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were married in that country, and in 1814 came to the United States. Morgan Richards found profitable occupation in the coal industries of Western Pennsylvania and lived there until his death. His widow subsequently became the wife of Milward Atkinson.
In 1842 the family came to Niles, Ohio. At that time William L. Richards was ten years of age. He was born at Pittsburgh, grew up in Niles, and early went to work in the mills. About 1856 he went south and joined the Hillman iron mills along the south border of Tennessee. At the outbreak of the Civil war he returned north, was connected with the iron industry in different localities, and in 1869 returned to Niles, where he lived until his death, in 191o. He was an able worker, stanch in his citizenship, and is well remembered in the community. His widow is still living at Niles.
The third of their four children is Albert N. Richards, who was born at Niles June 9, 1870, and for many years has filled one of the highly skilled and technical places in the iron and steel industry of the Youngstown District. He was educated in public schools, and on leaving school was employed for four years as a clerk for the old Falcon Iron and Nail Company. He began his real career in the sheet mills, learning the various processes by practical experience, and by 1899 had reached the position of rougher. For a time he was connected with the Reeves Iron Company of New Philadelphia, Ohio, as a roller, and has put in twenty years in that capacity, one of the positions requiring the highest degree of skill. Since August, 1901, he has been identified with the Youngstown Iron and Steel Company, now a part of the Sharon Steel Hoop Company.
Mr. Richards has some interesting and active associations with the social and civic life of Youngstown, is a member of the Evergreen Presbyterian Church, is a Knight Templar and thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, a member of Al Koran Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Cleveland, and is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias. An active republican, of progressive views, he served as secretary in 1920 of the Harding Campaign Committee of Youngstown.
October 17, 1894, Mr. Richards married Miss Lottie Artman, of Niles. Her parents, Philip and Mary (McDonald) Artman, were of an old family of Trumbull County, her father having spent practically all his life in Warren and Niles. Mr. and Mrs. Richards have four children : Dorothy, Edward, Cora and Charlotte.
ORVILLE TITUS MANLEY, B. L., M. D., F. A. C. S. One of the surgeons of the Mahoning Valley who has won prominence in his profession is Orville T. Manley, of Warren, with which city he has been identified in civic and social affairs for the last ten years.
Doctor Manley, who represents two pioneer Western Reserve families, was born at Garrettsville, Portage County, November 20, 1874. His Western Reserve ancestor was Martin Manley, his great-great-grandfather, who settled in Portage County in 181o, prior to the War of 1812 and at the very beginning of development in that section of Ohio. The great-grandfather of Doctor Manley was Roswell Manley, son of Martin. The grandfather of Doctor Manley was Dr. Orville Manley, who died in 1868, and considering his advantages and the time in which he lived, he was a physician of great ability and held a commanding position in his profession on the Western Reserve.
Morton R. Manley, father of Doctor Manley, was born in Portage County, and married Emma Hopkins, a native of the same county. Her father, Titus Hopkins, was born on the Western Reserve. Morton R. Manley died in 1907, at the age of fifty-six, and his widow is still living at Garrettsville.
Doctor Manley received his early education in the public schools of Garrettsville, Ohio. He also attended the Ohio State University, and then entered Hiram College, where he was graduated with the degree of B. L.
He received his M. D. degree with the class of 1900 from the Cleveland College of Physicians and Surgeons, now the medical department of Western Reserve University. The following year he was ar interne and house surgeon in St. Alexis Hospital al Cleveland, and began his private practice at Gar. rettsville, moving from there to Warren in 1910. The summer of 1911 Doctor Manley spent abroad taking advanced work in the London Post-Graduate School. Doctor Manley has restricted his practice since coming to Warren to surgery. He is a member of the surgical staff of the Warren City Hospital.
In 1912 he began work during spare time in tin laboratory of experimental medicine of Westen Reserve University at Cleveland. This work sou attracted the attention and admiration of the faculty and in February, 1914, he was appointed on the university staff as demonstrator in the department. Since that time Doctor Manley has contributed numerous papers on research problems which have been published in medical periodicals, all of which are highly regarded by the profession and reflect much credit to Doctor Manley.
In May, 1916, Doctor Manley was commissioned a lieutenant in the Medical Reserve Corps of the United States Army. In March, 1917, he was recommissioned with the same rank in the medical section of the Officers' Reserve Corps, and on the first of June was ordered to Fort Benjamin Harrison for training, being one of the first medical officers called to camp. Physical disability prevented his continuing in the service, and he was honorably discharged July 7, 1917.
Doctor Manley is a member of the Trumbull County Medical Society, the Ohio State Medical Society, the American Medical Association, the Association for the Study of Internal Secretions, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Congress of Internal Medicines and is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. Fraternally he is affiliated with Carroll F. Clapp Lodge of Masons at Warren, and is a member of the Warren Board of Trade and the First Presbyterian Church and is a charter member of the Warren Kiwanis Club.
Doctor Manley married Miss Flora Woodruff, daughter of William and Naomi (Hampton) Woodruff of Mesopotamia, Trumbull County. They have two sons, Roger Harlan and Orville Titus, Jr.
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CHARLES HOMER ROSE took up the serious responsibilities of life as soon as he had completed his high school education, and during the greater part of a quarter of a century has been connected with the business offices of some of the great industrial plants of the Mahoning Valley. He is now comptroller of the Brier Hill Steel Company at Youngstown.
Mr. Rose was born near Lisbon in Columbiana County, Ohio, July 10, 1875. His father, Melvin E. Rose, a native of Ohio, spent his early life as a farmer, and came from a race of farmers. He is now acting as custodian of the McKinley Memorial Building at Niles. By his marriage with Louisa Josephine Talbitzer he had two children.
From the age of six years Charles Homer Rose lived at Niles and attended the schools of that city, graduating from high school in 1893. His first employment was as clerk in the freight department of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Niles, and for about four years he was in railroad work. He then became paymaster for the American Sheet and Tin Plate Company, subsequently chief clerk, and when the plant of that company was dismantled in 1907 he transferred his services to the Thomas Steel Company as auditor. This company in turn was consolidated with the Brier Hill Steel Company, in 1912, and that brought Mr. Rose to the latter corporation. He was auditor from the incorporation of this. company until April 1, 1917, when he was made secretary to the president, and since January 1, 1920, has served as comptroller of the company.
Mr. Rose is a member of the Youngstown Club, Youngstown Chamber of Commerce, is a Knight of Pythias and a republican voter. November 14, toot, he married Miss Annie Stevens, daughter of Henry M. Stevens of Niles. Two children have been born to their marriage, Harry Melvin and Charles Homer, Jr.
GEORGE. F. HOLLY, sales manager of the conduit department of the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, has had many years of active experience in the iron and steel business, and was a resident of Chicago until he came to Youngstown about ten years ago.
He was born at Eastman, Wisconsin, August 6, 1882, son of Jacob and Katherine Holly. His father is a building contractor and now a resident of Chicago. Of nine children two of the sons are ex-service men of the World war.
George F. Holly grew up in Chicago, attended public schools and the Lewis Institute, and at the age of thirteen was working as a cash boy in the department store of Mandel Brothers. The larger opportunities of his life were opened for him when he became an employe of Washburn & Moen Company, a large and well-known concern which eventually became absorbed by the steel trust. After leaving that Mr. Holly was for nine years connected with the Manhattan Electrical Supply Company of Chicago, at the end being general sales manager.
It was largely through the influence of Col. L. J. Campbell that Mr. Holly came to Youngstown in 1911 to help organize the conduit department of the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company. He has been with that department ever since and as sales manager is one of the responsible officers of the corporation.
Mr. Holly is a member of the Youngstown Club, is a Knight Templar and Scottish Rite Mason, and Shriner, belongs to the Youngstown Chamber of Commerce and he and his wife are Methodists.
September 4, 1907, he married Miss Anna L. Hrejsa, whose father, now deceased, was at one time a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Chicago. Mr. and Mrs. Holly have two children, George F., Jr., and Dorothy.
JAMES HARRIS MCEWEN is a veteran banker of Youngstown and had an active association with several of the important institutions of the city for nearly half a century. He is known as a man of great business ability, of the finest probity of character, and for his many services his abilities have been regarded almost as a public asset.
His father was James McEwen, a pioneer of Youngstown and for many years one of the foremost citizens of the Mahoning Valley. He was born in 1799, and after the early death of his father was reared by his grandmother on a farm. He learned the cooper's trade, which he followed for a few years in Maryland and Western Pennsylvania. About 1836 he came to Youngstown as an engineer for the old Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal. When that waterway was completed he remained as its superintendent, and at the time of his death, in 1872, was its president. He was a native of Elkton, Cecil County, Maryland. He possessed some striking natural attainments which, combined with sound judgment, admirably fitted him for the large responsibilities that came in the course of his life. He was honest and upright, commanded universal respect, and lived a life of high ideals. It was a testimony to his character and ability that he was appointed by Judge Rayen as one of the executors of the Rayen estate. He became a director of the first bank established in Youngstown, holding that position for many years. A democrat, he was never an aspirant for political honors, though one time nominated for Congress. He had no church membership, but rarely missed a Sunday attending divine worship. In 1839 he married Mary E. Fitch. She was born in New York City in 1812, daughter of William Haynes Fitch, a school teacher. To their marriage were born three children, all natives of Youngstown: Mary, wife of Dr. John McCurdy, James Harris and John Fitch. John Fitch McEwen spent much of his life in and around Youngstown, but later went west to Spokane, Washington, where he died unmarried in 1898, at the age of fifty-one.
James Harris McEwen was educated at Youngstown, where he was born October 13, 1842. In 1862, at the age of twenty, he entered the Mahoning County Bank as a bookkeeper. Six years later, when he resigned, he was teller, and then became secretary and teller of the Youngstown Savings & Loan Association, an institution founded by Governor Tod. In 1877 this was converted into the Mahoning National Bank, with Mr. McEwen as cashier, and he filled that office until 1908, until he became president. Mr. McEwen retired in 191o, after more than forty years of active association with the Mahoning National
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Bank and its predecessor. He is still an honored member of its board of directors.
Mr. McEwen was an intimate friend of the late Robert McCurdy, who died in 1904, and he served as the executor of the estate until it was incorporated under the laws of Ohio in 19o9, and has since been president of the Robert McCurdy Company. He is interested as a stockholder in many of the enter-. prises of the Mahoning Valley, and for a number of years was a trustee and also vice president of the Reuben McMillan Free Library Association.
Mr. McEwen married Florence Rayen on February 22, 1883. Her father was John Rayen, a half brother of Judge William Rayen.
MARY BURNHAM KINSMAN. One of the most picturesque portions of Trumbull County is Kinsman Township, and this district has from the very earliest times been the home of some of the country's best families. The township and the village were named in honor of the Kinsman family, who are still represented there. This name Kinsman has been dignified in other instances in the naming of places. In 1798 Mr. Jonathan Kinsman became proprietor in a township in Maine which was called Kinsmantown. Mount Kinsman of the White Mountains is so called from one of the clan. There is also a Kinsman in Illinois.
John Kinsman was one of the Connecticut capitalists who acquired extensive interests in the Western Reserve, and eventually concentrated his land holdings in what is now Kinsman Township which was settled in 1799. John Kinsman, a son of Jeremiah and Sarah Kinsman, was born at Norwich, now Lisbon, Connecticut, May 7, 1753. The Kinsmans were original settlers at Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 1635. The lineage is traced to John Kynesman of Wetherell, Lincolnshire, England, 1337, A. D. The first in America was Robert Kinsman, a passenger on the ship Mary and John in 1634 to Boston. In 1635 he moved to Agawam, now Ipswich, and in 1637 received a grant of land there.
October 4, 1792, John Kinsman married Rebecca Perkins. She was born September 29, 1773, a daughter of Capt. Simon and Olive (Douglas) Perkins, of Lisbon, Connecticut. She was also a sister of Gen. Simon Perkins, one of the distinguished characters in the history of the Western Reserve.
John Kinsman had enlisted in the Connecticut Militia in 1776, and participated in the battle of Long Island. He became a prisoner of war and was nearly starved while on a British prison ship. In 1797 he was elected to the Connecticut Legislature and was still a member when he first came West.
John Kinsman and Simon Perkins left Connecticut on horseback in 1799, and Mr. Kinsman made his headquarters at the home of John Young at Youngstown while looking after the surveying and preliminary improvements of his lands. He also put up a cabin near the center of Kinsman Township. His holdings in Kinsman and elsewhere aggregated all told over 16,000 acres.
Then in the spring of 1801 he was member of a notable party that left Connecticut for the new Connecticut of Ohio. Among his companions were Simon Perkins, George Tod, the Kirtland brothers, John S. Edwards and Calvin Pease. Arriving here John Kinsman began the construction of a home in the present business part of Kinsman, but in the fall returned to Connecticut, leaving the work to be finished by others. A carpenter was brought out from New Haven to erect the original church in the village, and the old Dudley Allen house was built by him and the Kinsman home was also built by him. Later John Kinsman's widow and his son John built a house still standing in the village.
John Kinsman brought his family west in 1804, his children at that time being John, Joseph, Sally and Olive. They came out with a degree of comfort and elegance beyond the means of most of the pioneers. There were several wagons and carts, a carriage for his wife and riding horses for the convenience of the travelers. Through his enterprise John Kinsman built mills and a store, and many families came with him or as a result of his coming. He also became prominent in local affairs, serving as an associate judge, took a leading part in county organization, and was also one of the projectors and largest subscribers to the Western Reserve Bank, the first bank in Northern Ohio. In looking after the improvement and disposition of his lands, and for the purpose of buying goods, he made a number of trips on horseback to Philadelphia and Connecticut and spent many nights sleeping outdoors. John Kinsman died August 17, 1813, at the age of sixty. The administrator of his estate was his brother-in-law, Gen. Simon Perkins. He was survived by his widow until May 27, 1864. She was a devoted member of the Congregational Church of. Kinsman, and gave liberally of her means towards the construction of the present church and parsonage, including an endowment. She donated the bell still in use. She also gave liberally to the Western Reserve College. An oil portrait of this noble pioneer woman still adorns one of the rooms of the home of her granddaughter, Miss Mary B. Kinsman.
The children of John Kinsman were: John, who was born in 1793 and died in 1864, spending his life as a farmer and merchant at Kinsman; Joseph, born in 1795, and died in 1819, while a student at Yale College; Rebecca, born in 1796 and died in 1797; Sarah, born in 1798 and died in 1807; Olive Douglas, who died in 1835, was the wife of George Swift, an attorney and legislator who died in 1845 ; Thomas, born in 18o4, shortly after the arrival of the family in the Western Reserve; Frederich, born in 1807 and died in 1882, who was a distinguished resident of Warren, where his sons Thomas and Charles still reside; Joanna, born in 18o8 and died in 18o9, and also another daughter that died in infancy.
Thomas Kinsman, of the second generation of the family in Ohio, was born August 4, 1804. He was named for his uncle, Gen. John Thomas, one of the first generals appointed by the Continental Congress. December 29, 1847, he married Sophia Burnham, who was born at Kinsman, March 10, 1825, daughter of Jedidiah and Sophia (Bidwell) Burnham. Thomas Kinsman owned about 2,000 acres, part of it being of the original estate of his father. This land had all the characteristics of Kinsman Township fertility, was well watered with abundant springs, and became one of the splendid farms of
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Trumbull County. Thomas Kinsman for a number of years was a successful breeder of Durham cattle. At his death on April z6, 1875, he was the oldest native citizen of Kinsman. When he was a child the Indians had called him Nicka-Goose, meaning fat otter. He was of stocky build, strong and vigorous, of buoyant spirits, and enjoyed a wide social acquaintance. Thomas Kinsman built the family home in 1854, still standing in excellent condition. Another feature of the grounds is a double line of maples which he set out about eighty years ago. The old Thomas Kinsman place was not sold out of the family until 1919, and is now part of a group of farms known as the Edgewood farms, dedicated to the breeding of Holstein cattle.
