1895 Inside the Gleason - Lemmler Harness Shop
photo credit: R.C. Gleason
Collection
The man by the stove is Isaac Gleason,
the man in the background is Charles Lemmler, and the man left is unidentified.
These two men ran a business important to the times. There were no
cars only horse and buggy. Gleason and Lemmler were both well respected
men who did a great service for the community. They ran their business
out of an old section of Smethport referred to as "the stand."
Isaac S. Gleason
I. S. Gleason, harness maker,
Smethport, is a son of Amos and Polly (Sias) Gleason, and was born in Livingston
County, NY, in 1828. His parents removed to Warsaw, Wyoming County,
same state, where his mother died in 1843, after which his father made
his home with a daughter in Livingston County until his death. I.
S. Gleason received but a limited education, laboring under difficulties
common to many, and in 1844, when but sixteen years of age, he became an
apprentice in a harness shop in Warsaw, NY, where he remained until January,
1851. He removed to Smethport January 11. 1851, where he was an employee
of Steele & Johnson for three years; then went into the harness business
for himself, and has occupied his present store since 1855. He married
Emily A. Corwin in 1854, and they have had two children: Dora M.
(deceased) and Ralph C. Mr. Gleason is a Republican in politics.
He appreciates the desirability of affording proper educational advantages
to children, and was a member of the school board in the borough during
the erection of its very elegant school building, in which he justly takes
great pride. The family attend the Methodist
Episcopal Church.
SOURCE: History of the Counties of McKean,
Elk, Cameron and Potter, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Selections,
Vol. 1. Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1890. P.
429-430.
CHARLES LEMMLER, ESTEEMED CITIZEN,
IS CALLED BY DEATH
BOROUGH OFFICIAL DIES SATURDAY AFTER SIX WEEKS' ILLNESS -- WAS TERMED
"MOST DISTINGUISHED CITIZEN
FOR 1937."
December 1938 McKean County Miner
The many friends of Charles Lemmler,
borough treasurer and prominent resident of Smethport for 62 years, were
grieved to learn of his death which occurred Saturday afternoon at 4:15
o'clock at his home on Church Street, where he had been seriously ill for
the past six weeks, following surgery in a Buffalo hospital, and in failing
health for several years, but bravely carrying on his duties in spite of
his poor health as long as he was able.
The deceased was born in Boston,
NY, March 14, 1854. He came to Smethport in 1876 where he established
a harness making shop and conducted a thriving business until January of
1933, when his store was destroyed by fire with a number of other buildings.
He was considered an expert in the art of harness making and commanded
a trade over a wide area. Mr. Lemmler served as borough treasurer from
1904 on, and received his appointment consecutively for 33 years.
He missed serving only one year, 1912, after first receiving appointment
to the position.
During the many years in which
Mr. Lemmler operated a harness shop, his place of business was the gathering
place of many of Smethport's prominent citizens for the purpose of prominent
citizens for the purpose of discussing issues of
importance to citizens of the community and county.
they always found Mr. Lemmler in a genial mood for a friendly
discussion.
Members of the Smethport Conopus
Club honored Mr. Lemmler at a testimonial dinner last year as Smethport's
most
distinguished citizen for 1937, a well deserved
honor. Up until the time of his illness, citizens of the borough
virtually set their clocks by his punctual arrival and departure at the
hose house, where the borough treasurer's office has been situated since
the big Smethport fire in 1933.
The deceased was a man possessing
many splendid characteristics, who will be greatly missed by his family
and friends.
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