My Genealogy Hound

FRANK SEMPLE BISSELL, manufacturer, Pittsburgh, was born in that city, January 28, 1833. His father, John Bissell, was a native of Connecticut, and a pioneer in the rolling-mill business in Pittsburgh; his mother, Nancy Semple, was born in that city. Frank S. graduated at Williams College, Massachusetts, in 1854, and two years later embarked in the manufacture of stoves, in company with his brother Charles, now of Cleveland, as successors of Paine, Lee & Co., on the rolling-mill site, Allegheny City. For the last twenty years he has been sole proprietor, and the business is largely conducted by his eldest son. In 1884 he bought the house in Wilkinsburg built by Henry Harbaugh in 1843, and now resides here. The grounds extend on Penn avenue from West to Alfred streets. Mr. Bissell is a vestryman in St. Andrew’s Protestant Episcopal Church of Pittsburgh; a member of the executive committee of Dixmont hospital, and one of the board of managers of the Exchange National bank, Pittsburgh; politically he is a republican. His first wife, Martha H., daughter of Dr. Thomas Miller, bore him one son, Harry M. His present wife, Annie M., daughter of George W. Jackson, of Pittsburgh, is the mother of two sons, George W. J. and John B.