USA > Pennsylvania > Westmoreland County > Biographical and historical cyclopedia of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania > Part 62
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On the 15th of May, 1846, he married Sarah J. Miller, daughter of Hugh Miller, who is a resident of Indiana county, this State. Mr. and Mrs. Kinkead have been the parents of nine children : Martha Jane, who died Septem- ber 7, 1848; Elizabeth, married to John Wal- lace of New Alexandria and has two children, Edward and Annie; Lovenia, wife of S. D. Swend, deputy sheriff; Annabella, married G. W. Hughes and has one child, Stella ; Clara M., wife of George IIull of Latrobe; Ida E., mar- ried to G. W. Shearer of Derry station ; Rachel M., died June 27, 1882; William, who married Mary Smith and has four children, Edward, John S., Percy and Leonora Claire ; and Robert, of Derry station, who married Annie Harkins and has three children, Nellie and James F. and one name not known.
ACOB KIMMELL, a descendant of one of the old substantial German families of western Pennsylvania and a well-known citizen of Derry township, is a son of Louis
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and Sarah (Cable) Kimmell and was born in Somerset county, Pa., June 9, 1818. ITis great-grandfather, Jacob Kimmell, came from the Rhine, Germany, to this country in 1751 and located at Ephrata, Lancaster county, Pa. One of his sons, Jacob Kimmell (grandfather) was born in 1757 and was a resident of Somer- set county, in which he died in 1824 at sixty- seven years of age. He was a farmer and reared a family of seven sons and one daughter : Abram, Jacob, Peter, Solomon, Louis, John, Jonathan and Elizabeth. Louis Kimmell (father) was born in 1790, served in the war of 1812 and came in 1833 to Derry township, where he died on August 26, 1857. Hle mar- ried Sarah Cable, who bore him ten children, of whom three are living : Tobias, of Armstrong county ; Jacob and Samuel. Those dead are Mary, Obadiah, George, Catherine, Louis and Sarah. Samuel is a successful dental surgeon of No. 1316 Walnut street, Philadelphia, who married Mary Cunningham. of Hollidaysburg, Pa., and a daughter of Hon. J. Cunningham, of Blair county, Pa. Of his two children, Mary Scott and Dr. Louis J. C., the latter was a dis- tinguished physician, who was born in 1860 and died of influenza January 19, 1890. He was interred at West Laurel Hill cemetery.
Jacob Kimmell at fifteen years of age came with his parents from Somerset county to Derry township. They moved into the old Guthrie stone house, which was built in 1795 and which has been the residence of Jacob Kimmell ever since. lle has always followed farming as an occupation and is remarkably active for a man of his years.
He was married on the 10th of October, 1844, to Barbara E. Pershing, who was born October 1, 1824. They have had five children : Mary Examena, born April 10, 1846, and wife of Albert Ford, of Irwin, who is assistant superin- tendent of the Penn Gas Coal Company ; Sarah Frances (dead) ; Christina Victoria and Louie Elizabeth (twins, deceased) ; and Edmund B.,
born May 28, 1852, who is superintendent of the Millwood Coal & Coke Company, and mar- ried Martha C. Roberts, of Somerset county, Pa., by whom he has three children : John R., Mary E., and Lorena. Mrs. Barbara E. Kim- mel is a daughter of Isaac Pershing, who was born July 19, 1800, and died August 15, 1886. He was a son of Rev. Daniel Pershing, who was a native of Germany and died in 1838. IIe had eleven children, who are now all dead. Their names were : Abram, Isaac, John, Joseph, Samuel, David, Elizabeth, Hannah, Mary, Sarah and Dinah. Isaac Pershing owned a store at Youngstown and married Frances Fruxeel, a daughter of Rev. John Fruxeel, of the U. B. church, by whom he had eleven chil- dren : Barbara E., Mary A., born May 17, 1826, wife of D. S. Weaver; Anna Mary, born September 2, 1827, and wife of John Braden ; Christina, born July 15, 1829, and wife of A. Jamison ; Martin K., born December 16, 1830 ; Rev. Justus II., born June 12, 1847, and a minister of the U. B. church ; Michael T., Eli A., Margaret E., Sarah HI. and Franklin K., who are dead.
