BIO: T. Jeff BLOOM, Clearfield County, PA
 
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From Twentieth Century History of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania,
and Representative Citizens, by Roland D. Swoope, Jr.,
Chicago: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, 1911, pages 485 - 487.
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  T. JEFF BLOOM, contractor, builder and millwright, was born March 31, 1844, on 
the farm of 160 acres which he owns and occupies and which lies one and one-half 
miles east of the center of Curwensville, Pike township, Clearfield county, Pa.  
He is a member of one of the prominent and substantial pioneer families of the 
county, a great-grandson of William Bloom, a grandson of William Bloom (2), and 
a son of Isaac Bloom.
  Great grandfather William Bloom was born in Hunterdon county, N. J., and was 
of German parentage.  He served for six years under General Washington in the 
Continental Army and continued his military life until the colonies had attained 
independence.  He married a Miss Clover, of New Jersey, and their eldest son was 
born on the day of the battle of Monmouth, in which the young father 
participated.  Some time prior to 1798, William Bloom and family traveled by ox-
team to Center county, Pa., and from there, in 1801, to Clearfield county.  He 
cleared up a small tract of land near the present borough of Curwensville, in 
Pike township, which is now called Peewees' Nest.  Owing to some 
misunderstanding about the ownership of this land, he waived his claim and moved 
to the Col. Irvin place, on the west branch of the Susquehanna River.  By that 
time some of his children were married, and they established their own homes on 
or near the river, although a large part of the country was nothing but a 
wilderness, with Indians numerous and hostile.  There were no roads, the county 
not yet having been organized, and such conditions prevailed that only men and 
women of courage and endurance could have been content to make so wild a region 
their home.  William Bloom and wife had eleven children born to them, namely:  
Isaac, William, John, Abraham, Benjamin, James, Peter, Annie, Sarah, Nancy, and 
Mary.
  William Bloom, son of William, and grandfather of T. Jeff Bloom, was born in 
New Jersey, in 1780.  He married Mary Roll, of Clarion county, Pa., and they had 
ten children, namely:  Hannah, Sarah, Mary, Jane, Mrs. Irvin Thayerson, Isaac, 
John, David, Harrison and Eli.  After his marriage, William Bloom lived in Pike 
township, where the farm then included 500 acres, 168 of which he cleared, 
beginning with nine acres, which he immediately started to cultivate.  He then 
erected a large log house, big enough to accommodate his own growing family and 
also to offer hospitality to the traveling public that was then passing over the 
Meads road on the way farther west.  He had a fine trade and was a shrewd 
business man, as was evidenced by his moving to a part of his farm which was 
adjacent to the newly constructed Erie turnpike road.  For years he conducted a 
hotel near where Mr. Porter now resides, in Pike township.  He was a very 
robust, well proportioned man and had a corresponding strong constitution, 
living to be ninety-two years of age, dying in 1872.  He was a Jacksonian 
Democrat and was elected to many public offices.  He was constable when the 
township had but sixty-two voters, later was sheriff of Clearfield county.  
Having a cash fortune of $30,000 he was considered the wealthiest man in 
Clearfield county.  His wife lived to be seventy years old.  They are both 
buried in McClure's cemetery, where the ashes of the pioneers of the family also 
repose.
  Isaac Bloom was born in 1813, on the present Bloom farm, in Pike township.  
Three months of school attendance covered all the educational advantages he ever 
had, but nevertheless he became a successful business man and one whose judgment 
was often consulted concerning public matters.  He resided on the present farm 
until within a few years of his death, when he retired to Curwensville, where he 
passed away in 1864, at the age of fifty-two years.  His burial was in the Oak 
Hill cemetery.  He was a strong Democrat and probably at that time the Bloom 
family held the voting power in Clearfield county, on account of their numbers 
and about all of them being Democrats.  In 1848 he was elected treasurer of 
Clearfield county and for many years he was a justice of the peace in Pike 
township.  He married Leah Hoover, who was born in 1816, a daughter of George 
Hoover.  She died in 1879, at the age of sixty-two years.  They were most 
excellent people in every relation of life, setting an admirable example to 
their thirteen children, whom they reared in the faith of the Presbyterian 
church.  Of this family, T. Jeff Bloom was the sixth in order of birth, the 
others being:  Cortez, Miles, Henrietta, Jane, Hannah, Flora, Belle, Mary, 
Annie, Blanche, Robert and Walter.
  T. Jeff Bloom was seven years old when he began attending school at 
Curwensville, and he continued to live there until 1880.  For ten years 
following his marriage he was in the contracting business at Curwensville, 
combined with building.  He has done an immense amount of work along this line.  
For three years he did all the contracting at Patton, Cambria county, where he 
erected all the buildings.  He estimates that he has done as much as $500,000 
worth of contracting since he started into business.  Among the numerous 
structures he has contracted for and built, is the handsome Curwensville 
National Bank.
  In 1868 Mr. Bloom was married to Miss Rosa Thompson, who is a daughter of J. 
W. and Annie Eliza (Wilson) Thompson, and they have had nine children, namely:  
Frank P., Ralph, Grace, Charles, Dean, Walter, Henrietta, Seth and Thompson.  Of 
the above, Ralph, Charles, Walter and Thompson are all deceased.
  Mr. Bloom retired to his farm in 1880, where he has done a large amount of 
improving.  There are still some old landmarks left of his grandfather's time, 
but his handsome, modern residence he erected himself, and has added other 
substantial buildings.  This place is richly underveined with coal and an open 
mine, which has an output of 200 tons of fine coal daily, exceeding the mines of 
his neighbors who work their mines with such an output monthly, is a comfortable 
source of wealth.  His residence and mine both are on the Ferncliff branch of 
the B. R. & P. Railroad, making transportation easy.  This fine mine is leased 
by the Clearfield-Collier Company, of Clearfield, Pa., Mr. Bloom receiving a 
handsome royalty.  He is interested also in some 5,000,000 feet of hemlock 
timber, and has additional interests in financial concerns.  Like other members 
of his family, Mr. Bloom is a Democrat and is one of the leading factors of the 
party councils in the county and at times has attended state conventions as a 
delegate and has also held a number of township offices.  He attends and 
contributes to the Baptist church, of which Mrs. Bloom is a member.  Fraternally 
he is identified with the Order of the Moose and has taken many of the degrees 
in the Knights of Pythias organization.