BIOS: Alonzo CHAMBERLIN, Meyersdale, Somerset County, PA

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BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW, Vol. XXXII, Containing Life Sketches of Leading Citizens of 
Bedford and Somerset Counties, Pennsylvania. Boston, Biographical Review 
Publishing Company: 1899, pp 239-240.

  Alonzo Chamberlin, a prominent business man of Meyersdale, Pa., and vice-
president of the Cumberland & Elk Lick Coal Company, was born in Columbia 
County, New York, January 16, 1817, son of David and Sarah (West) Chamberlin.  
His ancestors on both sides came from England, the Chamberlins settling in 
Connecticut and the Wests in Massachusetts.  Jonathan Chamberlin, the paternal 
grandfather, who was born in Tolland Conn., saw considerable active service in 
the Revolutionary War and at the battle of Saratoga was detailed to carry water 
to the wounded.  He settled in Hillsdale, now Austerlitz, N.Y., where died at 
the age of seventy-eight years, and his wife lived to e ninety-two.
  David Chamberlin, the father, was born in Austerlitz in 1776.  The active 
period of his life was devoted to agricultural pursuits.  He was a prominent 
resident of Austerlitz in his day, and a Deacon of the Congregational church.  
He volunteered as a soldier in the War of 1812.  He died in 1864.  His wife 
Sarah, who was a daughter of Abner West, was the mother of ten children, six of 
whom grew to maturity, Alonzo, the subject of this sketch, being the only one 
living.
  Alonzo Chamberlin was educated in the common schools.  He resided at the 
parental home, assisting in cultivating the farm until he was twenty-four years 
old.  With a partner the then engaged in mercantile business at Austerlitz under 
the firm name of Brown & Chamberlin, and continued in trade four years.  The 
next few years were spent in farming, and in 1856 he moved to Alleghany County, 
Maryland, where he acted as superintendent for the American Coal Company until 
1870.  Going to Cumberland, Md., he organized a coal company, of which he became 
president and general manager, with headquarters in New York City.   He 
afterward went to Baltimore, and in 1872 he became associated with Major 
Alexander Shaw in the purchase of a coal mine located in Summit township, 
Somerset County, Pa.  He has acted as vice-president and general manager of this 
concern, which has an extensive coke plant located in the mines, and which ships 
large quantities of coal to various purchasing points.
  In 1871 Mr. Chamberlin married Elizabeth Piper, of Baltimore.  She bore him 
two children: Henry, who died in infancy; and Walter Scott Chamberlin, who died 
at the age of nineteen.  Mrs. Chamberlin died in January 1893.
  In 1853 Mr. Chamberlin was a member of the New York Assembly, and in 1860 he 
was in the Maryland legislature, serving upon the Committee on Corporations in 
each body.  He has served in the township council a number of terms, and is 
actively identified with the public interests of the borough.  He is not a 
church member, but contributes liberally toward the support of various religious 
societies in Meyersdale.  As a citizen of ability and integrity he is highly 
respected, and his efforts in developing the natural resources of this locality 
have been exceedingly effective.