BIO: William Irvin, Jefferson County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kitty

Copyright 2008.  All rights reserved.
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http://usgwarchives.net/pa/jefferson/
http://usgwarchives.net/pa/jefferson/beers/beers-bios.htm
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Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania, Including 
the Counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion, Containing 
Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens. 
Chicago, Ill.: J. H. Beers, 1898, pages 1080-1081.
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WILLIAM IRVIN, senior member of the firm of William Irvin & Son, 
proprietors of an extensive tannery at Big Run, Jefferson county, is a 
self-made man, whose abilities and energy have gained him a leading 
place in his community.  He has been identified with all the important 
enterprises of his town, including the Citizens Bank, of which he was 
the first president and so remained for five years.
  Mr. Irvin is a native of Pennsylvania, as was also his father, the 
late Benjamin Irwin, who was a collier by occupation until 1848.  His 
quiet tastes and disinclination for public life making him most 
contented with a country home, he purchased a farm in Tioga county, 
and, locating there, engaged in agriculture.
  It was in the year 1835 that the subject of this sketch was born, his 
parents being then residents of Lehigh county, Penn.  His early 
education was limited to a brief course of study in the public schools 
of that day, and at fourteen be began the work of bread winning, 
finding employment in the woods at lumbering.  At nineteen, he 
purchased from his father for $200 the right to "his time" until his 
majority, paying the money as he could.  When the war broke out he took 
up arms in the defense of the Union, enlisting in Company D, 106th P. 
V. I.   Three years were spent in active service, but few of the many 
important engagements in which his regiment participated being missed 
by Mr. Irvin.  At Savage Station, on the Peninsula, he received a  
buckshot wound which disabled him for a short time, and, in the battle 
of the Wilderness, he was seriously wounded in the left shoulder, and 
also received a flesh wound of the hip.  He served the full term of his 
enlistment, and then returned to his native State.  Engaging in the 
tannery business in Tioga county, he remained there two years, when, in 
partnership with L. R. Gleason, he built a tannery at Canton Run, 
Penn., and operated it for some time.  In 1881 he built another 
tannery, this one at North Bend, Clinton Co., Penn., where he spent six 
years, and in 1888 he established his present business at Big Run, with 
his son, Charles H. Irvin, as partner.  They do a large business, and 
employ about seventy-five men throughout the year.
  In 1865 Mr. Irvin was married to Miss Mary C. Veil, daughter of the 
late Judge C. F. Veil, a leading citizen of Tioga county, Penn.  Seven 
children have blessed this union, of whom one daughter died in infancy; 
Charles H., the eldest son, is now in business with his father, as 
previously noted; Emma is the wife of Elmer Dittmar, a furniture 
manufacturer of Williamsport, Penn.; the Misses Ida, Nellie and Jennie, 
and another son, Benjamin, are at home.  Mr. and Mrs. Irvin and the 
eldest five children are members of the Christian Church, in which Mr. 
Irvin is an elder.  He also belongs to the F. & A. M., the I. O. O. F. 
and the G. A. R.  In politics he is a Prohibitionist, but, while he 
takes a keen interest in public questions and movements, he is not an 
aspirant for official honors.