USA > Indiana > Biographical and historical cyclopedia of Indiana and Armstrong counties, Pennsylvania > Part 64
USA > Pennsylvania > Armstrong County > Biographical and historical cyclopedia of Indiana and Armstrong counties, Pennsylvania > Part 64
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JAMES ROBERT CALHOUN, burgess of Dayton, and a descendant of an old, honored and influential family, is a son of Hon. John and Elizabeth (Anthony) Calhoun, and was born in Wayne township, Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, March 25, 1817. The Calhouns trace their ancestry to Ireland, from which James Calhoun (grandfather) emigrated to the United States during the Revolutionary war. He enlisted in the Continental army, and was wounded in one of the battles of that great struggle. After peace was declared he came to Indiana county. He was a weaver by trade, but followed farming. Hc married a Miss Temple- ton, by whom he had two children : Samuel and William. After her death he married, for his second wife, Mrs. Mary Walker (née Adams), the mother of the celebrated Indian spy, Col. Robert Walker. To this second union were born several children, one of whom was Judge John Calhoun, who was born January 16, 1784, in Indiana county, and removed with his parents to Armstrong county when young. He was a
carpenter by trade, but for many years was ac- tively engaged in farming in Boggs and Wayne townships. He purchased a large tract of land near Dayton. He was an active democratic politician, and was for many years justice of the peace in Plum Creek and Wayne townships. On August 30, 1811, he was commissioned lieu- tenant-colonel of a militia regiment and on March 30, 1818, he was appointed by Governor Snyder, captain of an Armstrong county com- pany. In 1845 he was appointed by Governor Porter as associate judge of Armstrong county to serve out the unexpired term of Judge Beatty, who had died, and afterwards was appointed to the same office by Gov. Shunk. He served with credit to himself and satisfaction to the public. Judge Calhoun was a prominent member of the Presbyterian church, and was one of the found- ers of the Glade Run and Concord Presbyterian churches, in each of which he held the office of elder. He died in 1865, in the ninety-first year of his age. He married Elizabeth Anthony, daughter of Jacob Anthony, a German farmer, who married a Miss Johnson, by whom he had three sons and three daughters. To Judge and Mrs. Calhoun were born eight children : Noah A., born December 26, 1806, and died in 1889; William J., born July 22, 1809, and now dead ; Mary, born in 1812, married to Thomas Ritchey, and both are dead ; Nancy (deceased), who was born September 18, 1814, and married Samuel H. Porter; James R., Sarah, born October 4, 1819, wife of James Calhoun ; Samuel S. S. N., born March 22, 1823, and Hon. John K., who was born February 26, 1825, became a lawyer, served in 1856 and again in 1858 as a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and in 1863 was captain of Co. G, emergency men of Kittanning.
James R. Calhoun was reared on his father's farm, received a common school education, and until 1882 was engaged in farming in Wayne township. For the last eight years he has lived at Dayton. Besides his home and four acres of
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land at Dayton, he owns a good farm of one hundred and seventy acres of land which he has always kept in first-class condition.
April 8, 1841, he married Nancy S. Cochran, daughter of William and Mary (Marshall) Cochran. To Mr. and Mrs. Calhoun have been born five children : Ephraim A., who was born July 5, 1843, enlisted in 1862, in the 155th reg., Pa. Vols., and was killed in the battle of the Wilderness, May 5, 1864; Elmira A., born January 5, 1845, received an academic educa- tion, and has taught several terms of school ; Lavina Clara, born September 26, 1846, and married to J. H. Mateer, a farmer of Boggs township ; Jefferson, born May 20, 1849, a far- mer of Indiana county, who married Kate R. Steele, daughter of Samuel Steele, of Westmore- land county ; Leander S., born October 25, 1850, married Lina Ambrose, daughter of John Ambrose, of Franklin township, and lives on the homestead farm. Mrs. Calhoun was born December 20, 1816. She is one of a family of eleven children. Three of her brothers enlisted in the Union army ; William enlisted in Co. K, 14th Pa. Cavalry, was wounded in the Shenan- doah Valley and died in 1864, from the effects of his wound; Robert served in an Illinois regiment and is living in Nebraska, and David Sloan entered Co. K, 78th reg., Pa. Vols., and resides now at Dayton.
