USA > Ohio > Genealogical and family history of eastern Ohio > Part 4
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I ly Finney
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and we are gratified in being able to here offer a brief review of the life record of this veteran business man.
Isaac Garrett Tinney is a native of the Dominion of Canada, having been born at Wellington, Prince Edward county, province of Ontario, on the 3rd of July, 1833. There he secured his somewhat meager educational training as a boy, and at the early age of fourteen years started out in life on his own responsibility, having ever since been dependent upon his own resources. He left home at the age noted and made his way to Wolcott, Wayne county, New York, where he apprenticed himself to a tailor, for the purpose of learning the trade. He made excellent progress and showed marked facility in acquiring a practical knowledge of the business, and after a period of two years he removed to Clyde, in the same county, where he was engaged in the work of his trade until 1857, when he came to Ohio and soon took up his residence in Youngstown, which has ever since been his home and the field of his endeavors. He established himself in business here in 1857, and with the exception of an interval of about eleven years, during which he was in the employ of others, he has been in business for himself, and he may well be termed one of the pioneer merchants of the city, in whose development and progress he has ever taken a lively interest, witnessing its advancement from a small hamlet to a position as an important industrial and commercial center in the state. He has ever maintained a public-spirited at- titude, while his reputation as a straightforward and reliable business man and as an exemplary citizen has been amply fortified during the long years which bear the record of his life and labors in this locality. In politics he gives his support to the Republican party, and he served one term as a mem- ber of the city council, though he has but once sought the honors of political office. The time-honored Masonic fraternity has long claimed his affiliation, and he has passed the capitular degrees, being identified with the lodge and chapter bodies of the order in his home city.
At Wolcott, New York, in 1855, Mr. Tinney was united in marriage to Miss Sarah Braford, who has proved to him a true companion and helpmeet, and of their five children four are living at the present time, namely: Charles B .: Frank S .; Alice, the wife of Frank D. Hartman; and Gilbert M. Ella M., who became the wife of Robert Sharp, died in 1898. Mr. Tinney's pres- ent residence at 216 Lincoln avenue was erected in 1882.
Michael Tinney, the father of our subject, was born in the state of Connecticut in 1795, and his death occurred in 1852. He was a blacksmith by trade and vocation, and did active service as a soldier in the war of 1812, in which he participated in the battle of Sodus Point. New York. He chose
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as a wife Miss Mary Garrett, whose father, Isaac Garrett, was born in Ire- land, and of the nine children of this union four grew to years of maturity, and two are living at the present time, Isaac G., and Sarah, the wife of Jacob Sharp, of Lapeer county, Michigan.
SIMEON SHARP.
This name has been a familiar one in Columbiana county since the end of the second decade of the nineteenth century. For more than fifty years the principal industry of Salem has advertised the Sharp Brothers to every quarter of the world as the originators and makers of the famous Buckeye Engine. All of these brothers, four in number, were mechanics of the first rank in their respective times, and to their skill, industry and organizing ability was due the splendid plant, now one of the largest of its kind in the country and the pride of the locality in which it is situated. The lives of such men are always interesting and instructive, and no apology is necessary for presenting that of Simeon Sharp in as full detail as can be ob- tained after careful inquiry. It was about the year 1806 that Joel and Rebecca (Tynell) Sharp arrived in Columbiana county, after a weary jour- ney from their original home at Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey. There was something of both the pathetic and heroic in the spectacle presented by this pioneer couple as they came to a halt within two and one-half miles from the present town of Salem. During the long and tedious journey Mrs. Sharp drove the one-horse wagon with two babies in her lap, while her husband went ahead to cut out a road with his ax. When the final stop was made, Joel Sharp took a silver half dollar from his pocket and remarked somewhat ruefully : "This is all the money I have in the world." The prospect was indeed somewhat discouraging, but what ill fortune or hardship could dis- courage the early pioneer of the Ohio Valley! He set to work manfully at his trade as a carpenter, took up a section of wild land and in the course of time had a rude home for the shelter of his wife and growing family. They were originally members of what was known as the orthodox branch of the Society of Friends, but a few years after their arrival in Ohio joined the Hicksites meeting at Salem. Joel Sharp did not long survive his set- tlement in Ohio, as his death occurred in 1820, but his wife survived to the extreme age of ninety-two, preserving her faculties and energy until the closing of her earthly career at Salem, June 12, 1875. A full list of their children is given in connection with the sketch of Joel Sharp, on another page of this volume, to which inquirers are referred for particulars.