Mrs. Thomas Kinsman survived her husband many years and died at the old home June 13, 1912. Physically she was frail, but always showed a keen and far reaching interest in whatever stood for advancement anywhere. The Kinsman estate required a large amount of labor, and it was not unusual for twenty or more men to be regularly employed. Thomas Kinsman was very fond of fine horses, though he did not approve of racing.
A brief record of the children of Thomas Kinsman and wife is as follows: Sophia Burnham was born in 1850 and died October 5, 1913, was the wife of Caleb Wayne Bidwell, who died January 6, 1918, and they lived on the old Kinsman farm. Cornelia Pease, born in 1852, never married, and died in 1888. Ellen D. died at the age of seven years. Thomas, born May 21, 1857, married Bertha Wilson Smith, of London, Ohio, in 1904, has spent his life at Kinsman, but has served the state by nine terms in the House of Representatives and in the Senate. Alfred, born October 22, 1858, is a bachelor. Mary Burnham, born November 17, 1862, has been a capable factor in the .life of the home and farm for many years, and gave much attention to the handling of the estate until the greater part of the farm was sold in 1919. She still retains a 450-acre place, part of the original tract, and conducts it as a dairy farm. The Pymatuning Creek, which runs through this farm, at one time furnished water power for John Kinsman's mills. The old Piqua Indians had one of their favorite camping grounds on the banks of the same stream. Miss Kinsman owns a fine home in the Village of Kinsman, and for the past seven or eight years has enjoyed her winters in a home. at St. Cloud, Florida. She is a member of the Old Kinsman Church and is active in various women's clubs. She has brought up from early childhood and educated Miss Gladys D. Dunbar, a graduate of Fisk University and teacher at Kansas Educational Industrial Institute.
ERNEST E. HAWK, one of the young and progressive business men of Youngstown, is an engineer by early training, but most of his time has been taken up with real estate and industrial affairs, as a partner with his brother, O. E. Hawk.
Mr. Hawk was born on a farm at Wilding, West Virginia, March 9, 1890, son of Adam and Margaret (Wilkinson) Hawk. His father served as a Union officer in the Civil war, and during the eighties they were residents near Kansas City, Missouri, but sub sequently moved to West Virginia, where he and his wife both died.
Ernest E. Hawk lived on the home farm until he was about fifteen years of age. He attended district schools graduated from the high school at Ravens- wood, West Virginia, and pursued a technical course in Marshall College at Huntington, West Virginia, where he specialized in civil engineering, later taking up architectural engineering.
Mr. Hawk came to Youngstown in 1907 to join his brother O. E. Hawk, then engaged in the real estate brokerage business. The brothers have been closely associated in nearly all their enterprises since. Ernest E. Hawk is vice president of the Hawk-Palmer Company, is treasurer of the Iron City Lumber Company and a director of the United Insurance Company of Youngstown and also of the Summitville Clay Products Company.
During the year 1918 he gave practically all his time to the service of the Government, with headquarters at Washington. The American Red Cross delegated him special responsibilities in the buying of materials for building, steel and machinery lines. He was also deeply interested in solving the problem of production of portable housing plans, and in that was associated with his brother. The brothers bought supplies for nearly all the allied nations.
Mr. Hawk is a director of the Young Men's Christian Association at Youngstown, and is chairman of its committee on physical training. He is a member of the Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church, is affiliated with the Elks Order and the Elks Club, the Poland Country Club and the Kiwanis Club, the Engineers' Club and the Chamber of Commerce. In politics he is a republican. October 26, 1912, Mr. Hawk married Miss Alice Magdelene James, daughter of William T. James of Youngstown. Their two children are Ernest E., Jr., and Mary Jane.
MICHAEL J. MALONEY is a prominent young merchant, head of the partnership Maloney & Williams at Youngstown.
He was born at Buffalo, New York, September 25, 1881, son of Michael and Mary (O'Connell) Maloney. His parents were born in Ireland, came to the United States before marriage, and Michael Maloney, Sr., was married at Buffalo, New York. About 1882 he moved with his family to Niles, Ohio, and for many years was employed in Ward's mill. He is now retired at Niles.
Michael J. Maloney, oldest of three children, grew up at Niles, attended the parochial schools, and when about seventeen years of age began clerking in a local grocery store. He was later clerk in the furnishing department of the store of which W. A. Thomas was the head. After three years he came to Youngstown and continued in the same line of business for M. U. Guggenheim. He embarked his capital and credit in March, 1911, in partnership with B. Frank Williams, under the name of Maloney & Williams, in the haberdashery and tailoring business, and their combination of brains and progressive business talent has made this firm singularly successful. Besides their large business at Youngstown they conduct a branch establishment at Warren.
Mr. Maloney is a Catholic, and is a member of the
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Poland Country Club, the Trumbull Club, the Elks and the Knights of Columbus.
B. FRANK WILLIAMS, of the firm Maloney & Williams, haberdashers and tailors at Youngstown, is a representative of the best among the young business men of the present day. He has won success through hard work and close application.
Born April 20, 1888, at Newport, Kentucky, he was reared there and attended public schools to the age of twelve. He was then brought to Youngstown, Ohio, by his parents, William and Mary (Wester-house) Williams. William Williams was a native of Indiana and for many years was a roller in iron and steel mills. More recently he has been engaged in the oil business at Youngstown. B. Frank Williams completed his education in the Wood Street School in Youngstown, and when a boy in years was earning a living as clerk in a local store. He had the thrift and good sense to save what he could, and therefore had some capital when in 1911 he formed a partnership with M. J. Maloney in the haberdashery and tailoring business. The young men had much more than capital, a boundless energy and really successful experience, and their business has grown and prospered and is now represented both in Youngstown and Warren.
Mr. Williams is a member of the local organization known as the Phi Sigma Phi Club, is affiliated with the Elks Club, and in Masonry is a Knight Templar, a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite and a Mystic Shriner.
March 3, 1910, he married Miss Mary Hamlin, of Youngstown. They have a family of three children, the two sons being Donald and Lee and the daughter Sidna.
JOHN B. WHITE. The valuable farm of John B. White is one of the well cultivated ones of Mahoning County, and it is located in the northeast corner of Coitsville Township on the Pennsylvania state line, seven miles east of the courthouse at Youngstown. Mr. White was born on this farm on October 12, 1862. His father, John White, was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, in 1819, and died in 1906, aged eighty-seven years. When he was seven years old John White was brought to the United States by his parents, Hugh and Rosanna White, who located at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and spent seven years in that city, he operating as a peddler in order to get a start. At first he carried his goods in a basket, but as s00n as he had saved a little he bought a horse and wagon, and later two horses, and then he expanded his territory until it extended as far west as Columbus, Ohio. Being pleased with the country he passed through, Hugh White bought a farm, after a short period spent in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, and a portion of it is now owned by his grandson, John B. Hugh White died on that farm in 1872. He had two children, John and Mary, the latter first marrying a Mr. Sweazey, and after his death, becoming the wife of Thomas Mayers, and settled at Hubbard, Trumbull County, Ohio, where she died at an advanced age.
John White inherited his father's farm, and was married in 1854 to Eliza Dickenson, born in County Monaghan, Ireland, but was brought when five years old to the United States by her parents, and they settled at Lowellville, and there William Dickenson worked at his trade of wagonmaking. Mrs. White was reared at Lowellville, and after their marriage she and her husband moved to the White homestead, but soon left it for the adjoining farm. At one time John White owned 270 acres of land, and managed about b00 acres, operating extensively as a sheepraiser, but was not an exhibitor. Although a democrat, his personal popularity was so great as to enable him to run successfully on his party ticket for township trustee in a republican township. He and his wife had the following children: Hugh J., who died at the age of thirty-two years, spending the last five years of his life as bookkeeper for a Cleveland concern; George D., who was a partner of his brother John B. in the operation of the homestead for some years, is now retired and lives at Bedford, Pennsylvania; William B., who is a merchant of Springdale, Pennsylvania, was a teacher in early life and also spent some time in the West; John B., whose name heads this review ; and Robert F., who was formerly a school teacher of Mahoning County, is now in partnership with his brother William B.
John B. White has always lived on the farm which is now owned by the four living sons of his father, and he carries on general farming and dairying. He is one of the boosters for good roads and has served as delegate to a number of good roads conventions, and was one of the first road commissioners of the township. Mr. White has been on the school board for sixteen years, and was assessor for four years, resigning that office so as to give more time to his personal affairs. As a democrat he has taken part in his party's committee work for years. He was reared in the faith of the Presbyterian Church, and attends its services. Mr. White is unmarried. Having spent his life in this neighborhood, he is naturally identified with it in every way, and anxious to see it keep abreast of the times. Having studied the problem of good roads, he is convinced of the advisability of providing for them, and is endeavoring to educate others to look at the matter as he does for the good of the community. All his mature years he has been a constructive force, and his influence is strong not only in Coitsville Township, but throughout the county where his name stands for good citizenship and honorable dealing.
JAMES B. ROBERTS has given eighteen years to the service of the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company. Except for a brief interval he has lived in Youngstown all his life, and is a member of one of the early families of the Mahoning Valley.
His ancestors have been in the United States for many generations and he is of Revolutionary stock. His grandfather, William Roberts, came to Ohio in pioneer days and settled in the Bear Den District of Mahoning County, where he farmed. He spent his last years near Farmington.
The father of James B. Roberts was James P. Roberts, who was twelve years of age when brought to Ohio. He attended district school at Bear Den and as a boy worked in one of the first blast furnaces of
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the valley, located in what is now Mill Creek Park. When the Civil war came on he joined Company D of the Sixth Ohio Cavalry, and subsequently re-enlisted in the One Hundred and Seventy-First Ohio Infantry and served a total of twenty-two months. After the war he learned the machinist's trade, and for many years was an employe of the William Tod Company. A skilled workman, a man of sturdy character, unassuming in disposition, his life was best appreciated by the company that employed him and by his immediate family to whose interests he was always devoted. He died in 1900, his wife, Eliza (Hall) Roberts, having passed away in 1888. Of their four children three are still living.
James B. Roberts is the youngest of the family and was born at Youngstown September 3o, 1882. He graduated from the Rayen High School in 1901, and almost immediately went to New York City and became a clerk for the National Steel Company. That company was absorbed by the United States Steel Corporation in 1901, and was given the name of the Carnegie Steel Company. In December, 19o2, Mr. Roberts left the Carnegie Company and became identified with the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, at first in the order department, but for the last ten years has been connected with the sales department.
A young man of established position in local business circles, Mr. Roberts is also active in several other organizations, including the Youngstown Club, Youngstown Chamber of Commerce, and is a Methodist and republican. September 3o, 1907, he married Miss Lucy B. Creed, of Youngstown. The five children in their home are James B., Jr., Phoebe, Zaide, Dorothy and Philip.
WILLIAM C. FRANCIS. For more than half a century the Francis family has been identified with the Mahoning Valley. Two brothers, John and William Francis, conduct a large and successful general insurance agency at Youngstown. Their father, the late William C. Francis, had a long life of interesting experience and notable achievement.
William C. Francis was born in South Wales January II, 1831, and as he grew to manhood he learned the trade of coal mining. His first trip to the United States was made in 1852, and he worked in the great anthracite coal regions of Pottsville, Pennsylvania. About 1853 he yielded to the tremendous attractions furnished by the gold discoveries of the Pacific Coast, and, journeying by way of the Isthmus of Panama, reached California. He was there a few years, then returned to Wales, again visited California, and altogether spent about eleven years in that state. On his second return to Wales he married Mary Phillips. In 1867 they came to this country to make their permanent home, and located at Youngstown. William C. Francis had given the first evidence of his intention to become a permanent citizen of the United States in California in October, 1864, when he took out his first papers beginning the course of naturalization. At Youngstown he turned his talents to coal mining and coal development as a contractor. For Henry Wick he sank the old Packard shaft and did other contract work on the slope of the Leadville shaft and was interested in the mines of Mineral Ridge and Weathersfield. Out of practical experience he developed a high rank as an expert mining engineer, and through the energetic prosecution of his profession and his business affairs accumulated a considerable estate.
In religion he was an active member of the Congregational Church, and was an honored member of Hebron Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. William C. Francis died February it, 1898. He is remembered for his robust physique, congenial personality, and altogether was a man to attract and cement strong friendships. His unswerving integrity gave his character real distinction. He was a friend of the unfortunate, and bestowed not a little of his competence in helping others.
Mrs. William C. Francis is still living. She was liberally educated in her native country and had the Welsh gift of music and song. She has long been an ardent advocate of temperance, and in early days was widely known as a recitationist. Much of the credit is due her for bringing up her family of five children with correct ideas of the best principles of American citizenship. These children are : John P.; William M.; Gweny, wife, of David J. Evans; Mary A.; and Rachel, now deceased, a former teacher in the Youngstown schools.
The two living sons are and have been for several years associated in the general insurance and real estate business at Youngstown. John P. Francis, the older brother, was born at Youngstown April r, 1869. During part of his boyhood his parents lived on a tract of land now included in the city limits, but then in the country. For his education he depended upon rural schools, the public schools in the city and also took courses in night and Young Men's Christian Association schools. For a time he was in the employ of the Carnegie Steel Company and since February I, 1904, has been in the general insurance business, while since the spring of 1911 h, has been the active head of the John P. Francis Insurance Agency. He is a member of the Poland Country Club, the Youngstown Association of Credit Men, the Youngstown Chamber of Commerce, the Plymouth Congregational Church, the Young Men's Christian Association. November 25, 1897, Mr. John P. Francis married Margaret Rees. They have one son, Walter R.
William M. Francis, the other brother, was born at Youngstown February 20, 1871, and as a boy attended country schools. At the age of sixteen he was working in the old Youngstown Rolling Mill as a heater's helper. His further education was acquired after and between working hours by attending night school, while at the age of eighteen he took a business college course at Youngstown. Following that for a time he was bookkeeper and collector for the Youngstown Ice Company, and for five years was in the service of the G. M. McKelvey Company. He entered the life insurance field in 1895, representing the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company of Springfield, Massachusetts. He has been steadily in the service of that old and well known insurance corporation for a quarter of a century, though in later years he has also been active with his brother in general insurance. In 1898 the Massachusetts Company sent him as its representative to Easton, Penn-
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sylvania. He was also their representative at Wilkesbarre and for fourteen years was representative at St. Louis. While in St. Louis he took up the study of law and graduated in June, 1912, from the Benton College of Law of that city. Though admitted to the bar, he has never actively practiced. For two years he also attended the Academic Department of Benton College.
In 1918 Mr. William Francis went to France as a Young Men's Christian Association secretary under the auspices of the War Council, and for about five months was on duty in the region of Verdun. He returned to this country in July, 1919. Mr. Francis, who is unmarried, is a Knight Templar York Rite and thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, a Mystic Shriner and belongs to the Congregational Church and the Young Men's Christian Association.
THOMAS G. DAVIS. One of the prominent iron masters of the Mahoning Valley for many years was the late Thomas G. Davis, whose abilities made him widely appreciated and known in this iron and steel district.
He was a native of Wales and before coming to America was furnace superintendent for the Palmer Ship Building Company at Jarrow-on-Tyne, England. Mr. W. W. Andrews, brother of Chauncey Andrews of Youngstown, Ohio, on visiting England met Mr. Davis while blast furnace superintendent of the Palmer Company, visited at his house for two days and went about with him inspecting the blast furnaces of the company. Subsequently he traveled through Europe, and on again passing through Jarrow-on-Tyne called on Mr. Davis and made him an offer to take charge of two blast furnaces at Haselton, Ohio, two miles below Youngstown. At that time Mr. Davis had not made up his mind to a change, but after the departure of Mr. Andrews corresponded with him and the result was he decided to accept the offer. The Palmer Ship Building Company gave him a leave of absence for three months to take charge of the blast furnaces for Andrews Brothers, with provision that if not pleased with his new environment he might return and resume his work with the Palmer Company. After a three months' trial he was so well pleased that he sent for his family and they arrived in September, 1872. Mr. Davis made one visit to England later, and this visit confirmed his good judgment in making America his home.
