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contributes to the commercial prestige and prosperity of the village and county in which its fine manufacturing plant is established. The business represents the splendid outgrowth of a modest enterprise that was established in 1883, when Nelson M. Richards, president of the present company, established a feed store at Cortland, with a working capital of only $800. In 1886 his brother Charles was admitted to partnership in the business and the firm title of Richards Brothers was adopted. In 1890 the firm erected and equipped a flour mill at Cortland, the same being a substantial building, supplied with the most modern type of roller process, and success attended the enterprise from the beginning. In t0m Charles Richards sold his interest to F. P. Evans, who had been the practical miller of the firm, and Charles Richards then removed to the State of California. In 1903, as a matter of operating and commercial expediency, the business was reorganized by its incorporation under the present title of the Richards & Evans Company and with a capital stock of $50,000. The mill had an output capacity of fifty barrels of flour daily, and here operations were continued until 1908, on May 10th of which year the mill was destroyed by fire, with a loss of $32,000. Notwithstanding this serious financial loss, with but minor insurance indemnity, Mr. Richards did not yield for a moment to discouragement, but promptly made plans for the erection of the new and larger mill, which was completed and put into operation within the same year. Mr. Evans finally withdrew from the business, in 1910, and the stock of the company is now held entirely by citizens of Trumbull County. The modern mill and powerhouse of the company were erected at a cost of $57,000, with a capacity for the production of 200 barrels of flour daily. In 1918 the modern equipment was amplified by remodeling the mill and installing various new types of machinery and appliances, with the result that the plant now produces corn meal and buckwheat flour on an equally large scale with the flour production, the capacity for corn meal output being 300 barrels daily. The company manufactures the highest grade of flour from winter and spring wheat, and its pure buckwheat flour likewise has gained high reputation and wide demand, the output of buckwheat flour, from grain grown locally, being 200 barrels daily. The conducting of the industry now requires a working capital of more than $300,000, an average of thirty employes being retained, with a pay roll of fully $40,000. The flour manufactured is largely sold locally and in the southern states, with a substantial trade with jobbers in the eastern states, and the scope and importance of the business are indicated by the statement that the gross sales for the fiscal year 1919 aggregate $1,700,000, with retail sales amounting to $190,000. For labor and grain the cornny places in circulation locally more than $100,000 annually. Nelson M. Richards, president and general manager of the company, is individually mentioned on other pages ; Charles A. Williams, of Kent, is vice president of the company ; and Oliver M. Richards, son of the president, is secretary and treasurer. From a small inception has been built up this large and prosperous industrial enterprise, and to the president of the company has in large measure been due this remarkable achievement, which attests his vital initiative and executive ability. All wheat used in the mill is of Ohio production, fully 25 per cent being secured from the territory immediately tributary, and virtually all buckwheat used is of local production. Each successive year has shown a substantial expansion in the business, the economic influence of which is specially large in a local sense.
JOHN S. CROSS, M. D. Numbered among the reliable physicians and surgeons of the Mahoning Valley, Dr. John S. Cross is engaged in a very successful practice of his profession at Youngstown, where he is recognized as one of the city's leading citizens. He was born in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, on April 16, 1873, a son of David and Mary (Young) Cross. The great-grandfather of Doctor Cross was a soldier of the American Revolution, as was one of his brothers, both of them being under the immediate command of General Washington. For his services this ancestor of Doctor Cross received a land grant from General Washington, and in order to take it up placed his family on a raft and floated down the Ohio River. One of the children dying on the trip, the little party landed at Vanport, Pennsylvania, to bury it, and decided to locate there, so took up 400 acres of land, in that vicinity. Later on the family spread out into other sections of Pennsylvania, and finally came into Ohio.
David Cross, father of Doctor Cross, was a brick mason in young manhood, but later on in life became a farmer. He and his wife were Presbyterians and brought up their children in that faith. While he was a democrat himself, he taught his children to think for themselves and three of his seven sons became republicans, Doctor Cross being one of them. In addition to these seven sons, David Cross and his wife had a daughter, and of them all Doctor Cross is the youngest.
Doctor Cross attended Mount Jackson High School and the Northeastern Ohio Normal School at Canfield, Ohio, following which he became a student at the Grove City College and was graduated therefrom in 1898, having from boyhood planned to be a physician. Following his graduation he spent six years at North Jackson in active practice, and then located at Youngstown, where he has since remained, building up a large and important practice. Doctor Cross has taken an active part in public affairs and was elected coroner and served for some years. During his occupancy of that office he gained such a valuable experience in surgery that he has become an expert and is called into court upon many occasions to testify upon matters pertaining to this branch of his profession.
In 1900 Doctor Cross was united in marriage with Ella B. Hill, a daughter of David Hill. Doctor and Mrs. Cross became the parents of three daughters, namely : Anna Natalie and Juniata Virginia, who are living, and Margaret, who died at the age of eighteen years. Doctor Cross is a Knight Templar and thirty-second degree Mason and also belongs to the Mystic Shrine. He is an Odd Fellow. Professionally he belongs to the Mahoning Valley Medical Society, the Ohio State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. The family all belong to the Presbyterian Church. Doctor Cross has
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not attained to his present prominence through luck, but because of his steadfast adherence to the plans made in his boyhood. Having set his goal, he worked steadily toward it and let nothing keep him from the road in which he had set his feet. Since entering upon the practice of his profession he has lived up to the highest ideals of his calling and has honorably gained the prestige- which is now accorded him, not only by his fellow citizens of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley, but by the profession throughout the state.
HENRY R. GLENN for the past five or six years has given all his time to the extension of his business, known as the Glenn Office Equipment Company, at Youngstown. Mr. Glenn had many years of experience in the accounting and office management department of several large railroads, industrial and commercial plants, has made a study of office and ac counting systems, and not only represents some of the standard manufacturers of office equipment and supplies but gives the quality of personal service to his business, and his personal management has been an important asset in extending the business all over Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio.
Mr. Glenn was born over the state line in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, at West Middlesex, November 19, 1862, son of John A. and Harriet M. (Hanna) Glenn. His mother, who was related to the Mark Hanna family, was born in Ohio near the state line and is now living with her son, at the age of seventy-seven. John A. Glenn, who was born in Western Pennsylvania and died in 1913, at the age of seventy-two, was a blacksmith and machinist and in early life worked around the coal mines and later at blast furnaces. He was a Presbyterian and a republican. There were three children : Calvin, who was a mechanical engineer and died a number of years ago; Henry R.; and Herschel, in the grocery business at Youngstown.
Henry R. Glenn graduated from the West Middlesex High School and also attended Grove City College in his native county. He completed a good education largely through money earned by teaching school in Shenango Township of Mercer County. After those early experiences in school and as a teacher he entered the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company at the Middlesex Station, working as handy or utility man of the depot. In 1887 he became freight clerk at Niles, Ohio, for the Pennsylvania Company, eighteen months later going to the freight office at Youngstown as rate and bill clerk, and after a year joined the Erie Railroad at Youngstown, having charge of the accounts receivable, particularly the accounts of the bigiron and steel plants. Mr. Glenn remained there until 1899, and then joined the Youngstown Dry Goods Company, and in 1903 was promoted to office manager of that concern. In 1907 he became collection manager for the General Fireproofing Company.
This was an unusual range of experience in handling business affairs of large corporations at Youngstown. While still with the Fireproofing Company he had made a study of the sale of office equipment, and since 1914 has given all his time to that work and has developed an organization representing and in touch with the leading manufacturers of office equipment, furniture, stationery and office supplies, and has a large and established clientele of customers throughout Mercer, Lawrence and Beaver counties, Pennsylvania, and Jefferson, Trumbull, Mahoning and Columbiana counties, Ohio.
In 1890 Mr. Glenn married Amelda E. Thompson, daughter of J. H. and Nancy L. Thompson. They are members of the Westminster Presbyterian Church of which Mr. Glenn is an elder. He is also active in the Kiwanis Club, the Chamber of Commerce, and is an independent republican in politics.
WALTER S. MACKEY. One of the public offices that is practically an unceasing responsibility and an opportunity of real and vital service is that of superintendent of the County Infirmary. That office in Trumbull County is filled by Walter S. Mackey, a man of wide experience in business administration and public affairs, and who has set many new standards and standards difficult to surpass in his management of this county institution.
Mr. Mackey was born in Vienna, Trumbull County, April 20, 1868. His parents were Comfort J. and Amanda E. (Bartholomew) Mackey, both natives of Vienna Township. The maternal grandparents, Levi and Susie Bartholomew, came from Cuyahoga County and were early settlers in Vienna, where her father, a wagon maker by trade, died at the age of ninety-one. Vienna Township is the home locality of the numerous Mackey family, who for years have held annual reunions there. At one of these reunions there were 36o descendants. Comfort Mackey spent all his life on the farm where he was born, and died at the age of sixty-nine. He was killed by falling from a hay mow. His wife, Amanda, died at the age of thirty-eight, when her son Walter S. was twelve years of age. Comfort Mackey subsequently married Lizzie Williams, daughter of Reuben Williams, of Braceville Township. She is now living, at the age of seventy-four, with a brother-in-law at Kent. Comfort Mackey, who had no children by his second marriage, was a very high type of successful farmer. At the time of his death he was a deacon in the Disciples Church at Howland. Walter S. was the older of two sons, his brother George remaining on the old homestead in Vienna.
Walter S. Mackey lived at home to the age of eighteen, acquiring his education in local schools. Taste and inclination made him take to the livestock feature of farming. When he left home he entered the service of the James E. Brown & Brothers Stock Farm in Howland, having care of the horses and training them on the track on the farm. For a time he looked after the breeding of the famous Wilkes stock. He attended many races and became a noted driver. During his three years on that farm he had charge of the first herd of Holstein cattle in Trumbull County, and exhibited them at public fairs. In the absence of the owners he was given entire responsibility on the stock farm.
February 26, 1891, Mr. Mackey married Miss Mame M. Thompson, of Howland, daughter of Jonathan Thompson. Her father, who was killed at a railroad crossing, was a leading stockman, specializing in Shorthorn cattle, fine driving horses, and was
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a regular exhibitor at fairs. He made a practice of matching up teams, which he sold for fancy prices in Cleveland. He died January 11, 1900. Mrs, Mackey was born in Howland Township, and her mother, whose maiden name was Sarah Holcomb, is still living making her home with her daughters.
After his marriage Mr. Mackey farmed for a time in Howland and then removed to Warren, where he was employed three years, making improvements in the Perkins allotment. Another five years he spent with Greenwood & Company in their feed mill, and for eleven years was with the Harris Automatic Press Company, building printing and lithograph machinery. He was in the shops of this company.
For three years Mr. Mackey was an inspector of new roads for the State Highway Department in Trumbull County, and on May 15, 1918, came into his present responsibilities as superintendent of the County Farm, located three miles north of Warren. Mrs. Mackey is a matron of the farm. The farm comprises 386 acres, and under Mr. Mackey's management has been so handled as to make the institution in a large degree self-supporting. Besides the rob inmates he has ten assistants, and keeps eighty head of cattle, ten registered Shorthorns, which have been exhibited at fairs, forty head of hogs, some of them thoroughbreds, and eight good horses for farm use. Last year the farm produced 1,260 bushels of wheat, besides large quantities of vegetables and fruit.
Besides this important public service Mr. Mackey was for fourteen years a special officer on the Warren police force. He and his wife have one daughter, Sarah Elizabeth, who graduated from the Warren High School and from the Kent Normal School and is a teacher of English in the First Street School of Warren.
MAX A. MYEROVICH. As a business organization and business service the Myerovich Brothers, tailors, at 43 North Phelps Street, represent the acme of their profession, while as citizens and men of affairs Youngstown has had many reasons to be proud of their Americanism, their patriotic loyalty and public spirit.
The brothers, Louis J., Myron and Max A. Myerovich, were all born in Russia. Their father, Abraham Myerovich, was a cap maker and died in 1892, when tax was three years old. The mother died three years later. At that time Louis J. took charge of the little family. He was the first of the sons to seek freedom and opportunity in America. After six mouths in New York City he worked at the tailor's trade in Richmond, Virginia, and then came to Youngstown in 1911. Louis J. Myerovich was born in 1882, his brother Myron in 1886, and Max A. on September 25, 1889.
Max A. Myerovich joined his brother at Richmond in 1907, while Myron joined them in Youngstown in 1913. Their first establishment in this city was at 339 \Vest Federal Street, and they moved to their present quarters on North Phelps Street in 1916. They are masters of their profession, and their patronage is made up of people of exclusive taste, demanding the very finest workmanship and quality.
Since early childhood Max Myerovich has been a student, and while his opportunities were limited he is known among his associates and friends as a man of scholarship and broad sympathies. He became proficient in the Hebrew and Russian languages, and after coming to this country acquired a thorough knowledge of English. He has the gifts of the orator, but his convincing powers are rather due to his wonderful earnestness and comprehensive knowledge of any subject which he discusses. He acquired his final citizenship papers in January, 1915, and all the brothers are thorough Americans in everything except birth. During the war Max Myerovich served as a member of many war work committees and as chairman of several of them.
As a boy his studious habits led him to closely observe Russian people and Russian institutions. While the Russian revolution was in progress he conceived the plan of sending a commission of Russian born but American citizens back to Russia, the commission to be composed of men whose early experiences gave them a thorough understanding of the popular side of Russian problems and conditions, and whose later experiences in America would enable them to speak with the voice of authority on the American ideals of freedom and democracy. Such a commission in the opinion of Mr. Myerovich would accomplish much more than a body made up of native Americans, most of them prominent, lacking in knowledge and insight into Russian conditions, and who would inevitably be regarded with suspicion and whose progress in Russian countries would be accompanied by display and a pomp and ceremony which of itself would render the mission fruitless. After developing his theory Mr. Myerovich corresponded with Colonel Roosevelt, Will Irwin, the writer, heads of various departments in Washington, and held personal conferences with many prominent men. His ideas received hearty approval, though up to the present time no official steps have been taken to perfect and carry out the plan.
Mr. Myerovich is chairman of the republican party in his precinct. He is a member of Temple Emanuel, is president for 1920 of the B'Nai B'Rith, is a member of the executive committee of the Zionist Organization of America, and chairman of its publicity committee. He is affiliated with Western Star Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, Youngstown Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, Buechner Council, Royal and Select Masters, and is also a member of the Knights of Pythias. He is a charter member and director of the Kiwanis Club.
At Windsor, Ontario, Canada, Mr. Myerovich married Miss Clara.Rudolph, daughter of Max Rudolph, of Cleveland. Their two children are Raymond and Eleanor.
CHARLES J. LITTLE, who for fifty-four years has been a resident in Youngstown, Ohio, and for more than twenty years has been in independent business as a plumbing contractor in that city,. has had a worthwhile business career; and has gained for himself a place among the responsible business men of the city. His record includes the peddling of newspapers as a boy ; more than twenty years of steady and capable service to the Stambaugh-Thompson corporation and latterly as manager of the plumbing department of
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that establishment; and a long period of successful independent business. He was one of the founders of the Youngstown Builders' Exchange, and for many years has been an active member of the local Chamber of Commerce.
He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, July I, 1863, the son of Charles J. and Fannie (Ellis) Little. His parents were both of Irish nativity, his father, Charles J. Little, coming to America, and to Pittsburgh, when quite a young man. He was still comparatively a young man when he died in 1877. However, his wife, who was born in Ireland in 1830, lived a widowhood of forty-two years, her death not occurring until March, 1919, she being then within a year of nonagenarian age. The Little family removed from Pittsburgh to Youngstown in 1866, and has been of respectable record in that city since that year. Charles J. Little, Sr., was by trade a carpenter, and was associated in business with his brother-in-law, John Ellis. He was a republican in politics, and religiously was an Episcopalian, he and his wife having been members of St. John's Episcopal Church, Youngstown. Throughout the period of their residence in Youngstown Mr. and Mrs. Little lived on East Commerce Street, their home at first being located on the site where now stands the Fisher Dray office. Latterly they lived a little to the eastward of their first home on East Commerce Street.
