BIOGRAPHY: Joseph MASTERS, 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. 31-2
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JOSEPH MASTERS, ex-Associate Judge of this county, is a son of George and Sarah 
(Custer) Masters, and was born May 22, 1834, near Davidsville. Conemaugh 
township, Somerset county, Pa.  His grandfather, William Masters, was a native 
of England, whence he emigrated to America and located in Fayette county, and 
later removed to Somerset county, where he died.  George Masters, son of the 
above and father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Somerset county in 
1812.  He was a weaver of coverlids by trade.  In politics, he was a whig, and 
held a number of important local offices by appointment or election.  In 1842, 
he was appointed a justice of the peace, and at the time of his death, in 1850, 
held this office of county commissioner.  He was married to Sarah Custer, and 
was the father of seven children -- five boys and two girls, of whom four are 
living, viz: Joseph, Kate, Amanda, wife of J. S. Custer, superintendent of the 
labor department of the Cambria Iron company, Johnstown, and Samuel, also of 
Johnstown, whose sketch follows.
     Joseph Masters is self-educated, and he is a fine example of what a young 
man may accomplish even under adverse circumstances.  His actual schooling 
consisted of a two months' term under the old regime, when teachers boarded 
around among the schools' patrons; but so well has he improved his opportunities 
that few men have a better store of general information.
     Mr. Masters came to Johnstown in 1850 at the age of sixteen years, and 
first found employment on the canal.  He learned the trade of a black-smith, and 
helped make the first clay picks with which ground was broken for the Cambria 
Iron company's works, in the winter of 1852-3.  Next, he was employed in a 
flouring mill, then known as the Red Mill, at the mouth of Hinkston's run, at 
eight dollars a month and boarding.  Eighteen months later he was in charge of 
the mill, a position he held for about ten years, when he took charge of the 
lumber department of the Cambria Iron company, as buyer and seller.  To this, in 
1865, was added the superintendency of houses.  His duties and responsibilities 
were further increased in 1878 by the addition of the superintendency of lands.  
His present position is that of superintendent of houses and lands for the 
Cambria Iron company.
     Politically Mr. Masters is a republican, and his popularity is attested by 
the fact that he has been uniformly successful in his political ventures, even 
in the face of strong adverse majorities.  In the sixties he served as 
councilman, school director and burgess of Millville borough.  In 1882, when the 
normal Democratic majority in Cambria county was about 1,000, Mr. Masters was 
elected associate judge by the flattering majority of 900.  In this office he 
served a term of five years, when the associate judgeship was abolished by a 
change of constitution. In his home ward -- the Ninth -- where the democrats 
were a majority of 300, he was elected a member of select council by a majority 
of four. When Coopersdale was raised to the dignity of a borough, Mr. Masters 
was a resident of the town, and was honored by an election to the responsible 
offices of burgess and justice of the peace.
     Mr. Masters was married to Miss Elizabeth, daughter of John Shaffer, on 
November 27, 1857. To this union ten children have been born, of whom one died 
in infancy. The surviving children are Anga, wife of John W. Wonders, of 
Johnstown; George H., of Coopersdale; Albert M., Johnstown; Kate, wife of 
Ellsworth Kunkle, Coopersdale; Emma, wife of Samuel Greer, Johnstown; Frank, 
married and a resident of Coopersdale, and Sarah, Lilly and Cora, at home. Mr. 
Masters is a member of the First Methodist Episcopal church, also of Johnstown 
Lodge, No. 538, F. and A. M. His venerable mother is still living at the 
advanced age of eighty-four years.