Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Blair County, Pennsylvania, Part 17

Author: Wiley, Samuel T., editor. cn
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: Philadelphia, Gresham
Number of Pages: 1160

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feetly acquainted with the details of the labor performed, he has accomplished re- sults where others would have failed. The Altoona Manufacturing Company, in its earlier stages of existence, was mainly de- voted to the building of cars. Now it is otherwise. Cars are still turned out, orders of this nature receiving constant attention, but this branch of manufacture is no longer the distinctive feature of the works. The construction of engines is now one of the main points in which the company competes for the general trade, and for the making of automatic high speed engines, for electric lighting, electric railways, and for all uses in which rapidity of action and close regu- lation are prime requisites, the company is proving very successful. The company manufactures automatic, and double and single hoisting and hauling engines, coal and coke breaking machinery, boilers, cast- ings, regenerative gas furnaces, freight, stock, mine, and street cars, and tank machinery. For these purposes the works are supplied with all the latest and most improved machinery. There are nine dif- ferent departments in the works, employing in all over two hundred persons. Coming to the works by the way of Broad street, the first building reached is the office, a brick structure, 50 x 50 feet. Directly beside the business department is the draughting room, where three draughtsmen are em- ployed. Above the business offices is the pattern shop, where six persons are em- ployed. The machine shop building is of brick, two hundred feet long and fifty feet wide, with an L annex, also of brick, 40 x 50 feet. It employs sixty skilled workmen. The boiler and engine room is built of brick, 40 x 50 feet, where an eighty horse power engine, supplied by a one hundred

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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY

horse power boiler, furnishes the motive power for the works. Besides the boiler in use, one of eighty horse power is kept in reserve. An engineer and fireman are em- ployed. The blacksmith shop is constructed of brick, in dimensions 50 x 75 feet, and re- quires a constant force of thirteen men. A few yards distant from the machine shop stands the foundry, built of brick like the others, and extending in length two hun- dred feet, while its width is fifty feet, and ninety-five men are employed. In a build- ing of brick, 60x100 feet, is the boiler department, where twenty-eight men work. Near by the boiler department is the car shop and planing mill, a frame building, 75 x100 feet, requiring twenty-five men. Finally, two two-story frame buildings, for the storage of patterns, have been recently constructed. These buildings are each 28 x 40 feet.

These different departments are always busy, and for some time past the receipt of orders has been so great that night work was necessary in order to make headway against the demand. The total value of the manufactures during the last year was two hundred and fifty thousand to three hundred thousand dollars-figures which will certainly be increased during the year 1892. The Altoona Manufacturing Com- pany is daily increasing its facilities for work, and the quality of the articles it gives to its customers, who are to be found all over the country, is building up for it a standard reputation in its line of business.

In 1887 Mr. Green invented and patented the well known M. A. Green automatic high speed engine. In politics he is a re- publican. He is a member of Logan lodge, No. 490, Free and Accepted Masons ; Moun- tuin Chapter, No. 189, Royal Arch Masons;

Mountain Commandery, No. 10, Knights Templar; and Syria Temple of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. M. A. Green is a man of high standing and repute in com- mercial circles, and the immense business of the company is largely the outgrowth of his energetic efforts and excellent manage- ment.

G EN. DANIEL ROBERDEAU, whose

name will be forever associated with the revolutionary history of the present territory of Blair county, was a son of Isaac and Mary (Cunyngham ) Roberdeau, and was born in the island of St. Christopher, the West Indies, in 1727. Daniel Rober- deau came to Philadelphia, where he fol- lowed merchandising for some years, and was an early Mason with Franklin and Alexander Hamilton and others. He was a member of the assembly from 1756 to 1760, and in 1775 was elected colonel of the 2d battalion of Pennsylvania associators. He was chosen a member of the council of safety, and on July 4, 1776, was elected first brigadier-general of the Pennsylvania troops, and served during the remainder of that year under Washington in New Jersey. In February, 1777, he was elected as a member of the Continental Congress, to which he was twice re-elected, and served until 1779.

