Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Blair County, Pennsylvania, Part 48

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

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him opportunity to look after his many other large business interests. He was largely instrumental in the organization of the First National bank of Tyrone, in the past summer (1885), and of this institution he was president and a director. He was also a stockholder and director in the How- ard Plate Glass Company, of Pittsburg. With A. A. Stevens he was associated in the ownership and operation of coal lands in the Cambria region. Besides these in- terests, he also owned valuable Chicago real estate, and had other business connections in the west. Mr. Morrison was a republi- can in politics, and although no politician, yet always took an active interest in the political issues of the day.

On October 16, 1886, the spirit of John Shaver Morrison took its flight from earth. He had suffered with an organic disease of the liver for over six months, until death came to release him from pain. His re- mains were interred in Mount Union ceme- tery, of Huntingdon county, and one who knew him well in life wrote truthfully of him after death: "The character of John S. Morrison was one of sturdy integrity and unwavering tenacity of purpose. He was a positive man, having liberal views in regard to men and measures. His was a friend- ship to be valued. With a mind incapable of deceit, he detected the good points in those with whom he came in contact, and he was ever warmly devoted to his friends. As a business man, his energy and wonder- ful will won for him the proud position which he occupied. He was a self-made man. To his town he was truly a bene- factor, and to him the people of Tyrone heartily gave the credit and honor which were justly due to one to whom Tyrone's growth and prosperity is so largely owing.

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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY

Dark seems the hour when those whom he had loved, and by whom he had been be- loved, are called to the stern realization that he is no more-that the parting is the final one in this world. The beauty of his life, which lives forever after him, is his en- during monument. The remembrance of the good which he has accomplished shall be to the sorrowing ones a comfort that will temper the bitterness of the hour."

FLUG. S. LANDIS, who for thirty-five

years has been a leading member of the Blair county bar, and for more than a quarter of a century the treasurer and solic- itor of Hollidaysburg borough, is a son of Dr. Joseph A. and Maria L. ( Holcomb) Landis, and was born June 4, 1834, at Pennington, New Jersey. The Landis fam- ily is of original German descent, having been planted in America at a very early day by one of the name who came from Prussia and settled in Hunterdon county, New Jersey. There Henry Landis (grand- father ) was born and reared, but while yet a young man removed to Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, where he married a daughter of David Cumming, a Scotch Quaker, who was among the earliest pio- heers of that county, coming from Inver- ness, Scotland. At one time IIenry Landis was a saddler in Philadelphia, and later a hotel keeper at Baltimore. He died about 1860, in Baltimore, but his wife survived him twenty years, dying in 1880, aged ninety-two.

Joseph A. Landis ( father) received an academie education, and in 1825 began the study of medicine with Dr. Nathaniel Pot- ter, professor of the theory and practice of medicine in the University of Maryland.

Ile graduated from that institution in 1828, and began practice at Pennington, New Jersey. In 1836 he went to Alexandria, Louisiana, where he practiced one year, and then, at the solicitation of Dr. Bramwell, who was retiring, came to Hollidaysburg and took charge of his large practice. From 1837 to 1868 Dr. Landis continued to prac- tice in this city and surrounding country. In the latter year he removed to Philadel- phia, where he was engaged in his profes- sion for six years, and then returned to Hollidaysburg. He was one of the original founders of the Blair County Medical so- ciety, a member of the Philadelphia Medical society while in that city, and after his return here served as president of the Blair county society. Ile was frequently sent as delegate to the State Medical society, and served for many years as physician to the county prison. In 1861 he served as a vol- unteer surgeon at Mount Pleasant hospital, Washington, District of Columbia. He was one of the county poor directors at the time of the erection of the county ahns house, and served five years as physician of that charity. He was prominent in the organ- ization of the Hollidaysburg Gas Company, and for several years its president. In Oc- tober, 1831, Dr. Landis married Maria L., daughter of Jacob Holcomb, of Hunterdon county, New Jersey, and this couple lived to celebrate their golden wedding in Octo- ber, 1881. To them was born a family of two sons and three daughters. Dr. Landis died November 20, 1886, at his home in Hollidaysburg, being then in his eighty- second year. His wife died August 27, 1884, on her eighty-fourth birthday.

