BIOS: File 2 - Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Blair Co, PA: Samuel T. Wiley, Philadelphia, 1892.  

Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Judy Banja <jbanja@comcast.net>
Typing and proofreading by subscribers to the RootsWeb PABLAIR mailing list,
as noted on individual transcriptions.

Copyright 2001.  All rights reserved.
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Biographies in File 2, listing the page where they appear in the book:

Acker, DeWalt, page 277
Arney, George F., M.D., page 256
Bare, Daniel M., page 453
Bell, Elias Cline, page 451
Blackburn, Dr. E.R.C., page 451
Calvin, Hon. Samuel, page 275
Cass, Joseph K, page 260
Cowen, Alfred M., page 276
Flynn, Patrick, page 195
Gheer, Thomas P., page 242
Jackson, George F., page 278
Loudon, John, page 258
Marshall, Capt. James H., page 191
McCahan, Capt. Thomas S., page 192
McClellan, Capt. Geo. A., page 189
McDowell, Jacob Emery, page 274
VanBrunt, George E., page 257
Vogt, William, page 454
Woodcock, William L., page 199
Wray, David L., page 254


GEORGE F. JACKSON,

a leading furniture dealer in Altoona, and a prominent secret society man,
who is widely known as a pleasant, affable gentlemen, and ranks among the
best citizens and most enterprising businessmen of Blair County, is a son of
William and Rebecca (Taylor) Jackson, and was born June 16, 1845, in Upper
Oxford Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. The Jackson's are of
Scotch-Irish origin, and were formerly residents of Virginia, from which
state a branch of the family removed to Maryland at an early day. In Cecil
County, that state, William Jackson (father) was born about 1815. There he
grew to manhood, and received such education as was afforded by the country
schools of that day. While yet a young man he removed to Pennsylvania, and
settled in Chester County. He was a carpenter by trade and pursued that
occupation in Chester County until his death in 1864, at the early age of
forty-nine years. He was a democrat in politics, and a regular attendant of
the Presbyterian Church, to the support of which he contributed liberally. He
married Rebecca Taylor, a native of Lancaster County, this state, by whom he
had a family of eight children. She still survives her husband, and now
resides in her comfortable home at Gloucester City, New Jersey, in the
sixty-four year of her age. For many years she has been a devoted member of
the Presbyterian Church, and is held in great esteem by a large circle of
friends.
    George F. Jackson was reared principally in Chester County and received a
good practical English education in the public schools of the old Keystone
State. After leaving school, following the early bent of his inclinations, he
became an apprentice with his father, in Chester County, and learned the
combined trades of carpenter and cabinetmaker. In the spring of 1865, when
only nineteen years of age, he went to Wilmington, Delaware, where he
obtained employment at his trade in the car shops of Jackson & Sharps. He
remained at Wilmington until the fall of 1871, when he removed to Altoona,
this county, and accepted a gang foremanship in the car shops of the
Pennsylvania Railroad Company in this city. He remained in the employ of that
company for a period of eleven years, but in the spring of 1882 resigned his
position and engaged in the furniture business in Altoona on his own account.
He had a wide acquaintance with the people here, and by strict attention to
the wants of customers, an excellent knowledge of his business, and the
energy and enterprise necessary to success, he soon had a large and lucrative
trade. His establishment is located at No. 606 Seventh Street, where he
carried a mammoth stock of fine furniture, occupying three floors of a
building thirty by fifty feet in dimensions. He personally looks after the
details of his extensive business, and has been very successful.
    On December 28, 1871, Mr. Jackson was united in with Alice J. Jones, a
daughter of Rufus and Caroline Jones, of Wilmington, Delaware. This union was
blessed by the birth of a family of five children, one son and four daughters:
Violet S., Daisy E., Clarence E., Elda M., and Edna A, all of whom are living
at home.
    Politically Mr. Jackson is a democrat, and is now serving his second term as
school director. He is chairman of the school board's building committee, and
served as such while the new school buildings were in course of construction.
He is also a director in the Standard Building and Loan Association of
Altoona, and a member of the Third Presbyterian Church, in which he has been
trustee and treasurer for a number of years. He is also prominent in Masonic
circles, being a member of Mountain Lodge, No. 281, Free and Accepted Masons;
Mountain Chapter, No. 189, Royal Arch Masons; Mountain Council, No. 9;
Mountain Commandery, No. 10, Knights Templar; Syria Temple, A. A. O. N.,
Mystic Shrine, of Pittsburg; and the Gourgas Grand Lodge of Perfection, S. P.
R. S., thirty-second degree. He is also a member of Veranda Lodge, No. 532,
Independent Order of Odd Fellows; and of Elmo Castle, No. 54, and Elmo
Commandery, No. 30, of the order of Knights of the Golden Eagle, and now
holds the commission of captain on the general staff of that commandery.

Transcribed and submitted to Blair County, PA, USGenWeb Archives by Janet L.
Gray  bmgray@dol.net
   

DE WALT G. ACKER,

an industrious and comfortably situated farmer of Houston Township, is a son
of John and Elizabeth (Garner) Acker, and was born in Clover Creek Valley,
Houston Township, Blair County, Pennsylvania, October 16, 1849. His paternal
grandfather, Henry Acker, was born in central Pennsylvania, but passed the
larger part of his life in Houston Township, where he died July 13, 1848, at
the age of seventy-two years, ten months and thirteen days. He was an early
settler in Clover Creek Valley, in which he owned a farm of two hundred acres
of land, which was almost entirely in the woods when he purchased it. He was a
democrat, and an active and zealous member of the Reformed Church. He married
Susanna Ditch, by whom he had ten children, nine sons and one daughter. One
of these sons, John Acker (father) was born in 1806, in Huntingdon County,
and came with his father to Houston Township, where he died March 18, 1885,
aged eighty years, five months and twenty-two days. He was a carpenter by
trade, but was principally engaged in agricultural pursuits, and resided on
his father's farm until his death. He was an old-time democrat, had held most
of his township's offices, and served very acceptably as a school director and
a road supervisor. Mr. Acker was an elder of the German Reformed Church, and
married Elizabeth Garner, who was born May 21, 1835, and died January 21,
1874, aged fifty-nine years, two months and two days. To their union were
born eight children, of whom five are living: Susan Meyers, Sarah, Nancy
Dinner, Adam, and De Walt G. 
    De Walt G. Acker was born and reared on the old Acker homestead, on a part
of which he has always resided. He received his education in the common
schools of his native township, purchased one hundred and nine acres of the
home farm, and has been engaged in farming ever since. He is a strong
democrat, and a useful member of the Reformed Church, like his father and
grandfather before him, and has well earned the reputation of being and
industrious farmer and good citizen.
    On February 24, 1887, De Walt G. Acker was united in marriage with Sarah
Imler, daughter of Solomon Imler, of Roaring Spring.

Transcribed and submitted to Blair County, PA, USGenWeb Archives by Janet L.
Gray  bmgray@dol.net


ALFRED M. COWEN

the poplar proprietor of Cowen's Steam Laundry of Altoona, is a son of Edward
and Ellen (Marsden) Cowen, and was born in the famous Tuckahoe Valley, in
Logan Township, Blair County, Pennsylvania, November 29, 1848. Edward Cowen
(father) was born in Morrison Cove, this county. He learned the trade of
miller, which he followed at various places, and operated a flouring mill in
the Tuckahoe Valley for several years. He was a member of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church, and an old-line whig in politics, and he died in the city of
Altoona in 1854, at forty-one years of age. He married Ellen Marsden, a native
of Morrison Cove, and a member of the Lutheran Church, who passed away in
1888, when in the seventy-fourth year of her age. They were the parents of
nine children, five sons and four daughters.
    Alfred M. Cowen spent his boyhood and youth in Morrison Cove, received his
education in the common schools, and then learned the trade of carpenter,
which he followed continuously and successfully in various parts of the
county for fifteen years. At the end of that time, in 1880, he embarked in
the laundry business, in which he has continued successfully until the
present time. His establishment is at No.1005 Fourteenth Street. It is a
steam laundry, thoroughly equipped with the latest improved steam washers,
ironers, and dryers, and all other machinery needed in such an establishment.
All work turned out is in first-class condition, without injury to the
material. Mr. Cowen has acquired an enviable reputation for superior work and
reliable business methods, and enjoys a very liberal and substantial trade in
Altoona. Labor saving machinery and public laundries in all the cities of
this country have revolutionized the old and wearisome home washing by hand,
and Mr. Cowen has given Altoona the advantages of a public laundry as
complete in its arrangements as is possessed by any other city in the state.
He has made a thorough study of his present business in all of its details,
and fully understands the needs of his numerous patrons. In addition to his
laundry, Alfred M. Cowen owns some very valuable real estate in the Mountain
City. He is a republican in politics, and a member and trustee of the First
Baptist Church of Altoona. He is also a member of Altoona Lodge No. 473,
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and Mountain City Lodge No. 281, Free and
Accepted Masons.
    In September, 1877, Mr. Cowen, was united in marriage with Joanna Dougherty,
a native of the State of Virginia, and then resident of the city of Altoona.
To their union has been born a family of four children, two sons and two
daughters: Blanche May, John Allen, Jessie, and Alfred B.

