Source:
PAST AND PRESENT
OF THE
CITY OF ZANESVILLE
AND
MUSKINGUM COUNTY, OHIO
By J. Hope Sutor together with
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
of many of its Leading and Prominent Citizens and Illustrious Dead.
ILLUSTRATED
Published Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.
1905

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WILLIAM YAKEY, whose varied business interests have been an important element in the commercial and industrial development of his town and county, is now the president of the First National Bank of New Concord, and is also engaged in lumbering and farming.  His keen perception and understanding of a business situation and his recognition and utilization of a business opportunity have been the basic elements of his prosperity making him one of the representative men of his locality.  He was born May 21, 1846, in Perry county, near New Lexington, Ohio, his parents being Henry and Margaret (Croskey) Yakey, the former a native of Loudoun county, Virginia, and the latter of Mansfield, Ohio.  Henry Yakey, arrived in this state about 1835, and located in Perry county, where he followed the occupation of farming.  He spent the remainder of his days there and died in 1880.  His political support was given the democracy.      When he had completed his education as a student in the public schools of Perry county, William Yakey turned his attention to the commercial world, and entered upon his business career as a dealer in lumber in Fairfield county, Ohio.  Later he engaged in merchandizing at various times in Junction City, Perry and New Lexington, Ohio.  For many years he has been engaged in the manufacture and sale of lumber and since 1890 he has resided in New Concord, where he has manufactured lumber, owning and operating a sawmill until the spring of 1905, when he sold his plant.  He owns a farm, which he rents, and he was instrumental in developing an oil well four miles from New Concord, the company owning one two-barrel well.  He is now well known in banking circles in the town and surrounding districts, having been president of the First National Bank of New Concord since its organization on the 5th of October, 1903.  A safe, conservative and yet progressive policy was inaugurated that has awakened public confidence and the bank has enjoyed a prosperous existence from the beginning.  Mr. Yakey has also dealt in stock, and he is a man of resolute, determined will, who carries forward to a successful completion whatever he undertakes.  He is alert and enterprising, watchful of opportunity, managing his interests along modern business lines and with strict conformity to a high standard of commercial ethics.      Mr. Yakey was married in 1876, to Miss Mary E. Ball, who was born in Morgan county in 1858, and a daughter of Joseph J. and Adeline (Bradley) Ball, who were natives of New England.  The father, a farmer by occupation, was born Mar. 20, 1807, and traces his lineage to the Washington family, his grandfather being a second cousin of Mary Ball, mother of George Washington.  His wife was born in March, 1815.  Mr. and Mrs. Yakey have one child, Adeline who was born in 1881, and is the wife of C. E. Meyer, who resides in Sheridan near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, of the firm of Glass & Meyer, brokers at 1304 Keystone Building, Pittsburg.  The parents are members of the Presbyterian church and are interested in the social and moral welfare of the community, their labors contributing to progress along those lines.  Mr. Yakey is also deeply interested in politics and keeps well informed on the questions and issues of the day.  He give his support to the republican party, and was once nominated for the position of county sheriff, but resigned the following day.  He was served, however, as a member of the city council of New Concord, and his effort in behalf of the improvement and upbuilding of the city has been far-reaching and beneficial.  As president of the First National Bank, it was for him to fill the position of superintendent of construction during the building of the bank's hotel property, a magnificent two-story structure, with bank, hardware store, furniture store and the hotel office on the ground floor and eighteen outsides rooms, well arranged, on the second floor.  Arrangements have already been made to furnish the hotel complete and have it ready for occupancy Sept. 1st.  This will complete one of the most desirable hotel properties in any town of a like size in the state.  He has been and is distinctively a man of affairs and one who has wielded a wide influence.  His interest in public in public action is that of practical labor rather than theory and in public life, as in private business affairs, his work is followed by tangible and gratifying result. Source:  Past and Present of the City of Zanesville, and Muskingum Co., Ohio - Published Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co. - 1905 - Page 245

