Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Blair County, Pennsylvania, Part 39

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

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John Flanigan came to Altoona with his parents in 1853, when about thirteen years of age. His education was obtained in the Catholic and night schools, and after leaving school he learned the carpenters' trade, and has continued to work at that trade ever since, except a short term of service as a soldier during the civil war. IIe served as first corporal in Co. E, 3d Pennsylvania in- fantry, enlisting in 1861, at the first call

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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY

for troops. After returning from the army he secured a position in the shops of the Pennsylvania railroad, and was with that company until 1869. Since 1879 he has been engaged in contracting and building on his own account in Altoona, and during that time has erected many fine houses in this city, including several large brick edi- fices. He also superintended the building of the large brick structure known as the St. Joseph academy, at Greensburg, this State. For several years he was engaged in the lumber and coal business in this city, but now has his coal and lumber yards leased to other parties.

On May 20, 1866, Mr. Flanigan was united in marriage with Mary C. Rockett, a daugh- ter of Michael Rockett, of Indiana county, this State, and to this union was born a family of eleven children, five sons and six daughters : James F., Joseph C., William M., and Mary M. are living. Those dead are : Regina, Gertrude, Cecelia, Josephine, Nellie, George, and Harry.

Politically Mr. Flanigan is a democrat, and has served in the common council of the city of Altoona. He is a member of the Roman Catholic church, and is highly respected as a citizen. Although starting in life with nothing but his trade, he has, by energy and steady application to busi- ness, acquired a handsome competency, and in addition to his other interests in this city, he owns considerable valuable real estate. IIe is courteous in address, and well liked by his neighbors and all who know him.

THOMAS B. GILSON, the veteran rail-

road supervisor residing at Hollidays -. burg, who enjoys the distinction of being about the oldest employee, in point of ser-

vice, now connected with the great Penn- sylvania system, is a son of William and Phobe (Alexander) Gilson, and was born March 5, 1813, in what was then Mifflin but is now Juniata county, Pennsylvania. The Gilsons are of English extraction, but the family was planted in the United States at an early day, and this branch of it has resided in the Keystone State for several generations. Thomas Gilson (grandfather ) was born on territory now included in Juniata county, at the foot of Tuscarora mountain, and became familiar with the hardships and privations endured by the early settlers. After attaining manhood he built a flour mill, which was the first mill of the kind ever erected in that county. Pre- vious to that time the settlers were com- pelled to cross the Blue mountains into Cumberland county to get their wheat ground. He was accidentally drowned in Tuscarora creek, in 1813, when about sixty years of age. William Gilson ( father ) was born in what is now Juniata county in 1782, and died at Florence, Westmoreland county, in 1858, aged seventy-six years. Ile was a member and elder of the Presbyterian church, a democrat in politics, and by occu- pation a miller. He was a stirring, ener- getic, Christian man, and became prominent in his community. The greater part of his active and useful life was spent in West- moreland county, where he was well liked by all his neighbors and acquaintances. IIc married Phobe Alexander, by whom he had a family of ten children. She was a native of Mifflin county, this State, a member of the Presbyterian church, and closed her earthly pilgrimage in 1841, after a life which spanned half a century. The Alex. anders were of Scotch-Irish descent, and came to America about 1736, settling ir

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OF BLAIR COUNTY.

Pennsylvania, where the family has become quite numerous.

Thomas B. Gilson grew to manhood in Juniata county, receiving his early educa- tion in the little log school houses so well remembered by our older citizens. On ac- count of having to work in the mill during the day time, he was compelled to depend largely on night schools and his own efforts in pushing his studies during the later years of his boyhood. He utilized every advan- tage that came within his reach, however, , and persevered until he had acquired a good practical English education. Later he learned the carpenter trade, and in 1848 accepted a position as foreman on the bridge work of the Pennsylvania railroad. Hle acted as foreman of bridge work for this company until the road was opened for business, at which time he was appointed supervisor of the division extending from Huntingdon to the Portage road. When the road was opened farther he was trans- ferred to Johnstown, where he remained a few years, and was then sent to New Flor- ence. Here he was stationed about six years, after which he became supervisor of the Mountain division, with headquarters at Gallitzin, and occupied that position until 1871. In that year the Hollidaysburg & Morrison's Cove branch was completed, and Mr. Gilson was made supervisor of that line and removed to Hollidaysburg. He still occupies this responsible place, and has won a wide reputation as an able, experienced, and practical railroad man. He is now about the only person connected with the Pennsylvania railroad who started out with it during its construction, and has spent forty-one years in discharging the exacting duties of supervisor for that corporation.