Of the children of Charles J. and Fannie (Ellis) Little three still live. They are : John, who is associated with his brother Charles J. in business in Youngstown; Charles J., regarding whose life more is written herein; and Samuel E. Little, who is engaged in the wholesale plumbing supplies business in Boston, Mass.
Charles J. Little, Jr., was only three years old when his parents came to Youngstown to live, and the whole of his education was obtained in Youngstown schools; in fact, the whole of his life with the exception of the first three years has been spent in the city, and he has seen it develop from a place of but little consequence to a city of its prsent importance. He is to all intents and purposes a Youngstown man, and has had a full man's share in its development. He attended the Wood Street School, but was only fourteen years old when his father died. He was compelled to seek means of helping to contribute to the family income. His earliest efforts in this connection were by no means the least pleasurable, as during the time he peddled local newspapers on the streets of Youngstown he formed many good friendships, among his chums being James McAleer, who later became of note among baseball players. Responsibility for the upkeep of the family home devolved even more heavily upon him when his elder brother, William J. Little, was accidentally killed. But he appears to have been a boy of good courage and cheerfulness, and able to hold his own. After a couple of years as newsboy and errand boy he at sixteen years entered the employ of the Stambaugh-Thompson Company with the intention of learning the plumbing trade. He remained with that company for more than twenty years, eventually being appointed manager of the plumbing department. He held that capacity when, in 1898, he resolved to embark independently in business as a plumbing contractor in Youngstown. In that year he established himself in business on South Phelps Street, remaining in that location for eleven years, until 1909, when he removed to 28 West Wood Street, which has since been his business address. During the long period of successful business Mr. Little has supplied plumbing to many of the most prominent residents of the city, and has undertaken plumbing and heating contracts in the fitting of many of the largest buildings in Youngstown.
He has upon many occasions shown an active interest in the affairs of the city; was one of the organizers of the Builders' Exchange, in which organization he is still a member of the board of trustees ; and for many years he has been a member of the Youngstown Chamber of Commerce. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
He married, in 1889, Anna, daughter of Emanuel Hippard, for many years a florist in Youngstown, and owner of the business latterly conducted by John Walker, to whom he sold his interest. Mrs. Little was born in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, and is the mother of one child, their son, Randall, who has grown to manhood and was, on January 1, 192o, admitted into business partnership by his father. Randall Little married Miss Irene Stanley of Youngstown, Ohio, and they have three children, Catherine Beatrice, Anna Frances, and Charles J.
GEORGE M. MOSER, president of the Trumbull County Agricultural Society, of which he has been a director for fifteen years, is known and honored as one of the able and progressive exponents of farm industry in his native county, and his finely improved farm, in Lordstown Township, is situated four miles west of Niles and five miles south of Warren.
On the old homestead of the family, one mile north of his present farm, George M. Moser was born September 28, 1859, a son of John and Catherine (Weaver) Moser, the former of whom was born in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, in 1824. The latter was a small child at the time of her parents' emigration from Wurtemberg, Germany, to America in 1837, forty-two days having been required to make the voyage on a sailing vessel of the type common to that period, and the family home having been established in Trumbull County, where the mother of Mrs. Moser died in 1872, aged seventy-two years, the father having previously passed away. John Moser was a lad of twelve years when his parents came to Trumbull County, his father, Philip Moser, likewise having been born in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, a son of one of three brothers who came to America from France within a short time after the close of the War of the Revolution. One of the brothers, a bachelor, located at Pittsburgh, where he accumulated a large estate, which is still in litigation in an effort to recover it to his heirs. The other two brothers married, one settling in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, and the other in New Jersey.
Upon coming with his family to Ohio Philip Moser became an early settler in what is now Jackson Township, Mahoning County, but later he came to Warren, Trumbull County. In the early years he was
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identified with the overland freighting of merchandise from Pittsburgh to this part of Ohio, and later he was iB the employ of the Erie Railroad Company, he having been killed by a train at Leavittsburg, in 1873, when seventy-three years of age. Besides John he had three other sons: Gideon, who was a resident of Coldwater, Michigan, at the time of his death; David, who died on his farm northwest of Leavittsburg, Trumbull County, when past seventy years of age; and Owen, who died at Warren aged seventy-eight years, he having long conducted a restaurant in that city. His son Charles W. was formerly sheriff of Trumbull County, and another son, Delos, is chief of the Warren Fire Department. Comfort B. and Owen N. Moser, sons of David, mentioned above, are both deceased. Of the seven sisters of John Moser, brief record may consistently be 'entered: Catherine married Paul Reigert, and they moved to Geauga County ; Rebecca married Henry Lapham, and they established their home near Port Huron, Michigan ; Elizabeth, wife of Adam Schwab, died in Geauga County, Ohio; Lydia, who first married Jackson Rowe and after his death became the wife of Isaac Probst, died in the City of Warren; Miss Susan, now seventy years of age (two), resides at Warren; Mary married Welcome Kaile, and they established their home near Port Huron, Michigan; and Rosanna, wife of Emery Hower, was a resident of Warren at the time of her death.
John Moser, as before stated, was twelve years old at the time of the family removal to Ohio, and as a young man he found employment as clerk in the old hotel conducted by William Newhart, on the site of the present Stone Block in the City of Warren, this being in the old stage-coach days. He was thus engaged until the time of his marriage, but in the meantime he had become the owner of a farm in Lordstown Township, where he established his home and where he continued as one of the substantial farmers and representative citizens of his community during the rest of his life, the farm being four miles south of Warren. Here he died in 1898, at the age of seventy-four years, and his widow passed away in 1917, aged seventy-three years. At one time John Moser was the owner of 325 acres of land, and he was one of the successful and enterprising farmers of the county. He served in various local offices, but had no ambition for political preferment, both he and his wife having been zealous communicants of the German Lutheran Church at Lordstown.
At the age of twenty-seven years John Moser was united in marriage to Miss Catherine Weaver, who was born and reared in Trumbull County, her father having died when she was a child. Of the .six children of this union four attained to maturity : George M., of this review, is the eldest of the number ; Alice is the wife of Jacob Hoffman, a retired farmer. residing at Warren; Frances is the wife of Henry Barnsetter, and they own and reside upon the old home farm of her father ; and Miss Olive is a successful and popular teacher in the centralized school at Lordstown, she having been engaged in teaching for more than thirty years.
George M. Moser was afforded the advantages of a well conducted select school at Lordstown, and continued to be associated with the work of his father's farm until he had attained to his legal majority. Then he became associated with his father in the purchase of his present fine farm of Z00 acres, of which he assumed the active charge, in the meantime remaining at the parental home. He made good improvements on the place, and has been exceptionally successful as an alert and progressive agriculturist and stock grower, besides which he has been a dealer in livestock for the local market. His farm now comprises 125 acres, the remainder of the original 200 acres having been sold, and the county has found no more enterprising and advanced exponent of agricultural and livestock industry. He has taken deep interest in all things pertaining to the welfare and advancement of his home township and county, and after having served fifteen years as a director of the Trumbull County Agricultural Society he became its president, an office which he has held since 1916 and in which he has given splendid service in promotion of the success of the annual county fairs of the organization. For a long term of years he has been a director of the Lordstown Mutual Insurance Company, which was founded in 1868 and of which his father was a charter member, the company now having in force about 1,800 policies, representing an insurance business totaling about $4,000,000. The business of the company is largely confined to Trumbull and adjoining counties, and was organized and is maintained solely for mutual insurance protection. Mr. Moser has been for many years a member of the school board of his district, and in this capacity he assisted materially in the adoption of the present and valuable centralized school system, the opposition to the movement having been such that not until the proposition had been presented in four elections was its adoption secured. The strongest opponents now realize the full value of this noteworthy educational advance, and not a dissatisfied voter is to be found in the township in connection with the present school provisions. The eligibility and loyalty of Mr. Moser have further been recognized by his being retained several years in the office of township trustee, and in this position he was one of the earliest and staunchest supporters of the good roads movement. In the improvement of the first important road in his township he had the effective cooperation of A. G. McCorkle, a neighbor. In association with George E. Cryder, Mr. Moser effected the establishing of the first rural free mail delivery route in Lordstown Township in 1892. He was thus instrumental in establishing routes No. i and No. 2, the latter having never been changed since he defined its service, which extends to his own home. He also was influential in securing the local rural service of the Bell Telephone Company, and prior to this he had attempted to organize a local telephone company, a venture in which he failed to gain the requisite co-operation. He is a member of the advisory council of the Farmers' Bureau, and, as may well be understood, has been a leader in public sentiment and action in his township. In local affairs he is not constrained by partisan lines, but in national and state politics he gives his allegiance to the republican party. He has been affiliated with the Knights of Pythias for forty years, and is one of the
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most loyal members of Eden Grange at Lordstown, of which he is past master. Both he and his wife hold membership in the Christian Church at Lordstown and are popular in the representative social life of their community.
May 15, 1889, recorded the marriage of Mr. Moser to Miss Ida M. McCorkle, who was born in North Jackson Township, Mahoning County, and is a daughter of Hyne and Elizabeth L. (Pew) McCorkle. Mr. McCorkle, a successful teacher in the public schools for a number of years in his earlier life, continued to reside on his farm. in North Jackson Township until his death in September, 1908, at the venerable age of eighty-eight years, his wife having passed away two years previously, at the age of seventy-eight years. Their son Thomas P. has long been a popular teacher in the city schools of Warren; Austin J. owns and resides upon a part of the old home farm; John died at Warren when about sixty years of age ; Olive is the widow of James Barnes and resides at Alliance, Stark County; Printhia became the wife of James Kibler, and both died in Geauga County; Angeline E. is the wife of Ernest J. Hurd, of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio ; and Emma, the wife of Lucius Rayen, is deceased.
Mr. and Mrs. Moser have two children : Olive C. is the wife of Oren E. Bordner, of North Canton, Stark County; and Ida May is the wife of Glenn 0. Burnett, with whom she is now at the home of her parents.
DAVID J. GOODRIDGE. Occupying a place of note in the business life of the Mahoning Valley, David J. Goodridge, proprietor of the Quality Store in Youngstown, has achieved well merited success as a merchant, his enterprise, energetic efforts and well-known honesty of purpose having won him an extensive patronage, one of the chief factors in advancing his interests being his desire to please his many customers, regardless of class or condition. A native of Youngstown, he was born on West Federal Street August 29, 1878, a son of William Goodridge, who has been a resident of this city for half a century.
Born and bred in Wales, William Goodridge came to this country in early life, locating soon after his arrival, In Youngstown, and for a number of years thereafter was connected with in the Cartwright plant as a puddler. Interested n agriculture, he subsequently purchased land on the Ohio Avenue extension, and has since developed a highly improved truck farm, which yields him a handsome yearly income. He married Diana Lewis, a native of Southern Ohio, and of their union eight children were born. Both he and his wife are consistent members of the Baptist Church.
David J. Goodridge attended the Covington Street School and the Crab, Creek School as a boy, but being the oldest child of the parental household had to give up his studies when young in order to help make a living for the family. Entering the employ of the Republic Company, he served as blacksmith and general utility man for a number of years. His health becoming impaired he spent two years recuperating, and at the same time spent all of his money, sickness being then, as now, an expensive luxury.
Having regained his former physical vigor, Mr. Goodridge, although a first class mechanic and with a decided liking for the work, made a radical change of occupation, entering the McCullough mercantile establishment on the Logan Avenue extension, where he obtained a practical knowledge of the business and a well earned experience in mercantile affairs. In 1909, with but limited means, he opened his present store on Thornton Avenue, becoming a competitor of his former employer, but still retaining his friendship and good will. Keeping a clean, well-stocked, up-to-date establishment, he has met with most satisfactory success in his undertakings, and is now one of the leading merchants of his vicinity.
Mr. Goodridge married in 1904 Sarah, daughter of L. Jenkins, and they have had three children, Howard, Sarah Elizabeth (deceased), and Donald. Religiously Mr. and Mrs. Goodridge are valued members of the Central Christian Church. Politically Mr. Goodridge is a sound republican. Fraternally he is a member of Western Star Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons; of Youngstown Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; of Buechner Council, Royal and Select Masters ; of Saint. John's Commandery, Knights Templar ; of Hiram Lodge of Perfection; of Lake Erie Consistory, thirty-second degree; and of Al Koran Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.
BERT M. SUMMERS, a prominent real estate operator and president of the Youngstown, Ohio, Real Estate Board, has come much to the fore of late years in Youngstown, both in connection with his business operations and in worth-while participation in public movements of consequence to the city. He has manifested a sincere interest in the city, much skill in town planning, and an intelligent understanding of causes bearing on city betterment. Generally, his active optimism, his energy and his readiness to participate personally in movements that promise good to some phase of the affairs of Youngstown have placed him definitely among the city builders, among men such as a community must rely on for continued advancement.
He is a native of Youngstown, born on Rayen Avenue, corner of Chapel Place, on February 14, I 1880, the son of George M. and Elizabeth (Crumm) Summers. His father was, of British birth, born in 1856, but his mother was a native of Halifax, Nova Scotia. George M. Summers was only fifteen years old when, in company with James Nutt, he came to America and into Ohio. He settled in Newburgh, Cuyahoga County, and began to work in the rolling mills. He remained connected with the iron and steel industry throughout his life, and as a roller found lucrative employment. Before coming to Youngstown he followed his trade in Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Providence, Rhode Island. He was well known in Youngstown, for some years being assistant superintendent of the Brown-Bonnell plant, and later superintendent of the Republic Iron and Steel plant, and he was a recognized authority on the manufacture of iron and steel. He was a self-made man, and typical of the, successful American steel manufacturer. His
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death in Youngstown in 1910 closed a life of definite and substantial achievement, a life marked by a commendable steadiness and a broad understanding of human nature, and above all marked by a sincere interest in his fellows. Had he so wished he might in all probability have been elected mayor of Youngstown, for in his active days he was very popular in the city. He was a republican, and especially interested in educational matters. For several years he was president of the Youngstown School Board, and many notable improvements were instituted during the period. He was a Mason, a member of St. John's Commandery, Knights Templar, and identified with the old Rayen body. Religiously he was an Episcopalian, and for years was one of the leading members of the local church. He was twice married, his first wife, Elizabeth Crumm, whom he married in Halifax, Nova Scotia, being the mother of five of his six -children. She died in 1885, the children in order of birth being: Edith, who became the wife of Asa Van Baalen, a review of whose life will be found elsewhere in this edition; Percy, who has taken to literary occupations, and at present is a member of the staff of the Toledo Times ; Clarence, who is in Cleveland; Bert M., regarding whose activities this article is especially written; and a daughter who died in infancy. The second wife of George M. Summers was Elizabeth, daughter of John Ellis, of Youngstown. She is still living, and in comfortable circumstances, on Woodbine Avenue, Youngstown. One child was born to the second marriage, a son, Earl, who is now a veteran of the great war, having seen much service in France in a motor cycle unit, with his uncle, Col. Richard T. Ellis. The latter, a brother of Mrs. Summers, has had a distinguished military career. He was in the regular army for twenty years, was a member of Governor McKinley's staff, saw service in the Philippines, and was with Major John A. Logan when that valiant soldier was killed during the Philippine campaign.
Bert M. Summers, son of George M. and Elizabeth (Crumm) Summers, attended the public schools of Youngstown, and eventually began to work under his father in the Brown-Bonnell mills. He was sixteen years old at that time, and in course of time became a roll turner. He remained connected with the steel industry for many years, advancing in responsibility, but eventually saw greater opportunity in real estate operations in his native city. Since he has been established as a real estate operator he has done much development work ; has made a specialty of selling improved property ; and, has also been interested in developing a number of allotments. He with others developed the Ina Kennedy Land Company and the Youngstown City Company, and his standing among real estate operators in the vicinity may be inferred by the office, that of president, he holds in the Youngstown Real Estate Board.