He remained with the Andrews Brothers five years, at a time when its output was fifty tons per day. He next became superintendent of the Blast Furnace at Bellaire, Ohio, remaining there two years, and then came to Lowellville as superintendent of the Ohio Iron and Steel Company. He started that plant with an output of thirty tons of pig iron daily. After two years at Lowellville he returned to Bellaire again as furnace superintendent, and for a brief time was also superintendent of the Woodward Iron Company in Alabama. His last and longest service, continuing until he retired, was with the Brown-Bonnell blast furnaces at Youngstown, serving as their superintendent for about eighteen years.
Thomas G. Davis died at Youngstown, May 14, 1904. He married in England, Anne Evans, who died in 1915, and they were the parents of a family of four sons and four daughters.
DAVID DAVIS, a son of the late Thomas G. Davis, the well known furnace superintendent of the Ma honing Valley, was born at Middlesboro-on-Tees: England, September 21, 1862, and was about ten years of age when he came to America with th family.
After attending school he went to work as "roustabout" under his father at Bellaire, Ohio. Th family moved to Lowellville in 1880, where he entered the employ of the Ohio Iron & Steel Company, uncle Robert Bentley, then secretary and general manages and later president and general manager of that company. Mr. Davis acquired a thorough knowledg of the iron business, and through his qualification he became secretary and treasurer of the Ohio Iron & Steel Company, which position he held up to th time the Ohio Iron & Steel Company sold its bias furnace at Lowellville to the Sharon Steel Hoop Company in February, 1918, but he is still with th Ohio Iron & Steel Company, as secretary, with offices in the Stambaugh Building, Youngstown, Ohio
Mr. Davis is also secretary of the Ohio & Pennsylvania Belt Line Railroad Company, is a director it the Orient Coke Company of Pennsylvania, and dur ing his residence at Lowellville, Ohio, he served a president of the Board of Education and also a treasurer and trustee of the Presbyterian Church.
Mr. Davis is a member of the Youngstown Club and is affiliated with the Masonic Order.
The family home at Youngstown is at 910 Wick Avenue. Mr. Davis married Miss Maze Nessle, o Lowellville, Ohio, in November, 1893. They have two children : Robert and Mary Lovinah. Both an graduates of high sch00l, and the son also iron Wesleyan College at Middletown, Connecticut, and the daughter from the Martha Washington College a Washington, D. C.
CLIFFORD M. WOODSIDE, one of the ex-service men and officers of the Youngstown district, practice( law for three years at Youngstown before he enterer the army, and is now a member of the law firm of Dornan & Woodside. He is also a United State! commissioner for Youngstown.
Mr. Woodside was born at Middletown, Pennsyl. vania, September 21, 1890, son of D. E. E. and Mary (Mayberry) Woodside. His father, who moved to Youngstown about 1896 and was connected with the old National Tube Works, is at present a master mechanic with the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company.
Clifford Woodside acquired some of his education at Youngstown, for a time was a student in the Rayen High School, where he completed his freshman year, took his sophomore year in the high school at Scranton, Pennsylvania, and graduated from the high school of Harrisburg, that state, in wog. From high school he began the study of law in the Ohio State University at Columbus, graduating in 1914. Mr. Woodside at first was engaged in an individual practice at Youngstown, and in three years had developed a promising business and practice as a lawyer.
In September, 1917, he left with the selective serv-
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ice men for Camp Sherman, and was trained in the ranks for four months. In January, 1918, he entered the Third Officers' Training School at Camp Sherman, and in April, 1918, was recommended for second lieutenant and sent to Camp Gordon, Georgia, where he received his commission as a second lieutenant in the infantry June 5, 1918. In August of that year he was commissioned a first lieutenant. During most of the time Mr. Woodside was on special duty, chiefly as an instructor in bayonet work and hand to hand fighting. He was granted an honorable discharge in January, 1919, and at once resumed his law practice at Youngstown as a member of the firm noted above. His commission as United States commissioner is dated in November, 1919.
Mr. Woodside is a democrat, is affiliated with the Masonic and Odd Fellows fraternities and also with the college fraternity Delta Theta Phi.
GEORGE R. CLEGG is a son of Samuel B. Clegg, the prominent Youngstown citizen and business man whose career has been sketched elsewhere. The son in addition to being identified with his father's business has branched out independently, and has made a reputation for himself as a young man of sterling qualifications.
He was born at Youngstown August 16, 1883, and as a boy attended the grammar and the Rayen High schools. His business career began as an employe of Clegg Brothers, of which his father was senior member, and he has remained with that institution ever since, except one year he spent traveling in the Northwest and two years in California.
About a year ago Mr. Clegg began to handle independently in carload lots flour and feed, and has now extended his business over a radius of fifty miles around Youngstown.
Mr. Clegg is a member of the Youngstown Club, the Youngstown Chamber of Commerce, the Rotary Club, and is affiliated with the lodge, chapter and council bodies of Masonry. September 17, 1910, he married Miss Florence McKelvey, daughter of G. M. McKelvey.
ROBERT WADSWORTH, who since leaving university has been officially identified with several commercial organizations at Youngstown and elsewhere, and spent nearly a year in the Red Cross service in France, is a native of the Mahoning Valley, born at West Farmington, Trumbull County, June 30, 1885. He is a son of Frederick Backus and Mary (Millikan) Wadsworth.
He graduated from the high school at Warren in 1902, and from the University of Michigan with the A. B. degree in 1906. He was made a member of the Alpha Tau Omega college fraternity. After several years associated with his father as a furniture merchant he became assistant secretary of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, holding that office from 19̊9 until 1912. Part of that time he was secretary of the Cleveland Advertising Club when it became known as the leading organization of its kind in the country.
In 1912 Mr. Wadsworth left Cleveland and for the following two years was secretary of the Chamber of Commerce of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He was then elected secretary of the Youngstown Chamber of Commerce, and handled many of the executive responsibilities of that organization until April, 1918.
He then enlisted in the Red Cross, sailing for France April 14, 1918, and soon afterward was appointed director of the Bureau of Supplies for the Eastern Zone in France with the rank of captain. This service required his attention for some months after the armistice, and he did not return to this country until March, 1919. In the earlier months of the war he served as secretary of the Liberty Loan Committee for Mahoning County, and occupied the same position after his return. Mr. Wadsworth is now a vice president of the Youngstown Securities Company.
He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, of the Youngstown Club, the Rotary Club, the First Presbyterian Church, and is chairman of the board of trustees of the Yale Sch00l of Youngstown. His home is at 277 Alameda Avenue in Youngstown. June 16, 191o, he married Miss Helen Cary Dustin, of Gloucester, Massachusetts. They have two children, Helen and Harvey.
EDMUND MCDONALD, JR. The Youngstown community has some grateful memories of the splendid service Mr. McDonald rendered for six years as general secretary of the Young Men's Christian Association. He gave many years to association work here and elsewhere in the country, but three years ago he located permanently at Youngstown to engage in the real estate business.
Mr. McDonald was born at Concord, North Carolina, December 18, 1880. His father, Edmund McDonald, was a native of Pennsylvania and as a youth went south and helped his father build one of the first cotton mills in the southern states. At Concord Edmund McDonald, Sr., married Rosalie Williams, who is now living at Charlotte, North Carolina. The father died at Concord about 1885.
Edmund McDonald, Jr., grew up in his native state, and finished his education in the State University. He was identified with Young Men's Christian Association work for sixteen years, beginning while in the university. For two years he was with the west .side Young Men's Christian Association at New York City, and came to Ohio as general secretary of the association at Piqua. Mr. McDonald first came to Youngstown in 19o9, and served six years as general secretary. During his administration a great impetus was given to association work, one prominent feature of which was the building of the present Young Men's Christian Association Building. On leaving Youngstown Mr. McDonald spent a year as general secretary of the Central Young Men's Christian Association at St. Louis, and following that was general secretary of the State Young Men's Christian Association of Georgia, with headquarters at Atlanta.
Resigning his active responsibilities with this great Christian organization Mr. McDonald in January, 1917, returned to Youngstown, and. with the advantage of a large previous acquaintance in the city has made rapid strides in building up a large real estate business. He is a member of the Youngstown Real Estate Board, Chamber of Commerce, Youngstown Club and Youngstown Country Club, and is identified with
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the local Young Men's Christian Association and the First Presbyterian Church.
October 7, 1908, Mr. McDonald married Alta Keepers, of Garden, Illinois. They have three children, George K., Helen S. and Alta.
Mr. McDonald contributed his individual energies to the notable war achievements of Youngstown. He served as secretary of the Mahoning County Red Cross drive for membership in 1917. In 1918 he was secretary of the County War Stamp campaign, and in 1920 acted as chairman for the campaign for the County Red Cross.
WILLIAM J. GUTKNECHT became a resident of Youngstown in 1901, and his business associations ever since have been with the Youngstown Arc Engraving Company, of which he is manager.
Mr. Gutknecht was born at Canton, Ohio, June 6, 1883, son of Lewis and Savilla Rebecca (Mountain) Gutknecht. His grandfather, John Gutknecht, was a native of Berne, Switzerland, and was the founder of the family in America. He proved his loyalty to his adopted country by serving as a Union soldier during the Civil war with a regiment of Ohio artillery. Lewis Gutknecht is a machinist by trade, and is still living at Canton.
William J. Gutknecht was reared in his native city, graduated in the commercial course from the Canton High School in 1900, and in December of the same year began working in an engraving establishment. The following year he came to Youngstown, and has handled every duty and responsibility in the business offices of the Arc Engraving Company. For ten years he has been manager, and has been responsible for the steadily increasing volume of business that has come to this splendidly equipped concern.
Mr. Gutknecht is associated with the Rotary Club, the Youngstown Chamber of Commerce, Youngstown Club, and is a member of the Youngstown Real Estate Board and the Engineers Club of the Youngstown District. He is a Knight Templar and Scottish Rite Mason and a member of Al Koran Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of Cleveland, Ohio. He and his wife are members of the Plymouth Congregational Church. June 6, 1906. he married Florence S. Crew, of Youngstown. Their home has been blessed with three children, Margaret Savilla, William J., Jr., and Doris.
J. RALPH SEIDNER was born in Youngstown, May 27, 1885. The home of the Seidner family at that time occupied the exact location of the depot of the Youngstown and Southern Railroad ; in fact he was born in what is now the waiting room of this depot. The old family home was remodeled into the present depot. His parents were Jonathan and Isabella (Morgan) Seidner. His father was born in Petersburg, Mahoning County, and his mother in Brier Hill, a suburb of Youngstown.
He received his education in the old Front Street and. Rayen schools. As a high school boy he was greatly interested in athletics and spent all his spare time in the gymnasium. He was very apt at this kind of work and in his senior year left school and became the physical director of the Young Men's Christian Association at Charlotte, North Carolina. At that time he was but nineteen years old and was the youngest man filling such a position in the United States. He continued this work for two years with very successful results, in fact his classes became so large and many that he accomplished the work now done by three instructors. Spurred on by his success, he never thought of himself and finally one night, after having had an unusually hard day, he collapsed and remained unconscious for two weeks. After three months in the hospital he recovered sufficiently to return to his former home in Youngstown.
In the hope of regaining his health he became in. terested in automobiles and for the last fourteen years he has followed this line of business in all its branches. He is now distributor for the Parenti automobile in Pittsburgh and also has a retail agency for the same automobile in Youngstown.
Mr. Seidner's hobbies include motor-boating and flying at both of which he is very adept. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Elks and Masons.
EDWARD L. FORD was born at Albany, New York, March 24, 1856, his ancestors for generations having been well known residents of that locality. Among these, his paternal grandfather was a merchant and his father an attorney, and on the maternal side his grandfather, George R. Rudd, was a Presbyterian minister. All of these were college men, something rather unusual at that day. His parents were John W. and Francis Deeming (Rudd) Ford.
Graduating from Yale in 1876, Mr. Ford took a post-graduate course in metallurgy and then entered the Bessemer steel plant at Troy, New York, as a laborer. From that city he went to Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and was for a time employed in the Cambria Works. Later he was connected with the Springfield Iron Company at Springfield, Illinois. In 188o he went to Europe, spending a year in the iron districts of England, France and Germany, and making a study of methods in use there. On his return to America he spent some time at the Edgar Thompson Steel Works, coming from that plant to the Brier Hill Iron & Coal Company at Youngstown. In 1882, in company with John Stambaugh and others, he organized the Youngstown Steel Company, which erected at Brier Hill a plant for making "washed metal," and later acquired the Tod furnace and other interests. Mr. Ford was general manager of the Youngstown Steel Company during its active career and has been its president for a number of years. The concern is now a holding company and not engaged in production. Mr. Ford serves on the directorate of a number of important local companies.
In addition to his activities in industrial lines he has been prominent in community affairs during his residence in Youngstown, and is a member of various clubs and social organizations, civic and financial. He was married on November 3, 1887, to Blanche (now deceased), eldest daughter of Joseph G. Butler, Jr. They had two children, John W. Ford, a graduate of Yale and of the Harvard Law School, and Josephine, both residents of Youngstown.
GEORGE L. OLES. Instances are numerous in the Mahoning Valley where men who have had but limited educational advantages have attained more
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than the usual measure of success ; who, beginning at the bottom of life's ladder, have worked themselves to the top without outside assistance. Such men possess peculiar qualities, for in order to have accomplished what they have it has been necessary for them to have been self-reliant, capable, honorable and energetic. Through patient utilization of whatever opportunities have come their way these men have distanced their associates and have become leaders in the army of business men. Youngstown has been for many years the field of operation for aggressively successful men, and one who essentially belongs to this class is George L. Oles, the owner of the largest retail establishment of its kind at Youngstown.
Mr. Oles, who has been a resident of Youngstown for the past twelve years, was born at Riceville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania, November 2, 1871. His father, M. W. Oles, was also a native of the Keystone State, a farmer by occupation and a soldier of the Union during the Civil war. The family moved to Youngstown in 1907, and here the mother, whose maiden name was Ida Allen, died in 1909, the father surviving until 1917. One of two children, George L. Oles was reared on the farm of his parents and in youth had few educational opportunities. At fifteen years of age he found a job packing kindling wood in a factory of that kind, and at once began to save his wages. At the end of four years he had accumulated sufficient capital, through consent industry and unending economy, to finance the opening of a modest restaurant venture at Austin, Potter County, Pennsylvania, where he remained two years. Disposing of his business to advantage, he went to the City of Buffalo, New York, where he extended his operations to cover the ownership of a grocery and meat market, and after three years sold out and made another move, this time locating at Shelby, Ohio. After this he made a number of changes, seeking a suitable location, and for a time was the proprietor of a fruit business at Elwood, Indiana. Later he went to Sandusky, Ohio, and then to New Castle, Pennsylvania, but finally settled permanently at Youngstown. Here he embarked in the retail fruit business on the Diamond, and then renoved to the Tod House corner. Later he was located at 30 East Federal Street, and in 1918 moved to his present location on the Diamond although he still maintains a branch at No. 3o East Federal Street. [n the spring of 1919 he established three electrical Ake ovens, of the National System, the finest in the :ity. Mr. Oles furnishes employment to about 100 men and women and transacts an annual average business of $100,000. His keen business sense has rendered him valuable in any line in which he has chosen to direct his efforts.
In 1900 Mr. Oles married Una P. Shipley, of Rochester, New York, and they are the parents of two children: Georgia and Gale.
