USA > Ohio > Genealogical and family history of eastern Ohio > Part 19
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69
201
GENEALOGICAL AND FAMILY HISTORY.
of the rebellion began, he was pastor of the First Methodist Episcopal church of Braddock, Pennsylvania. Resigning his pastorate, he became actively en- gaged in the work of recruiting troops and entered the army as chaplain of the Seventy-seventh Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, served for a period of one year or thereabouts, but from deprivation and exposure became broken in health and was compelled to resign his commission. Re- turning to his home he fully recovered in the course of a few months, and again took up the work of recruiting and re-enlisted as chaplain of the One Hundred and Fifty-fifth Regiment, with which he served until again compelled to resign on account of ill health. After the war he held various pastorates at different places and died in 1894 at Alliance, Ohio. He was a good man, in the best sense of the word, spending his -whole life in work for others and doing his best to win devotees to the cause of truth and moral- ity. Rev. John M. and Sarah (James) Thomas became the parents of nine children, of whom the following named are survivors: John J .; Sarah C., wife of J. N. Parker ; Clarabel, wife of A. D. Brosius; William A., Con- gregational minister in Trumbull, Connecticut : Agnes L., wife of Robert C. Morris; and Alice C., wife of Rev. Sheridan B. Salmon.
John James Thomas, eldest of the above enumerated children, was born in Monmouthshire, England, in 1852, and was brought in the same year by his parents to the "promised land" for all the discontented of earth. The first years of his life were spent in New York city, followed by short so- journs at Pittsburg and Braddock, Pennsylvania, until he reached the ninth year of his age. He obtained his education at his father's various residences in Ohio, such as New London, Gomer and Ironton, attending high school in the last mentioned place. Later he lived at Lansford, Pennsylvania, and from there went in 1878 to the Jefferson Medical College, where he was graduated in the class of 1881. Returning to Lansford, he practiced there a year or two, and in 1882 came to Youngstown, which was destined to prove his permanent abode. He entered actively upon the practice of his profession, pursued its steadily and undeviatingly and has achieved a decided success as a physician. He is now, and has been for some years. surgeon of the police, and has discharged the duties of this position with such efficiency as to defy criticism. He is a member of the Mahoning County Medical So- ciety, participates actively in its meetings and discussions and uses his ut- most endeavor to advance the cause of medical science.
In 1876 Dr. Thomas was united in marriage with Anna Evans, who died in 1882, leaving one daughter named Pearl A. In 1888 he took a second wife in the person of Miss Mary Davis, by whom he has two chil-
202
GENEALOGICAL AND FAMILY HISTORY.
dren : Arthur W. and Ellen M. Dr. Thomas, like his lamented father, is religious in his tendencies, and has long been a member of the Plymouth Congregational church, in which he holds the position of trustee. He is also vice-president of the Young Men's Christian Association, and is en- thusiastic in advancing the efforts for good so continuously put forth by that celebrated organization.
PORTER WATSON.
The Watson family in America goes back to the great-grandfather Will- iam Watson, who was born in Tyrone county, Ireland, in 1713, and about thirty years later sailed for America. He married Rebecca Torrence and they settled on a farm near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where he died in 1802, having reared a large family. In 1803 his son James, with his brother Hugh and four sisters, Sally, Katy, Mary and Rebecca, left the old home- stead and came to Mercer county, Pennsylvania, settling on a farm near Pulaski (now in Lawrence county). James married Mary Porter, who was an immigrant to this country with her father and family some time previously.
William, a son of the last named parents, was born in Mercer county, Pennsylvania, October 17, 1807, in a log cabin about two miles west of Pulaski. The first five years of his life were spent in this cabin, and in the summer of 1811 he went to school, the first reader being the New Testa- ment. Being left fatherless in 1818, he was reared by his mother, who did a noble part in bringing her children to maturity and giving them good school advantages. William Watson was a man of remarkable memory, and in the possession of the family is a book of fifty pages written by him when he was advanced in years, which records many pleasing incidents in his long life; from the age of three to six his recollections were perfectly dis- tinct, but from then till his eleventh year he could recall nothing of his boyhood days. He engaged in various occupations during his life, being compelled to earn his own way from an early age. In 1829 he married Peggy Jane Wallace, daughter of William Wallace, whose wife's name was Breckinridge. Their first born was James, who died in Pulaski when a child of four years. John W. Watson died May 16, 1902, aged sixty-eight; he had been controller and treasurer of the Jersey Central Railroad for many years; his wife died in June, 1901, leaving no children. Albert Watson died in 1896 in Cleveland, Ohio; he was the credit man for the Root and McBradbury commercial house; his wife and four sons and a daughter survived him. Cordelia died at the age of sixty in 1899, unmarried. The
20
GENEALOGICAL AND FAMILY HISTORY.
