USA > Indiana > Biographical and historical cyclopedia of Indiana and Armstrong counties, Pennsylvania > Part 29
USA > Pennsylvania > Armstrong County > Biographical and historical cyclopedia of Indiana and Armstrong counties, Pennsylvania > Part 29
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The planing mill of Davis Bros. & Co. is one of the busiest institutions of the town. They make fine stair work a specialty, and their orders in that line extend far and wide. They are young and energetic business men, and no obstacle can deter their progress.
The Saltsburg flouring mill of Patterson & Hershey looms up four stories high on the river front, and is indeed a credit to the town. It is equipped with the full roller process and is pro- pelled by an eighty horse-power boiler and engine. The capacity of the mill is one hun- dred and fifty barrels per day.
Ever since Saltsburg has been known as a town, almost, the carriages and buggies built by Hail Clark have been equally famous. The carriage works of Mr. Clark are situated at the
corner of Point and High streets. They are immense buildings, one being three stories high and 32x60 feet in dimensions, the other two stories high, thirty-two feet wide and ninety feet long. The blacksmith shop is separate in a building 25x40 feet. The capacity of the shops is about two hundred buggies per year. Mr. Clark's business pertains only to the highest class of work. His trade is large in Jolinstown, Pittsburgh and other outside places. In 1890 he finished a grand buggy for a patron in Cali- fornia. He frequently sends buggies to Kansas. Another carriage works is along the West Penn railway, not far below the passenger depot.
High up on the bluff overlooking Saltsburg and the river stands a school for boys. The building it occupies was formerly a summer hotel. The approach to the grounds is exceed- ingly picturesque. The bluff is almost perpen- dicular, one hundred and fifty feet above the level of the river. A few hundred feet to the right is the junction of the Loyalhanna, forming the beautiful Kiskiminetas. The grounds themselves are a native forest of state- ly trees. In the midst of the grove, a hundred feet back from the brow of the cliff, stand the two main buildings of the school. The first one is the old hotel structure, and the second the new brick building erected one year ago, con- taining the chapel, a fine gymnasium, class- rooms and sleeping-rooms for twenty boys. The rooms in both buildings-for eighty boys- are furnished in the best of style for comfort and convenience. The light and heat are sup- plied from a plant on the grounds, running about two hundred electric lights and provid- ing steam heat and pumping the water for the buildings from a well, drilled two hundred and twenty feet deep, to a tank of distribution. The faculty is of high order. The principals are Prof. A. W. Wilson and Prof. R. W. Fair. Mr. Wilson is the son of Mr. A. W. Wilson, of Indiana, and a brother of Prof. Robert D. Wil-
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son, of the Western Theological seminary, and of Rev. S. G. Wilson, missionary to Persia.
About three and one-half miles out the West Penn railroad, in Bell township, Westmoreland county, the new town of Avonmore has been laid out. There was at first a diversity of opinion in Saltsburg as to what would be the effect of the new town on the old one, but the prevailing opinion now is that the boom will revert to and benefit Saltsburg as Jeannette did Greens- burg. Capt. Albert Hicks, who will be re- membered as one of the old-time conductors on the West Penn railroad, now largely interested in Leechburg's (Pa.) coal and iron interests, is one of the principal owners of the Avonmore Coal and Coke company, in Indiana county, just op- posite the site of the new town.
The population of Saltsburg at each census since 1840 has been : 1840, 335; 1850, 623; 1860, 592; 1870, 659; 1880, 855; 1890, 1114.
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BIOGRAPHICAL.
W ILLIAM B. ANSLEY, M.D., president of the Indiana County Medical society, and a very successful physician of Saltsburg, is a son of James and Sarah (Spencer) Ansley, and was born in South Mahoning township, Indiana county, Pennsylvania, August 2, 1847. During the Revolutionary war his great-grand- father, John Ansley, served as a soldier in the American, while his brother commanded a com- pany in the British army. John Ansley was a farmer and came from New Jersey to West- moreland county, where his son, Daniel Ansley (grandfather), was born in 1798, and followed farming until 1837, when he came to this county. He died in 1858, aged sixty years. His son, James Ansley (father), was born in 1825, and is an extensive and prosperous far- mer and stock-raiser of Rayne township. He
is a deacon of the Baptist church, a republican in politics and has served as auditor of Indiana county, and justice of the peace in Rayne town- ship. He married Sarah Spencer, who was born near Jolinstown, in Cambria county, and is a member of the Baptist church.
