BIO: William Thorp SCHRYVER, 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 777 - 779.
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  WILLIAM THORP SCHRYVER,* general farmer and representative citizen of Lawrence 
township, resides on his valuable farm of eighty acres, which lies four miles 
south of Clearfield, Pa.  He was born at Coal Range Forge, Center county, Pa., 
October 8, 1837, and is a son of Abraham Thorp and Rebecca (Wells) Schryver.
  Abraham Thorp Schryver was born in Osage county, N. Y., where he both attended 
and taught school.  Later he moved to Westmoreland county, Pa., and there 
studied medicine with Dr. John P. Hoyt and became a medical practitioner.  
During the entire subsequent period of life, while interested in many other 
directions, he kept up a desultory practice and enjoyed public confidence.  He 
was a man of inquiring and acquiring mind, not being content with mastering one 
profession, he enthusiastically investigated and studied others.  When the old 
Clearfield Academy was first built, he was one of the earliest teachers and it 
was Abraham Thorp Schryver who was responsible for the addition of geography and 
grammar to the public school curriculum in Clearfield county.  He was also an 
advanced mathematician and published a complete arithmetic when he was seventy-
eight years of age.  After his second marriage he moved to Beccaria Mill, 
Clearfield county, and in 1854 he was elected county superintendent of schools, 
with a salary of $300 per year.  After this election he settled on the farm on 
which his son William T. resides and lived here during the remaining years of 
his life.  After his first marriage he lived in East Freedom, Blair county, 
where he practiced medicine and remained there until the death of his first 
wife.  In his earlier years he was a Whig but accepted the principles of the 
Republican party as his own when that organization came into being.  With other 
leading men of his time, he was a Free Mason.  In his religious views he was a 
Baptist.
  Abraham Thorp Schryver was married first to Rebecca Wells and subsequently to 
her sister, Clara Wells.  They were daughters of John Wells, who was a justice 
of the peace in Beccaria township.  It was said of Rebecca Wells that she was 
the sweetest singer in Clearfield county.  Mrs. Schryver's two children, William 
and John, were born to his first union.  John died at the age of sixty-four 
years and was buried by the side of his parents in the Clearfield cemetery.  For 
years he had been bookeeper for a hardware firm at Clearfield.
  William T. Schryver attended school at East Freedom, in Blair county, taught 
by his father and later continued his studies in Clearfield county, but when 
fifteen years of age secured the position of teacher of the Plank school, for 
himself.  He found himself well qualified as a teacher and enjoyed the work and 
kept on teaching, in Beccaria township, Gordon township, Locust Ridge, in Pike 
township, four terms in Lawrence township and a term at Lumber City, where he 
had seventy-eight pupils.  He continued to teach, having a school at Penfield, 
in Huston township, one term in Union township and at the Williams School now in 
Beccaria township, aggregating eleven winters of teaching, while he had also 
conducted subscription schools for several terms.  In early days the father of 
Mr. Schryver, with his other interests, owned some 400 acres of timber which it 
was his purpose to cut and raft down the river.  He was unfortunate in his early 
ventures in this direction and finally abandoned this enterprise.  His sons 
learned rafting and in his early manhood, William T. was very skillful and 
dexterous in this line of work.  The New York Central Railroad and Big 
Clearfield Creek both run through the center of the farm and in old days this 
was a famous stopping place for raftsmen.  The farm is a very productive one and 
in the present season (1910).  Mr. Schryver has prospects of a record crop of 
corn.  The farm-house was erected by Mr. Schryver's father, a commodious 
carefully constructed dwelling.  In its building double two-inch pine planks 
were used, for which Mr. Schryver paid $4 per thousand feet.  With such 
excellent accommodations, William T. Schryver has found it profitable to open 
his residence for summer boarders, entertaining guests from June to September.  
They come year after year from long distances and he has made it possible to 
seat forty-eight guests at one dinner table, that number being on hand sometimes 
at the week end gatherings.  It may be mentioned that Mr. Schryver has in large 
measure inherited much of his late father's desire for knowledge and with his 
other acquirements, is master of the printer's trade.
  In 1862 Mr. Schryver was married to Miss Margaret P. Tyler, a daughter of 
David Tyler, Esq.  The father of Mrs. Schryver, with John Du Bois, was the first 
man to build slides for rafting on the river.  Two children were born to Mr. and 
Mrs. Schryver:  Emma, who is highly accomplished and is a teacher of music; and 
John, who is a skilled hard wood worker.  Both reside at home.  A severe 
domestic affliction fell on the family in the death of the beloved wife and 
mother, which occurred at the age of sixty-one years, from paralysis.  She was a 
lady of so many endearing qualities and lovable disposition that she was 
sincerely mourned in the community.  For years she had been an active member of 
the Methodist Episcopal church.  Later, Mr. Schryver was married to the 
estimable lady now his wife, formerly Miss Arabella P. Irwin, a daughter of 
Lewis Irwin, of Lawrence township.  Mr. and Mrs. Schryver are members of the 
Methodist Episcopal church, with which he united when fourteen years of age and 
to which he has regularly dedicated a part of his income.  Mr. Schryver is a 
member of the Rural Telephone Company of Lawrence township, of which his son, 
John Schryver, is president.