In addition to his close interest in real estate development in Youngstown he has also manifested an active interest in the general advancement of the city, being an aggressive member of the local Chamber of Commerce. Socially he belongs to the Youngstown Club; fraternally he is a Mason, a member of the Western Star Lodge ; politically he gives allegiance to the republican party; and prosperity and a liking for motoring have drawn him into membership in the Youngstown Automobile Club. An indication of his general character is contained in the fact that he is a member of the Young Men's Christian Association and an active member of Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church.
He was only twenty-one years old when he married Kathrine, daughter of David Hughes, of Youngstown. Three children have been born to them Robert H., who is a graduate of. Rayen High School, Youngstown, and who although only seventeen years old, has matriculated at. Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island; Kathrine Elizabeth and George R. The family is much esteemed by an increasing circle of friends in Youngstown.
VAN EMON MARSHALL is the owner of a large and valuable landed estate in Trumbull County, is one of the representative exponents of agricultural industry in the county, and his fine farm is situated in Weathersfield Township: On the site of the McDonald Steel Mill near Girard, in this same township, Mr. Marshall was born October 24, 1850. He is a son of Isaac Houston and Rebecca (Van Emon) Marshall. On the same farm which figured as the birthplace of the subject of this review, his father was born in 1821, a son of Isaac Marshall, who was of. Scotch-Irish lineage and a member of a family that was founded in Ohio in the first decade of the nineteenth century, records showing that John, the eldest son, was born in this state, and as he was eleven years older than his brother Isaac, it becomes evident that the parents were living in this state as early as 1810, settlement having been made on the old homestead farm, then but a forest wilderness, where Van Emon Marshall, as well as his father, was born. Isaac Marshall, Sr., here continued his activities as a pioneer farmer until his death, at the age of seventy-two years, in the late '50s. He had served in the War of 1812, and in one of the engagements of this conflict he had one of his thumbs shot off. His widow died at the age of eighty-two years, after they had reared their children to years of maturity: John, the eldest child, passed his entire life on the ancestral homestead in Weathersfield Township, where he died at the age of eighty-two years, his son, John C., being now a resident of Youngstown; Benjamin removed to Hancock County, Ohio, and there he died when somewhat more than eighty years of age; Isaac H., father of the subject of this review, was next in order of birth; Miles passed the closing years of his life at North Jackson, and passed the scriptural Span of three score years and ten; Sally became the wife of John McLean and died at Oswego, Illinois, at a venerable age; Jane married George Christy, with whom she removed to Iowa, where she died when past eighty years of age; Betsy became the wife of Carson Justice,. of New Bedford, Pennsylvania, and she likewise died at an advanced age ; and Mary, wife of Elijah Hopkins, resided at-Oswego, Illinois, and was the last surviving member of this family of children, she having- celebrated the ninety-fifth anniversary of her birth in 1919. She died ins February, 1920.
In Austintown Township, Mahoning County, about
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the year 1848, Isaac Houston Marshall was united in marriage to Miss Rebecca Van Emon, daughter of Nicholas Van Emon, a pioneer settler in that township, where his daughter was born and reared, she having been one of twelve children, and after the death of the mother the father contracted a second marriage. He was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, and was a resident of Ohlton, Mahoning County, at the home of his daughter, Rebecca Marshall, at the time of his death; when seventy-three years of age. Rebecca Ann (Van Emon) Marshall was next to the youngest of the twelve children, not one of whom is living at the present time. Isaac H. Marshall passed away in December, 1906, in his eighty-sixth year, his wife having died in 1894, aged sixty-five years. He was long numbered among the leading farmers on the south side of the Mahoning River in Trumbull County, and was a man of sterling character, respected by all who knew him. Of the children, Van Emon, subject of this review, is the eldest; Jerusha Jane became the wife of A. E. Hartzell, of Girard, and died at the age of twenty-one years ; Nettie M. is the wife of Perry Maurer, of Mineral Ridge, Trumbull County.
Van Emon Marshall was reared on the old home farm, and that he made good use of the educational advantages that were afforded him is clearly indicated by the fact that when eighteen years of age he became a successful teacher in the district schools. He continued to teach during twelve winter terms in various districts in Mahoning and. Trumbull counties, and for a time he taught in the school district in which he now resides. He supplemented his own public-school training by attending for a short time a select school in the City of Oberlin. For two years he conducted a meat market in the City of Youngstown, and since that time he has given unfaltering allegiance to the basic industries of agriculture and stock-growing. In 1874 he married, and for several years rented land, and in 1883 purchased the Hiram Dunlap farm in Weathersfield Township, the place extending to the banks of the Mahoning River. He has made this one of the model farms of Trumbull County, and has also become the owner of two other well improved farms, on the south side of the river. One of these is the old Austin Fulk farm of ninety acres, and the other is the Sears farm of sixty acres. Both of these farms likewise front on the extension of South Main Street of the City of Warren, and both run back to the Mahoning River. He also owns three tracts, embracing 150 acres just outside the City of Hubbard. This property he bought in the winter of 1920. Mr. Marshall sold the old home farm of his father to the McDonald Steel Company, and he likewise sold an adjoining farm of seventy acres, all of which, has since been platted into village lots. In his place on South Main Street are but nine acres, and this is one of the attractive places of the suburban section of Warren. Mr. Marshall was formerly vice president of the Warren Realty & Trust Company, and he is at the present time a stockholder in various local banking and manufacturing concerns. Though never desirous of political preferment he is found aligned as a loyal supporter of the principles of the republican party, and he and his wife are active members of the Presbyterian Church at Warren.
On the 22d of September, 1874, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Marshall to Miss Josephine McKee, daughter of John and Emeline (Beaston) McKee, of Lordstown Township, Trumbull County, where Mrs. Marshall was born in the commodious brick house erected by her father for the family home, the date of her nativity having been May 10, 1852. She is one of a family of eleven children, of whom eight attained to maturity and of whom five are living at the present time. The parents were born and reared at Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, and were young folk when they came to Ohio. Mr. McKee died in 1895, aged seventy-eight years, and his widow passed away in January, 1906, aged eighty-nine years. Of the eight children who reached mature years it may be recorded that Alexander was a resident of Warren at the time of his death, when seventy-eight years of age; John died in the same city, aged seventy-six years ; Benjamin long conducted a meat market at Warren, and there he died at the age of seventy-four years; Emma, the widow of David Reel, resides at Youngstown; Warren is a prosperous farmer near Sheldon, Indiana; Josephine, wife of Van Emon Marshall, of this review, was next in order of birth; Alice V. is the widow of Sterritt Kirk and resides in the City of Cleveland; Alfred is a resident of Paynesville, this state.
Mr. and Mrs. Marshall have two sons : John Houston Marshall, a graduate of Western Reserve University, is now associated with the Trumbull Realty & Investment Company at Warren. He married Miss Bessie Summers, of Cleveland, and they have three children, John Stanley, Josephine Ruth and Virginia May. Ralph Van Emon Marshall, the younger son, entered the United States Army when the nation became involved in the great World war, and he was in active service in France for one year, having been in service eighteen months. He was formerly secretary of the Warren Realty & Trust Company, and is now with the Trumbull Realty & Investment Company. The maiden name of his wife was Margery Difford.
THEOPHILUS W. BAKODY is proprietor of the liberally patronized tailoring establishment at 137 West Federal Street. Mr. Bakody has spent most of his life in Youngstown, and is a son of the late John Bakody, long a prominent character in the city.
John Bakody was born in Hungary, arid as a young man learned watchmaking. After coming to America he conducted a jewelry store at Akron, and about 1870 settled in Youngstown. His store was located where the Wick Building now stands and later he moved to the Bissell Building. He was eighty-two years of age when he died in 1910. He had come to the United States without money, made his own way in the world, and gained not only an ample competence for himself and family but the thorough respect of his fellow men. He was a member of the Apostolic Christian Church. His widow is still living at the old homestead at the age of eighty.
Theophilus W. Bakody was one of eleven children, nine of whom are still living. He was born on West Avenue in Youngstown January 16, 1880, is a
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graduate of the West Side School, and at the age of eighteen went to Chicago to learn the tailoring trade. He was in that city four years, and on returning to Youngstown was employed by C. W. Deibel two years. He then opened a shop of his own in the Knox Building, and remained there until that structure was destroyed by fire. Since then his establishment has been at 137 Federal Street. He enjoys the patronage of many of Youngstown's best citizens, and has their friendship as well.
He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, of Western Star Lodge of Masons and the Elks. In agog he married Miss Julia A. Byrne, daughter of Bernard O. Byrne. Mrs. Bakody was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Their two children are Elizabeth and John.
JOSEPH R. EDWARDS, whose individual record makes him a man of prominence in Youngstown business and politics, is a member of a family whose. industry, skill, social qualities and culture have been valued factors and influences in the life of Youngstown for nearly forty years.
Mr. Edwards, who is secretary-treasurer of the Youngstown Sanitary Laundry Company, was born in Llanelly, South Wales, August 9, 1877, but his earliest childhood memories begin in Youngstown. His parents were William D. and Sarah (Phillips) Edwards. His father died in January, two, at the age of seventy-two. His mother is still living in Youngstown, and Mr. Edwards pays her a just and happy tribute when he says "she is eighty-two years of age, very young and very beautiful."
William D. Edwards in his native land worked in the mines and was a puddler in iron works. In 1880 he brought his family to the United States, and was employed at Youngstown at the Brown-Bonnell plant, and for more than a quarter of a century was with the Mahoning Valley plant. During most of that time he served as a puddler. He was a right thinking, upright man, took a deep interest in church affairs, always attended church and was never late, holding the post of deacon in the Welsh Congregational Church. Politically he was a republican.
There were nine children, eight of whom are still living, and their record deserves a few lines because of the high standard of accomplishment of each. William, now a resident of Cleveland, for many years was with the Brown-Bonnell plant and the Valley Mills. David W., spent thirty-two years with the Valley Mills, and is now employed in the Youngstown City Waterworks. Mary is the wife of D. R. Thomas, also an old timer in the Valley Mills and now engineer at the courthouse. Sarah J. is the wife of W. H. Loller, secretary of the Youngstown Automobile Club. The next two children, John and Margaret, are twins. John, a prominent leader in labor circles, was mayor of Granite City, Illinois, and lost his life there in an accident in 1902. Margaret is the wife of Dr. John Eynon, of Steubenville, Ohio. Catherine is the wife of Dan J. Jones, formerly a Youngstown official, now with the Brier Hill Steel Company. Elizabeth is the widow of W. H. Davis, who was assistant superintendent of the Hot Mills in the Granite City Tin Plate Company at Granite City, Illinois.
Joseph R. Edwards had not progressed far in boyhood years when he found his work and opportunity for usefulness. He left the Oak Street School at the age of thirteen, and was employed briefly by James Tippett and in the sporting goods store of Sam Ward. At seventeen he was on the payrolls of the Valley Mills, and held various positions, part of the time in the plate mills and finally as shipping clerk. Mr. Edwards in 1893 removed to Middletown, Indiana, and was with an independent tin plate company for a year and a half. He then returned to Youngstown as shipper in the shipping department of the Carnegie Steel Company, and after eighteen months went into the mills as a roll turner, a skilled occupation which he followed for thirteen years, five years at the Carnegie plant, one at the Brown-Bonnell and seven at the Youngstown Sheet and Tube plant.
For ten years Mr. Edwards diligently pursued the study of chemistry with a view to mastering a knowledge of steel processes and achieved much recognition as a technical expert. Also, with that love for music so characteristic if not universal among the Welsh people, he studied voice culture for ten years. He has long been one of the prominent leaders in musical activities at Youngstown. He was a member of the choir of the Rodef Sholem Congregation and also of the Westminster Church, and is the organizer of the Masonic quartet of Youngstown and has charge of the music of the Scottish Rite bodies.
After leaving the steel mills Mr. Edwards became deputy city auditor. He was in that post for four years, and was elected without opposition either in primaries or in the election, and was re-elected. He resigned in April, 1919, a most unusual step for a successful politician. At that time he took up his present duties as secretary-treasurer of the Youngstown Sanitary Laundry Company.
Mr. Edwards is a Knight Templar Mason, a Scottish Rite and Shriner, and is also affiliated with the Elks and St. David's Society. He is a member of the Elm Street Congregational Church, while his wife is a member of the Memorial Presbyterian Church. October 5, 1912, he married Mrs. Ona H. Waterman, daughter of Truman H. and Hannah Baldwin, of Attica, New York.
ROBERT A. SCOTT. While a native of Portage County, Robert A. Scott has spent most of his, years either in Mahoning or Trumbull County, and his later associations have been with Newton Falls, where he has been working with other men of enterprise in giving the town its proper place among the commercial and industrial centers of the Mahoning Valley.
Mr. Mr. Scott, who recently resigned as mayor of New Falls, was born in Deerfield Township of Portage County October 30, 1852. His grandfather, Alexander Scott, came from Pennsylvania and settled in Portage County at a very early date, the community where he lived and died becoming known as Scott's Corners. He passed away at the age of ninety-seven. He was a noted horseman in his day, and was a well known drover to Pittsburg, and sometimes even crossed the Alleghenies with his stock to Washington. John Scott, father of Robert A., was born in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, in 1817, and grew up from boyhood in Ohio. About 1849
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he married Jane Shephard, who was born in Milton Township of Mahoning County, daughter of Colville and Isabelle (Beck) Shephard. Her father was of Scotch ancestry and a native of New Jersey, and as a youth inherited some slaves, but gave them their freedom. Colville Shephard was a music master and acquired a large tract of land south of Price-town. In 1869 John Scott acquired a portion of the Shephard farm, and added to it until he owned 358 acres. His wife died there January 15, 1877, and he lived on the old homestead until his death in 1901, aged eighty-four. His farming interests were conducted' on a large scale. He was one, of the prominent sheep men of the locality, breeding the Merino stock. The children of John Scott were five in number : Julia, widow of A. L. Reichard; Robert A.; Charles, a farmer in Cass County, Indiana; Calvin, a retired farmer at Newton Falls; and Mary, who spent her life at home and died unmarried at the age of fifty-two.
Robert A. Scott gained a good education, attending district schools, a select school and spending two years in Mount Union College under President Armstrong. He also had some experience as a teacher in intervals of his college career, and altogether passed about twenty years in school work. Part of the time he was in the Union School at Pricetown, and taught both in Mahoning and Trumbull counties. His ambition in those early years was to become a lawyer, and he studied law with the late A. J. Wolf of Youngstown. Reasons of health prevented him reaching the point of admission to the bar, and he found other duties and responsibilities. While living in Milton Township he served six or seven terms as a justice of the peace. When his father died, his sister Mary, who had been the housekeeper, went out to California, and in 1912 Robert Scott, who has remained a bachelor, left the homestead and removed to Newton Falls. Here in 1916 he was elected mayor and re-elected in 1918. In 1919 he was elected a justice of the peace, and resigned his office as mayor in July of that year. The one outstanding feature of his service as mayor was the restoration of an electric lighting system for the town, which had been without illumination for two years. Mr. Scott is a democrat, and in earlier years frequently attended county and state conventions. He has also been a worker in Masonry, and in May, 1883, became a member of Newton Falls Lodge No. 462. He is now next to the oldest member of this Lodge. Mr. Scott has always found much pleasure in books and study, and mathematics was his favorite work in school and for many years afterward.- One of the old students who attended his classes was G. P. Gilmer, the well known Warren attorney. Mr. Scott is now a member of the firm Humes & Scott, handling general real estate and insurance.
JOHN WALKER. While vice president of the Walker Floral Company, John Walker is now practically retired from the floral business, in which his experience dates back more than forty-five years. Experience and individual ability and talent have made him one of the leading men in his art .in the country. In 1919 the Walker Floral Company was incorporated, and at that time Mr. Walker gave or sold stock to his old time employes who had been with him since he started in the business, and most of the offices of the corporation are held by the stockholders.
