BIO: Herman Samuel Mac MINN, 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 924 - 930.
_____________________________________________________________ 

  HERMAN SAMUEL MAC MINN, civil engineer, who was one of the pioneer settlers of 
DuBois, Pa., where he has made his home since 1877, is a descendant of the 
oldest families of the Colony of Pennsylvania, his forbears on all lines of 
ancestry having emigrated to Pennsylvania before the Revolution.  The oldest on 
the maternal side (of German blood) came over with Pastorius, on invitation of 
William Penn, and settled at Germantown, near Philadelphia, August 16, 1682.  
The first on paternal side, was Angus Mac Calman, a boy of fourteen years of 
age, born in Argyleshire, Scotland, descended through the Calmans from the 
Buchanans, of Sterlingshire; the clan's possessions were situated on the south 
and eastern border of Locklomond.  Angus came to America early in the year 1744, 
just before the breaking out of war between England and France.  The manner of 
his coming at so early an age, and alone, was peculiar.  His father and uncle 
living together with their families, had charge of the Ferry across Lockawe.  
The timber on the mountains in that district was being cut and transported on 
boats to Belfast, Ireland.  At some act of his uncle, the high spirit of the boy 
took offence and he resolved to leave home and go to Ireland on one of the boats 
that was about to leave from the port of Bonawe.  Here the families had formerly 
lived, a few miles from Lockawe.  Once in Ireland, he fell in with the spirit of 
emigration (at fever heat at that time) to go to the Plantations, where there 
was great demand for laborers.  Crossing Ireland to one of the ports of 
embarcation he went on board vessel and after a long voyage arrived in 
Philadelphia, where he had no difficulty in finding an employer, a good home 
with a countryman from the "Lower Counties," where he was adopted for a number 
of years for his passage, remaining with his benefactor until grown to manhood, 
when he went to Chester County, and after a time he married Mary Evans, a 
daughter of one of the Welsh families settled in those parts.  His Gaelic name, 
difficult of pronunciation in English, changed gradually by phonetic spelling 
until assumed as at present.  Six children were born to them, three sons and 
three daughters, namely:  Samuel, James, John, Ann (married Thomas Edwards), 
Hannah (married Matthew Doyle), and Mary (married John Anthony Wolf, a sea 
captain).  Angus MacCalman followed farming, his wife died before the 
Revolution, while his children were yet young.  Angus, the father, married 
second, Mary Williams, also Welsh; their issue was two daughters.  Angus died in 
Delaware County, in 1804, and was buried in the Middletown township Presbyterian 
burying ground.
  Samuel MacMinn, his eldest son was born in the year 1757, was twenty years of 
age at the time of the battle of Brandywine, that could be heard plainly from 
where he lived, he became very expert as a marksman, and served in the 
Continental army under Washington during the New Jersey campaign.  On April 
19th, 1785, he married Christina Fields, daughter of William Fields, the 
ceremony was performed in Christ Church, in Philadelphia by the Rev. Bishop 
William White.  The Fields were of the English family from near Bradfrod, 
England, Christiana Field's mother was Mary Morris.  They were of the society of 
Friends; their home was near Coopertown, Delaware County.  Samuel MacMinn, for a 
number of years carried on farming for Mr. Charles Willing, financier and banker 
at the time of the Revolutionary war; the farm was located near Sugartown, 
Willistown township, Chester County.  Samuel and Christiana MacMinn had eight 
children, namely:  Albon, was a soldier in the War of 1814, in Captain John G. 
