BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, BELMONT COUNTY, OHIO "History of the Upper Ohio Valley" Vol. II, 1890. Presented by Linda Fluharty from hard copies provided by Mary Staley & Phyllis Slater. Page 529 JAMES H. DRENNEN is a native of Steubenville, Ohio, was brought up on a farm from his fifth to his fourteenth year, at which time he went to Pittsburgh to serve an apprenticeship to a cabinet and chairmaker whose place of business was corner of Third and Smithfield streets. In 1837 he went to Mt. Pleasant, Jefferson Co., Ohio, to work at his trade. There he married, and purchasing a farm in Pease township, three miles distant from Martin's Ferry, where he continued to reside till the care of the News requiring all his attention, he removed to Martin's Ferry, where he has since resided. Since he has had control of the News, the place has grown from a village of 1,800, to a city of 7,000 to 8,000 inhabitants; from one railroad, the Cleveland & Pittsburgh, it has two in operation, and another nearly completed, which will open up additional communications with the entire country, and give several other railroads access to the city and the east via the splendid railroad bridge connecting the city with Wheeling, which will be completed in June. During the existence of the News, manufacturing of iron and glass has been firmly established in the little city where it is published, for which that paper is certainly entitled to a due share of credit, as it has always given prominence to all enterprises which Mr. Drennen believed would tend to building up the town of his adoption. While the News has never been a partisan sheet, it has always contended for a protective tariff, and while Mr. Drennen remains in control, it may be depended on to favor any policy which will create and foster a diversified industry.