Warren Chapter No. 66, Royal Arch Masons ; Warren Commandery No. 39, Knights Templar ; Lake Erie Consistory, in which he was made a thirty-second degree Mason ; and Al Koran Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, Cleveland, Ohio.
In 1900 Mr. Gillmer was united in marriage with Maud Ella Kern, a daughter of Edwin A. and Diana (Musser) Kern, of Niles, Ohio. Edwin A. Kern was one of the best known iron and steel men of the Mahoning Valley for years. Mrs. Gillmer was graduated from the Rayen High School of Youngstown, and became principal of the Latin-English department of the Niles High School. She read law with her husband and was admitted to the bar in 1916, and is in active practice with him under the firm name of "The Gillmers." She is past grand matron of the Order of the Eastern Star of the State of Ohio, and is a member of the Progress Club of Niles, the Niles Musical Club, and the Book Club of Warren, the latter being women's organizations. As an attorney Mrs. Gillmer measures up well with the best standards of her profession and she' and Mr. Gillmer form one of the strong legal firms• of the Mahoning Valley.
FRED I. WARNOCK. Youngstown's present mayor was for ten years before his induction into that office one of the very able attorneys of the Mahoning Valley and had become known for his all around qualifications as an able executive and clean, public spirited citizen, with the welfare of his community first in his heart and mind.
He was born in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, on a farm lying just east of New Castle, June 27, 1878. His grandfather was born in the north of Ireland and as a young lad came to the United States, settling in Pennsylvania. The father of the Youngstown mayor was Hugh H. Warnock, who was born and reared in Lawrence County. During the Civil war he ran away from home to enlist, but on account of his youth was rejected and sent home. Subsequently he located at New Castle and built up a successful business as a paint contractor, but lost his business and practically all his accumulated resources during the memorable panic of 1873. Subsequently buying a tract of land near New Castle, he followed farming until his death, in 1895, when but fifty-two years of age. He was a republican in politics, was a member of the order of Masons and the Presbyterian Church.
Hugh H. Warnock married Mary J. Rose, who was born in Western Pennsylvania in 1847 and is still living at New Castle, at the age of seventy-three.
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Her father, Isaac P. Rose, was an early plainsman and trapper and as a companion of Kit Carson took part in many battles with the Indians, by whom he was wounded. Giving up life on the plains, he returned east and for forty-six years was a prominent teacher in Western Pennsylvania. Of the children born to Mr. and Mrs. Hugh H. Warnock all six are now living. Harry R., who started railroading as a brakeman, is now general superintendent of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad. Louis C., a resident of Youngstown, is an engineer on the Pittsburg and Lake Erie Railroad. The third is Fred J. George C. is a prominent physician and surgeon of Youngstown. Mabel is the wife of James Banks, an engineer with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, living at New Castle, Pennsylvania. Edwin H., the youngest, formerly with the Ingersoll-Rand Company of Pittsburg, manufacturers and dealers in compressed air tools, served during the World war in the Three Hundred and Twentieth Infantry, Eightieth Division. was wounded in the Argonne Forest, September 26, 1918, and is now with a firm in New York City as sales representative for the Northeastern Territory.
Obtaining a practical education in the Warnock School in his home district, Fred J. Warnock grew up familiar with the tools and practices of farming. Being the oldest boy at home at the time of his father's death, he remained to assist his widowed mother on the farm until entering Mount Hope College in Rogers, Ohio, where he was a student two terms. Returning home, he taught during the winter season, carried on the farm summers, at the same time advancing his knowledge by careful reading and home study. In 1904, having graduated in the classical course from Westminster College at New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, soon afterward he located at New Castle and employed his days as claim agent for the local department of the Street Railway Company, and at night studied law in the office of his cousin, Hon. George T. Weingartner. In 1905 Mr. Warnock came to Youngstown, read law with Theodore A. Johnston, and was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1910. At that time he formed a partnership with Robert J. Nicholson, and was soon launched in an active and successful practice and handled a large business until he assumed the office of mayor on January 1, 1920.
Mr. Warnock has always stood for the clean, honest and decent in both politics and business, and after his nomination on the republican ticket for mayor in the fall of 1919 he took as his platform a decent and liberal policy of municipal government, with the parks, playgrounds and picture houses open on Sundays to an eighty-five per cent population of working people, who cannot attend such places at any other time, but, beyond that, "Woe to the Transgressor." On this platform he was elected by a handsome majority, and while his administration at the outset was involved in many extraordinary difficulties, he has handled his office both with tact and efficiency such as to justify the commendation of the best classes of citizenship.
December 15, 1904, Mr. Warnock married Jean I., daughter of Robert Lawrence, of Lawrence County, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Warnock was born in Alabama, but her father was a Pennsylvanian. They have two sons, Harry L. and Fred J., Jr. Mr. Warnock is an active member of the Evergreen Presbyterian Church. His pastor, Rev. W. C. Press, who served as a chaplain with the Expeditionary Forces in France, is one of his old school mates and now his pal.. Mr. Warnock is a member of all the local bodies of Masonry, being an officer in many of them, and is likewise a member of the Modern Woodmen of America, and belongs to the Youngstown Chamber of Commerce and the Kiwanis Club.
MAX FISH. A worthy representative of those citizen of foreign birth who have come to this country for the sake of securing better and more favorable opportunities for business undertakings, Max Fish has attained an honorable position in the industrial life of Youngstown, as president of the Fish Cleaning Company having built up a substantial patronage. A son of Harold and Selde Fish, he was born December 28, 1881, in Dynow, Austria.
Harold Fish, who died at his home in Dynow, Austria, in 1887, was a citizen of prominence and influence. He served for twenty-four consecutive years as mayor of Dynow, a city having a population of 12,000, being four times elected to the mayorality, each time for a term of six years. His home in that city was wiped out of existence during the World war, and his widow, now an aged woman o seventy-four years, lost all of her. possessions, and company with her sister walked, with other refugees, to Hungary, a distance of 150 miles. How she survived no one knows, but her son David, whose home is in Youngstown, is now in Europe looking after her welfare. Of the nine children born to her and her husband eight are living, three being in the United States, as follows : Max, with whom this sketch is chiefly concerned; Freda, wife of William Klinman, of Youngstown; and David, secretary and treasurer of the Fish Cleaning Company.
Leaving home at the age of seventeen years, Max Fish proceeded to Portsmouth, England, where he learned the business with which he is now actively identified. He was there when Edward VII was made king, and witnessed his coronation. Subse quently immigrating to the United States, he saw soon after landing in New York, a newspaper ad vertisement headed "Help wanted in Youngstown. Responding immediately to the call, Mr. Fish found employment in a tailoring establishment on East Federal Street, and remained with that firm until 1914, when, in partnership with his brother David, he opened his present establishment, becoming president of the Fish Cleaning Company, with David Fish as secretary and treasurer.
On March 24, 1907, Mr. Fish was united in marriage with Jennie Carnick, and they are now the parents of four children, Harold, Helen, Lawrence and Eugene. Mr. Fish has always taken an active part in religious and charitable organizations, and has served acceptably as president of the Children of Israel Congregation, and at the present time is president of the Anshe-Emeth Committee, appointed to prepare the way for the building of a temple.
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Always a leader in charitable circles, he is vice president of the Youngstown Benefit Association, and first vice president of the Youngstown Zion District. He takes great interest in the Hebrew Free School movement.
GEORGE M. MONTGOMERY. The present county surveyor of Mahoning County, and a civil engineer whose expert services have solved many technical problems for Mahoning Valley industries and have also been utilized in the building of many good roads, is member of an historic family of the Valley.
His great-grandfather Robert Montgomery, son of a Revolutionary soldier, took up his father's profession of surveying and while fulfilling a professional engagement in Western Pennsylvania, visited Youngstown. His second journey to Ohio was about 1805, when he planned the building of a furnace on Yellow Creek. This furnace was on John Struthers' land, and the two were partners in the enterprise. The furnace was put in place about 1807 and, while the second furnace in point of time, was the first successful iron furnace in the Mahoning Valley. Robert Montgomery married the widow of John Stark Edwards, a woman of sterling worth whose name is frequently mentioned in the early history of Trumbull County. The only son of their marriage was Robert M. Montgomery, who spent his active life as a farmer near Youngstown.
The father of the Mahoning County surveyor was Lewis W. Montgomery, who was also a farmer and died at Youngstown in 1912. He married Isabelle Cubbison.
George M. Montgomery was born at Youngstown in March, 1873, was educated in public schools, the Northern Ohio College at Ada and the State University at Columbus. He took the civil engineering course and completed his college training in 1897. Since then for over twenty years he has been busily engaged in his profession. On leaving college he formed a partnership with his cousin Edwin D. Haseltine, formerly of Haseltine Brothers. The firm Edwin D. Hazeltine Brothers & Montgomery later became Hazeltine & Montgomery, and has long had an active practice in civil and mining engineering. Robert M. Hazeltine of this firm was milling inspector of the State of Ohio. Practically all the leading industries of the Mahoning Valley have employed this organization for surveying and solving of other technical problems.
George M. Montgomery was elected on the republican ticket and served from 1900 to 1910 as county surveyor, and was again elected to that office in 1918. He has also been village engineer of East Youngstown and Struthers, and has been resident engineer of the State Highway Commission since its organization. His personal services have also been given to the construction of many of the leading highways and streets of the Mahoning Valley.
The old Montgomery farm where he spent his boyhood ,has become an important industrial site for such plants as the Youngstown Car Manufacturing Company, Republic Iron & Steel Company and others. Mr. Montgomery's father was a Union soldier and was an active member of the Grand Army of the Republic.
Mr. Montgomery is a member of the Ohio Engineering Society and the Engineering Society of the Youngstown District. He is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and the Elks. In 1897 he married Miss Ella A. Robinson' daughter of James and Elizabeth Robinson of Niles, both now deceased. They have two children: Mary, born in two, graduated from the Rayen School in 1919; and Robert M., born in 1902, graduated from Rayen School in 1920.
JOSEPH J. BECK, superintendent of the sheet mill of the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, enjoys the distinction of being the oldest superintendent in point of service now in the employ of this corporation. He entered the service of the company during the first year of its existence, in 1902, and during the period which has elapsed has continued to act in his present capacity, the years having but strengthened his hold upon the confidence and esteem of the company officials and his associates.
Mr. Beck was born at Worthington, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, February 14, 1867, a son of Frederick and Savilla (Schreckengost) Beck, natives of the Keystone State and descendants of German ancestors. Frederick Beck was a blacksmith by trade, a vocation which he followed during the greater part of his life, and also was a man of some influence in his community, where he served in the capacity of justice of the peace for eighteen years. His death occurred in 1903, that of his worthy wife having occurred in 1902. They were the parents of ten children, of whom Joseph J. was the seventh in order of birth.
Joseph J. Beck attended the public schools of his native locality as a boy, and when only fourteen years of age started to work for himself, going to Sharon, Pennsylvania, where he learned the nail- feeding trade, that business then being conducted by hand. Subsequently, with the advent of nail- making machinery, he abandoned that line to learn telegraphy, and was employed by the Erie Railroad Company at Sharon. He continued in that vocation for seven years, during the last three years of which time he acted in the capacity as chief clerk for the division freight agent at Youngstown. During this time, also, he attended night school in order to get a better education. In 1891 he went to Niles, Ohio, as telegraph operator for the Falcon Iron and Nail Company, and after two years in this position was promoted to assistant superintendent of the plant and served as such until 1900. He then was employed by the American Sheet Steel Company in a clerical capacity, under Jonathan Warner, at the office in New York City. This was but a temporary position occasioned by the Falcon Iron and Nail Company having been absorbed in a merger with the American Sheet Steel Company. After six months at New York City he was sent back to Niles as manager of the same plant of which he had been formerly assistant superintendent. This position he filled for two years, when the plant was finally dismantled, it being one of the older mills owned by the corpora-
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tion. In 1902, in the first year of its operation, Mr. Beck entered the employ of the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company as superintendent of the sheet mills. This position he has ever since filled, and, as noted above, is the oldest superintendent in point of service now in the employ of this corporation.
Mr. Beck is a member of the American Iron and Steel Institute, the Youngstown Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary Club, and is a Knight Templar York Rite Mason. He is a republican in politics and a member of Grace Lutheran Church of Youngstown.
On April 17, 0893, Mr. Beck married Miss Emma Klingensmith, a daughter of D. C. Klingensmith, at present a resident of Youngstown. To this union two sons have been born: Joseph Harold and Robert Klingensmith. The elder enlisted in the World War as a private in the United States Army Ambulance Corps and saw eleven months of active service on the Italian front.
VICTOR W DE LANEY During the period in which he has filled his present position of superintendent of transportation of the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, Victor W. De Laney has witnessed the growth of the output of this concern from 6,000 to 30,000 cars monthly. In this great increase he has played his part, and within the line of his duties has been the proper handling of this great amount of transportation, a duty that calls for clear and cool judgment, instant decision and a thorough knowledge of railroad matters.
Mr. DeLaney was born in Clinton county, Pennsylvania, September 12, 1876, a son of William and Clarissa (Kryder) DeLaney, natives of this country. His father was a farmer and lumberman who, when Civil war threatened the destruction of the Union, volunteered his services and fought all through the struggle between the North and the South as a member of Company D, First Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry. During his service he participated in many hard-fought engagements and was twice wounded, but returned eventually to his home and died in Pennsylvania in 1901, his widow surviving him four years. They became the parents of thirteen children, all of whom still survive.
Victor DeLaney was reared to manhood in his native county, where he received a common school education, and at the time he attained his majority left the home place and began his independent career in the transportation service of the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad Company, at Pittsburgh. For nine years he continued in that department, rising to the positions of conductor and yardmaster. In December, 1906, he came to Youngstown, Ohio, to become general yardmaster for the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, and in 1907 was made superintendent of transportation, a position which he has since filled. As noted above, since he took charge of this department the transportation has increased 500% in keeping pace with the output of the plant, and naturally Mr. DeLaney's duties have become that much extended. He has been capable of handling his increased responsibilities, however, and the work of his department is a matter for self- congratulation upon the part of the officials of the company. Mr. DeLaney is a member of the Railway Club of Pittsburgh and the Youngstown Engineers' Club, and as a fraternalist is a thirty-second degree Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite and Knights Templar York Rite Mason and a member of the Mystic Shrine. His religious faith and that of his family is of the Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church, and in politics he takes an independent stand.
Mr. DeLaney was united in marriage in 1907, wilh Miss Elizabeth Tod, of Youngstown, who died in May, 1915, having borne two daughters : Sarah Tod and Elizabeth, who died in infancy.
JAMES J. DALZELL. From the time of his active entrance upon the business arena of Youngstown, James J. Dalzell has been engaged in a variety of pursuits, all connected with the rising mercantile and commercial interests of the city, with whose growth he has been intimately related, and with whose increasing prosperity he has himself prospered. Finance and realty interests have shared his labor, while the roofing and sheet metal business has been the longest and most important of his undertakings, and at the present time he is president of the Dalzell Brothers Company.
Mr. Dalzell was born at Alliance, Ohio, September 19, 1874, a son of John L. and Elizabeth (Johnson) Dalzell. His father was born on a farm near Damascus, Ohio, but early showed an inclination for business affairs, and took a commercial course at Mount Union College, following which he and his brother James H. engaged in the roofing and sheet metal business, an enterprise with which he was identified until his death in 1912, his brother having passed away in 1875. He was one of the original prohibitionists of his district and attend Belmont Methodist Episcopal Church, where 11 served as a member of the official board for t years. Mr. Dalzell was likewise a prominent Od Fellow and belonged to Youngstown Lodge No 403. He and his wife, who died in 1892, were the parents of seven children, of whom four survive: James J., Samuel A., manager and vice president of the Dalzell Brothers Company; John S., of Youngstown and Los Angeles; and Theodore Paul, of Los Angeles, California.
James J. Dalzell graduated in 1894 from the Rayen High School, following which he pursued a commercial course, and in 1895 was employed by the Ohio Steel Company, in the auditing department, under J. L. Barnard, and the excellent training which he secured while associated with that gentleman has always been credited by Mr. Dalzell for a large share of the success which he has since attained. When he left the Ohio Steel Company, it was to associate himself with his father and Samuel A. Dalzell, his brother, in the roofing and sheet metal business, in 1903, and in 1907 the Dalzell Brothers Company was incorporated with a nominal capital stock, with John L. Dalzell, president ; Samuel A. Dalzell, vice president; and James J. Dalzell, secretary and treasurer. In January, 1916, the company's capital stock was increased to $150,000. At the time of his father's death, James J. Dalzell succeeded to the presidency of the company, in addition to which he is chair-
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man of the board of directors. Samuel A. Dalzell is vice president and general manager of the concern, and William DuGray, superintendent, of the factory, was elected to the hoard of directors in 1917.
Mr. Dalzell has various other interests, being vice president and a director of the Youngstown Citizens and Savings Company, which was organized in 1917, and, president of the Youngstown
Builders Exchange, of which his father, John L. Dalzell, was one of the founders and incorporators in 1900. Mr. Dalzell was one of the original incorporators of the local Kiwanis Club, of which he is secretary and a member of the board of trustees; is a trustee also of the local Young Men's Christian Association, and has been elected to a three-year term as trustee of the Chamber of Commerce. During the period of the World war he helped materially in floating the Third, Fourth and Victory Liberty loans, and for his splendid work in this direction was the recipient of a "Thank You" certificate from the United States Treasury Department.
On June 28, 1899, Mr. Dalzell married Miss Mame E. Macklin, of Youngstown, who prior to her marriage taught a kindergarten class at Youngstown for several years. and to this union there have come two children: Herbert V., born in 1900; and Harold LeRoy, born in 1903.
WILLIAM W. NECKERMAN Dealing with the careers of men who have contributed to the upbuilding and success of great enterprises is a task in which the writer finds that a large majority of the real contributing factors are individuals who have trod the hard self-made pathway to success and independence. This is in no way inapplicable to the career of William M. Neckerman, superintendent of the tube department of the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, and a self-made man in all that the term implies.
Mr. Neckerman was born at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, February 20, 1875, a son of Martin and Christina (Knight) Neckerman. His parents, both of whom were born in Germany, were brought to this country separately, and here met and were married. After his immigration to the United States Martin Neckerman learned the trade of machinist and locksmith, which he followed for a time at Pittsburgh. He was industrious, ambitious and enterprising, and was not content to remain as a mere workman, and eventually became the chief factor in the founding of the present firm of Gloeckner & Company, furnishers of butchers' supplies. For a score or more of years Mr. Neckerman has been living in comfortable retirement, having accumulated an ample competence through his business ability, industry and good management.
One of a family of three children, and also one of twins, William M. Neckerman grew up in his native city, where his boyhood was passed much the same as other lads who grow up in a large city. He attended the public schools, did his share of baseball playing in the vacant lots, and after completing his high school term, took a short course at the University of Western Pennsylvania, where he special ized in mechanical engineering. His start in business was as an apprentice at mechanical engineering with Henry Aiken of Pittsburgh, and he continued with Mr. Aiken until 1901, at which time he was employed by the National Tube Company of McKeesport, Pennsylvania, where he was designing engineer in the remodeling of the old tube plant. In addition, he served with this company as chief engineer of the blast furnaces and steel department, finally becoming superintendent of the rolling department. In May, 1907, Mr. Neckerman came to Youngstown, Ohio, to become chief engineer for the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, and in March, 1908, was made assistant superintendent of the tube department. Ten months later, in January, 1909, he was made superintendent of this department, a position which he has since filled with the greatest ability.
Mr. Neckerman is a member of the American Iron and Steel Institute, is a Mason as a fraternalist, and in his political actions is independent, giving his vote rather to the man than to the party. His religious belief makes him a Protestant. On February 4, 1909, Mr. Neckerman was united in marriage with Miss Florence Kieling, of Youngstown, Ohio, and they are the parents of one son, William M., Jr., who is attending the Youngstown public schools.
EMIL F. VOGEL, Probably no man in the Youngstown district has a more comprehensive, practical knowledge of the coke industry than. Emil F. Vogel, superintendent of the coke plant of the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company. Mr. Vogel has been a worker and student in coke beginning with the comparatively crude processes of twenty years ago until the present.
He was born at Boston, Massachusetts, February 8, 1879, son of Herman and Josephine (Albrecht) Vogel, the former a native of Saxony and the latter of Alsace. Herman Vogel was an artist of no mean distinction. During the Civil war he did considerable work for the Smithsonian Institution. Later his art was largely confined to portrait work. He died in March, 1918, being survived by his widow.
Emil F. was the second in a family of five children and the oldest now living. He received a thorough literary and scientific education at Boston, graduating from the Lewis Grammar School at Roxbury, the Mechanic Arts High School of Boston. and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From the latter institution he received his Bachelor of Science degree in 1900, having specialized in civil engineering. For two summers of his college career he was employed by the city engineering department of Boston. Then for three years after leaving the Institute he was draftsman in mechanical and structural drafting, first with the Case Manufacturing Company of Columbus, Ohio, then with the Wellman, Seaver, Morgan Company of Cleveland, and last with the Treadwell Manufacturing Company at Lebanon, Pennsylvania. The Lackawanna Steel Company of Buffalo employed his technical services for nearly thirteen years. For a little over two years he was construction engineer, and then went into the by-products coke plant, where he rose to the position of assistant superintendent and master mechanic. It was at Buffalo that he acquired his
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broad and authoritative knowledge of coke as one of the greatest essentials in the modern industry. Mr. Vogel was assistant superintendent of the coke plant of the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company from April 30, 1916, to June 1, 1920, when he was made superintendent.
He is a member of the Engineers' Club of Youngstown, the Chamber of Commerce and is a Knight Templar Mason, also a member of the thirty-second degree of Scottish Rite and the Mystic Shrine of Buffalo, New York.
WILLIAM J. WALLIS. A gentleman who, coming to oungstown after he had reached his fiftieth year, and mingling in its busy life for sixteen years more, is still among her active business men, giving daily attention to the management of a great corporation of, which he is the executive head. Most men who have reached their sixty-sixth year, especially if fortune has crowned their life's labor, feel like retiring from the strife and enjoying the ease and dignity which they have earned. Not so Mr. Wallis. With intellect unclouded and strength unabated, he goes about his daily round of affairs as in the days when struggle seemed to be a necessity. It is an inheritance from a vigorous ancestry, strengthened by a life of activity and healthful labor.
Mr. Wallis was born at Girard, Ohio, August 8, 1854, a son of Richard T. and Mary (Toulium) Wallis, natives of Bridgeport, England, who came to the United States in 1851 and settled at Youngstown where they had been preceded by a relative, John Squire. In 1853 they removed to Girard, where Richard T. Wallis engaged in shoemaking until his death. He and his worthy wife were the parents of three children : Charles J., who is a blacksmith at Girard ; Jennie E., whose home is at Youngstown ; and William J.
William J. Wallis attended the Girard school until he was sixteen years of age, at which time he entered the Girard Stove Works. There he learned the trade of molder and remained until 1889, when he went into business on his own account as the proprietor of a foundry and a manufacturer of mill castings. His first venture was a necessarily small one, as he was possessed of but a modest capital, but in 1891 the scope of his operations was increased through the forming of a partnership with Frank A. Williams, the business then becoming known as the Wallis Foundry Company. In 1893 Mr. Wallis founded and organized the Girard Stove and Foundry Works, a reorganization of the same business for which he had worked in his youth, and was made general manager, Henry B. Shields being president. The firm continued at Girard until 1904, when the plants were moved to Youngstown, and here bought the John Miller Foundry, the entire interests being reorganized as the Youngstown Foundry and Machine Company. Mr. Wallis was at first general manager of this concern, which later bought out the Youngstown Steel Castings Company, but in 1907 succeeded to the presidency, replacing the first president, Thomas Parrock. F. A. Williams is now vice president and manager of sales, and Bertram G. Parker is secretary and treasurer. The growth and development of this business have been wonderful, and a large measure of the concern's prosperity is directly traceable to Mr. Wallis' wise and progressive management. His religious connection is with the First Unitarian Church.
Mr. Wallis was married in 1876 to Anna S. Jenkins, of Youngstown, who passed away in April, 1920, and to this union there have been born eight children : Mary A., who died in 1917 ; Elizabeth, a teacher in the Rayen High School ; Lloyd R., superintendent of the roll shop of the Youngstown Foundry and Machine Company ; Mrs. Nellie (Wallis) Leet, of Lakewood, Ohio ; William C., who is assistant superintendent of the blast furnace department of the Briar Hill Steel Company ; Harry T., a salesman for the Trussed Concrete Steel Company; Isabel, who is attending Smith College; and John F., a student at the Rayen High School.
JAMES WARD WAGSTAFF has been doing construction work for iron mills and other factories in Ohio more than thirty years, and as superintendent of labor and construction of the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company enjoys a place of high responsibilily and enviable esteem.
Mr. Wagstaff was born at Niles, Ohio, July 4, 1864. His parents, John and Margaret ( James) Wagstaff, were born and married in Wales and about 1848 came to this country, locating at Niles, where John Wagstaff followed his trade as a brick layer. He did a great deal of work for James Ward, and as a mark of esteem for his employer gave his name to one of his sons. He and his wife spent the rest of their days at Niles.
James Ward Wagstaff grew up at Niles, had a public school education, and at the age of sixteen began learning the brick layer's trade with an older brother. Brick laying was the special skill and trade on which he built his larger profession and activities in construction lines. In 1888 he helped construct the steel mill at New Philadelphia, Ohio, owned by James Ward, his namesake. Until 1891 he lived there, and then went to work for James A. Camp. bell at 'Warren. Mr. Campbell was then superintendent of a rolling mill at Warren. In 1893 he removed to Cambridge. Ohio, and built the tin mills for the Morton Tin Plate Company. Mr. Wagstaff came to Youngstown, September 6, 1895, and was employed by the Mahoning Valley Iron Works as boss brick layer under his old employer, Mr. Campbell, who in the meantime had become superintendent of the Valley Mills. He went with Mr. Campbell in 1898 to the Republic Iron & Steel Company, again in the capacity of boss brick layer. His last change of employment occurred January I, 1901, when he went with the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company, again under Mr. Campbell, who is now president of that great corporation. He began as boss brick layer, became superintendent of construction in 1906, and since 1912 has been superintendent of labor and construction.
