USA > Pennsylvania > Westmoreland County > Biographical and historical cyclopedia of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania > Part 54
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J. Wilson Barnett was reared on a farm in Derry township and received his education in the common schools of his neighborhood and Elder's Ridge academy, Indiana county, Pa. He left the academy in 1861 to enter the ranks of the Union army. Enlisted, with Capt. W. B. Coulter, Co. K, fifty-third reg., Pa. Vols., September 16, 1861, as a private; promoted to regiment Commissary Sergeant December 25, 1862, and Quarter-master Sergeant March 1, 1863. Par- ticipated with the regiment in all the battles of the army of the Potomac up to November 1, 1863, when he was promoted to First Lieuten- ant, tenth U. S. II. Troops; A. A. Q. M. Eastern Shore, Va., February 1, 1864, and of first brigade, third division, eighteenth A.
C., June 27, 1864; A. A. Quartermaster-Gen- eral, first brigade, third division, Twenty-fifth A. C., September 1, 1865; Depot Quartermas- ter, Galveston, Texas, March 14, 1866. Mus- tered out June 20, 1866, being in continuous service four years and nine months.
After the war he taught one term of school at Hillside and then went to Pittsburg, where he served one year as clerk in a mercantile estab- lishment. In the spring of 1868 he opened a store at Johnstown, Pa., which he conducted for two years. In 1870 he formed a partnership with F. G. Stewart and F. D. Beltz and they opened two stores, one at Derry station and the other at Hillside. Four years later they dis- solved and Mr. Barnett retained the Hillside store which he has conducted successfully ever since. IIe has been postmaster at Hillside for the last ten years and has served as ticket, freight and express agent at that place since 1886.
On April 19, 1870, he married Sophronie C. Gore, daughter of Thomas Gore, of Johnstown, Pa. They have five children : John Irving, born August 21, 1871; Ella Amanda, born June 8, 1874; Nannie Elder, born June 17, 1875; Mary Olive, born January 19, 1878, and Ralph Pitcairn, born May 3, 1886.
J. W. Barnett is a republican in politics and is well known throughout the township as an influential and important worker in his party.
He has been successful in the management of his own affairs and his excellent business qualifi- cations have recommended him to the confidence of his neighbors, who have constantly demanded his services of late years as administrator, guar- dian and in other positions where good manage- ment and trustworthiness are essentials.
LEXANDER BARNHART, a progres- sive business man and a public-spirited citizen of Pleasant Unity, is a son of George and Mary (Hartzell) Barnhart and was born near Latrobe, in Unity township, West-
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moreland county, Pa., May 10, 1841. George Barnhart was born in 1795 and died January 23, 1864, when in the sixty-ninth year of his age. He was a resident of Pleasant Unity, where he followed butchering for many years prior to his death. He was a democrat, a mem- ber of the German Reformed church and ener- getic business man. He was twice married. Ilis first wife was a Miss Shupe, who died in a few years after marriage and left him two sons. For his second wife he married Mary Hartzell, who died March 13, 1873, when she was well advanced into her seventieth year. By this second marriage he had issue of six sons and two daughters : David (see sketch), Jacob, Dan- iel, George W., Alexander, James, Sarah and Lobina.
Alexander Barnhart was reared in Unity township, where he received his education in the common schools. He then learned the trade of butchering with his father and in 1864 he opened a butcher shop at Pleasant Unity which he conducted till 1875. For the next five years he was engaged in the lumber business and operated a saw mill in order to fill the bills which he received during that period of time. In 1880 he returned to Pleasant Unity where he opened his present butchering establishment and meat market. He commands a good trade and is able to furnish at a moment's notice any kind of meat which is desired by his patrons. In polities he has been a democrat until last fall when he affiliated himself with the Prohibition party and voted for its nominees. Hle is a member of the Order of Chosen Friends and Pleasant Unity Methodist Episcopal church, of which he is also class-leader and trustee and superintendent of its Sunday school.
In 1870 he united in marriage with Susan Gettemy, daughter of Jonas Gettemy, of Unity township. They have two children, one son and one daughter, Mary E. and Scott K.
In the prosperity of Pleasant Unity Mr. Barnhart has always been interested and he has
erected more houses in that thriving town than any other citizen of the place.
