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BIOGRAPHY OF LEROY ALEXANDER MANCHESTER This biography was possible through the generous consideration of Mrs. Gina M. Reasoner. Email: greasoner@prodigy.net Source: History of Ohio, The American Historical Society, Inc., 1925 Volume IV, page 35, 36 with photo: LEROY ALEXANDER MANCHESTER. No family name has been more significant of integrity, high character and sound ability in Mahoning County that that of Manchester. Leroy Alexander Manchester represents the modern generation, and is a prominent Youngstown attorney. Two of his brothers have likewise earned worthy reputations in the law. He is a descendant of Thomas Manchester, who came from England in 1638 and was with the colony that made the first settlement on Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island. John Manchester, a great-grandson of Thomas Manchester, was an American soldier in the war for independence. Isaac Manchester, his son, at the age of fifteen, was captured by the British and forced to haul wood for the English soldiers' camps. Benjamin Manchester, a son of Isaac, settled in what is now Mahoning County, Ohio, about 1804, coming from Washington County, Pennsylvania. He served as a soldier in the War of 1812. His wife was Nancy Doddridge, who died in 1813. Their son, Isaac Manchester, was born in Mahoning County, December 20, 1810, and spent practically all his life in that locality. He married Ellen Wilson. Hugh Alexander Manchester, son of Isaac and Ellen (Wilson) Manchester, was born in Canfield Township, Mahoning county, March 5, 1837. At the age of eighteen he began teaching, and had a long and successful experience in the the public schools. For more than twenty years he was a member of the Board of County School Examiners, and was a trustee of the Northeastern Ohio Normal College. He organized and served as cashier of the Farmers National Bank of Canfield twenty years, from 1887 until 1907. He was elected to the legislature in 1899, and in 1902 became mayor of Canfield. He was one of the original trustees and the first chairman of the board of the Glenwood Children's Home, was prominent in the Presbyterian Church, and was a Knight Templar Mason and Odd Fellow. He died at Canfield October 24, 1919. On November 8, 1859, Hugh A. Manchester married Rose A. Squier, a daughter of Asher Squier. She died April 16, 1918, after they had been married upwards of sixty years. Their children were: Mary E., who died in 1880; Laura E., wife of E.P. Tanner, of Canfield; Fannie C., wife of C.E. Bowman, of Ellsworth, Ohio; Isaac Asher, who operates the old homestead; William Charles, a lawyer at Detroit; Curtis A., a prominent Youngstown attorney; and Leroy Alexander. Leroy Alexander Manchester was born May 6, 1883, and spent the first eighteen years of his life on the old homestead farm at Canfield. He attended the district schools, graduated with the Bachelor of Arts degree from the Northeastern Ohio Normal College in 1902, and studied law in the University of Michigan, where he took his degree in 1905. For about a year he practiced in Detroit in association with his brother William C., and in June, 1906, located at Youngstown. On September 1, 1907, he became a member of the firm Hine, Kennedy, Robinson & Manchester, which with subsequent changes became Kennedy, Manchester, Conroy & Ford. Mr. Manchester is still a member of this firm, but since December 1, 1917, has given his legal talents exclusively to his work as general counsel for the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company. Mr. Manchester has been a prominent participant in many phases of Youngstown's modern progress. He served as president of the Chamber of Commerce during 1918-1919, and was made a vice president of the community corporation when it was established to take over general supervision of the charitable and social welfare organizations of the city. He was one of the incorporators of the Mahoning County Bar Association, is a member of the Ohio State Bar Association, a director of the First National and Dollar Bank of Youngstown, belongs to the American Iron and Steel Institute, the Ohio Society of New York, the Rotary Club, and is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner. He is a republican, belongs to the Youngstown Club and the Youngstown County Club, having served as trustee of both the latter organizations, and is an elder in the First Presbyterian Church in Youngstown. On August 4, 1909, Mr. Manchester married Miss Josephine Schaaf, daughter of Rev. J.C. and Flora (Straub) Schaaf, of Canfield. They have two children, Flora Rosana, born October 19, 1919; and Josephine, born September 5, 1920.
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