Husband Michael Geary 1 2
Born: 26 Sep 1844 - Ireland 2
Christened:
Died: 18 Sep 1895 - New York state 3
Buried: - St. Joseph's Cemetery, Oil City, Venango Co, PA 4
Father: Daniel Geary ( -Abt 1851) 2
Mother: Unknown ( - )
Marriage:
Wife Catherine Flanagan 3
Born: 12 Oct 1845 - Erie, Erie Co, PA 3
Christened:
Died: Aft 1919
Buried:
Father: Timothy Flanagan ( - ) 3
Mother:
Children
1 M Daniel J. Geary 3
Born:
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Spouse: Emma D. Sowers ( - ) 3
Marr: 1895 - ? Venango Co, PA
Spouse: Ermine Monarch ( - ) 3
2 F Catherine E. Geary 3
AKA: Catherine C. Geary
Born:
Christened:
Died: Bef 1919
Buried:
Spouse: Arthur F. Colling ( - ) 3
Marr: 1893 - ? Venango Co, PA
3 F Mary Rose Geary 4
Born:
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Spouse: Edwin Eugene Seep ( - ) 4
Marr: 1893 - ? Venango Co, PA
4 M John A. Geary 4
Born:
Christened:
Died: Sep 1913 4
Buried:
5 M Frank Geary 4
Born:
Christened:
Died: when about nine years old
Buried:
Spouse: Did Not Marry
6 F Clara A. Geary 4
Born: Abt 1881
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Spouse: Charles Parker Berry (Abt 1875- ) 5 6
Marr: 9 Apr 1902 - Oil City, Venango Co, PA 7
7 F Stella E. Geary 4
Born:
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Spouse: Joseph D. Flynn ( - ) 4
8 M Charles J. Geary 4
Born:
Christened:
Died: Bef 1919
Buried:
Spouse: Genevieve Miller ( - ) 4
9 M Arthur M. Geary 4
Born:
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Spouse: Ella Shields ( - ) 4
General Notes: Husband - Michael Geary
After enjoying the advantages of a good old-fashioned practical schooling until fifteen years old, he showed his strong trait of self-reliance by securing work and starting out for himself. When he was sixteen the call for troops found him a man in strength and full of patriotism, although a boy in years, and in July, 1861, he enlisted, becoming a private in Company E, 3d Regiment, New York Volunteers. He served his country with distinguished gallantry, and though once wounded remained in active service for his full term of three years, when he was honorably discharged. At the close of the war he found employment in the Erie City Iron Works, where for seven years he devoted his time and energies to learning every detail and branch of the iron industry necessary in the successful management of such an establishment. In 1871 he removed to Titusville, Pa., where he was foreman for Gibbs, Sterret & Co., later becoming manager and also part owner of the iron works of Runser & Com-pany, of Sharon, Pa. The natural advantages of Oil City as a manufacturing center, its proximity to the oil fields as a market, and to the sources of the raw materials needed in the business, appealed to his business sagacity, and in 1876 he moved thither, and in company with the late B. W. Vandergrift and Daniel O'Day, of New York City, started a small tank and boiler shop at the corner of Duncan street and the Western New York & Pennsyl-vania railroad. After the first year the interests of Mr. Vandergrift were purchased by Capt. J. J. Vandergrift and his son J. J. Vandergrift, Jr., the business continuing under the personal management of Mr. Geary. It grew rapidly and steadily, so much so that in 1881 several acres of land on Seneca Street were purchased and the plant removed to that location. After that time the business showed remark-able development, the Oil City Boiler Works, as it has been known from the beginning, be-ing a leading industrial establishment of the city and county. Mr. Geary and Mr. O'Day became sole owners in 1882. In addition to the tank and boiler department, the manufacture of engines on a large scale was undertaken, and for the manufacture of flues for boilers the tube works was added, the Oil City Tube Company being formed in 1887, at which time Mr. Geary became one of the directors. On Jan. 1, 1888, he became presi-dent, with Joseph Seep as vice president and G. S. Oberly secretary, and within a year or two the five-acre site on Seneca Street and the railroad tracks was the scene of great indus-try. A lap-weld mill of corrugated iron, 304 by 200 feet in dimensions, was constructed, as well as a butt-weld mill 100 by 250 feet, the former containing four furnaces and having a daily capacity of one hundred tons of pipe, ranging in size from one and a half to twelve inches in diameter and up to thirty feet long; while the latter had three furnaces and equipment for the production of one-eighth- to one-and-a-half-inch gas, steam, water and hydraulic pipes. Six hundred men were employed in the tube works alone.
