[p. 962] postmaster and general merchant of Mt. Jackson, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, is a man of extensive and varied business experience, having been identified with various branches of trade not only in this county but in distant States.
Mr. Houk was born in New Castle. Pa., April 3, 1881, and is a son of Isaac R. and Mary L. (Rhodes) Houk. His father followed the trade of a carpenter many years and for a time conducted a general store in McCaslin, where he now lives in retirement, his home being located on Florence Avenue. Our subject was reared in New Castle and attended its public schools, and at the early age of fifteen years he started out on his business career, engaged in huckstering. He later attended college at Volant one year, then returned to New Castle and went to work in the civil engineering department of the Pennsylvania Railroad. He later became shipping clerk in the McNab & Rhodes furniture store, and continued in that capacity one year, after which he went to McCaslin Corners and purchased the general store which his father had conducted for some years at an earlier period. He continued there and prospered for three years, and after selling out to good advantage went to Tennessee, thence to Indiana and afterwards to Oklahoma. He has always dealt more or less in real estate, and has bought, sold and traded property in many States of the Union. During the time he was away from Lawrence County he was owner of the Lawrence Transfer and Storage Company at New Castle, which business he subsequently sold. He was engaged for some years as traveling representative of the H. Childs Shoe Company, leaving their employ in the spring of 1907, when he located at Mt. Jackson. He purchased his present store of Mr. W. S. Caldwell, enlarged his stock and has greatly increased its patronage. He carries a comprehensive line of groceries, dry goods, boots and shoes, hardware, farm implements and musical instruments, in fact almost every article for which there is a demand; he also deals in automobiles, at this time having 110 second-hand automobiles for sale. He is a man of recognized business ability, and has taken high rank among the progressive people in this community.
Mr. Houk was united in marriage with Miss Annie P. Anderson, and they are parents of four children—Orville, Russell, Thelma and Cecil. He is a self-made man in every sense the term implies, the success he has attained being due to his own energy, enterprise and good business judgment.
20th Century History of New Castle and Lawrence County Pennsylvania and Representative Citizens Hon. Aaron L. Hazen Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, Chicago, Ill., 1908
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Updated: 9 Feb 2002