Bios: WILLIAM H. BRABY: Lawrence County, Pennsylvania

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  Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Lawrence Co transcribers.
  Coordinated by Ed McClelland

  Copyright 2004.  All rights reserved.
  http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
 
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  Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens
  Lawrence County Pennsylvania
  Biographical Publishing Company, Buffalo, N.Y., 1897
  
  An html version with search engine may be found at 
  
  http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/lawrence/1897/
  
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    WILLIAM H. BRABY.
    
    [p. 546] The gentleman, whose name stands at the head of this brief
  biography, ranks among the first business men of the County of Lawrence, as a
  man whose interests are many and lucrative, and whose commercial operations
  for the past twenty years have been mainly confined to Wampum and its
  vicinity. He was born in Kingston, Canada, July 23, 1847. He was a son of
  William Braby and his wife Marian, who was a daughter of George Witherspoon,
  a powder-maker of Edinburgh, Scotland. William Braby was born near London,
  Feb. 2, 1806, and was a farmer by occupation, although twenty-two years of
  his life were passed in the British Army, where he reached the rank of
  sergeant. He was a son of William Braby, Sr., who was a game-keeper on a
  large landed estate in England.
    
    Mr. Braby, our subject, was the fifth of a family of sixteen children. He
  has two brothers living in Wampumone of whom is James, the proprietor of a
  restaurant, and the other is Benjamin, a grocer. Mr. Braby's residence in
  Canada terminated at the age of sixteen, when he started on the journey that
  found its end in Clinton, Beaver Co., Pa. For two years he was with his
  uncle, William Somerville, who dealt extensively in coal. He then became a
  clerk in the store of Pierce, Somerville & Co., in the same town, and
  remained with that firm a period of two years, and later with the Clinton
  Coal Company sixteen years, during which time his salary was gradually
  increased from $20 to $150 per month.
    
    In 1877 our subject decided to branch out for himself in commercial life,
  so he opened a hardware store in Wampum, and as his business grew to large
  dimensions durin the next four years he built a store-room and added a stock
  of dry goods. In 1888, he again increased his facilities and branched out
  still farther by adding the departments of furniture and undertaking to his
  other successful ventures. On Jan. 1, 1897, he sold all of his mercantile
  interests, retaining only the furniture store. In 1894 he opened a livery
  barn, being associated in this venture with his son-in-law Charles C.
  Cunningham, and is able to furnish the most stylish of conveyances, as well
  as serviceable, in a reasonable length of time. In 1896, he negotiated for
  the large sandstone quarries that lie two miles south of Wampum, and after
  satisfactory terms and arrangements for payment had been made took
  possession, and began developing the resources of his new venture, exhibiting
  his customary thrift and energy in doing so. Mr. Braby is pre-eminently a
  self-made man, according to what is understood in the general sense of the
  word, for he has relied on his own ability to make for himself a place in the
  world, and he has attained an enviable position, being a thorough business man
  in every respect. He is serving his second term as postmaster of Wampum, and
  he is a Democrat of the Jacksonian type to the very backbone. He is a member
  of two secret societiesWampum Lodge, No. 4, I. O. O. F., and New Castle
  Lodge, F. & A. M.
    
    Mr. Braby was united in marriage on Nov. 23, 1870, to Jennie E. Wilkinson,
  daughter of William S. and Mary E. (Robinson) Wilkinson. Three children
  blessed this marriage: Maude M., Lillian, and Mary. Maude M. became the wife
  of Charles C. Cunningham, son of H. Ira Cunningham of Wampum, and they have
  two childrenLouis and Clare. Mr. and Mrs. Braby are regular attendants of
  the Presbyterian Church. Our subject is benevolent and kind, a good neighbor,
  a devoted father and husband, and is entitled to the confidence of his
  fellow-townsmen and friends, which he possesses to a marked degree. Oct. 1,
  1897, the Major & McCready Co., formerly in the dry goods business, and Braby
  & Snare, who were interested in the stone business, and W. H. Braby
  consolidated, and the stone firm is now known as the Wampum Sand Stone Co.,
  and the grocery and dry goods business is under the style of the Beaver
  Valley Supply Co. (Snare retiring from the firm of Braby, Snare & Co.) with
  main office at Wampum, Pa.