BIOS: File 6 - Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Blair Co, PA: Samuel T. Wiley, Philadelphia, 1892. Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Judy Banja Typing and proofreading by subscribers to the RootsWeb PABLAIR mailing list, as noted on individual transcriptions. Copyright 2001. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/blair/ _________________________________________ Biographies in File 6, listing the page where they appear in the book: Ake, Jacob, page 597 Bobb, Col. Alexander, page 599 Clapper, John, page 283 Coffee, George A., page 597 Coleman, Thomas, page 598 Cryder, Michael, page 600 Flick, Edward H., page 282 Geesey, Jacob, page 597 Heims, Theo. Bentz, page 170 Huff, Henry B., page 172 Humes, James R., M.D., page 279 Hunter, Matthew S., page 281 Ike, Edgar M., page 283 Irwin, James, page 597 Keefer, John B., D.D.S., page 176 Kendig, Henry B., page 174 Kyle, Samuel, page 599 Mechen, Arthur W., page 280 Morrow, Frank M., page 177 Robison, Robert W., page 577 JACOB AKE, the founder of Williamsburg, was of German parentage, his father having been an early emigrant from Germany to the Cocococheague country. He died at Williamsburg, in April, 1838, at the age of 84 years. Many of his descendants still reside here. The earliest elementary school in the annals of the district was established about 1790 by Mr. Ake, who was the owner of the land on which the village of Aketown (now Williamsburg) was laid out. Seeing the necessity of educational training among the young, Mr. Akes [sic] secured teachers and defrayed all expenses from his private purse. His word was regarded as law with the youth, and when he issued a command the parentage acquiesced and the children rendered obedience. Thus it was when the pioneer resident established his first school. He visited village householders, brandished his staff, and the children hied away to school. Transcribed and submitted to the Blair County, PA, USGenWeb archives by Judy Banja COL. ALEXANDER BOBB, son of Frederick F. Bobb, was born in Hanover township, York county, Pennsylvania, March 28, 1823. His father was a dyer in Wurtemberg, Germany, and emigrated to America in 1818. He died somewhere about 1855. When Alexander was sixteen years old he learned the moulding trade. In February, 1847, he married Matilda C., daughter of Jacob Mattern, of Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania. They have had four children: William M., James S., George E., and Alexander. The two latter were twins, and died in infancy; the others are now living. Mr. Bobb worked as a journeyman at the moulding business for a number of years, at the Martinsburg foundry and many other places; had charge of the foundry at Hopewell, Bedford county, Pennsylvania, for some time as foreman. At the beginning of the late war there was a company of volunteers taken from Martinsburg to Harrisburg, and being dissatisfied with their captain, refused to be mustered in under him. They telegraphed twice to Mr. Bobb, asking him to take charge of them, and on his refusing, the company threatened to disband and return home. Reconsidering the matter, he consulted his wife, who consented out of pure patriotism, and he went and took charge of and mustered them in. They at once went into active service under Gen. Patterson, of Philadelphia, and at the end of three months were discharged. Captain Bobb returned home, began recruiting, and soon raised a company for the nine months' service. In a few weeks he started again to the front as captain; was with the company in the battles of Antietam and Fredericksburg. On December 13, 1862, he took command of the right wing of the 133d Pennsylvania. So terrific was that battle, the dead were piled up as a breastwork; they held their position until nightfall, when they were ordered by the division commander to fall back. He, with the regiment, was engaged in the battle of Chancellorsville in May, 1863. At the expiration of their term of enlistment he returned home. In a few weeks Captain Bobb raised another company. He was commissioned as major by Governor Curtin, and started into the army of the James under General Butler, and their engagements were as follows: Fort Steadman, March 25, 1865; on the 2d of April took the breastworks at Petersburg, Virginia, and for gallant conduct that day Major Bobb was brevetted lieutenant-colonel. The war over, Colonel Bobb returned to Hopewell, and went in partnership with C.W. Ashcome, in the foundry, where he remained a year, then bought a half interest in the foundry at Martinsburg. In three years he sold out and built the foundry at Roaring Spring. Two years afterwards it burned down, and in 1875 he rebuilt it. In the fall of 1873 Colonel Bobb was elected sheriff of Blair county, and served with great credit for three years. He has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal church for forty years, and has held all the positions except to preach. Transcribed and submitted to the Blair County, PA, USGenWeb archives by Judy Banja JOHN CLAPPER, a farmer of Frankstown township, and a descendant of one of the old Scotch-Irish families of Blair county, is a son of George and Catherine (Fornwalt) Clapper, and was born near Flowing Spring, Frankstown township, Blair county, Pennsylvania, December 5, 1835. The Clappers of this county are of Scotch-Irish extraction, and Manuel Clapper, the paternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born in Scotland, which country he left in the latter part of the eighteenth century to settle at Franklin Forges, in what is now Catharine township. He followed farming, and married and reared a family of five children, two sons and three daughters. One of these sons was George Clapper (father), whose life was given to agricultural pursuits. He was born at Franklin Forges in 1806, and died near Flowing Spring, October 8, 1869. He was a whig and republican in political affairs, and a prominent and useful member of the United Brethren church. In May, 18234, Mr. Clapper married Catherine Fornwalt, who died November 5, 1885, at the age of eighty-two years. They reared a family of eleven children, of whom five are yet living, three sons and two daughters. John Clapper was reared on the farm and carefully trained to agricultural pursuits. He received his education in the common schools at Canoe Creed, and then engaged in farming, which he has followed in Frankstown township continuously and very successfully ever since. March 22, 1872, Mr. Clapper was united in marriage with Sarah Walls, daughter of Eli Walls, of Frankstown township. To their union have been born four children, of whom two are living: James M. and Mercy M. In politics John Clapper supports the principles of the Republican party. He tills a productive farm of 10.52 acres, and raises good crops of grain. Mr. Clapper is a steady, industrious man, and a successful farmer, and his paternal ancestors were of that resolute and enterprising Scotch-Irish race which settled