Transcribed and submitted to Blair County, PA, USGenWeb Archives by Janet L.
Gray   bmgray@dol.net


HON. SAMUEL CALVIN

a man whose name will always stand high in the legal history of Blair and
surrounding counties, possessed many of the qualities which command respect
and win popularity. A factor in the business life and a leader in the
political affairs of the county, he always supported what he thought to be
right, and openly denounced what he believed to be wrong in public affairs. 
He was a son of Matthew and Mary Calvin, and was born in Columbia County,
Pennsylvania, July 30, 1811. Distinguished ancestry and the line of ancestral
descent in a new country, or under a republican form of government, are
subjects that do not receive the close attention which is paid to them in an
old country, or under a monarchial form of government. Samuel Calvin came of
sturdy, honorable, and honest family, and his father, Matthew Calvin, left
his native land county of Chester, Pennsylvania, to settle in Columbia
County, where he soon became influential and prominent as a citizen, and well
respected and highly esteemed as a man and a friend.
    Samuel Calvin received his education at the then well known and famous
Milton Academy. After graduation Mr. Calvin assumed charge of the Huntingdon
Academy, and 
Was its principal for nearly tow years, during which time he had as pupils
many men who afterward became distinguished in public and political life,
among whom were Judge W.A. Porter, Gen, Titian J. Coffey, of Washington,
District of Columbia, and Col. William Dorris, of Huntingdon, Pennsylvania.
He read law with James M. Bell, of Huntingdon, and was admitted to the bar at
the April term of court in 1836. In July of that year he came to
Hollidaysburg, where he was successfully engaged in his profession for forty
years. For some years before his death, in 1890, he withdrew from the active
practice of his profession, and gave some time to the publication of his
views concerning the currency question.
    In 1848 he was elected as a whig member of the thirty-first Congress, to
represent the district composed of the counties of Blair, Huntingdon,
Mifflin, Juniata, and Centre. In that illustrious Congress, where some of the
most talented and able statesmen of America were engaged in heated contest
over the lave question, Mr. Calvin was not an idle looker-on. As a
protectionist, he chiefly directed his efforts and made his speeches with the
view of securing adequate protection to American industries. At the expiration
of his term in Congress he was offered a re-nomination by his party, but
declined it to return to the practice of law. As A lawyer he gave
considerable attention to the details of his case, and by close examination
of his opponent's position, he prepared himself with all the authorities
possible to meet any and every conjectural exigency. In important cases his
preparation was elaborate, and while employed in a great many important cases
in Blair County, he was also called frequently into adjoining counties, and
was a constant practitioner in the Supreme Court of the State. He was
regarded "as the soul truth and professional honor," ranked as an able jury
pleader, a wise counselor, and able lawyer. He was often eloquent, and his
fine literary taste and extensive reading gave him a mine of knowledge to
draw upon for choice illustrations and appropriate examples in his speeches
and addresses. As a citizen, he always enjoyed the respect and confidence of
his fellow townsmen, and was largely instrumental in securing the erection of
Blair County and establishing it county seat at Hollidaysburg. He was a warm
friend of the common school system and higher education, and served as a
school director for over thirty years, during which period he was president
of the school board for nine years. In 1862 he helped to organize and served
as a private in the ranks of a militia company which marched to Chambersburg
to help repel a threatened Confederate invasion of Blair County. In 1863 he
again served as a private in a company raised to take part in the repelling
another expected Confederate raid into the county.
    During his life Mr. Calvin was always active in politics. He was a political
economist of the school of Henry C. Carey, and like him, wrote extensively
upon the tariff and currency, advocating the protection of American
industries, and contending for the abolition of the national banks as banks
of issue, and the substitution of a paper currency based upon the faith of
the government. He went to his rest at the end of a long and useful life on
March 12, 1890, and his remains lie entombed in the Lutheran Cemetery.
    December 26, 1843, he married Rebecca S., daughter of John A. Blodget of
Bedford, Pennsylvania. They had three children, two of whom: Eliza, wife of
Dr. G. W. Smith and Matthew, survive.
    Matthew Calvin was educated in the common schools and academy of
Hollidaysburg and university at Lewisburg. He read law with his father, and
was admitted to practice in the courts of Blair County, and is now a
practicing lawyer in Hollidaysburg. He is also interested in various lumber
enterprises. May 14, 1873, Mr. Calvin was chosen a republican delegate at
large to the State Constitutional Convention, to fill the vacancy caused by
the death of Hon. Hugh McAllister. He was likewise a member of the last
revenue board in Pennsylvania.

Transcribed and submitted to Blair County, PA, USGenWeb Archives by Janet L.
Gray  bmgray@dol.net


JACOB EMERY McDOWELL,

belongs to the class of Altoona's businessmen who began life under adverse
circumstances, but have fought their way up from obscurity to independence
and honorable distinction. None know better than he that "there is no
excellence without great labor," and that no success worthy of the name is
achieved without untiring effort.  He is a son of Robert A. and Mary E.
(Shaffer) McDowell, and was born March 17, 1847, at Newton Hamilton, Mifflin
County, Pennsylvania. The McDowell's are of Scotch-Irish extraction, and for
several generations have resided in this state. Robert A. McDowell (father)
was a native of Mifflin County, who in 1855, came from Newton Hamilton to
Altoona, Blair County, where he was employed as a carpenter in the car shops
of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company for some years. About 1859 he removed to
Decatur, Illinois and engaged in contracting and building at that place. He
remained a resident of Decatur for a period of twenty years, after which he
returned to Altoona and lived in the city until 1887, when he removed to
Denver, Colorado, where he now resides in the eightieth year of his age. He
some time ago retired from all active business, and is passing the evening of
his days in peace and comfort. He has been a life-long member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, and in politics is a steadfast republican. He married Mary
E. Shaffer daughter of Jacob Shaffer, of Newton Hamilton, Mifflin County, and
to their union was born a family of four children. Mrs. McDowell died in 1851,
aged twenty-nine years. She was a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church. Her father, Jacob Shaffer, was one of the early settlers of Mifflin
County, and died there at the advanced age of eighty-three years. After Mrs.
McDowell's death, Mr. McDowell, in 1855 wedded Mary Harbold, of Altoona, and
by his second marriage has seven children.
    Jacob Emery McDowell came from Mifflin County to Altoona with his parents in
1855, when he was only eight years of age, and with them went to Decatur,
Illinois. From Decatur he went to the city of Chicago, where he obtained a
position as clerk in a wholesale house, and remained there until 1869. In
that year he came back to Altoona, and has resided there ever since. When a
boy he attended the public schools in Altoona and later at Decatur, Illinois,
and acquired a good English education, to which he afterward added by
extensive reading. On his return to this city he became clerk in the general
store of his uncle, William McDowell, and held that position until 1874, when
he embarked in the general merchandise business on his own account in this
city. At first his business was not large, but he devoted his best energies
to building it up, and by honest dealing and careful attention to the wants
of the public, was soon on the highway that leads to success. He has
prospered during his business career of nearly two decades, and now owns one
of the largest and best stocked general stores to be found in the eastside of
Altoona, located at the corner of Seventh Street and Seventh Avenue. He is
also a stockholder in the Mountain City Electric Light Company. In addition
to his various business interests he also owns considerable valuable real
estate in Altoona.
    On September 23, 1873, Mr. McDowell was married to Mary E. Swartz, a
daughter of John Swartz. Deceased, of the city of Altoona. He is a member of
the Eighth Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church, and is also a prominent Mason,
holding membership in Logan Lodge, No. 490, Free and Accepted Masons;
Mountain Chapter, No.9, Royal Arch Masons; and Mountain Commandery, No. 10,
Knights Templar. He is also a member of the Patriotic Order Sons of America,
and of Elmo Castle, No. 54, Knights of the Golden Eagle. In politics Mr.
McDowell is a republican, but while giving his party a right loyal support,
is in no sense a politician. He is a genial, affable gentleman, and holds the
esteem of all who had the pleasure of his acquaintance, either in business or
socially.

Transcribed and submitted to Blair County, PA, USGenWeb Archives by Janet L.
Gray  bmgray@dol.net


DANIEL M. BARE,

a worthy descendant of an old and honorable family, distinguished for
integrity and uprightness of life, and a public-spirited citizen of Roaring
Spring, who has contributed largely to the prosperity of his town and the
success of its religious and educational institutions, is a son of Daniel and
Elizabeth (Mathias) Bare, and was born in Sinking valley, in what is now
Tyrone township, Blair (then Huntingdon) county, Pennsylvania, October 24,
1834.  The Bare family traces its ancestry back to Germany, and the founder
of the American branch of the family settled in Lancaster county between one
and two centuries ago, when the great city of Philadelphia was but a mere
village and the province of Penn contained only a few thousand inhabitants. 
A lineal descendant in the fourth or fifth generation from him who planted
the Bare family in the Garden county of the State was Daniel Bare, the father
of the subject of this sketch.  Daniel Bare was born in 1787, in York county,
and died at Roaring Spring May 23, 1869, when in the eighty-second year of
his age.  He was reared on a farm, and carefully trained to those habits of
industry for which the family was noted.  He was energetic, active and
honest, and soon became prominent and respected in his community, where he
owned an extensive farm and operated a large flouring mill.  In 1864 he
removed to Roaring Spring, where he was associated with his son, D.M. Bare,
in milling and merchandising, until his death, five years later.  He was an
old-line whig and republican in politics, and an active and influential
member of the River Brothers church, a branch of the Dunkard church.  The
life of Daniel Bare was straightforward, unfaltering and unchequered, and
well worthy of imitation.  His habits were extremely plain, simple, sensible,
temperate, and industrious, and he was highly esteemed for his many good
qualities.  He married Elizabeth Mathias, who was a native of York county,
and died in 1857, aged fifty-nine years.  She was a daughter of Jacob
Mathias, a respectable and well-to-do farmer of York county, who lived to be
seventy-five years of age.
    Daniel M. Bare passed his boyhood days on the farm, and received his
education in the common schools of his neighborhood.  At an early age he left
school to assist his father on the farm and in the mill during the summer
seasons, while the winter months he passed in teaching.  In 1860 he quit
teaching, and a year later assumed charge of a store and a flouring mill at
Pattonsville, Bedford county, which were the property of himself and his
father.  In 1864 he removed to Roaring Spring, and although several
mercantile ventures at that place had failed, yet he and his father purchased
a store and flouring mill, both of which became profitable investments.  At
the end of four years, in 1868, he erected his present fine flouring mill,
which he leased in 1880.  In 1865 he, with others, formed a partnership,
under the firm name of Eby, Morrison & Co., and erected the present paper
mill at Roaring Spring.  They built a second mill in 1880, at Tyrone, the
firm name having changed to Morrison, Bare & Cass, in 1876.  Mr. Bare then
became resident manager of the Roaring Spring paper mill, which he supervised
until 1886, when he purchased his partners' interests in it, and has operated
it successfully ever since.  This mill gives employment to about one hundred
and thirty persons.  In the same year that he purchased the paper mill he
organized the Roaring Spring Blank-book Company, of which he is the chief
stockholder and controlling power.  He erected a fine two-story factory for
the manufacture of blank books, and employs within its walls a force of
thirty men and sixty girls, while he keeps from three to four men on the road
to take orders for his paper and blank books, now in demand in hundreds of
cities, towns, and villages.
    On January 13, 1857, Mr. Bare married Sarah Eby, daughter of George Eby, of
Huntingdon county, and whose paternal and maternal ancestors, the Ebys and
Lutzes, were among the pioneer settlers of that county.  To Mr. and Mrs. Bare
have been born four children: Clara S., wife of Mr. E.G. Bobb, a clerk in the
office of D.M. Bare & Co.; Ella, who married Dr. A.L. Garver, manager of the
blank book factory; Ina, who died in 1866; and Anna, who is at home with her
parents.
    Daniel M. Bare is an active member and a ruling elder of the Church of God,
to which he is a liberal contributor.  He is a republican from conviction,
has served for several years as a member of the town council, and is ever
alive to any measure calculated to benefit Roaring Spring, which owes most of
its prosperity to the establishment of his paper mill and factory.  He labored
hard to bring the Morrison Cove railway to Roaring Spring, served for a long
time as a director of the Newry Railroad Company, and acted continuously as
postmaster of his town from 1864 to 1884.  In religious and educational
matters he always takes a deep interest, and is now engaged as a member of
the board of publication of the Church Advocate, of Harrisburg, and has been
a trustee for eight years of Findlay college, of Findlay, Ohio.  A successful
experience of a third of a century has given Mr. Bare a thorough knowledge of
men and business.  He has secured a comfortable competency for himself, but
while engaged in that laudable work he has never forgotten his church or town
and their welfare, to whom no man is a more generous and liberal contributor.