GEORGE F. YOUNG.    Business interests have undergone marked changes within the past quarter of a century.  This is an age of gigantic enterprises and at the head of manifold business concerns are men of marked energy, having the power to recognize and utilize opportunities accurately, solve intricate business problems and to shape existing conditions until they prove resultant factors in winning success.  George F. Young, of Zanesville, possesses the typical American spirit that has led to the rapid growth and development of the middle west along commercial and industrial lines. He is to-day secretary and manager of the Roseville Pottery Company and in this connection controls one of the great productive industries of his adopted city.      Mr. Young was born in Washington county, Ohio, in 1863.  His father, Theobald Young, was a native of Germany and in 1850 came to the United States, settling at Lower Salem, Ohio.      He is a blacksmith by trade and for many years followed that pursuit but is now living retired at the age of seventy-four years.  At the time of the Civil war he joined the home guard, organized to protect the state against the invasion of Morgan and his men.  He belongs to the Odd Fellows society and his religious connection is with the German Lutheran church.  He married Dora Zumbro, also a native of the fatherland, having been brought to America by her parents, who located near Whipple, Washington county, Ohio.  She, too, was a member of the German Lutheran church and died in that faith in 1897, at the age of sixty-three years.  In the family were six children.      George F. Young, the third in order of birth, acquired his education in the schools of his native county and afterward engaged successfully in teaching for four years.  He came to Zanesville in 1884 and here pursued a course in a business college, after which he accepted a position of bookkeeper with the Singer Manufacturing Company, acting in that capacity for six years.  In 1892 he became general manager for the Roseville Pottery Company at Roseville, Ohio.  He was soon afterward chosen to the office of secretary and at the close of the first year was made secretary and treasurer.  He remained in Roseville until 1898, when he came to Zanesville, the plant of the company having been removed to this city.  They had purchased the plant of the Clark Stoneware Company and the same year that of the Midland Pottery Company at Roseville.  These plants were then enlarged and improved, being equipped with the latest machinery known to the trade.  In 1901 the Muskingum Stoneware Company’s plant was added and the Roseville Pottery now controls and operates four different plants under the present firm style.  Each has its superintendent and altogether the employes of the company number three hundred and twenty-five.  A large line of pottery ware is manufactured, the most famous kind being perhaps the Rozane art ware.  They also manufacture the ox-blood red rouge flambe art ware, which, up to the time they placed their ware upon the market was considered a lost art, the methods of manufacture being unknown since the time the Chinese' manufactured a similar ware centuries ago.  It is made by only one other concern in the world at this time. In addition to these the firm manufactures several distinct art lines, including vases, jardinieres, pedestals and other ornaments.  They also manufacture utility ware, including pitchers, bowls, toilet sets and cooking utensils.  The capacity of the plant is such that the sales amount to about five hundred thousand dollars each year and the output is sent to all parts of the United States, Canada, the West Indies and Mexico.  The company was incorporated Jan. 4, 1892, under the title of the Roseville Pottery Company with the following officers: Charles F. Allison, now of California, president; J. F. Weaver, of Roseville, vice president; George F. Young, secretary and general manager; and Thomas Brown, treasurer.  On the board of directors in addition to the officers are J. L. Pugh, of Zanesville, and J. N. Owens, of Roseville.  At the time of the organization the capital stock was twenty-five thousand dollars but this has been increased three times to forty thousand, one hundred thousand and three hundred thousand, the. last named sum being the authorized capital at the present date.  George B. Emerson, of Salesville, Ohio, is now president; J. F. Weaver, of Roseville, vice president; George F. Young, secretary, treasurer and general manager; while the following gentlemen are on the board of directors: J. F. Cole, of South Bend, Indiana; Samuel T. Turpin, of Brooklyn, New York; J. W. Baker, of Frazeysburg, Ohio; and J. L. Pugh, of Zanesville.      In 1883 Mr. Young was married to Miss Anna M. Twiggs, a native of Lower Salem, Ohio.  They have two children: Leota Frances, who is now attending St. Agnes School in Albany, New York; and Russell T., who is a high school student in Zanesville.  The parents are members of the Second Street Methodist Episcopal church and Mr. Young has fraternal relations with the Knights of Pythias, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Masonic fraternity, being both a Knight Templar and a Mystic Shriner.  His political allegiance was given to the democratic party until 1893, since which time he has supported the republican party.  In business affairs Mr. Young is energetic, prompt and notably reliable.  Tireless energy, keen perception, honesty of purpose and a genius for devising and executing the right tiling at the right time, joined to every day common sense, are his chief characteristics.  Justice has ever been maintained in his relations to patrons and employes.  He has been watchful of all the details of his business and of all indications pointing toward prosperity and from the beginning of his connection with the Roseville Pottery Company has had an abiding faith in the ultimate success of the enterprise, which to-day is one of the leading productive concerns of Zanesville. Source:  Past and Present of the City of Zanesville, and Muskingum Co., Ohio - Published Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co. - 1905 - Page 494

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