Mr. Walker was born February 7, 186o, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, son of James and Rosa (Hadskey) Walker. The mother came from the north of Ireland to the United States when a young girl. John Walker had limited school advantages in Philadelphia. His father was a stone worker and expected the boy of twelve to carry the hod loaded with stone or brick. The boy went on strike, also left school, and not long afterward found a more congenial employment in the floral establishment of Ball Brothers in Philadelphia. Five and a half years later he entered the service of Robert Craig of Philadelphia, probably one of the best known florists of the United States. He was associated with the Craig Company twenty-three years, and filled practically every position in the establishment. In February, 1893, the Craigs entrusted him with the responsibilities of visiting the gardens and floral concerns of Europe for the purpose of studying and selecting plants to make up the Pennsylvania exhibit at the World's Fair in Chicago. While abroad Mr. Walker visited Paris, Marseilles, Ghent, Ostend, London and various points in Scotland and Ireland.
Mr. Walker became identified with Youngstown in 1900,. in which year he bought a plant which had been established some years previously by E. Hippard, located on Logan Avenue in the Crab Creek District. The location had been chosen because of its convenience for shipping facilities, and the accessibilities of the waters from Crab Creek. These watering facilities are now useless, the manufacturing plants along the banks having poisoned the water so far as their usefulness for growing plants is concerned. In 1910 Mr. Walker extended his enterprise to the purchase of seventeen acres in Boardman Township, where in 1911 he erected 40,000 square feet of glass. This plant he sold to H. H. Cade in 1914. Mr. Walker sold the plant that was located on Logan Avenue in 1919, and the company is erecting a modern plant west of Hubbard, which will be the largest in eastern Ohio.
Mr. Walker was one of the charter members of the Society of American Florists, which was organized in Cincinnati, Ohio, and also of the Florists Telegraph Delivery, the object of which is to provide a credit and working arrangement by which customers can secure the delivery of flowers to any part of the United States on short notice. Mr. Walker's specialty has been cut flowers and tropical plants.
In 1882 he married. Miss Mary E. Seaver. Their one son, Elmer, is connected with the McDonald plat of the Carnegie Steel Company. Mr. Walker is a Royal Arch Mason, a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and of the Knights of the Golden Eagle. He is an independent republican.
MAHONING PAINT AND OIL COMPANY. Youngstown itself is a youthful marvel among the industrial centers of America, and a business that grows. rapidly in size and importance is only keeping in step with its environment. One of the more recent
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cases of rapid growth and success among the city's industries is the Mahoning Paint and Oil Company.
This business was started by Alvin E. Rhodes some eight or ten years ago. Mr. Rhodes cared more about the essentials of the business than the outside appearances. His first shop was a building 30 by 30 feet at the old Youngstown Car Works, his office being an abandoned street car. On June 15, 1915, Roy F. Brandon became a valuable acquisition to the growing business as a partner. In 1916 the plant was moved to its present location, but in the past three years the demand has outstripped every effort and ability on the part of the partners and their capital. Very recently the capitalization has been increased to $100,000, to take care of the growing business. The company was incorporated in March, 1917, with Alvin E. Rhodes, president, and Roy F. Brandon, secretary-treasurer.
The original output was metallic paints and oils for factory use. Now the company handles a full line of high grade house paints, ready mixed and sold direct from factory to consumer, the product going all over the country. They also manufacture varnishes and one of their special trade mark products is "Dry-O-Lin." Business efficiency and thorough and harmonious team work on the part of the partners have contributed to the immense and rapid success of the organization.
Alvin E. Rhodes, the president, was born at Newcastle, Pennsylvania, October 4, 1872, son of Abram and Samantha Rhodes. His parents are still living. Abram Rhodes was a soldier in the famous Battery B of the Pennsylvania. Light Artillery in the Civil war, and participated in the battles of Gettysburg and elsewhere. He is now eighty-two years of age, while his wife is seventy-six. They celebrated their golden wedding in October, 1919. Abram Rhodes is a member in the Presbyterian Church at Newcastle. Their three children are : J. A., of Newcastle; Lorena, wife of F. W. Wallace, of Newcastle; and Alvin E.
The early education of Mr. Rhodes was acquired in the public schools of Newcastle and at Grove City College. In college he specialized in chemistry. As a boy he learned something of mechanical trades from his father, who was a contractor.. He also had a period of employment with the American Tin and Sheet Plate Company, and for five years was city clerk of Newcastle. He then engaged in contracting on his own account, and for several years he and his organization were busily engaged in constructing streets, laying paving, and handling all manner of concrete work. Before coming to Youngstown and founding the industry of which he is now the executive head, he was manager of a paint factory in Pittsburgh.
June 14, 1904, Mr. Rhodes married Miss Frances Durban. Her mother is Mrs. E. L. Durban f Newcastle. Their three children are Alvin Durban, Ellen Louise and Lillian Jane. The family are members of the Evergreen Presbyterian Church, Mr. Rhodes being' department superintendent in the Sunday School, and politically he votes as a republican.
Roy F. Brandon, secretary and treasurer of the company, was also born on a farm near Newcastle, Pennsylvania, July 4, 1881. His parents, Robert W. and Martha (Frew) Brandon, lived for many years as farmers in Lawrence- County. His father 'died in 1912, at the age of sixty-seven, and his mother in 1913. The Brandons were pioneers of Western Pennsylvania, and were strict United Presbyterians. Roy F. Brandon is one of six children : James A., a carpenter at Newcastle; R. A., a banker, coal and lumber dealer at Greensburg, Pennsylvania; Ella, wife of George Hanna, a worker in the steel mills at Newcastle; Emma, whose home is at Niagara Falls, Canada; Roy ; and Albert I. who is proprietor and editor of the East Liberty Tribune in a suburb of Pittsburgh, the Tribune being a free paper with a circulation of 10,000 or better.
Roy F. Brandon received his education in country schools and in the City of Newcastle, and was employed for a time as clerk in the offices of the nail mill at Newcastle. For eight years he was in the stationery and news business in that city, and eventually became representative of the Oliver Typewriter Company, with headquarters at Pittsburgh. From there he came to Youngstown, and as a hustling young business man joined his energies with Mr. Rhodes in making a success of the paint and oil business. The company has membership in the Youngstown Chamber of Commerce and the Commercial Travelers' Association.
In 1904 Mr. Brandon married Lyn Daugherty, daughter of James Daugherty. Both are members of the Westminster Presbyterian Church. Mr. Brandon is a Knight Templar Mason at Newcastle and a member of the Mystic Shrine at Altoona, Pennsylvania.
TOM WALSH, secretary-treasurer of the Trumbull Tire & Rubber Company of Newton Falls, Ohio, a manufacturing industry of increasing consequence to that place, finding employment as it does for practically one-half of what its full population was a few years ago, is an organizer and business executive of proved ability, an ability demonstrated not only in industrial connections. He manifested commendable organizing ability on the battlefields of France during 1918, when as a Knights of Columbus secretary, in direction of the work of that organization with the Sixth Division of the American Expeditionary Forces in the Verdun-Sedan sectors, he created a service which brought much credit to the welfare organization he represented.
He is a native of Youngstown and comes of a family which had responsible part with pioneer efforts of iron and steel manufacturers in the Mahoning Valley. He was born on November 3, 1871, the son of Patrick J. Walsh, who was one of the original puddlers in the Cartright-McCurdy mills, which started with only five furnaces, and with which corporation Patrick J. Walsh was connected for more than thirty years. He is one of the few survivors of the early steel workers of the Mahoning Valley, and latterly he has lived in comfortable retirement.
Mr. Walsh has lived the greater part of his life in Youngstown, and reached business success in that place, as well as much popularity. In early manhood he was apprenticed to a local tailor, and eventually became independently established as such in Youngstown, where in course of time he and his brother, who was in business partnership with him, came into
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enviable repute as custom tailors. Their business was of appreciable dimensions when, after this country went to war with Germany, Mr. Walsh felt constrained to set aside all personal interests and take service in the national cause. He was early identified with the Catholic organization, the Knights of Columbus, which took such a prominent part in welfare work among service men at the front and in home sectors, and he was one of those secretaries early sent to France. He was appointed as secretary in charge of Knights of Columbus welfare work with the Sixth Division of the American Expedi tionary Forces, and as such took up temporary headquarters in the Verdun sector, near Garradamer. For the purposes of welfare work the Sixth Division was, by the Knights of Columbus executives, divided into six units of 5,000 men, each unit being served by a secretary, the sixth being under the supervision of Secretary Walsh. The Sixth Division saw some of the active fighting on the American front during the three or four months from the beginning of the Allied offensive on July 16, 1918, until the signing of the Armistice on November II, 1918; and the troops as they advanced were accompanied by the welfare workers, the advance continuing by terrific fighting until the division had reached Stenay, near Sedan, where it rested on its arms on Armistice Day, later returning to its former, station near Verdun. Soon afterward, the war being over, and his own private affairs then' taking a greater weight in his considerations, Tom Walsh was released from service and returned home.
Subsequently he became active in the organization of the Akron Tire & Rubber Company; in fact he was primarily responsible for its successful promotion, the details of construction, promotion and sale of products devolving upon him. The extent to which the business has since been developed may be appreciated by the knowledge that the plant at Newton Falls, as at present operated, finds employment for 350 men. Such a plant is of much consequence to a village of the size of Newton Falls, Trumbull County, and the prospects of rapid expansion of the business is a factor of bright promise for that community; in fact it would be considered quite an appreciable manufacturing industry in a very much larger industrial center. The 'company is developing a wide market for its product, and not only in this country, for its foreign Business is quite substantial and is increasing rapidly, indirectly aided, perhaps, by the fact that many foreign countries are now looking to the United States for high grade rubber tires.
Mr. Walsh is characteristically of active, aggressive constructive spirit; he has shown it since he has been connected with Newton Falls, in which he now resides. While primarily, of course, giving the affairs of the corporation with which he is so closely connected his first consideration, he is entering earnestly into other activities, civic and communal, in Newton Falls, and undoubtedly he will, as time goes on, take increasing part in its affairs. He has an optimistic outlook for Newton Falls, and as it grows hopes to assist in molding it into a clean, progressive town. He is very popular in Youngstown, and is rapidly reaching a good place among the active
business leaders in Newton Falls, where some important enterprises of industrial character have been established during the last few years.
Mr. Walsh is married, his wife being Florence, 1 daughter of John Healey, a well-known Youngstown grocer.
ALEXANDER F. SCOTT, a contractor, plumber and real estate dealer at 1309 Belmont Avenue, is a member of a family which through several generations has been chiefly identified with constructive activities and business affairs in this section of Ohio.
The Scotts were pioneers in the Western Reserve. The great-great-grandfather of Alexander Scott on his mother's side was a Revolutionary soldier. His grandfather, Alexander Scott, came from Ireland, but was a Scotchman, and settled first in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, and later at Scott Corners, Ohio, a community which took its name from him. He had much business ability and was a leader among the pioneers in his section of the state. He developed a large amount of land to farming purposes, and as a cattle dealer drove many herds over the mountains to market. In the early years of the nineteenth century he was also engaged in the freighting and transportation business between Pittsburgh and Cleveland. During the construction of the Erie Canal he had a contract for building a section of four miles of waterway. At the time of the War of 1812 he was in training, but was never called into service.
Alexander F. Scott was born in Portage County, Ohio, December 6, 1865, son of Alexander and Harriet (McKenzie) Scott. His father was born at Scott Corners, and became a farmer and contractor. Some of the interesting landmarks in the Youngstown District stood as substantial evidence of his skill. He constructed the old Spring Common bridge across Mahoning River at Youngstown, and many other bridges in this part of the state, including the Carson bridge, the first at Milton reservoir. He was a leader in democratic politics. He died in 1889, at the age of sixty-two, while his wife passed away in 1918, aged eighty-seven. Of their eight children seven are still living: Dassie, widow of Sam A. Church of Diamond, Ohio; Wilbert H., a steel worker at Youngstown, whose home is on North Avenue; R. P., who for years was a revenue collector for the United States Government in Nebraska and an extensive farmer and land owner; Alexander F.; Elbert, a hardware merchant at Bridgeport, Nebraska; Ensign D., who lives on the old homestead at Diamond; Sylvia, wife of Clark Rood, of Diamond.
Alexander Scott attended school at Palmyra Center and Diamond, and was about twenty years of age when he went to work in the coal mines there as a stationary engineer. He came to Youngstown in 1892, for two years was with the street railway company as engineer, and for nine years in the electrical department of the Ohio works. Since then he has been in the plumbing and contracting business, and has installed the plumbing work in a large number of homes and business blocks. He has also used his capital in building houses for sale. Mr. Scott is a member of the Builders' Exchange, and is affiliated with the Western Star Lodge of Masons and
YOUNGSTOWN AND THE MAHONING VALLEY - 637
Maccabees and is an active supporter of the democratic party. Mrs. Scott is a member of the First Christian Church.
In 1885 Mr. Scott married Rosa B. Lewis, daughter of William Lewis, of Diamond. They have had four children: Robert Ray, Eva Alice, Hattie Naomi and Rosel Vernon. The last two are deceased. The son, Robert, is a graduate of Hiram College, Ohio, and of Columbia University, New York, and was for a time connected, with the University of California.
PAUL J. HERBERT. Three generations of the Herbert family have been well known in Youngstown and vicinity. An important transfer and storage business conducted by Paul J. Herbert was established by his father, the late William Herbert.
The Herbert family came from Wales about 1840. Rees Herbert for a number of years worked in the mines of the Mahoning Valley. He lived on a farm located just to the south 'of where the Tod house now stands. At that time the present location of the Republic Iron and Steel Company was a corn field.
William Herbert, son of Rees and Anne Herbert, was born on the Holmes Road near the county line November 26, 1854, attended the Wood Street School and at the age of fourteen was earning regular wages in the mills. He was a moulder at the mower and reaper plant. After following his trade for a time he engaged in the draying business, with headquarters on Spring Street between Wick Avenue and Bryson. His barn at that location was set on fire by tramps, and he lost all his equipment and capital. He, next moved to the present location of the business on Elm Street near Custer, on ground formerly occupied by the visiting circuses. He engaged in a general draying business, and was active until his death on February 2, 1916. He was a member and trustee of the Plymouth Congregational Church, was a devout church man, and for forty years was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Politically he was a republican. William Herbert married Anne Bowen, who was born in Wales, daughter of John R. Bowen, who came to the United States when his daughter was four years of age. John Bowen located on ground now occupied by the Walker greenhouses, and as a carpenter constructed many of the first homes in the Crab Creek District in what is now the City of Youngstown. William Herbert and wife had two children: Jennie, who died at the age of twenty-five, and Paul J.
Paul J. Herbert was born April 14, 1887, and is a graduate of the Elm Street School and the Rayen High School. At the age of eighteen he was helping his father in the growing transfer business, and for the past seven years has been its active manager. He maintains a large equipment of horses and wagons, motor trucks and other facilities, and has a large storage warehouse. Mr. Herbert is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Traffic Club, and is affiliated with the Lodge and Royal Arch Chapter of Masons, St. John's Commandery, Knights Templar, and also the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He and his family are members of the Plymouth Congregational Church.
June 27, 1912, Mr. Herbert married Miss Elizabeth
Vol. III-16
Margaret Bulmer, daughter of William Bulmer. Her father for many years was connected with the Ohio works of the Carnegie Steel Company, being one of the very first employes of that plant. Mr. and Mrs. Herbert have two children, William Bulmer and Mary Louise.