next son was Porter. Angeline married Major Brown, who is in the regular army and is at Havana, Cuba; they have one son and one daughter ; Thomas their son, is a first lieutenant in the army at Manila; he is only twenty-three years old and when he was raised to his present rank was the youngest officer of that grade in the army. Kate Watson died at the age of six. Hugh died at the age of forty-four in 1887, was married, and was the superin- tendent of five furnaces at St. Louis. Charles E. is a bookkeeper for a steam- ship company in New York city, and is married.
Porter Watson was born in Lowellville, Mahoning county, July 6, 1841 He was educated in the public schools and learned the machinist's trade in Youngstown. He was twenty years old when the war broke out, and he was one of the first volunteers to enlist, entering Company I, Seventh Ohio Infantry, April 22, 1861, for four months' service; at the close of this term he re-enlisted in the One Hundred and Fifth Ohio and served until his discharge on June 3, 1865. He entered Company A as a private, was soon promoted to second sergeant, then to sergeant major, to second lieutenant, and to first lieutenant, and was in command of Company D during the latter part of the war. He was once hit on the belt-plate and knocked down, but was fortunate to escape injury, hospitals and prison pens. At the battle of Chickamauga he captured Brigadier General Adams of the Confederate army and brought him into the lines on his horse.
After his return from the war Mr. Watson was married and was then for a year in partnership with his father in the general merchandise business; but finding this business too confining he bought a canal boat and ran it for three summers. He sold out and engaged as shipping clerk with the Brown Iron Company at Mineral Ridge, but later took the contract of mak- ing iron by the ton for three years. In 1872 he came to Lowellville and ran the furnace here for a year, and for some time following was a general contractor, building roads and bridges. In 1880 he again engaged in fur- nace superintendence, was in and about Pittsburg for three years, at Pilot Knob, Missouri, a year, at different places in Alabama and in Ohio, and in 1897 returned to Lowellville to accept the position of postmaster. He entered upon his duties on the first of the year and is still the honored incum- bent of the office. One of the enterprises in which he embarked was the purchase of the Meehan Boiler and Construction Company; he got up a subscription to purchase the site. He has been an impetus to many objects of a public nature within the last four years.
On October 19, 1865, Mr. Watson was married at West Meriden, Con- necticut, to Lois M. Barclay, a native of Mahoning county, and the daughter
204
GENEALOGICAL AND FAMILY HISTORY.
of Alexander Barclay, also born in Ohio. Helen C., the first child of this marriage, is the widow of Lyman Cowden and is the assistant postmistress ; Mary M. recently became the wife of J. K. Mitchell, of Aurora, Ohio; Grace W. died in 1889 at the age of eighteen ; and John E. is a telegrapher in the dispatcher's office of the Erie Railroad at Youngstown. They all had the advantage of good schooling at home. Mrs. Watson died January 2, 1899, at the age of fifty-four. Mr. Watson has filled all the offices of his town from school director to mayor, and has the honor of having lived in Lowell- ville longer than any other living inhabitant. The modest but comfortable cottage in which he makes his home he built over thirty years ago, and like his father he has taken much interest in all matters of public concern. In politics he is a Republican, is a Mason, an Odd Fellow and a Knight of Pythias, belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic and the Veteran Legion, has been a past commander of this, and is a member of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion.
FRANK LYNN BROWN.
