BIOGRAPHY: Col. H. H. KUHN, 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. 481-3
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COL. H. H. KUHN, a gentleman who has risen from the position of an humble 
journeyman blacksmith to one of honor and distinction, is a son of Hugh and 
Katherine (Faust) Kuhn, and was born in the Ligonier valley, Westmoreland 
county, this State. His grandparents on the paternal and the maternal side of 
the family were natives of Germany, his grandfather Kuhn, having come from 
Frankfort-on-the-Main to Westmoreland county, and his grandfather Faust to the 
vicinity of Stoyestown, Somerset county. His parents moved to Stoyestown, 
Somerset county, when he was an infant, and at the age of eight years he was 
sent to Washington, this State, to attend the public schools of that place, 
after which he returned to Stoyestown, and worked upon a farm two years. At the 
age of fourteen he came to Johnstown, and was employed as a clerk, but after two 
years returned to his home, and was apprenticed to learn the trade of a 
blacksmith, and at the age of nineteen became a journeyman in that trade.
     When the crisis of Civil War was upon us, in the spring of 1861, Mr. Kuhn 
enlisted in the first company raised in Somerset county. This company afterwards 
became company A, Tenth regiment, Pennsylvania Reserve corps. During his service 
with this company he was promoted to a corporalship October 9, 1861; became a 
sergeant June 23, 1863, and participated in the following battles: Drainsville, 
Virginia, December 20, 1861; Mechanicsville, Virginia, June 20, 1862; Gaines' 
Mills, Virginia, June 27, 1862; Charles City Cross Roads, Virginia, June 30, 
1862; Malvern Hill, Virginia, July 1, 1862; Bull Run, Virginia, August 28, 29, 
30 and 31, 1862; Chantilly, Virginia, September 1, 1862; South Mountain, 
Maryland, September 14, 1862; Antietam, Maryland, September 17, 1862; 
Fredericksburg, Virginia, December 13, 1862; Williamsport, Maryland, July 12, 
1863; Cub Run, Virginia, October 11, 1863; Rappahannock Station, Virginia, 
November 18, 1863; Mine Run, Virginia, November 29, 1863; Wilderness, Virginia, 
May 6, 7, 8 and 9, 1864, being wounded in the left side at Charles City Cross 
Roads, in the right thigh at Fredericksburg, and in the left foot at the 
Wilderness. April 4, 1864, he was commissioned first lieutenant of the Twenty-
third regiment, United States colored troops, with which regiment he was in the 
following engagements: Cold Harbor, Virginia, June 1, 1864, and the, mine 
explosion in front of Petersburg, Virginia, July 30, 1864. In the latter he was 
again wounded, this time in the left thigh.
     November 22, 1864, he was honorably discharged from this command on account 
of injuries from which he suffered. January 5, 1865, he was commissioned second 
lieutenant of the Eighth regiment, Veteran Reserve corps, and performed military 
service with it at Camp Douglas, Chicago, Illinois, which was then a prison 
command for the detention and exchange of fifteen thousand rebel prisoners of 
war. When at the close of the rebellion the prisoners were paroled and sent 
home, he remained in the volunteer service of the United States, and was 
assigned to duty along the Gulf coast, in Florida. Resigning this command 
December I, 1866, he was appointed to a clerkship in the second auditor's office 
in Washington. Shortly after assuming his duties in this position, he was 
tendered a commission in the Forty-second regiment, United States infantry, 
which he accepted, being assigned to duty at Sackett's Harbor on the Canadian 
frontier. When, in 1870, the regiment was consolidated for active duty, he was 
detached and ordered to report to General Howard, who was then in charge of the 
Freedmen's bureau, and who directed him to proceed to the State of Tennessee to 
collect all books, papers, etc., belonging to the government and ship them to 
Washington. This work consumed nearly the entire year. In September, 1870, he 
was ordered to report to a retiring board at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, which 
board placed him on the retired list, and the President-General U. S. Grant 
promoted him to the rank of captain. After his retirement from the army he 
located in Johnstown, and March 4, 1871, registered as a student-at-law in the 
office of Cyrus Elder, Esq. March 4, 1873, he was admitted to practice as an 
attorney-at-law at the Cambria county bar, and October 23, 1875, was admitted to 
practice in the supreme court of Pennsylvania.
     Captain Kuhn was elected and served as solicitor of the municipality of 
Johnstown from 1875 to 1877, inclusive, and again from 1879 to 1889, inclusive.
     Beside his civil and military honors, Colonel Kuhn has the following 
Masonic record: He was made a Master Mason in Somerset Lodge, No. 358, Somerset, 
Pennsylvania, April 17, 1866; a Royal Arch Mason, August 12, 1868, in Sackett's 
Harbor Chapter, NO. 59, Sackett's Harbor, New York; a royal and select master, 
June 15, 1876, in Cambria Council, No. 32, Of Johnstown; thrice illustrious G. 
M. C. C., No. 32, 1880, 1881, 1882, 1883, 1884, 1885; Knight Templar, April 23, 
1875, Greensburg, Pennsylvania; charter member of Oriental Commandery, No. 61, 
K. T., of Johnstown, October 2, 1883; eminent commander of Oriental Commandery, 
No. 61, K. T., 1886; division commander of the Grand Commandery, K. T., of 
Pennsylvania, 1888 to 1894, inclusive; grand marshal Grand Commandery, K. T., of 
Pennsylvania, in 1890; grand generalissimo of Grand Commandery, K. T., of 
Pennsylvania; Grand Lodge of Perfection, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; was made a 
thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, November 17, 1887, in Pennsylvania 
Grand Consistory, S. P. R. S., Pittsburg; received the thirty-third and last 
degree of Scottish Rite Masonry at the session of the Supreme Council of the 
Entire jurisdiction of the United States of America at Chicago, September 17, 
1893. Colonel Kuhn is also a member of the Military Loyal Legion, an order to 
which none but officers of the army and navy who have distinguished themselves 
in battle are eligible to membership.
     June 4, succeeding the disastrous flood of May 31, 1889, when James B. 
Scott assumed charge of affairs, Colonel Kuhn was placed in charge of the 
commissary department, and charged with receiving and distributing the stores of 
food and clothing to the stricken. Seeing the necessity of organization, he 
formulated a perfect system of conducting the department, the plan being fully 
adopted and followed by the State authorities. On assuming control of affairs in 
the valley, June 12, he was assigned to duty by General Hastings as general 
inspector of all the commissaries in the valley. July 2, when the State 
authorities relinquished control at the instance of General Hastings and the 
flood commission, and at the request of the local citizens' committee, the 
department was re-transferred to his custody, which he conducted until October 
5, 1889, at which date he closed the affairs of the department. He was highly 
complimented by the State authorities, the flood commission and the local 
citizens' committee on his able and successful administration of the affairs of 
the department. Colonel Kuhn is at present an aid-de-camp, with the rank of 
lieutenant-colonel, on the staff of Governor D. H. Hastings.