USA > Pennsylvania > Blair County > Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Blair County, Pennsylvania > Part 28
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Albert S. Smith grew to manhood in his native borough, and received his education in the common schools and Millersville State Normal school, where he took a special course as preparatory to the study of medi- cine. He then entered the office of his father as a medical student, and after close and careful reading went to Philadelphia, where he took a three years' course in the Jefferson Medical college, from which he was graduated on March 12, 1876. During his attendance at this college he had the benefit of private personal instruction under the preceptorship of Prof. Oscar II. Allis, a very fine and extremely popular surgeon of the Quaker City. Two weeks after grad- uation he entered an examination, held by
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medical experts, for the position of resident physician to the celebrated Blockley hospi- tal of Philadelphia. Of the numerous appli- cants - some of whom were successful physicians of experience and practice- he made next to the highest average, and gave such other evidences of special qualification and fitness for the position, that he was unanimously elected as resident physician, and served as such for eighteen months. At the end of that time he commenced a successful private practice in Philadelphia, where he remained for four years. In March, 1882, he left Philadelphia and came to Altoona as a desirable field for the prac- tice of his profession, and his choice was so well made, and his practice has always been so large, that he has never regretted his choice, and has remained in the Mountain City ever since, although he has received flattering offers at different times to locate in other places.
On February 22, 1882, Dr. Smith united in marriage with Martha S. Tate, daughter of Samuel II. Tate, an attorney at law, and a resident of Bedford, Pennsylvania. Dr. and Mrs. Smith have two children : Albert Tate and Humphrey Dillon.
Doctor Smith is a member of Mountain Lodge, No. 281, Free and Accepted Ma- sons; Bedford Chapter, No. 255, Royal Arch Masons ; and Mountain Council, No. 9, Royal and Select Masters. IIe is also a member of Mountain Lodge, No. 837, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; Camp No. 31, Order of Patriotic Sons of America; and Altoona Lodge, No. 102, Benevolent and Protec- tive Order of Elks. He is a republican in politics, and while not indifferent to pub- lic matters, from those of municipal interest to those of National import, yet gives his
time to the demands of his large and con- stantly increasing practice.
Aside from his private practice, Doctor Smith has been frequently called to act in a public capacity for the benefit of the sick and the health of the city. After the Al- toona hospital was built he served for three years as one of the visiting committee of that institution. He also served one year as physician-in-chief to the county home, and three years as physician to the poor of the city of Altoona and Logan township, and was a member of the board of health for three years.
Dr. Albert S. Smith is a large man, of fine personal appearance and pleasant ad- dress, courteous and kind, and in bearing so gentlemanly that he is easily approached by all-high and low alike. He is active and energetic, and has honorably won his way to the front ranks of his profession.
DAVID L. WRAY, one of the pioneer merchants of Bellwood, and a member of the well-known lumbering firm of Isett & Wray, is a son of William and Jane E. ( Lower) Wray, and was born at Neff's Mills, in West township, Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania, January 12, 1843. Ilis pa- ternal grandfather, Robert Wray, was a resident for many years of Huntingdon county, where he died and left a large family of children. His son, William Wray (father), was born in 1815, in Huntingdon county, where he died in June, 1891. He learned the trade of blacksmith, which he followed in early life, but the loss, by acci- dent, of an eye, caused him to turn his attention to farming. He was a democrat in politics, and married Jane E. Lower, who
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was born in 1818, and is a daughter of Ilenry Lower. Mr. and Mrs. Wray reared a family of ten children, five sons and five daughters : Regina, wife of J. P. Hazlett, of Altoona; Jane, who married S. E. Steward, of Sinking valley ; David L .; Hannah, wife of William Wallace, of Yellow Springs; Dr. James H., a resident physician of Win- terset, Iowa; William P., a member of the mercantile firm of Wray & Irwin, of Bell- wood; Alvenia, who married William Moore, a farmer of Spruce Creek, Huntingdon county ; George H., connected with Curry, Canan & Co., wholesale grocers of Altoona, Pennsylvania; Ada K .; and Warren B.
