BIOS: Daniel J. HORNER, Somerset, 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 103-105.

  Daniel J. Horner, who, fighting for his country in the Civil War, lost a leg 
and came near losing his life on the battlefield of Fredericksburg, is a well-
known citizen of Somerset, Pa., and a former Associate Judge of Somerset County.  
He is a son of the late John J. Horner, and was born in this county, May 27, 
1843.
  He paternal grandfather, John Horner, was born and reared in Dauphin County, 
Pennsylvania.  A farmer by occupation, hardworking and successful, he lived to 
the age of four score years.  To him and his wife, whose maiden name was Kimmel, 
fourteen children were born, of whom one, Susan, widow of John Flickinger, is 
still living.
  John J. Horner, the eldest child of his parents, was born in Somerset County.  
He was brought up to farming, and followed that occupation as long as he lived.  
He died at his home near Sipesville, Pa., at the comparatively early age of 
forty-six years.  His wife, Mary Beeghley, daughter of Jacob Beeghley, of 
Meyersdale, Somerset County, died at the age of forty-five years.  They had 
eleven children, five of whom survive, as follows: Joseph, who married Kate 
Rhoades, and has five children- Harry, Edward H., Albert J., William, and Lillie 
A.; Abraham, who married Lizzie Lint and has six children- Frank, Ida, Lillie, 
Sadie, Ada, and Charles; Daniel J., the special subject of this sketch; John J., 
who married a Miss Bowers; and Ephraim J.  In politics the father was a sturdy 
Republican, and both he and his wife were active members of the Dunkard church.
  Daniel J. Horner was educated at Mount Pleasant College, and at the State 
Normal School in Millersville, Lancaster County, the latter of which he attended 
in the years of 1866, 1867, and 1868, paying his own expenses by teaching school 
in the winter seasons.  In 1869 he was elected Register and Recorder of Deeds 
for Somerset County, a position that he held the ensuing three years.  He 
subsequently engaged as a carriage manufacturer in Somerset County two years.  
In 1876 he was appointed United States Storekeeper and Gauger, an office which 
he filled until January, 1882, when he resigned to become Clerk of the Board of 
County Commissioners.  On leaving that board, in 1885, he accepted a position as 
clerk in a store in Somerset, where he was employed until his election as Clerk 
of Court for the courts of Somerset.  This position he retained until 1891, and 
in 1893 he was made Associate Judge of Somerset County, an office which he 
served with distinction for five years.  Politically a stanch Republican, he is 
now serving as School Director.
  Judge Horner, when a young man, enlisted August 11, 1862, as a Private in 
Company C, One Hundred and Forty-second Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and 
served nineteen months.  On December 13, 1862, at Fredericksburg, he was shot in 
the knee, receiving such a severe wound that he was forced to have his leg 
amputated just above the knee while on the battlefield.  He suffered intense 
agony, lying out of doors for four days before the operation was performed.  
Only his indomitable will and fortitude, as it would seem, kept him alive.  He 
was carefully conveyed to the Harwood Hospital at Washington, D.C., where he 
remained until March 1864, a year and three months.  There he had a hard 
struggle for life, being obliged to undergo another surgical operation, having 
four inches more of his leg taken off.
  Judge Horner is prominently connected with many leading fraternal 
organizations, being a member of the R. P. Cummings Post No. 210, G.A.R., of 
which he is Past Commander; of the Somerset Lodge, No 38, I.O.O.F., in which he 
has passed all the chairs, and has been secretary for the last fifteen years; of 
the Golden Eagle Lodge, in which he has held various offices; of the Meyersdale 
Lodge, Knights of Pythias; of the Junior Order of American Mechanics; and of the 
Royal Arcanum, in which he has passed all the chairs, and of which he was Deputy 
Grand Regent for eight years.  He takes an active interest in local affairs; and 
while he was a member of the Town Council in 1879, 1880, and 1881, one of the 
most valuable improvements in this section of the county was inaugurated - the 
building of the railway from Johnstown to Rockwood.
  On December 14, 1870, Judge Horner married Miss Susan Bell, daughter of David 
and Sarah (Mickey) Bell of Somerset County.  One child, Marion Bell Horner, was 
born to them.  She died April 2, 1890, aged sixteen years and six months.