BIO: George W. SMYERS, 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 440. _____________________________________________________________ GEORGE W. SMYERS, proprietor of the G. W. Smyers planing mill and retail lumber yard, situated on Daly Street, DuBois, Pa., has been a resident of this borough since 1900 and is one of the representative business men of the place. He was born on a farm in Jefferson County, Pa., November 10, 1863, and is a son of Daniel and Elizabeth (Kerr) Smyers. Daniel Smyers was not a native of Jefferson County but was small when he accompanied his father, also Daniel Smyers, to that section, where he grew to manhood and where he still lives. He followed the cabinetmaking trade for forty years and also for many years conducted a planing mill at Big Run, where he makes his home. He married Elizabeth Kerr, who died in 1890, and they had eight children, namely: George W.; Benjamin; Anna, who married Clark Brooks; Lucinda, who married Joseph Williams; Lawrence; Haddie, who married B. Coleson; and Charles and Janet. George W. Smyers attended the country school near his father's farm in early boyhood but as soon as he was old enough he went to work in the planing mill. He discovered that he had a taste and talent for this work and before he was more than a boy he had already become a wood turner with skill equal to that of a more experienced mechanic. In his father's factory he had valuable experience and afterward was employed at Pittsburg, Philadelphia and other points, in every shop being made a foreman after a month's work. From Punxatawney, Pa., where he was foreman for the Reese and Rodgers Company, he came to DuBois and he and Mr. Rodgers built the present planing mill, a small shop being the beginning of the business, and in a few years Mr. Rodgers retired. Then C. A. McDonald was admitted as a partner but later he withdrew in order to engage in the hotel business and since then Mr. Smyers has been alone. From time to time he has enlarged his plant until it is an important one in this line, giving employment to fifteen men while the product is sash, doors, blinds and all kinds of building material. Mr. Smyers is a practical business man and keeps fully abreast with the times. On December 30, 1886, Mr. Smyers was married to Miss Mamie Kelley, a daughter of Robert and Agnes (Barr) Kelley and a granddaughter of John S. Barr, once sheriff of Jefferson County. Mr. and Mrs. Smyers have five children: Von, LaRue, Wilda, Vere and Bernard. They attend the United Presbyterian church. The family home is at No. 400 Daly Street, DuBois, and Mr. Smyers owns other real estate. He is a Republican in politics and is fraternally identified with the Masons, belonging to the Blue Lodge at DuBois and the Chapter at Philadelphia, and with the Knights of the Golden Eagle, at Punxatawney.