CHESTER C. ISALY. In compiling this volume of epresentative citizen of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley occasion has been afforded to give he records of men in many walks of life. Here will e found appropriate mention of worthy citizens in all vocations, and at this juncture we are permitted
Vol. III-8
to offer a resume of the life record of one of the young and successful business men of this community, where, as manager of the Youngstown branch of the Isaly dairy interests, he has achieved a phenomenal success, demonstrating himself to be the possessor of unusual qualities as a business man, while his personal relations with the public have been such as to gain for him the universal respect and esteem of the community.
Chester C. Isaly is a native son of the old Buckeye State, having been born on his father's farm near Mansfield, Ohio, in 1886. His parents are William and Louise Isaly, natives of Switzerland, whence they came to the United States, settling on the Ohio River in Monroe County, Ohio. There William Isaly engaged in cheese making for a number of years, and met with a measure of success that encouraged him to widen his field of operations, so he eventually bought a large farm, about three miles from the City of Mansfield, and there manufactured cheese on a larger scale. Subsequently he added a general dairy business, which also was successful, and has been continued to the present time. They sold milk, butter and cheese in Mansfield and surrounding country, and their products gained an enviable reputation because of their high quality, the business growing to such an extent that they finally erected a large and up-to-date plant in Mansfield designed exclusively for the handling of their dairy products and the manufacture of ice cream. The parents found able assistants in their children, each of whom contributed to the best of their ability to the upbuilding of the business, which has been extended, branches being established in several other places, and some of them are devoting their attention to the operation of the farm, milking the cows and raising the necessary feed, etc. Selma is the wife of John Mahon, of Mansfield, where he owns a model dairy farm ; Josephine remains at home with her parents ; Charles has charge of the Isaly plant at Marion, Ohio; Samuel, who is a graduate of the University of Chicago, where he trained for service in the World war, is in charge of the home plant at Mansfield; Henry, the youngest, is attending school at home.
Chester C. Isaly was reared under the parental roof and secured his education in the schools of Mansfield. From the time he was old enough he has taken an active part in the business and has been an important factor in its development. When their plant at Marion, Ohio, was established he took charge of it, remaining there for three years, or until 1918, when the Farmers Dairy Company of Youngs, town was purchased, since which time he has had charge of the business here. They have erected another modern plant here, constructed of brick and cement, and fireproof throughout, and still another extension of the business is contemplated. They employ forty persons, six trucks and ten wagons, and some idea of the importance of this concern can be deduced from the statement that in one year the volume of business has increased 50o per cent, the total now amounting to nearly a million dollars annually.
In 1916 Chester C. Isaly was married to Nellie Armstrong, of Mansfield, Ohio. He is a member of
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the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is of a high type of business man and none more than he deserves a fitting recognition among those men whose genius and abilities have achieved results that are more enviable and commendable.
ERNEST SALOW. Through close application to business and honorable methods in directing his own affairs, Ernest Salow, proprietor of the Hotel Salow at Youngstown, has built up an ample fortune from a very small beginning and is numbered with the substantial business men of this city.
Ernest Salow was born in Germany, July 10, 1852. His parents were Carl and Rachel (Rathsack) Salow, both now deceased. They came to the United States from Mecklenburg, Germany, when Ernest was fourteen years old, -their other surviving children being: Charles, of Hubbard, Ohio; Mrs. Lou Bata of Youngstown; and Mrs. Charles Simboldt of Hubbard. Before coming to the United States the father was a small farmer in Germany, but afterward worked as long as active in the coal mines near Hubbard, Ohio. He was an honest, hardworking man, and both he and wife were members of the Lutheran Church.
Ernest Salow, in 1868, helped to organize the Hubbard Cornet Band, and was a member of the same as long as he continued a resident of the village. He attended the public schools at Hubbard. He was about seventeen years old when he went to work in the coal mines, and he continued a miner until 1879, during this interval filling positions from the lowest to one of authority. In the above year Mr. Salow went into the grocery business at Hubbard and opened a bakery in connection. For six months he hired a regular baker, whom he assisted, and by that time had learned enough of the baking business to be able to conduct it alone, which he continued to do until 1881, when he moved to Youngstown and bought the business of Capt. John Beyer, located on the present site of the Hotel Salow. In 1890 he acquired the John F. Hines property, and then started a restaurant in connection with his bar and rented adjacent property, and from about that time his place has been called the Hotel Salow, his only early competitor being the Tod House. Since then Mr. Salow has improved and modernized his property, making many additions to the original structure, in 1900 buying the August Fisher property and in 19o4 the Daniel Gribbon place. Additionally he has acquired much valuable realty and has improved it all. In 1915 he built the McManus Block, one of the best business properties here. In earlier years he purchased the Woolworth Building, which was damaged by fire in 1908, but was re-built by Mr. Salow in 1909. He is a man of sound business judgment and, while never desiring a political office, has often, as a far-seeing private citizen, interested himself in civic matters that have proved very beneficial to Youngstown.
At Hubbard, Ohio, in 1874, Mr. Salow was married to Miss Louisa Krimmer who is deceased. She was a daughter of Gottlieb Krimmer, a prominent coal operator at Hubbard. They had one daughter, Gertrude C., who is the wife of Archibald Wilson. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson have three children, namely: Clara Louise, Marjory Gertrude and Ernest Salow Wilson. Mr. Wilson is a well known business man of Youngstown and is manager of the Hotel Salow. Mr. Salow belongs to the Lutheran Church, as did also his wife. He is a member of the Elks and Knights of Pythias, of a number of benevolent societies, and is a patron of good music at all times.
GEORGE V. THOMPSON. It is not an easy task to describe adequately a man who has led an eminently active and busy life and who has attained a position of relative distinction in the community with which his interests are allied. But biography finds its perfect justification, nevertheless, in the tracing the recording of such a life history. It is with a full appreciation of all that is demanded and of the scrutiny that must be accorded each statement, yet with a feeling of satisfaction, that the writer essays the task of touching briefly upon the details of such a record as has been that of the honord subject whose life now comes under review.
George V. Thompson, general superintendent of the Strouss-Hirshberg Company, was born at College Springs, Page County, Iowa, on September 29, 1878, and is the son of Robert M. and Mary C. (White) Thompson. Robert M. Thompson was born on a farm near Indiana, Indiana County, Pennsylvania, and was there reared, educated and married. After the latter event he moved to Page County, Iowa, and engaged in mercantile pursuits for several years. Eventually he returned to his native locality in Pennsylvania, where he remained until 1893, coming then to Youngstown, where he is now living, at the ripe old age of eighty-three years, his wife being three years his junior. They are members of the Epworth Methodist Episcopal Church here, and years ago, while living in Coalport, Pennsylvania, he was a member of the local school board. During the Civil war he enlisted in defense of the Union, as a member of a Pennsylvania regiment. He is now a member Tod Post, Grand Army of the Republic, of which he is chaplain. Politically he is an earnest supporter of the republican party. To these parents were born eleven children, of which number the subject of this sketch is the sixth in order of birth, and nine of the number are still living.
George V. Thompson attended the public schools of Coalport and Phillipsburg, Pennsylvania, and completed his studies in Youngstown. At the age of sixteen years he went to work in the old Globe store, owned by S. D. Currier, his duties being to sweep the floors and keep the store clean. Afterward he was for a time employed in his father's store on High Street. On April 26, 1898, he volunteered for service in the Spanish-American war, becoming a member of the Fifth Ohio Regiment of Volunteer Infantry, with which he served until receiving his discharge on November 5th of the same year at Tampa, Florida, where he was in training at the time. Upon his return home- he entered into a partnership with two of his brothers, H. P. and Rollin S., and they opened a general store at No. 1033 Mahoning Avenue. They continued the business until 3907, when the subject retired from the partnership and accepted the position of floor-walker in the Strouss-Hirshberg store, with which he has been identified ever since. Shortly
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after entering that establishment he was advanced to the position of buyer, then became assistant manager and finally was appointed general superintendent, in which position he is still serving most acceptably. Thoroughly. qualified in every way for the responsible post, he has made his services invaluable to the company with which he is associated, and his relations with those under him are such that he enjoys their general esteem and confidence.
In 1901 Mr. Thompson was married to Margaret Jones, the daughter of David Jones, and they have become the parents of one daughter, Lillian, now ten years old.
Politically a republican, Mr. Thompson has always taken a keen interest in local public affairs and has had an especial interest in educational matters. This fact was publicly recognized when recently he was elected a member of the Board of Education of the City of Youngstown, the honor coming to him entirely without any solicitation on his part. He and his wife are members of the Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church, in which society he is a member of the official board. He is also a member of the Spanish-American War Veterans Association. In all that constitutes true manhood and good citizenship he is a notable example, his career having been characterized by duty faithfully performed, and by industry, thrift and wisely-directed efforts.
ALMON MAX FRANKLE. An enumeration of the enterprising and representative Austrian-Hungarian citizens of Mahoning County would be incomplete without special mention of Almon Max Frankle, treasurer of Frankle Brothers Company of Youngstown, for since casting his lot with this community he has stamped the impress of his individuality upon the community and benefited alike himself and his neighbors. While laboring for his own advancement he has not been selfish and neglected his duties to the public in general, but has always supported such measures as make for the general good.
Almon M. Frankle was born in Austria-Hungary on April 1, 1867, the son of Simon B. and Mary Frankle. He attended school there until 1880, when, at the age of fourteen years, he came to the United States with his sister, Mrs. Louis Klaster, whose husband now conducts a grocery store on West Federal Street, Youngstown. Mr. Frankle's first active employment in this country was as a pack peddler, in which humble but honorable employment he was fairly successful. However, he was ambitious, and so he applied himself to learn the trade of cigar making in the shop of Herman Rice on East Boardman Street. Sometime later he went to Cleveland and was employed in the cigar factory of Holstein & Goldberg. In 1884 Mr. Frankle engaged in the cigar business himself, first at Boardman and Watt streets, where he made and sold cigars. A year later he took his brother Mose into partnership, under the firm name of Frankle Brothers, and their business continued to grow. The second year they bought the business of Jenkins Powell Jones on East Federal Street, Mr. Jones being the famous singer of that day. The business continued to increase and in 1892 the firm moved to their present location at Phelps and Federal streets. Here they conduct both a wholesale and retail business, their sales extending over a radius of more than too miles around-Youngstown. They job high-grade goods and have gained a reputation for honest dealings and quality goods.
In 1892 Mr. Frankle was married to Rebecca Goodman, who was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the daughter of Jacob Goodman. To them have been born two children, Madeline H., who is the wife of Fred S. Ulman, and Jerome H., who is a student in the Rayen High School.
Politically Mr. Frankle is a staunch supporter of the republican party, while fraternally he is a member of the Masonic Order, in which he has attained to the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite, and of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He has taken an active part in welfare, religious and fraternal work. He is a member of the Children of Israel Congregation and is a member of the committee to which has been confined the supervision of the erection of the new temple for the Anshe Emeth Jewish congregation. In every relation of life Mr. Frankle has carefully observed the highest standard of ethics, and because of his business success and his splendid personal qualities he enjoys to an eminent degree the esteem and good will of all who know him.
JOHN DEVENNE. The man who has made a success of life and won the honor and esteem of his fellow citizens deserves more than passing notice. Such is the record, briefly stated, of John DeVenne, well-known citizen and pioneer business man of Youngstown. By a life of persistent and well applied energy and commendable industry led along the most honorable lines, he has justly earned the right to conspicuous mention in a work of the province of the one in hand, along with the other progressive and public-spirited men of the community who have made their influence felt on behalf of the best interests of the locality. And because of his unswerving honesty in all his dealings with his fellow men and his generous and kindly nature he has won and retained a host of warm personal friends throughout the locality long honored by his citizenship.
John DeVenne was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on January 21, 1858, and is the son of Alexander and Eliza Jane (Young) DeVenne. Alexander DeVenne was a native of County Derry in the north of Ireland, where he was born in 1826. He learned the trade of a mechanic under his father, who was an expert in that line, and became very proficient in the use of all kinds of tools and in wood working. In young manhood he immigrated to America, locating in St. Johns, New Brunswick, Canada, where he remained about a year. He then came to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he was married and where he resided until 1867, when he brought his family to Youngstown, Ohio. Here he bought a lot of William Warner and built him a home, in which he resided during the remainder of his life, his death occurring in 1912, at the age of eighty-six years. For many years he was active in building operations, assisting in the erection of many of the notable buildings of those days, among which were the old courthouse, the Front Street School and
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the old Howell Block, and during at least a portion of that time he was associated with 0. D. Jones. During two years of the Civil war he was employed by the government as a carpenter. He and-his wife were faithful members of the United Presbyterian Church. Mrs. DeVenne was born in Ireland and was the daughter of John Young, a clock maker, who died in his native land. Sometime afterward his widow brought her family to the United States, locating near Worcester, Massachusetts, subsequently moving to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where the daughter became the wife of Mr. DeVenne. Mrs. DeVenne died in 1877, when about fifty years of age. Of the eight children born to these parents four are living, the subject of this sketch being the oldest. The others are, Mary, the wife of Herman P. Orr, of Youngstown ; Samuel, a plumber in Canton, Ohio; and James T. Elizabeth died when twenty-eight years old and Alexander died at Cripple Creek, Colorado, at the age of forty-two years.
John DeVenne was about nine years of age when the family came to Youngstown, and he first attended a country sch00l located on what is now Mahoning Avenue, also attending the Wood Street School and Rayen High School. After leaving school he entered the employ of William Watson, who was engaged in the milk business, and remained with him for twelve years, milking cows and driving a wagon. In February, 1882, he bought of John K. Wolff a grocery store at the corner of Oakhill Avenue and Essex Street, and has continued to operate the store to the present time, a period of nearly forty years. The store is most eligibly located in one of the best sections of the city and at all times has enjoyed a large and representative patronage. He carries a complete and well-selected line of goods and his relations with his customers have always been of such a character that he has ever enjoyed the' confidence and good will of all who have had dealings with him.
In 1884, Mr. DeVenne was married to Mary A. Jones, the daughter of William Jones, of Portage County, Ohio, her birth having occurred near Thorn Hill on February 6, 1859. She died May II, 192o. They became the parents of three children, namely: Myron L., who graduated from the Rayen High School, the Western Reserve University and the Case School of Applied Science, and is now a resident of Rochester, New York, where he is district salesman for the Stromberg Electric Company; John C., who graduated from Rayen High School and Western Reserve University, and is now president and general manager of the Cleveland Cartage Company, one of the leading transfer companies of that city ; and M. Marjorie, who graduated from the South High School and Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts, with the class of 192o, and with the degree of B. A.
Politically Mr. DeVenne is a stanch supporter of the republican party; and has always taken a keen interest in local public affairs. He served as a member of the city council from the old Fourth Ward (now the Eighth Ward), for four years and served on the committee on legislation. During the third year of his service he was vice president of the council and was president the fourth year. He and his family are members of the Tabernacle United Presbyterian Church, of which he has been an elder for twelve years. Fraternally he is a member of Western Star Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, and the Junior Order of United American Mechanics. He has always been deeply interested in whatever tended to promote the prosperity of his city and county and has consistently supported all worthy public interests. By a straightforward and commendable course, he has long enjoyed a high position in the business world, earning a reputation as an enterprising, progressive man of affairs and as a broadminded, charitable and upright citizen.
WALTER WYATT MCKAY, A. B., M. D., of Warren, has been identified with the medical profession of the Mahoning Valley for ten years and with the civic and social life of Warren for the same length of time, and he has won a place among the successful physicians and surgeons and the worth-while citizens of the community.