in Pennsylvania, where they aided in the defense of the frontier against the Indians, and became a thrifty element of population. Transcribed and submitted to the Blair County, PA, USGenWeb archives by Barb Griffin griffibf@email.uc.edu GEORGE A. COFFEE removed to Philadelphia in 1855. He was a district attorney of the county from 1852 to 1854, acting instead of Joseph Kemp, who had been elected. He was the United States district attorney for the Eastern district, at Philadelphia, during the war, and died about the year 1865. His acquirements were very extensive, and his talents of the highest order. Fluent, poetical, imagination unsurpassed, his addresses to a jury were intellectual treats. His talents, however, seemed better fitted for the rostrum than the court room. As an orator, he was learned, eloquent and instructive; but he lacked that practical force, that homely illustration, which is so convincing with a jury. Transcribed and submitted to the Blair County, PA, USGenWeb archives by Judy Banja THOMAS COLEMAN, was emphatically an Indian hater, the great aim and object of whose life appeared to be centered in the destruction of Indians. For this he had a reason - a deep-seated revenge to gratify, a thirst that all the savage blood in the land could not slake, superinduced by one of the most cruel acts of savage atrocity on record. It appears that at an early day the Coleman family lived on the west branch of the Susquehanna. Their habitation was remote from the settlements, and their chief occupation was hunting and trapping in winter, boiling sugar in the spring, and tilling some ground they held during the summer months. Where they originally came from was rather a mystery, but they were evidently tolerably well educated, and had seen more refined life than the forest afforded. Nevertheless, they led an apparently happy life in the woods. There were three brothers of them, and what is not very common nowadays, they were passionately attached to each other. Early in the spring, probably in the year 1763, while employed in boiling sugar, one of the brothers discovered the tracks of a bear, when it was resolved that the elder two should follow, and the younger remain to attend to the sugar boiling. The brothers followed the tracks of the bear for several hours, but not overtaking him, agreed to return to the sugar camp. On their arrival they found the remains of their brother boiled to a jelly in the large iron kettle - a sad and sickening sight, truly; but the authors of the black-hearted crime had left their sign-manual behind them, an old tomahawk, red with the gore of their victim, sunk into one of the props which supported the kettle. They buried the remains as best they could, repaired to their home, broke up their camp, abandoned their place a short time after, and moved to the Juniata valley. Their first location was near the mouth of the river, but gradually they worked in the neighborhood of the mouth of Spruce creek, on the Little Juniata, about the year 1770. A few years after the two brothers, Thomas and Michael, the survivors of the family, moved to the base of the mountain, in what now constitutes Logan township, near where Altoona stands, which then was included in the Frankstown district. These men were fearless almost to a fault, and on the commencement of hostilities, or after the first predatory incursions of the savages, it appears that Thomas gave himself up solely to hunting Indians. He was in all scouting parties that were projected, and always leading the van when danger threatened; and it has very aptly, and no doubt truly, been said of Coleman, that when no parties were willing to venture out, he shouldered his rifle and ranged the woods alone, in hopes of occasionally picking up a stray savage or two. That his trusty rifle sent many a savage to eternity there is not a shadow of a doubt. He, however, never said so. He was never known to acknowledge to any of his intimate acquaintances that he had ever killed an Indian; and yet, strange as it may seem, he came to the fort on several occasions with rather ugly wounds upon his body, and his knife and tomahawk looked as if they had been used to some purpose. Occasionally, too, a dead savage was found in his tracks, but no one could tell who killed him. For such reserve Mr. Coleman probably had his own motives; but that his fights with the savages were many and bloody is susceptible of proof even at this late day. We may incidentally mention that both the Colemans accompanied Capt. Blair's expedition to overtake the Tories, and Thomas was one of the unfortunate "Bedford scouts." To show how well Thomas as known, and to demonstrate clearly that he had on sundry occasions had dealings with some of the savages without the knowledge of his friends, we may state that during the late war with Great Britain, on the Canadian frontier, a great many Indians made enquiries about "Old Coley;" and especially one, who represented himself as being a son of Shingas, pointed out to some of Captain Allison's men, who were from Huntingdon county, a severe gash on his forehead, by which he said he should be likely to remember "Coley" for the balance of his life. He died at his residence, of old age, about the year 1840, beloved and respected by all. Peace to his ashes. Transcribed and submitted to the Blair County, PA, USGenWeb archives by Judy Banja MICHAEL CRYDER was one of the pioneer settlers of the county. The Cryders had a grist mill at Big Spring, in the vicinity of Huntingdon, in 1777. The family consisted of a father, mother, and seven sons. Their mill served for the people at Standing Stone and the surrounding country. They were all men suitable for the times, rugged and daring. A majority of them were constantly in service during the war of the revolution, either as frontiersmen, scouts, or fort-guards. Michael Cryder, the father, used to spend his days at the mill and his nights at the fort at Standing Stone during the troublesome times, and it was himself and five of his sons who accomplished the then extraordinary achievement of running the first ark load of flour down the Juniata river. Transcribed and submitted to the Blair County, PA, USGenWeb archives by Judy Banja EDWARD H. FLICK, now resident of Altoona, and a member of the Blair county bar, is a son of John and Elizabeth (Sharbaugh) Flick, and was born in Cambria county, Pennsylvania, August 16, 1860. Ere the star of the great Napoleon had begun to wane o'er the snows of Russia, and while Alsace still remained an integral part of the empire of France, one of the families that resided in that province was the Flick family, one of whose members was John Flick. He grew to manhood in his home near the waters of the beautiful Rhine, in what is now a part of the territory of Alsace-Lorraine, a province of the present German empire, and at nineteen years of age, in 1830, emigrated from the Alsace to Cambria county, this State, where he settled at Carrollton, which has