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 95
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CHARLES F. KIEFER, a well known engineer connected with the Bes- semer Railway, is a native of Mercer county, born on the 23d of August, 1862. Mr. Kiefer has been in the railroad business since he was sixteen years of age, when he entered the employ of the Penn- sylvania Company. In 1889 he was promoted from the position of fireman to that of engineer on the same road, and after being thus engaged until 1901 was appointed an engineer on the Bessemer Rail- way. He is an active and respected member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers of Erie and, outside of this co-operative or- ganization of his co-workers, is identified with the Protected Home Circle and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Erie Lodge, No. 299 and Lake Erie Encampment, No. 73. Both he and his wife are closely associated with the work of the Presbyterian church.
The father, George Washington Kiefer, is an old and well known resident of Mercer county. He is the father of the following chil- dren, besides Charles F .: Mollie, who resides in Youngstown, Ohio; Nannie, Mrs. H. Pauley, who married a farmer of Mercer county, Pennsylvania; Emma, who is a trained nurse in one of the Cleve- land hospitals; Harry, who is a Wyoming ranchman; and Joseph, a carpenter of Youngstown. His wife, who was a widow at the time of her marriage to the elder Mr. Kiefer, had the following children : Samuel, who is a contractor at Youngstown, Ohio; Hannah, who married William Diefendorfer, a carpenter of that place; and Betsey, now Mrs. J. Jones, who resides in Iowa.
Mr. and Mrs. Charles F. Kiefer have become the parents of the following: Bessie, who was born in 1890, graduated from the Erie high school and is living at home; and Hazel and Agnes, born in 1892 and 1897, respectively, and also residing with their parents.
WILLIS OWEN KEEP, of Albion, a well known farmer and conductor on the Bessemer Railroad, represents a fine family of pioneers which was among the first to become planted in Erie county. His great- grandfather, Marsena Keep Sr., was born at Longmeadow, Massachu- setts, March 25, 1769, and in 1797 came with his brother to the future site of Keepville, Conneaut township. He was a soldier of the war of 1812 and died at the town, of which he was one of the founders. in 1851. The senior Marsena Keep married Miss Mary Randall. who was born in 1780 and died at Keepville in 1835. The son, Marsena Keep Jr., was a native of New York, and when one year old was
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brought by his parents to Erie county. He married Miss Polly Hewett and died in 1876. The deceased was one of the chief founders of the Wesleyan Methodist church at Keepville, being both an active work- er and a generous donor. He presented the society with ground for the site of its house of worship and also actively assisted in its build- ing by hard work and large subscriptions. Prosper Keep, the . father, was born in Keepville, April 21, 1829, and married, on April 17, 1851, Mary C., daughter of William Harrington. He died on the 16th of March, 1895. Prosper Keep was an agriculturist during the farming season, and otherwise spent much of his time, for many years, in operating two canal boats between Erie and Pittsburg. It is said that his wife was often his assistant in his transportation business by energetically driving the mules along the tow path. Besides Willis O., the living children of Mr. and Mrs. Prosper Keep are as follows: Clara, who is the wife of Dr. J. D. Little; Marshall, a den- tist residing at Bellefontaine, Ohio; and Glen W., a salesman, also of that place.
Willis O. Keep was born on the old homestead at Keepville, on the 19th of December, 1866, being educated in the vicinity of his home until he was sixteen and during the following two years attend- ed school at Albion. He was then employed at the old Tracy mills for about two years, after which he learned telegraphy at Spring- field. His next move was to Cherry Hill, Conneaut township, where he was employed in a sawmill for a year. Then he traded a yoke of oxen for a small farm in the township, and, in connection therewith, operated a sawmill and a well driller. During the building of the Bessemer railroad he also carried out several contracts for furnish- ing ties, and at the same time learned the trade of blacksmithing. In 1903 he became a brakeman for the Bessemer road and in 1907 was promoted to his present position as conductor. Mr. Keep is popular with the railroad men, being an active member of the Broth- erhood of Trainmen, at Albion, and having served for many terms as committeeman for his district.