James R. Calhoun and his estimable wife have been members for fifty years of the Con- cord Presbyterian church, of which Mr. Cal- houn has been repeatedly a trustee and the treas- urer. He is a democrat and has held the offices of school director for twelve years, and tax col- lector and road supervisor of Wayne township for four years. He served one term as councilman of Dayton borough. He is now burgess of Day- ton, and has served for two terms in that capac- ity in such a manner as to give general satisfac- tion.
YEORGE COOPER, one of the foremost oil
producers of his day in western Pennsyl- vania, and a highly respected and very charita- ble citizen of Parker City, was a son of Charles and Margaret (Morgan) Cooper, and was born in county Wicklow, Ireland, on the last day of December, 1832. He came with his parents to the United States, in 1842, and twelve years later removed with them to Parker's Landing, now Parker City. (See sketch of James S. Cooper.) He attended the public schools of his native country and the common schools of Pennsylvania. Leaving school, he was em- ployed at different kinds of work until the oil excitement came in western Pennsylvania and mo- nopolized public attention from everything else. In the opening up of the first oil territory he was interested. He was a stockholder in some of the first wells put down, was successful and by continued and fortunate investments in pay- ing oil territory, soon became, with his brothers, John T. and James S., among the leading pro- ducers of the oil region. The name of Cooper Brothers soon became widely known in connec- tion with the wonderful oil industry of Penn- sylvania. In their extensive operations he was active and energetic, and discharged faithfully every duty that devolved upon him. He was an active oil producer until a few years before his death, which occurred February 7, 1890, when in the fifty-ninth year of his age. His remains were consigned, amid many sorrowing friends, to their last resting-place in a beautiful cemetery.
In 1861 he married Louisa McGlaughlin, daughter of James McGlaughlin, of Butler, Pa. Their union was blessed with one child, a son : James H. Cooper. Mrs. Cooper is an estima- ble woman and a consistent member of the Pres- byterian church.
George Cooper was a republican in political opinion and had served as school director of his borough. He was an earnest and faithful member of the Presbyterian church, in whose
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work for the betterment of human society he always took a deep interest. The following account of his death appeared in one of the leading county papers :
"Friday morning last the spirit of Mr. George Cooper left its tenement of clay for realms above. The deceased was one of the prominent oil producers during the palmy days of the Upper creek and also in this region. The name of Cooper Brothers, at that time, was very familiar. The past few years disease set- tled upon him, preventing active business. For many months prior to his demise he was con- fined to the house. He was a quiet, unobtru- sive man, shunned public notoriety, was no office seeker or taker, but lived retired. He leaves a wife and one son, James H., and a large number of relatives and friends to mourn his departure. The funeral exercises were held in the Presbyterian church, Rev. J. W. Miller officiating. The address was delivered with true Christian kindness and affection; the feeling words and manner of the speaker were very impressive."
George Cooper always yielded undeviating devotion to any duty which devolved upon him. His kindness to the poor was remarkable. In private life he was a most affectionate and devoted husband and father. The pleasures of social intercourse he fully appreciated ; espe- cially in the company of those in whom he placed confidence, and to whom he felt attach- ment. His death was sincerely lamented by numerous friends whose respect and love he had secured by his honorable course of action in life.
JOHN THOMAS COOPER. One of the J
most widely known and successful oil producers in the United States was the late lamented John Thomas Cooper, of Parker City, a representative man, whose highest aim was to serve his fellow-men: He was born in county
Wicklow, Ireland, April 22, 1837, and was a son of Charles and Margaret (Morgan) Cooper. He came with his parents from Ireland to the United States in 1842, and in 1854 he located at Parker City.
He received his education in the public schools, and was variously engaged in honest labor until September 7, 1861, when he enlisted as a soldier in Co. A, 103d regiment, Pa. Vols., but at the end of about one year's service around Wash- ington City he was discharged on account of disability. He then returned home and after having recovered his health, to a considerable degree, he again engaged in business pursuits. In the fall of 1868 he was one of the first to put down a paying oil well on the Butler- Clarion belt at Parker's Landing. Other wells were put down in rapid succession, and here on the flat beneath the vertical cliffs of the Alle- gheny river and on the terraces hundreds of derricks arose. They stood as thick as trees in a forest and drained the " Third Oil Sand," which lies eight hundred feet beneath the bed of the river. In this great oil excitement at Parker's Landing, Mr. Cooper was a prominent, active and successful producer. He associated with him his brothers, George and James S., in various oil enterprises, and the Cooper Brothers became well-known throughout the entire oil region as experienced and successful producers. John Thomas Cooper soon became a leading operator throughout the oil regions and remained as such until his death, of consumption, which occurred on Saturday, June 9, 1883. At the time of his death he resided in the first ward, or Lawrenceburg, and his late residence, which stands on a commanding site, is one of the finest mansions in western Pennsylvania. His re- mains lie entombed in a beautiful spot in the Presbyterian cemetery at Parker City.
