BIOGRAPHY: John MANNION, 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. 208-10
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JOHN MANNION, one of the most successful farmers and business men of northern 
Cambria county, is a son of Martin and Mary (Neland) Mannion, and was born in 
the parish of Ballinderreen, County Galway, Ireland, June 10, 1818.     His 
parents were natives of County Galway, and life-long residents of Ireland, where 
they reared a large family of sons and daughters, all of whom remained in the 
"Emerald Isle" except the subject of this sketch. Mr. And Mrs. Mannion lived 
lives of thrift and economy on their farm, and their remains were interred with 
the dust of their ancestors in the old family burying grounds.
     John Mannion was reared on the farm, and carefully trained to farming, 
while his parents took great pains to instruct him thoroughly in the faith of 
the Catholic church. After coming to the age of manhood he was variously 
employed until 1846, when he resolved to seek the improvement of his fortunes in 
the United States. Landing at New York city, June 10, 1846, he accepted the 
first employment that came to hand, which was work on the New York and Erie 
railroad. In a short time he left the railroad and went to the Delaware and 
Hudson canal, on which he worked until 1848.
     In that year he came to western Pennsylvania, and after working for a short 
time on the Pennsylvania Central railroad he went into Indiana county and spent 
eighteen months there as a farm hand. At the end of that time he secured 
profitable work in the lumber region of Clearfield county, where he spent two 
years. He then, in 1852, purchased a small farm of seventy-three acres in 
Susquehanna township, paying for the same with gold brought from Ireland. Upon 
this farm he settled the next year and engaged in agricultural pursuits on a 
limited scale.
     With each succeeding year Mr. Mannion's adaptability for farming and farm 
management has become more apparent in acquired acres and increased cereal and 
stock production. Having embarked in farming he manifested a spirit of energy 
and determination which insured success and prosperity. By additions he 
increased his seventy-three acre farm to one hundred and sixty-five acres, and 
he now owns six other good farms in Susquehanna and Clearfield townships, 
besides some valuable coal lands. He has also dealt largely and successfully in 
real-estate, and at one time held nearly all of the site of the villages of 
Platt and Plattsville. Mr. Mannion has been the moving impulse in many 
improvements in his section of the county, and has manifested much foresight and 
taste in his varied business undertakings. With but limited educational 
opportunities in his youth he has gathered from reading and observation such 
supplementary education as to render him competent to personally transact all of 
his own extensive business, and to bear himself with case in intelligent and 
educated company, while his reading and thought have always been along the 
current of public events, and especially in all that has reference to the early 
history of Cambria county, with which he is thoroughly acquainted.
     He is a stockholder in the Patton bank, and a consistent member of the 
Catholic church. In politics he has always been Democratic since coming to this 
country, and held the office of school director and helped to elect the first 
county superintendent of Cambria, before he received his naturalization papers 
at Ebensburg, August 12, 1855. Continually busy with his own affairs yet he has 
never refused to lay the cares of business aside and devote himself to his 
party's need or the public interest. He has served in township and county 
conventions, and, in 1883, was a delegate to the Democratic State convention 
that met at Harrisburg, not anxious for position and caring for no office he has 
been content with his ballot and allowed the party reins to be held by other and 
more ambitious hands.
     On November 8, 1853, Mr. Mannion wedded Mary Ann King, who is a daughter of 
Reader King and Mary McCreery, of Cherrytree, Indiana county, and was born June 
6, 1822. To this union were born four sons and one daughter: Martin, now farming 
in Clearfield township; Edward and John, farmers of Susquehanna township; 
Andrew, at home; and Jane, wife of Christopher Crossman, a farmer of Chest 
Springs, this county.