David L. Wray was reared on a farm, and received a good English education in the common schools. At nineteen years of age he engaged in teaching in the winter schools, and assisting his father on the farm during the summer seasons. Two years later an incident occurred that drew him away from his intended study of law, and changed the whole course of his life. His father at that time was renting a farm from Hays Hamil- ton, who was superintendent of the Hunting- don furnace, and David L. Wray made out a statement of the account between his father and Mr. Hamilton, which was so accurately done as to highly please the latter, who offered him three hundred dollars per year to superintend the furnace farms, which offer he accepted, intending to remain one year, and then enter the academy, prepara- tory to qualifying himself for the pursuit of the profession of his youthful choice. The resignation of the general bookkeeper dur- ing the year, and an offer of his position, presented inducement to defer the law, and remain a year longer. Efficient and faith- ful service in this capacity secured promo- tion to assistant superintendent and general
manager of the furnace and farms, in which positions his stay was protracted for a period of ten years, at the end of which he resigned to enter business on his own account. In 1873 he came to Bellwood, and formed a mercantile partnership with E. B. Isett, under the firm name of Isett & Wray. They were the pioneer merchants of the borough, which was then known as Bell's Mills, and continued in business until 1882, when Mr. Isett retired from the firm. Seven years later, in 1889, Mr. Wray formed a second partnership with Mr. Isett, under the old firm name of Isett & Wray. They manufacture lumber, and have mills on the line of the Pennsylvania & Northwestern railroad, whose combined capacity is four million feet per year.
On May 16, 1867, Mr. Wray was united in marriage with Caroline Wallace, daugh- ter of Samuel Wallace, of Union Furnace. They have seven children: Gertrude, a graduate of Wellesly college, and a teacher in the Hollidaysburg seminary; Elizabeth E. and Anna C., students of Hollidaysburg seminary ; James C .; Ethel R. ; Robert W .; and Katherine L.
In addition to his extensive lumber busi- ness, Mr. Wray has considerable mining interests at Mountain Dale, Cambria county. IIe is a republican in politics, has served nine years as a school director, and is one of the present members of the borough council. He is a member of Tyrone Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, and Mountain Chapter, No. 189, Royal Arch Masons. Mr. Wray is a pleasant gentleman, and an in- teresting and entertaining conversationalist. Ile is an excellent business man, of clear perception and sound judgment, and has by his many good qualities become deservedly popular at Bellwood. He has maintained
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the student method all the years of his business life, and is an earnest advocate of "the college in the home." Ile always had a hearty sympathy with the progress and enlargement of every good to his fellow- man. This he has shown in encouragement and assistance extended to many in securing homes of their own, thereby contributing to better conditions of life for them, and ad- vancing the growth of his town, and par- ticularly by his interest in the public schools. Ile is a member of and a ruling elder in the Presbyterian church, and a Sunday- school teacher and worker of a quarter of a century's service. His chief aim is to educate his sons and daughters to be useful members of society and friends of all that is pure, noble and true.
G EORGE F. ARNEY, M. D., a gradu- ate of Jefferson Medical college and a successful physician of Altoona, is a son of Jacob and Rachel (Meyers) Arney, and was born in Centre Hall, Potter township, Centre county, Pennsylvania, March 11, 1853. His father, Jacob Arney, was born at Hummelstown, Dauphin county, this State, in 1808, and died at Centre Hall, Potter township, Centre county, in 1887, aged seventy-nine years. When but a boy he went into Centre county, where he was engaged in farming during the active part of his life. He was a democrat in politics and a member of the Reformed church. At the time when Mr. Arney commenced life for himself in Centre county he did not have the advantages possessed by farmers of to-day, and had to cut and store his harvests by hand, as farm machinery was ahnost unknown at that day. Ile married Rachel Meyers, and to them were born a
family of twelve children, six sons and six daughters : John, who is a farmer by occu- pation, resides in his native township; Benjamin, also a farmer and a resident of Potter township, Centre county; Rev. W. James, a minister of the Presbyterian church, who is a graduate of a well known college of the United States, and now resides at Kane, Mckean county, where he has charge of the Presbyterian church of that place; Dr. George F., the subject of this sketch; Charles, a farmer like his brothers, John and Benjamin, and also a resident of Potter township, Centre county ; Frank, who learned painting and follows that trade in his native township; Sarah, residing at Kalamazoo, Michigan, and is the wife of Henry Dasher, now the general agent for the old and well known McCor- mick Reaper Manufacturing Company ; Minnie, who married Moses Richards, a carpenter of Potter township, where they reside; Lydia, wife of Conrad Peck, a wagon and carriage manufacturer by trade, and a resident at the present time of Lin- coln county, Kansas; Mary, married James Herring, who is now engaged in the general mercantile business in Altoona ; Laura, wife of John Lee, a carriage manufacturer of Centre Hall village; and Lizzie, married to John Mullen, of Renova, Pennsylvania, where he is engaged in the shoe business.
