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 93
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Mr. Seitz is public-spirited and enterpris- ing and has interested himself in many of the successful movements which have proved beneficial to his city and county. He was
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one of the charter members of the Freeport always contributed to the well-being of the telephone system and a charter member of the community.
Enterprise Gas Company, which was the first William Marshall, the emigrant ancestor of the family, was born in 1722 in Ireland. Nothing can be learned concerning his ances- tors. When a young man he went to Scot- land, where about 1748 he married Elizabeth Armstrong, a native of that country, and they soon afterward came to America. They set- tled in the southern part of what was then the Province of Pennsylvania, about sixty miles northwest of Baltimore, Md., near where the Marsh creek crosses the Pennsylvania and Maryland line-in what was known as the Conococheague settlement. It is now in- cluded in Adams county, Pa. Their family of six children, John, James, Margaret, Wil- liam, Archibald and Samuel, were all born concern of its kind to obtain a charter to sup- ply natural gas in Pennsylvania, and was one of its directors; when this company sold out to the T. W. Phillips Gas and Oil Company, it gave him more time to attend to his other interests. In 1883 he was one of the organiz- ers and founders of the Freeport Water Works and was a director, but later disposed of his interest therein, and he was also one of the founders of the Freeport Building and Loan Association, which began business Jan. 17, 1887, from which date until 1906 Mr. Seitz was president. This was one of the most important enterprises ever successfully under- taken and carried out at Freeport in the in- terest of the man with limited capital. Many at this place. About the year 1783 William of the substantial citizens of Freeport at the present day availed themselves of the oppor- tunity offered by the organization and secured property that, in degree, became a foundation on which they built up their business prosper- ity. and Elizabeth (Armstrong) Marshall re- moved with part of their family to West- moreland county, Pa., settling in that por- tion now included in Indiana county, to which section their sons John and James had emi- grated several years previously. They had It has been said of Mr. Seitz that he is one of the wheelhorses of the Democratic party in Armstrong county, and it certainly is a fact that he has a large amount of influ- ence which he judiciously uses for the benefit of his friends, his party and his community. He has seldon accepted political office for him- self, but served as postmaster of the city for five years under the administration of the late President. Cleveland, proving an efficient and satisfactory official in every way. been driven back by the hostility of the In- dians, however, John and his family return- ing to their first settlement in the East, and James, who was then unmarried, stopping at Sewickley settlement. William Marshall, the father, settled on a tract of land at Blacklegs creek, now included in the township of Con- emaugh, Indiana county, where he and his wife died, Mr. Marshall in 1796, Mrs. Mar- shall in 1806. A copy of his will is on record at Greensburg, Pa., in the Westmoreland county courthouse, in Will Book I, page 134. We have considerable concerning their family, which is mentioned fully elsewhere in this work.
On Jan. 1, 1871, Mr. Seitz was married at Philadelphia, Pa .. to Katherine Walsh, the ceremony being performed by the rector of St. Ann's Church. Five children have been born to them, two sons only surviving, Fred- erick Carl and Henry A. Frederick Carl Seitz is a graduate of Duff's business college, Pittsburgh, and is associated with his father, as is his younger brother, Henry A., who is also a graduate of the Pittsburgh Dental College. Like their father the young men are wide-awake, enterprising and successful men of business.
ARCHIBALD W. MARSHALL was born March 29, 1840, on the farm in Rayburn township. Armstrong county, where he now resides, son of Archibald and Rebecca (Tay- lor) Marshall. The Marshall family has been settled in this part of Armstrong county for several generations, and its members have located. They had no
Archibald Marshall, fourth son of Wil- liam and Elizabeth (Armstrong) Marshall, was born March 29, 1762, and in 1787 mar- ried Margaret Wilson, half-sister of Cath- erine, his brother William's wife. Mrs. Margaret ( Wilson ) Marshall's mother was a native of Germany. About 1800 Archibald and Margaret ( Wilson) Marshall moved out to Westmoreland county, Pa., where his parents and brothers already resided, and there they lived until 1814, when he sold out and removed to Armstrong county, purchas- ing land about one and a half miles from the present site of the borough of Dayton. He and his sons cleared away brush to make room for a cabin. which stood where the home of his grandson. Harry S. Marshall, is now stable, the horses
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standing hitched to the trees, and the sheep had to be brought indoors over night to save father's farm. them from the wolves. Here Mr. and Mrs. Marshall lived the rest of their lives, he dying in November, 1835, she in 1837. They are buried in the Glade Run cemetery. They had the following children: Catherine, Wil- liam, Joseph. John (born in 1794, who mar .. ried Elizabeth Stewart), Margaret, Archibald. James and Samuel.