The population of Youngstown is as cosmopolitan as that of the largest American cities. There is a strong native element here, but that drawn either direct or through descent from foreign countries is also very large and represents a great number of nationalities. Naturally in a city of this char- acter there is a wide diversity of opinion as to what constitutes good, or what might better be termed correct government. These opinions run from the most narrow-minded Puritanism to the most liberal view. To meet these conditions, a strong, yet liberal local government is necessary, and under the existing administration the city has this in the broadest sense in which the term can be applied. Mayor Frank L. Brown is an exacting, but con- sistent executive, and is aided in the enforcement of the laws by an unusually alert detective and police service. He enjoys the confidence of all classes and has succeeded in placing the city on a moral plane equal to that of any of equal size in the country. Possibly no other mayor has a closer personal acquaintance with his constituents than Mr. Brown. He is a product of the iron mills of the city. He is known by every workman, and his political preferment has in no wise destroyed a genial personality and frank com- panionship. He is plain "Mr. Mayor" to all classes, and his judicial deter- minations,-the duties of a mayor here being largely judicial,-are given with a degree of unbiased carefulness which could not fail to inspire the utmost respect for his administration, and naturally increase his personal popularity.
-
205
GENEALOGICAL AND FAMILY HISTORY.
Mayor Brown was born in Newcastle, Pennsylvania, August 3, 1849, Here he lived until he was ten years old, when he removed to Cleveland with his family, where his father built the Lake Erie Iron Works, familiarly known as the Whiskey Island Mills, which were owned and operated by Charles A. Otis. In 1863 he removed from Cleveland to Youngstown, and as a boy worked in the Brown & Bonnell Mill. He later went to Portsmouth in this state, and engaged in a rolling mill with his father, who was associated with Charles D. Arms and John Swambaugh, both now deceased, and Caleb B. Wick and Paul Jones, in the Portsmouth Iron Company. In 1870 Mr. Brown went to Paducah, Kentucky, and after working at this place for some eighteen months he returned to his native home, Newcastle, where he remained until 1874. At that date he came to Youngstown, since which time he has resided here permanently, and was steadily engaged at the Brown & Bonnell plant until elected to his present office in 1900, by a majority of one thousand and eighty. Mr. Brown was re-elected in April, 1902, by a majority of one thousand and fifty, his opponent being Bayer M. Campbell. Mr. Brown has always been a consistent Republican, but has always been fair and conservative in his views, so that he has not antagonized any par- ticular elements in the city. Socially he is affiliated with the Elks, the Odd Fellows, the Maccabees, the Knights of Pythias, the Foresters of America, the Woodmen of the World, and is a member of the Tribe of Ben Hur.
The home life of Mayor Brown began in 1868 at Portsmouth, Ohio, when he was fortunate enough to receive the consent of Ella L., daughter of Sampson Eagon Varner, to preside over it. Mr. Varner, the father of Mrs. Brown, was a soldier in the Civil war, colonel of the Fifty-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. To the marriage has been born a family of three chil- dren, of whom but one survives, Natalie Varner Brown.
The first member of the family of which Mr. Brown has authentic in- formation, was John Brown, his grandfather, who was born in England in 1804, and came to America in 1845, when he located in Newcastle. Penn- sylvania, and after a long life of usefulness, chiefly passed in the iron busi- ness, died in that city in 1865. The father of Mr. Brown was Nathaniel E. Brown, born in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, in 1832. He died in Youngs- town in 1887. During his lifetime he was a man of very great business activity, was at various times connected with some of the largest iron con- cerns in the Western Reserve. He married Jane W., daughter of James Squier, and to the marriage were born six children, five of them now living : James A., Frank L., Charles B., Mrs. T. J. Nicholl and Mrs. Will- iam Smith, who with her sister resides in Chicago. The mother of the family died in 1894.
206
GENEALOGICAL AND FAMILY HISTORY.
HUGH L. MCELROY.
Among the progressive and representative business men of the city of Youngstown, the attractive capital city of Mahoning county, is numbered Mr. McElroy, who is president and general manager of the H. L. McElroy Company, which was organized through his efforts and which conducts a large and important business in the handling of all kinds of furniture, the fine establishment of the concern being of metropolitan equipment and one which would do credit to a city of greater population than Youngstown can claim. The enterprise has been carried forward with marked discrimina- tion and ability, and the success which has attended the same is due in large measure to the projector, whose business career has been one of signal integrity and honor, and who commands unqualified confidence and esteem in the community.
