Charles Edward Pease

As printed in 1909

CHARLES EDWARD PEASE.

Charles Edward Pease, president of the Buckeye Iron & Brass Works of Dayton, occupies a foremost place in the ranks of the representative business men of the city. Possessing an incisive, comprehensive knowledge of all phases of the business, he has also manifested intelligent anticipation of possibilities and thus in his work has ever met the increasing demands of the time. Determined and energetic, he is a dynamic force in business circles of this city and moreover is honored and respected by all, not alone because of the success he has achieved but also owing to the straightforward business principles he has ever followed.

Montgomery county is proud to number Mr. Pease among her native sons. His birth occurred in Carrollton, now West Carrollton, August 20, 1836, his parents being Horace and Sarah L. (Belville) Pease. His grandfather, Joseph Pease, was born, lived and died in Suffield, Connecticut, and was a son of Joseph Pease, Sr., also a native of that state. The ancestral home of the family was at Hull, England, whence representatives of the name came to the new world at an early period in its colonization.

Horace Pease was born in Suffield, Connecticut, February 14, 1791, and held the rank of sergeant at the time of the war of 1812 but saw no active service. Coming to Ohio in 1816, he located first in Cincinnati, where he resided for seven or eight years and then removed to Montgomery county in 1823, taking up his above on Hole’s creek, five miles southwest of Dayton, where in 1839 he established the first fruit distillery of the locality, making each and apple brandy. He continued the business for some years and also carried on farming but subsequently withdrew from those lines of business activity and made his home in Carrollton, where he established a flouring mill, which he conducted until 1851 or 1852 under the firm name of H. & P. Pease. I11 1839 he built a flouring mill in Dayton on East Third at the corner of Canal street, now owned and operated by Joseph R. Gebhart & Son. The mill was conducted by H. & P. Pease until 1866, when Horace Pease retired, spending his last days in honorable retirement in Dayton. For a long period he was recognized as one of the prominent business men of the city, being associated with various enterprises, including the old State Bank, of which he was a director from the time of its organization until it was merged into the Dayton National Bank. lie then continued as a representative of its directorate up to the time of his demise. In all matters relative to the welfare and progress of city, county and state he was actively and helpfully interested and for a number of years represented Montgomery county in the Ohio general assembly, leaving the impress of his individuality upon its legislation and laboring at all times for the public good. He was serving on the board of county commissioners when the old stone courthouse was erected, the designs for which he made and in the building of which he took a deep interest. He held membership in the old-school Presbyterian church and his life was actuated by its principles and teachings. His death occurred in Dayton in 1875, while his wife passed away in 1862. She was born at St. Georges, Delaware, in 1810, and was the daughter of a Presbyterian minister.

They were the parents of six children, of whom Walter Belville Pease, the eldest, served as captain of Company C in the First Ohio Volunteer Infantry during the Civil war. This was the first company to report at Columbus under the first call for troops. Pie participated in the battle of Bull Run and served throughout the period of hostilities, being promoted to a captaincy in the Seventeenth United States Infantry and acting as captain of General George B. Mc- Clellan’s body guard. After the close of the war he remained with the regular army until his retirement with the brevet of lieutenant colonel. He died at Las Vegas, New Mexico, in 1890. The other members of the family of Horace Pease are: Charles E., of this review; Frank, who died in childhood; Josephine, who married James Stockstill, of Dayton; Anna L., the widow of Horace Phillips, of Dayton; and Plattie. the deceased wife of Charles B. Clegg, of Dayton.

Charles E. Pease was about three years of age when his parents removed from Carrollton to Dayton and in the public schools he acquired his preliminary education, while later he attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison, but left that institution in his junior year, in 1859, and returned to this city. In the meantime he had had some business experience, having worked as a machinist in Dayton, but left the shops in order to enter college.

On his return he joined his father, Horace Pease, in the milling business and in 1857 he made his first independent business venture by operating a mill at Fulton, on the Rock river, in Wisconsin, where he continued with varying success for two years. In 1861 he entered the firm of W. B. Pease & Company, of Dayton, and assumed the management of the business when his elder brother, Walter B. Pease, joined the army for service in the Civil war. The following year, however, Charles E. Pease also responded to the call for military aid and in the fall of 1862 became connected with the quartermaster’s department at Nashville, Tennessee, under Captain Charles T. Wing, with whom he was associated until the close of the war. For a time, however, he was at Chattanooga and later returned to Nashville, where he remained until 1865, when he resigned and went to Memphis, Tennessee, where for two years he was engaged in the grocery business. On the expiration of that period he located in Cincinnati and was appointed United States gauge, in which position he was stationed at Covington, Kentucky.

After filling the position for eighteen months Mr. Pease resigned and in January, 1870, returned to his old home in Dayton, purchasing an interest in the firm of Hoglen & Grafflin, becoming successor of the latter. The firm at that time was engaged in the manufacture of tobacco machinery. The style was changed to Hoglen & Pease and so continued until the ist of June, 1876, when Mr. Pease purchased his partner’s interest and incorporated the present business under the name of the Buckeye Iron & Brass Works. He has continuously acted as president of the company, which is engaged in the manufacture of brass goods for engine builders, steam fitters, tobacco cutting machinery and linseed oil and cotton seed oil machinery, all of which are manufactured under patents controlled by the company. As the head of this enterprise, which is one of the most important productive industries of the city, Mr. Pease has long occupied a prominent place in business circles. The business has developed from small proportions until it is one of the largest manufacturing plants of the city, its output being shipped to all sections of the country. The plant is splendidly equipped with the latest improved machinery and the business, expanding year by year, now brings a most substantial income to the stockholders. Mr. Pease is also a director and stockholder of the Dayton Natural Gas Company and has other business interests of importance.

On the 3d of October, 1865, in Cleveland, occurred the marriage of Charles E. Pease and Miss Laura G. Erwin, a daughter of John Erwin, one of the pioneer residents of the Forest city. They have become parents of two sons: Calvin Erwin, who died in 1902 at the age of thirty-five years; and Edward Gardner Pease, now vice president of the Buckeye Iron & Brass Works.

Aside from his business interests Mr. Pease is well known in various connections. He is prominent in the ranks of Masonry, having attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite and the Knight Templar degree in the York rite. He is also a member of the Mystic Shrine and in his life exemplifies the beneficent spirit of the craft. Moreover he is a faithful member of the Presbyterian church and in politics is an active republican whose efforts in behalf of the party have been far-reaching and beneficial. He served for twelve years as a member of the city council at Dayton, exercising his official prerogatives in support of many measures which have been of inestimable value to municipal development and growth. Many tangible evidences are given of his devotion to the city’s welfare, among which have been his effective efforts to beautify the city with flowers early each spring. His home is a handsome residence at the corner of Second and Wilkinson streets and this is one of the visible evidences of his life of well directed thrift and enterprise. What a man does and what he attains depends largely upon his opportunities but the well balanced man, mentally and physically, is possessed of sufficient courage to venture where favoring opportunity is presented and his judgment and even-placed energy generally carry him forward to the goal of success. Such has been the record of Charles E. Pease, who in his life embodies all the elements of what in this country we term a “square man” — one in whom to have confidence, a dependable man in any relation and any emergency. He is ready to meet any obligation of life with the confidence and courage that come of conscious personal ability, right conception of things and a habitual regard for what is best in the exercise of human activities. He is among those for whom every one has a pleasant smile and a hearty word of greeting because they know that they are sure to be repaid in kind.

As printed in History of the city of Dayton and Montgomery County, Ohio (1909). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.