USA > Pennsylvania > Blair County > Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Blair County, Pennsylvania > Part 21
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On September 10, 1872, Mr. Alexander united in marriage with Katie F. Martin, daughter of B. B. Martin, of Lancaster city, Pennsylvania. They have two chil- dren, a son and a daughter: Ralph V. and Lilian M.
Milton Alexander has been interested in other matters than those which pertain to his profession. In the municipal affairs and the city government of Altoona he has taken an active part, and served as city and county solicitor from 1874 to 1876. Ile has been identified with the Altoona building associations since their organization, and has drafted every form which these organi-
zations have found necessary to use, from their inception down to the present time. IIe is a stanch republican, has always worked for the success of his party, and in religious sentiment inclines to the faith of the Pres- byterian church, of which he is a regular attendant and contributor. He is a member of Logan Lodge, No. 490, Free and Ac- cepted Masons, of which he was the first entered apprentice. He is also a member of the Order of Sons of America, and has served as State treasurer and State presi- dent of that organization for the State of Pennsylvania. As a lawyer he studies his cases closely, and then tries them for all there is in them. Genial and pleasant as a man, active and useful as a citizen, and careful and safe as a counsellor, Milton Alexander has become well known and prominent in Altoona and Blair county.
p ATRICK FLYNN, a well known lun- ber dealer of Tyrone, and who effected the largest sale of lumber ever made in the State of Pennsylvania, is a son of Captain John and Avesia ( Kingston) Flynn, and was born at Miramichi, in the province of New Brunswick, Dominion of Canada, January 1, 1833. ITis paternal grandfather, John Flynn, was a native and life long resident of Ireland, where he followed his profession of civil engineer for many years. His son, Captain John Flynn (father), was born in county Roscommon, near Dublin, Ireland, in the first year of the present century. At twenty-five years of age he emigrated from Ireland to New Brunswick, where he re- mained until 1855, when he removed to Lock Haven, this State, and from that city went in 1874 to Smith's Mills, Clearfield county, at which place he died in 1876, aged
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seventy-six years. His principal business in life was that of lumbering, and at different times after coming to America he shipped large quantities of choice and selected lum- ber to England and Ireland, where it was required for special purposes. In addition to lumbering he was engaged to some extent in farming, in which he met with good suc- cess. He was an old time democrat in poli- ties, who never believed in half-way meas- ures in political campaigns. He was active in militia affairs for several years, during which time he held the commission of cap- tain and commanded a militia company in which he took great pride. IIe was a con- sistent member of the Catholic church, and married Avesia Kingston, by whom he had a family of thirteen children : Edward T., now dead; Patrick; Francis (deceased) ; Anthony, a lumberman, and now residing on the old homestead at Smith's Mills; Paul G., who is engaged in lumbering in West Virginia; John, who is likewise in the lum- ber business in West Virginia ; Hon. James, a heavy lumber dealer of Altoona, who rep- resented Clearfield county in the house of representatives during the sessions of 1881 and 1882; Augustus, who died in May, 1888; Daniel, a resident and lumberman of West Virginia-the New Dominion; Margaret, widow of Daniel Chaplin; Lydia, widow of Edward Flanders, who was a lumberman, and was killed in 1891 by a log falling on him; Avesia, married George W. Chaplin, who is engaged in lumbering, and they re- side in Clearfield county ; and Madge Mar- ·cella, who married Levi P. Smith, of Chip- pewa, Wisconsin, where they reside, and where Mr. Smith is superintendent of a log scaling.
Patrick Flynn was reared in the British province of New Brunswick, where he re-
ceived his education and resided until he was twenty-two years of age, when he ac- companied his father to Lock Haven, this State. He removed in 1858 to Clearfield county, where he engaged extensively and with good success in the lumbering business, and while residing in that county he effected one sale of lumber amounting to five hun- dred and fifty thousand dollars, which was the largest private lumber sale ever made in the State of Pennsylvania. After follow- ing the lumber business in Clearfield county for eighteen years, he came, in 1876, to Ty- rone, where he soon established lumber yards and has handled lumber in large quan- tities ever since.
Patrick Flynn has been twice married. His first wife, Roberta J., daughter of Allen Sturdevant, he married in August, 1865, and she died on July 4, 1876, and left three children : John P .; Mary E., now dead ; and Roberta E. On August 7, 1879, he was united in marriage with Clara A. Sneer- inger, daughter of Pius Sneeringer, one of the most successful business men and highly respected citizens of Tyrone, and whose sketch appears elsewhere in this volume.