been his place of residence ever since. During the earlier part of his life he was chiefly engaged in farming, but of late years he has not been active in agricultural pursuits or in any line of business. Although an octogenarian in years, he still retains his memory well, while his mental powers have not been impaired by his advanced age. He is a member of the Catholic church, and a democrat in politics, and married Elizabeth Sharbaugh, who was born in the same Rhineland province as her husband, and died at Carrollton in the fall of 1869, when in the forty-seventh year of her age. Edward H. Flick was reared in his native town of Carrollton, and received a classical education at St. Vincent's college, a flourishing literary institution of Latrobe, Westmoreland county, and western Pennsylvania which was founded in connection with St. Vincent's abbey by the Rt. Rev. Boniface Wimmer, of sainted memory. Leaving college he determined upon the profession of law as a life vocation, and entered the office of A. V. Barker, then a prominent lawyer of Ebensburg, Cambria county, and now president judge of the courts of that county. Upon the completion of his course of reading he was admitted to the bar of Cambria county in the spring of 1883, and practiced at Carrollton until the spring of 1884, when he came to the city of Altoona, where he has been continuously and successfully engaged in the practice of his profession up to the present time. On June 30, 1891, Mr. Flick united in marriage with Annie, daughter of John O'Connor, of Pittsburg. Edward H. Flick is a straight democrat in politics, and a member of the Catholic church. He was elected city solicitor for Altoona city on April 18, 1892, for a term of two years, commencing with the first Monday of May, 1892. Transcribed and submitted to the Blair County, PA, USGenWeb archives by Barb Griffin griffibf@email.uc.edu JACOB GEESEY, was an honored resident of Frankstown township. The old Geesey homestead in Frankstown township is one of the familiar landmarks of Blair county. Three generations of Geeseys have occupied and owned it since Conrad Geesey, the progenitor of the family in this county, came from York county to make a new home on the blue Juniata. Conrad Geesey was a sturdy German pioneer, and came of the hardy stock that first peopled the now rich and populous county of York, in Pennsylvania. Of his sons, Jacob married Margaret, daughter of Christian Gast, of the village of Frankstown, and shortly after his marriage removing to Williamsburg. He there carried on for some years the business of wagon making. Later he removed to a farm near by, and about 1838 he purchased of his father. Conrad, the old homestead in Frankstown township. Upon that place Jacob Geesey died in 1856, after a life of industry and usefulness, leaving behind him a name that was honored and an example that commended itself as worth of imitation. Transcribed and submitted to the Blair County, PA, USGenWeb archives by Judy Banja THEOBALD BENTZ HEIMS, One of the pioneer citizens of Tyrone, was a man who, was highly esteemed for his strength of character and upright life. He was a son of Thomas and Anna (Bishop) Heims, and was born at Littlestown, Adams county, Pennsylvania, January 14, 1821. Thomas Heims was born April 5, 1788, at York, York county, and died at Tyrone. He married Anna Bishop, who was born at Littlestown, and died at York, in 1837. Her father, Philip Bishop, was a native and lifelong resident of Littlestown, Adams county, where he died. He was a prominent and active member of the United Brethren church. He erected the church of that denomination at Littlestown, of which he lived. His memory was long cherished at Littlestown, where he was so active in church affairs, and so liberal a contributor to the cause of Christianity. Theobald B. Heims was reared and received his education at Littlestown, this State. In 1847 he removed to Berryville, Clark county, Virginia, where he worked at his trade of shoemaker. His brother-in-law, P. Sneeringer, having removed from Littlestown to Tyrone in 1853, and other citizens, among them S. Berlin and the late E. L. Study, of the same place, coming to this growing town shortly after, Mr. Heims looked upon Tyrone as a better town than his Virginia home to adopt as a permanent place of residence. Accordingly he came hither in 1855, and for the first year here, he carried on his trade on Main street, in the house afterward owned by A. C. Zerbe. He soon gave up that work, however, to become interested with Mr. Sneeringer in general merchandising in Tyrone, and lumbering in Clearfield county. Thereafter he engaged exclusively in the lumber and shingle business and milling, for many years devoting his attention to the business in Clearfield county. In 1877 he extended his operations to Michigan, and carried on his business in that State until 1889, when illness forced him to relinquish all active work. He was a thorough business man, and was prosperous in what he undertook. Having been one of the earliest residents of this town, and having been highly respected for his strength of character and noble traits, Mr. Heims was several times honored by his fellow citizens with election to municipal offices, having been chosen at different times to the offices of councilman, school director, and justice of the peace. He was for many years a regular attendant at the services of the Methodist Episcopal church, and also took a great interest in the Sunday-school, which he delighted in visiting. A great searcher after the truth, and a patient student of the Bible during his life, he declared in his last days on earth his complete faith in the promises of his Master, and his confidence in a blessed future life beyond the grave. On March 28, 1847, Mr. Heims married Henrietta Brothers, of Littlestown, this State. To their union were born seven children: Jennie, widow of S. V. Haslett; Thomas C., married Lizzie B. Hess, and is a merchant and coal operator, and president of the Land and Lumber Company, of Clearfield; Lizzie, wife of J. K. Mills, an insurance agent and real estate dealer of Braddock, this State; Charles W., married Clara Leedy, of Harrisburg, who is now dead; Maria O. (deceased); Grace E., wife of Joseph E. Kolbenschlag, who is engaged in the clothing business at Coalport, this State; and May A. Mrs. Henrietta Heims is a daughter of Jacob Brothers, who removed from Pennsylvania to Baltimore, Maryland, where he died in 1828. He married, in 1812, Elizabeth Shriver, daughter of Andrew Shriver, Jr., who was born at Alsenborn, Germany, and in 1721, with his parents, Andrew and Anna Margaret Shriver, became a pioneer settler of Goshenhoppe, on the Conawago, where he married Magdalene Maus, and reared a family of nine children. After the death of Jacob Brothers, his widow married John McIlvain, who was prominent in the Methodist Episcopal church. On May 8, 1890, Theobald Bentz Heims passed away at his residence on Logan street, after an illness