Eagle Manufacturing Company (Paull Family) Brooke County, WV submitted by Valerie Forren Crook ********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ********************************************************************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III ***************** pg. 78 Brooke County THE EAGLE MANUFACTURING COMPANY is to be recorded as one of the important and well ordered industrial concerns of the state and is located at Wellsburg, Brooke County, the business having been established in 1894 and the company having been incorporated under the present title in 1897. In 1894, attracted by the abundant supply of natural gas to be found at Wellsburg, Harry W. Paull, now president of the company, here began manufacturing operations with a mod- est plant that was a subsidiary of the Wheeling Stamping Company. Within a short period Mr. Paull became as- sociated with his two brothers, James and Samuel O., in the purchase of the plant and business, and at the time of the incorporation of the company Charles B. Ott, of Wheeling, became actively identified with the business, he having since continued as vice president of the company, of which James Paull is treasurer and Samuel O. Paull secretary. The per- sonnel of the official corps remained unchanged from the time of the incorporation until W. C. Jacob, of Wellsburg, became associated in the business as assistant secretary of the company. He is a son of the late J. G. Jacob, one of the pioneer newspaper editors of West Virginia. W. C. Jacob married Elizabeth Paull, a sister of the Paull brothers of the Eagle Manufacturing Company. In the initial period of operation, employment was given to a force of about thirty-five men, and the output was confined exclusively to glass linings for Mason fruit-jar caps, or liners. The plant at the beginning was in a build- ing 150 feet square, the same having been erected for the purpose to which it was thus applied. The great manufac- turing plant of this progressive corporation now covers about 11/2 city blocks, additions to the same having been made from time to time, in consonance with the consecutive expansion of the business. About one-half of the buildings are three or four stories in height, the floor space covered approximating 300,000 square feet. The company is now engaged in the manufacture of illuminating glassware and stamped-metal lubricating oil- containers, and each department operates on an extensive scale, as is evident when it is stated that the company now retains a force of about 500 employes, many of whom are skilled operatives. The glassware products are sold to jobbers and the stamped-metal products to railroads and wholesale hard- ware trade. The export trade of the company is likewise one of importance, and is of a constantly cumulative ten- dency. The men who have been the dominating forces since its organization in the upbuilding of this splendid indus- trial enterprise have the satisfaction of knowing that while they have furthered their individual success, they have also contributed distinctly to the industrial and commercial prestige and prosperity of the fine little city in which they maintain their home. Harry W. Paull, president of this company, James Paull, the treasurer, and S. O. Paull, the secretary, are all sons of the late Judge James Paull, a distinguished lawyer who served on the bench of the West Virginia Supreme Court. Harry W. Paull was born at Wheeling, West Virginia, and was reared in the City of Wellsburg, West Virginia. He has fully demonstrated his initiative and executive powers in connection with the upbuilding of the business of the company of which he is president, he having become the active manager of the manufacturing enterprise at its inception. He is a vital and progressive citizen who takes loyal and helpful interest in all things tending to advance the civic and industrial welfare of his home city, is a democrat in politics, and he and his wife hold mem- bership in the Presbyterian Church. He married Miss Louise B. Beall, daughter of Col. C. H. Beall, and the one child of this union is a daughter, Virginia B. James Paull, treasurer of the company, was born in Wheeling and completed his education at Wooster Univer- sity, at Wooster, Ohio. He was for several years secretary of the Wheeling Stamping Company, and was later one of those instrumental in the establishing of the Eagle Manufacturing Company at Wellsburg, and to his financial ability the company is greatly indebted for its success. He married Miss Mariana Jacob, a daughter of J. G. Jacob, and the two children of this union are John J., who is employed in the office of the Eagle Manufacturing Com- pany, and James, Jr., who is a college student at the time of this writing in Washington and Jefferson College. Samuel O. Paull, secretary of the Eagle Manufacturing Company, is the youngest of the three brothers identified with the Eagle Manufacturing Company, and was born in Wheeling in the year 1869. He there initiated his business career in the capacity of bookkeeper in the office of the Wheeling Stamping Company, with which he continued his alliance until he joined his brothers in the organization and incorporation of the company. He is the active head of the metal stamping department of the Eagle Manufac- turing Company, and it is largely due to his initiative and enterprise that this department has reached its present proportions and success. His wife, Celeste, is a daughter of Dr. E. E. Worthen, who was for sixty years engaged in the practice of dentistry in the City of Wheeling. Mr. and Mrs. Paull have no children. Charles B. Ott, the executive head of the illuminating glassware department of the Eagle Manufacturing Com- pany, was born in the City of Wheeling, and there he was reared and educated. As a youth he became associated with his father's hardware business in that city, and later he was identified with a mercantile enterprise in the City of Omaha, Nebraska, where he remained until he came to Wellsburg, West Virginia, and became one of the stock- holders of the Eagle Manufacturing Company, of which he has since continued as vice president. Mr. Ott is a bachelor.