BIOS: Michael Francis RILEY, Somerset County, PA

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History of Bedford and Somerset Counties, Pennsylvania; Bedford County by E. 
Howard Blackburn; Somerset County by William H. Welfley; v.3, Pub. The Lewis 
Publishing Company, New York/Chicago 1906, ppg. 226/7

Michael Francis RILEY.

Michael Francis Riley, station agent at West Salisbury, is a son of James 
Riley, a native of Ireland, who emigrated to the United States at the age of 
seventeen and settled in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania.  He married, in 1856, 
Esther, daughter of William Kennedy, of Freeport, Pennsylvania.  Esther came 
to this country with her three sisters when quite young.  Children of Mr. and 
Mrs. Riley were as follows: Catherine Gertrude, born 1857, wife of James 
Linnan, of Kittanning, Pennsylvania; Michael Francis, see forward; John, born 
1861, married Minna Shibely, of Connellsville; James K., born 1863, married 
Sarah Ross, of Craigsville; Anna, born 1865, wife of Frank Ketterer, of 
Coraopolis, Pennsylvania; William, born 1867, married Mary Verlohr, of 
Rosston, Pennsylvania; and Julia, born 1869, wife of Miller Clark, of 
Criagsville, Pennsylvania.
Micahel Francis Riley, son of James and Esther (Kennedy) Riley, was born 
December 15, 1859, at Kittanning, Armstrong county, where he attended the 
public shools until the age of sixteen.  During the next two years he was 
employed by the Allegheny Valley Railroad Company, and from that time until 
the age of twenty was a student at St. Vincent's College, near Latrobe, 
Pennsylvania, from which he graduated in 1879.  He then worked as a fireman on 
the Allegheny Valley railroad until September, 1882, and then moved to West 
Salisbury, where he has since been station agent for the Baltimore and Ohio 
Railroad Company.  He is a stockholder in the First National Bank of 
Salisbury, and owns the Mountain Tonic Company, of West Salisbury, in which 
place he also conducts a shoe store.  He was at one time judge of elections 
for the township, being the first Democrat to hold that office in thirty 
years.  He is a member of St. Michael's Roman Catholic church at West 
Salisbury.
Mr. Riley married, September 19, 1887, Missouri Elizabeth (born January 13, 
1869), daughter of Dennis and Mary Wagner, of Salisbury.  Mrs. Riley descends 
from one of the old Somerset county families, the Wagners.  Dennis Wagner was 
a son of Peter Wagner, who was all his life a hotel keeper in the county. 
Dennis Wagner's wife was Mary Loechel, of another old county family.  The 
children of Mr. and Mrs. Riley are: James, born April 10, 1889; Edward, 
Deceember 14, 1890; George, February 7, 1893; Robert, January 14, 1895; 
Maurice, October 25, 1897; William, March 15, 1900; Mary Esther, May 15, 
1902; Margaret Elizabeth, September 26, 1904.