Wersler's company, 2nd Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, Light Infantry; he 
remained a bachelor.  Dorothy, married 1st, William Jackson; their descendants 
reside in Baltimore, 2nd, William Copeland, their descendants reside in 
Philadelphia.  John Ross, Samuel, Thomas (his wife was the daughter of Charles 
McLean, a soldier of the Revolution, was desperately wounded at the storming of 
Stony Point by General Anthony Wayne, on the night of July 16th, 1779).  Lydia 
married William Johnson; their descendants reside in Chester Valley, Nathan and 
Edward both died young.  Mary married George Williams, moved to Solon, Johnson 
County, Iowa.  Samuel MacMinn died August 8th, 1811, of cancer of the liver; he 
was buried in the old Revolutionary burying ground at Strafford, Chester County, 
where his name appears on the monument erected there to mark the burial place of 
several Revolutionary soldiers; his wife died Oct. 4th, 1850, aged eighty-seven 
years; she was buried in the Goodwill M. E. churchyard, West Nantmeal, Chester 
County.  John Ross MacMinn, their eldest son, grandfather of Herman S. MacMinn, 
was born in Willistown, Chester County, September 20th, 1792; he learned the 
trade of milling at the Gulf Mills, near Valley Forge; subsequently he operated 
the flouring and chocolate mills for John Black at Frankford, Philadelphia.  
Here he met and married his employer's niece, Mary Brown, the daughter of Abram 
Brown, born Oct. 1st, 1768, a descendant of Thomas Brown, an emigrant from 
Barking, Essex County, England.  He settled in Bucks County as early as 1712, 
his son Thomas Brown, Jr., became a minister among Friends; his declaration of 
intention of marriage with Elizabeth Davison, Feb. 7th, 1720, was the first made 
in Buckingham Quarterly Meeting.
   Rebecca Black, the wife of Abram Brown, born March 13th, 1772, granddaughter 
of Abraham Black, a Scotch-Irish emigrant from County Antrim, Ireland, who 
settled on Deep Run, Bucks County; his name appears third on a list of thirty-
five petitioners towards the organization of Bedminster township in March, 1741.  
Abram Brown died Oct. 14th, 1799, his wife, Rebecca Brown, died in Chester 
County, February 5th, 1829, and was buried in the Friends' burying ground at 
Marshalltown.  They had five children, two only had issue to survive.  Abraham, 
born March 6, 1797, married and settled near Grafton, in southern Illinois; has 
numerous descendants.
  Mary Brown, the youngest child of Abram and Rebecca Brown, grandmother of 
Herman S. MacMinn, was born April 11, 1799, in Buckingham, Bucks County.  John 
Ross MacMinn and Mary Brown, were married at the home of the bride's uncle, John 
Black, the 19th of November, 1818, by the Rev. John C. Murphy.  Their children 
were as follows, namely:  John Matthias, born August 23rd, 1819.  Anna Matthias, 
born July 19th, 1821, died Mar. 28th, 1824.  Reuben Myres, born Nov. 8th, 1823, 
died Oct. 14th, 1849.  Rebecca Brown, born Oct. 24, 1825, married to William 
Clark, of near Brandywine Springs, Delaware, Mar. 15, 1855; she died Feb. 9, 
1864; issue, four children - two sons and two daughters - live in Delaware.  
Samuel MacMinn, born Dec. 27, 1827, married, had one son, lives in Honey Brook, 
Chester County.  Samuel MacMinn died March 13, 1905.  Joseph Brown MacMinn, born 
April 2, 1830, died Sept. 14, 1833.  Lydia Ann MacMinn, born July 22, 1832, died 
Nov. 21, 1843.
