USA > Pennsylvania > Blair County > Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Blair County, Pennsylvania > Part 27
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John Watkins (father) was born at the old homestead near Warren, New Hamp- shire, crossed the continent in 1856, and located in California, where he died July 1, 1867. He was a farmer in New Hamp- shire, but devoted his attention to fruit growing in California. IIe was a whig in politics, and married Elizabeth Pattee, by whom he had a family of eight children : Sarah, married Rev. Stillman Border, a Universalist minister and geologist, who died at Rockford, Massachusetts; Aura, died at Manchester, New Hampshire; Charles, deceased; John HI., also dead; Malinda, married David Hall, of Manchester, New Hampshire, and is now dead; Keziah, mar- ried K. T. Emery, deceased, a merchant of Concord, New Hampshire; Mary, who be- came the wife of George W. Clark, of Phil-
adelphia; and Daniel Pattee, the subject of this sketch.
Daniel Pattee Ray was reared principally in the State of New Hampshire, and received a good common school education in the New England public schools. In the spring of 1844 he removed to the city of Philadel- phia, where he engaged in the manufacture of leather belting. He conducted this busi- ness successfully until 1871, and during part of this time did an immense trade, operating a tannery at Altoona, this county, in connection with his belting business in Philadelphia. In 1871 he disposed of his in- terests in the latter city and removed to Ty- rone, this county, where he continued to re- side until his death, in March, 1881. After coming to Tyrone he erected a large plant, now known as the Bald Eagle tannery, and engaged in the tanning business exclusively. In 1873 this plant was destroyed by fire, but subsequently rebuilt by Mr. Ray. He con- tinued to operate it until his death, when his two sons, John K. and Daniel P. Ray, assumed control of the business. The Bald Eagle tannery has a capacity of one hun- dred and seventy-five hides per day, and runs three hundred days a year, manufactur- ing the celebrated brand of " Union" sole leather, both oak and hemlock tanned. It employs about forty men the year round, and turns out a superior article of leather, known in nearly every part of this country.
In politics Mr. Ray was a republican, as are his sons, and during his residence in Philadelphia served in the common council of that city, being appointed on a number of important committees. He served as chairman of the committee appointed to receive General Sheridan on the occasion of his visit to Philadelphia. After coming to Tyrone, he served that borough as burgess
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OF BLAIR COUNTY.
and school director, and was a member of the Masonic order.
On August 1, 1852, Mr. Ray was united by marriage to Anna M. Keim, a daughter of John and Emily (Carr) Keim, of the city of Philadelphia, who still survives him and resides in a beautiful and comfortable home in Tyrone. To Mr. and Mrs. Ray was born a family of four children, two sons and two daughters: John K., born Septem- ber 28, 1853, married Mariah M. Cadwala- der, and resides at Tyrone, where he is connected with the Bald Eagle tannery ; Daniel P., born October 7, 1854, wedded first to Clara Cadwalader, who died July 4, 1886, after which he married Anna M. Piper, of Hollidaysburg, and in connection with his brother operates the tannery at Tyrone; Catherine E., now the wife of John W. Home, a book-keeper at Tyrone; and Emily, who married Charles N. Gray, a merchant of Tyrone.
WILLIAM M. BEYER, now a resi- dent of Altoona, and a member of the Blair county bar, is the youngest son of Aaron and Lydia (Ramey) Beyer, and was born in Antis township, Blair county, March 5, 1854. His paternal great-grand- parents came from Germany and settled near Frederick Town, Maryland, where their son, Rev. David Beyer (grandfather), was born September 7, 1763. Rev. David Beyer was left at an early age, by the death of his parents, to do for himself. He learned the trade of miller, and so well understood milling that his flour, when sold in Baltimore, always brought the highest price. IIe located in Tyrone township about 1797, and built a brick house and saw and grist mill. In 1833 he sold this prop-
erty and removed to Antis township, where he purchased land and erected the old Beyer flouring mill. He united with the Methodist Episcopal church in 1809, was afterward licensed as a minister, and preached for many years without pay or recompense. He died December 1, 1841, and left nearly one hundred descendants. He married Sarah Crumm, of Maryland, and reared a family of thirteen children, of whom Abraham, David, Aaron, and John remained in this State, while three daugh- ters married and settled near Akron, Ohio, and the remainder of the sons and daugh- ters settled in other States. Aaron Beyer (father), the youngest son, was born August 23, 1811, and died in 1887, aged seventy- six years. He learned the trade of miller, which he followed at Union Furnace and for Henry Spang and his father until 1833, when he removed to Tuckahoe valley, in Antis township, where he built and oper- ated the present Beyer mill, and was also engaged in merchandising. He was always a stanch supporter of the Republican party. He was a member, trustee, and class leader of the Methodist Episcopal church for half a century. His life was devoted to useful work, and the moral and religious improve- ment of his community. On January 12, 1831, he married Lydia Ramey, a daughter of Frederick and Martha ( Keller) Ramey, and who was born March 4, 1811. To their union was born thirteen children : Francis D., who is a leading lumber manu- facturer of Tyrone; Elizabeth J .; Martha A .; Rev. James S., who served three years in the Union army, and since then has been engaged in the Christian ministry ; Cath- erine B .; Angeline; Emeline; Mary A .; Sanford D., who enlisted in Co. B, 110th Pennsylvania infantry, and was killed
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
March 25, 1865, in front of Petersburg; A. W .; Sarah B .; Lydia R .; and William M.
