USA > Indiana > Biographical and historical cyclopedia of Indiana and Armstrong counties, Pennsylvania > Part 59
USA > Pennsylvania > Armstrong County > Biographical and historical cyclopedia of Indiana and Armstrong counties, Pennsylvania > Part 59
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Hill (grandfather) became a prominent salt manufacturer, and was also engaged in the mercantile business for four years at Leech- burg, in connection with his brothers, Levi, Daniel and Hiram. He was a very useful man and married Susan Ashabaugh, who died in 1878, aged' sixty-two years, and left four children : John, Eveline, Margaret (Barr) and Priscilla (Lytle). John Hill (father) was born in Allegheny township, Westmore- land county, December 6, 1832, and received only the educational advantages of the rural districts of that day. He learned the trade of carpenter, soon became an extensive contractor and builder, and in 1872 embarked in the lum- ber business at Leechburg. In 1879 he admitted his son Charles as a partner of the present firm of John Hill & Son. Mr. Hill was one of the originators of the Leechburg Banking com- pany and served as a director until 1878, since which time he has been cashier. He is a re- publican in politics and has served as school director. He commenced life with no fortune but his own hands, energy and industry, and has honorably achieved success and a compe- tency. January 8, 1857, he united in marriage with Mary Jane McCauley, daughter of Charles and Ann (Mears) McCauley, and who was born April 20, 1833. Mr. and Mrs. Hill have two children : Charles A., born December 8, 1857, and Edward.
Edward Hill was reared on the farm and at Leechburg where he has lived since he was twelve years of age. He attended the public schools and entered Pennsylvania college at Gettysburg, from which educational institu- tion he was graduated in 1884. He read law with the firm of Buffington & Buffington, of Kittanning, was admitted to the Armstrong county bar in March, 1887, and has been en- gaged in the active practice of his profession ever since at Leechburg. In December, 1887, he became editor and proprietor of the Leech- burg Advance, which is a live and independent
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weekly paper of extensive circulation and in- creasing influence. Mr. Hill is a republican in politics, and a member of the Lutheran church of Leechburg. He is a Free and Accepted Mason and a member of the I. O. O. F. and Royal Arcanum.
R OBERT P. HUNTER, M.D. Among the well-known and highly esteemed physi- cians of Armstrong county is Robert P. Hunter, M.D., of Leechburg. He was born in Black Lick township, Indiana county, Pennsylvania, Jan- uary 23, 1837, and is a son of John M. and Annie Reese (Banks) Hunter. Among the pioneer families of Westmoreland county was the Hunter family, and one of its members was Robert Hunter, the grandfather of Dr. Hunter. Robert Hunter was born in 1782, became one of the early settlers of Iudiana county and died at Jacksonville, in 1861, aged seventy-nine years. He married Mary Lawrence, who was born in New Jersey in 1781, and passed away in 1868, when in the seventy-seveuth year of her age. They were the parents of fourteen children. One of their sons was John M. Hunter (father), who was born June 12, 1807, and died at Blairsville, March 28, 1868. He followed shoemaking excepting the years 1854- 55, when he was a foreman on the Pennsylva- nia canal, of which his son-in-law, W. F. Boyer, was superintendent at that time. He was mar- ried on May 30, 1830, to Anuie Reese Banks, who was born in Pennsylvania, October 10, 1810, and died at Leechburg, August 16, 1875. They had nine children : Joshua Banks, born November 5, 1832, and a soldier in the late war; Mary A., born October 23, 1835, who married W. F. Boyer and is dead; Dr. Robert P., William I., born September 29, 1839, and now deceased; Ella M., wife of Dr. W. H. Kern, of Mckeesport, Pa., born August 16, 1842; Morgan R. (a soldier of the late war), born April 4, 1844; Dr. John A., born August
20, 1846, and who was a soldier in the late war, was elected as a member of the Pennsylva- nia legislature, by the republican party in 1874, died shortly after his election and the J. A. Hunter Post, No. 123, G. A. R., was named after him; Dr. Milton C., born August 7, 1850; and J. Irwin, born June 19, 1852.
Robert P. Hunter was reared in Indiana county, where he received his education and taught five terms of school besides working for two years on the Pennsylvania canal. He then (1862) commenced the study of medicine with his uncle, Mr. M. R. Banks, of Livermore, Pa. In 1864 he took a course of lectures at Jefferson college and on May 9, 1865, opened an office at Leechburg, where lie practiced for four years. He then, by the combined means of his limited savings from teaching, canal labor and medical practice, was enabled to take the full course of Jefferson Medical college, from which he was graduated with high stand- ing on March 12, 1869. Immediately after graduation he returned to Leechburg, where he has been engaged in continuous and successful practice ever since.
