John W. Tulga
One of the successful business enterprises of Ironton, Ohio, is that established at Ninth and Park Avenues in 1897 by John W. Tulga. The founder, a man in but moderate circumstances at the time, was the best possible candidate for a successful wagon manufacturer and blacksmith. He worked harder than would one of independent means, and he was less easy to discourage. His field of operation was an advantageous one. both from the town and country standpoint, and from the start he pursued honorable methods and made his word respected and his workmanship admired. The result is a business which is not only financially remunerative, but adds to the prestige of the community as a center of business activity.
Mr. Tulga is a product of Lawrence County, having been born at Etna Furnace, December 22, 1871, a son of John H. and Annie (Speckman) Tulga. The father was born at Pine Grove, Lawrence County, a member of an old and honored family of the Hanging Rock Region, in 1848, and has passed his life in the peaceful pursuit of tilling the soil, in which he has earned a competence that now allows him to live in comfortable retirement at his home at Sedgwick. He married Mrs. Annie (Specknian) Saunders, a widow, who was born in 1842. at Metropolis, Illinois, and had one child by her former marriage: Henry E. John H. and Annie Tulga became the parents of five children, namely: John H., Jr., John W., Amelia, Mary and Anne.
John W. Tulga was a student at the public schools of Ironton until reaching the age of fourteen years, at which time he took his place among the world's workers as an employe of the nail mill. He was industrious and enterprising, but found that his wages were but small, and in order to better his condition learned the trade of blacksmith, at which he worked at the old Olive Street wagon works for a period of nine years. It had been always his ambition to be the proprietor of a business of his own, and this ambition he gratified in 1897, when he started in a small way to manufacture wagons at Ninth and Park Avenues. To his original plant he has constantly added as the steady increase of patronage has demanded, and he now has one of the most modern plants in this section, fully equipped with the most highly improved machinery known to the business. He is the owner of both plant and property, which with stock and equipment are valued between $20,000 and $25,000. Mr. Tulga is well known to the dealers in his line of business and is a valued member of the Tri-State Retail Carriage Dealers Association. He belongs to the Chamber of Commerce, and has a well-established reputation generally in commercial circles. Mr. Tulga is well known as a driver and as an excellent judge of horse-flesh. He is a republican in his political views, but has not let political affairs interfere with his business. With his family, he attends the Emanuel Church, and resides in his own pleasant residence at No. 212 Park Avenue.
Mr. Tulga was married April 26, 1899, at the home of the bride at Ironton, to Miss Elizabeth Zimmermann, daughter of Valentine and Sophia Zimmermann, of this city, retired farming people of Lawrence County. Mr. and Mrs. Tulga have one child: Raymond H., who is attending school.
From "A Standing History of the Hanging Rock Iron Region of Ohio" by Eugene B. Willard, Daniel W. Williams, George O. Newman and Charles B. Taylor. Published by Lewis Publishing Company, 1916