Louis Kepler Hyde

biography

Lewis Kepler Hyde. - -In every flourishing community there are certain men, who by their enterprise, straightforward business methods and public spirit maintain the prosperity and progressiveness of the place, and among such citizens of Titusville no one is more worthy than he whose name forms the heading of this brief tribute to his merit. His paternal grandfather came to this section of Pennsylvania from Lebanon, Connecticut, about 1820, and from that time to the present the Hydes have been representative citizens of the western part of the Keystone state. In 1633 William Hyde, the progenitor of this family in the United States, arrived on these shores from England, his native land. (See Chancellor Walworth’s Genealogy of the Hyde Family.) The maternal great-grandfather of Louis Kepler Hyde, a Mr. Kepler, came here from Wurtemberg, Germany, and was very highly educated, speaking six languages.

The parents of the subject of this outline are Charles and Elizabeth (Kepler) Hyde, the former widely and favorably known throughout this portion of the country as a merchant, lumber dealer, oil producer, etc., in addition to which varied enterprises he has been president of three national banks and president of the New Orleans & Northwestern Railway Company. As a financier and business man he has been remarkably successful, and the same qualities which have wrought out his prosperity seem to have been inherited, in a notable degree, by his son.

Louis Kepler Hyde, the last of the Hyde family name born in Hydetown. Crawford county, is now in the prime of early manhood, his birth having occurred July 30, 1865 In 1867 his parents removed to Titusville, and from 1868 to September, 1887, he was a resident of Plainfield, New Jersey, to which attractive suburb of New York City his parents moved in 1868 Eleven years ago he returned to Titusville, where he has since made his home. He was given excellent educational advantages; from 1874 to 1879 he attended Charlier Institute, at No. 158 West Fifty-ninth street, New York; for the succeeding four years he was a student under the tutelage of Dr. Pingry, of Elizabeth, New Jersey, and Mr. Leal, of Plainfield, same state, for three years and one year respectively. He then entered the academic department of Yale College, in New Haven, Connecticut, and in June, 1887, he was duly graduated at Yale. Many of the pleasant associations of his college days he keeps up through his club relationship, as he is identified with Chapter Phi (mother chapter) of the D. K. E. Society at Yale; the Plainfield Yale Club; the D. K. E. Club of New York; and the University Athletic Club of New York. Besides, he belongs to the Prentiss Club, of Natchez, Mississippi; the Thistle Club and the Canadohta Club, both of Titusville; and the Tourilli Fish and Game Club of the Province of Quebec, Canada.

His happy school days finished, Louis Kepler Hyde settled down to the serious business of life, and in the fall after his graduation at college he assumed the duties of the vice-presidency of the Second National Bank of Titusville, and also became assistant cashier of the Hyde National Bank, of that city. In March, 1889, he was installed as cashier of the Second National Bank, and has ever since served in that capacity. In August, 1888, he became the junior member of the firm of Charles Hyde & Son, which firm of bankers succeeded the Hyde National Bank. In 1890 Louis Kepler Hyde was made vice-president of the New Orleans & Northwestern Railway Company; the following year its president, and in 1892 was appointed receiver and general manager for the railroad. He continued to acceptably fill this responsible position until March, 1898, when he was elected vice-president and general manager of the railroad, with headquarters at Titusville, and as such he is still acting.

In the multiplicity of his business cares he never neglects his duties as a citizen, and is one of the most active and interested members of the Titusville Relief Association and the Titusville Industrial Association, of the latter being one of the board of managers. He is also one of the trustees and treasurer for the Titusville Tannery. In politics, he stanchly upholds the Republican party platform, believing in protection for American industries and sound money.

June 30, 1891, Mr. Hyde married Miss Verna Emery, and their only child, Helen Hyde, was born November 18, 1892. Mrs. Hyde is a daughter of the late Hon. David Emery and Susan Angeline Emery, the former an extensive oil producer and merchant of Crawford county for many years, and known far and wide throughout this region as a man of unusual ability and judgment.

Our county and its people: a historical and memorial record of Crawford County, Pennsylvania by Samuel P. Bates, 1899, pages 699-701.