Armstrong County, Pennsylvania her people past and present, embracing a history of the county and a genealogical and biographical record of representative families, Volume I, Part 80

Author: J.H. Beers & Co
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Chicago, J. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 618


USA > Pennsylvania > Armstrong County > Armstrong County, Pennsylvania her people past and present, embracing a history of the county and a genealogical and biographical record of representative families, Volume I > Part 80


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"John S. Oyler, only son-in-law, enlisted in August, 1864, in the 206th Pennsylvania Volun- teers (Heavy Artillery), which was sent to gar- rison the defenses at Washington City. Dis- charged when the troops were disbanded in 1865.


"Archibald D. Glenn enlisted as sergeant, Aug. 29th, 1861, in Company B, 78th Penn- sylvania Infantry (Col. William Sirwell commanding), and accompanied his regiment to Kentucky ; discharged on account of disabil- ity, on Feb. 16th, 1863. Reenlisted in the 58th Regiment, State troops, in July of same year ; discharged when the troops were discharged.


"The situation of this family in the spring of 1862 strikingly exemplifies the manner in which families are scattered by the fortunes of war. Though not yet a year in service they were distributed thus: A. R., at Bowling Green, Kentucky; E. C. T., near Nashville, Tenn .; J. A., in eastern Virginia; A. D., in Louisville, Ky .; W. T., in Hatteras, N. C. Notwithstanding the number in service not one ever received a furlough to return home after leaving the State except A. D., to await discharge, not having his descriptive list with him. All except W. T., in his last enlistment. enlisted without local bounty, or any other incentive aside from patriotic impulse ; while few families can boast an equal service in rank and file, perhaps still fewer were favored with the preservation of the lives of


"William T. Glenn enlisted when not quite sixteen years of age in Company F, 48th Penn- sylvania Infantry, on August Ist, 1861. Was sent to Camp Hamilton, near Fortress Monroe, and in October to Hatteras Island, N. C., in the vicinity of which his company remained until July, 1862, when the 48th was ordered to join the Potomac Army, with which it was identified till after the sanguinary conflict at Fredericks- burg under General Burnside, when it was ordered to Kentucky. On its way through Baltimore he was left in the hospital, having been suffering for some time with inflammatory rheumatism, resulting from the exposure in the Fredericksburg campaign, and for which he all its members. The father was equally im- was discharged on the 8th of April, 1863. Dur- bued with the spirit that animated his off- spring, and had not his age, which was fifty- one at the commencement of the war, pre- cluded it, he too would have enlisted. As it was, and with all his sons in the army, he was only prevented from entering the State troops when Pennsylvania was invaded by the earnest dissuasions of his friends. At home he was a staunch friend to the Union, and ever ready, when opportunity offered, to aid those whose friends were absent bat- tling for the right." ing the enlistment he participated in the follow- ing general engagements: Second Bull Run, Chantilly, South Mountain, Antietam and Fredericksburg. together with numerous others of less note. Though not fully recovered he could not resist the temptation to enlist in the State service, when Pennsylvania was invaded in July. Was discharged when the troops were disbanded; again reenlisted for three years in Company M, 2d Pennsylvania Cavalry, in March, 1864; subsequently transferred to Com- pany K, as a supernumerary, and promoted to William T. Glenn, on account of inflamma-


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HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA


tory rheumatism, was unable to return home he traveled as the representative of Wilson, until six months after the close of the war, subsequently enlisted in Company L, 2d U. S. Cavalry, spent several years in the Rocky Mountain region, and returned home much broken in health. He died at Eddyville in April, 1875.


JAMES ALEXANDER GLENN, son of Archi- bald, was born near Glade Run, about two miles north of Dayton, on Oct. 12, 1836. After the Civil war he followed lumbering in Armstrong and Jefferson counties, this State, during the greater part of his active life. In 1891 he removed to Dayton, this county, where he has since had his home. During the twenty or more years of his residence at that place he has proved a valuable citizen. He has been active in its official circles, having served as councilman, school director, tax collector, constable and assessor, and its vari- ous interests have received his encouragement and substantial support, he being a stock- holder of the Dayton Normal Institute and of the Dayton Fair Association. Mr. Glenn's excellent war record entitled him to member- ship in the G. A. R., and he is a prominent worker in J. Ed. Turk Post, of which he is a past commander. In politics he is a Repub- lican.


In 1875 Mr. Glenn married Mary E. Brum- baugh, daughter of Frederick and Elizabeth (Sharrer) Brumbaugh, formerly of Hunting- don county, Pa., later of Armstrong county. Their only daughter, Iva May, died aged six- teen years.