Hugh Lytle McElroy traces his lineage back to stanch old Scotch- Irish origin, the founder of the family in America having been James McElroy, who emigrated from the north of Ireland and established his home in Pennsylvania prior to the war of the Revolution, and the family name has ever since been prominently identified with the annals of the old Key- stone state. The paternal grandfather of our subject is James McElroy, who was born in Pennsylvania in the year 1811, and he now resides at West Fairfield, that state, having been prominent and influential in his community and having served for many years as a member of the state legislature. Hugh I .. McElroy was born at Fairfax, Linn county, Iowa, on the 19th of November, 1866, being the son of William B. and Jane G. (Lytle) McElroy. His father was born in Pennsylvania in 1841, and he devoted his life to agri- cultural pursuits, having removed to Iowa when a young men and having there passed the remainder of his days, his death occurring in 1889. At the time of the war of the Rebellion he manifested his intrinsic loyalty and patriotism by enlisting as a private in the Fourth Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry, in which he rose to the rank of adjutant and with which he served until the close of the war, having participated in many of the notable en- gagements of the great conflict which resulted in the perpetuation of the in- tegrity of the Union. He was four times wounded, receiving a severe injury at Cold Harbor and being also wounded in the battle of the Wilderness, where he was captured by the enemy, but soon effected his escape and re- joined his command. He took part in many other important engagements and his record was that of a brave and loyal son of the republic. The mother of our subject is now living in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She was born in the state of Pennsylvania, being a daughter of Hugh Lytle, and by her marriage
209
GENEALOGICAL AND FAMILY HISTORY.
she became the mother of eight children, namely: Hugh L., James I., Ed- ward H., Harry A., William B., John A., Ralph G. and Susan M.
Our subject received his early educational training in the public schools of his native county and supplemented the same by a course of study in Monmouth College, an excellent institution maintained under the auspices of the United Presbyterian church at Monmouth, Illinois. He left this college at the age of seventeen years and returned to his home, and during the ensuing two years he devoted his attention to teaching in the district schools of Linn county, proving successful in his pedagogic labors. He then went to the city of Cedar Rapids, the metropolis of the same county, and there assumed a clerkship in a department store, receiving five dollars per week in recognition of his services and paying for his own board out of this diminutive stipend. Such was his fidelity and ability that he soon gained recognition, for at the time when he gave up his position, at the expiration of eighteen months, he had charge of a department, while he had gained valuable business experience.
In February, 1888, Mr. McElroy came to Youngstown to take charge of the carpet department in the establishment of J. W. Euwers & Sons,, in whose employ he continued for three years. He then entered into partnership with the widow of his uncle, Frank Lytle, and thus became identified with the conducting of a furniture store in this city, the enterprise being con- tinued for two years under the firm name of Lytle & McElroy. The follow- ing year Mr. McElroy was in charge of a department in the department store of the E. M. McGillan Company, and at the expiration of this interval he went to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where he was given charge of the carpet and upholstering department in one of the extensive mercantile estab- lishments of the city, and where he remained two and one-half years. He then returned to Youngstown, and here effected the organization of the H. L. McElroy Company, which instituted business upon a capital stock of twenty thousand dollars, and the company opened a general furniture and house-furnishing establishment, with a large and admirably selected stock of goods. Mr. McElroy was made the president and general manager, and he brought into play his thorough knowledge of the business, his marked energy and discrimination and that honorable and courteous plan of dealing which gained public support and appreciation. The enterprise rapidly ex- panded in scope and importance, and eventually it became necessary to in- crease the capital stock, which is now seventy-five thousand dollars-a rep- resentation of investment which indicates to how extensive scope the under- taking has grown. The establishment is a credit not only to its projector
210
GENEALOGICAL AND FAMILY HISTORY.
but also to the city, and Mr. McElroy stands high in the business circles of the city, being essentially progressive and public-spirited and taking a lively interest in all that conserves the advancement and material prosperity of his home city.
