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VINTON CO., O
ANDREW W. PAFFENBARGER, D. D. S.
For more than thirty years Doctor Paffenbarger
has been engaged in the practice oŁ his profession in
his native county and he is known as one of the leading
exponents of the art and science of dentistry in
Southern Ohio, his practice being of especially broad
scope and importance and his office being of the highest
standard in its equipment, facilities and service.
His patronage is drawn from all parts of Vinton County,
with a material support from contiguous counties, and in
addition to his prominence in his profession he is known
and valued as one of the most progressive, liberal and
public spirited citizens of McArthur, the county seat,
where his interests are extensive and varied and where
he has been a specially active and influential figure in
connection with the development and upbuilding of the
large business controlled by the McArthur Telephone
Company, of which he is secretary, treasurer and general
manager. This company was incorporated in 1897,
and the doctor has been its treasurer from the
beginning. In 1905 he became the manager,
secretary and treasurer, as well as the heaviest
stockholder of the company, and as an executive he has
shown marked aggressiveness and ability in bringing the
service of the system up to the best modern standard of
efficiency. The company now has a list of 160
subscribers in Vinton County; its system brings into
utilization 1,300 feet of cable, 260 miles of wire, with
toll lines aggregating fifty-five miles. Direct
communication is maintained with four county seats,
there being a direct connection with Jackson,
Chillicothe, Athens and Logan.
The month of March, 1915, marked the thirty-third
anniversary of Doctor Paffenbarger's reception of
the degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery, as he was
graduated in the Ohio College of Dentistry, in the City
of Cincinnati, in March, 1885. From that time to
the present he has been engaged in the practice of his
profession in Vinton County, and during all of this long
period he has maintained his residence and professional
headquarters at McArthur, the county seat, save for an
interval of three months passed in the Village of
Zaleski. He has kept in close touch with the
advances made in his profession, which represents both a
science and a mechanic art, and brings to bear the most
approved methods in both operative and laboratory work,
so that he well merits the high reputation and marked
success which he has achieved in his chosen vocation.
Doctor Paffenbarger was born on a farm in
Elk Township, Vinton County, on the 6th of August, 1856,
and was reared to the sturdy discipline of the farm, the
while he simultaneously developed his mental powers
through availing himself of the advantages of the public
schools. As a youth he was employed four years as
a clerk in mercantile establishments at Zaleski and
Southern Illinois, and thereafter he devoted an equal
period to effective service as a teacher in the district
schools of his native county and Ross and Pickaway
counties. He then began the study of dentistry,
and concerning his completion of a full course in the
Ohio College of Dental Surgery due mention has already
been made.
Initiative energy and progressive ideas have made
Doctor Paffenbarger one of the foremost and most
potent factors in the promotion and development of
enterprises that have done much to conserve material and
civic progress in his home city and county. His
association with the telephone company has already been
noted in this context, and he was also one of the
incorporators of the McArthur Brick Company, which
represents one of the most important manufacturing
enterprises in this section of the state. He was
the chief promoter of the McArthur Building and Loan
Association, in 1889, was treasurer of the same for
several years and was its president for ten years.
The doctor has been affiliated with the Masonic
fraternity since 1878, and he served five years as
master of the McArthur Lodge of Ancient Free and
Accepted Masons. The close of the year 1915 finds
him the valued and honored incumbent of the office of
high priest of McArthur Chapter No. 102, Royal Arch
Masons, which he has several times represented in the
Ohio Grand Chapter. He is a member of the Board of
Education of McArthur, a position which he has held
twelve years, and in all things he maintains a lively
interest in the communal welfare. His political
allegiance is given to the republican party, and both he
and his wife are zealous members of the local Methodist
Episcopal Church, in which he is serving as a steward
and a trustee, besides which he was for fifteen years
the earnest and popular teacher of a young women's class
in the Sunday school, many of the young ladies who were
members of his class having virtually grown to womanhood
under his religious instruction and personal friendship,
a number of them having married and some of the number
having removed to other parts of the Union, his interest
in all of them having continued and their appreciative
regard having been a pleasing phase of his life history.
Doctor Paffenbarger is a son of George Will
and Elizabeth (DeMuth) Paffenbarger, the former of
whom was born in Ross County, a representative of one of
the early and honored pioneer families of this section
of the Buckeye State. The marriage of the parents
was solemnized at Adelphi, Ross County, Mrs.
Paffenbarger having been born in Pennsylvania,
and having been young at the time of her parents'
immigration to Ohio. George W. Paffenbarger
and his wife established their home on a pioneer farm in
Elk Township, Vinton County, in 1845, and here he
developed one of the valuable farms of the county, the
while he ever held inviolable place in the confidence
and esteem of his fellow men as one of the sterling,
steadfast and loyal citizens of the township that
continued to represent his home until his death.
He was born Oct. 16, 1813, and passed to the life
eternal on the 1st of January, 1888. His wife was
born Nov. 14, 1813, and her death occurred Apr. 9, 1886,
their marriage having been solemnized in the year 1831.
Both were devoted members of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, and in politics Mr. Paffenbarger was
aligned with the whig party until the organization of
the republican party, when he transferred his allegiance
to the latter, its cause thereafter receiving his loyal
support during the remainder of his long and useful
life.
John Paffenbarger, grandfather of the subject of
this review, was born at Hagerstown, Maryland, in the
year 1788, and was one of the sturdy pioneers who did
well his part in connection with the social and
industrial development of Southern Ohio. At
Adelphi, Ross County, this state, he wedded Miss
Susan Will, and both continued their residence in
this section of the state until their death when
venerable in years. The founder of the American
branch of the Paffenbarger family was George
Paffenbarger, who was born and reared in Germany and
who immigrated to the New World in 1733. Doctor
Paffenbarger being of the sixth generation in line
of descent from this colonial ancestor. The doctor
is the youngest in a family of five sons and six
daughters, all of whom attained to adult age except one
of the daughters, and of the number four sons and one
daughter are now living.
On the 23d of September, 1885, was solemnized the
marriage of Doctor Paffenbarger to Miss
Ida P. Seal, who was born at McArthur, Vinton
County, on the 14th of June, 1868, her education having
been received in the schools of this place. She is
the only daughter of John and Hannah (Corbly) Seal,
the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of
Vinton County, Ohio, their marriage having been
solemnized at McArthur. Mr. Seal was a
tanner by trade and vocation and continued his residence
in McArthur until his death - one of the substantial and
greatly esteemed citizens and representative business
men of Vinton County. He served as a soldier
during the Seminole Indian war, and Doctor
Paffenbarger retains as prized heirlooms the ancient
horse pistol, flint-lock gun and canteen which were
owned by the father of his wife, the gun having been
Manufactured at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, in 1813.
Mr. Seal was a vigorous advocate of the cause of
the whig party and was influential in public affairs in
Vinton County for many years prior to his death, and
both of his children are now living, Mrs.
Paffenbarger being the younger and her brother,
John E., likewise being a resident of McArthur, he
and his wife having no children. Doctor and Mrs.
Paffenbarger have two sons. Ralph was
graduated in the McArthur High School and later was
graduated in the engineering department of the Ohio
State University. He is now a teacher of
mathematics and an instructor in athletics at
Chillicothe, and is proving most successful and popular
in this field of educational service. George,
the younger son, celebrated his thirteenth birthday
anniversary in 1915, and is a student in the public
schools of McArthur, where the family is one of
prominence in connection with the representative social
life of the community.
Source: A Standard History of The Hanging Rock Iron
Region of Ohio, Vol. II - Illustrated - Published by The
Lewis Publishing Company, 1916 - Page 1229 |