Patrick Flynn is an unswerving democrat in politics, and a member of St. Matthew's Catholic church of Tyrone. IIe commenced his busy life with nerve, will, and persever- ing industry, and, confident of success, he entered into the lumbering business of cen- tral Pennsylvania. His efforts in his chosen field soon placed him in command of a busi- ness that daily increased until it has reached its present extensive proportions. Ile is a man who is faithful to every business duty, and his efficiency for strong work, good judgment in determining upon new enter- prises, and fertility in resources, are recog- nized by all who know him.
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Eng.by J.R.Rice & Sons, Phili
William L. Horback
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OF BLAIR COUNTY.
W ILLIAM L. WOODCOCK, one of the
leading members of the Blair county bar in active practice, and the founder of the widely celebrated and highly successful Seventh Ward Mission Sunday-school of the city of Altoona, is a son of John and Sarah ( Alexander ) Woodcock, and was born in Wells valley, Fulton county, Pennsyl- vania, October 20, 1844. In the annals of Lancashire, England, the Woodcock family can be traced back for over three centuries as resident of that early settled and important civil division of the English empire. Two of his ancestors are gentlemen living near London. One of its members was Isaac Woodcock, the paternal grandfather of William L. Woodcock, who left Lancashire in 1764 and sought for a home in the then newly established American republic. He settled in Wilmington, Delaware, where he , resided for fifteen years, and then crossed . the mountains into Bedford county, which was but thinly settled and scarcely re- covered from Indian raids and devastations made prior to the battle of Fallen Timbers, where Mad Anthony Wayne broke forever the Indian power in the Ohio valley. He was a silversmith and jeweler by trade, and the subject of this sketch now has several well-finished and nicely-worked spoons which he made out of a few silver dollars, given him by his son, John Woodcock, when he was seventy-five years of age. He died in Fulton county in 1849, at the advanced age of eighty-four years. He married, and his son, John Woodcock (father), was born in Wilmington in the initial year of the present century. At five years of age he was taken by his father to Bedford county, where he grew to manhood and resided until he was about thirty years of age, when he removed to Wells valley, where
he lived for thirty-five years. Afterware he removed to Altoona, where he died in 1874, aged seventy-four years. He was a farmer and tanner, and owned and operated a tannery for several years near his Fulton county home. He was a steward and class- leader in the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he had been a member for over half a century. He was a republican in politics, and had held the offices of school director and justice of the peace. He was not only a man of prominence, but also a man of usefulness in his community and township, where he stood deservedly high in the es- timation of his neighbors and fellow citi- zens. He married Sarah Alexander, a native of Fulton county, and a member of the Presbyterian church, who died in 1850, at the early age of thirty-five years.
William L. Woodcock spent his boyhood days on the farm in Wells valley. He re- ceived his education in the common schools, Martinsburg academy, and Allegheny col- lege, of Meadville, Pennsylvania. Leaving school, he read law with his brother, Samuel N. Woodcock, a very successful lawyer of Altoona, who died February 10, 1890, when in the fifty-fourth year of his age. While reading law he was principal, for one term, of the Phillipsburg High school, of Centre county, and after the completion of his re- quired course, he was admitted to the bar of Blair county on October 27, 1865. Shortly after his admission he returned to Altoona, where he has been engaged ever since in the active and successful practice of his profession. He is one of the leading and most successful lawyers in Altoona and in the county. Aside from his legal prac- tice, Mr. Woodcock has interested himself to some extent in the development of the material resources of the county. He has
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leased several coal mines in the Allegheny mountains, where his work, when fully in operation, will yield such products as will form an important part of the future coal business of Blair county.
In politics Mr. Woodcock is a republican of pronounced views, but he has never been an active politician. He is patriotic, and his patriotism was fully attested by his course of action in 1861, when he enlisted, for three years, as a private in Co. F, 77th Pennsylvania infantry. He was transferred to the signal corps, in which he was pro- moted to lieutenant, and served thirteen months, at the end of which time he was discharged on account of ill health. In addition to his operations in coal he has in- vested largely in real estate in Altoona. He is the owner of the Arcade building, on Eleventh avenue, which is one of the largest and finest brick buildings in the city, and also has quite a number of desirable houses and choice building lots. He is a thought- ful and intelligent business man, and be- lieves in the adage, Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well. Good judgment and clear foresight have enabled him to deal in real estate with excellent result, while in other lines of business he has invested judiciously and with profit. Ifis success in life and the wealth he has acquired have been the result of his own unaided efforts, as he commenced in the world with no capital but ability, honesty and energy.
