BIO: David EDMISTON, Huntingdon County, PA

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Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of the Juniata Valley: 
Comprising the Counties of Huntingdon, Mifflin, Juniata and Perry, 
Pennsylvania, Containing Sketches of Prominent and Representative 
Citizens and Many of the Early Settlers.  Chambersburg, Pa.: J. M. 
Runk & Co., 1897, pages 240-241.
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  DAVID EDMISTON, Cottage, Huntingdon county, Pa., was born at McCahans 
Mills, near Birmingham, Huntingdon county, August 19, 1819, son of John 
and Elizabeth (Smith) Edmiston. His grandfather, John Edmiston, Sr., 
was English by birth, and came to this country before the Revolutionary 
war. He first resided in Ohio, and was a hunter and furrier. He was 
what was then called a "king's man;" that is, while he would not fight 
against the colonies, he could not bring himself to fight against 
England. John Edmiston was married in Ohio, and had two sons, whose 
descendants are to-day among the citizens of Ohio. But, on account of 
his Tory proclivities, his wife, who was an ardent Whig, separated from 
him. After the war was over, Mr. Edmiston removed to Blair county, Pa., 
where he was occupied in hunting and in agricultural labor. He married 
there a second time; a Miss Edington, of a Scotch-Irish family, became 
his wife. Their children are: Mary, Rebecca; Margaret; Nancy; Eliza; 
John; Philip; Samuel; Isaac; and one that died very young. Mr. Edmiston 
died near Altoona, before the "pumpkin flood." His second wife survived 
him until 1870, when she was killed in Clearfield, Pa., by the fall of 
a porch, being at the time eighty-six years of age. They were members 
of the Baptist church.
  Their eldest son, John Edmiston, Jr., after his education in the 
common schools was finished, learned the trade of a blacksmith, in 
Lewistown, Mifflin county. He followed this vocation in Huntingdon 
county, and afterwards, for the rest of his life, in Cambria county, 
Pa. His last work was the manufacture of hoop iron. His political 
opinions were Democratic. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Samuel 
Smith, farmer, of Huntingdon county. Their children are: Margaret, 
deceased, wife of Philip Williams; Mary, deceased, wife of John Whake; 
David S.; John, deceased; William, of Altoona, Pa.; Miles, deceased; 
Loyal, of Centre county; Elias, deceased; Samuel, deceased; and P. 
Rhodes, deceased. Mr. Edmiston died in Canal township, Cambria county, 
in 1862; his wife died in Indiana county in 1870. He was an excellent 
man, and much respected, a member of the Baptist church.
  To the lot of David S. Edmiston fell the sort of training that makes 
sturdy and efficient workers, undaunted by labors or hardships. His 
education, so far as books are concerned, was acquired in subscription 
schools, and in the old-fashioned log public school which he attended 
in the winter season, warming himself in the afternoons and evenings at 
the forge where he helped his father regularly, from the time when he 
was so small that he had to stand on a block to blow the bellows. By 
the time he was twenty-two years old, he was quite ready to carry on 
the business for himself, which he began to do at that age, at Barree 
Forge, Huntingdon county; here he spent seven years, and was then in 
the business successively at Chipton, Blair county, two years; at 
Hatfield, Huntingdon county, one year; at Petersburg, same county, five 
years, and at Warriors Ridge, two years. He then worked as journeyman 
for a time at Henry Shoup's place, in Juniata township, after which, in 
March, 1885, he removed to his present home. 

  This work was interrupted by the great need of the Union for 
defenders, which caused Mr. Edmiston's enlistment, August 16, 1862, in 
McVeytown, Mifflin county, Pa., in Company K, One Hundred and Forty-
third Pennsylvania Volunteers, Colonel Deaney, Capt. J. S. Little. Mr. 
Edmiston was mustered in at Nicholson, Wyoming county, Pa., from which 
place the regiment moved to Virginia. Here he had part in all the 
engagements of the Army of the Potomac, its battles and skirmishes, 
Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, &c., until, during the battle of the 
Wilderness, he received a bullet wound in the leg, and was compelled to 
spend four months in a hospital. He was with the army until the close 
of the war, and doubtless received his discharge with a pleasant sense 
of having performed his duty well and faithfully, and not in vain. Mr. 
Edmiston was forty-five years old when he left his wife and family for 
the battlefield.
  David S. Edmiston was married, March 23, 1843, near Petersburg, Pa., 
to Mary, daughter of Henry Wallatter, a farmer of German descent; she 
was born at Water Street, Huntingdon county, July 19, 1824. Their 
children are: Miles, of Johnstown, Pa.; John H., at home; Elizabeth 
(Mrs. Henry Nolder), of West township; William, deceased; Samuel, 
deceased; Albert, deceased; George, of Belleville, Pa.; Ithamar, of 
Petersburg; Ellen; Annie (Mrs. Henry Schilling), of West township. Mr. 
Edmiston is a Republican. His family attend the Lutheran church, but he 
is a member of the Presbyterian denomination. He is a good and 
respected citizen. Mrs. Edmiston died July 11, 1892.