William B. Ansley was reared on a farm. He received his literary education in Dayton acad- emy. Leaving college, he taught several terms in the common schools. Having determined upon medicine as a life vocation, he entered the office of Dr. C. McEwen, of Plumville; after reading six months with him he entered the office of Dr. R. S. Sutton, of Pittsburgh, as a medical student. After completing the required course of reading he entered Jefferson Medical college, of Philadelphia, attended three courses of lectures and was graduated from that famous institution in the class of 1867. Immediately after graduating he opened an office at Apollo, where he practiced for ten years with good suc- cess. In 1877 he came to Saltsburg, where he has been in active, continuous and successful practice ever since.
In politics Dr. Ansley is an unswerving re- publican. He has served, since 1882, as a member of the school board, of which he has been president during the last two years. In religious sentiment he faithfully adheres to the Baptist church and is a member and deacon of the Saltsburg church, of that denomination, in which he also serves as superintendent of the Sunday-school. He is a past master in the Masonic fraternity, a past grand in the I. O. O. F. and has served in various official positions in several other secret societies of which he is a member. Dr. Ansley is president of the Indiana County Medical society and a member of the Pennsylvania State Medical society, in which he is serving as a member of the com- mittee on medical legislation. He often con- tributes articles to the medical journals and some of these contributions have beeu highly spoken of by many well-qualified physicians.
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BIOGRAPHIES OF
His professional talent and valuable experience, as well as his kind and gentle manners and tender solicitude for the well-being of his patients, have caused him to be recognized as one of the most successful medical practitioners in the county.
THOMAS CARSON, M.D. . During the last decades of the present wonderful century of progress, medicine has been as rapidly pro- gressive as any other profession and justly stands high in the estimation of the world. Indiana county has always been favored with many skillful and eminent physicians. One of her progressive physicians of to-day is Dr. Thomas Carson, of Saltsburg, a medical practi- tioner of twenty-five years' successful exper- ience. He was born in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, June 23, 1842, and is a son of John and Hannah (Henderson) Carson. His paternal grandfather, James Carson, came, in 1820, from Ireland to Allegheny county, this State, where he purchased a large farm. He was a successful farmer, a zealous member of the Methodist church and an enthusiastic demo- crat whose democracy was so strong as to cause him to disinherit his eldest son because he was a republican. He lived to be eighty years of age and his widow reached her hundredth birth- day. John Carson (father) was born in Ireland and came to Pittsburgh in 1818, but soon re- moved to Armstrong county, where he owns a splendid and well-stocked farm of two hundred and four acres on the Indiana and Kittanning pike. He is a Jacksonian democrat, takes great interest in local political affairs and has served his township as justice of the peace and school director. He is an ardent presbyterian and a successful business man. He married Hannah Henderson, eldest daughter of William Hen- derson, a member of the Covenanter church, who came, in 1820, from Ireland to Allegheny county, where he was a successful farmer and
became a strong republican. Mr. and Mrs. Carson celebrated their golden wedding in June, 1890. They have been the parents of seven children: Dr. Thomas, William Dr. John A., of Leechburg, (deceased); James, of Indiana ; Margaret, Catherine and J. Wilson, druggist at Indiana.
Thomas Carson was reared in Armstrong county and received his education in the com- mon schools and Elder's Ridge academy, where, in addition to the full academic course, he took special courses of study in the Greek, Latin and German languages. He read medicine with Dr. James K. Parke, of Cochran's Mills, Arm- strong county, and in 1863 entered Jefferson Medical college, from which he was graduated in the class of 1865. On April 3, 1865, he located at Elderton, Armstrong county, and practiced his profession there until July 4, 1874. In October, 1874, he came to Saltsburg, where he has practiced successfully ever since.
In the State of Illinois, on February 2, 1866, he was married to Jennie Salina Floyd Wilson Jack, daughter of Samuel and Nancy (Porter) Jack, who were natives of Westmore- land county, this State. To Dr. and Mrs. Carson have been born five children : Dr. John B., born in 1867 and now a practicing physi- cian of Blairsville; Samuel J., born in October 1869; Dollie, who died young; Nancy H., born July 2, 1875; and an infant son which died in 1880. Mrs. Carson is a pleasant, in- telligent woman, a member of the Presbyterian church and devoted to her home and family.
