William James Bleakley and Mary Smith Lamb
Husband William James Bleakley 1 2 3 4
Born: 6 Jul 1849 - Franklin, Venango Co, PA 1 2 5 Christened: Died: 27 Sep 1908 6 Buried: 29 Sep 1908 - Franklin Cemetery, Franklin, Venango Co, PA 7
Father: Col. James Bleakley (1820-1883) 1 4 8 9 10 Mother: Elizabeth Dubbs (1822-Aft 1890) 1 5 11
Marriage: 17 May 1876 2 12
Wife Mary Smith Lamb 1 4 12 13 14
Born: 18 Apr 1854 Christened: Died: Buried:
Father: John Lamb (1806-1863) 14 15 16 17 18 Mother: Mary Anna May ( -1877) 2 12 18
Children
1 F Anna Mary Bleakley 4 14 19
Born: 4 Feb 1877 14 Christened: Died: Buried:Spouse: George Boyles Woodburn (1869- ) 20 21 Marr: 4 Feb 1903 - Franklin, Venango Co, PA 4 14
2 M Orrin Louis Bleakley 14 19
Born: 10 Feb 1879 14 Christened: Died: Buried:Spouse: Florence Dickey Campbell (Abt 1878- ) 14 Marr: 29 Jun 1904 - ? Venango Co, PA 14
3 M Frederick James Bleakley 14 19
Born: 23 Oct 1880 14 Christened: Died: Buried:Spouse: Ethel Niedlander ( - ) 14 Marr: 2 Oct 1907 14
4 F Margaret May Bleakley 14 19
Born: 16 Dec 1882 14 Christened: Died: Buried:Spouse: Louis E. Habegger ( - ) 14 Marr: 4 Nov 1908 - ? Venango Co, PA 14
5 F Evelyn Elizabeth Bleakley 14 19
Born: 26 Nov 1884 14 Christened: Died: Buried:Spouse: Victor W. Stewart ( - ) 14 Marr: 4 Feb 1909 - ? Venango Co, PA 14
6 M William Jay Bleakley 14 19
Born: 31 Dec 1888 14 Christened: Died: Buried:
7 M Donald Sherburne Bleakley 14 22
Born: 9 Jun 1894 14 Christened: Died: May 1963 - Pennsylvania Buried:Spouse: Helen Marie Rial (Abt 1895- ) 22 Marr: 21 Jul 1913 - Franklin, Venango Co, PA 23
8 M Kenneth Huntington Bleakley 14
Born: 2 Dec 1896 14 Christened: Died: Buried:
General Notes: Husband - William James Bleakley
He was reared in Franklin, and received his education in the public schools, subse-quently spending one year at Waterford Academy. From boyhood he assist-ed his father in the bank, and on the death of the latter he succeeded him as head of the International Bank, of which he is now president. Under his management the International has continued the same prosperous career that it enjoyed during the lifetime of his father. Politically Mr. Bleakley is a Republican, has served five years on the city council, and two terms as mayor of Franklin. He is recognized as one of the most competent officials that the city has every had. During his several terms in the council he made a special effort to reduce the debt of the city, which finally resulted in accomplishing that object and in establishing a sinking fund for the redemp-tion of the city bonds. [HVC 1890, 786]
He was educated in the local public schools, followed by terms in the Waterford Academy and Oberlin (Ohio) College. At an early age he entered upon a business career that was destined to be constant. He was teller in the First National Bank. In 1868, when James Bleakley, his father, established the International Bank, he became his assistant and in 1872 became cashier; in 1883, on the death of his father he became president of the International Bank, and under his manage-ment the International Bank continued its career of substantial prosperity. He remained in that position until 1902 when the bank be-came the Franklin Trust Company, when he retired in order to give his time to other mat-ters of importance, particularly to the exten-sive and varied interests of the Bleakley estate of which he was the chief executor. At the same time, while managing his personal business, he entered largely upon public enter-prises. He was president of the Venango Water Company several years, an organizer and president of the Franklin Electric Com-pany, and helped to organize the Franklin Steel Casting Company, of which he was treas-urer. He was identified with the Marvin Manufacturing Company in its infancy and brought this company from practically noth-ing to one of the largest manufacturing cor-porations in the city today. For a number of years and to his death he was a trustee of the State Institution at Polk, and his counsel was highly valued by the board and others con-nected with the institution. As a business man he was a prodigious worker, yet doing things without noise or ostentation. His im-pulse toward the practical benefit of others was evinced in his management of the Bleakley estate. He began on a large scale the scheme of building homes for people of lim-ited means, to be acquired on easy payments, and many homes on Bleakley Hill and Oak Hill attest the beneficence of the system.
