Frank C. Massey
Frank C. Massey, a hardware merchant at Osborn, former president of the Ohio Hardware Dealers Association, for the past seven years a member of the board of directors of that association and for the past fourteen years a member of the village council of his home town, was born at Osborn and is still living in the house in which he was born, a member of one of the oldest famihes of that village. He was born on October 10, 1872, son of S. W. and Ellen (Smith) Massey, the former of whom, for many years one of the leading business men in Osborn, died in 1891 and the latter in April, 1915.
S. W. Massey was born at Watertown, New York, in 1834 and was but a lad when he came to Ohio with his parents. He became one of the first conductors on the old Mad River & Lake Erie Railroad and later became engaged in the general mercantile business at Osborn, a member of the firm of G. L. & S. W. Massey, one of the first mercantile concerns in that village, and continued actively engaged in business there until his retirement about five years before his death. S. W. Massey was a Republican. He and his wife were members of the Presbyterian church and their children were reared in that faith. S. W. Massey was married twice and was the father of eight children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the sixth in order of birth. S. W. Massey's father, Solon Massey, was the first mayor of Osborn.
Reared at Osborn, Frank C. Massey supplemented the schooling he received in the schools of that village by a course in a commercial school at Dayton and then became engaged as paymaster for the Dayton Car Company, and was thus engaged for seven years, at the end of which time he entered the employ of Russell & Erwin at Dayton, and was for seven years connected with that concern as a traveling salesman. In 1902 Mr. Massey bought the A. D. Hogendobler hardware store at Osborn and has since been engaged in the hardware business in that village. In 1912 he erected his present store building, a structure thirty-two by one hundred feet in dimension, and there carries a stock appraising upwards of ten thousand dollars. In connection with the store he also has a tin shop, a great convenience to the community. Mr. Massey is a member of the Ohio State Hardware Dealers Association, has served as a member of the board of directors of the same for the past seven years and in 1915 was president of the association. He is a Republican and for the past fourteen years he has been serving continuously as a member of the village council. It is therefore with the gravest possible concern that he has been noting the formulation of the present flood-prevention plans which seem now destined to nullify all that has been done for Osborn in the past by necessitating the abandonment of the village which lies in the area forming one of the great basins designed to hold back the water in case of a recurrence of such a flood as swept down the valley of the Miami in 1913.
On June 30, 1895, Mr. Massey was united in marriage to Roberta Davis, daughter of Dr. Ben and Enuna (Robinson) Davis, the former of whom, for many years engaged in the practice of medicine at New Carlisle, in the neighboring county of Clark, is still practicing there, and to this union one child has been born, a son, Ben Davis Massey, born on November 13, 1903. Mr. and Mrs. Massey are members of the Presbyterian church at Osborn. Mr. Massey is a 32° Mason, afifiliated with New Carlisle Lodge No. 100, Free and Accepted Masons, and the consistory. Valley of Dayton, Scottish Rite; a member of Gem City Lodge No. 3, United Commercial Travelers, at Dayton, and of the local lodge of the Knights of Pythias at Osborn.
From History of Greene County Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, vol. 2. M.A.Broadstone, editor. B.F.Bowen & Co., Indianapolis. 1918