Mr. Glenn's son, Alfinas A. Glenn, was a well-known business man of Crookston, Minn., where he died at the age of fifty-two years. He was married, and left a wife and family of ten children, three sons and seven daugh- ters.


Hinkle & Co. (later Van Atwerp, Bragg & Co.), of Cincinnati, one of the largest school- book publishing firms in the United States. He remained with this house from April, 1868, to July 1, 1870, having his headquarters successively at Pittsburgh, Crestline (Ohio), Cleveland (Ohio) and Meadville. After quit- ting the agency he was engaged with his father in the mercantile business at Eddyville. In 1872 he was elected over six competitors to the office of superintendent of public schools in Armstrong county, to which he was re- elected with comparatively little opposition in 1875 and 1878, serving nine years-the long- est continuous term served by any incumbent since the establishment of the office. At his first reelection his salary was increased. Mr. Glenn's services were very valuable in the way of elevating the standard of public instruc- tion, and were generally so recognized, a fact which was attested by the offer of a fourth election, which, however, he declined. He was editor of the Kittanning Union Free Press from June, 1879, to April, 1881, and ably conducted that well-known journal. He served as district deputy grand master of the I. O. O. F. of Armstrong county for two terms and was urged by several lodges to continue longer in that capacity. In 1882 he was nominated without opposition by the Republicans of Arm- strong county for the Assembly and was elected by a majority of 180 votes, while his colleague on the ticket for the same office had a much smaller majority. Here he found the broad field of usefulness that his intellectual and moral merits entitled him to. He served through the regular session in 1883, also the special session called to meet the day after the regular session adjourned, June 6, 1883. The special session is frequently called "the long parliament," as the house being Democratic and the Senate Republican a deadlock on ap- portionment ensued which continued until the final adjournment, Dec. 6, 1883, so far as the


ARCHIBALD DAVID GLENN, son of Archi- bald, was born Jan. 30, 1842, while his parents were living at Camp Run, about three miles from Dayton. He attended public school at Milton, the Dayton Union Academy and the apportionment of the State into Congressional, Iron City College. When between fifteen and Senatorial and Legislative districts was con- sixteen years of age he commenced teaching, cerned, a Judicial apportionment alone being taking a place in Milton which the directors made. In 1884 he was reelected representative had left vacant. Subsequently he taught in by over a thousand majority, and served Red Bank and Brady's Bend townships, this during the session of 1885, being chairman of the committee on Education. He introduced and had charge of a bill to provide for instruc- tion in the public schools of the State in the subjects of physiology and hygiene, with spe- cial reference to the effects of alcoholic drinks, stimulants and narcotics upon the human sys- county, at West Mahoning in Indiana county, and in Robinson township, Allegheny county, where he was engaged four consecutive terms of seven months each. When he gave up teaching he was principal of the Woods Run school in Allegheny city. After his army service, which has been fully mentioned above, tem. This bill was introduced at the instance


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HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA


of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of the State under the leadership of Mrs. Mary H. Hunt, of Boston, Mass., a gifted lady and talented orator, general superintendent of scientific temperance instruction in the United States. The bill was carried in the House against much opposition and was subsequently passed in the Senate and signed by the gover- nor, and remains on the statute books to-day substantially the same as when first passed.


In April, 1886, Mr. Glenn bought a half interest in the Union Free Press in Kittanning, and edited that paper until April, 1887, when, being appointed statistical clerk in the depart- ment of public instruction at Harrisburg, he sold his interest in the paper. In 1889 he was appointed financial clerk in the same depart- ment and continued in that position until July, 1906, during which time he made the calcula- tions and drew the warrants for the distribu- tion of about ninety million dollars ($90,000,- 000) of State appropriations to schools. In 1906 he was promoted to the position of deputy superintendent of public instruction, in which position he still serves at this writing. April I, 1914. He has his office at Harrisburg. Whatever Mr. Glenn has attained is due to his own exertions. Enjoying only limited advan- tages in his boyhood, he nevertheless obtained a thorough education, and has made his way in the world by close application and energetic manly endeavor. He is a member of John F. Croll Post, G. A. R., Kittanning, Putneyville Lodge, No. 735, I. O. O. F., Kittanning Lodge, No. 244, A. Y. M., and Harrisburg Consistory, A. A. S. R., N. M. J. U. S. A.


HON. J. FRANK GRAFF, part propri- etor of the Buffalo Woolen Mills at Worth- ington, Pa., was born Aug. 12, 1857, son of Peter and Susan (Lobingier) Graff.