William M. Beyer was reared in Antis township, and received his early education at the public schools, afterward graduating at Allegheny college, Meadville, Pennsyl- vania, with the degree of A. M. He read law with Hon. Samuel Steel Blair, of Hol- lidaysburg, was admitted to the bar in 1881, and since then has been engaged in the practice of his profession in the city of Al- toona. Mr. Beyer has dealt largely in real estate for several years, and at the present time is actively engaged in that line of business. He is a republican, but takes no active part in politics, and gives his time to his profession and the real estate business.
On July 24, 1884, Mr. Beyer was united in marriage with Effie V. Mong, of Mead- ville, Crawford county. Their union has been blessed with one child, a daughter, named Bernice L.
The Beyer family was prominently iden- tified with the pioneer interests and the early development of the northwestern part of Blair county, while many of its descend- 'ants have been among the representative citizens and business men of that section from pioneer days down to the present time, and its devotion and loyalty to the Union has been attested by the number of its son's who served in the Federal armies during the late great civil war, in which five of them gave their lives as sacrifices that their country might live as an undi- vided nation.
A LBERT S. HEESS, the well known and popular Altoona baker, whose goods are now used all over western Penn- sylvania, is a man who has won success in
life by steadily applied effort and that de- termined will power which knows no such word as defeat. Ile is a son of David L. and Catherine ( Hasse ) Heess, and was born August 23, 1837, in the kingdom of Wur- temberg, in the southwestern part of the German empire. The family has been res- idents of that country for unknown genera- tions. There the father of the subject of this sketch was born and reared, and there he died, in 1848, at the advanced age of sixty-two years. He was a blacksmith by occupation, and a devout member of the German Lutheran church. He married Catherine Hasse, by whom he had a family of children. She was a native of Wurtem- berg, a member of the Lutheran church, and died in 1849, in the forty-ninth year of her age.
Albert S. Heess was reared in his native town in Germany, and received his educa- tion in the national schools of that country. After leaving school he learned the baker's trade in Wurtemberg, and in 1854, when only seventeen years of age, he pushed out from his native place and started for Amer- ica, determined to find or make for himself a home in the western world. He landed on these shores with no capital except a stout heart and willing hands, but was not long in securing employment at his trade in the city of New York. A little later he came to Philadelphia, and from that city to Lancaster, where he worked as a journey- man baker for some time. Energetic and self-reliant, he soon determined to start in business for himself, and casting about for a location, was attracted by the young and bustling city of Altoona. Here he located, in the fall of 1860, and opened a small bak- ery. His means were moderate and his business small, but his work gave satisfac-
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OF BLAIR COUNTY.
tion, and as the years went by his trade increased and he began to prosper. He worked on with the steady persistence of a man who knows he is bound to win at last, and in 1873 added a complete outfit of cracker machinery to his plant, and began furnishing all kinds of crackers in addition to his bread and cakes. His business con- tinued to increase, and everything moved along successfully until April, 1886, when a disastrous fire completely destroyed his fine bakery. This was a circumstance calcu- lated to test the grit of any man, but Mr. Heess was not dismayed nor discouraged. He immediately set about rebuilding on a still larger scale. His establishment is located on the corner of Thirteenth street and Eighth avenue, employs nine men and three girls, and has a capacity requiring more than twenty barrels of flour per day. The building is sixty by one hundred feet in dimensions, and is supplied with the latest and most approved machinery and appliances of every kind, all driven by a twenty horse-power engine. The product includes bread, cakes, and crackers of every description, which are disposed of at retail and wholesale, not only in Altoona, but all over western Pennsylvania. He owns con- siderable valuable real estate in this city.