William L. Woodcock is a member of the First Methodist Episcopal church of Al- toona, in which he has served as a trustee and steward for twenty years. Ile also served acceptably as superintendent of the Sunday-school of that church for five years. He has always been interested in the up-
building and support of all institutions in the city whose influence is for the moral or religious benefit of his fellow citizens. Two years ago he erected a hall in the seventh ward, which he named Belmore hall, and in which he opened a mission school, which, through his earnest and persistent efforts, has grown from fifteen to two hundred and fifty pupils. The influence brought to bear through this mission school upon its pupils and the community in which it is situated, has led to the establishment of a church and a wider diffusion of the principles of Christianity in that part of the city. With only hope of good, Mr. Woodcock was moved to enter upon this mission enter- prise, whose highly desirable results have probably far exceeded his expectations when he planned his hall and school. Shafts of marble, columns of brass, or arches of stone are raised in honor of men, and to commemorate their actions or record their virtues, but there are those who, in life, build their own monuments of fortune and reputation, and the Belmore Hall Sunday- school will be an enduring monument to the generous humanity and Christian charity of William Lee Woodcock.
RICHARD ROELOFS, railroad sta- tion agent and yard master at HIolli- daysburg, and a descendant of one of the old and substantial merchant families of Holland, is the eldest son of Richard, sr., and Catherine (Bley) Roelofs, and was born January 16, 1830, in the great com- mercial and manufacturing city of Amster- dam, Holland, the commercial metropolis of the Netherlands kingdom. Ilis paternal grandfather, William Roelofs, was a native of Amsterdam, and lived, during the latter
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part of the eighteenth century, in Holland, when that republic was one of the most powerful states of Europe and the sails of its merchant ships whitened every sea of the known world. William Roelofs was a merchant, owned several ships, and was en- gaged for many years in the East Indian tea trade. He married Gertrude Van Hall, by whom he had five children, four sons and one daughter: Gertrude, Otto, Jacob, Augustus, and Richard, sr. Of these chil- dren one, Richard, sr., came to America. Richard Roelofs, sr. (father), was born in the city of Amsterdam in 1802, entered the famous university of Leyden, from which he graduated with honors, and then was engaged in shipping tea for several years, during which time he made two voy- ages around the world. In 1836 he came to Bellefonte, Centre county, Pennsylvania, where he was in the mercantile business until 1840, when he removed to Lewistown, Mifflin county, and from thence to MeVey- town, same county, where he acted as rail- "road station agent up to the time of his death, which occurred January 12, 1860. Ile was an active business man, a strict member of the Dutch Reformed church, and married Catherine Bley, daughter of Johann Bley, of Holland. To their union were born five children, four sons and one daughter: Richard; Catherine, of Phila- delphia; Anthony, engaged in the queens- ware trade in Philadelphia; John, in the railroad business in that city ; and William, also in the queensware trade in Philadel- phia.
Richard Roelofs was brought, at six years of age, by his parents to Bellefonte, re- ceived his education at the Lewistown acad- emy, and then engaged in agricultural pur- snits, which he followed until 1851. In that
year he entered the service of the Pennsyl- vania Railroad Company, with whom he has been ever since, except a few years, during which he acted as manager of the Hollidaysburg and Gap Iron furnace at Mc- Kee's Gap. He is now station agent and yard master of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company at Hollidaysburg.
On September 28, 1848, Mr. Roelofs mar- ried Catherine Houser, who was a daughter of Jacob Houser, of Mifflin county, and who died in Hollidaysburg, February 19, 1885. They had eleven children, eight sons and three daughters: Henry, Samuel, An- thony, Annie, died February, 1858; Wil- liam, died October 3, 1859; Richard; Maud, who died November 26, 1866 ; John, Arthur, Landes, and Bertha. Mr. Roelofs was re- married on October 20, 1887, to Lavinia E. Moorehouse, daughter of James Moore- house, one of the first settlers of Hollidays- burg, he having come there in 1838.
In politics Richard Roelofs was a whig until that political organization went down in 1852, before the weight of the public opinion of that day, and since then has been a supporter of the Republican party. He is a member of Juniata Lodge, No. 282, Free and Accepted Masons, and Mt. Moriah Chapter, No. 166, Royal Arch Masons. Mr. Roelofs is in every way experienced in every department over which he has the supervision, and has been long recognized as a careful, accurate and thorough busi- ness man.