In April, 1778, there being a scarcity of lead in the army, General Roberdeau re- ceived leave of absence from Congress to work the lead mine in Sinking valley, this county, where he was obliged to erect a stockade fort as a protection against the Indians. He erected this fort, which was named Fort Roberdeau, at his own expense, and much valuable information concerning the fort and lead mine is to be found in Hazard's Register, and Force's American

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Archives. In 1783 General Roberdeau went to England, where he spent a year, and while traveling in his coach across Blackheath he was surrounded by a party of highwaymen. He seized the leader, threw him down in the bottom of the car- riage, and called on the coachman to drive on and fire right and left. He drove into London in this manner, with the robber's feet hanging out of the carriage, and de- livered him up to justice. After his return to the United States he resided at Alexan- dria, Virginia, until about 1794, when he removed to Winchester, that State, where his spirit took its flight from earth on Jan- mary 5, 1795.

General Roberdeau was a friend of George Whitefield, and an elder in the Presbyterian church. During the revolutionary war he owned a half interest in a privateer which captured a prize with $22,000 in silver, which he placed at the disposal of Congress.

He married, and his eldest son, Col. Isaac Roberdeau, was born in Philadelphia in 1763, and died in Georgetown, near Wash- ington, in 1829. He was assistant engineer in laying out Washington city. He served as an engineer in building canals in this State, and surveyed the boundary line be- tween the United States and Canada under the treaty of Ghent.

EORGE DIKE BLAIR, vice-presi- dent of the First National bank at Ty- rone, and prominently identified with the iron industry of Pennsylvania, is the eldest living son of Thomas S. and Virginia Hig- bea (Dike) Blair, and was born April 29, 1861, in the city of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Ifis great-great-grandfather was Captain Thomas Blair, a native of Scotland, who

came to America at a very early day in company with several brothers. Of these brothers, Thomas and William settled in Huntingdon (now Blair) county, while the others settled elsewhere in Pennsylvania. Prior to the revolutionary war Captain Blair was a resident of Path valley, and during that struggle he rendered great ser- vice in clearing the upper Juniata valley of Indians and tories, who were a source of much annoyance and-danger to the inhab- itants of those parts. After the close of the revolution he removed to what is now Blair county, settling at a point which soon be- came known as Blair's Gap, and which is in the present township of Frankstown. There Captain Blair, the patriot and soldier, passed the remainder of his life, dying September 10, 1808. He was a man of wonderful energy and good business sense, and as early as 1787 was numbered among the most prominent citizens of that section. He owned four hundred acres of land at Blair's Gap, and in 1794 was the proprietor of two saw mills, one grist mill, and two distil- leries, besides owning slaves, horses, cattle, and other property. Ile early succeeded in having a pack-horse road cut through the gap that bears his name, and being a man of influence and action, was accepted as a leader in every enterprise undertaken in his neighborhood. He married and had a family of children, one of whom was HIon. John Blair (great-grandfather), who was born at Blair's Gap, this county. He also was prominent and influential, his standing and popularity being such that Blair town- ship was named for him in 1839, and when Huntingdon county was divided, in 1846, the new county then formed was called Blair in his honor. For him also was named the town of Blairsville, in Indiana

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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY

county. He carly saw the need of his see- tion for better facilities of transportation, and became a leading spirit in the move- ment which culminated in the construction of the Pennsylvania canal and Portage rail- road. He was foremost in the agitation of that improvement, which did more for this section than all other agencies combined, and was equally active in furnishing capital to aid in its completion. All his active and useful life was passed among the people of this county, and in public-spirited efforts to build up and develop the various industrial. and commercial interests of this section. Ile died at the old homestead, near Blair's Gap, January 1, 1832.

Thomas Blair (grandfather) was born at Blair's Gap in 1798, and after obtaining a good English education, studied law, was admitted to the bar in Huntingdon county, where he practiced for a time, and then re- moved to Kittanning, Armstrong county. There he continued the practice of his pro- fession until his death, in 1837, at the early age of thirty-nine years. He married Flor- inda Cust, and to their union were born two sons: John Cust and Thomas S. (father). After the death of her husband Mrs. Blair, with her two children, removed to Pitts- burg. Thomas S. Blair ( father ) was born at Kittanning, Armstrong county, this State, November 20, 1825, but was reared princi- pally in the city of Pittsburg. He entered Harvard college, and was graduated from that institution in the class of 1844. He subsequently engaged in the iron business at Pittsburg, and is still prominently identi- fied with the iron and steel industry of that city. He was a member of the firm of Shoenberger, Blair & Co., and is a man who possesses considerable inventive genius. Ile has invented a number of improvements in

the various processes for the manufacture of iron, the most important perhaps being what is known as "Blair's direct process" for making iron. In 1847 Mr. Blair united in marriage with Virginia Dike, and the fruit of this union was a family of four chil- dren : John, deceased; George Dike, the subject of this sketch; Anna, who married Ross Johnston, now deceased, of the city of Pittsburg; and Thomas S., jr., who is a member of the Steel & Iron Improvement Company, of Pittsburg.

