Biographical and historical cyclopedia of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, Part 58

Author: Gresham, John M. cn; Wiley, Samuel T. cn
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia [Dunlap & Clarke]
Number of Pages: 1422

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farming and merchandising and died in 1878. He married Eliza George and they had five children : Robert A., Wallace, of Kansas, who served as a cavalry soldier in the late war ; Wil- liam G., who enlisted in a Pennsylvania regiment and was killed at Spottsylvania Court House ; Lucinda M., wife of Lewis Beham of Kansas ; and Ann Eliza, who resides in Allegheny City. Mrs. Eliza Foster, who is still living and resides in Blairsville, Indiana county, Pa., was a daugh- ter of James George, a Scotch-Irish citizen of county Derry, Ireland, who immigrated to Ameri- ca and eventually settled in Loyalhanna town- ship where he reared a family of nine children.

Robert A. Foster was reared on a farm, at- tended the common schools and commenced life for himself as a day laborer. In 1856 he pur- chased his present farm of seventy-three acres of land and since then has been principally engaged in farming and stock-raising. Under President Grant's administration he was ap- pointed a storekeeper in the internal revenue service and occupied that position for thirteen years. During the late war he was never drafted but sent a man to help fill up the quota of his township. He has always been a republican but is no extremist in political matters.

Ile was married on April 12, 1855, to Nancy N. Campbell, daughter of William Campbell of Sewickley township. To their union have been born two sons and six daughters : Sarah V., James R., who died suddenly November 2, 1887; Elizabeth ; Lucia, who has taught successfully for six years in the common schools and her last five terms have been at the Millwood school; she ranks among our best primary teachers ; Ida R. ; Della, who has been teaching efficiently at Cokeville for three years and stands high as a teacher ; Millie, student at Indiana Normal school; and Irwin R., who is assisting his father.

Robert A. Foster is comfortably situated to enjoy life, has secured a competency by con- tinuous and steady labor, and yet has neglected

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no opportunity to keep himself well informed upon matters of public importance. He is quiet in manner but is an hiteresting conversationalist.

AMES J. FOWLER, a prudential and prosperous farmer of Unity township and on whose farm was sunk the first experi- mental and productive gas well of the Latrobe natural gas region of Westmoreland county, is a son of John and Elizabeth (Mickey) Fowler and was born at Youngstown, Unity township, Westmoreland county, Pa., August 5, 1832. John Fowler was a descendant of the Fowler family of Bedford county, Pa., where he was born and reared to manhood. Soon after learn- ing the trade of shoemaker he removed to Ligonier township, this county, where he re- mained until 1843. He then came to Pleasant Unity where he worked at his trade for many years and died at Crabtree January 29, 1890, at the advanced age of eighty-four years and four months. He was a democrat who never believed in half-way measures and was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. His wife was Elizabeth Mickey who was a native of Ligonier township, a consistent member of the M. E. church and who died April 9, 1874, aged sixty-nine years.

James J. Fowler was reared in Unity town- ship, received his education in the common schools and having a decided preference for farming he engaged in that line of business after leaving school. He farmed at different places until February, 1878, when he removed to his present farm of one hundred and forty-two acres of land which is two and one-half miles west of Latrobe. On this farm natural gas was struck in 1886 and again in 1888. Both wells were put down by a company, are still pro- ductive and pay a certain percentage of their earnings to Mr. Fowler, who heats and lights his dwelling-house by gas from one of them. In October, 1862, he was drafted and served | Fry, and was by occupation a farmer, wagoner

nine months in Co. I, one-hundred and sixty- eighth reg., Pa. Vols. In 1864 he enlisted in the sixth P'a. Heavy Artillery, was stationed at Fort Ethan Allen in Virginia and served until the close of the war.

May 22, 1867, he married Elizabeth Steele, daughter of Matthew Steele, of Derry township, this county. They are the parents of three children, two sons and one daughter : Harry M., John C. and Bessie O.