JOHN CLARK, cashier of the Williams-
burg bank, and one of the foremost prohibition leaders of Pennsylvania, is a son of John, sr., and Eliza ( Thompson ) Clark, and was born in Canoe valley, in Catharine township, Blair county, Pennsylvania, De-
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
cember 13, 1833. His paternal grandfather, James Clark, was of Scotch-Irish descent, served in the revolutionary war, and was wounded at the battle of Brandywine. He died in 1841, at eighty-five years of age, and left eight children, four sons and four daugh- ters. His son, John Clark, sr. (father), was born in Franklin township, Huntingdon county, December 15, 1789, learned the trade of tanner, and operated a tannery at Birmingham, Pennsylvania, until 1828, when he removed to Morris township, that county, where he bought a farm, on which he resided till his death, October 28, 1863, in his seventy-fifth year. He was a pros- perous business man and a useful citizen. He married Catherine Whitzel, and after her death wedded Eliza Thompson, by whom he had one son and two daughters: Robert, who died in infancy; Mary Jane, inter- married with W. D. Reed, and died in Abilene, Kansas, February 5, 1887; and Isabella, married to James F. Kennedy, and died near Abilene, Kansas, March 28, 1878. Eliza (Thompson) Clark, who died June 2, 1866, aged sixty-six years, was a daugh- ter of George Thompson, of Scotch-Irish descent, who was an early settler of the Spruce creek region, where he died in 1840, at eighty years of age.
John Clark received his education in the common schools and Williamsburg academy, and followed farming and stock-raising until 1873, when he accepted his present position as cashier of the Williamsburg bank, which was established in 1873. This institution was chartered to meet an urgent demand for increased facilities for the safe deposit of the savings of the people of Williams- burg and the eastern part of the county, and for the better development of the business interests of that section. The affairs of the
bank are conducted in a safe and methodical manner, and much of its present prosperity is due to the vigilant and untiring efforts of Mr. Clark, whose ripe experience, superior executive ability and honorable policy have inspired confidence in its patrons, and won the respect of the public.
On May 27, 1858, Mr. Clark married Mary J. Sisler, who was a daughter of Peter and Jane Sisler, of Catharine town- ship, and . died May 6, 1873. After her death, he was united in marriage with Hen- rietta Kurtz. By his first marriage he has six children, four sons and two daughters : Edgar Thompson, who married Lucretia Moore, of Scotch valley, and is now engaged in the milling business at Williamsburg; Anna J., wife of C. T. Witherow, now em- ployed as a clerk in the office of the motive power department of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company at Altoona; John Grier, a mute, educated in Philadelphia, and now managing his father's farm; Charles II., assistant cashier of the First National bank of Tyrone; Dean, assistant cashier of the Williamsburg bank; and Ida, at home.
In addition to the discharge of his duties as cashier of the Williamsburg bank, Mr. Clark gives a portion of his time to the management of his excellent farm of two hundred and fifty acres of land, and owns a part of the large limestone quarries at Carline, about four miles below Williamsburg, where are employed about two hundred men. Ile also owns a valuable ore bank, and has a beautiful home and some very desirable property at Williamsburg. He is an elder in the Presbyterian church, of which the Clark family has been active and useful members for the last two centuries. John Clark was a republican in politics until about 1880, when he identified himself with
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OF BLAIR COUNTY.
the cause of prohibition, and since then has been one of the most earnest and successful advocates, in Pennsylvania, of total absti- nence from intoxicating beverages. ITis worth, his ability, and his great capacity for work have been acknowledged by his party, who have nominated him at different times for every State office in Pennsylvania, except that of governor. He has held various public offices, where he has always served with efficiency and honor. He served as a school director for twenty consecutive years in his native township, and was one of the commissioners who erected the present substantial and handsome court-house. A descendant of a family proverbial for its morality, integrity and temperance, he en- joys the proud distinction - possessed by so few-of having never tasted a drop of any intoxicating beverage, never played a game of cards, nor has he used tobacco in any form for the past twenty-five years. An earnest friend of popular education, an un- tiring antagonist of intemperance and vice, and a successful business man, and able financier, John Clark has so far filled up the measure of his active life with useful work that will ever redound to his credit and honor; and when-as he believes-State and National prohibition of the liquor traffic shall prevail all over our beloved land; when a "school-house shall be on every hill-top, with no saloon in the valley;" and when this curse of curses shall have been driven from our land, let it be said of him, "He was in the fight, if not at the victory."