Augustus S. Landis came to Hollidays- burg with his father's family when only three years of age, was reared and received

anq. S. Landier

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OF BLAIR COUNTY.

a common school and academic education in this city. In 1851 he entered the soph- omore class at Jefferson college, Cannons- burg, from which institution he was grad- nated with the class of 1853. Upon his return home from college he was appointed principal of the Hollidaysburg academy, but resigned in the following year to begin reading law with the Hon. Samuel Calvin, one of the pioneer jurists of Hollidaysburg. At the April term, 1857, Mr. Landis was admitted to the bar, and the following sum- mer opened a law office in Hollidaysburg. Incident to his law practice he was for some years associated editorially with the IIolli- daysburg Standard, during which he ren- dered valuable services to that journal with his trenchant and versatile pen. His writ- ing was generally commended for its force and vigor, while his keen insight and sound judgment enabled him to lead public opin- ion and exert great influence.

In the spring of 1860, at the solicitation of friends, Mr. Landis became a candidate for the office of treasurer and solicitor of Hollidaysburg, and was elected at the en- suing election. He has been annually reelected ever since. No better evidence could be offered of his zeal and fidelity in the discharge of official duty. In 1868 he became a member of the Hollidaysburg school board, and by reelection has re- mained connected with it to the present time. In October, 1872, he was elected a delegate from the Twenty-first Senatorial district to the constitutional convention which sat in Philadelphia the following year, and framed the present constitution of Pennsylvania. The district was composed of the counties of Blair, Bedford, Somerset, and Fulton. His colleagues were Hon. Samuel L. Russell, of Bedford, and Hon. J.

W. Curry, of Altoona. ITis law preceptor, llon. Samuel Calvin, was elected during the session of the constitutional convention to fill the vacancy caused by the death of IIon. II. N. McAllister, of Bellefonte. In the work of the convention Mr. Landis took an active and important part. In 1884 he was a delegate from this district to the National democratic convention at Cincinnati that nominated General W. S. Hancock to the presidency of the United States. On the death of Judge Clark, of the supreme bench, the bar of this and adjoining counties urged Governor Pattison to appoint Mr. Landis to the vacant seat, but the appointment was given to C. II. Heydrick, of Venango county. Among other important services rendered to his party, Mr. Landis has sev- eral times represented this county in State democratic conventions.

Ile was one of the original projectors of the enterprise which resulted in giving Hollidaysburg its present water supply. From the inception of the plan to the final completion of the water works he devoted his energies with untiring zeal to promoting its progress, and its success is justly con- sidered as very largely due to his efforts. He has for years been prominently identi- fied with various leading enterprises, nota- bly the Hollidaysburg and Gap Iron Works Company, the Hollidaysburg Gas Company, and the Hollidaysburg & Bedford Plank Road Company. He is an able advocate and active promoter of every movement calculated to advance the interests or de- velop the resources of his town and county, and has done much to leave his impress on the history of this section.

In November, 1865, Mr. Landis was united in marriage to Eleanor Porter, youngest daughter of the late John Porter,

ـباقت ميديكبـ

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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY

of Alexandria, Huntingdon county, of which county Mr. Porter was one of the best known and most widely honored citizens.

In January, 1864, Mr. Landis became a member of the First Presbyterian church of Hollidaysburg, and was chosen a ruling elder in January, 1868. In October, 1869, he was elected superintendent of the Sab- bath school connected with this church, and continued in that position till 1888, when he resigned.

DAVID A. SMITH, an active business man of Tyrone who has achieved suc- cess in the lumber business of Blair county, is a son of George A. and Margaret (Wil- liams ) Smith, and was born near Bellwood, Blair county, Pennsylvania, July 8, 1838. Ilis paternal grandfather, John M. Smith, was born near Hagerstown, in the western part of the State of Maryland, and in 1807 came to the vicinity of the site of the present city of Altoona, where he died in 1847, when seventy-eight years of age. Ile was a farmer by occupation, a whig in polities, and a Methodist in religious belief and church membership. He married Mary M. Maine, by whom he had ten children, six sons and four daughters. One of these sons was George A. Smith, the father of the subject of this sketch. George A. Smith was born in Blair county, where he grew to manhood in the present townships of Antis and Logan. When he came of age to do for himself he removed to near Bell- wood, where he was engaged in farming until his death in 1880, at seventy years of age. He was a farmer by occupation, a whig and republican in politics, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, in which he had served as class leader, trustee, and steward, and was active in

