ELIJAH W. HODGE,
manager and treasurer of the Hodge Manufacturing Company, brass and
iron founders and machinists, of Greenville, is a native of England,
born in Gloucestershire, on the 9th of June, 1843. His parents, William
and Amelia Hodge, were both residents of that shire. He learned the
fuller’s trade in a woolen factory in England, and worked at it there
until coming to Greenville, Pennsylvania. In April, 1868, he and his
family immigrated to this borough, and for a short time he worked at
his trade. The Greenville Woolen Mills closed the following autumn, and
he was compelled to go at coal mining. In October, 1869, he entered
Hamblin’s Sons & Company’s Foundry, where he spent nearly seven
years working at molding. In 1876-77 he began operating during the
evenings, and when short of work built a small brass foundry, a portion
of his present plant. This gradually developed into the Hodge Brass and
Iron Foundry, and since April, 1883, is the Hodge Manufacturing
Company. The last named company now consists of E. W. Hodge, its
founder, his wife, daughter and three Sons, J. H., the eldest son,
being president of the company. When running its full capacity the
plant employs about one hundred and twenty-five men.
On the 2nd
of April, 1863, Mr. Hodge was married in England to Ann E. Howell, who
bore him six children, three of whom are living: John H. who
married Miss Adella McClemans and became the father of two children:
James W. and Robert Frederick, the latter dying at the age of five
years and two months: Elizabeth A., living at home; Rose R., who died
at the age of twenty-one years; and Emma H., now the wife of Dr. H. R.
L. Worrall. Dr. Worrall is a medical missionary of the Dutch Reform
church at Busrah, Arabia, but at the present writing the family is
visiting friends in Greenville, after having been abroad on missionary
labors for a period of six years. Mrs. Worrall was medical missionary
of the Day school at Baroda, India, for some time before her marriage
to the doctor. Their family consists of two children: Helen E., and
Charles H. Mr. Hodge’s first wife died in Greenville, March 21, 1874, a
faithful member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and on the 26th of
the following November he was married to Angeline L. Scott. There were
six children of this second union, four of whom are living, as follows:
Thomas Scott, who married Rose Mabel Hill and is the father of Ruth
Lucille, Mildred Angeline, and Wesley Scott; Garfield, who married
Mabel Crowel, and is the father of three children: Queen R.,
Edward, and Hal; Mary Louise, the wife of Rev. Frederick E. Stough, a
clergyman in charge of St. James Lutheran Church, of Chicago, and
Charles P., who is now a student in the Greenville High School.
E.
W. Hodge is therefore recognized as one of the founders of the
industrial activities of Greenville and despite the many
responsibilities which he has carried for more than thirty years he has
devoted much of his time to religious and public affairs. For
many years he was an active member of the First Methodist church and he
is now a trustee of the Second Methodist church. In 1906, as
independent candidate for the office of burgess, he made a strong run,
being defeated by only forty-six votes.
Source: (Twentieth Century History of Mercer County, 1909, pages 374-375) |
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