BIO: William Thorp SCHRYVER, 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 777 - 779. _____________________________________________________________ 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.