O. B. Lay    

O. B. LAY, proprietor of the Cummings Lumber Company, Kane, is the third son of George G. (now deceased) and Emma (Ogden) Lay, and was born in Marshall, Mich., January 12, 1849. The mother was a daughter of Jonathan Ogden, one of the early settlers of Binghamton, Broome Co., N. Y., then known as Chenango Point. In March, 1869, at the age of twenty years, the subject of our sketch came to Pennsylvania, and was first employed by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company as assistant agent at Cameron station, where he remained two years; was then promoted to the position of agent for the same company at Daguscahonda station. Here he remained nearly two years, when he was again promoted, being given charge of the Kane station, at which borough he has since resided. He served the Pennsylvania Railroad Company at Kane, nine years, ending May 1, 1882, when he resigned his position to engage in other business. Mr. Lay established and edited the first newspaper (The Kane Weekly Blade) published in Kane. It was established in 1879, and suspended in 1883 on account of the office being destroyed by fire. From February, 1882, to March, 1889, Mr. Lay was actively engaged in mercantile business in Kane, but disposed of same in order to give his entire attention to his lumber business, in which he had embarked in the fall of 1885. He is the sole owner of the Cummings Lumber Company, and his mill has a daily capacity of 25,000 feet of lumber. Mr. Lay was married in January, 1875, to Blanche E., daughter of D. T. Hall, of Kane, and they have two children: Flora A. and Oakey H. Mr. Lay is a member of Kane Lodge, No. 566, F. & A. M., the Royal Arcanum and the Sons of Temperance. Politically he is a third-party Prohibitionist, believing that prohibition, with a party behind it, pledged to its enforcement, is the only effectual method of dealing with the liquor traffic. He and his family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

History of the counties of McKean, Elk, Cameron and Potter, Pennsylvania with biographical selections, including their early settlement and development, a description of the historic and interesting localities, sketches of their cities, towns and villages, portraits of prominent men, biographies of representative citizens, outline history of Pennsylvania, statistics.. Chicago. J.H. Beers & Co.. 1890, page 562. Read this book on line - Free Trial 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.