Ohio County, West Virginia Biography of George W. LUTZ ************************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: Material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor. Submitted by , March 2000 ************************************************************************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume II, pg. 262-253 BIO: George W. Lutz, Wheeling, West Virginia George W. Lutz. Some of the biggest things that have been done in Wheeling, whether commercial undertakings or enterprises of a strictly public nature, acknowledge as one of their chief actuating sources and inspiration George W. Lutz. Mr. Lutz was born in Wheeling, became a working factor in the city's industrial affairs when a boy, and in his mature years his interests have been distributed among a large number of Wheeling's best known industrial, financial and public undertakings. Mr. Lutz was born July 17, 1855. His father, Sebastian Lutz, was born in Alsace, Germany, in 1813, was reared in the Schwartswald of Alsace, and in 1837 came to the United States and located at Wheeling. He was butcher by trade, and for many years conducted the Old Home Hotel on Market Street, opposite the site of the present auditorium. He made that one of the popular hostelries of the day. Sebastian Lutz died at Wheeling in 1865. He was a democrat and a Catholic in religion. His wife, Anna Treuschler, was born in Alsace in 1829, and died at Wheeling in 1871. The oldest of their four children is Sophia A., living at Wheeling, widow of the late George Hook, who was clerk of the Ohio County Court sixteen years and cashier of the Germania Half Dollar Savings Bank, now the Half Dollar Savings Bank of Wheeling. The second child is George W. Lutz. William Lutz is a resident of Wheeling, interested in the Home Pearl Laundry Company. John J. Lutz, now a retired resident of St. Clairsville, Ohio, was one of the founders of the Home Pearl Laundry Company. By a previous marriage, Sebastian Lutz had two children: Charles P., a railroad employee living in Chicago; and Louisa, of Wheeling, widow of Fred Swartz. George W. Lutz attended parochial schools in Wheeling, also attend night course in the Frazier Business College, where he was graduated in 1868, at the age of thirteen. He then went to work as an employee of the old wheeling Tack Factory. He remained there about a year, until injured, nearly losing his left arm. Two years following he was in the Coen, Armstrong & Coen Planing Mill, and then took up the business which has been his central activity through all his active years, plumbing and gas and steam fitting. For one year he worked with Jacob Hughes and then with Trimble & Hornbrook, plumbers and gas fitter. After four years he bough the interest of Mr. Hornbrook in the establishment, and was an active partner with Mr. Trimble for eighteen years. On the death of Mr. Trimble he continued the firm name of Trimble & Lutz, and in 1907 the Trimble & Lutz Supply company was incorporated. This is now the largest house in the state doing a wholesale and jobbing business in plumbing, steam fitting and gas supplies. The corporation owns its large brick structure at 112-122 Nineteenth Street. The present executive officers of the corporation are: H. A. Ebbert, president; P. H. Hornbrook, vice president; Harry J. Lutz, a nephew of George W. Lutz, secretary and treasure; while George W. Lutz was president of the corporation until 1919, and has since been chairman of the Board of directors. This business was in early years merely a firm for contracting in plumbing and gasfitting, but under Mr. Lutz's able supervision expanded its facilities until its business is in the front rank of its line. Ten years ago the most discussed project in Wheeling was the building of a great auditorium, to occupy the historic site of the old market House and Town Hall, a building that would furnish facilities for a city market place and also a convention hall capable of entertaining large assemblages. The business man who was most persistent in keeping this project before the people and who has been justly called the father of the auditorium is George W. Lutz, who for a number of years has been and still is president and director of the Market Auditorium Company. The auditorium is one of Wheeling's most important public buildings. It is 506 feet long by 50 feet wide, was built at a cost of $160,000 and houses the public market, and furnished quarters for the Chamber of Commerce on the second floor in addition to the great auditorium or convention hall. During the past thirty or forty years Mr. Lutz has been identified with a large number of commercial enterprises. He is still president and director of the Loveland Improvement Company of Wheeling, president and director of the Utility Salt Company; a director of the Security Trust Company, the Half Dollar Savings Bank, the Wheeling Tile Company, the Gee Electric Company and the American Spar Company. He is president of the West Virginia State Fair Association, was for three years president of the Wheeling Board of Trade, and is a member of the Country Club, the Fort Henry Club, the Carroll Club, the Jack Bass Fishing Club, the Isaac Walton Club, is a fourth degree Knight of Columbus and a member of Carroll Council No. 504 of that order, and is a past exalted ruler of Wheeling Lodge No. 28, B. P. O. E. Many definite acts of public spirit are credited to Mr. Lutz. It is recalled that at his own expense he installed twenty-three flower beds on Virginia Avenue on Wheeling Island as a means of adorning that section of the city. With other citizens he was instrumental in placing flower beds on the National Highway at Fulton and in building a beautiful entrance at the city limits that has been greatly admired by the motorists who pass through Wheeling over the National Highway. Mr. Lutz was a member of the various committees for selling the Liberty Loan quotas and other drives in the city. He is now engaged with the civic Committee, acting as chairman and as a member of the Wheeling Improvement Association, and is greatly interested in securing for wheeling its new filtration plant and street lighting of Wheeling's principal streets. In 1887, at Wheeling, he married Miss Lugene E. Hornbrook, daughter of Thomas and Triphenia Hornbrook, now deceased. Her father was owner of the noted Hornbrook Park, now known as Wheeling Park. Mrs. Lutz died September 7, 1917. Mr. Lutz has one of the finest homes in the city, at 308 South Front Street and purchased a forty-five acre wooded farm for a summer home.