USA > Pennsylvania > Blair County > Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Blair County, Pennsylvania > Part 49
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OF BLAIR COUNTY.
was nominated by the Republican party as one of their two candidates for the legisla- ture from Blair county, and at the ensuing election was chosen by the usual majority of his party. In 1886 he was re-nominated by the republicans, and on November 2d of that year received the highest vote cast for any republican candidate in the county at that election, He served creditably during his second term, was a member of the two chief committees-judiciary, general and municipal corporations-and watched care- fully the interests of his county and con- stituents.
ELDON W. HARTMAN, an efficient
and successful business man, and a prominent and useful citizen of Woodbury township, is a son of Benjamin and Penina M. (Wilson) Hartman, and was born at Manor Hill, Huntingdon county, Pennsyl- vania, March 3, 1847. The Hartmans are of German descent. Benjamin Hartman was born April 5, 1805, near Ickesburg, Perry county, from which he removed in 1840 to Huntingdon county, where he was variously employed until 1870, in which year he went to Springfield Furnace, at which place he died August 31, 1880, aged seventy-five years. He was engaged, until 1861, in merchandising at Manor Hill, Nett's Mills, and Cottage, and was post- master at the last named place. Hle fol- lowed stock dealing to some extent in early life, and was engaged in farming for some years before his death. He was a republi- can, was well known and popular through- out Huntingdon county, and married Penina M. Wilson, by whom he had nine children, of whom five grew to manhood and woman- hood : Mary E., wife of John A. Martin, a blacksmith and farmer of Royer; Eldon W .;
Henry W., who married Mary Holliday and is president of the Hartman Manufacturing Company, of Beaver Falls, and Pittsburg Company, of Pittsburg, and laid out the town of Elwood City, Lawrence county, where he now resides; Jesse L., who mar- ried Ella M. Dennison, and lives at Holli- daysburg. He has been prominently en- gaged in the iron business, and is now prothonotary of Blair county; and Frank R., who married Jane Carl, now dead, and lives at Elwood City. Mrs. Penina M. (Wilson ) Hartman was born in 1817, near Masseysburg, Huntingdon county ; she was the first to die out of a family of nine children, the youngest of which was fifty- five years old at time of her death. Her parents both lived to be nearly ninety years of age, and the Wilson family is one among the old and early settled families of Hunt- ingdon county.
Eldon W. Hartman passed his boyhood days in his native county, teaching school in the winter and going to school in the summer. He received his education at Tuscarora academy, Juniata county. Leav- ing school, he sought to especially qualify himself for business, and entered the Iron City Business college, of Pittsburg, from which he was graduated at the completion of his course. Returning from Pittsburg, he was engaged in teaching until the autumn of 1867, when he went to Spring- ville, Lynn county, Iowa, where he em- barked in the drug business. A year later he disposed of his drug store, and, in the latter part of the year 1870, became a clerk in a hardware store at Port Royal, Juniata county, where he remained one year. HIe then served, until July, 1874, as a passenger brakeman and assistant agent on the Penn- sylvania railroad, and at the end of that
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
time became book-keeper for the Cambria Iron Company, at the Springfield mines, which position he held until July, 1890, when he quit their employ, and has since resided at the old Royer homestead, at Springfield Furnace.
On December 18, 1878, Mr. Hartman was united in marriage with Anna M. Royer, daughter of Samuel and. Martha Royer, of Springfield Furnace. Mr. and Mrs. Hartman have one child, a son named Royer P., who was born September 5, 1879.
Eldon W. Hartman is an unswerving republican who warmly advocates the car- dinal principles of his party, and has served as a school director of Woodbury township for fifteen years. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, of Williams- burg, of which he is a steward and trustee. He is also a member of Juniata Castle, No. 105, Knights of the Golden Eagle, of which order he is district grand chief of the Third division of Blair county. Mr. Hartman is pleasant, intelligent, and agree- able. IIe is a man of sound judgment and correct business principles, and has always been successful in whatever enterprise he has been engaged.