Transcribed and submitted to the Blair County, PA, USGenWeb archives by Judy
Banja <jbanja@comcast.net>


ELIAS CLINE BELL,

a prominent Odd Fellow, and master machinist of the Hollidaysburg Iron and
Nail Company of Hollidaysburg, is a son of Capt. Robert and Anna (Cline)
Bell, and was born in Allegheny city, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, January
5, 1842.  His paternal grandfather, John Bell, was of Scotch-Irish descent,
and was born in North Ireland in 1750.  He came to Pennsylvania, and settled
near the boundary line of Huntingdon county.  In 1804, he crossed the
mountains on horseback, with his wife and son, Robert (father), then only
four years of age, and settled at Shenango Flats, Lawrence county, where he
died in 1814.  His son, Capt. Robert Bell (father), was born on the right
bank of the Juniata river, in the first year of the present century, and
learned the trade of blacksmith, which he afterward followed for some years
in Pittsburg, where he was commissioned by Governor Porter as captain in the
Pennsylvania militia.  He served as a councilman of Allegheny city, being
elected from the Third ward, and afterward was elected for a term of five
years as an alderman from the same ward.  He was a republican in politics,
and a member and trustee of the United Presbyterian church, and died in 1884,
at the advanced age of eighty-four years.  He married Anna Cline, who died in
1888, aged eighty-four years.  To Mr. and Mrs. Bell was born a family of
seven children, of whom were: Mary, Henrietta, John, Elias Cline, Lucinda,
and Maggie, all of whom died except Mary and the subject of this sketch. 
Mrs. Bell's parents, whose name was Cline, were of French and German descent
respectively, and while on their way from New Jersey to western Pennsylvania
caught small pox, from which they both died, and left two sons and one
daughter - Mrs. Bell - who were taken and reared by a family who lived near
to where the parents died, in Clinton township, Allegheny county,
Pennsylvania.
    E.C. Bell was reared in Allegheny, and received his education in the public
schools of that city. Leaving school he learned the trade of roll turner,
which he followed until July, 1862, when he enlisted in Co. K., 123d
Pennsylvania infantry.  He was in the battles of Second Bull Run, Antietam
and Chancellorsville, and participated in the famous charge of Humphreys
against the old stone wall at Fredericksburg.  He was honorably discharged
from the Union service in May, 1863, and in 1866 became an employee of the
Hollidaysburg Iron and Nail Company.  After working in the various
departments of their rolling mill for fifteen years, he was appointed, in
1880, to his present position of master mechanic.
    On February 19, 1867, Mr. Bell married Sarah Jane McCleary, a grand-daughter
of Adam Holliday, the founder of Hollidaysburg (see historical sketch in this
volume).  To their union have been born ten children: Robert (deceased);
John, now dead; James G., now serving his apprenticeship as a machinist;
Carrie A.; Mary (deceased); Harry, now dead; Lucy,; Elias C., jr.; Nellie;
George, and Sarah J.
    Mrs. Bell is remarkably young looking for her years, and is a very pleasant
and intelligent woman.  She was born April 23, 1849, at Levansville, Somerset
county, and is a daughter of David and Caroline (Holliday) McCleary.  Her
grandfather, Andrew McCleary, was a Scotch-Irishman, who came from the north
of Ireland and settled in Clarion, and afterward at Yellow Creek, Bedford
county, where he died.  His son, David McCleary, was born at Yellow Creek in
1821, and learned the trade of saddler, which he followed at Somerset and
then at Hollidaysburg, where he died in February, 1864.  He was a democrat,
and a member of the Lutheran church, and had ten children: George and Martha
(twins), Rose, Mrs. Sarah Jane Bell, Anthony, Wilkes, Andrew, Johnson, and
Mary and Anna (twins).  Mrs. Bell's grandmother, Hannah (Lane) McCleary, was
of Scotch-Irish descent, and was a near relative of James Buchanan, being
cousin to Harriet Lane, the niece of the president.
    Elias C. Bell is a republican in politics, and a member and steward of the
Methodist Episcopal church.  He is a member of the Artisan Order of Mutual
Protection; Col. G. Murray Post, No. 61, Grand Army of the Republic; and
Apallachian Encampment, No. 62, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of which he
has been a member for twenty-six years.  Mr. Bell has passed the chairs in his
lodge and encampment, and served for two successive terms as district deputy
grand master of his county district.  He owns fine property at Hollidaysburg,
and a beautiful residence and one hundred and fifty acres of the best farming
land in the county, one mile from Hollidaysburg.

Transcribed and submitted to the Blair County, PA, USGenWeb archives by Judy
Banja <jbanja@comcast.net>


E.R.C. BLACKBURN, D.D.S.,

is a well known dentist of Altoona, who received his degree from the
Pennsylvania college of dental surgery in Philadelphia, and has been in
practice since 1874.  He is a son of John G. and Rebecca (Rouzer) Blackburn,
and was born in Bedford county, Pennsylvania, September 8, 1845.  The
Blackburns are of old English Quaker stock, and came into Pennsylvania about
1750, just before the beginning of the French and Indian war, and before
there were any settlements west of the Alleghenies.  Thomas Blackburn
(grandfather) was born in Bedford county, this State, and spent his long and
active life in agricultural pursuits in that county.  He was a Friend or
Quaker in religion, and a farmer by occupation.  His son, John G. Blackburn
(father), was also a native of Bedford county, and died there in 1881, having
attained the ripe old age of four-score years.  He was reared in Bedford
county, and received what was regarded as a good education in that day.  He
became a farmer, as his father had been, and spent his life in the
cultivation of the soil.  He was a Quaker in church membership and served as
elder in his denomination for many years.  He was a republican in politics,
and married Rebecca Rouzer, by whom he had a family of twelve children.  She
was a native of Bedford county, an elder in the Society of Friends, and died
in 1881, in the seventy-ninth year of her age.  Two of their sons, Samuel and
J. Martin, served in the civil war, and another, William, was also in the
employ of the government.
    E.R.C. Blackburn grew to manhood on his father's farm in the county of
Bedford, and attended successively the common, select and normal schools of
that county, acquiring a fine English education.  He engaged in teaching
during the winter season, and followed that vocation for ten years.  While
still teaching he began the study of dentistry, and in the fall of 1875
commenced practice at Philipsburg, Centre county.  In 1883 he entered the
Pennsylvania college of dental surgery at Philadelphia, from which he was
graduated in the spring of 1884, with the degree of D.D.S.  He soon after
located in the city of Hollidaysburg, where he practiced his profession for a
period of three years, and then removed to Altoona, where he has ever since
given his time and attention to the various branches of dental surgery.  His
work is always first-class, and by his energy, skill and ability he has
succeeded in building up a fine practice in this city, and won an honorable
standing in his profession.
    On January 12, 1876, Doctor Blackburn was married to Gulielma Blackburn, a
daughter of Abram Blackburn, of Bedford county.  He is a member of the Royal
Arcanum, and of the Pennsylvania State Dental society.  In politics Doctor
Blackburn is an ardent republican, and takes an intelligent interest in the
advancement of the policy of his party.  He is an affable, pleasant and
popular gentleman.

Transcribed and submitted to the Blair County, PA, USGenWeb archives by Judy
Banja <jbanja@comcast.net>


