Struthers - Wetmore - Schimmelfeng House

Thomas Eddy Struthers was the first builder of the 210 Fourth Avenue, Warren, structure. (In 1870, Fourth Avenue was known as High Street.) Thomas E. Struthers was born on August 16, 1844, son of Thomas and Eddy Eunice Struthers. Thomas Eddy Struthers began building the structure in 1870, as he was newly married with a baby on the way. Unfortunately, he contracted typhoid fever and passed away on May 4, 1871.
His father Thomas Struthers, the industrialist, purchased the property several months after the death of his son, finished building the structure, and gifted it to his daughter Anna Eliza Struthers, her husband George Rapelyea Wetmore, and his grandson Thomas Struthers Wetmore.
On May 11, 1880, Anna passed away at the age of 31 having contracted pneumonia while on a shopping trip in Philadelphia.

Her obituary read:
“IN MEMORIUM.”
— —
“MRS. ANNA E. WETMORE.”

   “The news of the death of Mrs. Anna E. Wetmore, which was flashed over the wires on Tuesday morning, came with a shock to a wide circle of friends and relatives, and cast a gloom over the whole town. There was scarcely time after the news of her illness reached here for her husband, mother, father and family physician to reach her bed-side, before the tidings came of her death.
“Truly, ‘death loves a shining mark.’ For a long time the deaths in Warren have been peculiarly said; one after one our brightest and best have been taken, and now again, not a single family, but the whole community is made to mourn.
“Mrs. Wetmore was the only daughter of our venerable townsman, Thomas Struthers, and thirty-two [sic] years of age. In 1870, she was married to George R. Wetmore, and leaves one child, Thomas Struthers Wetmore, a bright boy of seven years.
“She was active, energetic and instant in all good works, public as well as private. Her loss will be seriously felt in the church of which she was a member, the Sunday school, the missionary society and the temperance work. Yet she was first of all, a good wife and devoted mother and daughter. In her the stronger and milder virtues were rarely blended and balanced, producing a character such as is not often met with, and which blesses all who come within its influence. With her mental gifts far above the ordinary, and opportunities such as few enjoy, she never assumed any superiority, even with the humblest people. Wealth could not dazzle her, poverty, had it been her lot, could not have crushed her. She seemed superior to circumstances and would have been in a cottage the same enlightened, noble, dignified woman she was in her elegant mansion.
“Is it perhaps the highest praise to say of her that all her virtues were genuine; that she was perfectly sincere and void of affectation and prudence in all things, honest, not only with others, but with herself. Her benevolence was from the heart, and consisted not merely in giving, but in doing. Many are the hearts she has cheered, many the lives she has brightened with kindness.
“But a few weeks ago she left Warren for a brief stay in Philadelphia. During her absence the painters and decorator have been busy renovating and beautifying her home and preparing it for her return. In the elegant drawing rooms the packages of furniture, selected by herself, stand unopened, awaiting her return.
   “To that pleasant elegant home she will return no more forever. To a narrow chamber on the hillside all that is mortal of her will soon be consigned to solitude and silence. Over her form will fall tears as warm as the spring rain, and her memory will over be as sweet and fragrant as the flowers which the hands of love scatter over her bier. But for herself, — for the immortal spirit which spreads its wings as the mortal clods fall off; if a pure heart and Christian faith, a crown of good works and a life blameless as the sunshine can assure us of so much, she has been called home, a little before her aged parents, into the glory, of life everlasting.”

Anna’s sudden death left George and Tommy alone. George invited his niece Alice Wetmore and her husband, J. P. Jefferson, to live-in and assist with Tommy’s upbringing. Alice and J. P. were returning to Warren and George needed help.
Alice was George’s niece but only six years his junior. The four lived in the Wetmore House for ten years. Judge Brown had been appointed administrator of Tommy’s estate left to him by his mother. Judge Brown kept very meticulous records.
Alice and J. P. Jefferson were an immensely popular couple active in many organizations.
In 1890, the couple built a beautiful house on the southwest corner of Market Street and Second Avenue. It had three bathtubs which was considered extremely lavish in those days. The Jeffersons were community driven, contributing generously to the First Presbyterian Church, helping to start the Humane Society, supporting the Children's Aid Society, and active in the Shakespeare Club. 