Mr. Wagstaff is a Royal Arch Mason, a member of the Poland Country Club, and in politics is a republican. He married Miss Minnie Uhleman, of New Philadelphia, Ohio. Their two daughters are Gertrude, wife of Earl McBride, of Youngstown, and Margaret, Mrs. William Holzworth.
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JAMES M. WOLTZ is safety director of the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company. His office is a comparatively new one not only with this corporation, but with other great industries, and is one demanded by modern industrial evolution and for the performance of its duties requires especial qualifications that no doubt in the near future will be the basis for the development of a distinctive new profession, one which will play a vital part in industrial relations and industrial efficiency.
In that now necessarily small body of experts on safety appliances, methods and regulations, James M. Woltz is regarded not only at Youngstown but by state and national governments as a first rate authority. Mr. Woltz is a member of a prominent family of Ohio pioneers.
His first American ancestor was Peter Woltz, who was born at Weimar, Germany, in 1746. He married in his native land, where some of his children were born, and about 1785 came to this country and lived at Hagerstown, Maryland. His son, Jesse Woltz, was born at Hagerstown, December 15, 1792, and married Elizabeth Canode. During the War of 1812 he served in Captain Stonebreaker's Company of Maryland Militia. About the close of the war, in 1816, he moved his family in ox carts overland to Lancaster, Ohio, where he followed the cabinet maker's trade, and later moved to a farm near Star City in Pulaski county, Indiana, where he died March 17, 1839. James M. Woltz, a son of this Ohio pioneer, was born December 14, 1819, at Lancaster, and in August, 1839, became a resident of Chillicothe, Ohio. He married in that city Margaret Shepherd. He was also a cabinet maker, and late developed a business as a contractor at Chillicothe. During the early forties he was captain of Company 4 in the Third Regiment, First Brigade, 16th Division of the Ohio Militia. He died at Chillicothe.
His third son was Jesse McDowell Woltz, who was born March 15, 1848. Though very young, he became a private in the 11th Independent Battery of Light Artillery, and in 1864 was transferred to the 5th Battery. He married Mary Chapman, of an old Virginia family. He was also a cabinet maker by trade, and afterward engaged in the undertaking business with his father. He and his wife are still living and are the parents of two children, James M., the subject of this article, and Clara, who is unmarried.
James M. Woltz was born at Chillicothe, son of Jesse M. Woltz, on October 13, 1870, and was reared in his native city. He is a graduate of the high school there and spent two years in the old Ohio Medical College at Cincinnati. He left college at the outbreak of the Spanish-American war, and served as a second lieutenant, batallion adjutant, of the 7th Ohio Volunteers. At the time of his discharge he was serving as regimental adjutant. He had previously served several years in the National Guard. In May, 1899, Mr. Woltz was appointed an inspector in the United States Postal Service, a work which engaged him for many years, until July, 1913. At that date the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company, in search of a man of his experience and qualifications, installed him as safety director for the corporation.
Mr. Woltz was a special investigator for the Federal government for a number of years, his work re- quiring his presence in a number of large industrial centers. In 1913 he became a member of the National Safety Council, in which he is a director and member of the executive committee. He also belongs to the Society of Ohio Safety Engineers, and for the last two years has served as president.
Mr. Woltz is a member of the General Advisory Committee of the Ohio Industrial Commission. This commission is composed of sixteen members, eight representing manufacturers or employers and eight organized labor. Since January, 1918, Mr. Woltz has been a consultant of the bureau of standards of the Department of Commerce, assisting the efforts of the Department to standardize various state industrial codes.
Mr. Woltz has served on the Safety and Military Committees of the Youngstown Chamber of Commerce. He is a Knight Templar Mason. June 25, 1904, he married Mattie Brooks Smith, of Parkersburg, West Virginia, daughter of Charles Brooks and Margaret Parkinson (Devore) Smith.
HENRY E. MOYER has been continuously associated with one of the plants now under the corporate management of the Brier Hill Steel Company for a quarter of a century. Mr. Moyer has achieved a distinct success in the field of chemical engineering. He is now the chief chemist of the Brier Hill Steel Company.
His family were pioneers in eastern Ohio, were also colonial settlers in America, and the ancestry goes back to an original home in Switzerland where the name was spelled Meyer. The Moyers or Meyers were converts to the Mennonite faith, and on account of religious persecution some of them emigrated from Switzerland to Holland and thence to America in 1741. They lived in eastern Pennsylvania for several generations.
John Moyer, grandfather of Henry E., was a blacksmith by trade. With his brother Abraham, who was a farmer, he walked from Bucks county, Pennsylvania, to Columbiana county, Ohio. At that time the wilderness still held sway over much of this section of Ohio. While Abraham turned his attention to the cultivation of the soil, John continued to work at his trade and made it a means of useful service to the pioneer community. John Moyer married Barbara Nold (originally Noldt), and of their eight children one was Jacob N. Moyer.
Jacob N. Moyer likewise followed mechanical pursuits, being a skillful carpenter. He married Mary Ann Bixler, and both of them were life-long and devout worshipers in the Mennonite faith.
Henry E. Moyer, one of their two children, was born at Leetonia, Columbiana county, December 12, 1865. As a boy at Leetonia he attended the grammar and high schools. He also acquired considerable skill as a carpenter under his father. By teaching an occasional term of school and working at his trade in other seasons he accumulated the means that put him through the Ohio State University at Columbus. He was graduated in 1893 with the degree Bachelor of Science, in chemistry. Two months before graduating he had accepted the post of chem-
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ist for the Virginia Iron and Railway Company at Goshen, Virginia. However, that was a period of great industrial depression, and for a time he found it difficult to secure recognition lfor his profession as a chemist. He paid his way by work at his trade with his father. Later he became chemist for Corrigan, McKinney and Company, operating the Douglas and Sharpsville furnaces in western Pennsylvania. He was with that concern about eight months, and for a similar period was chemist to W. C. Runyon, operating the Hall furnace between Sharon and Sharpsville.
It was in August, 1897, that Mr. Moyer was made chemist for the Youngstown Steel Company. He remained with it until the business and plant were absorbed by the Brier Hill Steel Company, so that his services may be considered as continuous with the same industry for over twenty years. Since the first months he has been chief chemist. Twenty years ago the laboratory force comprised only three or four men. The laboratory is now one of the important departments of the Brier Hill Steel Cornpany, with a personnel of about forty-five. During the past six years there has never been a minute, day or night, Sundays or holidays, when the laboratory has not been in close touch with the operating departments of the mill.
Mr. Moyer is a member of the local Engineers' Club, the American Society for Testing Materials, and is a Lodge, Chapter and Council degree Mason. He is also a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. September 28, 1899, he married Clara May Cutler, of Columbus, asi relative of the well-known Willis family of Ohio.
SAMUEL A. PFAU, distributor for the Paige automobile at Youngstown for Ohio except Cincinnati and for the western part of Pennsylvania, has occupied a conspicuous position among the business men of this city for a number of years, having been equally well known in the automobile industry and in the field of real estate. Coming to Youngstown in 1883, at a time when the little community was entering upon a period of most remarkable growth in numbers and expansion of business, he has taken a hand in her busy life, and has grown in fortune and business experience.
Mr. Pfau was born March 23, 1864, at New Springfield, Ohio, a son of John and Rebecca (Smith) Pfau, the latter a native of Unity Township, Columbiana County, Ohio. John Pfau was born at Lykens, Ohio, and as a youth came to New Springfield, where he learned the trade of blacksmith and followed that vocation until he had accumulated sufficient capital with which to purchase a, farm. There he passed his life as one of the most highly esteemed men of his community. Mr. Pfau belonged to a family the forefathers of which had been among the expatriates of the Lutheran Church of Germany, under Frederick the Great, and was himself a pioneer organizer of the Lutheran, Church at New Springfield, in addition to which he had much to do in the establishment of churches of the same faith in nearby towns.
Samuel A. Pfau was educated in the public schools of New Springfield, and at the age of seventeen years left the home farm and attached himself to his brother, the late Solomon Pfau, who was the pioneer buggy manufacturer of that community and of the Mahoning Valley. After the death of his brother, in 1883, he came to Youngstown and joined the Youngstown- Carriage and Wagon Company, as a factory workman, but in 1889 transferred his services to a newly-moved firm from Fredonia, the Fredonia Manufacturing Company.. He became a foreman in the blacksmithing department, and later was made superintendent, a capacity in which he served from 1890 to 1902. While he acted in that position, Mr. Pfau superintended the building of the first automobile built in Ohio, known as the Fredonia Noiseless Car. F. L Thomas was general manager of the concern and Mr. Pfau had an interest in the automobile venture, but this did not bring the expected successful results.
The buggy business was already on the wane, the trade already feeling the encroachment of the coming great automobile industry, and Mr. Pfau, whose health was not of the best, and who did not feel like having the responsibility of seventy-five workmen, decided to seek a change and enter the real estate and insurance business. Accordingly he adopted these lines in 1902 and so successful was he that within the short space of three years he had built up such an extensive business that it was imperative that he have a partner to relieve him of some of his cares. Accordingly, in 1905, he admitted William V. Faunce to partnership, and for four years the real estate and insurance business continued to have Mr. Pfau's sole attention. Is 1907 the partners incorporated the Pfau & Faunce Realty Company, for the purpose of platting and developing subdivisions. and among these may be mentioned the Richview plat, formerly a fifty-acre farm ; the Windermere plat, now comprising Broadway and Wick Avenue; the Fithian farm, now Poland Avenue, and many others. Mr. Pfau has built many homes and downtown business properties, and has contributed materially in this way to the upbuilding and development of the city.
In 1909 the partners took over the distribution of the Ford automobile at Youngstown, and at the end of two years found this end the predominant part of their business, so that they were forced to give up their operations in realty. In 1911 they secured the distribution of the Paige car, for which they are now Youngstown agents, With Mr. Faunce and A. E. Reinmand, Mr. Pfau was one of the organizers of the Central Savings and Loan Company of which he was treasurer, and this concern was later reorganized, at which time Mr. Pfau became vice president of the new concern, the Central Bank and Trust Company. He is a republican in politics, and is a thirty-second degree Mason, belonging to Lake Erie Consistory and Youngstown Commandery, and is also a Shriner of Cleveland. He has given little attention to anything outside of what he has considered his legitimate sphere of action, and has sought no distinction other than that resulting from a successful and honorable conduct of his business enterprises,
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Quietly and unostentatiously he has worked his way from the laborer's bench to a place among the leading business men of his city and has impressed his individuality upon the enterprises with which his name has been linked.
Mr. Pfau was married December 23, 1888, to Lilla A. Schiller, of North Lima, Ohio, and to this union there have been born three sons: William Edward, an attorney of Youngstown, who married Isabel Young, daughter of Judge Stevens of Norwalk, Ohio, and has one son, William Edward, Jr.; Howard L., a graduate of Western Reserve College, in chemistry, 1916, who took post-graduate work in New York, and is now flour chemist for the W. P. Tanner Gross Company, of New York; and Bertrand, who is still attending school.
JOHN H. KREHL. While his own active career was been associated almost entirely with the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company, beginning sixteen years ago, Mr. Krehl is member of a noted family in the industrial affairs of Girard, Ohio, where he still keeps his residence.
Mr. Krehl, who is general master mechanic of the great Youngstown plant of the Sheet and Tube Company, was born at Girard, December 12, 1881. His grandfather, Frederick Krehl, came from Germany with his parents when twelve years of age, and learned the tanner's trade at Canfield, the old county seat of Mahoning County. During the fifties he established a tannery at Girard, and for over sixty years has been a resident of that town. He is still living, at the advanced age of eighty-five. Jacob C. Krehl, father of John H., was also born at Girard, learned the tanning business, succeeded his father in that industry, and was active in it for many years, though he is now retired.
John H. Krehl attended the public schools of Girard, and learned the tanner's trade under his father and grandfather. He came to Youngstown to serve an apprenticeship as a machinist with the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company. He soon recognized the necessity of a better theoretical training, and supplemented his practical work in the shop with a course in the International Correspondence Schools of Scranton. It was his intention, his apprenticeship completed, to return to the tannery at Girard. This plan was frustrated by the burning of the plant in 1894.
As a result he has remained ever since with the Lutheran Church at Girard, also of Mahoning Lodge chinist's apprentice he was the first boy in the shop to receive ten cents an hour. Since then he has successively filled the positions of assistant shop foreman, shop foreman, general foreman of all shops, and since September, 1917, has been general master mechanic.
Mr. Krehl is a member of the Trinity English Lutheran Church at Girard, also of Mahoning Lodge No. 394, Free and Accepted Masons, Youngstown Chapter No. 93, Royal Arch Masons, Youngstown Commandery, Knights Templar, Hiram Lodge of Perfection of Youngstown and Lake Erie Consistory thirty-second degree and Al-Koran Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine of Cleveland, Ohio. On July 12, 1906, he married Blanche Lois Powers, of Girard, daughter of Milton and Mary (Rush) Powers. Mrs. Krehl died May 22; 1915, the mother of two children, Charles Powers and Ruth Lois. August 9, 1917, Mr. Krehl married Margaret Reese, of Girard, daughter of David and Mary (Evans) Reese.
LAWRENCE J. HESS is a graduate electrical engineer and srnce the fall of 1917 has been chief electrician for the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company. Even as a schoolboy his interest was attracted to the electrical engineering profession, and his training was acquired from the best practical as well as. technical sources.
Mr. Hess was born in Evanston, Illinois, April 24,. 1886, son of Jere M. and Mary Elizabeth (Stevens) Hess, also natives of Illinois and the latter still living. His mother's family traces its genealogy in an almost unbroken line to the second shipload of immigrants following the Mayflower. Jere Hess was a broker on the Corn Exchange of Chicago.
An only child, Lawrence J. Hess, grew up in his native city and is a graduate of the Evanston High School. During vacations he put in considerable time as a sub-foreman in the private branch exchange department of the Western Electric Company. His real business career began as an armature winder in the Joliet works of the Illinois Steel Company, and he was finally promoted to the duties of assistant chief electrician for that corporation. In the meantime he had pursued the technical course of the University of Illinois, and graduated with the Electrical Engineer degree in 1908. Mr. Hess came to Youngstown as chief electrician for the Sheet and Tube Company in September, 1917.
He is a member of the American Association of Iron and Steel Electrical Engineers, also of the Youngstown Chamber of Commerce and the Beta Theta Pi college fraternity. September 25, 1918, he married Miss Beulah M. Armacost, of Delavan, Illinois, daughter of Daniel N. Armacost. Their son, Lawrence J., Jr., was born September 2, 1919.
CHARLES H. GUY, chief inspector of the Youngsrown Sheet & Tube Company, joined that corporation in the spring of 1914 as assistant chief inspector. A few months later and continuing until the close of the World war his duties were almost entirely concerned with the company's contracts for war steel. For the remarkable record of the corporation in this field much of the credit was due to his department. On May 15, 1919, Mr. Guy became chief inspector.
A native of Ohio, he was born at Dayton, January n. 1873, son of John and Janet (Alexander) Guy. His father was a native of Beith, Scotland, and his mother of London, England. They were married in Great Britain, came to the United States in the late fifties, and both are now deceased. John Guy for many years was a merchant in Ohio.
With a grammar and high school education, Charles H. Guy at the age of eighteen went West to Colorado and was employed by the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, for several years as secretary to C. S. Robinson, then the general manager, and his successor. While in the. West he laid the founda-
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tion of the expert knowledge he has since acquired in the steel business.
Mr. Guy has been a resident of Youngstown since 1914, and is one of its thoroughly public spirited citizens. He is a member of the Youngstown Engineering Club, Chamber of Commerce, the Youngstown Club and the Elks.
HENRY NIEDERMEIER. Youngstown was not much of a city, wrth a populatron of only 8,500, when Henry Niedermeier began his career as a building contractor in 1881. As the city grew in power and population, so likewise were his activities and talents adapted to the increasing service demanded of him- in a business capacity, and there was little relaxation in his business cares and responsibilities until his career came to an end. He was looked upon as a veteran in his local profession and business, and for that reason and his character as a good citizen he enjoyed a peculiar degree of esteem, and many tributes were paid his memory at the time of his death on June 19, 1920. A number of Youngstown's younger contractors received their training under Mr. Niedermeier. His chief work was in stone and brick.
It would be impossible to draw up anything like a representative list of the work he has done in this locality. Some of the more notable examples are the Market Street bridge, the South Side bridge, the Mahoning Avenue bridge, the first eight stories of the Stambaugh Building, the Hollingsworth Building, the Wick Building, the Mahoning National Bank Building, and many other business structures, schools, churches and residences. Some of the schools are the Hillman Street, Delason Avenue, Washington and Lincoln schools. He was also the constructor for the St. John's Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church at Lockridge and Wick Avenue, the United Presbyterian Church at Wood Street and Champion, the United Presbyterian Church on Wilson Avenue.
Mr. Niedermeier was born in Lippe-Detmold, Germany, February 8, 1848, son of William and Louise Niedermeier. His father was a German farmer. Henry Niedermeier after acquiring his education in the common schools and at the age of eighteen, in 1866, left Germany and came to the United States. While at Hermann in Gasconade County, Missouri, he learned the business of building wine cellars. Two of his brothers were soldiers of the Franco-Prussian war. One of them was killed and for that reason Henry Niedermeier went back to his parents in 1871. He remained about a year and in 1872 again came to America. Locating at Cleveland, on account of lack of funds he resumed work at his trade and later in the same year came to Youngstown. He was therefore a resident of Youngstown more than forty-five years and by the length of residence, his work and other attainments had earned the right to be considered one of the most substantial and public spirited citizens as well as most active business men.
Mr. Niedermeier was one of the founders of the Builders Exchange in Youngstown and at one time served as its president. He was a republican in politics and was affiliated with the Western Star Lodge of Masons and with the Order of Elks. His family are members of the German Reformed Church on Wood Street.
In 1879 Mr. Niedermeier married Martha Heller, a sister of Louis and Adolph Heller and a daughter of the late Nicholas and Frederica (Bofeld) Heller. Mrs. Niedermeier was born in Switzerland and she and her husband were happily married for forty years. In that time six children were born into their home. The son Henry was a contractor and died at the age of thirty-two. William was associated with his father and died in 1917 al the age of thirty. The daughter Hilda died at the age of seven. The three living children are: Louis, who was associated with his father in the contracting business and lives at 1519 Covington Street; Clara, who is the wife of John Werden of Youngstown ; and Dorothy, living at home with her mother,
GUSTAV A. REINHARDT who has served the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company for the past seven years as metallurgist, is a chemical and metallurgical engineer of long training and varied experience, and has spent the greater part of his lifetime in Ohio.
He was born at New Washington, Ohio, April 22, 1881, son of Louis and Barbara (Metzger) Reinhardt. His parents were both born in Bavaria. Louis Reinhardt came to the United States before reaching his majority, and after naturalization returned to the old country to marry. He brought his bride to America, and for a number of years lived at New Washington, Ohio, where he was a lumber dealer. His widow is still living.
Gustav A. Reinhardt was one of three children and was about seven years of age when his parents moved to Cleveland, Ohio. Besides the advantages of the public schools of that city he attended the Case School of Applied Science, and after his technical education spent six months as chemist for the Dominion Iron and Steel Company at Sydney, Nova Scotia. He was also employed six months at the Ohio Works of the Carnegie Steel Company al Youngstown, for one year was chief chemist for the Salem Iron Company at Leetonia, for two years chief chemist of the Cleveland Furnace Company at Cleveland, and for two years was chief chemist with Crowell & Murray of Cleveland. Following that Mr. Reinhardt spent one year as a student and assistant instructor in metallurgy in the School of Applied Science of Harvard University. Since 1913 he has been connected with the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company as metallurgist.
He is a member of various technical societies, including the American Institute of Mining and Metal. lurgical Engineers, the American Society for Test ing Materials, the American Gas Association, the American Iron & Steel Institute, and the Institute of Metals. He is a Knight Templar Mason and a member of the Plymouth Congregational Church. June 20, 1917, he married Miss Emma J. Parmater, of Cleveland, but a native of Caro, Michigan.
ROBERT W. EWALT chief statistician of the Youngstown eet and Tube Company, has been
connected with this corporation since July 1, 1902, He belongs to that class of men who owe their success in life to what they themselves have accom-
YOUNGSTOWN AND THE MAHONING VALLEY - 67
plished, not to what has been done for them. The constant necessity of stimulating effort has goaded him onward and upward, and as he has learned one lesson thoroughly, he has hopefully turned another page in the book of his career.
Mr. Ewalt is a native Ohioan, born at Warren, September 3, 1859. His parents, Samuel H. and Ruth Amanda (Brown) Ewalt, were farming people of Trumbull County, Ohio, of which community Samuel Ewalt was a native, his father, also named Samuel Ewalt, having been one of the earliest settlers of that county, coming there from Pittsburgh and settling on a wild farm on which all his children were born.
One of a family of four children, of whom two are now living, Robert W. Ewalt passed his boyhood days on the home farm, and when not assisting his father in the numerous duties pertaining to the cultivation of the home property, applied himself to his studies at the local district schools. In 1881 he left the humdrum existence of the farm for the larger opportunities of the city, securing a position as clerk in a store at Warren. Later he learned bookkeeping, at which he continued to work until coming to Youngstown, where for a short time he was an office man with the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company. From this post he was advanced to that of chief statistician, which he has since occupied with great credit to himself and to the entire satisfaction of the officials. Mr. Ewalt is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks at Warren, where he joined the order in early manhood, and where he still has numerous friends. He is a republican in his political tendencies, but has shown only a good citizen's interest in public affairs.
Mr. Ewalt was married April 10, 1883, to Miss Mary Van Gorder, of Warren, a daughter of Elias and Eliza Van Gorder, and to this union there has been born one daughter, Mabel, the wife of George O. Bruce, of Youngstown.
DAVID A. RUSSELL. Circumstances may in a measure develop an individual, but unless there is an underlying stability of character, combined with native ability and a determination to make the most of whatever opportunities life affords, all the circumstances in the world, no matter how advantageous, will not produce a man of whom his associates may be confident. Circumstances have played but a small part in the career of David A. Russell, who has accepted the opportunities which have come to his door, and who in his chosen profession has advanced to a position of marked trust and responsibility, being chief chemist for the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, of Youngstown, Ohio.
Mr. Russell was born on a farm in Washington County, Pennsylvania, November 2, 1884, a son of David A. and Mary W. (Neal) Russell, likewise natives of Pennsylvania, as was also his paternal grandfather, John Russell. David A. Russell, the younger, was reared on the home farm and attended the district schools in his boyhood. He prepared himself further at Slippery Rock State Normal School at Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, and then took a one-year preparatory course at the Pennsylvania State College. Graduated from the latter in June, 1907, with the degree of Bachelor of Science, his first position was that of chemist for the Bellefonte Furnace Company at Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. Later he entered the chemical test department of the Erie Railroad Company at Meadville, Pennsylvania, and in August, 1908, came to Youngstown as raw material chemist for the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company. Since then he has served as assistant chief chemist and chief chemist, having held the latter office since August, 1909. Mr. Russell is an exceptionally capable man, who has the full confidence of his associates, the esteem of the officials of the company, and the respect and friendship of those whose labors he shares. He stands high in his profession, and is a valued member of the American Chemical Society, the American Iron and Steel Institute and the American Electro-Chemical Society. He likewise holds membership in the Youngstown Chamber of Commerce, and with his family belongs to the United Presbyterian Church.
Mr. Russell was married in 1910 to Miss Olive Duncan, of Burgettstown, Pennsylvania, and they are the parents of three daughters : Ruth, Alta and Kathryn.
LIEF LEE. consulting engineer of the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company at Youngstown, Ohio, was born in Stavanger, Norway, in 1881, and was educated in the technical schools of Norway and Germany. For a short time he worked in a German steel plant at Carlshutte, and in 1901 came to the United States, subsequently working at Pittsburgh, Chattanooga, Birmingham, Columbus, Joliet and various other steel centers.
Since 1907 Mr. Lee has been with the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, where he started as a draughtsman, and has subsequently advanced to assistant draughtsman, chief draughtsman, assistant master mechanic, assistant chief engineer, chief engineer. general superintendent and at the present time is the consulting engineer. In addition to being consulting engineer for the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, Mr. Lee is in the general consulting engineering business, is also vice president of the Superior Pipe Company, Columbia. Pennsylvania, and a director in the Chapman Price Steel Company of Indianapolis, Indiana.
GEORGE M. STREETER has been connected with the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company since February, 1907, in the capacity of assistant to the general superintendent. When it is taken into consideration that previous to that time he was for thirteen years in charge of the order department of the Western Tube Company of Kewanee, Illinois, it will he seen that he is an experienced man in his line, in which practically his entire career has been passed.
Mr. Streeter was born at Princeton, Illinois, November 3, 1867, a son of Theodore T. and Harriet (Triplett) Streeter. The father was a veteran of the war between the states, in which he served as a Union soldier from the beginning to the close, and was a printer by vocation, an occupation which he followed throughout life. Both he and his worthy wife are now deceased. George M. Streeter received his scholastic training in his native town, where he was reared, and at the age of thirteen years began working for himself as a general helper
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in his father's printing establishment. His life up to manhood was spent in various occupations, a part of this time being passed as an employe of the Bryant nurseries. Following this he entered the employ of the Western Tube Company at Kewanee, Illinois, as previously noted. He there began as a time-keeper, but eventually worked his way to where he had charge of the order department. For two years after this he was employed in similar work at Zanesville, Ohio, and from there came to Youngstown to accept his present position. Mr. Streeter is a member of the Poland Country Club, is a thirty-second degree Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite and Knight Templar York Rite Mason, and belongs to the Mystic Shrine.
On September 5, 1895, Mr. Streeter married Miss Harriet Douglas of Kewanee, Illinois, and they are the parents of one daughter, Helen. Mr. and Mrs. Streeter are valued and popular members of the Plymouth Congregational Church.
HENRY WEDDELL HEEDY. A resident of Youngsfown since November 3, 1880, Henry Weddell Heedy has been prominently identified with the business growth and development of the city, where his connections have been and are at present important and numerous. He was born December 13, 1851, at Cleveland, Ohio, a son of Michael and Mary (Glen) Heedy, the former a native of Ireland and the latter of the United States. Michael Heedy was born in 1814, and when a lad of sixteen years left his native land, immigrated to the United States, and here passed the remainder of his life, dying in December, 1888.
