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 562.

HENRY WARWOOD, of Martin's Ferry, was born in Staffordshire, England,
February 23, 1823, the son of William Warwood, a skillful tool maker
who was employed during his active life in the Brades Steel works,
one of the oldest factories of the kind in England. He died in 1858.
By his marriage to Sarah Harrison, whose death occurred in the same
year as his own, he had nine children, of whom three are deceased.
The subject of this sketch received a limited education during his
childhood in England, going to night school while employed in the
factory where he began work at nine years of age. Coming to the
United States in 1848, he remained at Pittsburgh some time in the
employment of the Lippincotts, but was compelled by failing health
to give up that situation. Then starting a small tool factory at
Brown's Coal works, he worked there until 1854, when he came to
Martin's Ferry, and started in the same business on a small scale,
in the block where the postoffice is now situated, on the site now
occupied by Thorngate's hardware store. He engaged in the manufacture
of garden rakes and miners' tools, being among the first to
manufacture rakes in this country. The excellence of his work soon
gave him a widespread reputation, and his business increased until
in 1868 he purchased property on First street and erected a large
factory. He has for some time abandoned the manufacture of garden
rakes, and now produces miners' tools exclusively, and these are
sold in every part of the United States where mining is carried on.
His coal pick is regarded among miners as the standard of excellence.
He is in all respects a self-made man, and his remarkable success
is wholly due to his talent as a business man, skill as a workman,
and the honesty of his goods. He and wife are members of the
Presbyterian church, and in politics he is a republican. During the
war he was actively engaged in recruiting men for the Union army.
Mr. Warwood was married in 1849 to Mary Bradshaw, a descendant of
John Bradshaw, a distinguished family of England, and they have four
children: William, Sarah J., Maria and Emily H.