BIO: William Francis GABLE, Blair County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Denise Phillips 
 
Copyright 2006.  All rights reserved.
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Donehoo, George P., Editor-in-Chief.  Pennsylvania, A History, 
Vol. 3, Biography.  New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., Inc., 
1926, pages 104-106. 
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  WILLIAM FRANCIS GABLE - In the record that follows of the life and work of 
William F. Gable, merchant and litterateur, of Altoona, Pennsylvania, there 
occurs a description of his entry into many fields of endeavor other than 
that in which he made his greatest mark, mercantile trade, and the narration 
of his success and prominence in those enterprises to which he addressed 
himself.  And when the final analysis has been made and the fact of his 
natural talents and abilities discounted, there remains as the keynote of 
his achievement in many lines his limitless energy, his unboundless capacity 
for unremitting toil, and his untiring industry.  To this effect have spoken 
and written those who know Mr. Gable as an intimate, who appreciate the 
sterling qualities he possessed, and who are considerate in their 
observation of his well-known distaste for personal public attention.  From 
the following pages could be taken paragraphs which would compose a 
creditable record of one who had made his chief and highest aim that of 
merchandising, the raising of blooded stock, the collecting of old and 
valuable books and documents, or intelligently directed philanthropy, yet 
such activity has been that of William F. Gable alone, and in the midst of 
other connections and obligations in multitudinous array.  Altoona, with 
justice, has done him abundant honor, honor merited by his devotion to her 
interests, by his service in the causes of municipal righteousness and 
uplift.
  William Francis Gable, son of Isaac and Hannah M. (Wollerton) Gable, 
grandson of Peter and Sarah (Mast) Gable, descended paternally from German 
forbears, his maternal line tracing to early Pennsylvania Colonial days and 
George Smedley, a member of the Society of Friends, who came from England in 
1862.  From him, the American founder of the Smedley family, Mr. Gable was 
seventh in descent.
  William F. Gable was born in Upper Uwchlan, Chester County, Pennsylvania, 
February 12, 1856, and it is worth while to state that Mr. Gable said that 
if he could have chosen his own natal day it would have been February 12, 
for that date is the birthday of the man he considered the greatest citizen 
of the United States of any period, Abraham Lincoln.  He attended the 
country schools of his native county, and when he was a youth of thirteen 
years his parents removed to Reading, Pennsylvania, and he attended the 
Reading High School.  He was also a student in the Reading Commercial 
College, maintained by Professor Chester N. Farr, and was graduated from 
that institution.
  His business career began with his employment as bookkeeper for Boas & 
Raudenbush, a prosperous lumber firm of Reading, and after five years of 
service with this house he accepted a similar position with Dives, Pomeroy & 
Stewart, well known as a leading dry goods concern, in which employ he 
remained for six years.  On March 1, 1884, his first connection with the 
business interests of Altoona was formed and he became a partner in a small 
business, that, through many stages and periods of growth and development 
covering a period of more that thirty-seven years, became the great, modern 
"Daylight Store" of William F. Gable Company.  His original partner in this 
enterprise was John R. Sprecher, and as Sprecher & Gable the business was 
founded, although within a few months Mr. Sprecher's interest was purchased 
by Mr. Gable's former employers, Dives, Pomeroy & Stewart, the firm name 
becoming William F. Gable & Company.  Under this caption the business was 
continued, constantly expanding as additional success and prosperity 
rewarded adherence to strict and upright principles of dealing.  Later the 
business was incorporated as The William F. Gable Company.  Its growth has 
been vigorous and natural, and the proud position it now occupies is one 
that is well deserved and that bears eloquent testimony to the business 
genius of him who has had its destinies in charge.
  Every invention and improvement applicable to department stores has found 
its way into the nearly fifty departments of the Gable store, while at the 
same time the operating force of the store has grown from ten or twelve to 
five hundred persons.  The elaborate details of its management were worked 
out by Mr. Gable and his assistants from deep knowledge and long experience, 
and in every relation between the store organization and the public the 
utmost has been done for the patrons of the store, not only in quality and 
price of merchandise, but in matters of comfort, convenience and enjoyment, 
and the place the store holds in the confidence of the city's people 
bespeaks their appreciation.  Within the store, and in many cases unknown to 
the public, are clubs and organizations among the many employees, and a 
hearty spirit of cooperation built up through Mr. Gable's constant aid and 
sympathy, his attitude speaking in his expression of this sentiment:  "There 
is no line drawn in my mind or my heart between employer and employee."  The 
welfare and happiness of his assistants in the operation of his business 
were among his greatest concerns, and he was ceaseless in his efforts to 
insure these blessings to them.