Henry W. Heedy was one of five children born to his parents who grew to maturity. His boyhood days were passed in his native city, where he attended the public schools, and early in life began working for himself, although still residing under the parental roof. At fifteen years of age he was employed as clerk, collector and general utility man by the old Wason, Everett & Company banking concern, and afterwards by its. successor, Everett, Weddell & Company, both of Cleveland. After six years, he went to Lapeer, Michigan, where he was employed as bookkeeper rn the banking house of R. G, Hart & Company, and remained there two years, then going, to Niles, Ohio, where for ,eighteen months he was bookkeeper for the Niles Iron Company. When the mill was closed, he went back to Cleveland, but in 188o returned to Niles as bookkeeper again for. the Niles Iron Company, which had resumed operations. In 1881 this concern, removed to Haselton, Ohio, and opened operations there along the side of the Andrews Brothers blast furnaces, and, as the Andrews brothers were the principal owners of the Niles Iron Company, the operations of this concern were merged with the blast furnace and the whole plant was operated under the name of Andrews Brothers & Company. Mr.- Heedy came with the concern to Haselton and was placed in charge of the office and books of the company. In 1892 the concern was incorporated as The Andrews Brothers Company, and of this Mr. Heedy became secretary and assistant treasurer, afterwards becoming treasurer of the corporation and still retaining the office of secretary. He continued to thus officiate until 1899, when the property interests were sold to the Republic Iron and Steel Company, and remained as local treasurer of the new concern for over a year.
In 1901 Mr. Heedy became associated with the Andrews & Hitchcock Company in operating blast furnaces at Hubbard, Ohio. He officiated as secretary and treasurer of this corporation until March, 1916, when it was sold to the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company. With the latter concern he continued about a year, closing out all matters pertaining to the interests of the Andrews & Hitchcock Iron Company, which corporation was then dissolved. In the meantime, Mr. Heedy had become connected with a number of other enterprises, He was one of the original stockholders and directors of the Youngstown Iron and Steel Roofing Company, which later became the Youngstown Iron and Steel Company. This corporation, in 1917, was -sold to the Sharon Steel Hoop Company. After the dissolution of the Andrews & Hitchcock Iron Company, Mr. Heedv became interested in the Lake Erie Limestone Company and in the Union Limestone Company, and of both of these concerns Mr. Heedy is now general manager, in addition being president of the former. He is likewise a director of the G. M. McKelvey Company, the Commercial National Bank and the Cleveland Life Insurance Company.
Mr. Heedy is a member of the Youngstown Chamber of Commerce, the Youngstown Country Club and the Youngstown Club, and of the DuQuesne Club of Pittsburgh. In religion he is an Episcopalian; in politics, a republican.
On January 26, 1887, Mr. Heedy was united in marriage with Miss Sarah A. Shook, daughter of Calvin and Julia (Stambaugh) Shook, of Youngstown, Ohio, and to this union there have been born two children: Henry Glen and Horace S., the latter of whom died in infancy. Mrs. Heedy died October 4, 1906, at Edinboro, Scotland. Her remains were brought to Youngstown and now rest in Bemont Cemetery.
LEO J. COLLIER. To Leo J. Collier is due the chief credit for making the high merits of the Buick automobile known and appreciated by the hundreds of Buick owners in the Mahoning Valley. Mr. Collier has been a Buick representative for a number of years, and is president and manager of the Mahoning Buick Company.
He was born at Uniontown, in the Coke district of Pennsylvania, February 15, and lived there until after reaching his majority. He had a public school education and as a young man showed special talents for business. For about eight years he lived at New Castle, Pennsylvania, where he also acted as agent for the Buick automobile. Coming to Youngstown in 1912, he was associated with his father-in-law, Milton E. Coombs, and established a local agency for the Buick cars. The first year they sold twenty-two cars. In 1914 Mr. Collier bought out the interests of Mr. Coombs arid then organized the Mahoning Buick Company, of which he is the active head. During 1913 the company sold
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69 cars, 160 in 1915, 193 in 1916, and 1917 349. In 1917 the company also became agents for the White truck and their business for that year also included sixty truck sales. The splendid record could not be kept up progressively during 1918, owing to the general inability to get cars from the factory to fill orders. However, the company sold 102 Buicks and 40 trucks. The business for 1919 has surpassed all previous years both in number and volume of sales.
Mr. Collier is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Youngstown Club, the Poland Country Club, and is vice president of the. Youngstown Automobile Dealers Association. He enjoys the confidence of Youngstown business men, and is known as a young man who makes his word good in every particular. Fraternally he is a Knight Templar and thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and a member of Al Koran Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Cleveland.
Mr. Collier's parents were James Seaton and Cornelia A. (Brown) Collier. His grandfather was a native of Scotland. Mr. Collier married Miss Angelyn Coombs on September 22, 1910.
NATHANIEL E. BROWN. While one of the younger officials of the Republic Rubber Corporation, Nathaniel E. Brown has some of the most responsible duties in connection wtih the technical departments, being superintendent of the mill division. Mr. Brown went to work at the age of fourteen, and has earned his promotion largely through the native force of his character and industrial ability, though at different times he has also come in contact for brief intervals with technical schools.
He was born at Youngstown, November 30, 1887, and is a member of an old and honored family of the Mahoning Valley. His parents were John W. and Clara (Montgomery) Brown, and his grandfathers were Nathaniel E. Brown and James Montgomery. Both his father and grandfather were actively interested in the iron business of the Mahoning Valley. John W. Brown who for a time was cashier of the Brown-Bonnell Iron Plant was also well known in public affairs and was elected and served as county treasurer. He was holding that office at the time of his death in 1893. His widow is still living and makes her home in Youngstown.
Nathaniel E. Brown was only six years of age when his father died. He acquired a public school education and at fourteen began work to contribute to the support of the family. His mother at the same time helped by teaching school. For a time he was in the electrical department of the Ohio plant of the Carnegie Steel Company and after two years was employed in electrical work with the Brier Hill Iron & Coal Company. He remained with that establishment two years, and for about a year was employed in similar lines by the William B. Pollock. Company, and for eighteen months was in the meter ,department of the old Youngstown Consolidated Company.
In the meantime he had done what he could to better his education. He spent several months in the Mount Herman Preparatory School in Massachusetts, and for one brief term also attended the Carnegie School of Technology at Pittsburg.
Mr. Brown has been continuously assocrated with the Republic Rubber Corporation of Youngstown since June, 1909 when he went into its laboratory. Later he became department manager of the mill department and since 1917 has been division superintendent of all preparing departments. He is a member of the Youngstown Chamber of Commerce.
September 25, 1912, he married Miss Edith Resch. They .have two sons, Nathaniel E., Jr., and Richard Montgomery.
RALPH W. YENGLING, the superintendent of the Youngstown Hospital, is a pharmacist by profession, and was advanced to his present responsibilities on the merit of his service to the institution in other capacities.
Mr. Yengling was born in Salem, Ohio, in 1889, son of Homer and Minnie (Walker). Yengling. The mother died in. December, 1919. The father, who resides in Salem, is a contractor. Ralph Yengling brother Carl is production superintendent in the Silver Manufacturing Company of Salem, makers of farm implements.
Ralph W. Yengling was educated in the, grammar and high schools of Salem, and attended. the Ohio State University, where he graduated in the Pharmacy Department in 1911.. Prior to going to the University he was with the Bennett Pharmacy at Salem, and after graduating had periods, of employment with the Dingham Pharmacy at Columbus the Ermon Pharmacy at Newark, and the Averbeck Drug Company of Youngstown.
He entered the Youngstown Hospital as a pharmacist and in 1918 was promoted to assistant superintendent. He became superintendent upon the death of Mr. Bunn. Mr. Yengling married Miss Helen Fillmore in 1913. She is a daughter of Harry L. Fillmore, of Columbus.
EMMANUEL KATZMAN. An active, industrious, and enterprising young man, full of the push and energy that command success in any undertaking, Emmanuel Katzman holds ale assured position among the prosperous contractors and builders of Youngstown, and with his father, Max Katzman, has erected many of the city' ,fine residences and public build- rrngs. He was born in 1897 in Poland Russia, where his childhood days were spent.
Max Katzman was born and reared in Poland, Russia, and there married. Learning the carpenter's trade when young, he became prominent as a builder, and on one estate erected extensive buildings that required a period of fourteen years to complete, he having worked in the great forests during the long winter seasons, employing from 200 to 300 men in getting out the necessary timbers and sawing them into lumber. The oppression and unrest among the Jews became so great that in 1905 he immigrated to the United States. He had received very limited educational advantages in his native land, but had received military training in the Russian Army, and subsequently, through sheer force of character and perseverance, had acquired much practical knowledge. Locating first in New York, he secured work by the day, but finding that he had relatives in Youngstown he made his way to this city and found work on the new courthouse, and when he had saved
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a sufficient sum from his daily wages sent back to Russia for his family. He had then saved $180.00, which was soon spent for rent and household supplies. He has since accumulated a good property, owning many pieces of valuable real estate in the city. Max Katzman is still actively engaged in contracting and building, being a vigorous man of fifty-four years, while his wife, Sophia Katzman is fifty years of age.
A lad of eight summers or more when he came to Youngstown, Emmanuel Katzman attended the Wood Street School and being an unusually clever student made six grades in one year. When very young he began assisting his father, but continued the studies of the higher grades under private tutors and also took special instruction at the Young Men's Christian Association and a course of two years with the International Correspondence Sch00l, his work having been along the lines of construction. Becoming associated in business with his father, they have erected many of the beautiful residences of the city, and some of its finest church, school and public buildings, among others specially worthy of mention being the Charles Livingston Business House, the Leo Guthman Building on Wick Avenue, the Buick Garage, the Moses Rosenbaum residence, the William Wilkoff residence and the A. M. Frankle residence, the Washington, Lincoln and Hubbard High School buildings, and the Ungar Apartments, while Emmanuel Katzman himself, erected the Lillian Apartment Building, in which he lives and which he named in honor of his wife to be.
Emmanuel Katzman married May 19, 1918, Lillian daughter of Harry and Rose Friedman, of Cleveland. Both he and his wife are members of Temple Emanuel. Fraternally Mr. Katzman is a member of the Independent Order of B'nai B'rith, of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks; Knights of Pythias; of the Modern Woodmen of America; the Federal Lodge; and he also belongs to the Young Men's Hebrew Association, the Pole Zion Club, and to the Builder's Exchange.
CHARLES S. THOMAS for many years a resident of Niles, now o oungstown, comes of a long line of Scotch iron workers, and he has long been recognized as one of the most practical men in the iron and steel business in Eastern Ohio, and has assisted in creating and building up a number of plants in the Mahoning Valley.
Mr. Thomas was born at Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, Scotland, December 12, 1868. His father, Robert Thomas, was one of the managers of the Glasgow Iron Works. Charles S. Thomas was left an orphan at an early age, but acquired a practical education in Scotland.
While he was a small boy the old Summers Brothers Company had been organized and was operating a plant at Struthers, Ohio. Tne principal members of this firm were uncles and cousins of Charles S. Thomas. The opportunity for employment in this industry was what brought Charles S. Thomas across the ocean at the age of fifteen. He began in the office of the Summers Brothers Company and continued with the organization until 1894, when the company was dissolved. During the ten years he had filled practically every position in the sheet mill.
In 1895 the Struthers Iron & Steel Company, with Jonathan Warner as president, succeeded to the plant and business of the Summers Brothers Company. Mr. Thomas remained with the new organrzation as secretary. Five years later, in 1900, the Struthers plant was sold to the United States Steel Corporation, which retained Mr. Thomas for a year as local plant manager.
His next important undertaking was the organization of the Empire Iron and Steel Company at Niles, and he served it as vice president and general manager until 1906, when the business was sold to Jonathan Warner. Mr. Thomas, in 1909, organized the Deforest Sheet & Tin Plate Company at Niles, being vice president and secretary and later president. This property, in May, 1919, was sold to the Republic Iron and Steel Company.
Mr. Thomas still has some direct associations with the industrial and financial affairs of the Mahoning Valley, being a director of the Electric Alloy Steel Company, the Falcon Steel Company at Niles, the First National Bank and the Dollar Savings & Trust Company at Youngstown, and the Dollar Savings Bank Company of Niles. He made his home at Niles for twenty years, and helped develop that city, serving 'as president of the Niles Chamber of Commerce and as a member of the Building Committee of the McKinley Memorial Association. In 1919 he removed his residence to Youngstown.
Mr. Thomas coming to America in boyhood has adapted himself in spirit and practice to American ideals and no native son could surpass him in loyalty to the institutions of the United States. He is a member of the Youngstown and Youngstown Country clubs, and the Trumbull Country Club of Warren and Niles. He is a Knight Templar York Rite and Scottish Rite Mason and a member of the Mystic Shrine.
In 1898 Mr. Thomas married Miss Helen Struthers, member of a very historic family of the Ma- honing Valley. Her father, William Struthers, was a nephew of Thomas Struthers, after whom the Town of Struthers was named and founder of the old Anna furnace of the Struthers Iron Company. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas have two children: Marion Struthers and Dudley Struthers.
JOSEPH A. HALLS. Endowed with mechanical genius and ability of a superior order, Joseph A. Halls, of Youngstown, occupies an honored position as superintendent of the fireproofing department of the General Fireproofing Company, and as an expert machinist has acquired a world-wide reputation, machinery of his design and manufacture being in demand in all parts of the globe. A son of the late James Halls, he was born in 1870 in Mahoning County, in which the greater part of his life has been passed.
James Halls lived in England, his native country, until twenty-five years of age, when he immigrated to the United States. He was a farmer during his earlier life but after coming to Ohio was for sometime employed in the Ohio Powder Company located north of Youngstown. He attained the ripe old age
YOUNGSTOWN AND THE MAHONING VALLEY - 71
of three score and ten years. After coming here he married Katherine Applegate, who was the descendant of an old and prominent family of Mahoning Valley, being the daughter of Calvin Applegate, who was there born in 1809. She outlived her husband, dying at the age of seventy-five years. Both were faithful members of the Presbyterian Church. The Children of James Halls and wife were as follows: Calvin A. of Hubbard, Ohio; William, of Youngstown, Ohio; James R., of Youngstown, Ohio, assrstant cashier in the Commercial National Bank; and Joseph A., who was the eldest born.
Acquiring the rudiments of his education in the common schools of Trumbull County, Joseph A. Halls was subsequently graduated from the Hubbard High School. During his vacations he worked on the farm of his grandfather, Calvin Applegate, but farming not appealing to him, he entered the employ of the William Tod Company,. and there served an apprenticeship at the machinist's trade, being with that corporation long before it was absorbed by the United Engineering & Foundery Company, serving as its superintendent. He afterward became superintendent of the Tod-Booth Company and in that capacity being also foreman and machinist of the plant, he was associated with the building of some of the celebrated blowing engine plants of this and other countries. Mr. Halls was subsequently made superintendent of the district for the United Engineering and Foundry Company and had full charge of the construction of some of the most important steel mill machinery used in the country during the busy period of the World war when his company was taxed to the limit with orders of he most urgent character growing out of the immense plant expansion and re-equipment to keep up with war demands. On September I, 1919, Mr. Halls became superintendent of the fireproofing department of the General Fireproofing Company, and is performing the duties of the office with characteristic ability.
Mr. Halls married April 12, 1898, Caroline Roland, daughter of Daniel Roland. She died January i6, 1919, leaving three children, namely : Norman W. and Caroline J., pupils in the Rayen High School, and Sarah H., a child of eight years. Religiously Mr. Halls is a member of the Westminster Church. Fraternally he belongs to the Ancient Free and Accepted Order of Masons, being a member of the Lodge and Chapter ; and to the Knights of Pythias. He also belongs to the Youngstown Engineers' Club.
WILLIAM GEORGE REESE. A highly esteemed and influential citizen of Youngstown, and a man of recognized business ability and judgment, William George Reese is actively associated with one of the leading industries of Mahoning County, having charge of the sales of the slag department of the Ohio Works, Carnegie Steel Plant a position of much responsibility. A son of William George Reese, Sr., he was born November I, 1882, on Watts Street near he Erie Railway in Youngstown, of Welsh descent.
William George Reese, Sr. was born, bred and married in Neath, Wales. While in his native land he was employed in iron works, and after coming to the United States entered the employ of the William B. Pollock Company of Youngstown, and as one of his first jobs erected the smoke stack at No. 4 Mill. An expert boiler maker, he was the first man to use rivets in the manufacture of boilers, but was not fortunate enought to receive a patent on them, some one else doing so. A man of much intelligence, he formed many pleasant acquaintances, among others having been William Shiller of the National Tube Works, who was one of his best friends. He died in 1884, while yet in life's prime, having been but. thirty-seven years old at the time of his death.
The maiden name of the wife of William G. Reese, Sr., was Hannah Parker, and they were married in Wales. Although she was a small, frail appearing woman, not over four feet in height, she was endowed with a brave, heroic spirit, and when left a widow with a family to support she went to work with true Spartan grit, and provided well for her children, and gave them good educational advantages. Industrious and faithful, willing to accept any position, she served as janitress at the gas office, the Dollar Bank Building, the Wick Building, and other buildings, and at the same time did work for the family of C. H. Andrews. She is now enjoying all the comforts of life, living with her daughter, Mrs. William Allcock, at 95o Tod Avenue. She has four loving and devoted children, as follows: Sarah,. wife of William Allcock; Mamie, wife of J. 0. Reeble, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ; William G.,. the subject of this sketch, and Philip B., foreman of the shipping department of the Ohio Works.
Attending the Front Street School until eight years old, William George Reese then entered the Woods Street School, from which he was graduated at the age of fifteen years. Immediately entering the Ohio Works he served first as water boy under Edward C. Moore, and subsequently held various positions, each promotion giving him greater responsibilities and more pay. He was in turn manipulator, inspector of steel, foreman in the finishing department, and then in the slag department. Mr. Reese now has entire charge of the slag sales, an import- • ant branch of the industry that takes him to many cities, and brings him in contact with men of prominence in the business life of the country.
Mr. Reese married in 1902 Mary E., daughter of Adolph and Anna Duerr, her father having for years been baggage master, and well known. Two children have been born of their marriage, Dorothy and Pauline. Public spirited and eminently capable, Mr.. Reese has been influential in promoting enterprises conducive to the city's welfare. He served as a member of the council, representing the Fifth Ward for two terms and as a member of the council at large for two terms and is now president of the city council, and in his official capacity was instrumental in securing the extension of the Mahoning Car Line to. Perkins, the fire station on Mahoning Avenue, sewerage in the Mill Creek District and many other needed improvements that have proved of immense value to the city. Fraternally he is a Royal Arch Mason, a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and of the Order of Moose. Religiously Mr. and Mrs. Reese are members of Saint David's Society and of the Trinity English Lutheran Church.
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WILLIAM MOORE ARREL. From the very beginning of the nineteenth century the Arrel family has been a prominent one in the Mahoning Valley. One of its useful members was the late William Moore Arrel, whose life was spent as an industrious farmer and capable citizen in the country immediately adjacent to Lowellville.
He was born in Poland Township February 2, 1831, son of David and Martha (Moore) Arrel. His grandfather, John. Arrel, was born in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, of Scotch-Irish parentage, and settled in Ohio in 1800 and served as a soldier in the War of 1812. David Arrel was born in Mahoning County May 6, 1803, and died in 1888.
The farm where William Moore Arrel spent so many years, at one time belonged to his aunt, Miss Margaret Arrel, who never occupied it, she and her unmarried brother, John, spending their lives on another farm for fifty years. Out of seven children in the first generation of the Arrel family in Ma- honing County only two were married, and they all spent their lives in the county and four died in advanced years.
William Moore Arrel married Jane Martin, a native of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. She was brought as a child to Poland Township, her parents being Hugh and Dorcas (Blackburn) Martin. Her father spent the rest of his life on a farm near Poland Village. William Moore Arrel after a few years on his farm on the State Road moved to the place adjoining Lowellville, the farm running back from the Mahoning River and comprising several hundred acres. He did general farming, and the land was also famous for the Arrel quarries, where great quantities of limestone were taken out for many years and used by the furnaces. These quarries are now practically depleted. The old home stood about a mile back from the river, and at that place William Moore Arrel died in October, 1894. Eventually the quarries encroached upon the home site until the house was converted to other purposes, and the present home was built a few years since by the family. This home stands on a beautiful site on the brow of a hill overlooking the entire valley, with Lowellville immediately beneath, and within view of the stacks of the Sharon Steel Hoop Company, the Meehan Boiler Works, the power house of the Interurban Railroad, and many other features of the thriving industrial energy of the Mahoning Valley. The presence of limestone deposits on the Arrel farm was an influence dictating the location of some of the first furnaces in the valley.
The late Mr. Arrel was never in politics, but in other directions found opportunity to satisfy his public spirit. He and his wife had six children who grew to mature years : Martha, who died in early womanhood ; Dorcas Rachel, wife of G. E. Hamilton, of Lowellville; John William, who died in young manhood; Margaret Jane and Mary, both at home, and Frances, wife of Paul Detchen, a real estate man at Detroit. Mr. Arrel was one of the first directors in the Dollar Savings Bank of Youngstown, Ohio, and Mrs. G. E. Hamilton and Miss Margaret J. Arrel are directors in the Lowellville Bank.
LOUIS WESTER & SONS. A substantial and prosperous -business man of Youngstown and a highly respected citizen, Louis Wester, head of the firm of Louis Wester & Sons, dealers in sand, cement, ashes, slag and coal, is managing the affairs of the firm in a most able and systematic manner, having one of the best and most completely equipped plants of the kind in the city. A native of Sweden, he was born February 11, 1866, on the Torp farm, which is located twenty-four miles from the City of Gothenberg, and fifty miles from Stockholm, being a son of Westdahl Holt.
Acquiring a good education in his native land Louis Wester left home at the age of eighteen years, immigrating to the United States and landing in New York City. Coming westward as far as Pennsylvania, he located at Gilitizen, where he worked for five years in the coal mines, afterward becoming operator of an electric mine machine. Locating at Anita, Pennsylvania, in 1891, Mr. Wester took contracts for the building of houses and plants for the Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal & Iron Company, an undertaking which proved profitable, and in which he continued for nearly a score of years.
In 1910, exercising his usual good judgment, Mr. Wester established himself as a contractor at his present location, 76 Indianola Avenue, Youngstown, and at the same time largely increased his operations, making a specialty of selling sand, cement, ashes, slag and coal. His extensive transactions in this line prove that he made no mistake when he began dealing in those materials. In 1916 the business of the firm had reached such vast proportions that the sons, J. Walter Wester and Ernest Wester, assumed charge of all contracts, and have since built over fifty miles of sidewalk in the new additions made to Youngstown, and have also built many streets and roads, and have filled large contracts for cement work of various kinds.
When Mr. Wester landed in New York he had but $10 in money, and though poor in pocket, he was rich in energy and ambition, and with' a determination to succeed he worked with a will, and his present high standing in the industrial, business and financial life of the city places him among the self-made men of whom our country is justly proud. While a resident of Pennsylvania, without his consent, he was placed upon the Official Board of Charity, which looked after the city's poor, and was also made treasurer of the local school board. Politically Mr. Wester was an ardent republican until after the discovery of heavy graft in the building of the State Capitol, and since that time has voted for the best men and measures, regardless of party restrictions.
Mr. Wester married in Pennsylvania Hulda Johnson, and of their union seven sons and two daughters have been born, namely : John Walter, Ernest W., Anna Ethel, George, Arthur, Warden, Alice, Richard and Elwood. Religiously Mr. Wester and his family are members of the Swedish Mission Church.
WILLIAM F. STAMBAUGH, who represents one branch of the relationship that has been prominent in the affairs of Northeastern Ohio from pioneer
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days, has a veteran's experience in the industrial life of the district, is one of the older officials of the Brier Hill Steel Company, and for a number of years has been its superintendent of transportation and labor.
Mr. Stambaugh, who was born at Youngstown, May 12, 1867, is a son of David and Sarah (Fitch) Stambaugh. His father at one time was in the foundry business at Girard. He was a Union soldier throughout the period of the Civil war, most of the time in the quartermaster's department. He was still comparatively young when he met an accidental death. He was the father of two children, William F. and David L.
William F. Stambaugh attended the public schools at Youngstown, but at the age of sixteen went to work, so that his active working experience covers at least thirty-five years. He was first employed by Henry Wick in what is now the Union Works of the Carnegie Steel Company. He was assigned the duties of weighing iron. Not long afterward, when the works were shut down by strike, Mr. Wick put him in the Witch Hazel Coal Company's plant on Belmont Avenue within fifty feet of where Fairview crosses Belmont. He became a coal weigher, and was with the company about six years, during which time the Witch Hazel coal field was thoroughly developed.
In 1888 Mr. Stambaugh became a helper in the William B. Pollock's boiler works, and served two years at the boiler maker's trade. In July, 1890, he left the boiler shops to become a mail carrier at Youngstown, and was one of the staff of the local postoffice until the spring of 1896. Then after a few months at boiler making in the fall of 1896, he entered the service of the Brier Hill Iron & Coal Company as a dock foreman, having in charge the handling and loading of pig iron. He succeeded D. C. Bucken as yardmaster and shipper, and when the Brier Hill Steel Company was formed he continued as yardmaster and about 1913 was promoted to his present responsibilities as superintendent of transportation and labor.
Mr. Stambaugh is a Knight of. Pythias and has filled the various chairs in his lodge. He is a member of the Christian Church and a republican voter. September 6, 1893, he married Miss Elizabeth Winsper, of Youngstown. Five children were born to their marriage: Adalaide C., wife of Joseph H. Jackson; David H.; Grace G., deceased; Arabella and Sophia.
HARVEY J. WOODARD, general manager of sales for the Republic Rubber Company, began his career in a rubber factory and has had an active association with the industry for practically two decades.
He was born at Kalamazoo, Michigan, April 13, 1869, son of William M. and Louisa (Carpenter) Woodard, the former now deceased and the latter still living. William M. Woodard spent his active life as a merchant, and was for four years a Union soldier in the Civil war. He served as first lieutenant in the Third Michigan Cavalry. He was in the battle of Shiloh, in many of the campaigns and was slightly wounded.
