E.B. Latshaw
HON. E. B. LATSHAW, of Kittanning, present representative of his district in the State Legislature of Pennsylvania, has passed all his life in this region, having been born in Clarion county, where the family has been settled for many years.
Peter Latshaw, his grandfather, was of German parentage. He came to this part of the State from eastern Pennsylvania, and settled in Clarion county, where he lived and died. He is buried there. Farming was his occupation, and he owned two or three hundred acres of land, all of which is still in the family name, being owned by Isaac Latshaw. Peter Latshaw's children were as follows: Silas, Peter, Isaac, John, Ellen, Margaret, Kate and Elizabeth. This family was reared in Clarion county.
Silas Latshaw, father of Hon. E. B. Latshaw, became a farmer like his father. His untimely death occurred in February, 1866, when he was only about thirty years old, being caused by typhoid fever, and he is buried at West Freedom, in Clarion county. He had married Martha Yingling, a native of Clarion county, daughter of David Yingling, and three children were born to them: Elmer B.; George, who lives in Venango county, Pa.; and Ada, wife of Louis Gerdon, of Meadville, Pennsylvania.
Elmer B. Latshaw was born Feb. 17, 1861, and was but five years old when his father died. He continued to live on the old home farm in Clarion county until fifteen years old, meantime attending common school, and then started out to make his own way in the world. When twenty years old he gave up work for a time in order to resume his studies, and for two years attended school at Edinboro, Pa. At the end of that time he went to Beaver county, Pa., to enter the employ of the Bridgewater Gas Company, remaining at Rochester, Beaver county, for three years. In 1888 and 1889 he was at Wellsville, Ohio, in the employ of the Ohio Valley Gas Company. His most important business interests, however have been in the manufacturing of brick. He began that business at Vanport, in Beaver county, Pa., when he was a partner in the Vanport Brick Company, a prosperous concern, with which he was connected until he came to Kittanning, in 1894. Here he started the plant now conducted by the Kittanning Brick & Fire Clay Company, planning and overseeing the construction of the works and superintending the operation of the same for fifteen years. Selling his interests in this establishment in 1907, Mr. Latshaw took a position with the Hydraulic Pressed Brick Company, of St. Louis, whose plant is located at Brazil, Ind. Mr. Latshaw became well known all over the country in his connection with the brick manufacturing business, for he was one of the most progressive men in that line and thoroughly up-to-date in his ideas and management, a fact which was recognized by all who had dealings with him. At Kittanning he made the first vitrified gray brick turned out in Pennsylvania, if not in the country, shipping the product to points all over the country, between New York and California and between Canada and Mexico.
Mr. Latshaw has always taken an ardent interest in public affairs and an active part in politics, as a republican until the formation of the Washington party, on whose ticket he was elected to the Legislature. His home is in that part of Kittanning known as Wickboro, and he has served his fellow citizens there faithfully as a member of the school board and councilman. In 1912 he was the candidate for State representative on the straight Washington ticket, and was elected to service until 1915. He has rendered the new party valuable service as committeeman, and is secretary of the Armstrong county organization. His religious connection is with the M. E. Church.
On Jan. 18, 1888, Mr. Latshaw was married to Sarah Richardson of Washington, PA., daughter of James and Ann Richardson, and they started housekeeping at Wellsville, Ohio. They have had four children: Walter, who died when fifteen months old; Mary, who was a student in the seminary at Washington, Pa., at the time of her death, when she was nineteen years old; Paul now (1913) aged nineteen, who graduated from the Kittanning high school, has attended the University of Colorado for one year, and expects to enter Allegheny College in 1914; and Wendell, now aged fourteen, who is attending public school at Kittanning. The family home is at No. 555 Hawthorne avenue, Kittanning.
Source: Pages 596-597, Armstrong County, Pa., Her People, Past and Present, J.H. Beers & Co., 1914
Transcribed January 1999 by Connie Mateer for the Armstrong County Beers Project
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