On May 18, 1875, he uuited iu marriage with Rebecca Hill, who was born in this county, June 30, 1853, and is a daughter of Daniel and Eliza (Kuhns) Hill. Dr. and Mrs. Hunter are the parents of three children: John A. H., born June 18, 1876; Anna L., born Jan- uary 10, 1878; and Robert K., born October 19, 1879.
Dr. Hunter is a public-spirited citizen and is ever willing, although ever busy with a large practice, to join in any movement for the benefit of his fellow-citizens or the prosperity of the county. He was active in organizing the Leechburg bank, of which he was a director and stockholder. In 1878 he was among the first to bring short-horn cattle into the couuty and give to the farmers the benefit of improved stock. He is a prohibitionist in politics, served two terms as burgess of Leechburg and was
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commissioned December 29, 1875, by Gov. Hartranft, as surgeon-in-chief on Gen. Harry White's staff, 9th Division N. G. of Pa., in which capacity he had served during the Pitts- burgh railroad and labor riots. He is an elder of the Leechburg Presbyterian church, of whose Sunday-school he has been superintendent for several years. He was sent by the Kittanning Presbytery as a delegate to the General As- sembly of the Presbyterian church which met in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1887. He has always been a strong advocate for the cause of temper- ance. Born to no other inheritance than that of an honorable character and good name, Dr. Hunter has achieved high professional standing and is recognized as a public-spirited citizen whose labors have been very successful in the financial and agricultural interests of the county.
THOMAS M. IRWIN, the pioneer of the - livery business at Leechburg and an in- dustrious citizen of that borough, is a son of Marshall and Ellen B. (McConnell) Irwin, and was born in Conemaugh township, Indiana coun- ty, Pennsylvania, August 6, 1846. His grand- father, Isaac Irwin, was for many years a pros- perous farmer of Indiana county. He was a soldier of the war of 1812, was an old-line whig and afterwards a republican. He and his wife were members of the Presbyterian church. He married Margaret Marshall, who bore him six sons and three daughters .. One of these sons, Marshall Irwin (father), was born on the old homestead, in Conemaugh township, and lived in Indiana county until 1848, when he removed to Westmoreland county, where he purchased a farm some two miles from the bor- ough of Salem. In 1873 he sold his farm and came to Leechburg, where, for several years, he kept the " Irwin Hotel." He afterwards dis- posed of the hotel and purchased property on the corner of Main and Pittsburgh streets, where he has since lived a retired life. He is a
member of the Leechburg Presbyterian church, and supports the Republican party in political affairs. He married Ellen B. McConnell, a daughter of Thomas McConnell, of Congruity. To their union have been born five children : Alexander E., in the livery business at Salts- burg; Thomas M., Catherine, wife of W. T. Richards, of Painesville, Ohio; and Harry W., an employe of the West Penn Steel com- pany.
Thomas M. Irwin attended the public schools of Westmoreland county and assisted his father on his farm until 1872, when he came to Leech- burg, and opened the first livery stable of that place. In 1881 he entered the employ of the West Penn Steel company as a hammerman, which situation he held for six years, when he was given his present position of iron weigher with the same firm.
In December, 1870, he married Emma J. Ralston, daughter of John and Elizabeth Rals- - ton, of Salem township, Westmoreland county. Mr. and Mrs. Irwin have four children : Ella M., born February 27, 1873; Chalmers Hardy, born November 17, 1874, a worker in the steel mill; Lizzie Olive, born June 11, 1876, and Lulu Kate, born January 3, 1879.
Thomas M. Irwin is a member of the Pres- byterian church and a republican in politics. He is a self-made man and is in every way worthy of the respect which is accorded him in the circle of his acquaintances and by those with whom he comes in business contact.
