Ohio County, West Virginia          Biography of Glenning D. SIMERAL

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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume II,
page 235

GLENNING D. SIMERAL is one of Wheeling's youug and enterprising
business men and is proprietor of the Owl Print Shop, the largest
job printing and commercial printing establishment not an auxiliary
of a newspaper plant in the Wheeling District.

Mr. Simeral was born at Beallsville, Ohio, February 21, 1887.
Beallsville is in Monroe County, Ohio, and in that section of
the state the Simerals settled in pioneer times, moving from
Pennsylvania. Mr. Simeral's grandfather, John Jackson Simeral,
spent all his life at Beallsville, where he was born in 1832 and
died in 1902. For many years he was connected with H. Miller &
Company, tobacco merchants. He was a member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church. John J. Simeral married Lucretia Owens, who
was born in Maryland in 1834, and died at Wheeling in 1914.
They had seven children. One of them was John Seabury Simeral,
who for a number of years owned and operated the Palace Hotel
at Decatur, Illinois, and died at Toronto, Canada, at the age
of sixty-seven. His sister, Alice, is now living at Oberlin,
Ohio, the widow of John Jeffers, who was connected with the
sales department of the American Agricultural Chemical Company
at Cleveland.

Hamilton O. Simeral, father of Glean D., was born at Beallsville
in 1861, was reared there and became a general merchant, and in
1907 moved to Wheeling, where he was associated for several years
with the W. A. Driehorst Company, retail merchants. He died at
Wheeling in 1918. He was a democrat, always interested in local
politics, especially at Beallsville, though not an office seeker
for himself. He was a deacon and for many years an active member
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and fraternally was affiliated
with the Masons and Odd Fellows. Hamilton O. Simeral married Rosella
Potts, now living at Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She
was born near Summerfield, Ohio, in 1864, and was reared at Atlanta,
Illinois, whore she was married. She is a niece of the late John B.
Driggs judge of the Circuit Court and a very highly respected citizen
of Eastern Ohio. Of her children Glean D. is the oldest. Ella Mae is
the wife of Glenn O. DuBois, manager of the Zanesville, Ohio, office
of the Bradstreet Company; Wilfred H. is a student in the Wheeling
High School.

Glenn D. Simeral graduated from the Beallsville High School in 1905,
was a student one year in Oberlin College in Ohio, and was twenty
years of age when he accompanied his parents to Wheeling. Here for
three years he was connected with Edward Wagner, a wholesale grocer,
and then for four years was with the Joseph Speidel Grocery Company.
After this general training in business Mr. Simeral organized the
company and established the Owl Print Shop, and is now sole proprietor
of that prosperous business at 917 Market Street. The shop has all
the facilities for expert and high class typographical work and
does a general job printing business. Mr. Simeral is also exclusive
agent in the Panhandle of West Virginia and Eastern Ohio for Art
Metal Steel Office Equipments.

Mr. Simeral is a democrat and is a member of the Thomson Methodist
Episcopal Church on Wheeling Island. He is affiliated with Wheeling
Lodge No. 5, A. F. and A. M., has attained the eighteenth degree in
West Virginia Consistory No. 1 of the Scottish Rite, and is a member
of Wheeling Lodge, Knights of Pythias, and Welcome Lodge, Ancient
Order United Workmen. He is a member of the Wheeling Rotary Club
and Wheeling Chamber of Commerce, and is a stockholder in the
Community Savings & Loan Company in Wheeling.

September 6, 1918, Mr. Simeral joined the colors, being sent to
Camp A. A. Humphries in Virginia, where he was assigned to duty
as a clerk in the personnel office of the Receiving Station, and
continued there until mustered out January 18, 1919. October 6,
1917, Mr. Simeral married at Wheeling, Miss Ethyl Cooper Montgomery,
daughter of George and Mary Elizabeth (Ridgely) Montgomery. Her father,
a merchant, died at Wheeling. The mother, who is still living at
Wheeling, represents the old Colonial family of Ridgelys, who for
several generations lived in Old Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Simeral
have one daughter, Mary Elizabeth, born July 31, 1921.