USA > Pennsylvania > Erie County > A twentieth century history of Erie County, Pennsylvania : a narrative account of its historic progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume II > Part 94
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99
A young lad when he came with his parents to Erie, Samuel A. Davenport attended the public schools and the Erie Academy, after which he read law with the late Judge Galbraith, and was admitted to the Erie bar in 1854. Subsequently he graduated from the Harvard University Law School, and immediately began the practice of his pro- fession in Erie. Meeting with success from the first, Mr. Davenport served one term as district attorney. Forming a legal partnership with George P. Griffith in 1871, he was head of the law firm of Daven- port & Griffith for a score of years, but since 1891 has practiced alone.
A stanch and uncompromising Republican, Mr. Davenport has been very active in political circles, and was a delegate to the Repub- lican National Convention in 1888, and delegate-at-large from Penn- sylvania to the National Convention held in Minneapolis in 1892. In 1896 he was elected Congressman-at-large from this state, and was re-elected in 1898. Aside from his eminent career as a lawyer and a politician, Mr. Davenport has greatly aided the upbuilding of the city by his investments in a number of important beneficial enterprises. of which he has been a leading promoter. As a member of the old firm of Stearns. Clark & Co .. he was one of the founders of the Burdett
671
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
Organ Company ; of the Erie Car Works; of the Erie Boot and Shoe Factory ; of the Keystone Boot and Shoe Factory ; and of the Derrick & Felgemaker Pipe Organ Company. Mr. Davenport, in 1865, became owner of the Gasette, that had since 1820 been the leading newspaper in this corner of the state, and under his direction it continued to be an influential journal until it was sold in 1890 and consolidated with the Dispatch.
On December 30, 1862, Mr. Davenport married Kate, eldest daughter of the late Hon. John H. Walker, a prominent lawyer of Erie, who served as president of the Pennsylvania Constitutional Con- vention in 1873.
HENRY WEST BUCHANAN. Noteworthy among the many enterpris- ing, progressive and prosperous citizens of Erie county is Henry West Buchanan, who is intimately associated with one of the sub- stantial industries of Albion, where he is foreman of the boiler works in the Bessemer railway shops. A native of Pennsylvania, he was born January 12, 1872, in Greenville.
The grandfather of Henry W. Buchanan was born in County Sligo, Ireland, in 1824; accompanied his parents (John and Eliza- beth Alen Buchanan) to Mono, Simcoe county, Canada West, in 1831 : in 1879 he moved to Forest Farin, Assa., Canada, where he died in 1906. In 1846 he married Sarah Reid, who was born at Mono, Sim- coe county, in 1828, and died there August 12, 1860. She was of Irish parentage. In 1861 he married Euphemia Reed, widow of Law- rence Reid, at Mono.
William James Buchanan, son of the above and father of Henry W., was born in Mono, Simcoe county, Canada West, November 28, 1847; was a farmer and came to Erie, May, 1866, moving to Green- ville, June 22, 1871, where he entered the service of the Shenango & Allegheny Railroad ( Bessemer ) as blacksmith. He became a car- penter in the same service in the spring of 1875, a year later was ap- pointed foreman, in 1891 became general foreman of car repairs, in 1900 assistant master car builder, and in 1904 master car builder, finally retiring August 31, 1907. He married, in Erie county, Octo- ber 27, 1870, Helena A. West, who was born at Barry, Pike county, Illinois, April 11, 1844, and moved to Erie, January 22, 1863. Her father, Thomas J. West, was born in New Hampshire, April 17, 1804, moved to Erie county and lived there twenty years, then moved to Pike county, Illinois, in 1840, and went west to Drytown, California, in 1853, where he died December 23, of the same year. Thomas J. West married Mary M. Hayes at Beaver Dam, Erie county, April 9, 1824. She was born at Marcellus, New York, May 15, 1804, and died in Pike county, Illinois, August 3, 1846.
Henry W. Buchanan was the oldest of a family of three children, the others being John Jefferson Buchanan, of Albion, of whom a short sketch appears elsewhere in this work, and Cora, wife of Alva E. Hornbeck, of Greenville, a train dispatcher. Until thirteen years of age he attended the public schools, during the long vacations work- ing in the rolling mills. At the age of fifteen years he secured em- ployment in the Bessemer railway shops as helper, and continued as such until 1901. Coming then to Albion, Mr. Buchanan entered the boiler works, and in 1907 was promoted to his present position as
ยท
612
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
foreman of this department, and has since performed the duties de- volving upon him in this capacity with intelligence, ability and fidelity.