Jacob Kimmell and wife are members of Derry station Presbyterian church and is a republican in politics.
ON. JAMES H. LAFFERTY, a lead- ing young physician of New Florence, was born July 26, 1854, in Armstong county, Pa., and is son of Jacob and Elizabeth (Cowan) Lafferty. The former was a native of Armstrong county, Pa., and the latter was a daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth Cowan of Indiana county. Jacob Lafferty was nine months a soldier in the Federal army, at the end of which time he was discharged for dis- ability. John Lafferty (grandfather) was a far- mer and merchant by occupation and was born in Ireland.
Dr. James II. Lafferty was educated at
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Elder's Ridge and Saltsburg Literary and Classical Institute of Indiana county. At the age of seventeen he began teaching school and taught for a period of eight years. He then began to read medicine in 1877 in the office of Dr. Thomas Carson, of Saltsburg, Pa., and subsequently entered the college of Physicians and Surgeons in Baltimore and was graduated in the class of 1881. He began the practice of medicine in 1881 at New Florence, Pa., where he still resides and has been successful in build- ing up a paying practice and was also engaged in the drug business in connection with the prac- tice of medicine from 1882 to 1886. Dr. Lafferty has been twice married; his first mar- riage was to Anna M. Townsend on April 10, 1883. She was a daughter of Absalom K. and Mary Townsend, of Armstrong county, a native of Armstrong county, and died January 24, 1884. Their union was blessed with one child; John T., born January 13, 1884; his second wife was Lizzie, a daughter of John and Elizabeth Wagoner, of New Florence, to whom he was married on June 3, 1886. Her grand- father Wagoner was a native of Ireland and settled at Lewistown, Mifflin county, Pa. Dr. Lafferty is a democrat, an active worker in his party, was appointed U. S. Pension examiner in 1885 and served acceptably in this capacity until December 1, 1886, when he resigned to accept a seat in the Legislature of Pennsylvania. In 1886 he became a nominee of his party in Westmoreland county for the office of repre- sentative and was elected by a majority of 148. Hle was renominated in 1888 for the same office by his party and was defeated on account of the strong fight made by the republicans in the presidential election of 1888. He is a member of the Masonic order, of the O. U. A. M., of the Junior O. U. A. M., Royal Arcanum, Chosen Friends and is deputy state councillor in the O. U. A. M. and Junior O. U. A. M. He is the medical examiner for the following insurance companies : National of Vermont,
Equitable of New York Life, and People's Mutual of Westerville, Ohio. Ile is also medical exam- iner for the Royal Arcanum and Chosen Friends and is an energetic citizen anda well-read physi- cian.
"HOMAS LAIRD, general superintendent of the Hlecla Coke works, Nos. 1 and 2, was born September 14, 1845, in Glas- gow, Scotland, and is a son of Francis and Mary (Buchanan) Laird. His grandfather, Thomas Laird, was a native of the west of Scotland. Born in 1792 in Scotland, where he belonged to the Episcopalian church. William Buchanan, maternal grandfather, was a native of Dumbar- ton, Scotland, where he died when his daughter Mary was quite young. Francis Laird (father) was born in Glasgow, Scotland, July 12, 1824, and lived there until 1848, when he came to America and settled in Schuylkill county, Pa. From there he afterwards went to Maryland and thence to Kanawha county, W. Va., where he served as mine boss for the Winifred Mining and Manufacturing Company. In 1861 he came to Mercer county, Pa., thence went to Trumbull county, Ohio, and in 1866 came to Hecla, this county. He was married in Scot- land, where two of his children were born : Thomas and Elizabeth. His wife was killed in Trumbull county, Ohio, by being tramped upon by a horse. Mr. Laird is the father of ten children, five sons and five daughters, all living but one.