Archibald Marshall, fourth son of Archi- bald and Margaret (Wilson) Marshall, was born Nov. 4, 1802 (another record says 1799), near the Ebenezer Church in Indiana county. In 1814 he removed with his parents to their farm near Dayton, Armstrong county, and for several years after his marriage lived on another farm in Wayne township. In the year 1834 he purchased a farm in what is now Rayburn (then Valley) township, and moving to that place April 1, 1835, there made a permanent home, this being the homestead now occupied by his son Archibald W. Mar- shall. There were some improvements on the place, including a log cabin and log barn, the double cabin being about 20 feet square (outside measurement) and divided by an entry. Many were the shifts which these pio- neers had to make because of the lack of ordinary appliances or the means of purchas- ing them. They made harness by sewing tow strings together. using chains for the traces. But they prospered by dint of unceasing in- dustry, and made a comfortable home, which they occupied until they died, Mr. Marshall passing away Nov. 28, 1878, Mrs. Marshall on April 28, 1884. They are buried on the farm. They were originally members of the Presbyterian Church, in 1857 changing their membership to the United Presbyterian Church.
On May 22, 1823. Mr. Marshall married Rebecca Taylor, who was born July 18, 1799. eldest daughter of Thomas Taylor, one of the old settlers on Cowanshannock creek. Seven children were born to this union: Martha T .. born Jan. 23. 1825, is deceased; Margaret. born May 1. 1827, is the widow of Charles Todd and lives west of Kittanning ( Mr. Todd was a grocer by occupation ; he served during the Civil war in the Pennsylvania Reserve Volunteers ) : Esther I., born Sept. 26. 1830. died Sept. 26, 1845: Rebecca, born Feb. 20. 1833, is the widow of A. A. Marshall and makes her home at Dayton. Pa. : Thomas T .. born Jan. 24. 1836. died Oct. 3. 1841 ; Archi- bald W. was born March 29, 18440; Elizabeth C., born March 26, 1844. is the widow of Wil-
liam B. Shaum, and lives on a part of her
Archibald W. Marshall received his edu- cation in the public schools of the home local- ity. He never left the homestead, making his home there after his marriage as he had before, and he was successfully engaged in general farming throughout his active years. He has been quite prominent in the neighbor- hood, having served his township as assessor two terms, as school director for ten years, and justice of the peace for fifteen years. still holding the latter office. In politics he is identified with the Republican party. His church connection is the same as that of his parents, and he has been an elder of the U. P. congregation for a number of years. He is highly respected throughout this district, where his upright and useful life has won him many friends.
On Feb. 21, 1867, Mr. Marshall was mar- ried to Elizabeth A. Speer. a native of this county, born May 16. 1838. daughter of Rob- ert Speer, of Manor township. Six children were born to this marriage: Norman W., born Feb. 24, 1868, was drowned July 9. 1889; Jennie R., born Nov. 6. 1869, is at home ; Thomas W., born Sept. 2. 1871, was married June 15, 1898, to Fanny A. Stewart, daugh- ter of John Stewart and has one child, Thomas W., Jr .; William S., born Dec. 21, 1873. is at home. at present having the management of the farm; Phoebe R., born June 13. 1877. died Aug. 5. 1885; Mutter A., born June 24, 1879. died Feb. 18. 1896.
Robert Speer, father of Mrs. Archibald I. Marshall, was born in Ireland, and was one year old when he came to America with his parents, the family first settling in South Caro- lina. When he was twelve years old they moved to Lawrence county, Pa .. and subse- quently ( before his marriage) he came to Kit- tanning. Armstrong county. His first work here was making nails, by hand. and later he bought a farm and sawmill which he operated throughout his active years. He died Nov. 27. 1880. For his first wife Mr. Speer mar- ried Barbara Lowrie, by whom he had a fam- ily of nine children. His second marriage was to Martha Wilson, who was born April 23. TSO7, daughter of Hugh Wilson, a native of Ireland (born May 12. 1770) who came to America. arriving Sept. 7. 1796; his children were : William B., born Sept. 16. 1795: David, May. 1790: Elizabeth. April 1. 1801 : Hugh, Oct. 5. 1803: Martha, April 23. 1807. Mrs. Martha (Wilson) Speer died in 1841. aged thirty-four, the mother of three children,
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Hugh Wilson, Elizabeth (Mrs. Marshall) and Barbara. By his third marriage, to Jane Erwin, Mr. Speer had six children.
