From GREATER WHEELING AND VICINITY
By Charles A. Winegerter, 1912; page 537.
     
Contributed by Linda Fluharty.

     GEORGE  W. ALTHAR. - The thriving little city of Bellaire, Ohio, has its 
full complement of well conducted and excellently equipped retail mercantile 
establishments, and prominent among the number is the popular clothing store 
owned and conducted by him whose name initiates this review and who is known 
as one of the representative business men of the younger generation in his 
native county. Mr. Althar has won independence and success through his own 
well directed efforts, is held in unequivocal esteem in his home community 
and as a citizen stands exemplar of progressive ideas and insistent loyalty. 
He is serving in the office of city clerk and is closely identified with 
local interests, so that there is all of consistency in giving him 
representation in this "History of Greater Wheeling and Vicinity." 
     George W. Althar was born at Rock Hill, Belmont county, Ohio, on the 
13th of September, 1879, and is a son of George A. and Catherine (Haney) 
Althar, both of whom were likewise born in the old Buckeye state and both of 
whom now maintain their home at Bellaire, Ohio. The father came to Belmont 
county soon after the close of the Civil war, and for many years he was 
actively engaged in the work of his trade, that of blacksmith, besides which 
he has been identified with other lines of enterprise in the county. He to 
whom this sketch is dedicated is indebted to the public schools of his native 
county for his early educational advantages, which were most effectively 
supplemented by the discipline gained in a newspaper office - a training that 
has consistently been pronounced equivalent to a liberal education. For two 
years he was employed in the office of the Bellaire News Depot, and he then 
severed his association with the "art preservative" and the activities of 
journalism to assume the position of salesman in a local clothing store. He 
learned the business in all its details and by the careful conservation of 
his resources he was finally able to purchase the stock and business. Since 
that time he has conducted the enterprise with cumulative success, showing 
discrimination in the selection of stock in the clothing and men's furnishing 
departments and catering to a large and appreciative patronage. His 
reputation for fair and liberal dealings constitutes a valuable commercial 
asset, and he is known as one of the enterprising and substantial business 
men of Bellaire, where his circle of friends is limited only by that of his 
acquaintances. In 1905 the city council appointed him to the office of city 
clerk and he has since retained this incumbency, in which he has done all in 
his power to further the best interests of his home city and its people. In 
politics Mr. Althar is aligned as a staunch supporter of the cause of the 
Republican party, he is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the 
Knights of Pythias, and both he and his wife hold membership in the Christian 
church, 
     On the 26th of November, 1908, Mr. Althar was united in marriage to Miss 
Monta Tolmie, who was born and reared in Belmont county and whose parents, 
Andrew and Matilda (Snodgrass) Tolmie, still reside at Bellaire, Ohio. Mr. 
and Mrs. Althar are popular factors in the social activities of Bellaire and 
their home is brightened by the presence of their fine little son, Richard T.