J. Frank Graff attended the public schools at Worthington, prepared for college at Steven's Hall, Gettysburg, Pa., and then en- tered Pennsylvania College at Gettysburg, where he was graduated in 1879. After re- turning home he became manager of the com- pany store connected with the Buffalo Woolen Mills, near Worthington, and continued this superintendence for ten years, when he became a partner. He has numerous other business interests, being president of the Althom Sand Company, of Pittsburgh, Pa., a director in the P. McGraw Wool Company, of Pittsburgh, a director in the Merchants' National Bank of Kittanning, Pa., a stockholder in the Safe Deposit Trust Company of Pittsburgh, Pa., a stockholder in the First National Bank of


Parker, Pa., and a stockholder in the Kit- tanning Telephone Company, of Kittanning, Pennsylvania.


A Republican in politics, Mr. Graff has served in both local and State offices. He has always taken an earnest interest in educational matters, has served on the school board and was the promoter of the graded school sys- tem at Worthington. For some years he served as a justice of the peace. In 1900 and 1902 he was elected a member of the General Assembly, the third of the family to be so honored, and contiued in office until 1904. He was State elector for Theodore Roosevelt in 1908. In 1912 he was elected to the State Senate to serve until Jan. 1, 1917.


Mr. Graff was married in 1881 to Carrie L. Brown, who died in 1902, a daughter of Rev. J. A. Brown, D. D., and they had six children : James B., Peter, J. Frank, Jr., May F., Edmund B. and Richard M. In 1904 Mr. Graff was married to Martha Stewart, and they have two sons, Grier S. and Smith S. Mr. Graff and his family are members of the Lutheran Church, in which he has been an elder for twenty-one years and for the same period superintendent of the Sunday school, succeeding his father in both offices.


Mr. Graff is a Mason of high degree, a Knight Templar and Shriner, belongs to the Blue Lodge and Orient Chapter at Kittan- ning and to the Consistory and Commandery at Pittsburgh. He is associated also with the Elks, Odd Fellows and Royal Arcanum.


SHARRON M. QUIGLEY, one of the oldest residents of Armstrong county, has lived at his present home in Boggs township for sixty-seven years, having settled there in 1847. Few citizens have been more thor- oughly identified with the life of their times than has Mr. Quigley. As farmer, business man, public official, church worker, he has taken an interest in the affairs of his locality which has left a permanent impress upon its welfare. Though in his ninety-first year, Mr. Quigley has never used a cane and can read without the aid of glasses.


Mr. Quigley was born June 30, 1823, in East Franklin township, this county, son of John P. Quigley and grandson of James Quigley, a farmer of Cumberland county, Pa. John P. Quigley was born in Cumberland county, and coming to Armstrong county in 1810 located in East Franklin township, along the Allegheny river, opposite the present home of his son Sharron M. Quigley. He brought with him abundant means to establish himself


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HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA


in the then wild country, still infested with wild animals, and worked industriously to make the most of his land. But he died in his prime, when forty-nine years old. He was of English descent, and his wife Esther, who lived to the age of seventy-two was of Ger- man extraction. Their children were as fol- lows: James S., who was formerly a mer- chant of Kittanning, Pa .; William C .; John A .; Robert ; Sharron M .; David C .; Jonathan ; Benjamin C., who crossed the plains to Cali- fornia in 1849 and died there; Mary M., Mrs. Cochran, Rosanna, Mrs. Laird, and Hettie J., Mrs. Wylie.


Sharron M. Quigley, now the only surviv- ing member of his family, was educated in the common schools of the home locality, attend- ing under John P. Davis, whose fame as a speller and spelling teacher was widespread in that day. In 1847 he came to the place in Boggs township, overlooking the Allegheny river, which he has since occupied. The prop- erty consisted of fifty-eight acres, on which there was a one-story frame house 24 by 16 feet in dimensions, in which he kept bach- elor's hall. While attending to his duties as superintendent of the Brown and Mosgrove furnaces he saw to the clearing of his land, which he subsequently cultivated throughout his active years. However, he did not by any means devote all his time to his farming in- terests. He had large coal and iron interests which proved very profitable, and he gave considerable attention to public affairs. Orig- inally a Whig, he eventually became a mem- ber of the Democratic party, with which he has since been identified. He has been hon- ored with many important positions, serving as auditor of Armstrong county for six years from 1852, was justice of the peace for five years, and auditor of his home township. He was also active in his earlier days in the es- tablishing of churches and schools and placing their affairs on a sound basis, and has been a prominent worker in the Presbyterian Church, which he has served as elder.


