BIOGRAPHY: Robert H. MYERS, Mifflin County, PA

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The Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of the Juniata Valley, Comprising 
the Counties of Huntingdon, Mifflin, Juniata, and Perry, Pennsylvania.
Chambersburg, Pa.: J. M. Runk & Co., 1897, Volume I, pages 499-500.

  ROBERT H. MYERS, Lewistown, Mifflin county, Pa., son of Peter and Sarah Ann 
(Askin) Myers, was born at New Haven, O., January 5, 1836.  His grandparents, 
Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Myers, were born in Lancaster county, Pa., and later removed 
to Franklin county, Pa., where Mrs. Daniel Myers died.  They had five children:  
Peter;  Hannah;  William;  John;  and Henry, who married and removed to 
Shirleysburg, Huntingdon county, Pa.  Henry Myers was a blacksmith, having 
learned that trade in Franklin county;  he died aged seventy-nine years, and his 
wife at about eighty-one years of age.  Their children were:  Daniel, who 
married and had four children;  Edward, married Miss Thompson, has six children;  
Annie, died at the age of thirty;  Ellen (Mrs. William Harris), had two 
children;  Leslie, married, and resides in Shirleysburg;  and William, resides 
in Shirleysburg.  Peter, son of Daniel Myers, was born in 1799, in Franklin 
county, where he received a limited education, principally in German, in 
subscription schools.  He served an apprenticeship at tailoring, and at the age 
of twenty-one began business on his own account;  through industry and frugality 
he soon established a good trade.  He removed first to Concord, Franklin county, 
afterwards to Shirleysburg, Huntingdon county;  in 1834 he removed with his 
family to New Haven, O., and in 1838 returned to Shirleysburg, and in all these 
places he continued to work at his handicraft.  His removals to and from Ohio, 
with his family and household goods, were effected by means of wagons.  After 
his return he lived for many prosperous years at Shirleysburg.  For six years he 
served as postmaster, by appointment of President Lincoln, and resigned his 
office when President Johnson came into office.  In 1869 Mr. Myers went to 
reside with his son John in Illinois, where he died December 28, 1875.  Mrs. 
Peter Myers was a daughter of Thomas and Maria Askin;  the children of Mr. and 
Mrs. Myers are:  Daniel, who died when eighteen months old;  Margaret (Mrs. 
Perry Etchison), of Huntingdon county, whose husband was a lieutenant in the 
Twelfth Pennsylvania Reserves, and died of a disease contracted in army service 
during the Rebellion, after which she was married to Mr. Hawn, of Huntingdon 
county, who died in 1878;  and Mrs. Hawn died in 1897, aged sixty-nine, leaving 
a son and five daughters;  Mary B. (Mrs. Calvin Wallace), of Lewistown, has one 
daughter and one son;  Catherine (Mrs. Adam Bryan), of Huntingdon county, had 
one child;  John J., married Rebecca White, had one son and three daughters, 
resided in Marion county, Ill., died in October, 1879;  and Hannah (Mrs. Henry 
Lahr), resided in Huntingdon county, had two daughters and two sons.
  Robert H. Myers after being educated in the common schools and the academy of 
Shirleysburg, began at the age of eighteen to learn carpentry with Charles 
Bowersox;  three years later, having finished his apprenticeship, he became a 
journeyman, and continued working for two years for Mr. Bowersox.  He then 
undertook building contracts on his own account, and worked in the construction 
of the Pennsylvania canal.  Mr. Myers enlisted, August 7, 1862, in Company I, 
One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Pennsylvania Volunteers, served until June, 1863, 
and after spending a short time at home, re-enlisted August 7, 1864, in Company 
M, Nineteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry.  He was in battle at Antietam, 
Chancellorsville, Nashville, Tenn., and elsewhere, served until the close of the 
war, and was discharged June 1, 1865, at Baton Rouge, La.  After this patriotic 
episode in his life, Mr. Myers resumed work at his trade in Shirleysburg, and 
continued it until July 5, 1870, when he entered the employ of the Pennsylvania 
Railroad Company as carpenter on the Middle division of the road.  On November 
9, 1871, he was transferred in the same capacity to the Lewistown division, 
promoted to master carpenter September 1, 1872, and in 1875 was made supervisor 
and master carpenter of the Lewistown division, which is his present position.  
In 1879 Mr. Myers met with a painful accident at McClure, Snyder county, being 
struck down by the tender of a locomotive, which passed over him and cut off his 
arm.  He has always taken considerable interest in local affairs.  In 1885 he 
was elected county treasurer, and served one term of four years.  In 1882 he 
built his present home, a convenient dwelling in fine modern style on West 
Market street.  He is a member of Colonel Hulings Post, No. 176, at Lewistown.  
Mr. Myers' father was a Whig;  he adheres to the Republican party, of which his 
father, late in life, became an ardent supporter.
  Robert H. Myers was married October 6, 1866, to Mary J. (Jones) Fisher, widow 
of Daniel Fisher.  Mr. and Mrs. Myers have the following children:  Dr. Frank 
F., a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, practised one year at the 
Mercy Hospital, Pittsburg, Pa., is now city physician at Allegheny City, where 
he has practised very successfully, and where he married Ada Palmer;  Anna E., 
residing with her parents at Lewistown;  John H., a graduate of Lehigh 
University, Bethlehem, Pa., now a member of the engineering corps of Allegheny 
City.
  The maternal grandfather of Mrs. Myers was Thomas Askin, a minister of the 
Methodist Episcopal church, of Irish parentage.  He was a scholarly man, and an 
able preacher.  He died and was buried in Franklin county, Pa.  His wife, Martha 
Askin, was Scotch by birth.  Their children were:  Thomas;  George;  Margaret;  
Matilda;  Arabella;  and Sarah Ann (Mrs. Peter Myers).