In 1859 Mr. Heess was wedded to Amelia Engle, a daughter of John and Gertrude Engle, of the kingdom of Prussia, in north- ern Germany. To Mr. and Mrs. Heess has been born a family of six children, four sons and two daughters: Albert, John, George, Louis, Emma, and Gertrude.
Politically Mr. Heess is a democrat, and while not taking an active part in politics, has been elected and served for two years as a member of the city council, and was also a member of the school board for a
number of years. He is a member of the Episcopal church, active in the support of church interests, and stands as a worthy type of the successful business man. His career vividly illustrates the fact that perse- verance and industry must finally win in the battle of life. He is public spirited and enterprising, and is now serving as presi- dent of the Fairview Cemetery association, and is also a stockholder in the Mountain City Electric Light Company. Mr. Heess is a prominent Mason, being connected with Mountain Lodge, No. 281, Free and Ac- cepted Masons; Mountain Chapter, No. 189, Royal Arch Masons; and Mountain Commandery, No. 10, Knights Templar. He is a pleasant, genial gentleman, and quite popular.
JONATHAN GLUNT, senior partner in the well-known firm of Glunt & Crum, at Altoona, and an extensive owner of coal and timber lands in this State, may be ranked among the most enterprising, successful and highly esteemed citizens of the county. He is the eldest son of Abra- ham and Elizabeth (Long) Glunt, and was born in Allegheny township, Blair county, Pennsylvania, July 6, 1829. The Glunts are of German descent, but the family has been resident of the adjoining common- wealth of Maryland for many generations, and has been distinguished by all the sturdy virtues of their thrifty race. Adam Glunt (grandfather ) was a native of Maryland, but removed to Pennsylvania in 1803, locating in what is now Greenfield township, this county. He was a farmer, and followed that occupation until his death. He mar- ried, and reared a large family. Among his sons was Abraham (father), who was born in Maryland in 1796, but was brought
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
to this State by his father when only seven years of age. After attaining manhood he worked as a laborer and contractor, and was remarkable for his vigorous constitution and great strength. He was a democrat in politics, and on the breaking out of the civil war, although then in his sixty-fifth year, he enlisted in the 84th Pennsylvania infantry, passing as a man of forty-five. In the summer of 1862 he was attacked by a disease in the army, and securing a furlough, came back and died in six weeks, at his home in Logan township, this county, aged sixty-six years. By his marriage to Elizabeth Long he had a family of twelve children, nine sons and three daughters. The daughters all died years ago, but eight of the nine sons are yet living. Mrs. Glunt was born in what is now Blair county in 1807, and now resides at Fairview, in Logan township, being in her eighty-fifth year, and very active for a woman of her age. She is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran church, and has been connected with that denomi- nation for a period of fifty years.
Jonathan Glunt was reared on the farm . in Allegheny township, this county, and his education was obtained in the common schools of that day and neighborhood. Soon after leaving school he engaged in the lum- ber and saw mill business in Cambria county, and this has been his principal business ever since. In 1859 he removed to the city of Altoona, where he has con- tinued to reside until the present time, though he retained and managed his large lumber interests in Cambria county until 1889. In 1883, in company with Louis Plack and A. J. Crum, he erected the ex- tensive planing mill and lumber-working establishment known as the Union Planing mill, located on Ninth avenue and Eighth
street, and still retains his interest in this enterprise, the style of the firm now being Glunt & Crum. Mr. Glunt is also extensively interested in coal and timber lands in Somer- set, Cambria and Bedford counties, beside owning considerable real estate in the city of Altoona, and ten acres of valuable land where he resides, just outside the city limits. His present prosperous and independent condition is the result of hard work, backed up by the great energy and ability which was his chief inheritance. For Mr. Glunt began life as a poor boy, and his successful business career shows what may be ac- complished by the young man who marks out a course in life, and allows nothing to divert him from it at any time.
On December 14, 1858, Mr. Glunt was married to Rachel Miller, a daughter of Peter Miller, of the township of Logan, this county. This union was blessed by the birth of eight children, three sons and five daughters : Alice V., who married Whitman Newcomb, and now resides in Logan town- ship; Mary B., the wife of Blair Commes- ser, who resides at Bellwood, this county ; Peter W., married Mamie C. Dunn, of Cambria county; and Edith, Frank B., William R., Minda G., and Carrie R., living at home with their parents. Mrs. Glunt is an earnest, intelligent, and capable woman, and to her wise counsels and unfailing cour- age and enthusiasm Mr. Glunt attributes much of his success in life.
