BIO: James Frank McFARLANE, Clearfield County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Banja & Sally Copyright 2005. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/clearfield/ NOTE: Use this web address to access other bios: http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/clearfield/1picts/swoope/swoope.htm _____________________________________________________________ From Twentieth Century History of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, and Representative Citizens, by Roland D. Swoope, Jr., Chicago: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, 1911, page 498. _____________________________________________________________ JAMES FRANK McFARLANE, one of the leading citizens of Utahville, Pa., postmaster at this point and ticket, freight and express agent for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and also justice of the peace, was born July 18, 1869, at Utahville, and is a son of Simon and Sarah J. (Clark) McFarlane. Simon McFarlane was born in Scotland in 1830. His parents remained in Scotland, and some of his brothers went to Australia. He came to America when twenty years of age and lived for one year in the State of Maine, living at Bangor, and from there made his way to Williamsport, Pa., where he engaged in cutting square timber and rafting logs. He married there in 1858 and then came to Clearfield county and engaged in lumbering and in the mercantile business at Utahville and followed lumbering until his death in 1903. This was accidentally caused by an act of heroism, in an attempt to save a nephew from death from a boiler explosion, both being killed. At Williamsport he married Sarah J. Clark, who was a daughter of John Clark, a well known early settler, and she survived until 1895, dying in her fifty-eighth year. Four sons and four daughters were born to this marriage, namely: William A., who died in 1879, aged twenty years; Carrie C., who lives at Utahville; Harry C., who also lives at Utahville; May, who is employed in a bank at Coalport; James F.; Lillie, who is the wife of Frank Caldwell, of Utahville; Florence, who is the wife of James Edelbute, of Utahville, and John, who died in 1898. James F. McFarlane was mainly educated in the local schools, in addition to having a course at the Williamsport Commercial College, after which he followed lumbering with his father, and after the latter's death continued in the same line up to 1909 and still owns a saw-mill. He conducted a store from 1905 until January 1, 1911. For nearly six years he has been agent for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and is serving in his second term as justice of the peace, having been first elected in 1905. He is a Republican in politics, and since July, 1905, has been postmaster. Mr. McFarlane was married in June, 1902, to Miss Bessie Croyle, who was reared on a farm near Utahville, a daughter of William and Ida Croyle. Mr. and Mrs. McFarlane have two children, Raymond S. and Thelma A. They belong to the Methodist Episcopal church, Mr. McFarlane being a trustee of the same. He is identified with Coalport Lodge No. 576, F. & A. M., and with Mt. Pleasant Grange of Utahville. He has spent all his life at this place with the exception of three years in Pittsburg and a short season in Williamsport, and his family and property interests all center here.