Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley

52 YOUNGSTOWN AND THE MAHONING VALLEY city. He was quiet, unassum~ng, neighborly, and di~ ing his former s.even ye<l;rs'. residence ~t Y oungs his part in public benefactlO~s and always c~~d town. This fact IS very slglllficant, and IS about as manded general este~m. .He ,neither sought 07 the i fine a testimonial any man need want o~ t~e con public office. His wIfe died m May, 1910. e,r fidence felt in his ability. From the begmnmg Mr. nine children seven reached mature years, and £1\: e Wilkins has been secretary and general manag:er are living. h d of the company, and as such has so shaped Its Thomas McNamara, Jr., spent his boy 00 on a policies that it has had a prosperous career, the farm attended district schools, and ~fter~ards volume of business showing a natural and very grad~ated from the Ohio Northern 1! lllverSlty at healthy increase year by. yea.r. He has always Ada in 1889 with the Bachelor of SCience degr.ee. taken a fatherly interest .m hiS ~t?l?loyes and en He studied law at the Cincinnati Law College, which deavors to so develop their capabilItIes as to ma~e graduated ~im in 189.1. Mr. McNamarCl: has always them not only useful to the concern, but to their practiced his professlOn alone, and dunng the. past community, at large. thirty years his name has been !requent1y lmked On September 27, 1898, ¥r. WIlkms was ulllted with large and important ~ases m th~ courts of in marriage with Miss Verlllce M. Darrow, a daugh Youngstown and in higher tnbunes .. ~e IS a member ter of David R. and Laura N. Darro,,:, who, for of the State and County Bar assoClatIOns.. the past thirty years have been engaged m the m~r Again and again appointments and nom~natlOns of ket gardening busines at. ~ast Youngstown. PrIor a high character have been ten.dered ~lm, al} of to her marriage Mrs. W Ilkms was a teacher m t~e which he declined because of hiS growmg pnvate public schools of Youngstown. Mr. a~d Mrs. Wil practice though such appointments would have been kins have one son, Donald F., two chIldren havI~g regarded by many an ambitious lawyer as satisfac died. James D. died aged twelve ye~rs! and Julia tory rewards and real distinctions. Mr. McNamara A died aged nine months. Mr. WIlkms belongs has been quite active in the democratic party as a to' Youngstown Lodge No. 103, Independe~t Order worker in the ranks, and served as a delegate to the Odd Fellows. He is am ember of the offiCial board National Convention at St. Louis which nominat~d of Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church of Y oungs Alton B. Parker and also to the convention in the town. One of the boosters o~ Youngstown, Mr. same city in 1916 when Mr. Wilson was renominated. Wilkins has long been an actIve member of the In November, 1898, Mr. McNamara married Miss Chamber of Commerce, the Builders E.xc~ange and Adelaide McMillen of Youngstown. They have four is a director of the Credit Men's ~ss.oclatIon. Hav children, Thomas, John, Adelaide and Eleanor. ing risen from the bottom, Mr. W tlkms und.erstands the needs of his over fifty employes, and IS prou.d CHARLES F WILKINS, secretary and general man of the fact that all he is today is the result. of hiS ager of the Wilkins-Leonard Hardware Company. own industry. thrift and perseverance, and IS con is one of the substantial business men of Youngs stantly trying t? demonstr.a!e to others t~at the town who merits the confidence he inspires. He same opportunitIes are waitIng f.or them If they was born in Fairfield County, Ohio, on August 24, are willing to make the same exertIon to grasp them 1866, a son of Isaac A. and Anna M. (Hart) Wil that he did. kins, both of whom were natives of the same county as their son. There they were married and, settling ALFRED C. COOK. A man of excellent busine~s upon a farm, became useful members of their com ability and judgment, upright and just i~ all of h~s munity. He died in 1909, she surviving him until dealings, Alfred C. Cook has had a vaned expen 1918, when she too, passed away. ence during his active career, and is now most ac Charles F. Wilkins was reared in his native county ceptably filling the position of superintendent of the and learned the fundamentals of farming from his Safety Welfare and Claims Department of the father while he was attending the neighborhood Youngstown District of the Carnegie Steel Company. school. When he was nineteen years of age he se A son of the late Peter Cook, he was born, February cured a teacher's certificate and for two years 4, 1873, in Brookfield Township, Trumbull County, taught in the country districts, and then, in 1886, Ohio, of German lineage. decided to try his fortune in a larger field, select Born, reared and educated in Baden, Germany, ing Youngstown for the experiment. At first· he Peter Cook there learned the trade of a stone was employed by the Morris Hardware Company mason. Immigrating to the United States when. a for the meager salary of $25 per month, and re young man, he located first in Sharon, Pennsylva11la, mained with that concern for seven years gaining where he foUowed his trade, and was likewise. a during that period a thorough knowledge of the contractor for forty years. In the latter capacl.ty, hardware business, which has proven very valuable he erected improvements on the Custer estate, whIch to him in his later operations. In 1892 he joined formerly belonged to the Perkins family. IndUS the J. H. & F. A. Sells Company of Columbus trious and thrifty, he bought a farm in Brookfield Ohio, as a traveling salesman and represented it on the road for one year, and seven years for the Township, Trumbull County, Ohio, on which he a~d l!. W. Lenk~meyer & Son, of Cleveland, covering his family settled, and from his home he made dally 1'\ orthern OhlO and Eastern Pennsylvania and then trips to his place of business in Sharon. There he resigned and returned to Youngstown 'where he continued his residence until his death, in August, 1 immediately organized the Wilkins-Leo~ard Hard 19 8, at the venerable age of eighty-seven years. He ware Company, with a capital stock of $50 000 married Margaret Denninger, who died in July, 1918, which was taken by the friends he had made dur~ at the age of eighty-five years, having then enjoyed a happy married life of sixty-five years. Ten children .

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