On October 2, 1867, he united in marriage with Sarah Bailey, who still survives him. She is a daughter of E. H. Bailey, of Parker City, and is an amiable and intelligent woman.
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To Mr. and Mrs. Cooper were born five sons and three daughters : Albert H., now an oil pro- ducer; Elizabeth, Thomas, Margaret, Charles, Hope B., Kenneth and Catherine.
John Thomas Cooper was a republican in politics, a member of the Parker Oil Exchange and a director of the Parker Savings bank. He was a member and an elder of Parker City Presbyterian church, whose session, in resolutions passed upon his death, and sent to his bereaved family and the local and religious press, said : " We desire to bear testimony to his worth as a . Christian, unassuming, tender-hearted, faithful, and as a member of this session, able in counsel and zealous in execution. We hold his mem- ory precious."
A gentleman who is well acquainted with Mr. Cooper has recorded his high estimate of him in the following true and beautiful tribute to his memory : " As a citizen he was patriotic and enterprising. His attachments, not readily formed, were as deep and abiding as the worthi- ness of their object. His disposition was very sensitive and retiring, and forbade his taking prominence in public exercises; but for eight years he served conscientiously and ably as an elder in the Presbyterian church. His death is a bereavement common to the whole community. Many among the poor and wretched will miss his kindly word and open hand. While he was quick to mark and denounce a wrong, his heart was tender as a mother's and responded to every nobleness. A mean thing was utterly foreign to his nature. Such a life is the richest inherit- ance his friends can have. The integrity which was universally recognized under the severest tests ; the patriotism which meant with liim not merely a sentiment, but a sacrifice ; the generos- ity whichi, while quiet, was all the more genuine and worthy ; the piety which grounded and rounded all his other virtues. These our mem- ories love to linger over and retain as the bright monument of John Thomas Cooper."
.J
OSEPH EGGERT, M.D., resident of Par-
ker City, is one of the oldest and most successful physicians of northern Armstrong county. He was born in Unity township, West- moreland county, Pennsylvania, Christmas, 1823, and is a son of George and Elizabeth (Fritts) Eggert. His paternal grandfather, John Eggert, was a native of Germany and came, when sixteen years of age, as a cook with some soldiers to Canada. He soon deserted and en- listed in one of the Continental armies, in which he served throughout the Revolutionary war. At its close he settled in Westmoreland county, where he drew a pension until his death, in 1840, at ninety-three years of age. Of the children born to him in his Westmoreland county home was George Eggert (father), who was a large landholder in Salem township of that county. He was a member and an elder of the German Reformed church, and died at Mas- sillon, Ohio, in 1859, aged sixty-three years. He was a whig, and, although a very quiet man, yet was very energetic in whatever enlisted his attention or engaged his efforts. He married Elizabeth Fritts, a native of Northampton county, and a daughter of Coonrod Fritts, who died on his farm in Westmoreland county, in 1834, aged seventy-five years. Mrs. Eggert was a member of the Reformed church and passed away at her home in Stark county, Ohio, in June, 1888, when in the eighty-sixth year of her age ..
Joseph Eggert was reared on his father's farm, and received his education in the schools of his neighborhood and Greensburg academy. In 1844 he entered the office of Drs. Ormsby & Fowler, of Greensburg, as a medical student, and in 1847 attended a course of lectures ill Cincinnati. He afterwards attended Cleve- land Medical college, from which well-known medical institution he was graduated in Febru- ary, 1853. He commenced the practice of medicine in 1848 at North Washington, in But- ler county, which place he left in 1856 to
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locate at Callensburg, Clarion county. He left the latter place in 1856 to engage, at Oil City, in the drug business, which he followed for only three years. In 1870 he came to Parker City, where he opened an office, and has been engaged ever since in the continuous practice of his profession.
On December 1, 1853, he married Margaret, daughter of John Parker, of Parker City. They are the parents of three children, two sons and one daughter : Rev. John E., a pres- byterian minister at Kansas, Illinois; Dr. George L. G., a practicing physician and drug- gist of Parker City ; and Lizzie A., wife of Dean Fullerton.
