Ohio County, West Virginia Biography of JESSE A. BLOCH This file was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: <vfcrook@earthlink.net> The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 475 Ohio JESSE A. BLOCH. For a number of years the City of Wheeling has boasted of one of the largest tobacco fac- tories in the world. This institution is due to the enterprise of two brothers who started the manufacture of tobacco on a very modest scale forty years ago. For some years past the Bloch Brothers Tobacco Company has had an immense plant at Wheeling, employing a normal force of 500 hands, and its output is a factor in international as well as domes- tic trade. The first vice president of this company is Jesse A. Bloch, son of the founder. His grandfather, Simon Bloch, was a native of Germany, and by reason of his participation in the revolutionary movement of that country came to America and settled at Wheeling in 1849. He was a wholesale merchant at Wheeling. His son, Samuel S. Bloch, was born at Wheeling in 1850, and has spent his life in this city. For a number of years he was associated with the wholesale grocery business of the family, but in 1880 he and his brother Aaron Bloch established a small tobacco factory, then employing only ten persons. In 1884 the brothers discontinued the wholesale grocery business, and have concentrated all their energies upon the tobacco in- dustry. The company was incorporated in 1891, with Aaron Bloch as president, Samuel S. Bloch as vice president, and A. O. Maxwell, secretary. For some years the plant was at 1501-03 Main Street, but the company now uses the entire block between Thirty-ninth and Forty-first streets, and has a plant for handling leaf tobacco in other states. Bloch Brothers were the originators of the scrap or ribbon coarse cut tobacco, and one of the most widely used brands of chewing and smoking tobacco is the "Mail Pouch," manu- factured by Bloch Brothers. They also make the Arrow and Wizard brands of cigarettes. The present officers of the company are: Samuel S. Bloch, president; Jesse A. Bloch, first vice president; Harold S. Bloch, second vice president; W. M. Tiernan, third vice president, who became superintendent of the plant in 1885; and A. O. Maxwell, secretary. Samuel S. Bloch is a republican, a member of the Masonic fraternity, and for many years has been one of Wheeling's liberal and public-spirited citizens. He married Bertha Prager, who was born in Parkersburg, West Virginia. They have two sons and two daughters, the sons, Jesse A. and Harold S., both being officials of the company. Medalyne is the wife of Eduard Ziegler, a prominent business man now living in Paris, France. Miss Dorothy is at home. Jesse A. Bloch was born at Wheeling, November 2, 1879, attended the local public schools, Linsly Institute, prepared for college in Phillips-Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, and had a technical training in the Worcester Polytechnic Institute at Worcester, Massachusetts. Mr. Bloch left col- lege in 1900 and returned to Wheeling to enter his father's business, and has given it his full time for over twenty years. He is also prominent in West Virginia politics. He was a member of the State Legislature for two terms, being elected in 1912 and 1914 and serving in the sessions of 1913 and 1915. In 1913 he introduced the Workmen's Compensation Bill, which became a law. Mr. Bloch in 1918 was elected a member of the State Senate for the four year term from 1919 to 1923. Senator Bloch was at one time mayor of Pleasant Valley, now a suburb of Wheeling. He is a republican, a member of Wheeling Lodge No. 28, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Phi Gamma Delta college fraternity, the Wheeling Country Club and the Fort Henry Club. He was prominent in all the local activi- ties at Wheeling in behalf of the vigorous prosecution of the war, serving on the executive committees for the Liberty Loan drives and assisting with the Red Cross and other local campaigns. In 1905, at. Wheeling, Mr. Bloch married Miss Jessie Moffat, daughter of Thomas C. and Blanche (Quarrier) Moffat. Her parents live in Wheeling, her father being connected with the Engineering and Equipment Company of that city. Mr. and Mrs. Bloch have two children, Thomas M., born February 13, 1907, and Betty, born in May, 1908.