BIO: JOHN DONNELLY, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania
   
  Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Joe Patterson
  OCRed by Judy Banja

  Copyright 2004.  All rights reserved.
  http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
  http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/
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  >From Biographical Annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania,
  Chicago: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905, page 444
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  NOTE: Use this web address to access other bios:
  http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/zeamer/

  
    JOHN DONNELLY, one of the prominent citizens and a leading farmer of
  Middlesex township, and for twenty-five years a justice of the peace, was
  born Nov. 13, 1827, on his present farm. On the paternal side his ancestry is
  Irish, several generations back, but his father, William Donnelly, was born in
  Silver Spring township, Cumberland county. He settled on a farm which is now
  the property of his son Washington, and died there in 1863. In politics he
  was a Democrat.
    
    William Donnelly married Mary A. Brownawell, a daughter of Henry
  Brownawell, who died at the age of eighty-four years; he married a Corman,
  and she lived to the age of ninety-four. The children of William and. Mary A.
  Donnelly were as follows: Samuel of Bellville, Richland Co., Ohio; John,
  mentioned below; Henry, who died in Cumberland county; William, deceased;
  Washington, of Middlesex township; Mary, Mrs. Samuel Spangler, of Silver
  Spring township; Israel, an attorney at Mansfield, Ohio; and Annie, deceased,
  Mrs. John Burget.
    
    John Donnelly was instructed in the primary elements of his education in
  the subscription schools, in Silver Spring township, but family circumstances
  made it necessary for him to begin supporting himself while still a small boy.
  There is always plenty of work in a farming community, for a small boy who is
  honest and industrious, and he first received forty cents a day. Later he
  learned the tanning business with Joseph Shrum, of Carlisle, and was
  connected with that industry for ten years. After his marriage he lived at
  New Kingstown and worked at his trade with John Clendennin. He then built
  himself a residence, the first one erected at what is now known as
  Donnellytown, where he lived until 1878, at that time buying his present
  place from the heirs of his grandfather Brownawell; this has been the family
  home ever since.
    
    On May 3, 1853, Mr. Donnelly was married to Miss Sarah S. Gregg, daughter
  of William and Elizabeth (Bradley) Gregg, of Carlisle, who died in February,
  1903. She is survived by her bereaved husband and the following children:
  Clara, Mrs. John Mater, of Harrisburg; Emma, who first married Morris Mater,
  and second Frank McCreary, of Harrisburg; and Charles J., of Cumberland
  county, who married Jennie Haymaker.
    
    In 1878 Mr. Donnelly was elected justice of the peace, an office he has
  held with efficiency and dignity for twenty-five consecutive years, giving
  great satisfaction, and disposing of an immense amount of business. In
  politics he has been a lifelong Democrat.