AVID BARNHART. One of the pio. neers of the Colorado gold fields and a veteran Pennsylvania soldier who fought amid the clouds on Lookout Mountain, is David Barnhart, now a well-established merchant of Pleasant Unity. He was born in Derry town- ship, Westmoreland county, Pa., April 15, 1832, and is a son of George and Mary (Hartzell) Barnhart. George Barnhart was a resident of Pleasant Unity, where he followed butchering for a livelihood. He was a democrat in politics, a member of the German Reformed Presbyterian church and a stirring thorough-going business man. Ile died in 1864 at the age of sixty-nine years. He married a Miss Shupe and had two sous and then married Mary Hartzell, by whom he had five sons and two daughters. She was a member of the same as above and passed away March 13, 1873, aged sixty-eight years, ten months and seven days.
David Barnhart, although a native of Derry, yet was reared principally in Unity township, where he received his education in the common schools. When a boy he learned the trade of shoemaker, but in 1857 went to Schuyler county, Ill., from there to Colorado; in 1859 left his business pursuits in the cast to join the tide of adventurous spirits then setting westward to the new discovered gold-fields along the Rocky mountains. He became one of the pioneer gold miners of Colorado and remained in the territory of the " Centennial State" until 1861, when he returned to Pennsylvania. In September, 1862, he enlisted in Co. B, fifteenth Pa. Cavalry, par- ticipated in the battles of Antietam, Stone river, Chicamauga and Missionary Ridge, and was dis- charged at Nashville, Tenn., June 21, 1865. Returning home he was in the butchering busi- ness with his brother for three years. From 1868 to 1872 he conducted a store at Pleasant
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Unity. In 1872 he purchased a portable saw- mill which he operated for four years. In 1882 he built his present store-rooms and engaged in the general mercantile business which he has successfully pursued ever since. His store-rooms are spacious, well-lighted and well-stocked with full and choice selected lines of groceries, dry goods, notions, hardware, clothing and provi- sions. The growth of his trade has been com- mensurate with the constant increase of his stock. While in Colorado he and Charles Cowdrey and Andrew Sellers, who were both from Illinois, started the first manufacturing establishment in Denver City-it being a furniture factory.
On the 5th of April, 1870, David Barnhart married Ida C. Leacock, daughter of Joseph B. Leacock, of Stahlstown, Cook township, this county.
David Barnhart is a conservative democrat and a useful member of Cyrus Chambers Post, No. 531, G. A. R. His life-work has been a re- markable one as a gold miner, soldier and mer- chant, and the success which he has achieved has been the result of his natural ability and great energy.
S AMUEL BARR, one of the old and highly esteemed citizens and comfortably situa- ted and prosperous farmers of Derry township, was born within one mile of New Derry, Derry township, Westmoreland county, Pa., May 4, 1811, and is a son of William and Elizabeth (Bell) Barr. His paternal grand- father, John Barr, was of Irish descent but was a native of eastern Pennsylvania, where he lived and died. One of John Barr's brothers was Robert Barr, who came to Derry township about 1790 and purchased the farm upon which the subject of this sketch was born. He died in 1823. William Barr (father) was born about 1773 in an eastern county of this State and came to Westmoreland county when quite a young man. He settled in Derry township where he resided until 1813, in which year he died of measles.
Prior to the year 1800 he married Elizabeth Bell, who was a member of the old Bell family of this county. After living a widow seven years she married Samuel Moorhead about. 1820. Samuel Moorhead died in March, 1853, and his wife died in May, 1853. Samuel Moor- head was a strong democrat and a good citizen. They had seven children, of whom two died young and of the five who reached manhood and womanhood two are yet living: Samuel and Robert, who reside at Fort Madison, Iowa.
Samuel Barr was reared on a farm in Derry township, where he has always lived and been engaged in farming and stock-raising. He has resided on the farm on which he now lives for over forty years, and in addition to it he owns two other good farms in the township.
Samuel Barr has been twice married. His first wife was Jeannette George, who was a daughter of William George and lived but one year after marriage. On November 10, 1853, Mr. Barr united in marriage with Mary Ann Lewis, daughter of Evans Lewis, of Young town- ship, Indiana county, Pa. To their union were born six children, of whom two died in infancy. The four living are : Sarah Elizabeth, who mar- ried W. T. McFarland and has had four child- ren : Mary E., Cora B. (dead) ; Hattie R. and Samuel Barr (dead) ; Samuel Lewis, Rebecca J., who married M. F. Douglass of the grocery firm of Hamilton & Douglass ; and William.
Samuel Barr was originally a whig ; he now belongs to the Republican party but takes no active part in politics. He retains his eyesight remarkably well for one of his years and can read and write without the use of glasses. Mr. Barr and wife are consistent members of the Presbyterian church of Blairsville, Pa.