HENRY E. COLER is a Youngstown merchant who has been continuously in business at 705-707 West Rayen Avenue since 1901. Evidently he had the commercial talents well developed in him, for in spite of the fact that he began his career after leaving public school at wages of $2.00 a week and in face of the handicap of 95 per cent of failures credited to merchandising enterprises, he has gone steadily forward to his goal and today has one of the best patronized and best stocked grocery stores in the city. His original capital when he began merchandising was $1,000, and his first building was 18 by 36 feet, while his present establishment is a building 39 by 76 feet.
Mr. Coler is member of an old and prominent Mahoning County family and was born in Beaver Township February 8, 1876, son of Samuel A. and Celeste (Lower) Coler. His mother was born at Greenville, Pennsylvania, May 26, 1858. Samuel Coler was born in Mahoning County April 5, 1855, his father being also a native of Mahoning County, while his mother was born in Philadelphia. The Colers for many years have been substantial farming people in Beaver Township. The father of Samuel Coler was a volunteer soldier in the Civil war. The old Coler farm in Beaver Township is now owned by Anthony, a brother of Samuel Coler.
Samuel Coler was likewise a merchant and first entered business on the Boardman Township line at Woodworth, where he conducts a grocery store at the present time. He is a republican, has exercised considerable influence in local politics, is a Knight of Pythias, and with his wife is a member of the Reformed Church at North Lima. He is the father of two children, Henry E. and Park, the latter living on the home farm.
Henry E. Coler acquired his education in the schools of North Lima and at Woodworth, and following school days he had varied experience with different employers. He worked in a floral establishment at Calla, Ohio, later in the Jacob Leisch establishment At Poland, Ohio, and subsequently was with Wade Simon in his slaughtering plant, now a part of the Youngstown Provision and Packing Company. He left Simon to take employment with John Hitchcock at his present place of business. Later Herbert Hitchcock, brother of John, and Henry E. Coler formed a partnership, but after about a year Mr. Coler continued the business alone.
Mr. Coler is a Knight Templar, thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, is affiliated with Youngstown Lodge No. 403, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, and is a trustee of the church and member of the church council of Grace English Lutheran Church. In Beaver Township October 6, 1898, he married Miss Mary Elsie Mentzer, who was born in Red Oak, Iowa, daughter of Ferdinand Mentzer. They have one daughter, Zeltha.
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JESSE S. HUBLER. If there is one landmark in the business record of South Avenue in Youngstown it is the name and activities of the Hubler family, who have been merchants there so long that few of even the oldest citizens cannot remember when they were not in business.
An active member of the present generation of the family is Jesse S. Hubler, whose business at 1002 South Avenue is a continuation of the pioneer family establishment.
Mr. Hubler was born in a log cabin at about the locality now represented by g00 South Avenue on March 4, 1868, son of Abram and Sarah J. Williamson Hubler. His mother, a daughter of Horace Williamson, is still living in the city at the age of eighty-one. Abram Hubler, who died in March, 1918, at the age of eighty-four, was descended through his mother from the Newberrys, a family that played a prominent part as soldiers in the Revolutionary war. For many years Abram Hubler worked as a puddler at the Brown-Bonnell mills, and later engaged in the grocery business on South Avenue. He was also in the real estate and insurance business, was a republican leader in Youngstown, and at one time a member of the Board of Health. As a young man he offered his services to his country during the Civil war, being rejected on' account of poor health. The Hublers were pioneers in Mahoning County, Abram being born at Coitsville. He was a member of the Central 'Christian Church. There are now five sons and one daughter living. Frank E., the oldest, is in the engraving department of the Vindicator ; Myron G. until recently was associated with his brother Jesse in the grocery business; Pyatt W. is chief bookkeeper of the Youngstown Waterworks Department; Alice is the wife of Horace Yates, of Youngstown ; and Howard is in the art department of the Vindicator.
Jesse S. Hubler acquired his early education in the Flint Hill School, one of his teachers being a prominent early-day educator, Free Shear. He also attended school on Wayne Avenue and Front Street. At the age of sixteen he was helping his father and brother in the grocery store, and that has been his one steady work and business ever since. Mr. Hubler has had his troubles in the grocery trade. He has been through the strikes to which all steel cities are liable, has fed the strikers and their families, and carried them through their hard times. After several such periods of distress he has resolved to reform his methods. However, without disparaging, his business success, it is to the credit of his soundness of heart and deep human sympathies that when the next time comes Mr. Hubler will act exactly as he has always done, feed the hungry and carry those who have no cash until work begins again.
Mr. Hubler is a republican and takes a deep interest in the welfare and development of Youngstown. In 1906 he married Alice M. Hubler, daughter of John Hubler, a distant relative. They have two sons, John and Frank. Mrs. Hubler is a member of the Central Christian Church.
JOSEPH L. ALCORN is a contractor and coal merchant at Youngstown, and has had an active part in the material improvement of the city in recent years.His father was also a Contractor before him, a builder of roads and streets.
Mr. Alcorn was born on Williamson Avenue in Youngstown, September 4, 1877, son of John and Nancy McLain Alcorn, who were the parents of five sons and one daughter. The mother, at the age of eighty-six, is living with her son, the subject of this sketch. John Alcorn, who died in 1906, at the age of eighty-three, spent his boyhood near Beaver, Pennsylvania, was for a number of years a farmer, and had lived in Youngstown forty-three years. Here he followed the business of grading and street contractor, and built many roads over Mahoning County. He owned a number of teams and gave employment to many men. During the Civil war he was a member of the Home Guards, was a democrat in politics and a member of the First Presbyterian Church.
Joseph L. Alcorn was educated in the South Side School, and at the age of eighteen was making regular wages in the old pipe mill. Following that for a number of years he was employed as a salesman and window trimmer by the Central Store, Fordyce's and Livingston's stores. He then took up contracting, and in recent years has had a number of important paving contracts. His business as a coal merchant is conducted at the foot of Williamson Avenue.
Mr. Alcorn married Sarah Jane McFarland on January 6, 1904. Her father, John McFarland, was a veteran of, the Civil war and for many years employed in blast furnaces. The five children of Mr. and Mrs. Alcorn are John, Elizabeth, William, Margaret and Robert. The family are members of Evergreen Presbyterian Church. Mr. Alcorn is affiliated with Western Star Lodge of Masons and the Knights of Pythias, and is a democrat.
SAMUEL A. KLINGENSMITH. In any survey of the essential industries of the Mahoning Valley some mention should be made of the East Branch Mills at Newton Falls. These mills, whose proprietors are Klingensmith & Griffith, are not only worked to full capacity in supplying some of the vital necessities of life to the people of the valley, but they have an interesting history, running back more than eighty-five years. The original mill was patronized by many of the pioneers, who brought to it their grist for miles around.
Samuel A. Klingensmith is a member of the well known Klingensmith family of Leavittsburg, a son of John Klingensmith, whose life has been reviewed elsewhere, and was born in Lordstown Township September 1, 1870. He spent his life on the old homestead to the age of twenty-one, when he began working out on a farm twenty-one months, and then joined his brother Edward F. in the purchase of the old feed mill at Leavittsburg. While this was a small institution, grinding only feed, he there learned the trade of miller, having a natural mechanical genius which made his apprenticeship brief. Another brother, Frank, soon joined them and in 1908 they bought the present mill at Newton Falls. The mill site was then on the bank of the river, where the original structure, operated by water power, had been erected in 1834. These branch mills in eighty-five years have gone through many changes of ownership. For many years they were owned by the Lowry family, including David Lowry, father and
YOUNGSTOWN AND. THE MAHONING VALLEY - 639
son, and later by. Lewis Lowry. Finally the water power was sold to the hydro-electric company, and at that time the mill was sold to be removed. The removal was made in May, 1908, to the present location on the railroad track. Some of the machinery of the old Porter mill was also bought from the Hydraulic Company, and was used in the remodeled East Branch Mills. This machinery was all later discarded, and Mr. Klingensmith made a thorough overhauling and left nothing undone in the way of the most modern equipment and machinery. The final equipment was installed in 1915. Mr. Klingensmith's brothers have remained at Leavittsburg, and he assumed all the responsibility of remodeling the mill and finally became sole owner. He knows his business not only as a miller, but as a mechanic and executive manager. The business having grown so as to demand assistance, Mr. Klingensmith was joined by Leroy B. Griffith on October 27, 1916, and since then the firm of Klingensmith & Griffith have handled the industry. Mr. Klingensmith has active charge of all the milling processes. This is a seventy-five barrel mill, and its output of Calla Lily flour is largely taken in exchange for wheat direct from the farmers. All the wheat ground at the East Branch Mills is locally grown, and can hardly he excelled for high grade flour. Besides flour the mills grind large quantities of stock feed, producing a large quantity each year, and the firm are dealers in grain and feeds, making every effort to supply the extensive demands of the local dairy interests by buying from outside mills. The plant and its operation now demands an investment of about $30,000, and the industry is therefore one of the valuable ones of the valley.
Mr. Klingensmith is a member of the village council of Newton Falls, and is fully alive to the future possibilities of this section. In 1910 he married Miss Ida Lipp. They are members of the Lutheran Church.
J. F. WILLIAM RITTER. It has been the good fortune of Mr. Ritter and of Youngstown as well to have an important share in some of the larger constructive enterprises undertaken in this district within the last twenty or thirty years. Mr. Ritter's special genius seems to consist in planning and carrying out large projects, and much of his work in that line has been entirely unselfish, a matter of community benefit.
He is a native of Youngstown, having been born on Wood Street between Holmes and Elm on August 14, 1869. His parents were Eugene and Sarah (Heckenliply) Ritter. His grandparents were Charles and Jeanne (Gerard) Ritre, who came from the vicinity of Verdun, France, to the United States in 1848. In this country the spelling of the name was changed to conform with its pronunciation. Eugene Ritter was a child of two years when brought to the United States. He lived with a family in and around Buffalo, New York, and in Northeastern Ohio, and at the age of fifteen became a drummer boy in the Union army. For many years he followed the trade of molder in machine shops. He died in 1904, and his wife died within six months. She was born in North Lima, Ohio. Eugene Ritter was a member of the English Lutheran Church and was affiliated with Tod Post, Grand Army of the Republic, with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias. He and his wife had four children: Della, wife of R. D. Hopper, living on Willis Avenue in Youngstown; Ada, wife of Rev. J. L. Miller, of Youngstown; Carrie, wife of Oliver Good, of Mineral Springs Avenue ; and J. F. William.
J. F. William Ritter received his early education in the Wood Street School and the Rayen High School. As an early experience he was clerk for the firm of Folsom & Thayer, and then after a course in accounting in a business school he served as accountant for the firms of Shaw & Semple, D. Theobald & Company.
Mr. Ritter had an important part to play as an associate of the W. H. Park Land Company, and-during his connection with that concern built about sixty homes in the Wick Park District. Later he was secretary of the Lake Erie and Eastern Railway Company. The duty devolved upon him principally to secure the right of way of this company in Youngstown. It was a big task, requiring seven years for its performance. The Lake Erie & Eastern is now a part of the New York Central lines, and its tracks reach every industrial plant in Youngstown.
Mr. Ritter was responsible for the development of the Cohasset District of forty-five acres, an acreage formerly used by cabbage growers. This is one of the best examples of large scale development work in or around Youngstown. Mr. Ritter had the trees planted and the tract thoroughly beautified and improved, and built the first home on the land. This district is now rapidly becoming a site for beautiful homes. Mr. Ritter is trustee of a large fund left by the will of the late W. H. Park to be used for the benefit of the Youngstown Hospital and the Young Men's Christian Association.
Mr. Ritter is a trustee of the Westminster Presbyterian Church and a member of the Youngstown Club and the Youngstown Country Club. February 7, 1894, he married Harriet R. Woodford, of Vienna, Ohio. Their only child, Tod, died at the age of four years.
HARRY OSTER. Coming to the United States from a foreign land while yet a boy, Harry Oster, of Youngstown, a member of the well known firm of Oster Brothers, has made a wise use of his time, talents and opportunities since his arrival in this land of possibilities, as is clearly proven by the high position he holds in the business life of the city. A son of Moses and Mary Jane Oster, he was born May 24, 1872, in Bavaria, Germany.
Educated in Bavaria, Harry Oster attended the Gymnasium, or Latin School, until fifteen years of age. In 1911, with his brothers Lawrence and Philip, he established the firm of Oster Brothers Furniture Company in Birmingham, Alabama, and met with such success in the venture that in 1916 he came North and organized a company to carry on a like business in Youngstown; he becoming secretary and treasurer of the firm. Branching out in other directions, this company has recently organized a company to do business in Terre Haute, Indiana, where already a substantial trade has been established.
Mr. Oster married, in 1913, Frances Shawl, of
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Marianna, Arkansas, and they have one child, Harry. Oster, Jr., born in 1917.
GEORGE H. JONES. The Jones family of Warren, Ohio, has been in America for at least eight generations, and in the Mahoning Valley for three generations. The Mahoning Valley pioneer, Elam Jones, was born on the old Jones homestead on East Mountain, Barkhamsted, Litchfield County, Connecticut, September 29, 1774, son of Samuel Jones, a direct descendant of Benjamin Jones, the ancestor who came to America from Wales prior to 1700, settling at Enfield, Connecticut. In 1706 he removed to Somers, thus was the first settler in his township.
Elam Jones married Sarah Hyde, of Hartland, Hartford County, Connecticut, and they came to Trumbull County in 1805 and settled at Hartford. He taught school in Connecticut, and after coming to the Mahoning Valley did considerable surveying for the Connecticut Land Company, held many local offices and served in the War of 1812. He died December 2, 1851, but his wife, Sarah, survived until September 30, 1870, being in her ninety-fifth year at time of death.
Lucian Curtis Jones, son of Elam and Sarah (Hyde) Jones, was born at Hartford, Trumbull County, Ohio, December 25, 1822. He grew to manhood on the home farm and enjoyed such school privileges as the times afforded during his earlier years, later becoming a student in the Western Reserve Academy at Hudson, Ohio. During the several years he remained there he provided for himself by teaching and in other ways. Afterward he studied medicine at Hartford, then attended lectures at Columbian Medical College, Washington, District of Columbia, and at the same time began the reading of law in the office of a Washington attorney. Upon receiving his medical degree he entered upon the practice of medicine at Hartford, but continued only eighteen months. He then tried the mercantile business, but discovered that his talent did not lie in that direction. Then he returned to his law studies, and in 1854 was admitted to the bar and practiced at Hartford until 1862. In that year he and E. B. Taylor, of Ravenna, formed a law partnership and they established themselves at Warren.
The above partnership continued until 1876. During the next four years Mr. Jones was alone, but in May, 1860, Judge Thomas I. Gillmer became associated with him, under the firm name of Jones & Gillmer, which continued until 1886, when Judge Gillmer went on the Common Pleas bench. Mr. Jones was a strong republican in politics and was active in public affairs, holding positions of honor and trust. Before he had attained his majority he was elected justice of the peace at Hartford; was a draft commissioner during the Civil war ; was elected a member of the Ohio State Senate in 1871 and re-elected in 1873. He was a most influential member of that body and was the father of a number of important bills which were enacted into laws. He held the office of register in bankruptcy from 1867 until the bankruptcy law of that date was, repealed. He was the first city solicitor of Warren, at a period when Warren was passing from a town into a city, and he was responsible in a large degree for the inauguration of, the extensive public improvements at that time.
In 1860 Senator Jones was united in marriage with Miss Sallie C. Stiles, daughter of Henry Stiles of Warren. Two daughters and one son were born to this union, namely: Mary Stiles Jones, deceased, Harriet Parker Jones and George Henry Jones. The death of the father of this family occurred April 26, 1892, and that of the mother in 1897.
George Henry Jones was born at Warren, Ohio, November 14, 1872. After passing through the public schools he entered Phillips Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire, to take a preparatory course before entering Yale University, but the death of his father made necessary a change in his plans and he returned home to assume charge of family affairs. For several years he was with the First National Bank of Warren in a clerical capacity, William R. Stiles at that time being cashier. Later, when the family went to the West, he accompanied them, but subsequently returned to Warren.