ITHOMAS STEVENSON IRWIN, a skilled mechanic, and a descendant of a long- lived family, is a son of William D. and Matilda (Kidd) Irwin, and was born near East Liberty, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, March 22, 1834. The Irwin family is of Scotch-Irish descent. One of their number, Jared Irwin (great-grandfather), was born in the north of Ireland, and emigrated from that country to the
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United States, bringing with him his two young sons, Jared and James. He settled in Bedford county, Pennsylvania, and bought a large farm on which Broad Top is now built. He was a strict member of the Presbyterian church. His, son, James Irwin (grandfather), married Elizabeth Beckwitlı, of North Carolina, whose father and brothers were Revolutionary sol- diers. James Irwin lived to be eighty-three years of age, and liis wife died at the age of ninety-four years. To their union were born two children, one of whom was William D. Irwin (father), who was born in Bedford county, in 1810, and came with his parents to Allegheny county. In early life he was a teamster on "the pike " between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, and then became a farmer. He afterwards purchased a farm in West Virginia, on which he died in 1846. He was a member of the East Liberty Presbyterian church, and a whig in politics. In 1832 he married Matilda Kidd, a daughter of William Kidd, of Alle- gheny county. They had six children. William Kidd lived to the advanced age of ninety-six years, and his wife died when she was in the eighty-fifth year of her age. Wil- liam D. Irwin was of colossal proportions and a man of honor, who regarded his word when given as binding as an oath.
Thomas S. Irwin accompanied his mother, when she returned to East Liberty after her husband's death, and attended the public schools of that borough. Leaving school, he learned the trade of carpenter, which he followed until 1864. In 1860 he removed to Allegheny township, Westmoreland county, where, on September 15, 1864, he enlisted in Co. H, 212th regiment, Pa. Vols., better known as the 6th regiment, Heavy Artillery. This regiment was sent first to assist in the defence of the national capital, then to Alexandria and Manassas, with their headquarters at Fairfax Court-house ; then in November were ordered back to defend Washington city, and were mustered out of the
United States service on June 19, 1865. After leaving the army, Mr. Irwin became a builder and contractor, and as such has built some of the finest houses in Westmoreland county. In 1878 he removed to Leechburg, in 1872 helped to build the Iron mill at that place. During 1880 he worked as a millwright, and in the following year erected the West Pennsylvania steel works for Joseph G. Beale, in whose em- ploy he continued for six years as master mechanic. In 1886 Mr. Beale sold out to Jennings Brothers & Co., and Mr. Irwin entered their employ as shearman, in which capacity he has served ever since.
October 25, 1860, he married Margaret B. Caldwell, a daughter of Robert Caldwell, of Allegheny county. They have had five child- ren : William W., born April 15, 1862, a shear- man in the West Pennsylvania steel works; Anna, born July 4, 1864 ; Ella Mary, born July 20, 1866 ; Elizabeth, born January 19, 1870 ; and Charles Albert, born April 20, 1873. Of these, Anna and Ella Mary are dead. The eldest son, William W., married Nettie McCleary, daugh- ter of Levi McCleary, and has one child : Mar- garet Wilda, born August 2, 1884.
Thomas S. Irwin is an elder in the Leechburg Presbyterian church, in whose Sunday-school he is a teacher. He is a member of the Amal- gamated Association of Iron and Steel workers, and of John A. Hunter Post, No. 123, Grand Army of the Republic. He is a stanch republican and has served twice as a member of the borough council.
D AVID LEECH, the founder of Leechburg, was one of the prominent and useful men of the Kiskiminetas Valley. He was a native of Mercer county, Pennsylvania. Beyond the name of his native county we have no record of his ancestry or account of his early life. We find mention of him in this county as early a 1827, when he had come from Sharpsburg
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Allegheny county, where he had a canal contract. In 1827 he purchased the site of Leechburg and laid out that town during the next year. He was a man of activity and energy and erected a saw and grist-mill at his new town, where he also prosecuted successfully and exten- sively the work of building passenger and freight boats for the canal. He was also en- gaged in the mercantile business, and from 1853 to 1856 was an active member of the firm which constructed the A. V. R. R., from Pittsburgh to Kittanning.
In 1857 liis vigorous constitution gave way under age, cares and disease and he passed away November 3, 1858, regretted and esteemed at home and abroad.
extensively engaged in salt manufacturing be- sides being interested in various other local business enterprises. He was originally a whig, but is now a republican, and has always been active in politics although, never asking for any office. He is a consistent member of the Presbyterian church and has served his borough as burgess and as school director. In both of these offices, as well as in every other public position which he ever occupied, he ren- dered good service and gave the best of satis- faction. Ever since he came to Leechburg he has been prominently and actively identified with its various interests and general prosper- ity. He married Mary Keely, who is a daugh- ter of Samuel Keely, of near Saltsburg, Indiana county. To them have been born four sons and three daughters. Of these, Laban S. is engaged in business in Pittsburgh ; Amanda C., wife of John Armstrong; Rev. John K., pastor of the Presbyterian church at Beaver, Pa .; Joanna J., now Mrs. Robert Pinkerton, of Westmoreland county ; James A. and Harry F., who is with his brother in Pittsburgh.
