Sebring Ohio Historical Society
126 North 15th Street
Sebring, Ohio 44672
330-938-6920  
Edward Oliver
Joseph Sebring
1862-1890.  Died of pneumonia.
Was very musical.
Twins
Charles Sebring
1872-1877.  Died of whooping cough.
Twins
Purchased the former E.H. Sebring China Company in 1934 along with John Briggs  and William
Habenstreit. They bought the plant from a Youngstown bank for less than $30,000 with a small down
payment. On June 1, 1934 the company was incorporated. Renamed the site The
Royal China Company and
became its head.  They had three plants, the others were in East Palestine, Ohio and Logansport, Indiana.
She was affectionately known as the Queen of China, and employees called her Queen Bee.  Beatrice was a
successful business woman in a man's world, starting the pottery business during the depression and
struggling to make Royal China a leading dinnerware company.  She was supportive in the community and
notoriety.  Thanksgiving holidays, she supplied through the company, a turkey to every worker in the plant.  
Christmas was another holiday where she was very giving to people in need with food and money.  Each
year on her birthday, in October, she would ask God for one more year to continue her life.  Her friends
would celebrate with her on that occasion, just one year at a time.    She served as an elder at the First
Presbyterian Church in Sebring, being supportive of the pastors of this church for many years.  She was a
driving force in getting a new church building.  In the 1960's, she established the B.L. Miller Scholarship
for students at Sebring High School.  This scholarship still exists today in her memory.   Donated funds of
$20,000 in 1967 to help build
B.L. Miller Elementary School, named in her honor.     She adopted a
daughter, Trelwany B. Baker, of Ashtabula and had two grandchildren.  Bea retired in 1969 and sold the
plant to the Jeannette Glass Co., of Pennsylvania.  It was in turn purchased by Coca Cola Bottling Co, and
then to an investors group from Boston.  Bea died November 21, 1979 at the age of 80 and is buried at
Grandview Cemetery in Sebring.

Feb. 2, 1889-August 8, 1963.  Came to
Sebring as a store clerk from Holmes
County.  Fred Sebring spotted him as a likely
salesman.  He lined up Strauss and Schram
Hartman furniture and other installment
houses to sell dinner sets at a dollar down to
enlist new accounts.  Purchased the
Saxon
China Company in 1934 from The
Sebring's for $30,000.  Reorganized it as
the French-Saxon China company. He
had attended school only six months, and
left home at the age of 10.  He later
became sales manager of Sebring
Manufacturing Company, composed of
French China, Saxon China and Sebring
Manufacturing. Purchased by
Royal
China in 1964. Purchased the home first
owned by George Sebring, then Charles
Leigh Sebring.  President of the U.S.
Potters Association.
Opened a large general store on July 1, 1900.  
John Frederick Blumenstiel and Carrie M. Weigel
Married December 20 or 24, 1900.  First couple to be married in Sebring at the home
of the groom's brother, Charles Blumenstiel, a potter in Sebring.  They ran the John
Frederick Blumenstiel's laundry on North 15th street, next to the undertaker's.  It was
then moved to West Oregon avenue.  Not much later, the old site burned down.  Carrie
was a member of the Board of Education.
William Mooseman
Sebring's first undertaker, arrived in April 1910, and set up
shop in the building which is now Ashton's 5 and 10.
Bought the first lot in Sebring and built the first house.  He
was denounced as a dreamer by his fellow townsmen in
Alliance, but in a few years he purchased more lots for
both homes and businesses. He owned the Kindler's City
Restaurant. The Katzenstein building is on the right of the
photo.
Samuel Katzenstein
Opened the first store in Sebring, selling groceries
and provisions.  It opened October 28, 1899.  Photo
in business of Sebring section.
John Stackhouse
Opened the first hardware store in Sebring on July 19, 1900.  H.
G. Leonard started operating as a plumbing business in Salem in
1899.  This two storied hardware store opened on July 19, 1900.
Operated for a short time in builders' supplies. . L. R. Emmet Lee
was the first Sebring manager. By 1902, he formed a partnership
with E.B. Fritchman and C. R. Oesch. In 1904, Sumner Oesch
succeeded his brother Clark. The business was incorporated in
1918.  Business was so good that he doubled the size of the
building with it's twin next door.  This business still exists today,
and is owned by Susan Risbeck.
H. G. Leonard
Sebring's first Architect, opened his office in
1901.  He designed the Methodist Episcopal
Church, Elsworth Henry Sebring's residence and
Oliver Howard Sebring's residence.
Jacob Myers
Charles Leigh Sebring,
wives- Jesse Morgan,
Conradine Uran and Marion
Headland
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Dick Albright/Charles J. Albright
Frank H. (Tode) Sebring
Graduate of Yale University and directed Limoges China
Company and the Salem Pottery Company. After time in the
army.  Convinced his father to not join the American
Chinaware Corporation.  He died in 1934, and his father
passed on two years later.
Miss Margaret Kadish
Jim Gwin/Bob Allen
Designers of the 'Sebring Six' automobile.  
Received financial backing from Oliver H.
Sebring.  First made in 1910, the model
was discontinued after creating 25 cars.  It
sold for $2,750.
Historical Families of Sebring, Ohio before 1950
Judson Wheeler Van DeVenter
Author of the hymn, I Surrender All.
James B. Ward

