W. H. OSTERHOUT, proprietor of the Eagle Valley Tannery, Ridgway, was born in Wawarsing, Ulster Co., N. Y., August 17, 1832, and is a son of Daniel and Catherine (Boggs) Osterhout, also natives of the county named above. Work upon his father's farm, the manufacture of lumber, peeling of bark and attending school occupied his boyhood and youth until he reached the portal of manhood, in 1853. In that year he entered the Lackawack Tannery, owned by Henry Bange, of New York City, in which he served an apprenticeship until the spring of 1856, when he proceeded, in company with G. W. Northrup and Gilbert Polen, to Canadensis, Penn., there to assist in building a tannery, with a view to taking charge of it, but before its completion he was taken sick and had to return home. He then again entered the Lackawack Tannery, where he completed his trade. He afterward took a course of study at Liberty Normal School, and while there received a proposal from Hon. Jackson S. Schultz, to go to Glenwood, Susquehanna Co., Penn., in order to take charge of the Glenwood Tannery, then owned by Schultz, Eaton & Co. , and here, December 26, 1857, began his experience in the management of a tannery.
August 17, 1858, Mr. Osterhout married Miss Helen Connine, daughter of Maj. Richard Connine, of Wawarsing; the only child by this union, Florence M. , is the wife of B. F. Overholt, of West Overton, Penn.
Mr. Osterhout continued to act as foreman at Glenwood until September, 1862, when, with A. A. Eaton, he purchased the Glenwood tannery, the partnership continuing until April 1, 1S64, when Mr. Osterhout purchased Mr. Eaton's interest, transferring the same to Eli Rightmyer. After two years of prosperous business Mr. Osterhout bought Mr. Rightmyer' s interest, and conducted the business alone until February 1, 1870, when he sold the entire establishment to Black, Burhans & Clearwater.
In the fall of 1870 the subject of these lines removed to Ridgway, where he bought 135 acres of land from J. S. Hyde, and built his extensive Eagle Valley Tannery and other buildings, aggregating a model establishment, complete in all its appointments, and famous on that account throughout the tanning world. The barkmill building has four mills, which have the capacity of grinding sixty cords of hemlock bark per clay, or 18,000 cords a year. The leach-house is attached to the mill building, forming with it an L, and contains twenty-eight square leaches, 16J-xl8x7^ feet. The liquid is pumped from the leaches by force-pumps, driven by a thirty-five-horse-power engine; the cooler-house contains ten coolers fifteen feet square and six feet deep; the boiler-house contains the large furnaces and ten boilers, each twenty- two feet long and four feet in diameter, and here is made all the steam for driving the engines and heating the tannery, store, and Mr. Osterhout's dwelling. The main building comprises the beam-house, handlers, yard, scrub-room and rolling-room, and the machinery used is driven by a sixty -five-horse-power engine. In and about the tannery about 160 men are employed; the capacity of the tannery is 250.000 sides per annum, the daily cost of running tuis immense business being $2,200, and the capital invested runs up into hundreds of thousands of dollars. Mr. Osterhout attends to many of the details with an accuracy that is astonishing, and as a business man he certainly has few equals.
In addition to his immense tannery he has a store, managed by C. E. Holaday, where he carries a stock of general merchandise, his sales amounting to about $70,000 per year. His beautiful residence, which is built in the form of a Greek cross, stands in the center of a handsomely terraced yard, commanding a fine view of the works, of the valley and of Ridgway. The residence of his foreman is a pleasant, home- like house, and on the terrace adjoining is the house of his brother, C. D. Osterhout. On the grounds are also a boarding house and forty tenement homes, arranged along wide streets, lined with handsome shade-trees. The buildings are located at the junction of the Philadelphia & Erie and Ridgway & Clearfield Railroads. The entire cost of constructing the dwellings, store and tannery buildings was about $200,000.
In 1870 Mr. Osterhout bought from J. S. Hyde the hemlock bark on 1.700 acres; from J. S. Schultz. 4,000 acres, and from other parties 3,000 acres. He has since bought 5,000 acres and the bark on 12,000 acres, making a total bark acreage of 25,700. Notwithstanding the many cares of the great concern which he manages, Mr. Osterhout has found time to serve the people in various local offices, such as county commissioner, school director and supervisor, and he is one of the trustees of the Warren Insane Asylum. He is a director in the Ridgway Gas & Heat Company, and in the Tanners' Mutual Fire Insurance Company, of Pennsylvania; is also a member of the Hamilton Wagon Company, of the firm of Osterhout & Ely, dealers in lumber, and of the Ridgway Publishing Company. He and his family are members of the Congregational Church: in politics Mr. Osterhout is a Republican.
In January 1889, Mr. Osterhout, in order to diminish his cares and give him time for travel, etc., formed an incorporated company, known as the Eagle Valley Tanning Company, he being its president, Mr. G. W. Childs, treasurer, and C. D. Osterhout, secretary.
