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career of William J. Flynn, superintendent of the rolling mills of the Brier Hill Steel Company.
During the past thirty years Mr. Flynn has given his allegiance to just two corporations, one of them being the Brier Hill Company, where he has been in charge of the rolling mills for the past three years. The other was the Illinois Steel Corporation, in which it might be said he was reared, trained and with experience and special abilities made himself known among expert steel workers.
Mr. Flynn was born at Parkersburg, Illinois, September 1, 1877, one of the seven children of James and Anna (Lynch) Flynn. His parents were born in Ireland and were married at Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. James Flynn was in the contracting and railroad construction business, and that work necessarily required his residence in many parts of the United States. He and his wife were Catholics, and both are now deceased.
William J. Flynn spent most of his early youth at Valparaiso, Indiana, and was educated in Sts. Peter and Paul Academy in that city. He was the oldest of the children, and owing to a serious accident which made his father a cripple, William J. had of start for himself at the age of fourteen.
Thus on August 28, 1891, he did his first day's work for the Illinois Steel Corporation at South Chicago, Illinois. He was with that corporation steadily for twenty-five years lacking only twenty-eight days. The first seven years, taking him to his majority, is accounted for by experience in three capacities, rail tester, hot bed inspector and final inspector in the finishing department. He was then transferred to the safety department. The Illinois company was a pioneer in the safety first movement. After four and a half years there he was transferred to the Bessemer department, where he was general foreman part of the time and was in one of the most responsible and hazardous departments of a steel mill. He operated the cupolas as the smelter melted the spiegel used to re-carburize steel after it is blown in the vessels. That was his work for two and a half years. His next transfer took him to the/ 28-inch structural steel rolling mill, where structural material, consisting of various sizes of beams, channels, angles and squares, were rolled. During the three years of his employment in the Gary rolling mill he was guide tender and assistant roller to William H. Warren, present general manager of the Brier Hill Steel. Company of Youngstown. When the new rolling mills were built at Gary he was transferred to them, the largest rail mills of the world, in the capacity of assistant. superintendent, being assistant to William H. Warren. After three years as assistant he was superintendent of the rolling mills to succeed Mr. Warren, and held that office about five years.
Mr. Flynn came to Youngstown in August, 1916, where as superintendent of the rolling mills he is one of the expert force gathered to this plant under the congenial leadership of Mr. Warren.
July 31, 1901, Mr. Flynn married Miss Anna O'Connor, of South Chicago. Six children were born to their marriage: Anna Cecelia, deceased, William J. Jr., Thomas, Anna, James and Dorothy.
WILLIAM VAN WYE, member of a family that came to Trumbull County nearly ninety years ago, was born July 7, 1850, and died May 30, 1915. In 1873 he married Maria Elizabeth Bolin, daughter of the late James Bolin, of the Bolin Hill community in Trumbull County.
For about ten years William Van Wye lived on the old family homestead in Weathersfield Township, and then bought the Folsom farm near Warren. This property he sold in 1912 to the Trumbull Steel Company. For more than twenty years he had made his home in Warren, and was chiefly engaged in looking after his property interests. He was an excellent business man, a citizen of high standing, and well known socially and also was active in republican politics.
Mrs. Van Wye, who is living at Warren, had one daughter, Lizzie B. She died at the age of twenty-two, just at the threshold of a beautiful young womanhood, with talents and character that well justified the family in centering their fondest hopes upon her. Her death occurred November 25, 1896. She was talented in painting, had a broad and liberal education, and was exceedingly popular in her social set. Mrs. Van Wye since the death of her daughter and husband has given much of her time to the promotion of worthy causes, patriotic and charitable. She is active in the Methodist Church at Warren, and she and her friend, Mrs. Laura Harsh, presented the Warren Methodist Church with its fine pipe organ.
DAVID COWDEN STEWART, a prominent farmer of Trumbull County, lives in Liberty Township six miles north of Youngstown. His home is on the old Hayes farm, which was inherited by Mrs. Stewart. The record of the Stewart family is a long and honorable one in the old Western Reserve, the particular branch of the family to which David C. Stewart belongs having been chiefly identified with Vienna Township.
The history of the Hayes family begins with five Scotch-Irish brothers who crossed the ocean and made their first sojourn at Homestead, Pennsylvania. One of the brothers, Robert, bought from the Connecticut Land Company nearly a section of land, including that on which Mr. and Mrs. Stewart reside. Robert was killed in Pennsylvania and his sons John and William and daughter Jane came out to occupy that portion of the estate in Trumbull County. Jane married and secured the west end of the Robert Hayes farm, William getting the east end, now known as the Stambaugh and Burroughs farms, where William died when old, and John secured 16o acres on which he lived out his life. John Hayes was born December 18, 1785, on the banks of the Monongehala River in Western Pennsylvania, and died August 22, 1851. On March 6, 181o, he married Margaret Reed, who was born February 13, 1787, and died September 3, 1863, at Church Hill, two miles from the homestead, where both were members of the Presbyterian Church.
The children of John and Margaret Hayes were: James, who died unmarried at the age of fifty-two; Mary who died at the old home; Isaac Reed Hayes; Robert, who was a blacksmith and wagon maker and
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died at Beaver, Pennsylvania; Nancy Jane, who married John. Tom and went to Floyd County, Iowa ; John S., who died in young manhood; Samuel Martin, who died at Floyd, Iowa ; Mathew, who died young; and William, who died in North Dakota.
Of this family Isaac Reed Hayes was the father of Mrs. Stewart. He was born November 27, 1817, and died October 27, 1895. He spent his life on the present Stewart homestead, going there in 1823, when six years of age. January 7, 1852, he married Sarah Jane McCalley, who was born in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, March 17, 1824, and died July 19, 1884. Isaac Reed Hayes bought out the interests of the other heirs and late in life divided the place among his children, Mrs. Stewart acquiring the homestead and some of the land. Isaac R. Hayes was active in the Presbyterian Church. He had six children : John McCalley, who was a musical instrument dealer at Toledo, where he died; James Laughlin, who died in young manhood; Margaret Ann, Mrs. Stewart; William Edgar, who died in 1919, at Hiram, Ohio, where he was a farmer; Thomas Hunter, a merchant at Youngstown, where he died October 9, 1893 ; and Mary Amanda, who died at Church Hill, October 29, 1891, the wife of John McIntire.
David Cowden Stewart was born in Vienna Township of Trumbull County, February 3, 1861, son of Lowrey and Mary Ann (Cowden) Stewart. His father was born in the same locality and died at the age of fifty-five, his wife having passed away on a portion of the old Stewart homestead. David Cowden Stewart and Margaret Ann Hayes were married in 1891, and they have spent nearly thirty years at the old Hayes homestead. Mrs. Stewart was born here September 3, 1857, and solicitously looked after her father's comfort as long as he lived. Mr. and Mrs. Stewart have twin sons, Lowrey Alexander and Isaac Reed Hays Stewart. The former is a teller in the Mahoning National Bank at Youngstown, and by his marriage to Florence Vaughn has a son, David Vaughn.. The younger son is unmarried and lives at home.
MCCLELLAN HORN has demonstrated his wisdom in having payed continuous allegiance to the fundamental industry under the discipline of which he was reared, and he is today numbered among the representative farmers and popular citizens of Lordstown Township, where his pleasant home is six miles south of Warren. On the old Beil farm, adjacent to his present home place, Mr. Horn was born, the date of his nativity having been December 21, 1861. He is a son of John and Susannah (Beil) Horn, both representative of sterling pioneer families of Trumbull County. John Horn was born in Lordstown Township, November 12, 1834, his father, Michael Horn, having come to this county from the eastern part of Pennsylvania, and having died in Lordstown Township when his son John was but five years old. He left also an older son, Levi, who removed to Iowa and who was a resident of Allamakee County, that state, at the time of his death. James K. Polk Horn, a half-brother ,of John, enlisted in the Twentieth Ohio Volunteer Infantry for service in the Civil war, and died while at home on a furlough. Of the sisters, Nancy became the wife of William Webster d died while still a young woman; Sarah's first
husband was named Turnbull, and he was a resident of Fort Wayne, Indiana, at the time of his death, and later Mrs. Turnbull became the wife of William Webster, the widowed husband of her older sister; Susan became the wife of William P. Platt, and both died in Lordstown Township. John Horn was reared to manhood in Trumbull County, and as a young man he here married Miss Susannah Beil, daughter of John and Sally Beil, both of whom died on the old Beil homestead in Lordstown Township, where their grandson, McClellan Horn, of this review, was born. John Beil was seventy-five years of age at the time of his death, his wife having passed away about twelve years previously. After the death of her mother Susannah, then a young girl, took charge of the domestic affairs of the paternal home, and after her marriage she and her husband remained with her father until his death, when her husband purchased the place, a part of the old homestead being now owned by the subject of this review. Here John Horn continued his successful farm operations during the remainder of his active career and hen he died June 28, 1904, at the age of seventy years, his wife having passed away July 17, 1901, in her sixtieth year. John Horn was a democrat in politics and was influential in community affairs, as indicated by his long period of service as township trustee. Of the four children McClellan, of this sketch, is the eldest; Carrie is the wife of Daniel Goldner and inherited a part of the old Beil farm, on which they reside; Ada and Ida were twins, the former being now a resident of North Jackson, this county, and Ida having remained, unmarried, at the old home until her death, at the age of forty-six years.
McClellan Horn is indebted to the public schools of his native county for his early education and was reared on the old Beil homestead, which represented his place of abode for thirty-five years, he having continued in active charge of the farm about six years after his marriage. He then, in 1896, purchased and removed to the Andrew Harshman farm of 120 acres, and here he has since continued operations, his farm now comprising 125 acres, including a part of the old Beil farm, which lies adjacent. The house on his farm was erected by Andrew Harshman, about sixty-five years ago, and is a sturdy structure of the old and enduring type of construction, when all work was done by hand, William Warner having been the carpenter who had charge of the erection of this fine old home. Mr. Horn is vigorous and progressive in his activities as an agriculturist and stock-grower, is a director of the Lordstown Mutual Fire Insurance Company, is an active member of the local Grange and is a democrat in politics. His wife is an active member of the United Brethren Church at East Lordstown, of which her parents were earnest members.
On the loth of September, 1888, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Horn to Miss Mary L. Flick, daughter of William and Amanda (Beal) Flick. William Flick was born in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, and was nine years old when he came with his parents, Samuel and Mary Flick, to Trumbull County, where they settled on the farm now owned by John White, in Lordstown Township. There Samuel Flick died at the age of fifty-nine years, and on this old homestead occurred the marriage of
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William Flick and Amanda Beal, the latter having been a daughter of Joseph and Mary (Harris) Beal, whose farm adjoined that of John Beil, maternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch. Amanda (Beal) Flick was born in Newton Township, this county, was eight years old when the family removed to the above mentioned farm, in Lordstown Township, where her parents continued to reside until their death, and she was twenty years of age at the time of her marriage. Within a short time after their marriage Mr, and Mrs. William Flick removed to Cedar County, Iowa, where they remained five years and where their daughter Mary L. (Mrs. Horn), was born June 13, 1861, she having been a child when her parents returned to Ohio, where, a few years later, her father bought a part of his father's old farm. Samuel Flick and Charles Ohl built the old Mill Creek Mill. Samuel Flick was a cattle dealer for many years. William Flick gave his time and attention to the old farm until he was well advanced in years, when he removed to Youngstown, Mahoning County, which continued to be his home until his death, December 28, 1905, his widow now maintaining her home at Warren. Of the children, Mary, wife of the subject of this review, is the eldest; Kate died in childhood; Charles is a resident of Montpelier, Ohio; Wallace is engaged in business as a contractor in the City of Cleveland; Albert resides at Boardman, Mahoning County; and Emma, who was the widow of Charles Lawrence, who resides at Warren and is the wife of Ira C. Fowler, of the Trumbull Steel Company. Mr, and Mrs. Horn have no children.
JAMES BOLIN. The Bolins were one of the earliest and for many years one of the most influential families at Niles, and they have continued to be identified with Trumbull County for more than a century. 'In Howland Township there is a community known as Bolin Hill, where the late James Bolin settled in 1861. He lived there until his death, more than forty years later, on August 3, 1903.
James Bolin was born on the present site of the High School at Niles December 7, 1819, son of John and Delilah (Williams) Bolin. His, grandfather, Patrick Bolin, was a native of Ireland but came to America in time to participate in the Revolutionary war. John Bolin was a native of Pennsylvania and married for his first wife Miss Merriman, who died in Pennsylvania. John Bolin married for his second wife Delilah Williams, at that time the widow of Mr. McConnell. She had a son, Shelby McConnell, who went out to -Minnesota and died at St. Cloud. John Bolin's first children were William and Mrs. Nellie Heaton. The latter died at New Lyme, Ohio. The son William Bolin was born near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1807, and after his mother's death was reared by an aunt. He lived in Trumbull County for about twelve years as a farmer, and was married here to Rachael Dee. In 1848 he went to Green County, Wisconsin, subsequently to Olmstead County, Minnesota, and finally returned to Wisconsin and died at Neilsville in that state in 1876. His wife died in Wisconsin in 1880. Their son, William Irwin Bolin, who was born in Green County, Wisconsin, in 1851, came to Trumbull County in 1876, and for many years was a farmer, but is now retired and a resident of Warren. William Irwin Bolin married Olive Van Wye, who was born on the old Van Wye farm two miles south of Warren in 1856, daughter of John Van Wye.
The children of John and Delilah Bolin were: James; John, who married Margaret Dempsey, lived for many years in Weathersfield Township but died at Niles at the age of seventy-four ; Margaret, who became the wife of James Rowell and died at Syracuse, New York; Maria, who was one of the early teachers of William McKinley, and afterward married Oliver Kyle and lived at Niles, where she died at the age of eighty-four; and Enoch, who started overland for California in company with James Dempsey, and died of cholera in his eighteenth year.
James Bolin was a successful farmer in the Bolin Hill neighborhood. Some of the land that he orig inally cultivated is now built up with homes and other buildings, though the old homestead is still retained by his family. James Bolin married Elizabeth Drake, who was born at Pittsburg- in 1818. When she was eight years of age she came to Niles in a wagon with her parents, James and Mary (Stanley) Drake. Her father for a time operated a grist mill but later settled on a farm northeast of Bolin Hill. The old Drake farm has since been platted. Mrs. James Bolin died July 14, 1913, when past ninety-five years of age. She had kept her intellectual faculties almost unimpaired, and was well 'read and especially noted for her knowledge of the Scripture. She was active in church work. James Bolin served as a member of the school board and was one of the leading horticulturists of his section. For many years a special reputation attached to the quality of the peaches which he raised.
The children of James Bolin and wife were Warren Stanley, and Candace Jane and Maria Elizabeth. It is not easy to render a proper tribute to the noble and self-sacrificing life of the daughter Candace Jane, whose years have been wholly devoted to her family. She remained with her mother as a companion and solace through her old age, and since her mother's death has lived with her sister, Mrs. Van Wye, in Warren. She also cared for her brother in his last illness.
Warren Stanley Bolin, who died in Howland Township in November, 1913, married for his first wife Anna Mann, and his second wife was Kittie McCorkle. He had a daughter, Nellie M, who died three years after her marriage to Fred Hyde. The two sons of W. S. Bolin are Ward C., who lives in Weathersfield Township and by his marriage to Ida Birmingham has three children, Nellie, Ross and Marian; and Frank, a resident of Niles, who married Ethel Chasser and has two children, Kittie and an infant daughter. The youngest of the children of James Bolin and wife, Maria Elizabeth, is the widow of William Van Wye and a resident of Warren.
