Brothers standing hand-in-hand. Merle M. McCurdy (1912-1968) stands to the right of his older brother, Foster McCurdy (1910-1978). The first child, a girl, of the McCurdy family was still born (1909).

Life for Merle began on the shores of Lake Erie in the port city of Conneaut, Ohio. Situated in the northeast corner of Ashtabula County, the city of 11,000 residents that Merle grew up in, played a significant role in the transport of iron ore from dock to rail. Andrew Carnegie, the well-known industrialist, was instrumental in the development of this transportation hub. In 1898, he purchased over 5,000 acres of Conneaut’s harbor and made a significant financial investments in modernizing the ship yard equipment and infrastructure before selling it to J.P. Morgan who created U.S. Steel in 1901.

Sources

Bureau of the US Census. (1913). Thirteen Census of the United States, Table 1: Population-Ohio, Population of Minor Civil Divisions: 1910, 1900, 1890 (Vol. 3). Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.

Treese, L. (2003). Railroads of Pennsylvania: Fragments of the Past in the Keystone Landscape. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books.