Politically Mr. Glunt is an ardent repub- lican, and an active worker for the success of his party. He is a member of the Pres- byterian church, and of Altoona Lodge, No. 472, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is a pleasant, genial gentleman, and very popular among business men as well as in social circles.
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OF BLAIR COUNTY.
EV. PETER G. BELL, who has served efficiently and continuously as a min- ister in the Evangelical Lutheran church since 1862, is a son of William and Eliza- beth ( Good) Bell, and was born near Wil- liamsburg, Blair county, Pennsylvania, March 5, 1835. His paternal grandfather, James Bell, was brought, when a child, from the land of the Scotch-Irish, by his parents, to Dauphin county, near Harris- burg, where he resided until his death. He was twice elected to the State legislature. William Bell was born in 1801, and after learning the trade of carpenter came to Blair county, where he became a contractor on the old canal, and constructed the Crooked dam, on the Juniata river, for canal purposes. In 1839 he purchased the farm in Pleasant valley now owned by his son, ex-Sheriff G. Thomas Bell, and in 1868 came to Altoona, where he died in August, 1877, aged seventy-six years. He was an old-line whig and republican, and served as one of the first three commissioners of Blair county. He was one of the founders and first ruling elders of the Second Evangelical Lutheran church of Altoona.
A writer in the Lutheran Observer, in September, 1877, speaking of Mr. Bell's death, says : "He was always liberal in his contributions to the church and charitable institutions. His benevolent contributions were frequent and generous, but his last gifts were more in keeping with those en- larged views of Christian beneficence. His character was by no means all made up of liberality, but the usual Christian graces and virtues found among the best of Chris- tians were centered in him. He carried his religion with him, and let his light shine. IIe was a faithful Christian father, an affec- tionate husband, and made himself generally useful in and out of the church."
William Bell married Elizabeth Good, a daughter of Peter Good, and a member of the Evangelical Lutheran church, and who died in 1866, at fifty-six years of age. Mr. and Mrs. Bell left six children : David ;. Rev. Peter G .; Capt. James M., of the 7th United States cavalry, and at present in charge of Fort Myer, Virginia; Mrs. E. P. Miller, of Kansas City; G. Thomas, ex- Sheriff of Blair county (see his sketch ) ; and Mrs. Lewis Walton, of Altoona.
Peter G. Bell was reared from four years of age on the old Bell homestead, in Pleas- ant valley, and received his education at Wittenburg college, Springfield, Ohio, from which he was graduated in the class of 1860. He then entered the theological de- partment of the same college, from which he was graduated in 1861, and in the spring of the next year was called to the Taren- tum, Pennsylvania, charge of the Evangeli- cal Lutheran church, which embraced three congregations, one in Allegheny and the other two in Westmoreland county. At the end of three years he left the Tarentum field to assume charge of the New Castle pastorate, of Henry county, Indiana, where he remained until the summer of 1870, when he took charge of a mission field, embracing Polo and the surrounding coun- try, in Ogle county, Illinois. Five years later he went to Springfield, that State, and served as pastor until 1877, when he re- turned to New Castle, at which place he served as a supply for two years. At the end of that time he became pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran church of Indiana, this State, which he served until 1882, in which year he came to Altoona, where he has resided ever since, except about two years. For three years he served the Alle- gheny charge. For the past few years,
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
owing to the ill health of his wife, he has not assumed regular pastoral duties beyond serving as supply. He now supplies the con- gregations of New Florence, Westmoreland county, and Morrellville, Cambria county.
On August 28, 1861, Rev. Bell married Nettie R., daughter of Warner Hatch, of Springfield, Ohio. They have three chil- dren, two sons and one daughter: Ida M., wife of F. W. Spaulding, a druggist of South Norridgewock, Maine; Warner H., who married Drucilla Holland, and is the managing editor of the Altoona Gazette; and W. Frank, who is city editor of the same paper.