George Dike Blair was principally reared in the city of Pittsburg, and was prepared for college at St. Paul's school, Concord, New Hampshire. He subsequently attended the University of Heidelberg, Germany, for three years. In the spring of 1872 he went to the city of Chicago as secretary and treas- urer of the Excelsior Press Brick Manufac- turing Company, but in 1874 resigned and came back to Pittsburg as manager of the Glenwood works of the Blair Iron & Steel Company. In 1876 he went to Huntingdon furnace as manager of that property, and remained in charge there until April 1, 1891, when he removed to Tyrone, this county, where he still resides.

On August 21, 1880, Mr. Blair was united in marriage to Catherine Almeda Hender- son, a daughter of Robert L. Henderson, of Huntingdon county. This union has proved a very happy one, and has been blessed by the birth of three children : Virginia, John Cust, and George, jr.

Politically, Mr. Blair is a republican, but the many demands made upon him by large business interests leave neither time nor in- clination to engage in practical politics. In all his business relations he has been very successful, and is now serving as vice-presi- dent of the First National bank of Tyrone,

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president of the Adams Iron Company, of Pittsburg, in which city he is largely inter- ested in real estate, and rather as a matter of recreation than otherwise, owns, exer- cises, and breeds some fine trotting horses.

C ONRAD WEISER, one of the most noted agents of communication between the white men and the Indians, passed through the territory of Blair county in 1748. Ile was a native of Germany, who came to America in early life, and settled, with his father, in the present Schoharie county, New York, in 1713. They left En- gland in 1712, and were seventeen months on their voyage. Young Weiser became a great favorite with the Iroquois Indians in the Schoharie and Mohawk valleys, with whom he spent much of his life. Late in 1714, the elder Weiser, and about thirty other families, who had settled in Scho- harie, becoming dissatisfied with attempts to tax them, set out for Tulpehocken, in Pennsylvania, by way of the Susquehanna river, and settled there. But young Weiser was enamored of the free life of the savage. He was naturalized by them, and became thoroughly versed in the languages of the whole Six Nations, as the Iroquois con- federacy in New York was called. He became confidential interpreter and special messenger for the province of Pennsylvania among the Indians, and assisted in many important treaties. The governor of Vir- ginia commissioned him to visit the grand council at Onondaga, in 1737, and, with only a Dutchman and three Indians, he traversed the trackless forest for five hun- dred miles, for that purpose. IIe went on a similar mission from Philadelphia to Shamokin (Sunbury) in 1744. At Read-

ing he established an Indian agency and trading-house. When the French on the frontier made hostile demonstrations, in 1755, he was commissioned a colonel of a volunteer regiment from Berks county ; and, in 1758, he attended the great gather- ing of the Indian chiefs, in council with white commissioners, at Easton. Such was the affection of the Indians for Weiser, that for many years after his death they were in the habit of visiting his grave and strewing flowers thereon. Mr. Weiser's daughter married Henry Melchoir, D. D., the founder of the Lutheran church in America.

M ILES D. GRAY, who was a highly respected citizen and prosperous farmer of Tyrone township, was a son of John and Mary (Mattern ) Gray, and was born in Half Moon valley, Centre county, Pennsyl- vania, May 8, 1828. His paternal grand- father, John Gray, sr., was a native of Union county, and settled in Half Moon valley, Centre county, where he died. He was a farmer by occupation, a whig in politics, and a Methodist in religious belief and church membership. He married a Miss Hartsock and reared a family of ten chil- dren, five sons and five daughters. One of these sons was John Gray, the father of the subject of this sketch. He was born in Half Moon valley, where he grew to man- hood and lived until his death, in 1855. IIe was an extensive farmer for his day, and owned two good farms which were well stocked and in a high state of cultivation. In 1852 he erected a foundry, which he operated until his death. He was an active member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and a whig and republican in politics, and married Mary Mattern. Their children

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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY

were: George, now deceased; Samuel, a farmer of Half Moon valley ; John, a mer- chant of Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania ; Miles D. (dead); Isaac (dead) ; Mrs. Catherine Love (dead); Mrs. Mary Thompson (dead) ; Mrs. Elizabeth Ebbs; Mrs. Margaret Hutch- inson, of Warrior's Mark ; and Harriet Dale, of Harrisburg.