church work and had faithfully, energetic- ally, and efficiently served in every office which his church had ever called him to till. Ile was a hard-working man and a useful citizen in the community where he had resided for over half a century. In 1831 he married Margaret Williams, and to them were born four children, three sons and one daughter: John M., now dead; David A .; Adolphus H., who is unmarried and resides on the home farm; and Margaret, wife of Henry MeMullen, a successful farmer, who resides in Missouri. Mrs. Margaret ( Williams) Smith was a daughter of Thomas Williams, a democrat and Methodist, who married Mary Coleman and reared a family of six sons and four daughters, near Bellwood, where he owned a large farm, on which he died in 1845, when about seventy years of age. Mrs. Smith was born in 1812 and passed away in 1842, and after her death Mr. Smith married, in 1843, for his second wife, Catherine Nail, who bore him three children who grew to maturity: Lavina, Catherine, and G. Blair.

David A. Smith spent his boyhood days near Bellwood. He received a conmon school and academic education, and then was engaged in teaching and farming for six years. At the end of that time he relinquished teaching and followed agri- cultural pursuits until 1867, when he came to Tyrone, where he was engaged in butchering, merchandising, and various other lines of business for fifteen years. In 1882 he embarked in the saw mill busi- ness in Blair county, in which useful pur- suit he has continued successfully up to the present time.

David A. Smith has been twice married. His first wife, whom he married May 24,

OF BLAIR COUNTY.

1860, was Mary M. Creek, a daughter of Peter and Elizabeth Creek, of Clarion county, and who died Jannary 18, 1862. On August 16, 1863, Mr. Smith wedded Sarah J., daughter of James and Margaret Coleman, and has by his second marriage a family of ten children, three sons and seven daughters: Sanford C., who married Irene Calderwood and is a fireman on the Pennsylvania railroad; Ina R .; Edith M., wife of John Copenhaver, a druggist of Tyrone; Allen D .; Cora M .; George C .; Sarah G .; Florence E., living, and Paulina and Mary M., who died in infancy.

David A. Smith is a republican in politi- cal opinion, and has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal church since he was fifteen years of age. Among the many kinds of business there is none more useful or important than the lumber business, whose prosecution is essential to the build-

ing up and growth of town or city, as well as being necessary to the improvement of the farm and plantation. Mr. Smith has been energetic and successful in the lumber business, and commands a large trade, which he built up by close attention, hon- orable methods, and fair dealing. He is pleasant, genial, and generous, an excellent neighbor, and a true friend, and is well deserving of the popularity which he enjoys wherever he is known. His success in life has been achieved by energy, deter- mination, and persistent and patient effort.

REV. JOHN B. O'CONNOR, a schol- arly and courteous gentleman, and the assistant pastor of St. John's Catholic church of Altoona, is a son of Daniel and Mary (Brown ) O'Connor, and was born in the town of Killarney, County Kerry, prov-

ince of Munster, Ireland, June 24, 1824 Ilis parents were natives and life-long res idents of Ireland, where the name of O'Cor nor has been prominent in Trish history fc several centuries.

Jolm B. O'Connor was reared in hi native land, and attended the excellent Na tional schools of Ireland. At seventee years of age he left the parental roof an came to America and entered Foxcro: academy, Maine; then went to the Hol Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts. Afte completing his collegiate course he came t St. Michael's seminary, Pittsburg, and the he entered the Baltimore Theological sem nary, from which well and favorably know institution he was graduated in 1854. 0 September 22d, of the same year, he wa ordained to the priesthood, at Pittsburg, E Bishop Michael O'Conner, and was imme diately assigned to pastoral work at Ten peranceville, west side, Pittsburg, where } was actively engaged for several years. A the end of that time he was stationed : Cameron's Bottom, Indiana county, ar served that charge acceptably until 187 when he was given important pastoral wor in Altoona, in the discharge of whose r sponsible duties he was successfully engage for one year. He then obtained leave . absence for six months and visited his nativ land, from which he had been absent in tl new world for nearly the third of a centur After returning from Ireland he took charg of the Sugar Creek congregation, in Arr strong county, until he removed to ar took charge of the Coylesville church, Bu ler county, where he remained up to 188 In that year he was appointed assista pastor of St. John's Catholic church, of A toona, where he has faithfully labored ev since.