Simeon Sharp, the fourth son and sixth child of this interesting family,
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1195070
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was born on the farm of his father near Salem, May 1, 1817, and when seven years old was "bound out" to a neighboring farmer. He withstood the drudgery of farm life with impatience until he reached the age of four- teen, when he ran away a year before his apprenticeship had expired and sought employment at Salem. Under the tutelage of his brother Thomas he learned the carpenter's trade, and for some years afterward this fur- nished him his means of livelihood. In 1847 Simeon and his three brothers, Thomas, Clayton and Joel Sharp, established a business at Salem for build- ing engines and that was the foundation of the works which later eventu- ated in the enterprise now so well known. When the Pennsylvania Railroad was being built through Columbiana county, the Sharp Brothers took a contract to furnish eleven miles of ties and stringers, and for this purpose bought one hundred acres of timber land, on which they erected a sawmill. Thomas was placed in charge of the mill, while the other brothers contin- ued work at the shops. Owing to an unfortunate contention which sub- sequently sprang up between Thomas and the other brothers, the partnership was dissolved in 1851, a new firm was organized consisting of Joel Sharp, Milton Davis, Joel Bonsall and Simeon Sharp, who took over the shop with its appurtenances, and for the next twenty years conducted the Buck- eye Engine Works. In 1871 the business was incorporated as the Buckeye Engine Company, of which Joel Sharp was made president; Milton Davis, vice-president ; J. C. Boone, secretary ; Joel S. Bonsall, superintendent ; and Simeon Sharp, assistant superintendent. Thomas Sharp was given the land and mill in lieu of his interest in the engine works and lived on this place until 1896, when he died in the eighty-eighth year of his age.
During his long connection with the Buckeye Engine Company. Simeon Sharp had much to do with the development and improvement of the ma- chines and was a prime factor in achieving the success which eventually came to the enterprise. He traveled all over the country in the transaction of the company's business, and set up their machines at innumerable places in the south and west. During one of his trips inland, in 1847, he visited Chicago, which then gave little promise of its future development, as its site was a prolonged series of marshes and ponds. When the Buckeye En- gine Works first started, the partners did all the principal work, the entire force of the establishment not exceeding twelve persons, while at the present time the company employs nearly three hundred men. The engine which they turn out, under the name of "Buckeye" has an established fame wherever power machinery is used in any part of the world. After filling the position as assistant superintendent of the company for forty years, Mr.
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Sharp retired from active business in 1892 and is now spending his life in grateful repose. Though most of his energies were absorbed in his some- what exacting business, he found time to pay some attention to public affairs. Originally an old-line Whig and a worshiper of "Harry of the West" as the matchless leader of that once great party, Mr. Sharp became a Republican in 1856, voted for Lincoln in 1860 and continued his allegiance until 1898, when his religious convictions in favor of peace compelled him to disagree with the party then in power as to its policy in reference to the Spanish- American war.
Mr. Sharp married Lydia S. Taylor, of New Brighton, Pennsyl- vania, by whom he has three children, all daughters: Lucy S., the oldest, is the wife of Samuel White, a well known bridge builder of New Brighton, Pennsylvania; Ora, the second daughter, married Demorest Davis, at pres- ent vice-president of the Buckeye Engine Company, of which his father was one of the founders; Helen, youngest of the family, is now the wife of William Silver, president of the Silver Manufacturing Company at Salem. The Sharps, through their relationship and intermarriages with the families of Davis, Bonsall, Silver and others, constitute one of the most extensive social connections in Columbiana county, while their large holdings and long identification with various industrial undertakings give them a wide- spread and potential influence in the business world.
WALTER N. WILSON.