Thomas Laird was married October 23, 1867, to Margaret Snedden, a native of Pennsylvania and daughter of Thomas Snedden, by whom he has had five children : Harry, now in the em- ploy of the P. R. R. Co. as an engineer, Frank, Mary, Jennie and Maggie.
Thomas Laird was educated in the common and high schools of Sharon, Mercer county, l'a., and began life for himself as a miner, which he continued until 1875, when he with three others engaged in the mining business in Mercer county, under the firm name of Baker,
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Snedden & Co. In 1882 he removed to Arm- strong county, where he was in the coal business a year in company with Robert Snedden, then removed to Allegheny county and clerked for a time in the Pittsburg glass works. In 1884 he came to Hecla, this county, as general superin- tendent of the Hecla Coke Company, operating Hecla Nos. 1 and 2, and has been there ever since. He is a republican, has served as school director, councilman and burgess of Wheatland, Pa., and with his wife is a member of the M. E. church at Ilecla, of which he is one of the trustees. Hle also belongs to New Virginia Lodge, No. 841, 1. O. O. F., of Pennsylvania and is a progressive and enterprising citizen.
OSEPH W. LAUGHLIN, one of the most progressive and intelligent farmers of the county, was born in Derry township, West- moreland county, Pa., March 26, 1840, and is a son of Isaac and Martha (Walton) Laughlin. The Laughlin line is Irish in its descent. James Laughlin (grandfather) was a native of this country and lived many years in Westmoreland county, where he died. By trade he was a blacksmith and followed his trade many years in Derry township. He had eight children, of whom Isaac Laughlin was one. The latter was born in Derry township, January 25, 1807, where he was brought up on a farm. Part of his life he devoted to farming, but he had for- merely been a wagoner, boatman and contractor on the New Portage railroad. At one time he was interested in a distillery at Bouquet, Penn township. Ile died January 5, 1889. Ilis brother Abraham enlisted in the army during the late war and went to the front but never returned. He is supposed to have been lost in an engagement at Nashville, Tenn. Isaac Laughlin had six children : James P., Mary, Joseph W., Martha J., Isaac and Margaret E., of whom the eldest and the youngest are dead. Mary is the wife of Alex. McBride, formerly of
this county, but now of Indiana county. Isaac is a prosperous farmer of Derry* township.
Jos. W. Laughlin was reared in the solitude of the country, where the warbling birds, spark- ling brooks, clustering blossoms, majestic groves and all the beauties of nature conspire to make life a " sweet dream of peace." Unfortunately, however, boys on a farm are not given much time to enjoy or even observe the beautiful and wonderful things around them. "Work " is the watchword there, and from spring till fall the farmer does more hard labor than any other man in existence. Young Laughlin had his share of work to do, but took time enough to get a fair education at the public and select schools of the county. Ile began life for him- self as a farmer and is yet engaged in hus- bandry, owning a good and finely-improved farm in Derry township, which is a part of one thous- and acres purchased from the Indians for an old rifle. The improvements and arrangements to be seen everywhere on his premises are excel- lent and show remarkable taste, indicating that the beauties of nature have made an impress on the minds of the family. Mr. Laughlin has served several years as school director, is a mem- ber of the Patrons of Husbandry and a stanch and influential democrat.
Joseph W. Laughlin was married December 17, 1863, to Elizabeth, a daughter of Joshua Andersons of Derry township. Iler grand- father, John Anderson, of Irish origin, was a native of Lancaster county and came to this county at a very early date, locating in Derry township, where Joshua Anderson was born April 25, 1810, and died November 27, 1883.
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph W. Laughlin are the parents of two children : Annie M. and Tir- zah E.
