BIO: William H. RADEBAUGH, 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, pages 606 & 607. _____________________________________________________________ WILLIAM H. RADEBAUGH, proprietor of a truck garden of nine acres and justice of the peace in Lawrence township, was born October 21, 1845, in Clearfield, Pa., and is a son of John S. and Mary Ann (Millan) Radebaugh. John S. Radebaugh was born in Mifflin, Mifflin county, Pa., and in 1816 came to Clearfield, Pa., there being at that time but thirteen houses in the village. He owned several properties here and engaged extensively in the lumber business, buying in partnership with William Powell, a tract of 10,000 acres on Moose Creek in Lawrence township, and in 1852 they built the first road to Moose Creek. In 1855 he sold his residence to H. B. Swoope and moved his family to Wayne county, Ohio, where they resided one year. He subsequently lived one year in Tyrone, Pa., where he operated a shoe shop and store, in which he employed five men. In 1857, while crossing the Allegheny Mountains, he bought the Sandy Ridge Hotel, but after conducting it for one year, he rented and ran the Copeland Hotel on the top of the Allegheny Mountains until 1858, at which time he moved to Philipsburg, where he had charge of the old Runk Hotel until the spring of 1861. Mr. Radebaugh then bought a hotel at Blue Ball, Clearfield county, Pa., and erected a large hotel and store, which he operated for seven years. He disposed of his goods to R. Mossipp, and his real estate to John Copehaver of Center county, and then moved to Philipsburg, and six months later went to Cory, Erie county, Pa., where he bought and operated a hotel for a time. He moved thence to St. Mary's, Elk county, Pa., where he worked as a butcher one year and six months, and at that time came to Penfield, Huston township, and after residing here little over two years, operated the Burns Hotel of Reynoldsville one year. He purchased seven acres of land where the hospital now stands, then went to Penfield, Pa., where he resided until the time of his wife's death on December 13, 1877. After that Mr. Radebaugh made his home with the children, and on his 81st birthday boarded a train to come and see his son, William, the subject of this record. He had taken the wrong train, which compelled him to walk one and a half miles, and being extremely deaf, he was run down and killed by a freight train near Fall Creek. John S. Radebaugh was married in 1840 to Mary Ann Millan, who came from Ireland at the age of thirteen years, and their union resulted in the following issue: James William; Hileand R., a resident of Edinburg, Clarion county, Pa., who served in the Civil war; Sophia E., the wife of Dr. J. H. Kline, of Huston township; Amanda H., deceased, who was the wife of F. C. Bowman; William H., John H., who married a Miss Cress of Ridgway; Ellsworth D., who was accidentally killed on the railroad near Hyde City while driving a team; and Bertha, who is the wife of Afton Rodabecker. Mr. and Mrs. Radebaugh were both buried at Penfield, Pa. He was politically a strong abolitionist, and attended the Lutheran church, while his wife was a member of the Presbyterian church. William H. Radebaugh obtained his education in the public schools of Clearfield, Pa., and in 1856 began working in the hotel operated by Dan Weaver. He then went to Sandy Ridge, where he remained until 1858, then took charge of his father's team (in 1862) and hauled merchandise across the Allegheny mountains. He also hauled lumber to Alexander, Huntingdon county, where he traded for produce, and in 1865 removed to Huston township and learned the blacksmith trade with Joseph Ruple, in whose employ he remained one and a half years. He then worked in a shop at Cursey Run, Elk county, Pa., for William Woodard, and after his marriage in 1868 resided for seven years in Penfield, where he worked as a blacksmith and lumber jobber. In 1872 he moved to Glen Hope, where he ran a hotel for eighteen months, when owing to bad luck and the loss of horses, he came to Clearfield, and in March, 1874, purchased a lot and built a house and blacksmith shop. He subsequently came to his present place, which is the James Leonard place, and has lived here thirty-three years continuously since that time. On December 24, 1868, Mr. Radebaugh married Almeda Brown, a daughter of Austin Brown of Huston township, and their union were born four children, namely: Annie, who is the wife of John Rothrock, a conductor on the B., R. & P. Railroad, and resides in Bradford City, McKean county, Pa.; Gertrude M., a graduate of the Central State Normal School, of Lock Haven, Pa., who taught school successfully for nine terms, and is now the wife of Fred E. Rimer, a mail carrier of DuBois, Pa.; J. L., who is the owner and proprietor of a drug store at Bradford City, and married Myrtle Moore, a daughter of George Moore; and Fred M., who is now deceased. In 1871, Mr. Radebaugh joined the Knights of Pythias, which was the first lodge organized in Clearfield county, and in 1872 he joined the United American Mechanics. He is also a member of the Grange, and was formerly a member of the I. O. O. F. until 1879. Mr. Radebaugh is politically a Democrat, and was elected justice of the peace on that ticket in 1909, when he received all the Democratic votes but one. He has been a member of the M. E. Church of Clearfield since 1875.