Pedrick Family Papers (MS-243)

FIRST GENERATION William E. Pedrick was born in Pennsylvania in 1838. For many years, he was a resident of Cleveland, Ohio. His first wife, Lizzie U. (Hough?) Pedrick, died on March 30, 1860, at the age of 16 years, 6 months, and was buried is Cleveland’s Woodland Cemetery.

From 1861 to 1864, William E. Pedrick served in the 2nd Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Cavalry and rose to the rank of Captain. He was wounded on January 25, 1864. In August of that year he was discharged on a surgeon’s certificate of disability. William Pedrick married Cornelia (Nena) on January 10, 1867. They made their home in Cleveland, where they bought and sold real estate. (Cornelia seems to have been actively involved in the real estate business. Her signature appears on many legal documents in the collection.) William founded the Cleveland Coal Company in 1865 with partners E. R. Griswold, H. E. Massey, E. B. Chamberlain, and George W. Girty. William and Cornelia attended St. Paul Protestant Episcopal Church, and were founding members of Emmanuel Chapel, a parish that broke away from St. Paul’s in 1874-1876.

After losing a legal battle that went all the way to the Ohio Supreme Court, Captain W.E. Pedrick went bankrupt in 1878. Discharge of bankruptcy was granted a year later. In 1884, the Pedrick family moved to Denver, Colorado, where William aided in the development of the lumber and cattle industries, railroads, coal mines, coke ovens, and water systems. Along with Clevelander Walter Kennard, Pedrick founded the Good Hope-Wonder Mining Company of Colorado around 1890. Captain Pedrick also worked as a Maxwell Land Grant Company agent. The Maxwell Land Grant consisted of 1,700,000 acres located in present day southern Colorado and northern New Mexico. The U.S. government expropriated this land from Mexico after the Mexican War of 1846-1848. In 1897, William E. Pedrick sought and received letters of recommendation for the position of U.S. Consul General to Mexico. He later withdrew his name from consideration for that post.

William E. Pedrick and his wife, Cornelia, had three sons, Clinton A. (d. 3/16/1937 in Los Angeles, CA), William Leslie (Willie, Will, Billy), and Albert Hough (Bart). Cornelia Pedrick died on June 23, 1895, in Colorado. After his wife’s death, William E. Pedrick ran the Western Anthracite Coal and Coke Company from its New York City office. He died in 1916 in California.

SECOND GENERATION The Pedrick sons all participated in land speculation for a time. William L. (Billy) Pedrick succeeded his father as President of the Good Hope – Wonder Mining Co. of Colorado and formed a business partnership called Pedrick & Schneider, Miners and Buyers of Gold, Silver and Lead Ores. Clinton A. Pedrick became an electrician and electrical contractor. He settled in California and married Estella (Louise) Motheral in 1908. Clinton later remarried a woman named Golden.

Albert H. Pedrick lost a leg, and nearly his life, as a result of an elevator accident in a Colorado hotel in 1901. After his recovery, Albert took up more artistic pursuits. He attended The National Academy of Design in New York and became an artist/draftsman. His wife, Elizabeth (Betty) French Phillips, was a nurse. She was trained in London, England, by Dame Henrietta Barnett and afterwards returned to New York to take care of a wealthy patient of a doctor she had met in England.

In 1909, Albert (Bart) and Elizabeth (Betty) moved to, Buffalo, New York, where Albert worked for the Buffalo Road Roller Company. He and Elizabeth relocated to Springfield, Ohio, when that company moved and became the Buffalo Springfield Road Roller Company. They had a son, Ronald Hough (b. 1911), and a daughter, Laura Jeanne (b. September 14, 1913). The Pedricks were active in the First Church of Christ, Scientist, of Springfield, Ohio. Elizabeth died April 4, 1940.

THIRD GENERATION Laura Jeanne graduated from Springfield Senior High School in 1930. She attended Wittenberg College, where she joined Alpha Delta Pi sorority, and became a schoolteacher. On June 24, 1939, she married John Thompson Brookhouse of Boston, MA.

After graduating from Springfield High School in 1929, Ronald moved to Cincinnati with dreams of being a newspaper writer. He worked at A & P Bakery in the early 1930's. On July 22, 1939, he married Betty Lou Lotton ( b.1916) of Clifton, Ohio. They had two sons: David Phillips Pedrick (b. 1940) and Donald Lotton Pedrick (b. 1942). Both Ron and Betty were talented artists. Ronald Hough Pedrick died in 1995.

FOURTH GENERATION David (Dave) Pedrick, the donor of this collection of family papers, studied at Wright State University, Sinclair Community College, Wittenberg University, U.S. Armed Forces Institute, Cleveland Institute of Electronics, and the U.S. Navy Sonar School. His work with the U.S. Navy (1958-1962) included submarine tracking during the Cuban blockade and helicopter search and recovery of U.S. space capsules launched from Cape Canaveral, FL. From 1963 to 1995, he worked for Systems Research Laboratories of Dayton, Ohio, in the field of electronics engineering.