James J. Fowler is a firm believer in the principles of the Democratic party. He is a member of Latrobe Methodist Episcopal church, a hard-working man and a good citizen. His farm while productive of good crops, yet is wonderfully rich in its untold wealth of natural gas which needs but a thorough development of its present wells to establish beyond a doubt the existence of another great gas basin in West- moreland county.

.EORGE FRY, a prosperous farmer of his native township, was born in Mt. Pleas ant township, Westmoreland county, Pa., March 15, 1832, and is a son of Michael and Sarah M. (Richard) Fry. His grandfather, Michael Fry, was a native of Northampton county, Pa., and was of German extraction. Ile emigrated to Westmoreland county, settling in Mt. Pleasant township where he resided until his death. He was a whig and a member of the Reformed church. His wife was Regina Spiel- man, a daughter of one of the very first settlers in Mt. Pleasant township and one of a family of thirteen children. Charles Richard (mater- nal great-grandfather) of German origin, lived in Mt. Pleasant township, where he died at the age of ninety-six years. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary war and afterwards engaged in tilling the soil. His son, George Richard (grandfather), was born in Mt. Pleasant town- ship on the old homestead, now owned by George

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and stock-raiser. He married Elizabeth Neff, of Adams county, this State, by whom he had four children. Michael Fry (father) was born in Mt. Pleasant township and followed farming and distilling until his death in 1856. He was identified with the Reformed church of which he was long a trustee and a liberal supporter. He was the father of seven children : Elizabeth (dead), Michael (dead), George, John, Mary, Sarah and Leah (dead). John Fry served three years in the civil war, belonging to Co. C, 11th reg., Pa. Vols., and took part in the battles of Second Bull Run, Antietam, Gettysburg and in various minor engagements.

George Fry was twice married, his first wife being Sarah Spielman, a daughter of John Spielman, of Holmes county, Ohio, by whom he had one child, Martha I., who married William S. Critchfield, of Mt. Pleasant township, and who died in February, 1890. Mr. Fry's second wife was Susan Shearer, a daughter of Hugh Shearer, of Mt. Pleasant township, and to this marriage were born two children : Minerva J., wife of Charles G. Lee; Ida May, married to Thomas A. Marstellar, now of Fayette county, Pa.

George Fry was the eldest son, consequently his services were required at home and his edu- cation to some extent neglected. Ile began life as a farmer, at the foot of the ladder, working on his father's farm, which he afterwards bought, and has ever since been engaged in the pursuits of agriculture in which he has achieved success. He is an industrious, deserving man, a republi- can in polities though he never aspired to office, and with his wife belongs to the Reformed church.

FOIIN FRY, a crippled veteran of the late war and census enumerator of Mt. Pleasant township for the eleventh census of the United States, is a son of Michael and Sarah (Richard) Fry and was born near St. Paul's Reformed and Lutheran church in Mt. Pleasant

township, Westmoreland county, Pa., October 24, 1835. Michael Fry, paternal grandfather, was born in Mt. Pleasant township, where he died. He was a farmer, a member of the Re- formed church, an old line whig and afterwards a republican. Ilis wife was Regina Speelman, who was a native of Westmoreland county. Charles Richard, maternal great-grandfather, was a fifer in the Revolutionary war and lived to be nearly one hundred years old. He was a native of Westmoreland county, in which he died. II> followed farming in Mt. Pleasant township where he was a member of the Reformed church. George Richard, maternal grandfather, was born in Cumberland county and removed to West- moreland county. He was engaged in farming in Unity township. Michael Fry (father) was born in 1800 and died December 23, 1856, aged fifty-six years. Ile was a whig and afterwards a republican and a strict member of the Reformed church. Ile was a very industrious and pros- perous farmer and a conscientious and upright man. He married Sarah Richard. They had seven children : Elizabeth, who married John W. Armel and is now dead; Michael (deceased), George, who married a Speelman and after her death united in marriage with Susan Shearer ; John, Mary, wife of John Hoffer, of Madison, Pa .; Sarah, married William Armel, of Daven- port, Iowa, and Leah, who married John Fisher and is now dead.