of fifteen months, and his remains are entombed in Tyrone cemetery. His death was appropriately noticed in the press, and one of the Tyrone papers said: that to his family "is extended the sincere sympathy of this entire community which recognizes that their loss is also its loss, for death has removed not only a beloved husband and father, but a useful and respected citizen as well. Transcribed and submitted to the Blair County, PA, USGenWeb archives by Ruth Curfman rcurfman@home.com HENRY B. HUFF, ex-sheriff of Blair county, a member of the well known business firm of William Beyer & Co., and one of the Union prisoners who was confined in the celebrated Libby, prison of Richmond, Virginia, was born at Huff's Church, Berks county, Pennsylvania, June 16, 1839, and is a son of George and Caroline K. (Boyer) Huff. His paternal ancestry dates back to Baldwin Von Hoof (now written Huff), who resided on the family estates near the city of Passau, Bavaria. He was famous among the Bavarian knighthood and nobility, and lost his life in the first crusade in July, 1099, at the storming of Jerusalem. Henry B. Huff's paternal great-grandparents were John Frederick and Susanna (Kime) Huff, both natives of Berlin, Germany. The former was born July 8, 1773, and died April 26, 1818, at Huff's Church, Berks county, this State, so called because of the donation of land at that place by him for a church site and burial ground. The latter was born on Christmas, 1739, and died May 12, 1809. They had four sons and five daughters living in 1818. One of these sons was George Huff, sr. (grandfather), who was born August 1, 1779, at Huff's Church, where he followed farming and hotel-keeping until his death, in 1845. He married Anna Mull, who lived to be nearly ninety-two years of age. Of their children, one was George Huff (father), who was engaged in the mercantile business at Huff's Church for a short time, and then removed, about 1840, to Norristown, Pennsylvania. From there he went to Middletown, and five years later removed to Altoona, this county, where he died January 19, 1858, aged forty-five years, four months, and twenty-six days. He married Caroline Kreps Boyer, September 16, 1835, at Boyertown, Pennsylvania, which was named for her family. She died at Altoona, February 3, 1876, aged fifty-eight years, four months, and twenty-nine days. Henry B. Huff, on his maternal side, traces his ancestry back four generations, to Jacob Bayer (now written Boyer), who came from Germany with his wife and three sons-Valentine, Philip, and Jacob. The latter had four sons: Philip, Jacob, Daniel, and Henry (maternal grandfather), who was born October 19, 1778, and died March 18, 1857. He was a member of the legislature from Berks county in 1823, 1824, 1825, 1826, and 1831. He was one of the early founders of the flourishing borough of Boyertown, which was laid out in lots in 1835, and duly incorporated in 1851. He was married March 3, 1800, to Sarah Kreps, who was born February 28, 1784, and died July 7, 1858. They had eleven children, one of whom, Caroline Kreps Boyer, married George Huff and the Hon. George F. Huff, now a member of Congress from the Twenty-first district of Pennsylvania. Henry B. Huff received his education in the common schools of Berks and Blair counties. In 1851 he came from Middletown, Dauphin county, to Altoona, where he worked in the railroad shops until April 17, 1861, when he enlisted in a three months' regiment. At the expiration of his time he re-enlisted in a nine months' regiment, and at the close of his second term of enlistment became a member of Co. D, 184th Pennsylvania infantry, in which he served until July 20, 1865, when he was honorably discharged from the Federal service at Harrisburg, this State. He served in the Army of the Potomac, and participated in all of its great battles from Fredericksburg to Appomattox Courthouse. He lost his right eye in one of the terrible charges at Chancellorsville, was captured by the Confederates at Petersburg, and spent nine months in several of the principal prisons of the south before he was exchanged in 1864. He escaped from the Charlottesville prison, but was recaptured on the banks of the Cape Fear river, after an exhausting tramp of thirteen days and nights, and was sent to Libby prison, where he remained until exchanged. Returning to Altoona after being mustered out of the Federal service, he was engaged in the dry goods business until 1870, when he was elected sheriff of Blair county, and at the expiration of his term of three years, embarked in the planning mill business with David K. Ramey. In 1876 he dissolved partnership with Mr. Ramey and went to the Clarion and Bradford oil field, where he met with varying success as an operator until 1884, when he went to Pittsburg, and was engaged for seven years in locating and drilling oil wells in the lower oil fields of western Pennsylvania. At the end of that time, in 1891, he returned to Altoona and became a member of the present prosperous insurance and real estate firm of William Beyer & Co. This firm is one of the reliable and leading firms of its kind of central Pennsylvania. On the 27th of December, 1866, Henry B. Huff united in marriage with Jennie, daughter of David K. Ramey, a resident of Altoona. Henry B. Huff is a republican in politics, and a member of the Presbyterian church, and McPherson Post, No. 117, Grand Army of the Republic, of Pittsburg. He is a member of Logan Lodge, No. 490 Free and Accepted Masons; Mountain Chapter, No. 187, Royal Arch Masons, and Mountain Commandery, No. 10, Knights Templar. He is a man of business ability and experience, prompt, and accurate and energetic in whatever he undertakes. Transcribed and submitted to the Blair County, PA, USGenWeb archives by Ruth Curfman rcurfman@home.com JAMES R. HUMES, M.D., of Hollidaysburg, is one of the widely known and most successful homeopathic physicians of Blair county and central Pennsylvania. He is a son of John V. and Elizabeth (Randolph) Humes, and was born in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, October 18, 1847. The Humes family is one of the old Scotch-Irish families of the United States, and James Humes, the paternal grandfather of Doctor Humes, was a native of Westmoreland County. He removed to Allegheny county, where he purchased a farm, on which a portion of the borough of Tarentum now stands. He was a democrat up to Lincoln's second administration, when he became a republican, and of the ten sons whom he reared all but one are republicans. He died in 1865, aged seventy-two years. His son, John V. Humes (father), was born in Westmoreland county, and removed to Allegheny county, where he has resided ever since. Some six years ago he retired from farming and active business life, and has made his home since that time in Tarentum. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and a republican in political opinion, and has held several of his township's offices. He married Elizabeth Randolph, who is a native of Allegheny county, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. She is a daughter of Ichabod Randolph, who left his native land of Wales and became a farmer in Allegheny county, where he died in 1840, aged eighty years. James R. Humes was reared on his father's farm near Tarentum, and received his education in the common schools, Tarentum academy, and Curry institute of Pittsburg. He taught school for four years, and in 1871 entered the office of Dr. C. H. Lee, of Tarentum, as a medical student. After completing the required course of reading, he entered Hahnemann Medical college, of Philadelphia, from which well known homeopathic institution he was graduated in the class of 1874. Immediately upon graduation he opened an office at Etna, Allegheny county, but during the latter part of 1874 came to Hollidaysburg, where he has remained until the present time, and has a wide and remunerative field of practice. On June 6, of the centennial year, Doctor Humes united in marriage with Martha M. Huey, of Tarentum, Allegheny county. To Doctor and Mrs. Humes have been born two children, one son and one daughter: Inez A. and John H. In politics Doctor Humes is a republican and has served two terms as a member of the borough council. He is a steward and member of the Hollidaysburg Methodist Episcopal church, of whose board of trustees he is secretary and treasurer. He is a member of Juniata Lodge, No. 282, Free and Accepted Masons; Mount Moriah Chapter, No. 166, Royal Arch Masons; and Mountain Commandery, No. 10, Knights Templar. He is a member of Hollidaysburg Lodge, No. 119, and Apalachian Encampment, No. 69, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is also a member of Hollidaysburg Assembly, No. 11, of the Artisans Order of Mutual Protection. Dr. James R. Humes came to Hollidaysburg after it had been abandoned by several physicians of his school, and under this discouraging outlook, by perseverance, skill, energy and untiring application, he deserves the success which he has won. He now enjoys a large practice and the confidence of his patients. Doctor Humes is a member of the State Homeopathic Medical society, and by reading and study endeavors to keep abreast of the medical advancement of the age. Transcribed and submitted to the Blair County, PA, USGenWeb archives by Barb Griffin griffibf@email.uc.edu MATTHEW S. HUNTER, one of the most prominent business men in Hollidaysburg, who receives many large building contracts in the eastern part of the State, is a son of Andrew J. and Elizabeth (Simpson) Hunter, and was born at Coleraine Forges, Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania, May 3, 1834. The paternal grandfather of Mr. Hunter was a cousin of Governor Porter, and was born and reared in Huntingdon county, where he died. He owned a large tract of land in the vicinity of Coleraine Forges. He was a whig in politics and a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He married a Miss Montgomery, a relative of General Montgomery, who fell before Quebec in the revolutionary war. The maternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch crossed the Atlantic as a soldier under General Braddock, and was taken captive at the ill-fated battle of the Monongahela by the Indians, but made his escape through the friendship of one of the red warriors. He remained in America, and served as a soldier in the Continental army during the revolutionary war. Andrew J. Hunter (father) was born at Sligo Forges, Huntingdon county, and in 1853 removed to Hollidaysburg, where he died in 1865. By trade he was an engineer and pattern maker. In politics he was at first a whig, afterward a republican, and was a faithful member of the Methodist Episcopal church. In 1826 he married Elizabeth Simpson, and to their union were born one son and six daughters. Matthew S. Hunter received his education in the common schools, learned the trade of pattern maker, which he followed until 1885, when he built the planing mill which he now operates at Hollidaysburg. He contracts for all kinds of house building, and does a great deal of special work for many different firms in the eastern part of the State. At the beginning of the civil war he enlisted in Co. A, 3rd Pennsylvania infantry, and served for a term of three months. On May 7, 1862, Mr. Hunter married Ellen Barr, and to their union have been born three sons and four daughters: Frank, a partner in the planing mill business at Hollidaysburg with his father, married Ollie Miller; John B., married Nancy Gardner, and is also a resident of Hollidaysburg; Ralph, a resident of the same place, married Clara Smith; Irene, Harietta, May E., and Ella C. Politically Matthew S. Hunter is a republican, although at local elections he is inclined to be rather independent, and supports the best qualified candidate, irrespective of party. He was formerly a Free Mason, and in all of his business transactions he has earned the reputation of being a fair and honest man. Transcribed and submitted to the Blair County, PA, USGenWeb archives by Barb Griffin griffibf@email.uc.edu EDGAR M. IKE, M.D., one of the young and promising physicians of Altoona, is the only son and child of Jerry and Ada (Burket) Ike, and was born at the cross roads near Warrior's Mark, in Warrior's Mark township, Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania, March 21, 1867. His father, Jerry Ike, was born in Huntingdon county in 1842, and received a good literary education which he supplemented by a thorough business course at the Iron City Commercial college of Pittsburg, from which he was graduated with high standing. In the latter part of the year 1867 he removed to Tyrone, where he was engaged in the general mercantile business until 1892, during which time he served as principal of the Tyrone schools for three years. In the spring of the last named year he came to Altoona, where he was resided ever since. Near the close of the late great civil war he volunteered in a Union regiment that was being recruited, but before he was mustered into the United States service he was prostrated by a severe attack of rheumatism, from which he did not fully recover until the last Confederate army had surrendered, and peace was restored in the land. He is a republican in politics, and has been an active member of the United Brethren church for nearly a quarter of a century. While at Tyrone he served as a member of the town council, but refused the nomination for burgess, although he allowed himself to be placed before the public as a candidate for school director, and such was his popularity that but four votes were cast against him in the city of Tyrone. He comes of a rather long-lived race of people, and his mother, whose maiden name was Catherine Branstetler, was of German descent, and lived to be eighty-one years of age. Mr. Ike married Ada Burket, a daughter of Peter Burket, of Warrior's Mark, who formerly followed farming and tanning, but is now living a retired