ROY B. MCCONNELL, who is serving as trustee of Braceville Township, Trumbull County, is here maintaining effectively the high prestige of the family name both as a citizen and as a successful and progressive farmer. On the old homestead farm which figures as the stage of his agricultural and live stock
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enterprise at the present time, Roy Bernard McConnell was born on the 25th of October, 1875, a son of John O. and Ellen C. (Bronson) McConnell, whose marriage was solemnized May 5, 1867. John O. McConnell was born in Jackson Township, Mahoning County, September 27, 1835, and his wife was born in Southington Township, Trumbull County, February 4, 1845,---dates that denote that the respective families were founded in the Mahoning Valley in the pioneer period. Mrs. McConnell was a daughter of Sylvester and Lydia (Norwood) Bronson, the latter having been a child when her parents migrated from Connecticut and numbered themselves among early settlers in Southington Township, Trumbull County, where they passed the residue of their lives, Mr. Bronson having died when about sixty years of age and his widow having attained to the venerable age of ninety-two years.
John O. McConnell was reared on a pioneer farm in Jackson Township, Mahoning County, and was a son of James and Hannah (Battles) McConnell, the former of whom was born June 11, 1795, and the latter on the 15th of September of the same years, their marriage having occurred in 1820. James McConnell came to Ohio when a young man, and he was one of the substantial farmers and representative citizens of Jackson Township, Mahoning County, at the time of his death, May 29, 1867, his first wife having passed away June 17, 1849. They became the parents of ten children, and of the seven sons the following brief record may be entered: William Boyd McConnell, who was born in 1821, was a farmer during his active career and was living retired at Garrettsville, Portage County, at the time of his death, in 1907; Beriah died at the age of twenty-three years ; James, Jr., removed to Bluffton, Indiana, where he died in 1871, at the age of forty-five years; Hiram was a resident of Southington Township, Trumbull County, at the time of his death in 1875, aged forty-six years ; Eber died in Indiana in 1900, aged sixty-nine years; John O., next in order of birth, was the father of the subject of this review ; and Caleb was a resident of Missouri at the time of his death, he having removed to that state when a young man. After the death of his first wife James McConnell, Sr., contracted a second marriage.
John O. McConnell was reared on the old home farm in Mahoning County, as previously stated, and throughout his active life he continued to give his allegiance to the primary industries of agriculture and stock-growing. He subordinated all personal interests, however, to go forth in defense of the Union when the Civil war was precipitated, and he served during virtually the entire period of the conflict as a member of Company E, Second Ohio Cavalry with which he participated in many important engagements and with which he continued in active service until he received his honorable discharge, it having been his good fortune never to have been wounded or captured. In later years he vitalized the memories and association of his military career by his affiliation with the Grand Army of the Republic. On the 5th of May, 1867, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. McConnell to Miss Ellen C. Bronson, in the following year they established their residence on the fine farm which is now under the active management and the ownership of their only son,
Vol. III-17
whose name introduces this article. Here Mr. McConnell continued his energetic and
well ordered operations as an agriculturist and stock-grower until 1911, when he retired and removed to the City of Warren, where he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives, his death having occurred March 15, 1914, and his widow having passed to the life eternal on the 17th of February, 1916, and both having been earnest members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. On his farm of lot acres Mr. McConnell made the best of improvements, including the erection of the buildings that now mark the place as a model farm, the house having been erected in 1883 and the large barn in 1895. Mr. McConnell was one of those prominently interested in the co-operative cheese factory in his township, of which he was a stockholder, and for the products of which he was a successful salesman, it having been stated that if he found it impossible at any certain time to sell the cheese at wholesale he would calmly proceed to peddle the product at retail. He was one of the highly honored and influential citizens of his community, served in various township offices, including that of trustee, and while residing on the farm both he and his wife were influential members of the Methodist Church at Southington Center, three miles north of their farm. They are survived by three children : Cora is the wife of George Brewer, a machinist by vocation, and they reside in the City of Akron; Roy Bernard, of this sketch, was the next in order of birth; and Ina L., who has been a successful teacher in the district schools, is now giving efficient service as a teacher of domestic science, a work in which she takes the deepest interest.
Roy B. McConnell early began to lend his quota of aid in connection with the work of the home farm, and he places high value upon the experience which he thus gained in his boyhood and youth, the while he did not fail to profit also by the advantages afforded in the public schools of the locality. The old, homestead has continuously been the scene of his farm enterprise during his independent career, as he had assumed active charge of operations even before his father's removal to Warren.
January 26, 1898, recorded the marriage of Mr. McConnell to Miss Leda McNeil, daughter of A. C. and Hattie (Shaw) McNeil, who came from the vicinity of Akron and established their home on a farm in. Trumbull County when their daughter Leda was a child, their home being now at Bath, Summit County. Mr. and Mrs. McConnell have three children—Arthur, Arlo and Dorla, and the eldest son is a member of the class of 1920 in the high school at Braceville.
CHARLES L. SCHOONOVER, general manager of the Warren plant of the General Fire Extinguisher Company, has been identified with the industrial, civic and social affairs of the City of Warren for over twenty-five years, and during that time he has won a place among the forceful men of the community.
Mr. Schoonover was born at Akron, Ohio, August 11, 1869, and is descended from Summit County pioneers. His grandfather,. Jacob Schoonover, a native of Connecticut, removed from Western New York to the vicinity of Akron, and was one of the early farmers there. Jonas Schoonover, father of
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Charles L., was born in New York State in 1824, was a boy when his parents moved to Summit County, Ohio, and in early life was a farmer, but later he engaged in the insurance business at Akron, where he died August 5, 1887. His wife was Mary Russell, who was born in St. Lawrence County, New York, in 1837, and died at Akron, March 3, 1915.
Charles L. Schoonover spent his early life at Akron, graduating from the high school in 1887. His father's death occurring soon after young Schoonover left school, he was compelled to seek employment in his own behalf and as a means of assisting in the support of his widowed mother. His first opportunity was in the courthouse as an employe of 0. W. Hale, then county clerk of Summit County. He was there about two years (1888 to 1890), for another two years he was bookkeeper for the Akron Building & Cabinet Company, of which Mr. Hale was treasurer, and on February I, 1892, transferred his residence from Akron to Warren.
Mr. Schoonover came to Warren as bookkeeper for the Neracher Sprinkler Company, the original plant of the present General Fire Extinguisher Company at Warren. He remained as head bookkeeper for the company approximately fifteen years, and in 1904 was given the additional duties of department cashier. In 1913 Mr. Schoonover became assistant manager, and has been general manager of the Warren branch of the business since 1915. He is also a director in several other corporations, including the Trumbull Savings and Loan Company, the Valley City Mortgage & Loan Company, the Perkinswood Building Company, and is a director and secretary of the Golf Land Company. He is identified with the Warren Board of Trade, the local Lodge of Elks, and is a member of the Board of Trustees of Packard Park. Mr. Schoonover married Mary Clinite, daughter of C. I. Clinite of Warren.
THE ESTABROOK FAMILY, which since 1838 has had residence in Warren, Ohio, and has given to that city some men of consequence to its industrial and civic affairs, is one of the old colonial families of America, the Rev. Joseph Estabrook, American progenitor, having come from England to the Massachusetts colony in 1660. The Estabrooks are thus among the pioneers of American settlement, as well as among the pioneers of Warren, and the members of that family who are now prominent in Warren affairs (notably John Bushnell Estabrook, secretary and general manager of the Sunlight Electrical Company, and president of the Warren Rotary Club, and his brother, David Reed Estabrook, who formerly was general superintendent of the Warren plant of the Peerless Electric Company, later a city councilman, still later the director of public safety and latterly has been prominent in Warren real estate circles, being vice president of the Warren Real Estate Board), are of the eighth generation of American descent from that of their American grand-ancestor.
The Rev. Joseph Estabrook, who came from England with two brothers in 1660, was undoubtedly of good station in England, for he took a prominent place in the colony, the leaders of which were, in the main, men of genteel birth and superior education. He became a graduate of Harvard College, of the class of 1664, and he appears in the church records
of Concord, Massachusetts, for the year 1667, as colleague with the Reverend Mr. Buckley. He
remained in Concord, Massachusetts, until his death in 1711, and apparently undertook ministerial duties in that settlement for the greater part of his life.
His eldest son, Joseph Estabrook, was born in 1669, and married, in 1689, Millicent Woodhouse, wh died in 1692. In the following year he married Hannah Loring, a widow, and settled in Hingham, Massachusetts, where he died in 1733. He was a man of consequence in that place, and was honored by election to many local offices.
His eldest son, Joseph Estabrook, born to the first marriage in 1690, was married in 1713 to Suhmit Loring, his step-sister. She died in 1718, and he married in 1719 Hannah Bowman. He also was prominent in the affairs of the town, and held several important offices. He died in 1740.
His youngest son, Ebenezer Estabrook, was born in September 21, 1740, and in 5759 married Ruth Reed. In 1760 he moved from Lexington, Massachusetts, to Holden in that state, where he lived f the remainder of his life.
His third son, James Estabrook, was born May 16, 1768; married December 15, 1795, Betsey Lovel, bor July 28, 1775. He died in Holden, Massachusett in November, 1825.
Simon Reed Estabrook, second son of James an Betsey (Lovel) Estabrook, was born in Holden, Massachusetts, December 31, 1805. He married in 1828 Frances D., daughter of Philip Scarborough, of Brooklyn, Connecticut. She died in June, 1834, and he married in March, 1836, Mary Bushnell, born April 29, 1815, daughter of Gen. Andrews Bushnell of Hartford, Ohio. The record states that Simon Reed Estabrook "came to the Mahoning Valley (Ohio) from Connecticut in early pioneer days, making the journey in an ox cart, and settled at Hartford," but in what year he first came into Ohio is not clear, although it probably was at some time between the death of his first wife, in 1834, and his second marriage, in 1836. The record further states that "he moved to Warren (Ohio) in 1838, where he lived on a farm until he was killed by the cars," on July 7, 1871. His widow lived until October 20, 1879. The old Estabrook homestead in Hartford, Trumbull County, Ohio, is still standing, and in comparatively good state. The issue of Simon Reed Estabroo was: To his first wife, Frances D. Scarborough, daughter, Frances Scarborough, born September 18, 1833; to his second wife, Mary Bushnell, six children, as follows: James Andrews, of whom further; Simon Reed, born October 5, 1839, and died January 3, 1841 ; David Bushnell, born July 21, 1843, and died October 16, 1867; Mary Bushnell, born August 17, 1847; Ellen Marion, born July 18, 1849; Frederick Abbott, born October 26, 1851, and was drowned June 1, 1865.
James Andrews Estabrook, eldest son of Simon Reed and Mary (Bushnell) Estabrook, was born in Hartford, Trumbull County, Ohio, on September 18, 1837. On June 26, 1867, he married Martha Matilda Aldridge, daughter of David and Hannah Aldridge. She was born in Warren, Ohio, in 1839, and her parents were early settlers in that place. James Andrews Estabrook was a resident in Warren from 1838 until comparatively recently, when he and his wife
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removed to Phoenix, Arizona, where they now live. Their children were: Edward Clayton, born in Warren, Ohio, June 13, 1868, and married Helen May Kirkpatrick December 28, 1892; Mary Frances, born in Warren, June 14, 1869, was married September 26, 1906, to Harry A. Diehl; Simon Reed Estabrook, born in Warren, Ohio, September 26, 1872, died on May 5, 1874; John Bushnell, whose life is reviewed below ; David Reed, also of whom more follows; and Florence Mattie, who was born August 2, 1879, and died December 27, 1881.
John Bushnell Estabrook, son of James Andrews and Martha Matilda (Aldridge) Estabrook, was born on the Estabrook farm, situated about one and one-half miles from Warren, on May 11, 1874. Until he reached the age of eighteen years he lived on the home farm, attended the elementary school nearest to his home, and later he passed through the Warren High School, his parents having moved into the city. He also for about one year studied at Moody's School in Massachusetts. He was nineteen years of age when he began his business career, then finding employment as a helper in the pump room of the Warren Electric and Specialty Company. With that company he remained for six years, in somewhat similar capacity, at the end of which time he was transferred to the sales force of the company and traveling continuously in the interests of that company. In about 1900 he associated with others in acquiring the business and plant of the Oriental Electrical Manufacturing Company of Youngstown, which he and his associates operated in that city during that winter. The following spring the plant was removed to Ravenna, Ohio, and Mr. Estabrook removed to that place, remaining there for five years or until the business was sold to the National Lamp Company. He then, in 1905, returned to Warren. About that time the Warren Electric and Specialty Company, with which he formerly was connected, was also sold to the National Lamp Company, and the original owners of the former company organized another, the Peerless Electric Company, the chief purpose of which was stated to be the manufacture of fan motors and power motors. Mr. Estabrook was sought by both combinations of business men when he returned to Warren, and he became sales manager of the lamp division of the National Lamp Company, and also associated as salesman with the Peerless Electric Company, the connections continuing until 1910, when he closed his connection with the National Lamp Company so that he might devote his whole time to the expansion of the business of the Peerless Electric Company, of which he then became secretary and general manager. In those responsible capacities he continued to be identified with that company until July, 1917, when he organized the Sunlight Electrical Company, which purposed to enter extensively into the manufacture of carbon incandescent lamps. Of that company Mr. Estabrook eventually became secretary and general manager, and has since continued as such. The business has developed satisfactorily, and in the summer of 1919 the company expanded its scope of manufacture, and one of its present specialties is small power motors. John Estabrook has many other business interests, including that of director of the Park Hardware Company of Warren. He has entered to some extent into public administrative work, being especially interested in educational matters. In fact, he is particularly interested in all movements affecting the rising generation of the city. He has been a member of the Warren Board of Education, and is president of the Boy Scout Council. He also enters into the activities of the local Rotary Club, of which he is a former president. He is a man of strong religious conviction, and active church interest, is one of the leading members of the Warren Presbyterian Church, and is president of the Westminster Men's Organization of that church. Fraternally he is a Mason, a member of Old Erie Lodge No. 3, Warren. His record in war work during the national stress of 1917-18 was creditable. He gave his time unstintingly and enthusiastically to the various campaigns launched to secure the funds wherewith to properly prosecute the war. He served on all the city and county committees for the Liberty Bond issues and Red Cross campaigns. In this, and in very many other ways, Mr. Estabrook has proved that he is a man of whole-hearted patriotism and sincere public spirit. He married Lucile Mathers, of Bucyrus, Ohio, daughter of the Rev. C. S. Mathers of the United Brethren Church. They have two children, Helen Charlotte and Margery Louise.
David Reed Estabrook, son of James Andrews and Martha Matilda (Aldridge) Estabrook, was born on North Tod Avenue, Warren, Ohio, June 28, 1876. He graduated from the Warren High School in 1895, and for twelve months thereafter was an undergraduate of the Ohio State University. He forsook the academic course at that time so that he might enter immediately upon the technical course at the Bliss Electrical School at Washington, District of Columbia, from which he graduated in 1898, in which year he entered the employ of the Peerless Electric Company, Warren, Ohio. When that company was incorporated as the Peerless Electric Company he was appointed electrical engineer of the company, holding that capacity for six years, efficient service during the period then bringing him the position of general superintendent of the plant, which responsibility he held until May, 1917, when he resigned to enter the real estate business in Warren. His operations have been important since that time, and his standing among the real estate men of the district may be inferred by his office of vice president of the Warren Real Estate Board. He is also a director of the Sunlight Electric Company and is a member of the Warren Board of Trade and of the Trumbull Club. He is well regarded in Warren, both as a business man and as a citizen. In 1917 he was elected a member of the Warren City Council from the Second Ward. In the latter part of 1918, however, he resigned his seat on the council to accept office under the city administration, and from then until January r, 192o, was director of safety of the City of Warren, his administration being marked by an efficiency one would expect from an executive of his experience and reputation. Mr. Estabrook married on June 29, 1901, Frances Cornelia, daughter of Nelson H. Bailey, of Warren. The latter is a prominent citizen of Warren, and has served several terms as county commissioner. Mr. and Mrs. David R. Estabrook are the parents of three children: Dorothy Ruth, James Bailey and Virginia May.