Added to the multifarious and exacting de-mands of private business Mr. Bleakley was much in request in public affairs. Politically a Republican, he served twelve terms in the city council and was elected mayor in 1887 and 1888 and 1891. During his administration he succeeded in reducing the debt of the city and establishing a sinking fund for the extinguish-ment of the bonded indebtedness. In 1908 he was elected a member of the school board, and at the time of his death he was serving his third term as president. In him the public schools and pupils had an active friend. He felt the necessity of lifting the mind out of the levels of mere trade and traffic, and while overweighed with other unavoidable business cares, he still found time to aid most effec-tively in every detail pertaining to his office as school director. He was largely instrumental in the erection of the present magnificent high school building, in which he had to contend with some opposition, but, as in the case of many other of his enterprises, the results vin-dicated his judgment. He was one of the best known men in the Pennsylvania oil region, and as a financier had few equals. He measured up to the full stature of a true and good man, and in his doings, large and small, public or private, he exemplified the old fashioned, rock-ribbed virtues of honesty, square dealing and brotherly kindness. He was faithful to every trust, competent and reliable in every duty that devolved upon him. Although his time was fully taken up with business; per-sonal and official, he devoted his considerable attention to his domestic enjoyment. His strong personality, clear mind and fair methods commanded the respect of the many with whom he came in contact, and secured their confidence and friendship. But, successful as he was in his relations with the outside world, he was at his best in his own home. He loved it, and spent with his family all the time he could spare from the unceasing de-mands of business. In that well ordered home, the haunt of comfort and hospitality, he found the rest, refuge and content that his nature craved. He was a cordial host, the center of cheer among his guests and family. He was an adherent of the First Presbyterian Church, and a member of its board of trustees, always giving the benefit of his counsel and generous support to the building of its temporal inter-ests. [GPHAV, 261]
1 J. H. Newton, History of Venango County, Pennsylvania (Columbus, OH: J. A. Caldwell Publishers, 1879), Pg 483.
2 —, History of Venango County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Brown, Runk, & Co., Publishers, 1890), Pg 786.
3 Charles A. Babcock, Venango County, Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1919), Pg 529, 545.
4 George P. Donehoo, Pennsylvania - A History (NW) (New York, NY; Chicago, IL: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc., 1926), Pg 83.
5 Charles A. Babcock, Venango County, Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1919), Pg 529.
6 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of the Allegheny Valley, Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1913), Pg 261.
7 Franklin Cemetery - Record of Interments (Franklin, PA.).
8 —, History of Venango County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Brown, Runk, & Co., Publishers, 1890), Pg 785.
9 Charles A. Babcock, Venango County, Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1919), Pg 528.
10 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of the Allegheny Valley, Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1913), Pg 628.
11 —, History of Venango County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Brown, Runk, & Co., Publishers, 1890), Pg 765.
12 Charles A. Babcock, Venango County, Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1919), Pg 545.
13 —, History of Venango County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Brown, Runk, & Co., Publishers, 1890), Pg 786, 1078.
14 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of the Allegheny Valley, Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1913), Pg 263.
15 —, History of Venango County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Brown, Runk, & Co., Publishers, 1890), Pg 1077.
16 Charles A. Babcock, Venango County, Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1919), Pg 544.
17 George P. Donehoo, Pennsylvania - A History (NW) (New York, NY; Chicago, IL: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc., 1926), Pg 37.
18 Venango County Genealogy Club, Vital Statistics, Venango County, Pennsylvania 1852-1854, Pg 4.
19 —, History of Venango County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Brown, Runk, & Co., Publishers, 1890), Pg 787.
20 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of the Allegheny Valley, Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1913), Pg 263, 465.
21 George P. Donehoo, Pennsylvania - A History (NW) (New York, NY; Chicago, IL: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc., 1926), Pg 82.
22 Charles A. Babcock, Venango County, Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1919), Pg 416.
23
Venango Co, PA, Marriage License, #10568.
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