John Fry was educated in the common schools and has always followed farming. He owns a well-improved farm of eighty-five acres and raises considerable stock. He enlisted Sep- tember, 3, 1861, in Co. C., eleventh reg., P'a. Vols., and served three years. He participated in several hard battles. At second Bull Run he was knocked down by a spent ball, at Antie- tam he was wounded in the hand and at Gettys- burg he was shot in the leg and captured and held as a prisoner for a few days by the Confed- crates. In politics Mr. Fry is a republican, has : always been active in his support of that party

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and has just received the appointment of census enumerator of Mt. Pleasant township. He is a member and trustee of St. Paul's Reformed church.

January 14, 1868, he married Melinda J. Smith, a daughter of Ephraim Smith, of Unity township, who married Susan Bates and reared a family of fourteen children, of whom one son is Prof. W. N. Smith, principal of the soldier's orphan school at Jumonville, Pa., and another son is Iliram Smith, a lawyer of Sycamore, Ill., . while one daughter, Nettie, is attending the State Normal school at Lock Haven and will graduate in the class of 1891. To Mr. and Mrs. Fry have been born three sons and four daughters : Sadie E., Nettie L., George S., Franklin R., Ferguson J., Mary J. and Nora P.

J TAMES A. FULTON, M. D., of New Flor- ence, and a leading physician of Westmore- land county, is the eldest of three children and was born in Derry township, Westmoreland county, Pa., January 8, 1835. Ilis father, Ben- jamin Fulton, was born in the same township in 1795, died on July 28, 1859, and was married to Jane Ayres in 1834. Benjamin Fulton was a son of James Fulton who settled in Derry township at a very carly day. The maternal great-grandfather of Dr. Fulton married a Miss Hickenlooper and was an emigrant from New Jersey. James Fulton, one of the pioneer farm- ers of the county, married Mary Laughrey, a native of Ireland who came from there in 1772. Abram Fulton (great-grandfather) was a farmer and married a Miss Guthrie who was a native of Ireland; her family came to America in 1772 and settled in Sewickley township. Her remains with others of the family now rest in the Pres- byterian grave-yard near Mt. Pleasant.

Dr. James A. Fulton was principally educated in the Meadville academy, where he attended 1852 and 1853, afterwards taught school, read medicine for four years under Dr. J. W. Black-

burn of New Derry, and attended his first course of lectures at Cleveland, Ohio. In 1858 he began the practice of medicine at New Salem at which he was engaged until the breaking out of the civil war, when he enlisted in company pany HI, eleventh Pa. Reserves as a private and was in a short time promoted to first lieutenant of his company. On July 3, 1863, in the battle of Gettysburg he was severely wounded which caused his discharge for disability on October 3, 1863. Ile returned home, soon afterwards en- tered Jefferson Medical college, Philadelphia, and remained there during the winter of 1863-4, but on account of sickness he was not graduated. Ile took up his practice at New Salem again and remained there a number of years when he re- moved to New Florence, where he now resides. Ile is a man of fine intelligence, has been a hard worker, a close student and has succeeded in establishing himself in a paying practice. HIe is the examining railroad surgeon for the Penn- sylvania company in Westmoreland county, and is a member of the pension board of this district.

On December 20, 1865 he was married to Nancy S. Shields, a native of this county and a daughter of Robert and Mary Shields, of Del- mont. To their union have been born nine children : Robert II., born September 11, 1868; William W., born June 25, 1870; Mary E., born December 26, 1872; Annie L., born Oc- tober 24, 1874; Jane II., born August 15, 1876; James G., born March 17, 1881 ; Samuel A., born July 2, 1883; Violet B., born Septem- ber 25, 1885, and Benjamin C., born Septem- ber 13, 1888.

Dr. Fulton is a republican, a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, of Odd Fellows and is a member of the M. E. church at New Florence.

