BIOGRAPHY: Jacob LEVERGOOD, 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. 304-5
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JACOB LEVERGOOD, eldest son of Peter Levergood, Sr., died in Johnstown, Cambria 
county, Pennsylvania, at 6:15 o'clock Sunday morning, February 1, 1885, in his 
seventy-fifth year. The deceased was born in Lancaster county, on October 7, 
1807, and came to Johnstown with his parents when a mere child. For considerably 
over half a century he was a useful and prominent citizen. He was county 
surveyor while yet a young man, served for many years as school director and 
member of council, was a director of the First National bank from its 
organization, and for several years served as president of that sterling 
financial institution. The means which he accumulated before his father's death 
and the money and property which came into his hands with that event were 
carefully husbanded, but he never added very greatly to them, being very 
conservative in business, and also exercising the broadest liberality toward his 
large family, and in all public and private charities, thus giving away large 
sums of money in the aggregate.
     He was survived by his wife, Jane Louisa Hayes, aged seventy-three years, 
who came to this county with her brother, William Hayes, Johnstown's first 
hatter, from Franklin county, Pennsylvania, in 1830, and who was drowned in the 
great flood, May 31, 1889. She bore him nine children, all of whom were living 
in Johnstown and all were married at his death, except Lucy. Their names in the 
order of their ages are as follows: Susan, wife of Dr. Wm. Caldwell; Agnes, wife 
of John Parke; Peter H., the borough weighmaster; Martin Luther, of the firm of 
Fockler & Levergood; Mary, wife of George Fockler of the same firm; William H., 
the stove merchant; Lucy, single, and at home; Jacob Charles, the marble-cutter; 
and Emma Cummins, wife of Verg C. Elder. There were twenty-three grandchildren 
and one great-grandchild living.
     In his last days it was a great comfort and pleasure to Mr. Levergood, that 
he could, from his own home, on the corner of Bedford and Vine streets, see the 
roofs of the houses of every one of his children, six of whom lived within a 
stone's throw of the homestead. To the day of this death Mr. Levergood's hair 
was almost as black as in his youth, being only slightly sprinkled with gray, 
while his whiskers were white.
     Mr. Levergood has handed down to his children and grandchildren, without a 
stain, a name of unusual honor, whose word was as good as his bond. He built the 
old brick warehouse on Railroad street, shortly after the canal was made, which 
was used for retaining and transferring goods and merchandise, a commission 
being charged for handling the same. Subsequently Henry Kratzer, Dean Robert and 
William Canan ran it. When the canal was abandoned the building was sold to the 
Odd Fellows and Sons of Temperance. Mr. Levergood's principal business of life 
was tanning. Having purchased the tannery from his father he continued to 
operate it for over fifty years very successfully, and only abandoned it when 
old age prevented his attending to the work.
     Jacob Levergood was the owner of the ten acres where the Cambria Iron works 
are now built, and it was he who sold it to them. It has been used by him as a 
farm for many years prior to that event.
    When a young man, he was one of the teamsters who hauled blooms from 
Frankstown, below Hollidaysburg, across the mountain to Johnstown, and also 
helped run the same on flat boats down to Pittsburg. This was before the canal 
and the Portage railroad were made.
    The obsequies took place from the Lutheran church, of which he had been a 
prominent member from his early manhood. Services were conducted by Rev. Dr. R. 
A. Fink, pastor, aided by Rev. Dr. D. I. Beale, of the Presbyterian church. The 
paul-bearers were Messrs. James McMillen, Jacob Swank, Chas. Von Luenen, Howard 
I. Roberts, Jacob Fend and John Dibert. The remains were laid to rest in the 
family cemetery on Vine street, but subsequently removed to Grand View cemetery.