  John Matthias MacMinn, was born at Milltown, Philadelphia.  At the age of 
eight years - on the first of April, 1828 - his father and family moves to 
Valley Creek, Chester County, where he had purchased a grist mill and farm; here 
he carried on the business of milling and farming for thirty-nine years.  John 
Matthias MacMinn was a student of nature; geology and botany were his favorite 
studies.  He attended the subscription schools of his day, and later on obtained 
an advanced education in the Friends' School in West Chester, taught by Joshua 
Hoopes, and at Unionville, Chester County, taught by Jonathan Gause, renowned 
instructors in those days.  Here he found companionship, mutual thought and 
touch with nature, with Bayard Taylor, afterwards famous traveler, lecturer, and 
minister of the United States at the Court of Berlin.  At the age of sixteen 
John Matthias MacMinn began teaching in his own home school.  It was at the 
beginning of the Public School System; for five years this was his main 
occupation.  While engaged in teaching in the neighborhood of Downingtown he 
became acquainted with the Pyle family, iron manufacturers.  Benjamin Pyle, a 
member of the family, was partner in the firm of Whittaker & Co., of the 
Washington Iron Works, Centre County.  This was in 1840.  Mr. MacMinn was 
offered the position of bookkeeper for the firm, which he accepted and continued 
with them for four years.  Mr. Pyle died and the firm failed, when Mr. MacMinn 
became interested in a tannery with James Hays, who, proving to be dishonest, 
Mr. MacMinn lost all he had saved and invested in the business.  He then went to 
Milesburg and engaged in teaching school which he continued for about four 
years, when he went into the lumber business in partnership with Samuel McKean, 
on the Moshannon, but by forest fires and a great flood in 1849 he lost all, 
which caused him great embarrassment for a little time, in 1850, he moved to 
Unionville six miles away, and took up civil engineering and located and 
constructed the Bald Eagle and Tyrone Plank Road, in length thirty-one miles, as 
engineer and superintendent until its completion, during this time he paid off 
all the claims held against him and acquired a comfortable home.  In September, 
1853, he removed with his family to Williamsport.  As an engineer, he has claims 
to be remembered, as his achievements were of large importance in this 
direction.  At Williamsport he took the position of first assistant to the chief 
engineer in the construction of the Sunbury & Erie Railroad.  He did much with 
his pen to promote the building of this road and that of the Tyrone & Loch Haven 
R. R., through the Bald Eagle Valley, being the chief engineer in its location.  
During sixteen years' residence in Williamsport he was promotor in other large 
contracts for the public good.  When he moved to Virginia, in October, 1869, 
here he bought a plantation near Norfolk, proposing to retire from professional 
work and spend his remaining years in comparative ease, but at once seeing the 
importance of procuring for the City of Norfolk one of its most needed 
utilities, a system of fresh water supply, he brought the matter before the 
people by his public writings and business meetings; its importance was at once 
seen and acted upon by appointing him chief engineer and general manager.  He 
lived to see his plans well under way, but the treacherous miasma in which his 
work was environed poisoned his system with malaria, fever followed rapidly and 
after a few days he died, on the eleventh of September, 1870.  His remains were 
taken to Williamsport, Penna., and buried in "Wildwood" that had been his 
masterpiece as a city of the dead.
  On October 15th, 1844, Mr. MacMinn was married to Miss Caroline Youngman, 
daughter of Elias P. Youngman and Amelia Antes, of Nippenose.  Amelia Antes was 
the daughter of Henry Antes, Jr., son of Colonel John Henry Antes, a patriot of 
the Revolution, and Ann Elizabeth Shoemaker, daughter of Henry Shoemaker of 
Muncy.  Her grandmother, the wife of Col. Antes, was Mary Paul the daughter of 
Jonathan Paul, of Philadelphia.  John Matthias MacMinn and Caroline Youngman had 
issue, four sons and three daughters, namely:  Joseph H. resides in 
Williamsport, Pa.; Charles Von Linnaeus, lives in Newberry, Williamsport; Herman 
S. of DuBois.  Edwin, pastor of the First Baptist church of Kearney, Nebraska; 
Mary, married to Isaac M. Grier, lives in Williamsport, Pa.; Caroline, widow of 
Stanley Mackey, resides in Philadelphia, and Benjamin F. in the same city.
  Herman Samuel MacMinn, was nine years old when he went to East Bradford, 
Chester County, to live with his grandparents, April 16, 1858.  He remained 
there for seven years when he returned to Williamsport.  He was educated in the 
common schools, Dickinson Seminary and Williamsport Business College, finding 
his talents and an inheritance from his father.  He worked under the latter 
supervision for four years, and was his father's assistant in the making of 
surveys and the first map of Wildwood Cemetery, at Williamsport.  He also worked 
from the bottom upward on the surveys, location and construction of the old 
Winslow Colliery Railroad, a length of 248 miles between Milton and Franklin, of 
which his father was chief engineer, becoming his assistant.  In the summer of 
1867, he spent three months on preliminary surveys in the Eastern Shore of 
Maryland, for the Baltimore & Potomac Railroad.  In March, 1870, going to 
Philadelphia, to accept a position as principal assistant engineer on the North 
Pennsylvania Railroad, in which he spent four years, at the end of that time he 
became assistant to the chief engineer on the Delaware and Bound Brook Railroad, 
from the Delaware River to Bound Brook, a distance of twenty-eight miles, in the 
state of New Jersey.  Mr. MacMinn then built the Trenton Branch of the same 
road, being engaged in this engineering enterprise for two and one half years.  
