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ABEL A. DEITZ, a prosperous business man of Steubenville, dealing in gents' clothing, furnishings and shoes, with a fine location on the corner of South Third and Adams Streets, was born in Russia in 1875, and came to America in 1891. Mr. Deitz has been connected with mercantile business almost since early boyhood. After reaching the United States he lived for four months at Clarion Mines, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania. He then went to Springfield, Mass., and was traveling salesman for a business firm there for a year and a half. A brother of his was in business in Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, and Mr. Deitz joined him and worked as a clerk for him for four months. The brother then moved to Curwensville, in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, and the brothers continued together for one year. From there Mr. Deitz went to South Africa, where he represented certain business interests for a year. He then returned to Springfield, Mass., shortly afterward going to Oxford, Md., where he was a clerk for his brother-in-law. For two years subsequently he was in Charlottesville, Va., going thence to Waynesboro, Pa., where he remained for five years. He then came to Steubenville. Here he was at first a clerk in the employ of Mr. Levinson, but subsequently entered into the candy and confectionary business for himself, still later turning his attention to the line in which he is now interested. When Mr. Deitz began business in Steubenville, on the corner of Third and Adams Streets, it was under his own name, and on a small scale, his sole capital being $235. In June, 1905, he was compelled by the sale of the property, to remove to the Nicholson Building, next door, where he had to go to the expense of $600 to put the place in proper condition for his business and this brought on financial difficulties which resulted in his making an assigment for the benefit of his creditors. He was not discouraged however, and in July of the same year he resumed business, as manager for his wife Lillian, in the line of gents' furnishings and later added clothing and shoes to his stock. From this small beginning, through his energy and business capacity, he has developed a trade of $24,000 a year. On June 24, 1909, he moved from the Nicholson Building back to the Levinson Building and now occupies the same stand where he commenced in 1904. On March 7, 1910 he as manager and agent, bought a property of the John Vought heirs for the sum of $5,000, Lot No. 2, in the William R. E. Elliott addition to Steubenville, on South Third Street, under the name of L. R. Deitz, the latter being his wife, in whom he finds a ready helper. Mr. Deitz was married at Hagerstown, Md., on September 27, 1898, to Miss Lillian Baginsky, his capital at the time consisting of $40 and a borrowed suit to get married in. They have had five children, Joseph, Morris L., Bertha R., and Emanuel--the living--and a son, Lewis, who died when three weeks old. The family are members of the Jewish congregation.  Return to Family Tales
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