Harvey J. Woodard grew up at Kalamazoo, had a high school education and spent one year in the mills of the diamond Rubber Company. For two years he worked in the sales end of the railroad department, and then for fifteen years was New York manager of the Diamond Rubber Company. Another two years he was connected with the Knight Rubber and Tire Company at Akron.
He came to Youngstown in 1917, at the same time as Mr. Norwood, now president of the Republic Rubber Company. As general manager of sales he is the man chiefly responsible for the great volume of the business of the corporation during the past two years.
Mr. Woodard is a member of the Youngstown and Youngstown Country Clubs, and is a member
of the Masonic Order. He and his family belong to the Episcopal Church. In 1898 he married Miss Katherine Nelson, of Kalamazoo. Their children are Mary and William.
GEORGE E. HAMILTON. In recent years business firms and individuals at Lowellville have depended upon and demanded more and more for carrying out their building program the services of George E. Hamilton, a contractor who has developed an adequate organization and has the facilities for practically every class of work needed in his district.
Mr. Hamilton, who is a citizen of the highest standing in Lowellville, was born near Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, January 29, 1863. He grew up in Southwestern Pennsylvania, acquired a common school education, and by practical experience perfected himself as a carpenter. He has been a resident of Lowellville about twenty-five years, and most of that time has been doing business as a building contractor. Mr. Hamilton has served as a member of the local school board for the past eight years, and is a trustee of the Presbyterian Church.
By his first marriage he has three sons : Harvey, in the office of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Indianapolis; William R., in the office of the Republic Iron and Steel Company ; and Fred B., in the office of the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company.
In 1908 Mr. Hamilton married Dorcas R. Arrel, member of the prominent Mahoning County family of that name, whose record appears elsewhere in this publication. Mrs. Hamilton was very active in local Red Cross work during the war, also helped in the War Savings campaign and is a director in the Lowellville Bank and Savings Company. Mr. Hamilton is affiliated with the Masonic Order.
ORRIS O. HEWITT. While his talents have been turned to good account in different professions, Orris O. Hewitt is best known in Niles as a manufacturer, and for several years past has been connected with the Niles Forge & Manufacturing Company.
He was born on a farm near Newton Falls Ohio, January 16, 1879, son of Levi and Amelia (Kistler) Hewitt, natives of the same locality. The grandparents were early pioneers of Ohio. Levi Hewitt is still living at Newton Falls, while his wife is deceased.
Orris O. Hewitt grew up on a farm, had a public school education and business college training, and began his life as a school teacher. In 1903, on com-
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ing to Niles, he served for a time as stenographer and bookkeeper for the Niles Mine and Mill Supply Company. When that plant was consolidated with the Mineral Ridge Manufacturing Company he remained with the latter for two years. Since then he has had residence for brief intervals at a number of places, though his home for the most part has been in Niles. He has been actively identified with the Niles Forge & Manufacturing Company for several years, first as secretary and for the past two years as secretary and treasurer.
By appointment Mr. Hewitt served two years as city treasurer at Niles. He is a democrat and a member of the Presbyterian Church. September 28, 0904, he married Blanche M. Everett, of Newton Falls. Their three children are Delphine M., Ev- erett Lee and Ruth Ida.
DANIEL SHEEHY. While Youngstown was founded by and named in honor of John Young, Young and his family never made a permanent home here. One of Young's active associates at the beginning of settlement was Daniel Sheehy, whose power and influence were much more significant in many ways than Young's in the early history of the town, and who spent his life here and has numerous descendants living there today.
Daniel Sheehy was born in Dublin, Ireland, and was liberally educated and had many of the distinctive oratorical gifts of the Irishman. He had come to the colonies during the Revolutionary war. One of his relatives had been beheaded because of his religion. Daniel Sheehy's early training was for the Catholic priesthood. He was the leading character of the Irish population in this portion of the Western Reserve and according to Father Mears of Youngstown, was the founder of the Catholic Church in this portion of Northeast Ohio. He had fought as a young officer on the American side in the Revolution.
At Albany, New York, he met John Young, who persuaded Sheehy to come to the Western Reserve. Sheehy was assistant surveyor to Isaac Powers. Daniel Sheehy selected 2,000 acres of land, 400 being in the east part of Youngstown, and part of it still occupied by his descendants. The story is told that Young, after setting aside this land to Sheehy, received a higher offer and tried to annul the bargain. Daniel Sheehy was of a ternperament not calculated to submit to any such injustice. He quarreled with Young, and as a result was imprisoned in the first jail in Trumbull County, at Warren. He was also a ring leader in the quarrel about the alien vote in the. county seat case. Daniel Sheehy's wife was quite as determined as he to obtain the land he had bought, and it was through her influence that a compromise was obtained, whereby Mr. Sheehy got a deed to his 400 acres. Very properly one of the city streets of Youngstown is named Sheehy.
Daniel Sheehy established his home at what is now Wilson Avenue and Edgewood Street. He farmed there in the early days, and in the absence of local mills took his grain by canoe to Beaver, Pennsylvania. On one of these trips he met Jane McLain, who was of Scotch descent, and was a woman of high character and in every way a partner to her husband. They had nine children: Robert, said to have been the first white child born in Youngstown, who died at the age of nineteen; Mary, who became the wife of William Woods; Catherine, who married Neil Campbell; Margaret, Mrs. Daniel McAlister; John; Daniel; James; McLain; and Jane, who was married to John Lett The Sheehy descendants inherited much of the ability and fine character of Daniel and Jane Sheehy. Daniel Sheehy accumulated considerable means and gave to his children liberally. His later years were spent in blindness.
John Sheehy, a son of Daniel, married Anna Kimmel and they had five children. John Sheehy was both a farmer and a blacksmith and a prominent whig in politics. Daniel Sheehy, Jr., married Charlotte Pearson, but had no children. James Sheehy married and had one son who moved to Kentucky and became head of a college at Bardstown. McLain Sheehy lived and died in Youngstown, his wife being Julia Bedell, and there is but one child left living in this city, Mary, who married Patterson Hewitt.
GEORGE C. WILSON, whose widow is still living at Youngstown at the age of eighty-six and is a granddaughter of the famous early settler Daniel Sheehy, was himself of a pioneer family.
He was born January 12, 1834, at Weathersfield, now a part of Girard, Ohio. He was left fatherless when young and lived with a brother until as a result of unjust treatment he ran away. Ht grew up into a handsome young man and developed a high order of business ability. He was keen of discernment, and had great versatility. He clerked in a store and later became a successful traveling salesman. He went south as agent of the Adams Express Company.
October 27, 1859, Mr. Wilson married Miss Ellen Sheehy, daughter of John Sheehy and granddaughter of Daniel Sheehy. Just before the beginning of the Civil war they were living in Mississippi, Mr. Wilson was strongly Union in sentiment, and therefore took his wife to Louisville, Kentucky, where during the war he had charge of river transportation between Louisville and Cincinnati for the United States Government. Mrs. Wilson rendered considerable service in the army hospitals.
After the war the Wilsons returned to Youngstown and bought the old Sheehy homestead, where George C. Wilson spent the rest of his life and where he died June 00, 1897. He made the old Sheehy homestead pay him rich dividends. He laid out through the property Wilson Avenue, named in his honor, and was instrumental in securing the construction of a street railway on that thoroughfare, giving the right of way to the company. He also developed a sand bank on the property, and that deposit is still being exploited on an extensive scale. Mr. Wilson was a Presbyterian, a republican and a Mason. He left a large estate.
Mrs. George C. Wilson was born March 21, 1834, and except seven years in the South has spent all her life in Youngstown. She inherited many of the intellectual gifts of her father and grandfather
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and at the age of sixteen began teaching school, having as high as ninety pupils enrolled under her. This was her work until her marriage. At the age of eighty-six she still retains her physical and mental faculties, and for a number of years has directed a large business with excellent judgment, her capable ally being her only daughter, Elizabeth.
SYLVESTER E. MCKEE has gained secure vantage place as one of the progressive and representative business men of the thriving little city of Sebring, Mahoning County, where he developed a substantral enterprise under the title of the Sebring Electric Service Company, which he sold in February, 1920, and where he formerly controlled a prosperous business in the handling of newspapers, magazrnes and other periodicals.
Mr. McKee was born in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, July 21, 1861,—a date memorable as that on which occurred the battle of Bull Run. His father was a manufacturer of and dealer in lumber, besides having been a substantial farmer, and after his retirement he continued his residence in Mercer County until his death, he having served many years as justice of the peace.
After having attended the public sch00ls Sylvester E. McKee completed a business course in Duff's College in the City of Pittsburgh, and for seven years thereafter he was bookkeeper in the office of the Hazard Coal Company at Hazard, Pennsylvania, For the ensuing three years he held an office position at Pittsburgh, and in 1890 he came to Ohio and engaged in the grocery and notions business at East Palestine, Columbiana County. He continued this enterprise seven years and for the following three years was there identified with electrical business. In 1900 he came to Sebring and established his late enterprise, in which he built up a prosperous business. Mr. McKee did the first practical electrical installation work in the village, and in connection with the large amount of service thus rendered he finally developed the business in the handling of all kinds of electrical supplies and the contracting for electrical work. In the handling of metropolitan and other newspapers Mr. McKee developed his circulation at Sebring from thirty copies to fully 500, and in 1912 he sold this department of his business upon advantageous terms. Thereafter he purchased the Sebring electric-light plant, the same having been in the hands of a receiver. The property had been twice sold at the time it came into his possession in 1912, and under his control the service was brought to excellent standard in the supplying of lights for streets, business places and houses. Operative power was secured from the Stark Electric Company, and after making the property and franchise substantially valuable Mr. McKee sold the plant and business to the Alliance Gas & Power Company at a handsome profit, after having controlled the enterprrse seven years. His well equipped business place was established in the Mahoning Block, and in addition to handling a full line of electrical goods Mr. McKee was local agent for leading phonographs. Hrs activrties in this last department were largely confined to handling the excellent and popular Mackolo phonographs, with the manufacturing of which instruments he had become actively and financially identified. Mr. McKee is a man of marked initiative ability and much enterprise, as further demonstrated by his being a director of the Sebring Tire & Rubber Company, which was organized in 1916.
In July, 1920, he took the agency for the Overland and Willys-Knight automobiles for the district of Sebring, and has erected a modern garage and storeroom on a part of the property adjoining his residence.
At Hazard, Pennsylvania, November 6, 1884, Mr. McKee wedded Miss Lessie E. Wilson, and they have one son Floyd W., who is now superintendent and manager of the Salem China Company, the business of which is owned by F. A. Sebring. Floyd W. McKee married Miss Hannah Wilson, of Grafton, Pennsylvania, and they have three children— Ellsworth, Elizabeth and Bessie.
S. E. McKee and his wife are zealous members of the United Presbyterian Church at Sebring, in which he is an elder and also until recently superintendent of the Sabbath school. He was the first scholar in the Sabbath school organized by this congregation, and also had the distinction of being made its first teacher and its first superintendent. He is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, his wife being an active member of the Daughters of Rebekah and also an active worker in behalf of the temperance cause. In connection with work for prohibition Mrs. McKee served about three years as chairman of the Wet and Dry Association of Sebring.
JAMES GUY SWISHER, enterprising and respected merchant of Petersburg, Mahoning County, and in possession of a substantial general store business at that place, is widely known throughout that section of the county, and has shown commendable interest in public affairs. He has been active in church work; and generally has sought to give useful service to his neighborhood, both in busrness and public affairs.
He was born in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, on September 5, 1870, the son of James P. and Elizabeth Swisher. The family, however, has been connected with Petersburg and with Mahoning County for forty-four years, for James G. was only six years old when his parents came to live in Petersburg. His father died in 1901, and the only survivor of the Swisher family of his father's generation, which consisted of six sons and three daughters, is his aunt Mary, who married William Cornelius, whose son Ralph is president of the Mahoning National Bank and a leading resident of Youngstown. James P. Swisher, father of James G., was seventy-three years old in the year of his demise.
James Guy Swisher passed his boyhood from his sixth year in Petersburg, and attended the schools of that place, eventually graduating from the high school. Soon afterwards he entered commercial life, for twelve years being connected as traveling salesman with the Robert McBride Company, wholesalers of Cleveland, for some years handling city trade for them. He married in 1901, and for six years thereafter continued to act as salesman for
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the Cleveland firm, he and his wife, Daisy E. Miller, daughter of J. F. Miller, of Petersburg, living in Cleveland during that period. In 1907 her father, who for thirty-five years had been in retail mercantile business at Petersburg, wished to retire because of failing health, and he asked his son-in-law, James G. Swisher, to come back to Petersburg and take charge of the store, which Mr. Swisher did soon afterwards. In 1915 Mr. Miller retired altogether, and since that year Mr. Swisher has been in complete control of the business, which is a substantial one. Since James G. Swisher acquired the business he has appreciably expanded it. Each year shows an increase in trade; and each year widens his scope of trading. He carries a stock of about $7,500, finds constant employment for two assistants, and has embraced all general lines in his store. He has a wide country trade, and is well regarded in the neighborhood as an accommodating merchant, reliable and practical in his service. He also owns the store building.
Fraternally he is identified with the Knights of Pythias order, has passed through all the chairs of the local lodge, and has been its Master of Finances for ten years. Religiously Mr. and Mrs. Swisher are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Mrs. Swisher taking much part in church work, and Mr. Swisher holding church office. He has been steward of the church for six years. Politically he is a republican.
LAWRENCE W. KALE senior member of the firm of L. W. Kale & Sons, is a man who has lived to good purpose and achieved a large degree of success, solely through his individual efforts. By a straightforward and commendable course Mr. Kale has won the hearty admiration of the people of his community, earning a reputation as an enterprising, progressive man of affairs which the public has not been slow to recognize and appreciate. Those who know him best will readily acquiesce in the statement that he is eminently deserving of the material success which has crowned his efforts and of the high esteem in which he is held.
Lawrence W. Kale was born in Deerfield, Portage County, Ohio, on May 6, 1861, and is the son of Henry and Mary (Shiveley) Kale. Henry Kale, who was of Pennsylvania-Dutch stock, was a native of Ohio and died at Deerfield, at the age of seventy-four years. His wife made her home during the last years of her life with her son, the subject of this sketch, her death occurring in 1902. Henry Kale came to Youngstown in an early day, when it was but a hamlet, and here learned the tailor's trade. While still a young man he moved to Portage County, this state, where be engaged in farming on a limited scale, though he made a success of it through his industry and thrift. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Deerfield and was on its official board for many years. He was twice married, first to Matilda Lyon, to which union were born two sons, Wallace and Walter, both of whom are now deceased. The former was a harness-maker and the latter a carpenter, their residence being in Palmyra, Ohio, where Mary Kale, the widow of Wal ter, still resides. By his last marriage, which was to Mary Shiveley, Henry Kale became the father of two sons, the subject of this sketch and Alva, a carpenter living in Youngstown, who has a son, Henry, who is now a teacher in the Rayen High School.
Lawrence W. Kale received his early education in the public schools of Deerfield, Ohio. He remained on the parental farm until nineteen years of age, when he learned the carpenter's trade. In 1882 he came to Youngstown and worked at his trade for about ten years. In 1892 he formed a partnership with F. A. Hartenstein, and they opened a grocery store at No. 523 High Street. One year later he sold his interest to his partner and, with a cash capital of $400, engaged in business on his own account on Burke Street. In 1895 he built a storeroom at his present location on Park Avenue, and so steadily has his business increased since that time that he has been compelled to make two additions to the original building. It is but a matter of justice to state a fact well recognized by all who are familiar with the business, that a large share of the success of the business has been due to the efforts of Mrs. Kale, who has been her husband's partner and real helpmate. They have been splendidly successful and are now the owners of a comfortable and attractive suburban home near Austintown.
In 1882 Mr. Kale was married to Cornelia Heiser, the daughter of Charles and Lorinda Heiser, of Milton, Mahoning County. To their union have been born two sons, Ronald Oak and Edward Lee, who are now associated with their father in business. Ronald Oak is a graduate of the Covington Street School and of Hall's Business College. At the age of twenty-one he was taken into partnership with his father and is now a progressive young business man. He married Miss Emma Schulz, of Youngs. town, and they have one child, Cornelia. Mr. Kale and wife are members of the Unitarian Church, while he is a member of the Masons and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Edward Lee, the younger son, is a graduate of Covington Street School. He was also admitted to the partnership upon reaching man's estate and, like his brother, deserves considerable credit as a progressive and hustling young man. He married Jennie Hartle, and they have three children, Mildred, Lawrence and David. Mr. Kale is also a member of the Masonic and Odd Fellow fraternities and the father and two sons are republicans in politics.
Fraternally Mr. Kale is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, in which he has attained the Royal Arch degree, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of the Maccabees, the Junior Order of United American Mechanics, while he and his wife are members of the Order of the Eastern Star. The family are members of Grace English Lutheran Church. He is a man of many sterling character. istics of head and heart and has richly earned the high standing which he enjoys in the community. Though a busy man, he has never neglected his duties to the community and has ever stood for all that was best in everything affecting the material, civic and moral interests of the people.
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EZRA C. WELSH for many years has been one of The outstanding figures in the business life of Mahoning County, the old home of the family being at New Middletown. Incidental to other interests he acquired some extensive holdings in oil properties and several years ago he turned a large share of his active capital to the resources of the wonderful new oil territory in Texas, and has since spent much of his time in that oil eldorado, his Mahoning county business affairs being conducted largely by his son, Allen G.
Born in Springfield Township, Mahoning County, February 1, 1868, Ezra C. Welsh is a son of William and Leach (Witzeman) Welsh. His father was born in Wurtemberg, Germany, and at the age of nineteen came alone to America and at once located in Springfield Township of Mahoning County. He followed his trade as a shoemaker, also bought a farm of twenty-five acres, and finally bought and moved to an eighty-acre farm where he lived until his death. His wife, Leach Witzeman, was born in Springfield Township, and her father, Jacob Witzeman, was the founder of his family in Mahoning County and became widely prominent in business, owning a farm, conducting a general store on it and doing a large business in livestock. He was one of the early day drovers to Philadelphia. William Welsh was a democrat, serving in several local offices, and was a member of the German Lutheran Church. He and his wife had four children: Jonathan, of near New Springfield; Wilson, of Youngstown; Ezra C.; and Albert, who died at the age of six years.
Some of the dominant qualities that have distinguished Ezra C. Welsh have been initiative and self-reliance. He acquired those qualities in his youthful experience. He received the ordinary education of the country schools and at Poland, advantages deemed sufficient by his father, but not by himself. By his personal efforts, beginning at the age of thirteen, he acquired the necessary sum to prepare himself for teaching, and at the age of seventeen took his first school in Springfield Township. This instance of his youthful determination and enterprise, it is not too much to say, has been repeated over and over again on larger scales throughout his career. For seven years he continued as a teacher, and left school work to begin business as a member of the firm Wire, Rummel & Company.
In 1889 he bought out that business, and with Solomon M. Wire changed the name to Wire & Welsh. They owned the business until D. Livingstone was admitted as a partner, after which the title was Wire, Welsh & Company. The senior partner died in 1903, but the name was retained, with Mr. Welsh and Mr. Livingstone as sole owners until January I, 1916. Mr. Welsh then accommodated his partner by buying out his interests and with the assistance of his son, A. G., took over all the property of Wire, Welsh & Company and incorporated the Wire-Welsh Distilling Company. The stock of this concern has been very closely held. E. C. Welsh is president and general manager and A. G. Welsh, secretary and manager.
Upon the organization of the new company the capacity of the distillery was increased, a new bonded warehouse built and a modern drying plant installed whereby all distilled grains heretofore wasted were dried and sold as dairy food. The plant continued operation until closed by legislation in September, 1917, and since then the plant has stood idle, no plans having been matured to convert it to other purposes. At the time it closed the company was mashing 305 bushels of grain per day, and manufacturing about 1,300 gallons of whiskey daily. The Government bonded warehouses had a storage capacity of 12,000 barrels.
When Mr. Livingstone sold his interest in the firm of Wire, Welsh & Company he also sold his interest in the Prosperous Oil Company. This company operates in the neighborhood of sixty oil wells in Mahoning County. The stock of the company is held and the officers are the same as in the Wire, Welsh & Company.
Thus for a number of years Mr. Welsh has been actively identified with oil production. Soon after the distilling plant was closed there occurred the tremendous development of the new Texas oil fields. and Mr. Welsh, leaving his Mahoning County business in charge of his son, went to the southwest and his increasing interests have kept him there almost uninterruptedly, though he regards Texas only as a temporary residence. His first success in the Texas oil fields came in September, 1919, when he struck a 7,000-barrel per day oil well. Since then he has broadened out and holds acreage in different promising oil territories of Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas.
The farms formerly jointly owned by Mr. Welsh and Mr. Livingstone are now owned by Mr. Welsh, and comprise over 200 acres. The residence and barn have been completely equipped and are very modern. Mr. Welsh in politics is a stanch democrat and has attended many state conventions. For many years he was a member of the Board of Supervisors of Election for Mahoning County. He and his family belong to St. Luke's Lutheran Church at New Middletown.
September 16, 1886, he married Agnes Livingstone, who was born March 15, 1866, at Struthers, Ohio, daughter of Andrew and Agnes (Calderhead) Livingstone. After nearly thirty years of married life Mrs. Welsh died suddenly in May, 1915. In the spring of 1917, Mr. E. C. Welsh married Edna Grise, of Youngstown. His children are all by his first marriage, three sons, Allen Grover, William Andrew and Duncan Ezra.
Allen Grover Welsh, who was born January 19, 1889, graduated from the Poland Union Seminary, completed a thorough business course at Hall's Commercial College at Youngstown, and in the fall of 1907 entered the freshman year of the Ohio State University as a student of chemistry. He graduated in the spring of 1911, successfully passed the State Board of Pharmacy examination, and was in the drug business at Youngstown until he became actively associated with his father in January, 1916. February 4, 1913, he married Clara Henrietta Schmidt, who was born at Columbus, Ohio, August 16, 1888, daughter of Herman T. Schmidt, who is now president of the Cable Piano Company of Detroit.
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The second son, William Andrew Welsh, was born July 9, 1891, and at the conclusion of his second year in the Poland Union Seminary entered the South High School at Columbus, following which he took the four-year course in pharmacy and chemistry at the Ohio State University, and subsequently graduated in medicine from the Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia. After an internship in the Youngstown City Hospital he passed the State Medical Board examination in the fall of 1919, and is now a successful practicing physician at Youngstown, giving part of his professional service to the Brier Hill Steel 'Company. In the fall of 1919 Doctor Welsh married Mary Smith, daughter of Alfred Smith of Belmont Avenue, Youngstown.
The youngest son, who was born September 19, 1893, took his freshman high school work at Poland Union Seminary, his sophomore year at Columbiana High School, and subsequently graduated from the Rayen High School. He spent one year in the Ohio State University, and left college to enter the service department of the Cadillac Motor Company. Later he opened a garage at New Middletown, selling Dodge cars and Cleveland tractors, but since the fall of 1919 has had his headquarters at Cleveland, where he directs the distributing agency for the Cleveland Tractor Company, over twenty-two counties of Northeastern Ohio. In the fall of 1914 Duncan E. Welsh married Pearl Kauffman, of New Middletown.
SOLOMON J. HECK of Beaver Township, Mahoning county, Ohio, is one of the leading residents of that part of Mahoning County. He is a well-to-do farmer, has been a township trustee for twenty years, and is a coal operator and producer.
He was born in Unity Township, Columbiana County, Ohio, on August 9, 1857, the son of John and Eliza (Greenamyer) Heck, both of Columbiana County. His mother's parents were from Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, but in the paternal line four generations have been resident in Ohio. The Heck family was originally from Germany, Jacob, son of the original American settler of the Heck family, having lived for the latter part of his life on the same farm in Columbiana County, Ohio, near which Solomon J. Heck was born. Jacob Heck was more than eighty years old in the year of his death. His son John lived in Columbiana County until 1865, when he came to Beaver Township, Mahoning County, and took up the tract now known as the Wisbel farm, near the Eureka stop on the interurban road. He was a carpenter by trade, and the latter years of his life he spent in the home of his son Solomon J. He was a democrat in politics, a conscientious Christian, member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and for the greater part of his life was an industrious worker. He consequently was respected by his neighbors, and had many good friends. He died at the age of seventy- three years, but his widow lived for a further seventeen years, being eighty-five years old at her death, and notwithstanding her extreme age she was even in her last years a well-preserved woman, mentally vigorous to the end. They had only one child, Solomon J., who was born near the old Heck homestead in Columbiana County eight years before they came into Mahoning County in 1865. His life has been centered practically wholly in Beaver Township, and has been one of creditable activity. He attended the district schools in his youth, and afterward learned the trade of carpenter, and in his young manhood did much farming work in the neighborhood for wages. Not for high wages, either, for at one time he was only receiving fifty cents a day, and later his wage was increased to sixteen dollars a month. Then followed four years of steady and responsible farming for his uncle, Peter Heck, then incapacitated by old age, and having no son to continue the operation of his farm, his only son, William, having a short while before died, at the age of thirty-two years. Solomon J. operated the farm for his uncle for four years prior to his marriage, on October 20, 1885, to Emma Rapp, daughter of Noah and Anna (Sponseller) Rapp, whose farm adjoined that of Peter Heck, both bordering on Pine Lake. The Rapp family is one of the pioneer families of that section, John Rapp, great-grandfather of Emma Rapp, being the pioneer. He was born on October 24, 1775, and died in 1862. The descent from John Rapp and his wife Catherine to Emma Rapp is through their son Henry and his son Noah, father of Emma. Henry died at the age of seventy-two years and Noah at fifty-eight years. The latter was born on the Pine Lake farm in 1842, and died in two. Mrs. Heck's mother was reared in the same neighborhood, and reached the age of sixty-eight years. Their children, including Emma, who was the only daughter, were : Sylvanus, who lives near North Lima; Albert, of Springfield Township; and Harvey, at Columbiana. The Rapps were members of the Reformed Church at North Lima, and both Henry and Noah were buried there. Emma Rapp stayed with her parents until she married Solomon J. Heck, and then for about a year she and her husband lived on the adjoining property, that of his uncle Peter. Later Mr. and Mrs. Heck lived for about a year near Youngstown. Solomon J. Heck then rented a farm in Beaver Township, and two years later, in August, 1890, bought the farming property upon which he has since lived. It was originally the John Coy farm, that family having acquired it, fifty acres, in its wild state from the Government. It was not in very good condition when Mr. Heck bought it, and all the improvements now on the land were built by him. He built a good house and a substantial barn, and was very enterprising and industrious in his farming. He grew berries extensively, and also truck produce; set up a saw and grist mill; had a cider press; and made thousands of gallons of apple butter. He prospered well in his varied and enterprising use of the land, and quite recently showed good initiative and business acumen in opening again a coal bank on his land. It was originally opened sixty-five years ago, but abandoned five years later, but in 1917 Mr. Heck saw a good local demand could be developed, so he opened it again, and the bank finds employment for three men. There is a vein of coal thirty inches to three feet thick, and the coal is of average quality.