B. ELLIOTT, M. D., who holds a diploma from the Jefferson Medical college of Philadelphia, and has been in successful practice at various places during nearly two decades, was born at Mount Savage, Maryland, on the 23d of April, 1851. Ilis paternal grandfather, John Elliott, came from the north of Ireland, and settled in Ligonier valley, Westmoreland county, in 1797. C. B. Elliott's parents were John and Catherine ( Miller) Elliott, both natives of Somerset county, Pennsyl-
vania. John Elliott was a large lumber dealer, and removed to Blair county about 1856, where lie resided and did business until 1885. He died in 1891. He was a republican and abolitionist in politics, and was connected with the "underground rail- way," by which many slaves from the south- ern states made their way to freedom in the Dominion of Canada. When the civil war came on he took an active part in muster- ing troops for the field, and was instrumen- tal in raising several companies of infantry for service in the Union army. He married Catherine Miller, by whom he had a family of three children : C. B., the subject of this sketch ; Jack M., now in the coal and lum- ber business at Coalport, Clearfield county ; and Laura B., who married John Weller, ex-county superintendent of schools in Som- erset county, who, in 1891, was elected to the State assembly by the republicans of that county. Mrs. Catherine Elliott is still living, being now in her sixty-fourth year.
C. B. Elliott received his education in the seminary at Tipton, Blair county, which he attended for three years, and then took up the study of medicine in the office of Dr. Clark, then of Bellwood, now of Tyrone. After reading for some time with Dr. Clark, Mr. Elliott matriculated at Jefferson Med- ical college, Philadelphia, and was gradu- ated from that institution on March 14, 1873, with the degree of M. D. For two years he remained in the hospitals of Phil- adelphia for the purpose of familiarizing himself with all phases of disease and the most approved methods of treatment. Leaving that city, he located at Osceola Mills, Clearfield county, where he practiced until that town was destroyed by fire, and Dr. Elliott lost all he possessed. Nothing daunted, however, he came to Altoona,
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OF BLAIR COUNTY.
where he opened an office, and was engaged in practice for a period of two years, when he returned to Clearfield county and prac- ticed at Coalport until he was again burned out. Ile then went to Philadelphia and re- mained a year, taking hospital dispensary instructions, after which time he returned to Altoona, where he has ever since devoted his time and attention to the general prac- tice of his profession with gratifying suc- cess. Dr. Elliott has at different times taken several special courses of instruction in leading medical institutions, and in his practice makes a specialty of diseases of the eye, ear, and throat. Ile has a well earned reputation as a surgeon, and his success has been so uniform in his specialties he has acquired considerable reputation as a special- ist, while establishing his standing as a gen- eral practitioner.
In his political predilections Dr. Elliott is a republican, but too broad minded and liberal in his views to be a bitter partisan. In religious belief he is a protestant.
On September 4, 1880, Dr. C. B. Elliott was united in marriage with Laura M. Cherry, daughter of John W. Cherry, of Altoona.