life. They have but one child, the subject of this sketch. Edgar M. Ike was reared at Tyrone, where he attended and was graduated from the high school of that place. He then entered Lebanon Valley college of Lebanon county, from which institution he was graduated in the class of 1885. Leaving college, he was engaged in the drug business during 1886, during which time he determined upon medicine as his life vocation. He read with Dr. Burket, of Tyrone, and then entered Jefferson Medical college, of Philadelphia, and was graduated from that institution on the 4th of April, 1888. After graduation, he spent some time in the office of Dr. Charles Wilson, a specialist in the diseases of women. In the autumn of the year 1888 he came to Altoona, where he has remained ever since and has a good practice. He was united in marriage with Emma, daughter of William Gough, who was well connected in his native country of England, and died on the ocean while returning to his home here from a visit to that country. Doctor Ike is a member of the United Brethren church, and in politics a republican. In addition to the practice of his profession he deals to some extent in real estate, and serves as president of the Altoona Carpet Cleaning and Upholstering Company, which he helped to organize. Transcribed and submitted to the Blair County, PA, USGenWeb archives by Barb Griffin griffibf@email.uc.edu JAMES IRWIN, a hardy and ambitious young son of Ireland, left his native land for America about the middle of the eighteenth century. Chester county, in Pennsylvania, soon became his adopted home and farming his occupation. He married a member of the well and widely known Carson family, of Chester county, and in due time rose to notice as a thrifty and prosperous tiller of the soil. In 1793 he moved to what is now Blair county, and settled in Frankstown township. There he lived and farmed until his death, leaving the farm to his son Robert (born in Chester county in 1776, who died on the homestead in 1849. Robert was the father of seven daughters and four sons, all of whom grew to be men and women. Transcribed and submitted to the Blair County, PA, USGenWeb archives by Judy Banja JOHN B. KEEFER, D. D. S., of Altoona, is one of that class of men who are self-made, and forcibly illustrate in their lives what can be accomplished by energy and effort in overcoming apparently insurmountable obstacles. He is a son of Rev. Joseph and Christina (Lukenbach) Keefer, and was born near Liverpool, in Perry county, Pennsyvania, May 27, 1862. As the name would indicate, the Keefer family is of German descent. Dr. Keefer's paternal grandfather, Rev. Joseph Keefer, sr., was born in Dauphin county, where he died near Millersburg at the advanced age of eighty-nine years. He was a farmer by occupation, and having served acceptably for some time as a minister in the River Brethren church, he was elected as a bishop in that religious denomination on account of his piety, zeal, and uprightness of life. He married and reared a family, and one of his sons, Rev. Joseph Keefer (father), was born in 1813 in Dauphin county. In 1838 he removed to Perry county, where he resided until 1864, when he returned to near Millersburg, in Dauphin county, and has resided there ever since. He had followed farming as an occupation, except when engaged in ministerial duties. He is a member of the Brethren, or Dunkard, church, in which he has served for many years as a minister. He is now the presiding officer in his district, and although seventy-three years of age, yet never allows anything to prevent his discharge of every duty of his responsible position. He is a republican in politics, and married Christina Lukenbach, a native of Dauphin county and a member of the Brethren church, who died at thirty-eight years of age, leaving a family of five sons and three daughters. John B. Keefer was reared in Dauphin county until he was nine years of age, and then went to an uncle of his, with whom he resided for some time. After this he lived with various other of his relatives until he was seventeen years of age, when he went to Harrisburg, where he learned the trade of machinist, which he followed at the State capital for three years. He then came to Altoona, remained for one month, and went to Pittsburg, where he worked for some time, and then during the following year worked in Pittsburg, Wheeling, West Virginia, and Martin's Ferry, Dayton, and Cleveland, Ohio. At the end of the year he returned again to Altoona, where he worked three years in the car shops, and during the last year of that time he spent his evenings in the study of dentistry and in attending the International Business college of Altoona. He pursued his dental studies under Dr. N. P. Duffy, of the Mountain City, and then entered the dental department of the Vanderbilt university, of Nashville, Tennessee, from which he was graduated in the class of 1888. Immediately after graduation he returned to Altoona and opened an office for the practice of dentistry, which he has followed successfully until the present time. On February 4, 1889, Dr. Keefer was united in marriage to Mary E., daughter of Harriet Auxen, of Harrisburg. Dr. and Mrs. Keefer have one child, a daughter, named Harriet C. Dr. Keefer is a republican in politics, and a member of the Church of God of Altoona, of which he is chorister and treasurer. He is a member of White Cross Lodge, No. 354, Knights of Pythias, and Altoona Council Lodge, No. 152, Junior Order of United American Mechanics. His dental parlors are on the corner of Eighth and Twelfth streets, and have been carefully fitted up for the convenience and comfort of his patrons. They are fully equipped with all the late inventions and modern appliances of dentistry. Dr. Keefer is a member of the Central Pennsylvania Dental society, and the Pennsylvania State Dental society. He has been preeminently the architect of his own career, and the hewer out of his own fortune. Transcribed and submitted to the Blair County, PA, USGenWeb archives by Ruth Curfman, rcurfman@home.com HENRY B. KENDIG, chief clerk of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company's machine shops at Altoona, and a man who saw hard service during the great civil war, and is highly esteemed as a citizen, is a son of Jacob and Susan (Reifsnyder) Kendig, and was born February 11, 1833, near Newville, Cumberland county, Pennsylvania. The Kendigs are of Swiss origin, and the family was planted in America in the latter part of the seventeenth century by representatives who emigrated from the blue mountains of the land of Tell and Winklereid and settled in Chester county, this State. In later years branches of the family removed to other sections of the State, one locating in Lancaster county, where Tobias Kendig (grandfather) was born about 1769. He was reared and married in that county, but in middle life removed to Cumberland county, where he continued until his death, in 1855, at the advanced age of eighty-six