Miles D. Gray was reared in Half Moon. valley on a farm, and received his education in the subscription and the early free schools of his native township. He followed farm- ing for a few years, and in 1855 he and his brother Samuel succeeded their father, at his death, in possession of his foundry, which they operated for three years under the firm name of Gray Brothers. . At the end of that time, in 1858, they traded the foundry for a farm in Centre county, which land is still in possession of the Gray family. In the spring of 1879 Mr. Gray removed to Sinking valley, where he followed farming until his death, in 1884. He was a republi- can in politics, had served in Patton town- ship, Centre county, as a school director, and had been a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal church for many years.

On April 24, 1855, he married Anna E. Wilson, and to their union were born six children, four sons and two daughters; Charles W., married Emma Ray, and is a member of the mercantile firm of Reed & Gray, of Tyrone, this State; Harvey M., married Addie McFerren, and is a merchant and dealer in agricultural implements ; Samuel, who died in infancy; Anna M., at home; Bertha M., wife of Melville Lever, a clerk in the railroad freight department at Tyrone; and Budd, a student of the State Agricultural college in Centre county. Mrs. Gray, after her husband's death, came to Tyrone, where she has resided ever since.

She was born August 3, 1834, and is a daughter of James Wilson (see sketch of James HI. Wilson for full ancestral history), who was born May 9, 1784, in Adams county ; came to Sinking valley in 1807, and died January 1, 1851. He married Martha Cresswell, a daughter of Matthew and Sarah (Leonard ) Cresswell, who came from Stone valley, Huntingdon county, to Sinking valley, where they reared a family of eight children. James and Martha (Cresswell) Wilson were the parents of four sons and four daughters : Mrs. Harriet Ward; Charles S. (deceased ) ; Matthew C., now dead; Mrs. Minerva Covode ; James H. (see his sketch); Smith, of Hutchinson, Kansas; Mrs. Anna E. Gray; and Mrs. Sarah M. Hommer.

Miles D. Gray died at his home in Sink- ing valley, January 23, 1884, and his re- mains are interred in Tyrone cemetery. IIe was much missed in a community where he was highly respected as a citizen, and often sought by his friends for advice and counsel. He was faithful and true as a friend, and kind and affectionate as a husband and a father.

REV. BENJAMIN B. HAMLIN, A. M., D. D., now presiding elder of the Altoona district of the Methodist Episco- pal church, and who has served faithfully through sunshine and storm in the vineyard of his Divine Master for nearly half a cen- tury, is a son of John and Rachel ( Baird) Hamlin, and was born at Kinzua, in Kinzua township, Warren county, Pennsylvania, August 28, 1823. Ilis paternal grand- father, Rice Hamlin, resided for many years on Pine creek, in Lycoming county, and then removed to Lock Ilaven, Clinton county, where he died near the close of the

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eighteenth century. He was a lumberman, and married Elizabeth Wanzor, who lived to see her ninety-sixth birthday, which ripe old age only exceeded her mother's life- span by one year. To Rice and Elizabeth Hamlin were born, in their home near the Susquehanna river, nine children, five sons and four daughters: Jacob, Comfort, Rice, James, John, Mrs. Polly English, Mrs. Susan Le Bre, Mrs. Joanna Morrison, and Mrs. Sarah Campbell. The five sons were all remarkable men for heighth and fine physique. They were all consistent mem- bers of the Methodist Episcopal church. They all removed, about the year 1820, to Warren county, Pennsylvania, and most of their descendants are scattered over various parts of the west. John Hamlin, one of these sons, and the father of Doctor Hamlin, was born near Lock Haven, in 1795. After his marriage, he and two of his brothers-in- law went to what is now Warren county, where they purchased a large tract of land, and founded the present flourishing village of Kinzua. They built a saw mill and a grist mill, and were engaged ex- tensively in lumbering for twenty years. At the end of that time John Hamlin returned to Lock Haven, where he was engaged for some years in the manufacture · of grain cradles. Ile died in 1876, when in the eighty-first year of his age, and left behind him the record of a busy, useful, and upright life. He was successively a dem- ocrat, whig, and republican in politics, and served acceptably for many years as a justice of the peace. He was a steward, trustee, and class leader of the Methodist Episcopal church, in which he was an active and efficient worker. He was perfectly honest and faithful to every trust reposed in him. . In 1821 he married Rachel Baird. They

