George H. Warrick    

George H. Warrick, manager of the affairs and operations of the Washington Floral Company of Washington and one of the best known florists in western Pennsylvania, is a Nebraskan by birth, but is a member of one of the old families of Washington county and has been a resident of this county since the days of his childhood. He was born in Plattsmouth, in the state of Nebraska, October 9, 1884, a son of William J. and Anna (Poland) Warrick, who are now living in Washington and both of whom were born in that city, the latter a daughter of the late Henry Poland, who in his generation was a well known merchant tailor there.

William J. Warrick, treasurer of the Washington Floral Company and one of Pennsylvania’s veteran florists, was born in Washington in 1861, a son of George M. and Mary (Wilson) Warrick, the former of whom was born in Amwell township, this county, February 28, 1831, a son of Jonathan T. and Mary (Slack) Warrick, the latter of whom also was born in this county, her parents having come here from New Jersey. Jonathan T. Warrick was ten years of age when he came to Washington county with his parents in 1794 and he grew up here, becoming a carpenter and cabinetmaker and also a farmer. In the days of his young manhood he was for some time a school teacher and he also served for some time as county surveyor. He died at his home in East Finley township in 1846, then being sixty-two years of age, and his widow survived him but a year, her death occurring in that township in 1847. George M. Warrick followed in his father’s footsteps as a builder but later turned his attention to mercantile enterprises and in association with his brother, W. W. Warrick, engaged in business in Washington. In 1866 these brothers, in association with John M. Wilson, bought the Washington flour mill and thereafter carried on the milling business in addition to their grocery business until they sold the mill to the Zelt brothers. George M. Warrick in due time took his sons, John W. and William J. Warrick, into the grocery business with him and under the firm name of G. M. Warrick & Sons developed one of the leading grocery stores in western Pennsylvania. When he retired from business his sons continued to carry on together until 1908, when William J. Warrick retired from the store to give his attention to the florist line he meanwhile had been developing, his interest along that line having been continuing since 1903, when the Washington Floral Company was organized, and he has since retained that interest, being now the treasurer of this company.

George H. Warrick grew up in Washington and began his education in that city, his local schooling being supplemented by a course in horticulture and floriculture in the Ohio State University. He then became associated with his father in the operation of the latter’s greenhouses at the Warrick home and was thus engaged for several years, or until 1903, when he helped in the organization of the Washington Floral Company, of which he became the manager, his father and his uncle, John W. Warrick, and others being connected with the initial steps in this organization. Presently those interests in the company not represented by the family holdings were taken over and the company was incorporated, a close corporation, with John W. Warrick as president, William J. Warrick as treasurer, and George H. Warrick as general manager, an arrangement that has been continued. The reputation of the greenhouses of the Washington Floral Company extends throughout this whole trade area. Particularly as growers of carnations have the Warricks established themselves as florists of distinction. They have long made a specialty of the cultivation of these dainty members of the dianthus family, with particular reference to the Pittsburgh trade, and all the leading stores in the city are supplied with carnations from the Warrick hotbeds, the best that are received there. The plant of the Washington Floral Company covers forty-five acres and carries about forty thousand square feet of glass.

On September 23, 1910, in Washington, George H. Warrick was united in marriage to Miss Mary Mauva McBurney, and they have a pleasant home on the Monongahela road out of Washington. They are members of the First Methodist Episcopal church and are republicans. Mr. Warrick is a member of the Washington Chamber of Commerce, and Mrs. Warrick is a member of the Child Welfare Circle and of the Young Women’s Christian Association of Washington and the Get Together Club of Eightyfour. She was born in Washington and her schooling was finished in the seminary there. Mr. and Mrs. Warrick have three children, Sons all: George Henry Warrick, Jr., born December 2, 1912; Richard McBurney Warrick, born June 1, 1915; and Robert Jonathan Warrick, born October 16, 1917. Mrs. Warrick was born September 28, 1882. a daughter of John F. and Ann (Luker) McBurney, the latter of whom, born in Bentleyville, in this county, in January, 1853, died in Washington in March, 1910. John F. McBurney, a substantial retired farmer of this county, now living in Newcastle, was born in Washington, July 17, 1853, a son of Ebenezer and Mary (Maxwell) McBurney, well known residents of that city in their generation. He is a member of the United Presbyterian church and is a republican.

History of Washington County, Pennsylvania, 1926; Forrest, Earle Robert, Chicago: S.J. Clarke Pub. Co., pages 215-217.  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.