JOHN W. RICKEL, truck farmer of Wash- ington township, occupies and operates part of the tract originally settled by his grand- father and grandmother, George and Elizabeth (Christman) Rickel. He is a descendant of one of the Hessian soldiers who came to America during the Revolutionary war, a num- ber of whom refused to return to their own country. The soldier was his great-great- grandfather. His great-grandfather, George Rickel, lived in Bedford county, Pennsylvania.
George Rickel, grandfather of John W. ticularly interested in Odd Fellowship, having Rickel, settled with his wife in Washington township. Armstrong county, Pa., in 1816, his lodge. Mr. Rickel has never married.
owning a tract of 15912 acres, part of which is now the farm occupied by their grandson, John W. Rickel. It was then in the woods, and he built his log cabin and set about the work of clearing and improving the place, accomplishing much in his industrious life. George Rickel was a good mechanic, and he used to repair guns for the Indians then living in the vicinity, with whom he was always on good terms. In politics he was a Democrat and Whig in turn. He died in 1840, and his wife died in 1847.
Henry Rickel, son of George and Elizabeth (Christman) Rickel, was born May 30, 1829, in the log cabin home of his parents. He learned carpentering, which he followed in connection with farming all his life. He was a Republican in political sentiment. Mr. Rickel married Rachel Bish, who was born Oct. 9, 1840, and survives him. He died Aug. 17, 1888. They had children as follows : Henry, John W., Samuel E., Nancy J., George W., Otto Laurence and David.
John W. Rickel was born May 28, 1863, in Washington township, and grew to manhood there. He went to the common schools, and pursued his more advanced studies at summer school. For two years he was engaged in teaching, at what is known as the Rickel school, No. 9, located on the homestead. He devotes the principal part of his time to market gardening, in which he has been highly suc- cessful. Few men of the locality have been as closely associated with the direction of its public affairs. He was first elected to office when twenty years old, becoming auditor of the township, attaining his legal majority the May after the election, which took place in March, and has been connected with the local government in one capacity or another ever
since. He has served three years as school director, has been justice of the peace for three times and tax collector for ten years, holding the latter position at the present time. For two years he was postmaster at Watter- sonville, during the Taft administration. In political connection he is a Republican.
Mr. Rickel has been very prominent in fraternal work, having belonged to the Odd Fellows at Cowansville (and Rebekah de- gree), Eagles, Owls, Home Guards, Grange, Independent Americans, Farmers' Alliance and Order of United American Mechanics, but he has recently given up considerable of his activity in some of these orders. He is par- served a number of years as noble grand of
ALEXANDER FOSTER was one of the earliest pioneers of Cowanshannock town- ship, Armstrong county, Pa., and among his descendants may be found the oldest resi- dents of Rural Valley, Pa. The family is of Scotch-Irish extraction and in earlier days the orthography was Forrester. The three generations of this family belonging to Arm- strong county have been as follows :
Alexander Foster, born in 1775, possibly in Scotland, settled first in Westmoreland county, Pa., came as a pioneer to Cowanshan- nock township, Armstrong county, and died here April 22, 1854, aged seventy-eight years, eight months, eleven days. He was the owner of 210 acres of land on which stands part of the borough of Rural Valley. He was a man of much prominence in the early days, a jus- tice of the peace and a leader in all public movements. He was one of the organizers of Rural Valley, was a promoter of the earliest school system, and one of the founders and sustainers of the Presbyterian Church. He married Martha Rolston, who died Aug. 15, 1842, at the age of seventy-three years. Their remains rest in the Presbyterian ceme- tery at Rural Valley. They were parents of the following children : Allen; David; Martha, who became the wife of James Speedy ; Isabella, who married William Sloan ; Alexander ; James; Margery; and Catherine, who married John Stoops.
Alexander Foster, son of Alexander, and father of Mrs. Sarah I. Neel, of Rural Valley, Pa., was born in Westmoreland county, Pa., in 1810, but was mainly reared in Armstrong county. After securing a portion of his father's land he cleared and improved it, mak- ing a very valuable farm, and on this he spent
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the remainder of his life, his death occurring He was a Presbyterian minister, and preached in March, 1878. He erected substantial build- in Old Jewry, London, for forty years. ings which endure to the present day. Like Previous to that he was mathematical tutor his father he was an active member and liberal supporter of the Presbyterian Church, and served as one of its trustees for many years. In politics a Democrat, he frequently was elected to township office. He married Margaret Scott, a daughter of Andrew Scott, and they had a family of eight children. Martha J., the eldest, resides on the old home place. Craig, the eldest son, died at Pitts- burgh, Pa .; he married Margaret Moore. Elizabeth spent twenty-five years as city mis- sionary in Pittsburgh. Jackson married Louella Seager, and they reside in Chicago. James died when aged sixteen years. Sarah 1., the sixth member of the family, married Lawrence Neel, who died in October, 1867, and is buried at Rural Valley ; he left one child, Margaret, who married John Sloan, and died in 1896, at the early age of twenty-nine years. Marjorie, the seventh member of the family. resides at Pittsburgh, Pa., the widow of James Mitchell, who died in 1898, from an attack of smallpox. Samuel, the youngest of the family, resides at Greensburg, Pa., where he is a well-known contractor and builder ; he mar- ried Ella Craig. No family in Armstrong county has been held in more universal esteem than this.