He then came to DuBois and for a year was in the employ of John DuBois, 
afterward, as division engineer on the construction of the Pittsburg and Lake 
Erie Railroad in charge of the western division.  Mr. MacMinn was, later, 
appointed general inspector of masonry and assistant engineer in the 
construction of the Pittsburg, Youngstown and Toledo Railroad, after the 
completion of this road he entered the employ of the Andrew Brothers, iron 
manufacturers of Youngstown, Ohio, and in their interest spent three months in 
the wilds of the northern Peninsula of Michigan examining some ore lands.  From 
there they sent him to the ore ranges in North Hastings County, Canada, where he 
discovered and opened up a small mining property, which proved to be small 
pocket of ore and was exhausted after about nine months operation.  Mr. MacMinn 
then went east to New York City in the interest of Mr. W. C. Andrews, to secure 
sites for the location of stations, for his steam plant which he was introducing 
for heating and power purposes in that city; this being accomplished, after a 
few weeks, Mr. MacMinn was sent again to Northern Michigan to explore some lands 
on the Marquette Range, and again on the Menominee Range, where considerable 
time was spent with Diamond Drills.  In the meantime Mr. Andrews had his steam 
system installed and put into practical operation, he obtained the privilege of 
laying the pipes on Fifth Avenue, when he sent for Mr. MacMinn to take charge of 
the new work as assistant engineer, this engaged his time for fifteen months, 
when the Kings County Elevated Railroad in Brooklyn had obtained their charter 
to construct that road on Fulton Avenue.  Mr. MacMinn was engaged in the 
location of the line from Fulton Ferry to East New York, a distance of about 
five miles.  This work required about fifteen months, and construction was 
commenced only to be delayed by injunction proceedings, this, by the way, only 
prevented the work from going forward, for about a year, when the injunction was 
dissolved by the court; however, at the beginning of the delay Mr. MacMinn left 
Brooklyn and returned to DuBois, when in a short time he was engaged by the 
Andrews Chapin & Co., of Youngstown, Ohio, and Duluth, Minnesota, to examine the 
iron ore ranges north of Lake Superior, those of Vermillion and Mesaba Ranges, 
and at the head waters of the Mississippi river.  After a year spent in these 
regions, through a winter when the mercury was as low as fifty-two degrees below 
zero, Fahrenheit, and the summer temperature very high, exposed to the 
tormenting poisonous bites of the insects and miasmic atmosphere of forests and 
marches, camping out and making long journeys in canoe, and tramping Indian 
trails after many months, which was making inroads of his hitherto robust 
constitution, he resolved to make a change.  The opportunity came unexpectedly, 
in the offer of a position as assistant engineer on the Chicago & North Western 
Railroad with headquarters at Madison, Wisconsin.  This appeared, on reflection, 
as a delightful change, and the offer was accepted.  The several roads in 
Wisconsin making up the division over which Mr. MacMinn was placed, included 800 
miles; careful semi-annual inspections were required, a great deal of new work 
was carried out, numbers of men employed, and separated at long distances, and 
being entirely unfamiliar with the road heretofore, it required great exertion 
and constant work, form sixteen to eighteen hours every day.  This was a task 
endured for nearly a year, when it became no longer endurable and Mr. MacMinn 
resigned his position and returned to DuBois, where he was engaged by Mr. John 
DuBois to make a survey of the DuBois estate, including nearly 20,000 acres in 
Clearfield County; also by Mr. A. C. of Lock Haven, for the survey of the Osborn 
Baum and Carrier lands, including several thousand acres in the vicinity of 
DuBois and Falls Creek.  During the time of this work and the years that 
followed, Mr. MacMinn was engaged almost constantly in various lines of work in 
his calling, in borough work, sewers, water supplies, town plots, and the 
location of the DuBois Electric Street Railway.  In the fall of 1896, Mr. 
