BIO: Jesse D. HARTMAN, Blair County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Denise Phillips 
 
Copyright 2006.  All rights reserved.
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Donehoo, George P., Editor-in-Chief.  Pennsylvania, A History, 
Vol. 3, Biography.  New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., Inc., 
1926, pages 67-68. 
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  JESSE D. HARTMAN - One of Blair County's successful and active business 
men is Jesse D. Hartman of Hollidaysburg, a son of Benjamin and Penina M. 
Hartman.  He was born at Cottage Postoffice, Huntingdon County, 
Pennsylvania, June 18, 1853.  His paternal great-grandfather, Jacob Hartman, 
came from Germany in 1775, and settled in Chester County, where he died.  
His father Benjamin Hartman, was born in Perry County, in 1804, and moved to 
Cottage Postoffice in Huntingdon County in 1852, where he engaged in farming 
and the mercantile business, having in connection with his store, the post 
office for a number of years.  He died at Royer in Blair County in 1880 at 
the age of seventy-six years.  He married Penina M. Wilson of Stone Valley, 
Huntingdon County, one of a family of nine children, remarkable for their 
longevity, in that only one, a brother, died under seventy, due to an 
accident at fifty-five years of age.  Of the remaining children, four died 
in their seventies, three in their eighties, and one at ninety.  The father, 
Thomas Wilson, of Scotch-Irish descent, was a prosperous farmer and attained 
the age of eighty-five years.
  Mr. Hartman received his education in the public and private schools at 
Bell's Mills and the Hollidaysburg Seminary, and in 1872 entered the employ 
of B. M. Johnston & Company, as a clerk in their general store at 
Hollidaysburg.  He remained with this company six years and in the period 
became a manager of their branch stores, one at Rebecca Furnace and the 
other at Martha Furnace at McKee, in Blair County.  In 1878, he became the 
manager of the Hollidaysburg Gap Iron Company's blast furnace at McKee, 
remaining in this position until 1891 when he was elected Prothonotary of 
Blair County, succeeding himself for two additional terms and serving in all 
a period of nine years.  Always very active in public affairs, his loyalty 
and enthusiasm for the principles of the Republican Party, made him a 
successful political leader in the district, serving a number of terms as 
County Chairman during periods of some of the district's most important 
political contests.  In 1910, he was elected a member of the Sixty-Second 
Congress from the 19th District, serving one term in the House of 
Representatives at Washington.
  Mr. Hartman may rightfully be called the pioneer in the Ganister business, 
having made the first shipment of Ganister Rock to be used in the 
manufacture of the first silica brick made in the United States by the A.J. 
Haws & Sons' Company at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in the year 1884.  Soon 
after, he organized the Juniata Ganister Company, one of the oldest 
companies identified with the silica brick and steel industries of the 
State.  After the death of the late David P. Reighard of Pittsburgh, a 
former associate in the business, Mr. Hartman became the sole owner of the 
Juniata Ganister Company, and from 1920 to the present time has operated all 
his Ganister Quarries under the name J.L. Hartman Company.
  In 1898, Mr. Hartman was elected President of the First National Bank of 
Hollidaysburg, now converted to the Hollidaysburg Trust Company.  He has 
held the position of president of both these institutions for an unbroken 
period of twenty-seven years to the present time.
  In club and fraternal organizations, he holds membership in Woodbury 
Lodge, No. 539, Free and Accepted Masons; Mountain Commandery, No. 10, 
Knights Templar, of Altoona; and Syria Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles 
of the Mystic Shrine, at Pittsburgh; Altoona Lodge, No. 10, Benevolent and 
Protective Order of Elks; the Spruce Creek Rod and Gun Club; and Juniata 
Hunting and Fishing Club.
  On November 7, 1878, he married Ella McNamara, daughter of James Denniston 
of Hollidaysburg, who died in 1894.  There is one son living, J. Denniston 
Hartman, born May 15, 1880, at McKee, Pennsylvania.