ABSALOM OSMAN, stationary engi- neer at the railroad machine shops of Bellwood, and one of the survivors of the old Thirteenth Pennsylvania cavalry, that
achieved an enviable war record under Grant and Sheridan, is a son of George and Leah (Straw ) Osman, and was born at Mil- heim, in Penn township, Centre county, Pennsylvania, October 18, 1832. George Osman was born in Mauch Chunk, Schuyl- kill county, learned the trade of tailor, and removed to Penn township, Centre county, where he died in 1836. He was an old- line whig, and a zealous member of the Evangelical Association or Albright Metho- dist church, and married Leah Straw, by whom he had four children, two sons and two daughters: Emeline, widow of Lewis Copeman and a resident of Green county, Wisconsin; Hugh, a shoemaker of Clear- field county ; Absalom; and Susanna, now dead. Mrs. Osman, who died in 1871, aged seventy-three years, was a daughter of John Straw, a Jacksonian democrat and an early German settler of Penn valley, who was a carpenter by trade, and lived to the ripe old age of ninety-four years.
Absalom Osman passed his boyhood days in Centre county, where he enjoyed but limited opportunities to secure an education in the early common schools. At seven- teen years of age he learned the trade of blacksmith, which he followed for four years and then became a brakeman on the old Portage railroad, which he left two years later to become engaged on the pres- ent Pennsylvania railroad, where he served for one year. He next worked for a short time in the car shops at Altoona, then spent two years in the west and returned to Penn- sylvania, where he worked for one year for the Keystone Bridge Company of Pitts- burg. At the end of that time he returned to Altoona and worked in the car shops until September, 1863, when he enlisted in Co. D, 13th Pennsylvania cavalry, and served
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until August of 1865. He participated in some of the hardest battles from the Wilder- ness to the siege of Richmond, was in Sheri- dan's raid in the Shenandoah valley, and after the fall of Ft. Fisher his regiment was transferred to Wilmington, North Caro- lina, and aided in opening communication between General Terry and General Sher- man's army. He was mustered out at Ra- leigh, North Carolina, discharged at Phila- delphia, and returned to Blair county, where he worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company as a stone mason on the construc- tion of the Bell's Gap railroad, and then as a blacksmith in their shops at Lloydsville and Altoona until 1883. In that year he came to Bellwood, where he accepted his present position as stationary engineer at the machine shops at Bellwood, for the Bell's Gap, now Pennsylvania & Northwest- ern, Railroad.
In 1857, Absalom Osman married Eliza- beth Myers, a native of Millerstown, Ju- niata county, and a daughter of Abraham Myers, who was born in 1813, and is now a resident of Fostoria, this county. To Mr. and Mrs. Osman have been born eight children : Catherine, wife of Laurence Wilson; Bella, born in 1863 and died in 1880; Lydia, wife of Martin Glozier, a car- penter of Bellwood; Harry, a machinist in the employ of the Pennsylvania & North- western Railroad Company ; Theodore, George, Mollie, and Jennie.
Absalom Osman is a republican in poli- tics, and served two years as a school direc- tor of his borough. He is a member of Sanford Beyer Post, No. 426, Grand Army of the Republic; Castle No. 128, Knights of the Golden Eagle; Bellwood Lodge, No. 819, and Rebecca Degree Lodge, No. 232, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Mr. |
Osman has practical experience in his line of work on railways, and is a man of indus- try and energy.
JUSTIN V. PRICE, a reliable con- tractor and builder of the city of Altoona, is a son of Levi and Catherine (Stains) Price, and was born at Rockhill, Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania, February 8, 1853. The Price family is of Scotch descent. Levi Price (father) was born in 1826, in Huntingdon county, and removed in early life to Bedford county, where he remained until 1864. In that year he came to Williamsburg, where he resided until 1872, when he removed to his present resi- dence in Altoona. IIe is a carpenter by trade, and followed carpentering until a few years ago, when he retired from active life. In 1861 he enlisted in Co. E, 20th Pennsyl- vania cavalry, and served until the close of the war. He was wounded in the left shoulder at the battle of Springfield, and still feels the effects of exposure while in the service. He is a member of Stephen A. Potts Post, No. 62, Grand Army of the Republic, and the Third Methodist Episco- pal church of Altoona, which was organized in 1872. He married Catherine Stains, who was born in Huntingdon county, in 1833, and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.
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