While Mr. Jones gives the major part of his time to the affairs of the Peerless Electric Company of which he was elected president in 1917, he is also active in the management of a number of other important industries and corporations. He has been an active member of the board of directors of the Western Reserve National Bank for the last fifteen years, a member of the board of directors of the. Warren Hardware Company and of the Western Reserve Furniture Company, and he is a trustee of the Warren Opera House Company, the Oakwood Cemetery Association and of the Dana Musical Institute, to all of which he gives more or less of his time.
Mr. Jones was united in marriage with Miss Alice Blanche Burnes, who is a daughter of Mrs. Georgiana T. Burnes, of Boston, Massachusetts.
JOHN G. GINGERY. The six years of his connection with the Brier Hill Steel Company, of which company he is general master mechanic, represents probably the longest continuous period of service with one organization on the part of Mr. Gingery. He is master of a number of departments in the iron and steel industry, and his services have been particularly valuable in construction work. Consequently he has helped install and build plants in many of the larger industrial centers, and he knows the business as few other men do.
Mr. Gingery was born in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, May 12, 1865, son of John and Eliza (Hamilton) Gingery, also natives of Pennsylvania and now deceased. His father was a carpenter contractor. John G. Gingery acquired a common school education. When he was about nineteen he began a four years' apprenticeship in a machine shop at Hollidaysburg. Having learned a trade, he became a journeyman, working in various railroad shops. At Altoona he was connected with several shops, working on tools and specialties. For a time he was in the Shenandoah shops at Shenandoah, Virginia, for another brief interval was in the shops of his native town, and next became an erecting shop foreman for the M. A. Green High-Speed Engine Works at Altoona. He was also master mechanic for the Hollidaysburg Iron and Nail Company. Going to Pittsburgh, he had charge of one division for Booth
YOUNGSTOWN AND THE MAHONING VALLEY - 641
& Flynn of street roller repairs, and also rebuilt the asphalt yard. His next experience was in the South, at Sheffield, Alabama, where he became master mechanic to the Sheffield Rolling Mills Company; and in that connection removed the rolling mill and iron works from Roanoke, Virginia, and rebuilt them at Sheffield. On his return North he joined the Cambria Steel Company at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, as assistant master mechanic of the blast furnaces, one year, and then as master mechanic of the open hearth, blooming and plate mills. For another two rears he did construction work for the Cambria. Company. For about three months he was with the Westinghouse concern at East Pittsburgh, building marine type of engines. Again he Went South, this time to Birmingham, Alabama, as master mechanic for blast furnaces for the Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Company. For this corporation he also had charge of the construction of the waterworks system and the construction of 280 by-product coke ovens. Next he was master mechanic of construction for steam and hydro-electric power plants on the Coosa River for the Alabama Power Company. For another brief interval he was with the Tennessee company in construction work, and from there came to Youngstown as master mechanic of coke oven construction for the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company. The Brier Hill Steel Company also employed him in a similar capacity, and he was promoted to assistant general master mechanic of the company and in 1918 became general master mechanic, the office he fills today.
Probably the outstanding feature of his expert work is in the construction of coke ovens. In the thirty-five years of his experience he has done a great deal of work hardly to be enumerated in the above brief outline, including the operation of locomotive engines and the installing of mine hauling engines for hauling coal out of the mines with wire cables.
Mr. Gingery is a Knight Templar and thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and a member of the Mystic Shrine. On February 20, 1891, he married Miss Anna Robens, of Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. They have four children : John Rudy, Davis R., Ward R. and Helen. All three sons volunteered in the National Army during the World war, but none of them got into the overseas service.
FREDERICK D. WILKERSON has been a resident of Youngstown for a quarter of a century, and during the greater part of that time has had an active and increasingly responsible part in the steel business centered in this city.
Mr. Wilkerson has spent most of his life in Ohio, but was born in Sedalia, Missouri, June 5, 1871, son of Burwell G. and Sarah E. (Doolittle) Wilkerson. His parents were Ohioans, and Moved from Painesville, this state, to Missouri about 1865, living there the rest of their lives. Frederick D. Wilkerson had, a public school education, attended Kenyon College in Ohio, and finished his college career in the University of Michigan. He was graduated in 1894, and was a member of the. Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. On coming to Youngstown in 1895 Mr. Wilkerson went to work in the time department of the Ohio Steel Company. He remained there, acquiring additional duties and responsibilities, until November, 1901. At that date he was made manager of properties for the Brier Hill Steel Company. He was also treasurer and manager of the Biwabik Mining Company until 1915, when he became general manager of mining for the Brier Hill Steel Company. His business activity continued uninterrupted until about three years ago, when ill health compelled him to retire from active participation.
Mr. Wilkerson is a republican, and a member of the Youngstown Country Club. January 29, 1904, he married Miss. Grace G. Stambaugh, daughter of John Stambaugh, one of the prominent characters in the history of Youngstown.
WILLIAM H. PORTERFIELD. In the first few years of the nineteenth century, while the pioneers were clearing up some of the wilderness of Eastern Ohio, the Porterfield family came from Pennsylvania and made settlement in Hubbard Township. Some of the original land they took up is family property today. In the same locality where he was born William H. Porterfield has lived out his life of more than eighty years. He is a veteran of the Civil war, has filled various offices of trust and responsibility in the township, and has given his active attention to farming.
His present home is opposite the old place where he was born December 13, 1839•His parents were Robert and Hannah (McMurray) Porterfield, his mother being a kinsman of the same family as Doctor McMurray of Hubbard. Mr. Porterfield is a grandson of one of the Revolutionary soldiers whose last resting place is in Trumbull ..County. This patriot was William Porterfield, who was born October 31, 1759, in Eastern Pennsylvania, and died and was buried in Hubbard Township September 14, 1831. He married Mary Shannon, who was born May 16, 1766, and died October 7, 1838. They came to Ohio from Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, in 1804, and after spending one year in Liberty Township settled on land which is still known as the old Porterfield homestead. William Porterfield helped establish the Presbyterian Church at Hubbard. He and his wife had three sons, Robert, William and James. James died at the age of twenty-two. William, born October 12, 1802, removed to Knox County, Ohio, and later to Findlay, where he was a merchant, and finally moved out to Fremont, Nebraska, where he died. There was a daughter, Jane, who became the wife of William Bushnell, and both died of typhoid fever in 1828. Another daughter, Mary, became the wife of Kennedy Mills, lived in Brookfield Township, and spent their last days in Troy Center, Crawford County, Pennsylvania.
Robert Porterfield was born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, May 12, 1799, and was about five years of age when brought to Ohio. His wife was born August 31, 1810. She died April 6, 1886, while Robert Porterfield died December 7, 1885. He, spent his active life on the old farm, served a term as county coroner, and during the war was ap pointed to enroll the township for war services. He was a life-long member of the Presbyterian Church, and was superintendent of the first Sunday School of the church at Hubbard. Politically he was an
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old-line whig and republican, and was deeply interested in the great political questions of his day and a frequent participator in the debates held in local schoolhouses on slavery and other burning questions. He was a delegate to various conventions of his party. The old home farm comprises 102 acres. The house standing there was built on another place and was brought by Robert Porterfield to its present site about 185o. Robert and Hannah Porterfield had the following family : William; Mary Ann, who was a well known local teacher and died at the age of thirty-five:, James Melancthon was born December II, 1844, and died August 7, 1910, spending his life on the homestead as a bachelor ; Araminta Margaret and Hannah Matilda, the unmarried sisters who now occupy the homestead; and Charlotte Jane, who was a talented music teacher and was organist in the Presbyterian Church and died at the age of thirty-three.
Both William Porterfield and his brother, James M., enlisted together on April 27, 1864, in Company C of the 171st Ohio Infantry, under Col. Joel F. Asper. This regiment was the old 51st Regiment reorganized. He was captured at Keller's Bridge by John Morgan, but all the prisoners were paroled. His last work was guard duty at Johnson's Island. Mr. Porterfield joined Tylee Post at Hubbard, named for Lyman Tylee, who was killed at Stone River.
Mr. William Porterfield was educated in public schools, in Duff's Business College at Pittsburg, and spent eight years as a successful teacher in Hubbard and Liberty townships. When not teaching he was engaged in farming, and that eventually became his permanent pursuit. Mr. Porterfield has always been much interested in old documents of history, and has a number of old newspapers published in Trumbull County and running back into the '3os, especially interesting being a file of the Western Reserve Chronicle. Outside his home his chief interests have been the Presbyterian Church and Sunday school. He has been a member of the church for forty-eight years and is a former superintendent of the Sunday school.
April 18, 1889, he married Hannah R. Noble, who was born at Niles July 3, 1855, a daughter of J. R. and Elizabeth (Price) Noble. Her father was a cooper by trade and for many years was court crier at Warren. He removed to Doughton Station in 1871 and died in Hubbard Township in 1887. He was born in 1805. Mrs. Porterfield's mother was eighty-eight years of age at the time of her death. J. R. Noble was born in Connecticut, where his father, Judson Noble, settled when a boy with his father, Jonathan, on their immigration from England. About 1810 the Noble family came to Boardman Township, Mahoning County. J. R. Noble married for his first wife Mary Ann Robbins, of the old Josiah Robbins family of Niles. His second wife was Elizabeth Price, of Hubbard, daughter of Archibald Price, one of the pioneers of that township. Mrs. Porterfield died June 16, 1920.
In 1890, the year following their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Porterfield moved to the farm they occupied for thirty years. There are eighty-seven acres in the farm. This land had been bought by Mr. Porterfield and his brother in 1870, and they were associated together in its management for a number of years. He has since continued the oversight of the farm, and dairying has been a chief feature of his industry. Mr. Porterfield served one term as township trustee.
DAVID TOD M00RE. While his home for a number of years has been a farm at Marion Heights in Coitsville Township, the long and useful life of David Tod Moore has been lived in close touch with the best interests of the Mahoning Valley, and his work as a business man and public official has touched the affairs of the county at many points.
Mr. Moore is a member of a very historic family in the Mahoning Valley and was born here- September 12, 1848. He is a grandson of John A. and Mary (Oram) Moore, whose old home was in Poland Township, comprising 200 acres. John A. Moore settled in Poland Township in 1803 from Washington County, Pennsylvania. Another settler in that year from Mahoning County was David Stewart, who also came from Pennsylvania. John A. Moore and David Stewart were both soldiers in the War of 1812. They participated in the march to Fort Defiance under General Harrison and Colonel Rayen. While at church one Sunday they were notified to be in readiness to start next morning.
William O. Moore, father of David Tod, was eighteen years of age when his father died,. and he married Mary A. Stewart, who was born on the old Stewart farm in Mahoning County. William Moore died in 1874 and his widow in 1889. They were the parents of five children: Mrs. Sarah Jane McDonald, who is still living in Oregon; Benjamin Franklin, who died at his farm in Coitsville in October, 1916, his widow and son William J. still occupying that place ; John A., who for many years engaged in agriculture pursuits in Coitsville Township; David Tod, whose farm home is part of his grandfather Stewart's original place; and Dr. William E., who for many years practiced medicine in Iowa and Nebraska, and died at Lincoln in the latter state.
David Tod Moore as a boy attended the Coitsville District schools. When he was about eighteen years of age he left home and during 1864-65 had some experience in one of the most famous oil towns of Western Pennsylvania, Pithole, twelve miles above Oil City. While there he ran an engine for dressing tools. He saw the big days of Pithole at its best, and was there at the time of the burning of the wells at Rouseville, when Mr. Rouse and sixteen others lost their lives. On returning from the oil fields Mr. Moore helped build the first furnace at Haselton for the C. H. Andrews Company. He also hauled stone for the Pennsylvania Railroad bridge at Haselton. Gradually he settled down into the pursuits of farming, and for sixteen years operated a threshing outfit. He was also proprietor of a saw mill supplying timber and lumber for some of the early furnaces and mills in the Mahoning Valley. His lumbering operations covered about, eight years. All this time he made his home on his farm. This farm comprises about thirty-seven acres. At one time Mr. Moore did farming on a large scale, but in that business has met with some severe losses,
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including the burning of a large barn. In the course of his life and its business affairs he has been a helpful factor and a witness in the remarkable development of the Mahoning Valley. He has seen Youngstown grow from almost nothing to one of the best industrial cities of Ohio.
For seven years he held the office of township trustee and was elected county commissioner for one term of three years. In politics he has been a democrat, though never strictly partisan. The fact that he was elected county commissioner on the democratic ticket in a strong republican community is evidence that his personal esteem stood higher in the opinion of the voters than his party affiliations. He is one of the oldest active advocates of good roads in Mahoning County. While he was on the Board of County Commissioners the Federal Street bridge was built and much other road and bridge work done. His associates on the board were Lewis Gluck, Frank White and John N. Davis. In later years he has acted as foreman and inspector for the highway department, and has performed some valuable service in seeing that road work was well done. During his term as commissioner the city limits of Youngstown were extended after a hard fought campaign, Mr. Moore being favorable to that extension. He has been a Methodist all his life, an Odd Fellow and is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
At the age of twenty-two he married Miss Martha Vail, sister of James Vail of Coitsville. Her father, William Vail, was born in Coitsville Township, son of Jacob Vail, and in early life was a blacksmith and in 1859 bought his farm in Coitsville Township, where Mrs. Moore was reared. William Vail married Elizabeth Got and Mrs. Moore was one of ten children. To Mr. and Mrs. Moore were born nine children. Mary E. is the wife of James Cavett, of Poland; Jessie M. is Mrs. H. W. Lindsay, wife of a Youngstown real estate man; David C. lives on the south side and is a foreman in the electrical department of the Sharon Steel Hoop Company; Arthur G. is foreman of the tube department of the Youngstown Sheet. & Tube Company and lives near his father in Coitsville Township ; Anna, also living near her father, is the wife of James D. Johnson, of the Sheet & Tube Company; Emeline is the wife of Frank Lee, in the pay office of the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company, and they also live near the Moore home. The oldest child, George, died at the age of eighteen, Myrtle died at the age of nine and Grover died at the age of twelve.
W. MARCUS WALLACE, division freight agent of the Pennsylvania Railroad Western Lines at Youngstown, was born at this place December 29, 1853, a son of Robert Marcus and Sarah A. Wallace. His home has always been at Youngstown, where he received a public school education. When he was about sixteen years of age he began activities on his own account, and since 1870 has been continuously engaged in railroad work with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. Mr. Wallace began as cashier in the freight depot and then was made an agent at Warren, but later, in 1881, entered the general freight department, where he served as freight solicitor, and since 1908 has been occupying his present position. Naturally he has a wide acquaintance, as the nature of his work brings him into contact with many people, and in this big acquaintance he numbers countless friends. He is a man of sound principle and good citizenship, and is generally regarded as one of Youngstown's useful and reliable residents.
Mr. Wallace was married February 28, 1885, to Miss Harriet E. Doughton, and they have one son, William W.
JOHN BRENNER. The late John Brenner, long one of the best known men of Youngstown, who for many years was connected with the Mahoning Cemetery, now known as the Oak Hill Cemetery, as superintendent, was born at Baden, Germany, on February 10, 1836. He was reared to early manhood in his native country, where he acquired an education. About 1855 he immigrated to the United States on board a sailing vessel which required six weeks to make the passage across the Atlantic. His first experience in the new land was a very unfortunate one, for he was robbed of practically all he possessed immediately after landing, but he managed to work his way from New York City to Philadelphia, thence to Rochester, New York, where he obtained steady employment in a nursery, with which he remained for a few years. John Brenner then came to Ohio to join his brother Conrad in Columbiana County, but after a short period with him, John Brenner located at Youngstown. After his settlement in this city he and John Manning engaged in a nursery and greenhouse business under the firm name of Brenner & Manning, and Mr. Brenner remained in it until 1865, when he became superintendent of the cemetery above referred to. Subsequently Mr. Brenner formed a partnership with George Enders for the conduct of a monument business. In 188o Mr. Enders retired from the business, and Mr. Brenner continued it alone. Sometime later he became manager of the office force of Niedemeier & Restle, general contractors, and as such he contributed his services until his death, which took place on September 26, 1909. Upon his arrival at Youngstown he took out his naturalization papers, and from the date of his landing on American soil there was no question as to his loyalty to the land of his adoption. When President Lincoln made his first call for 100-day troops he volunteered as a member of Company A, Nineteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was later honorably discharged. He then enlisted in Company D, One Hundred and Fifty-fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He was discharged as a corporal in 1865. He was married at Youngstown to Catherine Welk, and they became the parents of fifteen children, of whom Judson Brenner was the eldest, and they, like their parents, are among the best citizens of Youngstown.
