Harvey Bender Reppetto

- from "History of West Virginia, Old and New and West Virginia Biography," Chicago: American Historical Society, 1923. v.2, p. 339
 

HARVEY B. REPPETTO

Repetto has been a prominent name in the industrial affairs of Wheeling for many years. The family established and built up one of the city's most distinctive lines of manufacture, stoves and ranges, and the corporation, the Wheeling Stove & Range Company, is still under charter, though the plant and business have been sold and are now part of the Wheeling Steel Corporation. The president of the Wheeling Stove & Range Company is Harvey Bender Repetto, son of the founder. Mr. Reppetto is also proprietor of the Wheeling Metal Specialties Company, a business he established only a short time ago and to which he gives his chief time.

Mr. Reppetto was born in Wheeling, March 17, 1886. This is a family of French ancestry, and one branch was established in New Orleans many years ago. The grandfather of Harvey B. and Granville Reppetto, who was born near Cincinnati, but spent a great many years in Wheeling where he was bookkeeper and clerk for steamboats. he was a very highly educated gentleman. he died at Wheeling about 1871. Granville C. Reppetto, father of Harvey, was born at Parkersburg, West Virginia, in 1854, his parents removing to Wheeling during the Civil war. He was reared and married in this city, worked for a time in the nail mills, was then in the hardware business, and in 1900 founded the Wheeling Stove & Range Company, and before his death saw it established as one of the largest stove industries in the country. He took his politics seriously as a republican, and was a Knight Templar mason. Granville Reppetto died at Wheeling in 1915. He married Olive Bender, who was born at Pittsburgh in 1866 and died at Wheeling in 1908. They were the parents of four children, Bess Louise, wife of Walter H. McClure, one of the officials of the Hazel-Atlas Glass Company; Harvey Bender; Olive D., wife of Cecil B. Digby, an auditor at Cleveland; and Charles E., a municipal official at Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Harvey Bender Reppetto acquired a good education in the public schools and graduated in 1903 from Linsly Institute at Wheeling. He forthwith entered the stove business with his father, became graveling salesman for the Wheeling Stove & Range Company, and in 1913, when his father retired, the management of the business was turned over to him. During succeeding years, Mr. Repetto kept the industry expanding and with an ever-widening market for its products until 1920, when he sold the plant and business to the Wheeling Steel Corporation, but continued as manager of the stove department until resigning in June, 1921. At that date, he established the Wheeling Metal Specialty Company, doing a jobbing business in stoves and refrigerators. The plant and offices are a the corner of Nineteenth and Jacob streets. Mr. Repetto is also president of the Valley Star Stove Company.

Mr. Reppetto is an active member of theChamber of Commerce, the Credit Men's Association of Wheeling, is a republican, belongs to the First United Presbyterian Church of Wheeling and is affiliated with Ohio Lodge No. 1, F. & A. M., Wheeling Chapter No. 1, R. A. M., Wheeling Commandery No. 1, K. T., Osiris Temple of the Mystic Shrine, and is a member of the Country Club and Fort Henry Club He was a volunteer for the World war, was commissioned a second lieutenant, and was in readiness for duty but the armistice was signed before he was called to the colors. he also has a record of four years with the National Guard of West Virginia, in which he held the rank of captain.

In 1917, at Wheeling, Mr. Repetto married Miss Helen Johnston, daughter of Edward O. and Clara (Thompson) Johnston, residents of Triadelphia District of Wheeling. Mr. and Mrs. Reppetto have two daughters, Catherine Ann, born May 8, 1918, and Bess Louise, born March 8, 1921.

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