Dr. Thomas Carson has been a member of the Masonic fraternity for twenty-six years and of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows for nineteen years. He is also a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, Royal Arcanum, Knights of Honor, Knights & Ladies of Honor and the Knights of the Golden Eagle. He is medical examiner at Saltsburg for all these different orders. He is a prominent democrat and while a member of nº
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INDIANA COUNTY.
church, yet contributes freely to the churches of every religious denomination. He opposes the foreign missions of the churches, but gives liberally to their home missions. Dr. Carson has a fine residence on Point street, enjoys a large practice and has treated a great many poor patients free of charge. He is very fond of hunting and every fall takes a trip to the moun- tains for deer and wild turkey. He is genial, generous and honorable, and has become de- servedly popular as a physician and a citizen.
H AIL CLARK, a leading carriage manufac- turer of Saltsburg and a Union soldier of the late war, is one of the most energetic and successful business men of the county. He was born at Marietta, Lancaster county, Pennsyl- vania, March 17, 1829, and is a son of Alex- ander and Catherine (Leader) Clark. The Clarks were one of the old families of county Antrim, Ireland, where they were en- gaged for many years in the manufacture of linens. Henry Clark (grandfather), a mem- ber of this family, came to Lancaster county in 1783, where he followed coopering, and where he died at the close of a useful life. His son, Alexander Clark (father), was born on board the ship which brought his parents to this country. He learned the trade of cooper and was engaged in the coopering business for a number of years at Marietta. He was a member of the Lutheran church, an honest, reliable man and died in 1835, aged fifty-two years. He married Catherine Leader, of Lan- caster county, who was a member of the M. E. church and passed away in 1841, when in the fifty-eighth year of her age.
Hail Clark was reared at Marietta until he was twelve years of age, when he went on the Pennsylvania canal as a mule driver, but after six months' experience in that line of work he went to Greensburg, Pa., and learned the trade of carriage and harness-making. He served an
apprenticeship of six years before (1842) com- mencing to work for himself. In 1849 he came to Saltsburg, where, after working for a short time in a carriage factory, he purchased it of the proprietor, and since that time has followed carriage manufacturing at Saltsburg except what time he served as a soldier during the late war. From 1858 to 1861 he was captain of the Black Hornets, a militia company. In 1861 he raised a company for the war, but the State did not accept their services. In 1862 he raised and commanded one of the emergency companies which served on the southern border of Pennsylvania. In 1851 he married Cordelia F. Gorgas, of Greensburg, Pa. They have two children : Murry J. and Ferdinand G., wlio are both engaged in business with the father.
In politics Mr. Clark is a strong democrat and has held every elective office of his borough from member of the town council to burgess. He ran, in 1878, as the greenback candidate for sheriff, and, after a canvass of three days, was only defeated by two hundred majority. He has been a trustee for a quarter of a century of the M. E. church and is a member of Williamson Lodge, No. 431, F. and A. M., and Kiskimine- tas Lodge, No. 161, K. of H. His two sons are as- sociated with him in the carriage manufacturing business. Their main factory is 32x60 feet in dimensions and is a three-story building. They employ a regular force of twelve men, make a specialty of buggies and have a large trade. They send a large amount of work to different parts of the country and have filled orders as far west as California. Mr. Clark has been remarkably successful in the sale of his work and enjoys an excellent reputation as a skilled mechanic.
M AJOR SAMUEL COOPER was a son of James and Rachel (Powers) Cooper. He "was born in Shippensburg, Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, on the second of May, 1788.
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BIOGRAPHIES OF
The family name is Cowper, but since about 1750 has been written Cooper. The great- grandfather of our subject was Samuel Cooper, who was for many years the commander of In- niskillen Dragoons, in Ireland. His son, Sam- uel, the grandfather of Major Cooper, was a captain in the Inniskillen Dragoons, and mi- grated to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in 1761. He was in Gen. Lee's 'cavalry legion' in the Rev- olutionary war, and for several years was sword, drill and riding-master of Gen. Lee's noted command. His son James, the father of our subject, was born in Inniskillen, Ireland. He was an orderly sergeant in a company in the Revolutionary war, which Captain John Wil- kins (after whom Wilkinsburg, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, was named) commanded.
