Arthur J. Trory Photograph Collection

The Early Years, 1895-1927

Exhibition Catalogue

Chronology

by Betty Trory McCormick

and Patricia McCormick Grant

1879	Born May 4 in Lyons, Ohio, the youngest of four children, to English immigrants. Father: Charles Edmund Trory, London. Mother: Elizabeth Trounce Trory, Land's End, England. C. E. Trory, a wheelwright, became a naturalized United States citizen in 1873.
1882	The Trory family relocated in Wauseon, Ohio, where he attended grammar school and completed one year of high school.
1889	Received a box camera as a gift, thus the beginning of his life-long interest in photography.
1898	Sojourned in Ada, Ohio, for an eighteen-month period, completing a course of study in Pharmacy at Ohio Northern University. Owned several cameras, finishing equipment, and several hundred photographs. Was recognized in Kent Courier-Tribune as a fine amateur photographer after having his prints published in a number of Northern Ohio newspapers.
1900	Received Assistant Papers in Pharmacy, May 1900. Returned to Kent.
1901	Opened a bakery store next to F. W. Trory Drug Store.
1902	Apprenticed employment for J. B. Hurst, Cleveland.
1903	Apprenticed employment for Panscost Pharmacy, Ashland; McDowell Brothers, Medina. Returned to Ada, Ohio, for four-week review course. Began working for brother, Charles, at Crestline in November.
1904	Hired by Lamparter Druggists, Akron, in March.
1905	Married Mabel L. Kelso, youngest daughter of Elias S. and Margaret Mackey Kelso of Kent on August 24.
1906	He and Mabel moved to Crestline to assist recently widowed brother, Charles. Later in year took ten-week review course at Scio. Apparently returned to Kent to work for brother, Fred.
1912	About this time he opened the first Bookstore and Photofinishing Room in the Tuttle Block on South Water Street. Made home in the Tuttle Apartments.
1916	Built summer home at Brady Lake from which he took the only picture known of the spectacular fire that destroyed the old Brady Lake Ice House.
1918	Birth of Elizabeth Jeanne, his only child, in March. Moved to Green Terrace, West Main Street, Kent. Began a chronological series of prints of daughter, her friends and activities, which encompassed the next forty-nine years.
1919	Sold the Bookstore in August. During next five years served respectively as Secretary and later President of Board of Trades; became first purchasing agent for Mason Tire and Rubber Company, Kent; was appointed first manager of the Kent Auto Club.
1924	Formed partnership with Charlie Scott in Grocery and Meat Market on North Mantua Street, Kent, at the foot of Crain Avenue Bridge.
1926	Resigned Auto Club. Bought drugstore in Hudson, Ohio, on December 2, and operated it until it was sold to Standard Drug in 1930. Moved family to Hudson about 1927.
1930	Bought a drugstore in Massillon, Ohio, at Corner of Eighth and North Street, N.E. This store was closed in 1935 as a result of foreclosure action by the Millersburg Bank during the Great Depression. Many personal items were lost, possibly including his Graphlex camera.
1936	Passed State Board Examination in Pharmacy in January. Until 1940 worked as pharmacist for Tuck Turner Drugs in Alliance and Ed Schuman Drugs in Canton.
1940	Bought drugstore at Springfield Center, Ellet, Ohio. He and his wife moved back to Kent, 1224 North Mantua Street, her family home.
1949	Retired from active business. Devoted his time to avocations of photography, gardening, traveling and "helping out" friends in drugstores in Ravenna and Kent. He and his wife celebrated their sixty-second wedding anniversary three months before his death. His interest in photography continued until Thanksgiving Day 1967 when he took several family photographs at his daughter's home in Massillon.
1967	He died on Sunday morning, November 26.