MacMinn planned and located a private water supply for Mr. DuBois, one of the 
most complete to be found anywhere.  The length of the line is about two and one 
quarter miles; fifteen hundred and forty- two feet of this passes through a 
ridge of solid rock by a tunnel but four feet high by three feet wide; the work 
was started in November at both ends and worked continuously for five months 
(except Sundays).  But two men could work together on account of the contracted 
space.  The headings came together on Wednesday at noon April 21st, 1897.  A 
short distance below the tunnel a reservoir was constructed in a ravine, 
covering an area of two and two-thirds acres, containing 4,500,000 gallons, the 
water of the finest quality is obtained from fifteen springs and small streams 
flowing from the sandstone formation of Boons Mountain, nearly seventeen hundred 
feet above sea level, and conveyed through eighteen and twenty-inch vitrified 
pipe.  At the tunnel, which is sealed at both ends, the water is allowed to flow 
freely over the rock bottom which has a fall of but a quarter of an inch in 
every sixteen feet; at the end of the tunnel the water is again taken up and 
conveyed to the reservoir in a pipe.  Each tributary line of six-inch pipe has 
for its inlet a small reservoir, receiving-box, arranged with settling basin, 
trap and screens to prevent any floating substance from entering the line, along 
the main line at several places are sediment basins.  Each inlet reservoir is 
carefully fenced with wire to prevent any approach to the water.  From the main 
reservoir the water is conveyed to the town a distance of about three miles.  In 
May and June of 1896, Mr. MacMinn made a survey for a railway line from DuBois 
to Centreville over Boons Mountain, a distance of eighteen miles, to determine 
the feasibility of reaching the timber tracts Mr. DuBois owned on Hicks Run in 
Elk and Cameron Counties; this project was abandoned and it was determined 
subsequently, to build up that stream from its mouth, Mr. MacMinn making the 
reconnoisance of this Route in April, 1902, from which he followed it up with 
the location.  To reach the distant lines of the several timber tracts several 
switch back tracks have been required, and the removal of the timber has been 
progressing since that time.  The almost constant demand for some manner of work 
has deprived Mr. MacMinn of times usually allowed as vacation and recreation has 
been of rare occurrence with him, the only one of which he can recall with any 
degree of satisfaction was a trip to the Pacific Coast in the summer of 1891, 
occupying three months time.  Mr. MacMinn made the study of geology and 
mineralogy a pastime and his collection is on a large scale, his opportunities 
for collecting curios appealed to his fancy and these are in great number, along 
with his interest in Indian relics, compose a museum full of varied interest.  
The gathering together of all this collection was but the passing of many hours 
in strange lands and in the wilderness, away from home and friends, in an 
agreeable and contented frame of mind, and with it all his life has been a busy 
and useful one.
  H. S. MacMinn was married first to Miss Mary Louisa Fowler, a niece of John 
DuBois, in Christ Church, Williamsport, Pa., November 23rd, 1875; she died 
without issue February 28th, 1894.  Mr. MacMinn married secondly January 1st, 
1869, Miss Cora F. Fisher, a daughter of William P. Fisher, of Unionville, 
Centre County, Pa.  They have two children:  Marjorie and Dorathea.  Mr. MacMinn 
first united with the Dutch Reformed Church, at Seventh and Spring Garden 
Streets, Philadelphia, in the year 1870, after coming to DuBois he and his wife 
united with the Presbyterian Church, his present wife is a member of the Society 
of Friends, of the Baltimore Yearly Meeting.  In politics Mr. MacMinn is a 
Republican and is now a member of the School Board and of the Building 
Committee.  The family residence is on the corner of DuBois Avenue and Fourth 
Street, DuBois.