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WILLIAM H. BARR will soon have been a resident of Youngstown thirty years. His residence has been accompanied by a high degree of usefulness and service at first in connection with the public school system, though he is best known as a bank official, being secretary and treasurer of the South Side Savings Bank.
Mr. Barr is of Canadian birth and parentage, born in County Frontenac, Ontario, June 17, 1870, son of Robert and Mary (Scott) Barr. His parents have spent all their lives in Canada. His mother is still living.
William H. Barr grew up on his father's farm, and did farm work as a variant to his attendance at the neighboring schools. He completed his education in the Sydenham High School and Business College.
On coming to Youngstown in 1892 Mr. Barr became instructor of commerce and penmanship in the public schools, and that was his work for seven years. Another seven year period was spent as credit manager for Leavitt Milroy Company, wholesale grocers. The South Side Savings Bank was organized in 1914 with Mr. Barr as secretary and treasurer, and in that official capacity he has had much to do with the steady growth and upbuilding of the institution. He is also secretary of the South Side Savings and Loan Company.
Mr. Barr is well known in Youngstown, and is actively affiliated with some of its prominent civic and social interests. He is a member of the Youngstown Chamber of Commerce, is a Knight Templar Mason, and a member of Westminster Presbyterian Church. In September, 1899, he married Elizabeth Griffith, of Youngstown. Their four children are Gladys, William and Mary Louise, twins, and Robert.
CHARLES H. SNODGRASS, president, general manager and treasurer of the Home Building and Financing Company, is one of the well-balanced and sensible business men of Youngstown, who during his career has registered astounding achievements, for he belongs to the superior type of self-reliant and clear-brained operators of large interests. He was born and reared at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, his birth occurring on December 31, 1868. His parents, William J. and Margaret (MacKie) Snodgrass, both born in the United States, were of Scotch parentage.
About 1887, after completing his courses in the excellent public schools of his native city, Charles H. Snodgrass came to Youngstown to work in a men's furnishing store owned by his cousin, George H. Walker. Some fifteen years later, in association with James R. McAleer, who became nationally famous as a professional baseball player, Mr. Snodgrass bought the business with which he had been connected for so long, and continued it until 191o. In the meanwhile, during 1908, he had bought Mr. McAleer's interest in it, becoming the sole proprietor, and as such sold the business in 1910 to the present owners, the Scott Company. In 1911 Mr. Snodgrass completed his plans and founded the Home Building and Financing Company, of which he has since been president, general manager and treasurer. This company was organized for the purpose of building dwellings of the better class and selling them to desirable people on reasonable terms so as to enable those who want homes other than the cheap class
usually placed on the market, to secure them, and at the same time be assured of neighbors to whom no reasonable objection could be made. The company is capitalized at $200,000, and in addition to Mr. Snodgrass the officials are : W. J. Roberts, secretary, and R. E. Cornelius, W. A. Beecher, W. H. Foster, Victor Olson, who with Mr. Snodgrass and Mr. Roberts, form the board of directors. All of these men are solid and reliable citizens, and the association is a strong one. The company owns its lumber yards and mills, and are thus assured of securing the highest class of material at reasonable rates. The houses erected by this company are well built and substantial dwellings, artistically designed and planned according to the most sanitary ideas.
On November 16, 1893, Mr!, Snodgrass was married to Miss. Jessie M. Murphy, a daughter of Henry Murphy, of Champion, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Snodgrass have one daughter, Mary Alice, who is the wife of James F. Hall, and a son, Charles Henry Snodgrass, Jr. During the winter months Mr. Snodgrass goes to Florida, where he hunts, fishes and enjoys a well-earned vacation. Fraternally he belongs to the Elks, and his social connections are with the Elks Club and the Youngstown Club. For some years he has been a forceful factor in the Youngstown Chamber of Commerce. The First Christian Church of Youngstown holds his membership and benefits from his benefactions, which are many. Mr. Snodgrass is a man who has had a firm and abiding faith in the ultimate reward of the homely traits of honesty, direct diligence and unselfish loyalty to the task at hand, he has steadily advanced and deserves the prosperity to which he has attained.
MISS MARIA E. HEATON, whose home is at II Monroe Street in Warren, is the granddaughter of that historic character in the iron and steel industry of the Mahoning Valley James Heaton, and his only direct living descendant.
The great-grandfather of James Heaton was Theophilus Heaton (though the family name was also spelled Eaton), a deputy governor of the British India Company and a merchant of wealth and in-. fluence in London until 1637, when he brought a Puritan colony to Boston. He had the commercial as well as the religious spirit, and in order to get away from the restrictive influences of the Massachusetts Colony in 1638 they settled on Long Island Sound, naming their town New Haven. Theophilus Heaton was governor of this colony until his death about twenty years later. The descendants of Theophilus Heaton were possessed of his spirit and eventually crossed the Alleghenies. There were four brothers who were identified with Trumbull County, James, Daniel, Reese and Isaac. James Heaton with his brother Daniel manufactured the first iron work of the Alleghenies. Kidney ore was found on the surface along Yellow Creek, wood was plentiful with which to make charcoal, so that the astute Heaton brothers built a crude furnace about 1802 and began the manufacture of iron. There is still standing in Struthers the lower part of this brick foundation. James Heaton early sold his interest in this Struthers plant to his brother Daniel, and with his brother Isaac settled in Howland in 1805. Isaac
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spent all his life in Howland. The brother Daniel Heaton was a man of exceptional character, was the first to take a firm stand for temperance in Weathersfield, and he represented Trumbull County in the State Senate in 1813 and was a member of the Lower House in 1820.
It was the intention of the Heatons to establish a commercial town in the wilderness of Trumbull County, and after a time James built a small furnace at the mouth of Mosquito Creek. Isaac helped in this enterprise. James built a cabin on Robbins Avenue, just beyond the bridge, in a spot which is called by the old residents Circleville, and it is still standing. After a time James sold his interest in the first furnace to some men of the neighborhood, and from that time on, although there were several sales made before much financial gain was had, that neighborhood has been the life of the iron manufacture of Ohio. The furnace erected by James and Isaac about 1812 was in more or less continuous operation until about 1850. In 1830 James Heaton leased the furnace to McKinley, Dempsey & Campbell, and in 1833 James Heaton's son Warren and Josiah Robbins bought the plant. In 1842 they leased it to McKinley & Reep, this McKinley being the father of William McKinley, the president.
James Heaton was as strong a man as Daniel but not so radical. He was powerful physically and employed all spare moments in reading. People wondered that he should be a whig when he was interested in the iron business. He acquired rights on Mosquito Creek, built a 'dam, a grist mill, cabin for his workmen and a saw mill. In 18o7 he had a forge in operation. His first residence in Niles was a cabin in Circleville, and in 1818 he built a residence one mile east of Warren Avenue. This in 1835 he sold to Judge Ambrose Mason, who became postmaster of Niles in 1841.
Some account of the children of James Heaton should he preserved. The son Lewis lived at Niles, where he died in middle life, and his family are all now gone except a granddaughter, Millie Christiana, of Warren. The son Isaac moved to Youngstown, and his three children, Noble, George and Alice, went west to Illinois about 185o. The only daughter of James Heaton was Maria, who was the first white child born in Niles and about 18̊9, when a very small child, she christened her father's blast furnace, subsequently known as Maria Furnace. She became e wife of Josiah Robbins, and lived until her ath, in 1835, in the fine old home built by her ather, subsequently known as the Mason homestead.
Warren Heaton, son of James Heaton, spent his life at Niles, where he died in 1842, at the age of forty. He married Eliza McConnell, of Weathers-field Township, who died at the age of fifty-eight. They were the parents of four children : John, who died at Niles at the age of twenty-one ; Julia; James, who moved to Warren and died at the age of thirty-five, leaving no family; and Maria E. Julia Heaton became the wife of Dr. John R. Woods of Warren, where she died at the age of fifty-four. Of her eight children only three reached adult years: James Heaton Woods, a Cleveland business man; Sally, who is now living in California; and May, who married
Rolland Gilmer and died at Warren, leaving a daughter, Catherine, who is Mrs. Myron Somers of Warren.
Miss Maria Heaton has lived out most of her life in Warren and has found many active interests in community affairs. She is a charter member of the Political Equality Club, is a member of the Liberty Club, and has long been active in the Episcopal Church.
J. HOWARD EDWARDS. It would be no exaggeration to call Mr. Edwards one of the most influential citizens of the Mahoning Valley during the last two decades. This influence has been exercised through his varied and active associations as a newspaper man, political leader, public official. He comes of a literary family and began writing when only a boy. Mr. Edwards is now president and treasurer of the Edwards and Franklin Company, one of the largest establishments in Ohio as general printers, bookbinders, lithographers and steel engravers.
Mr. Edwards was born in Hubbard, Ohio, June 28, 1869, son of David J. and Jane (Evans) Edwards.
David J. Edwards, who was born in Monmouthshire', Wales, in May, 1842, was the son of Rev. John and Susan Edwards. It will serve the desires of many of the older residents of the Mahoning Valley to recall all that is possible concerning Rev. John Edwards and his son David J. Rev. John was a Welsh Congregational minister. He had educated himself, and in 1845 he brought his family to the United States, crossing the ocean on a sailing vessel. His first location was at Frostburg, Maryland, and later he moved to Johnstown, Pennsylvania, where he lived at the beginning of the Civil war. During the war he moved to what was known as Crab Creek in Youngstown Township, Mahoning County, where in connection 'with farming he was pastor of the church. He was a familiar figure in Welsh religious circles throughout Eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania. Many men of prominence today were christened and married by him, and many received from him the last rites. He was patriarchal in appearance, but modest and unassuming in character. He died' in May, 1895, and his widow in two.
David J. Edwards was only three years of age when brought to this country, and acquired an academic education. From Johnstown, Pennsylvania, he enlisted in the One Hundred and Thirty-third Pennsylvania Infantry and saw a great deal of hard fighting, being in the battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellor and others. At the outbreak of the war he was working as a druggist's clerk at Johnstown for C. T. Frazer, now on the Pennsylvania Supreme Bench. After the war David J. Edwards moved to Hubbard, Ohio, became a merchant and held the office of postmaster under Grant and Hayes. In 1875 he was elected to the State Legislature, and by re-election represented Trumbull County four years. In 1881 he was chosen chief clerk of the Ohio House of Representatives and re-elected two years later. During these eight years he became recognized as one of the best authorities on parliamentary practice in the state. The influences he wielded in public affairs were far greater than the responsibilities his official position would indicate. While in the
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best sense a practical man, he had a literary mind and was a prolific writer in both English and Welsh. He often took the annual prize at the Eisteddfod, the Welsh public festival day. Among other activities he was owner and editor of the "YWasg" at Pittsburgh, a weekly Welsh newspaper.
His wife, Jane Evans, was a daughter of Elias and Margaret Evans, and was a small child when her parents came to the United States from Wales. The Evans family lived north of Youngstown in Trumbull County. Elias Evans became well known in Youngstown village. It was through his influence that Hon. Thomas H. Wilson, vice president of the First National Bank of Cleveland, and one of the foremost bankers of the United States, was influenced to come to Youngstown and was placed in the hands of Wick Brothers, thus starting him on the career in which Youngstown feels and claims so much interest.
From these brief facts it is evidenced that J. Howard Edwards grew up in an atmosphere calculated to bring out the best of his native talents. He attended public school to the age of thirteen, and then went to work as a newsboy. He was also employed as a general utility hand around printing offices. He did his first real newspaper work as weekly correspondent for the Warren Tribune. Subsequently he was correspondent for the Youngstown News-Register and the Daily News. From sixteen to eighteen he taught in country schools, at eighteen he came to Youngstown and has been a resident of this city ever since. He was reporter on the Vindicator and the Telegram, and for a time was city editor of the Vindicator. His activity in local politics led to his election in 1892 as city clerk, an office he held four years. Then for two years he was in the general insurance business. Buying an interest in the Youngstown Telegram, Mr. Edwards had charge of its editorial and business departments for six years. During this time the plant was moved from Federal Street to the Square. As editor of the Telegram Mr. Edwards penned the first editorial in Ohio demanding the election of Hon. M. A. Hanna to the United States Senate. From that time until Mr. Hanna's death Mr. Edwards was one of his warm and active supporters.
In 1899 Mr. Edwards was the unanimous nominee of the republican party of courts of Mahoning County. He was elected and served two terms. Then for three years he was private secretary of Hon. James Kennedy, Congressman, serving the greater part of his time in Washington.
About 1903 Mr. Edwards began giving his personal time to a printing business which he had previously bought. At the beginning it was little more than a job shop, but under his direction it has grown until the Edwards & Franklin Company is a complete modern establishment equipped with every facility and every department for printing and engraving, and with a business drawn from several states. The company has recently established another large plant in Cleveland.
December 14, 1894, Mr. Edwards married Miss Rachel Sims. Mrs. Edwards has for some years been quite active in the work of several charity organizations. Their two daughters, Jeanette L. and Helen L., are both recent graduates from Wellesley College. Mr. Edwards is a member of the Youngstown Club and Youngstown Country Club, is a Knight Templar and thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, both he and his wife are members of the First. Presbyterian Church.
JOHN RAWLINGS WILLOUGHBY, M. D. A graduate in medicine eight years ago, Dr. Willoughby has practiced his profession with increasing prestige and skill, and has made a fine reputation for his work at Warren, which city has been his home since 1917.
Dr. Willoughby was born at Parsons, Pennsylvania, May 14, 1884, son of Henry and Eliza J. (Rawlings) Willoughby. His parents were born in England, the father in 1849, the mother in 1852, and both were young people when they came with their respective parents from England to the United States. For a period of forty years Henry Willoughby was engaged in merchandising at Parsons, Pennsylvania. He died in 1919 and his wife in 1905.
Many baseball fans knew John R. Willoughby when he was helping uphold the standards of his respective teams in the minor leagues of New York and Pennsylvania, and later with the Columbus team of the American Association. He has always been fond of the rugged sports of outdoors but particularly of baseball. He acquired a good literary education in the grammar and high schools of Parsons, Pennsylvania, also attended the Wyoming Seminary at Kingston, Pennsylvania, and while in school attracted attention by his proficiency at the national game. For several years he played professional baseball, and while at Columbus he began the study of medicine in the Starling Medical College, and was graduated in medicine and surgery in 1912. Doctor Willoughby practiced at Orville in Ashtabula County from the fall of 1912 until 1917, when he removed to Warren, where his abilities quickly brought him an extensive clientage. Doctor Willoughby is a member of the Trumbull County and the Ohio State Medical societies, and he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
September 27, 1912, he married Miss Pearl C. Jordan, who was born at Plains, Pennsylvania, daughter of Richard and Harriet (Hooper) Jordan. Doctor and Mrs. Willoughby have two sons, Robert Jordan and John Rawlings, Jr.
FRANK LEISH. Conspicuous among the live, wide-awake men who have been influential in advancing the business and financial interests of Youngstown is Frank Leish, who has been actively identified with many of the leading enterprises of the Mahoning Valley, and has invariably met with success in his undertakings. A native of Mahoning County, he was born in Canfield in 1874, of German ancestry on the paternal side of the house, his father, Anthony Leish, having been born in Germany.'
While a small lad Anthony Leish was forced to labor hard for his living, being employed as a shepherd boy when but eight years old. Tiring of his work, he ran away from home, managed to beat his way across the ocean, and arriving in the United States made his way to Nebo, Ohio, where he had
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friends or relatives. A bright, ambitious boy, he soon found remunerative employment, and in a comparatively short time was dealing in livestock, which he butchered and subsequently sold from the cart, building up quite a trade. Changing his occupation, he engaged in burning lime stone on quite an extensive scale and also engaged in the lightning rod business in Youngstown, and later established a foundry, and obtained possession by purchase of land adjoining the Front Street School, extending from Front Street to the river. Subsequently embarking in agricultural pursuits, he moved to a farm in Poland. Returning to Youngstown, he became senior member of the firm of Leish & Brownlee, which 'shipped the first dressed meat into this city, and which was afterward taken over by Armour & Company. Mr. Leish, who died at the comparatively early age of fifty-eight years, in 1886, was financially interested in various enterprises, but he was generous and charitable to a fault.
