Thomas E. Harwood

THOMAS EDWARD HARWOOD.

Thomas E. Harwood is the president and business manager of the T. E. Harwood Printing & Publishing Company of Springfield. It is no uncommon thing in this country to meet men who have worked their way upward from humble beginning to positions of affluence. Mr. Harwood, from the humble capacity of journeyman printer, has advanced until he stands at the head of the Harwood Printing & Publishing Company and in this position is controlling an extensive and important business, including the publication of the Gazette, which is the oldest existing journal of Clark county, established in 1872. There is also a well equipped job printing and binding establishment and each department of the business has become a paying one.

Thomas E. Harwood was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, May 26, 1846, and is a son of Francis Lee and Mary (Coffman) Harwood. The father, a native of Warwick county, Virginia, was a cousin of (General Robert E. Lee, and during his youth removed to Newark, Ohio, while subsequently he became a resident of Cincinnati, where he was engaged in contracting and building. Later in life, however, he returned to Newark, where he died in 1862, his wife surviving him, aged ninety years. Both were devoted members of the Baptist church, and in his political views Mr. Harwood, Sr., was a Democrat..

At the age of twelve years Thomas Edward Harwood was apprenticed to learn the printer's trade in the office of the Advocate, at Newark, then owned by Hon. W. D. Morgan, at one time secretary of state of Ohio. He completed his full term of service and subsequently worked as a journeyman in Newark, Columbus, Cincinnati, Louisville, Kentucky, and then came to Springfield in 186s. Here he secured a similar situation and was employed in various offices in that capacity until he was made city editor of the Weekly Gazette, and in 1873 he purchased the paper, which was conducted solely as a weekly journal for three years, when he also began the publication of the Daily Gazette. He continued alone in business until he admitted his son, Frank C., in partnership under the firm name of T. E. Harwood € Son, and in 1898 the business was incorporated as the T. E. Harwood Printing & Publishing Company, of which our subject is the president. Both the daily and weekly Gazette rank among the leading papers of southwestern Ohio, and from 1872 the Gazette has been continuously published, making it the oldest existing paper of the county, It is a Republican sheet devoted to the welfare and interests of the party, and is likewise found as the advocate of every measure and movement calculated to prove of prac-_ tical benefit to the city along lines of progress, reform and improvement. Not only are the members of the company actively engaged in the publication of this journal but are also devoting their time with success to the control of a job printing business and a bindery establishment, in both of which they have secured a liberal patronage, and these interests, combined with the publication of the Gazette, returns to. the firm an excellent income from their investment. ` $

Mr. Harwood was united in marriage to Miss Anna M. Hartstone, a daughter of Frederick Hartstone, of Springfield, and the marriage, which was celebrated on the 19th of October, 1868, has been blessed with ten children, eight of whom are still living. Frank C., the eldest, is managing editor of the Gazette and vice-president of the T, E. Harwood Printing & Publishing Company. Fred H., who is one of the directors of the company, was quartermaster sergeant of the Tenth Ohio Regiment during the Spanish- American war, and also sergeant-major of the Thirty-first Regiment, doing two years’ service in the Philippines, and is now chief clerk in the department of works in Manila. Lee Edward is serving as city editor of the Gazette; Charles A., who until recently was a clerk in the office of the Warder, Bushnell & Glessner Company, is now in the office of the International Harvester Company at Evansville, Indiana. Ralph C. and Kenneth S. are students in business colleges, Jessie Manton is now the wife of John L. Bushnell, of Springfield. Nannie L. com-- pieces the family. Mr. and Mrs. Harwood and their children are members of the High street Methodist Episcopal church and with this denomination he has been identified for a number of years. He has erected for his family a comfortable home on South Fountain avenue, where, with his wife and younger children, he is now living. In his political views he is now a stalwart Republican, but early in life was identified with the Democratic party. He is looked upon as a valued and helpful supporter of his party and frequently is called as a delegate to the state and other conventions. His time since entering the Gazette office has been devoted to the upbuilding of the paper and in this ‘regard his labors have met with some success, for the Gazette is not only the oldest existing journal of Clark county, but is recognized as one of the leading newspaper publications of Springfield and southwestern Ohio.

As printed in A Biographical Record of Clark County Ohio (1902). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.