George F. Arney spent his boyhood days at Centre Hall, and received his literary education in the normal schools of Penn- sylvania. Ile read medicine with Dr. Neff, of Centre Hall, and Dr. C. F. Fisher, of Boaldsburg, this State, and entered Jeffer- son Medical college, of Philadelphia, from which well known institution he was gradu- ated in 1878. Immediately after gradua- tion he opened an office at Homer City, the
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largest town on the Indiana Branch rail- road between Blairsville Intersection and Indiana, the county seat of Indiana county. Hle remained there one year, and then, in 1879, came to Altoona, where he soon built up and has enjoyed a good practice ever since. While a general practitioner, yet he makes a specialty of the eye and has had good success in that special line of practice.
In June, 1881, Dr. Arney married Lucy Boggs, of Altoona, and they have one child, a son, named Ralph, who was born in June, 1882.
Dr. Arney is rather independent in politics, and has been for several years a member of Christ Reformed church, of Altoona, which was organized in 1863. For the last four years he has been one of five physicians composing the staff of the Altoona hospital, and is recognized as a physician of ability and skill.
EORGE E. VANBRUNT, master mechanic in the shops of the Pennsyl- vania & Northwestern railroad at Bellwood, is a clear-headed business man of wide experience, great executive ability and a record of which any business man might justly feel proud. He is the eldest son of William T. and Caroline (Jennings) Van- Brunt, and was born October 11, 1846, in the city of Buffalo, New York. The Van- Brunts are descended from an old Holland family, that was prominent in both the civil and military life of that country. The family was planted in America by the son of an old Dutch admiral, who settled in New York at an early day. His son, Coe VanBrunt, was born in New York, where he became a practicing physician, and died
in that State. From him this branch of the family has descended. William T. Van- Brunt (father) was born in New York city in 1826, and is at present employed by the Baldwin Locomotive works, of Philadel- phia, Pennsylvania, delivering engines in all parts of the United States for that company. In political faith he is a democrat, and is a member of the Episcopal church. He married Caroline Jennings, and by this union had a family of three sons and three daughters: George E .; William, now master mechanic for the Colorado Coal & Iron Company at Peueblo, Colorado; Charles, died in early youth ; Sarah, married William Orinstein, a jeweler of Platteville, Colorado; Frances, wedded John Kreider, an employee of Cox & Co., stave dealers in the city of Philadelphia; and Mary, living at home.
George E. VanBrunt grew to manhood in Buffalo, New York, and obtained his education in the common and select schools of that city. After leaving school, at the age of seventeen, he began learning the machinist's trade at the shops of Bell & McNish, in his native place. When he had completed his trade he engaged for a short time in firing an engine on the Buffalo, New York & Erie railroad, but was soon promoted to be engineer and ran on that road for about eighteen months. At the end of that time he went to Philadelphia and accepted a position in the Baldwin Locomo- tive works, where he worked at his trade of machinist for nearly five years. By this time he had shown such ability and won the confidence of the company to such an extent that he was made traveling engineer for that concern, and continued to occupy that relation to the works until 1884, when he came to Bellwood, this county,
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and in October of that year became master mechanic in the shops of the Pennsylvania & Northwestern Railroad Company at this place. He has occupied that responsible position ever since. This was formerly a narrow guage road, but about the time Mr. Van Brunt took charge of the mechan- ical department the road bed was widened to the standard guage. The present machine shops of this company were established in 1891. The building is one hundred and twenty feet each way, and is a substantial brick structure. Here everything connected with the building or repair of engines, and all work pertaining to the motive power of the road, is done under the immediate supervision of Mr. VanBrunt. This department employs about two hundred men, mostly skilled mechanics. The office is large and capa- cious, being twenty by fifty feet in dimen- sions, two stories high, and most con- veniently arranged throughout. Mr. Van- Brunt brought the first standard guage engine over this road, and since that time forty-six fine engines have been added to its equipment.
