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CHAUNCY HUMASON ANDREWS. Perhaps no citizen of the whole Mahoning valley presented, through a long and unusually
active life, a more thorough ideal of the enterprising, successful business man than did the late Chauncy Hunasin
Andrews, and yet this was but one side of his life. On the other was, seen the cultured, traveled gentleman, the
patron of art and literature and the silent partner from whose generosity came the means for the upbuilding of
great charities. His life was prolonged to the age of the Psalmist, but it was all too short to finish much of
the work his remarkable mind had planned and his energy brought into being.
Chauncy Humason Andrews was born at Vienna, Trumbull County, Ohio, December 2, 1823, and died at his home at Youngstown,
after a painful illness, December 25, 1893. His parents were Norman and Julia (Humason) Andrews. Norman Andrews
was born rn 1799, at Hartford, Connecticut, and in 1818 located in Trumbull County, Ohio, where he engaged in farming
and mercantile business. He was one of the pioneer hotel keepers at Youngstown, opening the Mansion House here
in 1843, which he conducted until he retired from business in 1850. By his first marriage he had three sons and
three daughters.
Chauncy H. Andrews was educated at Youngstown. The old brick building, which served as school house in his boyhood,
long since gave way to city improvements, St. John's Protestant Episcopal Church standing on its site. When he
was about 18 years of age, he left his books and began to assist his father in the hotel. His mother died in 1848,
and two years later his father disposed of the hotel business. The young man then became associated with a fellow
townsman and together they carried on for a time a successful mercantile business under the name of Brenneman &
Andrews; but in 1853 they were overtaken by reverses. Mr. Andrews then returned to the hotel business and continued
as manager of the Mansion House for some four years. In the meantime he had become interested in coal mining and
had ventured almost all he possessed in pushing his investments.
In 1857 Mr. Andrews justified his predictions and perseverance, opening up what was known as the Thorn Hill coal
bank, on the Baldwin farm. From that time on, through enterprises of larger and larger magnitude, Mr. Andrews continued
his successful career, becoming the promoter, operator and owner of mines, rolling mills, railroads and great financial
institutions, farms and high-grade stock, bonds and securities, acquiring all those varied possessions which make
the millionaire. In recalling some of his greatest enterprises, it will be seen that a majority of them were designed
to be of benefit to his own community; in fact, Mr. Andrews was one of the makers of Youngstown.
In 1876 Mr. Andrews was one of the promoters and organizers of the Pittsburg & Lake, Erie Railroad Company;
he was chiefly instrumental in organizing the Commercial National Bank of Youngstown, of which he was president
and stockholder at the time of his death; he was vice-president of the Second National Bank of Youngstown; he was
interested in the management of the Savings Bank, which has since been merged into the Mahoning National Bank;
with other capitalists, he built the Montour Railroad; in 1879 he established the Imperial Coal Company, which
owns one of the largest and finest coal fields in Western Pennsylvania; in connection with the corporations of
which he was a member, he opened three extensive limestone quarries in Mahoning County, Ohio, and Lawrence County,
Pennsylvania; in 1880, with W. C. Andrews and William McCreery, he obtained the charter for the Pittsburg, Youngstown
& Chicago Railroad Company, of which he later became president, and he was one of the Hocking Valley syndicate
and a director and stockholder in the Hocking Valley Railroad Company. The above enumeration takes in but a small
portion of the many interests which felt his influence. For years his strength seemed inexhaustible, but at last
nature asserted herself and the time came when the busy hand had to rest and the tireless foot stand still. The
brain kept on, however, and even when racked with pain Mr. Audrews was still able to send out from that clear mentality,
which continued to the last, directions for the carrying on of his vast industries which were heeded by his thousands
of employees.
In 1857 Mr. Andrews was married to Louisa Baldwin, of the old Mahoning County family, and they had two daughters,
Edith H., widow of the late John A. Logan, Jr., and Julia L., wife of L. C. Bruce, both residents of New York City.
Mrs. Andrews still survives and resides in one of the palatial homes of Youngstown, at No. 750 Wick avenue.
In all that goes to make up perfect citizenship, the late Chauncy H. Andrews was a model law abiding, liberal and
publicspirited. He voted with the Republican party, but his life was too thoroughly absorbed by his many private
enterprises to permit him to ever consent to consider political position.. His political friends, however, were
humerous and included among them those whose names have reflected the greatest luster upon the commonwealth of
Ohio. Around his deathbed gathered persons of distinction who were anxious to minister to his wants, and one of
the honorary pall bearers was the late President William McKinley, then Governor of Ohio, for whom he entertained
a warm, personal friendship. Other members of this notable gathering were: Governor Russell A. Alger, of Michigan,
lately deceased; the late John Newell, presiden.t of the Lake Shore & Michigan SOuthern Railroad Company; Judge
Stephenson Burke, the great railroad lawyer of Cleveland; General Orlando Smith, of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad
Company; W. J. Hitchcock; J. W. McKinnie, of Cleveland; General Thomas W. Sanderson; L. E. Cochran; the late Henry
Tod; J. G. Butler, Jr., and and the late General J. L. Botsford. All of these distinguished men of great affairs
had been closely associated with Mr. Andrews in business or public or social life and to each one his death came
with a sense of personal loss.
The journals of his city united in naming him the foremost citizen of the great Mahoning Valley and placed him
with the foremost industrial organizers of the state. They laid emphasis on his public spirit, his well directed
energy, his persevering courage in the face of early discouragements, his great executive ability and his unbounded
generosity. Scarcely any worthy charity or philanthropic enterprise of all this section but felt his quickening
help, and his hand was extended on many occasions to rescue dying enterprises or to give the needed impetus to
languishing industries. Personally, Mr. Andrews was magnetic. He possessed the suave, affable manner of the man
of social graces and at the same time the hearty geniality which can never be mistaken for insincerity.
From:
20th Century History of Youngstown
and Mahoning County, Ohio and
Representative Citizens,
Edited and compiled by Gen. Thos. W. Sanderson
Youngstown, Ohio
Biographical Publishing Company
Chicago, Illinois 1897
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