My Genealogy Hound

WASHINGTON ALLEN WESTON, deceased, Greenville; was born in Alexandria, Va., March 3, 1814, and died in Greenville, Ohio, April 24, 1876; his father, William Weston, was a sea captain and perished at sea; his mother, Rebecca Conyes, was an English lady, and died soon after the death of her husband; when an orphan boy of 15, he came to Ohio, and was six years a salesman in a mercantile house in Dayton, where he made a record of fine business talent, industry and honesty; about 1835, with a small capital, he began business in Piqua, Ohio, but the financial crisis of 1836-37 swept away every dollar he possessed; nothing daunted, however, he soon began again in Covington, Miami County, where he prospered and became leader in the public affairs of the community; in 1847, he was elected on the Whig ticket to the General Assembly of Ohio, and acquitted himself with credit; in the fall of 1848, he located in Greenville, and opened the first hardware store of the place; in 1856, he purchased the Dayton paper mills, and for seven years conducted a thriving business in that city, and in 1863, returned to Greenville, resumed the hardware trade, and in January, 1866, became one of the organizers of the Farmers’ National Bank of Greenville, and President of the same, remaining such until his decease. He was prominently active in the local enterprise of the community, and his generosity was as universal as mankind, with a heart ever open, and a hand ever extended to relieve the necessities of the poor and unfortunate. He possessed a fine literary and scientific taste, and had a very fair education, and was a good conversationalist; he excelled as a writer, and contributed a number of timely articles to the public prints of the day. The guiding principle of his life was the Golden Rule.