BIOGRAPHY: Stephen STUTZMAN, 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. 265-6
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Stephen STUTZMAN

STEPHEN STUTZMAN. --About the middle of the eighteenth century a German, filled 
with the spirit of enterprise, left the environs of his native land and settled 
in what is now the little mountain republic of Switzerland.  The German referred 
to was Abram Stutzman, in all probability, the great-grandfather of the subject 
of this sketch.  In that land of the mountains Abram Stutzman, grandfather, was 
born.  Abram Stutzman continued the journey to the west begun by his father, and 
emigrated to the United States, settling at the very old German settlement in 
Franklin county, this State, on the waters of Conococheague creek, where he 
lived the remainder of his life, following the pursuits of a shoemaker and 
farmer.
     Jacob Stutzman, father, was born in Franklin county in 1777, and died in 
Taylor township, this county, in 1859.  He was reared in Franklin county, and 
learned the trade of a shoemaker with his father, and when a young man came to 
Cambria county, seeking work along the line of his craft.  In those early 
pioneer days it was the custom of the trade to travel from house to house 
seeking employment, and it was while thus engaged that he became acquainted with 
a family by the name of Ulery, one of the daughters of which family he 
afterwards took as his wife.
     Jacob Stutzman was an industrious worker, and carefully husbanded his 
earnings and purchased a farm of two hundred and thirty-one acres, now known as 
Osborn, or the Seventh ward of the city of Johnstown.  He lived upon this 
homestead until 1853, when he sold it to his son Stephen, and removed to Taylor 
township and spent the remainder of his days with his son, Samuel Stutzman.  He 
married, when a young man, Susanna Ulery, and their marriage was fruitful in the 
birth of ten children: Daniel, Abraham, Jacob, John and David, all deceased; 
Elizabeth, deceased, was the wife of Abraham Weaver, now also deceased; Hannah, 
wife of George Knable; Susanna, wife of John Knable, deceased; Mary, who married 
the first time Samuel Berkey, and afterwards Christian Good, who is deceased; 
Samuel, a resident of Taylor township, and Stephen, the subject of this sketch.
     Stephen Stutzman was born on the old homestead, now known as Osborn, 
December 20, 1825. His advantages for securing an education were not to be 
compared with the advantages held out to the youth of that vicinity at the 
present day, with its brick building, carefully graded course of study and 
skilled teachers. On the other hand, the young Stutzman of three-quarters of a 
century ago secured his limited mental training in old log school-houses, and 
was taught usually by an incompetent set of teachers, who "boarded around." 
Being reared upon the farm, he naturally took to agricultural pursuits as a 
means of securing a livelihood.
     He farmed for his father a number of years. The latter, after considerable 
importuning on the part of Dr. Henry Yeagley, consented to sell the farm to the 
latter for $6000, whereupon young Stephen, seeing the old homestead about to 
pass from the family, made the proposition to buy it himself.
     The old gentleman was very much surprised at this manifestation of so great 
an amount of pluck on the part of his son, remarking that he did not see how he, 
the son, could pay for it; but Stephen persisted, and his father consented. This 
amount of money, in those days, was comparatively a much larger amount than it 
would be considered at the present day, and the undertaking foreshadowed that 
enterprising and thoroughgoing spirit in the young man which contributed so 
largely, in after years, to his success. He soon, however, sold the farm to 
George W. Osborn for $7000. With the surplus $1000 he made a down payment on a 
farm of one hundred and seventy-five acres in Upper Yoder township, for which he 
paid $3600. Upon that farm he lived, successfully pursuing the arts of husbandry 
until 1888, when he removed to Westmont, where he has since lived, enjoying the 
fruits of an industrious and honorable career.
     Mr. Stutzman is a republican, and served three years as tax collector of 
his township. He has always manifested a deep interest in the cause of popular 
education, and for eighteen years served as a member of the school board of his 
township.
     Religiously he is a devout and consistent member of the German Baptist 
Church.
     Mr. Stutzman has been twice married. His first marriage was in March, 1849, 
with Rachel Berkey, a daughter of Peter Berkey, of Somerset county, and resulted 
in the birth of the following children: Peter, an agriculturist of Taylor 
township; Sarah, wife of Aaron Strayer, of Morrellville; Franklin, a farmer of 
Upper Yoder township; Jacob S., also a farmer of the same township; Mary Jane, 
wife of Slater Allen, of Johnstown; Lovina and Lizzie, twins (Lovina is the wife 
of Dr. L. S. Livingston, of Johnstown; Lizzie, wife of Joseph D. Finley, of 
Glenford, Ohio); and William, a farmer of Upper Yoder township.
     Mr. Stutzman married as his second wife Mary Fyock, widow of the late 
Samuel Fyock, of Paint township, Somerset county, Pennsylvania.