In politics, while having no personal ambition in the way of official preferment, he gives a stanch support to the principles and policies of the Republican party, and fraternally he is prominently identified with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. He and his wife are members of the United Presbyterian church. In the city of Niles, Ohio, on the 20th of June. 1894, Mr. McElroy was united in marriage to Miss Anna Benedict, who was born in that city, a daughter of James S. Benedict. They have no children. Mrs. McElroy was born in the same house in which the late President Mckinley was born. For thirty years her father carried on a general store in part of the same building, and the property to-day is still owned by the family.
OWEN D. JONES.
The merited reward of long years of consecutive toil and endeavor is an honorable retirement from the active cares of business, and this is the portion of the subject of this review, who was for many years a prominent contractor of Youngstown, Mahoning county, where he still maintains his home, and where, at the venerable age of seventy-five years, he is enjoying that dignified repose which he has earned through his effective efforts during the course of a signally active and useful career.
Mr. Jones is a native of the south of Wales, having been born in pic- turesque Cardinganshire, on the 15th day of November, 1827, a son of John D. and Margaret ( Richards) Jones, both of whom were born and reared in the same county in Wales and were there married. In 1832 they emigrated to America and took up their residence on a farm in the vicinity of Palmyra, Portage county, Ohio, where the father devoted the remainder of his life to agricultural pursuits, a vocation to which he had been reared in his native land. He died in 1869, at the age of eighty-one years and ten months, having been one of the honored pioneers of that section of the Buckeye state and having been esteemed for his sterling worth of character. His wife passed away in 1861, at the age of sixty-nine years. Of their ten children, nine lived to years of maturity, but the subject of this sketch is now the only survivor of the family. The paternal grandfather of our subject was David Jones, who passed his entire life in Wales, the family tracing its lineage back through many generations in that country.
2II
GENEALOGICAL AND FAMILY HISTORY.
Owen D. Jones was a child of five years at the time of his parents' re- moval from Wales to America, and he grew up on the homestead farm in Portage county, early beginning to contribute to the work of reclamation and improvement, and receiving such educational advantages as were to be had in the somewhat primitive schools of the locality and period. He con- tinued to reside in Portage county until 1862, when, at the age of thirty years, he came to Youngstown, which has thus been his home for the long period of forty years, and he has so lived as to gain and retain the implicit confidence and esteem of the people of the community, being a man of sin- cerity and inflexible probity in all the relations of life. At the age of sixteen years he began an apprenticeship at the carpenter's trade, eventually becom- ing a skilled artisan in the line, and this figured as his vocation thenceforward until his retirement, in 1901. He inaugurated his independent career as a contractor and builder when twenty years of age, and thereafter he continued operations successfully, building up an excellent business after coming to Youngstown, in which city and vicinity remain many monuments to his skill, while he ever maintained a high reputation for fidelity to his contracts and for honorable and straightforward dealings. In political matters Mr. Jones has been independent of strict partisan lines, and his religious views are indicated in his membership in the Congregational church, of which his wife also has long been a devoted member. Fraternally he is identified with the Masonic order, of whose beneficent teachings he is most apprecia- tive.
On the 6th of May, 1852, Mr. Jones was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Jones, a daughter of Evan D. Jones, the two families having no consanguinity. Of this union nine children were born, and all are living with the exception of Susannah, who became the wife of Frederick Hoehn and who died in 1888, at the age of thirty-one years. The other children are as follows: Elizabeth, the wife of Roger Evans; Margaret, the wife of Robert Knox; Alice, the wife of John Hamilton; Laura, the wife of Samuel Biddle; Olive, the wife of E. S. Hinkson; and Owen R .. Daniel J. and Evan W.
WILLIAM A. MALINE.
The above named gentleman, who is a prominent attorney at Youngs- town, has exhibited quite a versatility of talents, not only being a good law- yer but a skillful politician and a writer of decided literary ability. The pos- session of these qualities have made him a popular feature of the city's life, and he is a welcome guest in social as well as professional circles. He has been especially conspicuous in local politics, having served for several years
212
GENEALOGICAL AND FAMILY HISTORY.
and at different times as city solicitor and had charge of his party's cam- paign work as chairman of the city committee. He is of German descent and exhibits in his bearing and address the geniality and adaptability to circumstances which make the Germans everywhere such makers and holders of friends.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.