  That this regard and concern was appreciated by their recipients and that 
in every employee of his store Mr. Gable had a true and admiring friend is 
testified to by everyone familiar with the facts, and expression was given 
to this feeling at the banquet tendered the store employees by Mr. Gable in 
celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the business, when Mr. Gable 
was presented with a silver loving-cup, engraved with his monogram, and 
etching of the store in its present appearance and the words quoted above.  
On this gala occasion there were present several of the intellectual lights 
of the country, friends of Mr. Gable, including Horace Traubel and Elbert 
Hubbard.
  But the story of the life and work of the store might be prolonged through 
pages and pages, were an attempt made to tell the interesting story of many 
of the departments and inner organizations, such as the "Quarter Century 
Club," membership in which is based upon twenty-five years in the employ of 
the firm, at the end of which time the new member is presented with one 
hundred dollars in gold; or the remarkable photographic studio, the largest 
between New York and Chicago, so excellently equipped that pictures can be 
made "any size, any place, any time."  This, however, is a chronicle of the 
activities of William Francis Gable, and the foregoing has been told only 
that a proper conception of the magnitude and importance of his commercial 
operations might be gained.
  It is difficult to determine whether Altoona was prouder of Mr. Gable as a 
successful business man than a loyal, public-spirited citizen, or the 
reverse, but in the discharge of his duties, and responsibilities in the 
latter role he has established a wonderful standard.  His interest extended 
to every department of the city life.  He placed prizes for competition in 
different departments of the Altoona schools, conducted a regular weekly 
sewing class with qualified instructors in his large store for the young 
girls, and with praiseworthy wisdom and foresight, distributed thousands of 
trees among the school children of Blair County for planting on Arbor Day.  
His gift of trees in 1914 was 25,000 white ashes, the previous year the same 
number of elms, and in 1911 and 1912 20,000 white maples and catalpas.  His 
private benevolence was large and in most cases attended to by him in 
person.  No worthy object in his city was long without his substantial aid, 
and the measure of the good he accomplished cannot be told.
  One of Mr. Gable's most pleasurable relaxations from the cares of business 
was his library and collection of old and rare books, autographs and 
manuscripts, which he has gathered because of his love of literary and 
historical study and his regard for those men and women who have made 
literature and history.  Represented in his collection were manuscripts and 
epistolary correspondence of the notables of many countries and periods, and 
it included original autograph letters of nearly all of the signers of the 
Declaration of Independence, letters of Benjamin Franklin, and a complete 
set of letters of all the Presidents of the United States, many written 
while in office.  Mr. Gable was the owner of the largest collection extant 
of the letters and manuscripts of Bayard Taylor, also large collections of 
John Greenleaf Whittier, Henry W. Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Thomas 
Bailey Aldrich, Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, Eugene Field, James Whitcomb 
Riley, and he possesses in large numbers letters of John Ruskin, Charles 
Dickens, Charles Darwin, Robert Burns, Thomas Henry Huxley and John Tyndall, 
and was particularly proud of his ownership of many of the original writings 
of Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll, being a great admirer of the talented 
colonel.
  Another of Mr. Gable's interests, which partook of the nature of both 
business and pleasure, was his stock farm of more than eight hundred acres, 
"Glen Gable Farms," in Chester County, Pennsylvania, where, under the 
management of his son, Lowell B., throughout Guernsey cattle were raised.  
The estate was magnificently equipped for the purpose with every sanitary 
and scientific appliance, and many honors came to the stock there bred and 
to the dairy products of the farm.  In 1912 "Glen Gable Farms" won the gold 
metal at the National Dairy Show at Chicago, Illinois, for the finest milk 
produced in Pennsylvania, with a score of 96.75, while at the Panama-Pacific 
International Exposition at San Francisco, California, yet further 
distinction was gained.  Here the gold metal and the medal of honor in the 
market milk class were awarded "Glen Gable Farms," over 2,500 competitors, 
the best in the world, the average of excellence being here raised to 
ninety-seven out of a possible one hundred points.  This achievement, the 
Altoona "Mirror" commented upon editorially as follows:  "Mr. Gable is a 
gold medal business man, a gold medal collector of manuscripts and rare 
books, a gold medal friend, and now to these symbols of superiority has been 
added the gold medal as a farmer."