The maiden name of the wife of Anthony Leish was Margaret Sadler. She was born in Canfield, Ohio, and died in 1881, leaving six children, as follows: Jacob, residing in New Bedford, Pennsylvania; Emma, wife of Edward R. Ruhlman, of New Middletown, Ohio; Allie, wife of Fred Hornickle ; Frank, with whom this sketch is chiefly concerned ; Charles, of Bridgeport, Pennsylvania ; and Albert, of New Middletown, Ohio.
Acquiring his preliminary education in Canfield, Frank Leish had for his teacher Judge Kennedy. Removing with the family to Youngstown, he completed his early studies at the Covington Street School, and soon after began learning the details of the meat business, being first in the employ of the Youngstown Provision Company, and later with the firm of Leish & Brownlee at 230 West Commerce Street. After the death of his father, Mr. Leish conducted a meat market in Lowellville for ten years, meeting with only fair success. Returning then to Youngstown, he assumed possession of the store located at 214-16-18 Boardman Street, and for awhile dealt in farm implements and hardware. He subsequently built the brick building now occupied by the Higby Sales Company, and in 1919 erected a row of brick business buildings adjoining his former place of business on the east. In 1920 he erected a commodious garage, sales room and gasoline station.
Gradually merging his hardware and implement business into the automobile business, Mr. Leish has been very successful as a salesman and manager, dealing with cars of various makes, including the Ford automobiles, and has also handled auto trucks to good advantage. In 1918 he organized the Independent Truck Company, of which he was treasurer, with headquarters on Wilson Avenue, until 1919. In connection with his other enterprises Mr. Leish has dealt extensively in residential property, and has built many handsome residences, including among others his own home, located at 3721 Market Street.
Mr. Leish married, August 25, 1918, Miss Alice McCoy, of Missouri, a woman of culture and refinement. Mr. and Mrs. Leish are identified by membership with the Presbyterian Church.
WILLIAM H. FOSTER, American executive, was born October 4, 1866, in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, the son of David and Jane (Clark) Foster. He gained his education in the public schools of Elmira, New York, and at a comparatively early age entered upon business life as clerk in a shoe manufactory in that city. Being strongly attracted toward the steel business, Mr. Foster engaged himself in his spare time in selling wire nails and fencing. This activity brought him to the notice of the Salem Wire Nail Company, and they offered him the position of traveling salesman, which he accepted. After two years of this service the company sent him to Cincinnati as their southern sales manager.
Two years later he was sent to Chicago, and the duties of western sales manager were added to his former supervision of the south. In this position Mr. Foster served two years, and then resigned and removed to New York to become the eastern sales manager of the Falcon Iron and Nail Company of Niles, Ohio. Upon his election as secretary of this company he returned to Niles, and there remained until the company's business was purchased by one of the subsidiaries of the United States Steel Corporation.
Having become interested in a new process of galvanizing sheet iron and steel, Mr. Foster seized upon the opportunity offered for development of the invention, and formed the New Process Galvanizing Company of Niles, Ohio. The new company's enterprise was so successful that it was merged with the Youngstown (Ohio) Sheet & Tube Company, Mr. Foster being elected secretary and general manager of sales. He remained in this position until failing health forced his resignation, and in 1902 he retired to his farm to recuperate.
For a number of years Mr. Foster sought, and eventually found, renewed health in the great outdoors. But during this period he had by no means withdrawn wholly from business activity. One of the things he accomplished was the building of the plant of the Diamond Brick and Tile Company. He was elected president of this company, a position which he still holds. He was also president of the Independent Telephone Company of Seattle, Washington, until it was merged with the Pacific Bell Telephone Company.
In 1908, upon his return to the stir and stress of business life, Mr. Foster was elected secretary and treasurer of the General Fireproofing Company of Youngstown, Ohio, a concern with branches in all parts of the world. In 1910 he was elected vice president and general manager of the company, and two years later became its president, continuing, however, his controlling direction as general manager.
In addition to these responsibilities Mr. Foster is a director of the Mahoning National Bank, and also of the Realty Securities Company and the Warren Acreage and Investment Company.
Among his business associates Mr. Foster is ranked as a typical American "Captain of Industry"; a man of vision and progress, but a firm believer in advance along well-tried and conservative lines.
To his men he is the energetic and inspiring leader, a personality eloquent of genuine friendliness as well as of lofty and virile motives. It is his well-vindicated policy to develop his men by placing
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responsibilities upon them, and at the same time arousing their confidence in their ability as well as their obligation to succeed.
Mr. Foster's chief outdoor recreation is golf, and he owns a proud collection of trophies won in many different parts of the country to prove his prowess. He holds memberships in the Youngstown Club, the Youngstown Country Club and the Poland Country Club.
In 1892 Mr. Foster married Miss Josephine H. Orr. Their family consists of five children: Mrs. Lemuel T. Wick, Mr. Willard Foster, Miss Helen Foster, Miss Irene Foster and Miss Jane Foster. Their home is on Woodbine Avenue, Youngstown.
HARRY A. FROOM is one of the popular automobile men of Youngstown, handling the Oakland car, with a large and well equipped garage, repair shop and salesrooms at 2420 Hillman Street.
Mr. Froom made a success of business as a dairyman and milk distributor before he entered the automobile industry. He was born at New Castle, Pennsylvania, May 23, 1876, a son of William and Catharine (Hinkson) Froom. His father was a native of England and his mother of this country. The father died in 1911 at the age of seventy-three, and the mother in 1905, aged sixty-seven. William Froom was a builder by trade, and came to the United States at the age of sixteen. He worked in Jersey City and other points in the east, and afterward moved to New Castle, Pennsylvania. For twenty years he was a resident of Youngstown, and during that time handled many important contracts and did a great volume of business in cement construction. He was a member of the First Christian Church.
Harry A. Froom was educated in the public schools of Youngstown and vicinity and left school to go to work on the farm of David Loveland in Coitsville Township. After some experience as a farmer he began on a small scale as a retail milk producer and dealer. He did not restrict himself to a one-hand business, but built up an industry until at one time it delivered to 1,30o daily customers. He was also president of the Milk Dealers Association of Youngstown.
Mr. Froom has been in the automobile business since September, 1916, when he became one of the first four Ford dealers in Youngstown. Recently he has taken over the agency for the Oakland car. In his garage and repair shop he employs from eight to fifteen skilled men.
Mr. Froom is a member of the Automobile Club, the Youngstown Automobile Association, of which he is vice president and a director, and a member of the National Automobile Association. He is also a member of the Chamber of Commerce, is a Mason and Knight of Pythias and belongs to the First Christian Church. September 13, 1899, he married Mabel Jessop, daughter of Thomas Jessop, of Bozeman Township. They have two children, Eldon and Margaret.
ANDREW DAVID HOUSTON. The Houston family has been in Coitsville Township of Mahoning County since the year 1802. Some of the important work in developing the lands of that section in the early days was done by the Houston family. It is also important to note that some of the fine moral and liberalizing influences of the community proceeded from the people of this name. The old homestead around which much of the history of the family centers is three-quarters of a mile north of Lowellville, the old home standing on a sightly elevation in that locality.
The founder of the family was William Houston, who was born in May, 1757, while his parents were visiting in Scotland. As a youth he identified himself with the cause of the American patriots in the Revolutionary war, participated in many battles, was taken prisoner by the British, and for a year endured the hardships and confinement on the prison ship Dutton, and never fully recovered from the effects of that confinement. In 1802 he came from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to Ohio, bringing with him his wife, Jane, a daughter of Colonel David Watson of the Revolutionary army, three sons. six daughters, and two negro slaves, Andy and Sally. The latter soon attained their legal freedom and returned to their former home. William Houston bought a farm in section 9, Coitsville Township, Trumbull, now Mahoning County, and lived on it until his death in 1834. In fact he acquired extensive tracts of land adjoining the state line and extending . over into Pennsylvania. In the new country he was early called to positions of public trust, and at the first election held in Coitsville Township in 1807 was elected a member of the board of trustees. He was for many years a justice of the peace, and was ruling elder in the Seceder Church at Deer Creek until his death. His wife, Jane, died in 1841, and both are buried in the Deer Creek graveyard. On the gravestone may be read the following epitaph : "In memory. of William Houston who departed this life on December 28, 1834, aged seventy-seven years seven months, after devoting his early life in the defense of his country and his later years in the service of his God." His family consisted of three sons and six daughters, named John, Mary Loury, whose husband was killed in the War of 1812, David, Martha, Anna Walker, Jane Applegate, Margaret Monteith, William Houston and Elizabeth Robinson.
David, second son of William Houston, was born in 1788 and came to Ohio with his father in 1802, when about fifteen years old. He helped build the log house that was to be the home of the family and to clear the field for cultivation, since the entire country at that time was almost an unbroken forest. In 1809 he bought the old farm mentioned above in Poland Township, on Government Lot No. 79. This was unimproved land near the Village of Lowellville. He became owner of 1,000 acres around Lowellville, and some of that little city is built on property originally in his possession. His lands extended to the Mahoning River. There he built and planted and added to his possessions until he had a home surrounded with comforts and some of the refinements and conveniences of modern life. His great boast was that he had a good orchard of grafted apples, in contrast with most of the apples raised in the orchards of the neighborhood from natural or seedling trees. "Houstons Big Earlies"
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were known to all the boys for miles around. In those days it was the custom of the farmers of the region to carry their produce to Painsville or some port on the shore of Lake Erie and exchange it for fish and salt—salt being one of the necessaries that was hardest to get. David made many of these trips, sometimes by wagon, but often by sled in winter when great hardships were endured from cold and storms and the very bad roads. He was a man of great physical strength and endurance, and strong practical mind, but his strongest characteristic was his deep and gentle piety. His house was the home of hospitality and good cheer, and he was a leader in the cause of education and all public advancement. He was well educated for his time and generation, and had a knowledge of literature such as few of his contemporaries possessed. He could repeat dozens of poems from memory, and his intellectual tastes went hand in hand with the bearing and dress of a gentleman. It is said that he had the best manners of any man in Mahoning County. In 1852 he assisted in the founding of Westminster College at New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, and his children were among the earliest students there. He offered the trustees of that institution a tract of land north of Lowellville and extending to the borough limits, but his offer was refused because of the presence of saloons in Lowellville. He was ruling elder, councillor and liberal supporter of the church of his choice, Seceder, afterward the United Presbyterian. He took an active interest in political affairs, was a stanch democrat, but was liberal in his views of the right of independent thought. Besides his service for many years as justice of the peace he was chosen to represent the county in the State Legislature for several terms, beginning in 0849., Late in the War of 1812 a company of volunteers was raised in Poland Township, of which David Houston was one, but when they reached the Straits of Mackinac it was found their services were not needed and they were sent home.
David Houston died May 1, 1870, in his home near Lowellville, and was buried in the cemetery of that town. He was three times married. His first wife, Amy Applegate, lived only seven weeks after her marriage, and his second wife, Jane Monteith, lived one year. His third wife was Margaret Cowden, who was the mother of his twelve children, five sons and seven daughters. Two of the sons, John and William, were Civil war soldiers, the former with a Missouri regiment and the latter as colonel of a Minnesota regiment. Colonel John died as a result of wounds received in the war, while William spent his last years at Mexico, Missouri.
One of the youngest of the twelve children was Andrew David Houston, who was born on the old homestead February 14, 1835. The brick house in which he was born was at that time quite new, having been erected by his father, and it is still standing after eighty-five years. The present home on the farm, also of brick, was erected by Andrew David Houston about the close of the Civil war. The latter was educated in public schools, in Wilmington College, and in Duff's Commercial School at Pittsburgh. He also took a course in surveying, and it was his ambition to make civil engineering his life work. The failing health of his father caused him to give up this career, and thereafter he devoted himself to the care of the farm and the interests of his father and three young sisters. He operated a place of about 300 acres, at one time was an extensive sheep raiser, and later handled mules. He was a very successful farmer, and also a very substantial citizen. He died September 2, 1902. Andrew David Houston married Penelope Schoyer, who died November 4, 1906.
ARCHER LEE PHELPS, one of the leading attorneys of Warren, Ohio, for many years prosecuting attorney of Trumbull County, comes of a family which had a conspicuous part in the settlement of that section of Ohio. The Phelps family, which is one of the oldest of colonial New England families, and was of prominence in Connecticut before and after the Revolutionary war, was vitally interested in the development of Ohio, for one of the members of the family, Oliver Phelps, in 1795, with several associates, possibly also of the family, bought the tract of land in Ohio afterward known as the Western Reserve, embracing about 3,300,000 acres, and a few years later sent Simon Perkins, later known in Warren as General Simon Perkins, into the territory as their general agent.
The Phelps family was originally from England, some of the English generations having somewhat prominent record in English history. The family was apparently of good station, for prior to the seventeenth century scarcely any public record was kept of the commoner families. The Phelps home was in Tewkesbury, England, and during the Cromwellian wars one of the family was of historic note in the records of the commonwealth, being clerk of the court which tried King Charles I of England, and, as clerk, signing the death warrant of that unfortunate monarch. After the restoration he fled to Switzerland, where he lived and died in exile. Walter Phelps, United States minister to England, was of the same family, and most of the American families of the same patronymic are branches of the family of which William and George, brothers, are the progenitors. William is the grand-ancestor of the American generations of the line to which the Phelps family of Warren belong. William Phelps, with his brother George and another brother, came to America in the ship Mary and John, which brought Puritans to the number of 140 men, women and children under the lead of the Rev. John White. They landed at Nantasket June 11, 1630, and formed a settlement at Dorchester, Massachusetts, later raising it to the distinction of a borough, the locality now, however, being the sixteenth ward of the City of Boston. Later William Phelps joined an expedition into Connecticut, and was one of the founders of the Windsor colony in that state. The governor of the. Massachusetts Bay Colony appointed William Phelps a member of the General Court formed to govern the new colony. He died at Windsor, and there today may be seen the cellar of his dwelling. The line from William to Myron D. Phelps of Warren, father of Archer L., runs through John, of Norfolk, son of William ; John, of Norfolk, son of John; Daniel, of Canaan, Connecticut, son of
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John ; Frederick, of Canaan, Connecticut, later of North Bloomfield, Trumbull County, Ohio, son of Daniel and father of Myron D.
Frederick Phelps was born in Canaan, Connecticut, in 1794. He wanted to enlist in the military forces of the republic at the outbreak of the War of 1812, but his father objected. However, the boy was of independent, self-reliant spirit, and his patriotic fervor outweighed his filial respect. He ran away from home and enlisted; and throughout the war with Britain was stationed on the Canadian border, in the neighborhood of Fort Niagara. It was while he was in military service that he met Europa Comstock, of Geneseo, New York, who later became his wife. They were married soon after his release from military service, and in about 1815 he and his wife journeyed in an ox-cart from New York State into Ohio, settling at Harpersfield, Ashtabula County, Ohio, but eventually settling at North Bloomfield, Trumbull County, Ohio.
Myron D. Phelps, son of Frederick and Europa (Comstock) Phelps, was born in North Bloomfield, Trumbull County, Ohio, in 1826, and eventually was connected with Warren. He was a saddler by trade, but was a man of pronounced business ability, and was identified with many enterprises of various lines. His wife, Elvira Ayers, was a native of Warren, Ohio, where she was born on June 29, 1833, and died in November, 1903. She was the daughter of William W. Ayers, who was born in Massachusetts, and in early manhood, about 1820, moved into Ohio, settled in Warren, Trumbull County, and for more than fifty years was one of the leading contractors of that district. He died in 1872. Mr. and Mrs. Myron D. Phelps were the parents of nine children, of whom seven are still living, Archer L. being the youngest.