EDMUND J. PRUNER, of Tyrone, who has been engaged extensively in the lumbering business since 1857, is a son of David I. and Sarah ( Denny) Pruner, and was born at Bellefonte, Centre county, Penn- sylvania, February 22, 1840. The name of the family was originally written Bruner, and was changed to its present form of spelling, as Pruner, by David I. Pruner. Peter Pruner, or Bruner, the great-grand- father of the subject of this sketch, was a native of Holland, settled on Manhattan Island, New York, and was among the very
first Dutch settlers in that locality. He married, and one of his sons, Peter, jr. (grandfather), came to Jonestown, Lebanon county, this State, and subsequently removed to Wolf's Store, Miles township, Centre county, where he followed his trade of mil- ler until his death. He was a Jacksonian democrat in politics, and married a Miss Wolf, by whom he had four children, two sons and two daughters. One of these sons, David Pruner (father), was born March 4, 1804, at Wolf's Store, Centre county, Penn- sylvania, where he was reared and educated. In 1816 he went to Buffalo run, near Belle- fonte, and learned the trade of carpenter. In 1819 he removed to Bellefonte, where he followed carpentering, contracting and building up to about 1835 or 1836. His death occurred in 1880. He constructed portions of the old West Branch canal, and erected many of the present houses of Belle- fonte. He was a man of energy and fore- sight, and in 1854 purchased the Osceola property, then a dense wilderness, and ob- tained a charter for the Tyrone & Clearfield railroad, which was located through the Osceola tract, and was built by Mr. Pruner and several others whom he interested in the railroad, to Phillipsburg, Centre county, which was afterward continued to Clearfield by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. He was a democrat until 1854, and after that a republican, and was appointed, by Gov. David R. Porter, as a justice of the peace, which office he held by appointment and election for twenty consecutive years. In 1826, at Bellefonte, he was married, by Rev. James Lynn, to Sarah Denny, and to them were born eight children, five sons and three daughters: Margaret, now dead; Mrs. Mary Shrom, of Bellefonte; Mrs. Sallie Hoffer, widow of John Hoffer, of Bellefonte ;
26
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
William, accidentally killed by falling from a loaded wagon at Tyrone, in 1859; Lieu- tenant Daniel, who enlisted for three months in 1861, then re-enlisted in the 11th United States infantry, was transferred to the 22d cavalry, and participated in nearly all of the battles of the Army of the Potomac until 1864, when he died from the effects of exposure ; Joseph, who enlisted, in 1861, in Captain Bell's company, and was afterward trans- ferred to the signal service corps of the Army of the Potomac; Edmund J .; and Robert, who enlisted in the 45th Pennsyl- vania infantry, was transferred to the cav- alry service, and after the war was struck and killed, in 1884, by a locomotive in the Tyrone railroad yards. Mrs. Pruner was a daughter of Peter Denny, who came with his uncle from England to America, about the close of the revolutionary war, on the ship Roebuck, and settled in Cumberland county, this State. From there he removed to a farm near Bellefonte, and on which he died in 1818. He served in the American army during the war of 1812, and married Margaret MeCauley, by whom he had seven children, three sons and four daughters. Mrs. Margaret Denny was born in County Antrim, Ireland, and crossed the ocean with her uncle, who settled in Cumberland county. She died at Bellefonte in 1859, at the ripe old age of ninety-four years.
Edmund J. Pruner received a common school education, and in 1853 became a clerk in a general mercantile store at Belle- fonte, where he remained two years, when he went to Philadelphia to enter the em- ploy of Pomeroy, Lincoln & Co. IIe con- tinued in the employ of that firm until 1857, when he came to Tyrone, where he engaged in the general mercantile and lumber busi- ness, in partnership with Jacob Burley,
under the firm name of Pruner & Burley. In the lumber business they ran several steam portable saw mills, and filled large bills on contracts, which they had with the United States government and the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. They conducted a very successful business, both in merchandising and lumbering, until 1868, when they dis- solved partnership, and since that time Mr. Pruner has been engaged in looking after his real estate, western land and railroad interests. He is a self-made man, and has achieved his success in business life by his own unaided efforts.
In politics Mr. Pruner is a stanch repub- lican, and while ever ready to work for the interests of his party, yet is no politician. Mr. Pruner came to Tyrone from Philadel- phia in 1857, and has been a resident of Tyrone ever since. He was one of the original stockholders in the Northern Pacific railroad, and was with it until the road was completed from Duluth to the Missouri river and to Bismarck, four hundred and fifty miles west of Lake Superior. He sold out his interests before Jay Cooke failed, in 1873. Ile has also been interested in and one of the promoters of Kansas railroads. He is a member of Juniata Lodge, No. 282, and Mt. Moriah Chapter, both of Hollidays- burg, and a life member of each ; also a life member of Kadosh Commandery, No. 29, Knights Templar, of Philadelphia; and of the Philadelphia Consistory of Ancient Scottish Rite Masons, thirty-second degree.