in 1883, leaving one child, Myrtie Jane. Mrs. Quigley's parents were James and Jane ("Jen- nie") (Bigham) Walker, the latter the daugh- ter of Isabella (Potter) Bigham. Isabella Potter was captured by the Indians when ten years old. The women were visiting together at a neighbor's while the men were out work- ing in the field. The Indians, coming upon them suddenly, killed three or four of the children at play. Little Isabella ran and hid in the brush. Entering the house, the In- dians captured her mother and another woman. The latter begged them not to kill her infant, and the party started for the In- dian camp. Isabella, seeing her mother leav- ing, came out of hiding and was taken along. The infant set up a crying which its mother was unable to stop, and the Indians, taking it from her, dashed it against a tree and care- lessly threw the body across a branch, where it was found later. The captives were ex- changed after a lapse of eighteen months, dur- ing which they led a life of drudgery among the Indians.


Mr. Quigley's family all received excellent educational advantages and a good start in life, and all are valuable members of the community and creditable representatives of the name.


ANDREW ARNOLD LAMBING, A. M .. LL. D., pastor of St. James' Roman Catholic Church, Wilkinsburg, near Pittsburgh, Pa., was born in Manorville, Armstrong Co., Pa., Feb. 1, 1842. He is the son of Michael An- thony and Anne (Shields) Lambing, the fam- ily being of German extraction on the fa- ther's side, and Irish on the side of the mother.


Christopher Lambing emigrated from. Alsace, Germany, and landed at Philadelphia, from the ship "Edinburgh," James Russell, master, Sept. 15, 1749. After spending some time in the eastern part of Pennsylvania, he settled in Bucks county, four miles west of the Delaware river and sixteen miles south of Easton, Pa., the spot being called Nocka- mixon, an Indian word meaning "Where there are three cabins." Here Christopher married Anne Mary Wanner, his second wife. He died in 1817 at the advanced age of ninety-nine years. He had a numerous family, one of the sons, Matthew, being grandfather of Father Lambing.


In 1848 Mr. Quigley married Mary Mateer, daughter of Sharron and Jane (Reed) Ma- teer, old settlers of Armstrong county, and she died in 1882, the mother of six children : Jane, now the widow of D. F. Hull ; Eliza, Mrs. James Heilman; Margaret, Mrs. Andrew Starr: Mary, Mrs. A. C. Houston; John, of Columbiana, Ohio; and Sharron Blair, who Matthew Lambing drifted down into Adams lena Kohl, reared a family. and then moved to Armstrong county, in September, 1823. He settled finally at Manorville, where he died died in infancy. In 1888 Mr. Quigley mar- county, Pa., where he married Mary Magda- ried (second) Mrs. Minerva (Walker) Lewis, widow of Reuben Lewis, by whom she had one child, Lola Jane, Mrs. Beatty, who died


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HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA


in 1851. His son, Michael Anthony, married church, which was later dedicated under the Anne Shields, great-granddaughter of Thomas invocation of St. Mary of Mercy. He also built a pastoral residence and was for some years president of the Catholic Institute, the forerunner of the present Duquesne Univer- sity. In 1885 he was placed in charge of St. and Mary (O'Neill) Shields, who emigrated to this country from the southern part of County Donegal, Ireland, about the year 1745, and settled in Amberson's Valley, thirty-five miles north of Chambersburg, Pa. James' Church, Wilkinsburg, and has done Her father, William C. Shields, came to Arm- much for the parish, having erected the present church and school building, which replace those destroyed by fire shortly after his ap- pointment to the charge. strong county in 1798, and soon after married Mary Magdalene Ruffner, of Westmoreland county.


Of their family of nine children two were priests, one a sister of charity, and three were soldiers in the Civil war.


Andrew Arnold Lambing, the third son and child, was born in Manorville Feb. 1, 1842, and at Glenwood, Pittsburgh, Feb. 2, 1863. Here being obliged to work on the farm, in a brick- yard and an oil refinery during the intervals. After a term in Kittanning Academy and much private reading and study he entered St. Mich- ael's Preparatory and Theological Seminary,