R. OBERT F. GAUT, M. D., of Kecks- burg, a successful physician of fourteen years active practice and a soldier of the late civil war, was born in Tyrone township,

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Fayette county Pa., October 29, 1833, and is a son of Joseph and Margaret (Francis) Gaut. His grandfather, Matthew Gaut, was a native of Aberdeen, Scotland, immigrated to New Jersey, woon removed to New York where he married Sarah Bird, of German descent and soon emi- grated to Tyrone township, Fayette county, Pa., where he settled on Jacob's creek and patented a tract of four hundred acres of land. He was a presbyterian and a democrat and was a black- smith by trade. He served as justice of the peace. He reared a family of five sons and two daughters. One of these sons was Joseph Gaut, the father of Dr. Gaut, and was born in 1806. Ile purchased two hundred acres of his father's farm and was engaged in farming until his death in 1878. Ile was a whig, afterwards a republi- can and served one term as county treasurer. Ile was a constant reader, a friend of education and a highly respected elder of the Presbyterian church. He married Margaret Francis, who died in 1851, aged forty-five years. Her father was William Francis who came from Ireland to East Huntingdon township, this county. He was a presbyterian and married Mary Silla, of his native country, by whom he had six sons and six daughters, one of whom was Mrs. Gaut. Mr. and Mrs. Gaut were the parents of four sons and four daughters. One of the sons is Dr. Matthew, chief physician of the Clifton Springs' sanitarium, N. Y., at a salary of $5,000 per year. Another son, William F., served as a soklier in the late war.

Dr. Robert F. Gaut received his education at Laurel Hill Parochial school and taught fourteen terms in the common schools. Ile read medi- eine with A. W. Strickler, attended lectures at Jefferson Medical college for one year and then entered Detroit Medical college at Detroit, Michigan, from which he was graduated in the class of 1876. After graduation he located at Madison, this county, where he remained two years and then came to Kecksburg where he has been actively practicing ever since. On August

23, 1862, he enlisted in company I, fifteenth reg., Pa. cavalry, and was mustered out February 16, 1863. He participated in the battles of South Mountain, Antietam and Murfreesboro. He is a republican and a member of Pleasant Unity Presbyterian church, while his wife holds membership in the U. B. church.

On October 12, 1857, he married Eleanor Gallatin, daughter of Samuel Gallatin, of Fay- ette county, l'a. They are the parents of four children : William L., a graduate of Iron City college, married Lizzie Brown and is in the com- mission business at Altoona, Pa. ; John S., married and living in Nebraska; Lyman and Mina B., a teacher. Mrs. Eleanor Gaut dying, Dr. Gaut married for his second wife, in Sep- tember, 1876, Mary J. Trump, daughter of John and Hettie ('Zuck) Trump. By this second mar- riage he has three children : Robert L., Homer B. and Arthur.

SAAC GEORGE. The soldiers who marched over hundreds of miles of desert wastes, who stormed and carried the forti- fied heights of Sacramento defended by four times their own number, who won the unqualified praise of the hero of Buena Vista, and who con- tributed largely in adding the vast territories of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah and the States of Nevada, California and Colorado to the American Union, were no common or ordinary soldiers. Of these soldiers one was Isaac George of Unity township.

Ile is a son of John and Eleanor (Campbell) George and was born on the farm he now owns and occupies in Unity township, Westmoreland county, Pa., October 4, 1822. The George family of Unity township was founded by Adam George, paternal grandfather of the sub- ject of this sketch. Adam George emigrated from Germany, first settled in York county, Pa., and about 1769 came to what is now Westmore- land county and located at that place, known in