  Mr. Gable's historical interests led him to membership in the Historical 
Society of Pennsylvania and the Thomas Paine National Historical Society, 
his activity as a stock-raiser in the American Guernsey Cattle Club, and his 
literary tastes in the Altoona Robert Burns Club.  He was a sympathizer with 
no religious sect or creed, and viewed with distaste the dissensions and 
differences that have given rise to these.  His broadminded outlook is best 
shown in his own words:  "Henceforth let us recognize only the brotherhood 
of man.  Let us bid adieu to the 'Elect' and 'Select.'  No more 'Masons,' 
'Knights,' or 'Odd Fellows,' but one universal order of 'Good Fellows,' 
honest men and honest women, bearing the banners of right and justice 
everywhere."  The foregoing has been in part a revelation, not only of the 
actual accomplishment of his career, but of the strength of mind and purity 
of character that his intimates knew.  Two quotations from himself give a 
still further insight into his restless endeavor.  The first is from his 
speech of greeting to his guests at the banquet on the occasion of the 
silver anniversary:
     Just a word before closing, about the ideal store, or "the store 
beautiful," that I often dream of.  Present economic conditions interfere 
with this store being all we would like it to be.  The mad, wild, greedy 
rush of competition forces us to use some methods that we would instantly 
dispense with were it not that we must protect ourselves under present 
conditions.  One establishment cannot fight the battle alone.  We do what we 
can to make things better and hope for the day when the competitive system 
will be no longer in the way of a higher and better civilization.  Under a 
cooperative commonwealth we could get nearer the ideal store.  With the 
passing of pay rolls and profits the real pleasure of work would begin.  
That time is coming with as much certainty and splendor as an Allegheny 
mountain sunrise.
  And the second is his contribution to the 1914 New Year sentiments of 
Blair County, published in an Altoona journal:
     May, 1914, gives us more druggist Taylors, shovel in hand, on all the 
corners of all the streets.  The man with the shovel beats the man with the 
manner.  May, 1914, gives us better live stock and more live people more 
democrats and less aristocrats; more states to give votes to women; more 
vision for men and women to broaden their minds and prepare them to save all 
the people, this Land of Liberty.
  William F. Gable married, May 7, 1879, Kate Elizabeth Boyer, born in 
Reading, Pennsylvania, January 24, 1860, daughter of Benjamin Franklin and 
Elizabeth (Clouser) Boyer, Rev. A.H. Sembower performing the ceremony.  
Children of William Francis and Kate Elizabeth (Boyer) Gable:  1.  Edna 
Luella, born April 22, 1881; married, May 26, 1903, James H. Powers, and has 
children:  Wollerton, born May 24, 1904; Lowell Gable, born January 5, 1907; 
Elizabeth Boyer, born December 19, 1908; Pauline Penelope, born August 27, 
1910; James Henry, born April 2, 1912; Hannah Smedley, born December 27, 
1915; and Robert Southwick, born May 19, 1920.  2.  Bayard Wollerton, born 
March 12, 1883, died June 25, 1906, at sea.  3.  Lowell Boyer, born February 
26, 1887; married Lillian Stradley, February 26, 1916, and they have one 
daughter, Edna Lee Gable, born December 11, 1916.  4.  Elizabeth Smedley, 
born June 22, 1888, died July 16, 1888.  5.  Gertrude Pellman, born 
September 8, 1889; married, September 5, 1912, George Pomeroy Stewart, and 
has a daughter, Frances Gable Stewart, born July 23, 1913, and a son, John 
Hollister, born March 8, 1917.  6.  Robert Blair, a biography of whom 
follows.  7.  Anna Katherine, born June 2, 1896; married, July 27, 1918, 
Andrew James Ford, and has one daughter, Kate Boyer Ford, who was born 
February 26, 1920.  8.  George Pomeroy, born March 18, 1898; married, June 
8, 1922, Flora Truby.  9.  Mary Virginia, born July 31, 1901.
  Mr. Gable died at his home in Altoona, Pennsylvania, November 28, 1921, 
his son, Robert Blair Gable, succeeding him as president of the William F. 
Gable Company, while the youngest son, George Pomeroy Gable, is manager of 
the company.