Mr. Gilson was married in 1832 to Mary

Ann Behel. Her death occurred in 1845. Of the six children born to this union but one survives, Samuel L. In 1847 Mr. Gil- son married for his second wife Jane Boyd, a daughter of Hugh Boyd, of Ohio. To them was born a family of three children, only two of whom survive, one son and a daughter: William J., now employed as a telegraph operator; and Laura J.

In politics Mr. Gilson is a republican, and in years gone by has given his party an act- ive support. He is a prominent member of the Methodist Episcopal church of Holli- daysburg, and has served as trustee and steward of his church for many years. He is a pleasant, affable gentleman, modest and unassuming, and is greatly respected by all who know him.

JOSEPH U. BLOSE, M. D., of Altoona, a physician who stands well in his pro- fession for ability and skill, is a son of William and Elizabeth (Shaw ) Blose, and was born in North Mahoning township, Indiana county, Pennsylvania, October 3, 1856. His paternal grandfather, Michael Blose, was a native of Germany, and during the first quarter of the present century settled in Westmoreland county, where he remained but a short time. He then re- moved to Armstrong county, where he died. He was a miller by trade, and married Sarah Wangaman. One of the sons born to him in his Armstrong county home was William Blose, father of Doctor Blose. William Blose, in 1850, removed to North Mahoning township, in the adjoining county of Indi- ana, where he has resided ever since. He owns a good farm, is a member of the Pres- byterian church, and in politics has been a republican since the disruption of the Whig party. Near the close of the late civil war

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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY

he enlisted in Co. B, 67th Pennsylvania infantry, and served for six months, at the end of which time he was honorably dis- charged from the Federal service. ITe was born January 21, 1825, and married Elizabeth Shaw, who is a native of Ireland, and whose father, Thomas Shaw, came from County Down, Ireland, to Armstrong county, where he died. Mr. and Mrs. Blose have reared a family of ten children, seven sons and three daughters: Calvin, who learned the trade of carpenter, which he is now follow- ing at Punxsutawney, this State; Rev. Daniel A., who graduated from Lewisburg uni- versity, took the theological course of Au- burn seminary, and is now pastor at the Presbyterian church at Beardstown, Illi- nois; Dr. Joseph U .; William T., who learned the trade of carpenter, and is now a resident of Big Run, Jefferson county, where he has been engaged for some time in the manufacture of chairs and building supplies; Prof. James Miles, a graduate of Oberlin university, of Oberlin, Ohio, who is now director of music in the Waynesburg Conservatory of music, and has lately been elected to a high position in a leading musical institution of the United States; Benjamin F., who learned telegraphy, and is now an operator at Glasgow, Montana; Sarah, wife of Phineas Work, a well-to-do and comfortably situated farmer of West Mahoning township, Indiana county ; Jen- nie, at home with her parents; and Ella, wife of Charles Perritt, foreman of the boiler works of the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad Company, at Emsworth, Allegheny county.

Joseph U. Blose grew to manhood on his father's farm, and after receiving his ele- mentary education in the common schools of his native township, took a classical

course at Glade Run academy, of Armstrong county. Leaving school he became a med- ical student in the office of Dr. John W. Morrow, of Marchand, that county, who was a member of the Pennsylvania legisla- ture in 1891 and 1892. After completing his required course of reading he entered Columbus Medical college, of Columbus, Ohio, from which institution he was grad- uated on February 26, 1880. Late in the spring of that year he opened an office at Pine Flats, Pennsylvania, where he prac- ticed until January, 1882, when he went to Cherry Tree, Indiana county, at which place he remained four years. On November 15, 1886, he came to Altoona, where he has been engaged ever since in the active and successful practice of his profession. IIe is well read, pleasant and courteous as a gen- tleman, and well liked as a citizen.

In 1875 Doctor Blose was united in mar- riage with Lillie T. C., daughter of the late Gen. Samuel C. Brown, who entered the civil war as a subordinate officer, and by successive promotions reached the rank of brigadier-general. To Dr. and Mrs. Blose have been born three children : Edith Edna, born July 26, 1877; Tina Mary, born June 25, 1882; and Ethel, born April 10, 1891.

Doctor Blose has always been a republi- can in politics, and is at the present time a member of the city board of health and of the staff of the Altoona hospital. IIe is also a member of the Altoona Academy of medicine and surgery, the Blair County Medical society, and the Medical society of the State of Pennsylvania. While Doctor Blose has always been a close student in the line of his professional work, yet he keeps well informed upon the current events of the day, and the important movements in the different professions.

