Nevada Genealogy Trails Washoe County Hon. W. O'H. Martin Biography

HON. W. O'H. MARTIN - The name of Hon. W. O'H. Martin is indelibly inscribed on the history of Nevada because of his active connection with its early progress and development: all who examine into the annals of the state will recognize the fact that his labors have been most effective and helpful in the expansion of the trade interests of the commonwealth in which lies the basis of all prosperity.

Mr. Martin was born in Platteville, Wisconsin, September 9, 1845, and was of Scotch-Irish lineage. His paternal grandfather, Morris Martin, emigrated to the new world in 1822. settling in New York city, where his son, Morris Washington Martin, was born. The latter married Miss Margaret O'Hara, a native of Canandaigua, New York, and a daughter of Captain William O'Hara, who was a graduate of Dublin University, and later entered the British army, under George III. Captain O'Hara afterward resigned his commission and came to New York City in the same year in which the Martin family was established there. He subsequently became a resident of Wisconsin, and died in Platteville, in 1847, at the age of sixty-four.

Morris W. Martin, the father of W. O'H. Martin, removed to Wisconsin at an early epoch in the development of that state, and became a prominent and influential citizen, serving for several terms as recorder of his county. He afterward returned to New York, and in 1851 sailed with his family for San Francisco, attracted by the discovery of gold and the business possibilities of the rapidly developing west. He continued to reside in the Golden state until his death, which occurred in Cherokee, Butte county, in September, 1865.

Hon. W. O'H. Martin obtained his early education in California, and engaged for a time in placer mining. In 1868 he went to Empire, Nevada, and accepted a clerkship in a general merchandise store, but after a few year» he purchased the interests of the firm and continued in trade there until 1881. when he sold out and spent a year as a stock broker in San Francisco. In 1883 he located in Reno, Washoe county, Nevada, where lie purchased a wholesale and retail merchandise store. With characteristic energy and enterprise he built up a splendid business, which he later incorporated as the Reno Mercantile Company; through his honorable methods, keen sagacity and diligence he established a firm which has continued to prosper to the present time, and is now one of the leading mercantile concerns of the state.

In 1895 Mr. Martin was elected president of the Washoe County Bank, and effected its reorganization: the capital stock was advanced to three hundred thousand dollars, and a little later it was advanced to five hundred thousand, all of which was paid up. During his presidency the increase in the business of the bank was almost phenomenal: financial conditions improved throughout the state during this period, but his guidance of the affairs of the Washoe County Bank strengthened its position materially. Its prosperity was due in no small measure to his personality and influence. He continued at the head of the institution till death, which occurred September 14, 1901. At the time of his death Mr. Martin was also president of the Riverside Mill Company and the Reno Real Estate and Investment Company, corporations which owe their success in large measure to the farsighted judgment and unselfish spirit of their president.

In his political affiliation Mr. Martin was a Republican, and while living in Empire represented Ormsby county in the state senate. His devotion to the public good stood as an unquestioned fact in his career, and though his business interests made heavy demands upon his time he always found opportunity to co-operate in measures for the general welfare. But he consistently refused to accept the political preferment which the leaders of his party urged upon him.

Kindness and unquestioned integrity were dominating traits of his character. His life was in harmony with the teachings of the Masonic fraternity, in which he advanced to the Knight Templar degree. He was a devoted husband and father, a reliable man of affairs, a loyal citizen, and one whose true nobility of character awakened for him honor and respect wherever he was known.

Mr. Martin was married in 1873, and his widow and seven children occupy one of the beautiful homes of Reno.

Source:
A History of the State of Nevada: Its Resources and People
By Thomas Wren, Lewis Publishing Company
Published by The Lewis publishing company, 1904