The Wilson family in America goes back to the colonization of Penn- sylvania by William Penn, and there is in the possession of the family a parchment deed from that great proprietor made out to the great-grandfather Thomas M. Wilson, as well as a will of this gentleman, which the subject of this biography has had the pleasure of reading. McFarland Wilson, the son of Thomas M., was born above Mckeesport, Pennsylvania. He mar- ried Mary Reed, of the same section, and they reared three children: Hen- derson Wilson was a clothing merchant in Pittsburg, where he died in old age, leaving a large family; Thomas M. was the next child; Sarah J. is the widow of James McClure, of East Mckeesport, which town is located on her estate. The mother of these children lived to be nearly one hundred years old. Thomas M. Wilson, the second son of the last named family, was born above Mckeesport on the Monongahela river in 1825, and died in Pittsburg in 1892. He was a clothing merchant in Pittsburg for some twelve years and was also a farmer in the Monongahela valley. About 1848 he married Lydia Barrett, who was born in this country in 1829; her
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father had come to America in 1828, being six weeks on the voyage, and he settled in Pittsburg and was a glass worker. There were six children born of this marriage: Albert Wilson lives at Carnegie, Pennsylvania, and has five children; the second is Walter N., whose biography follows in the suc- ceeding paragraph; Arthur, a farmer in the Monongahela valley, died at the age of forty in Pittsburg and left a wife and a daughter; Samuel W. is a real estate dealer at Niles, Ohio, and has two sons and a daughter ; Sarah J. is married and has two children; Alonzo R. is in the real estate business in Pittsburg, and has one daughter. The mother of this family is still living in Pittsburg, an active old lady.
The birth of Walter N. Wilson occurred in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, December 3, 1853, and he was educated on the farm in Pennsylvania and on the plantation of three hundred acres in Virginia which his father had bought in 1869. When he was nineteen years old he left this latter place and went out to southern Kansas, near the Indian territory ; he engaged in farming in that wild country, and was forty miles from a railroad. He never had the honor of killing a buffalo in that country, but his friend did, and they both slept on the skin. The grasshoppers and the drought of 1873 made crops a failure, and in the following year he returned to Pennsylvania. He soon afterward married, and for a number of years was located at Brad- dock, Pennsylvania, where he engaged in selling pianos and dealing in real estate. He moved from there to his small farm in Jackson township, Mahoning county, but after a short residence there he sold his place at a profit and came to Struthers in March, 1901, where he has dealt exten- sively in realty. He owns some very valuable property here, his own resi- dence and office, besides a bakery which is conducted by an experienced man in his interests, and many improved and vacant lots. He is a mem- ber of the South Youngstown Land Company, which was incorporated in 1902 with Dr. W. A. Morrison as its president, Attorney Roland, of Youngs- town, its secretary, and Thomas McVey, its treasurer; Mr. Wilson has charge of the sale of the company's land. Mr. Wilson is one of the stock- holders, a director, and a member of the finance committee of the Struthers Savings and Banking Company.
On January 8, 1877, Mr. Wilson was married to Miss Fanny F. Young- blood, of Indiana, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Scott Youngblood: the latter was the court-cryer for over fifty years, and there were three sons and three daughters in his family who grew up, all of them living at the present time. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson became the parents of three children : Mable T. is the wife of John M. Glenn, of Struthers, and has two children ;
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Horace L., an unmarried young man, is his father's partner in the firm of W. N. Wilson and Son: the daughter Lena died at the age of four years. Mr. Wilson is a Republican, and he and his wife are members of the Meth- odist church and are held in high esteem by their many friends.
CLARK RICE McCOMBS.
Clark Rice McCombs is a well known citizen of Mahoning county, Ohio, and resides near Struthers, on the farm where he was born April 16, 1858, in the same house in which his father, William Morrison McCombs, was born, February 21, 1816. The latter was a son of William, and a grandson of John McCombs, who was born in Scotland in 1747, moved to Ireland, and from there came to America in 1770. John McCombs married Elizabeth Marshall, who was born in 1748. in Scotland and died in Poland township, Mahoning county, Ohio, September 14, 1839, aged ninety-one years. Their children were as follows: William, who was born Decem- ber 24, 1772, at Pequea, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, died October I, 1854, in Poland township, aged eighty-one years; Robert, born April 14, 1775, died November 30, 1843, at Niles, Ohio; John, born June 13, 1777, died April 18, 1862, aged eighty-four years and ten months; Elizabeth, born September 22, 1782, died in 1805, in Poland township, aged twenty-three years; Isaac, born February 15, 1784, died August 18, 1847, in his sixty- fourth year; James, born in 1786, died August 23, 1848, in Weathersfield, Ohio; and Joseph, born December 6, 1789, died February 2, 1885, aged ninety-five years. All these children of John McCombs were born in or near Pequea. The old headstone of this progenitor of the family can be found in the Poland cemetery.
