Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens
Lawrence County Pennsylvania 1897
[p. 498] editor and proprietor of the Ellwood Citizen, a weekly paper of Ellwood City, Pa., was born May 9, 1857, in Wetzlar, Rhenish Prussia, and is a son of John and Elizabeth (Shaefer) Poister, being a descendant of old and representative families. John Poister, his father, served in the regular army in the 29th infantry at Koblentz, and after his term was over was an officer in the provincial court at Wetzlar. In December, 1862, having lost his wife, he resigned his position and brought his, four children, two sons and two daughters, with him to America, and settled at Galion, Ohio, where he resided until his death in Nov., 1896.
It was the intention of Mr. Poister to become an artist, and with this end in view, he studied with several prominent painters, two of whom had spent years in Rome, Munich, Dresden and Paris, and was therefore far advanced in free-hand drawing, when he found that his means would not prove adequate to the demands upon them, so he diverted his attention to photography, which profession he followed with ordinary success for several years. While engaged at this work, though scarcely more than a youth in his early twenties, he did some work in preparing special articles for the daily papers, and his increasing reputation led him into the field of his present success. He was soon recognized as a writer of real ability, as his style was pleasing and of a nature to hold the reader, and his thought was of the best and stated in the most attractive manner, and because of the demand for his articles he was given responsible positions to fill. He assisted in writing an early history of the State of Ohio, and was the first to write up the narrative of Grant's Boyhood Days in Georgetown, Ohio, as it appeared in the Cleveland World; these are two well-known assignments that were given him, but he had many others, equally important, which space forbids us mentioning. He came to Ellwood City in 1894, and occupied the editorial chair at the Motor office for several weeks, and in June of that year he formed a partnership with J. H. Ash, and founded the Ellwood Citizen, a non-partisan weekly of eight pages. At the expiration of one year, Mr. Poister purchased his partner's interest, and assumed entire charge of the sheet. A building suitable for the business was needed quite badly, and so in 1895 Mr. Poister erected a handsome brick block, two stories high, on Lawrence Avenue near Eighth Street; the first floor is used for a store, and the second for the printing establishment. Mr. Poister, with the idea of making his printing-house superior to anything of its kind in Ellwood City, and equal to anything in the county, put in the best modern machinery, and has a full equipment for printing and job work of various kinds; all the power that is used in the building is generated by a water-motor, and this shows in part the up-to-dateness of the equipment. The Citizen is one of the best papers in the county, has a weekly circulation of one thousand copies, is devoted to the welfare of Ellwood City and the surrounding country, and is of great value to advertisers, as it exerts a deep influence on the reading public, as a reliable, newsy sheet. Although his views are not expressed in the editorials, Mr. Poister is a Republican, and has come to be one of the foremost men of the town. He has served in the council one term. There is a good field in journalism for a young man of Mr. Poister's type, and as he is now in his prime, he will no doubt score more brilliant successes in the future, and justify the promise of his beginning as a writer.
Mr. Poster[sic] married Miss Carrie E. Seymour, a former teacher in the public schools at Kent, Ohio, whose parents are Andrew and Mary (Seibold) Seymour, the latter deceased, of that town, and they have three children to brighten their home: Bessie G.; Clyde A.; and Ralph S. Our subject and wife are estimable people, and mingle in the best society, being held in admiration and respect by a large circle of friends.
Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens Lawrence County Pennsylvania
Biographical Publishing Company, Buffalo, N.Y., 1897
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Updated: 11 Jul 2001