Fred Francis Fleming    

Fred Francis Fleming,  president and manager of the Washington Baking Company of Washington, was born on a farm in Buffalo township, Butler county, this state, March 9, 1874, a son of William C. and Margaret (Ashbaugh) Fleming, the latter of whom is still living, residing at No. 63 West Hallam avenue, Washington. She was born in Armstrong county. a member of one of the pioneer families in that section of the state. The late William C. Fleming, who died at his home in Washington in 1918, was born in Buffalo township, Butler county, a son of James Fleming and wife, the latter of whom was a Cooper. James Fleming’s father was a native of Scotland, who became one of the pioneers of Butler county. During the time of his residence in Butler county William C. Fleming was engaged in farming but after his removal to Washington went into the lumber business. He was a member of the Lutheran church, as is his widow, and was active in church work.

Reared on the home farm in Butler county, Fred Frances Fleming attended the neighborhood schools and when seventeen years of age became employed in a plate glass factory in Butler, remaining there until after he had passed his majority, when he became connected with the operations of the Carnegie Steel Company in Duquesne. For ten years he was thus occupied and then came to Washington and opened a confectionery store in the Washington Trust building on Beau street. Not long afterward he added to this a line of bakery products and it was thus that he became connected with the bakery business, in which he since has come to be a recognized figure. For two years Mr. Fleming remained in his Washington Trust building store and then, with a view to extending his bakery business, he moved to larger quarters at No. 96 North Main street, from which place in 1912 he moved into the Y. M. C. A. building. In the following year (1913) he moved his continually growing establishment into his present ample quarters at the corner of Hall street and Forgie avenue, where he is admirably equipped and outfitted for the general wholesale bakery business which he thus has developed. On February 28, 1912, Mr. Fleming consolidated his business with that of the C. B. Ross bakery plant and the business since has been conducted under the name of the Washington Baking Company, of which Mr. Fleming is the president and general manager. He is a member of the Washington Chamber of Commerce and takes an interested part in movements having to do with the extension of the commercial interests of the community.

On June 20, 1906, in Pittsburgh, Fred F. Fleming was united in marriage to Miss Minnie Alberta Ferguson and to this union have been born six children, all of whom are living save the last born, a daughter, Ruth Margaret, born August 9, 1918, who died on April 21, 1921. The others are: William Ferguson, born April 9, 1907; Frederick Roland, born July 17, 1908; Robert Samuel, born February 10, 1910; Helen Jeanne, born March 6, 1912; and Agnes Maude, born September 13, 1914. The Flemings are republicans. Mr. Fleming is a member of the First Methodist Episcopal church and Mrs. Fleming is an active member of the Christian Missionary Alliance. She was born on a farm in the vicinity of Oakland, Maryland, December 24, 1874, a daughter of Samuel and Hester (Flegle) Ferguson, both also natives of Maryland and both now deceased. Samuel Ferguson was born in Hoyes, Garrett county, that state, and became a substantial farmer in the neighborhood of Oakland in that same county. He died there and his widow’s last days were spent in Hoyes.

History of Washington County, Pennsylvania, 1926; Forrest, Earle Robert, Chicago: S.J. Clarke Pub. Co., pages 229-230  Search Hundreds of 1880s-1890s Pennsylvania County History Books for biographies and historical information on your ancestors.  View the book page images on line and print them out for your genealogy file!  Free Access to the old history books - plus birth & death records, census images and ALL other records at ancestry.com.