Mr. Heck is well regarded in the township, and is generally to be found among the leaders of that
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section of the county in matters of public interest. For nearly twenty years he has been a township trustee, and he is one of the prominent democrats of that township. Religiously Mr. and Mrs. Heck are members of the Reformed Church, and for many years have been identified with the Mount Olivet Reformed Church, at North Lima. Miss Stella Heck a daughter, has also been particularly active in church work. Miss Heck was organist of Mount Olivet Church until she married and moved into Canfield Township, in which township she also is similarly connected with the church. In all matters connected with agriculture Mr. Heck has shown an intelligent and constructive interest, has been a member of the local Grange for many years, and has been a member of the Farm Bureau since its organization.
Solomon J. Heck and his wife, Emma Rapp, are the parents of five children, four of whom are daughters. Their children, in order of birth, are : Clarence Raymond, of whom more follows; Grace, who has remained with her parents; Stella, who married Clem Dietrick, of Canfield Township ; Erma, who married Herbert Haney of Youngstown, who now is in executive responsibliity in the office of Armour and Company, Youngstown; and Mildred, who is at home with her parents. Erma was previously engaged in teaching, having been educated for that profession. She graduated in the high school at Columbiana, attended Tiffin College, and also Kent Normal School, and as a teacher was connected with the county schools in Coitsville and East Youngstown.
Clarence Raymond, only son of Solomon J. and Emma (Rapp) Heck, attended Columbiana High School, and is now in the automobile business in North Lima, where he has a modern, up-to-date garage. He is an enterprising business man, who is satisfactorily succeeding. He married Carrie Flodden, a daughter of John Flodden, of Leetonia, and they have two daughters, Helen and Mary.
CHARLES C. GIERING is president and general man Company at 568 Hilker Street. Mr. Giering knows every phase and has had every possible experience in the bottling industry. In passing years it has been his business ambition to find a better way and to supply a better product to his patrons, and out of this ideal has grown the satisfying success he enjoys.
He was born within the present limits of the City of Youngstown, November 27, 1876, son of Louis and Marie (Andler) Giering. His father was born in 1842 and his mother in 1837. They were married in Germany in June, 1865, and in September of the same year came to the United States. Louis Giering had learned the cooper's trade in his native land, and for two years in the United States worked in that line at New Castle, Pennsylvania. On coming to Youngstown he had charge of the cooperage department of the Smith Brewing Company until 1876. In that year, more than forty years ago, he established the Giering bottling business, his plant being located in the country at what is now 421 Edwards Street. Later he moved to Marshall Street and then to the present site of the industry on Hilker Sreet.
This business is therefore one of the oldest of its kind in Eastern Ohio. The active manager became J. F. Giering, son of the founder, in 1896. Charles C. Giering became a partner in 1900. In 1912 the Giering Bottling Company was incorporated, with Mr. Charles Giering as president and general manager. The plant has all the equipment which makes possible the highest quality of product tinder the most sanitary conditions. This company are the manufacturers and distributors of Coca-Cola for the Youngstown district.
Louis Giering died in 1914. While a cooper by trade and a bottler by many years of business association, his hobby and main interest in later years was agriculture on an intensive scale. To satisfy this ambition he bought a farm near the city, and gave to it his personal management until his death. His widow is still living in Youngstown, a devout member of the German Reformed Church. Louis Giering was affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and was an independent in politics. He and his wife had five children: J. F.. a resident of Youngstown; Louis W., interested in a bottling business at Warren, Ohio ; Charles C.; Rosa, wife of William Aley, of Youngstown; and Mary, wife of Harry Aley.
Charles C. Giering left school at the age of fourteen. His first regular occupation was as bottle washer in his father's establishment. He performed those duties by means of a handful of shot and a vigorous shaking of each individual bottle. Anyone who has visited a modern bottling establishment knows the appliances, consisting of rapidly revolving brushes and other means, operated from a power shaft, which renders bottle washing a comparatively simple, rapid and sanitary process. From bottle washer Mr. Giering worked in every department of the business, and eventually became manager and then president of the company. He is a member of the various Masonic bodies, being a Knight Templar Mason, a member of Lake Erie Consistory of the Scottish Rite, the Mystic Shrine, and is also affiliated with the Elks, Knights of Pythias and the Youngstown Chamber of Commerce.
September 6, 1913, he married Miss Lottie Meredith, of Marietta, Ohio. Mrs. Giering is a member of the Reformed Lutheran Church. Their two children are Louis and Alice Marie.
JOHN YODER, successful floriculturist at North Lima, is one of the leading residents of Beaver Township, prominent in almost all public affairs of the township, and generally well-known and respected throughout that part of Mahoning County. His life record shows that he is a man of education and ability. In early manhood he was for a decade an educator, connected as such with the county schools; is the largest grower of flowers and produce under glass in the district ; was one of the organizers of the Beaver Telephone Company, and was its secretary and treasurer for sixteen years; has been township clerk, township treasurer, and in other ways has participated in the township administration; he has been a prominent leader of the local
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option movement; and for many years has been an elder of the Reformed Church at North Lima.
He was born about half a mile to the southward of the Village of North Lima, Beaver Township, Mahoning County, Ohio, on July 9, 1865, the son of Abraham and Elizabeth (Nold) Yoder. Both of his parents were born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, his father on July 3, 1819, and his mother on July 22, 1822. His father died on September 8, 1888, aged sixty-nine years, and his mother on May 9, 1908, aged eighty-six years. Abraham Yoder was twenty-four years old when he married Elizabeth Nold, daughter of Jacob Nold, a miller and farmer in Leetonia, Columbiana County, to which place he had come when his daughter Elizabeth was young. He operated a mill and farm at Leetonia until old age, and died in that place. Her mother was Kate Ziegler. The Yoder family certainly has place among the pioneer families of Beaver Township, for rt has had connection with that section of Mahoning County since 1824, when Peter and Lizzie Yoder came from Pennsylvania and settled in the western part of Beaver Township, near Lewistown. There Peter Yoder died in 1870, after a successful and industrious life as a farmer. The record shows that Peter Yoder was one of the leading citizens of the township, and was especially active in church matters. He was one of the original members of the Mennonite Church at North Lima, and was buried in the cemetery of that church. The sons of Peter Yoder were Peter, Lewis, Abraham and John.
Abraham, who was born in 1819, and married in 1843, in 1856 or 1857 became the owner of the farm on which most of his children were subsequently born, the property coming to him by purchase. In 1859 he built the barn now in use, and in 1878 erected the house. The farm was 153 acres in extent, and only partly developed. His life was interesting. He did much pioneer work, clearing much of his farm, and also mining coal found on his property. For many years he mined coal and carried it to the nearest market, which was at Columbiana, four miles distant. The coal deposits on his farm were of much consequence to him, and although the price by comparison with the prices of today was somewhat low, he nevertheless found it quite profitable to mine the coal. Often he could not sell for cash; and one buyer used to sell him buggies in exchange for coal, which buggies Abraham Yoder would sell over a wide area. He died on the farm in his seventieth year. Politically he was a republican, although he never sought public office; and he was widely known throughout the county as a progressive, responsible man. By religious conviction a Mennonite, he lived a conscientious Christian life in useful citizenship. He and his wife, Elizabeth Nold, were the parents of eleven children: Catherine, who married Isaac Flohr, a farmer of Columbiana County and she died in 1912, aged sixty-eight years; Anna, who died when twelve years old; William, who left home in 1881 for Nebraska, eventually becoming a carpenter and contractor in Falls City of that state; Noah, who bought a farm in Wadsworth, Medina County, Ohio, and became one of the leading men of that county, being at one time elected county commissioner, and he died in 1915, aged sixty-five years. Jacob, a successful merchant for the greater part of his life, and now living in retirement in Los Angeles, California, was for eighteen years a grocer in Toledo, Ohio; Owen, who was a farmer at Jefferson, Ohio, but died in 1885, at the early age of thirty-two years. Abraham was of distinguished public record in the State of Montana. In 1881 he went to Butte City, Montana, and became interested in mining. He was one of the business leaders of Butte City, and also one of its political leaders. A man of distinct capability, Abraham Yoder became very prominent as a public speaker, and was elected to many local offices, and attended many republican national conventions. He eventually was elected secretary of state, and then removed to the state capital, Helena. He was in office when he died in 1911, aged fifty- five years. His widow, Alice Greiner, now lives in East Palestine, Ohio, where she was born. She was educated in the old Poland Academy, and at Lebanon, Ohio. For several years before he married he taught in the schools of Beaver and Boardman townships, Mahoning County. Peter, who lives at Medina, Ohio, is a former mayor of that town, is in commercial life, and at one time was a shoe dealer in Medina. Enos, is a merchant at East Palestine, Ohio. Sarah married Eli Blosser, of North Lima ; and John.
John Yoder, youngest child of Abraham and Elizabeth (Nold) Yoder, was born in 1865, on the parental estate near North Lima, and has retained close connection with his home township throughout his life. He was educated in local schools, and for two years attended the Northeastern Ohio Normal School at Canfield, under Superintendents Ransom and Webster. Entering the teaching profession he taught for thirteen terms in the schools of Beaver Township, and concurrently had interested himself in floriculture and greenhouse work. He built a small greenhouse in 1893, in that year having about 400 feet under glass, and he steadily developed that business until at present he has more than half an acre under glass, and has quite a consequential business in ornamental plants. He is an enthusiastic gardener and florist, and his business has grown so that it needs all his time. He also grows much green stuff and bedding plants, lettuce, tomatoes and cabbage.
In the public affairs of the township he has always been interested and active, and has Undertaken many township responsibilities. He was township clerk for two years, was township treasurer for five years, and at that time handled about $1o,000 annually ; and has for very many years furthered movements that sought to bring improvement in the township roadways. He is one of the prominent republican leaders of that part of the county, and has been particularly prominent in local option activities. He handled the first local option petition in 1890. That effort was defeated, but it was renewed in 1892, and with success, for Beaver Township has been dry since that year, whereas there were formerly three saloons in the township. In such valuable public work Mr. Yoder has proved himself to be a citizen of high moral standard,
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and throughout his manhood he has been a member of the Reformed Church, for many years having been an elder of the local church.
In 1890 he married Jennie M. Arner, daughter of Frank and Lizzie (Shanefield) Arner, who are still residents in Beaver Township. His wife, Jennie M., was born in Canfield, and went to school in that township. Eventually she became a teacher, and as such was connected with schools of Boardman and Beaver townships prior to her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Yoder have one child, their son Leonard A., who was a graduate of the local high school and• afterward attended the Carnegie Institute of Technology at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. When the war came he went from college to Columbus to enlist, and saw ten months of war service with the naval forces, being stationed at Hampton Roads, Virginia, which waters were visited by German submarine raiders. After receiving honorable discharge from the United States navy young Yoder resumed his interrupted college course at Pittsburgh, where he is still a student.
CHARLES F. LEE, superintendent of the Mahoning County Infirmary, Canfield Township, was born at Poland, Mahoning County, on July 2, 1873, the son of Edward and Amanda (Boyd) Lee. His parents are now dead, but Edward Lee is remembered in Poland as a good citizen and successful farmer, and other references to the Lee family will be found elsewhere in this current work in the sketch written concerning Bernard Lee, a cousin well known in the county.
Charles F. grew to manhood in his native township, in due course attending the Poland district school, and later associating with his father in the work of the home farm. He was of engineering inclination, and early learned much of mechanics. As a young man he ran a threshing machine engine in his home district, and later became engineer at a planing mill. In 1905 he took service with the county, being then appointed engineer at the county infirmary, with which he has ever since been identified. For four months he was engineer of the institution under the administration of Superintendent Marshall, and for more than ten years under the latter's successor, R. S. Taylor. In 1915 Mr. Lee succeeded Mr. Taylor as superintendent, being appointed by Prosser and Wier, who at that time constituted the board of directors of the institution. Subsequently, when the institution passed into the control of the three county commissioners direct, he was confirmed in the office by the three commissioners, Shale, Morgan and Speer. His administration has been eminently satisfactory, and he has demonstrated that he is an executive of high grade, as well as an engineer of good practical ability. He has held an effective supervision over all the varied activities of the infirmary, which when he first became superintendent housed about z00 patrents or inmates. The institution operates an extensive farm, 337 acrs, the product of which is the main source of income of the institution. In addition to large quantities of vegetables and fruit, most of which are consumed by the inmates; the farm yields yearly 800 bushels of wheat. and 2,000 bushels of oats, and in addition there is a dairy of about thirty cows. The building was erected in 1897, but the main portion was gutted by fire in 1909, the new structure being erected on the walls of the old, which, with steel reinforcement inside, were found to he strong enough for the purpose. The institution of course has its serious and essential purpose, and the administration aims essentially at service rather than beauty, but in the efficient, well-ordered operation of the property it has been possible to combine much that is pleasing to the sight. The infirmary buildings and spacious grounds in fact constitute, in combination with the surrounding landscape, one of the beauty spots of the county, and its maintenance in productive usefulness and orderliness reflects in great measure the capabilities and characteristics of its present superintendent, who is respected by many, and is generally well regarded. Mr. Lee is a member of the North Jackson Lodge of the Knights of Pythias order, and he has many friends throughout the county.
He was forty years old when he married Mayme Schisler, who is now matron of the institution, and as such is an effective co-worker with her husband.
MARCO ANTONELLI, one of the oldest Youngstown residents of Italian birth, for many years has achieved a progressive success in local business and is a man of the highest standing, especially among his fellow countrymen.
He was born in Agnone, Campobasso, Italy, March 15, 1857, and acquired the equivalent of a common school education and as a boy learned the lockmaker's trade. On July 22, 1873, he arrived in the United States, being then seventeen years of age. His destination was Youngstown. Too young to work in the mines, he found employment on the outside at 50 cents a day at Coalburg. Later he spent a few months in Pennsylvania, and was at Buena Vista when three Italians were killed during a strike. He also worked in Pittsburgh on construction work on Forty-eighth Street. Returning to Coalburg, he was a water boy six months, being paid 75 cents a day. Then for the first time he became a regular miner, working inside. He spent two years in and at the mines, and for two years was in the Brown-Bonnell plant.
This is a brief sketch of his activities until 1881, when he returned to Italy to claim his bride, Giovina Dicamillo, who was born in the Province of Campobasso. He returned with her to the United States. Ten children were born to their , marriage, four of whom are still living: Dr. Rocco M. Antonelli, a graduate of the Rayen High School, the State University and the Cincinnati Medical College, a prominent physician at Akron, and with an honorable record in the medical department of the army during the World war ; Thomas E., a Youngstown attorney ; Christina, wife of Gelsi Passarelli, of Youngstown; and Josephine, wife of C. Milano, of Youngstown. The mother of these children died January 4, 1897. In 1898 Mr. Antonelli married Mrs. Gabriele Farando. She died December 4, 1917, leaving two children, Wilhelmina and Albert, both of whom are now students in the Rayen. High School.
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Mr. Antonelli after returning to the United States with his bride again found employment at the Brown-Bonnell mills, but left that and renting fourteen acres of land became a market gardener. For three years he worked with all the strength and skill at his command, made a living, but was able to accumulate only some two hundred dollars. Seeing little future in this business, he next became foreman of construction on railroads and public works, and for twenty-three years was engaged in that line, a business that brought him a broad acquaintance and much experience in the handling of labor. He then invested part of his capital in a grocery business at 384 East Federal Street, subsequently moving to 382 East Federal. He added a baking shop, and also opened a Foreign Exchange Bank. He did an extensive business as agent for ten or twelve steamship lines, and his long residence, proved integrity and ability brought him a generous and extensive patronage. Mr. Antonelli is now practically retired from business.
He was one of the builders of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church and is a republican in politics. He took out citizenship papers many years ago and is a stanch upholder of American institutions. A fact worthy of mention is that Mr. Antonelli was the first Italian-American citizen in Mahoning County and cast his first presidential vote for Garfield, in 1880. He could not speak a word of English when ' he came to this country. As a reader and student he has sought to keep in touch with the great issues and discussions of the day. He has given his children and the children of his second wife all the advantages of schools that money could buy, and has the satisfaction of seeing his sons and daughters well placed in the world.
JESSE B. FITCH, a prosperous farmer of Canfield Township, Mahoning County, Ohio, has lived in Mahoning County all his life, and is well regarded in his home and Canfield townships. He was born in Ellsworth Township, Mahoning County, May 1, 1871, the son of Frank and Martha (McNielly) Fitch, the former, who is now deceased, having been a respected farmer of that township. Mrs. Martha (McNielly), mother of J. B., however, is still living, and in comfortable circumstances at Ellsworth Centre.
Jesse B. was the second of their five children, three of whom however are now deceased, the only other survivor of Jesse's generation of the Fitch family being his sister Lizzie, who now cares for her mother at Ellsworth Centre. The deceased brothers and sister were: Charles, who died in 1918, at the age of forty-six years, his widow surviving and now being a resident of Canfield; John, who died in infancy ; and Bertha, who reached the age of twenty years before she died. Jesse B. grew to manhood on the home farm, attended the village school in his boyhood, and after leaving school took ,up farming pursuits, giving his time and energies with filial earnestness to labors upon his father's farm. He remained at home until he married, that important event taking place on December 28, 1891, he being then twenty years old. He married Amanda Knauf, daughter of Samuel and Barbara (Hardman) Knauf, the former a neighboring farmer in Ellsworth Township, and the family being one of long residence in the Mahoning Valley. Henry and John Knauf, brothers of Amanda, still occupy the old Knauf homestead in Ellsworth Township. Amanda Knauf was a few years older than her husband, being twenty-three years old when they married. Soon afterward Jesse B. Fitch rented the original homestead of Richard Fitch, his grandfather, who was one of the pioneer settlers in Ellsworth Township. The farm at that time was owned by the heirs of Colbert Fitch, who had been killed by lightning. For eleven years after they had married Jesse B. and Amanda (Knauf) Fitch lived on that farm, all of their children being born on that homestead of their ancestor, and by good farming and industrious, well-directed efforts Jesse B. Fitch became comfortably circumstanced. In 1902 his father died, which brought a change in his affairs, Jesse B. soon thereafter moving to his father's farm, part of which he had inherited. For seven years he operated the property in partnership with his brother Charles. At the end of that time he sold his interest in the property to his brother and purchased the Charles Broughton farm of eighty-seven acres, situated about two miles southwest of Canfield Village in Canfield Township, on the Canfield-Salem Road. During the eleven years he has owned and operated that farm Jesse B. Fitch has very considerably improved it. He has rebuilt the barn, has erected a silo, has remodeled the house, and in many ways has given proof that his farming has been successful. He has closely studied modern developments of farming, and has adopted many of the modern methods of scientific farming. He has been especially interested in the science of stock breeding, and has taken full advantage of the opportunities presented to him as an agricultural student by the close proximity of the experimental station, and has brought his land into a high state of fertility by a proper understanding of the value of chemical fertilizer. In all, he has shown that he is abreast of the times in matters that concern agriculture, and in many ways has shown himself to be a man of sound business logic. These qualities have all contributed to bring him into his present state of monetary stability. He has a very desirable home, and has what is of more value, perhaps, the respect of his neighbors, who have found him substantial and reliable. He is a member of the Farm Bureau, and has actively cooperated in its aims. During the war he manifested a helpful patriotism, contributing to the various war issues of financial character, and also giving practical help to the cause and to the wish of the National Department of Agriculture by more closely devoting himself to matters of production upon his own farm so as to bring an increased yield where that has been possible. As a dairy farmer Mr. Fitch is prospering by following modern methods. His valuable herd of Jersey cattle shows that he places proper importance on pedigree. And he has entered extensively into the breeding of Chester White hogs.
Politically Mr. Fitch is a republican but he has been a republican quite without selfish motive, for
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he has never sought political office. As a matter of fact, he has felt that thoroughness in his own work, in matters pertaining to his own farming enterprises, should be his first aim. And that has taken practically all his time. In other words, he is a man of industry, not of politics, and as such he has reached an enviable standing among his neighbors.
Mr. and Mrs. Fitch had four children. Their first-born, a son, Frank L., was developing into useful manhood when, at the age of twenty-two years, his life ended suddenly, a bull on a neighboring farm goring him to death. The two surviving children of Jesse B. and Amanda (Knauf) Fitch are: Odessa May, who married Ray N. Lynn, who is in mercantile business, manager of the Stark Dry Goods Company, Canton, Ohio, and who is a veteran of the World war, having served nearly a year in France with the American Expeditionary Forces, and having been of course in military service for more than a year. He belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Fred C., is also a veteran, having been in the United States army Luring the war. His service was with a heavy artillery unit, and he was in the army for more than a year. After receiving honorable discharge he returned home, and was connected with the Republic Rubber Company for a time and at present is employed by the Republic Steel Company of Youngstown. He lives with his parents. The other deceased child of Mr. and Mrs. Fitch is their daughter Nora B., who did at the age of eleven years.
HENRY M. HUNT was a citizen of Mahoning ounty who lived well and did his part as an industrious farmer, and had the complete respect of his fellow men though he was unostentatious and sought none of the honors of politics or public affairs.
This is an old family of the Mahoning Valley. His parents were Horace and Galetsy (Ruggles) Hunt. Horace Hunt was born August 21, 1805, and died March 13, 1891. His wife was born August 1, 1808, and died April 6, 1883. All of their children are now deceased except Alice M. and Azor R. The latter is now living at Pittsburgh, and for many years was prominent in the steel industry, at one time being general superintendent of the Carnegie Works at Homestead. His sister Alice has never married and lives with him at Pittsburgh. Another son, Chauncey, was a lumber manufacturer and later a lumber dealer at Windom, Ohio.
Henry M. Hunt was born August 7, 1853, on the farm that is still occupied by his family. He spent his life in that one locality. The Hunt farm is two miles southwest of Canfield Village. He possessed an ordinary education, and went about his business as a general farmer with good common sense and industry and provided well for those dependent upon him. He was an active member and elder of the Presbyterian Church and was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. The home that now shelters the surviving members of his family was built in 1894, and in 1906 he put up the substantial barn.
Henry M. Hunt died February 26, 1913. May 27, 1880, he married Maggie E. Stewart, a daughter of James and Ann (Wilson) Stewart, who were married in Ireland and about 1837 came to the United States with their two children and soon afterward settled in Canfield Township, where they lived out their lives. James Stewart died in 1891 and his wife in 1895. Mrs. Hunt was born near her present home June 11, 1853. She is the mother of two children, Floyd C. and Edith M. The daughter has spent her life in the home circle. The son Floyd, who was born April 8, 1881, finished his education in the Northeast Ohio Normal School at Canfield, under the principalship of J. B. Bowman. The buildings of this old educational institution are now used as part of the centralized public school system. At his father's death Floyd Hunt took charge of the home farm, and has carried on its affairs and has also made himself a progressive factor in the rural community. He and his family are members of the Grange and he is interested in the Farm Bureau, in the Mahoning County Supply Company, and has served on his local school board. He is a republican and an Odd Fellow. Mr. Hunt during the last five or six years has laid a great deal of tile on his land, and otherwise has improved the home both for comfort and for productiveness.
In 1911 he married Sarah Margaret Manchester, daughter of Benjamin L. and Rebecca (Bowman) Manchester, of Green Township. Her mother is still living at the old Manchester farm and her father died in November, 1912. Mrs. Floyd Hunt was for several years a popular teacher in the home locality. They have one child, Marian Kathleen.
WILLIAM EDGAR LEEDY. A resident of Youngstown forty years, since early childhood, William Edgar Leedy has had opportunity to play many parts, had an active experience for a number of years in the local steel and iron mills, but has undoubtedly done his best work in the field of real estate and real estate development and building.
Mr. Leedy was born at Bryan, Ohio, June 15, 1875. William Gillespie Leedy, his father, was a native of Pennsylvania. His grandfather, Jacob Leedy, soon afterward moved to Baltimore, where William G. was reared and educated. Jacob Leedy and his four sons spent their active lives in the tobacco business. From Baltimore the family moved to Bryan, Ohio, and from there to Youngstown about 1877. While living at Baltimore and at the beginning of the Civil war, Jacob Leedy, who was exceptionally skilled in music, enlisted in the Union Army, being assigned to duty as a musician and rising to the rank of major. Jacob Leedy died at Youngstown, survived by his wife about one year. They had celebrated their sixty or more years of wedded life about one year prior to his death.
William Gillespie Leedy and two of his brothers were in the Civil war under their father, in the drum corps. William G. Leedy had a singular talent as a musician and also much native ability with pen and brush. At sixteen he was appointed an instructor in the drum corps. At that age he drew from observation a scene at the battle of Vicksburg
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in which he was a participant. This sketch by the youthful artist is highly prized by his descendants. He had entered the army at fifteen and on account of the severity of the campaign in which he engaged he was left broken in health for the rest of his life. He died in September, 1904. His wife was Sallie Irish Miller, of Frederick, Maryland, whom he met during the war. All of their seven children are living, as is also the widowed mother.
W. Edgar Leedy from the age of four grew up in Youngstown, acquired a public school education, studying two years in the Rayen High School. For a time was a clerk with the Brown-Bonnell Iron Company and subsequently transferred to the laboratory and eventually was put in charge of that department. He continued with the company until the Phoenix furnace was torn down, after which he was employed at the Hannah furnace about the time it came under the ownership of the Republic Iron & Steel Company; and subsequently was employed at the Ohio Works of the Carnegie Steel Company as a weigher of metals and subsequently as foreman.