   His obituary read:
OBITUARY
———
GEORGE RAPELYEA WETMORE
———

“George R. Wetmore died in Warren, Pa., Sunday, October 5, 1890. He was born in the old homestead on Second street in Warren, Jan’y 28, 1841, and educated at the schools in Warren, at the Erie Academy and Pennsylvania Agricultural College. He was for several years employed by Charles C. Wetmore in his business. He took a leading part in the Fall of 1862 in raising the company and Mr. Wetmore succeeded in enlisting a large part of the company in Warren county. It was collected on the old fair ground east of Erie, and Wm. W. Miles was commissioned Captain and the decedent 1st Lieutenant Oct. 27, 1862. The company went to Pittsburg and was attached to the 14th regiment of cavalry as Co. I. The regiment was in active duty under the command of Col. J. M. Schoonmaker, in Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. Capt. Miles was killed while on a tour of observation Dec. 11, 1864, and the decedent was appointed Captain. His commission from Gov. Curtin bears date Jan. 18, 1865, the rank as such to be from Dec. 18, 1864. He was on Col. Schoonmaker’s staff and was brigade quartermaster at the end of the war. He was ordered to
Fort Leavenworth and the companies remaining at the Fort were mustered out of service August 21, 1865.
“He was a brave and intelligent soldier, careful of and attentive to the welfare of the men under his command who were warmly attached to him.
The early devotion of his company to him was shown by the presentation at Pittsburg of an elegant sword.
“Original and bold in business enterprises, he had many successes and lost in the turn on the wheel of fortune, often by his generous devotion to his friends.
“He projected the enterprise of bringing the fuel gas into Warren, and was the leading organizer of the company which has the present extensive plant in Warren, Chautauqua and Erie counties.
“He married Anna, the beloved and estimable daughter of the Honorable Thomas Struthers, and their only child, Thomas Struthers Wetmore, surviving both father and mother,
has been with him while seeking restoration of health at the Arkansas Springs and at his home during the long and resolute struggle
against the fatal disease which too early closes the career of a bright intellect and a generous and loving heart.

Tommy Wetmore

   “Rev. W. A. Rankin officiated at the funeral yesterday (Tuesday) which was attended by a large concourse of friends and was under the conduct of the G. A. R. Post of Warren.”
   Soon after the death of his father, Tommy Struthers Wetmore, now 19, leased the 210 Fourth Avenue, Warren, residence to Dr. Emily Breed who ran it as a boarding house.
   One day after Tommy Wetmore turned 21 years old, November 22, 1893, he sold the Struthers - Wetmore house to Charles Schimmelfeng for $10,000.

   According to the History of Erie County, Charles Schimmelfeng was born in Hamden, Delaware County, New York, April 2, 1849, a son of Joseph and Jane A. (Slack) Schimmelfeng, natives respectively of Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, and of Middletown, New York. Joseph came to the United States and then to New York in 1830, he was a tanner in New York and Pennsylvania until his death in 1877. Charles lived with his parents and worked at his father’s tannery until the age of thirty-two.
In 1881, Charles became the superintendent and owner of the Stoneham Tannery in Warren County. He married Louisa M. Hirtzel, on June 29, 1881, and they had four children Edward H., who passed at the age of 8 years in 1890, Jennie L. a graduate of the University of Chicago, Marian Frances, a graduate of Vassar College, and Charles Philip, who passed at the age of three years on April 29, 1895, of croup.            

Schimmelfeng Family

   On November 13, 1896, Charles Schimmelfeng purchased one of the largest industrial institutions of northern Pennsylvania, the Eureka Tempered Copper Works, located in the town of North East. On December 28, 1896, the company was granted their charter and the stock company was organized with Charles as the president. The company employed one hundred workers and covered one and three-quarter acres of land with several departments such as a machine shop, controlling department, drop forge department, foundry, shipping room, and offices. Their principal products were electric commutators and segments, trolley wheels, controllers parts, journal bearings, rolled goods, brushes, copper and brass castings of all kinds, copper and steel forging and wire stretchers.

Charles Schimmelfeng passed away on May 2, 1922, at the family home. According to the Warren Evening Times his obituary read, “Impressive services were conducted for Mr. Charles Schimmelfeng at 2:30 from the family home on Fourth Avenue, Warren, Friday afternoon by the Rev. C.A. Denning, pastor of the First Lutheran Church. The home was taxed by friends and relatives and who came to pay their respects and sympathy, including many from away. Among them being a large number of the employees of the plant at North East.”