BIO: William Carnahan Koons, Cumberland County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Bookwalter Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/ ______________________________________________________________________ History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania. Containing History of the Counties, Their Townships, Towns, Villages, Schools, Churches, Industries, Etc.; Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men; Biographies; History of Pennsylvania; Statistical and Miscellaneous Matter, Etc., Etc. Illustrated. Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co., 1886. http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/beers/beers.htm ______________________________________________________________________ PART II. HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY. PENNSYLVANIA. CHAPTER LIII. NEWTON TOWNSHIP. 520 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES: WILLIAM CARNAHAN KOONS, farmer, P. O. Newville, is a grandson of Isaac Koons, who came from Lancaster County, where he was born in 1760; his wife was Margaret E. Swartz, also of Lancaster. About the close of the Revolutionary war they settled at a place called "Thunder Hill," three miles northwest of Newville. He died August 15, 1830, in his seventy-first year, and his widow April 11, 1833, in her sixty-second year. Their children were David, Isaac, John, Jacob, Adam, George, Philip, Joseph, Elizabeth, Catherine and Mary. They are all deceased. Isaac was the father of William Carnahan Koons, and was born in 1792. His wife was Jane Carnahan. They had nine sons and one daughter, Margaret, who died young. The sons were Robert Carnahan, Isaac, John McDowell, William Carnahan, Alexander Sharp, Thomas Sharp, Adam, James and Joseph. Robert C. and Isaac went to Indiana, where they both died; Thomas S. died on the old homestead; John McD. Is living in Indiana; Alexander S. is living in Nebraska; William C., Adam, James and Joseph live in Newton Township. The father of this family, Isaac, was a farmer and tanner on the Green Spring, in Newton Township, near Conodoguinet Creek, where he purchased a farm in 1826, on which he built the house in which his son Joseph now lives. Here he died November 19, 1874, aged eighty-two. He was a plain man, kind, contented, outspoken, determined and preserving. His integrity was unswerving, and his character above all suspicion of reproach. He began life a poor boy, but by thrift and careful habits accumulated a considerable property, which, with the heritage of a good name, he bequeathed to his children. His wife was born in 1795, and died August 11, 1866, in her seventy-first year. She was a daughter of Robert Carnahan, a son of William Carnahan, who came to Mifflin Township soon after the first settlement, which was made in 1729 or 1730. Robert Carnahan was married to Judith McDowell in 1784. Their children were William, Robert, Margaret and Jane. William went to Indiana in 1835, and died there in 1879, aged eighty-three. Mrs. Koons was a quiet, patient, industrious, kind-hearted woman, and much of her husband's success in life was due to the constant care which she exercised in the affairs of the house. William Carnahan Koons was born February 27, 1827, and with the exception of attendance at the common schools and two sessions at the Big Spring Academy, he had no other facilities for acquiring an education. He worked on the farm until 1857, when, January 22, he was married to Mary Jane, daughter of James Stewart, of Mifflin Township, where she was born August 20, 1821. They had five children, three dying in infancy, and a son. William Carnahan, born December 23, 1857, died June 24, 1875. The surviving son is James Stewart, born December 7, 1859, who is unmarried and living with his parents. For four years after his marriage Mr. Koons farmed on shares, and in April, 1861, removed to the farm he now owns, but which then belonged to his father. Here he has since remained, attending strictly to his own affairs. When not at work he was busy with his books and papers. A desire to maintain right and oppose wrong sums up and explains the rest.