WILLIAM VOGT,

a successful business man, and the proprietor of one of the oldest and
largest clothing houses of Tyrone, is a son of Francis Henry and Catherine
(Fischer) Vogt, and was born in the Rhein-Palatinate, kingdom of Bavaria,
Germany, June 6, 1839. His paternal grandfather, Christof Vogt, was born in
Bavaria in 1742, and died in that kingdom January 3, 1812. He was engaged in
the culture of grapes and the manufacture of wine, and married Anna Barbara
Sauer, who was born in Nieder Kirchen, in the year 1773, and died in Bavaria
November 26, 1851. To them were born, in their Bavarian home, a family of
five children, three sons and two daughters. One of these sons, Francis Henry
Vogt, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born October 13, 1803,
reared in Bavaria, of which he was a lifelong resident, and in which he died
March 9, 1840. On January 9, 1834, he married Catherine Fischer, daughter of
George Fischer, a grape culturist and wine manufacturer, born in 1754, in
Koenigsbach, Bavaria, where he died in 1817, and who married Salome Glosser,
who was born in 1744, and passed away on September 16, 1816. To Mr. and Mrs.
Vogt were born three children: Frederick, who married Magdalene Feuchter, was
born May 9, 1835, and died October 13, 1890, in Tyrone, where he was known as
a clothier, and later as a hotel keeper; a daughter, who died in infancy; and
William. After the death of her husband, Mrs. Vogt continued to reside in
Bavaria until 1852, in which year she came to America with her two sons, and
lived on a farm near Newry, with an only sister and husband. She was born in
Bavaria, February 4, 1811, and died in Tyrone, April 21, 1891, when in the
eightieth year of her age.
William Vogt was reared in Bavaria until he was twelve years of age, and then
was brought by his mother to near Newry, where he remained for two years,
engaged on his uncle's farm and attending school.  He received the principal
part of his education in the excellent and justly celebrated public schools
of Germany.  At fifteen years of age he went to Roaring Springs, where he
entered the trade of blacksmith, which occupation he was engaged in at
different places in Huntingdon and Blair counties, remaining at his trade
until March, 1857, the expiration of his apprenticeship.  Mr. Vogt came to
Tyrone in the fall of 1855, at a time when, comparatively speaking, it had no
reputation, with scarcely a name, being yet in its infancy, there being only
about fifty houses in the town proper, with no branch railroads.  In 1857 he
became a clerk in the general mercantile store of S. Ettinger, which style of
firm was shortly thereafter changed to S. Ettinger & Ullman.  At the end of
two years this firm opened a large establishment in Philadelphia, this State,
and Samuel Ettinger removed from Tyrone to that place and established a
manufactory of ready-made clothing, under the firm name of St. Ettinger &
Ullman, the latter remaining in charge of the Tyrone store until the
following year, when he also removed to Philadelphia, and the Tyrone store
was converted from a general store into a ready-made clothing and furnishing
store, under the management of Mr. Vogt.  He held this position up to 1866,
when he became a member of the firm, under the style of Ettinger, Ullman &
Co., which continued until 1869, in which year Mr. Vogt purchased his
partners' interests, and since then has conducted the establishment very
successfully.
On November 23, 1869, he married Georgia Etta, daughter of Pius Sneeringer,
one of the leading citizens of Tyrone, and whose sketch appears elsewhere in
this volume. Mr. and Mrs. Vogt have six children, five sons and one daughter:
Austin S., who is book-keeper of the First National bank of Tyrone, Frank W.,
now a clerk in his father's store; Rose Mary, at home; Charles J.; Albert L.,
and Bernard A., who are attending school.
William Vogt is a democrat in politics, and a member of St. Matthew's
Catholic church, which was founded about 1851.  Mr. Vogt carries a heavy
stock of clothing, carefully selected, to meet the varied wants of his
numerous patrons, and makes a specialty of gentlemen's fine furnishing
goods.  He keeps constantly on hand a full assortment of samples of suitings
for special orders.  The business career of William Vogt is one of interest,
and well proves what can be accomplished in the mercantile field by any young
man whose capital solely consists of energy, enterprise, and an indomitable
determination to succeed.

Transcribed and submitted to the Blair County, PA, USGenWeb archives by Judy
Banja <jbanja@comcast.net>


CAPT. JAMES H. MARSHALL, 

the well known architect of Altoona, who is one of the honored veterans of
the civil war, and a highly respected citizen of Blair county, is the eldest
of the two sons of David B. and Isabella (Hill) Marshall.  He was born
January 30, 1833, at New Bloomfield, Perry county, Pennsylvania.  His
paternal grandfather, Michael Marshall, was of Scotch-Irish extraction, and
became one of the early settlers and pioneer farmers of Perry county, living
at New Bloomfield for many years.  He served as a soldier in the war of 1812,
was an old-line whig in politics, and a member of the Presbyterian church.  He
married, and reared a family of three sons, of whom one, David B. Marshall
(father), was born at the old homestead, in Perry county, received an
ordinary education in the schools of that day, and after leaving school
learned the trade of tanner.  He owned and operated a tannery at New
Bloomfield for a long period, and died there in 1865.  He was a member of the
volunteer militia of Pennsylvania, in that county, and served as major of the
regiment for a time.  Politically he was an old-line whig.  He married
Isabella Hill, who was born in 1808, at Bloomfield, Perry county, and to them
was born a family of two sons: William C., who enlisted in Co. F, 104th
Pennsylvania infantry, and served for a short time during the civil war, but
is now a carpenter, residing at Altoona; and James H., the subject of this
sketch.  Mrs. Marshall is a daughter of James Hill, a native of Ireland, who
was one of the early settlers of Perry county.  He was a farmer by
occupation, and died at New Bloomfield, Perry county, in 1852, at the
advanced age of seventy-three years.  Mrs. Marshall resided at New Bloomfield
until 1888, when she removed to Altoona, and now lives with her oldest son,
James H., in that city.
James H. Marshall passed his boyhood years on the farm, and received his
education in the common schools of his neighborhood.  When about seventeen
years of age be commenced working at the trade of house carpentering, and
shortly afterward began the study of architecture.  In 1870 he came to
Altoona and opened an architect office, and, with the exception of a few
years during the civil war, has been engaged here as an architect and builder
until the present time.  Among the more important and pretentious buildings
erected after plans drawn by him, may be mentioned the following:  William
Murray's business block, the Herr building, the residence of Mrs. Mary Couch,
the Gallitzin school building, residence of A. J. Anderson, Goetz & Schnider's
hotel building, residences of S. J. Westley, Davis & McDowell, Sol.
Blunienthal, H. I. Nicholson, and Clement Jaggard's business block.
On September 10, 1864, Mr. Marshall enlisted in Co. I, 208th Pennsylvania
infantry--having recruited part of the company--having recruited part of the
company--and was commissioned captain.  He served until the close of the war,
and was mustered out at Alexandria, Virginia, on July 2, 1865.  Captain
Marshall's company served in front of Petersburg, being present at the
surrender of that stronghold.  He took part in the battles of Hatcher's Run
and Fort Steadman, being shot in the head during the latter engagement. 
After the capture of Petersburg, Captain Marshall accompanied the Union army
in their operations in front of Richmond, and took part in all the
maneuvering in that part of the country, until the surrender of General Lee
at Appomattox Courthouse, or Durkville.
On March 25, 1858, Captain Marshall was united by marriage to Ella A. Powers,
a daughter of Washington Power, of Perry county.  To this union was born a
family of five children: Ida Belle, married Peter Clare, a moulder by
occupation, now living in Altoona; Charles J., a carpenter, who married Lolo
B. Hinkle, and also resides in Altoona; Calvin L., now a resident of
Allegheny city; Eliza J., married John S. Evans, a brass moulder, of Altoona;
and William A. Marshall, at present a resident of Delphos, Ohio.
Politically Captain Marshall is a republican, and has always been firm in his
support of the principles and policy of that party.  In local affairs he is
somewhat inclined toward independence.  He is a member of the Presbyterian
church, and of Adams Lodge, No. 819, Free and Accepted Masons.  He is also a
prominent member of Stephen Potts Post, No. 62, Grand Army of the Republic.

Transcribed & submitted to the Blair County, PA USGenWeb archives by Eileen


CAPT. THOMAS S. McCAHAN  

is a veteran of the civil war, who was actively engaged in twenty-two regular
battles and not less than sixty-five skirmishes, and won distinction by his
bravery, receiving injuries from which he has ever since suffered, and which
have left him almost a helpless invalid.  He was born at Laurel Springs,
Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania, January 27, 1836, and is a son of John K.
and Mary (Taylor) McCahan.  His paternal grandfather, John McCahan, was a
native of the Emerald Isle, being born at a small village called Drumnahaigh,
in the north of Ireland, in November, 1780.  When only twelve years of age he
came to the United States, and in 1891 located at Huntingdon, Huntingdon
county, this State, and began business for himself.  He was editor and
publisher of the old Huntingdon Gazette, and was connected with the printing
business until 1828, when he retired from the Gazette and was succeeded by
his son, John K. McCahan.  After leaving the paper John McCahan embarked in
the real estate business, in which he became very successful, and continued
to reside at Huntingdon until his death, which occurred on Sunday, March 22,
1857, at the age of seventy-seven years.  He began life as a poor boy, but by
energy and activity accumulated property and became a man of affluence.  In
politics he was an old-line whig, and in religion a member of the
Presbyterian church, though broad minded and noted for his liberal
contributions to all religious denominations.  He gave two eligible lots to
the Huntingdon church, on which the Presbyterian church was built.  He
married Martha Anderson, by whom he had a family of three sons and two
daughters: John E. (father), James A., Thomas S., Jane, and Mary.  All dead.
John K. McCahan (father) was born in Huntingdon, Huntingdon county, this
State, August 8, 1804.  He grew to manhood in that city, and received the
best education the public schools of that day were able to afford.  He was an
apt pupil and an earnest student, and became known as the best scholar in this
section at that time.  After leaving school he entered his father's printing
office, learned the "art preservative of arts," and retained his connection
with journalism and the general printing business all his life.  He continued
the publication of the Huntingdon Gazette until 1834, when he removed to
Laurel Springs.  There he engaged in farming for a time, but in 1858 returned
to Huntingdon, and after settling up the estates of his father, retired from
active business, and spent his declining years in quietude, surrounded by all
the comforts of life.  He died January 16, 1888, at the ripe old age of
seventy-nine years.  Politically he was an ardent republican, and took a
lively interest in all public questions during his active years.  He was a
member of the Presbyterian church, and liberal in his support of the various
interests of his church.  On April 23, 1829, he was united in marriage to
Mary Taylor, the officiating minister being the now sainted John Peobles.  To
this union was born a family of seven children, four sons and three daughters:
Martha, now deceased; John, enlisted on April 17, 1861, in Co. C, 3d regiment
Pennsylvania Infantry, re-enlisted in the 1st Pennsylvania cavalry, with
which regiment he served till the close of the war, and now resides near
Birmingham; Anna Mary, married Joseph R. Carmon, of Huntingdon; Thomas S.;
James A., who died in 1845; Warren K., who died in 1862; and Jane, now the
wife of B. F. Igenberg, of the city of Huntingdon.  Mrs. McCahan, the mother
of these children, was born in Huntingdon, August 24, 1800, and died at her
home in that city February 12, 1879.
Capt. Thomas S. McCahan was reared in Huntingdon county and received a fine
academic education, taking courses of instruction at the Birmingham academy
in that county and an academy in Juniata county.  After leaving school he
engaged in the milling business in his native place, Laurel Springs, and
continued in that line until the opening of the civil war, when, on April 17,
1861, he enlisted at Tyrone in Co. D, 3d Pennsylvania Infantry--Captain Bell's
company--as a private; April 22d, at Caskeysville, Maryland, was promoted
regimental commissary sergeant; was in the battle of Falling Water, Virginia,
and assisted Dr. Jackson to take off a leg of the first soldier wounded
there.  When his first term of three months expired he re-enlisted, and
assisted in raising a company for General James', brigade of Infantry, being
again mustered into service October 24, 1861, as a member of Co. M, 110th
Pennsylvania infantry.  On Christmas day following the company was
transferred to the 9th Pennsylvania cavalry as Co. M--promoted to 2d
lieutenant, then 1st lieutenant, after which he was promoted to be captain,
and served as such until compelled to resign on account of wounds.  He was
several times wounded--first at Crab Orchard, Kentucky; then at Sparta, East
Tennessee; and again at the battle on Cumberland mountains.  At this time he
received a wound in the ankle from a pistol shot fired by Major Wragan, of
Colonel Hughes' guerilla band of the Confederate army.  Captain McCahan
knocked the pistol from the hand of the major, after his wounding him, and
the latter was killed on the field; the pistol, marked with his initials, was
found on the ground.  Captain McCahan has this pistol, with several other
pistols which he captured while in the army, and which he regards as valuable
trophies of the war; he also has the sabre he carried for three years, which
shows its service, being broken in one charge.  He served with the historic
Army of the Cumberland, and during his connection with it was engaged in
twenty-two general engagements, and took part in sixty-five skirmishes; every
time wounded was in a skirmish.  On account of the wound in his ankle, the
ball remaining in his ankle, he was sent home on a furlough in January, 1864,
but rejoined his command in July following.  He was honorably discharged from
the service near Atlanta, Georgia, in February, 1865 and soon after returned
to Pennsylvania.  Resuming the peaceful occupations of civil life, he was for
two years employed in his father's steam flouring mill at Huntingdon, after
which the physical disability resulting from exposure and wounds received in
the army prevented him from active labor.  He has always resided at the old
homestead in Huntingdon county, near Birmingham, where he was born and reared.
On September 21, 1870, Captain McCahan united in marriage with Ella
Galbraith, a daughter of Colonel R. C. Galbraith, of Sinking Valley, this
State.  In his political opinions Captain McCahan is a republican of the
strictest school, and very firm in his convictions.  He is a member of Tyrone
Encampment, No. 36, Union Veteran Legion, of which he served as commander for
two years; and of Colonel D. M. Jones Post, No. 172, Grand Army of the
Republic, of which he was commander three terms.