Mr. Buchanan married, in 1900, Josephine Kelley, who was born April 21, 1874, a daughter of Thomas and Anna (Murphy) Kelley, the former of whom died in 1898, aged sixty-four years, while the latter is still living, a bright and active woman of seventy-four years. Mrs. Buchanan's maternal grandfather, William Murphy, went from Ireland to Australia to look after the estate of a brother, and was never again heard from. Mrs. Buchanan has two brothers and two sisters, namely : Thomas Kelley, of Barnesburg, Pennsylvania ; Frank, a bridge builder, of Cleveland, Ohio; Sarah, wife of C. Cook, of Lima, Ohio; and Martha, living with her mother. Fraternally, Mr. Bu- chanan is a charter member of Paul Revere Lodge, No. 103, K. of P., in which he has passed all the chairs, and is now master of finance and keeper of records and seals; is a member of the Knights of the Maccabees, and of Greenville Camp, M. W. A., of which he is past president, and is a charter member of Albion Camp. He is a charter member of the B. M. & I. Ship Builders Union of Greenville; also a charter member of the Moose of Erie. In August, 1909, he was ap- pointed deputy grand chancellor of the district of Erie county. Po- litically he is a stanch Republican, and has served as a member of the election board of Albion.
JOHN J. BUCHANAN. Energetic and progressive and possessing marked business qualifications, John Jefferson Buchanan of Albion, Erie county, is well known for his connection with the Bessemer railway shops, being at the present time superintendent of the car repair department of that great plant. A son of William James Buchanan, he was born January 12, 1875, at Greenville, Mercer county, Pennsylvania, and is a brother of Henry W. Buchanan, in whose sketch, published elsewhere in this volume, will be found the ancestral history of the family.
Obtaining his elementary education in the district schools, John J. subsequently attended the Bell Valley school for two years. From 1887 to 1890 he was employed as a clerk in his father's store in Green- ville, after which he worked as a blacksmith in the Bessemer shops at Shenango, Pennsylvania. Locating then in Camden, Allegheny county, Mr. Buchanan opened a store, but having no liking for mer- cantile pursuits he returned to the Bessemer works at Shenango. In 1893 he went to northern Michigan, where for four years he was foreman in the Reed Manufacturing Company's plant. Coming to Albion, in 1898, he assumed a position as foreman in the car depart- ment of the Bessemer railway shops, and for some time has had full and successful charge of the car repair department. Politically, he is an earnest Republican and. fraternally, a charter member of Albion Lodge, No. 103, Knights of Pythias, of which he is first past chancellor ; of Albion Lodge, No. 376, I. O. O. F., and Encampment No. 178. He is firm in the religious faith of the Methodist church, in which he is an active worker.
On November 25, 1899, Mr. Buchanan married Miss Lizzie May Mosher, who was born in Elk Creek township, Erie county, January 13, 1872. Her father, Amos P. Mosher, was born in Platea. Erie county, March 20, 1849, and was, in turn, the son of John and Emily
673
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
(Sherwood) Mosher. The grandfather, who was a native of Somer- set, England, was a carriage maker who settled at Platea fifty years ago, and died there in 1876, aged sixty-two years. The grandmother survived him twenty years, her decease occurring in 1896 at the age of seventy-two. William Sherwood, the maternal grandfather, was also an Englishman. After finishing his schooling at Platea, Amos Mosher followed his trade as a carpenter at that place until he became a resident of Albion in 1880. His wife ( nee Maria Wicks) was born in New York state January 13, 1852, and is the daughter of Samuel and Gertrude (Simmons) Wicks. The four children of their union were Lizzie, Mrs. J. J. Buchanan ; Earnest John, a car inspector at Albion ; Elsie, who married N. Spaulding, of Conneaut, Ohio; and Elmer, who is employed as a railway clerk at Conneaut. Three chil- dren have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Buchanan, two of whom died in infancy and one is living, viz .: Oscar William, born October 18, 1903.
