Looking for anyone who may have information on Shirley Smith French Sr.(my great-grandfather) Hitting many brick walls. Here is his bio from The National Cyclopedia of American Biography. I have information on his children, but have had no luck finding information on him or his ancestors. Him being orphaned has not helped. I would love to find the family or descendants of the physician who raised him.
Please contact me via email. Thanks. A photo of Shirley with his boys is attached.

Shirley Smith French, Manufacturer, was born at Garrettsville, Ohio, May 2, 1881, son of Samuel French and Mary Jane (Johnston) French and a descendant of Schuyler French, who came from England in 1800 and settled in Connecticut. Left an orphan at an early age, he was reared by a Garrettsville Physician. After being graduated at the Garrettsville High School in 1900, he began his business career as a tally boy with the Republic Steel Corp at Youngstown, Ohio. While with that company he studied engineering privately and during 1906-13 he was a member of the engineering department of the United States Steel Corp., which laid out and supervised the construction of its steel plant at Gary, Indiana. In 1913 he returned to Youngstown as a chief clerk of the Brier Hill Steel Corp. Three years later he became vice-president and general manager of the William Tod Co. (later the United Engineering & Foundry Co.), Youngstown, one of the first American companies to manufacture war munitions for entente allies in the World war. In 1917 French was made vice-president and general manager of the General Fireproofing Co., at Youngstown, continuing with that company until 1926. From that time until his retirement in 1930 because of ill health, he was vice-president and treasurer of the Central Alloy Steel Corp. at Massillon, Ohio, and president of the Berger Manufacturing Co., a subsidiary, at Canton, Ohio. he was a member of the Iron and Steel Institute, Masonic order, Union Club (Cleveland), Youngstown and Youngstown Country clubs (Youngstown) and Canton, Congress Lake and Brookside (Canton). He took an active interest in civic affairs and was a director of the Youngstown and Canton chamber of commerce. Personally he was an affable, kindly man, energetic and a great tenacity, and enjoyed wide popularity. His favorite recreations were golf, reading and travel. He had a gift for music and sang in public from boyhood. Politically he was a Republican and in religion was a Methodist. He was married at Gary, Indiana April 3, 1909, to Maude Alice, daughter of Charles Henry Jenness, a salesman, of Ft. Wayne, Indiana and they had four sons: Charles Samuel, John Bruce, James Jenness and Shirley Smith French. He died at Youngstown, Ohio, September 18, 1936.


The National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Volume XXVII, 1939
James T. White & Co.

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