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Biography of William H. Sweet

William H. Sweet was born in Brownsville, Fayette Co., PA on October 10, 1847. His father, 
John Sweet, was an Englishman by birth and a miner by occupation, having worked for several 
years in the bituminous coal-fields of England previous to his coming to America and engaging 
in the bituminous coal-fields of Fayette County, where the subject of this sketch was born. 
Like a large majority of miners, Mr. Sweet's earnings were barely sufficient for the support 
of his large family, and William, at the tender age of seven years, was compelled to go into 
the mines to assist in laborious task better fitted to stronger arms. Here young Sweet learned 
the first lessons of coal-mining, which in after-years has been of great benefit to him in the 
prosecution of his business as a miner and coal operator. To add to his already heavy burden, 
at the age of nine years his father died, leaving him as the main support of his widowed mother 
and her family. 

As his boyhood arms waxed stronger and stronger his mind began to develop, and his young 
ambition to become a man among men has been freely realized. For the last twenty years he has 
been a resident of Dudley and vicinity, in Huntingdon County, and in 1878 he commenced mining 
and operating in coal on his own account. He is also engaged in the mercantile business in 
connection with his mines. In the early part of 1880 he associated himself in the mining and 
mercantile business Mr. George W. R. Swoope, of Huntingdon, under the firm-name of W. H. 
Sweet & Co., who are still doing business at Dudley, on the line of Huntingdon and Broad Top 
Railroad. 

In October 1881, work was commenced by Mr. Sweet on "Defiance Tunnel" on Six-Mile Run, just over 
the line in Bradford County, which resulted in January 18, 1883 in striking one of the richest 
veins of coal known in the Broad Top coal-fields. 

To Mr. Sweet, more than any other, is due the tribute of success in the vicinity of Dudley. 
From the wilderness of wood and brush he caused to be presented cleared fields, dotted here 
and there with more than twenty homes of happiness and comfort. His progressive spirit extends 
to all the section of country around his mines, and in the furtherance of education he has 
given unstinted aid, and that without ostentation or vanity, knowing full well its value. 
He is truly a self-made man, and all that such a one should reap in the harvest of universal 
regard will doubtless be his.

July 4, 1870, Mr. Sweet married Miss Sarah A., daughter of Mr. Jonathan Barnet, one of the 
pioneers of Huntingdon County. Their children are Jesse Alvin, born March 22, 1871; 
Elsie Jane, November 2, 1872; Mary Ellen, March 30, 1874; James Herbert, August 25, 1876; 
and Cloyd Edgar, March 7, 1879.


(History of Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania by J. Simpson Africa (pg 232) published by 
Louis H. Everts in 1883 at Philadelphia, PA)