BIO: William Ellis IRWIN, Centre County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by JO Copyright 2009. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/centre/ http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/centre/1picts/commbios/comm-bios.htm _____________________________________________________________________ Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania: Including the Counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion: Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens, Etc. Chicago: J. H. Beers, 1898. _____________________________________________________________________ WILLIAM ELLIS IRWIN, a well-known progressive business man of Philipsburg, Centre county, prominently identified with insurance interests, was born February 23, 1834, in Clearfield county, where his family have long held a noted place. Until the age of fifteen Mr. Irwin attended the academy in Clearfield borough, and then, finding employment at a sawmill, he began the serious work of gaining a livelihood. After a time he entered the Howard Iron Works, in Centre county, where his uncle was iron master, spending ten years in the employ of that firm. The Civil war breaking out, Mr. Irwin responded to his country's need, on September 13, 1862, enlisting in Company L, 5th P.V.C., afterward reorganized as Company E. His regiment was, after three months' drilling at Carlisle Barracks in Pennsylvania, assigned to the Army of the Cumberland, later to the Army of the Tennessee, and Mr. Irwin took part in a number of important battles, including those of Antietam and Murfreesboro, or Stone River. He spent one year in the field, and was then detailed in the quartermaster's department, with which he was connected until May 1, 1866. While at Nashville, Tenn., in 1864, he voted for Abraham Lincoln. On his return home Mr. Irwin engaged in a general mercantile business at Philipsburg, which he gave up in 1875 to enter the lumber trade. His connection with the fire insurance dates back to 1887, and at present he represents various well-established companies in fire, life, plate glass and accident. He is a charter member of the Steam Heat Co., of the Electric Light Co., and of the "Philipsburg Water Co." - in fact, is interested in all enterprises calculated to benefit the city and community at large. As a citizen his intelligence and genial manners have won him many sincere friends. He takes great interest in school affairs, and has been a director for many years. It is said that some one lately told Gov. Hastings that William E. Irwin, and another in the county, "ought to receive a life pension for their activity on the school board." His political allegiance was from the first given to the Republican party, and he is still an unwavering supporter of its principles. Socially, he has been a Freemason since 1868, affiliated with Moshannon Lodge No. 391, of Philipsburg, has filled all the chairs as a Master Mason, and was secretary of the lodge sixteen years. On June 15, 1869, Mr. Irwin married Miss Susannah H. Tussey, a native of Canoe Valley, Huntingdon Co., Penn., and they have three children: (I) Frank F. married Miss Cora Minniam Row, and has one child - William Ellis Row Irwin; (2) Dorothy Harnish is the wife of C. B. Holly, and has one child - Harold Irwin Holly; and (3) H. Ruth is at home. As has been said, Mr. Irwin is a descendant of a pioneer family of Clearfield county. His great-grandfather, John Irwin, Sr., came from Ireland in 1774, accompanying his widowed mother and two brothers, Matthew and Nathaniel, all three of whom located in Washington county, Penn., after a short residence in Pittsburg. John Irwin, Sr., settled in Centre county, and although he was by trade a shoemaker he followed agriculture until his death, which occurred April 29, 1829. He was married in Chester county, Penn., to Miss Sarah Iddings, and had four children: William, who died in Centre county; John, Jr., mentioned below; Isabella, who died at the age of sixty, and Sarah, who died in 1865. John Irwin, Jr., our subject's grandfather, came to Centre county as a young man, from his early home in Chester county, and there located and improved a farm; he also manufactured shoes at Bellefonte for a time. He was married in Centre county to Mary Fisher, daughter of William Fisher, a gentleman of large property and great influence in that section, probably of English birth. Nine children were born of this union, as follows: Hannah, who married William Way; Ellis, who married Hannah Iddings; John, who married Anna Linn; Sarah, who married Thomas Brooks; William F., who married Susan Antes; Malissa, who married Lewis Hagerman; James, who married Matilda Trumbell; Martha A., who married James C. Williams; and Mary J., who married Augustus Ryman. Ellis Irwin, the eldest son of John and Mary (Fisher) Irwin, and father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Bald Eagle Valley, Centre COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 417 Co., Penn., near Bellefonte, June 17, 1805, and is still living in good health, with the exception of an affection of the lower limbs which followed an attack of "La Grippe" a few years ago. He was educated at Bellefonte Academy, and spent much of his time in his youth working upon the homestead and in the shoe factory. For four years he carried the United States mail through the mountains on horseback. On January 10, 1827, he married Hannah Iddings, a lady of great intelligence and worth, and a daughter of John and Ann (Carroll) Iddings. On her mother's side she was related to Charles Carroll, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Eight children were born of this union: (I) Lewis died in 1882; (2) John F. is a druggist in Clearfield; (3) Mary and (4) Henrietta are at home; (5) William E. is our subject; (6) Joseph R. is a druggist at Curwensville; (7) Malissa died of heart trouble December 11, 1862, aged twenty-seven years; and (8) James died January 3, 1853, of scarlet fever, aged eleven years. In February, 1881, after a wedded life of more than fifty years, Mrs. Ellis Irwin passed to the other world, leaving many mourners outside the family circle, upon whom the loss fell the heaviest. The early ancestors of the Irwin family were Quakers, and subsequent generations have held tenaciously to the same beautiful and inspiring faith. Ellis Irwin has always been an adherent of the Society, and among the reforms advocated most zealously by him was that of the abolition of slavery, upon which the Quakers spoke out boldly when others were as yet silent. In political affiliations he was first a Whig, later a Republican, and he gave every possible aid to the Union cause during the Civil war, sending three sons to the field of battle, all of whom returned safely. In financial lines he has been an able and successful worker. Soon after his marriage he began farming on his own account, and in 1829 moved to Clearfield county, buying a farm at Grampian Hills (now in Penn township), and four years later engaged in the hotel business at Curwensville, remaining three years. In 1835 he was appointed to the office of prothonotary, register, recorder, and clerk of the courts in Clearfield, to fill a vacancy, and at the end of the term was elected for a full term of three years. In 1838 he engaged in mercantile business in Clearfield. In 1840 he was appointed postmaster there; in 1843 he was elected sheriff for a term of three years, and in these as in other positions of public trust he served with ability and faithfulness. In 1850 he purchased a large tract of land in Goshen township, Clearfield county, to which he added until he owned at one time some three thousand acres. This estate he has developed, with energy and judgment, with mills, farms and other improvements, and the population of the locality is now so large that a post office, known as Lick Run Mills, was established there mainly through his influence. Since 1872 he has been postmaster at Lick Run Mills.