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Subject: Bio of Mrs. Emma A. Ferrington
Date: Thu, 6 Oct 2005 07:34:17 EDT


A Narrative History
of
The People of Iowa
with
SPECIAL TREATMENT OF THEIR CHIEF ENTERPRISES IN
EDUCATION, RELIGION, VALOR, INDUSTRY,
BUSINESS, ETC.
by
EDGAR RUBEY HARLAN, LL. B., A. M.
Curator of the
Historical, Memorial and Art Department of Iowa
Volume IV
THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Inc.
Chicago and New York
1931

MRS. EMMA A. FERRINGTON is a Des Moines business woman. At the death of her
husband she took over the business he had founded, known as the Reliable Rug
& Cleaning Company, and with a woman's good judgment, energy, and with the
experience given her by successive years she made this a large and prosperous
business and still gives it her time and management.

Mrs. Ferrington's first husband was John J. Owens, a native of New York
city. Mr. Owens and Miss Emma A. Seiler were married at Des Moines April 23,
1875. John J. Owens was a painter and paper hanger by trade, and died in 1885.
After his death Mrs. Owens married Warren E. Ferrington, who died in 1890.
Mr. Ferrington was a rug manufacturer and cleaner.
Mrs. Ferrington is a daughter of John and Sarah (Tussie) Seiler. Her
parents were born at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and at an early day moved across the
country in covered wagons, and just west of the Mississippi River located at
Bloomington, now the City of Muscatine. They put up the second house in
the town. Her father was a shoemaker in Pennsylvania and for forty-five years
served as sexton at Muscatine. There were eleven children in the Seiler
family. The two now living are: Mary Fouts, a widow of an old Union soldier who
recently died, and Mrs. Ferrington. Charles Seiler, of Marysville,
Missouri, died January 14, 1930. Mrs. Ferrington's father was a Presbyterian, member
of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and a Republican in politics. Two
of his sons, John and Daniel, were soldiers in the Union army.

Mrs. Ferrington was educated in common schools at Muscatine. She was a
housewife and mother, and had no special training for the business which she took
over on the death of Mr. Ferrington. The capital invested in the business
at the time was only about a thousand dollars. Since then Mrs. Ferrington has
been constantly adding to the service and the facilities of the
establishment, and now has a plant covering half a block of ground and owns other real
estate as well. All of this represents her success as a business woman.

Mrs. Ferrington resides with her only daughter, Edith, wife of George Ginn,
who is manager of the Reliable Rug & Cleaning Company. Mr. and Mrs. Ginn
have two daughters, Rugh and Mercedes. Ruth is the wife of Frank Cunningham,
and has a daughter, Barbara Elizabeth, born in 1923. Mercedes married Wallace
E. Sears, and they have two sons, Owen and Leonard. Mrs. Ferrington is a
member of the Central Methodist Episcopal Church.



Debbie Clough Gerischer
gerischer.rootsweb.com/

Iowa History Site
iagenweb.org/history/index.htm

Scott County
celticcousins.net/scott/index.htm







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