Archer Lee Phelps, son of Myron D. and Elvira (Ayers) Phelps, attended the public schools of his native place, Bristolville, Trumbull County, Ohio; and in 1891 was graduated from the Bristolville High School. In 1893 he began to read law under John J. Sullivan, and with George D. Huber for one year, after which he enrolled as a law student at the Ohio State University. He was graduated therefrom with the class of 1897, and in that year was admitted to the Ohio legal bar. For a while thereafter he was professionally connected, as attorney and creditman, with a Van Wert City, Ohio, mercantile house. However, in 1900 he opened a law office in the City of Warren, in association with John M. Stull, the partnership existing until 1904. In 1903 Mr. Phelps was elected city solicitor of Warren, was re-elected two years later, and with an extension of time, served altogether five years, vacating the office on January 1, 19o8. He then resumed private practice. As a professional man he has reached some distinction in the City of Warren, and has evidently held the public confidence by his professional conduct of important cases, for when he stood for election to the office of prosecuting attorney of Trumbull County in the fall of 1912 he was elected by a gratifying majority, and two years later was re-elected, vacating the office on January 1, 1917, since which time he has been in general and satisfactory practice. He has a definite and enviable place among the able attorneys of Trumbull County.
He is a man of good general standing in the city, and is interested in the management of several important local corporations, as well as being identified with some industrial enterprises. He was a director of the Peoples Saving Company of Warren, the Warren Guaranteed Mortgage Company and the Masonic Temple Company.
Fraternally he is identified with the functioning of several local bodies of leading orders. He is a member of Old Erie Lodge No. 3, Free and Accepted Masons, is past commander of Warren Commandery No. 39, has eighteen degrees of Scottish Rite Masonry, and is a member of Al Koran Temple, Mystic Shrine, Cleveland, Ohio. He belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, and to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Socially he belongs to the Masonic, Trumbull and Country clubs; and he is widely known among the people of Warren.
He married Ella Florence, youngest daughter of Judge Samuel B. Craig, deceased, who at one time was judge of the Probate Court of Trumbull County.
THE PERKINS FAMILY of Warren has been in this section of Ohio for 124 years, and so closely is the name Perkins associated with the 'settlement and development of the Mahoning Valley that it is impossible to faithfully write the history of the Valley without extensive and merited reference to the family. General Simon Perkins, soldier and pioneer, who came into this part of the Western Reserve in the year 1798 and three years later established his permanent home in Warren, has a prominent place in the early records of this now important industrial center, while of his large family two of his sons, Jacob and Henry B., were in their days notable men of achievement, and the family of the present generation continues, to an appreciable extent, to carry on the work begun by its forefathers.
The Perkins family has been of creditable historical record not only in the history of the Mahoning Valley and Ohio, but in the earliest generations of American colonial settlement. The family is of record in colonial New England annals since 1631, and the name is frequently encountered in the important early settlement of New England. Its genealogy connects with many of the leading colonial families of America, and in its direct line the record is notable. The progenitor of the family in America was :
I. John Perkins, who was born in Newent, Gloucestershire, England, in 1590. He, with his family, crossed to America during the winter of 1630-31, sailing from the port of Bristol, England, in the ship Lyon, on December 1, 1630, and landing at Nantucket on February 5, 1631, after a stormy and perilous voyage of sixty-seven days. He died at Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 1654.
II. "Sergeant" Jacob Perkins, son of John, was born in England in 1624; came with his parents to America in 1630-31, and to Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 1633. He died January 27, 1699.
III. Joseph Perkins, son of Sergeant Jacob, was born in Ipswich, Massachusetts, June 21, 1674; died
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at Norwich, Connecticut, September 6, 1726. He married Martha, daughter of Joseph and Dorothy Morgan, of Norwich, Connecticut. She was born at Preston, Connecticut, in 1680, and died in October, 1754.
IV. Joseph Perkins, son of Joseph and Martha (Morgan) Perkins, was born at Norwich, Connecticut, October 25, 1704. He died July 7, 1794. He married, first, Lydia Pierce second, Mary Bushnell, daughter of Dr. Caleb Bushnell, of Norwich. Joseph Perkins was graduated from Yale College in 1727, his graduation becoming distinctive because it was the first of thirty-six of the same patronymic to have place on the graduating registers of Yale University between the year of his graduation, 1727, and 1855, which is as far as the record here available goes. Joseph Perkins after gaining the baccalaureate degree entered upon a study of medicine, and eventually became an eminent physician and surgeon of Norwich, Connecticut.
V. Simon Perkins, son of Joseph and Mary (Bushnell) Perkins, was born in Norwich, Connecticut, October 25, 1737, and died on September 4, 1778, from dysentery contracted while in active military command during the Revolutionary war, he having risen to the grade of captain of the line. He had married ten years prior to that, on February 25, 1768, Olive Douglass, of Plainfield, Connecticut, who died October 20, 1805.
VI. General Simon Perkins, son of Captain Simon and Olive (Douglass) Perkins, was born in Lisbon, Connecticut, September 17, 1771, and became the pioneer of the family in the Mahoning Valley of Ohio. On March 18, 1804, he married Nancy Bishop, who was also born in Lisbon, Connecticut, on January 24, 1780, daughter of Capt. Ezra Bishop. General Perkins died in Warren on November 19, 1844, and his widow died in the same city on April 24, 1862. A surveyor by profession, he was in 1795 engaged in surveying the wild lands of New York State in Tioga and contiguous counties, in which territory he remained for three years as the representative of non-resident land owners. Soon after the formation of the Erie Land Company the trustees of that company appointed General Perkins to act as their general agent ; and in that capacity he came to the Western Reserve in 1798, that being his first trip into Ohio. In 18o1 he settled permanently at Warren and thereafter, to the end of his life, he took especial interest in the development of this district. He continued to act as the sole agent of the Erie Land Company until the final settlement of its affairs in 1831. Some of his connections with Warren are unique : He was the first postmaster of Warren, having been appointed in 1801, and served until 1829. While holding that office he, in 1807, at the request of the then postmaster-general, surveyed a mail route between Cleveland and Detroit. In the fall of 18o8 his efforts led to the treaty at Brownville, by which the Indians ceded land for a road through the Western Reserve to the Monroe River. In the same year he was commissioned brigadier-general of militia under Major-General Wadsworth, and after the surrender of Hull's army at Detroit he prepared for active service, in the aid of General Harrison. He left the service on February 28, 1813, and was offered a com mission with the rank of colonel in the regular army by President Madison. He, however, did not accept, and for the remainder of his life he was engaged in civil operations, most of them important and in the main connected with the City of Warren. From 1826 to 1838 he was an active member of the Board of Canal Fund Commissioners of Ohio, and as head of that commission was entrusted with the arrangement 'and execution of the canal system of the state. He was one of the incorporators of the Western Reserve Bank of Warren, and had the distinction of being elected the first president of that historic bank in 1811.
VII. Hon. Henry Bishop Perkins, son of General Simon and Nancy (Bishop) Perkins, was born at Warren on March to, 1824, and died in Warren on March 2, 1902. He was educated in the focal schools and at Marietta (Ohio) College. After leaving college he went to Europe, with the view of broadening his general educational perspective, as was the custom in those days among the sons of wealthy people. When he returned home he assumed the management of his estate and financial interests bequeathed to him by his father. While his business interests required constant supervision by him, he yet found time for public affairs and gave freely of his time and means to further all worthy civic matters of the City of Warren. He did much to improve the facilities and to elevate the standard of education in the city, serving for fifteen years as president of the Board of Education. He was an enthusiastic supporter of agricultural societies of the county and state; served two terms as president of the Trumbull County Agricultural Society, was twice appointed to the Ohio State Board of Agriculture and for many years was a member of the board of trustees of the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College. He was a benefactor of many institutions of public importance to Warren, including the Warren Public Library, which he was instrumental in carrying through the darkest period of financial embarrassment in its history.
Mr. Perkins was prominent as a banker and financier not only at home but in the country at large. He became a member of the board of directors of the Original Western Reserve Bank in 1852, and when that old institution was absorbed by the First National Bank, Mr. Perkins was chosen that bank's first president, as his father, fifty-two years earlier, had been chosen the first president of the old bank, and he (Henry B.) continued at the head of the First National until his death.
When the Civil war came on and the Federal Government was hard-pressed to finance the carrying on of war operations, Salmon P. Chase, then secretary of the treasury, sought and obtained the advice and co-operation of Mr. Perkins in planning and floating the first war loan.
For many years Mr. Perkins was one of the most prominent and valued members and supporters of the republican party, and he became one of the influential men in republican politics in Northeastern Ohio, and was frequently honored by his party with public positions. However, Mr. Perkins was without ambition, or even inclination, for a political career, but he fully appreciated the honor and accepted the position from a sense of duty he owed as a citizen.
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In 1879 Governor Bishop appointed him a member of the commission to establish the boundary line between Ohio and Pennsylvania, and in the same year he was elected a member of the Ohio State Senate and was re-elected to that body in 1881; in 1880 he was elected Presidential elector from his district, and in the ensuing electoral college he cast his vote for Benjamin Harrison for president, as his father before him had cast a similar vote in 1840 for Gen. William Henry Harrison; in 1893 he was appointed a trustee of the Cleveland State Hospital by President McKinley, then governor of Ohio.
VIII. Jacob Perkins, son of Gen. Simon and Nancy (Bishop) Perkins, was born at Warren, Ohio, on September 1, 1822, and died in the City of Havana, Cuba, on January 12, 1859. He was given the best of educational advantages and improved them, becoming one of the highly educated men of the Western Reserve. After studying at Burton (Ohio) Academy, he was prepared for college at the school of Isaac Webb at Middletown, Connecticut, and then entered Yale College, where he was graduated with the class of '42, as one of the honor men of his class. He delivered the philosophical oration at the end of his junior year, and while in college he was noted for his literary talent and oratorical ability. He was the second editor of the Yale Literary Magazine, and became one of the founders of Scroll and Key, one of the senior college societies.
Leaving college Mr. Perkins became associated in business with his father at Warren, and two years later, following the death of his father, he was made one of the executors of the large estate. He was one of the promotors of the building of the Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad, assisted in securing, on February 22, 1848, a charter for that enterprise, and upon the organization of the company he was chosen its president and continued as its executive head until his death, and that the road was ultimately completed and placed in successful operation was due, in a great measure, to Mr. Perkins' faith in the enterprise and to his ability as an executive.
During his early career Mr. Perkins took an active interest in the great public issues of the day and he delivered on different occasions addresses which were regarded as among the most forceful efforts, both in argument and literary style, ever delivered in Ohio during his time. He was a strong advocate of antislavery, was outspoken and earnest in his denunciation of the continuance of the blacks in bondage, and he is today regarded as one of the leading antislavery men of the country. In 1851 he was elected a delegate to the Ohio Constitutional Convention, and while he was the youngest member of that body but one, and was of the minority, he was regarded as one of the ablest men who took part in the deliberations of that memorable convention. When the republican party was organized Mr. Perkins became an ardent supporter of its principles, and in 1856 he was elected a presidential elector from his district and he cast his vote for John C. Fremont for. President.
The strenuous work which Mr. Perkins underwent in the promotion, organization and financing of the Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad undermined his health, and he was forced to retire from all participation in active business affairs and seek warmer latitudes in the hope of the recovery of his health or the prolongation of life, but his hopes and efforts in that direction were futile.
During his business and public life Mr. Perkins was associated with many of the most prominent men of Northeastern Ohio, among whom he formed strong ties of friendship, and all of whom accorded him unstinted praise as a man and citizen of the highest type—a man of strong personality, the highest ideals, and one who had his convictions and the courage to maintain and express them.
On October 24, 1850, Mr. Perkins was united in marriage with Elizabeth O. Tod, the daughter of Dr. J. I. Tod, of Milton, Trumbull County, Ohio, and to their union three children were born, Jacob Bishop Perkins of Cleveland being the only one now surviving.
JULIUS KAHN. In the growing use and distribution of Youngstown products over the world, probably no one man has contributed more distinctively than Julius Kahn, whose name and reputation in re-enforced concrete engineering give him a place today among those who enjoy international fame.
Mr. Kahn was born in Munstereiffel, Germany, March 8, 1874, son of Joseph and Rosalie Kahn, was brought to America when a child, was a student in the public schools of Detroit, and graduated from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor with the degree Bachelor of Science and Civil Engineer in 1896. For over twenty years he has been active in engineering work. His earliest engagement was with the Engineer Corps of the United States Army on Government surveys. Since then his efforts have been particularly in engineering and architectural lines in the management of manufacturing industries.
While still pursuing his engineering studies Mr. Kahn became convinced of the almost unlimited possibilities of concrete as a commercial building material, provided its inherent weaknesses could be determined and overcome through proper reinforcement. The concrete age, it is interesting to note, covers a period of not over a quarter of a century and is practically coincident with Mr. Kahn's career as an engineer. During his early studies and experiments there was so little dependable data on record that it was necessary for him to begin at the bottom and develop through study and tests all facts bearing on the value of concrete as a universal building materiah After several years of this study and experiment he was successful in tabulating his
determinations covering stresses, bending movements, safe carrying limits, etc., and these tables have been accepted and adopted as standards by most of the states and large cities of the United States and by many of the foreign governments as well.
The direct result commercially of Mr. Kahn's studies is known as the "Kahn System of Reinforced Concrete;" a system in which are developed and utilized the full value and strength of both the concrete and steel through the scientific distribution of the metal in the concrete. As a result of this cooperation or "blending" of metal and concrete, and the economy resulting from the distribution of the metal at just the various points in the concrete
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where it is required, reinforced concrete has become one of the most valuable and economical- of all building materials universally obtainable.
His first invention was called the "Kahn Bar." This is a metal bar made in various sizes, but always having more metal near the center of the bar where the greatest stresses in a concrete slab or beam are exerted, and having portions of the metal on the side of the bar so cut that when the bar is placed the bottom of the concrete beam, those cut portions of metal are bent and extended upward into the concrete at the exact point where bending and breaking would occur, to carry those stresses directly to the heavy main bar. The commercial success of this invention was immediate and the Kahn Bars are now used very extensively all over the world.
Mr. Kahn has invented and developed many metal products which mark distinct advancement in the art of reinforced concrete. Without entering into technical descriptions, a few may be mentioned as follows. Hy-Rib is the product in which is combined rigid metal ribs with expanded metal between, thus providing a reinforcement for concrete floors, roofs, partitions, etc., without the necessity of using centering. Rib metal comprises a series of straight bars or ribs rigidly connected by cross members which accurately space and securely anchor the main bars in the concrete. Floretyles and Floredomes are made of plain or ribbed sheets of steel, formed in rectangular or oblong shapes. These forms are placed in rows with Kahn Bars between the rows. These spaces between the rows are then filled with concrete and the concrete is also spread over the top of the steel forms to a depth of an inch or two. The concrete, reinforced by Kahn Bars, carries the load directly to the supports, while the Floretyle acts as a filler, thus producing a light floor of great rigidity and economy, avoiding most of the tremendous dead weight of the solid concrete floors. Hy-Rib is used underneath the Floretyle so as to secure a flat ceiling for plastering. Kahn Mesh is an improved form of expanded metal, used particularly in the reinforcement of concrete roadways.
Tuscon steel buildings are made of heavy pressed steel standard units of uniform size, interchangeable, and assembled by a simple locking device. These can be taken down and removed from place to place as required, or one building may be continuously extended by adding more of the standard panels or units.
In 1903 Mr. Kahn formed a company to market his inventions. This company, known as the Tuscon Steel Company, has in a few years enjoyed an enormous growth, expanding from a company originally capitalized at $200,000 to one having at present a capitalization of $8,000,000, with forty-two branch offices and fourteen warehouses scattered through the United States and with sales representatives or offices in nearly every country in the world. This organization itself furnishes the best tangible evidence that Mr. Kahn's inventions have in very large measure accomplished the purposes for which he intended them. Mr. Kahn is a large stockholder in the Tuscon Steel Company, holds stock in many other local industries, and is a director in the Mahoning National Bank, the Morris Plan Bank, Chamber of Commerce and the Mahoning Valley Employers' Association. In politics he is normally a republican, and is a member of the Masonic order.
