The Weekly Courier, Connellsville, PA
Thursday, July 21, 1910
J. R.
STAUFFER DIES AGED 74
Had Been Ill for About
Ten Days
From Acute Indigestion.
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WAS PROMINENT AS
FINANCIER.
Coke and Coal Operator
and a Man Beloved
in Scottdale in the Up-building of Which He
was Conspicuous -- Interests Were Varied.
SCOTTDALE, July 11 - -
Joseph R. Stauffer, one of the best known
financiers of Western Pennsylvania one of the
foremost builders of Scottdale, a modest,
approachable, kindly gentleman with friends of
all ages and conditions died at his country home,
Zephyr Glen, near town at 1:15 this morning. He
was born in 1836 and a clean, regular, active
life brought him up until Saturday a week ago one
of the most active men in mind and body in this
section. Then an attack of acute indigestion
seized upon him. From the start the physicians
had very grave fears of the outcome.
Everything that medical
science and affection could suggest was done and
the patient made a wonderful fight to retain his
life. His death was quiet, peaceful and painless
and his bedside was surrounded by all the members
of the family.
The funeral services
were held from his late residence in the country
near town at 4 oclock, Friday. Interment
was private at the Scottdale Cemetery. Rev. W. G.
Russell, pastor of the Baptist Curch at which the
deceased was a member, and Dr. Leroy Stephens of
Lewisburg, an old friend had charge.
Mr. Stauffer was
actively connected with about xxx corporations
and firms of Westmoreland, Fayette and Somerset
counties, and also engaged in business elsewhere.
He was the founder and President of the Scottdale
Bank, was First Vice President of the First
National bank of Connellsville, a director in the
Fayette Title & Trust Company of Uniontown, a
director at the First National Bank of Mt.
Pleasant, and the First National Bank of
Vanderbilt. He owned large coal interests in
Somerset county, and had just turned in $100,000
interests at West Newton to the consolidated U.S.
Radiator & Boiler Company, the big heating
merger. His life was insured for about $x00,000,
much of it taken at the age limit his xxx active
life making him an excellent risk in the eyes of
the companies. He was a thirtysecond degree
Mason, a member of the Heptasophs and Royal
Arcunum. He was a prominent and active member of
the First Baptist Church and active in good
works.
Joseph R. Stauffer, son
of John M. and Katherine (Sherrick) Stauffer, was
born in Fayette county, Pa., June 2x, 1836. He
attended the common schools and then established
himself in the merchantile business in Mt.
Pleasant, gradually extending his interests to
coal, coke, banking and the iron and steel
business. With his brother Abraham K. Stauffer,
he began to operate coal mines and make coke on
the old home farm near Scottdale, and for 37
years the name of J. R. Stauffer & Company
has been identified with the coke business. He
was also identified with Stauffer & Wiley
Horne and Dexter, the two coke plants in which he
was most interested, are located near Scottdale.
Mainly, it was to the
banking business that his attention was most
given. In 1852, he joined with the late Peter S.
Loucks and established the Scottdale Bank, a
private financial institution. The successful
partnership existed for more than 2x years and
Mr. Stauffer in 1906 purchased the entire
interest of the estate of P. S. Loucks and
continued the bank as the sole owner with capital
and surplus of over $200,000, and total assets
over $1,000,000.
The iron and steel
business attracted him in 1887 and he with other
Scottdale men most successfully developed the
Scottdale Iron & Steel Company by the expert
management of Robert Skemp. In 1901 the iron and
steel business was sold to the United States
Steel Corporation. Besides being president of the
Scottdale Bank, Mr. Stauffer was elected the Vice
President of the First National Bank of
Connellsville and was a director and stockholder
in a number of banks and trust companies of
Fayette, Westmoreland and Somerset counties.
Mr. Stauffer was a man
of great force of character, alert and alive to
progress and handled the great details and cares
of his interests with close personal attention.
He was a man of great activity, and at the same
time of a very plain, unostentatious and careful
life.
Mr. Stauffer married
Miss Ann Eliza Freed on December 19, 1858. Mrs.
Stauffer was born in Fayette county, February 21,
1842 and died August 27, 1891. She was a daughter
of John and Frances Robinson Freed. The following
children all living were born to the couple.
John M. Stauffer,
a banker and coal operator, whose time has for
the last few years been largely given to the
development of the Indian Creek Valley railroad.
He is married to Frances [Scull], a
daughter of George R. and Isabel Warren Scull of
Westmoreland county.
