BIOGRAPHY: Elias J. UNGER, 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. 119-120
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ELIAS J. UNGER, deceased, whose record was that of a successful business man, is 
a son of David and Catherine (Eisenhower) Unger, and was born March 16, 1830, in 
Lower Paxton township, Dauphin county, Penna.
     The family of which Mr. Unger was a worthy scion is of German origin, but 
was transplanted from Germany to this country prior to the Revolutionary war, by 
David Unger, the grandfather of the subject of this record. He settled in 
Dauphin county, this State and became a farmer.
     David Unger, father, was born in Dauphin county, December 31, 1798, and 
died in the same vicinity in 1848. He was a blacksmith and farmer by avocation; 
a man of sterling qualities of head and heart. He entered the war of 1812, and 
for meritorious conduct was promoted to a captaincy. His marriage with Catherine 
Eisenhower, a daughter of John Eisenhower, a farmer of Dauphin county, resulted 
in the birth of three sons and two daughters, of which Elias J. was the 
youngest.
     Elias J. Unger was reared upon the farm of his father and secured his 
education in the public schools. At the age of twenty years he was employed by 
the Pennsylvania Railroad company three years as route agent, then one year as 
brakeman, then a conductor on the eastern division of the road, from Harrisburg 
to Philadelphia for thirteen years. He was then made superintendent of the 
Company's hotels in the territory extending from Pittsburg to Jersey City, for a 
period of ten years, at the end of which long and faithful period of service, he 
voluntarily retired from the employment of that company. Subsequently he became 
proprietor of that well-known and popular hotel, the Seventh Avenue, of 
Pittsburg, where he remained ten years. Mr. Unger was president of the South 
Fork Fishing club, and in 1888, upon retiring from the hotel business, purchased 
the land upon which he lived until his death in 1896. This farm consisted of 250 
acres, and situated upon the banks of what was formerly the lake of the South 
Fork Fishing club. Upon that farm he lived the remainder of his life, indulging 
his tastes for the arts of husbandry and enjoying the fruits of an active and 
successful business career.
     Mr. Unger was eminent in Masonic circles, being a thirty-second degree 
Scottish Right Mason, and was also a member of Dauphin Lodge, No. 160, I. O. O. 
F., of Harrisburg, of which lodge he was a Past Grand.
     December 19, 1854, he married Annie C. Steele, and to this marital union 
has been one child, Mary, wife of George C. Wilson of Pittsburg.