While Doctor McKay is a Pennsylvanian by birth, lie is descended from two old Trumbull County families. He is in the fourth generation from Samuel McKay, who moved from Washington County, Pennsylvania, to West Middlesex Pennsylvania, in 1830. In 1838 he settled in Sharpsville; Pennsylvania, just across the Pennsylvania line from Trumbull County. His son, Wyatt McKay, married Eliza Montgomery, of Brookfield, Trumbull County, and lived there all his life. Samuel A. McKay, son of Wyatt, and father of the doctor, was for many years a merchant at Sharon, Pennsylvania. After his retirement from business he removed to Warren. He married Mary Clark, who was born in Canfield, Trumbull County (now Mahoning County), the daughter of Walter Clark, an early cabinet-maker and farmer of Canfield.
Doctor McKay was born at Sharon; Pennsylvania, on September 8, 1881. He attended the Sharon public schools, graduated from the Rayen High School, Youngstown, and entered Oberlin College in 1902, graduating A. B., class of 1905. He did postgraduate work, lectured and acted as athletic coach at Oberlin for a year, and entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons (Medical Department of Columbia University), where he studied medicine and acted as athletic coach for two years. He then took a two years' course in medicine and surgery at Western Reserve University, graduating M. D., class of 1910. He served as interne at Lakeside Hospital, Cleveland, for a period and in the fall of 1911 he entered practice at Warren.
Doctor McKay is a member of the Trumbull County Medical Society, the Ohio State Medical Society, the American Medical Association and is a member of the staff of Warren City Hospital.
During the World war Doctor McKay served, without compensation, as medical member of the Trumbull County Draft Board, and during the period of the war he subordinated his private interests and his personal practice, giving practically all of his time to the draft board.
Doctor McKay is a member of the Old Erie Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, Mahoning Chapter No. 66, Warren Council No. 58, Warren Commandery No. 39, and of the Al Koran Temple, Cleveland. He
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is also a member of Warren Lodge of Elks. He is a member of the Warren Board of Trade, Warren Rotary Club and the Country Club, also a member of the First Presbyterian Church.
Doctor McKay married Marie, daughter of Charles N. Russell, of Elgin, Illinois, and to them three sons have been born : John Russell, Robert Clark and Richard Wilbur.
CHARLES G. REED. There is no positive rule for achieving success, and yet in the life of the successful man there are always lessons which might well be followed. The man who gains prosperity is he who can see and utilize the opportunity that comes in his path. The essential conditions of human life are ever the same, the surroundings of individuals differing but slightly ; and when one man passes another on the highway of life to reach the goal of prosperity it is because he has the power to use advantages which probably encompass his fellows also. Today among the prominent citizens and successful business men of Youngstown stands Charles G. Reed. The qualities of keen discrimination, sound judgment and executive ability enter very largely into his makeup and have been contributing elements in the material success which has come to him.
Charles G. Reed probably enjoys the unique distinction of having owned at various time more drug stores in the City of Youngstown than any other person, he having adopted the policy of opening a store, stocking it thoroughly, getting a trade well established, and then selling the store. At the present time he is the owner of two stores, one at No. 210 Scott Street and the parent store at No. 1517 Market Street.
Mr. Reed is a native son of the old Buckeye State, having been born at Irondale, Jefferson County, Ohio, on June 3, 1880. He is the son of James and Emma (Champear) Reed, originally of Fairview, West Virginia, both of whom are now deceased, the father dying in 1916, at the age of sixty-five years, and the mother passing away soon afterward. The father, who was a wagonmaker by trade, came to Youngstown in 1911, and spent the remainder of his days here. The subject of this sketch attended the public schools of Irondale, graduating from the high school, and then took a course in pharmacy in the Northern Ohio University at Ada. For a time he was employed as a pharmacist at Wellsville, Ohio, and then went to Irwin, Pennsylvania, where for four years he conducted a drug store of his qwn. Then for ten months he owned a drug store in Wellsville, Ohio, which he sold and located in Youngstown, where he has since remained. He is a thoroughly competent drug man and has the business acumen necessary to make things come his way. His parent store is one of the leading drug stores of Youngstown and commands a large and representative trade. Mr. Reed was one of the organizers of the South Side Savings Bank, of which he was one of the first officers, and in many ways he has been a vital factor in the business life of the city now honored by his citizenship.
In 1900 Mr. Reed was married to Leonora Thompson, the daughter of Murray Thompson, of Irondale, Pennsylvania, and they are the parents of three children, Charles Gerald, Margaret and Raymond Pearson. Fraternally Mr. Reed is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is also an active member of the Youngstown Chamber of Commerce. Mrs. Reed is a member of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. Reed has ever enjoyed the respect and esteem of those who know him for his friendly manner, business ability, his interest in public affairs and upright living, and he is regarded by all as one of the substantial and worthy citizens of his community.
MARTIN VAN BUREN BENTLEY. From the earliest years of the nineteenth century the Bentleys have been a strong and substantial family of people in a section of the Mahoning Valley on both sides of the state line, but chiefly in Hubbard Township of Trumbull County. Their record connects them with the clearing of the forests and the building of some of the pioneer homes, with participation as soldiers in the wars of the nation, and with advancing stages of agriculture and business.
While he is now a resident of the Village of Hub-, bard and practically retired, Martin Van Buren Bentley has shared the characteristics of the family, and for many years was one of the leading farmers and sheep growers. He was born in Hubbard Township two and a half miles east of the village, almost at the state line, March 27, 1844, son of Joseph and Sarah (Veach) Bentley. His father was born over the Pennsylvania line in Pulaski in 1803, son of Newton and Jane Bentley, who came from Ireland and lived out their lives in Western Pennsylvania. Joseph Bentley when a young man came to Ohio, and one of the interesting incidents of his early experience was attending a barn raising for Jesse Veach, one of the prominent old Veach family of Trumbull County. At that barn raising, which in those days was considered a social function, he met Sarah Veach, and not long afterward they were happily married. Her parents were William and Peggy Veach, who came to Ohio from Virginia. Martin Van Buren Bentley's earliest recollections of his maternal grandfather concern his character as a local preacher of the Methodist Church. He carried the gospel all over this section, and for many years devoted himself to the itinerant ministry. Sarah's brother, Jesse Veach, spent all his life on his old farm, where he died in old age, and the place is still owned by his descendants. Joseph Bentley after his marriage settled near her parents, and both he and his wife attained advanced years, he dying in Hubbard at the age of eighty-one and she at the age of ninety-six. She practically never suffered the infirmities of age until as a result of a fall she broke her hip. Joseph Bentley was an old-style democrat, and was long an active member of the Veach Methodist Chapel, which her father had organized. Its original building erected in the earliest forties is still in use and in a good state of preservation. Joseph Bentley was the type of father who took his sons into co-operation with him and working together they built up a property of over 182 acres. What was long known as the family home had been erected with all its timbers hewed out of logs, and the house was one of the best of its kind. Some years after the Civil war the present residence was built by Martin Van Buren Bentley, who still owns the old homestead.
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The children of Joseph Bentley and wife were in addition to Martin Van Buren, Margaret, who died in infancy ; Hudson, who went to Mercer County, Pennsylvania, and died when past eighty-four years of age; Sarah Ann, a twin of Hudson, also lived to advanced age and became the wife of Warren Randall, their home being at Windom, Ohio; Emery, who died in 1863, while in the uniform of a Union soldier in Company C of the Nineteenth Ohio Infantry ; Lucy, who is living at Hubbard Village at the age of eighty-two, the widow of Oric Pothour, who died in 192o; Eunice Viola, the youngest, married Millard Jacobs and is living at Hubbard.
The two oldest sons, Hudson and Emery, early became associated with their father on the farm, and when Emery gave up his life to the country his place was taken by his brother Martin, who in the following year, 1864, also enlisted, joining the One Hundred and Seventy-First Ohio Infantry. He was with the regiment when it was captured by General Morgan. The war over he returned to the farm with his father and had an active partnership for many years. The sheep industry was always a prominent feature of the Bentley farm. They handled various breeds, chiefly w00l and mutton breeds, but Mr. Bentley in his time was also a breeder of the pure bred Merino and Coteswold strain, and kept as high as 200 head. While in the country he always kept good road horses, being fond of driving. Besides the homestead he owns seventy-six acres adjoining the state line. This he operates personally and has his old farm in charge of a tenant. Since 1901 his home has been in Hubbard Village. The only office in which Mr. Bentley has consented to serve was road supervisor. He departed from the traditions of the family and became a republican, and his sons have followed in the same way.
At the age of twenty-eight he married Harriet Anderson, of Mercer County, Pennsylvania. Three children were born to their marriage: Edward, a mechanic at Canton, Ohio; Clayton, a farmer in Lake County, Michigan; and Florence, who died at Canton at the age of forty-one, the wife of Rev. M. E. Evans. Mr. Bentley and family are Methodists. The old Veach Church in which he was reared has since been combined with the Hubbard Church. Mr. Bentley was a charter member of Tylee Post of the Grand Army of the Republic at Hubbard, but is now affiliated with Tod Post at Youngstown.
SEVERN P. KER is a name that is prominently connected with one of the leading commercial industries of the country, the manufacture of steel. He was born in Richmond, Virginia, February 17, 1864, and his youth and early boyhood days were spent amid the impoverished surroundings left in the South as a result of the devastation of the Civil war. His father, Heber Ker, had served as a captain in the Confederate Army during that struggle. Previous to .this period, in the old Southern Ante-bellum days he had been a "Squire" of his county, was a member of a state constitutional convention and withal was a man of consequence and influence in his community. He married in his early life Mary Kinney.
Their son Severn, who now occupies a prominent place among the steel manufacturers of the East, as a boy sold newspapers on the streets of Staunton, Virginia, and later clerked in the local stores of that town and worked for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad at Staunton, during which time he studied stenography and finally became the private secretary of Maj. Jedediah Hotchkiss, long noted as one of the greatest developers of coal, iron and lumber in the states of Virginia and West Virginia. It was while in the employ of this noted geologist that Severn P. Ker had his attention attracted to the iron and steel industry. His previous education had been acquired by attending the common schools of his town until he reached the age of twelve years. When he attained his twenty-first year he came to Pittsburgh without any acquaintances and without any introduction to seek employment in the iron or steel business, and by applying from place to place found employment as a minor clerk in the office of Smith, Sutton & Company, crucible steel manufacturers in Lower Allegheny. For fourteen years he remained with that company, which later became Smith Brothers & Company: About two years after entering on this employment the company was incorporated under name of La Belle Steel Company and Mr. Ker made assistant secretary. About a year later he came secretary of the company, which position occupied until the company was merged into Crucible Steel Company of America.
In 1899 he was made vice president in charge sales of the American Steel Hoop Company in Ni York City and two years later, when the Unit States Steel Corporation was organized, he returned to Pittsburgh and became connected with what has since become one of the greatest steel corporations of the world, and remained with the Steel Corporation for about a year. Mr. Ker then returned to the Crucible Steel Company of America, and from January, 19o5, until October, 19o9, he was vice president in charge of sales of the Republic Iron & Steel Company. On October 1, 1909, he acquired an interest in the Sharon Steel Hoop Company at Sharon, Pennsylvania, and in February, 1910, became its president, which position he has since occupied. Besides the Sharon Steel Hoop Company, Mr. Ker is a director of the Youngstown Pressed Steel Company, Warren, Ohio; the Stambaugh Iron Company, Cleveland, Ohio; Consolidated Steel Corporation of New York, the First National and Dollar Savings and Trust Company of Youngstown; and is a member of the American Iron and Steel Institute.
In 1891 he was married to Annie Williams Gray, of Nashville, Tennessee, and three children have been born to them : Mary Ruth, who is now Mrs. Parker H. Cunningham, of New Castle, Pennsylvania; Annie Gray, who is the wife of Edward H. Boyd, of Sharon, Pennsylvania ; and Severn P. Ker, Jr., who after leaving preparatory sch00ls in the East, volunteered as a private in the Ninth Regiment, United States Marine Corps, and since the war has been employed in the blast furnace department of the Lowellville plant of the Sharon Steel Hoop Company.
Mr. Ker is an Episcopalian in his religious affiliations and in politics gives his allegiance to the re- publican party. Aside from his business his greatest pleasure is in his home, surrounded by his family,
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his friends and his books, the latter forming a collection rare in its extent, its diversity, the intelligence ith which it was selected and the thoroughness with Which the volumes have been read.
WILLIAM M. EDWARDS. The home place of William M. Edwards at Niles, in Weathersfield Township, has associations for the Edwards family running back nearly a century, and the old homestead also offers a visible proof of the rapid disintegration of old land holdings in the Mahoning Valley, due to the encroachment and upbuilding of industries, so that many acres formerly cultivated to crops are now industrial sites for great plants.
On the site of his present home William M. Edwards was born. September 11, 1869, son of William F. and Sarah A. (Parks) Edwards. His grandfather, John Edwards, came from Greene County, Pennsylvania, in 1824, first locating at Salt Springs in Weathersfield Township, near Niles, but two years later moving to the other side of that village, and in 1829 buying fifty-five acres of the old Edwards homestead at Niles. He built a cabin on the land, and occupied it with his family in 183o. Thereafter he gave his time to farming, and died about twenty-five years later, at the age offifty-five. His wife was Jane Rook, also of Pennsylvania, who lived to the age of ninety-three, passing away in 1874. They were the parents of five children : Samuel, an iron worker in the shops at Niles, who died at the age of eighty-three ; John, who removed to Mecca Township, where he died at the age of seventy-two, his three surviving children being Mrs. Josephine Crooks, Calvin and Charles, all of Mecca Township; William F.; George, who spent his last years near Lake Michigan in the State of Michigan ; and Mary, deceased wife of John Reel, of Girard.
William F. Edwards spent all his life on the old homestead and died in 1898, at the age of eighty-one. In 1890 he replaced the old log house built by his father in 1830 with the home now occupied by his daughter. That old log house soon after it was completed was visited by Joseph Smith, then removing with his Mormon colony to Kirtland, Ohio. Joseph Smith remained there over Sunday, and held services in the yard of the Edwards home. William F. Edwards married at the age of forty-eight Sarah A. Parks, Who was reared at Canfield in Mahoning County and died in 1881, at the age of forty. She was the mother of three children : Alice, Mrs. John Rook, of Niles; Nettie, Mrs. Joseph Scriven, who lives at the old home just opposite the house of her brother William ; and William M.
William M. Edwards was reared and educated in his native community, and as a youth acquired the trade of stationary engineer. He spent nine years with the Niles Boiler Company, another nine years in the railroad shops, and for six years was an employe of the Republic Iron & Steel Company at the DeForest plant. The plant of this company stands on the old Edwards farm, nearly all of which has been sold as industrial sites. Besides that portion that went to the Republic Iron & Steel Company, other land was acquired by the Standard Boiler Company and the Youngstown Steel Car Company. Mr. Edwards, however, has retained a nice tract for a modern suburban home. Mr. Edwards is a member of the Knights of Pythias and has filled several chairs in the local lodge. His first wife was Sarah E. Swindler, who left one daughter, Henrietta, now attending school. For his present wife Mr. Edwards married Mary J. Winkelross, of Pennsylvania.
ERNEST EVANS, superintendent of the Hubbard plant of the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company, is an iron and steel man of both technical and practical experience and has been identified with the industry in various capacities for nearly thirty years.
He grew up in the atmosphere of blast furnaces in the famous Hanging Rock iron region of Southern Ohio, and was born near Portsmouth in that section of the state February 16, 1869. His parents were Mitchell and Ella (Murphy) Evans. His grandfather, Abram Evans, moved from Augusta, Maryland, to Kentucky in early days. Mitchell Evans was born in that state in 1820 and as an orphan boy came to Ohio and was bound out until reaching his majority. For several years he was a dealer in tanbark, shipping his product on the Ohio River. In 1863 he moved to the town where his son was born and where his widow still lives. Ella Murphy was reared at Buena Vista in Scioto County, Ohio, and is now seventy-six years of age. Her father, David Murphy, was born in New York State in i800 and was an early settler in Southern Ohio. He was a justice of the peace, postmaster at Buena Vista, and also a conductor of the underground railway in ante-bellum days. During the Civil war two of his sons were officers, one a lieutenant on the Confederate side and the other a captain in the Federal army. The brothers were participants in the battle of Lookout Mountain, though they were not aware of the presence of both at the time. The lieutenant lived in Texas and the captain was a correspondent of the Cincinnati Inquirer and sent the first description of the "battle above the clouds" to that paper.