OIIN HI. BASHI, one of the well-known citi- zens and remarkably successful farmers of Mt. Pleasant township, is a son of Michael and Sarah (Rugh) Bash and was born on the
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farm on which he now resides in Mt. Pleasant township, Westmoreland county, Pa., September 11, 1819. Ilis paternal grandfather, Martin Bash, was a native of eastern Pennsylvania and settled near Pleasant Unity, in Unity town- ship, where he died. Ile purchased a farm of one hundred and fifty acres of land which is now owned by a Mr. Summers. Ile was a Lutheran, a whig in politics and married Margaret Akerman.
Hon. Jacob Rugh, maternal grandfather, was born in the Lehigh Valley, this State, and settled when a young man, near Greensburg where he owned three hundred acres of land. He was a democrat, served in the Legislature of Pennsylvania, held membership in the Luth- eran church, and married Sevilla Mechlin of his native county. Michael Bash (father) was born in 1789 and died August, 1862. Ile was an industrious farmer, an old-line whig and an active member and worthy deacon of the Evangelical church. Ilis children were : John, who died in infancy ; John II., Jacob, who married a Miss Huffman, followed farm- ing and died February 22, 1889 ; Michael R., died at two years of age ; and Susanna, widow of Jacob Roadman of near Kecksburg.
John II. Bash was reared on his father's farm and trained to habits of industry and economy. His educational advantages consisted of three months attendance upon the old sub- scription schools, where he learned to read and write and obtained a fair knowledge of the fundamental rules of arithmetic. He has always been engaged in farming and stock- raising, and has been very successful in all of his farming operations and business ven- tures. He commenced farming for his father but soon engaged in that line of business for himself, and now owns three large and pro- ductive farms : one of 165, another of 194 and the third of 134 acres of land. He is a republican in politics but is no office-seeker. Hle is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran
church and is well-known for his push, enterprise and business ability. Ile is careful and correct in all of his dealings, has shown himself to be a good manager and possesses a very fair com- petency.
"OHN BEATTY, JR., a prominent citizen, a leading school director and a substantial and progressive farmer of Unity township, is a son of Hamilton and Sarah (Anderson) Beatty and was born on the farm on which he now resides in Unity township, Westmoreland county, Pa., September 14, 1826. The Beatty family has long been resident in Ireland, from which Benjamin Beatty (grandfather) emigated when a boy of not more than sixteen years of age. He came to the eastern part of Pennsyl- vania. It is highly probable that he served as a soldier in the Continental army as there is still indisputable evidence in existence of his having helped guard British prisoners in Phila- delphia during the Revolutionary war. He came from Adams to Westmoreland county in 1810 and settled on the farm now owned by the subject of this sketch. Ile died in 1831 at the age of eighty-six years. Hamilton Beatty, (father) was a native of Adams county, Pa., and came with his father to Washington county in 1809. Ilis father purchased in the spring of 1810 a farm of three hundred acres in Unity township, Westmoreland county, known as the "sportsman farm." He immediately moved on it and built the first bank barn in the township the following year. He served as a soldier in the war of 1812 and helped to build Fort Meigs. This farm had been patented by James Hunter in 1790. He with his brother John purchased the farm from his father in 1824 and at their death the subject of this sketch became the owner. Hamilton Beatty was an industrious man, a prosperous farmer, a strong democrat and an elder in Unity Presbyterian church for fifty-six years. Ile was respected as a citizen, served his township in various local offices and died at
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Beatty station July 10, 1871, at the age of eighty-five years. He was married to Sarah, eldest daughter of Col. Anderson, September 11, 1817, by whom he had seven children.
John Beatty, Jr., was reared on the farm on which he now resides. He received his education in the common schools and Elder's Ridge acad- emy, Indiana county, Pa. He commenced life as a farmer and has continued successfully in farming till the present time. He owns the old Beatty homestead near Beatty's station. It contains two hundred acres of land and is in a fine state of cultivation. Mr. Beatty is a well- read agriculturalist as well as a practical farmer and conducts his farming operations scientifically and successfully. He is a democrat and has served for twenty years as a school director. Ile is a member of Gravel Hill Grange, No. 849, 1 of the war in Co. B, one hundred and first reg. Patrons of Husbandry ; Latrobe Lodge, No. 30, Ancient Order of United Workmen, and Unity Presbyterian church, of which he served a num- ber of years as trustee, was an active member in the erection of the new church in 1874 and spent time and labor in preparing the ground and laying out the beautiful cemetery of Unity.