TAMES A. McKALLIP. One of the active, thorough-going and enterprising business men of Leechburg is James A. McKallip, whose large mercantile establishment is com- plete in all of its appointments. He was born at Shearsburgh, in Allegheny township, West- moreland county, Pennsylvania, July 21, 1853, James A. McKallip was reared principally 1 at Leechburg, and received his education in the public schools of that place. At an early age he engaged in the mercantile business with his father, whom he succeeded, in 1870, in the pro- prietorship of the Canal street store, which he removed, in 1882, to its present location on the corner of Market street. In the mercantile business he now devotes his attention to carry- ing full and well selected lines of gents' furnish- ing goods, hats and caps and boots and shoes. His stock of goods covers an immense number and variety of articles, which are absolutely necessary to all who have any regard to com- fort or health. He gives special attention to the styles and material most in vogue, and by ----- his courtesy and business tact has gained a large share of the trade of his borough and the sur- and is a son of Henry K. and Mary (Keely) McKallip. Henry K. McKallip (father) was born in 1809, in Allegheny township, West- moreland county, where he was reared and where he followed merchandising for several years. He then came to Leechburg, where he opened and conducted a general mercantilc store, on Canal street, until 1870, when he retired from active life and was succeeded in the proprietorship and management of the store by his son, James A., the subject of this sketch. Henry K. McKallip has been both prominent and successful as a business man. He was the first inan to bore for oil across the river from Leechburg, has always embarked in every bus- iness enterprise calculated to benefit his section of the county, and is now president of the Leechburg Bridge and the Leechburg Banking rounding country. He is a republican in polit- companies. Prior to the oil excitement he was ical affairs and has served as a member of the
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town council. He is a member of the Leech- burg Presbyterian church and the Jr. O. U. A. M. Carefully trained to business pursuits, in which he has always been engaged, it is but natural, and nothing remarkable, that a man of Mr. McKallip's disposition, native ability and energy should be so successful in mercantile life.
James A. McKallip was united in marriage, on January 25, 1887, with Lillie M. Butler, daughter of James M. Butler, of Allegheny township, Westmoreland county. Their union lias been blessed with one child, a daughter, Jessie, born June 16, 1890.
W TILLIAM MONTGOMERY, a leading druggist of Leechburg, a worthy de- scendant of that wonderful Scotch-Irish race which has played so important a part in our National history, and a well-educated man of scientific attainments and literary tastes, is a son of William, Sr., and Elizabeth (Looka- baugh) Montgomery, and was born on the old McAllister farm, six miles east of Leechburg, Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, October 10, 1848. On his paternal side his grandfather, William Montgomery, was a native of Ireland, where he owned the farm on which the fairs of county Derry were held. He came to Arm- strong county m) 1825, and located on the old L. N. Graves farm, on Crooked run, some ten miles from Leechburg. He was a member of the M. E. church, became a democrat in poli- tics and followed farming. He was an intelli- gent man of good education and pleasing man- ners, and lived to the ripe old age of ninety- eight years. He married a Miss Bredin, who bore him four sons and four daughters. One of these sons was William Montgomery, Sr. (father), who was born near Dublin, Ireland,“ about 1820, and was brought by his parents, at five years of age, to this county, where he was reared on Crooked creek. He was a farmer
by occupation and united with the M. E. churcli during its pioneer days in the county. He was a prominent and fearless anti-slavery man prior to the late war, after which he supported the Republican party. He served as justice of the peace one term, filled nearly all of the other township offices and died January 6, 1889, aged seventy years. He married Elizabeth Looka- baugh, and they had nine children, of whom six are living : William, James, an oil driller, of Washington county ; Mary, wife of W. L. Wolf ; Harriet, married to H. L. Wolf; John T., residing on the home farm; and Harry, who is a mine boss for the N. Y. and Cleve- land Gas Coal company, at Turtle creek, Pa. Mrs. Montgomery was killed by the fall of her horse while out riding, in 1874. She was a daughter of Peter Lookabaugh, a pious mem- ber of the Lutheran church, who celebrated his hundredth birthday August 7, 1890. He is a son of a Mr. Lookabaugh, a drummer in the Revolutionary war, was a driver on the old National Pike, married Eveline Bigler, of Maryland, and soon after his marriage became an early settler in this county. Venerable in appearance and well preserved physically, Mr. Lookabaugh retains his faculties unimpaired in a wonderful degree for his great age.