JUDSON BRENNER, the wise use of whose native powers and energies gained him distinction in commercial circles, and enabled him to make continuous advancement until he became a forceful factor in the manufacturing and business world, is the eldest of a family of fifteen children. He was born in Youngstown, Ohio, June 27, 1862. Here he attended
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the public schools and graduated from the Rayen High School on June 20, 1881, in the first class graduated under the then new four years' course adopted the year previous. It was this "Class of '81" that organized the. Rayen School Alumni, Mr. Brenner being elected its first president.
On November 10, 1883, he took the first civil service examination that was held ih the United States. This examination was held in Cleveland, Ohio, under the direction of Civil Service Commissioner Judge L. D. Thoman, formerly from Youngstown. Mr. Brenner was the first of the class to hand in his papers. A short time thereafter he received notice of his selection to a place in the government service, but declined the appointment.
Mr. Brenner began his business career as a bookkeeper, in which capacity he served for eleven years, first in Beaver Falls and later in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. In January, 1894, he became' associated with the DeKalb (wire) Fence Company of DeKalb, Illinois, as a traveling salesman, and in November of that year removed to DeKalb, becoming general sales manager for the company. At the same time he was elected secretary of the company. In 1896 he was elected treasurer of the Union (wire) Fence Company, after which he took general charge of both companies. Thereafter he advanced step by step until July, 1902, when he was made president and general manager of both the DeKalb Fence Company and the Union Fence Company. These companies were pioneers in the woven wire fence business, and the DeKalb Fence Company was the first to introduce woven wire fence to the public in this country through the trade.
In the capacity of president of his company he was one of the foremost representatives of industrial and trade interests in DeKalb.
Notably prompt, energetic and reliable, he formed his plans readily and was forceful in their execution. He was watchful of every indication pointing to success and wrought along modern business lines, keeping in touch with the trend of progress and improvement in manufacturing circles.
He remained with the companies mentioned in the capacity of president and general manager until 1909, his connection with them terminating only with their sale. He also figured in financial circles, being one of the organizers and a director of the Commercial Trust & Savings Bank of DeKalb. He was one of the organizers of the Belmont Park Cemetery this city, and is now its president. He is likewise largely interested in real estate both in the City of Chicago and in Canada.
Since 1909 Mr. Brenner has resided in this city, devoting himself to looking after his private interests and overseeing the Belmont Park Cemetery. Considering the fact that John Brenner was for seventeen years superintendent of Oak Hill Cemetery, it is interesting to note that his son, Judson Brenner, is president of the Belmont Park Cemetery. He has devoted much of his time and attention of recent years to the development of this "beautiful city of the dead."
In politics Mr. Brenner is a stalwart republican, unswerving in his allegiance to the party and its principles. He is a student of the issues of the day and has become thoroughly convinced that the plat form and the policy of the party with which he affiliates are most conducive to good government and the welfare of the people. While residing in De-Kalb he served as president of the Chamber of Commerce, president of the Board of Education, president of the Board of Health, chairman of the Board of Trustees of the City Hospital, and was never remiss in the duties of citizenship. Always laboring effectively and earnestly for the welfare and progress of the community in which he resided, he never sought the honor and reward of office in recognition of his public service. During the great World war he saw seven months service in the Tidewater District (Virginia) Y. M. C. A. as general auditor for that district.
In fraternal matters Mr. Brenner is more than ordinarily prominent, especially in Masonry, having attained the thirty-third degree in the Scottish Rite He is past master of DeKalb Lodge No. 144, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; past high priest of DeKalb Chapter No. 52, Royal Arch Masons; past thrice illustrious master of DeKalb Council No. 80, Royal and Select Masters; past commander of Sycamore Commandery No. 15, Knights Templar; past worthy patron of Normal Chapter No. 357, Order Eastern Star ; and a member of Van Rensselaer Lodge of Perfection; Chicago Council, Princes of Jerusalem; Gourgas Chapter, Roise Croix and Oriental Consistory, S. P. R. S. Moreover, he is a member of the Grand Council of the Order of High Priesthood; of Aryan Grotto No. 18, M. O. V. P. E. R.; Medina Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine; Royal Order of Scotland; past sovereign of St. John's Conclave (premier) No. 1, Red Cross, a member of the Grand Cross, and past grand sovereign of the Grand Imperial Council of the Red Cross of Constantine of the- United States of America.
Mr. Brenner is also a numismatist of international reputation, having served two terms as president and two terms as chairman of the Board of Governors of the American Numismatic Association of the United States. His collections of coins and medals are known to every collector. It was because of his prominence as a numismatist that he was twice appointed by president Taft a member of the United States Assay Commission, and while a member of this commission was made chairman of the committee on revolutions. He is a life member of the Ohio State Archeological and Historical Society, and a member of the Chamber of Commerce and of the Youngstown Club.
The advantages and privileges which Mr. Brenner received in his youth were rather limited. He has, however, been a keen observer, and through observation and extensive travel has become a splendidly informed man, who keeps fully abreast of the times, Honesty, methods and the lessons impressed upon his mind in youth, were never forgotten, but were put into actual practice in business life. His fidelity and his capability soon won recognition, so that he early filled responsible positions with large concerns, and while in the employ of these he was marked as a man who could be relied upon, and has been found trustworthy at every test. He enjoys the unbounded
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confidence of those who snow him best, and in a business way his acquaintance extends to all parts of the United States. Socially he is prominent in his home city and wherever known. He is one in whom nature and culture have vied in making an interesting and entertaining gentleman, while the development of his powers with which nature endowed him has made him a conspicuous figure in business circles.
THOMAS J. McVEY. The present mayor of East Youngstown, Hon. Thomas J. McVey, is demonstrating what a live, alert and fearless champion of the people can accomplish when he is placed in the executive chair of his community and handling the difficult problems with rare tact and efficiency. He was born in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, near the state line, and one mile east of Lowellville, Ohio, on May 31, 1862, a son of John and Isabella (Johnson) McVey. John McVey was born in County Antrim, Ireland, from whence, when twenty-four years of age, he came to the United States and for a time was a coal and ore miner, but subsequently bought the farm on which his son was born, and lived on it until 1867. In that year he moved into Ohio and bought a farm three miles west of his original one, which was on the river road between Lowellville and Struthers in Poland Township. A small portion of this farm is now included in Struthers, but the remainder is still in possession of the family. John McVey died on July 24, 1901, aged seventy-one years. His wife, who was born in 1838, survives him and is living at Youngstown. Although born in County Down, Ireland, she was practically reared in Scotland. Her parents, Robert and Jane Johnson, came to the United States and located on a farm in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, adjoining the one occupied by their son-in-law. The children born to John McVey and his wife were as follows : John E., who was an attorney at Youngstown, died in that city in November, 1905, his widow surviving him until 1916, when she died, leaving a daughter and son, Fanny Bell Allen, of New York City, and John A. a ranchman of Tucson, Arizona; Robert W., who is now a resident of Idaho Falls, Idaho, has three sons still living at Youngstown, John Ray, Emmit and Thomas M.; Thomas J., whose name heads this review ; Jennie H., who married Daniel Davis, of the Ohio Steel Company, has two children, Charles and Isabelle, now Mrs. Leo Moore of Youngstown; Isabelle Frances, who married James S. Patterson, a steel manufacturer of Youngstown, has two children, Ella, and Isabel, now Mrs. Leslie Griffith of Youngstown; Charles Y., who is vice president of the Ohio State Telephone Company of Cleveland, Ohio; and one who died in childhood. Thomas J. McVey remained on his father's farm until 1896, when he came to East Youngstown, being attracted here through his marriage with Althea J. Reed, a daughter of John H. and Samantha Reed, who owned a farm which lay along the river for one-half a mile, and back into the hill. Much of this 16o acres of land is now occupied by East Youngstown, although Mr. and Mrs. McVey still own twenty acres of the original tract. Mrs. Reed died in 1896, and Mr. and Mrs. McVey came here to assume the care of Mr. Reed, who only survived
his wife until 1898, passing away at the age of eighty-one years.
In 1902 part of the Reed farm was platted, the Pennsylvania Railroad buying from the McVeys the right of way for a double track running from Beaver Falls to Ashtabula. Mr. McVey was in the employ of the Pennsylvania Railroad from 1902 until 1914, and during that period was able to secure the right of way from Lowellville, Ohio, to New Castle, Pennsylvania, for the Interurban Company, and was also instrumental in getting similar rights between Lowellville and Struthers, passing into that stretch through the old McVey homestead. Since 1902 Mr. and Mrs. McVey have lived in the old Reed residence, which stands on Wilson Avenue, the main street of East Youngstown, and is a very desirable property.
In 1918 Mr. McVey was elected mayor of East Youngstown, anal under his masterful supervision some very necessary public improvements are making rapid progress, including street paving and sewers. It is his intention to keep the improvement up to the increase in population. Mr. McVey is a director of the Struthers Saving & Banking Company, a director of the Peoples Savings & Trust Company of East Youngstown, and has many diversified interests. His honor is not a politician, but a business man and proposes to see that his city gets the same administration of its affairs that would be given an industrial or commercial institution of similar importance. However, he votes the republican ticket and was elected on it. He and his wife have one son, Reed McVey, who is secretary and treasurer of the East Youngstown Supply Company, dealers in builders' supplies, coal and feed. He married Margaret Nash.
COL. GEORGE D. WICK Many of the most important interests of the historic Wick family of the Mahoning Valley were conserved and promoted by the late Col. George D. Wick. For fully a quarter of a century Colonel Wick was a dominating figure in the commercial, financial and industrial affairs of the Youngstown District.
He was born at Youngstown, June 24, 1854, son of Paul and Susan (Bull) Wick, the former a native of Youngstown and the latter of Bridgeport, Connecticut. His grandfather was Henry Wick. Something should also be said concerning Paul Wick, who was one of the twelve children of Henry Wick. Paul Wick was educated in the old Youngstown Academy, was associated with his brother John as a coal operator, and later became identified with other members of the family in a large mercantile establishment in Cleveland. He is credited with being one of those who laid the foundation of the great iron industry in Youngstown. About 1866 he organized the firm of Wick Brothers & Company, a banking house whose history is properly told in the financial account of Youngstown. He was at the head of that business until his death on June 13, 1890. He married Susan Bull in 1846, and she died in Youngstown in 1852, the mother of six children. Paul Wick served many years in the city council and on the school board, and was a splendid example of Christian citizenship.
Col. George D. Wick was educated in the local
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schools of Youngstown and graduated in 1876 from Williams College at Williamstown, Massachusetts. His first business experience was in Chicago with the firm Wick, Bonnell & Company, in which the late John M. Bonnell was a partner. For a time he was an iron merchant at Cleveland and on returning to Youngstown in 1882 became associated with the Trumbull Iron Company of Girard as president. He was also a partner with Mr. J. A. Campbell in the Pomeroy Iron Company. In 1892 he was made vice president of the Union Steel & Iron Company and in 1896 president of the Mahoning Valley Iron Company. He was one of the factors in the organization of the Republic Iron & Steel Company, which took over the interests of the Mahoning Valley Company. Colonel Wick became a vice president in the Republic Corporation.
To him primarily was due the organization of the great business now known as the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company. He became its first president in 1901. He retired in 1903 on account of ill health, but after several years resumed his old place in business affairs. Another historic achievement associated with his name was the bringing of the Gary Iron & Steel Company to the Mahoning Valley. Along with Mr. Joseph G. Butler, Jr., he promoted the Youngstown Hotel Company. Other business associations were as a director in the Dollar Savings & Trust Company, the First National Bank, the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, the Gary Iron and Steel Company, the Federal Build ing Company and the Paul Wick estate. He was a member of the Youngstown Club, the Youngstown County Club, the Union Club, and the Mayfield Country Club of Cleveland. A stanch republican, he accepted appointment in 1896 as aide de camp to Governor Asa Bushnell, with the rank of colonel and a staff officer of the State National Guard. He was an adviser to the state administration during the period of the Spanish-American war. He was also a member of the Kappa Alpha fraternity of Williams College.
Colonel Wick in search of health left America and sailed for Europe on February 14, 1912. Just two months later, on April 15th, he was one of the 1,500 who went down with the sinking of the Titanic, being one of the many prominent men who lost their lives in that great sea tragedy. His wife and daughter were among the Too passengers saved.
Colonel Wick married for his first wife Mary Chamberlain of Cleveland. They were the parents of one daughter, Mary Natalie. In 1895 he married Mary Hitchcock, daughter of the late William J. Hitchcock of Youngstown. Mrs. Wick and her only son, George Jennings, survive.
M. H. STAUFFER is a structural engineer, with a long, varied and expert experience in the fabrication of steel products. It was his ability and leadership that gave to Newton Falls one of its most important industries, and one which has done much to give that village importance among the industrial centers of the Mahoning Valley.
Mr. Stauffer was able to interest some of the moneyed men of the valley and organized, in August, 1919, the Ohio Structural Steel Company, capitalized at $75,000. All the capital is owned in the valley. The president is J. N. Heltzel, one of the prominent industrial executives at Warren. M. H. Stauffer is secretary and general manager of the company, and his brother, R. B. Stauffer, is its treasurer. This company took over a plant which had been established a number of years before as the Newton Falls Construction Company. James McMahan had been the superintendent of that former plant. The business was not altogether a financial success, but immediately took new life as the Ohio Structural Steel Company, and it now has orders booked far ahead. The plant has three acres of ground, with adequate railroad trackage, and about twenty-five men are employed at present. The special business is the manufacture of structural steel for factory and other building purposes.
Mr. Stauffer has been in this line of industry for eighteen years or more. For five years he was with the American Bridge Company in its plant at Ambridge, Pennsylvania, and for two years was superintendent of the Northwestern Steel Company at Vancouver, British Columbia. Before promoting the industry at Newton Falls he was chief engineer and shop manager of the Niles Forge and Manufacturing Company five years, where he had a force of between fifty-five and sixty men under him. Mr. Stauffer makes his home at Newton Falls, and sees a wonderful future for the village in its industrial outlook. He is affiliated with the Masonic Order at Niles. Mr. Stauffer married in Pennsylvania Viola Burns. She is a member of the Eastern Star and White Shrine at Youngstown.
IKE M. HARTZELL. The chief service by which the name of Ike M. Hartzell is associated with the life and affairs of Youngstown is as a theatrical manager. He was one of the first to establish the motion picture in Youngstown, and has been successfully identified with the management of half a dozen local places of amusement and entertainment.
Mr. Hartzell, who is now owner of the Princess Theater, was born in Girard, Ohio, November 15, 1876, a son of Emanuel and Jennie Mayer Hartzell. His father is undoubtedly one of the most widely known and esteemed men in the Mahoning Valley.
Emanuel Hartzell was born in Hesse-Darmstadt, and came to the United States when a boy. He had many troubles and adversities to contend with, and, a stranger in a strange land, he finally acquired the capital sufficient to start a grocery store in Girard. That was the foundation of his considerable success. He has since been identified with many commercial enterprises, and in all of them his ability and enterprise have been substantially rewarded. Many years ago he was selling goods to the farming districts from a wagon. His first regular business at Girard was known as the Hartzell-Lambert Company, now the Hartzell-Ovens Company. Another successful enterprise is the Hartzell' Clothing Store on Federal Street in Youngstown. For three years he also conducted a clothing establishment on Brier Hill, patronized chiefly by the steel workers.