Ernest Evans grew up on his father's farm, and in 1886 entered Ohio State University with the intention of acquiring a technical education to fit him for the iron and steel industry in which he had long been interested. He graduated in 1892, after special work in chemistry and metallurgy, and his first professional employment was at Mingo Junction as assistant chemist in what is now a plant of the Carnegie Steel Company. He remained there until Iwo, then spent one year with the Woodward Iron Company at Woodward, Alabama, as assistant superintendent, that being one of the larger iron and steel plants of the South, with ore, coke and blast furnace, and employing 3,000 men. He then returned to the works at Mingo Junction as foreman of the converting mill, using the Bessemer process. This is one of the most particular jobs about a steel mill. It requires most exact knowledge, and upon the judgment of the foreman depends that instant decision as to when the converting crucible must be inverted, a moment too soon or too late meaning the loss of the entire heating of a half ton of valuable steel. A few months there and Mr. Evans became superintendent of a small blast furnace at Zanesville, Ohio, and three years later went to Donora, Pennsylvania, where for two years he was super-
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intendent of a modern blast furnace. For a year and a half he was with the McKeefrey Iron Company at Leetonia, Ohio, and in 1909 came to Hubbard as chief chemist for the Andrews & Hitchcock Company. Their No. 1 furnace had just been completed, and he continued his work as chemist until 1915. In April, 1914, the Hubbard plant was acquired by the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company, and the following year Mr. Evans was promoted to plant superintendent. He has been the technical adviser in practically all of the important developments in this local industry, which now employs about 400 men, with a daily capacity of 85o tons, the plant covering twenty-five acres. The industry has had a fairly even and successful course. Mr. Evans gives all his time to the business and is a stockholder in the company. He was also superintendent of construction for the company's project of erecting a storage dam or lake on Yankee Run, where the company owns 700 acres of land. This lake affords 200,000,000 gallons capacity, and furnishes an ample supply of water to the Hubbard plant. The lake is also well stocked with fish.
Mr. Evans is a director of the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Relief Association, and lives in Youngstown. He enjoys all the wholesome outdoor sports, is a Chapter and Council Mason, and with his family is a member of Trinity Church at Youngstown and a steward in that church.
At Steubenville, Ohio, December 25, 1897, he married Elizabeth Linn, of that city. They have two sons, Ernest Linn and James Mitchell, both graduates of the South School of Youngstown and now students in the Ohio State University, Ernest L. being a junior in the engineering course, while James Mitchell is a freshman in the law school.
ROLLIN A. COBB. As manufacturer, financier and business man Rollin A. Cobb has been intimately associated with the City of Warren for over forty years, and during that time he has been a force in the growth of the city and in the development of the industrial and banking interests.
Mr. Cobb was born in Jamestown, New York, on December 2, 1852. His grandfather, Adam B. Cobb, a native of Vermont, married Thetis Bishop, and settled at Jamestown, New York, in early days and became a pioneer manufacturer of agricultural implements in that city. Norval B. Cobb, son of Adam B. and father of Rollin A., was born at Jamestown. He came to Trumbull County when the oil fields were opened in this section in 1860, and was an oil operator until 1873, in which year he returned to Jamestown, where he died in 1884. He married Amelia M. Lord, who was born in England and came with her parents to Jamestown, New York, in 1844. She died in 1890.
Rollin A. Cobb began his business career in 1871 as clerk in the drug store of H. G. Stratton & Company at Warren. Later he became a member of that firm. In 1881 he became secretary and treasurer of the Winfield Manufacturing Company of Warren, later was made vice president of that company, which position he still holds, and the development of that company has been due in a considerable measure to Mr. Cobb's business ability. He is vice president of the Western Reserve Furniture Company. He is also vice president of the Winfield Electric Welding Machine Company of Warren. He is also president of the Enterprise Electric Company of Warren, and is president of the Park Hardware Company of Warren. For many years Mr. Cobb was a director of the old Union National Bank of Warren, and was vice president of it at the time it was reorganized into the Union Savings and Trust Company. He has been vice president, director and member of the discount committee of the bank ever since its reorganization, and has had a part in the building of that bank into one of the solid banking institutions of the Mahoning Valley.
In 1908 Mr. Cobb was elected as a republican member of the Ohio House of Representatives and served one term.
Mr. Cobb's career as a manufacturer and banker has been one of consistent success and progress, while as a private citizen he has done his full share to promote the welfare of the entire community, and as secretary, treasurer and member of the Board of Trustees of the Warren City Hospital since its organization he has given ample evidence of his deep interest in the civic affairs of the city. He is a director of the Warren Board of Trade, and is a member of Old Erie Lodge No. 3, Free and Accepted Masons, and of Warren Commandery No. 39, Knights Templar.
Mr. Cobb was united in marriage in 1879 with Lucy P., the daughter of the late William R. Stiles, of Warren, and to them have been born two sons and one daughter : William S., who died in 1909, at the age of twenty-seven years; Norval H., who is identified with the Winfield Manufacturing Company ; and Elizabeth, who married A. W. Ashley, of Warren.
HARRY W. WILLIAMS, secretary and treasurer of the Lowellville Savings & Banking Company of Lowellville, Ohio, was born at Lowellville, Mahoning County, Ohio, on the 28th day of March, 1881, the son of William and Maria (Becker) Williams. His father was born at Greenville, Pennsylvania, and when. a young man came to Lowellville, where he married Maria Becker, a daughter of Lorenz Becker, a native of Alsace-Lorraine. They were the parents of four children, Daisy M., John L., and Harry W. and Hattie E., twins, all residing at Lowellville.
Harry W. Williams was reared at Lowellville and received his education in the Lowellville public schools. Leaving school, he accepted a position as drug clerk in a local drug store, and after serving in this capacity for two years he resigned to accept a position as assistant agent for the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad Company at Bentley Station, located across the river from Lowellville. After one year's service he was transferred to the Haselton Yards of the same company, and afterward was promoted to chief clerk under Edwin Reese, general yard master and assistant train master. He was made chief clerk August 22, 1904, and served in that capacity until May 14, 1907, when he resigned to accept his present position as secretary and treasurer of the Lowellville Savings & Banking Company. Mr. Williams has been with the Lowellville Savings & Banking Company since the first year of its
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existence, and his personal service to the patrons, his knowledge of banking and his solid business qualifications have had a great deal to do with the steady advancement and prosperity of the company.
The Lowellville Savings and Banking Company was organized in March, 1906. The original capital was $30,000, while now the capital is $50,000 with surplus of $60,000. The total resources of the company at the present time are nearly a million dollars. It is an index of the favorable esteem enjoyed by the bank and its officers and also of the general prosperity of the Lowellville community that nearly $900,000 are on deposit with the company. The first president of the bank was H. D. Smith, who resigned after a year on account of being unable to give the bank the attention it should have owing to his numerous other duties. Mr. Smith was succeeded by L. H. E. Lowry. Mr. Lowry continued as president until his death, which occurred August 12, 1917, at which time he was succeeded as president by Mr. Robert Gray. Beside Mr. Gray the other officers of the bank are John Frech, vice president, William J. Lomax, vice president and H. W. Williams, secretary and treasurer. The directors of the institution are as follows: Edwin N. Allison, Margaret J. Arrel, James F. Baird, John Frech, Robert Gray, Dorcas A. Hamilton, William J. Lomax, James Meehan, Jr., Harmon T. McCartney, Elmer C. Robinson, Paul B. H. Smith, Melvin Stacy and Harry W. Williams. The Banking Company owns its own building, a two-story brick structure, with offices on the second floor. Mr. Williams was local chairman for all of the Liberty Loan campaigns during the World war and in recognition of his services was presented with a certificate signed by William G. McAdoo, secretary of the treasury, and D. C. Wills, chairman of the Central Liberty Loan Committee, Fourth Federal Reserve District. The certificate reads as follows: "This is to certify that H. W. Williams of Lowellville, Ohio, who did so much toward making a success of the Liberty Loans thereby rendered yeoman service to America in the winning of the World war. It is in testimony of that effort carried through with untiring zeal and in appreciation of the sacrifices often entailed in its performance, that I express in the name of the Central Liberty Loan Committee, the recognition of that active and effective patriotism."
Mr. Williams is a member of Western Star Lodge No. 21, Free and Accepted Masons, Youngstown, Youngstown Chapter No. 93, Royal Arch Masons, Buechner Council No. 107, Royal and Select Masons, and Lowellville Lodge No. 537, Knights of Pythias. Mr. Williams served the Village of Lowellville as village clerk from May 1903, to January, 1906. He has been serving the village as its treasurer for five consecutive terms of two years each. Politically he is a republican. In October, 1909, he married Edith May Platts, of Youngstown. Her father, Henry Simms Platts, was a brick mason, and his death was one of the tragedies of the Sharon Steel Hoop Company plant at Lowellville. He was relining a ladle, when another ladle carried by a crane tipped over, spilling too tons of molten metal, and from the burns he died four hours later. Mr. and Mrs. Williams are members of St. John's Episcopal Church of Youngstown. They have one son, William Henry, born August 2, 1912.
GLENN W. LETT, who comes of a family of mechanics, learned blacksmithing, which was his father's trade, and for many years conducted a shop and more recently has operated a repair shop and garage at Coalburg. Coalburg, a place normally with about 1,000 population, was for many years an important center of the coal mining interests of Hubbard Township, though now its chief industry is railroading. One of the notable women of Trumbull County lived here, Hannah Stinson, who came from New Jersey at the age of four years and died at Coalburg at the age of lox. She was a teacher and later in life a carpet weaver.
Glenn W. Lett was born three miles east of Sharon, Pennsylvania, November 16, 1874, son of Dallas D. and Mary (Chambers) Lett. His grandfather, Allen Lett, was born in Ohio in 1818, and at the age of twenty-three established his home in Hubbard Township. He was a shoemaker by trade and followed that occupation for many years. He died at the age of seventy-four. He was janitor of the Baptist Church for many years. His wife was Matilda Glenn.
Dallas Lett, who was born in Hubbard Township, learned the trade of blacksmith in Pennsylvania and worked at it for thirty-five years, twenty-five years of that time with the Mahoning Coal Company. Later he opened a shop at Coalburg, but retired to a farm four years later and died at the age of fifty-seven. He never desired office, but was very active and a constant attendant of the Baptist Church at Hubbard. His wife survived him three years. Their children were three in number: John Dallas, an engineer with the New York Central Lines at Youngstown, who died at the age of twenty-eight; Ethel Elenora, who died at the age of thirty-five, the wife of David Evans of Hubbard; and Glenn.
Glenn Lett gained a good education in the local school and as a boy began working in his father's blacksmith shop, acquired a thorough knowledge of the trade, and it was his chief occupation for twenty-eight years. In September, 1916, he established a garage at Coalburg, is also a dealer in cars, and has a very thriving business. He is one of the local citizens whose influence counts for better schools and better roads, and for years he favored school consolidation. He served as a member of the Election Board sixteen years, is an independent democrat in politics and has been a member of the Christian Church for thirty years.
At the age of twenty-one Mr. Lett married Euphrasia McKinley, daughter of William and Edna (Moore) McKinley. Her father, who was born in Weathersfield Township, in the same locality where President McKinley was born, had served 3 1/2 years in the Union Army with the One Hundred and Twenty-Fifth Ohio Infantry before he was twenty-one years of age. After the war he became a farmer a mile south of Coalburg, and he died on his farm at the age of seventy-two. For two terms he was trustee of Hubbard Township. His wife, Edna Moore, was a daughter of James Moore, of Lowellville, Ohio. Mrs. Lett before her marriage was a
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school teacher. She is the mother of four living children: Ora, wife of Allen Edwards, an Erie railway man at Youngstown; Mary, a teacher in the Madison Street School ; John, an employe of the New York Central Lines at Coalburg ; and Edward, a schoolboy. Mr. and Mrs. Lett also have two grandchildren, Glenn Allen Edwards and Robert John Edwards.
WILLIAM GRISWOLD HURLBERT. One of the prominent business men of the Mahoning Valley is William G. Hurlbert, who as a successful manufacturer has been identified with the industrial interests of the city of Niles for thirty years, and who as a progressive and popular citizen has been prominent in the civic and social affairs of the cities of both Niles and Warren for almost the same length of time.
Mr. Hurlbert is a descendant of an old American family which was founded in New England in 1652 by Thomas Hurlbert (who spelled his name "Hurlbut"), and who came over from England in that year. His son John, grandfather of William G., was a native of Connecticut. When he was a young man John Hurlbert started West, probably with the intention of locating on the Western Reserve. However, he stopped for a time in Oneida County, New York, where he met and married Lucy Perry, who was a member of the same family as was Commodore Oliver Hazzard Perry. Sometime after his marriage John Hurlbert continued his journey westward, in an ox-cart, and located at Forestville, Chautauqua County, New York, where he became a successful manufacturer of carriages and wagons, and where he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives.
John Forbes Hurlbert, son of John and Lucy (Perry) Hurlbert, was born at Forestville, New York, and for several years was associated with his father in the carriage and wagon manufacturing business under the firm name of John Hurlbert & Son. Disposing of his manufacturing interests, he engaged in the hotel business at Forestville, and so continued until 187o, in which year he t00k charge of a hotel at Petroleum Center, near Oil City, Pennsylvania. Later he removed to Buffalo, New York. where he spent his last days. At Forestville, New York, he married Ann Maria Griswold, who was born at York Mills, New York, the daughter of Caleb Griswold, a native of Connecticut and an early citizen of Western New York. She died at Jamestown, New York.
William G. Hurlbert, son of John Forbes and Ann Maria (Griswold) Hurlbert, was born at Forestville, New York, on November 11, 1858, and was educated in the public schools of New York and Pennsylvania. When he was a young man he entered the office of The Buffalo (New York) Courier, and was in the newspaper business for a time, then entered railroad work as traveling freight agent for the Western New York Railroad (now a part of the Pennsylvania system). In 1884 he joined his brother in the hotel business at Dunkirk, New York.
In 1889 Mr. Hurlbert entered the banking business in Nebraska, and in 1891 he came to the Mahoning Valley, and in the same year became identified with the Youngstown Steel Lath Company, then in progress of organization, and of which he was chosen secretary and treasurer. In June of the same year the company removed from Youngstown to Niles and re-organized as the Bostwick Steel Lath Company Incorporated, Mr. Hurlbert continuing as secretary and treasurer. In 1902 he was chosen president and treasurer of the company, and from that time on he has been the guiding genius of the organization, and to his ability and efforts is given the credit for the growth and prosperity of the organization. Mr. Hurlbert is a director in the Peoples Savings Company of Warren and has other important business interests.
In 1889 Mr. Hurlbert established his home in Warren, and soon began to take an active interest in the life of that city. He served for four years as councilman-at-large of the city, during which period he was vice president of the council; in 1919 he was elected councilman for the Second Ward, and is one of that body's valued and useful members at a time when the municipal government, in its task of providing for the future of the rapidly growing city, welcomes and appreciates the unselfish services of men of large business interests and wide experience who are able to inject into the city government the sound, practical methods which they use in the successful conduct of their own business affairs.
During the World war period Mr. Hurlbert gave evidence of his patriotism as a member of local committees to which was delegated the raising of war funds. He is still a trustee of the Warren Red Cross Society.