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OF BLAIR COUNTY.

J UDGE SAMUEL SMITH, a worthy and highly respected citizen of IIolli- daysburg, and who has discharged each and every duty of the different public positions which he has held with probity, courage and ability, is a son of William and Brittanna (Duncan) Smith, and was born in Scotch valley, Blair county, Pennsylvania, Novem- ber 28, 1817. The founder of the Smith family in Blair county was Elder James Smith, who was born in the historie north of Scotland, and settled in Scotch valley in 1785. He was a farmer by occupation, a federalist in politics, and married and reared a family of industrious and respectable chil- dren. He was one of the first elders of the Frankstown Presbyterian congregation. He was an honorable and upright man, and ranked high in the Presbyterian church, where the elder's office has been held by a succession of pious and efficient men, of whom she may be justly proud, as patrons and pillars of the truth. His son, William Smith, the father of Judge Samuel Smith, was born in Ireland, in 1783, and two years later was brought by his parents to Scotch valley, where he resided until his death, in 1849, at seventy-five years of age. Ile was a farmer by occupation, a federalist in pol- itics, and in church membership a Presby- terian. He was industrious, energetic and straightforward, lived a worthy Christian life, and dying, left behind him a good name and a life record worthy of imitation. In civil as well as religious affairs he com- manded respect and attention, being hon- ored by appointment and then by election, by his fellow-citizens of Frankstown town- ship, with the office of justice of the peace, which he held for over forty years from his appointment, in 1813. IIe married Brit- tanna Duncan, who passed away June 6,

1851, when in the sixty-second year of her age. They reared a family of seven chil- dren, all of whom are dead except the sub- ject of this sketch.

Samuel Smith was reared on his father's farm, received a good English education, and then engaged in farming, which he followed successfully until April 23, 1891, when he removed to Hollidaysburg, where he has resided ever since. He owns a beautiful, well improved and highly pro- ductive farm in Frankstown township, be- sides his tasteful property in the borough of Hollidaysburg.

On February 9, 1841, Mr. Smith married Elizabeth Brotherlin, who died May 25, 1856, and left six children : Thomas, now dead; Margaret B .; William C .; Martha J., who married James Moore, and is now dead; Elizabeth M., wife of R. C. Tussey, of Jersey City, New Jersey ; and Clara, who married Calvin King, of Altoona, and is now dead. Judge Smith was re-married on May 5, 1859, to Rachel II. Ross, and to this second union were born four children : one that died in infancy ; James R., a farmer of Frankstown township; Samuel, who died young ; and Nannie L., now dead.

In polities Judge Smith is a republican. IIe has been honored by his fellow-citizens with various important and responsible township and county offices. He has served his township as supervisor, auditor and school director, and held the office of county auditor for one term, and in 1853 and again in 1867 was elected as director of the poor. In 1875 he was elected as associate judge of Blair county, and served until the expira- tion of his term of office, in 1880, with credit to himself and honor to the county. Judge Smith has been a deacon in the Presbyterian church since 1856, and is

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recognized as a courteous gentleman and a public-spirited citizen. In all his relations of life he has been honorable and just, and has always been scrupulously prompt in meeting his engagements.

D ANIEL J. NEFF, one of the foremost lawyers of Pennsylvania, and the oldest lawyer of Altoona in practice before the courts of Blair county, is a son of Daniel and Mary (Huyette) Neff, and was born in Porter township, Huntingdon county, Penn- sylvania, January 3, 1831. The Neff family was conspicuous in the early history of Lancaster county and eastern Pennsylvania. Some time prior to the year 1715 two brothers, Francis and John Henry Neff, came to Pennsylvania and settled in Lan- caster county, near the present site of the city of Lancaster. Both were large landed proprietors, and John Henry Neff was the first educated physician of Lancaster county. When the boundaries of townships were fixed, upon June 9, 1729, one of the lines of Manheim township was thus defined: "Thence down the said creek to the 'Old Doctor's Ford,'" referring to Dr. Neff's ford, the site of which was the present bridge crossing of the Pennsylvania rail- road over the river at the eastern boundary of Lancaster city. Francis Neff, who was the progenitor of all the Neff's of Hunting- don and Blair counties, in the State of Pennsylvania, purchased lands on a stream known as "Neff's Run," in Lancaster county, and the mansion house and estate wherein he resided have remained in the line of his descendants to this day. One of his grand- sons, John Neff, was married to Fanny Kauffman, and emigrated to Huntingdon county, where his son, Daniel Neff, father