On July 21, 1888, Mr. Keep was united in marriage to Miss Eliza J. McArthur, and the seven children born to them have been as fol- lows: Ethel W., 1889; Pliny M., 1891; Cleora Sally, 1893; Andrew M., 1897; Milton H., 1901 ; Marshall, 1904 ; and Adella L., 1907. Mrs. Keep is the daughter of Andrew and Sally (Thompson) McArthur and the youngest of their seven children. Her father located in Con- neaut township in 1879 and spent the active period of his life there as a farmer and a veterinary surgeon, the last few years prior to his death in 1904 being passed in total blindness. He was also post- master of Westford for some time and a Democrat of local influence. The McArthur family is among the oldest Irish families of which there are well authenticated records, the McArthur genealogy going back to the year 560. The spelling of the name was Gaelic until 950. when it assumed its present English form. Donal McArthur, who died in 1680, was the owner of Blarney Castle and the lakes of Kil- larney. About 1798 four brothers emigrated from Ireland to Craw- ford county, Pennsylvania, the eldest, John, being the grandfather of Mrs. Keep. He settled on land which became known as the old McArthur homestead, and at the age of thirty married Miss Abigail Allen, daughter of Stephen Allen, who came to Crawford county from
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Scotland as one of its pioneers. Mrs. Keep may therefore take pride in the fact that she has some of the best blood of Ireland and Scot- land in her veins.
DR. PLIRY M. MARSHALL, of Albion, is one of the younger class of physicians who has a good practice, a substantial professional repu- tation and the best of family connections. His great-grandparents, Nathaniel and Ellen Marshall, were from England and came to north- ern Pennsylvania during a period when the Indians were still vir- tually undisturbed in that section of the country. The doctor's grand- parents were Joseph and Camilla (Bursen) Marshall, the former of whom was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, October 15, 1803, and died in Erie county January 19, 1890. His wife, who was a native of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, was the daughter of Joseph and Sarah (Hufty) Bursen, and died in 1896.
Dr. Marshall is a native of Crawford county, Pennsylvania, born June 21, 1877, and is a son of Lewis B. Marshall, who is the father of six other sons and a daughter. Three of the former are physi- cians, one is a dentist, one a veterinary surgeon and there is a likeli- hood that there may be another accession to the medical profession in the younger son. Jefferson Marshall, the eldest, is a contractor at Niles, Ohio; Dr. George M. is a dentist at Ansonia, that state ; Dr. William J. is at Custard, Pennsylvania ; Dr. Loyd H. resides at Con neautville, Pennsylvania; Milton M., the veterinary surgeon, lives at East Palestine, Ohio; Louis I. is with his parents, and Bessie is the wife of J. Williams, a resident of Jamestown, Pennsylvania.
Pliry Marshall obtained a district school education, after which he spent two years at McElwain Institute, New Lebanon, Pennsyl- vania, and later attended college at Grove City, that state. Five terms of school teaching followed and he than engaged in the sale of medi- cal supplies. The latter occupation added to his deep interest in medical and surgical subjects and he finally was matriculated in the Eclectic Medical College of Cincinnati, whence he graduated with his professional degree in 1907. He commenced practice as an as- sistant to his brother at Custard, Pennsylvania, and this work was followed by a similar valuable experience with Dr. W. W. Shaeffer. at Utica, that state. In 1908 he located at Albion, and the result of his practice there has been to place him among the leading physicians and surgeons of the district. The doctor is a member of the State Eclectic Medical Society, and was elected to represent the class of 1907 as an international delegate to the convention which met at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He is also medical examiner for Moose Lodge, No. 66, of Erie, at Albion; the Brotherhood of Trainmen at that place, and the Fidelity Insurance Company of Saginaw, Michi- gan. In his private relations with the fraternities, he is a charter member of the Moose Lodge mentioned; the P. H. C., No. 291, of New Lebanon (also examiner) ; member of Paul Revere Lodge, No. 103, Knights of Pythias ; Cochranton (Pennsylvania) Lodge No. 902, and Olympia Encampment, No. 82, of Meadville (Pennsylvania), I. O. O. F., and the Rebekahs, No. 162, at Albion. Dr. Marshall is also a member of the Eclectic Philomathean Medical Fraternity of Cincinnati, Ohio.
