Genealogical and Personal History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania, 1912


Titlow Family Biography

The Titlows of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, herein recorded, descend from George Titlow, a resident of Middletown, Maryland, and the proprietor of one of the old historic inns on the National Pike when that thoroughfare was the great artery of the east and west, He was well to do, owning farming and other property. He married and left issue.

(II) Flavious B., son of George Titlow, was born at Middletown, Maryland, died December 28, 1896, at Uniontown, Pennsylvania. He grew to manhood and was educated at Middletown, where he learned the tailor's trade. He was the first of his name to come to Fayette county, and his is the only family of the name known there. He followed his trade of tailor and was also a merchant. When the first railroad came to Uniontown he was appointed station agent and sold the first railroad ticket ever purchased in the town. He retained his position several years. He was buried on New Year's Day, 1897. He marrled Drusilla Beeson, born 1830, who survives him, now in her eighty-third year; she is a daughter of Henry, son of Jacob Beeson, who came to Fayette county in 1741, from Scotland. Children of Flavious B. Titlow: Henry B.; Elizabeth Y., married John H. Hickman, deceased; Annie B.; George F., of whom further; Walter E., born July 13, 1867, died August 10, 1910.

(III) George F., son of Flavious and Drusilla (Beeson) Titlow, was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, July 31, 1864. He was educated in the public schools of that city, and from early manhood has been interested in hotel management and ownership in Fayette county. His first hotel experience was gained at the Yough House, in Connellsville, Pennsylvania, of which he was clerk from 1886 to 1888. He then assumed the management of the Hotel Marietta, in the same town, continuing until 1889. He was a popular and successful landlord, and now gained an experience and developed an ambition to provide better hotel accommodations for his section, which until his advent had been avoided by the traveling public as much as possible. In 1890 he came to Uniontown and purchased the Jennings House, paying for it the largest price ever paid for a hotel in Fayette county, $40,000; later he bought the McClelland House, in Uniontown, rebuilt, remodeled and made it such an attractive profitable hotel property that in 1903 he sold it for $90,000. In 1905 he was able to carry out a long cherished plan and give to Uniontown a first-class modern. spacious European hotel. He erected and opened for business in that year the Hotel Titlow, of one hundred rooms, built at a cost of $200,000, the largest, most costly hostelry in Fayette county, and the first to be operated on the European plan. The hotel is thoroughly modern, and under Mr. Titlow 's able management has gained a state-wide reputation. It is the established headquarters of the influential coal, coke and steel men of the county who have such vast quantities of wealth invested in Fayette county, and also political headquarters for Southwestern Pennsylvania.

But hotel investment has been only one form of Mr. Titlow 's activity and interest in the development of his city. He has added to its area Titlow 's Addition and Titlow 's Addition Annex, both popular residence districts. He has also in course of construction an up-to-date boat house with swimming pool. Turkish and electric baths, hot and cold shower baths, an elegantly appointed building. His private summer residence is the "Old Stone House," situated eight and a half miles cast of Uniontown, on the Old National Pike, formerly a large and commodious stone tavern which in the halcyon days of the road was known as the Fayette Springs Hotel. It was built in 1812 by Andrew Stewart as a private residence, but two years later was opened as a tavern, continuing as a public house until August, 1909, when it was purchased by Mr. Titlow, who, sparing neither pains nor expense, has converted it into a most handsome summer home, certainly, with its surroundings, one of the most attractive residences along the "Pike." On the south side of the road opposite the house may be seen the only remaining original milestone between Cumberland and Wheeling. It bears the following inscription: "8 M to Union, 53 to Cumb."

An ardent Republican, Mr. Titlow has twice represented the First Ward in the city council, and there as everywhere his whole thought was the good of his city and the advancement of the public interest. He has always been active in the party and has entertained the last five governors of Pennsylvania when visiting Uniontown during their campaigns. He is widely known in his own state, and has twice been elected president of the State Hotel Men's Association, and has served as vice-president of the Hotel Men's Benefit Association of the United States, which argues an appreciative acquaintance extending far beyond state lines. He is an entertaining, forceful speaker, and has addressed audiences in Philadelphia, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Portland and Seattle, receiving most complimentary notices from the press. He stands shoulder to shoulder with the advanced progressive men of his city, and in season and out of season urges the advantages of Uniontown and Fayette county. He does not antagonize those whose moral principles conflict with the hotel business, but, by a rigid adherence to the excise laws governing him, so conducts his business that they become his friends and welcome guests. Although an ardent lover of the horse, and the owner at different times of some of the best in the county, he quickly saw the advantages of the new method of travel, and is one of the most enthusiastic of automobilists and the first to demonstrate that they could be used the entire year in all kinds of weather. He is a member of the City Fire Department, and was a strong advocate for the public fire station and ample buildings for the department use, also for the fine system of ward schools and high schools that has placed Uniontown in the front rank of Pennsylvania cities in educational advantages. He is liberal in his donations to all churches and to charitable organizations. His own favorite sports are hunting and fishing, but he loves all clean athletic and out of doors diversion. The family are members of the Roman Catholic Church of Uniontown.

He married, June 12, 1889, Anna M., daughter of Lawrence and Mary Burnes, of Wilmington, Delaware, both born in Ireland. Children: 1. Mary died in infancy. 2. George Flavious, born January 29, 1892. 3. Lawrence Burnes, born July 9, 1894. 4. Margaret, born June 27, 1896. 5. Orvilla Frey, born July 3, 1900. 6. Frank Fuller, born September 30, 1902, died August 10, 1909. 7. Joseph, born November 16, 1906.


Source: Genealogical and Personal History of Fayette County, John W. Jordan, Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1912.





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