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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY

St. John's church was organized in 1852, and its present commodious church edifice was erected by Bishop John Tuigg, in 1871. It was dedicated on June 24, 1875, the feast of St. John, for whom the church was named, by the Right Rev. M. Domenec, then bishop of the diocese. The present membership of the church is nearly five thousand, and in this wide and most im- portant field Father O'Connor has been most earnestly laboring for the last three years. He is scholarly, energetic, and zeal- ous in the cause of the church and civiliza- tion, and has been very successful in his pastoral labors of thirty-seven years in cen- tral and western Pennsylvania.

JOHN M. RHODES, a substantial and popular citizen of Mines and Huston township, and in all probability the oldest stock dealer in Blair county, although not an old man, is a son of Abraham and Eliza (MeGraw) Rhodes, and was born in Huston township, Blair county, Pennsylvania, Feb- ruary 11, 1840. The Rhodes are of German descent, and Mr. Rhodes' paternal grand- father, Daniel Rhodes, was born in Lan- caster county, and at an early day took up a tract of three thousand acres of land in Huston township and Morrison's cove. IIe was a democrat in politics, an active mem- ber of the Mennonite church, and one of the leading and prominent men in his part of the county. He was the largest land- holder in his time in his section, and died at Fredericksburg, Pennsylvania, in 1852, aged eighty-nine years. He married twice, a Miss Funck being his first wife, while his second wife was Betsey DeRush, by whom he had nine children, six sons and three

daughters. His son, Abraham Rhodes (father), was born on the old Rhodes farm and died on Piney creek, in Huston town- ship, January 20, 1882, aged eighty-one years, eleven months and thirteen days. Hle was a farmer by occupation, and a democrat in politics, and was prominent in local affairs. He served as a school director for fifteen years in succession, was a justice of the peace for several years, and took an active part in the support of his party. He was a member and deacon of the Reformed church, married Eliza McGraw, and had a family of eight children, one son and seven daughters. Mrs. Rhodes is a daughter of William McGraw, who was a native of Fredericksburg, Pennsylvania, where he kept the Goat hotel for a number of years before his death, which occurred at sixty-one years of age. Ile was a mill- burr manufacturer, a democrat in politics, and a strict member of the Catholic church. IIe married Jane Thompson, by whom he had three children, two sons and one daughter, of whom only Mrs. Rhodes is living.

John M. Rhodes was reared on the farm, received his education in the common schools, and has always followed farming. Ile was general agent in the fire and stock insurance business for ten years, and during eight years of that time represented the Little York Stock Insurance Company, whose business in Blair county he estab- lished and built up to respectable propor- tions. Mr. Rhodes is a very fine judge of horses, cattle, and sheep, and is. probably the oldest stock dealer in the county, as he commenced buying sheep and cattle at fourteen years of age. He owns a good farm of one hundred and sixty-five acres of productive land.

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OF BLAIR COUNTY.

On November 4, 1859, Mr. Rhodes mar- ried Barbara, daughter of Adam and Susan ( Garner) Fouse, of Huston township. Mr. and Mrs. Rhodes have been the parents of three children : Adam, now dead; Sarah J., wife of David B. Barnett; and John F., who married Lemma Hazzard, of Saxton, Bedford county, Pennsylvania, and is en- gaged in painting of every description and the manufacture of fancy brackets.

John M. Rhodes has been one of the most successful veterinary surgeons in this part of the country, and owns a general merchandise store. lle is a conservative republican in politics, and has served as supervisor and school director, although refusing at different times to become a candidate for a county office. He is a member of the Reformed church, is pleas- ant, cheery, and industrious, and has the respect and goodwill of all who know him.

H ON. EDMUND SHAW, a leading lawyer of Altoona, and a wounded Union officer of the late civil war, is a son of John and Mary (Waring) Shaw, and was born near Phillipsburg, Centre county, Pennsylvania, December 4, 1836. His pa- ternal grandfather, Robert Shaw, was a native of the celebrated north of Ireland, which has sent such a stream of substantial and fearless people into the territory of the present United States during the past two centuries. About the year 1795, two brothers, Archibald and Robert Shaw, emi- grated to America from County Derry, Ire- land, and settled in the Kishacoquillas val- ley, in Mifflin county. Archibald Shaw married and was the father of seven chil- dren, namely : John, Richard, Archibald, Robert, Mary, Margaret, and Jane, all of

whom settled in and about Clearfield, in Clearfield county. Robert Shaw, the other brother, was twice married, and by his first wife ( Miss MeIlvaine ) had five children Richard, Jane, James, Mary Ann, and John and by his second wife ( Miss Mary Criss- man ) had four children: Adam, Robert Archibald, and Margaret. The body of his first wife was buried in the cemetery a Reedsville, in Mifflin county; that of hi; second wife in the old cemetery at Phillips burg, in Centre county, and his own body was buried in the "Friends' Grave Yard,' in Half Moon valley, Centre county.