"The History of John McCombs' Family" was published in 1897, in Chicago, by John Clark Ward, a great-grandson of this patriarch, and from it we glean some interesting family history. That the American founder of the family as well as his wife came originally from Scotland, was made evident by their traits of character, their customs and their songs. Quoting from the book: "The families intimate with the McCombs in Ohio were the Stewarts, Marshalls, McClellends, McFarlands and the Mckinleys, great-grandparents of William McKinley, president of the United States. The most of these families came from Washington county, Pennsylvania, with John McCombs and his family. While in Pennsylvania he was an agriculturist and dairyman of the highest order, owning the finest blooded stock. The same degree of enterprise was manifested in Ohio by his sons and grandsons, from 1800 to 1860, at which time the settlement of the
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western territory and the Civil war from 1861 to 1865 diverted their atten- tion to commercial and professional pursuits, and at this date but few of the descendants are engaged in agriculture. We also find that John McCombs was a soldier in the Revolutionary war from 1776 to 1781, and received depreciation pay to that date, as shown by the records of the state librarian at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. This fact entitled his descendants to mem- bership in the Sons and Daughters of the Revolution. John and his whole family moved from Washington county to Poland, then Trumbull county, Ohio, in 1800, where he and his son William purchased a tract of land, the first taxes, in 1803, being forty cents. John, Jr., purchased another tract at the same time, and his first taxes were twenty. cents. Youngstown, founded by John Young, was the headquarters for making titles to the land owned by the Ohio Company. John McCombs stood five feet, six inches, broad-shouldered, brown eyes. He was a Presbyterian in religious faith. His wife was a large woman, weighing two hundred pounds. In her later years she took much pride in teaching her grandchildren to knit and em- broider, in the meantime amusing them with tales and incidents of her life. Her Bible was her constant companion. It was printed in 1793. and its leaves were brown and worn by time and use. She survived her husband seventeen years, and both are sleeping their last sleep in the old Center cemetery of the Poland Presbyterian church."
The mother of Clark Rice McCombs was Esther Rice, and she was born in Madison county, New York, in 1819, and died in 1902, and was a daughter of Sherman and Roxanna (Marion) Rice, who were married in New York. The parents of our subject were married January 3, 1844, and they reared four children, namely: Albert S., who is a broom manu- facturer at Hartford City, Indiana, and has one daughter and two sons: William. who is single, still lives on the old farm; Miss Clara resides also on the old homestead; and Clark Rice.
Mr. McCombs was reared on the home farm and obtained his education in the local schools and in Poland Academy. He remained at home until his marriage on October 9, 1901, to Miss Isabelle Wallace, who was born near Newcastle, Pennsylvania, and is a daughter of Robert and Sarah (Young) Wallace, the former of whom was born in Slippery Rock, Butler county, Pennsylvania, in 1838, and the latter, 1837, on a farm three miles out of Newcastle, where they still live, December 12. Mr. and Mrs. Wal- lace married about 1859 and they had eight children, as follows: Jennie, who is the wife of Nathan Offutt, has one daughter. Belle; William, who died aged eleven months; Isabelle, who became Mrs. McCombs; David
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Young, who resides near Edinburg, Pennsylvania; William Wylie, who is a mail carrier in Newcastle; Lizzie, who is a young lady at home; Robert Bruce, died in infancy; and Frank is still under the home roof. Mrs. McCombs is a well educated lady and taught school for several terms prior to her marriage. One little son has been born to Mr. and Mrs. McCombs, his birthday being September 15, 1902, and he bears the name of William Wallace.
Mr. McCombs belongs to the order of Knights of Pythias. He is identified with the Republican party and is a member of the Struthers city council. He sold forty-five acres of his land to the Youngstown Iron and Sheet Steel Company. The prosperous city of Struthers is encroaching on the old farm, five streets already having been laid out. He erected a hand- some residence on the corner of Park avenue and Marion street. The first house built on the old farm is still standing, near the present residence, with its two large chimneys built on the outside, and it is now used for storage purposes. The present home is delightfully situated and is one of the most attractive ones in the locality. The surviving members of this old and prominent pioneer family belong to the most highly esteemed citizens of Ma- honing county.