AMES LEMMON, one of the prosperous farmers and reliable citizens of Mt. Pleas- ant township, is a son of Capt. James and Rhoda (Galloway) Lemmon and was born in
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Mt. Pleasant township, Westmoreland county, Pa., Aug. 25, 1813. The Lemmons are of En- glish descent. John Lemmon, grandfather, was a native of Antram, England, and about 1762 settled at Carlisle, Pa., where he was en- gaged in farming until 1796. In that year he removed to Mt. Pleasant and purchased of the Dillworths a large tract of land which was called "partnership" and contained 340 acres. IIe was a farmer, and old-line whig and a presby- terian of the strictest kind. While at Carlisle he received a pass and certificate of character from one of the King's justices of the peace. Ile married a Miss Mickey, who is now dead. Capt. James Lemmon was born at Carlisle in 1783 and died in Mt. Pleasant township in 1844, aged sixty-one years. In the last year of the war of 1812 he raised a company of troops, but peace was declared while they were on the way to join Gen. Harrison's army. He was a whig and a presbyterian and married Rhoda Gallo- way, by whom he had eleven children, of whom six are yet living and reside in Mt. Pleasant township.
One of these sons is George Lemmon who is a successful farmer, an earnest presbyterian and an active republican. He married Susan Eicher and has ten children : Rhoda, Milton D., William S., Missouri, Marion, Anna, Van- Amberg, Frank, Sarah and Mary B.
Mrs. Rhoda Lemmon, who is dead, was a daughter of James Galloway who was a native of Scotland, settled on what is now knowd as the Hunter farm. He followed blacksmithing and farming. Ile married Elizabeth Hunter who bore him two sons and seven daughters, of whom one, Jane Hunter, born in 1801 is still living.
James Lemmon was reared and received his education in Mt. Pleasant township where he owns a fine farm of one hundred and eighty acres. He has always followed farming and stock-raising. Ile is a useful member of the Presbyterian church, a conservative republican in politics and served three years as constable.
He resides in the large brick house which was erected by his grandfather in 1829.
James Lemmon was married on December 31, 1846, to Sarah Sandels, daughter of Jacob Sandels. They have seven children : Rhoda E., wife of James Irwin of Mc- Keesport, Pa .; Van Amberg, Carlisle, Lizzie, George W., and Dayton, who married Elmira Tedrow and is engaged in the livery business at Mt. Pleasant with his brother George W.
ILSON LEWIS, an intelligent and en- terprising business man and proprietor of the Lewis Hotel of New Alexandria borough, was born in Sewickley township, West- moreland county, Pa., September 28, 1831, and is a son of Abram and Willianna (Cowan) Lewis. The Lewises are of Welsh origin and the Cowans are of Irish descent.
Lewis (grandfather) was a native of Bucks county, Pa., from which he migrated some time in the first decade of the present century to Westmoreland county. His son, Abram Lewis (father) was born December 21, 1797 and died June 18, 1881. He was a carpenter by trade, a republican in politics and resided for many years in Sewickley township. He married Willianna Cowan who was born in Franklin county, this State, April 11, 1791, and died October 21, 1883, aged ninety-two years, six months and ten days. They had eight children : Harriet Ann, Mary, Margaret, Harrison, Lu- cinda, Wilson, Isabella, wife of II. C. Griffith of Greensburg and John. Of these children, Har- riet A. Wilson and Isabella are living. Mrs. Willianna Lewis was a daughter of Capt. Wil- liam Cowan, who came from Franklin county to West Newton where he lived for many years and where he died September 24, 1838, aged eighty-eight years, nine months and six days.
Wilson Lewis was reared and educated at Elizabeth, Allegheny county, Pa. He learned the trade of carpenter, but soon thereafter en-
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gaged with a mercantile firm in Elizabeth, Alle- gheny county, and remained with them for seven years. In 1852 he came to Derry township where he followed farming for ten years. In 1862 he removed to New Alexandria and worked at his trade until 1868, when he purchased a large and commodious hotel which he has con- ducted successfully ever since. He has made a very popular landlord as evinced by the exten- sive patronage which he has received.