L. L. POMEROY. The Pomeroy family is one of the oldest in Erie county, its earliest efforts in this section of Pennsylvania being identi- fied with the pioneer development of Conneaut township. Its gene- alogy is interwoven with the Revolutionary struggle for independ- ence. Medad Pomeroy, grandfather of L. L., was a soldier in the war which gave us our liberty, was wounded seven times, and partici- pated in three general engagements and five or six skirmishes. He was half-brother to Major-General Seth Pomeroy of Revolutionary fame; also half-brother of Captain Phebus Pomeroy of this same service. Concerning this patriot, L. L. Pomeroy says: "He lived at my father's and being blind it devolved on me, being a small lad, to lead him, and I was amply paid by Revolutionary reminiscences, which he would reel off to me at great length. The Revolutionary war which gave the United States its independence, began over one hundred and thirty-three years ago and yet I heard the story of it from one of the participants and those of his descendants have an ancestry of which to feel proud. We have inherited a citizenship in this Nation sealed with blood and sacred as the dust of heroic martyrs. Our grandfather won it for us at Germantown, York, Stony Point, etc., barefooted and bleeding. His bones lie with three others of the old Revolutioners in a little cemetery one mile west of Albion, Erie county. Grandfather married Miss Elizabeth, a daughter of Hugh Morrell, a merchant of Boston, Massachusetts."
In 1815 Grandfather Pomeroy sold his farm in Ashford, Massa- chusetts, and loaded his family and goods into a wagon, drawn by a horse and a yoke of oxen, and settled in Conneaut township on what came to be known as the old Pomeroy homestead. He commenced the clearing of the land, which was continued by his sons as they increased in years and capabilities, until the homestead became not only valuable as productive land, but a pleasure to the eye. The son John (father of L. L.), who was born at Ashford, Massachusetts, on the 23d of March, 1800, became a thrifty farmer on the old place, and a citizen widely known and always respected. He was appointed postmaster at Pomeroy Corners, the settlement named in honor of the grandfather, and served at different times as constable and in other township offices. He also took much interest in military mat- Vol. II-43
674
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
ters and was captain of the county militia, a unit of the state troops. He died in 1874. The deceased married Miss Mary Randall, born in Conneaut township, September 6, 1806, daughter of John and Lydia (Odell) Randall, who died in 1882. The only surviving offspring of this union is Lovrayn L. Pomeroy, of this sketch, who was born in Conneaut township December 2, 1835.
After obtaining a district school education and spending several terms at the West Springfield and Albion academies, Mr. Pomeroy occupied himself until he was twenty-two years of age as a farm worker on the paternal place. He then engaged as a brakeman on the Baltimore and Ohio road for a about a year, returned to the old homestead and was identified with its agricultural affairs for nearly a quarter of a century, and in 1881 located at Girard and established a grocery business in the northern part of town. Three years afterward he engaged in the monument business, which he has pur- sued for the past twenty years. Mr. Pomeroy has become specially prominent in Odd Fellow circles. He has passed all the chairs of his lodge and is now chief patriarch of the Girard Encampment, be- sides being an active member of Lodge No. 265 of the Rebekahs. His life-long Democracy has been confined to the casting of his ballot, and he has never been tempted to become active in politics.
In 1858 Mr. Pomeroy married Miss Evelina Nimes, born in Washington county, New York, daughter of James and Currence (Winegar) Nimes, who both died in 1898, at the respective ages of eighty-three and seventy-nine years. The paternal grandparents were Ira and Fanny (Wallace) Nimes, and the maternal, Chester and Margaret (Offensend) Winegar, the latter being a native of Switz- erland. Mrs. Pomeroy has a brother living at Dorset, Ohio, her other brother losing his life at the battle of Gettysburg. Three chil- dren have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Pomeroy: Hattie, who is de- ceased ; Harry M., a Toledo printer who married Miss Carry Rickard and is the father of Bruce, Kenneth and Eunice; and John, a printer residing in Cleveland, who is married to Marie Hotchkiss and is the father of M. John and Laurence.
JESSE EARL. SWALLEY, the prosperous young farmer of Girard town- ship, is the adopted son of the late John and Mary J. (Osborne) Swalley, and one of the greatest pleasures of his life is to gratefully acknowledge his deep gratitude to his foster parents for the care and benefits with which they surrounded him. He was born at May- ville, Ohio, May 16, 1885, and was adopted when six years of age. John Swalley, his worthy foster father, was one of the best farmers and business men, kindest and most public-spirited citizens and truest Christians who ever contributed to the progress of Girard township. He was a native of Mill Creek township, born September 8, 1836, son of Christian and Catherine Swalley, being the sixth in a family of eight sons and one daughter. He became successful both in the worldly and the higher sense, having always a kind word and an extended and open hand for all, especially those who were in trouble and needed help. He was an old and honored Mason, the members of his lodge at Girard expressing the keenest grief at his death, April 22, 1899, his funeral services being conducted with the fraternal and
675
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
impressive rites of the order. The wife and beloved foster mother passed away January 5, 1907.