years. Among his sons was Jacob Kendig (father), who was born in Lancaster county in 1809, and there grew to manhood. While yet a young man he removed with his father to Cumberland county, where he resided until 1847, when he located in Franklin county. He was a blacksmith by trade, and spent most of his life in that occupation. He became quite successful, and in later life engaged in the mercantile business, following that for some years, after which he practically retired from active business, and passed his last days in undisturbed quietude. He continued his residence in Franklin county until death removed him from earthly scenes, which event occurred in October, 1891, when he had passed two years beyond the scriptural limit of four-score. In politics he was first a whig and later a republican. He married Susan Reifsnyder, a native of Cumberland county, this State, by whom he had a family of five children. She died in 1842. Henry B. Kendig grew to manhood in Franklin county, and received a good English education in the common schools and at the academy in Shippensburg. After leaving school he learned the tinner's trade and worked at it for a short time, when he engaged in teaching, and followed that occupation for ten years. He taught in the counties of Cumberland, Franklin, and Dauphin, in this State, and one year in Illinois. In 1862 he enlisted in Co. D, 126th Pennsylvania infantry, for nine months, was promoted to be orderly sergeant, and served ten months before being discharged. Immediately after receiving his discharge he re-enlisted in the 21st Pennsylvania cavalry (July, 1863), and served with that organization until the close of the civil war, holding the rank of first lieutenant. While in action at Boydton Plank Road he was wounded by a carbine ball, and would undoubtedly have been killed by the shot but for the fact that the ball struck a brass button on the breast of his coat, and its force was thereby greatly broken. It consequently inflicted only a flesh wound, from which he quickly recovered. He was discharged at Lynchburg, Virginia, on July 8, 1865, and February 1, 1866, came to Altoona and accepted a position as a clerk in the office of a Mr. Custer, chief clerk in the motive power department of the Pennsylvania railroad. He held various clerical posts with that company until 1873, when he was made shop clerk of its Altoona machine shops, and has held that position ever since. On October 14, 1856, Mr. Kendig was married to Margaret Raum, a daughter of Henry Raum, of Cumberland county, this State, and to their union was born a family of three children, two sons and a daughter. The daughter, Madaline, is the wife of Lieut. M. F. Harmon, United States artillery, who is now stationed at Chester, this State, as instructor in the military school at that place. The sons are Sheridan K. and Ekward E., both still living at home with their parents. In his religious convictions Mr. Kendig is a Baptist, and is a member and trustee of the First Baptist church at Altoona. Politically he is a republican, and has served as a member of the school board for a period of six years, and of the city council two years. He is a member of Mountain Lodge, No. 281, Free and Accepted Masons, and of Stephen C. Potts Post, No. 62, Grand Army of the Republic. Transcribed and submitted to the Blair County, PA, USGenWeb archives by Ruth Curfman, rcurfman@home.com SAMUEL KYLE opened and improved a farm in the valley above the Stewart place. He was married to a Miss Eddie, and their only son died a young man. Their daughter married Samuel Duncan, who lived on the homestead until 1864, when he died at the age of eighty-one years. Another daughter became the wife of George Buchanan, of Duncansville. The fine stone barn on the Duncan farm was erected in 1809, the old home at an earlier period. Transcribed and submitted to the Blair County, PA, USGenWeb archives by Judy Banja ARTHUR W. MECHEN, now chief clerk in the office of the master mechanic of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company at Altoona, who left his native country to aid in the preservation of this Union during the dark days of our late civil strife, is a son of Arthur and Catherine (Lassam) Mechen, and was born November 19, 1842, at Shoreham, Sussex, England. Arthur Mechen (father) was a native of Guildford, England, and died in that country in 1863, at the age of fifty-five years. He was a hardware dealer, and a member of the Congregational church. By his marriage with Catherine Lassam he had a family of four children. She was also born in England, and lived there until her death, in 1864, at the advanced age of sixty years. Arthur W. Mechen was reared on the Isle of Wight, and received a good common school education. After leaving school, he started in to learn the grocery business, but on account of an accident was compelled to give it up. Some time later he became an apprentice to the printers' trade, and worked at that business until the winter of 1863, when he left his home and came to the United States for the purpose of entering the Federal army. He enlisted in Co. H, 6th Pennsylvania cavalry, at Philadelphia, in 1864, for a term of three years, and served until the end of the war, being discharged June 10, 1865, at Cloud's Mills, Virginia. After the close of the war he was employed successfully in New York, Philadelphia, and other cities, in various clerical positions. In 1868 Mr. Mechen returned to England, and there married. Six years later he, with his family, returned to the United States, and secured employment in the city of New York, where he remained some eight months, and was then offered and accepted a position with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. In April, 1875, he came to Altoona in the capacity of clerk in the store-house of that company, and in 1878 was transferred to the office of the master mechanic in charge of the Altoona machine shops. In 1882 he was made chief clerk in this office, and has continued to discharge the duties of that position ever since. He is careful and accurate in his transactions, and has proved himself to be "the right man in the right place." By his marriage Mr. Mechen had one child, a daughter named Amy, who is now the wife of J. Victor Wallberg, a mechanical engineer in the employ of the Maryland Steel Company, at Baltimore, Maryland. Mr. Mechen regularly attends and contributes to the support of the Episcopal church of Altoona, though not at present connected with any religious denomination. In politics he is independent, supporting only the men and measures that commend themselves to his judgment as being best calculated to subserve the public welfare. He is a member of Stephen C. Potts Post, No. 62, Grand Army of the Republic, in which he is now serving as adjutant. Mr. Mechen is a pleasant gentleman and a good citizen, and is justly entitled to the high esteem in which he is held by his neighbors and friends. Transcribed and submitted to the Blair