| Notes |
- Wesley worked on his father's farm until age 21. He started life by opening a Hotel in West Milton in 1846, which building still stands across the street from the McDonalds Restaurant in West Milton, Ohio. His home was where the McDonald's was built about 1994. They have a beautiful oil painting of his home in that fast food restaurant.
After a ten year period, he changed to dealing in stock and a livery stable. He is in the deed records for Union Twp., Miami Co., Ohio in 1850, 1851, 1860. He appears to have two wives in the county records. He and Nancy sold lot 38 in Milton, Miami Co., Ohio in 1851. In 1860, he and Sarah sold land in Union Twp., Miami Co., Ohio. This does not coincide with the marriage date I have for him and Sarah of 1847, so it's a mystery yet to be determined. In 1855 he was in a criminal Probate Court case in that same county. In 1859, he became a dealer in lightning rods called "The Mast Lightening Rod Company." (C-670)
An account of this families life and their lightening rod business comes from a large article in the Troy Daily News entitled "First Lightning Rods made at Early West Milton Shop". I'll quote the most significant parts. "When in 1801 the group of Quakers and their friends decided to quit North Carolina and seek new homes in the Northwest Territory, among them was David Mast. He brought along with him, his wife Nancy and their six children, the youngest, Absalom, being about 5 years old. In 1817 Absalom married Mary John and they became the parents of four sons and five daughters. Two of the sons, Wesley J. and Johnson P. became early businessmen of the village.... Wesley J. Mast , together with his brother Johnson P. became interested in Rayburn and the lightning rod business and came to the aid of this man with financial backing and started what is believed to be the first plant in the world for the manufacturing of lightning rods. ... The concern grew and prospered, and in the hey-dey of its career, boasted of having more than thirty lightning rod wagons traversing Ohio and adjoining states. Thousands of residents of the middle west can remember these long, narrow wagons, loaded with bright and shining copper rods, glistening weather vanes and prancing steel horses in miniature, the latter serving as ornaments of rods erected above the roofs of those considered "well-to'do".
For years the name of "Mast" led the field, despite the fact that competition sprang up throughout the east. ... Always the West Milton plant ... kept steadily ahead of all others in the way of new inventions and patents. ... To get raw materials from the Pennsylvania mills where it was rolled, the Masts had to bring it in ... down the Ohio River and up to Dayton by canal boat. Louis LaVake Mast, in the year 1900, succeeded his father, taking over the plant bearing his name with which he was quite familiar, since he was born and brought up with the business. ... " (C-374) (Note, the Mast family seemed to own the plant through the undated time of this article at least 1943 or later, and had spread their business to include the making of sign posts and other patents.)
C.Z. Mast's 1911 history summarizes his life this way: In the year 1808 he gave up the wonderfully busy life when in the same year his neighbors carried his body out of his old home and buried it in a quiet spot on the broad acres he had tended and loved. His grave is marked with a carved sandstone bearing inscription near the Northwest corner of the wall of what is known as Pine Grove Cemetery. His wife, Magdalene Holly, died Oct 26, 1820, aged 80 years, and is buried by his side.
However, according to a 1978 newspaper article by Judy Ireton in "The Independent", Wesley J. Mast and his wife are buried in Riverside Cemetery in West Milton instead.
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1825 - 1914 (89 years)
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