BIO: Frank MARATTA, Beaver County, PA
  
  Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Banja & Joe Patterson
  
  Copyright 2005.  All rights reserved.
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  http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/beaver.html
  
  http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/beaver/bios/bbios.htm
  Index for this bio book.
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  BOOK OF BIOGRAPHIES.  This Volume Contains Biographical Sketches 
  of Leading Citizens of Beaver County, Pennsylvania.  Buffalo, N.Y., 
  Chicago, Ill.: Biographical Publishing Company, 1899, pp. 250-253.
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  CAPT. FRANK MARATTA is one of the oldest and most respected men in Beaver
  county, and makes his home at Rochester. He has owned many steamers during
  his life time, and has undoubtedly served as captain on more boats on the
  Ohio River than any other man in that section of Pennsylvania. He is a son of
  James and Elizabeth (Walker) Maratta, and was born in Beaver county, October
  25, 1819. His lather was also born in that county, but his grandparents were
  natives of France.
  
  James Maratta, the father of Frank, took up the trade of a carpenter and
  later became a contractor, settling at Bridgewater, where his father before
  him had lived. He lived there the remainder of his life and died at the age
  of sixty-two years. His union with Elizabeth Walker resulted in the birth of
  the following children: Caleb; Margaret; Mahala; Peter; Frank, the gentleman
  whose name appears at the head of this sketch; Cynthia; James; Ann; Mary;
  Hines; Daniel; and three others who died in infancy. Those who grew to
  maturity are all respected citizens of the various communities in which they
  reside.
  
  Capt. Frank Maratta started life as a pilot on the river, and became very
  skillful in that capacity on keel boats. He subsequently engaged as cook on a
  steam packet, run between Pittsburg and New Castle, Pa., but a man of his
  ability and ambitious nature does not remain down long. He bettered his
  position as the opportunity presented itself, and became a captain of
  steamboats. He became owner of many boats and was interested in others. He
  built the Forest Rose at California, Pa., and the Paris and Princess at
  Freedom, all of which he ran a few years, and then disposed of to the
  government. He built the Champion, at Freedom, the Sunny Side, at Brownville,
  and the Mansfield. His next two boats, the Henry A. Jones and the Belle of
  Texas, after crossing the Gulf of Mexico, he sold at Galveston, Texas. He
  then built the Forest Rose No. 2, and the Leonidas, which he ran before
  selling them. He was also part owner and captain of Scotia Packet; Ironsides;
  and was captain of the Alaska; Golden Eagle; Robert Burns; Bostonian No. 1;
  Bostonian No. 2; and the Alice Dean. After many years of the greatest
  activity, in 1890, he retired from the river, but is still financially
  interested in a number of enterprises. He was an organizer and a stockholder
  of the Conway Bank, and is president of the Big Beaver River Bridge Company,
  and a director of the Brighton Bridge Company. He also served as councilman
  of the borough.
  
  BEAVER COUNTY  253
  
  Captain Maratta was united in marriage with Lydia Ransom, who was born in
  Jeffersonville, Ind., and was a daughter of James Ransom. She died in 1893,
  at the age of seventy-three years. The subject of our sketch formed a second
  marital union with Millie P. Seidell, a daughter of J. G. Seidell, of Scioto
  county, Ohio. In 1890, he built his present handsome residence in Rochester,
  having previously built what is known as the Dr. A. L. Shallenberger
  residence. He then erected another residence which he sold to William Moulds.
  At the advanced age of eighty years, Captain Maratta is enjoying excellent
  health, having never been sick in his life until the spring of 1899, when he
  suffered from an attack of "la grippe." He is a man of good habits, never
  using tobacco or liquor in any form, and to this may be attributed more than
  anything else his wonderfully strong constitution. He is a man of pleasing
  personality, a clever conversationalist, and stands high in the estimation of
  his fellow men.