On leaving the iron and steel industry Mr. Leedy organized the Youngstown Engineering Company. However, for a period of two years he gave most of his time as a stockholder of the McElroy Company, selling furniture. Realizing the growth of the city and the great scarcity of houses, he next conceived the idea of building an apartment house. This idea was comparatively new, as but few buildings of this character had been erected, except in the larger cities. He was able after a year of work to interest the men who are now his associates in The Apart-. merit House Company, to erect the "Lincoln," which was the first building of its kind in the city. This company has been very successful and owns some valuable real estate in the down town district. Later he took over the development of the North Heights Land Company, above Wick Park, which was formerly the golf links of the Youngstown Country Club, and was the first operator to realize the possibility of this becoming a principal residential district. With this thought in mind he conceived the idea of selling this property with certain restrictions, which had never been done in Youngstown before in the sale of this class of property. He imposed restrictions with respect to the size of the lot, character of building, and the distance the building should be erected from the street line. Soon after this the Realty Trust Company was organized and he was associated with it until shortly after the Stambaugh Building was erected, at which time he and Angus S. Wade formed a partnership under the firm name of Wade and Leedy and in a short time built up a prosperous business, supervising the erection of the Wick-Salow-Wells building, now occupied by Woolworth Company, the Youngstown Country Club, and several other attractive residences, including the C. H. Booth residence. Mr. Leedy also helped with the organization of the Realty Security Company and acted as secretary for three years after which time he opened an office for himself' and has since been actively engaged in the real estate business.
Mr. Leedy worked for three years on experiments with an alloy for steel, which proved to be very effective, and helped to bring about the organization of the Electric Alloy Steel Company, which bids fair to become one of the thriving industries of this valley.
At present his chief business interests are indicated by his office as president of the Federal Stores Company, as secretary and treasurer of the Apartment House Company, president of the Wilbur B. Young Company, and vice president of the McDonald Land Company. He is a member of Youngstown Club and the Youngstown Country Club. Mr. Leedy is also interested in the Real Estate Board, of which he was president for two years, and upon his retirement as president was made honorary president. He was, in fact, the founder of this board, and served also on the advisory board and as trustee of the Ohio State Association.
July 9, 1902, Mr. Leedy married Louise Patterson, of Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, a daughter of Samuel Robertson and Jennie (Stewart) Patterson, of an old and prominent family of Beaver Falls. Their children are W. Edgar, Jr., Robert Patterson, James Stewart, Jane Louise and John Richard.
WILLIAM ALLEN CHUBB While the Youngstown district is pre-eminently industrial in its character, agriculture is by no means a forgotten art, and here have been many evidences in recent years of an awakened interest in the products of the fields and also of a "get together spirit" on the part of the farmers and producers not only in matters affecting the productive end of their business, but also in co-operative buying and marketing.
The central organization that affords a medium through which the men of the farms in Mahoning County now work is the County Farm Bureau, the secretary of which is William Allen Chubb, who for a number of years has been a man of prominence and leadership among the farmers and stockmen of the county.
Mr. Chubb represents the fourth generation of his family in Mahoning County. His great-grandfather, Henry Chubb, came from Pennsylvania, and acquired a tract of land in Canfield Township covered with heavy timber and fashioned a log cabin for his first home in the wilderness. The second generation was represented by William and Sarah Chubb, the only children of Henry to reach mature years. As a youth William Chubb helped clear some of the land of the old homestead and spent a life of industry. He was a soldier in the War of 1812. He died in 1868. He married Frederica Renkenberger, who came to this country from Germany at the age of three years. She died in 189o, at the age of seventy-five.
Of the four children of William and Frederica Chubb the only son to grow up was the late Ensign Chubb, who was born in a log cabin on the old Chubb homestead in Canfield Township in 1845. He spent all his life there, improving and cultivating the farm, and died April 22, 1897, at the age of fifty-two. He married Marietta Flickinger, who was born at East Lewiston, Mahoning Co., in January, 1855. The parents, Aaron and Mary Ann (Messerly) Flickinger, came from the mountainous region of Pennsylvania and for sixty years or more had their
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home in Boardman Township. Aaron Flickinger is now deceased, but his widow is still living, and she and Mrs. Ensign Chubb are together. The children of Ensign Chubb and wife were William Allen, Mary Eldora and Blanche. Mary Eldora is the wife of Frank Lyon, and their children are named Leland, Blanche, Catherine, who died in childh00d, Leslie, Walter and Wilma. Blanche Chubb became the wife of Park D. Coler, and her three children are Evelyn, Erna and Samuel.
William Allen Chubb was born on the old homestead first settled by his great-grandfather on March 22, 1875. That old homestead is 2 1/2 miles south and a half mile east of his present home. His residence is the old Lynn farm, seven miles southwest of Youngstown and three miles northeast of Canfield. This farm comprises 197 acres, all highly developed and used as a model grain and stock farm. Mr. Chubb grew up on the Chubb homestead, attended district schools and finished his education in the Northeastern Ohio Normal College at Canfield. He has always been deeply interested in and a student of farm management and livestock production. For two seasons before his marriage he was a dealer in trotting horses. He has exhibited farm produce at county fairs, and was one of the leaders in the establishment of the old Mahoning County Improvement Association, organized July 26, 1913. The present Farm Bureau is logically the outgrowth of the old improvement association. While the Farm Bureau has been in existence under that name only about a year, it now has 1,300 members, and monthly meetings are held in the office of the county agricultural agent at Canfield. Each township has a vice president, who is the executive representative for the farmers in his constituency. Nearly all the detail business of the bureau is handled by Mr. Chubb as secretary. During 1919 more than 3,000 tons of fertilizer were purchased through the Farm Bureau, though only half as much was supplied as was needed. Purchases in large lots effect an obvious saving not only in freight, but by the wholesale rates obtainable in the case of large quantities. The Farm Bureau also secured binder twine used by the farmers. An auxiliary of the Farm Bureau is the Mahoning County Supply Company, the stockhold- ers all being members of the Farm Bureau. This company has secured ground for a warehouse at Canfield, and has also bought the North Jackson mill. The manager of the supply company at Canfield is A. A. Stahl.
Mr. Chubb also served eight years as a member of the Canfield School Board and for several years has been a township committeeman.. He is a democrat in politics, is affiliated with the Canfield Grange, and is a member of the Methodist Church at Canfield. He owns some property on Elmwood Avenue in Youngstown.
December 24, 1895, Mr. Chubb married Maude R. Lynn, who was born on the old Lynn farm where she now resides October 17, 1876. She is a daughter of Walter J. and Ella (Norton) Lynn, residents of Youngstown. Mrs. Chubb was the oldest of five children, the others 'being Frank, Ray, Ross and Ethel.
Mr. and Mrs. Chubb have an interesting family of young people growing up in their home. Their children in order of birth are: Willard E., Wilmer, Russell A., Harland, Thalia and Thelma, twins, Thorn, Cecil, Arlis and Hilda. Willard E. is now an office man with the Brier Hill Steel Company and lives at Youngstown, married Sylvia Hiner, and has a daughter, Esther. Wilmer is in the office of the Republic Steel Company at Youngstown and is unmarried. He was called in the draft, then his call was deferred, and he never got into the army during the fighting.
CALVIN NEFF, another representative of the fifth generation of the Neff family in Mahoning County, is a successful grocery merchant at Canfield, and has given nearly all his life to commercial lines.
He is one of the children mentioned in the story of his father, John E. Neff, on other pages of this publication. He was, born on the old Neff farm east of Canfield, July 24, 1879, and finished his education in the Northeast Ohio Normal School at Canfield. At the age of nineteen he went to work as clerk in the general store of Lynn, Brice & Company. His wages were five dollars a month. He remained with that concern seven years, and by that time his salary had been increased to twenty dollars a month. That was less than twenty years ago, and in the present dizzy era of high prices for everything in the Mahoning Valley it would appear that Calvin Neff was earning a great deal more than he was paid.
Following that came a four-year period which he spent on his father's old farm. March 14, 1911, he engaged in his present business at the old Huxson location. His father was his business associate at the beginning. In 1919 Mr. Neff bought the real estate, had the building thoroughly overhauled, and the value of the store property alone is now six thousand dollars. It occupies the choicest central location in the village. Mr. Neff carries a stock of goods valued at five thousand dollars, and each year has seen a steady and satisfactory increase of sales.
Mr. Neff is a democrat in politics and is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. For several winters past he and his wife have gone to Florida. In July, 1911, he married Alura H. Harding, daughter of George and Lucretia (Musser) Harding. Her father, now deceased, was a retired resident of Canfield.
C. H. NEFF, who for twenty years has supplied much of the energy for the mercantile life of Canfield, is a son of John E. Neff, an honored resident of Canfield, whose story has been briefly reviewed on other pages.
The Neff family is one of the oldest in the Mahoning Valley. It was established here in 1802 by Conrad Neff, who was one of a party that traveled over overland from Berks County, Pennsylvania, with Conestoga wagons. Conrad Neff bought 140 acres near the present village of Canfield, and while clearing the land he used his trade as a mason to the advantage of himself and his neighbors. He and his wife died there at the age of seventy years. Of their children John Neff was born in 1795, and was seven years of age when brought to Mahoning
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County. While he had very meager educational opportunities, he was a man of energy and intelligence and accumulated a large property. He bought some of his land at $2.50 an acre. Besides owning as high as 600 acres of farm land, he was honored by various township offices. He died in April, 1861, just a week after the Civil war began. His wife was Elizabeth Kline, whose father, Abraham Kline, was another proneer of Mahoning County. Of the children of John and Elizabeth (Kline) Neff the youngest was Martin, the father of John E. Neff and the grandfather of the Canfield merchant. Martin Neff spent his active life as a farmer and stock dealer. He married Catherine Wilson, and the oldest of their five children was John E. Neff.
C. H. Neff, whose first Christian name is Cyrus, was born in Canfield Township February 28, 1881, grew up in the village and in the surrounding country and acquired good advantages in the local schools. He was nineteen years of age when in Iwo he began his business career as junior member of the firm Callahan & Neff. These men were associated as partners until 1913, when Mr. Neff became sole owner of the business. At first they confined their efforts to dealing in grain and mill feed. Subsequently they added a coal department, and in 1916 Mr. Neff bought out the Farmers Lumber Company. Besides handling lumber and other building supplies he operates a planing mill and makes all frames and interior work. His business career therefore has been a very progressive one. Mr. Neff is a dealer in grain, mill feed, flour, hides, lumber and building supplies.
At the age of twenty-three he married Miss Melvie Waters. They have two daughters, Marjorie and Mary.
ELI BALDWIN, son of Simeon and Mercy Baldwin, was born in New Milford, Connecticut, on May 11, 1777. His father, Simeon Baldwin, was the grandson of Richard Baldwin, the first who came from England to America on the ship Martin in 1638. Simeon Baldwin was commissary and paymaster during the Revolutionary war and was actively engaged in many capacities during that period, especially in the care of wounded soldiers and their families, and devoted his entire fortune to the cause.
When his son, Eli Baldwin, was twenty-four years of age he was appointed general land agent for the Connecticut Land Company of the Western Reserve. He left New Milford on April 15, 18o1, and arrived in Boardman, Ohio, on May 1st. He superintended the survey of both land and many of the roads in Mahoning and other counties, and laid out the Town of Medina, Ohio. He was also employed by Elijah Boardman, of New Milford, Connecticut (a large land owner, and for whom the Township of Boardman was named), in his store and mill as manager or superintendent.
In 1805 he married Mary Newport, daughter of Jesse Newport, a Quaker, who with his two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, came from Duck Creek, near Philadelphia, to Youngstown, Ohio, in May, 1800.
The tradition in the Newport families is that they were the lineal descendants of Christopher
Newport, who brought the first colonists to America. Thomas Newport, the father of Jesse Newport, was originally an Episcopalian, but after his marriage joined the Society of Friends. His daughter Mary, for whom the wife of Eli was named, being disappointed in love at an early age decided, in accordance with Quaker belief that a woman had the same right as a man to use her talents to the best advantage, went to Philadelphia in 1760. Those who have read Richard Carvell will remember that he pictured his Maryland Belle eking out an insufficient income by making and selling the delicacies that were served so generously in all of the eastern plantation households. Mary Newport had a broader view of making her culinary skill serve to found a future for herself and family. As she had money to invest in business, she purchased property near the home of Betsy Ross, where she conducted a first-class bakery, tailoring, dressmaking and millinery establishment, from the revenues of which she derived a considerable income. She also conceived the idea that if she made schools of these establishments the wealthy Quakers would pay her handsomely to have their daughters instructed in these vocations, it being obligatory that their daughters should be taught household economy in every detail. All her ventures proved successful, but it was the bread that saved the day. When Washington was at Valley Forge, and the British had possession of the city, she sent her bread free through the lines to Washington and charged the British two prices for theirs. The British Generals were quartered in her home during Howe's occupation of the city. When they settled their accounts the amount filled her apron with gold and silver so that she bent under the weight of it. She was very generous with her money, having set her two younger brothers up in business, from which they acquired large fortunes. She also gave her namesake, Mary Newport, wife of Eli Baldwin, the money, for a wedding present, with which she bought a large tract of land in Ohio, also her share of her aunt's silver plate was made over into spoons and she also received from her a generous share of china and other household articles of value.
Eli Baldwin held many offices. He was the first justice of the peace, the first postmaster, military captain and county commissioner. His appointment as postmaster, written and signed by Andrew Jackson, is still in possession of his descendants. He was a member of the State House of Representatives one term and the Senate three terms, when, in 1822, he ran for Congress but lost his election to Elisha Whittlesey by sixty-six votes, there being three candidates. He was afterward elected twice to the House and twice to the Senate. In 1836 he was the democratic candidate for governor of Ohio, and was again defeated by a small majority—Joseph Vance being the successful candidate. He was popularly called Judge Baldwin, which was no doubt an honorary title, as he had never either studied or practiced law, except in the capacity of law maker.
His entire time after the election of 1836 was devoted to his own business interests, having by that time established a flour mill, also a sawmill, carding, fulling and cloth dressing mills, on the
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banks of Mill Creek, which property now belongs to Mill Creek Park in the City of Youngstown. He was a public spirited man, being always ready to serve the people who were in need of his services as well as the community at large.
Like many other persons Eli Baldwin had his eccentricities, one of these being extreme absent mindedness.
He was a staunch Presbyterian and used to ride into Youngstown to church on Sunday morning, putting up his horse in the stables belonging to the McCoy tavern on the public square. As a warm friend of the family he always dropped into the tavern to exchange greeting and enquire the news of the day, where frequently a copy of a Pittsburgh paper would be handed him. Very soon he would become so absorbed in its contents that before he would come to himself it would be about noon and past the hour of service, when he would sadly mount his horse and ride home to make the best excuses he could to his wife and family. Possibly if no questions were asked, no excuse was necessary.
JESSE BALDWIN, the third son of Eli and Mary Newport Baldwin, was born in Boardman Township on April 9, 1815. He received a common school education, and also taught school a few terms. He was very anxious to enter college and to study and practice law. When his father (whose absence from home many winters during the sessions of the State Legislature) gave him charge of his flouring mill, which occupied the site of the old mill now standing in Mill Creek Park, and which now belongs to the City of Youngstown, he promised him the proceeds from the sale of the flour and grain with which the mill was well stocked, when a June freshet carried away the mill with all its contents. This put an end to the plans he had made for his future career, and he then continued in the milling business.
About 1842 he bought an interest with Abner Osborne in a mill and store at Girard, which proved a very successful venture. In five years thereafter he purchased the site of the City Mills in Youngstown and erected a flouring mill and a sawmill.
In 1842 he married Lucy Patrick, a daughter of Arthur Patrick, of Scotch-Irish descent. Arthur Patrick kept the tavern for many years at the centre of Boardman, the half way stopping place of the Stage coach route between Pittsburgh and Cleveland. The tavern was a noted one, and occupied the northeast corner of Boardman centre. Arthur Patrick was postmaster for many years and also a justice of the peace.
The mill at Youngstown also proved to be a successful business venture. Jesse Baldwin associated with him two of his brothers, Homer and George. One of them he put in charge of the Youngstown Mill and the other the mill at Girard, having himself become engrossed in politics, being an ardent and active member of the republican party when it was first organized. He made many speaking tours during political campaigns. He was a close friend of many leading politicians of the day, among whom was Salmon P. Chase. He worked indefatigably for Mr. Chase when he ran for and was elected governor of Ohio.
Jesse Baldwin was closely identified with the growth and prosperity of the then thriving village of Youngstown. He was a public spirited citizen, always alive to Youngstown's best interests. He was also a promoter and stockholder in the Cleveland and Mahoning Valley Railroad.
In 1860 Mr. Baldwin was elected to the State Legislature and also attended the convention at Chicago that nominated Abraham Lincoln for President. During the first session of the Legislature he was appointed one of a committee to escort President- elect Lincoln from Cincinnati to Columbus in his journey to Washington for his first inauguration.
At the outbreak of the Civil war in 1861 Mr. Baldwin was chairman of the finance and ways and means committee. He was busily engaged in raising the necessary funds for equipping our troops and other expenses connected with carrying on the war.
As Mr. Baldwin was very fond of perpetrating jokes on others, perhaps one on himself would not come amiss in this history, as it is quoted from the Cleveland Leader in an article entitled "Incidents in the Life of Jesse Baldwin, written by an old friend and colleague." In speaking of his character he said, Mr. Baldwin was a valuable member of the Ohio Legislature, of indefatigable industry, ever watching the interests of the public, and particularly those of his constituents. He was a man of posrtive opinions, and some eccentricities. Among the latter was one of offering amendments to many of the bills. At the close of one session and after the real business was finished, the members got together to hold a mock session. On this occasion a witty member was elected clerk and pretended to make a journal of the last day's proceedings. He was expected to make a good natured allusion to each individual as their name was called. On this occasion Peter Hitchcock of Geauga County officiated as clerk. When the name of Mr. Baldwin was called, Mr. Hitchcock said "And Mr. Baldwin will now offer an amendment to The Lord's Prayer."
In August of 1861 Mr. Baldwin sustained a severe injury as the result of a runaway accident, and although in time he regained his physical health, he did not recover his clear mental faculties, and was thus debarred from participation in those pursuits and occupations for which he was most eminently qualified.
HIRAM J. BEARDSLEY, who is the owner of one of the largest and best farms in Canfield Township, Mahoning County, Ohio, and is one of the respected and capable public workers of that section of the county, comes of one of the families of early residence in that section. He is a successful farmer, a public-spirited citizen, and has been especially prominent in movements that sought to appreciably improve the roads through the township. He is vice president of the Farmers National Bank of Canfield, has been township trustee and is a member of the School Board.
He was born on the Newton farm east of Canfield on August 3, 1878, the son of Almus and Mary P.
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(Dean) Beardsley. The Dean and the Beardsley families were from Connecticut, and of colonial record in that state. Philo and Esther (Curtis) Beardsley,. great-grandparents of Hiram J., lived in that state. His grandparents were Philo and Lois S. (Gunn) Beardsley, both born in Connecticut, the former in 1794. Further details regarding the eight children of Philo and Esther (Curtis) Beardsley will be found elsewhere in this edition of Mahoning Valley history. In early manhood Philo (2) Beardsley came into the Western Reserve of Ohio, and for a short time was of, record in Hubbard. He soon returned to Connecticut, however, but not long afterward returned with his wife and settled about half a mile to the northward of the present home of his grandson, Hiram J. He lived there for the remainder of his life, which ended when he had passed his seventieth year. Almus, father of Hiram J., operated the home farm in the last years of his father's life. Philo was twice married, his first wife dying when Almus was about nineteen years old. His second wife was a widow of the name of Smith, but whether that was her marital cognomen or her pre-nuptial patronymic does not appear in data at present available.
Almus was one of the twelve children of Philo, and was born in Canfield Township, Mahoning County, on January 2, 1829. He grew into sturdy, self-reliant manhood, and before he had attained majority he used to take stock long distances. He was twenty years old when he drove sheep over the mountains to Philadelphia, at the insignificant pay of forty cents daily. He walked back, accomplishing forty-five miles on the last day. Soon afterward he went on another long journey with cattle, driving a herd into Connecticut. In such healthy activity he passed his early years. For a few years he worked for Ensign Newton, for whom he would travel through the neighborhood buying and driving in stock, and eventually taking a herd to market. Subsequently the farm upon which he was born passed into his possession, and during his busy farming life he was quite a successful breeder of Shire horses and Jersey cattle, gaining some prominence as such at the county fairs, at which for many years he was an exhibitor. He came to his present farm about forty years ago, and the cultivation of its 34o acres brought him ultimately to a position of material independence, and eventually into a comfortable state in retirement. He and his brother Philo A. were Free Soilers, and as a republican Almus cast his first vote in the presidential election of 1852. In 1886 he built the fine brick dwelling now on his property, tearing down at that time a brick residence built many years before by William Dean, a pioneer settler and grandfather of his wife. Almus Beardsley did not closely follow political movements, at least not so closely as to personally take part prominently in them, but he was a man much respected in the community, and throughout his life took interest in matters that pertained directly to the community. He was a lover of horses, and always kept a good driving horse. He was twenty-five years old when he married Mary P. Dean, daughter of, Hiram Dean, and granddaughter of William, the pioneer. She was born on an adjacent farm in Canfield Town ship, and lived a long life, and an especially long life in marriage; in fact, she had the satisfaction o: celebrating their golden wedding. They had six children: Doctor, who died in infancy; Frederick who also died in childhood; Ensign Newton, who now a successful farmer of Green Township, Mahon ing County; Hiram J., regarding whose life more follows; Sarah, -who married Willis Wilson, but is now deceased; and Ruby, who married Ewing Gault, but is now deceased.
Almus Beardsley is a man of strict religious principle. For very many years he has been a member of the local church of the Disciples of Christ denomination, and has been consistent in his general life with the tenets of that church.
Hiram J., fourth child of Almus and Mary P. (Dean) Beardsley, has lived practically all his life in close association with his father. As a boy he attended the local public school, and further took the course at the Ohio Normal College at Canfield. For fifteen years he has been in control of the parental farm of 34o acres, and he has shown that he is a farmer of enterprising mind and thorough in his operations. He is one of the large dairy farmers of that section of the county, has maintained a fine' herd of Jersey cattle, and has entered extensively into the breeding of Berkshire hogs and Percheon horses. Like his father, he has had good success as an exhibitor at local fairs. He has taken consequential part in township affairs, has served as Township Trustee, and was one of the pioneers of the Good Roads movement. In association with Mark Liddle and others he was instrumental in bringing about the construction of the first state macadamized road to Youngstown. The first macadamized road through Canfield Township was the outcome of strenuous efforts exerted by Mr. Beardsley and those associated with him, and the subject is one which calls for persistent efforts still by those who have the welfare of the township at heart. Mr. Beardsley continues a keen worker in that phase of township affairs, and has also entered into other civic work. He is a member of the school board, and has concerned himself effectively in increasing the educational efficiency of the local schools. Fraternally he is identified with the Masonic fraternity.
In June, 1904, he married Ellen Zeiger, daughter of John Zeiger, of New Middletown, Ohio, where the latter still lives. Mr. and Mrs. Hiram J. Beardsley have one child, their son Dean,. who is now a high school student. In 1919 Mr. H. J. Beardsley journeyed to Connecticut so that he might visit the an- central home of the Beardsley family in Litchfield County of that state. He has an enviable standing in Canfield Township, and has for many years been a director of the Farmers National Bank of Canfield, of which he is also vice president.
MARK HENRY LIDDLE. has been one of the prominent bankers or the Mahoning Valley for thirty years. A number of years ago he was called to his present duties as cashier of the Farmers National Bank of Canfield.
The Farmers National Bank of Canfield was organized in 1887. Its cashier for twenty years was
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the late Hugh A. Manchester. Alexander Dickson was president until his death in 1915. Mr. Liddle succeeded to the office of cashier when it was vacated by Mr. Manchester. Dr. Daniel Campbell has been president of the bank for several years, H. J. Beardsley is vice president, and T. C. Rose, assistant cashier.
During the World war Mr. Liddle and his bank rendered a conspicuous service to the government in the sale of war savings stamps. In the banking room is a certificate of honor awarded by the Federal Reserve Bank at Cleveland testifying to the work done by this institution in the sale of war stamps. There was no other town in the United States proportionate in population that made such a showing in stamp sales as Canfield, the aggregate sale being $130,000. The state of Ohio gave Mr. Liddle in commendation of his individual efforts two medals. He was the rural chairman for Mahoning County for the stamp sales.
Mr. Liddle was born at Poland May 6, 1864, son of James and Nancy (Loveland) Liddle. James Liddle was born in Ohio, May 14, 1834, a son of George Liddle. At the age of six years he was taken to Poland Township, but after the age of nine he lived practically among strangers, and in the states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Illinois. In the early '50s he was present in the courthouse at Salem, Illinois, when Abraham Lincoln was trying a case. Part of the time he worked as a broom maker. In 1859 he permanently settled just north of Poland in Boardman Township, and thereafter gave his efforts successfully to general farming and dairying. He died in May, 1907. He cast his first presidential vote for the first standard bearer of the republican party in 1856, but in later years was rather independent in his balloting.
March 7, 1861, James Liddle married Nancy Loveland, who was born near Youngstown in 1843, and is still living at the old home at Poland. Her parents were David and Lydia (Pyle) Loveland, and her grandfather, Amos Loveland, was a Revolutionary soldier and one of the early surveyors of the Western Reserve, where he acquired 400 acres of land. Mrs. James Liddle owned ninety acres of that tract, and also the second home in which her grandfather lived.
The following is a brief record of the children of James Liddle and wife: Loveland S., whose home is at Burton, Ohio; Mark H.; John D., who became a dairy farmer and lives at Haselton; Clara E., who died in March, 1907; Thorn B., a farmer at Poland; Grace G. at home with her mother; Clyde C., who gained his early banking experience in the Youngstown district and is now a resident of Toledo; and Lydia, wife of William Findley, of Poland.
Mark Henry Liddle is one of many prominent men who acquired their early education in the old Poland Union Seminary. He also graduated from Duff's Commercial College at Pittsburgh, and acquired his early knowledge of banking as bookkeeper in the Bank at Poland, where he remained two years. For four years he was teller and b00kkeeper in a bank at Girard and for a time performed similar services with the First National Bank of Youngstown. In 1894 he became cashier of the Poland Bank, holding . that office for eight years. January t, 1902, Mr.
