From "History of Wheeling City and Ohio County, West Virginia and 
Representative Citizens," by Hon. Gibson Lamb Cranmer, 1902.

Typed by Carol Taylor Lanza.

Pages 751, 752, & 755

JOHN A. HESS, of the firm of C. Hess & Sons, merchant tailors, ranks as 
one of the prominent men in Wheeling, Ohio County, West Virginia.  He 
is a director of the Wheeling Title & Trust Company, Peoples Bank, 
Spears Axle Company, Trimble & Lutz Company, is interested in the Hicks 
& Hoge Dry Goods Company, the F. W. Bammer Company, and the German Bank 
of Wheeling, and is identified with many other enterprises.  Mr. Hess 
is a son of Christian and Agnes (Blum) Hess, natives of Germany.

Christian Hess was born November 18, 1825, and is a son of Jacob Hess, 
who was a tailor by trade and came from Germany to America in 1852, 
dying in that year at Cincinnati, Ohio.  Christian learned the trade of 
a tailor from his father and located in America in 1846.  He finished 
his apprenticeship with Lawrence Werner of Cincinnati, after which he 
came to Wheeling, West Virginia and worked in the tailor shop of Daniel 
Schambra.  He subsequently entered into partnership with Christian 
Hausenhour, which existed until 1848, at which time Mr. Hess assumed 
the entire business.  In 1855, he erected a building on the corner of 
Fourteenth and Main Streets, which he still owns.  January 31, 1877, 
two sons, Clement and John A., were admitted to the firm; Clement died 
April 28, 1899, at the age of forty-four years.  January 31, 1883, the 
present building at Nos. 1321-23 Market Street was completed and is 
still occupied by the firm.  The building has a frontage of 25 feet, 
with a depth of 135 feet; it consists of three stories, all of which 
are utilized by the firm.  February 1, 1887, another son, Henry, was 
taken into the firm, Christian Hess having retired from active business 
about 1875.  John A. And Henry Hess have since conducted the business.

At various times Charles Hess has been identified with important 
business interests of Wheeling and vicinity.  He was one of the 
incorporators and for many years a director in the Peoples Bank, and 
was also an incorporator of the German Fire Insurance Company of 
Wheeling. He is a stockholder in the Belmont, Benwood, Bellaire and 
Riverside nail and steel works, the Central Glass Company, the Wheeling 
Steel & Iron Company, and is interested in various glass industries.  
He was one of the first members of the Arion Association.  At the time 
of his locating at Wheeling, there were no musicians in the city aside 
from himself and a Mr. Yeager, and they furnished music for public 
entertainment, finding it very profitable as well as an enjoyable 
pastime.  Mr. Hess has been twice married.  His first marriage was 
contracted with Agnes Blum, a native of Germany.  She died in 1880, 
aged forty-nine years.  They reared a large family of children, only 
four of whom are now living, namely:  Anna J., wife of Joseph A. 
Glessenkamp of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, who is in the wholesale 
carriage manufacturing business; Mary Agnes, who is still at home; 
Henry N., a native of Wheeling, who married Lona Lang and has one son, 
Andrew Christian Maxmilian,- he resides at the corner of Eighteenth and 
Wood Streets and is a member of the Carroll Club and Arion Association; 
and John A. Hess.  Those children deceased are: Henry, Sophia, Ludwig 
and Christian Wilhelm, all of whom died in infancy; Anthony, who died 
at Notre Dame University in 1875, while a college student, being then 
twenty-one years of age; and Joseph G., who was in the furniture 
business and died in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1892, at the age of thirty-
nine years.  The second marriage of Christian Hess was with the widow 
of Christian Welty.

John A. Hess was born in Wheeling, September 19, 1851.  He was reared 
and educated in Wheeling, attending the parish school and also the 
private school of Professer Harding.  At the age of fourteen years, he 
entered his father's store, served an apprenticeship under him, and 
became a cutter, continuing that line of work until admitted to 
membership in the firm. The firm employs about 30 persons and is one of 
the largest of it's kind in this part of the country. 

Mr. Hess is unmarried and makes his home with his father at No. 811 
Main Street.  Socially, he is president of the Arion Association, of 
which he was an incorporator and is a member, and was also an 
incorporator of the Carroll Club, to which he now belongs.  He attends 
divine services at St. Joseph's Cathedral.  He was a member of the 
Wheeling Park Association from the time of it's inception until 
Wheeling Park came under the control of the Wheeling and Elm Grove 
Railroad; he was one of the original stockholders. In fraternal 
circles, he is a member of Reliance Lodge. No. 18, A. O. U. W. ; and 
Lodge No. 28, B. P. O. E.