John Shaw, the father of the subject o this sketch, was the youngest son by the first wife of Robert Shaw, and was born, il the third year of the present century, il Mifflin county, and died at Phillipsburg, i: Centre county, May 9, 1869, aged sixty-si. years. John Shaw was a cabinet maker b trade. Ile removed to Phillipsburg, i Centre county, when quite a young mar and there followed his trade until abor 1835, when he purchased a tract of land i Decatur township, Clearfield county, an was then engaged in farming until withi a few years of his death, which occurred : Phillipsburg, where he had purchased residence, and had retired from active bus ness life. He was a member of the Pre byterian church, and in politics was a den oerat, and had held several of the mo important of the township offices. IIe w: twice married. His first wife was Jar Ann MeGirk, of Phillipsburg, who die without children, a year or two after ma riage. His second wife was Mary Warin a daughter of William Waring, of Phillip burg, Centre county, who had removed . that place in 1821, from Herefordshire, E gland. Mary Waring was born in the ye

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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY

1809, on June 21st, and was the youngest of seven children. She was brought in the year 1821 to Pennsylvania by her parents. She was a member of the Protestant Epis- copal church in early life, but afterward imited with the Presbyterian church, and died November 19, 1873, at the age of sixty-four years. Of the eight children born unto John Shaw and Mary ( Waring) Shaw four are living: Edmund; Harvey; Mary J., of Washington; and Alfred, of the same city.

Edmund Shaw was reared on the home farm near Phillipsburg, and his education was received in the common schools, Cass- ville seminary, and the Millersville State Normal school in Lancaster county. Leav- ing Millersville he taught one term of school at Curwensville, in Clearfield county, and on September 16, 1861, he enlisted .as a private in Co. K, 110th regiment Penn- sylvania volunteers, for a term of three years. He was successively promoted to corporal, sergeant, and sergeant-major of the regiment, which latter rank he held when severely wounded at Chancellorsville, and unfitted for further active military duty and deprived of all chance of future promo- tion in line of field service. He first saw active service in the battle of Winchester, March 23, 1862, and was in all of the skirmishes and battles of his regiment through the Shenandoah valley, and with the Army of the Potomac to the battle of Chancellorsville, where he was wounded, taken prisoner, and held for two weeks by the Confederates. He was then paroled, and remained in the Union hospitals at Falmouth, Virginia, and Chestnut Hill hos- pital, Philadelphia, until January, 1864, when he was so far recovered from his wounds as to be able to be detailed for duty

as a clerk in the provost-marshal's office in Washington city, where he served until he was honorably discharged at the expiration of his term of enlistment, September 16, 1864. He then returned home, and after- ward entered the law department of the University of Michigan, from which he was graduated in the law course in 1867. Dur- ing the same year he went to the city of Martinsburg, Berkeley county, West Vir- ginia, where he was admitted to the bar in the early part of 1868. He practiced there for nearly five years, and for the last two years of that time was prosecuting attorney of Berkeley county, having been elected to that position on the republican ticket. In 1873 Mr. Shaw came from Martinsburg to Altoona, as a more inviting and wider field for the practice of his profession, was ad- mitted, December 17th of that year, to prac- tice in the courts of Blair county, and the supreme court of Pennsylvania, and has since then built up gradually his present fine and extensive practice.

On December 14, 1869, he married Mary E., daughter of Dr. David R. Smith (de- ceased ), of Newburg, Cumberland county, this State, who was a very prominent phy- sician of his town and county and the Cum- berland valley.

Edmund Shaw practices before the county, State and United States courts, and always handles his clients' cases in a masterly man- ner. He is a republican in politics, and in religion is of the Presbyterian faith. In municipal affairs he has always taken a deep interest, and was a member of the cel- ebrated Committee of Forty-eight in Al- toona, which was organized in 1882. He has ever taken an active part in politics, and served his city for one term as a mem- ber of the city council. In 1884 Mr. Shaw

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Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Blair County, Pennsylvania, Part 48

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