BIOGRAPHY: Ellsworth KUNKLE, Cambria County, PA 

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From Wiley, Samuel T., ed. Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria 
County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Union Publishing Co., 1896, p. 75-6
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ELLSWORTH KUNKLE, senior member of the general mercantile firm of Kunkle Bros., 
of Coopersdale, is one of that class of business men who are successful in 
whatever line they are engaged. He is a son of Solomon and Mary Ann Kunkle, and 
was born in Centre township, Indiana county, Pennsylvania, February 5, 1863. He 
was reared principally on his grandfather's (Joseph Gilbert) farm, where the 
many useful but uneventful labors of an agricultural life engaged his boyhood 
years. He attended the common schools but a short time, and after working as a 
farm hand until January 8, 1879, he went to Johnstown, where he was in the 
employ of the Cambria Iron company up to January 28, 1884. He then went to 
Coopersdale and formed a mercantile partnership with D. P. M. Loughrey, as 
Loughrey & Kunkle. A year later George H. Sheridan purchased Mr. Loughrey's 
interest, and the firm name changed to that of Kunkle & Sheridan, which remained 
until 1889, when Sylvester V. Kunkle was admitted to partnership under the firm 
name of Kunkle Bros. & Sheridan, and the Business was carried on until 1894, 
when Mr. Sheridan's interest was purchased and the firm name since then has been 
Kunkle Bros. Their present large and well-arranged general mercantile 
establishment at 200, 202 and 204 Main street was erected by Mr. Kunkle in 1886, 
and has remained in his ownership ever since.
     The building fronts 20 feet on Main street, with a depth of 112 feet, and 
was specially arranged for the large and varied stock of general merchandise 
carried by the present firm. They do an extensive and prosperous business in a 
substantial and well-to-do section of surrounding county as well as in the town 
and along the line of the railway.
     On May 5, 1885, Ellsworth Kunkle married Mary Kate Masters, a daughter of 
Joseph Masters, now a superintendent of the Cambria Iron company. To their union 
have been born two children, a son and a daughter: Joseph Masters and Edna 
Marguerite.
     In his political views Mr. Kunkle is a republican, and while not an 
aspirant for office nor active as a politician, yet has served for several terms 
as an auditor of borough accounts. He is a trustee and a member of the Methodist 
Episcopal church of Coopersdale. He is a member of Morrellville Lodge, No. 50, 
I. O. O. F., and Lodge No. 376, Order of Heptasophs, and a charter member of 
Good Intent Castle, No. 133, Knights of the Golden Eagle. Commencing life wholly 
without means Mr. Kunkle possessed credit sufficient to give him a start in a 
line of business where he has achieved almost phenomenal success. To organize a 
business, build it up to large proportions, and so conduct it as to win and hold 
honorable standing, has been the labor that he has successfully accomplished 
under adverse and often discouraging circumstances. He confines his labors to 
the legitimate routine of merchandizing and does not branch out into uncertain 
ventures, however promising of results. He also takes an active interest in the 
material prosperity of the general public, and has served for several years as a 
director in the Morrellville Building and Loan association, besides in other 
ways aiding in measures calculated for the public good.
     The early ancestors of the Kunkle family in this country were from one of 
the states of Germany, and some of their descendants settled in western 
Pennsylvania, where Henry Kunkle settled and lived in Centre township, Indiana 
county. He was a farmer all his life and a staunch republican. He died in 
February, 1894, aged eighty-nine years. His son, Solomon, the father of the 
subject of this sketch, was born February 18, 1837, and died October 10, 1863. 
Solomon Kunkle attended the early common schools, and then turned his attention 
to farming, in which he was engaged until his death. He lived a useful life, was 
a republican and a Lutheran, and married a daughter of Joseph Gilbert, a farmer, 
blacksmith, and merchant during his sixty five years of life. Joseph Gilbert's 
ancestors came over on the Mayflower, which landed on Plymouth Rock. Mrs. Kunkle 
died May 1, 1871, and left two sons, Sylvester Vernon and Ellsworth, whose name 
heads this sketch.