Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens
Lawrence County Pennsylvania 1897
[p. 276] a representative mechanic of the city of New Castle, whose residence is at No. 116 South Jefferson Street, is the superintendent of the Vulcan Iron Co., whose works and office are at Nos. 406-420 Moravia Street. He was born in East Brook, now in Lawrence County, but then a part of Mercer County, Nov. 1, 1837, and is a son of Benjamin C. and Nancy (Burnley) Waddington, the latter a daughter of Joseph and Mary (Holmes) Burnley. Joseph Burnley was born in England in 1766, and came to America in 1832; he was a woolen manufacturer, and died about 1851. Our subject's grandfather on his father's side, Benjamin Waddington, Sr., spent his whole life in England, where he was engaged in the woolen mills during the active years of his life, his death occurring in 1845. Our subject's father, Benjamin Waddington, Jr., was born at Eccles Hill, Yorkshire, England, in 1799, and died at Ft. Wayne, Ind., Feb. 29, 1876; his body was sent back to East Brook, this county, where it was interred in the family plot. He was a member of the M. E. Church. In politics, he was a Democrat. He was a woolen-spinner by trade, and was employed many years in the mills at East Brook.
Our subject was reared in the village of East Brook until the age of nine, when the family became residents of New Castle, in which city they lived two or three years, and then moved to Fallston. Until about fourteen years of age, he attended the schools of the various cities of which he was a resident, and at that age began to learn the machinist's trade in the Ohio & Pennsylvania R. R. shops at Allegheny City, where he remained some three years and a half. The following year and a half were spent at Crestline and Gallion, Ohio, in the shops of the Pittsburg, Ft. Wayne & Crestline R. R. Then upon his return to Allegheny City, he worked in the shops six years and a half, after which he came to East Brook, where he took up his residence, and was for two years engaged in a store with his brother. Again returning to Allegheny City, he resumed his old place in the railroad shops and continued in the employ of the company through the years 1863-66. In the latter year, he came to New Castle, working some six years for the New Castle Manufacturing Co. In 1872, he became a partner in the Shaw, Waddington & Co. concern, machinists, in connection with his brother and Mr. Shaw. This partnership lasted until 1881, when he leased the New Castle Manufacturing Co.'s works, which he operated for two years. In 1883, he leased the Shaw shop and ran that three years and in 1886 he established a shop of his own, which he operated for a year or two, and then sold to the New Castle Plow Company, and assumed his present position as superintendent of the Vulcan Iron Co., which has its works on Moravia Street.
Mr. Waddington was married March 21, 1860, in Allegheny City, to Sarah J. Howard, daughter of Aaron and Esther (Hennessey) Howard, and to him and his wife have been born five children: Emma, who married R. D. Kissinger of Beaver Falls, and has borne him one child, Earl; Linnie, who married Albert Evans, an engineer of Mahoningtown, and has borne him four children, Roy, Jessie, Joseph and Zelda; Fannie, who married Frank Bellews of New Brighton, to whom has been given one son, Carl; Cora; and Howard. Mrs. Waddington is a member of the Baptist Church. In politics, our subject is strictly independent, and party allegiance has no hold on him. He is a member of New Castle Lodge, No. 6, Protected Home Circle. An uncle of Mr. Waddington, John Burnley by name, participated in the battle of Waterloo.
Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens Lawrence County Pennsylvania
Biographical Publishing Company, Buffalo, N.Y., 1897
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Updated: 18 May 2001