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BEACH SEELEY SHERMAN, the veteran of the Civil war and retired business man of Springfield township, Erie county, is an honored citizen whose record, with that of his father, is inseparably connected with the founding and development of the milling and lumbering in- dustries of that portion of the state. Beach S. was born in Catta- raugus county, New York, October 30, 1844, and is a son of Jay Sher- man, who came from that state in 1846 and settled in Springfield township, where for the remainder of his life he engaged in some form of lumbering or milling. He built the first grist mill run by water power and also erected sawmills at what is now called Cherry ITills. The elder Mr. Sherman constructed all the covered wagon bridges on the old creek. His main business for nearly forty years, however, was the operation of his grist and saw mills at Cherry Hill, from which he did not retire until 1886. The death of Jay Sherman occurred in 1892, at the age of eighty-two years, and in his decease passed away one of the most forceful pioneers of the county. His wife, who also died in 1892, at the age of eighty-two, was Sally, the daughter of Truman H. and Eunice (Hubbell) Seeley. Her father was a soldier in the war of 1812. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Jay Sherman, besides Beach S., were as follows: George J., now de- ceased ; Sarah, who is the widow of Hosea Campbell ; Mary Jane, also deceased ; Caroline, who is the widow of M. Van Slyke; Laura, de- ceased ; and Julia, now Mrs. Bemis, whose husband is a farmer of Conneaut, Ohio.
The maternal (Hubbell) genealogy of the Sherman family is traced in the Norman records to the years 865 and 867, when the name occurs in the annals of Denmark. Members of the Hubbell family emigrated from that country to England in 1000 A. D., before the invasion of William the Conqueror. Richard Hubbell, the American progenitor, was a native of England; emigrated to Massachusetts in 1647 and married, successively, Elizabeth Megs, Elizabeth Wilson and Temperance Preston. The fourth child and oldest son of the third marriage was Samuel Hubbell, and the descent to Rhoda Hub- bell, the maternal grandmother is through Stephen, Hezekiah and Stephen. Josiah Beach Sherman married the Rhoda Hubbell men- tioned, thus uniting the two families.
Beach S. Sherman, of this sketch, has lived in Springfield town- ship since he was two years of age. At the age of eighteen, after he had finished his district schooling, he enlisted in Company I, Ohio battery of light artillery, for a three years' service in the Civil war. Joining the service January 4, 1864, he was sent to New Orleans to take part in the Red river expedition under General Banks. His first experience under fire was a startling one. While stationed at Ship Island he was awakened one night by a shell which passed through the roof of his barracks carrying away a large portion of it from over his head. The young soldier was taken sick and sent to the hospital, but was so eager to get into action that he escaped and rejoined his company on the Red river. At the conclusion of the campaign under General Banks he returned to Ship Island and after being assigned to guard duty for a time, was transported up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to the north, being mustered out of the service August 9, 1865.
At the conclusion of his military service Mr. Sherman located at Kingsville, Ohio, but after remaining there for a year engaged in
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the oil business at Titusville, Pennsylvania. In 1870 he moved to Warren county and engaged in the milling business and various lum- bering enterprises, all the years of his active business life until 1903 being devoted to these industrial fields. At one time he was foreman for the vast lumber interests of the Brooks Company, going to Vir- ginia in the furtherance of their business and (during that period) leaving his family at Edinboro. In 1904 he purchased property ad- joining the old Sherman mill, and this is now the family homestead.
It may be added that Mr. Sherman married Miss May Lobdell, who was born February 4, 1851, at Jamestown, New York, and is a daughter of George and Henrietta (Pierce) Lobdell. Mrs. Sher -. man's father, who was a farmer and a baker, died in 1874, aged sixty-two, while her mother (daughter of A. Whitehall and Lucy Pierce) passed away in 1887, sixty-seven years old. Grandfather Thomas Lobdell was a native of Vermont and a tailor by trade. In further explanation of the family connections, it may be added that Mrs. Sherman has one brother living-Jefferson, who is a farmer of Garland, Pennsylvania-and a sister, Martha, now the wife of Ben- jamin J. Mason. By her marriage to Mr. Sherman she has become the mother of Blanche, who was born July 13, 1884, and is now clerk- ing in an Albion store ; and Jay B., born June 8, 1888. Mr. Sherman is independent in politics.
