Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens
Lawrence County Pennsylvania 1897
[p. 501] Ranking among the important products of Lawrence County is the Beaver Valley sandstone, which is quarried in large quantities for building purposes in the southern part of the county near Chewton; the heaviest producer and dealer in this excellent building material is the Consolidated Stone & Mining Co., which has extensive quarries in Beaver Valley between Chewton and Rock Point, Pa., along the line of the Pennsylvania railroad. This company was organized in 1881 by Gershum B. Ingham, whose personal history we are now relating, and his two brothers, Gomer E. and John G. They are the largest dealers in sandstone in Western Pennsylvania, and also deal largely in all other building materials, including lumber, limestone and granite. Our subject was born in Duquesne borough, Allegheny Co., Pa., now Bennett, near Pittsburg, July 4, 1852, and is a son of Joseph and Jane (Davis) Ingham, both natives of Wales. The father of our subject came to the, United States in 1840, and settled near Pittsburg, and worked in and managed the iron mills of Spang, Chalfant & Co. of Etna, Pa., a suburb of Pittsburg, from 1840 to 1890. By trade he was a puddler. His wife, Jane, was a daughter of William and Elizabeth Davis of Pittsburg, Pa., who came to this country from Wales in 1840 with their family of children, among whom was our subject's mother. Six children were born to our subject's parents, as follows: William, who married Laura Freeman of Sharpsburg, Pa., and had four children—Joseph, Nellie, Charles, and Jane, deceased; Gershum B.; John G., who married Anna McConville of Steubenville, Ohio, and has one child, Martha J.; Gomer E.; George, who married Bella Howells of Etna, Pa., who bore him one child, Herbert S.; and Elizabeth, who resides with her father at Etna, Pa. Our subject's father is hale and hearty for one of his years, and recently spent three months in Europe, visiting his native home in Wales. In his political belief he is a steadfast Republican, and held the office of school director in his own town in Allegheny County. Socially he is an Odd Fellow. In religious matters he is a Baptist, and for many years has been a deacon in that church.
Gershum B. Ingham was educated in the schools of Pine Creek, now Etna, Pa., and then in the academy of Sharpsburg, Pa., and subsequently in the Western University of Pennsylvania in Pittsburg. He then worked four years on a farm for his father, after which he entered Duff's College of Pittsburg, Pa., from which institution he graduated in 1872. In the fall of that year, he went to Harmony, Indiana, where he became assistant superintendent of a blast furnace, owned by the Indianapolis Rail Mill Co., of which the late Vice-President Hendricks was a leading figure. In 1874, Mr. Ingham went to Jackson, Ohio, where he engaged in the buying of iron ore for the Tropic and Star Furnace Co. of Jackson, Ohio. In the following year he entered the employ of an Oil Well Supply Co., and represented it in the oil region of Pennsylvania until 1878, when he engaged in the ice business in Etna, Pa., on his own account, remaining in that business until 1881. In that year he ventured in the stone business, in which he has proved so uniformly successful. In business circles, his word is good as gold and his integrity goes without question; an endorsement from him carries its full meaning.
On Jan. 17, 1878, the marriage ceremony was performed that united our subject and Miss Caroline Loeffler in the lasting tie of matrimony; Mrs. Ingham is a daughter of Martin and Matilda Loeffler, the former of Heidelberg, Germany, and the latter a native of Pennsylvania. Seven children have graced our subject's marriage: Albert G.; John; Merle; Aquilla; Edith; Jane M.; and Paul H., deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Ingham are members of the Baptist Church of New Castle, Pa. Our subject's politics are familiar to those who are at all acquainted with him as being Republican. Socially, he is an Odd Fellow of Wampum Lodge, No. 865 of Wampum, this county; Knights of Pythias, Wampum Lodge, No. 440; and Royal Arcanum, Penn Council, No. 420, of New Castle, Pa. As one of Lawrence County's representative business men, we place the portrait of Mr. Ingham in this Book of Biographies.
Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens Lawrence County Pennsylvania
Biographical Publishing Company, Buffalo, N.Y., 1897
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Updated: 11 Jul 2001