Jesse Earl Swalley attended school until he was fifteen years of age and then devoted himself to the cultivation of the home farm, which, at the death of his foster parents, he inherited. The home- stead comprises one hundred and thirty-five acres, and includes a large and striking brick residence and the most thorough agricul- tural improvements. Mr. Swalley spent 1904-6 in California, but with that exception has continuously contributed to the productive- ness and improvements of this fine country place. He is an active member of the State Police, Camp No. 73, and Platea Lodge, No. 1141, I. O. O. F.
On January 29, 1907, Mr. Swalley married Miss Mary Kreider, born in Springfield township, May 11. 1888, daughter of William and Iva (Washburn) Kreider. Mr. Kreider is an active farmer of Fair- view township, his family being originally from Lancaster, Pennsyl- vania. Mrs. Kreider's father, Seymour Washburn, was one of the pioneer farmers of Mckean township. Mrs. Swalley has three living brothers and one sister, as follows: Ralph, a business manager in Erie ; James, a farmer of Fairview township; Kenneth, living on the home farm in that township; and Lydia, now; the wife of Harley Leo- pold, also a Fairview township agriculturist. One child has been born to Mr. and Mrs. Jesse E. Swalley: Iola Mac on the 1st of March, 1908.
WILLIAM B. MCCLELLAND. The McClelland homestead of two hun- dred and forty acres in Girard township is one of the largest and oldest in Erie county, being founded by William McClelland, grand- father of William B., who as an orphan of seven years came to the United States with his brother, Samuel, and settled in Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania. Early in the last century, then young men, the brothers moved to Girard township, were among the first settlers in that section of Erie county, and cleared the land which has served as the family homestead for three generations. William and Samuel McClelland took up eight hundred acres of land altogether, which they worked and improved as partners for fifteen years. They then divided their property, William retaining the original tract which has become the homestead of his descendants; of these survive only Wil- liam B., now in possession, and his brother, Alexander James McClel- land, also a resident of Girard.
Alexander McClelland, the father, was born on the family home- stead, and knew' no other home, dying in 1871 at the age of thirty- eight years. He was a good man and a fine citizen, his chief official service for Girard township being as assessor, in which office he was retained for many years. He married Mary Barker, daughter of Hiram and Jane (McClelland) Barker, and the honored widow is still living with her son on the old place. The Barkers were an old Con- necticut family, Philo, the grandfather of Mrs. Alexander McClel- land, accompanying other members of the family to the northeastern part of Erie county, this being in his early boyhood. In 1819 he located in the southwestern part of Fairview township, where he was a farmer until his death in 1845. He was the father of seven chil- dren, of whom Hiram, the father of Mrs. McClelland, was the third
676
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
in order of birth. The latter lived with his parents until they died; in 1852 moved to Girard township, continued there his life as a farmer and died in 1861. His wife's decease followed, and both are buried in Girard cemetery, where they rest after lives of Christian usefulness. They were the parents of five children, Mary being their oldest daughter and second born.
William Burt McClelland was born on the old homestead Octo- ber 6, 1869, and there he has lived ever since. Like his father he has spent all the years of his maturity as a farmer and has added his labors and improvements to those which have gone before, the grand result being seen in one of the most desirable country estates in Erie county. Mr. McClelland is an active member of Girard Lodge, No. 1125, I. O. O. F., and is a Republican, without political aspirations. He was married in 1898 to Miss Elizabeth Hess, born in Germany May 26, 1879, and daughter of Henry and Martha (Langeman) Hess, both also natives of the fatherland. Her parents came to America in 1883, settling in Mill Creek township, this county, where they both passed the remaining years of their well spent lives, the father dying in 1894 and the mother in 1886. After the death of her parents, Mrs. McClelland, with a brother and sister, was reared, up to the time of her marriage, by Mrs. John Moore. Besides Mrs. McClelland, the surviving members of the Hess family are: Sophia, who resides in Cleveland; Eliza, Mrs. William Taylor, whose husband is a farmer of Fairview township, this county; Augusta, who married William Kidder, a painter of that township; Anna, who lives at Arona, Penn- sylvania; and John, also farming in Fairview township. The children of Mr. and Mrs. William B. McClelland are Mildred, nine years of age; Elmer, seven years old ; Ralph, five years, and Harley, two.
FREDERICK HEIL, a prosperous tanner and farmer occupying a valu- able homestead in the picturesque Elk Creek district of Girard town- ship, is of a substantial German family and was born at Quacken- bruck, Hanover, on the 12th of January, 1865. He is a son of Johan J. and Fredericka (Imwalde) Heil, and his father is still living at the old Hanoverian home, aged eighty-seven and a shoemaker by trade. His mother, who died in 1884 at fifty-two, was the daughter of H. Imwalde, Napoleon's paymaster during the historic siege of Moscow. Besides Frederick, the surviving offspring of this couple are: Herman, a machinist at Cincinnati, Ohio; August, who is super- intendent of a German railway; Johanna, who became the wife of Henry Sydow, of Girard; Louisa, Mrs. Corovolin, whose husband is a wine merchant of France; and Mary, wife of Joseph Errant, whose husband is an officer in the French army, their home being at Leon.
