BIOGRAPHY: John L. SECHLER, Cambria County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Lynne Canterbury and Diann Olsen. Portions of this book were transcribed by Clark Creery, Martha Humenik, Betty Mirovich and Sharon Ringler. USGENWEB ARCHIVES (tm) NOTICE All documents placed in the USGenWeb Archives remain the property of the contributors, who retain publication rights in accordance with US Copyright Laws and Regulations. In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, these documents may be used by anyone for their personal research. They may be used by non-commercial entities so long as all notices and submitter information are included. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit. Any other use, including copying files to other sites, requires permission from the contributors PRIOR to uploading to the other sites. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cambria/ ____________________________________________________________ From Wiley, Samuel T., ed. Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Union Publishing Co., 1896, p. 355 ____________________________________________________________ JOHN L. SECHLER, the editor and founder of the South Fork Record, is a son of William H. and Margaret (Lloyd) Sechler, and was born at Ebensburg, this county, September 18, 1873. For ancestral history see sketch of his father which appears elsewhere. He was educated in the common schools and in the Ebensburg Normal school. At the age of seventeen years he entered upon an apprenticeship in the office of the Ebensburg Herald, and after thoroughly learning “the art preservative of all arts,” he went to Altoona, Pennsylvania, where, for a year, he was engaged on the local papers. In 1891 he returned to Ebensburg and in connection with W. R. Thompson, under the firm name of Thompson & Sechler, founded the Mountaineer. At the end of the first year Mr. Sechler disposed of his interest in that paper, and after a short residence in Baltimore, returned to Altoona, where he was employed as solicitor for the Altoona Mirror until August 1, 1894, at which time he removed to South Fork, this county, and founded the South Fork Record, a five column quarto paper, published weekly, and edited politically in the interests of the Republican party, at the same time making a specialty of the coal interest, local correspondence, and county news, which events are given in a spicy and acceptable form, and the popularity of the paper is such that it already has a circulation of about nine hundred copies. In connection with this paper, he conducts a first-class job-printing business. June 30, 1896, he married Miss Elsie Baker, a daughter of W. W. Baker, of South Fork. While Mr. Sechler is a young man in the journalistic field, he is wide-awake, energetic and capable, and we predict for him a successful career in his chosen avocation.