John E. Bingaman
This representative businessman and popular citizen of Ironton, the judicial center of Lawrence County, has been a resident of this city for the past twenty-five years and has, by ability and well-directed endeavor, gained precedence and success as a businessman, the while his sterling character and genial personality have been the prime factors in insuring him secure vantage ground in popular confidence and goodwill.
Mr. Bingaman is engaged in the undertaking business as a senior member of the firm of Bingaman & Jones. The firm’s finely appointed headquarters is in the building owned by the firm, on Center Street, near the corner of Fourth Street. Consideration and scrupulous service have brought this firm of funeral directors merited business success, and its members are known as loyal and progressive citizens.
Mr. Bingaman is a scion of the third generation of old and honored families of Brown county, Ohio, where both his paternal and maternal grandparents settled in the pioneer days. He was born in the Village of New Hope, that county, on the 14th of April, 1869, and is a son of Andrew J. and Elizabeth (Ellsbury) Bingaman, both likewise natives of Brown County, where the former was born in the year 1829 and the latter in 1839, both having continued their residence in Brown County until their death.
The father, a prosperous farmer and a buyer and shipper of tobacco, died on the 15th of November, 1912, at the venerable age of eighty-three years, his cherished and devoted wife having been summoned to eternal rest on the 19th of April, 1903. Of the seven children, all are living except William, who died in infancy, and in respective order of birth, are here given the names of the surviving children: Benjamin F., Theodore E., Maude S., Edward L., John E., and Dr. Robert C.
John E. Bingaman attended the public schools of his native county until he was eighteen. For the ensuing three years, he was employed in the tobacco warehouse conducted by his father. He then, in 1889, came to Ironton, Lawrence County, Ohio, where for the ensuing six years, he was a salesman in the store of his brother, who built up a prosperous enterprise in the handling of men’s hats and furnishing goods.
At the expiration of the period noted, the brother sold his stock and business to Mr. Robinson, and for the latter, Mr. Bingaman continued as a clerk for five years. He then, in 1900, entered the employ of Charles L. Pixley, who was here engaged in the undertaking business and one of the pioneer settlers on the old French land grant in Lawrence County.
Mr. Bingaman familiarized himself with all business details and became an expert embalmer. After the death of his honored employer, Mr. Pixley, one of the influential citizens of Ironton, purchased the business. On the 1st of March, 1907, he admitted to partnership in the same his present able. He valued his coadjutor, Charles E. Jones, with whom he has since continued to be associated under the firm title of Benjamin & Jones.
Mr. Bingaman owns a half interest in the substantial building in which the undertaking business is conducted and has an attractive residential property upon which he has made many improvements. He is a republican in his political allegiance. He and his wife are zealous members of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Ironton, on the official board he has served most efficiently for the past fifteen years.
In his home city, he is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, the Knights of Pythias, the Knights of the Golden Eagle, and the Modern Woodmen of America. On the 4th of November, 1897, the marriage of Mr. Bingaman was solemnized to Miss Nellie C. Pixley, daughter of his former employer, the late Charles L. Pixley, and no children were born of this union. Mrs. Bingaman is a leader in the social activities of her native city, and here her circle of friends coincides with that of her acquaintances.
Source: A Standard History of The Hanging Rock Iron Region of Ohio, Vol. II – Illustrated – Published by The Lewis Publishing Company, 1916 – Page 1339
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