His success in business has gone hand in hand with social activity and the character of a man of thorough benevolence and charity. For many years he has been identified with the Masons at Girard, and
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for fifty years has been an Odd Fellow. He is the only living charter member of Girard Lodge of Odd Fellows, and recently was reminded of that fact when his fellow members presented him with a handsome gold medal. He was also one of the builders of Rodef Sholem Temple, is president of the B'nai B'rith in Youngstown, and has been a leader among the people of his faith. Recently the family had a portrait made showing twenty-seven persons, Emanuel and Jennie Hartzell, their six children, and nineteen grandchildren. The children are: Anna, wife of Michael Samuels, the Federal Street jeweler; Rose, wife of Louis Moyer, a Youngstown clothing manufacturer; Ike M.; Nate, manager of the Hartzell Brothers clothing establishment ; Dr. Sol M., an eye, ear and nose specialist; and Edgar M., also a member of the Hartzell Brothers firm.
Ike M. Hartzell attended his first schools in Girard, also the Wood Street School and the Rayen High School in Youngstown and for a time studied medicine and dentistry in the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia. Abandoning the idea of a professional career, he turned his talents to the more congenial field of business. His first noteworthy undertaking was a grocery store at Market and Myrtle streets, conducted by the firm of Hartzell and Stearns for two years. Later Mr. Hartzell was in the clothing business at 277 West Federal Street, and for a year and a half was manager of Hartzell Brothers.
He left merchandising to make a business of furnishing amusement to the people of Youngstown. He has conducted many of the picture and comedy houses, including the Lyric, the Albin, Luna and Royal, and since June, 1911, has been the proprietor and manager of the Princess, one of the highest class and most popular houses in the Mahoning Valley.
Mr. Hartzell is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias and Elks and also the B'nai B'rith. On September 15, 1904, he married Blanche K. Kaufman, daughter of Abe and Rose Kaufman, of Richmond, Virginia. They have twin daughters, Helene and Jeannette.
GEORGE B. BENEDICT. The dominant feature of Youngstown's history has been industrial. The lives of its inhabitants have largely revolved around mills and factories. The products which have gone abroad have been mainly the commercial forms of iron and steel. In comparatively recent years, with wealth and prosperity established, there has ,also been a demand for the finer expression of civilized existence, manifested in the creative forms of the fine arts. This accounts for the presence of such men in Youngstown as George B. Benedict, whose entire life has been spent in the environment of art. A growing number of Youngstown people possessing the means and the cultivated tastes have resorted more and more to Mr. Benedict's services as an artist and decorator, and his establishment at 911 Elm Street is one of the few places in Eastern Ohio where the demands of a cultivated taste can be satisfied.
Mr. Benedict was born in Lorraine, France, forty years ago. He comes of a family of artists and musicians. His uncle, Gustav Manhainer, was at one time director of the opera at Vienna. Mr. Benedict's early education to the age of fifteen was acquired in Lorraine. Afterward he associated with art schools and artists in France, Germany, Italy and Greece and other countries. He began painting at the age of twelve and his individual talents have been improved by constant association with the highest forms of artistic expression.
Mr. Benedict came to the United States in 1902 and for several years was superintendent of a prominent firm. of interior decorators in New York, one of the largest in the United States. Besides his own output he taught art to many of his subordinates. After coming to Youngstown Mr. Benedict was for a time connected with Rice and associates, and in 1919 opened his own establishment on Elm Street. His work is exemplified in many of the more beautiful homes of the Youngstown district, in some of the churches, and in addition to his profession he is proprietor of an art goods shop handling some of the high class wares, including rugs, paintings, lamps and other commodities that cannot usually be found outside the great cities.
Mr. Benedict affiliates with the Epworth Methodist Episcopal Church, and is a supporter of wholesome and clean politics. In 1904, in New York City, he married Miss Irene Jones.
JOSEPH E. JONES as a worker has been connected with the industrial life of Youngstown since boyhood, and is also prominent in state politics, being one of the supervisors of state elections.
Mr. Jones was born in May, 1877, son of Elias and Mary (Powell) Jones. His parents were born and married in Wales and were still young when they came to the United States and settled at Youngstown. Elias Jones for a number of years was with the coal mines in this district, and now in point of service is the oldest policeman in Youngstown, having served on the force thirty-five years. He and his wife are members of the Welsh Congregational Church, and he is a charter member of Hartford Masonic Lodge, and is also a member of the Knights of Pythias and a republican, in politics. He and his wife had nine children, those now living being: Mrs. Charles H. Foaht, of Albert Lea, Minnesota; Elizabeth and Hannah, at home; Joseph E. Jones; and Dr. E. H. Jones, who is county coroner of Mahoning County. The deceased children were : Dr. Alexander H. Jones, a dentist, who went abroad, giving his professional services to the army, and died in France after the signing of the armistice; Margaret, who died in young womanhood; and Elias, who died many years ago.
Joseph E. Jones was educated at Youngstown and earned his first regular wages as a boy of ten in the Witchhazel coal mines. He continued to attend school to the age of fourteen, following which he clerked in grocery and clothing stores, and afterward went to work for Cartwright & McCurdy, his first employment being "dragging out" and afterward on the "rolls." He served an apprenticeship at the Ohio mills. Subsequently he became a manufacturers' agent, handling mill supplies, and is now salesman for the Austin Western Road Machinery Company of Chicago, Illinois.
A republican, honest elections for years have been his hobby, and it was interest in clean politics that
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secured his appointment as deputy supervisor of state elections. He has served in that capacity
since 1912, and was president of the board from 1913 to 1917. For three years he has served as chairman of the Republican County Committee. Mr. Jones is a member of Trinity Methodist Church, and is affiliated with Western Star Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, and Youngstown Lodge of Odd Fellows.
JAMES E. BROWN. One of the most notable enterprises of its kind for many years in Trumbull County was the fine stock farm of James E. Brown and brother. The brother, Albert Brown, is now deceased, and Mr. James E. Brown is living retired at 121 Porter Avenue in Warren.
The Brown ancestry is Scotch-Irish. For several generations they lived in County Tyrone, Ireland. In one branch of the family there is record of a daughter of the prominent Montgomery family marrying beneath her social station, and consequently she and her husband came to America and located in Pennsylvania Just before the Revolutionary war her father died in Ireland, and her husband returned to get her property, but came back on account of the outbreak of the war.
The father of the Brown brothers was Ebenezer N. Brown, who was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, and was brought to Ohio by his father. His brothers were Montgomery, James, William and Samuel, all of whom grew up in Howland Township, and there was a sister, Jane, who married a Mr. Wallace and went West. James Brown conducted a hotel at Lowellville and died there. William also died at Lowellville. Samuel remained in Howland Township, and Montgomery went West, but. finally returned and died at Cleveland. Samuel and Ebenezer both spent their last years in Howland and some of the original family lands are still owned by James E. Brown. He was still in his minority when his parents died. He acquired twenty-nine acres of the old farm from his brother Samuel, this tract being known as the Sam Brown Lot. The old home of Ebenezer Brown is now owned by the widow of Albert Brown.
Ebenezer N. Brown married Rachel Andrews, a sister of Austin Andrews and a cousin of Chauncey Andrews, the great capitalist of Youngstown. Ebenezer Brown was of a cautious, conservative disposition in business. Once Chauncey Andrews, who had been ruined twice financially, while taking dinner in the Brown home asked Ebenezer to take an interest in some coal properties, the plan being that Ebenezer should aid in paying for the drilling and would acquire a half interest. His reply was simply "I know my stock busines's." He possessed none of the speculative ability of his relative, Chauncey Andrews, though he consented to lend the latter money, Andrews giving as security a mortgage on an old hotel in Youngstown. That was the turning point in the career of Chauncey Andrews. He took in a Mr. Hitchcock, and from that time forward rapidly acquired wealth. Ebenezer Brown owned three farms, and was an extensive dealer in live stock, and was a very keen judge of this branch of business. He quit business just at the right time, before many of his contemporaries failed. His last home was a small place near his son, and he died at the age of eighty-two, while his widow survived him to the age of eighty-six. Ebenezer Brown was a republican, never held an office and was not a church member. He was buried in Howland.
His two sons were Albert, two years older than James E. who was born in Howland, July 31, 1850. Both inherited their father's disposition for livestock and specialized in the growing and breeding of fine cattle and horses. They introduced the first herd of pure bred Holsteins to Trumbull County, securing their animals from the famous Heidekoeper herd at Meadville, Pennsylvania. Each of the Brown brothers had a fine farm, about two miles apart, one of them being north and the other south of Howland Corners. These farms were equipped with every facility required in their industry. They operated dairies, also had a factory for making cheese, subsequently sold their raw milk in Pittsburg, and still later Albert Brown operated a milk route at Niles while James had one at Warren. Albert Brown died April 3, 1919.
The Brown brothers married sisters, Mary and Viola Gilbert, daughters of Aldis Gilbert of Cortland. Mrs. Mary Brown is still living. Viola, the wife of James E. Brown, died in 1895. Her daughter Mabel died soon afterward at the age of seventeen, and following this bereavement Mr. Brown left the farm in the hands of a tenant and spent some years selling ranges. He finally returned to the farm and operated the dairy route in Warren, and after that sold milk wholesale. Eventually he disposed of the farm and returning to Warren built a double house, in which he still lives, renting the other half to his brother. Albert Brown was a stockholder in various banks, served two terms as a county commissioner, and was a deacon in the church. Both were republicans. James E. Brown still retains his membership in the Howland Christian Church.
Besides his farm cattle James E. Brown was a breeder and trainer of fine horses for fourteen years. He had a training track on the farm, and he took his string of horses to many fairs and races. He was a breeder of the famous Wilkes stock. Albert Brown was a great lover of oxen, and always had one or two yoke of oxen on his farm.
By his marriage to Viola Gilbert at the age of twenty-five James E. Brown had three daughters, Grace, Mabel and Alice. Grace is the wife of Homer C. Mackey, a well known rug merchant at Warren, and now in charge of the old Albert Brown farm. Mr. and Mrs. Mackey have one daughter, Alice. Alice Brown after her mother's death grew up in the home of her uncle, Albert Brown. She is the wife of Wallace Brown, and they live at Duquesne, Pennsylvania, where he is connected with the Carnegie Mills. They have one son, Lucian James.
James E. Brown married for his second wife Laura P. Smith, a daughter of E. O. Smith of Warren.
HERMAN MORRIS HURD. As treasurer of the Republic Iron & Steel Company, Herman Morris Hurd occupies a position that makes him one of the most prominent men in his line in the country. Youngstown has been his home from his early youth, and
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in this city he has achieved his success and impressed his individuality upon its industrial life.
He was born at North Lewisburg, Ohio, March 20, 1874, and numbers among his ancestors the Morris family of New Jersey, of English descent and famous in the colonial days of the United States. His paternal grandmother bore the name of Morris, and she became the wife of John Hurd. The parents of Herman M. Hurd, Albert N. and Mary (Winter) Hurd, were among the pioneers of Champaign County, Ohio, and the paternal grandfather, John Hurd, lived near Urbana for many years and was one of the old stage drivers of that locality. Until he reached the age of sixteen years Herman M. Hurd lived in various locations in Ohio, for his father was a railroad man, connected for over fifty years with the Erie Railroad, and when the son was sixteen the family came to Youngstown. In the meantime this son had received an excellent practical education in the common branches and had graduated from the Creston High School, and on arriving in Youngstown he entered upon his business career as a clerk in the freight office of the Erie Railroad. Later he became an employe in the office of the superintendent of the Mahoning division and during these periods, having recognized the necessity of a better educational training, he attended night school at the Young Men's Christian Association. In 1894, when he had reached the age of twenty, Mr. Hurd was taken into the employ of the Dollar Savings 8z Trust Company, which was then but just entering the world of finance, and he served it in various capacities, including bookkeeper and teller, and remained with it until 1899, when he went to Chicago as assistant cashier of the Republic Iron & Steel Company, under John F. Taylor, the first treasurer of that corporation. This was also at a time when the Republic Iron & Steel Company was in its earliest stages of development, and Mr. Hurd has remained with it ever since, advancing in importance with the development of the corporation, and removing with it to Pittsburgh and then to Youngstown. From the office of assistant cashier he was promoted to cashier, assistant treasurer, and finally, in 1914, was made the treasurer of this, one of the largest organizations of its kind in the country. He is a member of the American Iron & Steel Institute, is a director of the Young Men's Christian Association, is president of the University Extension Society, is a member of the Youngstown Club and the Youngstown Country Club and a director in the former, and is a member of the First Presbyterian Church.
On the 12th of October, 1899, Mr. Hurd was married to Miss Ethel Humphrey, of Chicago, and they have two daughters, Catherine H. and Dorothy M.
GUY E. NORWOOD. As one who stands as a splendid type of the progressive and enterprising citizens who are making the State of Ohio one of the greatest in industrial circles in the Union,
Guy E. Norwood, president of the Republic Rubber Company of Youngstown, is entitled to specific recognition in this history. He has realized a large and substantial success in the business world, and this represents the result of his own well-ordered endeavors, for he has been in a significant sense the architect of his own fortunes. He is a man of action rather than words. His mind is strongly analytical, and its scope is broad. He is eminently utilitarian, and energy of character, firmness of purpose and unswerving integrity are among his chief characteristics. He has for a number of years played a leading part in industrial affairs in his adopted state, and through his persistent efforts" he has made for himself a place in connection with the productive energies and activities of life, so that his career offers both lesson and incentive.
Guy E. Norwood was born in Allegany, New York, on February 17, 1876, and is a son of Byron and Jennie E. (Hills) Norwood. He was reared in his native town, where he attended the public schools, later furthering his studies at Cook Academy at Montour Falls, New York. He then entered Cornell University at Ithaca, New York, where he specialized in mechanical engineering. His first employment was with the Eastman Kodak Company at Rochester, New York, with which he remained until 1901, when he became identified with the engineering department of the R. F. Goodrich Company of Akron, Ohio, where he remained until 1906, when he joined the Diamond Rubber Company, being placed in charge of the cost department of the manufacturing end of the business. Eventually he became a director and assistant treasurer of that company. That company was subsequently merged in the B. F. Goodrich Company, of which Mr. Norwood became, first, a director and assistant treasurer, then assistant treasurer and, finally, secretary. In 1917 he disposed of his holdings in that company in order to accept the presidency of the Republic Rubber. Company of Youngstown, a position he has since occupied. To the interests of this company he has thrown his energies and abilities and it is only repeating a fact widely recognized by those familiar with his work here to say that the present success of this company is largely attributable directly to the stimulus of his leadership and the judicious and far-seeing business policy which he is exercising as the head of the directorate.
On the 10th of July, 1900, Mr. Norwood was married to Anna S. Heitzman, of Geneseo, New York, and they are the parents of a son, Robert.
Politically Mr. Norwood is an earnest supporter of the republican party, being of the progressive type of party man in his attitude towards public issues. Fraternally he is a member of the Masonic order, having attained the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, and is also affiliated with the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. Religiously he is a member of the Episcopal Church and, socially, he belongs to the Youngstown Club and the Youngstown Country Club. Though a resident of Youngstown but a comparatively short time, he has impressed the force of his personality upon those with whom he has come in contact, holding worthy prestige in industrial and business circles, where he wields a potent influence and is regarded as distinctively a man of affairs. Genial and agreeable in disposition, and easily approached, he is held in high esteem by all who know him.
WILLIAM J. FLYNN. There is perhaps no better illustration of the rewards of long, persistent, faithful and progressive service than that found in the