Transcribed and submitted to the Blair County, PA, USGenWeb archives by Eileen


CAPT. GEORGE A. McCLELLAN,  

a reliable business man of Altoona, and who rose from the ranks to the
command of his company, which he led in some of the hardest battles of the
Army of the Potomac, is a son of William and Elizabeth (Etter) McClellan, and
was born at Milesburg, Centre county, Pennsylvania,  May 15, 1842.  The
McClellan family in central Pennsylvania Is of Scotch lineage, and was
founded by the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, who came from
Scotland to Centre county in the first decade of the present century.  He was
a resident of Bellefonte, that county, for many years, and then removed to
Clarion county, where he followed farming until his death.  His, son, William
McClellan, the father of George A. McClellan, was born in Centre county in
1809, and learned the trade of shoemaker, which he followed until his
death.  In 1868 he removed from his native county to Altoona, where he died
in May, 1877, when in the sixty-eighth year of his age.  He married Elizabeth
Etter, who died in June, 1890, aged seventy-eight years.
George A. McClellan was reared in Centre county, received his education in
the early common schools of Pennsylvania, and was engaged in the charcoal
business until the opening of the late great civil war.  He was one of the
first to respond to his country's call for troops, and on April 15--the day
when the stars and stripes went down on Sumter's storm-battled walls--he
enlisted at Huntingdon furnace as a private in Co. A, 5th Pennsylvania
reserves.  At the end of his three months' service, on August 17, 1861, he
enlisted in Co. C, 49th Pennsylvania infantry, and served until December 23,
1863, when he re-enlisted in the field in the same regiment.  He continued to
serve until Lee grounded arms at Appomattox Courthouse, and was honorable
discharged from the Union service at Hall's Hill, Virginia, July 16, 1865. 
His regiment was in the 3d brigade, 1st division, 6th army corps of the Army
of the Potomac.  He enlisted as a private; was promoted to corporal,
September 4, 1861; sergeant, September 18, 1862; first lieutenant, December
25, 1863; and commissioned as captain of Co. F on June 3, 1864.  He
participated in the following battles of the Army of the Potomac: 
Williamsburg, the severe Seven Days fight, Second Bull Run, Antietam,
Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Mine Run, Brandy Station,  the Wilderness,
Spottsylvania Courthouse, Cold Harbor, Ream Station, Petersburg, and Sailor
Creek (April 6, 1865), the last engagement with Lee's army.  Captain
McClellan served in the siege of Yorktown, was wounded in the left arm in a
charge at Fredericksburg, and his regiment fought for seventeen hours
continuously at Spottsylvania Courthouse, where it lost more men than any
other Union regiment in that terrific struggle.  Captain McClellan was in the
masterful campaigns of Sheridan in the Shenandoah valley, and participated in
the battles of Opequan, Winchester, Fisher's Hill, and Cedar Creek.  After
the close of the war, Captain McClellan went to Pennsylvania Furnace, where
he resumed the charcoal business, and continued in it until 1872.  In that
year he came to Altoona and embarked in his present coal business.  He gives
close attention to his business, handles the best grades of coal and has a
large and increasing trade.
On January 25, 1866, he married Carrie, daughter of Frederick and Catherine
Fultz, of Pennsylvania Furnace, Huntingdon county.  To Captain and Mrs.
McClellan have been born eight children: Catherine, Ida, Margaret, Laura,
Clara (living); and Mary, William, and Arthur (deceased).
In politics Captain McClellan is a republican.  He is a member of the
Reformed church of Altoona; Stephen A. Potta Post, No. 62, Grand Army of the
Republic; Camp No. 17, Union Veteran Legion; and Washington Camp, No. 81,
Patriotic Order Sons of America.  He is a respected citizen, and in every
station of civil or military life which he has occupied he has always been
active, efficient and successful.

Transcribed and submitted to the Blair County, PA, USGenWeb archives by Eileen


GEORGE F. ARNEY, M. D., 

a graduate of Jefferson Medical college and a successful physician of
Altoona, is a son of Jacob and Rachel (Meyer) Arney, and was born in Centre
Hall, Potter township, Centre county, Pennsylvania, March 11, 1853.  His
father, Jacob Arney, was born at Hummelstown, Dauphin county, this State, in
1808, and died at Centre Hall, Potter township, Centre county, in 1887, aged
seventy-nine years.  When but a boy he went into Centre county, where he was
engaged in farming during the active part of his life.  He was a democrat in
politics and a member of the Reformed church.  At the time when Mr. Arney
commenced life for himself in Centre county he did not have the advantages
possessed by farmers of to-day, and had to cut and store his harvests by
hand, as farm machinery was almost unknown at that day.  He married Rachel
Meyers, and to them were born a family of twelve children, six sons and six
daughters:  John, who is a farmer by occupation, resides in his native
township; Benjamin, also a farmer and a resident of Potter township, Centre
county; Rev. W. James, a minister of the Presbyterian church, who is a
graduate of a well known college of the United States, and now resides at
Kane, McKean county, where he has charge of the Presbyterian church of that
place; Dr. George F., the subject of this sketch; Charles, a farmer like his
brothers, John and Benjamin, and also a resident of Potter township, Centre
county; Frank, who learned painting and follows that trade in his native
township; Sarah, residing at Kalamazoo, Michigan, and is the wife of Henry
Dasher, now the general agent for the old and well known McCormick Reaper
Manufacturing Company; Minnie, who married Moses Richards, a carpenter of
Potter township, where they reside; Lydia, wife of Conrad Peck, a wagon and
carriage manufacturer by trade, and a resident at the present time of Lincoln
county, Kansas; Mary, married James Herring, who is now engaged in the general
mercantile business in Altoona; Laura, wife of John Lee, a carriage
manufacturer of Centre Hall village; and Lizzie, married to John Mullen, of
Renova, Pennsylvania, where he is engaged in the shoe business.
George F. Arney spent his boyhood days at Centre Hall, and received his
literary education in the normal schools of Pennsylvania.  He read medicine
with Dr. Neff, of Centre Hall, and Dr. C. F. Fisher, of Boaldsburg [sic],
this State, and entered Jefferson Medical college, of Philadelphia, from
which well known institution he was graduated in 1878.  Immediately after
graduation he opened an office at Homer City, the largest town on the Indiana
Branch railroad between Blairsville Intersection and Indiana, the county seat
of Indiana county.  He remained there one year, and then, in 1879, came to
Altoona, where he soon built up and has enjoyed a good practice ever since. 
While a general practitioner, yet he makes a specialty of the eye and has had
good success in that special line of practice.
    In June, 1881, Dr. Arney married Lucy Boggs, of Altoona, and they have one
child, a son, named Ralph, who was born in June, 1882.
    Dr. Arney is rather independent in politics, and has been for several years
a member of Christ Reformed church, of Altoona, which was organized in
1863.  For the last four years he has been one of five physicians composing
the staff of the Altoona hospital, and is recognized as a physician of
ability and skill.

