From "History of Wheeling City and Ohio County, West Virginia and  
Representative Citizens," by Hon. Gibson Lamb Cranmer, 1902. 
 
Typed by E. J. Heinemann 
 
p. 657 
 
BENJAMIN M. HILDRETH, for many years actively engaged in the glass  
business, was born at Wheeling, West Virginia, in 1854, and is a son of  
Dr. E. A. and Susan L. (McMechen) Hildreth.  He was reared and educated  
in his native city, and graduated from Linsly Institute in 1872. 
     Mr. Hildreth then entered the employ of Hobbs, Brockunier & Company
As bill clerk and was afterward started on the road as a salesman, in  
which capacity he continued until 1888.  At that time he associated  
himself with James B. Russell in the glass business, which they carried  
on successfully at Fostoria, Ohio, for about six years, under the name  
of the Nickel Plate Glass Company, in which Mr. Hildreth served as  
secretary during that time.  In 1894 he served his connection with the  
concern and a little later acted as secretary of the Beaumont Glass  
Company for one year. 
     He had previously been connected with similar enterprises at Pittsburg  
and Dunkirk, Indiana.  For the past few months he has not been in  
active business. 
     Mr. Hildreth was united in matrimony with Sarah Catherine Turner,
Of Wheeling, who formerly lived near Wilmington, Delaware.  Her father  
died in Maryland when she was a child, and she came to Wheeling at the  
early age of fourteen years, and has since resided here.  To Mr.  
Hildreth and his wife one son was born, Eugenius A., who is twenty-one  
years old.  Eugenius A. Hildreth is a graduate of Linsly Institute and  
Lehigh College, and is now studying medicine at the University of  
Pennsylvania, at Philadelphia; he will probably take a special course  
in surgery. 
     The subject of this sketch is an ardent Republican in his political  
action.  He and his family are devout members of St. Matthew's  
Protestant Episcopal church.  His residence for the past four years has  
been at Woodsdale, where he erected his present comfortable home.