Comstock, William H.

Farmer, Ironworker, and Steelworker

Birth: January 31, 1871, Greenville, Mercer County, Pennsylvania
Death: February 29, 1934, Youngstown, Mahoning County, Ohio
Burial: Lake Park Cemetery, Youngstown, Mahoning County, Ohio
Find a Grave memorial

Published Biography

From Harriet Taylor Upton, A Twentieth Century History of Trumbull County, Ohio, A Narrative Account of its Historical Progress, Its People, and Its Principal Interests (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Company, 1909), Volume 2, pp. 262-263:

WILLIAM H. COMSTOCK, the independent owner of a fine sixty-acre farm in Vienna township, Trumbull county, has been an iron and steel worker much of his life, having only recently taken up agriculture for his livelihood. He was born January 31, 1871, a son of Jasper B. and Emma (Horner) Comstock, and is a descendant of old Sir Francis Drake of England. The father was born in Mercer County, April, 1839, and the mother November 10, 1848, at Greenville, Pennsylvania. The paternal grandfather, Cephas Comstock, was a native of England, who came to America when a young man, locating near Mercer. The farmer he occupied is still called the Comstock farm. He and his good wife both lived and died there. The mother was a doctor and raised her own herbs, from which she prepared her own remedies. This worthy couple reared nine children, seven sons and two daughters. The seven sons all served in the Union army at the time of the Civil war. The father of William H. was a teamster, which occupation he commenced at the close of the war. He married and located at Greenville, where he followed teaming and contracting until his death in 1883. He was educated for a veterinary surgeon, but practiced his profession but little. At the commencement of the Rebellion, he enlisted in a Pennsylvania regiment and served faithfully for three years and three months. He had a brother Jason, who was taken prisoner three times. William H. Comstock’s mother married a man named A. D. Walker, who is now dead. She still lives at a good old age, and is head cook at he General Fireproofing Company at Youngstown, Ohio.

William H. Comstock began life for himself at the age of twelve years, at the date of his father’s death, when he went to work in an iron rolling mill. His education was of necessity limited on account of the early death of his father. He followed iron working until about 1895, then went into the steel works at Youngstown, where he worked until 1907, then bought sixty acres of excellent farm land, upon which he now resides. His last was a “vesselman.” He holds a record of one hundred and five heats in eight hours, which is the highest known record for such workmanship. This means the handling of eleven hundred and sixty-eight tons of steel. Only by hard labor has this worthy man been enabled to climb to the top in his profession, as he has never received aid from others. Politically, he votes an independent ticket.

Mr. Comstock was married December 27, 1890, to Miss Anna Evans, daughter of John and Mary Ann (Pritchard) Evans, born August 27, 1871. The parents were born at Chestnut Ridge, Trumbull county, Ohio, near Hubbard. The grandparents on both sides emigrated to this country, from Wales. The grandmother, Evans, still resides at Chestnut Ridge. The father became a licensed coal miner when a young man and still follows it. The mother died in 1906.

To Mr. and Mrs. Comstock have been born two children: Harry D., born November 18, 1892, and Edna M., born August 31, 1896. Willie, an adopted child, from the Children’s Home, at Warren, was born June 24, 1902.