December 24, 1903, at New York, he married Miss Margaret Kohut, a daughter of Dr. Alexander Kohut. Her father, a native of Hungary, was a prominent Hebrew scholar and writer of some of the best known works in Hebrew literature. Mr. and Mrs. Kahn have three children: Margaret G., born in 1906; Katherine R., born in 1908; and Julius, Jr., born in 1912.
ARTHUR EDWARD MACE began his career as a professional musician, but more than a quarter of a century ago left that work and accepted employment on a piece work basis with a local industry at Warren, out of which has developed the present Warren industry known as the Trumbull Mazda Lamp Division, National Lamp Works of the General Electric Company. Of this local industry Mr. Mace is now general manager.
He was born at Sharon, Pennsylvania, September 24, 1873, son of Joseph and Catherine E. (Ditman) Mace, his father a native of London, England, and his mother of Niles, Ohio. His parents were married at Niles, lived at Sharon a few years, and spent their last days at Warren.
Arthur E. Mace attended the public schools at Warren and took a thorough course in music at the Dana Musical Institute in that city. As a professional musician he traveled a great deal for a year or two and was also located at Streeter, Illinois, for some time. In 1894, at the age of twenty-one, he returned to Warren and soon afterward was in the shops of the Warren Electric and Specialty Company, then recently organized, employed in inspecting lamps at a wage of seven cents an hour. Mr, Mace has the qualities that make the successful business man everywhere, his own capacities growing and expanding with the plant. He adapted himself to new circumstances, learned the business thoroughly, and when the original company organized the Economy Electric Company he was appointed its manager. Three years later the National Lamp Company bought the Warren plant, the Economy branch at that time being removed to Niles, where Mr. Mace remained as manager three years. The plant was then returned to Warren; and Mr. Mace was given new duties in charge of the sales department along with his responsibilities as manager. He also had charge of one of the Ravenna plants of the same corporation. The Ravenna plant was discontinued in 1913, and about the same time the sales department and factories at Warren were consolidated with the company's plant at Danvers, Massachusetts. Two months later Mr. Mace became general manager of what has since been known as the Trumbull Mazda Lamp Division.
Mrs. Mace was born in Donegal, Ireland, and was brought to the United States by her parents when eight years of age. They have two children, Muriel Marie and Arthur Edward, Jr.
JAMES W. MORGAN, although not yet in his thirties, has proved himself to be a business executive of definite ability, and at present is responsibly identified with many important Youngstown business enter-
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prises. He is secretary-treasurer of the Youngstown Sand and Gravel Company, the Rajah Oil Company, the Carbon Brick Company and the Campbell Brothers Company. He is a man of superior education, which he obtained by his own efforts, and prior to entering business life was in the teaching profession.
He was born in Toledo, Ohio, April 23, 1892, the son of George E. and Estelle (Sweet) Morgan. His father was of English birth, born in Manchester, England, in 1859, but his mother was native-born, her birthplace being in the State of Indiana, just below Cincinnati. George E. Morgan has been engaged in steel manufacture practically since he came to America, and has been connected responsibly with many rolling mills, latterly with the Sharon Steel Hoop Company, the mills of which are at Youngstown and Newcastle, Pennsylvania.
James W. Morgan graduated from the Struthers High School, and resolved to qualify for an academic life. He was a school teacher in Struthers for five years, thus gaining the means wherewith he was able to take the course at the Ohio State University. He probably would have continued in the teaching profession had he not in 1917 become associated with Bruce Campbell of Struthers in some important business enterprises. In 1917 the Youngstown Sand and Gravel Company was incorporated, and in the following year the Rajah Oil Company, which is a Mahoning County producing company, refining its own product, received its charter of incorporation, of both of which companies Mr. Morgan became secretary-treasurer. He also holds like executive capacity in the Carbon Brick Company and the Campbell Brothers Company, and thus at a very early age has reached an enviable standing among business executives of the city.
He is a man of strong personality, and is an earnest church worker. By religious conviction a Methodist, he is treasurer of the Struthers Church. He is independent in politics, but although he follows national and local affairs closely has not given indication of a desire to enter actively into politics.
In 1916 Mr. Morgan married Mary Edna, daughter of D. H. ,Stewart, of Poland, Mahoning County. They have one child, a daughter, Mary E.
DENNIS RYAN, the eldest son of Patrick Ryan, an extensive land holder and cattle dealer of Birdhill, County Tipperary, Ireland, was born there on December 25, 1828.
He was sent at an early age to the City of Limerick, where he was educated by the Christian Brothers. He supplemented a thorough training by mastering the Gaelic tongue, a rare feat in the early nineteenth century.
Mr. Ryan came to America in 1848 and located in Buffalo, where he was married in 1854 to Miss Margaret O'Brien. He shortly afterward became interested in the railroads which were then building westward and, with the McGuire Brothers of Akron, built the Mahoning Railroad from Cleveland to Youngstown. In 1857 he settled here on the Wick farm, which lay between Poland and South avenues, where he continued to reside until his death, December 7, 1886. He was ever active in civic affairs regardless of party lines. He was a man of the sternest integrity, ever living up to his own high standard of morality, which had a telling effect upon the neighborhood in which he lived so long. No man has left a cleaner record in Youngstown than Dennis Ryan. Mrs. Ryan outlived her husband nine years. They have left the following family: Patrick Ryan, of New York; Mrs. Mary Killian, Mrs. James E. Burke, Mrs. John F. Gillen, Mrs. John G. Conway and Sister M. Agnes, of the Ursuline Convent, Youngstown.
To mention but a part of Mr. Ryan's activities in the community and his neighborhood would take too much space, but one instance stands out indicating not only his generous spirit, but also, as conditions and community activities are today, his advanced thought many years ahead of his day. During the dark days of the panic of 1872 in this city he was a leader in helping the poor. Being engaged in farming, he staked out portions of his fields, which he allotted to poor families, mostly those of widows. These fields he not only ploughed and prepared for seeding, but actually sowed and planted. In this most generous act we see a forerunner of the present so-called community and war garden activities, which are but a repetition of the good work which he conceived and put into practice years ago.
He was fortunate in his early life in acquiring a solid and advanced education, not only in the English, but also the Gaelic (Irish), language. It was an inspiring sight to see him in his home reading aloud from the current literature for the entertainment and benefit of his friends and neighbors, who unfortunately were not so favored as he was. He could recite from memory a great many of the eloquent speeches delivered by Gratton, Curran, Burke and the illustrious Daniel O'Connell, whom he admired above alh
That Mr. Ryan was held in the highest esteem by his neighbors and the community at large is best attested by the reverence paid to his memory even to the present day, and scarcely anything dwelling on the city's past appears in the papers but mentions his name. The most recent of these was a contribution to the Sunday Vindicator from the pen of the Hon. William T. Gibson, in which he says of Mr. Ryan : "He was a gentleman true to his friends, a man that it was a pleasure to know. He was one of the men whose name, figure and kindliness cannot be forgotten. To have missed his acquaintance would have been to have something worth while left out of my life."
LESTER JAY CLEMONS. While his business career has been comparatively brief, Lester Jay Clemons has had much more than an ordinary success as an architect and builder, and his business and profession may in many ways be counted a direct benefit to the growing prosperity and development of Youngstown.
Mr. Clemons was born on a farm in Boardman Township, Mahoning County, August 26, 1885, a son of George M. and Carrie M. (Heintzman) Clemons. His mother now resides at 2526 Oak Hill Avenue and is a member of St. Luke's Lutheran Church. His father, who was born in Boardman. Township, a son of William Clemons, died on the
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home farm October 26, 1899, at the age of forty-three. While living in the country he was a member of the Lutheran Church at New Buffalo. There were three children in the family. Paul is on a farm in Canfield. Esther, living with her mother, is employed as an accountant with the Federal Savings & Loan Company.
Lester Jay Clemons acquired a country school education, and before he left the farm had begun a course with the International Correspondence School at Scranton in architecture and building. In [gob, at the age of twenty-one, he went with the Carnegie Steel Company of Youngstown in the engineering department under Chief Engineer Hust, and later with the present Chief Engineer Kling. After some time he was appointed superintendent of construction with the Republic Rubber Company, and had charge of the building of the original plant of that great corporation. Following these experiences Mr. Clemons became an independent contractor and has dealt in and developed much local real estate. As an architect and builder he has to his credit about too buildings of varied character and value in the city. He designed and built the Puritan Ice Cream Company's plant and was architect on the plant of the Youngstown Sanitary Milk Company. Mr. Clemons has done much committee work and otherwise been an active member of the Builders' Exchange, is secretary of the General Contractor and Master Carpenters' Association, a member of the Engineers' Club, the Automobile Club, and of Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church.
April 26, 1911, he married Erma Hoffmeister, daughter of H. H. Hoffmeister. She was born in Mahoning County. They have one son, Myron Lester.
HERMAN V. KLING. A man of sterling ability and worth, Herman V. Kling, proprietor of Kling's Bakery, located at 1401 Market Street, Youngstown, never allows anything to escape his notice that might add to the value of his trade, or art, as it may well be termed, for the scientific, economical and satisfactory preparing and baking of bread, cakes, pastry and dainty confections is surely an accomplishment worthy of special classification. A son of the late Robert Kling, he was born February 14, 1887, in Youngstown, coming on the paternal side of German ancestry.
Robert Kling was born and educated in Germany, and as a young man immigrated to the United States. In 881 he located in Youngstown, and with the exception of nine years spent in Toledo, Ohio, continued a resident of this city until his death in 1902. An industrious, faithful worker, he was for several years employed by the Deibels in the butcher business. He was a member of Saint Columba's Catholic Church, to which his wife and children belong. He married Bridget Connelly, who is a resident of Youngstown. Four sons and two daughters were born of their union, as follows: Herman V., the subject of this brief sketch; Martin, an electrician, is with the Mazda Lamp Company ; Robert, a plumber, with the Kling & McLaughlin Company of this city, being a member of that well-known firm, and was in the United States service eighteen months during the World war, ranking as sergeant and being an instructor in a machine gun battalion; Albert, a graduate of the South High School, is with his brother Herman; Freda, a clerk in the store of her brother Herman; and Anna, a pupil in the South High School.
Herman V. Kling obtained his early education in the schools of Toledo, where the family lived nine years, and on returning to Youngstown, a lad of thirteen summers, he began learning the bakery business in the Lightbody establishment on Federal Street. Becoming proficient in the work, and liking it, he embarked in business on his own account in 1909 at the corner of Myrtle and Market streets, borrowing the money he put in, as he had none of his own, but plenty of credit. Succeeding in his operations from the first, Mr. Kling built up a fine local trade, and needing more commodious quarters assumed possession of his present bakery, which he purchased from Charles Larsen at 1401 Market Street, and in which he has installed the best approved modern equipments for carrying on his business, and to which he is constantly adding improvements, his aim being to give the best possible service to his many patrons. Aside from owning his business, Mr. Kling is a stockholder in the South Side Savings Bank.
While accumulating his own property, Mr. Kling has generously assisted his brothers and sisters in obtaining good educations, and later in getting good situations. He is a loyal member of Saint Patrick's Catholic Church, and belongs to the Knights of Columbus and to the Patricians.
JOHN J. CALLOW has been in the contracting business for thirty years, starting before he was twenty-one years of age. His home and business headquarters have been at Youngstown since 1907. Mr. Callow is a good business man, but has never emphasized business to the extent of neglecting those other factors which elevate life above the plane of mere existence.
Mr. Callow was born a British subject on the Isle of Man, August 13, 0872, son of Daniel and Anne Jane Callow. His father is still living on the Isle of Man and has spent all his active career in some branch of the building business.
Educated in his native country, John J. Callow at the age of seventeen came to America and settled at Cleveland, where he was soon working at his trade of plasterer. As early as 1890 he took his first contract in Cleveland, and in that locality of Ohio did a thriving and increasing business for many years. Since moving to Youngstown in 1907 the instances of his work have multiplied to an imposing totah The results of his work as a contractor or sub-contractor are seen in the Reuben McMillin Library, South High School, St. Elizabeth's Hospital, Ohio Hotel, City Building, Tod House, McKelvey Building, the McKinley, Rayen, Jefferson, Wood Street, Princeton and Garfield schools, the Youngstown Country Club, and the residences of J. A. Campbell, Richard Garlick, Joseph G. Butler, Jr., and the McKay home.
In 1892 Mr. Callow married Miss Ida Palmitier, daughter of p. J. and Phoebe Palmitier, of Cleveland. Four children have been born to their union, Mona, Bessie, John and Charles. The three young-
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est children are at home. The oldest is the wife of C. B. Hess, an automobile man at Cleveland. The family are members of the Congregational Church, and Mr. Callow is affiliated with the Elks and the Chamber of Commerce.
His hobby is photography. He acquired his first outfit many years ago, and is familiar with all the photographic developments of the last quarter of a century. He has attained a high degree of artistic skill, and his collection of pictures taken and developed by himself is remarkable for beauty and perfection of landscape effect. His specialty is views upon the water. Mrs. Callow is the able assistant of her husband in his business, his chum in his amusements, and the marriage is one of those which approach the ideal.
E. MASON WICK. The biographer is glad to set forth herein the salient facts in the life record of one of the eminently successful and well-known business men of Youngstown, a man who has for years been closely identified with the varied interests of this community. His career has been a strenuous and varied one, and to him is due credit for giving additional prestige to the family name, an old and honored one, and adding to the brightness of an escutcheon which shines with peculiar luster in communities long noted for the high standing and distinguished achievements of its business and public men. In all that constitutes true manhood and good citizenship he has been a worthy example, and none stand higher than he in the esteem and confidence of the circles with which he is identified. He is regarded as a good business man, of sound judgment and keen foresight, who believes in pressing forward, keeping the wheels of the car of civilization ever moving up the steeps, and as a representative citizen of his community he is eminently entitled to specific mention in a work of this character.
E. Mason Wick is of pioneer ancestry. Just when his great-great-grandfather, William Wick, Sr., came to the Mahoning Valley is uncertain, but it was at a period when the country hereabouts was in a primitive condition. His son, William Wick, was the father of Lemuel Justice, James T., Daniel Johnston and Lois, the latter becoming the wife of a Mr. Parmelee. Lemuel Justice Wick was married to Mary Smith, and they had one son, Charles J., who was the father of Lemuel Thorne, Virginia, Dorothy and Mary. Of these, Virginia married a Mr. Ingels and Dorothy became the wife of a Mr. Curtis. Daniel Johnston Wick was married to Emeline C. Griffith, and they had four children, Ralph J., Frank J., Daniel J. and Caroline. Only two of these had issue. Ralph J. was married to Albina Mason and had an only son, E. Mason Wick, the immediate subject of this sketch, who was born in Youngstown on August 2, 1870. Frank J. Wick married Emma Powers and became the father of four children, Caroline, deceased, Powers, Frank J. and Louise. This branch of the Wick family, have been actively and successfully identified with the coal and iron interests, thus contributing in a definite way to the development, upbuilding and prosperity of the community. From this viewpoint alone they have been worthy citizens of a community noted for the high order of its citizenship. More than this, they have been exemplary and law-abiding in their private lives, thus contributing also to the moral stability of the social structure with which they have been identified.
E. Mason Wick was reared in his native city, where he has spent his entire life, and was educated in its public schools. For the first two years after leaving school he was associated with his father in the rolling mill business and for two years thereafter he was a teller in the First National Bank. The next six years were spent in the real estate business in connection with Caleb Wick, Jr., and it was this period that gave him the keen insight into realty matters that in a large measure affected his subsequent career. During the following twelve years Mr. Wick was connected with the Dollar Savings Bank and Trust Company, first as a teller and eventually becoming secretary and treasurer of that institution. In October, 1911, Mr. Wick organized the Real Estate Securities Company, of which he is and has been the only president and which under his direction has become one of the strong financial and realty concerns of the Mahoning Valley. Coincidental with this he has been vice president and treasurer of the Realty Security Company since its organization. He is also financially interested in other enterprises which have been connected• with the active business life of Youngstown, being numbered among the leaders in business circles.
