Clearfield County PA Archives - Photos: MOYER, Peter Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Ellis Michaels, , Oct 2008 Copyright 2008. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/clearfield/ ________________________________________________ http://files.usgwarchives.net/pa/clearfield/photos/moyer-peter.txt Photo may be viewed at: http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/clearfield/photos/moyer-peter.jpg Peter Moyer and Grandson, leading citizen of Clearfield County photo scanned from Roland D. Swoopes "Twentieth Century History of Clearfield County, PA and Representative Citizens", published 1911, page 971 (xiii) PETER MOYER, one of the old and honored residents of Kylertown, Pa., who is now living retired after many years of business activity, is a native of Germany, having been born in Geiselberg, Bavaria, July 29, 1840, a son of Adam and Eva (Ardinger) Moyer, natives of the Fatherland. In 1853 Adam Moyer came to America, and made his way from New York City to Clearfield county, settling in Rush township, near the Moshannon Creek, one mile from Winburne. Although a stone mason by trade, he worked in the woods and soon earned sufficient money to send to Germany for his family who came to the United States in 1855. Later he purchased a small farm in Center county, but later traded this for his son's interest in a Graham township property. He later sold out and spent the remainder of his life in Philipsburg. He and his wife had the following children: Adam, who came to this country one year after his father and is now a wealthy retired resident of Philipsburg, having for more than thirty years been a speculator; Peter; Henry, who enlisted in the Union army at Bellefonte, Pa., and died during the Civil war; Michael, who is engaged in farming at Knox Run; Jacob, who has mining interests in Montana; Philip, who is a farmer of Clinton county; Gottlieb, who is a successful fruit grower of California; John, who was the only child born in America; Elizabeth, deceased, who was the wife of Jacob May; Catherine, who married Jacob Meisenbach and now resides at LaSalle, Ill.; and one daughter who died in infancy. The father died at the age of seventy-seven years, his wife having passed away in 1874, when about sixty-two years of age. They are buried in Kylertown. Peter Moyer was about sixteen years of age when he accompanied the family to this country, and from New York they traveled over night to Philadelphia and thence to Tyrone, where they arrived about ten o'clock. They then walked over the mountain, a distance of about thirty miles, and twelve o'clock at night found them at the little home near Munson. As a boy, Mr. Moyer had gathered dead wood iu the forests of Germany, where the law provided that nothing else could be taken, and here he was delighted to find that there was an abundance of good wood, open and free to whoever cared to take it. He worked with his father on the home farm, and spent his spare time in fishing from the banks of the Moshannon Creek, and when but eighteen years of age was considered an expert pilot in the rafting business, which he took up after he had attained his majority, rafting timber to Lock Haven and Middletown. In about 1870, Mr. Moyer located in Kylertown, where he started a small store, keeping confections at first, and later branching out into the grocery and general store business. During the twenty-five years he was engaged in business in this part of the state he started branch stores at Morrisdale, Stonedale and Mitchell's Mill on Clearfield Creek, owning the latter at the time that the Beech Creek Railroad was under course of construction. He was for a time in partnership with William Root, and later with John W. Howe, to whom he disposed of his branch stores, and in 1890 he sold his Kylertown establishment to O. P. Reese. Mr. Moyer has always been liberal in assisting those who have been less fortunate than he, and more than one successful man of this county can thank him for their start in life. During the fifty-six years that he has been a resident of this vicinity he has seen many changes take place, and he has assisted materially in the growth and development of Clearfield county. One of his earliest recollections dates back to a Fourth of July during his youth, when his father gave the children permission to do whatever they felt inclined. Young Peter took two wooden pails and went to the hills to pick huckleberries, and after filling the buckets he carried them six miles to Philipsburg, where he sold them for two dollars and twenty cents and had to walk eight miles home after his marketing. Although advanced in years, Mr. Moyer is still hale and hearty, and he can look back over a useful, well-spent life. In 1867 Mr. Moyer was united in marriage to Miss Mary E. Adams, of Montour county, Pa., and three children have been born to this union: Mary E., who died at the age of three years; a son who died in infancy; and Daniel Adams. Mrs. Moyer died April 12, 1906, and is buried at Kylertown. Peter Moyer is a member of Allport Lodge, I. O. O. F., Morrisdale Lodge, Knights of Pythias, and Allport Lodge of the Golden Eagles. In his religious views he is a Presbyterian. Politically Mr. Moyer is a Democrat, and probably there is no man in Cooper township who is better versed in public matters and conditions. He has been active in politics all of his life, serving two years as tax collector when Cooper and Morris townships were known as Morris township, and after the separation serving nine years in Cooper township in the same capacity. He was elected on the Democratic ticket, in a township that was strongly Republican. He also served as overseer of the poor, and as treasurer, auditor and school director at various times. Daniel Adams Moyer, the son of Peter Moyer, was born in Kylertown, and his educational advantages were secured in the schools at this place. As a lad he assisted his father in the duties of the latter's store, and later engaged in agricultural operations, in which he continued for a period covering fifteen years. Since December 1, 1909, he has been in the employ of the Bloomington Trading Company, of Winburne, and he also with his father owns a fine farm of eighty-five acres near Kylertown, in Cooper township, which was formerly underlaid with coal, which has been removed. Mr. Moyer was married to Miss Alice E. Kirk, the daughter of Joseph Kirk, and to this union there have been born three children, namely: Joseph Peter, Anna Mary and Frederick, all of whom are attending school. Mr. Moyer is a member of the Order of Red Men, the Odd Fellows and the Grange. Like his father he is a stanch Democrat. Mr. Moyer is one of the solid, substantial men of his community, and one who has always had the best interests of his township at heart. Upright and honest in his dealings with his fellow men, capable and earnest as a public official and kind and lenient in his family connections, he is looked up to and respected as a true type of German-American citizenship.