reared a family of five children, four sons. and one daughter: Rice; Rev. Benjamin B .; James, a prominent lawyer of Lewis- burg, and district attorney of Union county when he died, at the early age of thirty-two years; Rev. William, who served during the late civil war as a soldier in a Pennsyl- vania company, and is now a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church, and a member of the Central Pennsylvania con- ference; Fletcher, now dead; and Frances, the wife of William Gilday, and a resident of Williamsport, this State, who is an author and lecturer, and in addition to her pub- lished poem, Jockabed's Trust, and a re- ligious volume, entitled Service and Re- ward, is now writing a work on Christian Science. Mrs. Rachel (Baird ) Hamlin, who died in 1863, aged sixty-three years, was a daughter of Benjamin Baird, an early settler of the West Branch, on which he owned a large tract of land. IIe married Frances, a member of the Siggons family, which came from the north of Ireland, and a sister to Judge II. Siggons, of Broken Straw, Penn- sylvania. She was familiarly known as Aunt Fanny Baird. She was a woman of great strength of mind and force of char- acter, and was regarded as the founder of Methodism on the West Branch of the Susquehanna. Benjamin Baird, after his marriage to Frances Siggons, who was ac- quainted with General Washington, con- tinued to reside on the West Branch until his death. They reared a family of six children : Benjamin ; Rev. William, for some years editor of the organ of the Methodist Church South, in Baltimore; Mrs. Rachel Hamlin (mother); Mary ; Mrs. Fanny Else; and Mrs. Lydia Gifford.

Benjamin B. Hamlin was reared at Kin- zua, and received his early education in

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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY

that village. At seventeen years of age he entered Mifflinburg academy, Union county, Pennsylvania, which he attended for a short time, and after that obtained a very good education by self study and close and care- ful reading. He united with the Methodist Episcopal church at an early age, and later was licensed to preach. In the spring of 1848 he became a member of the Baltimore conference, and served successively the fol- lowing charges: Milton, Lewisburg, Ber- wick, Williamsport, Liberty Valley, Lewis- burg Station, High street and Strawbridge, in Baltimore city. Upon the expiration of his pastorate in Baltimore, he became pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church in Dan- ville, Pennsylvania. In March, 1862, he was appointed presiding elder of the Bellefonte district, which then included nearly all of Lycoming and Elk, and a part of Tioga, Clinton, Centre, Clearfield, and Huntingdon counties. In March, 1866, he was appointed pastor of Mulberry Street church, of Wil- liamsport, and three years later became presiding elder of the Juniata district. In 1873 he was stationed at Chambersburg, from 1874 to 1878 was presiding elder of the Harrisburg district, and then served as pastor of the First Methodist church of Altoona until 1881. During the next three years he served Ridge Avenue church, of Harrisburg, and then was pastor of the Carlisle Methodist Episcopal church until 1887. In that year he was stationed at Everett, in Bedford county, and in 1889 was appointed as presiding elder of the Altoona district, which position he still occupies.

On October 18, 1852, Doctor Hamlin married Rebecca B. Manley, in Stanton, Virginia. She was born near Plymouth, Massachusetts, and of Puritan ancestry.

They have three children, one son and two daughters : Benjamin B., who married Ce- celia Whiteman, of Philadelphia, and is engaged in the drug business in Harrisburg ; Mary, wife of George H. Ashman, a dental surgeon and active business man of Philips- burg, this State; and Anna B., at home with her parents.

Doctor Hamlin is a man of fine physique, standing fully six feet in height, and carry- ing well the weight of his nearly three-score and ten years. He is a close observer of men, has been a diligent student for over fifty years, and is well read upon all the important movements in the religious, the literary, and the scientific world. He is a man of pleasant address, a logical reasoner, and an entertaining and impressive speaker, who fearlessly denounces vice, folly and in- justice. Doctor Hamlin served as a member of the general conference of his church in 1864, in 1872, and in 1876, and has just been elected to serve as a member of the general conference of the Methodist Episco- pal church of the United States, which will meet this year in the city of Omaha, Ne- braska.

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Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Blair County, Pennsylvania, Part 17

Author: Wiley, Samuel T., editor. cn Publication date: 1892 Publisher: Philadelphia, Gresham Number of Pages: 1160

Author: Wiley, Samuel T., editor. cn
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: Philadelphia, Gresham
Number of Pages: 1160