of Daniel J., was born January 19, 1793. Mr. Neff's maternal ancestor, Louis IIuy- ette, emigrated from France, and settled in Washington county, Maryland. His son, John Huyette, when eighteen years of age, came to Hart's Log valley, in Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania, in 1795, and took possession of the lands, then comparatively a wilderness, which his father had pur- chased for him, and which was deeded to Louis Huyette from William and Thomas Penn. John Huyette married Elizabeth Grove, and among their children were three daughters: Mary, Susan, and Catharine. Mary Huyette was married to Daniel Neff on the 25th of November, 1819. They reared a family of five sons and three daughters, Daniel J. Neff being the sixth child in the order of birth.

Daniel J. Neff attended the schools of Alexandria and Huntingdon academy, and then entered Marshall college, of Mercers- burg, this State, from which he was grad- uated in the class of 1851. Three years later he left home, and after reading law for some time with Hon. S. S. Blair, of Holli- daysburg, entered the Poughkeepsie Law school, of New York State, where he also studied under the private tutorship of Homer A. Nelson, a prominent lawyer of that town, afterward secretary of state of New York. After completing his law course at Poughkeepsie he returned home, and in 1856 was admitted to the Blair county bar. In that year he opened an office at Hollidaysburg, but soon removed to Tyrone, which place he left in 1860 to come to Altoona, where he has resided ever since. He found but two lawyers in Al- toona-L. W. Hall (with whom he asso- ciated as a partner ) and a Mr. Boyer, both of whom in a few years passed out of the

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OF BLAIR COUNTY.

ranks of the legal profession of the county. In a comparatively short time Mr. Neff secured a good practice, which in a few years so increased as to equal in extent the practice of any attorney in central Penn- sylvania.

On September 24, 1873, Mr. Neff married Susanna B. Gray, daughter of Levi Gray, of Altoona. A daughter, named Pauline Louise, is their only child.

In politics Mr. Neff is a republican. IIe practices before the supreme court of the State, as well as the United States and county courts. He was one of the founders of the Blair County Bar association, and takes a deep interest in the advancement of his profession. In 1868 he was appointed solicitor to the Pennsylvania Railroad Com- pany, which position he still holds. He is at present, and has been for some years, the head of the well known law firm of Neff, Ilicks & Ambrose. Aside from his practice he has been interested to some extent in financial affairs, and was one of the incor- porators of the Second National bank of Altoona, of which he is a stockholder. Daniel J. Neff studies his cases closely, even down to their minutest points, and examines everything that can have any possible bear- ing upon the cause of his client. He is a logical reasoner, a good judge of human nature, and a clear thinker, and always pre- sents his client's case in a masterful manner.

JOHN K. NEFF, a worthy descendant of an old and honorable family, and whose active and useful life was intimately connected with the material development of Williamsburg and Blair county, was born near Petersburg, on the Juniata river, in Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania, March

26, 1802, and was a son of Jacob and Bar- bara ( Kauffman ) Neff. He was a descend- ant of Francis Neff, who left Switzerland between 1682 and 1700 and settled under William Penn in Pennsylvania, where he became the founder of the Neff family from whom all the Neffs of the Keystone State are descended. A member of the Lancaster county branch of the family was Jacob Neff (father), who settled at Petersburg, in Huntingdon county, where he died. Hle married Barbara Kauffman and reared a family of seven children, all of whom are dead : Daniel, Jacob, Susan Neff, Mary Stoner, Barbara Burkett, Nancy Neff, and John K.

John K. Neff received a practical educa- tion in the early schools of his day, and was engaged in farming until 1829, when he came to Williamsburg, where he and his father-in-law, Major Huyette, bought the village mill. In addition to operating the mill they engaged in the general mercantile business, and were thus actively and success- fully engaged for several years. In connec- tion with milling and merchandising Mr. Neff carried on a considerable business in "arking" on the Juniata river, before the old Pennsylvania canal was completed. He was active in all interests calculated to ad- vance his town and county, and kept pace with the progress that was born of canal and railroad. In 1857 he turned his atten- tion to iron manufacturing, and became the leading member of the firm of Neff, Dean & Co., which built in that year Juniata fur- nace at Williamsburg. From this time on he increased the sphere of his business oper- ations. Ilaving, in 1865, sold Juniata fur- nace to the Williamsburg Manufacturing Company, he sought for a wider field for the active employment of his ability and

BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY

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energy, and in 1869 found it in the then new risen iron industry of the south. In that year he became the head of the Rome Iron Manufacturing Company, of Rome, Georgia, which established the extensive iron plant of that place, and which com- prises a large rolling mill and nail factory. His wisdom in founding this enterprise has been well attested by the continued success and present prosperity of the company, and the development of Rome into one of the great manufacturing and industrial centres of the new south. He was more or less actively engaged in his business affairs from 1869 until his death, in 1876.