W ILLIAM J. POWELL, an indus- trious citizen and skillful iron worker of Hollidaysburg, was born in Monmouth- shire county, at the village of Pontypool, Wales, June 28, 1856. Ilis father died
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OF BLAIR COUNTY.
when he was young, and his mother mar- ried James Barnes for her second husband.
William J. Powell, at ten years of age, was brought by his aunt, Mrs. Jane Wil- liams, and her husband, Thomas Williams, a molder by trade, to Bonton, New Jersey. Mr. and Mrs. Williams afterward removed to Allentown, this State, and now reside at Sharon, Mercer county. William J. Pow- ell received his education at Allentown, Pennsylvania. At an early age he entered a rolling mill and learned the trade of roller, which he has followed ever since. In 1885 he came to Hollidaysburg, where he has resided ever since, and has been in the em- ploy of the Hollidaysburg Iron & Nail Company.
In 1876, at Sharon, Mercer county, Mr. Powell married Margaret Goodwin, of Brookfield, Ohio, who died March 1, 1889, and left three children : George, Thomas, and William. On February . 10, 1891, Mr. Powell was united in marriage with Mary Hitchings, of Hollidaysburg, and by his second marriage has one child, named John, who was born November 26, 1891.
In politics Mr. Powell is a democrat, while in religious faith and church men- bership he is a Presbyterian. He is relia- ble and energetic, and ranks high as a skilled workman. He is a member of Lodge No. 11, Artisans' Order of Mutual Protection, and Portage Lodge, No. 220, Free and Accepted Masons, of Hollidays- burg.
ISAAC CRAWFORD, one of the most substantial and reliable business men of Tyrone township and northern Blair county, is a descendant of the old pioneer Crawford family, planted in central Penn- sylvania prior to the revolutionary war by
James Crawford, sr., of Adams county. He is a son of Capt. James and Eunice (Tubbs) Crawford, and was born on the farm where he now lives, near Arch Spring, in Sinking valley, Tyrone township, Blair county, Penn- sylvania, May 24, 1829. His paternal grand- father, James Crawford, sr., was a native of that wonderful and historic north of Ire- land, whose hardy and adventurous sons bore so honorable and prominent a part in winning the independence of the Thirteen Colonies. James Crawford, sr., first settled in Adams county, but hearing frequently of the fertility of the wonderful valley drained by the blue waters of the beautiful Juniata, he soon abandoned his home in eastern Pennsylvania and came to Sinking valley, settling on the farm where his grandson, Isaac Crawford, the subject of this sketch, now resides. The revolutionary war opened a short time after he had settled in Sinking valley, and the Indian raids made into the Juniata valley compelled him to return to Adams county. After the colonies had won their independence and peace was declared, Mr. Crawford came back to Sinking valley, where he died in 1822, at seventy-three years of age, while Eleanor, his widow, sur- vived him seven years, dying in 1829. They had a family of eight children, three sons and five daughters: Thomas, Capt. James, Armstrong, Mary, wife Charles Cadwalla- der; Betsey, married James McNeil; Mar- garet, wife of Robert Adams; Eleanor, wife of Thomas Wallace; and Nancy, who mar- ried Mark Graham. Capt. James Crawford (father), the second son, was born in Adams county in 1778, and died in Sinking valley in 1848, aged seventy-three years. He was a farmer and a whig, like his father before him, and was a consistent member of the Presbyterian church. He was commissioned
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
by the governor of Pennsylvania as a cap- tain of a militia company, which he com- manded for many years. Captain Craw- ford, in 1818, married Eunice Tubbs, who was born in 1797, and died in 1886, at the advanced age of eighty-eight years. They were the parents of eleven children, five sons and six daughters: Thomas, James, Lucinda, Mary, Elizabeth, Isaac, Foster, Anna, Ellen, John A., and Emma.