ISAAC REESE, the son of William and Elizabeth Reese, was born April 29, 1821, and emigrated to America in 1832 with his par- ents, who then had a family of seven children, all born in Llanelly, near Abergavenny, in southern Wales. All accompanied the parents to this country, where three children were born later. The father and grandfather of William Reese were born in Breconshire, Wales, and William Reese was born in Bre- con in 1787. His cousin, Lewis Rees (the father of Dr. Abraham Rees, the encyclo- paedist), was also born in Brecon, and both were descended from the clergyman of the Church of England who held the living of Penderyn, in Breconshire; both Lewis Rees and William Reese have the Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in their respective families.
at Hoxton Academy, London, an appointment which he filled with great distinction for twenty-two years. For many years he was president of the Presbyterian Board in Lon- don. He was one of the chief directors of the City Road Orphan Working School, and an active member of most of the charitable institutions of the metropolis. He edited the Chambers' Cyclopaedia for ten years before his own. Rees' Cyclopaedia, and the profound learning and ability which the work displayed caused it to be translated into several Con- tinental languages, and procured him the honor of being elected a Fellow of the Royal So- ciety. Many other foreign and scientific bodies also paid him the compliment of en- rolling him among their members. He took the degree of doctor of divinity from Edin- burgh University at the express desire of Dr. Robertson, the historian. He was one of the earliest members of the Linnaean Society and of the Society of New York. On May 3. 1820, he headed a deputation of eighty-nine dis- senting ministers to present to King George IV an address on his accession to the throne. He was the only member who had also been present when a similar address was presented to the late King, in 1760. His portrait by Lonsdale hangs in the National Art Gallery of London, that by Opie in Dr. Williams' private library, founded by him in Redcross street, having been brought there only a few years ago from the British Museum. He was a great favorite of the Duke of Sussex. who associated his portrait with that of Dr. Parr in his principal library at Kensington Palace.
William Reese's cousin Sam, when he was only nineteen years old. tutored the sons of English noblemen in mathematics and nat- ural philosophy. These men induced Sam and his brother John to move their academy from Wales to England.
William Reese was an iron worker, as was his father before him, the latter building the first iron mill on the borders of France and Germany and living there two years to inan- age it, returning to his native land (it is said of him) able to speak both French and Ger- man fluently. Isaac Reese retained to old age a few French phrases caught in his early childhood.
A short sketch of the three types of work- men, from the old Welsh clergyman down to the present time, may not be amiss here. Lewis Rees preached the gospel seventy years, and died at the age of ninety years. He was the first pastor of the old Independent Chapel A record of upward of five hundred in- ventions, improvements and discoveries, listed of Llanbrynmair in 1739. Dr. Abraham Rees was his son; he died aged eighty-two years. in the Department of the Interior, Washing-
ENGRAVED BY TAYLOR FROM AN ORIGINAL PAINTING BY LONSDALE IN THE NATIONAL ART GALLERY LONDON, ENG.
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WUJEDATIONS
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HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
ton, D. C., testifies to the energy of the sons Astro-Physical Society of America, and a and grandsons of William Reese. The basic Fellow of the American Association for the Bessemer open-hearth process of steel manu- facturing that revolutionized steel making, the indestructible silica brick and furnace build- ing that controlled the industry in the United States for many years, the present-day proc- ess known to the arts as the Universal Beam Mill, are the original products of the three sons of William Reese, Jacob, Isaac and Abram, respectively.
William Reese and his wife were plain, God-fearing people. They were uncompro- mising in their integrity. They organized Sabbath schools and prayer meetings in every community in which they lived if they found none there. They believed in the old pro- verb, "If there is an idle man there is another starving." They brought up their ten chil- dren to habits of industry and thrift. "The plain man serves the world by his action and as a wheel in the machine; the thinker serves it by his intellect, and as a light upon its path. The man of meditative soul, who raises and comforts and sustains his traveling com- panions, mortal and fugitive like himself, plays a nobler part still, for he unites the other two utilities. The artisan, the savant and the orator are all three God's workmen."
