Armstrong County PA Archives- Biographies: Elder Family Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Susie Brashear, , Jun 2008 Copyright 2008. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/aarmstrong/ ________________________________________________ http://files.usgwarchives.net/pa/armstrong/bios/elder-family.txt Transcribed from: Genealogical and personal history of the Allegheny Valley, Pennsylvania; under the editorial supervision of John W. Jordan. Vol. 3.Pages 895 - 896 [page 895] ELDER. There were five families bearing the name Elder who emigrated about 1770 from Ireland to America and settled in Indiana and Westmorland counties Pennsylvania, where many of their descendents are still living. Among these emigrants was the ancestor of the branch of the family at present under consideration,who about 1796 removed from Indiana county to Slippery Rock, Butler county, Pennsylvania, and later settled on a farm in Perry township,Clarion (then Armstrong) county,which he cultivated until his death. He was Presbyterian in religion. He was twice married. Children(five by first marriage):John referred below,Thomas,James,David,William,Robert,George and Jackson. (II) John Elder, son of the emigrant,was born in Indiana county, Pennsylvania, about 1790, died in Clarion county 1848. He farmed in Clarion and Armstrong counties,and for six or seven years lived in Red Bank,but his principal life occupation was as a river man, piloting boats and poling raft up and down the Allegheny river. He married Jane, born in Perry township, Clarion county, Pennsylvania in 1805,died in Clarion county 1896,daughter of Jacob Waterson. Her Grandfather emigrated from Scotland to America in 1800 and was one of the earliest settlers of Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, locating on a farm on the bank of the Allegheny river opposite the mouth of Red Bank creek in Washington township, and her father settled about 1820 in Perry township near Concord Church, where he cultivated a farm until his death .Children of John and Jane (Waterson) Elder; James; Thomas; George; Jacob, referred below; John; Job,served in the Federal army during the civil war and died in Libby prison; Mathew,drowned by accident in the Allegheny river; William,served in the Federal army during the civil war and killed in the battle of the Wilderness; Mary; Juliet (1); Juliet(2)now living, married Moses Dunlap. (III) Jacob,son of John and Jane (Waterson) Elder,born in Perry township, Clarion county ,Pennsylvania, August 22, 1832, and is now living in Foxburg,Pennsylvania. He received his early education in the public schools of Clarion and Armstrong counties, and later become a lumberman and riverpilot, taking boats and rafts up and down the Allegheny river. He has rafted all the way from Ridgeway, Pennsylvania,to Louisville, Kentucky. In 1883 he bought 100 acres of land in the mouth of the Clarion river in Perry township, which he cultivated as a farm for many years and where he also conducted a boat and raft building yard and were he still resides, although he was now retired from active business. There is a coal mine on his property which he leases [page 896] to an operating company and he has also an extensive limestone quarry. He is a Republican in politics, and a Methodist in religion. He married,February 27, 1857, Lydia,born in Center county, Pennsylvania, March, 11 1841, now living in Foxburg, daughter of Nathan and Mary Magdaline (Lindamuth) Snyder. Her parents were born in Center county, and in 1855 removed to Richland township, Jefferson county,and finally settled in Brookville, Pennsylvania, where they died. Children of Jacob and Lydia (Snyder) Elder: Thomas Jefferson, born December 26,1857; John, born October 1859, died May 7,1869.