One House’s Story: The Koons Family

I came across an early 20th century advertisement the other day for a New Philadelphia tinsmith and slater and thought I would explore his, and his family’s, lives. I discovered that one of the buildings that served as his store and residence now houses a prominent New Philadelphia cafe.

When precisely the Koons family arrived in Ohio from Pennsylvania is not entirely clear from the historical record. Pennsylvania-born Daniel Koons (1831-1903) was living in Jackson Township, Mahoning County, Ohio at least by September 1852 when he married his Ohio-born wife Sofia Mawen (1833-1918). Daniel was a tailor by trade and his new bride worked as a milliner (or dressmaker). The Koons already had five children and were living in Smith Township, Mahoning County by 1860.

The family moved again, this time to the village of Hubbard in Trumbull County where they were living in 1870. Daniel and Sophia also had three more children between 1860 and 1870, including a son named Hiram (Harry) Grant Koons (1866-1920). Hiram, who most often went by Harry, spent his youth attending school and working on local farms around his parents’ home. Daniel continued to work as a tailor throughout Harry’s childhood, though Sofia had become a full-time housewife and would bear more children after 1870. In addition to his schooling, Harry also learned the trade of tinsmithing and slating though from whom is unknown.

Harry continued to live and work in Trumbull County and, in the fall of 1888, married a young woman named Lulu Papa (1869-1941). The couple decided to try their luck in Tuscarawas County and, by 1891, had settled there. The family settled at first on North Third Street (modern 2nd Street NE) before Harry partnered with another local tinsmith to build stoves. The partnership was short lived but it established Harry and his own subsequent tinsmith, hardware, and slating business in the western half of a two story brick building on the north side of the first block of West High Street.

The space in the building that Harry Koons occupied for his hardware store and tin and slate shop had previously housed a furniture store then a saloon. Harry and Lulu lived upstairs with their two children, a daughter and son, for the first several years of the business. During the time they occupied the upper floors, the business suffered two separate fires. One occurred when a shop worker, attempting to see how much flammable liquid remained in a barrel, lit a match and ignited the contents. Luckily Harry Koons was able to cover the worker with a blanket and put out the fire. The second fire took place in a warehouse behind the property, and shared by a number of other High Street businesses, completely destroying some of Koons’ inventory. Again, luckily, a nearby livery stable and all of the horses in it were saved from the fire.

After the second fire Harry Koons decided to move his family out of the top floors above the home and into a house a block farther west on the southwest corner of West High and Sassafras (modern 2nd Drive SW). He still continued to operate his hardware store for a few more years before he constructed a two story tin shop at the back of the property and moved all of his business there in 1911. Here he operated the H.G. Koons Tin Shop. During World War One, Harry and Lulu’s son served in the United States Navy aboard the battleship USS Florida and Harry was active in raising money for the war effort.

Harry Koons was working in the tin shop behind his home in May 1920 when an accidental gasoline explosion occurred, causing severe and extensive burns on the entire upper half of his body and head. Harry only lived a short time after the fire, dying from the severity of the burns and the shock they caused. Lulu lived for another twenty-one years in the home on West High Street. She died in early February of 1941. Hiram “Harry” G. Koons and Lulu are buried in the Koons Family plot in East Avenue Cemetery in New Philadelphia, Ohio. The location of the Koons Hardware Store on West High Street is now occupied by the Daily Grind Café.

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© Noel B. Poirier, 2023.