William Montgomery attended the common schools and Manorville, Leechburg and Free- port academies, and was prevented by the fail- ure of his health from entering college. His first employment was teaching, which he fol- lowed for three years. He next engaged in insurance, which he quit in six months to embark in the drug business at Pittsburgh, Pa. In 1873 he disposed of his stock of drugs and engaged as a drug clerk with H. A. Kepple, of Leechburg. The next year he purchased a half-interest in Mrs. Kepple's drug house, and three years later, in 1878, he became sole pro- prietor. Since then he has been constantly increasing his stock and rapidly adding to the number of his patrons. In the late disastrous
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fire at Leechburg, he lost his dwelling-house and a very fine library, but he is now erecting a fine brick building for a residence and drug- store.
, January 2, 1875, he united in marriage with Laura McIntosh, daughter of John McIntosh a retired business man of Wilkinsburg, Pa. They have one child, a daughter, Winifred, who was born September 14, 1879.
In addition to the management of his drug house he is manager of the telegraph and tele- phone office at Leechburg, a position which he has held for fourteen years. He is a member of the M. E. church, Leechburg Lodge, No. 517, F. and A. Masons, and Lodge No. 250, Knights of Pythias.
In politics he is an active supporter of the Republican party. He has always been a close student, and is well acquainted with the stand- ard authors of ancient and modern literature. He learned book-keeping during his leisure evenings while at Pittsburgh, and by con- tinuous study has made himself conversant with the practical sciences of the nineteenth century.
J OSEPH D. ORR, M.D. A successful phy- sician who unites valuable experience with good judgment and excellent professional knowledge is Joseph D. Orr, M.D., of Leech- burg. He is a son of James and Catherine (Clawson) Orr, and was born in Kiskiminetas township, Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, October 16, 1856. The founder of the Orr family in Pennsylvania was Joseph Orr, the paternal grandfather of Dr. Orr. He came from Ireland in the early part of the present century, and settled in Kiskiminetas township, where he engaged in merchandising. He began business with but small means, but acquired a large and valuable estate before his death. He was a strict member of the Presbyterian church, and was an intimate friend of Dr.
Alexander Donaldson, of Elder's Ridge. In politics he was an old-time democrat, and served several terms as a justice of the peace. He married a Miss Manners and had four children, all of whom are living. His life closed on this earth in 1877, when he passed away at eighty-four years of age. One of his sons, James Orr (father), was born in 1836 and resided continuously in this county until 1875, when he removed to his present location in Westmoreland county, opposite Saltsburg, Pa. During the last thirty-five years he las been successively engaged in merchandising, milling and farming. He has always been a stanch democrat, served as a justice of the peace for several years and is always active in the in- terests of his party. He is a large man, of rather commanding appearance, and is a mem- ber of the Presbyterian church. He married Catherine Clawson, who was a daughter of Peter Clawson, of Westmoreland county and who died December 27, 1882, when in the 57th year of her age. They had seven children : William C., Robert M., Dr. Joseph D., Matil- da, Hallie, Harry D. and Lucian C.
Joseph D. Orr received his elementary educa- tion in the common schools and fitted for college in Elder's Ridge and Saltsburg academies. Leaving college, he determined upon medicine as a life vocation, entered Jefferson Medical college in 1882, where he completed a full three years' course and was graduated from that well- known institution in the class of 1885, taking first 'honors in surgery. Immediately after graduation he came to Leechburg, where he has remained ever since, in the active and success- ful practice of his profession. He is P. R. R. surgeon at Leechburg.
Dr. Orr united in marriage, on September 29, 1885, with Belle M. McFarland, daughter of the late Dr. John McFarland, of Saltsburg, Pa., who was a prominent citizen of that place.
In politics Dr. Orr is a democrat, who always takes an active part in the interests of his party,
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although he is no aspirant for office. He fre- quently represents his borough in county demo- cratic conventions, and was a delegate to the State democratic convention of 1890, which nominated Robert E. Pattison for governor of Pennsylvania. He is a member of Leechburg Lodge, No. 654, I. O. O. F., Council No. 171, Jr. O. U. A. M., Lodge No. 623, A. O. U. W., Council No. 1045, Royal Arcanum, and Lodge No. 641, Knights of Pythias, and acts as medi- cal examiner for each of these orders at Leech- burg. He takes a deep interest in the material prosperity of his town, being an active member of the Leechburg Foundry and Machine com- pany. Dr. Joseph D. Orr is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran church, a well-respected citizen and popular physician of extensive and successful practice. He is also an active mem- ber of the Leechburg Electric Light company.
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