Came to Sebring from Marietta, Ohio in 1897 and molded the first
clay ever made in Sebring.
East Liverpool, Ohio 'Klondike'
The area which became known as Klondyke was originally a large farm. In the
1890's the Sebring brothers recognized he potential the area had with the nearness of
the river, railroad and highway. So the farmer was approached and sold the
Sebring's 80 acres of land on which to build a pottery.  This pottery was built near
the overhead bridge near what became Dacar Chemical Company. The one
drawback was that the streetcar line did not extend this far at that time and workers
objected to  the long walk to and from work. The Sebring's sub-divided the
remaining property into lots which they sold the workers with the  promise of work
in the pottery. The land had been bought for one hundred dollars an acre; but when
settlement was made the farmer received one hundred dollars per lot.  There are two
stories told about the naming of the area one is that the rush to buy lots and build
homes reminded people of the Klondyke Gold Rush, hence the name. The other story
is that the  vicinity was still unnamed when the post office was established, and the
government had to have a name. Two were suggested: Pennova and Klondyke and
the latter was chosen.
A. E. Albright
M. F. Cochran

First Marshall of Sebring 1900.
Gary Keller

Gary Keller was born April 2, 1941 to Gretchen Gahris and J. Harrison Keller.  He was the
grandson of Helen Sebring and Willard Irwin Gahris and the great Grandson of F.A. and
Emma Sebring.
Gary lived in the Gahris/Keller home at 456 West Ohio Avenue and attended Lincoln
Elementary School and Sebring McKinley High School, graduating in 1959 as Co-Salutatorian
with his twin brother Jay.  He was active in music and sports in high school.  He then attended
the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey for one year and graduated from Williams college in
1964.  He and his brother ran the J. & G Print Shop during their high school years.
Following college, Gary worked for Time, Inc. in NYC and became business manager of
Time International.  In 1970 he returned to Ohio to join his father and brother in the Salem
China Company.  He succeeded his father as president of the company, and continued in this
capacity until his death on April 19, 1999.  He was also president of Urfic, Inc., a brass
manufacturing company.
Gary was married to Diane Greeneisen Keller, a 1960 Sebring McKinley graduate.  They had
three children.  The family lived in Boardman, Ohio.
Don Richard Eckelberry

Don was born in Sebring in 1921.  From his earliest recollection he drew whatever
interested him at the moment.  When he received an air rifle as a present, he began to
shoot birds.  Curious, he saved his money for bird books to identify the birds he shot.  
Three uncles on Don's mother's side were artists, and one, Viktor Schreckengost, gave
him a pair of binoculars so that he could watch, not shoot, birds.  At age 13, Don
began to draw and paint nature subjects.  By age 15, he had formed a bird club, was
writing nature columns for two newspapers, and had his own one-man art show.  
Following his graduation from Sebring McKinley High School, Don studied at the
Cleveland Institute of Art, then studied birds in Florida and California.  A friend, John
H. Baker of the National Audubon Society, asked Don to join his staff.  He began to
travel and paint birds that he saw and was asked to illustrate the 'Audubon Bird
guide'.  He left the staff of Audubon so he could free lance.  He then illustrated all
birds of North America north of Mexico- about 1250 birds, in color, individually
posed.  He soon gained a national reputation.  Don's books were called a contribution
to a new type of bird art in America.  He worked dusk till dawn to record birds and
their backgrounds as well.  Don was generous with his time and scholarships for
young nature artists.  He lived on Long Island, New York, with his wife Virginia, who
is also an artist and designer of woven and printed fabrics.  He died in January, 2001.
Keith Brown, teacher

Students:  Katie Kelley, Elizabeth Christani, Shelby Meek, Dayne Phillips, Corey
Snyder

The Learning Tree
The art teacher, Mr. Brown and the students were selected as members of the gifted
art education class to complete an idea that incorporated the theme 'better because of
me' into the wall mural being installed at B.L. Miller Elementary.  After
brainstorming, they decided on making something representing a 'better student'.  The
students felt that all of the different areas of education added together made for a
well rounded person.  The areas of education to be covered were Social Studies,
math, language arts, music, art, physical education, character education, library
sciences and health.  They discussed how all of the branches of a tree help to make
the whole tree stronger.  Then they placed the different areas of education on
different branches of a tree to represent the idea that when put all together, the areas
make a stronger, more well-rounded person.  Each student was responsible for
artistically representing two of the areas.
Sebring Trojan

