BIOGRAPHY: John LANTZY, 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. 155-7
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MR. JOHN LANTZY, now living a retired life near Hastings, has been identified 
with many important enterprises, and for a period of fifty years wielded an 
extended influence in the business interests of the communities in which he 
resided. He is a son of Joseph and Mary Ursula (Betters) Lantzy, and was born in 
Barr, then Susquehanna, township, Cambria county, Pennsylvania, March 24, 1827.
     Joseph Lantzy was a native of Canton, Organ, Switzerland. He was born in 
1775, received a fair education, and followed farming until 1810, when he came 
to Philadelphia, which he soon left to settle in Lancaster county. Sixteen years 
later he removed from his Lancaster county home to Susquehanna township, this 
county, where he purchased one hundred acres of woodland off the Fisher tract. 
He was one of the pioneer farmers of his section, and after clearing up his 
land, he bought an additional one hundred acres, owning at the time of his death 
a two hundred acre farm of fertile and productive land. Mr. Lantzy prospered as 
a farmer, and was highly respected as a man, a neighbor and a citizen. He was a 
consistent member and a constant attendant of the Catholic church, in whose 
faith he had been nurtured, and taught. His toils of life ceased on February 20, 
1889, when his spirit left its earth clay casket, and passed to the invisible 
world. His remains were interred in the Carroll cemetery.
     Joseph Lantzy, while shipboard, coming over to America, formed the 
acquaintance of Mary Ursula Betters, a girl, whom he married shortly after 
arriving at Philadelphia. Their union was blessed with nine children, four sons 
and five daughters: Elizabeth, widow of Henry Gray; Susan married Philip Gray, 
and now deceased; Joseph, residing on the home farm; John, whose name heads this 
sketch; Mary Ann, wife of Daniel Eckenrode, a well-situated farmer of Allegheny 
township; Ambrose, a farmer of Susquehanna township; Matilda wedded Augustus 
Eckenrode, and is now deceased; and Philip, who enlisted in the Union army, and 
was killed at the battle of Antietam in 1863.
     John Lantzy passed his boyhood days on his father's farm, and at the early 
age of sixteen years commenced life for himself as a farmer, which vocation he 
followed for ten years. From farming he went to millwrighting, in which he was 
engaged for a period of twelve years, and then embarked in timber contracting, 
which he followed for fifteen years. During the time he was in the timber 
business, he invested his earnings judiciously in timber and coal lands in 
Carroll and Elder townships, which he cleared up, cutting, rafting, and 
otherwise disposing of all the timber. As fast as he cleared his land, he sold 
or exchanged it to good advantage, and being an energetic, enterprising and 
practical business man, he has in his various and numerous transactions, 
extending over a period of half a century, accumulated an ample competency, that 
is the just reward of honorable and honest enterprise. He retired from active 
business life in 1888, and six years later removed to his present farm in 
Susquehanna township, from his farm in Elder township, where he had resided 
continuously for thirty-five years. While practically retired from active 
business, yet characteristic of his energetic nature, he takes quite an interest 
in keeping up and improving his various farms, that rank high in value and 
productiveness.
     On June 10, 1847, Mr. Lantzy was married, by Father Gallagher, at Loretta, 
to Mary Whitehead, who is a daughter of Edward Taylor Whitehead, formerly of 
Huntingdon county, but then a resident of Susquehanna township. The children 
born to their union were: Joseph, a farmer on the Elder township home farm; 
John, now farming in Linn county, Oregon; Mary Jane, wife of Simeon Kline, a 
farmer of Carroll township; William Edward, engaged in farming in Susquehanna 
township; James; Henry and Francis Anthony, who are both deceased; Margaret 
Matilda, wife of Michael Kline, a resident of Susquehanna township; Andrew, a 
wholesale liquor dealer and prominent business man of Hastings; Philip, a farmer 
of Linn county, Oregon; David Albert, now farming in Susquehanna township, 
George Iredon, now deceased, Rachel Elizabeth, wife of Samuel Giggey, a farmer 
of Aroostook county, Maine; Barbara Elmira, wedded William Conn, of 
Philadelphia; Sara Matilda, now deceased; Lucinda Agnes, wife of Burt Neason, of 
Altoona, this State; and Emma Ann, wife of George Bearers of Bennett, this 
State.
     In his political belief Mr. Lantzy is a declared democrat, being active in 
the promotion of the interests of his party and its success. He has served three 
terms as justice of the peace, and is now serving on his fourth term, being 
elected the last time in the spring of 1896. Squire Lantzy was reared in the 
faith of the Catholic church, of which he is an active, influential and useful 
member. He is a pleasant and affable gentlemen, justly popular with all with 
whom he comes in contact, and has achieved a marked success in lines of business 
where many others only met disaster or ruin.