On January 14, 1862, he married Mary A. Kull, a daughter of Adam Kull of New Alexan- dria. They had three children : Willianna, wife of John Love of Latrobe ; James, who is in the employ of a mercantile firm of Wilkensburg, Pa. ; and Wilson. Mrs. Mary A. Lewis died March 14, 1876, and Mr. Lewis married for his second wife, on August 21, 1879, Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson, daughter of William S. Campbell of Philadelphia.
Wilson Lewis was originally a whig and upon the dissolution of that party became a republi- can. He has held all of the offices of his borough. His first vote was cast for Gen. Win- field Scott for president in 1852 and has voted since then for every republican candidate for the presidency of the United States.
'ACOB S. LOBINGIER. One of the old, distinguished and prominent families of Westmoreland county is the widely extended Lobingier family, which has furnished honorable legislators to give renown to the State and able jurists to reflect credit on the county. Of the numerous descendents of Christopher Lobingier is Jacob S. Lobingier of Mt. Pleasant township. He is a son of John and Elizabeth (Smith) Lobingier and was born in Mt. Pleasant town- ship, Westmoreland county, Pa., July 24, 1828. The Lobingier family of Pennsylvania was founded by Christopher Lobinger, Sr., great- great-grandfather, who emigrated with his brother Jacob from Wittenberg, Germany, prior to
1735 and settled near Harrisburg, in what was then Lancaster county, Pa. Ilis son, Hon. Christopher Lobingier, was born in 1740 and in 1766 married Elizabeth Muller, who had come in 1752 with her father, John Muller, from Switzerland. He came in 1772 to Mt. Pleasant township where he died July 4, 1798. IIe was a delegate in 1776 to the first Constitutional . Convention of Pennsylvania and a member of the Committee of Correspondence for this county. He served in the General Assembly of Penn- sylvania from 1791 to 1793. IIad nine children of whom Judge John Lobingier (grandfather), the eldest, was born in Dauphin county, this State, April 5, 1767. He was a prominent political leader and public-spirited citizen and a leading business man. He served in the Legis lature, was associate judge of Westmoreland county and died at Mt. Pleasant February 26, 1859. He was engaged in the milling, iron and salt-well business and keeping a hotel. His first wife was Sophia Moyer and after her death he married Elizabeth Cross. Father Christopher Lobingier having iron-works in the Ligonier valley under his care, after exchanging for twelve farms he settled at Laurelville, where his son, John Lobingier, second (father of Jacob S. Lobingier), was born August 21, 1799. Ile followed farming until 1882 when he built a fine residence at Mt. Pleasant where he died May 16, 1885. Ile was a presbyterian and married Elizabeth Smith, daughter of Jacob Smith, who was a son of Philip Smith who came from Ger- many and whose wife was Mary Armel, of this county. To John and Elizabeth Lobingier were born nine children.
Jacob S. Lobingier received a fair education in select schools and Washington college, which he attended for one year. He has improved upon the limited educational privileges of his youth by constant reading and self-study. He has always followed farming and for a number of years successfully operated a coal mine. Ilis home farm consists of one hundred and seventy-
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five acres besides which he owns one hundred acres of good timber land in another part of the township. Mr. Lobingier is a republican but has always refused to hold office. He is very useful in his community and township, where he is frequently called upon to act as executor, administrator and assignee.
On Christmas Day, 1860, he married Mary Jane Cochran, who was born November 17, 1837. To their union have been born six sons and two daughters : Edward, born September 6, 1861, died February 6, 1865 ; John B., born August 2, 1863; Alice, born January 10, 1865; Walter B., born June 11, 1869, who will graduate at Wooster University, Ohio, in the class of 1892; Hettie, born May 1, 1871; Chauncey, born July 30, 1873, at school ; Charles D., born March 16, 1875; and Arthur M., born De- cember 14, 1878.
Jacob S. Lobingier is an elder of the Mt. Pleasant Reunion Presbyterian church, of which his wife is a member.
