Frank F. Goldcamp
Identified with some of the leading commercial and financial institutions of Ironton, Frank F. Goldcamp is justly accounted one of the progressive and capable business men of this place and has also taken an active part in civic affairs. His career is indicative of the rewards to be attained through a life of industry and well-directed effort, and as a member of the firm of Goldcamp Brothers & Company, hardware merchants, he is contributing materially to the business importance of the county seat of Lawrence County. Mr. Goldcamp is a product of this county, having been born at Lawrence Furnaee, October 21, 1858, and is a son of Ferdinand II. and Mary A. (Monnig) Goldcamp.
Ferdinand H. Goldcamp was born at Old Union Furnace, Hanging Rock, Ohio, March 9, 1837, to which locality his father had come as an early settler in 1835. His active career was passed in agricultural pursuits, but at this time he is retired and makes his home at Ironton. Mrs. Goldcamp was born at Pine Grove. Lawrence County, November 18. 1839. There were ten children in the family, viz: Frank F., of this review; Mary G.; Josephine C.; John F.; Albert J., who is deceased: Joseph H.; Henry I.; Fred, who is deceased; Elizabeth F. and Flora A. Mary G. married F. L. McCaully, of Ironton, died in 1884, and left one child, John A., who is a hardware merchant at Lancaster. Ohio; Josephine C. married Henry C. Rudmann, a member of the firm of Goldcamp Brothers & Company, and has had three children, of whom one survives, Charles S.; John F. married Theresa Laler, is a partner in the hardware firm, and has two children, Gertrude and Eugene; Joseph H, a hardware merchant of Lancaster, married Alice Kreamer and has two children, Lawrence and Cyril; Henry I., a farmer on the old home place at Goldcamp Station, on the D. T. & I. Railway, married Margaret Gallagher and has had nine children, Charles, Mary, Edward, Mildred, Leo, Joseph, Alberta and one child deceased; Elizabeth F. married Dr. Cornelius Gallagher, of Ironton, and has had nine children, Mary, Genevieve, Charles, Harry, John, Elizabeth, Marcella, Cornelius F. and one who died in infancy; and Flora A. married Fred Dearford, proprietor of a livery and sales barn at Ironton, and has two children, Mary and John.
Frank F. Goldcamp attended the public schools of Lawrence County until he was sixteen years of age, in the meantime assisting his father in the work of the home farm. He remained under the parental roof until reaching his majority, when he became a student at Lebanon University, but after five months left that institution and returned to the farm for five weeks. At this time he came to Ironton and began his business career as a clerk in the grocery store of F. E. Hayward & Co., in whose employ he remained six years, gaining much valuable experience. He carefully saved his earnings and in 1887 purchased an interest in the Goldcamp Milling Company, with which he was identified until 1903. In 1903 he became actively engaged in the hardware business which he had bought in 1893, purchasing the stock and good will of H. D. Newcomb at Second and Lawrence streets, Ironton. This business is now conducted under a partnership, the members of the firm being John F. and Frank F. Goldcamp and Henry C. Rudmann, and the enterprise is possessed of a stock valued at $16,000. The business has enjoyed marked prosperity, and much of this is due to the good judgment, shrewdness and capability of Frank F. Goldcamp. who attributes his success to his constant application and thorough knowledge of every detail of the trade. While the greater part of his attention is given to this enterprise, Mr. Goldcamp has also interested himself in other ventures and is at this time a stockholder and director in the Citizens National Bank, and a stockholder in the First National Bank and the Martin Iron and Steel Company. He also owns several valuable pieces of realty at Ironton, including his own handsome residence. Mr. Goldcamp is a democrat, but has not been particularly active in politics. With his family, he attends St. Joseph's Catholic Church. He has spent much time in travel, and whenever he can spare the leisure from his business responsibilities takes his family on extended trips to various points of interest in this country.
Mr. Goldcamp was married at Ironton, September 9, 1884, to Miss Lena A. Heitzman, daughter of Bernard Heitzman, who is identified with the iron mills at Ironton, and to this union there have been born four children: Henry B., a clerk with the house of Goldcamp Brothers & Company, married Kathren Boice and has had two children, Donald and one who died in infancy; Albert L., who is engaged in the grocery business at Ironton, married Clara Young; Frank J., who is a clerk in the grocery store of his brother; and Clarence, who is still 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