On November 27, 1827, Mr. Neff married Susanna Huyette, daughter of Major John Huyette, a native of Maryland, and an early settler in Huntingdon county. Mrs. Neff was born January 1, 1806, in Hart's Log valley, and still resides in the old mansion at Williamsburg, where she has survived nearly all of those who were her neighbors when she came to the village. To Mr. and Mrs. Neff were born ten children, seven sons and three daughters: Reuben, now dead; Abram K. (deceased); William L., who lives in Fayette county, and is in the employ of the Cambria Iron Company ; Milton, who died some years ago; Joseph, dead; Elizabeth H., widow of Peter Van Devander; Albert J., a graduate of West Point, who died at Fort Smith in 1868, aged twenty-seven years; Emma C. Patton, mar- ried M. V. B. Ake, and to whom were born two sons-Edwin L. (deceased), and Clar- ence N., who still resides with his parents in Cedartown, Georgia. Elizabeth II., the eldest daughter, on December 12, 1858, married Peter Van Devander, and to their union were born five children : IIerman N., who lives in Polk county, Georgia, is en-

gaged in the iron business, was married in 1888 to Miss Louise Calhoun, of Georgia, and to this union were born two children, Belle Elizabeth and Karl Calhoun; Abra- ham II., who lives in Fayette county, and is in the employ of the Cambria Iron Com- pany ; Mary H., married to John W. Wheatley, and resides in Spokane, Wash- ington, where Mr. Wheatley is engaged in the practice of law -two children bless their union, Ricarda Elizabeth and Paul Van Devander; Albert M., who is engaged in the wholesale grocery business in Spokane, Washington; and Georgia B. Peter Van Devander was an active and thoroughgoing business man, whose career was cut short by death October 16, 1874, when he was in the forty-fifth year of his age. He was a civil engineer by profession, and for several years previous to his death was largely in- terested in the iron business. He was the first superintendent of Etna furnace, Geor- gia, and had made many friends in the Empire State of the south by business abil- ity and energy.

John K. Neff was a republican in politics, and for twenty years had been an efficient official in the Presbyterian church. IIe had traveled extensively through different States of the Union, crossed the continent twice, and thus learned much of men and things by observation. His summons from toil to rest came on December 20, 1876, when his. spirit passed from time to eternity. Ilis remains lie entombed in a well chosen and beautiful lot in the Presbyterian cemetery at Williamburg. It was written of him by one who knew him well that: "John K. Neff was a man of warm impulses, and cheerful temperament, and enlarged ideas. Ever alive to the needs of the hour, he was ever ready to exercise judicious enterprise

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OF BLAIR COUNTY.

in the development of advanced thought where it concerned business prosperity. He lived respected, and died sincerely mourned. Ilis record is a valuable heirloom to his posterity, to whose heart, many of the les- sons of which he was the teacher, may be proudly and profitably taken.

W ILLIAM MARK FRASER, a

prominent civil and mining engineer of Blair county, is the eldest son of Donald St. George and Janette (MacDonald) Fraser, and was born April 13, 1859, at Everton, Wellington county, in the British province of Ontario, Canada. William Russel Fraser, the paternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a native of Scotland, and his youth was spent in Edinburgh, his native city. Passing through the several schools, he began the study of medicine, and after spending the required number of years at Edinburgh university, received his diploma from that celebrated institution, and within sight of her walls built up for himself a large and successful practice. After several years he crossed the Atlantic, and finally settled in Fredericton, the capital of the Canadian province of New Brunswick, where he continued the practice of his profession for a number of years, and then returned to Edinburgh with his family, where he died in the year 1844. He married Mary Anne Needham, by whom he had a family of five children. ITis eldest son, Donald St. George Fraser, was born in Fredericton, New Brunswick, on the 23d day of April, 1833, and now resides in Staunton, Virginia, where he is engaged in his profession of civil and mining engineer. He came to the United States in 1861. By his marriage with Janette MacDonald he

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Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Blair County, Pennsylvania, Part 39

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