Rev. Peter G. Bell is a republican in politics, and is a stockholder in and president of the board of directors of the Gazette Company, which is publishing the Altoona Gazette, now edited by his two sons. This company was incorporated April 4, 1892, with a capital stock of twenty-five thousand dollars. Their paper is a seven column folio, published every evening ex- cept Sunday. It is republican in politics, and has already made quite a record by the successful manner in which it secures all the important local and general happenings of the city. The company also issues a weekly. The enterprise of the editors of the Altoona Gazette was well illustrated in its issue of May 17th last, when in twenty minutes after the adjournment of the Repub- lican county convention at Hollidaysburg the Gazette was being sold on the streets of that town with a complete report of the con- vention and the portraits of its nominees. The Gazette Company has just published a directory of Blair county, and by its present efficient management and the large circula- tion of its paper gives promise of future stability and prosperity.
DAVID HENDERSON was born June 30, 1797, in Bald Eagle valley, in what is now Taylor township, Centre county, Pennsylvania. His father, Robert Hender- son, was a native of the Emerald Isle, and emigrated to this country from County Derry during the revolutionary war. He reared a family of nine sons and one daugh- ter. He died when David was but seven years old, leaving him at that tender age to the charity of a cold, unfeeling world. He was apprenticed to Joseph Wagner to learn the shoemaking business. Some years afterward he commenced working at his trade in Franklin township, his only capital being the forty dollars received for his horse. Here he did a large amount of work for the extensive iron works in that neighborhood. He received his pay in bar iron, which he wagoned to Pittsburg twice a year. In 1821 he married Margaret Conrad, a most estimable lady, who, after a life of exemplary Christian piety and usefulness, died April 10, 1877, at the age of seventy-seven years. Mr. Henderson, in 1831, commenced farm- ing on the farm now known as the home- stead, one and a half miles from the village of Spruce Creek, in Franklin township, Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania. For the farm he paid the then large sum of seventeen hundred dollars. To the pursuit thus adopted by him he ever afterwards devoted his undivided energies. In the year 1864 he purchased a property in the village of Spruce Creek, to which he re- moved, and where he spent the last years of his life, dying October 7, 1882.
He died surrounded with all the com- forts of life which wealth, domestic happi- ness, and filial affection were capable of affording, and universally esteemed and respected.
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OF BLAIR COUNTY.
A LBERT S. SMITH, M. D. One of
the most important professions in the world is the medical profession, in whose. ranks are to be found those who are specially qualified for their noble calling in which they are eminently successful. Of this worthy class is Dr. A. S. Smith, of Altoona. lle is a son of Dr. Samuel Haller and Mary ( Rupley ) Smith, and was born in the bor- ough of Woodbury, Bedford county, Penn- sylvania, December 11, 1853. His paternal grandfather, Jacob Smith, was born in the latter part of the eighteenth century, in Dauphin county, Pennsylvania, from which he removed to Juniata county, where he purchased a farm and commenced to make a comfortable home for himself, in which commendable employment he was inter- rupted by the messenger of death while in the bloom of health and early manhood. He died of typhoid fever, aged forty-three years. He was an industrious, hard work- ing man, and an earnest member of the German Baptist, or Dunkard church. His son, Dr. Samuel Haller Smith ( father), was born on his father's farm, near MeCalisters- ville, Juniata county, on October 29, 1811. Left in his tender years without the pro- tecting care of a father, he was compelled to push his own way through school and into a profession. He attended an academy at Lewiston, Mifflin county, and by hard work secured means sufficient to enter upon the study of medicine. He read with Dr. Mealy, of Liverpool, Pennsylvania, and en- tered the old Pennsylvania Medical college, of Philadelphia ( now extinct, but then sit- uated on the corner of Ninth and Chestnut streets), from which he was graduated about 1832. Leaving Philadelphia, he practiced for a few years in Huntingdon county, and then removed to the borough of Woodbury,
in Bedford county, where he has been in continuous and active practice for nearly fifty-five years. IIe is a general practi- tioner, works hard, and has a practice that extends for twenty-five miles around Wood- bury. He stands high in his profession, is a member of the German Baptist, or Dunk- ard church, and has always been an ardent democrat, yet does not allow political mat- ters to take much of his time from his pro- fessional labors. He owns considerable real estate, has several fine farms, and has been very successful in land investments. He married Mary Ann Rupley, who was born October 16, 1815, and to them were born seven children, of whom five are living: Calvin, of Altoona, who married Matilda Davis, and follows farming; Carrie; Wil- liam R., who served through the civil war in Co. F, 134th Illinois volunteer regiment, and then came to Altoona, where he was in the mercantile business for some time, and is now an alderman in the Third ward; Anna, wife of Dr. I. N. Bowser, of Martinsburg ; and Dr. Albert S.
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