Husband William Douglas Rider 1 2
Born: 27 Apr 1846 - Enfield Corners, Chemung Co, NY 3
Christened:
Died: 13 Sep 1905 - Franklin, Venango Co, PA 3
Buried: 15 Sep 1905 - Franklin Cemetery, Franklin, Venango Co, PA
Father: H. Nelson Rider ( - ) 3
Mother: Sarah [Unk] ( - ) 3
Marriage:
Other Spouse: Louisa Helen Nock ( -1920) 4 - 16 Jul 1867 or 27 Sep 1871 2 3
• Business: : Franklin, Venango Co, PA.
Wife Unknown 3
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Children
1 M William Douglas Rider, Jr. 3
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General Notes: Husband - William Douglas Rider
He received a public school education at Elmira, New York, and spent his early life in the vicinity of his birthplace, in 1869 removing to Franklin, Pennsylvania, where he soon embarked in the tin and hardware business. The establishment was carried on for a short time in its early days by the firm of Rider & Hazeltine, but Mr. Rider acquired all the interest and thereafter conducted the business on his own account, so that the large proportions it attained within a few years may be attributed entirely to his efforts. He came at an auspicious period, when the activities in the oil fields brought about an access of population and local prosperity which assured a large trade to merchants enterprising enough to improve the occasion. The growth of his business was a typical story of the times. Commencing in 1870 with five men and three wagons, within a decade he was employing about a hundred people and forty wagons, and the volume of trade had increased from twenty-five thousand dollars annually to about half a million. He manufactured plain tin and sheet iron ware and dealt wholesale in pressed tinware, stoves, brooms and papermakers' stock, having a large jobbing trade in tinware, stoves, kitchen furniture and similar goods, in that department alone employing two traveling salesmen, who covered a large territory in Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio. His tin shop was equipped with the most up-to-date facilities in the way of machinery and other appliances, and kept about twenty women busy constantly filling orders from various parts of the valley. It was no unusual thing for him to have five hundred stoves in stock, with a large variety of styles. The business was housed in a commodious building at the corner of Eighth and Liberty streets, Franklin, with spacious store and sales rooms, and he handled a large assortment of glass and other household wares, the extensive patronage to which he catered enabling him to keep a comprehensive stock, much more ample and varied than is ordinarily found in a place of the size and consequently affording his customers more satisfactory shopping conveniences. Like many merchants of the day, he "paid the highest market price in cash for hides, pelts" and other articles which were brought in for trade, and in this connection he came to buy old metals, rope, etc., as well as rags for papermakers, his rag trade in 1877 amounting to eight hundred tons and his iron trade to fifteen hundred tons. In fact, he became the most extensive buyer and shipper of rags and other junk in western Pennsylvania, having large quantities brought in by his wagons and hundreds of tons forwarded to him by the various railroads. He employed from twenty-five to fifty women, as the business required, sorting the rags into the various grades, over twenty different kinds being sent to mills in various parts of the country.
Mr. Rider did not escape the attractions of the oil fields, in which he made investments of considerable value, and for a number of years he was a member of the Oil Exchange. He also embarked in the hotel business, building the "Rider Hotel" at Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania, which he conducted successfully. With all his material interests he found time for public affairs and matters vital to the general welfare, serving his fellow citizens in Franklin as a member of the City council, to which he was elected on the Republican ticket, and acting as quartermaster of the 16th Regiment, Pennsylvania National Guard. [HVC 1919, 508]