Mr. Hurlbert is prominent in secret and benevolent organizations. He is past grand regent of the Grand Council of Ohio of the Royal Arcanum ; he is past eminent commander of Warren Commandery No. 30, Knights Templar, is a thirty-second degree Mason member of Ismalia Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine at Buffalo, New York, and of Old Eric Lodge No. 3, Free and Accepted Masons of Warren.
Mr. Hurlbert is a trustee of the First Baptist Church of Warren, and is a member of the American Iron and Steel Institute, of the Niles, Youngstown and Cleveland Chambers of Commerce, of Waren Rotary, Country and Cleveland Athletic clubs and is a member of Warren Council of the Boy Scouts of America.
While Mr. Hurlbert is prominent in the civic and social affairs in Warren, he is equally prominent in business circles at Niles, which city claims him as a successful and progressive manufacturer, one who is loyal to the business interests of that city as he is loyal to the civic and social affairs of Warren. He is an active member of the Niles Chamber of Commerce and as such is interested in all movements to promote the progress of that city.
Mr. Hurlbert's popularity both as a business man and citizen prevails alike in the two cities, and is the result of his business methods and his genial personality, a combination which has brought his business success and won him a host of warm friends and admirers.
At Toledo, Ohio, in April, 1888, Mr. Hurlbert was united in marriage with Miss Jennie Hayes, daughter of Henry Jerome Hayes, a prominent grain merchant
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of that city, and to them have been born the following children: William G., Jr., who was graduated from Colegate University with the degree of Bachelor of Science, in the class of 1912,
and is assistant secretary-treasurer of the Bostwick Steel Lath Company; Lois Baker, a graduate of Russell Sage University, class of 1920, and Jerome Forbes, a student at Colegate University, class of 1922.
R. H. VAN NESS. A member of the old established Van Ness family of Hubbard Township, R. H. Van Ness was for several years in the office of the Republic Iron and Steel Company at Youngstown, but since May, 1917, has been editor and proprietor of the Hubbard Enterprise.
This is one of the older country newspapers of the Mahoning Valley, having been established in 1868 and now in its fifty-third year. It was started as the Hubbard Tiger, the name subsequently being changed to Enterprise. One of the older owners was a Mr. Wadsworth, who was succeeded by R. S. Baker, he in turn by William Baird, and Baird sold to H. W. Ulrich. H. W. Ulrich was its owner for thirteen years. Major Ulrich died at Youngstown in 1919, and his widow is living in Los Angeles, Cal. Mrs. R. S. Baker, wife of another proprietor of the Enterprise, is now president of the Youngstown School Board, and she and her husband were assistant superintendents and superintendents of the Hubbard schools.
The Enterprise has always been a republican paper, and it is now published as a six-column eight-page journal. Mr. Van Ness has done much to improve the paper both mechanically and editorially. He has a power press, has added a linotype machine, has special equipment for job work, and has built up the circulation so that it is now double what it was a few years ago.
Mr. Van Ness was born in Hubbard November 23, 1889, and is a son of Alfred C. and May (Clingan) Van Ness, his mother being a daughter of C. N. Clingan. His parents still reside in Hubbard Township. Alfred Van Ness is a son of Stephen Hudson and Albina (Christy) Van Ness. This accounts for three generations of the family in Trumbull County. Stephen Hudson Van Ness was a son of Aaron M. Van Ness, whose parents, Peter and Susan Van Ness, came to Trumbull County and settled in Hubbard Township a century ago. A. M. Van Ness was born in New Jersey in 1812 and was the father, by his second marriage, of the Hubbard banker, L. C. Van Ness. Stephen H. Van Ness was a son of A. M. and Pamela (Price) Van Ness, and became a farmer and blacksmith on the old farm in Hubbard Township, where he died April 13, 1879, at the age of forty-five. His widow is still living with her grandson R. H. at the age of eighty-one.
R. H. Van Ness was reared and educated on the home farm and was employed for eight years by the Republic Iron and Steel Company, most of the time as chief clerk in the Valley mills.
In 1912 he married Miss Deeda Walters, daughter of William and Jane (Jeffreys) Waters of Hubbard. Her father was a coal miner and a life-long resident of Hubbard, and died in 1919. Her mother is the popular milliner of Hubbard. Mrs. Van Ness was liberally educated, finishing her schooling in Chicago, and was a successful teacher for fourteen years in Youngstown and Hubbard. She is an active worker in church and local clubs. Mr. Van Ness is an official member of the Methodist Church at Hubbard. He is junior deacon of Youngstown Lodge No. 615, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and is also a chapter and council degree Mason.
WILLIAM H. O. GOIST. Cedar Grove farm in Liberty Township, seven miles north of the Diamond at Youngstown, has a well deserved reputation as a scene of well ordered and systematic industry and for its fine Jersey cattle, but is even more notable for the character of the people who call it home. The present generation shows no falling off in the sturdy virtues that have always characterized the Goists.
The family record runs back into the tenth century, when they were members of a nobility in Ravensburg, Germany. In Germany they had the familiar name of Geist, the proper American translation of which would be ghost. The name has been spelled variously, but for four or five generations it has been Goist. This is one of the few families in the Mahoning Valley who can appropriately claim the use of one of the famous' coats of arms that were patents of dignity in the middle ages. It was about 1737 that one branch of the family was established in the American colonies by Simon Goist. A son of Simon, George Goist, with two sisters, came West in 1807 from Pennsylvania and located in the northwest corner of Liberty Township. George Goist was a wagon maker by trade, and he served the Government as a soldier in the War of 1812. He died in 1850 and was buried in the Lutheran Cemetery a mile north of Girard. In 1796 he married Catherine Baughman, of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and she lived until 1869. Their sons Moses, Samuel and Simon all remained in Liberty Township and died in advanced years. The daughters were Elizabeth, Sarah and Sinai.
Samuel Goist, who was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, June 6, 1801, walked from Ohio back to Pennsylvania in 1824 to marry Susan Hoffman, daughter of Isaac Hoffman. For sixty years Samuel Goist was a wagon maker, conducting a shop on his farm, which was east of Lloyd's Corners. He died November 7, 1878, as the result of accidental injuries. Though he lived a quiet and unostentatious life, devoted to business and home, his character was widely esteemed, attesting the fact being the attendance of nearly 5,000 persons at his funeral. His wife, Susan, a native of Chester County, Pennsylvania, died in 1892. A brief record of their children is as follows: Isaac, who left home when a young man and was never heard of by the family again; George, who died in youth; John, who remained in Liberty Township to the age of fifty, afterward spent many years in Kansas and Missouri, and died at North Jackson, Ohio, at the age of eighty-two ; Simon, the father of William H. 0.; Hiram, who died while a Union soldier on Johnson's Island; Mary, who died in infancy; Phares, who became a noted artist and was also author of the family genealogy and died June 23, 1913; Ann Matilda, who married
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Amos L. Hood, and both are living in Vienna Township; and Anna Maria, wife of Gilbert Simmons, of Girard. Susan Hoffman, the mother of these children, was a cousin of Judge Benjamin F. Hoffman, who died at Pasadena, California, in 19o9, at the age of ninety-eight.
Simon Goist, who was born August 27, 1835, a mile north of the present Cedar Grove farm, married in 1858 Mary Ann Shiveley, a daughter of Daniel Shiveley of Church Hill. Not long after their marriage they came to what is now the Cedar Grove Farm. Cedar Grove Farm was the place where Susan Hoffman grew up, her father, Isaac Hoffman, having bought it in 183o and having lived out his life there. Simon Goist bought the place from his mother, who lived with him four years. At that time it contained fifty-seven acres, and under his ownership it was greatly improved. Simon Goist built the present house in 1882 and the barn in 1881, making these improvements shortly after he became owner. He was one of the successful and enterprising men of the community for many years. Besides farming he operated a saw mill and planing mill on his farm. He was an expert mechanic, excelling as a woodworker. His was the first steam saw mill in this section of the county. In that business he was associated with his brother John M. and Mr. J. C. Stull. He served on the school board, and was a member of the church at Lloyd's Corners, serving it as superintendent and class leader for many years. He was a democrat in politics and a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Simon Goist and wife had three children: Alice L., Mrs. Thomas Storey; William H. 0.; and Loie F., wife of W. C. Monson, of Vienna Township.
On the Cedar Grove farm William. H. 0. Goist was born February 24, 1863, his birthplace being the site of the present home. In that environment he has always lived, and has found abundant opportunities for service and satisfactory business opportunities. He was well educated in the local schools, and had been able to advance his personal resources prior to his marriage.
December 11, 1888, he married Miss Effie A. Cover, daughter of J. Harvey and Mary (Haun) Cover. To Mr. and Mrs. Goist were born four children: Phares W., the oldest, was formerly a regular soldier in the Twenty-Eighth Infantry, is an expert drill master in military tactics, but for several years past has been head of the wall paper department of the Youngstown store of the Strouss-Hirshberg Company. He married Mary Wartman and has a son, William Wartman Goist. Claude E., the second son, is a gardener by occupation, and by his marriage to Alice E. Smith has three children, Donald, Ireta Adele and Wick Edward. Lida May, the older daughter, is also employed in the Strouss-Hirshberg store at Youngstown. The youngest of the family, a school girl, is named Blanche Lucille. A cousin of Mrs. Goist was Carl Gilbert, who was the first American enlisted from Niles killed in France. Memorial services were held for him in McKinley Memorial at Niles, one of the distinguished guests on the occasion being Joseph G. Butler. The widowed mother of this soldier is still living at Niles.
Very appropriately the record of the family membership comes first in importance, and now something should be said of Cedar Grove Farm products. It has one of the finest herds of Jersey cattle in Eastern Ohio, thirty in number, and milk production is a prominent feature of the economics of the farm. Mr. Goist has exhibited much of his registered stock, both cattle and hogs, in state and local fairs, and for six years he was a director of the Trumbull County Fair Association and superintendent of its farm products department. For many years Cedar Grove Farm has been noted for its gold medal stock. The farm comprises no acres. Mr. Goist is a friend of good schools, g00d roads and other community improvements, and as president of the Board of Education is giving much of his time to the work now in progress of centralizing the township schools and the erection of a new school building. He has been a member of the Grange for many years, and is a democrat in politics.
BERNARD FORD LEE. Among the famous institutions of learning in the Western Reserve none enjoyed a wider reputation and exercised a more potent influence upon later generations than Poland Union Seminary. The following sketch is concerned largely with the founder and leader of that school, Bernard Ford Lee.
The Lee family was established in Poland Township in the very early years of the nineteenth century. Christopher and Sophia (Ford) Lee came out to the Western Reserve about 1802, and made settlement on the Youngstown Road, a mile and a half north of Poland in Boardman Township. Christopher Lee lived out his life there, a prominent and influential citizen of Poland. He died in 1843, at the age of sixty-nine. His wife, Sophia Ford, died in 1857. They were buried in the cemetery of the Presbyterian Church. They were the parents of eleven sons and two daughters, one daughter dying in infancy. Bernard Ford and Jacob alone remained in Poland as permanent residents. Jacob had a farm on the Pittsburg Road, a mile south of the town. While successful in farming, he was also interested in the educational and religious affairs of his community and founded a school in connection with the Presbyterian Church about the same time as his brother started his institution at Poland. The building in which Jacob conducted his school was burned, and he did not resume the work of the institution. He was one of the strong characters in the local church, an elder, and altogether was a man of excellent judgment. He died in 1879, when about seventy years of age. His son, Edward Lee, is still living in Youngstown. Some reference should also be made to some of the other brothers. Hiram removed to Urbana, Ohio, and for many years was a useful citizen of that city. Isaac Lee was the father of Alfred E. Lee, who served as consul to Germany during two administrations. Alfred E. was a gifted lawyer. His home, during the years of his professional life, was in Columbus, Ohio. He later purchased an estate in Redlands, California, where he spent the last years of his life and died there. Christopher Lee spent his life at Newton Falls, Ohio. Saul Lee was also a prominent lawyer.
Among the thousands of our enterprising, success-
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ful and honored Americans who by their personal efforts and achievements have erected monuments more durable than bronze or stone, none have been more truly the architects of their own fortunes than the subject of this sketch. Bernard Ford Lee was born in Poland, Ohio, May 7, 1814, and died June 5, 1886. He was of a scholarly nature and, as events later proved, possessed of more than ordinary business talents. Wisdom, resoluteness, moral and intellectual strength were marked characteristics of his early boyhood. His first concern was to prepare for a higher education. Through persistent effort the purpose was accomplished and in 1842 he was entered as a student in Allegheny College. After finishing his course he returned to his native town.
Mr. Lee had the gifts of mind and heart and eloquence of speech, together with great power in influencing men which would have fitted him to be a great preacher of the gospel. But the supreme longing and inspiration of his life was to see an institution of higher learning established in his own town for the education of young men and young women. With this end in view he gave up the purpose of a professional life and with the enthusiasm of a young man fresh from college, began the business of making money for the accomplishment of. what proved to be the effort of his life. Though he sacrificed his longing for a professional life he retained through all his intensely active career the love of learning and though he had little leisure he often foundrelief in the fellowship of kindred minds and choice books. The Sabbath also was observed by him as a day of rest and worship. Mr. Lee was a power in the business world. His enterprises were varied—he was not restrained or hindered by the caution against "keeping too many irons in the fire"—believing it possible for an earnest man, "having a mind to work," to do many things himself and by those employed by him, at the same time and do them well. Whatever he believed to be right, against himself and for the best interests of others, he did earnestly. His wise foresight, his energy and persistence made him successful where many would have failed. Discouragements and difficulties that made others hesitate were resolutely met and overcome and seemed to stimulate his further efforts. Acquisitiveness was a strong element in his nature, but did not mar his character as it often does in others. The good man who values and earnestly seeks for riches as a means for the improvement of society—to make others finer and happier and to promote worthy objects—gives evidence of high virtue and real excellence. The power to get wealth. is God's gift to man, and he commends the intensely earnest Christian man who succeeds in whatever he undertakes. The steward who can say, "Thy pound bath gained ten pounds," will hear at last from his God: Well done, good and faithful servant." The mere mention of Mr. Lee's name is enough to recall to many minds the history of a large and noble life. His great influence over men was ever applied to their improvement. He was never too busy, never too burdened with the weight of his own cares, never too weary, to stop to advise the many who trusted him and came to him for counsel. He was ever the wise friend of the young student and of the mature mind, the ignorant and the learned. An old family laundress, who used always to come to the dining room in Mr. Lee's home, for his reading of the Bible, and his prayer after breakfast, as she rose from her knees would say—"Now, Mr. Lee, I kin wash good."
Mr. Lee will best be remembered in connection with Poland Union Seminary. He was its founder, and in the long years of its history he was its controlling spirit, contributing without stint to its maintenance and success. He never regretted his choice in making this the object of his life work. He planned for the school he longed to see established, took counsel of educators of experience, leaving nothing undone that enlightened zeal could suggest to promote the object. Finally, in the year 1849, Mr. Lee erected a building, equipped it and secured Judge Hayden as president, with General Leggett and Mr. Mark King to assist. The institution opened as a law school. For one year he financed it himself. In the meantime Judge Glidden and others came to reside in the town and Poland became a center of intellectual culture. It was justly called the Athens of Mahoning County. The age was one of great personalities and great teachers. The institution expanded and grew into other branches of learning, educating large numbers of young men and young women from all parts of the country to occupy positions of honor and service. To the founder of the institution within whose heart education was a part of religion and of life itself, these were glad days, when he had the cooperation—the united interest in his school—of the rare people who then resided in Poland. There was nothing of discord, all was happy congeniality, and union of thought and purpose. Does not the influence of those days, with their beautiful friendships, their intellectual and spiritual culture, still live in Poland? The influence of great lives never dies. Within that golden age for Poland a school for young women was established in the same building with the law school and was called Poland Female College.
