William Christie Herron
It has often been asserted that the successful businessmen of America are wholly absorbed in their efforts to build up and immense enterprise and attain wealth. While this may be true in many instances there are also many exceptions and men who have been prominent in business have been equally efficient in their efforts to advance Christian and philanthropic work and to disseminate the nobler ideas which are forces for a better civilization. To this class belonged William Christie Herron, long prominently known as a leading iron merchant and banker of Cincinnati but equally widely known for his support of many interests which reached helpfully toward the necessitous.
William Christie Herron was born in Cincinnati, September 1, 1843, a son of Professor Joseph Herron, one of the early residents of this city and for years principal and president of the Boys Academy here. He was a native of Pennsylvania while his wife, who bore the maiden name of Cordelia Weeks, was born in the state of New York. William Christie Herron was educated in his father's school and the careful direction of his intellectual development constituted one of the forces of his success in later life. He was a young man in his later teens when the country became involved in civil war, and answering the call for volunteers he joined the navy, continuing in active service until after hostilities ceased. When the war ended he embarked in the hardware business in this city and afterward opened a similar establishment in Dayton, Ohio. As the years advanced his success increased, owing to capable management and close application. In 1891 when he retired from active business he was a member of the iron firm of Rogers, Brown & Company, and had been very successful. He was also at one time the vice president of the American National Bank, so continuing until it was merged into the Fifth-Third Bank, of which he became a director.
As he prospered in his undertakings William Christie Herron gladly availed himself of the opportunity to aid benevolent and philanthropic enterprises. He served as the vice president of the Young Men's Christian Association, was a trustee of Christ Hospital and the Deaconess Home, also of the Associated Charities and many other benevolent institutions. He was likewise deeply interested in the national universal movement for peace and at one time was president of the Cincinnati Branch of the Universal Peace Society. He was likewise a prominent member of the Loyal Legion and the Business Men's Club and he attended all of the important business conferences of the bishops of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Herron was a member of the official board of the Methodist Episcopal church and was made a member of the book committee.
William Christie Herron was twice married. He first wedded Miss Laura Winchel, a daughter of George Winchel, an early settler here, and they had two sons: George William, now living in Portland, Oregon; and Mason Parker, a resident of this city. In 1886, in Cincinnati, William Christie Herron wedded Anna E. Fish, a native of Oneonta, New York. Mrs. Herron shared in her husband's work in behalf of charitable enterprises, taking a very active interest in the church and serving as first vice president of the National Woman's Home Missionary Society. She is also a member of the Cincinnati Woman's Club and was it president from 1890 until 1892. The death of William Christie Herron occurred May 21, 1909. He had lived a life in harmony with the tenets of the Masonic fraternity in which he had attained the thirty-second degree. His political support was given to the republican party and his allegiance to every cause or principle in which he believed, was an element for good and progress in that direction.
From Cincinnati, The Queen City, Volume III, by Rev. Charles Frederic Goss, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1912