In 1869 Mr. VanBrunt was wedded to Amelia Corry, a daughter of Alvin Corry, of Hermann, New York. To this union was born an only child, a son named William, who is living at home with his parents in their comfortable and handsome residence at Bellwood.
In politics Mr. VanBrunt is strictly inde- pendent, supporting such men and measures as in his judgment will subserve the best interests of the whole people. He is prom- inently identified with the Masonic frater- nity, being a member of Hermann Lodge, No. 500, Free and Accepted Masons, of St. Lawrence county, New York ; St. Lawrence
Chapter, No. 132, Royal Arch Masons ; and St. Lawrence Commandery, No. 28, Knights Templar. He is also a member of Zera Temple, Ancient order of the Mystic Shrine, of Utica, New York.
JOHN LOUDON, of Altoona, is a good example, in the present century of monopolies and syndicates, of what a man with but little capital and his own will and energy can accomplish in making his life a success and establishing a good name at home and abroad. He is a son of William and Sarah (Matthews) Loudon, and was born on the site of the present city of Altoona, in what was then Logan township, Blair county, Pennsylvania, August 3, 1823. Ilis paternal grandfather, Thomas Loudon, was born in Ireland, and came to eastern Pennsylvania some time prior to the revo- lutionary war, in which he served as a soldier in one of the Continental armies. Ile followed mining, and some time after the close of the revolutionary war he removed from Lebanon to Etna furnace, and from thence to Huntingdon furnace, where he resided until his death. His son, William London, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born June 27, 1792, and died January 2, 1864, when in the seventy-second year of his age. In 1838 he purchased of Eli Hastings, and in the following year moved upon, a tract of two hundred and four. acres of land, upon a part of which the west end of Altoona is built, and which was known as Loudonsville until the incor- poration of the city in 1868, and since then has been the Fifth ward, lying southwest of Sixteenth street. He at first occupied a log house built by a former owner, and which burned in 1849. Six years later, in
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1854, he built and occupied the house on Seventeenth street now owned by his son, James Loudon. As soon as Mr. Loudon became certain that the car shops of the Pennsylvania railroad would be located at Altoona, he commenced to lay out his farm into lots and offer them for sale. The first lot was sold in 1849, to Adlum & Irvin, the second to Augustus Cherry, and from time to time additional lots were laid out and sold until now but a small portion of the original farm remains in the possession of Mr. Loudon's heirs. William Loudon mar- ried Sarah Matthews, a native of Logan township, and a daughter of Abraham Matthews, and who was born February 26, 1796. To William and Sarah Loudon were born nine children, eight sons and one daughter: Thomas, of Woodberry town- ship, born January 27, 1817; Margaret, of Logan township, born February 3, 1819; James, of Altoona, born June 16, 1821; John, of Altoona, born August 3, 1823; William, jr., of Logan township, born July 30, 1826; Abraham, born September 27, 1828, and died July 20, 1872; David M., of Altoona, born April 20, 1833; George M., born March 19, 1835, and died December 25, 1862; and Elias, born in July, 1837, and died February 1, 1843. Of these children Thomas married Jane MeCauley and has a son, James A., and several daughters; William married Rebecca, daughter of Philip Brindebaugh, of Tyrone township, and has several children ; Abraham married Margaret, daughter of Abraham Beal, and left, at his death, three sons and one daugh- ter; David M. married Elizabeth, daughter of Jacob Shinefelt, and has four children : Ellen, Mary, Alexander, and Harry; and Margaret, married James Coleman, who died from an accident in 1870.
John Loudon was reared on the site of Altoona and received his education in the common schools of his neighborhood and Meadville academy, which he attended for one short term after having walked one hundred miles to reach that institution. Returning from Meadville he was engaged in teaching for fifteen months, and then embarked in the general mercantile busi- ness on August 18, 1850, on the corner of Eleventh avenue and Fifteenth street, as a member of the firm of Ferres, Loudon & Co., which afterwards changed in title to Ferres & Loudon. About 1876 Mr. Loudon withdrew from the firm and engaged in his present extensive real estate business.
