W. W. SANDO, owner and proprietor of the W. W. Sando Tile Works and sawmill, at Bloomer, enjoys the distinction of being the pioneer business man at this point and his was the first family to establish a home in what is now a flourishing town. The Sando family has been identified with almost every enterprise and public movement that has been useful in the development of this section. W. W. Sando was born April 6, 1857, on a farm in Darke County, Ohio, and is a son of Samuel and Celia D. (Hill) Sando.

Samuel Sando was born in Darke County, Ohio, on the small farm of his father, Joseph Sando, who had come from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to Darke County in early manhood. Joseph Sando was a carpenter by trade. Samuel Sando began to operate a saw mill in Darke County in 1857, and continued in that business until his operations were transferred to Bloomer. He survived until April 18, 1909, at the age of seventy-five years. His widow and five of his ten children are living.

In November, 1880 several months after W. W. Sando moved to Bloomer, the C. H.& D. Railroad put in connection with the village. For a number of years there had been a country post-office established a little south of the present town and it was known as Bloomertown and for several years after it was transferred to the point around which the business of the place centered it was still called by the old name which later was lawfully shortened to Bloomer. In July, 1880, W. W. Sando moved his sawmill to this place and one week later his father followed and they conducted a partnership business until 1894, when the younger Sando bought the older's entire interest. In February, 1881, the partners opened up a store in a building they had put up and conducted it until the latter part of 1882, when it was sold to Martin A. Peterseim, who continues in the business. In 1883 the two progressive Sandos began the manufacture of tile, which has been developed into one of the main enterprises of the place. In 1906 Mr. Sando remodeled his kiln and factory and gives constant employment to a considerable force. Mr. Sando has been very active in all public matters and on account of his enterprise and reliability has frequently been elected to local offices, serving as the first postmaster of Bloomer, for four different times receiving the majority of votes as assessor of Newberry Township, and since 1881 he has been superintendent of the turnpikes. His comfortable residence was built in 1884, it being the second house in the hamlet. Mr. Sando has little time to devote to agriculture, but he owns a farm of twenty-five acres adjoining his tile works.

On December 31, 1877, Mr. Sando was married to Miss Lucinda Hebb, a daughter of Jacob Hebb, of Darke County, and they have had three children: Orville, Iva and Maud. Orville died at the age of eighteen months. Iva married Frank R. Greer and they have two children: Zelma and Roswell. Maud was married (first) to Walter E. Heffner, who was accidentally killed in the railroad yards at Bradford, May 31, 1905. He left three children: Margaret, Ruth and Lawson. Her second marriage was to Judson Derr and they have one child, Una. Mr. Sando is a member of the Mennonite Church.