BIOS: Jacob MUSSER, Brothers Valley, Somerset County, PA

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Sharon Trosan

Copyright 2007.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/somerset/
________________________________________________

BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW, Vol. XXXII, Containing Life Sketches of Leading Citizens of 
Bedford and Somerset Counties, Pennsylvania. Boston, Biographical Review 
Publishing Company: 1899, pp 56 and 59.

  Jacob Musser, a prosperous farmer of Brother's Valley, Pa., was born in Stony 
Creek township, April 8, 1821, a son of Tobias and Susannah (Croner) Musser. 
Both parents were of German descent.  His paternal grandfather, John Musser, who 
was a native of Lancaster County, moved his family to Somerset County in 1787 
and settled upon a farm in Stony Creek, where he became a prominent citizen.  He 
served as a mail carrier during the Revolutionary War, and carried letters to 
and from General Washington.  He married Barbara Crider, who was also of German 
ancestry, and had eight children, all of whom became heads of families and some 
settled in this county.
  Tobias Musser, the father, was born in Lancaster County, in December, 1776, 
and his youth was spent upon his father's farm in Stony Creek.  He learned the 
carpenter's and stone-mason's trades, which he followed in connection with 
farming.  He was prominent in public affairs - serving as County Commissioner, 
and in other offices; as Representative to the legislature in 1843 and in 1844; 
and for a number of years as treasurer of the Somerset and Bedford Turnpike 
Company.  He was for many years an influential member of the Brethren, now the 
German Baptist church.  His useful life terminated in 1859.  He married 
Susannah, daughter of John Croner, of Brother's Valley, and she became the 
mother of ten children.  The three now living are: Peter C. Musser, M.D., a 
physician and surgeon residing in West Virginia; Julia Ann, who married 
Jefferson Kimmel, of Stony Creek; and Jacob, the subject of this sketch.
  Jacob Musser was educated in the public schools of his native town.  He 
resided at the parental home until twenty years old, when he engaged in farming 
upon shares in Brother's Valley, and some four years later he bought a piece of 
agricultural property situated about four miles from Somerset borough, where he 
carried on farming and stock-raising.  Selling that estate, he purchased the 
homestead property of two hundred and eighty-five acres, which he cultivated for 
twenty-five years.  Disposing of the homestead in 1874, he removed to his 
present farm of two hundred and twenty acres located near Berlin, where he is 
still actively engaged in tilling the soil.
  On December 20, 1840, Mr. Musser contracted the first of his two marriages 
with Mary Meyers, daughter of the Rev. Jacob and Hannah (Lichty) Meyers.  She 
died December 26, 1882, and in 1886 he married for his second wife Mrs. 
Elizabeth Schmucker Saylor.  His children are: Jacob, who married Elizabeth 
Beachey, daughter of Daniel and Elizabeth (Lichty) Beachey, of Meyersdale, and 
has five children - Earl B., Mary O., Maud L., Ruth A., and D. Jay Musser; 
Catharine M., who married John M. Meyers, resides in Nebraska, and has seven 
children - Jacob S., Howard K., Hayes Agnew, Walter T., Mary, Milo, and Lizzie 
F.; and Rebecca N. M., who married E. E. Lichty, lives in Carlton, Thayer 
County, Neb., and has one son, Ralph Lichty.
  Mr. Musser has served with ability as an Assessor, but is not an office 
seeker.  He is a deacon and a trustee of the Brethren church of Berlin, Somerset 
County, Pa.