"When Samuel was only an infant his parents removed to Chambersburg, where they remained until 1804. In that year they re- moved to Pittsburgh. In 1833 his father, ac- companied by his daughter Margaret, went to Dayton, Ohio, where he died about 1836, at eighty years of age. Samuel entered the army on the 10th of September, 1812, as captain of the 'State Pittsburgh Blues,' and with his com- pany was mustered into the United States ser- vice at Meadville, Crawford county, about ten days later."
His company was sent to Black Rock, N. Y., where he and his men volunteered to cross into Canada and attack the English, but their ser- vices were not required, and he was breveted major for meritorious service. Returning home, he was variously engaged for some years, during which period he was a partner of Gen. Grant's father-in-law for fifteen months in the mercan- tile business. He read law with John B. Alex- ander, was admitted to the bar and, after a varied business life of half a century, returned to the practice of law.
"In 1867 he removed to Saltsburg, was elected a justice of the peace, and continued as such until ninety years of age. He was married
in 1817 to Elizabeth Weigley, daughter of Joseph Weigley, attorney-at-law at Greensburg. The latter was a Quaker and of German descent. Mrs. Cooper died in 1875, at about seventy-five years of age."
GEORGE B. DAVIS. Too much cannot be said of the representative business men of a place, as the prosperity of any city or town depends largely upon their efforts and enter- prises. One of this class at Saltsburg is George B. Davis, of the lumber firm of Davis & Co. He was born in Washington county, Pennsyl- vania, June 10, 1856, and is a son of George and Martha (Crawford) Davis. His paternal grandfather, Joshua Davis, was a native of Ire- land, and came to Washington county, where he purchased a farm and resided until his 'death. His son, George Davis (father), was born in 1814, and during the early part of his life run on a boat plying between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, on the Ohio river. Leaving the river, he purchased a farm and followed farming until his death, December 14, 1870, when in the fifty-sixth year of his age. He was a republican and a member of the United Presbyterian church. He married Martha Crawford, a native of Kentucky, who was a member of the United Presbyterian church, and died April 8, 1852, aged fifty-four years.
George B. Davis was reared on the home farm and received his education in the public schools and Washington college. At sixteen years of age he apprenticed himself to learn the trade of carpenter, and after serving an apprenticeship of three years engaged in con- tracting, which business he followed until 1885. In the spring of that year he opened a lumber- yard at Hills station, which lie operated for one year and then came to Saltsburg, where he engaged in his present planing-mill and lumber business.
In 1878 he united in marriage with Anna
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INDIANA COUNTY.
M. Wright, daughter of Edward Wright, of Washington county, Pa. To their union have been born three children, two sons and one daughter: Walter L., Mary M. and Edward W.
In political matters Mr. Davis is an ardent temperance man and a prominent supporter of the Prohibition party. He is a member of the Saltsburg United Presbyterian church, of whose Sunday-school he has been superintendent for some time. Mr. Davis is a member of Davis, Bros. & Co., which was organized in the spring of 1887. Their mill and shops are favorably situated for business purposes, and manufacture and deal in lumber, doors, sash and moldings. They make a specialty of stair work and other difficult lines in their branch of business. George B. Davis has shown remarkable busi- ness ability in the management of his large lumbering establishment, which is justly de- serving of particular mention in a record of the leading industries of Saltsburg.
TTARRY R. MCCAULEY, a prosperous, progressive and energetic young business man, now actively and successfully engaged in the general mercantile business at Saltsburg, was born in Bell township, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, April 13, 1860, and is a son of John G. and Mary J. (Alcorn) Mc- Cauley. John McCauley (paternal grandfather) is a native of Ireland, came to the United States where he located in Westmoreland county, where he now resides in a comfortable home. He has been a farmer and is now very active for a man nearly four-score and ten. He was born in 1803, and is a member of the Presbyterian church. John G. McCauley (fa- ther) was a native of Bell township, Westmore- land county, and an extensive farmer and stock dealer, in connection with which he was enl- gaged in the general mercantile business for some years. He was very successful in busi- ness, firm in his convictions and very energetic.
In political opinion he was a republican, and in religious faith a presbyterian, being a mem- ber of the church of that denomination at Salts- burg. He died in 1882, in the fifty-second year of his age. In 18- he married Mary J. Alcorn, who was born in 1840, in Westmore- land county, where she now resides on the old home place. She is a member of the Presby- terian church.