In his early youth Frederick learned the tanner's trade in Ger- many, following that vocation until he was eighteen and then joining the army. In 1884, after remaining in the military service for a year, he emigrated to the United States, arriving in New York on Sep- tember 11th of that year. He was variously employed in the city until 1886, when he enlisted in the United States army, serving six months on Davis island and then, until 1891, at Madison Barracks with the Twelfth Infantry. At his honorable discharge, the young man of twenty-six located in Cincinnati, where he followed his trade as a tanner until 1899, subsequently settling in Buffalo and (1902) in
677
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
Girard township. When he made his last move, however, he did not resume his trade alone, but bought his present homestead and resorted also to general farming. For a number of years past Mr. Heil has also become deeply interested in Christian Science and is now serving as the first reader of the local church. His wife is also a firm and ardent member of that faith.
Mr. Heil married, in 1889, at Bismarck, North Dakota, Miss Louisa Sydow, who was born in Germany in 1871, daughter of Louis and Gertrude Sydow, who emigrated to the United States in 1884 and settled in Girard township, where her father is living; the mother is deceased. Besides Mrs. Heil, were born to them: Rev. Albert Sydow, connected with the missionary work of the M. E. church; Henry and William, farmers of Girard township; Anna, who mar- ried Ray Stuart, of Girard, and Emma, now Mrs. H. Gottfried, a resident of Conneaut, Ohio.
CHANCY HAVEN is a pioneer carpenter and farmer and a widely known citizen of Girard township, who comes from an old Massa- chusetts family. His grandparents, John and Mary (Death) Haven, were natives of the Old Bay state, as was his father-Chancy Haven, born in Worcester county, February 24, 1800. The father was a farmer of vigorous middle age when he located in Erie county and moved into the crude log house which now stands at the rear of the modern residence occupied by his son, the present proprietor of the homestead. The latter was eight years of age when the family home- stead was changed from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania and, as the years passed, performed his full share of the labor involved in clear- ing the land of timber and preparing it for crops. In 1850, after this migration, the mother died. Known before her marriage as Urania Thompson, she had been born in Swanzey, New Hampshire, in 1803, and was the daughter of Jesse Thompson, a carpenter of that place, and his wife, Urania (Aldridge) Thompson. Four children were born to Chancy Haven, Sr., and his wife Urania, of whom two are living-Cassius M., a resident of Erie, and Chancy, of this sketch. The father of the family died in 1880.
Mr. Haven is a native of Worcester county, Massachusetts, born September 20, 1832, and at the age of nineteen, after he had finished his schooling, he applied himself to the carpenter's trade and followed it continuously for twenty years. Many marks of his skillful and honest workmanship are still scattered through this section of the county. At the death of his father-in-law, I. G. Pattison, he assumed the management of the old home farm, of which he is now the owner, and cultivated it with activity and profit for many years, but has been retired for some time. Mr. Haven commenced to cast his first ballots during the formative period of the Republican party, and his faith in the comparative wisdom of its policies and the integrity of its motives has never wavered. In the earlier years he was quite active in politics, holding the office of constable during the Civil war. and having since served for six years as road commissioner as well as in other township positions.
In 1855 Mr. Haven married Miss Sallie A. Pattison, born in Hanover, New York, daughter of John G. and Betsy (Perry) Patti- son. The former located in Girard township in 1832, his place being
678
HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
in the vicinity of the old Denman Thompson place. Her mother died in 1871, at the age of sixty-eight years, and her father, in 1895, aged ninety-two. Robert Pattison, the paternal grandfather, who mar- ried Thankful Stuart, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and Samuel Perry, the maternal grandfather, was a paymaster in the war of 1812 and a cousin of Commodore Perry. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Chancy Haven were as follows: John, who is now de- ceased ; Elmer E., who, when last heard from sixteen years ago, was a timekeeper in a western mine; Frank, who is a foreman at Con- neaut, Ohio, and by his marriage to Miss Addie Jennings is the father of a son, Clyde (Mr. Haven's only grandchild) ; and Emily, who mar- ried John E. McNutt, who holds a clerkship with the Bessemer rail- way at Wellsburg, Pennsylvania.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.