Isaac George

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frontier times as George's station. He served against the Indians, fought in the Revolutionary war under the immediate command of Washing- ton and in 1774 was one of the petitioners from this county to troy. Penn for protection against the Indians. He created George's station to protect himself and neighbors from Indian raids and when Hannastown was burned over one hundred and fifty settlers were gathered at his stockade block-house. The brave old Indian fighter and patriotic Revolutionary hero died at an advanced age and sleeps in the beautiful burial place on the farm which he loved so well and on which so much of his life was passed. He had three sons : Conrad, who was in the fort at Hannastown when that village was burned ; John and Peter, who became owner of the home farm. John George (father) was born in 1771, married Ellen Campbell, of Somerset county, Pa., about 1800 and lived in Mercer county, this State, until 1811, when he re- moved to the farm near Beatty station now owned and occupied by the subject of this sketch. He had a family of six sons and seven daughters, died September 4, 1863, aged nearly ninety-three years and his remains were in- terred in Unity church cemetery. His wife preceded him to the tomb by three years. She died March 19, 1860.

Isaac George was reared on his father's farm until he was eighteen years of age. He then learned the trade of carpenter and at twenty years of age he went to May's Lick, Ky., where he worked for one year. From there he went to Lexington, Mo., where he followed his trade until the Mexican war occurred. He then (June 1, 1846) enlisted in Co. B (Capt. William Walton), first regiment of Missouri mounted riflemen, commanded by Col. Alexander William Doniphan. This regiment marched one thou- sand miles in fifty days over a trackless wild and captured Sante Fe, New Mexico, on August 18, 1846. From there Col. Doniphan made a march of seven hundred and fifty miles and sub-

jugated the Navajo Indians, whe were the " Mountain Lords and Scourgers " of New Mexico. On the 1st of November the regiment began its wonderful march for Chihuahua, Mexico, n march that will be known for all time to come as " Doniphan's March," which meets not with a parallel in the annals of the world. On Christmas Day, 1846, Col Doniphan with five hundred men defeated Gen. Leon, who car- ried the black flag and attacked him with twelve hundred Mexicans. The next day after this battle Col. Doniphan captured El Paso, learned that Gen Wool, whom he was to meet at Chi- huahua, had turned back with an army of thirty- five hundred men and gone to assist Gen. Tay- lor. Nothing daunted by Gen. Wool's failure to capture Chihuahua, Doniphan pursued his march through several deserts and on the 28th of February, 1847, fought the battle of Sacra- mento, which was the " New Orleans " of the Mexican war. With 1,164 he attacked the Army of Central Mexico, 4,220 strong under Gens. Hendea, Justiniani, Ugarte and Conde, ex-minister of war, and drove it from its in- trenched position with a loss of 304 killed, 500 wounded, 70 prisoners and all of its artillery. The American loss was one killed and twelve wounded. On March 1 Col. Doniphan took possession of Chihuahua, the strong hold of Cen- tral Mexico. The regiment received the warm thanks of Gen. Wool and the merited praise of Gen. Taylor for their magnificent victory and were complimented in the highest manner in public orders issued by both generals. Doni- phan and his regiment in 1847 reported to New Orleans where they received their first pay, were discharged and a portion of them returned to Missouri by the Mississippi river. Isaac George served throughout this entire march of nearly 6,000 miles, endured all of its periods of hunger and thirst, participated in all of its bat- tles and never was sick one day during the whole time. Doniphan's men crossed one desert ninety miles long with but one pint of water to

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each man. American historians have never yet done justice to the men, whose courage and con- duet accomplished the most wonderful achieve- ment of modern times. For what can be more wonderful than the march of a single regiment of undisciplined troops through five populous States of the Mexican Republic, alinost annihi- lating a powerful army and finally returning home after a march of several thousand miles graced with the trophies of victory. Col. Doni- phan was promoted to the rank of general but returned to the practice of law and died at Richmond, Mo., August 8, 1887, at eighty-one years of age. In a letter written to a friend from Mexico he said : " My men are rough.ragged and ready, have one more of the R's than Gen. Taylor himself." Col. Thomas II. Benton said of Doniphan's men : " You marched farther than the farthest, fought as well as the best, left order and quiet in your train and cost less money than any." There was dug between 1852 and 1880 from the territory gained from Mexico the sum of one billion six hundred and seventeen million dollars in gold and silver. After the Mexican war Mr. George returned to Unity township where in order to fully care for his parents he purchased their farm, which he has ever since owned and upon which he still re- sides.