ACKSON MACHESNEY. One who takes pride in farming and has brought his farm into the front rank of the best farms of the county is Jackson Machesney, an industri- ous and thrifty citizen of Derry township. He was born in Unity township, Westmoreland county, Pa., April 7, 1829, and is a son of An- drew and Mary (Henderson) Machesney. For nearly two centuries a westward tide of emigration from Ireland has been pouring into Pennsylvania.
Of those who came during the first part of the present century was one William Machesney, who settled in Unity township where he followed farming until his death, which occurred some forty years ago. He had six children : An- drew, John, William, Margaret, Elizabeth and Jane. Of these none are living. Andrew Ma- chesney was born in Ireland but reared in Unity township. Ile was a farmer, an old-line whig and later a republican.
In 1837 he removed from Unity to Derry township where he purchased two farms. He died about 1870. His wife was Mary Hender- son, a daughter of William Henderson of Unity township, who came with his family from Ire- land. After the death of him and his wife, his children with the exception of one or two re- moved to Ohio in 1830. Andrew and Mary Machesney had thirteen children, of whom eleven are living: John, of Salem township ; William, who is in Iowa; Andrew, a resident of Greensburg ; Alexander, residing at Derry ; James, who is in Illinois; Dr. David L., a resident of Illinois; Jane, widow of Thomas Duncan, of Indiana county, Pa .; Mary, wife of A. Davis, of Blairsville, Pa .; Margaret, widow of John Mowrer and lives at New Alexandria ; and Elizabeth, wife of Henry Lobaugh, of Iowa.
Jackson Machesney attended school in Unity and Derry townships. At twenty-one years of age he engaged in his present occupation of farming. At the death of his father he bought one of the farms of the latter. He has improved and enriched this farm until it is now considered one of the best in the county.
He is a republican in politics. Ile has always taken a great interest in educational matters and has served as school director for a quarter of a century. Whatever tends to pro- mote the welfare of his community or advance its material interests always enlists his attention and engages his efforts in its behalf.
Jackson Machesney, on March 11, 1856, united in marriage with Elizabeth Machesney, daughter of John Machesney of Unity township. To them have been born eight children : Mary Catharine, dead ; Maggie Arabella, deceased ; Luella Elizabeth, Harriet Amanda, dead; Mi- nerva Jane, John Clark, Angeline, who died at fourteen years of age and Bertha May. John Clark is attending Elder's Ridge academy where he has about finished his preparatory studies for college. He has a mathematical turn of mind and excels in mathematics.
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S IMON F. MAXWELL, an influential and highly respected citizen of Mt. Pleasant township and a popular commissioner of Westmoreland county, is a son of David and Hannah (Truxall) Maxwell, and was born on the old Maxwell homestead farm in Mt. Pleasant township, Westmoreland county, Pa., March 30, 1846. His family has been identified with Mt. Pleasant township for over ninety years. Mr. Maxwell is the grandson of David Maxwell, who came from Ireland to Westmoreland county and was so well pleased with the county around Mt. Pleasant that he settled in that section. He fol- lowed weaving for a business and reared a family of sixteen children, eight boys and eight girls. One of his sons was David Maxwell, who was born in 1812 and passed away in 1876. His life-record was without blot or stain, his character was above suspicion and his word was as good as his bond. He was honored and trusted by all. He lived an uneventful but use- ful life which was filled up with kind, generous and charitable deeds. Plain of habit and free in manner, he was one of nature's true noblemen. He was a democrat, had filled some of the town- ship offices and in the discharge of his civil duties was kind but firm, generous but just and was noted as an exemplary public official. He was a conscientious and devoted member of the Pres- byterian church. In 1838 he was married to Hannah Truxall, who was born April 1, 1811, and is still living. They were the parents of nine children of whom Simon F. is fourth in order of age. The Truxalls were of German de- scent. They were noted for honesty and up- rightness.
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