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Eva, who is the wife of Fred L. Brown,
a manufacturer of Scottdale. Fannie, wife
of Andrew S. Keister an official of the
Pennsylvania Railroad of Pittsburg [sic]. Walter
Freed Stauffer, married to Nellie P. Hill,
daughter of Mrs. Emma Long Hill and the late John
D. Hill. Walter R. Stauffer is largely
interested in banking and manufacturing
interests. DeRead Stauffer, interested in
the coal and coke business and living at home.
Joseph R. Stauffer was a
thirtysecond degree Mason and so are the three
sons, and all are affiliated closely with the
First Baptist Church of Scottdale. Mr. Stauffer
resided during the winter months in his fine
residence at Chestnut and Mulberry streets,
Scottdale, and the summer was usually spent at
Zephyr Glen, the beautiful summer home east of
Scottdale where he was taken sick. While
identified with the life and business of
Scottdale, Mr. Stauffer never relinquished his
residence in Upper Tyrone township and always
voted there and attended perhaps every election
held there. He was a Republican, always taking a
keen interest in political matters but would
never consent to hold any office.
FUNERAL HELD FRIDAY
It Was Attended by Large
Concourse
of Friends of Financier
_________________________________
SCOTTDALE, July 16 --
From the old homestead that he had come from
years ago, the body of Joseph R. Stauffer the
capitalist was borne late yesterday afternoon.
The funeral services were attended by probably
the largest number at any funeral that has been
in this neighborhood. Many came from Pittsburg
[sic], Greensburg, Mt. Pleasant, Connellsville,
Uniontown, and other places and represented their
leading professional and business men who had
been associated with the departed financier
during his very active lifetime. The services
were simple.
The body lay in the room
immediately to the right of the entrance. At one
side of the door a bunch of lilies hung downward.
Inside the room where the body lay, the flowers
were so many and of so magnificent type that the
casket was almost hidden by them. Shortly after
noon friends began to come to gaze for the last
time upon the face of the man known, respected
and liked by so many. These people came and went
until 4 oclock. Those who were present for
the services were gathered in the house, a great
throng of them seated on the big old-fashioned
porch that extends the entire length of the great
house and many were standing on the lawn. The
intermingling of the wealthiest men of the
section with those of but little earthly goods
denoted the widespread xxx that surrounded the
dead. A quartette composed of W. W. Eicher, Will
xxxx Char xxxx son Luwellyn Jones and Lyman xxx
sang Rock of Ages.
The services were in
[the] charge of Rev. W. G. Russell, pastor of the
First Baptist Church of Scottdale and Rev. Leroy
Stephens D.D. of Lewisburg, an old friend. There
was a bit of prayer and scripture readings. Dr.
Stephens spoke principally of the helpfulness
that had characterized Mr. Stauffer in his
lifetime. He depicted him as xxxx businessman and
a man true to the highest ideals. He spoke of how
the people are now trying to straighten out a
good many things in business life and said that
he felt all those present would agree that Joseph
R. Stauffer had embodied in his character the
ennoblements of the [self same?] aggressive and
courageous business men. He said that he knew
much of Mr. Stauffers quiet helpfulness,
and how for illustration when he, the speaker,
had been given the task of saving the Mt.
Pleasant Institute, he had gone to Mr. Stauffer
and felt that had it not been for the latter, the
Mt. Pleasant Institute would have passed out of
existence. He then spoke of a remark that he
believed pictured the character of the man of
whom he spoke in [the] aptest way.
The speaker said that
during a dismal slump in the coke business, Mr.
Stauffer was running his coke works when all the
others were shut down and he asked Mr. Stauffer
why he continued to make coke. I am not
losing anything, but my own work, and I have
people dependent upon me. The coke workers are
not paid enough anywhere to lay aside anything.
You may say that they drink away their money or
idle it away, but it is only evading our
responsibility. If I keep my works running, it is
keeping the workers in something on which to
live, and it is a responsibility that I
have, was the answer. He asked that the
same thing he knows of often that Mr. Stauffer
felt that they had a responsibility to others to
help them.
Rev. Mr. Russell spoke
along the same lines and said that in his brief
acquaintance with Mr. Stauffer, he had found him
very helpful in the church and that he was a man
interested in others, ready to help, and
solicitous of the welfare of others, and all in a
very simple everyday manner, without any show
whatever. The quartette sang familiar hymns and
the funeral services ended in less than an hour
after they began. The burial took place at the
Scotttdale cemetery later, it being of a private
nature.
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