On October 12, 1905, Mr. Wick was married to Jane Todd, the daughter of Dr. J. F. Todd, of Chicago, and to them have been born two children, Francis Mason and Jane.
Religiously Mr. Wick and family are identified with the Presbyterian Church, while socially he is a member of the Youngstown Club, the Youngstown Country Club and the Poland Country Club. He is a trustee of the Youngstown Hospital Association and of the Youngstown Council of the Boy Scouts of America, and is an active member of the Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Wick is a public-spirited man in all the term implies, being ever interested in enterprises tending to promote the general welfare and withholding his support from no movement for the good of the locality so long honored by his citizenship. Easily approached, obliging and straightforward in all the relations of life, he enjoys to a marked degree the confidence and good will of all who know
him.
BERT A. MILLIKIN. As president of the Youngstown Sanitary Milk Company, Bert A. Millikin is conspicuously identified with one of the most useful and important industries of which Youngstown can boast, for on a sufficient supply of pure, wholesome milk the life and health of coming generations largely depend, and the question of securing it is in no place of such a vital nature as in a large city, where thousands upon thousands of infants need it every day in the year. A native of Youngstown, he was born on the Thomas McDonald farm, near Lanterman's Falls, October 22, 1889, a son of George W. and Mary Jane (Creed) Millikin, the former of whom was born in Canada and the latter in England.
Coming from Canada to Ohio as a young man, George W. Millikin married in Bloomfield, Ohio,
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and subsequently rented the Manning farm, and met with such good success in its management that he later bought it, the property at the present time being widely known as the Thomas McDonald place. Although a general farmer, he made a specialty of breeding high grade cattle, turning his attention first to the raising of Herefords, afterward breeding Holstein cattle. He became very prominent in that branch of industry, exhibiting his pure-bred stock at state fairs in many states, invariably winning ribbons, and shipping choice cattle of both breeds to all parts of the Union. A prominent resident of Youngstown, he served as a member of the City Council. He died February 17, 1920.
A keen-witted, wide-awake young man, Bert A. Milikin embarked in the dairy business on his own account at the age of nineteen years, milking his own cows and driving his own wagon. As his business grew with wonderful rapidity, some help and more wagons were needed, and in order to enlarge his operations Mr. Millikin bought the property located on the corner of South Avenue and Williamson Street, and still holds title to it. In 1914 he wisely bought the business which had been previously established by Beard & Loveland, incorporating it for $30,000.
The business continued to grow under the supervision of Mr. Millikin, assuming such proportions that he has since organized the Youngstown Sanitary Milk Company, of which he is the president, and which is incorporated with a capital stock of $150,000, it being the largest and most highly approved firm, of the kind in the Mahoning Valley. This company has recently erected a modernly constructed and equipped plant, and handles milk, cream, butter, cheese and ice cream, products which are in great and, demand and ever bring the highest market prices.
Mr. Millikin married in 1912 Annetta B. Kuntz, a daughter of Solomon Kuntz, and they have one son, Howard A. Millikin. Fraternally Mr. Millikin is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Follows; of the Knights of Pythias ; of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks ; and of the Order of United Commercial Travelers of America.
JAMES C. MORGAN began his career at Youngstown more than thirty years ago as a steel mill worker, at left that to engage in the laundry business. He a practical expert in this field, acquired through ng years of experience, and is now manager of the Myers Laundry and Dry Cleaning Carpet Company. Mr. Morgan was born in Herefordshire, England, the original home of the famous Hereford cattle, on June 8, 1865, son of James and Jane Morgan. His mother is still living in England at the age of eighty-five. James Morgan was a prosperous miller and mill owner in England, and died in 1872, when his son James was only seven years of age.
The latter grew up in the rich agricultural and industrial district of Herefordshire, acquired his education there, and as a young man worked in the mines. On coming to the United States in 1887 he was employed in the lower mill of the Carnegie Steel Works at Youngstown at shearing and puddling. He was with that mill until he engaged in the laundry business with Thomas G. Thomas. They organized the Crystal Laundry Company at 31 North
Vol. III-18
Holmes Street, subsequently moving to Pyatt Street. This was one of the early commercial laundries in Youngstown. The partners started out with limited capital and equipment, but when in 1917 they consolidated their plant with the Myers Laundry Company they had improved to the finest facilities and equipment to be found.
Mrs. Morgan, whose maiden name was Hester Waters, was born in Wales. They have two children, Walter and Jane, the former a high school student. The family are members of the Plymouth Congregational Church, of which Mr. Morgan is a trustee, and he is identified with the Kiwanis Club.
JOHN. AULBACH. A well known and highly respected citizen of Youngstown, John Aulbach has been identified with the mercantile interests of the city for upwards of thirty years, and since 1887 has occupied his present residence at the corner of Market and Hughes streets. When he bought the property, which is now in a thickly congested district, it was in a sparsely settled locality, and nearly surrounded by a deep ravine, which he has since filled in and highly improved in other ways. He was born October 8, 1859, near Meadville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania, of German parentage.
Henry Aulbach, his father, was born in Germany, and there spent the days of his childhood and youth. Immigrating to the United States at the age of seventeen years, he located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he followed the tanner's trade for a number of. years. Forced by ill health to relinquish his trade, he turned his attention to agriculture, and was subsequently engaged in general farming in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, until his death, at the age of sixty-seven years. His wife, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Stine, was born in Germany, and at the age of fifteen years came alone to this country. They were married in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. She spent the remainder of her life of fifty-seven years in Pennsylvania, dying on the home farm. Two of their sons served in the Civil war, running away from home when very young to enlist, Henry being killed in the battle of Gettysburg, while Jacob was wounded in a hotly-contested engagement.
Brought up on the farm and educated in the rural schools, John Aulbach has practically made his own way in the world since a lad of nine years. Endowed by nature with rare musical talent, he became noted as a violinist, and as a young man played for many an entertainment. Soon after locating in Youngstown, in 1876, he became a puddler in different local mills, including the Cartwright, Warren and Brown-Bonnell. Enterprising and progressive, he opened a store on his newly-bought property in 1887, putting one of his employes in charge of the establishment, while he continued his work at the mills, making and saving money both as a workman and as a merchant. Successful in his efforts, Mr. Aulbach holds an honored position in the business world and in the social life of his community. He has served for a long time as secretary of the Amalgamated Association. Religiously he is an influential member of Saint Joseph's Catholic. Church, and has reared his family in the same faith.
Mr. Aulbach married in 1886 Annie Scherman,
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who was born on Prospect Street, Youngstown, and ten children were born into their home, namely: John W., a member of the Youngstown Police Farce; Clara, who died aged two years; Henry, living at home; Clara, who died aged twenty-two years; Carl; Anna; Colette, a graduate of the local high school; Georgiette; Wendell, in the high school; and Dorothy E.
THOMAS H. WELLS. The late Thomas H. Wells was not only one of the very early residents of Youngstown, but also a pioneer of its industrial life, and a man whose initiative and public-spirit were called into play whenever the occasion demanded, so that he was connected with practically all of the constructive history of his period. Owing to the nature of his work, his influence was not confined to local territory, but was practically, in certain aspects, nation-wide, and his death inflicted a distinct loss to many people and concerns. He was born at Dublin, Ireland, December 12, 1814, and was a typical son of Erin, both in appearance and temperament. His family was an excellent one, possessing some means, and after he was given an ample training in civil engineering and architecture through his connections he obtained a governmental position at Dublin, but its possibilities did not satisfy the ambitions of the ardent young Irishman, and he decided to seek his fortune in the United States, then, as now, the Mecca of the foreign-born.
Upon his arrival in this country Thomas H. Wells immediately formed connections with the Pennsylvania Railroad, with headquarters at Newark, New Jersey, and when the road was extended to New Brunswick, New Jersey, Mr. Wells was appointed to make the original survey from Trenton, New Jersey, to New York. City, New York. He was also selected to design the new station for the railroad at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and other stations along the Pennsylvania Lines. After a somewhat strenuous period, during which he worked at both his professions, Mr. Wells came West to Youngstown and established himself, in a modest way, as a merchant, his store being on East Federal Street, but he later transferred his stock to West Federal Street, finally moving to the Merchants Block, which he erected and owned.
A man of much more than average business acumen, Mr. Wells developed with Youngstown, and participated in the expansion of many of its natural resources, notably the coal industry, becoming the owner and operator of the mines at Mineral Ridge and other points in the neighborhood. Mr. Wells was one of the largest stockholders of the Youngstown Rolling Mill Company, now the Carnegie Union Works of the United States Steel Corporation, and was also interested in some of the other standard business concerns of the city. He erected a number of the business houses and blocks, of Youngstown, and led practically all of the movements calculated to bring outside capital to the city for legitimate investment. As he seldom if ever made a bad investment, it was but natural that his wealth should increase, and at one time he paid the heaviest personal property tax of anyone in the city.
Mr. Wells was spared to his family and community for a much longer period than is accorded to the average man, for he lived to attain to the age of ninety-one years, dying on September 1, 1905. Although he was a man of great wealth, he never lost the simple sincerity which characterized him, and gave to everyone with whom he maintained association a fair deal and generous attention. He was respected as much for his fine character as for his notable business achievements, and although the majority of his earlier associates had passed away before him, he had made new friends, and by them was sincerely mourned when his place was vacant.
In 1878 Mr. Wells was united in marriage with Miss Grace Jewett, of Greenville, Pennsylvania. Together they united with the First Presbyterian Church of Youngstown, and from then on Mr. Wells contributed to its support with a lavish generosity. Mrs. Wells died suddenly in 1891, after having borne her husband four children, as follows: Mary, who is the wife of Richard Garlick, of Youngstown.; Thomas H., Jr., who died in childhood; Grace, who was the widow of William Seigfried, is again married; and Thomas H. Jr. II, who is the youngest.
Thomas H., Wells II, was born in Youngstown, Ohio, July 29, 1889, and after attending the public schools of this city he became a student of Hotchkiss Preparatory School at Lakeville, Connecticut. His business career began with his service in a brokerage business in New York City in 1909, where he remained for four years, leaving it to return to Youngstown. After a year spent in operating in realty, Mr. Wells has been occupied in looking after his father's estate, which of course is a very extensive one. On September 21, 1917, he enlisted for service during the great war, and entered the army camp at Camp Sherman, and was made a corporah On June 4, 1918, he sailed on the Canaroonshire, an English transport, for France, where he landed some fourteen days later. Mr. Wells was in five different divisions, the Eighty-Third, Twenty-Seventh, Ninetieth, Seventy-Seventh and the Thirty-Second, and participated in the engagements on the Verdun front and those of the Argonne Forest. He was with the first ammunition train of the American service to enter Germany, being at that time regimental supply sergeant, and had an opportunity of seeing much of the devastation of the war. After the signing of the armistice he returned to the United States and landed here in June, 1919, receiving his discharge at Camp Upton on June 29, 1919, after which he returned to Youngstown.
Mr. Wells was united in marriage .on December 6, 1910, at Youngstown, to Miss Stasia W. Welch, a daughter of Philip Welch of Youngstown. Mr. Wells is a valued member of the Youngstown Club, and a young man of fine character and high aspirations. Like so many of the young men of his time, Mr. Wells has had an illuminating experience and in the years to come will find that his after' life has been made the richer and better because of his period of self-sacrificing service for his own government and the cause of humanity.
FRED H. MARQUARD is a mechanical engineer whose experience in his profession has brought him a thorough knowledge of the gas and electrical business,
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and in recent years he has used his experience as the foundation for an important local industry at Youngstown, the Marquard Furnace Company at 119 East Boardman Street.
He established this business in 1915. He and his associates are interested in the basic patents for the High Efficiency gas furnaces. They also do an extensive business installing the Mahoning, Wright, Seheible and various other makes of furnace, also the Humphrey Automatic Water Heater and Radiant-fires.
Mr. Marquard was born in Cleveland January II, 1885, and the family are noted not only for their proficiency in various technical arts, but in athletic circles. Fred H. Marquard played baseball as soon as he was going to school. He was the oldest of five children. His next younger brother is Richard W. Marquard, but better known to every baseball fan as "Rube" Marquard, one of the greatest stars in the baseball world during the past decade. The third son is Frank and the youngest is Herbert, both of whom were semi-professional ball players. Herbert is now chief tester of the White Motor Company. The only daughter is Hattie, wife of Alfred use.
These children were born to Ferdinand and Lena (Heise) Marquard. The former was a native of Alsace-Lorraine, and was only a few months old when his father, Ferdinand, came to Cleveland. Ferdinand, Jr., became a steel worker and engineer, and is a thorough expert in the iron and steel industry, and for a number of years was employed as electrical engineer by the Standard Parts Company and the Otis Steel Company of Cleveland. He is now fifty-five years of age, and partly retired, spending his winters in Florida. His wife died in 1905, at the age of thirty-nine. She was only nineteen years of age when her son Fred was born.
Fred Marquard attended the Cleveland High School and took his course in mechanical engineering at Western Reserve. University. For one year he was employed by the Macbeth Iron Company, follow which he became superintendent of the lighting department of the East Ohio Gas Company of Cleveland. This corporation sent him to Youngstown, and on resigning from that corporation he established the Marquard Furnace Company. Mr. Marquard has been a Mason since he was twenty-one years of age and is affiliated with Bigelow Lodge No. 243, Free and Accepted Masons, at Cleveland. Politically he is independent. On June 10, 1910, he married Emma J. Graff, daughter of L. J. Graff. Their two children are Richard M. and Doris Lucile.
The family are members of the Westminster Presbyterian Church.
EARL. G. SIGLE. For a long period of years the name Sigle has been associated in the minds of Youngstown citizens with the forest and greenhouse business, and while that is no longer the family industry Mr. Earl G. Sigle has turned his business energies to good account in utilizing some of the space formerly occupied by his greenhouse as a means of real estate development and improvement.
Earl G. Sigel was born at Youngstown, December 27, 1880, a son of Charles A. and Alma (Osborne) Sigle. Charles Sigle was born at Stuttgart, Germany, and was nine years of age when his parents came overseas and located on a farm near Canfield, Ohio. He grew to manhood on that farm, but after his marriage engaged in the meat business at Canfield. Finally he moved to Youngstown, buying 150 feet of ground at what is now 1311 Market Street, then an out of the way district with very few houses. Here he set up a meat shop, but later began in an experimental way growing plants under glass, and finally had all his land covered with greenhouses. He continued as a florist for twenty years, until his son Earl succeeded him. Charles Sigle was born in April, 1845, and is still living at 1311 Market Street. He has always been a democrat in political affiliations, is a Mason, and he and his wife are members of the Baptist Church. She was born in 1862. Charles Sigle during the Civil war was a member of the Minute Men organization, formed to protect the state against the invasion of General Morgan and his raiders. Charles Sigle and wife had three children: Clyde, a resident of Youngstown; Earl G.; and Goldie B., wife of Norman Heindel.
Earl G. Sigle attended the South Side School and the Rayen High School, and his first employment after school was weighing iron at the Brown-Bonnell plant. He also acquired much knowledge and experience working with his father in the greenhouses and eventually took over the business and for fifteen years conducted a very prosperous establishment. For five years his business was on Market Street. He then bought five acres of what is now 3502 Market Street, and put 15,00o square feet under glass, making a specialty of potted plants. This five acres of land is now a residence section of the city, known as Ravenwood Manor. Mr. Sigle built the Earlmar Apartment House, containing twenty-eight apartments, where he lives, and has had much to do with real estate development and promotion. In 1914 he became local representative for the Haynes car, and he now conducts a model garage at Market and McKinney streets.
