father, Samuel Philpot, now dead. Soon after his removal to Portage county he became interested with Mr. Philip Price, in the excavation of the Pennsylvania and Ohio canal, and during the progress of the work they purchased land on either side of the canal, including Lock fourteen, where they built a saw and flouring mill, using the canal water as motive power. Towards the latter part of 1839, Mr. Philpot purchased the interest of Mr. Price in the mills and land, and ran the mills successfully, until 1841, when he sold both mills and land to Colonel Elisha Garrett, of Garrettsville. In the Spring of 1841, Mr. Philpot rented his home farm and removed with his family to Middlebury, Summit county, where he had purchased a coal bank, and engaged once more in the coal trade. The importance of his operations in coal, both to the business of the coal regions and of Cleveland, which formed his principal market, can scarcely be overestimated. Before removing to Springfield he discovered there, in 1840, a valuable coal mine, which he afterwards developed and worked successfully, building a railroad of about three miles from the mines to the canal at Middlebury, whence the coal was shipped to Cleveland. This road he stocked with about forty coal cars, and for several years his mine supplied the principal demand for the Cleveland market. In 1843, he developed and improved the celebrated Chippewa mines, Wayne county, near the village of Clinton, and built a railroad to the Ohio canal. From these mines he supplied the Cleveland market with large quantities of coal until the year 1845, when he sold out half his interests in them to Mr. Lemuel Crawford, and some time afterward he sold one-quarter interest to Mr. David Camp. His next remove was to Youngstown, where, in 1846, he leased the Manning and Wertz bank, and while sinking for coal, discovered iron ore. He then went to Pittsburgh and endeavored to get up a furnace company, but not being successful, he returned, and associated himself with Jonathan Warner and a few others in organizing the Ohio Iron and Mining Company, now known as the Eagle Furnace Company, Messrs. Philpot and Warner owning two-thirds of the entire stock. Mr. Philpot at that time opened and developed the Wertz and Manning Briar Hill coal mines, the furnace having been built with the purpose of smelting iron ore with raw stone coal, being the second constructed for this purpose in the Mahoning Valley, the first being that of Wilkenson, Wilks & Co., at Lowellville. The experiment was hazardous, and was carried forward under many difficulties, financial and otherwise, but the energy and enterprise of Mr. Philpot triumphed over them all.