Dr. Eggert is a member of the Royal Tem- plars and the Equitable Aid association, and a member and an elder of the Parker City Presby terian church. He is a republican in politics. While having his office in Parker City, how- ever, he resides just in the edge of Butler county. His practice extends over a portion of both Armstrong and Butler counties. Not desirous of office and not prominent in political matters, Dr. Eggert is never lacking in public spirit. He gives his full time to his profession and its many duties.
REV. THOMAS MCCONNELL ELDER. Among the useful and public-spirited cit- zens of Dayton, well respected and highly es- teemed by all who know him and ever watchful for the progress and prosperity of the place where he has so long had his home, is Rev. Thomas McConnell Elder.
He was born near New Alexandria, West- moreland county, Pennsylvania, March 24, 1826, and is a son of Thomas and Mary (Mc- Connell) Elder. He is a descendant of the Dauphin county Elder family, of whose mem- bers many were pioneer settlers of western Pennsylvania. His grandfather, Robert Elder, served five years as a soldier in the Revolution-
ary war, and at its close (soon after the burn- ing of Hannastown) came to near New Alex- andria, where he died many years later at the ripe age of eighty-six years. He was a cabinet- maker by trade. He settled on, and became owner of, a portion of a large body of land, still known as the " Richlands," taken up by Thomas Anderson, a relative of his. Of these lands, the tract known as " Hannasburg " de- scended through the mother, Mrs. Hannah Elder ; the other, known as " Andersonia," by will of said Anderson. Robert Elder was in politics a democrat, a consistent member of "Old Salem " Presbyterian church (Salem, in whose church-yard still stands an ancient grave- stone marked " Thomas Anderson, aged 103 years"), was married and survived his wife, by whom he had two children: Hannah, who married James Richards, and resided and died on part of the home tract, and Thomas, the father of the subject of this sketch.
Thomas Elder was born in Dauphin county, January 18, 1782, and in 1784 was brought by his parents to Westmoreland county, where he was engaged in agricultural pursuits until his death, in April, 1855. He was a good citizen, a strong democrat and was a member of the old school Presbyterian church, which he left some years before his death to unite with the Re- formed Presbyterian church. On June 2, 1812, he married Mary McConnell, of Lancaster county, who was of the same religious faith as her husband. Their children were : Violet W., born March 13, 1813; Patsey M., born Sep- tember 27, 1815; Robert A., born Septem- ber 22, 1817; Harriet E., born December 27, 1820; David, born September 4, 1823; Rev. Thomas M., Mary, born November 6, 1828 ; James M., born November 14, 1829; John M., born December 22, 1832, and Wil- liam P., born April 12, 1835. All of these children are dead except Rev. Thomas M. and John M., wlio still resides on the old home- farm.
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BIOGRAPHIES OF
Mrs. Elder was born August 24, 1792, and died October 3, 1881. She was a daughter of David McConnell, a Scotch-English farmer of Lancaster county, who came to near New Alex- andria, Westmoreland county, after the Revolu- tion. He afterwards removed to Salem town- ship, that county, where he died. He was an earnest presbyterian, and married Martha Whitesides, January 10, 1788, by whom he had twelve children : Daniel, Thomas W., David and Samuel, and Margaret, Prudence, Mary, Martha, Violet, Elizabeth, Hannah and Rebec- ca. These have now all passed away.
Thomas M. Elder was educated at Geneva col- lege, from which he was graduated in 1853. He afterwards took a four years theological course at the Reformed Presbyterian seminary, now of Allegheny city. He has been always greatly interested in matters educational. He was the first teacher of the female seminary at North- wood, Ohio; he founded and was principal of the Loyalhanna institute for two years; he was principal of Dayton Union academy from 1862 to 1866, and in the latter was largely instru- mental in establishing the Dayton Soldiers' Orphan school, of which he was principal until 1871. He was licensed to preach the Gospel in 1858, was ordained May 11, 1859, and set- tled as pastor of the congregation of Rehoboth. He also supplied many important vacancies and had several important calls, among them being one to Baltimore and two to Boston, which he did not accept.
In 1863 he had charge of the mission schools of his church at Fernandina, Florida, where, in the absence of the regular chaplain, he did chaplain work for the 11th Maine Volunteers, and in 1864-65 he superintended church mis- sions in Washington City, D. C. On account of hereditary illness he has largely withdrawn from active church work for some years past, and now lives in comfortable retirement in the village of Dayton.
