Isaac Mearan
As a mere boy Mr. Mearan came from his native Germany to the United States, and as a stranger in a strange land, with but slight command of the English language and without influential friends or financial reinforcement, he proved himself equal to the task that confronted him and has achieved through his own efforts distinctive and gratifying success. He is now numbered among the representative merchants and popular citizens of Ironton, Lawrence County, in which city he is junior member of the firm of McNary & Mearan, which is engaged in the clothing and men's furnishing goods business, with a well appointed and essentially metropolitan establishment on South Second Street.
Mr. Mearan was born in Germany, on the 19th of December, 1876, and the excellent schools of his native land afforded him his early educational advantages. He subsequently severed the home ties and, with indomitable ambition and self-reliance, set forth, alone, to seek his fortunes in the United States. For some time he found employment in the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and in 1893 he came to Ironton, Ohio, where he was an efficient and popular salesman in the clothing store of A. J. Brumberg until 1904, when he put his experience and ambition into effective play by initiating an independent enterprise in the same field of business. He formed a partnership with Erwin E. McNary, concerning whom individual mention is made elsewhere in this publication, and they established their present business, under the firm name of McNary & Mearan. The business has become one of the most successful of its kind in Ironton and the finely equipped store caters to the best class of trade, with a select and comprehensive stock of clothing and the most attractive lines of furnishing goods, the two members of the firm having found that one of their best assets is the strong hold they personally have upon popular confidence and esteem.
Mr. Mearan has aligned himself as a supporter of the cause of the republican party, holds membership in the Ironton Chamber of Commerce, and is affiliated with the local lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is not only enterprising and energetic as a business man, but is known also as a citizen of distinct progressiveness and public spirit—one interested in all that tends to advance the civic and material welfare of the community.
On the 27th of November, 1903. was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Mearan to Miss Sadie Cohen, daughter of Mose Cohen, who was at the time a resident of Ironton and extensively engaged in the lumber business in Lawrence County. Since 1907 Mr. and Mrs. Cohen have maintained their home at Huntington, West Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Mearan have two children—Antonia Lila and Hugh Lester.
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