In 1937, Sebring High School had a contest to name the school mascot.  The winning
contestant would earn the prize of $2.  A lad named Billy Freed submitted the
winning name, 'Trojan'.  That year it became the name of the school yearbook.  It has
been in use as the yearbook name, a mascot and logo since that time.  In 2007, Cindy
Christani created the Trojan mascot suit, to be worn  by students with exceptional
school pride.
Harry Crewson

'Pop' Crewson worked for the railroad
for 51 years.  He was also very active
in his community, helping to create the
city park system.  The
Crewson-Woods park was named in
his honor.  For the enjoyment of the
children in the winters, he had a part of
Northside and Southside Parks flooded
by the fire department to provide
ice-skating ponds.
Born in Denmark in 1904.  Moved to
Sebring in 1948 and became the art
director of the
Spaulding China Company.  
Later became a librarian at the Sebring
Public Library.  She died December 6,
1998.
Dick Davis, Margaret Zang, Helen Sebring Gahris
and Frank (Tode)Sebring
George Alfred Stanford

Born on Dec. 9, 1909 in Beloit, Ohio.  He was married to Evelyn
Xavier McCloskey on Feb. 2, 1934.  In the late 1930's he moved
from Pennsylvania to Sebring, Ohio and operated Stanford Pottery.  
Stanford Art Pottery operated from 1945 until 1961.  At one time or
another, all of the Stanford siblings and their spouses worked in the
pottery.  They are both buried in California.
Morris Feinberg

Born Jan. 25, 1900 in Long Island, NY.  In the mid 1930's, he and
his partner, Irving Miller designed and sold pottery kitchen clocks.  
Some were sold at Sears Roebuck under the 'Harmony House'
label.  He came to Sebring, Ohio to find ceramic parts for his
clocks.  While there, he became so excited about pottery that he
bought a vacant plant in 1941 and became highly respected for
producing quality work.
James G. Eardley

His father was the first treasurer of the National Potter's Union, organized
His father was the first treasurer of the National Potter's Union, organized
1942.  He was known as Mr. Republican in Mahoning County and was a in
the late 1880's in east Liverpool, Ohio.  He joined Spaulding China in in
the late 1880's in east Liverpool, Ohio.  He joined Spaulding China in
1942.  He was known as Mr. Republican in Mahoning County and was a
three time delegate to the National Convention.  He was also known for his
skill at administration at Spaulding.  He passed away July 3, 1973.
Lives of great men all remind us,
We can make our lives sublime.
And departing, leave behind us;
Footprints on the sands of time.
-Longfellow
Life gives nothing to men without great labor.  - Horace
Curt Fahnert

Designer behind many pieces of Royal China.  He originally helped out at the pottery to set
up for a trade show, and stayed for 24 years.  He is the designer of the 'Santa Fe' pattern,
which grossed over $6 million.
Dick was Sebring's first Postmaster in a small frame building on North 15th
Street.  He was also the first mayor and the first minister of the first church.  
He was known as the busiest man in Sebring.  After starting the post office,
he assembled four letters, placed one in each sack and called it a day's work
as he sent one out on each of the four mail trains ordered to stop.  He also
exacted the sum of $2 from one of the first culprits to face his bench and the
fine was for the crime of riding a horse down the sidewalks of Sebring.  He
conducted prayer meetings and church services in an old barn for the
Methodists of the village.  His home is in this view of the corner of N. 15th
and Maryland Avenue, on the left.
In the early 1900's, he and his brother Charles J. Albright (Husband of Emma
Sebring) and Albright's brother-in-law Henderson started a plant in
Carrollton, known as the Carrollton Pottery Company.  This plant suspended
early in the 1930's and for a time was used for refining beryllium after being
dismantled.  In 1910, Dick broke away from the firm and with the aid of
others, built the Albright China Company in Carrollton.  It closed after his
death in the 1930's.
Thomas Woods, Harry Crewson
Namesakes of Crewson/Woods Park
Mr. John C. Allen

Proprietor of Allen
Brothers and then
Allen and Sons
Furniture.  Helped to
reorganize Strong
Mfg. Co., and founder
of the Grandview
Cemetery.
Mary Ellen and John E.
Griggs

She was born Aug. 18, 1870,
and passed December 14,
1956.
Jennie S. Albright and E. C. Albright

He was one of the founders of the Gem Clay
Forming Company.
She was Born October 28, 1889, and passed
away  May 22, 1956.
Doris Fabean and Harold Ramon Scott Jr.
Owners of Ashton's 5 and 10.
Josephine Jane Sebring,
Daughter of
Charles Leigh Sebring
marries
Roy Everett Smail
Louis Porter