Liddle organized the Struthers Savings and Banking Company, with D. C. Cooper as president; J. Arrel Smith, vice president; and Mr. Liddle as secretary and treasurer and acting cashier. About ten years later he went to Warren as cashier of the People's Bank, but a year later was called to his present duties as cashier of the Farmers National Bank of Canfield, and has since given all his time to the up- building of this successful institution.
Mr. Liddle is a Knight Templar and Scottish Rite Mason, is a republican and a member of the United Presbyterian Church. May 12, 1891, he married Miss Daisy E. Seaborn, daughter of Frank and Sylvia (Ramsey) Seaborn, of Girard. Her father spent his active life as a carpenter at Girard and is now living in Florida. Her mother died May 12, 1907. Mr. and Mrs. Liddle have four children, Ethel May, Eugene Mark, Carl Lester and Ruth Elizabeth. Ethel May is the wife of R. D. Fowler, a garage owner at Canfield. Eugene Mark is a graduate of the Northeastern Ohio Normal College at Canfield, and went from Youngstown into the army and for eighteen months was in France. He was a victim of the influenza, and for over a year after the close of the war was held in a hospital in a Southern camp. Carl Lester, who graduated from the Culver Military Academy in 1917, afterward completed the course of the Pelham Naval Training School, was granted a commission as ensign, and was an instructor in the Great Lakes Naval Training Station. He is now a student in Columbia University of New York and a reporter on the New York World. He is also an instructor in naval tactics at the Culver Military Academy summer schools. He devotes two months each year to this work. The daughter, Ruth Elizabeth, graduated in 1918 from one of the noted women's colleges of the South, the Ward-Belmont Seminary at Nashville, and afterward assisted her father in the bank. On June 8, 1920, she married Henry J. Hine, of Canfield, assistant superintendent of the Standard Textile Company of Youngstown.
PHILO A. BEARDSLEY retired farmer of Canfield Township, Mahoning County, Ohio, and for thirty- five years a successful farmer in Andover, Ashtabula County, is a Civil war veteran of honorable record, and comes of a family long known and of good record in Mahoning County.
He was born in Canfield Township, Mahoning County, on May 20, 1841, the son of Philo and Lois S. (Gunn) Beardsley. The Beardsley family, of colonial residence in Connecticut, was of pioneer record in the Mahoning Valley of Ohio, his parents having early settled in Canfield Township. The Connecticut home of the Beardsley family is in Litchfield County, and Philo (2), son of Philo (1) and Esther (Curtis) Beardsley, and father of Philo A., subject of this sketch, was born there in 1794. Philo (2) Beardsley came into Ohio in early manhood, and for a short time was a resident in Canfield. That trip appears to have been a prospecting journey, for he soon afterward returned to Connecticut, and shortly afterward came back into Ohio, this time with his wife, and settled in Canfield Township, where for the remainder of his life he lived. (More regarding the early generations of the
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Beardsley family will be found in other references tabulated for inclusion in this edition). Philo had passed his seventieth year before he died, and had been twice married, his first wife dying when Philo A. was only about seven years old.
Philo A., son of Philo (2) and Lois S. (Gunn) Beardsley, was the youngest of their twelve children. He attended the local schools in boyhood, and afterward assisted his father and brothers in the operation of the home farm. He was not twenty years old when the Civil war began, and was one of two young patriots who went from Canfield in that year to enlist in Company F, Forty-First Ohio Volunteer Infantry. His fellow-townsman and comrade was Dillow P. Duer, who eventually was wounded at the battle of Shiloh, dying as the result thereof. Beardsley and Duer went to Cleveland to join the regiment, and Beardsley eventually participated in all the engagements and major battles in which his regiment, a unit of the Army of the Cumberland, took part with the exception of the battle of Chickamauga in September, 1863, he having been sent back to Chattanooga with a detachment of prisoners at that time, So that he was in some of the severest fighting of the whole war. In the fighting between November 30 and December 16, 1864, in Tennessee were lost 141 of 375 engaged in the battle of Franklin and the resulting battle of Nashville, which resulted in the defeat of the Confederate forces under General H00d, who sought to invade Tennessee and thus force General Sherman to turn back from Georgia. In another battle his reorganized company lost 121 out of 400 engaged. Philo A. Beardsley served a full enlistment, and, the war not being over, re-enlisted. He served in Texas for a short time, and was discharged on November 27, 1865. As was to be expected, of course, he had many exciting adventures. Once, going down the Ohio River from Nashville, the Federal boat encountered a Confederate monitor, which sank the boat within fifteen minutes, forcing the troops to jump into the river. All the horses aboard were lost, as were also all the service records of the soldiers. He had many narrow escapes from death. Once a cannon ball struck him in the shoulder, knocking him off his feet, but not seriously wounding him. His complete army record was a meritorious one. He served under Col. William B. Hazen, and advanced through all the grades from private to first lieutenant. As a non-commissioned officer he had charge of the guard at General Hazen's headquarters at Knoxville, and as a commissioned officer he spent the summer of 1865 in San Antonio Arsenal, Texas. Finally his original company was under his command, and at that time it containd only nine of the men who had enlisted in 1861. After being mustered out of military service he was for about a year in New York state, and there in 1868 he married Caroline Zeigler, soon after which he returnd to Ohio and took up his residence on a thirty-acre farm his father had given him. Three years later his father died, and it was not long after that Philo A. went to Ashtabula County, Ohio, and at twenty-seven dollars an acre bought a farming property situated in Andover Township. There he and his family lived for thirty-five years. He did some clearing of timber, rebuilt and remodeled the residence, and brought his farm into a profitable state. His wife died in May, 1901, and in August of the following year, 1902, he married Mary Hine, of Canfield, daughter of Chester and Rhoda (Wadsworth) Hine, of Canfield. Her father was a farmer west of Canfield, where she was born. He died in 1880, aged sixty-three years. After his death her mother and her three sisters, Lois, Pamela and Frances, went into Canfield village to live, where her mother died in 1883. Her sister Frances has since died, a spinster, at the age of sixty years, but her sisters Lois and Pamela still live in Canfield. Mrs. Beardsley through her mother, Rhoda (Wadsworth) Hine, comes into the genealogy of the prominent colonial Connecticut family. Benjamin Wadsworth, Doctor of Divinity, was president of Harvard University in 1725; James Wadsworth was a brigadier-general in the Continental Army in 1776; and many other scions of that family are of prominent record in legislative, professional or civic New England record of early centuries. Mrs. Beardsley's mother was a daughter of Edward Wadsworth and granddaughter of Elijah Wadsworth, who are of pioneer Ohio record. And prior to her marriage to Philo A. Beardsley, Mary (Hine) Beardsley was for fifteen years the widow of his cousin, Henry Curtis Beardsley, who died in Canfield in 1887. She was very many years his junior at the time of their marriage, and to him she bore two children, their daughter Oda, who married George Wolf, but died at the age of twenty-four years ; and their son Edward, who owns a ranch in Arizona; but there has been no issue to her second marriage.
The children born to the marriage of Philo A. Beardsley and Caroline Zeigler were: Addie, who married Claude Black, a railroad official of Conneaut, Ohio; Kate, who married Albert Tinker, of Cleveland; Harry, who is in commerial life, a salesman at Conneaut, Ohio.
First Lieut. Philo A. Beardsley is affiliated with a post of the Grand Army of the Republic at Andover, Ohio, and is esteemed among his veteran comrades in that place. Fraternally he is a Mason and politically he is a republican. He has lived a consistent Christian life, and since early manhood has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Henry C. Beardsley, cousin of Philo A. Beardsley, and former husband of his wife, Mary (Hine) Beardsley, was the youngest of the eight children of Curtis and Sophia Beardsley. He had but one brother, William, who lived and died in Geauga County. The only surviving son of Henry C. is Edward Henry, of Canfield, whose second son, Jay E., is now a veteran of the World war, having served in the United States Navy, on the U. S. S. Marblehead, for two years.
MARTIN KIMERLE, who is now living in retirement iii Canfield, Canfield Township, Mahoning County, Ohio, was for very many years in good business at that place as a blacksmith and wagon builder and repairer, and at one time had quite an extensive business in the latter, his manufacture of wagons, buggies, surreys and the like providing employment for as high as nine or ten men; and throughout his
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long connection with Canfield and the county he has lived a consistent and estimable life of useful industry, and has become acquainted with most of the worth-while people of the neighborhood, most of whom had business dealings with him at some time.
He was born in Wurttemberg, Germany, January 9, 1857. His parents were people of agricultural life, his father being a farmer and weaver. He, however, scarcely remembers his father, for the latter died when Martin was in early childhood, and his boyhood was consequently passed under conditions of necessary thrift, his mother having scant means. When he was fourteen years old he left his native land and came to America, coming to Petersburg, where an aunt of his lived. That was in 1871, and the next two years were spent in energetic application to hard tasks, and his life was characterized by much thrift and self-denial. In 1878 he had so far advanced that he was able then to return to Germany to bring over to America his brother George and his sisters Barbara, now Mrs. Obenaugh, and Mary, now Mrs. Gardner, of Warren, Ohio. His sisters at that time were sixteen and eighteen years old, respectively, and during the seven years he had been away from Germany he had striven hard to reach such a position as would enable him to bring them over to America, their parents having both died before he, himself, left home. The first year he spent in America brought him little save experience, for he gave his labor, in farm work, for merely his board and room; the second year in addition he received the sum of fifty dollars. In 1873, however, he moved into Canfield, and became associated with Mathias Swank, a blacksmith and wagon builder of that place, who had been established there for thirty years. At first Martin only received fifty dollars yearly and his board, but he learned his trade thus and in course of time was able to get satisfactory wages, beginning at $1.25 per day and board, and eventually reaching $2.50 per diem. He was of strong purpose, and his thrift may be imagined when it is known that out of the per diem remuneration of $1.25 he saved $200 within the year. In 1878 the death of their guardian compelled him to hasten home to Germany for his brother and sisters. After he returned with them he resumed his blacksmithing work in Canfield, and three years later, Mr. Swank having died, he bought the shop. And his subsequent operations showed him to be a man of enterprise and good business ability. He expanded his wagon-repairing shop into a wagon and carriage building plant of appreciable importance, and until the larger factories of the country produced cheaper vehicles by the now customary mechanical methods, standardization of parts, and such like economies, Martin Kimerle's plant found steady work for nine or ten men, including painters and upholsterers, two wood-workers and three blacksmiths. Still, throughout his continuance in business he did very satisfactorily, the wagon-work latterly resolving into a repair business exclusively, although the smithy of course continued as at first. He retired in 1918, after forty-six years of independent business, so that he well earned his retirement. Three years after he became independently established he took his brother George into partnership, and they prospered well, remaining together in business until Martin retired.
Both were characteristic of the worthy producers of this country. They applied themselves steadily to their own work, content to leave political affairs and such like outside interests to others. Neither sought public office at any time, although both were staunch democrats. Religiously they are identified with the Lutheran Church, and have been since their boyhood days. They are both representative Americans, and by their actions and practical patriotism during the recent war declared themselves emphatically as such, both contributing from their private means as far as they were able to the various funded issues of the Government, and in many other ways strove to further the cause of their adopted country in the great struggle, which it is hoped will stamp the curse of militarism and the burden of armaments out of their native country in course of time.
Martin was married in 1890 to Maria Miles, of Girard; and George married Edith Yeager, of Canfield, who, however, is now deceased. George has two children, daughters, Esther and Josephine, and both now live with their parent. The family and the brothers are well regarded in Canfield generally, and are well known to agriculturists throughout the district.
ANDREW LAWTON. But few men in the Mahoning Valley have been longer and more steadily associated with one concern than Andrew Lawton, who for forty-one years has given his time and energies to one of the present departments of the Republic Iron and Steel Company. He is now superintendent of its shafting department. Along with the length of his service to this industry Mr. Lawton has always exemplified a sound public spirit and good judgment in local affairs, and is one of the men of prominence and leadership in the civic life of Youngstown.
Even as a boy he became accustomed to the regular work and employment of the great industrial section of England, Yorkshire, where he was born, November 22, 1853. He was the thirteenth in the family of fifteen born to Lamach and Mary (Barracliffe) Lawton. His father for a long period of years was connected with the worsted mills in Yorkshire. At the age of eight Andrew was a boy worker in the coal mines. Later he found work above ground in the fabric plant where his father was employed. While in England he married and, seeing no prospect for great advancement in Yorkshire, in 1879 with his wife and child, he came to America and reached Youngstown as a total stranger.
Soon after his arrival he found employment in the Brown-Bonnell plant. He made his daily work a constant opportunity for increasing skill, and in a few years was recognized by his superiors as a high class machinist. Not long afterward he was sent into the shafting department, became its night superintendent, and now for many years past has been superintendent of that department of the Republic Company.
Mr. Lawton married in England Mary Elizabeth
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Swift. She died in 1908 and in 1913 he married Martha Atwood Hogue, also a native of England. Mr. Lawton has two sons, Lamach and Arthur. Lamach, who is connected with the Truscon Steel Company of Youngstown, married Catherine, a daughter of Jacob Petree, and his son, Andrew Petree Lawton was graduated from the Annapolis Naval Academy in June, 1920. Arthur Lawton, connected with the McDonald plant of the Carnegie Steel Company. married Edith, a daughter of Ferdinand Carson, and they have a daughter, Sarah Elizabeth, a very promising young lady with exceptional musical talent.
Mr. Lawton is a prominent Mason, being a past master of Western Star Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, past high priest of Youngstown Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, past patron of the Eastern Star, is a Knight Templar and Shriner, and is a member of the Board of Directors and on the house committee of the Masonic Temple. For the past fifteen years he has been one of the valued members of the Youngstown Board of Health and is now vice president of the board. He is active in the Chamber of Commerce, a republican, a member of the Red Cross, and St. John's Episcopal Church.
BENJAMIN PITNEY BALDWIN. The old agricultural axiom that The well tiled fields yield a golden harvest for the care and labor bestowed upon them," finds a notable verification on the farm of Benjamin Pitney Baldwin, in Milton Township fifteen miles west of Youngstown. To an industry that now more than ever has come to be regarded as worthy of the most ambitious man's efforts, Benjamin Pitney Baldwin has devoted a lifetime and having passed the age of three score and ten he is now well able to enjoy the afternoon calm of life with dignity and ease.
The house that shelters his family today was his birthplace, and there he first looked out on the world September 21, 1842. This branch of the Baldwin family was transplanted to the Mahoning Valley at the beginning of the nineteenth century and Mr. Baldwin is one of the few men in this section of Ohio who are grandsons of Revolutionary soldiers.
His grandfather was Caleb Baldwin, a native of New Jersey. A youth when the struggle for independence began, he enlisted, but, his skill as a gunsmith was regarded as more valuable to the cause than if he remained in the ranks, and he was therefore assigned to duties in the modest munition works of the Revolutionary period. A number of years after independence had been achieved, he came to the West, located at Youngstown, and was one of the first justices of the peace in that community. He died at Youngstown in 1810 when about fifty years of age. Caleb Baldwin married Elizabeth Pitney, who was a member of the famous New Jersey family of Pitneys, distinguished for years as lawyers, jurists and statesmen, one member of which is now in the United States Senate. Elizabeth Pitney Baldwin died in 1849 in the house where her grandson Benjamin Pitney was born.
Benjamin Pitney Baldwin, Sr., was born at Youngstown March 16, 1802, and was one of the first white children born in that community. About 1835 he moved from Youngstown to the present Baldwin homestead in Milton Township and spent an active life as a farmer and died in October, 1882. On moving to Milton Township he bought the old John Moore farm of 15o acres, and at the time of his death was owner of 450 acres of land in that section. He married at Youngstown about 1830 Martha Pauley, who died in 1871. His second wife was Mary Louisa Parmelee, who is now living in advanced years in Texas as Mrs. Mary L. Douglas. Benjamin P. Baldwin, Sr., was the father of twelve children, and four sons and two daughters reached mature years. John who died in young manhood; James, a teacher in early life and later a farmer, died at Newton Falls, Ohio; Linus Caleb, who probably achieved the greatest wealth of any member of the family, went as a boy west to Council Bluffs, Iowa, later became manager of a distillery at Belle-Vernon, Pennsylvania, laid the foundation of his fortune in that industry, and subsequently removed again to Council Bluffs and acquired a large ranch in Wyoming, but spent his last days in Council Bluffs, where he died; Henry removed to Michigan and was killed by being kicked by a horse; Nehemiah Scott was a veteran soldier of the Union army and died in Michigan. The two daughters are : Lois, who married M. S. DePew and died in Michigan; and Harriet, living at Hiram, Ohio, widow of Alexander Pow, a brother of George Pow.
Benjamin Pitney Baldwin grew up on the. homestead, completed his education in the Mahoning Academy at Canfield under David Hine, and for four years was a teacher in district schools, his first school being in Boardman Township, and he also taught in the home school and in Trumbull County. At the beginning of the Civil war he was a member of the Ohio National Guard, and he twice enlisted but each time was rejected on account of disability. About the close of the war he married and since then has been busied with farm duties. He acquired' about half of his father's old farm. His father had been an extensive sheep raiser, and Benjamin P. was actively associated with his brother Nehemiah Scott for twenty-five_ years in the sheep and livestock industry, and they were frequent exhibitors at fairs. Mr. Baldwin has been a breeder of Shorthorn cattle and Delaine sheep.
He was a pioneer in tile drainage, and for a number of years he invested all the capital he could raise to underdrain his land. Adequate drainage combined with judicious rotation and skillful tillage has converted a soil that once was pronounced worn out into a most productive condition. In fact there is no land in the county now yielding more abundant crops than that found on the Baldwin farm. Largely out of his experience and careful study he has drawn the lessons which he has applied, and many of the principles he has followed are the cardinal features of what is now known as modern scientific farming. He was one of the first to recognize the value of the use of limestone to sweeten the soil, and he still continues its liberal application.
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When William McKinley was governor of. Ohio he gave Mr. Baldwin a commission as notary public, and that commission is still in force by subsequent renewals. About the same time he was elected a justice of the peace, and has filled that office for at least a quarter of a century. A republican in a democratic township, his fellow citizens have evidently regarded his character and personal qualifications as more important than party ties. Mr. Baldwin is also affiliated with the Masonic order,
In 1865 he married Lucy Shiveley, a native of Ohio, and of the same family of which the late Indiana Congressman Shiveley was a member. She was born in Jackson Township of Mahoning County, but her parents for many years lived in Newton Township of Trumbull County and died there. Mrs. Baldwin was a teacher in early life in Trumbull County. For fifty-five years Mr. and Mrs. Baldwin have traveled life's highway together, and her thrift and ability as a home maker have been an important factor in the family success. To their marriage were born six children: Frank S., a rancher at Phoenix, Arizona; Alice M., who is principal of the South Park Avenue School at Warren; Marta L., wife of Grant Foulk of Warren; Linus R., who is a dairyman, a Holstein cattle breeder and a cotton grower at Phoenix, Arizona; Julia L. Bernice, who for eight years was a teacher in the schools of Chicago and is now the wife of J. B. Jenkins, living at Downer's Grove, Illinois; and Ruth, wife of Sherrill Orr, who lives on part of the Baldwin farm.
WILLIAM H. PRITCHARD, president of the Niles Iron & Steel Roofing Company, has come up from the ranks cf iron and steel workers, and for a number of years furnished some of the skilled labor to local plants before he engaged in business for himself.
Mr. Pritchard was born in Motherwell, Scotland, February 22, 1868, son of Edward and Sarah (Edwards) Pritchard. The same year of his birth his parents moved to Birmingham, England, where his father followed his trade as a bar mill heater. In 1878 the parents and their seven children immigrated to the United States, at once locating at Niles. Edward Pritchard found immediate employment for his skill in the mill owned by James Ward, and he continued an active worker and resident of Niles the rest of his life until his death in 1917, at the age of eighty-six. Outside of his circle of fellow workers he was best known in the Methodist Episcopal Church of Niles, of which he was a devout member. He was one of those rare characters who really lived their religion seven days in the week, and was affectionately known as "father" Pritchard, being a leader in the church and a man honored and respected by all who knew him. His wife died in 1907, and of their seven children all but one are living.
The fourth in the family, William H. Pritchard has few recollections of his life in England. He finished his education in the public schools of Niles, and when about fourteen began work at bundling scrap in the old Ward mill. When that mill passed to the Summers organization he remained and at the age of sixteen was advanced. to the post of shearer. That was his official classification among the mill workers of Niles for fourteen years. When he left the mill he invested his capital in a retail shoe business, and was a successful merchant until 1911. Mr. Pritchard on January 1, 1911, became president of the Niles Iron and Steel Roofing Company, and has directed the business of that company with growing prosperity.
This is one of the older industrial organizations of Niles, having been established about thirty years ago by George and Frank Robbins, who personally or through their descendants operated the plant until it passed into the hands of the present owners.
Mr. Pritchard has played an effective part in local affairs, for twelve years was a member of the Niles Board of Education, serving as clerk three years and the last year as president, is a member of the Niles Club, the Trumbull Country Club, the Niles Chamber of Commerce and the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1887 he married Miss Annie E. Williams, of Niles. Their two children are Olive, now Mrs. Allen E. Pritchard, and Leslie E. The son Leslie saw two years of service with the colors as an infantryman in the World war. He is now secretary and treasurer of the corporation of which his father is president.
JOHN S. ZIMMERMAN M. D. Since 1895 Dr. Zimmerman profession as a physician and surgeon in Youngstown, and in addition to his private practice has handled many public responsibilities in the line of his profession, and for years has exercised a weighty influence in public health matters in the city.
Dr. Zimmerman was born at McKeesport, Pennsylvania, April I, 1864, but has spent most of his lift in Youngstown. His parents, Charles and Margaret (Schaum) Zimmerman, were natives of Germany, but were married in Pennsylvania. Charles Zimmerman enlisted in a Pennsylvania regiment at the time of the Civil war, and gave four years to the cause of his country. He was ',Nice wounded, in the thigh and the leg, and came out of the army with broken health. He was a butcher by trade, and in 1876 moved his family to Youngstown, where he was a highly respected resident for many years. He died in 1903, at the age of eighty, and his wife, in 1908, aged eighty-three. They were members of the Lutheran church, and their old home was on Hays Street. Of their seven sons and eight daughters. six sons and two daughters are still living, and the five in Youngstown are Charles, a retired resident living on Princeton Avenue; Louis, a wholesale meat dealer ; George, who conducts a market on Oak Hill Avenue; Dr. John S.; and Mrs. McCollum, widow of David McCollum, living on West Laclede Avenue.
Dr. Zimmerman from the age of twelve years attended the public schools of Youngstown, and also the Northeast Ohio Normal at Canfield. He also worked in his father's butcher shop and through his work and savings was able to bear the larger part of the expenses involved in his medical education. Dr. Zimmerman graduated from the medical de-
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partment of Western Reserve University in 1895. His first office in Youngstown was on West Federal Street, over Wick C. Gans' drug store. For many years past his office has been at 1401 Oak Hill Avenue. For a number of years he has served on the medical staff of the City Hospital, formerly was connected with the Mahoning Valley Hospital, and in 1912 took the place of Dr. Clark on the board of health. He is a member of the Mahoning County Medical Society and of the American Medical Association.
In 1890 Dr. Zimmerman married Miss Lillian Osborn, who was born on the Manning farm in the Mahoning Valley, daughter of Clark Osborn. They have two sons, Fred W., a graduate of the dental department of Western Reserve University, also of Dewey's College of Orthadontia, is specializing in this X-ray work, and is practicing in Youngstown; and Louis, a student in the South High School. The family are members of the Epworth Methodist Episcopal Church, and Dr. Zimmerman is a member of the board of trustees. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Masonic order and the Knights of Pythias.
FRED H. ALEXANDER and GEORGE W. ALEXANDER, is brother, are the chief executives in the Niles Lumber Company. Both are thorough business men, widely experienced in the handling of industrial and commercial organizations.
John B. Alexander, their father, also a resident of Niles, was born in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, November 10, 1845, son of Thomas Alexander, a native Pennsylvanian who spent all his active career as a farmer. Thomas Alexander married Rebecca Lewis, and they were the parents of a large family of eleven children. John B. Alexander grew up on a farm, and his residence and activities were practically in one spot in Pennsylvania for seventy-two years. He was well educated, being a graduate of high school, and had taught for one term. His home has been in Niles since 1917. He is a member of the Christian Church. December 9, 1875, John B. Alexander married Emma Theodosia Burwell. Her father, Rev. Nimrod Burwell, was a well-known Baptist minister. She was well educated, and had taught school for twelve terms. John B. Alexander and wife had three children to reach mature years, Fred H., George W. and Ella. The daughter is Mrs. Frank Voorhies,
Fred H. Alexander was born at the home of his parents at Espyville, Pennsylvania, August r, 1881. He completed his education there in a high school, attended Allegheny College at Meadville, and the Bryant, Stratton & Smith Business College at Warren, Ohio. Practically all his active business experience has been in the lumber industry. He was first an employe of the Western Reserve Lumber Company of Warren, commencing February 12, 1900, and continuing as bookkeeper, stenographer and cashier until 1912. In that year the company sent him to Niles to perform similar services in its branch establishment in that city. Later he became one of the organizers of the Niles Lumber Company, and has been treasurer and general man ager of that corporation. During the past eight years he has exercised his private influence in various ways in behalf of the prosperity of the city. He is active in the Niles Chamber of Commerce, is a member of the Christian Church, is affiliated with the Masons and Odd Fellows, and is a member of the Trumbull Country Club, the Niles Club, and is a republican. September 22, 1906, he married Miss Abbie Elizabeth Graves, of Warren, Ohio. Their two children are Ralph Edward and Robert Allan.
George W. Alexander is secretary of the Niles Lumber Company. His commercial experience has been of broad variety and much responsibility.
He was born at Espyville, Pennsylvania, April 6, 1888, was reared there, and graduated from high school in 1907. For the following two years he was a student in Hiram College, and then joined R. C. Barnum Company of Cleveland as traveling salesman and secretary. Later he was in the employ of the Sterling Electric Manufacturing Company of Warren, with headquarters at Chicago, and still later became manager of the lamp department of the Central Electric Company of that city.
