Hancock County OhArchives Biographies.....Balsley, Alfred H. 1828 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/oh/ohfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Ann Anderson ann.g.anderson@gmail.com August 18, 2005, 9:11 pm Author: Warner & Beers (1886) ALFRED H. BALSLEY, publisher, Findlay, was born in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Penn., December 15, 1828, and resided in that city until the fall of 1853. At the age of twelve years, or in the fall of 1840, he obtained employment in the nail factory of Miltenberger & Brown, and remained there until the spring of 1841, when the iron mills and nail factories were shut down in consequence of the financial crisis and until the tariff of March 6, 1842, was passed; same year he became a "devil" in a printing office, where he learned the rudiments of the art, in which he acquired instruction from 1845 to 1847. He then worked alternately at either business until 1851, when he obtained a "case" on the Pittsburgh Dispatch, where he remained till the strike of 1853 again threw him out of employment. In the fall of that year he located at Painesville, Lake Co., Ohio, and published the Grand River Record until July of the following year, when he moved to St. Clairsville, Belmont Co., Ohio. There he remained until October, 1855, publishing the St. Clairsville Independent. Early in October he located at Plymouth, on the line of Richland and Huron Counties, having purchased the Plymouth Advertiser, the paper first established by "P. V. Nasby." Here he remained thirteen years. In the fall of 1868, having purchased the Fremont Journal, he removed to that city on the day Gen. Grant was first elected President of the United States, and there remained till the spring of 1876, when he purchased the Findlay Jeffersonian, removing here with his family in August of that year. He still retains the Jeffersonian, and November 15, 1880, brought out the Daily Jeffersonian, which has now become a necessity to the good people of the city. While located at Plymouth, in 1861, he was elected postmaster, serving acceptably eight years, or until his removal to Fremont. In 1861 he purchased the Shelby News, which he published till the spring of 1862, and then incorporated it with the Plymouth Advertiser. Soon after his removal to Fremont he established The Advertiser, at Milan, Erie Co., Ohio, which he still continues to publish, and, in 1874, began the publication of the Times at Huron, same county, but discontinued it after his removal to Findlay. In 1878 he purchased the Attica. Journal, which he carried on in connection with his other papers, until the fall of the next year, when he sold it. He afterward purchased the Carey Times, the outside of which he still prints in his office at Findlay, as well as the outside of his most recent venture, the North Baltimore Beacon. Mr. Balsley, who has been twice married, had one child (a daughter, now Mrs. G. H. Tallman, of the Carey Times) by his first wife, and five sons and three daughters by his second; three sons and one daughter living: Alfred W., Rollin and Rollo (the last two twins) and Nellie M. Our subject has had reasonable success in business; owns a fine residence in Findlay; the block in which his office is situated, and several residences in the city of Fremont, Ohio, besides other real estate. In politics he is a Republican. Additional Comments: Book Title: History Of Hancock County Findlay Township and Village File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/oh/hancock/bios/balsley219bs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/ohfiles/ File size: 3.8 Kb