June 20, 1855, he married Eliza Jane Cham- bers, only daughter of William and Elizabeth (Leasure) Chambers and sister of Eli Chambers, treasurer of Westmoreland county (see his sketch). To their union have been born seven children : Charles Albert, who was a graduate of Washington and Jefferson college and a stu- dent of Jefferson Medical college, Philadelphia, Pa., at the time of his death, and died March 31, 1882, aged twenty-five years ; Lizzie Leasure, Jessie Quindora, who died March 15, 1863, aged one year and twenty-two days; John Hamilton, Sara Stella, Lilian May and William Chambers.
ENRY F. BEISTEL, one of six brothers who served in the Union armies during the late war and an industrious farmer of Mt. Pleasant township, was born in Donegal
township, Westmoreland county, Pa., February 22, 1835, and is a son of John and Mary (Fultz) Beistel. His paternal grandfather, John Beistel, was a farmer of Mt. Pleasant township. Ilis maternal grandfather, Fultz, was of German descent and resided in Unity township His father, John Beistel, was reared in Unity township, learned the trade of tailor at Greensburg and removed to Donegal township, where he owned one hundred and eighty acres of land and fol- lowed farming until his death in 1867 at the age of sixty-two years. He was a republican and a member of the Lutheran church and mar- ried Mary Fultz, by whom he had eight sons and five daughters. Six of these sons served in the Union armies during the late war. They were: John, who served five months toward the close
Pa. Vols. ; George, enlisted in Co. B, fourth Pa. Cavalry, in 1861, participated in thirty battles and served in the Army of the Potomac until close of war, 1865; Jacob, who enlisted in Co. B., one hundred and first reg. Pa. Vols. and died in the service; Henry F., in Co. I., one hundred and sixty-eighth reg. and re-enlisted in one hundred and first reg .; David did guard duty at Washington City ; William and Manoah, who both enlisted in Co. B, twenty-eighth reg. Pa. Vols. and were under Sherman in Georgia and in his march to the sea. John and Manoah are dead. George resides at Ligonier and Wil- liam lives in Donegal township.
Henry F. Beistel was reared on a farm, at- tended the rural schools of his township and engaged in farming which he pursued until 1862. In October of that year he was drafted and served the required nine months in Co. I, one hundred and sixty-eighth reg. Pa. Infantry. On March 9, 1865, he enlisted in Co. B, one hun- dred and first reg. Pa. Vols. and served till the close of the war. Since 1865 he has been en- gaged in farming. In 1880 he purchased a farm of forty-nine acres to which he has added fifty acres more. Mr. Beistel is a republican
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and has served as an assessor of his township. Ile is a member of St. Paul's Evangelical Lu- theran church and member of Post No. 531, Grand Army of the Republic at Pleasant Unity.
On September 20, 1860, he married Nancy Evans, a daughter of William Evans, of Mt. Pleasant township. To Mr. and Mrs. Beistel have been born ten children : William E. (dead); Lydia, wife of Edward Baker; Ida M, married to James Marks; Ella, wife of Melvin Zimmer- man, of Hempfield township; Franklin, who is attending Edinborough State Normal school and will graduate in June, 1890; Clara M., Dorotha, Alice and Nettie.
APTAIN WILLIAM BENNETT is a man of fine personal appearance, of genial disposition, of engaging manners and sterling integrity. Descended from an old and worthy English family whose honorable reputa- tion he has well supported. Capt. Bennett has been prominently identified with the agricultural and commercial interests of Pennsylvania for over half a century and now at the advanced age of seventy-seven is in active management of his large Virginia plantation. He was born in Parish of Westry - Black Auton, Devonshire, England, August 30, 1813, and is a son of Capt. John and Jane (Coade) Bennett, both natives and residents of the " Mother Country." In 1828 Capt. John Bennett with his family came to Westmoreland county, where he located in Derry township and remained there until 1868, when at the age of eighty-four he retired and went to live with his daughter Elizabeth, wife of Stephen Young, at Parnassus, where he re- mained until his death, July 25, 1871. 1Ie was born September 10, 1788, received a good education and entered the regular army of England in which he served for several years as a captain and then resigned. His wife, Jane (Coade) Bennett, was born September 1, 1792,
and passed away exactly sixty-nine years later, on the first day of September, 1861.