Transcribed and submitted to the Blair County, PA, USGenWeb archives by Lyn
Frieda  areume@hotmail.com  


DAVID L. WRAY, 

one of the pioneer merchants of Bellwood, and a member of the well-known
lumbering firm of Isett & Wray, is a son of William and Jane E. (Lower) Wray,
and was born at Neff's Mills, in West township, Huntingdon county,
Pennsylvania, January 12, 1843.  His paternal grandfather, Robert Wray, was a
resident for many years of Huntingdon county, where he died and left a large
family of children.  His son, William Wray (father) was born in 1815, in
Huntingdon county, where he died in June, 1891.  He learned the trade of
blacksmith, which he followed in early life, but the loss, by accident, of an
eye, caused him to turn his attention to farming.  He was a democrat in
politics, and married Jane E. Lower, who was born in 1818, and is a daughter
of Henry Lower.  Mr. And Mrs. Wray reared a family of ten children, five sons
and five daughters: Regina, wife of J. P. Hazlett, of Altoona; Jane, who
married S. E. Steward, of Sinking valley; David L.; Hannah, wife of William
Wallace, of Yellow Springs; Dr. James H., a resident physician of Winterset,
Iowa; William P., a member of the mercantile firm of Wray & Irwin, of
Bellwood; Alvenia, who married William Moore, a farmer of Spruce Creek,
Huntingdon county; George H., connected with Curry, Canan & Co., wholesale
grocers of Altoona, Pennsylvania; Ada K.; and Warren B.
     David L. Wray was reared on a farm, and received a good English
education in the common schools.  At nineteen years of age he engaged in
teaching in the winter schools, and assisting his father on the farm during
the summer seasons.  Two years later an incident occurred that drew him away
from his intended study of law, and changed the whole course of his life. 
His father at that time was renting a farm from Hays Hamilton, who was
superintendent of the Huntingdon furnace, and David L. Wray made out a
statement of the account between his father and Mr. Hamilton, which was so
accurately done as to highly please the latter, who offered him three hundred
dollars per year to superintend the furnace farms, which offer he accepted,
intending to remain one year, and then enter the academy, preparatory to
qualifying himself for the pursuit of the profession of his youthful
choice.  The resignation for the general bookkeeper during the year, and an
offer of his position, presented inducement to defer the law, and remain a
year longer.  Efficient and faithful service in this capacity secured
promotion to assistant superintendent and general manager of the furnace and
farms, in which positions his stay was protracted for a period of ten years,
at the end of which he resigned to enter business on his own account.  In
1873 he came to Bellwood, and formed a mercantile partnership with E. B.
Isett, under the firm name of Isett & Wray.  They were the pioneer merchants
of the borough, which was then known as Bell's Mills, and continued in
business until 1882, when Mr. Isett retired from the firm.  Seven years
later, in 1889, Mr. Wray formed a second partnership with Mr. Isett, under
the old firm name of Isett & Wray.  They manufacture lumber, and have mills
on the line of the Pennsylvania & Northwestern railroad, whose combined
capacity is four million feet per year. 
    On May 16, 1867, Mr. Wray was united in marriage with Caroline Wallace,
daughter of Samuel Wallace, of Union Furnace.  They have seven children:
Gertrude, a graduate of Wellesly college, and a teacher in the Hollidaysburg
seminary; Elizabeth E. and Anna C., students of Hollidaysburg seminary; James
C.; Ethel R.; Robert W.; and Katherine L. 
     In addition to his extensive lumber business, Mr. Wray has considerable
mining interests at Mountain Dale, Cambria county.  He is a republican in
politics, has served nine years as a school director, and is one of the
present members of the borough council.  He is a member of Tyrone Lodge, Free
and Accepted Masons, and Mountain Chapter, No. 189, Royal Arch Masons.  Mr.
Wray is a pleasant gentleman, and an interesting and entertaining
conversationalist.  He is an excellent business man, of clear perception and
sound judgment, and has by his many good qualities become deservedly popular
at Bellwood.  He has  maintained the student method all the years of his
business life, and is an earnest advocate of "the college in the home."  He
always had a hearty sympathy with the progress and enlargement of every good
to his fellow man.  This he has shown in encouragement and assistance
extended to many in securing homes of their own, thereby contributing to
better conditions of life for them, and advancing the growth of his town, and
particularly by his interest in the public schools.  He is a member of and a
ruling elder in the Presbyterian church, and a Sunday school teacher and
worker of a quarter of a century's services.  His chief aim is to educate his
sons and daughters to be useful members of society and friends of all that is
pure, noble and true.

Transcribed and submitted to the Blair County, PA, USGenWeb archives by Lyn
Frieda  areume@hotmail.com


GEORGE E. VANBRUNT, 

master mechanic in the shops of the Pennsylvania & Northwestern railroad at
Bellwood, is a clear-headed business man of wide experience, great executive
ability and a record of which any business man might justly feel proud.  He
is the eldest son of William T. and Caroline (Jennings) VanBrunt, and was
born October 11, 1846, in the city of Buffalo, New York.  The VanBrunts are
descended from an old Holland family, that was prominent in both the civil
and military life of that country.  The family was planted in America by the
son of an old Dutch admiral, who settled in New York at an early day.  His
son, Coe VanBrunt, was born in New York, where he became a practicing
physician, and died in that State.  From him this branch of the family has
descended.  William T. VanBrunt (father) was born in New York city in 1826,
and is at present employed by the Baldwin Locomotive works, of Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, delivering engines in all parts of the United States for that
company.  In political faith he is a democrat, and is a member of the
Episcopal church.  He married Caroline Jennings, and by this union had a
family of three sons and three daughters:  George E.; William, now master
mechanic for the Colorado Coal & Iron Company at Peueblo [sic], Colorado;
Charles, died in early youth; Sarah, married William Orinstein, a jeweler of
Platteville, Colorado; Frances, wedded John Kreider, an employee of Cox &
Co., stave dealers in the city of Philadelphia; and Mary, living at home.
    George E. VanBrunt grew to manhood in Buffalo, New York, and obtained his
education in the common and select schools of that city.  After leaving
school, at the age of seventeen, he began learning the machinist's trade at
the shops of Bell & McNish, in his native place.  When he had completed his
trade he engaged for a short time in firing an engine on the Buffalo, New
York & Erie railroad, but was soon promoted to be engineer and ran on that
road for about eighteen months.  At the end of that time he went to
Philadelphia and accepted a position in the Baldwin Locomotive works, where
he worked at his trade of machinist for nearly five years.  By this time he
had shown such ability and won the confidence of the company to such an
extent that he was made traveling engineer for that concern, and continued to
occupy that relation to the works until 1884, when he came to Bellwood, this
county, and in October of that year became master mechanic in the shops of
the Pennsylvania & Northwestern Railroad Company at this place.  He has
occupied that responsible position ever since.  This was formerly a narrow
guage [sic] road, but about the time Mr. VanBrunt took charge of the
mechanical department the road bed was widened to the standard guage.  The
present machine shops of this company were established in 1891.  The building
is one hundred and twenty feet each way, and is a substantial brick
structure.  Here everything connected with the building or repair of engines,
and all work pertaining to the motive power of the road, is done under the
immediate supervision of Mr. VanBrunt.  This department employs about two
hundred men, mostly skilled mechanics.  The office is large and capacious,
being twenty by fifty feet in dimensions, two stories high, and most
conveniently arranged throughout.  Mr. VanBrunt brought the first standard
guage engine over this road, and since that time forty-six fine engines have
been added to its equipment.
    In 1869, Mr. VanBrunt was wedded to Amelia Corry, a daughter of Alvin Corry,
of Hermann, New York.  To this union was born an only child, a son named
William, who is living at home with his parents in their comfortable and
handsome residence in Bellwood.
    In politics, Mr. VanBrunt is strictly independent, supporting such men and
measure as in his judgment will subserve the best interests of the whole
people.  He is prominently identified with the Masonic fraternity, being a
member of Hermann Lodge, No. 500, Free and Accepted Masons, of St. Lawrence
county, New York; St. Lawrence Chapter, No. 132, Royal Arch Masons; and  St.
Lawrence Commandery, No. 28, Knights Templar.  He is also a member of Zera
Temple, Ancient order of the Mystic Shrine, of Utica, New York.

Transcribed and submitted to the Blair County, PA, USGenWeb archives by Lyn
Frieda  areume@hotmail.com


WILLIAM L. WOODCOCK,  

one of the leading members of the Blair county bar in active practice and the
founder of the widely celebrated and highly successful Seventh Ward Mission
Sunday-school of the city of Altoona, is a son of John and Sarah (Alexander)
Woodcock, and was born in Wells valley, Fulton county, Pennsylvania, October
20, 1844.  In the annals of Lancashire, England, the Woodcock family can be
traced back for over three centuries as resident of that early settled and
important civil division of the English empire.  Two of his ancestors are
gentlemen living near London.  One of its members was Isaac Woodcock, the
paternal grandfather of William L. Woodcock, who left Lancashire in 1764 and
sought for a home in the then newly established American republic.  He
settled in Wilmington, Delaware, where he resided for fifteen years, and then
crossed the mountains into Bedford county, which was but thinly settled and
scarcely recovered from Indian raids and devastations made prior to the
battle of Fallen Timbers, where Mad Anthony Wayne broke forever the Indian
power in the Ohio valley.  He was a silversmith and jeweler by trade, and the
subject of this sketch now has several well-finished and nicely-worked spoons
which he made out of a few silver dollars, given him by his son, John
Woodcock, when he was seventy-five years of age.  He died in Fulton county in
1849, at the advanced age of eighty-four years.  He married, and his son, John
Woodcock (father), was born in Wilmington in the initial year of the present
century.  At five years of age he was taken by his father to Bedford county,
where he grew to manhood and resided until he was about thirty years of age,
when he removed to Wells valley, where he lived for thirty-five years. 
Afterward he removed to Altoona, where he died in 1874, aged seventy-four
years.  He was a farmer and tanner, and owned and operated a tannery for
several years near his Fulton county home.  He was a steward and class-
leader in the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he had been a member for
over half a century.  He was a republican in polities, and had held the
offices of school director and justice of the peace.  He was not only a man
of prominence, but also a man of usefulness in his community and township,
where he stood deservedly high in the estimation of his neighbors and fellow
citizens.  He married Sarah Alexander, a native of Fulton county, and a
member of the Presbyterian church, who died in 1850, at the early age of
thirty-five years.
    William L. Woodcock spent his boyhood days on the farm in Wells valley.  He
received his education in the common schools, Martinsburg academy, and
Allegheny college, of Meadville, Pennsylvania.  Leaving school, he read law
with his brother, Samuel N. Woodcock, a very successful lawyer of Altoona,
who died February 10, 1890, when in the fifty-fourth year of his age.  While
reading law he was principal, for one term, of the Phillipsburg High school,
of Centre county, and after the completion of his required course, he was
admitted to the bar of Blair county on October 27, 1865.  Shortly after his
admission he returned to Altoona, where he has been engaged ever since in the
active and successful practice of his profession.  He is one of the leading
and most successful lawyers in Altoona and in the county.  Aside from his
legal practice, Mr. Woodcock has interested himself to some extent in the
development of the material resources of the county.  He has leased several
coal mines in the Allegheny mountains, where his work, when fully in
operation, will yield such products as will form an important part of the
future coal business of Blair county.
    In polities Mr. Woodcock is a republican of pronounced views, but he has
never been an active politician.  He is patriotic, and his patriotism was
fully attested by his course of action in 1861, when he enlisted, for three
years, as a private in Co. F, 77th Pennsylvania infantry.  He was transferred
to the signal corps, in which he was promoted to lieutenant, and served
thirteen months, at the end of which time he was discharged on account of ill
health.  In addition to his operations in coal he has invested largely in real
estate in Altoona.  He is the owner of the Arcade building, on Eleventh
avenue, which is one of the largest and finest brick buildings in the city,
and also has quite a number of desirable houses and choice building lots.  He
is a thoughtful and intelligent business man, and believes in the adage,
Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.  Good judgment and clear
foresight have enabled him to deal in real estate with excellent result,
while in other lines of business he has invested judiciously and with
profit.  His success in life and the wealth he has acquired have been the
result of his own unaided efforts, as he commenced in the world with no
capital but ability, honesty and energy.
    William L. Woodcock is a member of the First Methodist Episcopal church of
Altoona, in which he has served as a trustee and steward for twenty years. 
He also served acceptably as superintendent of the Sunday-school of that
church for five years.  He has always been interested in the up-building and
support of all institutions in the city whose influence is for the moral or
religious benefit of his fellow citizens.  Two years ago he erected a hall in
the seventh ward, which he named Belnore hall, and in which he opened a
mission school, which, through his earnest and persistent efforts, has grown
from fifteen to two hundred and fifty pupils.  The influence brought to bear
through this mission school upon its pupils and the community in which it is
situated, has led to the establishment of a church and a wider diffusion of
the principles of Christianity in that part of the city.  With only hope of
good, Mr. Woodcock was moved to enter upon this mission enterprise, whose
highly desirable results have probably far exceeded his expectations when he
planned his hall and school.  Shafts of marble, columns of brass, or arches
of stone are raised in honor of men, and to commemorate their actions or
record their virtues, but there are those who, in life, build their own
monuments of fortune and reputation, and the Belnore Hall Sunday-school will
be an enduring monument to the generous humanity and Christian charity of
William Lee Woodcock.