Harry R. McCauley was reared on the farm and received his education in the public schools of his native township. He continued on the farm and assisted his father in the store until 1888, when he came to Saltsburg and engaged in his present general mercantile business. He has a well-selected stock of everything needed in that line of business, and has succeeded in building up a flourishing trade. His establishment is one of the largest and foremost mercantile houses of Saltsburg, and fully sustains its weil- deserved reputation for first-class goods, reason- able prices and honorable dealing.
In 1889 Mr. McCauley married Della, daughter of Joseph M. Johnston, of Loyalhanna township, Westmoreland county. Their union has been blest with one child, a son.
In political opinion Mr. McCauley is a re- publican. He is a member of Saltsburg Lodge, No. 646, I. O. O. F. He has achieved success in his chosen line of business, and is recognized as one of the leading merchants of Saltsburg.
REV. SAMUEL W. MILLER, D. D. was born on May 3d 1835, in Washington county, Pennsylvania. He is the third of nine sons, born to Samuel and Mary A. (Calkins) Miller. His ancestry was German, and the founder of the family in this country, was Wil- liam Miller, a German Lutheran of education, who came to America between 1730 and 1740, to avoid Roman Catholic persecution. He set- tled in Philadelphia, and was a teacher of lan- guages.
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BIOGRAPHIES OF
His paternal grandfather was born in Ches- ter county, Pa., and his father in Berkeley county, Va., and in 1803, in the third year of his father's age, the family joined the army of Western pioneers and settled in Washington county, Pa., where his grandfather died at a great age, and in communion with the First Presbyterian church of Washington, Pa.
His mother was the youngest daughter of Vincent Calkins, a presbyterian Irishman, who was also a pioneer in the same county. He obtained a good common school education in Allegheny county, Pa., whither his parents had moved in his early childhood. His academic training was received at Hickory, Washington county, Pa., the place of his birth, and at Wil- kinsburg, Allegheny county. He entered the freshman class in Jefferson college in 1856, and graduated in 1860, with the highest hon- ors of his college literary society.
In the fall of 1860, he took charge of an academy at Huntersville, the county seat of Pocahontas county, Va., which he conducted with great success and satisfaction to his pa- trons, until Virginia passed the Act of Seces- sion, in the spring of 1861, when only by the good will and aid of a few influential friends, he was enabled to avoid conscription, and amidst constant difficulty and peril, escaped over the Cheat mountains, to the loyal soil of his native State.
By the sudden death of his father, and the consequent care of a large farm, he was detained at home ; but during the same time he entered and prosecuted his studies in the Western Theo- logical seminary at Allegheny, Pa., where he graduated in 1864. He was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Ohio, in the First Pres- byterian church Pittsburgh, Pa., in October, 1863.
Ever since, without the interval of a single Sabbath he has sustained the relation of pastor, to the following churches, in succession ; viz : Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 1865-68 ; Wooster, Ohio,
1868-74; Mansfield, Ohio, 1874-80; Salts- burg, Pa., 1880 until the present time. In 1880, from the University of Wooster, he re- ceived the degree of doctor of divinity.
Of his present charge the late Rev. Dr. S. J. Wilson, professor in the Western Theological Seminary at Allegheny, Pa. justly remarked, " It is the most important country or village charge in western Pa." This church has a membership of nearly 500, and stands in the centre of the thriving town of Saltsburg, which is situated where the waters of the Conemaugh and Loyalhanna meet, and form the beautiful Kiskiminetas. The people of the town and vicinity are of the most substantial character, the great majority of them descendants of the early pioneers. They have always been deeply interested in educational enterprises."
For many years the church has owned and sustained an academy from which a large num- ber have gone forth, who have attained to posi- tions of eminence and usefulness. Saltsburg is also the seat of the exceptionally prosperous " Kiskiminetas Springs school for Boys," an institution eminently worthy of its wide repu- tation and overflowing patronage. Dr. Miller takes great pleasure in the feeling, that he had a little hand in securing the location of this school under the very shadow of his own church.
On September 5th 1865, he married Salina Ledley Crawford, daughter of Robert Craw- ford, Esq., of Steubenville, Ohio. He and his good wife with their two sons, Robert Craw- ford, and Samuel Wilson, thoroughly enjoy life at their beautiful place on High street which overlooks the valley. Few pastors of any denomination are more favored in the way of a home than he of the Saltsburg Presbyter- ian church.
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