In every department the strong master mind and guiding hand of Michael Geary brought success. Year after year the plants were enlarged, as their output increased with the scope of the markets for the products. Distributing agencies were established in Los An-geles, Cal., St. Louis, Mo., Denver, Colo., and Chicago for the West; Philadelphia and New York, East; Pittsburgh, Sistersville and Cincinnati for the South, and Buffalo for the Great Lakes and Canadian points. Every detail of the enormous business, from appointing agents, securing new markets, improving and perfecting the equipment and products of the plants, was planned and executed by Mr. Geary, who found his reward in the growth of the establishment from a small boiler shop, employing a half dozen men in 1871, to works with a force of two hundred in 1890, and at the time of his death the Oil City Boiler Works and Tube Mills combined were giving steady employment to a force of from fifteen hundred to two thousand men. At one time, in fact, the works had on their payroll more men than all the other manufactories of Oil City combined. Their name and fame, and that of Michael Geary, were known from one end of the country to the other.
Mr. Geary was naturally of a reserved turn, and with this disposition strengthened by his early training, yet no man was firmer in his personal friendships or took more interest in the general prosperity and growth of the city than he. During the long period of busi-ness stagnation and financial panic, which closed nearly every mill and iron manufacturing establishment in the country, he gave his big force of workmen steady employment, taking contracts at a figure that prohibited profits, and when orders were unobtainable turning out stock and storing it in the warehouses and works rather than allow his workmen to go without food and clothing, as was the case in many other places throughout the country at that time. With the revival of the iron business he was the first manufacturer in the country to advance wages, and in consequence hundreds of skilled mechanics were attracted to Oil City, securing employment and becoming permanent residents.
Although he was the leading spirit of these great concerns, Mr. Geary's energies were too great to be occupied with them alone. Recognizing the necessity for a first-class hotel in the city, he in 1888 bought the "Collins House" and the large brick block in which it was situated, refitted, refurnished and practically rebuilt the interior, and renamed it the "Arlington," which he personally conducted until its reputation as one of the leading hotels in the country was established, when he intrusted it to the hands of capable managers. Soon after establishing himself in business here he became one of the heaviest stockholders in the bank of the Oil City Trust Company, and for years was one of the directors of this solid and widely known financial institution. He was also a director and part owner of the Oil City Opera House, being chosen president and a director of the company in 1885; a half owner of the producing interests of the Hanley Oil Company of Bradford; president of the Snow Pump Works, of Buffalo; and had large oil producing interests in the New York and Sistersville (W. Va.) fields. At one time he was one of the largest stockholders in the Brush Electric Light Company of Buffalo, N. Y., and the first president of the Oil City En-terprise Milling Company.
Mr. Geary died of pneumonia at New York, while on a business trip, and his son Daniel J. Geary succeeded him as gen-eral manager and vice president of the Oil City Boiler Works, Daniel O'Day holding the position of president. In 1907 Charles O'Day was elected chief executive, and Frank O'Day vice president, Charles P. Berry becoming secretary and treasurer. They later discontinued the manufacture of tubes, making a specialty of gas and oil engines; army type boilers; the Geary water tube boiler (Mr. Geary's patents); Foster type water tube and marine boilers. For a number of years the concern owned the rights and patents of the Hohensten boilers, but later discontinued their manufacture. [CAB, 410]