Capt. William Bennett was reared on a farm in a rural district of the county of Devonshire and attended some of the best private schools of England then in existence. At fifteen years of age he came with his parents to Westmoreland county where he was successfully engaged in farming for several years. When the Pennsyl- vania canal was opened in 1835 he rented his farm and purchased several canal boats, which he ran and commanded until the canal was abandoned. In 1853, when the railroad was finished as far as Johnstown be carried the Adams express from there to Pittsburg by boat until the road was finished and the canal aban- doned. Ilaving become well acquainted with Thomas A. Scott when a boy in the collector's office at Hollidaysburg, was appointed by him as first train dispatcher in Pittsburg in 1853 ; while there he became acquainted with Andrew Carnegie, who was then a boy in Scott's office. After some time he purchased a boat and left Pittsburg for Wabash, Indiana, where he lost his boat and several horses and contracted fever and ague. He then returned to this county and was engaged in farming near Blairsville until 1865, when he bought his present farm near Hillside. This farm contains two hundred and eighty-five acres of good farming land, which is well improved and underlaid with coal. In 1876 he parchased a beautiful as well as valuable plantation within nine miles of the city of Richmond, Virginia. He has spent the most of his time for the last fourteen years on this Virginia plantation, which contains one thousand one hundred and forty acres and on which he has harvested as high as five thousand bushels of wheat per year.
On June 28th, 1848, Capt. Bennett was mar- ried to Mary Ann Turner, a daughter of George and Lucy (Wilkinson) Turner, of Blairsville, where the former died in November, 1886, at the ripe old age of ninety-five years. To Captain
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and Mrs. Bennett have been born nine children : Lucy J., born March 29, 1850, and wife of John Johnson, of Hillside; William E., born May 19, 1852; Thomas, born February 22, 1854, and resides in Virginia ; Harry, born March 15, 1855, and was struck and killed by the "Altoona Accommodation " train September 9, 1884; Priscilla P., who was born November 15, 1856, and died February 4, 1857; James Edwin, born December 13, 1857, and resident of Derry station ; George W., born June 13, 1859, and lives at New Derry ; Robert Ander- son, born December 2, 1861, unmarried and at Johnstown, Pa. ; and Lincoln, born March 17, 1866, and lives in Pittsburg. William E. Ben- nett, the eldest son, is unmarried and is manager of the home farm. He is an intelligent, enter- prising and progressive young man who has had considerable business experience in this county and in the valley of Virginia.
Capt. William Bennett in the course of his life has had some broken bones and several narrow escapes. Ilis life has been one of con- stant activity and usefulness.
BADIAH M. BENNETT, a successful cabinet maker, furniture dealer and undertaker of New Florence borough, is a son of Isaac and Margaret (Brown) Ben- nett, and was born at the village of West Fairfield, Fairfield township, Westmoreland township, Pa., April 5, 1851. The Bennetts were among the pioneers of Westmoreland county, and some of them went further west and settled near the present site of Cincinnati. John Bennett (grandfather) was a farmer and early settler of the above township. One of his sons was Isaac Bennett who was born December 5, 1818, near the site of West Fairfield. He was a carpenter and cabinetmaker and was mar- ried in 1849 to Margaret Brown, who was born December 27, 1820. Her parents were William and Mary (Huston) Brown, both natives of St.
Clair township, this county, and the former served as a soldier in the war of 1812.
Obadiah M. Bennett was reared to carpentry and cabinetmaking, received his education in the common schools and learned his trade with his father with whom he remained until he was twenty-five years of age.
On January 19, 1876, he married Hannah M. Graham who was born March 14, 1855. Their union has been blessed with seven chil- dren, two sons and five daughters : Anna B., born November 5, 1876; Emma K., May 13, 1878; Margaret C., April 20, 1880; Charles G., February 11, 1882; Mabel R., September 25, 1883 ; Ada F., June 29, 1885, and Andrew J., February 3, 1888. Mrs. Bennett's father, William Graham, was born in Ireland in the year 1800, came to this country in 1806 and was a miller, farmer and railroad contractor. IIe built a three-mile section of road east of Lockport for the Pennsylvania Central railroad and served in the Pennsylvania Legislature. Ilis wife was Mary Peal, a native of eastern Pennsylvania.
In the spring of 1876 Obadiah Bennett re- moved to New Florence and engaged in cabinet- making, furniture and undertaking business which he has continued successfully ever since. In political faith he is a republican and in re- ligious belief he is a member of the United Presbyterian church. For nine years he has served as justice of the peace. He is comforta- bly situated and is a genial and elever gentle- man.
ILLIAM II. BOYER, of German de- scent and one of the industrious and reliable farmers of Mt. Pleasant town- ship, is a son of Adam and Elizabeth ( Raymond) Boyer and was born in Somerset county, Pa., December 7, 1858. The Boyers settled in Somerset county over a century ago. Squire Samuel Boyer (grandfather) was born in that county, where he lived during the greater part
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