Louis Forlow
Louis Forlow, dry goods merchant, and one of the enterprising energetic business men of Millersburgh, is a native of Defiance County, Ohio, born in 1853. His parents, Benjamin and Catherine (Emrick) Forlow, who were married in Pennsylvania, were natives, respectively, of Pennsylvania and Butler County, Ohio, the ancestry of the former having come from England and Germany to the Keystone State. They had a family of eleven children--eight sons and three daughters--eight of whom are yet living, Louis being the only one in Holmes County. In 1876 the mother passed from earth, since when the father has made his home in Hicksville, Ohio. When a boy he learned in his native State the trades of brassfounder and cabinet maker, which he followed many years, but later devoted his attention to agricultural pursuits.
Louis Forlow was reared in his native county, receiving a common-school education, and for his life-work decided to devote his energies to some mercantile business. Coming to Millersburgh, Ohio, in 1871, he first entered a grocery store as clerk, and later was employed some ten years in a similar capacity in several of the leading dry goods houses of the place. He then embarked in business for his own account, opening a dry goods store in Millersburgh, in partnership with his brother-in-law, C.D. Parkinson, under the firm name of Forlow & Parkinson. At the end of three years this was dissolved, and Mr. Forlow then spent some five months in the real estate busines, at Findlay, Ohio. In 1887 he opened his present stand in Millersburgh, where he carries on one of the leading grocery, dry goods, and millinery establishments in this part of the State, in which, by his excellent business ability and good management, he has been uniformly successful, having placed himself by his own individual efforts among the first business men of the place. The millinery department of the store is ably conducted by Mrs. Louis Forlow, whose careful management has made it second to none in Millersburgh.
Mr. Forlow was married in 1880 to Miss Jessie E., daughter of Capt. Joseph Work, a former prominent citizen of the county, who gave his life for his county, meeting his death at the battle of the Wilderness. Mr. and Mrs. Forlow have no children. He is a member of the I.O.O.F. and K. of P.
From Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Wayne and Holmes, Ohio, J. H. Beers & Co., Chicago, 1889