Mr. Sigle married Marillie B. Brown, daughter of R. W. E. Brown of Orangeville, Ohio, on January 26, 1910. They are members of the Baptist Church.
THOMAS L. DAVIS. The work and the character of Thomas L. Davis throughout his thirty-eight years of residence in Youngstown have always been dominated by the quality of strength and solidity. To say that he is one of the solid citizens of Youngstown is only to express briefly the esteem paid him by his business associates and friends.
Ever since coming to Youngstown Mr. Davis has been a building contractor, and is now senior member of the firm T. L. Davis & Son. His partner is James P. Davis.
Mr. Davis was born at Wrexham in Northern Wales, December 4, 1857. His native city was the birthplace and also the burial place of Elihu Yale, founder of the great American institution of learning, Yale University. Every year it is the custom of some Yale graduate to make a pilgrimage to Wrexham to place flowers on the grave of "old Eli."
There was something stimulating as well as depressing about the environment in which Thomas L. Davis spent his youthful years. His parents, James and Harriet Davis, who lived out their lives in Wales,
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were very poor people, but like the great majority of their fellow countrymen very religious. Thomas Davis learned to read and write at Sunday schooh While that was about all the formal school instruction he ever had, he has put those arts to constant exercise, and through them achieved a more than ordinary education. In his home at Youngstown today he enjoys delightful hours in his library of solid and valuable books.
It was a personal experience with an old legal custom that survived much longer in England and Wales than in the new country of America that furnished the basic incident as a result of which Thomas L. Davis came to the United States. One day an officer of the law came to his father's home and took away a solitary piece of bacon found there as a means of satisfying a security debt. That action seemed a terrible thing to the young man, an indictment against his country and its laws that immediately determined him to seek a land where opportunity for the honest and hard working was wide, and where law and custom would not permit food being taken from the poor for debt.
While at Liverpool Thomas L. Davis learned the stone mason's trade, and followed it four years before coming to America. His Sunday school teacher secured him a position on an American bound steamship in 1879, with the understanding that he was to learn the trade of marine engineer. When he reached the American shore at Portland, Maine, he concluded that he had no taste for ocean life, and satisfied his desire to live in America by simply remaining on this side of the Atlantic. From Portland, Maine, where he resumed work at his trade as a stone mason, he went to Portland, Connecticut, and later to Middletown. In 1882 he became a resident of Youngstown. He was a journeyman at his trade until 1884, •when he formed a partnership with Michael McGinty. This association lasted six years, and after that Mr. Davis was in business for himself until his son James was old enough to join him. In various parts of the city and industrial districts the practical work of Mr. Davis as a contractor might be pointed out. He has to his credit the construction of seven churches in Youngstown, besides schoolhouses, business blocks and residences. He became one of the charter members of the Builders Exchange, serving many years as a director and for the past six years as its treasurer.
For twenty-seven years, consecutive except for two years, Mr. Davis has been a member of the Republican County Committee. He has exercised other influences for good citizenship and in the moral life of the community. He and his family are members of St. John's Episcopal Church, though formerly he was affiliated with the Wesleyan Methodists. He was a prominent factor in the building of the Emma Street Mission, he and David Morris being the builders- of that Mission, and for many years Mr. Davis has been a teacher in the Mission Sunday Schooh For one year he was teacher of a class the youngest member of which was over seventy years old. He belongs to the Humane Society, is a member of Western Star Lodge of Masons, St. David's Society, and the Druid's Society in Pittsburgh. While he can claim over forty years of American
residence he has gone back to his old home in Wales five or six times.
While Mr. Davis is still an active business man, he enjoys the satisfaction that comes from seeing his children grown up and most of them established in homes of their own and in stations of usefulness. Mr. Davis married at Liverpool, Miriam Louise Peel, They became the parents of six children. The oldest is Harriet, who is the widow of William Crow, and for the past ten years has been employed in the auditor's office of Mahoning County. The second is James P., junior member of the firm T. L. Davis & Son. William P., the second son, now engaged in the office fixture business in Cleveland, made a notable record as a soldier during the World war. He was a sergeant in the famous Thirty-Seventh Division, and was on the fighting front both in Belgium and France, including the great battle of the Argonne, and was both wounded and gassed. Edith, the fourth child, is the wife of J. Dean Herritt, who was a Young Men's Christian. Association worker in France and now lives in St. Pauh Louise is the wife of Clarence Shindledecker, linotype operator in the office of the Youngstown Telegram. Isabel, the youngest, is employed in the engineering department of the Truscon Company of Youngstown.
ALFRED REA HUGHES. The Mahoning Valley is the home of a number of men whose achievements in business and whose worth as citizens have reflected great credit upon the valley and have earned for them personal mention in the written history of the community; for they are striving not only to get and to have something for themselves, but to give something of themselves for the benefit of the present and future generations. One of these men is Alfred R. Hughes of Warren, founder of the Warren City Tank and Boiler Company, who for a quarter of a century has been both a successful business man and a valued citizen of Warren; one who has cheerfully responded to all calls made upon him for his time and means in aid of worthy public movements.
Mr. Hughes is a native of England, but with the exception of his first ten years he has spent his entire life in the Mahoning Valley. He was born July 24, 1862, at Coalbrookdale, Shropshire, England, and was a boy of ten years when he came with the family to Niles, Ohio, in 1872. He attended the public schools of Niles, and became a "bread-winner" at the age of twelve years by going to work in the drug store of Doctor McKinley at Niles. When Doctor McKinley gave up his drug business to assume the duties of the office of sheriff of Trumbull County, young Hughes became a salesman in the dry goods store of Louis Gephart at Niles, where he continued for eight years, leaving Mr. Gephart to accept a position as billing clerk with the Erie Railroad. Still later he went into the office of Reeves' Brothers Boiler Works at Niles, and remained with that firm for a period of eight and a half years, during which time he filled various positions, from that of time-keeper to assistant manager of the works. The Reeves Brothers removed their plant to Alliance, Ohio, in 1893, and urged Mr. Hughes to go with them. However, by that time Mr. Hughes had visions of an independent career with an organization of his own, and was possessed of ample
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faith in himself to attempt the realization of his ambition.
So, in 1893 Mr. Hughes came to Warren and laid the foundation for what is now one of the large and most important industrial plants in the Mahoning Valley, and one of the largest plants in its line in the entire country—The Warren City Tank & Boiler Company. This enterprise, seemingly, was started at a most unpropitious time, as the country was still suffering from the effects of the money panic of 1893. But under the skillful management of Mr. Hughes the infant industry was able to progress, and soon was employing about thirty-five workmen. However, it was not long before Mr. Hughes became aware of the fact that the growth of this enterprise was going to be retarded for want of capital and credit. Finding it impossible at that time to borrow money in Warren, Mr. Hughes went to Cleveland, and there consummated arrangements whereby the Cleveland Rolling Mill Company extended to him an immediate and continuous large credit, which credit enabled Mr. Hughes to accept large contracts with full assurance that he would be able to secure the necessary material for their fulfillment. This arrangement with the Cleveland Company continued until that concern went out of the steel-plate business, by which time the credit of Mr. Hughes' company had been firmly established and its future assured. The growth of the Warren City Tank and Boiler Company has been consistent and uniform from a small concern employing thirty-five workmen into a splendid organization which now employs a force of between 450 and 500 men in its Warren shops, while its erecting crews, numbering upwards of 1,500 men, are engaged in constructing work turned out by the home plant at points all over the United States, Canada, Cuba and Mexico, and the corporation, familiarly known to the trade as "The Warren City," has a reputation for its products and methods exceeded by very few of its competitors. The success of the Warren City Tank and Boiler Company has resulted from natural causes, important among which are its products and its organization, Mr. Hughes having been most fortunate in the selection of the proper men to co-operate with him in the building up of the institution and in the wise administration of its affairs. Close co-operation exists not only in the company's offices but in its shops, and by wise management the relation between the offices and the shops has always been very cordial. The personnel of the company at the present time is as follows : Alfred R. Hughes, president; W. F. Edwards, vice president; B. W. Edwards, secretary-treasurer ; D. J. O'Rourke, general superintendent; B. H. Seiple, assistant superintendent.
Aside from the making of tanks and boilers Mr. Hughes is very active in the civic and social affairs of Warren. He was vice president of the Warren City Hospital from its organization in 1906 until May, 1918, since which time he has been president of the institution; he is a trustee of Warren Public Library and deeply interested in its work and success. Especially was Mr. Hughes active during the period of the great war, when in a great measure he subordinated his business and private interests to the welfare of his country; and to his efforts, as much as to those of any other one man, the glorious record of Trumbull County in war-work was made possible. in June, 1917, Mr. Hughes was elected chairman of the Red Cross War Fund of Trumbull County, which fund, contributed by the towns of the county (not including Niles, Mineral Ridge, Girard and Hubbard, whose funds were placed in the Youngstown organization) amounted to over $65,000. Of this fund Mr. Hughes remained chairman until February, 1920, by which time all the funds had been used for the purposes for which they were contributed. In May, 1918, Mr. Hughes was elected president of the Trumbull County War Chest Association, representing a fund of over $317,000, contributed for war purposes by the towns of the county with the exception of Niles, Mineral Ridge, Girard and Hubbard, which towns placed their funds in the Youngstown War Chest, and at this writing (June, 192o), he is still active president of the association.
Mr. Hughes is a member of Old Erie Lodge No. 3, Free and Accepted Masons; Warren Council No. 58, Royal and Select Masters; Mahoning Chapter No. 66, Royal Arch Masons ; Warren Commandery No. 39, Knights Templar, and a life member of Al Koran Temple Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of Cleveland. He is also a member of Warren Lodge of Elks No. 295, and of the following clubs : Masonic and Trumbull Country clubs of Warren, Tulsa Country Club of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Cleveland Athletic Club of Cleveland. He is a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Warren, and is a life-long member of the republican party, though he has never held or sought public office of any kind, political or otherwise.
Mr. Hughes for many years has been a member of the Warren Board of Trade, and also of the Chamber of Commerce of Cleveland. For several years he was a director of the Western Reserve National Bank. He took the duties of that office with characteristic seriousness, and eventually resigned because his other duties prevented him from regularly attending the board meetings.
At Niles, Ohio, on September 4, 1888, Mr. Hughes was united in marriage with Miss Jennie Edwards, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Fletcher Edwards of Niles. They have the following children: Raymond Edward Hughes, born October 22, 1893; and Margaret Elizabeth Hughes, born September 2, 1906.
CHARLES Y. FARRELL is one of several brothers who have made names for themselves in industrial circles in Youngstown. The oldest of twelve children, he had only a proportionate share in the modest circumstances of the family, and not only learned to look out for himself, but also at an early age bore some of the responsibilities of keeping up the home. He was therefore a worker when most boys of his age were in school. In the attainment of his present responsible position he has exemplified the resourcefulness of an American youth, and has really achieved success without the intervention of luck to any extent. Years ago when he became conscious of the handicap imposed by lack of education he set himself to the task of educating himself, and at night and every leisure interval he has studied text books and pursued some special line leading to better equipment for his work. His career has been one of much self denial, and he
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has thoroughly deserved all the success that has come to him.
Mr. Farrell was born at Lisbon, Ohio, November 25, 1881, son of John and Ella (Young) Farrelh His parents were also born at Lisbon. His grandfather, James Farrell, was an early settler in Ohio and lived at Sandusky. The Young family was also of Ohio pioneer stock. When Charles Y. Farrell was two years of age his parents moved to Youngstown, and his father died in September, 1909. He was educated in the grammar schools and the Rayen High School, and at the age of seventeen became a clerk and office boy in a drug store at $2.50 a week. The next year he worked in a haberdashery at $3.50 a week. His next employment was as clerk in the superintendent's office of the Erie Railroad and then he was a laborer in the steel mills, at first with the South Sharon Steel Company and then with the Ohio Works of the Carnegie Steel Company, where he was employed as recorder on ingot scales. While there he employed all his leisure time in special study in higher accounting, mathematics and secretarial duties. He then resumed service with the Erie Railroad Company, working up through the different grades until he became chief accountant. Concluding that there was no real future in the railroad business, Mr. Farrell in March, 1907, identified himself with the corporation where his work has been most progressive and most appreciated.
With the General Fireproofing Company he has remained steadily except for one year, beginning on distribution pay roll work, then was in charge of one of the cost divisions, and for six months had charge of the San Francisco office of the corporation. When that office was closed he remained on the coast for about a year as general auditor of a large concern in a similar line of business. Returning to Youngstown, he was assigned first to special litigation work, then became cashier, then assistant treasurer, then assistant secretary and treasurer, with direct charge of the accounting, cost, order and traffic departments. In March, 1915, he was promoted to purchasing agent, and since 1919 has held the office of director of purchases and supplies.
Mr. Farrell is a member of the Youngstown Country Club, the Chamber of Commerce, the Memorial Presbyterian Church, and politically is a republican. July 5, 1905, he married Mae Gravell, of Youngstown.
GEORGE W. CARSON, president of the Carson Piano Company at 5 Hippodrome Arcade, is one of the successful men of Youngstown, who has built up a large enterprise from small beginnings. Mr. Carson was born in Berlin Township, Mahoning County, Ohio, on a farm now covered by the waters of Milton Lake, from whence comes Youngstown's water supply, on May 22, 1869. He is a son of George W. and Melissa (Wilcox) Carson, and grandson of John Carson. In 1810 John Carson came to the Mahoning Valley from Pennsylvania and located in the woods, from which he cleared a farm. Active in the work of the Disciple Church, he was a heavy contributor to the founding of Hiram College, and was a warm, personal friend of James A. Garfield at the time the future President was connected with that institution of learning.
George W. Carson, father of George W. Carson of this review, was an educator and farmer. He attended Hiram College for three years, completing his course there when only nineteen years of age, and went with James A. Garfield to enlist in the service of his country at the outbreak of the war between the North and the South, in the same regiment as Mr. Garfield, being assigned to the secret service. Mr. Carson was at Gettysburg, Cumberland Gap and other engagements, and while in the service contracted a disability that caused his death in 1869, before the birth of his namesake son. His widow survived him until 1882, when she passed away, being then thirty-five years of age.
The younger George W. Carson attended the rural schools of Berlin Township, and later had the advantage of three years at Mount Union College, following which he spent a short time in the pine woods' of Texas for the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad. Later he was employed by the State of Texas as a special officer, better known as a ranger or state guard. Upon his return to Ohio he settled at Alliance and developed into a successful piano salesman, spent seven years in that city and then went to Canton, Ohio, and still later to Mobile, Alabama. Mr. Carson was then sent to Youngstown as a salesman for the Scott and Jones Company, and also represented other piano companies. He then organized his present company, which has been a success from the start. The original location was at the corner of Boardman and Hazel streets, removal being made to the present store in February, 1917. At one time the company had a branch house at Salem, Ohio, but now the business is concentrated at Youngstown. There are a number of salesmen on the road covering a wide territory, and Mr. Carson is not only the president of the company, but its general manager as well.
In 1890 Mr. Carson was married to Miss Nellie Finch; of Alliance, Ohio, who died in June, 1917, leaving one son, George W. III, who is now attending school. In 1919 Mr. Carson was married to Minerva J. Morrow, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Mr. Carson is a deacon in the Christian Church, and his wife belongs to the Reformed Church. In his political faith Mr. Carson is a democrat, but aside from exercising his right of suffrage he has not taken part in public matters. He belongs to the Kiwanis Club and the Chamber of Commerce, and is active in both organizations.
GEORGE FRANK KONOLD. The Konold family has been prominent in the industrial affairs of Pittsburgh for half a century or more, and during the last decade George F. Konold has extended the family interests to Warren, where he has been the practical genius in establishing and building up the Warren Tool & Forge Company.
A very interesting fact is that the Konolds have been identified with iron forging through generation after generation, extending as far back as the sixteenth century. For several centuries the Konolds were prominent in that industry at Frankfort, Germany. Frankfort was the birthplace of Christ