On December 26, 1853, Isaac George married Mary Ann Nixon, daughter of Hon. Samuel Nixon (deceased), of Fayette, Pa., a man of prominence and usefulness, who served three terms in the Legislature of the State and thir- teen years (1828 to 1841) as associate judge of that county. Mrs. George is an industrious, energetic and pious woman and has contributed much toward her husband's success. They reared to manhood and womanhood a family of two sons and three daughters : John N., who married Lizzie E. Blair, died November 7, 1888, at thirty-four years of age and left three chil- dren : Homer J., Margaret H., and John N .; Alexander W. D., engaged in farming and

stock-raising ; Phebe II., wife of Frank R. Town- send, a successful farmer of Unity township ; Sarah J., married to Halleck G. Baldridge, who is engaged in farming near the home farm ; and Maggie E., wife of Milton Miller, a leading druggist of Blairsville, Pa.

Isaac George in business is scrupulously exact, very correct and proverbially honest and has built for himself an enduring character upon the broad and sure foundation of honesty, sobriety and promptness. He and his wife and children are members of the Presbyterian church of Unity. As a friend Mr. George is sincere and faithful ; as a companion pleasant and ac- commodating, while as a business man his ability, punctuality and reetitude stand un- impeached. As a man among men he is kind, modest and unassuming to a remarkable de- gree. He is a member of the Mexican Veteran Association, which was organized in 1876 at Washington City, D. C.

S AMUEL L. GORGAS, a leading justice of the peace and one of the best business men of Derry township, is a son of Wil- liam and Ann (Nihell) Gorgas, and was born in Mt. Pleasant township, Westmoreland county, Pa. The Gorgas family is descended from three brothers who came from Holland and settled in Philadelphia in the early part of the last century. One returned to Holland, and one of two re- maining was Samuel Gorgas, whose silver seal, with his initials and the emblem of two doves holding an olive branch engraved upon it, is now in the possession of the subject of this sketch. A lineal descendant of Samuel Gorgas was Samuel Gorgas, Jr. (grandfather), who was born in eastern Pennsylvania, and came in 1810 to Westmoreland county, where he settled in Mt. Pleasant township. Ile was a farmer and fur- dresser and died in 1828. William Gorgas (father) was born at York, Pa., about 1788 and located at Greensburg in 1810. Hle removed to

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Mt. Pleasant in 1812, and in 1835 returned to Greensburg where he died May 30, 1845. He was a clock and watchmaker and jeweler by trade, and perhaps over one hundred clocks which he made are in the county to-day. Ile was appointed clerk of courts in 1838 by Gov. Porter, served one year (the clerk's office being merged in the prothonotary's office), and in 1844 was appointed by the commissioners as county treasurer, in which capacity he was serving at the time of his death. His wife was Ann Nihell, who bore him six sons and three daughters of whom two sons and the three daughters are liv- ing : Joseph R., of Madison, Ind .; Lucinda, wife of Dr. John Murray of Bridgewater, Pa. ; Julia A., widow of Lucian B. Turney, Greens- burg ; Cordelia F., wife of Hail Clark of Salts- burg, Pa .; and Samuel L. Mrs. Gorgas was a daughter of Lawrence Nihell, who was a Revo- lutionary soldier, and with his brother Ignatius were the only children of Lawrence Nihell, Sr., who was a sea merchant of Philadelphia and died in Limerick, Ireland, where he had gone for the protection of his vessels during the Revo- lutionary war.

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Biographical and historical cyclopedia of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, Part 58

Author: Gresham, John M. cn; Wiley, Samuel T. cn Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Philadelphia [Dunlap & Clarke] Number of Pages: 1422

Author: Gresham, John M. cn; Wiley, Samuel T. cn
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Philadelphia [Dunlap & Clarke]
Number of Pages: 1422