Ohio County, West Virginia Biography of Alexander B. Paxton. ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal represen- ative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ************************************************************************ Submitted by Valerie Crook. The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 563-564 - Ohio ALEXANDER B. PAXTON. Perhaps no other line of manu- factured goods better serves to make the City of Wheeling known abroad than the product of the Hazel Atlas Glass Company, whose general offices have been at Wheeling for many years. The industry is in fact largely one of local origin in this section of the Upper Ohio Valley. Alexander B. Paxton is identified with the Hazel Atlas Glass Company through direct relationship with some of the founders and also by virtue of a long and continued personal service. He is now vice president of the corporation. Mr. Paxton was born at Wheeling, August 31, 1866. His grandfather, Alexander Paxton, was a native of England, born in 1797, and from early manhood lived at Wheeling. He was one of the old time jewelry merchants, and later a man who used his capital in other enterprises. He died at Wheeling in 1874. His son, Elisha W. Paxton, was born at Wheeling in 1826, and for a number of years was mem- ber of the wholesale grocery house of Paxton, Oglebay & Company. Later he was an official in the North Wheeling Window Glass Company. On account of ill health he gave up active business in 3878 and bought a farm at Wellsburg, and finally moved to Washington, Pennsylvania, where he lived retired until his death in 1905, at the age of seventy- eight. He was always a thorough-going republican and an active member of the Presbyterian Church. Elisha Paxton married Flora Wellman, who was born in Massillon, Ohio, in 1828, and died at Washington, Pennsylvania, in 1906. Of their children the oldest is Mary, wife of C. N. Brady, now living retired at Washington, Pennsylvania. Mr. Brady was founder of the original Hazel Atlas Company of Wheel- ing. The second child is Mrs. Amelia N. Hensell. George P. died at Washington, Pennsylvania, at the age of fifty- four and Elisha, Jr., died in infancy. Martha is the wife of H. King Pendleton, now a retired minister of the Christian Church living in California. The sixth in the family is Alexander B. Jesse W. is president of the Highland Glass Company and lives at Washington, Pennsylvania. Richard M. is vice president of the Highland Glass Company at Washington. William P., treasurer of the Highland Glass Company, is New York City representative of that industry and lives at Montclair, New Jersey. Alexander B. Paxton was about twelve years of age when the family left Wheeling and went to a farm near Wells- burg. He attended public school in Wheeling and gradu- ated from the Wellsburg High School in 1883, and then spent one year in Purdue University at Lafayette, Indiana. Practically his entire business experience has identified him with the glass industry. He was connected with the original Hazel Glass Company at Wellsburg as manager or superintendent four years. He and C. N. Brady then established the Hazel Glass Company at Washington, Pennsylvania, and Mr. Paxton was secretary of that com- pany until the consolidation of the Hazel Glass Company and the Atlas Glass Company in 1900. This was the source of the present widely known corporation, the Hazel Atlas Glass Company, of which Mr. Paxton has been secretary or vice president for over twenty years and has been a resi- dent of Wheeling during this time. He has held the post of vice president since 1917, and is manager of the export business. The general offices are in the Conservative Life Building at 1530 Market Street. The only plant of the Hazel Atlas Company in Wheeling is a metal plant for the making of metal caps for bottles, jars and also strip zinc. The glass plants are located, three at Washington, Pennsylvania, one at Grafton, and two at Clarksburg, West Virginia. The corporation is one of the largest in measure of potential benefit to this region, em- ploying in normal seasons six thousand hands. The Hazel Atlas products are justly famed, and comprise a great vari- ety of glass manufacture, tumblers, fruit jars and other containers and specialties. These products have a world- wide market. The officers of the corporation are: Joseph C. Brady, president; A. B. Paxton, vice president; A. F. Brady, treasurer and vice president; J. H. McNash, secre- tary; G. G. Oliver, vice president and general manager. Mr. Paxton is also a director of the Highland Glass Com- pany and of the Wheeling Bank & Trust Company. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, does his voting as a republican, is a trustee of the Presbyterian Church and is affiliated with the Masonic Lodge and the Elks Lodge at Washington, Pennsylvania, the Wheeling Country Club, Fort Henry Club of Wheeling, and is a member of the Na- tional Chamber of Commerce at Washington, D. C, On September 27, 1893, at Washington, Pennsylvania, Mr. Paxton married Miss Edna D. Maxwell. She was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, graduated from the Washington female Seminary, and also attended Kansas University at Lawrence. Mr. and Mrs. Paxton have two children: Elizabeth is the wife of Carl O. Schmidt, a Wheeling attorney; and the son, Alexander M., is living in Cleveland, and is connected with the Cleveland office of the Hazel Atlas Glass Company. He has a record of service in the World war, having been on a submarine chaser.