Transcribed and submitted to the Blair County, PA, USGenWeb archives by Eileen


JOHN LOUDON, 

of Altoona, is a good example, in the present century of monopolies and
syndicates, of what a man with but little capital and his own will and energy
can accomplish in making his life a success and establishing a good name at
home and abroad.  He is a son of William and Sarah (Matthews) Loudon, and was
born on the site of the present city of Altoona, in what was then Logan
township, Blair county, Pennsylvania, August 3, 1823.  His paternal
grandfather, Thomas Loudon, was born in Ireland, and came to eastern
Pennsylvania some time prior to the revolutionary war, in which he served as
a soldier in one of the Continental armies.  He followed mining, and some
time after the close of the revolutionary war he removed from Lebanon to Etna
furnace, and from thence to Huntingdon furnace, where he resided until his
death.  His son, William Loudon, the father of the subject of this sketch,
was born June 27, 1792, and died January 2, 1864, when in the seventy-second
year of his age.  In 1838 he purchased of Eli Hastings, and in the following
year moved upon, a tract of two hundred and four acres of land, upon a part
of which the west end of Altoona is built, and which was known as
Loudonsville until the incorporation of the city in 1868, and since then has
been the Fifth ward, lying southwest of Sixteenth street. He at first
occupied a log house built by a former owner, and which burned in 1849.  Six
years later, in 1854, he built and occupied the house on Seventeenth street
now owned by his son, James Loudon.  As soon as Mr. Loudon became certain
that the car shops of the Pennsylvania railroad would be located at Altoona,
he commenced to lay out his farm into lots and offer them for sale.  The
first lot was sold in 1849, to Adlum & Irvin, the second to Augustus Cherry,
and from time to time additional lots were laid out and sold until now but a
small portion of the original farm remains in the possession of Mr. Loudon's
heirs.  William Loudon married Sarah Matthews, a native of Logan township,
and a daughter of Abraham Matthews, and who was born February 26, 1796.  To
William and Sarah Loudon were born nine children, eight sons and one
daughter:  Thomas, of Woodberry township, born January 27, 1817; Margaret, of
Logan township, born February 3, 1819; James, of Altoona, born June 16, 1821;
John, of Altoona, born August 3, 1823; William, jr., of Logan township, born
July 30, 1826; Abraham, born September 27, 1828, and died July 20, 1872;
David M., of Altoona, born April 20, 1833; George M., born March 19, 1835,
and died December 25, 1862; and Elias, born in July, 1837, and died February
1, 1843.  Of these children Thomas married Jane McCauley and has a son, James
A., and several daughters; William married Rebecca, daughter of Philip
Brindebaugh, of Tyrone township, and has several children; Abraham married
Margaret, daughter of Abraham Beal, and left, at his death, three sons and
one daughter; David M. married Elizabeth, daughter of Jacob Shinefelt, and
has four children: Ellen, Mary, Alexander, and Harry; and Margaret, married
James Coleman, who died from an accident in 1870.
    John Loudon was reared on the site of Altoona and received his education in
the common schools of his neighborhood and Meadville academy, which he
attended for one short term after having walked one hundred miles to reach
that institution.  Returning from Meadville he was engaged in teaching for
fifteen months, and then embarked in the general mercantile business on
August 18, 1850, on the corner of Eleventh avenue and Fifteenth street, as a
member of the firm of Ferres, Loudon & Co., which afterward changed in title
to Ferres & Loudon.  About 1876 Mr. Loudon withdrew from the firm and engaged
in his present extensive real estate business.
    In 1852 he married Elizabeth P. Robeson, daughter of David Robeson.  She
died in 1872, leaving five sons and three daughters, and in 1875 he united in
marriage with her youngest sister, Junietta.  To this second union have been
born two children, one son and one daughter.  Sylvester (deceased); William
Scott; David R., now dead; Lincoln; George; John Albert; Edgar; Rachel
Hazeltine, wife of Walter Adams; Sallie C. and Susannah M.
    Although taking a deep interest in politics and especially in the success of
the Republican party, for whose principles he has always labored, yet John
Loudon has never sought for office, and only at the earnest solicitation of
his friends, in 1884, allowed his name to be used as a candidate for director
of the poor of Blair county.  He was elected at the ensuing electing and has
served in that office until the present time.  In religion he is a Lutheran
and has been for many years an active and influential member of the
Evangelical Lutheran church of Altoona.  He was one of the organizers of the
Edison Electric Light Company, of which he is a stockholder and the
president.  He is also a director of the Altoona bank and Wopsononock
railroad.  He is connected with several other business enterprises in which
his ability and energy have won success under many discouraging
circumstances.  He was naturally drawn into the real estate business through
numerous investments which he had made in land and city property.  Like
everything else in which he has been interested, when he was once fairly
embarked in the real estate business Mr. Loudon pushed it for all there was
in it.  He has widened out the sphere of his operations until he now carries
on real estate transactions all over Pennsylvania, New York, and Kentucky,
and in several of the western states.

Transcribed and submitted to the Blair County, PA, USGenWeb archives by Lyn
Frieda  areume@hotmail.com


JOSEPH K. CASS, 

president of the Morrison & Cass Paper Company of Tyrone, and a grand-nephew
of Gen. Lewis Cass, distinguished alike for his patriotism and his
statesmanship, and whose services to his country will never be forgotten, was
born in Coshocton, Ohio, October 10, 1848, and is a son of Dr. Abner L. and
Margaret (Kerr) Cass.  The Casses are of English descent, and it is
presumable that John and Joseph Cass were the founders of the Cass family in
America, as they came from England and settled in New Hampshire at an early
day in its colonial history.  One of these two Granite State pioneers was the
paternal ancestor of Maj. Jonathan Cass, the great-grandfather of the subject
of this sketch.  Maj. Cass was at Lexington and Bunker Hill, and served until
the close of revolutionary struggle under the immediate command of
Washington.  In 1790 he left his New Hampshire home and went to what is now
Muskingum county, Ohio, where he entered a large tract of land on a military
section reserved there for revolutionary officers and soldiers.  He improved
his land and resided in Ohio until his death.  He married and reared a family
of six children, of whom were:  Gen. Lewis Cass, who served as secretary of
State under President Buchanan, and was the democratic candidate for the
presidency in 1848 against General Taylor, the whig nominee; Captain Charles,
and George W.
    George W. Cass (grandfather), the third son, married and reared a family of
six children:  George W., jr., was a graduate of West Point Military academy,
but preferred a business to a military life, and was the first president of
the Adams Express Company, as well as holding the presidency of the
Pittsburg, [sic] Ft. Wayne & Chicago Railroad Company for many years;
Augusta; John J., who died in early life; Dr. Abner L.; Dr. Edward, who is
the only member of the family now living, was graduated from Jefferson
Medical college of Philadelphia, and resides at Dresden, Ohio, where he
enjoys a large and first class practice; and Mary, who died when young.  Dr.
Abner L. (father), the third son, was born in 1816, and died in Chicago in
1886.  He received his education in Kenyon college, Gambier, Ohio, read
medicine with Dr. Andrews, a prominent physician of Stubenville, that State,
and in 1836 entered Jefferson Medical college of Philadelphia, this State,
from which celebrated institution he was graduated in the class of 1838. 
After graduation he opened an office in Coshocton, Ohio, where he practiced
successfully for thirty years, at the end of which time he came to Pittsburg,
this State, but only remained two years, then went to Chicago, Illinois, where
he died in 1886.  He was a democrat in politics and served three terms as a
State senator in the Ohio legislature.  He was a member of the Presbyterian
church, and ranked high in his profession.  He married Margaret Kerr, who
died in 1886, aged sixty-six years.  They were the parents of five children:
Joseph K.; George W., who was graduated in the classical course of Kenyon
college and the law department of Ann Arbor university, married Rebecca
Osborn, and is a successful lawyer of Chicago, Illinois, now serving as
president of the bar association of that great city, in which he is prominent
in law and political circles; John J., who died at nine years of age; Abner,
died when three years of age; and Agnes, who resides with her brother, Joseph
K., at Tyrone.
    Joseph K. Cass received his education at Kenyon college, from which
institution he was graduated in the classical courses of the class of 1868. 
Leaving college he engaged in civil engineering, was employed for four years
in railroad work throughout western Michigan, and then came to Pittsburg,
this State, where he served for three years in the general office of the
Panhandle Railroad Company.  At the end of that time he relinquished civil
engineering to embark in the manufacture of paper.  He formed a partnership
with J. S. Morrison and D. M. Bare, under the firm name of Morrison, Bare &
Cass, and they operated a large plant in Roaring Springs until 1880, when the
increase of their trade necessitated the erection of the Tyrone plant.  In
1886 the company dissolved, and the Tyrone plant became the property of
Morrison and Cass, who operated it under the firm name of Morrison & Cass
until October, 1890, when it became the property of a stock company, under
the present title of the Morrison & Cass Paper Manufacturing Company, of
which Mr. Cass is the largest stockholder, and has been president since its
organization.  The plant covers three and one-half acres of land, has a
capacity of twenty-two tons of printing paper from the fibre of wood per day,
and employs one hundred and fifty hands.  It is at the north end of town,
fronting five hundred feet on Main street.  The main buildings, two stories
in height, are in the form of a hollow square, and are: Alkali building,
engine house, containing washing, bleaching, and sizing engines, wet
machines, and Jordon engines; machine building, 55 x 120 feet; boiler house;
and evaporator building.
    On February 19, 1879, Mr. Cass married Sarah, daughter of John Anderson, of
Coshocton, Ohio, and to their union have been four children, two sons and two
daughters:  Charles A., Margaret K., Joseph K., jr., and Anna S.
    In addition to paper manufacturing, Joseph K. Cass is interested in several
other business enterprises, and has been for some time president of the Solar
& Carbon Manufacturing Company, of Pittsburgh.  He is also president of the
First National bank of Tyrone, succeeding in that office his partner, Mr.
Morrison, who died in three months after the organization of the bank, in
1890.  Mr. Cass is a pleasant, courteous, and intelligent gentleman, and,
though unassuming, yet is firm and decided in any course of action upon which
he has resolved after due consideration. Joseph K. Cass has been for the past
decade a prominent factor in the active business life of Tyrone, where he has
well performed the duties of good citizenship.