On September 14, 1848, Mr. Elder was mar-
ried to Tirzah Mason, daughter of Thomas Mason, of Hannastown, Pa., and the youngest of a family of seventeen children. To them were born two children, one of which died in infancy and McLeod M., a Pullman palace car conductor, new resides in Allegheny city and married to Hannah Kuox. Mrs. Elder died in the summer of 1851, and on October 10, 1854, Mr. Elder was again married, this time to Mary Parker, daughter of Mr. John Lindsay, of Philadelphia. This wife died September 12, 1868. To this second union were born three children : Tirzah T. M., wife of C. S. Marshall, a merchant of Dayton; one which died in infancy, and Argyle W., now engaged as shipping clerk with a wholesale firm in Pittsburgh and married to Edith C., daughter of C. W. Ellenberger.
Rev. T. M. Elder is a republican and was one of the early abolitionists. He has lived a busy, active life, and very many useful and im- portant enterprises attest his industry, energy and the value of his counsel.
He is a man of fine presence and impressive manners, six feet two inches in height, two hun- dred and twenty-five pounds in weight, and, al- though gray, has still the years and ability to add other work to a very successful life. He owns a part of his father's landed estate, and two farms in Armstrong county, besides several houses and lots at Dayton. He is a partner of the mercantile firm of C. S. Marshall & Co., is president of Dayton S. O. School association, also of two oil and gas companies, and has been interested and active in every business enterprise of any importance which has existed at Dayton, where he has resided for the last thirty years.
SAMUEL J. ERVIN, of Irish extraction, and a well-known and popular furniture dealer, undertaker and embalmer of Parker City, was born in Butler county, Pennsylvania,
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ARMSTRONG COUNTY.
October 12, 1835, and is a son of Samuel and Eliza (Boan) Ervin. Samuel Ervin (grand- father) was a native of Westmoreland county, and came to Butler county in 1804. He pat- ented over five hundred acres of land in Butler county, near what is now Martinsburg. He was physically a strong man, and lived to the ad- vanced age of seventy-seven years. Samuel Ervin (father) was born in Butler county in 1795, and was a farmer of that county all his life. He was a member of the United Presby- terian church, an old-line whig and afterwards a republican. He died in his native county in the spring of 1861, when sixty-six years of age. He married Eliza Boan, who was born on the ship on which her parents were coming from Ireland to the United States, and by whom he had several children. Mrs. Eliza Ervin was a consistent member of the United Presbyterian church, and died in 1842, at forty years of age.
Samuel J. Ervin was reared on his father's farm until fourteen years of age, and received his educational training in the public schools, In 1849 he went to Callensburg, Clarion county, this State, where he served an apprenticeship of three years in learning the cabinet-maker's trade, and went from there to Fairview, Butler county, where he worked as a journeyman for five years. He afterwards purchased the furni- ture and cabinet-making establishment of his employer, William M. Thorn, and remained there until 1862. In that year, during the oil excitement at Oil City, he removed to that place, where he was engaged in the furniture and undertaking business until March, 1871, then came to Parker City and opened a furniture and undertaking establishment, which he has been successfully conducting ever since. He carries a stock worth $10,000, and does a good and paying business. He has a large stock of furniture and also carries a full and complete line of undertaker's supplies. He is perfectly acquainted with the wants of his section of the
county, as well as being experienced in every detail of his business.
In 1857 Mr. Ervin married Mary J. Thomp- son, daughter of John Thompson, of near But- ler, this State. Four children liave been born to them, one son and three daughters : Cordelia B., married to E. M. Turk, who died in the spring of 1887 ; Elmer E., married to Carrie Russell, daughter of Capt. Russell, a veteran steamboat pilot of the Allegheny river ; Kate R., wife of W. W. Miller, ticket agent for the P. & W. R. R. at Parker City, and Clara C., married to William Orr, of Parker City.
S. J. Ervin is a republican in political mat- ters, and a member of the M. E. church. He has been class leader for many years, has held nearly all the offices of his church and takes an active part in church work. He has been a member of the town council for a number of years, and has served as mayor of his borough. He carries a large and well-assorted stock of first-class goods, and pays special attention to undertaking and embalming. His furniture is of the latest style, embracing all kinds and qualities of everything needed in his line of work, and he is conducting his large business with ever-increasing success. He is interested and assists in everything that will be of ben- efit to the town.
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