Later another building was erected on a nearby site, and the young woman's college was removed there. Its name was changed to Poland Union Seminary. It was chartered in 1862. In the former building was founded a school of higher learning for young men. We are proud to say that in this institution was educated one of the Presidents of our United States—President William McKinley. An item of interest connected with the building is that in one of its rooms and upon its walls may still be found inscribed by 'his own hand the name "William McKinley." On the door in the same room are a number of heel marks, showing one of the sports in which the young men indulged. One is much higher than the rest, and we feel sure it is the heel print of the young man who afterward became our President, as who else of them all aspired so high as to become President of the United States of. America.
The original building which Mr. Lee erected at his own expense and in which he started the first college, was subsequently converted into the Lee residence. That residence, with its grounds, is still an attractive landmark in Poland. As long as Mr.
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Lee lived Poland Union Seminary was a great power in educating the youth of the country, but such institutions do not long succeed without careful supervision. The past, at least, is secure, and the thousands of young people who have obtained a higher education in Poland will perpetuate the influence of this institution. Their better, nobler lives show that it did not live in vain.
Mr. Lee was a successful Christian business man. To the close of his life he was the same as he had ever been, the last year if possible, more full of activity than when his strength was greater, having still a wise supervision of everything pertaining to his own business and the seminary, and his loving and wise thought for his children. Even at the very last, when a valued friend asked him if he was perfectly resigned to die, he replied: "I cannot say that I am perfectly resigned. There is some important work I desire to finish, still if my. Savior wants me to go it is all right."
"That," said the friend, "I should call 'perfect resignation,'" and he was right. Then, at the last, he spoke with sweet surprise: "Why! it is an easy thing to die." And almost with these words on his lips: "Lift up your heads oh ye gates and the King of Glory shall come in," he passed to the Great Beyond—into the presence of the "King of Glory." A minister who was present and who had seen many deaths, said he never had witnessed so grand a death as that of Mr. B. T. Lee.
DWIGHT SINCLAIR. The encouraging evidences of the substantial character of the older families of the Mahoning Valley is that a number of the old homesteads are being occupied by the third or fourth generation from the original purchasers of the land.
One of these ancestral homesteads owned continuously and consecutively by members of the same family for practically a century is in Hubbard Township, 71/2 miles north of the center of Youngstown. Its present owner is Dwight Sinclair, who was born there October 14, 187o. His grandfather, William Sinclair, came from Eastern Pennsylvania about 182o and practically lived out his life on this old homestead, where he died at the age of eighty-four. His son James lived in the same vicinity, though in Br00kfield Township, and died in old age. Another son, Lowrey Sinclair, is living retired at the age of eighty-five at Hubbard. Another son, Lambert, is also in Hubbard Township.
John Sinclair, father of Dwight, was born on the old homestead and died August 30, 1910, at the age of seventy-four. He married Lovina McMullen, a daughter of Lewis McMullen and a niece of Henderson McMullen. She was born in Vienna Township in 1850. John Sinclair inherited a third of the old homestead, and later bought out the interests of others and spent most of his years in that one vicinity. During the Civil war he wore the uniform of a Union soldier three years as a member of Company C of the One Hundred and Fifth Ohio Infantry. He was an active member of Tod Post of the Grand Army of the Republic. He had learned the blacksmith's trade at Payne Corners, and after the war he followed his trade, maintaining a shop for that purpose on the corner of the old homestead. He excelled as an expert judge of livestock, and for many years was one of the shrewdest buyers in this vicinity. This business brought him into active relations with Youngstown. For five years he lived retired, though remaining on the farm, and he built the present house there about forty years ago. His widow is now living at Hubbard.
Dwight Sinclair, who was born October 14, 1870, is the only son of his parents. He has been satisfied with the environment in which he grew up, and has had active management of the old farm since early youth. He has relied on the old and established principles of farming, and the chief money making feature has been dairying. He has kept some dairy stock. In politics he has never seen any g reason to deviate from the principles adhered to his grandfather and father, those of the republican party.
At the age of tewnty-six Mr. Sinclair married Miss Elizabeth Calhoun, a daughter of Robert and Marian Calhoun of Brookfield Township. Her mother is still living at the old Calhoun farm, To their marriage were born three children : Mildred, wife of George Drissen, a merchant at Coalburg; Neva, a high school student; and Gordon.
CYRUS C. STEPHENSON. Though for many years his home has been on a farm in Liberty Township, five miles north of the Diamond in Youngstown, Cyrus C. Stephenson did not become an agriculturist in reality until comparatively late in years. His main business, and the one in which he excelled, was as driller and prospector for coal. He placed his skill, his experience and his organization at the service of some of the most prominent coal operators in Eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania, and did a great deal to discover and exploit the coal resources of this region.
Mr. Stephenson was born at Eldersville in Washington County, Pennsylvania, June 26, 1848. He is one of the few men still living in Trumbull County who are grandsons of Revolutionary soldiers. His grandfather, George Stephenson, was an officer in the Revolutionary war. His sword is still preserved as a family heirloom, as are also the saddle bags in which he brought over the Allegheny Mountains the money to buy land in Washington County, Pennsylvania. He spent his last years and died at Independence in Washington County.
The father of Cyrus C. Stephenson emulated the worthy example of his father, .and helped preserve the Union which his father had assisted in establishing. He was a captain in the Ninety-Second Ohio Infantry. He was an early settler at Metamora in Fulton County, Ohio, but after the war he lived at Wellsburg, West Virginia.
Cyrus C. Stephenson was only four years of age when his mother died. After that for two years he lived with aunts in Independence, Pennsylvania, and returned home when his father married again. At the age of seven he went to live with a cousin, Eleazer G. Goorley, in West Virginia and accompanied Mr. Goorley to Ohio on April 1, 1859. Mr. Goorley settled in Liberty Township of Trumbull County, at Seceder Corners, and remained in that vicinity until his death, at the age of eighty-two. He
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became a man of prominence in the locality, served two terms as township trustee, was a justice of the peace, and was an elder in the United Presbyterian Tabernacle at Youngstown.
Cyrus C. Stephenson called the Goorley place his home until he was married. After a youth spent in farm work and attending school he began at the age of twenty to drill for coal and perform the other work of prospecting. In this business his services were employed by such notable operators as Chauney, Andrews, Henry Wick and Frank Osborne. Mr. Stephenson made that his main business for about forty years, operating his own outfit and at times three or four outfits, employing six or eight men. It was a business in which he took much pride, and he always worked at it himself and was not satisfied merely to manage others.
When he married he took his bride to his home on a 5 1/2-acre tract of land, but later bought his present farm of forty-eight acres. This land had previously been exploited for coal deposits. Mr. enson continued his prospecting work some years longer, and since then has found ample use for his energies on the farm. He is now practically retired from the heavy burdens of farming. He has never indicated any desire for office, though well equipped for community service.
In 1875 Mr. Stephenson married Adella I. Hausch, who was reared in this section of Ohio, and she traces descent on the maternal side back to the Pilgrims. Five children have been born to their marriage : Margaret is the wife of Dr. L. E. Heiges, of Lompoc, California ; Iva is the wife of Junior Burrows, a farmer in Liberty Township; Joseph is a Youngstown carpenter and contractor ; William is also a contractor, living at Perry in Lake County, Ohio and George, the youngest of the family, remains on the home farm.
CHARLES E. CROWTHER, general superintendent of Blast Furnaces and Open Hearth Steel Works of the Republic Iron & Steel Company, is in the fourth generation of a family all of whom have been prominently identified with the iron industry. His great-grandfather, John Crowther, was a native of England, where he was general manager of the Sparrow Iron Company, operating twelve blast furnaces at Wolverhampton.
In 1844 John Crowther immigrated to this country with his family for the purpose of purchasing a blast furnace and training his three sons, Joseph J., Benjamin and Joshua, in the iron business. He purchased a furnace on Decker's Creek, near Morgantown, West Virginia, where the sons began their careers. In 1848 he disposed of this furnace and with his family went to Lowellville, Ohio, where he blew in the Lowell furnace, the first furnace in the United States to use raw bituminous coal for fuel. He later returned to England, where he died at Longton Potteries on April 15, 1861.
The sons, having secured the necessary training, became actively identified with the business and for a number of years were among the pioneers who developed the blast furnaces of their day and were prominent in the substitution of raw coal for charcoal as fuel.
JOSEPH J. CROWTHER was born July 17, 1824, and died November 29, 1906, having built and operated blast furnaces at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Wheeling, West Virginia, New Port, Kentucky, Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, Orbisonia, Pennsylvania and Ashland, Kentucky, from which latter position he retired at the age of seventy years. To him is accorded the distinction of being the first man to bring blast furnace gas from the furnace top to the ground, so that it could be used for heating the blast in regenerative hot blast stoves and for the production of steam in boilers. Prior to this time cold blast had been used, and the boilers were taken to the gas at the furnace top by building them on high walls.
BENJAMIN CROWTHER was born September 29, 1826, and died September 23, 1900. In 1848 he took charge of Lowell furnace at Lowellville, Ohio, and remained there ten years. In 1861 he went to Pittsburgh and erected two furnaces at Manchester, in which he had an interest, operating them until 1871, when he took charge of the construction of the Isabella furnace at Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania, now owned by the Carnegie Steel Company. He operated this furnace for a number of years, retiring on account of p00r health.
JOSHUA CROWTHER was born February 29, 1820, and died October 4, 1883. He built the two Etna furnaces at New Castle, Pennsylvania, on the site now occupied by the Atlantic furnace of the Republic Iron & Steel Company; also the Rosena and Ranney & Berger furnaces at New Castle, now owned by the Carnegie Steel Company. After leaving New Castle he went to Pueblo, Colorado, and built the first three furnaces of the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company, remaining there nearly ten years and to within a few months of his death.
Joseph J. Crowther was the father of two children, Edgar C. and Alice.
EDGAR C. CROWTHER was born March 29, 1832. He received his early training under his father and became superintendent of a furnace in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, while quite a young man. He later built and operated furnaces at Milnes, Virginia, Jefferson, Texas and Hanging Rock, Ohio, and was general superintendent of furnaces for the La Belle Iron Company at Steubenville, Ohio; the American Steel & Wire Company, Cleveland District, Cleveland, Ohio, and was general manager of the entire works of the Hamilton Iron & Steel Company, Hamilton, Canada. Now after a long and active career he is living retired in Cleveland, Ohio. In his early life he married Harriet Hall in Newport, Kentucky, and their union was blessed by the birth of four children, Mae, Charles E., Bessie and Joseph H.
CHARLES E. CROWTHER was born at Newport, Kentucky, May 30, 1877, and during the early years of his life he removed with the family to the sections in which his father had his work. While they were located at Ironton, Ohio, he graduated from high school. Choosing as his life's vocation the work which had occupied his forefathers for a number
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of generations, he began at the very bottom rung of the ladder in blast furnace work and by his own unaided efforts climbed step by step from one position to another until at the present time he is serving as general superintendent of Blast Furnaces and Open Hearth Steel Works of the Republic Iron & Steel Company. He has served in practically all positions leading to the one he has now held since October, 1918. He is a member of the Youngstown Country Club, the Youngstown Engineers' Club and the Youngstown Chamber of Commerce, and is a thirty-second degree Mason, Knight Templar and a member of the Mystic Shrine.
Mr. Crowther was married August 3, 1903, to Miss Dorie Doran of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They are members of the First Baptist Church of Youngstown.
JOSEPH H. CROWTHER is a young man who is at present working his way through the blast furnace department of the Republic Iron & Steel Company.
ROY EDWARD HEMPEL. Among the younger men of Warren who have won success and prominence in their life work is Roy E. Hempel, engineer, and since 1913 county surveyor of Trumbull County.
Mr. Hempel is a native of the Mahoning Valley, born at Leavittsburg on August 9, 1885, and is in the third generation of his family in Warren. His paternal grandfather, Charles Hempel, a native of Saxony, Germany, and a tanner by trade, came to the United States when he was a young man, coming direct to Warren, where he worked at his trade for many years. Here he married Sarah Siddle, who was born in Pennsylvania, and was but a girl when her parents came to Warren.
George W. Hempel, son of Charles and Sarah Hempel, was born in Warren on September 8, 1853. He learned telegraphy in his boyhood, and has been an operator all his life, since 1872 in the employ of the Erie Railway, and he is at present with that railway at Youngstown, though residing at Warren. He married Effie C. Allen, who was born at Newton Falls, Ohio, a daughter of Albert N. Allen, an early and well-known citizen of Newton Falls and of the Mahoning Valley.
Roy E. Hempel attended the Leavittsburg common school eleven years, and in 1905 he was graduated from the Warren High School. He attended Purdue University in Indiana parts of two years, and the Ohio Northern University during parts of two years, pursuing studies in the engineering course in each university. It is due Mr. Hempel to say that he paid his own expenses in both high school and the universities with money earned in the vacation periods. For one year of this time he was with the engineering department of the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Mills.
Mr. Hempel was field engineer with the Trumbull Steel Company of Warren from the beginning of the building of that plant in 1912 to 1915, and his services are still sought by the company as a consulting engineer. In 1913, while still with the Trumbull Steel Company, he was elected surveyor of Trumbull County. During his incumbency of the office of county surveyor important public work has been done, all under his supervision, and practically all of the inter-county highways within the county were built under his supervision.
Some of the big contracts carried on under the supervision of Mr. Hempel are the Main-Market brick pavement from Newton Falls to Youngstown; the Main-Market brick pavement toward Cleveland; the Summit Street and Main Street bridges in Warren ; the McDonald bridge connecting Niles with McDonald; and he is now preparing plans and specifications for building the Liberty Street viaduct at Girard. In 1920, under his direct supervision, there were constructed $2,000,000 worth of state and county roads in Trumbull County. Under the highway law Mr. Hempel is, as county surveyor, exofficia resided resident engineer of the State Highway Department of Ohio.
Mr. Hempel is a member of Old Erie Lodge No. 3, Free and Accepted Masons, of Warren Lodge of Elks, the Warren Rotary Club, the Buckeye Club, the County Club, American Society of Engineers and the Ohio Society of Civil Engineers.
Mr. Hempel married Marie S. Smith, who born in Scotland. She is a daughter of Archibal G. and Elizabeth (Cullem) Smith. The Smith family came from Scotland when Mrs. Hempel was three years old.
JAY BUCHWALTER, attorney, has been closely identified with the professional, business and civic life of Warren for twenty years, and during that time he has risen, by his own efforts, from a law student to prominence at the bar, has won success in business affairs, and has established himself as a progressive, patriotic and unselfish citizen, one ready at all times to serve his city in any and all ways at any and all times.
Mr. Buchwalter was born at Dalton, Wayne County, Ohio, January 18, 1874, and is descended from an old Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, family which has been in Pennsylvania for many generations. His father, Henry Buchwalter, was born in Lancaster County. The Ohio branch was established at Dalton, Wayne County, in 1850, by Jacob Buchwalter, the grandfather of Jay Buchwalter.
The parents of Jay Buchwalter were Henry and Barbara (Rudy) Buchwalter and they were both born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The family removed to Lordstown, Trumbull County, in 1884,where Henry Buchwalter died on November 4, 1900 aged sixty-eight years. His widow died on New Year's day of 1912. Her father, Christian Rudy, was also a native of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and was an early settler of Wayne County, Ohio.
Jay Buchwalter was a boy of ten years when his family came to Trumbull County. He attended the district schools, Canfield Academy, and then spent four years at Mount Union College, from which he was graduated with the class of Iwo, with the degree of Bachelor of Science. Following that he studied his law in the office of Judges Tuttle and Fillius at Warren, and was admitted to the Ohio bar in December, 1901, and immediately entered practice at Warren. His practice is general, but he has a large clientele among local corporations. Mr. Buchwalter has been very active in civic affairs, giving freely of his time and means to support all public matters,