Father Lambing has written innumerable articles for newspapers and magazines on his- torical and religious subjects, and has been the author of eight works of great value to students of our history. He wrote a consider-


had but four months of schooling each year, able part of the "History of Allegheny County,"


part of the "Standard History of Pittsburgh." and was the founder of a Catholic historical monthly. He is at present at work on a history of the deceased priests of the Diocese of Pitts- burgh, part of which has been published. For a long term of years he was president of the


he made a brief course, owing to the great need Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, for priests at the time, frequently rising at is a trustee of the Carnegie Institute and the Carnegie School of Technology, Pittsburgh. was president of the board that prepared the school exhibit for the Columbian Exposition at Chicago, and is at present censor of books for the Diocese of Pittsburgh. Notwithstand- ing these many duties and labors he has never been two Sundays successively absent from his congregations. In 1883 the University of Notre Dame conferred on him the honorary degree of Master of Arts and three years later that of Doctor of Laws. three o'clock in the morning to pursue his studies, and spending four of his vacations at hard work to defray the expenses of his educa- tion. He was ordained in the seminary chapel by Bishop Domenec, August 4, 1869, and sent to St. Francis' College, Loretto, Pa., to teach, with the additional obligation of attending the little congregation of St. Joseph's, Williams- burg, Blair county, forty miles distant, one Sunday in the month, and assisting the village pastor on the others.


On Jan. 5, 1870, Father Lambing was ap- pointed pastor of St. Patrick's Church, in the ROBERT GRAHAM RALSTON, M. D .. was born Jan. 22. 1830, in South Buffalo town- ship, Armstrong county, son of James and Jane (Graham) Ralston. eastern part of Indiana county, where he re- a physician and surgeon of Cowansville, Pa., mained till April of the same year, when he was transferred to St. Mary's Church, Kittan- ning, with its five monthly out-missions, rang- ing from two to twenty-two miles distant. James Ralston and his wife were both na- tives of Ireland, and coming. to the United States at an early day settled in Westmoreland county. Pa., where they farmed. After the Civil war the father moved to Slate Lick. Arm- strong Co .. Pa., bringing with him his five surviving and unmarried children, three of whom now survive: Mrs. James Hunter, Mrs. Isabell Juck and Dr. Robert G. Ralston. The father of these children died on the last day of the year 1876, and the mother passed away ten years before. Both were consistent mem- bers of the Presbyterian Church, of which he was an elder. In politics he was a Demo- crat. At one time he served as captain of militia. Here he made considerable improvement and also built the little Church of the Holy Guar- (lian Angels, eight miles across the river in South Buffalo township. On Jan. 17. 1873. he was appointed to St. Mary's Church, Free- port, with the additional charge of the congre- gation at Natrona. In July of the same year he was named chaplain of St. Paul's Orphan Asylum, Pittsburgh, but the advent of the panie prevented any bettering of the financial condition of the institution. He was accord- ingly made pastor of the Church of Our Lady of Consolation at the Point, in Pittsburgh, where he placed the school in charge of the Sisters of Mercy and remodeled a Protestant


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HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA


Dr. Ralston attended public school until eighteen years old, when he entered Elder's Ridge Academy. Following this he took his degree of A. B. from Jefferson College, being graduated therefrom in 1855. He then read medicine for three years, and entering Jeffer- son Medical College, Philadelphia, took a three terms' course. Being then qualified, he began the practice of his profession at Cowansville, where he has continued fifty-one years. He is one of the oldest practitioners in Armstrong county, and in spite of his years has a large and lucrative practice, in the western part of East Franklin township, which he built up many years ago, and has since continued to hold.


On Jan. 19, 1865, Dr. Ralston was married to Martha J. Templeton, of Clintonville, Ill. the following children have been born of this marriage ; Nancy Bell, Mrs. J. Ambrose; Net- tie May; Jennie; Myrtle, Mrs. N. J. Leslie ; Ina, Mrs. O. V. Davidson ; Virginia ; Dr. Wil- Democrat on political issues. liam James, of Slate Lick ; John T. ; Robert S. Few men in Armstrong county are as univers- ally respected as Dr. Ralston, who holds the friendship of all with whom he has come in contact, whether professionally or in a social way.


CAPT. JAMES M. HUDSON, of Kittan- ning, is a native of Westmoreland county, Pa., whither the family removed from Lancaster county. He is a son of Thomas Hudson and a grandson of James Hudson.


the carpenter's trade, taking contracts for barges, one steamboat, hoisting apparatus and


James Hudson was reared in Lancaster county, married there, and in the early part of the nineteenth century brought his family to Westmoreland county, making the journey by wagon. Here he was engaged principally at houses and various other buildings, and also speculated quite successfully in land. He bought land in the Crab Tree Bottom for seven dollars an acre, the coal on which alone is now worth five hundred dollars an acre. He lived to the age of seventy-eight years, his death, in 1863, being caused by cancer on the hand. His wife, whose maiden name was McCauslin, was a native of Lancaster county and of Irish descent. She died at the age of fifty-five years in Westmoreland county. They had a family of eight children, six sons and two daughters. Mr. Hudson was a member of the Presbyterian Church, and a Whig in politics.




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