GEORGE W. LATTIMER.

George W. Lattimer is prominently known in Columbus as a prosperous manufacturer, being secretary and treasurer of the Kauffman-Lattimer Company, wholesale druggists, and president of the Lattimer Stove Company. While he has displayed marked business ability in the successful control of these enterprises, at the same time he has recognized the universal brotherhood of man and has done effective service for the unfortunate ones of the world through the avenues of charitable and benevolent work. His life has never been self centered but on the contrary is continually giving out, not only in the way of material things but in that helpful spirit, generous sympathy and word of encouragement that does so much to dissipate gloom with the sunshine of life.

O. H. Lattimer, father of George W. Lattimer, was born in Norwich township, Franklin county. Ohio. in 1827. His wife, who bore the maiden

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name of Sarah Ann Cox. was born in Delaware county, Ohio, in 1831. In early life they were both employed at the old insane asylum. and there formed the acquaintance which ripened into love and was consummated in marriage. Daniel Dodge Lattimer, the grandfather of our subject, resided on a farm bordering the Scioto river. He settled there in 1815. cleared the land of the timber which covered it and placed the field, tinder the plow. He and his wife left the state of Connecticut in the early part of the nineteenth century, made their way westward to Marietta., Ohio, afterward to Athens and subsequently settled upon the farm mentioned above. The wife bore the maiden name of Katherine Hyde, and both were of old New England stock. Their family numbered eleven children, of whom O. H. Lattimer was the third in order of birth.

The maternal grandparents of George W. Lattimer were William and Ann (Atherton) Cox, who resided in Wyoming valley near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. In the old cemetery there is found a monument erected to the memory of Captain James Atherton, who was killed in the French and Indian war. Colonel Jacob Lattimer commanded a regiment in the Revolutionary war, and both were ancestors of our subject.

Mrs. O. H. Lattimer, his mother, was educated in the academy of Westerville, which afterward became Otterbein University, later engaged in teaching school for a time and then accepted a position in the insane asylum. where Mr. Lattimer was also employed. After their marriage in 1852. he purchased the ground at the southeast corner of High and Cherry streets in Columbus, and opened a bakery and confectionery business, selling his products to the wholesale trade, making his delivery in large wagons. Also during the period of the Civil war he had a contract for furnishing the army with hard tack. His death occurred in April. 1865, after which time his business property was sold to Coleman & Felber, the latter having learned his trade of Mr. Lattimer, while Mr. Coleman commenced his business life with Mr. Lattimer when a boy of seventeen years. The first bakery in Columbus north of Broad street was established by Mr. Lattimer and was a branch of his other business. He was a well known, highly respected and successful business mail here during the middle portion of the nineteenth century. and is vet remembered by many of the older settlers. There were but two children in the family, and the daughter, Eva Jane, who became the wife of George D. Jones. all attorney, died in 1900. She left two daughters : Margaret Fuller Jones. a recent graduate of Wellesley College; and Grace Lattimer Jones, who is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College of Pennsylvania and one of the promoters and proprietors of the Columbus School for Girls, doing excellent work in this connection.

George W. Lattimer, now the only surviving member of the family, was born in this county in December. 1856. He continued his education in Columbus until his graduation from the Central high school in 1874. after which he spent one year in school in Cleveland, and later was graduated from Amherst College in 1879 on the completion of the full four years, course, at which time the degree of Bachelor of Arts was conferred upon him. He afterward studied law for six months, and then went to the Rocky mountains in Colorado, where he was connected with raining interests, remaining for about a year.

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He then returned to Columbus on business. and while here entered into busing relations with the Nelsonville Coal & Coke Company, of which he was made secretary and treasurer. A year later, however, he sold out, and in 1882, in association with Professor George B. Kauffman and L. B. Kauffman, established a wholesale drug store as a member of the firm of Kauffman, Lattimer & Company. This was incorporated in 1888 as the Kauffman-Lattimer Company, Mr. Lattimer being its secretary and treasurer from the incorporation. In 1901 he also became connected with the Lattimer Stove Company, at which time he was elected president and still holds the office. The plant of this company covers about. three and a half acres, while their trade extends to all parts of the United States, their sales reaching about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars annually. The business of the drug company amounts to about one million dollars annually, this being one of the most extensive wholes ale drug enterprises of Ohio. In all his business connections Mr. Latinmer has displayed keen discernment, with a ready recognition and utilization of opportunity. In coordinating forces he has produced excellent results and throughout his entire career has made steady progress.

In all of his business life Mr. Latimer has looked beyond the exigencies of the moment to the opportunities of the future and the usefulness of his labors has thus continued with the passing years. In many ways Columbus has benefited by his activity and enterprising spirit. He was a member of the first directorate of the board of trade in 1882, was president of the board in 1906. and has served for a number of years as chairman of the public improvement committee. He was also president of the park commission during Mayor Jeffrey's administration, has been treasurer of the Ohio Good Roads Association and president of the Franklin County Good Roads Association. He belongs to that class of far-sighted mien who recognize the advantage of public improvements. and with most enterprising spirit labor for the substantial development and material progress of the city. Neither is he oblivious of his opportunities to aid his fellowmen and has done much effective charitable and benevolent work. He was appointed by Governor Harris as one of the state delegates to the Civic Federation at Chicago. and received appointment from the same executive as a delegate to the 'National Good Roads Association at Buffalo. His work in behalf of good roads and the improvement and development of the park system of Ohio has been most effective. He was instrumental in securing the passage of the bill through the legislature whereby state aid was secured to the amount of fifty percent on all Ohio roads after the work is begun. The remaining fifty percent is paid as follows: twenty-five percent by the comity; fifteen percent by the township; and ten percent by the property owners. The bill also carried with it an appropriation of four hundred and forty thousand dollars from state funds for the care of the roads.

Mr. Lattimer belongs to the Broad street Methodist Episcopal church. He has been vice president of the board of managers of the Associated Charities. is one of the directors of the Humane Society, one of the trustees of the Hannah Neil Mission and president of the board of trustees of the neighborhood guild association. which owns the property on which is located the Godman Guild settlement house. He is chairman of the joint committee on good roads

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of the state board of commerce and Ohio State Grange, is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, a member of the Columbus Club, the Ohio Club and of the Columbus Country Club, of which he was also one of the founders.

Mr. Lattimer has been married twice. He first wedded Miss Belle Gardner, a daughter of Andrew Gardner, a, former postmaster of Columbus, and unto them was born a son, Gardner. Mrs. Lattimer died in 1886, and for his second wife Mr. Lattimer chose Miss Minnie Williams, a granddaughter of Dr. Allen, one of the older settlers of Columbus, who was a Baptist minister, and later became interested in the Ohio Tool Company and in the shoe firm of Allen & Awl. By the second marriage there is one daughter, Miss Jane Lattimer. The son was educated in the high school and was graduated from Amherst College of Massachusetts in 1906. Such in brief is the life history of George W. Lattimer, a man remarkable in the breadth of his wisdom and in the scope of his activities. In his business career he has attained notable success, and yet his life has never been self centered, but has been actuated by a spirit of devotion to his fellowmen, cognizant at all times of the duties and obligations which devolve upon him in this connection.