We have the three types in these genera- tions of the old clergyman all born in Wales, all with nothing to boast of so far as this world's goods are concerned, but the nobil- ity of labor. William Reese died Aug. 4, 1892, aged one hundred and four years. His wife died April 12, 1874, in the seventy-sixth year of her age.
Jacob Reese, the second son of William Reese, was a Fellow of the American Associ- ation for the Advancement of Science; a member of Franklin Institute, and of the Philadelphia Academy of Philadelphia; a thirty-second-degree Mason and a Master Mason for fifty-two years. He held the office of deacon in the Baptist Church for sixty- one years. He
was married to Eliza Matthews of Pittsburgh. He died in 1907 in the eighty-second year of his age.
Advancement of Science. He was elected a foreign member of the Royal Societies Club of St. James street, London, England. Abra- ham Reese was married to Mary Godwin. He died in the seventy-eighth year of his age. Cara (lately deceased), daughter of Abra- ham and sister of Dr. Stanley C. Reese, did work worthy of her ancestry. She took her degree from Bucknell University for her res- cue work for children by the exposure of fire- traps in the public schools of Pittsburgh, Chicago, St. Louis and Washington, D. C., through her articles in a Boston magazine. High as her literary work stands, whether as lecturer, magazine writer or newspaper correspondent, overtopping everything else was her loyal, self-sacrificing devotion to her family, which will shine as a beacon light to the future generations of William Reese and his wife through every branch of that family.
Joseph Reese, the fourth son of William Reese, lost his life at the charge on Stone River during the Civil war.
Benjamin F. Reese, the youngest and only surviving son of William Reese, passed through four years of the Civil war. He has been identified with the brick and clay busi- ness for forty years. He married Dora Ber- key, of Bolivar, Pa., where they now reside.
All the daughters of the family, Rachel, Leah, Rebecca, Mary and Elizabeth, were leaders in church work in every community in which they lived.
The family name Rees was changed to Reese in Pittsburgh, Pa., on account of the confusion over the mail, there being another Rees family having a William among its mem- bers. Letters were frequently opened by mis- take. Isaac Reese, the eldest son of William Reese, was the last of the family to take kind- ly to the "e." His naturalization papers were taken out Rees, and all the births and deaths in the family Bible record written in his own handwriting Rees up to the date of the birth of his son Benjamin, in 1862, when he adopted the "e" for the first time.
Abrahamı Reese, the third son of William Reese, was the mechanical genius of the fam- We quote from the "Centennial History of Allegheny County," 1888 (Snowden & Peter- son, publishers ) : ily, making miniature models in brass and wood with his own hand of several of his inventions. Almost a hundred years after "As a great center of industrial activity Pittsburgh, of course, contains many concerns that have developed into immense proportions within the last quarter of a century. An im- portant branch of commercial activity, and the death of Dr. Abraham Rees, the son of Abraham Reese and nephew of Isaac Reese, Dr. Stanley C. Reese, took similar honors to his grandfather's famous cousin. He is a doctor of philosophy of Princeton University, one deserving of special mention in a review a charter member of the Astronomical and of leading business interests of Allegheny 31
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county, is the manufacture of fire brick ; and none of those great manufacturing and mer- cantile corporations which have, and are, con- tributing so materially to Pittsburgh's pros- perity, deserves a more prominent place than that of the Phoenix Fire Brick Works, of Manorville, Armstrong county, Pa., owned and managed by Mr. Isaac Reese. By hard work, constant improvements and close per- sonal attention this gentleman has succeeded in producing a brick which affords his nu- merous customers entire satisfaction. His Silica brick is now considered the best brick made in this or any other country, and is fast taking the place of all imported brick, it being preferred, even at a higher price per thousand. to that made in foreign countries. Mr. Reese's Silica works are located at Man- orville. Armstrong county, and. his process being patented, he is, as a matter of course, the sole manufacturer of this brand. To give a description of the superiority of this brick over any other brand would occupy more space than can possibly be spared in a review of this kind; let one instance suffice. In one of our large manufacturing establishments over seven thousand tons of steel has been taken out of an open-hearth furnace without necessitating any repairs. Another advan- tage possessed by this brick will easily be seen. By using the old fire brick in the cap or arch of a glass furnace the slack or drip- pings would run into the glass, while caps made of Reese's Silica brick will make the output of the furnace perfectly clean. Start- ing in the fire brick business on a small scale, in 1863. Mr. Reese has since then been con- nected with a number of leading works. prominent among which are the Apollo Fire
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