From "HISTORY OF THE UPPER OHIO VALLEY,"  Vol. I, pages 326-327.
Brant & Fuller, 1890.


GEORGE E. HOUSE

George E. House, of Wheeling, senior member of the extensive 
furniture and house-furnishing house of House & Herman, first visited 
this city in August, 1888, on a prospecting tour, having the 
intention of establishing at some promising point an establishment 
which should be a branch to his store in Washington, D. C.  In 
walking about the city to obtain an accurate idea of its condition 
and prospects, he strolled out upon the suspension bridge, and the 
view he there obtained of the situation of the city and the magnitude 
of its manufactures as revealed by the smoke from the busy hives of 
industry in the city and at Bellaire, Benwood, Martin's Ferry, 
Aetnaville, and other suburbs, so impressed him that he at once 
decided that Wheeling was the city he was in search of.  In the 
following September the branch house was established here, and its 
prosperity has confirmed the soundness of his judgment.  Mr. House 
was born at Baltimore, Md., August 2, 1859.  He is a son of George W. 
House, a native of Baltimore, born in 1832, died October 10, 1887, 
who was a builder by trade and for many years engaged in that 
vocation at Baltimore.  He was a son of Jesse House, also a 
Marylander, who was a soldier in the war of 1812.  The mother of 
George E. House was Mary E. Peregoy, who was born in Baltimore in 
1838, and died June 6, 1978.  By her marriage to Mr. House she had 
seven sons and two daughters, all of whom but one daughter survive.  
George E. House was educated in the Baltimore schools and at the age 
of thirteen years became engaged in a furniture store, a business 
which has occupied him ever since, with the exception of two years in 
the picture trade.  He left Baltimore in 1883, and settled at 
Washington City, and after clerking for a while formed a partnership 
with J. P. Hermann, opening a furniture establishment in 1885.  Mr. 
House is at the head of the establishment in this city, which deals 
in furniture, carpets, draperies, stoves, table-ware, and in fact 
everything necessary to the complete furnishing of a house, and the 
business is principally done on the installment plan.  Though 
comparatively a new comer, he has proved himself a live and energetic 
young merchant, and is entitled to a prominent place as such among 
Wheeling's citizens.  Mr. House is a member of the Junior Order of 
American Mechanics, Knights of the Golden Eagle and Order of Elks, 
and socially is highly esteemed. 


(Linda Fluharty)