PATRICK MYLOTT.
To adopt a new country, one foreign in customs, business and to some extent in language, where all is changed and where everything wears a new and unaccustomed garb, is what few men can do within a limited time. Patrick Mylott, however, was able to adapt himself to such changed condi- tions and to assume highly responsible positions both public and private. He first began life's battle in the historic county Mayo in the Emerald Isle. There he remained until constant reports of the greatness and of the ad- vantages of this country induced him, with many others, to leave his home country, his accustomed surroundings and friends, and seek his fortunes in America. This was in the year 1868. He went at once to Youngstown, Ohio, where he has since remained, and his industry and ability have there received marked reward. Beginning work in the rolling mills, he was soon put to more responsible work and progressed from time to time.
The same qualities which brought him success in the business world have made him an influential leader in public life. He has served with ability as city commissioner during two terms and also as councilman of the sixth ward, and these services have covered a period of about six years, during all of which he has discharged his official duties in a highly credit-
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able manner and in such a way as to win the admiration and respect of all who have known him.
He was united in marriage in his adopted city of Youngstown to Sebina Burk, with whom he has lived long and happily. Eight living children make up the family, seven boys and one girl, all of whom prove a great satis- faction and comfort to their parents. The father of Patrick was Raymond Mylott, who, like his son, possessed many qualities which endeared him to all. Mr. Mylott early espoused the Catholic faith, and has always been a devoted adherent to its tenets. He is a Democrat and in the politics of Youngstown has long figured as a leader.
SETH J. McNABB.
The McNabb family is an old and long established one in Mahoning county, Ohio, and is so numerous in its various branches that the annual reunion is an affair of considerable importance in that locality, the above named gentleman having been the treasurer of this reunion association for the past two years. Grandfather Patrick McNabb was a native of Ireland and came to this country as a young man. He was married to Catherine McNabb, no relative, however, and of their thirteen children but three daugh- ters now survive: Margaret is the widow of Jesse Huff, in Youngstown, and has two daughters; Harriet, the wife of Edward Goodge in Youngs- town, has three children living; Julia is the wife of Wallace Wilkins, at Lowellville, and has one adopted daughter. The son Darius, father of Seth J. McNabb, was the youngest of these children; he was a plasterer by trade and was accidentally killed in an iron furnace when only twenty- two years old. About two years before he had married Miss Rebecca Thomp- son, a native of Wooster, Ohio, and this lady is now the wife of John F. Shafer, by whom she has had four children: William Shafer is a young man in the iron mill; Curtis is also in the mill; Myrtle is a young lady at home and employed in the postoffice; Walker is still in school and sells the daily papers.
It is to Seth J. McNabb that the course of the biography now comes. He was the only son of the brief union of Darius and Rebecca McNabb and was born in Lowellville, May 23, 1870, being only nine months old when he lost his father. He went to school in Poland Center and Lowell- ville up to his tenth year with regularity, but for the next seven years his opportunities to gain an education were rather limited. He then began clerking in the tobacco and candy store of Dr. Morrison in Struthers, but when he was nineteen he went to Braddock, Pennsylvania, where he was
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employed to fire an engine, as timekeeper and stock-house boss. On his re- turn to Struthers he worked in the iron mill of Summers Brothers, and then engaged as a clerk for Hacker and Morrison, who remained in business, however, but three months, after which he conducted the grocery store of W. T. Conklin, who was engaged in the coal business, and turned over the other branch of his trade to Mr. McNabb. He was a clerk for McGillen and Company in Youngstown for nine weeks, accepted a better offer with Moody Brothers, where he remained for three years, and two years longer with their successors, and he then took charge of and conducted the order busi- ness of G. M. McKelvey and Company in Struthers for five years. On October 30, 1901, the grocery firm of Creed and McNabb was opened in Struthers, which under the management of Mr. McNabb has proved very prosperous. Mr. Creed, the "silent" partner in the enterprise, is a wealthy and successful dairy farmer, having a fine farm on the outskirts of the town, and he also has capital invested in other lines in the county. It re- quires four persons to attend to the business of this establishment.
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