County, PA, USGenWeb archives by Barb Griffin griffibf@email.uc.edu FRANK M. MORROW, is an enterprising, progressive, and popular business man of Blair county, and his dry goods establishment at Altoona is one of the prominent, responsible, and representative mercantile houses in central Pennsylvania. He is a son of Thomas and Jane A. (Seaton) Morrow, and was born in the town of Ligonier, in Ligonier township, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, September 14, 1856. The Morrow family is one of the old and well known Scotch-Irish families of central and western Pennsylvania. James Morrow, the paternal grandfather of Frank M. Morrow, of Altoona, was a native and a life-long resident of Frankstown, this county, where he married, reared a family, and died. He was a man of good education, and followed teaching during the period between the revolution and the war of 1812. His son, Thomas Morrow (father), was born in 1814, at Frankstown, where he was reared and received a good common English education. In early life he removed to the town of Ligonier, in the county of Westmoreland, and within the famous Ligonier valley, noted for its romantic scenery and historic places. He was a saddler by trade, and carried on saddlery and harness making at Ligonier until 1862, when he came to Altoona, where he resided until his death, which occurred in 1877, at sixty-three years of age. He was a republican in politics, and a member of the Presbyterian church, and married Jane A. Seaton, who is now in the seventy-fifth year of her age. Mrs. Morrow is a native of Ligonier, and now resides at Altoona, where she is a member of the Second Presbyterian church of that city. At six years of age, Frank M. Morrow was brought by his parents to Altoona, where he grew to manhood, and received his education in the public schools. Leaving school, his first active employment in business life was that of serving as a clerk in one of the leading dry goods houses of Altoona, in which he remained until 1876, and during that time familiarized himself with the details of every department of the house, as well as closely studying the correct principles upon which the business was founded. In the spring of the centennial year he formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, J. M. Bowman, under the firm name of Bowman & Morrow, and they were engaged successfully in the dry goods business until 1882, when Mr. Morrow purchased his partner's interest. Since that time Mr. Morrow has gradually increased his stock, and has branched out in different lines of his business until his establishment is now one of the leading dry goods houses of central Pennsylvania. It is eligibly located on the corner of Eleventh avenue and Twelfth street, and all of its large floor space is essentially necessary for the storage and display of an immense stock of goods, and to furnish accommodations for its different departments. He handles every variety of dry goods, and secures in his line the finest fabrics from foreign looms, while he makes specialties of the choicest lines of silks, satins, velvets, and dress fabrics in all the latest textures and shades. He sells at reasonable prices the best goods obtainable in the markets, and has thus secured an extensive patronage from all classes of the public. His prices are invariably low, and twenty assistants are in constant attendance, while the utmost courtesy and closest attention is the rule of the house. Mr. Morrow is now engaged in the business for which he is eminently qualified, and his successful efforts to meet the wants of the public are appreciated by his patrons. He is a live business man, makes use of the press to let the public know of the latest additions to his stock, and believes in quick sales with small profits as the basis of a sure and successful business. Frank M. Morrow is a conservative republican, and has been a member of the Second Presbyterian church of Altoona for several years. He is a member of Mountain Lodge, No. 281, Free and Accepted Masons; Mountain Chapter, No. 189, Royal Arch Masons; Council No. 9, Royal and Select Masters; Mountain Commandery, No. 10, Knights Templar; and Syria Temple of the Mystic Shrine, of Pittsburg. He is also a member of White Cross Lodge, No. 354, Knights of Pythias, and Altoona Lodge, No. 145, Knights of the Golden Eagle. In business, Mr. Morrow has not confined himself to merchandising, but has invested extensively in various enterprises for the benefit and development of Altoona. Among these may be mentioned the Altoona Silk mill, the Mountain City Electric Light plant, and the Wapsonnack railroad, in all of which he is a stockholder, while of the first he is also a director. He is a public-spirited citizen, and is one of that class of men who owe honorable standing in society, and remarkable success in business, to their own unaided efforts. Transcribed and submitted to the Blair County, PA, USGenWeb archives by Ruth Curfman, rcurfman@home.com ROBERT W. ROBISON, a successful farmer, and one of the present school directors of Frankstown township, is a son of James and Elizabeth (Curry) Robison, and was born in Blair county, Pennsylvania, August 14, 1855. His grandfather on the paternal side, James Robison, settled in early life on a farm near Frankstown, on which he resided until his death. He was a whig in politics, married and reared a family of five children: James, Harriet, Margaret, Abraham, and Allen. The eldest son, James Robison (father), was born in Frankstown township, where he followed farming for many years before his death. He was a republican in politics, and held the township offices of supervisor, auditor, and school director. He married Elizabeth Curry, a daughter of James Curry, and to their union were born fourteen children: Maud, Maggie, Winfield, Squires, Blair, Forest, who died in infancy; Robert W.; Sarah C., deceased; Lilly, now dead; Lizzie, Blanche, Gertrude, Andrew, and Archey. Robert W. Robison grew to manhood in his native township, received a good English education, and was engaged in teaching for four years in Frankstown township. At the end of that time he quit teaching to embark in farming, which he has followed with good success ever since. He owns a farm of one hundred and fifteen acres of good farming and grazing lands. Mr. Robison is a republican in politics, has always given his party an earnest support, and has served his township for several years as a member of its school board, in which position his intelligence and his experience as a teacher enable him to contribute much to the success of the public schools of Frankstown township. Mr. Robison was united in marriage with Lida C. Kyle. To their union have been born four children, one son and three daughters: Della M., born December 10, 1882; Florence E., born February 14, 1884; Frank W., born October 13, 1887; and Mary Zelda, who was born in 1889. Transcribed and submitted to the Blair County, PA, USGenWeb archives by Debbie Robinson Stearns