DANIEL AUSTIN WATERS, who died at Conneaut, Ohio, on the 8th of May, 1908, in his seventy-ninth year, left on earth the record of a useful, successful and honorable life. The most notable evidence of his industry, determination and ability, as well as his faithfulness and affection as a husband and father, was the valuable and beautiful homestead of one hundred and twenty-five acres in Conneaut town- ship, this county, which he had taken as a wilderness tract and transformed into a modern and luxurious country place. Born in Lawrence, New York, on the 25th of September, 1829, Mr. Waters was the son of Daniel and Hulda (Cross) Waters. The father, who was a son of Connecticut, traveled from his native state to what is now Conneaut township in 1837, built a log house on the present home- stead and after spending nearly thirty years in clearing and cultivat- ing portions of his wooded land died in January, 1866, at seventy years of age. His wife, who was born April 6, 1792, followed him April 12, 1881. Daniel Waters was an active worker in the Methodist church and a religious, as well as an agricultural pioneer. When he first came into the country it was a roadless and almost a trackless wilder- ness, there being only a footpath from that section of Erie county to Meadville, Pennsylvania. His father (grandfather of Daniel A.) was also a hewer of civilization from that wilderness country, being the builder of the first sawmill in this part of Erie county. His life was shortened by a severe accident in the woods, he being found one day pinned under some heavy timber, with his limbs broken and otherwise terribly injured. Although taken to the nearest physician at Meadville, where an operation was performed, he did not long survive his injuries and the profound shock to his nervous system.
The children born to the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Waters were Augusta and Daniel Austin, twins; Mary, who died as the wife of Alfred Sargent of New York; Harriett, wife of Brainard Galpin,
-
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of Conneaut, Ohio. Daniel A. obtained his early education in the district school of his home neighborhood and at the Springfield (Penn- sylvania) Academy. He then farmed and taught school for a time in Illinois, but returned to Conneaut township and purchased a portion of the old family homestead, which he occupied and improved during the remainder of his life. Outside of his own affairs, Mr. Waters took a deep interest in agricultural matters and was an active member of the Grange and an earnest supporter of its progressive policies. Al- though a Republican of strong convictions he evinced no desire for political advancement, but gave his strength to the faithful perform- ance of his duties as a husband, father, scientific farmer and practical Christian.
In August, 1873, Mr. Waters married Miss Ellen Austin, who was born at Detroit, Michigan, September 24, 1847, and is a daughter of Abel and Varona (Chapin) Austin. The Austin family is of New York origin, Mrs. Waters' father being long known in Detroit, Michi- gan, as a leading carpenter and planing mill operator. Abel Austin died in 1874, at the age of seventy years, his wife having passed away in 1855, at forty. They first came to Detroit in 1820. Two children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Daniel A. Waters-Kay and Clarence C. Kay was born October 3, 1874; attended school until he was twenty years old and has been engaged in farming on the old homestead during all his mature life. He married Miss Edla Kendall, who is a native of Spring township, Pennsylvania, born on the 23d of August, 1883, and daughter of Frank and Ella (Burns) Kendall. They have one child, Doris Elaine. Kay is independent in politics, and both he and his wife are members of Conneaut Grange, No. 955. Clarence C. Waters, who was born September 23, 1886, is a barber of Conneaut, Ohio; is married and the father of Lucille and Wilma.
HARTLEY GRAVES, a retired farmer of Girard township, has earned the rest and comforts of his later years by a long, industrious and honorable career in Erie county, which includes faithful service in the Union army. The New England origin of his family was in Massachusetts. In that state were born his grandparents, Enos and Eunice (Kellogg) Graves, his father (also Enos Graves) and himself. Enos Graves Jr. was born in Franklin, Massachusetts, November 9, 1800, and his son, Hartley, was born in the same town May 4, 1835. The father farmed on the old eastern homestead until 1856, when he moved to Erie county and bought the property near the Thompson place upon which he resided until his death in 1861, and which afterward came into possession of Hartley Graves. The wife of Enos Graves (nee Sophia Morton) was a daughter of Enos Morton and a native of his old Massachusets home town. She died in 1881 at the age of seventy-four and four of their sons and daughters are still living: Sophia, now the wife of C. C. Kirkland, of Girard township : Lovina, Mrs. S. Bragg, a resident of Jefferson, Ohio ; George who is a farmer of Mckean township, this county, and Hartley, of this sketch. The parents were members of the Baptist church.
Mr. Graves faithfully assisted his father until the death of the latter in 1861, and in the following year enlisted in the artillery service, Company E of the One Hundred and Forty-fifth regiment. During the battle of Antietam he was taken so seriously ill that he
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was sent to the hospital at Harper's Ferry, later transferred to Alex- andria, and received his honorable discharge March 14, 1863. He returned to the old farm, lived with his mother until her death nearly twenty years later, purchased the homestead interests of the other heirs, increased the acreage of the place and made continuous im- provements on it. The result is a fine piece of country property, which these many years has been a homestead of comfort and hap- piness for his wife, his children and himself. Mr. Graves has also been active in the G. A. R. post of Girard; has served as judge of election and in other township offices, and has never faltered in his allegiance to the Republican party.