In 1852 he married Elizabeth P. Robe- son, daughter of David Robeson. She died in 1872, leaving five sons and three daugh- ters, and in 1875 he united in marriage with her youngest sister, Junietta. To this second union have been born two children, one son and one daughter. Sylvester (deceased ) ; William Scott; David R., now dead; Lincoln; George; John Albert; Edgar; Rachel Hazeltine, wife of Walter Adams; Sallie C. and Susannah M.
Although taking a deep interest in politics and especially in the success of the Republican party, for whose principles he has always labored, yet John Loudon has never sought for office, and only at the earnest solicitation of his friends, in 1884, allowed his name to be used as a candidate for director of the poor of Blair county. He was elected at the ensuing election and has served in that office until the present time. In religion he is a Lutheran and has been for many years an active and influ- ential member of the Evangelical Lutheran church of Altoona. He was one of the organizers of the Edison Electric Light
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Company, of which he is a stockholder and the president. IIe is also a director of the Altoona bank and Wopsononock railroad. Ile is connected with several other business enterprises in which his ability and energy. have won success under many discouraging circumstances. He was naturally drawn into the real estate business through num- erous investments which he had made in land and city property. Like everything else in which he has been interested, when he was once fairly embarked in the real estate business Mr. Loudon pushed it for all there was in it. He has widened out the sphere of his operations until he now carries on real estate transactions all over Pennsylvania, New York, and Kentucky, and in several of the western states.
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JOSEPHI K. CASS, president of the Morrison & Cass Paper Company of Tyrone, and a grand-nephew of Gen. Lewis Cass, distinguished alike for his patriotism and his statesmanship, and whose services to his country will never be forgotten, was born in Coshocton, Ohio, October 10, 1848, and is a son of Dr. Abner L. and Margaret (Kerr) Cass. The Casses are of English descent, and it is presumable that John and Joseph Cass were the founders of the Cass family in America, as they came from En- gland and settled in New Hampshire at an early day in its colonial history. One of these two Granite State pioneers was the paternal ancestor of Maj. Jonathan Cass, the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch. Maj. Cass was at Lexington and Bunker Hill, and served until the close of revolutionary struggle under the inne- diate command of Washington. In 1790 he left his New Hampshire home and went
to what is now Muskingum county, Ohio, where he entered a large tract of land on a military section reserved there for revolu- tionary officers and soldiers. He improved his land and resided in Ohio until his death. Ile married and reared a family of six children, of whom were: Gen. Lewis Cass, who served as secretary of State under President Buchanan, and was the demo- cratic candidate for the presidency in 1848 against General Taylor, the whig nominee ; Captain Charles, and George W.
George W. Cass (grandfather), the third son, married and reared a family of six children : George W., jr., was a graduate of West Point Military academy, but pre- ferred a business to a military life, and was the first president of the Adams Express Company, as well as holding the presidency of the Pittsburg, Ft. Wayne & Chicago Rail- road Company for many years; Augusta; John J., who died in early life; Dr. Abner L .; Dr. Edward, who is the only member of the family now living, was graduated from Jefferson Medical college of Philadelphia, and resides at Dresden, Ohio, where he enjoys a large and first class practice; and Mary, who died when young. Dr. Abner L. (father), the third son, was born in 1816, and died in Chicago in 1886. He received his education in Kenyon college, Gambier, Ohio, read medicine with Dr. Andrews, a prominent physician of Stubenville, that State, and in 1836 entered Jefferson Medi- cal college of Philadelphia, this State, from which celebrated institution he was gradu- ated in the class of 1838. After gradua- tion he opened an office in Coshocton, Ohio, where he practiced successfully for thirty years, at the end of which time he came to Pittsburg, this State, but only re- mained two years, then went to Chicago,
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Illinois, where he died in 1886. He was a democrat in politics and served three terms as a State senator in the Ohio legislature. Hle was a member of the Presbyterian church, and ranked high in his profession. He married Margaret Kerr, who died in 1886, aged sixty-six years. They were the parents of five children : Joseph K .; George W., who was graduated in the classical course of Kenyon college and the law department of Ann Arbor university, mar- ried Rebecca Osborn, and is a successful lawyer of Chicago, Illinois, now serving as president of the bar association of that great city, in which he is prominent in law and political circles; John J., who died at nine years of age; Abner, died when three years of age; and Agnes, who resides with her brother, Joseph K., at Tyrone.
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