Transcribed and submitted to the Blair County, PA, USGenWeb archives by Lyn
Frieda  areume@hotmail.com


THOMAS P. GHEER, 

proprietor of the leading planing mill at Bellwood, and a prominent
contractor and builder of that village, is a son of John and Amelia
(Patterson) Gheer, and was born September 4, 1851, near Bellwood, in Antis
township, Blair County, Pennsylvania.  His paternal grandfather, Jacob Gheer,
was a native of Cumberland county, this State, born in 1774, and was of old
German stock.  He lived in Cumberland county until 1839, when he removed for
a few months to a farm near Worcester, Montgomery county, but not liking the
location, he returned to Perry county, and in 1840 settled in Sherman's
valley, near Landisburg, where he purchased a farm and resided until his
death, February 8, 1859, at the advanced age of eighty-five years.  He was a
farmer, and devoted his entire live to agricultural pursuits.  In politics he
was an old-line whig, but after Jackson's first term as president, his
admiration for Old Hickory led him to espouse the cause of democracy, and he
was thenceforward an ardent Jacksonian democrat.  Jacob Gheer was twice
married, first to Anna Margaret Thomas, by whom he had four sons and four
daughters, and after her death wedded Sarah Fleming.  By this second marriage
he had a family of five children.  Of the first family of eight children, all
are now deceased except John, the father of the subject of this sketch.  He
was born November 7, 1814, near Mechanicsburg, Cumberland county, this State,
and when seventeen years of age learned the trade of cabinet making.  He
worked at that trade continuously for nearly sixty years, and became widely
known.  In 1843 he removed to Blair county, and in 1874 located in the
village of Bellwood, building and occupying the first house erected west of
the Pennsylvania railroad.  In politics he was a democrat until James K. Polk
became president of the United States, when he identified himself with the
then almost unknown Republican party, and has remained as adherent to that
political organization to ht present time.  Perhaps it would not be too much
to claim for him that he is the oldest republican now living in Blair
county.  He has served as justice of the peace, both in Antis township and
the borough of Bellwood.  He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church of
Bellwood, and has held official position in his church since 1844.  In 1840 he
was married to Amelia Patterson, a native of Williamsburg, this State, by whom
he had a family of three children: Jane Margaret, a teacher by profession, who
went to Japan in September, 1879, as a representative of the Women's Foreign
Missionary society of the Methodist Episcopal church, and is now stationed at
Nagasaki; Anna M., who married Daniel A. Hicks, a locomotive engineer on the
Pennsylvania railroad; and Thomas P., whose name heads this sketch.  After
the death of Mrs. Gheer, in 1851, Mr. Gheer united in marriage with Mary A.
Bell, a native of Carlisle, Cumberland county.  
    Thomas P. Gheer, was reared in Antis township, this county, and his
education was obtained in the common schools of his neighborhood.  After
leaving school he learned the cabinet makers' trade with his father, and
worked at that occupation about two years.  In 1873, he located at Bellwood
as a contractor and builder, and has been successfully engaged in that
business at that place ever since.  In 1878 he erected his present planning
mill, located on Second street, where he manufactures his own building
supplies and does a large general business.  His trade in this line has grown
to such an extent that he now regularly employs about seventy-five men.  His
contracting business is also the largest in the borough.  In both lines he
has been eminently successful, but here, as in every other important
enterprise, success has been won by indefatigable industry and constant
watchfulness.  
    On May 27, 1875, Mr. Gheer was united in marriage to Ada Renner, a daughter
of Abram Renner, of Petersburg, Huntingdon county, this State.  To Mr. And
Mrs. Gheer has been born a family of four children, two sons and two
daughters: Martha M., John R., Charles W., and Amy.
    In his political affiliations Mr. Gheer has always been republican, and has
served one term, 1889, as burgess of the borough of Bellwood.  He is an
active and influential member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and has
served as superintendent of the Methodist Sunday-school in Bellwood for a
period of nearly ten years.  He is a member of Bellwood Lodge, No. 819,
Independent Castle, No. 128, Knights of the Golden Eagle.  He is also a
member of the Patriotic Order Sons of America.

Transcribed and submitted to the Blair County, PA, USGenWeb archives by Tina
Erb  mtkaiy3@aol.com 


PATRICK FLYNN, 

a well known lumber dealer of Tyrone, and who effected the largest sale of
lumber ever made in the State of Pennsylvania, is a son of Captain John and
Avesia (Kingston) Flynn, and was born at Miramichi, in the province of New
Brunswick, Dominion of Canada, January 1, 1833.  His paternal grandfather,
John Flynn, was a native and life long resident of Ireland, where he followed
his profession of civil engineer for many years.  His son, Captain John Flynn
(father), was born in county Roscommon, near Dublin, Ireland, in the first
year of the present century.  At twenty-five years of age he emigrated from
Ireland to New Brunswick, where he remained until 1855, when he removed to
Lock Haven, this State, and from that city went in 1874 to Smith's Mills,
Clearfield county, at which place he died in 1876, aged seventy-six years. 
His principal business in life was that of lumbering, and at different times
after coming to America he shipped large quantities of choice and selected
lumber to England and Ireland, where it was required for special purposes. 
In addition to lumbering he was engaged to some extent in farming, in which
he met with good success.  He was an old time democrat in politics, who never
believed in half-way measures in political campaigns.  He was active in
militia affairs for several years, during which time he held the commission
of captain and commanded a militia company in which he took great pride.  He
was a consistent member of the Catholic church, and married Avesia Kingston,
by whom he had a family of thirteen children: Edward T., now dead; Patrick;
Francis (deceased); Anthony, a lumberman, and now residing on the old
homestead at Smith's Mills; Paul G., who is engaged in lumbering in West
Virginia; John, who is likewise in the lumber business in West Virginia; Hon.
James, a heavy lumber dealer of Altoona, who represented Clearfield county in
the house of representatives during the sessions of 1881; Daniel, a resident
and lumberman of West Virginia--the New Dominion; Margaret, widow of Daniel
Chaplin; Lydia, widow of Edward Flanders, who was a lumberman, and was killed
in 1891 by a log falling on him; Avesia, married George W. Chaplin, who is
engaged in lumbering, and they reside in Clearfield county; and Madge
Marcella, who married Levi P. Smith, of Chippewa, Wisconsin, where they
reside, and where Mr. Smith is superintendent of a log scaling.
    Patrick Flynn was reared in the British province of New Brunswick, where he
received his education and resided until he was twenty-two years of age, when
he accompanied his father to Lock Haven, this State.  He removed in 1858 to
Clearfield county, where he engaged extensively and with good success in the
lumbering business, and while residing in that county he effected one sale of
lumber amounting to five hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which was the
largest private lumber sale ever made in the State of Pennsylvania.  After
following the lumber business in Clearfield county for eighteen years, he
came, in 1876, to Tyrone, where he soon established lumber yards and has
handled lumber in large quantities ever since.
    Patrick Flynn has been twice married. His first wife, Roberta J., daughter
of Allen Sturdevant, he married in August, 1865, and she died on July 4, 1876
and left three children: John P.; Mary E., now dead; and Roberta E.   On
August 7, 1879, he was united in marriage with Clara A. Sneeringer, daughter
of Pius Sneeringer, one of the most successful business men and highly
respected citizens of Tyrone, and whose sketch appears elsewhere in this volume.
    Patrick Flynn is an unswerving democrat in politics, and a member of St.
Matthew's Catholic church of Tyrone.  He commenced his busy life with nerve,
will, and persevering industry and, confident of success, he entered into the
lumbering business of central Pennsylvania.  His efforts in his chosen field
soon placed him in command of a business that daily increased until it has
reached its present extensive proportions.  He is a man who is faithful to
every business duty, and his efficiency for strong work, good judgment in
determining upon new enterprises, and fertility in resources, are recognized
by all who know him.

Transcribed and submitted to the Blair County, PA, USGenWeb archives by Eileen