Owing to the advanced years of his parents Mr. Alexander returned to his native town in 1914, and there took active charge of his father's two dairy farms. His home has been at Niles since January, 1917, and here he has given most of his time to the lumber business.
He is a member of the Christian Church, is affiliated with the Odd Fellows, is a republican and a member of the Niles Chamber of Commerce, the Niles Club and the Odd Fellows Club. September 29, 1909, he married Gertrude M. Guy, who died February 5, 1918. On March 5, 1919, he married Mary H. Sandmann, of Niles.
ROBERT M. SMITH practically grew up in a New England manufacturing plant, and for the past eight years has been manager of the Stanley Works at Niles.
The home of the Stanley Works is at New Britain, Connecticut, and the house is one of the oldest and most prosperous in America. Therefore, when a plant was established in the Mahoning Valley in 1908 the fact was taken as a good omen for the increasing industrial life of this community. The Stanley Works entered the Mahoning Valley in 1908 by renting a building and operating at Girard, where the entire output at first was wrought steel washers. The manager of the Girard plant was John Fellows. In 1910 the company began building their present plant at Niles. It was opened in 1911 for the manufacture of strap and T-hinges and wrought steel washers. At the present time the business at Niles has about thirty acres, largely covered by the best fireproof construction, with 75,000 feet of floor space. The plant is thoroughly adapted for the special lines of manufacture and gives employment to about 175 people.
Robert M. Smith was born at Wallingford, Connecticut, June 12, 1881. His father, Capt. Ira B. Smith, also a native of Connecticut, gained distinction in the Civil war. For ninety days he served as a private in the Second Connecticut Infantry, and afterward was captain of Company C of the
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Seventh Connecticut Infantry. He was all through the war, fought at Fisher's Island, Bermuda Hundred, the first Bull Run, and the greater part of his service was in Florida. He was captured at Bermuda Hundred and for several months was a prisoner in the notorious stockade at Andersonville, until paroled. He was in that prison when the famous thunderstorm occurred, following which a spring of pure water was found gushing from the ground, this being the first good drinking water the prisoners had enjoyed. The spot is now marked by a marble fountain known as Providence Springs. Captain Smith is still living at the age of eighty, with home at Short Beach, Connecticut. During his active career he was a manufacturer of flat silverware, first at Wallingford, then at Bristol and afterward at Niagara Falls, New York. He has been affiliated with the Masonic fraternity since 1864. Captain Smith married Susan K. Maynes, and of their three children Robert M. is the youngest.
Robert M. Smith grew up in Connecticut,. had a public school education and learned the machinist's trade under his father. He entered the Stanley Works in the bolt department at New Britain, Connecticut, on November 15, 1904, as assistant foreman, and has been one of the rising executives of that industry. He was made foreman of the bolt department rn January, 1906, and in June, 1907, transferred to the butt finishing department, the second largest department of the plant, as foreman. In March, 1912, the company sent him to Niles as manager of the Niles plant. He has the satisfaction of seeing the Niles plant increase in productive output fully a third since he became manager.
During the World war Mr. Smith was secretary of the Niles War Relief Board and the Niles Liberty Loan Committee. He is treasurer of the McKinley Savings & Loan Company, and is a mem ber of the Niles Club, the Niles Chamber of Commerce and in politics a republican.
September 28, 1904, he married Miss Edith May Allen, of Bristol, Connecticut. Her father, Edward H. Allen, was a Civil war soldier in Company K of the Sixteenth Connecticut Infantry. This entire regiment was captured by the enemy, and he also spent a term in Andersonville prison, being there part of the time that Captain Smith was there, though they were not acquainted. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have one son, Gordon Allen Smith.
WILLIAM O. BROWN. While the greater part of Mr. Brown's actrve reer has been identified with that old established and substantial institution of journalism in the Mahoning Valley, the Youngstown Vindicator, he had some years of experience with the local iron and steel industry, and is a member of that Brown family which has left an indelible impress upon the Mahoning Valley largely through its enterprise as iron and steel masters.
Though a resident of Youngstown most of his life, William 0. Brown was born at Portsmouth, Ohio, March 29, 1876. He is a grandson of Nathaniel E. Brown, one of the founders of the BrownBonnell Iron Company at Youngstown. His parents were James A. and Martha J. (Martin) Brown. His father, who was born at New Castle, Pennsylvania, in 1852, spent a number of years at Portsmouth, where he was a bank cashier -and where he married. In 1878 he moved to Youngstown, and lived on the site of the present Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church, formerly the home place of Nathaniel E. Brown. Here he was connected with the Richard Brown flour mill, and later for about twenty years with the Brown-Bonnell mills. During that period he had had his home for about six years at Bass Lake, but returned to Youngstown and died in that city in 1905. The widowed mother is still living. Her two sons are William 0. and Frank L., the latter vice president of the Columbia Steel & Shafting Company of Pittsburg.
William O. Brown graduated from the Rayen High School in 1897, and spent the following six years in the iron and steel mills. With the Ohio Steel Company he began as a clerk and messenger boy, and eventually became chief clerk of the operating department. His service with the Vindicator has been continuous since 1902. He was assistant business manager for several years, and is now business manager of the paper.
During the World war Mr. Brown served as captain and ordnance officer of the Youngstown National Guard organization. He is a republican, a member of the Youngstown Club, the Rotary Club, the Chamber of Commerce, the Young Men's Christian Association, and is a Knight Templar and Scottish Rite Mason and member of the Mystic Shrine. September 9, 1903, he married Miss Alma M. Maag. Their two children are Elizabeth Martha and James William.
IRA A. THOMAS. As merchants, iron and steel men, the Thomases have a long and conspicuous record at Niles and elsewhere in the Mahoning Valley. The present generation comprises several brothers, and their father was Thomas B. Thomas, the facts of whose career are stated on other pages.
One of the brothers, Ira A., president of the Sykes Metal Lath & Roofing Company at Niles, was born at West Austintown, Ohio, November 25, 1870. He spent the first ten years of his life in his native village, began his education in the public schools there, and when his parents removed to Niles he continued his education in that city for four years. In 1884 the family moved to Nebraska, where Ira A. Thomas had considerable experience in farming and at intervals continued his education in the Fremont Normal School in that state.
Ira A. Thomas returned to Niles in 1893 and with his brothers embarked in the dry goods business. He was active as a merchant until 1910, when he became connected with the auditing department of the Thomas Steel Company. When that plant was acquired by the Brier Hill Steel Company he remained with the larger corporation a few months in the purchasing department. Then with his brother C. R. Thomas he bought the Sykes Metal Lath and Roofing Company and has subsequently become president of what is one of the distinctive and valuable industrial concerns of the city.
Mr. Thomas is a member of the Niles Club and the Trumbull Country Club and is a Presbyterian.
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September 22, 1897, he married Miss Flora Head. Their one son is Ira A., Jr.
FRANK J. THOMAS is one of the several sons of Thomas B. Thomas, whose enterprise and energies have long been contributing factors in the industrial affairs of Niles and vicinity.
Frank J. Thomas was born at West Austintown, Ohio, April 10, 1878, and at the age of six years accompanied his parents to Nebraska, where he grew up on a farm in a comparatively new section of country. His education was restricted to public schools. In 1903 he returned .to Niles and became associated with his brother W. A. Thomas, then president of the Niles Iron & Steel Company. This industry was subsequently changed to the Thomas Steel Company and remained an important individual plant in the Niles district until it was sold to the Brier Hill Company. Frank J. Thomas remained with the latter corporation for two years, and then became financially interested with his nephew, Clinton G. Thomas, in the Western Reserve Steel Company at Warren. He was superintendent of construction and later general manager of the plant. This industry was likewise acquired by the Brier Hill Steel Company in 1916. Since that year Frank J. Thomas has been general manager of the Sykes Metal Lath & Roofing Company at Niles. He is also president of the McKinley Savings & Loan Company of Niles.
Mr. Thomas is a Mason and Odd Fellow, and at this writing is president of the Niles Club. June 16, 1909, he married Miss Nellie L. Jones, a daughter of Thomas T. Jones, of Niles. They have one son, Paul J.
WILLIAM CLYDE SHERMAN, a well known property owner an real estate opera or at Warren, apparently had an implanted genius for business, his faculties being sharpened and developed from early boyhood, which was one of struggle against adversities and without home influences.
Mr. Sherman was born at Warsaw, Indiana, August 17, 1870, but four generations of the family have been identified with Morrow County, Ohio. His father, Ezra Sherman, and his grandfather were both born in Morrow County. His mother, Eliza Bennington, was a native of Pennsylvania, from which state the Bennington family moved to Morrow County. Ezra Sherman and Eliza Bennington met and married at Warsaw, Indiana, and after about two years returned to Morrow County.
William Clyde Sherman spent his boyhood days in Morrow County and had only a brief district school education. In his ninth year his mother died, and after that he had no real home of his own until his marriage at the age of twenty-three. He also made his own way during that time, his chief employment being as a farm worker by day and month. He was also a mule driver on the tow-paths of the Wabash and Erie Canal.
After his marriage in Morrow County Mr. Sherman employed himself in making rails and cutting cordwood for a time, and then turned his business talents to account in the horse business and later as a liveryman in Morrow County and also at Marion, Ohio. Mr. Sherman came to Trumbull County in March, 1901, unloading his goods at Leavittsburg, near Warren. He went in debt to buy the old Wilderson farm, and remained on it for three years, working almost night and day to improve and drain the land and repair the buildings. He still owns the property, the old homestead being one of the landmarks of the valley, having stood for eighty-five or ninety years and still in good condition. When he left the farm Mr. Sherman moved to Newton Falls, Trumbull County, where he owns considerable land. There he operated a feed mill and engaged in a general business, handling seed, implements and hardware. In looking for a city both as a home and business center Mr. Sherman carefully studied the situation in eastern Ohio and finally fixed upon Warren as the town with the greatest future, and also with the best advantages in business, moral, educational and social conditions. He has lived at Warren since September, 1916, and since then has been a prominent operator in real estate, both city and farm property. He has handled a number of leases and has exercised his enterprise in a way broadly beneficial to the rapid upbuilding of the city.
Mr. Sherman was one of the organizers of the company which is putting up the large commercial building on the corner of North Park and Porter avenues. This is a brick and terra cotta three-story I52X100 foot structure, with a permanent easement off Porter avenue and has been designed for the use of a large department store. Mr. Sherman is also one of the owners of the Packard Apartments on North Park avenue, and he bought his own home at 32o North Park avenue, one of the best residence sections. He still owns several good farms, and supervises their management. Mr. Sherman is affiliated with Carroll F. Clapp Lodge of Masons, the Masonic Club, the Elks and the Knights of Pythias, is a member of the Warren Board of Trade, and the First Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1893 he married Miss Rose Renz. She was born in Morrow County, daughter of Frederick and Ellen (Cook) Renz. To their union have been born four children, Gladys Pauline, Crystal Barbara, Herbert Renz and William Clyde, Jr.
JOHN BAXTER, superintendent of the tube mills of the Republic Ion & Steel Company, has been associated with this corporation since July I, 19o9. He is a native of Scotland, born at Dundee on the 23d of February, 1866, a son of John and Annie (Kinmond) Baxter. The father spent his life in Scotland, but the mother came to the United States in 1891, and her death occurred in Allegheny, Pennsylvania.
In his native land John Baxter grew to years of maturity and received his education, later serving a five years' apprenticeship at the machinist's trade and for a year or more worked as a journeyman. But in 1887 he left the land of his birth for the United States, and in his new home he first found employment as a machinist with the old Warren Tube Company, of Warren, Ohio. He subsequently worked for the Riverside Steel Works of Benwood, West Virginia, returned then to the town of War-
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ren and became associated with the Page Tube Company, from there went to Pittsburgh for the tube department of the Oil Well Supply Company, was next with the LaBelle Iron Works at Steubenville, Ohio, and from there came to the Republic Iron & Steel Company. In all these various places Mr. Baxter filled different positions, having served as assistant superintendent of the Page Tube Company, was similarly employed by the Oil Well Supply Company, superintended the erection of the tube department of the LaBelle Iron Works, where he also served as superintendent of the tube department for about nine years, and he came to the Republic Iron & Steel Company as superintendent in the erection of the tube department. After its completion he was retained by the corporation as superintendent of that department, and he has ever since occupied that important office.
Mr. Baxter is a member of the First Presbyterian Church, also of the Youngstown Country Club, the Automobile Club, the Youngstown Chamber of Commerce, the Youngstown Engineers Club, and is a thirty-second degree Knight Templar and York Rite Mason and a member of the Mystic Shrine. In many ways he has shown his interest in the public welfare of Youngstown, and is an efficient worker for the progress of the Mahoning Valley. A few years after coming to this country he took out the papers which made him a naturalized citizen of the United States, and he has ever since proved his worth as a true and loyal American.
On March 31, 1898, Mr. Baxter was married to Miss Mary Esther Jones, of Warren, Ohio, and they have a son and daughter, Margaret A. and John K.
ALFRED F. HOWE, vice president and general sales —manager of the Borden Company of Warren, has won an enviable place in the big business affairs of Warren and in the civic and social life of the community, for as a sales manager he ranks with the leaders of the country and as a citizen he is all that can be desired.
Mr. Howe was born at Clyde, New York, on August 16, 1875, the son of Charles A. and Phoebe (Finch) Howe. In both paternal and maternal lines he comes of families of colonial New England antecedents, among the notable members of the New England family of his patronymic being Elias Howe, whose priority of invention of the sewing machine was, after much litigation, finally established, the invention ultimately bringing him considerable wealth. Alfred F. Howe was educated in the public schools of Clyde, New York, and at De Pauw University.
He began his business career as a salesman in the east, and in 1898 he became a salesman for the Cleveland, (Ohio) Pump and Fixture Company.
In 1900 he became identified with the Borden Company at Warren, and for a time he sold a large part of the output of the plant, traveling continuously and establishing markets for the company's patented specialties in most of the states of the Union. In 1902 he opened the New York City headquarters of the company, and maintained that connection until 1913, directing his efforts chiefly to foreign markets. During the period of 1905-1913 he made annual trips to Europe. Mr. Howe has been connected with the sales department of the Borden Company from the time when the shop found occupation for but three workmen to the present plant, rated as the largest of its kind in the world and giving employment to almost three hundred people.
When the Borden Company was incorporated Mr. Howe was elected vice president and general sales manager of the company.
In 1913 Mr. Howe found it necessary to move from New York to Warren to give closer attention to the business. He is a member of the Warren Rotary Club and the Trumbull Country Club, is a member of Nutley, New Jersey Lodge No. 167, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and New Jersey Consistory thirty-second degree, and a member of Warren Lodge of Elks.
Mr. Howe was united in marriage with Ollie M. Dawson, of Gault, Canada, and to them have been born four children. David Dawson, who was born in Buffalo, New York, on November II, 1897, was a student at the Ohio State University in 1917, in which year he enlisted in the air service of the United States Army. He was mustered out of service in 1919 and entered the employ of the Warren Iron and Steel Company. He married Lucy, daughter of Charles B. Loveless, of Warren. Roy Richard, who was born in Cleveland, Ohio, July 24, 1900, attended the high schools of Nutley, New Jersey, and Warren, Ohio, and finished his education at Peddie Institute, New Jersey. He is now connected with the Oil Well Supply Company of Taft, California. William Warren, who was born at Nutley, New Jersey, October 4, 1904, attended the Nutley public schools, the Warren High School and is now a student at the Roosevelt Military Academy, Hackensack, New Jersey. Hilda Hope was born in Warren, Ohio, March 30, 1916.
ALBERT B. STOUGH. Struthers has existed as a community name in Mahoning County for more than half a century, but the city of Struthers is practically the evolution of the present century and it is now one of the important points on the map of the industrial district of the Mahoning Valley.
Of the industries which have brought population and wealth to this locality, the second in sir; and importance is the Struthers Furnace Cimpany. While the company management has its headquarters at Cleveland, the big plant and the practical workings of the industry are at Struthers and many of the important decisions affecting the practical operation of the company are made in the local office.
Mr. Stough will deserve a long memory in Struthers also for the leadership he displayed at a peculiarly distressing and discouraging time when in 1908 he became mayor of the little city. Prosperity and the breath of industry had almost , departed from the community in the months following the panic of 1907, and Mr. Stough proved one of the hardest workers in the little group of the faithful who kept the wheels of progress turning until normal times should return.
Mr. Stough was born at Niles, Ohio, December 22, 1869, son of Dr. J. F. Stough and a grandson of John Stough, a Portage County farmer. Dr.
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Stough was born in Portage County, Ohio, in 1833, and for many years practiced his profession at Niles. After retiring he moved to Warren, where he died in 1906, at the age of seventy-three. Dr. Stough married Jennie Rex, a native of England and daughter of Daniel and Mary Ann Rex. Her father was a farmer in Bl00mfield, Trumbull County, Ohio, and was a veteran of the Civil war. Jennie Rex was reared in Trumbull County. She was born September 13, 1845, and died in 1893, aged forty-seven years and ten months.
Albert B. Stough lived at Niles to the age of seventeen, and acquired his education in the local schools there. For a time he clerked in a grocery store at Warren, and then became a traveling representative covering Ohio and Western Pennsylvania for the Warder-Bushnell-Glessner Company of Springfield, Ohio. At this time this company was one of the leading manufacturers of farm and harvesting machinery, and in the personnel of the company was former Governor Bushnell of Ohio. For six years Mr. Stough regularly covered his field, and paid some visits to Struthers while a traveling man. In 1901 he permanently located in the village as office manager of the Struthers Furnace Company, and has had the responsibilities of the local office and has been a participant in and witness of all the remarkable development in the town for the past twenty years.
Mr. Stough served on the first Board of Education as its clerk for three years. He resigned this offrce to accept the nomination for mayor in 1908, and was elected and re-elected until he had served five consecutive terms, ten years, beginning his administration in a time of depression and leaving the mayor's office when Struthers was enjoying an unexampled era of prosperity and growth. He finally refused to be mayor any longer. Of the achievements connected with his admrnistration a list would be in the nature of a municipal history of Struthers for ten years. The improvements included sewer building, sidewalk construction, street paving, the establishment of water works, fire and police departments, establishment of a board of health, and also the official setting off of beautiful Yellow Creek Park as an adjunct and pleasure ground for the city. While he retired from the office of mayor in 1917 Mr. Stough's public services are still continued as a member of the Board of Education, and in that way he has continued to do good for his community. One new school building has been built since he was appointed a member of the Board, and a site for a new high school secured, since the present high school building has proved inadequate for the rapidly growing school population. This new high school is to be erected on a ten-acre campus.
Mr. Stough is a trustee of the United Presbyterian Church. For seventeen years he served as master of the exchequer in the local Knights of Pythias Lodge, and was also a member of the Building Committee which erected the Knights of Pythias Building, a part of which is used on a long term lease by the Telephone Company, the income going into the sinking fund to pay for the cost of the building.,
Mr. Stough married Martha D. Shoenberger, of Warren, daughter of Edward and Catherine Shoenberger. They have a family of two sons and one daughter : Donald B., who was a member of the Students' Army Training Corps while the war was in progress, and is completing his higher education in Washington and Jefferson College; Jane, who is a graduate of the Rayen High School at Youngstown, finished her education at Oberlin College, and is the wife of Fred R. Hamilton, connected with the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company; and Thomas Edgar, a high school graduate who entered Washington and Jefferson College in 1920. During his residence at Struthers Mr. Stough has expressed and exemplified just those qualities and actions needed in making and upbuilding a town. He is an enthusiast and assists and encourages every movement, not only those connected with business, but in behalf of churches, social welfare, athletics and other wholesome causes.
HENRY ONIONS has the distinction of being the `oldest living pioneer iron worker in the Youngstown district, and at the present time he is serving as hall man in the general office of the Republic Iron & Steel Company. He was born in Boonton, New Jersey, February 24, 1840, a son of Josephus and Eliza (Harris) Onions. The parents were born in England and came to America in the early part of 1839, locating in the city of Boonton and remaining there about three years. Going farther west, they established their home in Cincinnati, Ohio, and from there came to Youngstown in the early part of 1846. Josephus Onions superintended the erection of the puddling furnaces in the first mill erected in Youngstown, and he also made the first heat of iron in the puddle mill. Both he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives and died in Youngstown.
Henry Onions attended the public schools of Youngstown in his youth, but at the early age of ten, in 1850, entered as an employe the Youngstown Iron Works, and thus when a mere youth started out to make his own way in the world. The Youngstown Iron Works closed down in the fall of 185o, and during the years of 1851 and 1852 the young iron worker was engaged in making coke for the Mill Creek Furnace, which was located in what is now known as Mill Creek Park. In the spring of 1853 he began work at the Falcon Furnace, owned and operated by James Ward & Company, of Niles, Ohio, continuing as an employe there for a year and a half, and in February, 1855, began work for Brown, Bonnell & Company, being the third person employed by them, and Mr. Onions remained with them and their successors until 1886. He is now employed with the Republic Iron Sr Steel Company. His mature years have been spent in diligent labor, he has been the architect of his own success, and he has lived to reap the reward of tireless energy and right living.
In 1858 Mr. Onions belonged to an independent military company called the Tod Artillery, which disbanded before the opening of the Civil war, and at the beginning of that struggle, in 1861, he enlisted, for service but was rejected on account of having lost the sight of his right eye. He has
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taken but the good citizen's part in the matter of politics, and has voted with the republican party since 1861. On the 15th of December, 1864, he became a member of Hebron Lodge, No. 55, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he has since filled all the various offrces, and from January 1 until July 1, 1868, he served the order as noble grand, and he now has the honor of being the oldest living past grand of the lodge. At the present time he is serving it as treasurer, and has filled that office for the past twenty years. Since 1862 he has been a member of St. John's Episcopal Church.
At Bedford, Pennsylvania, April 23, 1861, by the Reverend Nesbett. Mr. Onions was married to Ruth Hannah Harris, a daughter of William and Frances Harris, who came to this country from England and settled in Youngstown in 1849. Four children have 'been born to Mr. and Mrs. Onions. Wyllys H., married Esther Taylor, and they are the parents of the following children: Carrie M., Frank, Mildred, Etta, Henry, Elizabeth and Esther. Carrie F. is the widow of Robert T. Carothers. The history of Joseph H. will be found on succeeding pages. Ruth H. is the widow of Frederick C. Hilton and the mother of One son, Frederick H.
JOSEPH H. ONIONS, who is associated with the Republic Iron & Steel Company, has been a life long resident of Youngstown and was born in this city November 21, 1872. He attended the city graded schools, with also one year in the Rayen High School, and in the summer of 1887 began driving a wagon for a grocery store. This first employment was followed by other odd jobs for a time, and on October 3, 1892, he entered the service of the Lake Shore Railroad Company as car accountant. On the 11th of August, 1899, he began his connection with the Republic Iron & Steel Company as an accountant under W. C. Riley, a year later became an assistant in the office of Hugh Swaney, who was then the company's paymaster, and in 1902 succeeded to the office of paymaster and has since filled that important position.
On September 24, 1896, Mr. Onions was married to Emma Sunderlin, and their three children are Robert C., Gertrude H. and Helen J. Mr. and Mrs. Onions are members of St. John's Episcopal Church. Mr. Onions is also affiliated with the Youngstown Chamber of Commerce, with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and is a York Rite and a Thirty-second degree Mason and a member of Al-Koran Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, Cleveland, Ohio. He gives his political support to the republican party.
JOHN F. PEARCE. While his first business re at Struthers were as a banker, Mr. Pearce for the last eight years has given his undivided energies and time to the management and up- building of the Struthers Furniture and Undertaking Company, one of the largest concerns of its kind in the Youngstown district. Mr. Pearce is manager, secretary and treasurer of the corporation.
While he has spent nearly all his life in the Ma- honing Valley, he was born at Wheeling, West Virginia, August 8, 1885, son of John and Mary Pearce. His father has for twenty years been a resident of Youngstown, and is a sheet mill worker with the Sharon Steel Hoop Company.
John F. Pearce grew up at Youngstown, and left high school when the opportunity was presented to go to work in an office. Altogether he was connected with banking for nine years, and came to Struthers as assistant treasurer of the Struthers Bank. He left that in 1912 to ally himself with his present business.
This business was established by the firm of Cunningham and Davidson of Lowellville, incorporated as the Cunningham Furniture & Undertaking Company. They opened a second store at Struthers, and in 1911 sold the business at Lowellville and changed the name to the Struthers Furniture and Undertaking Company. During the past eight years this company has built up a trade not only supplying the immediate community of Struthers, but a large outlying district, even competing with the stores of Youngstown. The company occupies a three-story building, divided into four rooms and with 15,000 square feet of floor space. There are five employes.
Mr. Pearce has also found time to work in the interests of his community and for eight years has served as village treasurer. He is a member of the United Presbyterian Church and affiliated with the Masons and Knights of Pythias. September 1, 1910, he married Charlotte Burrows, of Youngstown, daughter of Rey. A. E. Burrows, a Methodist minister. Mrs. Pearce was born at Seattle, Washington, but is a graduate of the Rayen High School of Youngstown and was a teacher in that city before her marriage. They have two children, John, Jr., and Mary Louisa.
REV. NICHOLAS F. MONAGHAN. On September 20, 1913, Rev. Nicholas F. Monaghan was installed as pastor of St. Nicholas Catholic Church at Struthers. This is one of the prosperous Catholic congregations in Mahoning County, though most of the progress has been made within the last decade.
The first Catholic services at Struthers were held in the years immediately following the close of the Civil war. Ground was secured in 1870 and in the following year a frame church was erected. Then and for a number of years following it was a mission, usually attended by a priest from Youngstown and vicinity.
The parish of St. Nicholas now has 120 families and Father Monaghan also att nds the mission at Lowellville. Father Monaghan was born at Ashtabula, Ohio, September 22, 1882. His father, Patrick Monaghan, came from County Meath, Ireland, in 1866 and for a time lived in Chicago. Nicholas Monaghan grew up at Ashtabula, where he obtained his primary education. In 1902 he graduated from St. Charles College at Baltimore, and took his theological work in St. Mary's Seminary of that city. He has the degrees A. B., M. A. and Bachelor of Theology. He was ordained in Cleveland by Bishop Horstmann December 21, 1907, and after a brief period as an assistant priest in Cleveland he became assistant to Father Conway in St. Mary's Church at Painesville. He was at Painesville