M. R. SMITH is an able
lawyer and jurist, has served three years as the mayor of Conneaut,
is its present city solicitor, is a director of the Conneaut Mutual
Loan and Trust Company, and has had a long connection with the pubic
life of his community. Born in Carlton, Pennsylvania, Sept. 8,
1864, he is a son of John and Katherine (Patton) Smith and he
is a graduate of the State Normal School of Pennsylvania with the
class of 1887. During four years thereafter he was connected
with the teacher's profession in the state of his birth, thus
becoming entitled to a life certificate, but in the fall of 1800 he
abandoned educational work to become a member of the legal
profession. After studying in the office of Judge J. F.
Burkey of Finley he was admitted to the bar on the 3d of
January, 1891, and continued as a practitioner of that city until
coming to Conneaut in 1899, where he follows a general line of
practice. He is a Mason, an Elk, an Odd Fellow and a Knight of
Pythias.
Mr. Smith married Miss Effie L. Morris,
of Fordyce, Pennsylvania, in 1893.
Source: History of the Western Reserve By Harriet Taylor Upton And a
staff of Leading Citizens collaborated on the Counties and
Biographies - ILLUSTRATED - VOL. III - Publ. The Lewis
Publishing Company - Chicago - New York - 1910 Page
1587 |
WILBER F. STANLEY
- In his special relations to Conneaut, Wilbur F.
Stanley has been honored for many years as one of its most
active and practical promoters, and throughout the Western Reserve
as one of the prominent men in that section of Ohio engaged in the
actual building of its railroads. He is a native of
Northfield, Summit county, Ohio, born on the 19th of February, 1843,
and is a son of Daniel S. and Hannah C. (Cranmer) Stanley.
His father was a native of Vermont and his mother, of New York, the
former going to Ohio in 1816 and settling on the Summit county farm
which was so long the family homestead and upon which he spent the
last period of his life. Both he and his wife died in 1880,
the mother at the age of seventy-eight years and the father at
eighty. They were active members of the Methodist church,
becoming acquainted at a camp meeting held by members of that
denomination and continuing steadfast and ardent in the faith
throughout the many years of their marriage. Daniel S.
held various official positions in the church, and as he also served
for a number of years as justice of the peace and was somewhat of a
leader in the public affairs of the locality, few men were better
known or more highly respected than he.
W. F. Stanley, the youngest of the twelve
children born to Mr. and Mrs. Daniel S. Stanley, remained on
his father's farm until he was eighteen years of age and received
his education in the public schools of Summit county. In 1861
he went west as far as the Wisconsin pineries, in which he was
employed for two years, when he returned to Ohio and engaged in the
railroad business, and, with the exception of about nine months
spent in the Union army, served as tract master for a division of
the Lake Shore Railroad until 1871. In Mar., 1865, he enlisted
in Company C, One Hundred and Fifteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and
remained in the service until November of that year, participating
in several skirmishes, but most of the time being on guard duty.
Mr. Stanley became a resident of Conneaut, Feb.
1, 1863, and since 1871 has spent most of his active business life
as a railroad contractor and in the development of his large
interests in the city. His railroad building has been largely
confined to the Lake Shore system and the Camden system in West
Virginia, to which as a constructor he has contributed several
hundred miles. In 1890 he completed the Stanley block,
which is the most substantial business building in the city, and for
many years he has been a stockholder and a director of the Conneaut
Mutual Loan Association, which has done so much in the advancement
of the general property interests of the place. In politics he
is a Republican and has served Conneaut as its mayor for two terms,
his administrations being noteworthy for the public improvements
accomplished. In the fraternities, Mr. Stanley is also
a figure of activity and prominence. In Masonry he is a past
master of Evergreen Lodge No. 222, past high priest of Conneaut
Chapter, No. 76, past T. I. M. of Conneaut Council, No. 40, and past
commander of Cache Commandry, No. 27, being the only living charter
member of that commandry. He also belongs to the Knights of
Pythias and the B. P. O. E. (Conneaut Lodge, No. 256), and is a
comrade of Custer Post No. 9, Grand Army of the Republic.
On May 9, 1871, Mr. Stanley married Miss
Alice Gould, daughter of Loren and Mary (Silverthorne) Gould,
of Conneaut. Mrs. Stanley's father came from New York
at a very early day and settled at Conneaut. He has been a
merchant, but entered local politics with such affect that he was
retained as township clerk for a period of thirty years.
Loren Gould married Mary Silverthorne in 1840, and their
five living offspring are scattered from the Atlantic to the Pacific
coast.
Source: History of the Western Reserve By Harriet Taylor Upton And a
staff of Leading Citizens collaborated on the Counties and
Biographies - ILLUSTRATED - VOL. III - Publ. The Lewis
Publishing Company - Chicago - New York - 1910 Page
1587 |
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