In about 1927 he was a successful door to door installment dinner set salesman.  He
convinced several potteries on a plan to be part of Wall Street, which was giving many
delusions of grandeur.
Paul Schreckengost
Homer J. Taylor
Married Feb. 28, 1901.  Both were heirs to the largest pottery holdings in the
United States.  They were married only 18 months after the Sebring Brothers laid
out the town of Sebring, Ohio.  200 homes had been built.  Married in the Sebring
Methodist Church.  Homer's father was a partner in the Knowles, Taylor and
Knowles pottery and a personal friend of William McKinley.  Pearl's parents were
Oliver and Matilda Holmes Sebring, who lived in a $100,000 mansion surrounded
by $1,000-5,000 homes.  Wedding gifts were estimated at $18,000 in value.  350
guests attended the wedding, about 200 came from East Liverpool and Wellsville
on a special wedding train, leaving at 6 pm and arriving at 8:30 for the ceremony.  
Awnings and canopies covered the guests as they awaited closed cabs to be taken
to the church.  Street workers worked all day clearing the constantly drifting snow
on the mud streets and sidewalks.  87 electric lights, a rare innovation in 1901 lit
the church artistically.  Pearl was born Jan 7, 1881 and died Dec. 1948 in
Burbank, California.  Construction was rushed on the First Methodist Church in
Sebring to be ready for her wedding Feb. 27, 1901 to Homer J. Taylor, 1876-1943.
Wade Beatty
Sebring's first patrolman.  He purchased his own uniform, and wore it
with an air of authority.  He ordered jail cells, believing that the town
would erect the building.  When they arrived, they had to be stored in one
of the potteries.
Harry H. Davidson
Sebring's first fire chief.  Went with the first village council to
examine the effectiveness of chemical fire apparatus in Cleveland.
Walter Crewson

Also known as Sebring's first bridegroom.  He was to go to East Liverpool for his
wedding, but was stuck in Sebring anxiously awaiting his marriage license.  As he
boarded one train, his license was tossed to him from another and the Crewson
wedding day was saved.  The Crewson's chose Sebring for its anti-saloon clause in
every deed.
Ray Shafer
Son of a former minister at the Church of Christ,
became a governor of Pennsylvania. He spent most of
his school days in Sebring, but was not here for his
senior year in high school as the family moved.
Noah Pugh
With a dray horse, plowed the streets and the
sidewalks of Sebring so the children could get to
school.  He did this as a 'good Samaritan'.
Charles with
Mildred Albright Lindsay
Mrs. Gahris was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frank A. Sebring.  Helen Gahris was
a noted socialite and hostess.  Unfortunately, her love for parties and hosting brought
about her demise.  She and several other area persons died as a result of food
poisoning.  Tainted olives, which she purchased from an Alliance market and served
at a coming home party for WWI veterans caused the deaths.
The Olive Tragedy
Helen Sebring Gahris
Joeseph Sebring
1862-1890 Died of pneumonia
Charles Mack

Businessman, owned the Strand Theatre
Henry Hutmacher
Pioneer resident
Henry Heisler
Captain J. C. Hartzell

Pioneer Citizen
Squire S. Card
Percy Frost
General Manger of the
Decorating Department of the
Sebring Co. Potteries
George William Harlan
The early Harlan's were of English ancestry.  They joined the Quakers under George Fox,
father of Quakerism.  During this period, many Quakers were being persecuted and they
fled to Ireland.  Two brothers, George and Michael Harlen, came to this country from
County Down Ireland and settled in Chester County, PA.  They were followers of William
Penn.
As the west opened, many settlers moved.  Among these was Henry Harlan, great
grandfather to George.  He moved his family west to Fayette County, PA and settled in
Luzerne Township.  In the tax list for 1796, Henry Harlan, a weaver, was taxed for one
horse, value $60, and one cow, value $10.
Henry brought his family to Columbiana County, Ohio around 1813.  One Jan. 3, 1814,
Henry bought 100 acres of land in section 17 of Center township.  This land was bounded
on the north by the county poor house.  Henry died in 1847 and this land was turned over to
his son, Ezekiel.
Ezekiel Harlan was married to Polly Kirk and had a large family.  His eldest son was
Elwood, born Dec. 4, 1814 and the father of George W.
Elwood married December 10, 1840 to Rebecca Rudisell.  They had the following
children:  George W., Thomas E., Henry, Samuel J., Ezekiel, and Mary Jane.
In 1845, Elwood purchased 100 acres of land in Know Township Section 4.  The family
lived here until after Elwood's death.  The farm was then sold at public auction to
Frederick Zurbrugg.  The farm is still owned today by his heirs.
Click here for the full Sebring
family tree