BIO: George Dale WOMER, 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 820 & 821. _____________________________________________________________ GEORGE DALE WOMER, the genial proprietor of the Avondale Park Hotel, which was the first public house erected at Winburne, Pa., was born in Blair county, Pa., January 3, 1868, and is a son of Emanuel and Ellen (Kennedy) Womer. Emanuel Womer was born in Blair county in 1838, a son of George Womer, of German descent. He was a forgeman and blacksmith, at which trade he worked for twenty-eight years. For thirty-nine years he has been a resident of Morrisdale, where he was one of the first settlers. In 1861 he enlisted for service in the Civil war and remained a soldier until its close, when he was honorably discharged in 1865, his whole period of service covering four years and three months. He was fortunate enough to escape serious injury, although he participated in many battles. He is a valued member of the G. A. R. Post at Philipsburg, Pa. For three years he has lived retired, his home continuing to be at Morrisdale. He married Ellen Kennedy, daughter of Alexander Kennedy, an early settler in Blair county. She died in 1903, at the age of sixty-four years. They had the following children: Alexander, an engineer, living at Philipsburg; George Dale; Charles, an engineer, who lives at Morrisdale; Agnes, who is the wife of William Hawkins, of Morrisdale; Myrtle, who died at the age of thirty-one years; Clark, who has charge of a shoe store at St. Mary's, for the firm of Hall & Kaul; Margaret, who died unmarried at the age of twenty-eight years; and Ellen, who lives with her father. George Dale Womer was three years old when his parents came to Clearfield county and was reared and educated at Morrisdale. He conducted a butchering business at his first independent enterprise and was then elected constable and served eight years as constable in Morris township, and proved a very efficient officer. He first embarked in the hotel business in 1899, at Grass Flats, where he remained for two and one-half years, then sold and bought the Morrisdale Hotel, which he conducted for six years. After selling that property he went to Wilkesbarre, where he went into a wholesale whiskey business, which he sold eighteen months later and on November 1, 1909, bought the Avondale Park Hotel at Winburne, which he has conducted ever since. This hotel is beautifully situated in a park of pine, locust and hemlock trees. Mr. Womer had put it in the best of condition and has all modern comforts and appliances, including steam heat, hot and cold water and electric lights. He offers to his many satisfied patrons an excellent table, comfortable sleeping rooms and attentive service, all at a reasonable price. In 1895 Mr. Womer was married to Miss Janet Mason, a daughter of John and Jane Mason, of Morrisdale, where she was born and reared. They have one son, a bright, intelligent school boy of fourteen years. Mr. Womer is identified fraternally with the Red Men, the Knights of Pythias, the Jr. O. A. M. and the Elks. In politics he is a Democrat. In addition to his hotel property he owns thirty-eight acres of richly cultivated land, where he raises all his own vegetables and poultry and also keeps cows in order to supply his hotel with fresh cream and butter. Mr. Womer is a self-made man in the sense that through his own industry and good judgment he has brought about his present prosperity.