On December 25, 1873, Mr. Graves married Miss Helen Hub- bard, daughter of George and Mary (Porter) Hubbard, who was born June 9, 1845. Her father, who was a lumber dealer of Girard town- ship, died in 1888, and his wife followed him three years later. The grandfather, Hezekiah Hubbard, was a native of Connecticut and became a resident of Girard township in 1825. Mrs. Graves' two sisters are deceased, while her two brothers, George and Henry Hub- bard, are alive. Six children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Hart- ley Graves, of whom Elmer and May are deceased and Fannie is living at home with her parents. Floyd, who is now managing the farm, married Miss Mertie Morse, daughter of William and Ella M. (Le Fevre) Morse, of North Girard township. They have become the parents of Lester, Mildred, Edna and Elmer Graves. Carl and Harl are twin sons of Mr. and Mrs. Hartley Graves. Carl married Miss Eva Johnson, daughter of Leslie and Luella Platt Johnson, and Harl married Miss Minnie Hogan, daughter of Hobert and Catherine Berst Hogan, of Erie City. Both parents are members of the Metho- dist church and Mrs. Graves is active in the work of the Ladies' Aid Society.
ROBERT WALLACE BLAIR is the grandson of James Blair, the good and rugged pioneer who in 1804 established the family homestead four miles south of Girard borough, and the property which he in- herited has been continuously improved by three generations of in- dustrious and skillful agriculturists until it now represents the highest type of a modern country estate. With his wife, Mary (Wallace) Blair, the grandfather started from Fayette county, Pennsylvania, in 1803, loading his household goods on rafts and boats and pushing the freight up stream to Meadville. There the family effects were transferred to horses and wagon and the journey continued overland to the wilds of northwestern Pennsylvania as found in Girard town- ship. Upon the payment of fifty dollars, Grandfather Blair took up four hundred acres of land, but abandoned this tract after paying taxes upon it for seven years, as, in 1804, he had purchased the land in which his constant labor and affection centered from the first; the dear homestead where his seven children were born and reared ; from which for many years before his death he and his family mounted the farm horses and wound through the forest to attend the Sunday services in the little log church near the mouth of Walnut creek; the old Blair homestead, which, through all the advancements of the community for more than a century has firmly stood for elevated sociability and unaffected morality. The grandparents came from
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Fayette county to this locality as a young, newly married couple, and clung to it through the remainder of their long lives, the grand- mother surviving until 1873, when she died in her ninety-fourth year. Seven children were born to Mr. and Mrs. James Blair, of whom James, John, Joseph, David Porter and Samuel, made their life records near the old homestead and were leaders in township affairs. Robert moved west and Jane, the only daughter, married Porter Grubb.
David Porter Blair, father of Robert W., was born on the family homestead in the year 1818 and died there within a few months of his eighty-seventh birthday. He and his brother Samuel were stal- wart types of filial faithfulness, being their father's unfailing assist- ants as long as he lived and afterward caring for their mother in the old home cabin until she breathed her last. They were all members of the Presbyterian church, and their long horseback rides to attend services in all seasons and kinds of weather were but one evidence of their faithfulness. In 1874, the year after his mother's death, David P. Blair married Miss Caroline E. Wallace, a distant maternal rela- tive-that is, Grandmother Blair and Grandfather Wallace were brother and sister. Mrs. Blair was born April 8, 1833, and was a daughter of Robert and Sabina (Lindley) Wallace, the former born in 179% and the latter 1808. Her parents were natives of Washington county, Pennsylvania.
Robert W. Blair, who was the only child born to Mr. and Mrs. David P. Blair, first came upon the scenes of the old homestead Jan- uary 10, 1876. He attended district school until he was fifteen, and then pursued courses in Fairview high school and Grove City college. At the age of eighteen he returned to the home farm and virtually managed his father's interests until his death, February 20, 1905. He now owns and operates four hundred acres of land in the township, having two assistants in his work. He is prosperous and progressive, although he esteems, as among the most valuable of his possessions, those relics which bind present generations with those of the past. Among these are three family Bibles, which have descended to him from Grandfathers Wallace and Lindley, being of the respective dates of 1796, 1805 and 1809; a letter written in 1841 by R. C. Bromley, at Springfield, to his lady (Mrs. Blair's maternal grandmother), and which is marked "Postage, 25 cents"; and a carriage and sleigh used by his grandmother, built more than fifty years ago.
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