BIO: Jacob SANCROFT, 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 859 & 860.
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  JACOB SANCROFT, a leading citizen of Cooper township, Clearfield county, Pa., 
where he was born on October 5, 1850, is a son of Sebastian and Mary (Schnider) 
Sancroft.
  Sebastian Sancroft was born in Crofen, Reinfeldt, Germany, December 12, 1812, 
and was about thirty-five years of age when he came to America in 1848.  He 
settled at Kylertown, Pa., and there found work at his trade - that of 
stonemason - and followed it during the greater part of his life.  He possessed 
a certain skill in handicraft and was useful to his family and neighborhood in 
many ways.  His death occurred November 18, 1875.  He married Mary Schnider, who 
was born March 16, 1816, and died May 7, 1884.  They had two children, Jacob and 
Catharine, the latter of whom lives on the old homestead.
  For a short time in his youth, Mr. Sancroft attended school at Kylertown.  
When seventeen years old he began to work in the timber and followed this 
occupation for twenty-five years, or up to 1883.  In the spring of this year he 
started in a restaurant business at Kylertown, but subsequently went from there 
to Munson, in Center county, where, for two years, he was in the hotel business.  
Later he leased a hotel - the Moshannon House - at Munson, which he conducted 
for eight years and two months, when he sold out his interests there and in 1904 
and came to Kylertown, where he purchased a hotel from Wilbur Hoover, which he 
now rents.  He is engaged in the real estate business, and owns a farm of fifty-
one acres, which he operates and which adjoins Kylertown, in which place he has 
other property.  Mr. Sancroft is justly proud of the fact that he has made his 
own way in the world, working hard, saving his money and never having one cent 
of borrowed money to return.
  In 1884 Mr. Sancroft was married to Miss Catherine Pontcer, a daughter of 
Joseph and Tressa (Harber) Pontcer, who came from Germany.  Joseph Pontcer was a 
lumberman and farmer, owned 150 acres of land and built two lumber mills.  Of 
his family of twelve children eleven still survive.  Three children have been 
born to Mr. and Mrs. Sancroft:  Fred, who was educated at the Lock Haven State 
Normal School; and Margaretta and Frances, the latter being named for her 
mother's oldest sister.  In politics Mr. Sancroft is a Democrat and is an active 
and influential member of his party.  He has worked hard and has always been 
accustomed to an active life and even now, when necessity no longer drives, is 
not contented unless occupied.  In every relation of life he has been a good 
citizen.  He was devoted to his parents, watched over their declining years and 
assumed all their indebtedness.  In times of trouble or disaster, he has been 
foremost in offering help in the way most appreciated.  He and family are widely 
known and highly esteemed and their home is the abode of comfort and 
hospitality.