Wayne county, being president of the
First National Bank of Fairfield; president of the Mill Shoals Cooperage
Company; and an extensive owner of Illinois lands. A son of Andrew J. Poorman,
Sr., he was born April 28, 1871, in Pleasant Point, Paulding county, Ohio.
Andrew J. Poorman, Sr., was born in
Ohio, and has spent his entire life of eighty-three years in his native state,
his home now being in Paulding county, where he is living retired from
agricultural pursuits. To him and his wife, whose maiden name was
Sarah Daly,
ten children were born, as follows:
Mary E.; Thomas W.; Loretta; Emerson L.;
Francis, deceased; Henry J.; Lucy D.; Maggie; Perry; and
Andrew J., Jr. The
mother passed to the life beyond at a comparatively early age, her death
occurring in 1887.
After the death of his mother, when
he was but sixteen years of age,
Andrew J. Poorman, Jr.,
left school and began
to hustle for himself, being first engaged in farming and afterwards in
lumbering. Changing his occupation in 1892, he was bookkeeper and manager of a
cooperage company for five years, during which time he gained a practical
knowledge of the business. In 1897
Mr. Poorman
migrated to Illinois, locating
at Mill Shoals, where, in company with
W. C. Johantgen,
he organized the Mill
Shoals Cooperage Company, with which he has since been actively connected.
Enlarging its business in 1906, this enterprising company commenced operations
in the south, and in addition to its original plant is now operating mills in
Boynton and Hermann, Arkansas, and in Bucoda, Missouri, the annual output of the
combined plants approximating fifty million staves, in the manufacture of which
over seven hundred men are employed. This company, of which
Mr. Poorman
is
president, has a capital of $100,000 invested, and has headquarters in Saint
Louis, Missouri.
Since 1902
Mr. Poorman
has been officially connected with the First National Bank of Fairfield, serving
as vice-president until 1909, when, at the death of
General T. W. Scott,
he succeeded to
the presidency, and took up his
residence in Fairfield, The Bank of
Fairfield was established in 1892 by local citizens, including
F. M. Brock and
J. A. Cox. In 1895 it was organized into the First National Bank of Fairfield,
with a capital of $50,000. In 1912 its deposits amounted to $250,000, while its
total resources were $370,000. It is housed in the fine brick building which it
owns on Main street, and pays interest on its deposits. This institution has a
fine corps of officers, as follow: President,
Andrew J. Poorman, Jr.; first
vice-president,
J. A. Cox; second vice-president,
T. J. Hilliard; cashier,
Walter Sons; and assistant cashier,
William Atterbury. The directors are
J. A.
Cox, T. J. Hilliard, Walter Sons, S. T. Pendleton, F. M. Brock, C. E. Keith, C.
H. Keith, H. H. Moore, A. J. Poorman, Jr., and
B. F. Thomas.
Mr. Poorman also has other interests
of vital importance, being a director of the Farmers’ State Bank of Enfield;
vice-president of the Richland Construction Company; a stockholder in the
Fairfield Ice and Storage Company; and the owner of about fifteen hundred acres
of valuable land, five hundred lying near Mill Shoals, four hundred and seventy
acres in Wabash county, Illinois, and a tract equally as large situated in Wayne
county. Politically
Mr. Poorman is a Republican, and fraternally he belongs to
the Ancient Free and Accepted Order of Masons, being a member not only of the
local lodge, but of Fairfield Chapter, No. 179, Royal Arch Masons, of Fairfield;
and is a member, also, of Olney Lodge, No. 926, Benevolent and Protective Order
of Elks, of Olney, Illinois.
Mr. Poorman has been twice married.
He married first, in 1897,
Minnie MeKinney, who died in 1899; the two children born of that
P. 1608
union died in infancy.
Mr. Poorman married again, in 1901,
Nellie Behymer, of Mill Shoals, a daughter of
Nathaniel Behymer. Three children have blessed the union of
Mr. and
Mrs. Poorman, namely:
Lucille, born in 1902;
Irene, born in 1905; and
Paul, deceased. Born in a log
cabin and brought up in the swamp lands of Ohio,
Mr. Poorman has made his own
way through life since a youth of sixteen years, and having met with noteworthy
success in his undertakings is entitled to a place of eminence among the
selfmade men of our generation.
Andrew J. Poorman, Mr. Poorman‘s father, settled in Paulding county, Ohio, in 1854, taking up his residence in
what is known as the Black Land District. He enlisted in August 1862, in Company
I, One Hundredth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and participated in the engagements
of Knoxville, Tennessee; Buzzards Roost, Resaca, Kenesaw Mountain, Peach Tree
Creek and Atlanta, Georgia. He received a wound in the left hand at Kenesaw
Mountain.
Biography Table of
Contents
Name Index
Memorial Library Illinois
Selections
USGenNet.org
- First & Only 501(c)3 Host for Genealogical & Historical Sites
Livingston County Michigan Historical & Genealogical Project
American
History & Genealogy Project
Home
© 2006~ Pam MARDOS
Rietsch pam@livgenmi.com