Isaac Crawford was reared on the farm, received his education in the schools of his neighborhood, and commenced life for him- self as a farmer. In a short time he branched out in other lines of business, and purchased the Arch Spring property, which consisted of several acres of land, a flouring mill, store, and several dwellings. He did a very large and successful business at Arch Spring until 1887, when he disposed of the entire property, which had become very valuable by that time, and removed to his present home farm of one hundred and sixty acres of land, where he has resided ever since. Mr. Craw- ford also owns a farm of one hundred and forty acres, which is but a short distance from where he resides. He is a member of the well known mercantile firm of Temple- ton & Crawford, of Tyrone. They deal in dry goods and groceries, carry a large and complete stock of goods in every depart- ment of their house, and enjoy an extensive and remunerative trade.
Isaac Crawford is a republican in poli- tics, and although actively interested in political affairs at an early day, and ever holding that interest until the present time, yet the career of business which he mapped out for himself in early life, and which he has so successfully pursued ever since, has demanded and received the principal part of his time, to the exclusion of nearly every-
thing else. Mr. Crawford is a membe the Presbyterian church, and is an exan of the success which crowns patient indu and untiring effort in the business work
ANDREW KIPPLE, foreman, at
toona, of the car shops of the frei department of the Pennsylvania Railr Company, in whose employ he has s forty-one years of active and continu service, is a son of Jacob Kipple, and born in Dauphin county, Pennsylvania, J 20, 1830.
. Andrew Kipple was reared in Daup county, received his education in the co mon schools, and then learned the trade; carpenter and cabinet maker, to which served an apprenticeship of three ye under a first-class workman. On July 1851, he entered the service of the Pe sylvania Railroad Company as a workn in their car-building shops at Harrisbu from which he was transferred, in 1853. Altoona, where he first worked in the and machine shops, and afterward seri for two years as a gang leader in the p senger car shops. On the 28th of Septe ber, 1857, he was appointed by Christ Hostetler as foreman of the shops of i freight department, which position he ] held ever since.
In 1857 Mr. Kipple married Rachel Sw gart, daughter of Peter Sweigart, of Daupl county, and they have four children livir Oliver, William, Andrew, and Charles.
Andrew Kipple is a republican in politi and has served as a member of the c council. He is a member of Verand Lodge, No. 532, Independent Order of ( Fellows, and a member and trustee Eighth Avenue Methodist Episcopal chur
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OF BLAIR COUNTY.
of Altoona. He owns some desirable real estate in the city, and is a director of the Altoona Street Car Company and the Clear- field, Northern & Altoona Railroad Com- pany. Mr. Kipple is an intelligent and in- dustrious citizen, and a skilled and efficient workman.
DAM J. WOLF, a highly respected citizen of Hollidaysburg, and a man whose honesty and industry won for him a large trade while he was in the cabinet making and undertaking business, is a son of Joseph and Mary ( Fohman ) Wolf, and was born at Assamstadt, Baden, county of Boxberg, Germany, December 21, 1821. The paternal ancestors of Adam J. Wolf were born in Germany, and died in their native country. Joseph Wolf ( father) was à cabinet maker by trade, and married Mary Fohman, who was a daughter of Dr. Carl Fohman, a native of Baden, Germany, and a physician by profession. Mr. and Mrs. Wolf reared a family of five sons and four daughters, all of whom were born in Ger- many. The daughters are all deceased. Of the sons, Valentine resides in Germany, and the others, who came to America, were: John, who located at Duncansville, and after living there many years passed the last few years of his life in Pittsburg, where he died; Francis, settled at Duncansville, where he resided until his death ; Joseph, removed to Texas, where he lived for a number of years ; and Adam J., now of Hollidaysburg.
Adam J. Wolf received his education in the schools of Germany, where education has attained a high standard of excellence. At the age of twenty-two years, in the year 1843, he crossed the Atlantic, and after residing two years in Philadelphia, he re- moved to Hollidaysburg and worked as a
journeyman cabinet maker; shortly there- after he started in business for himself. By thrift and economy and attention to busi- ness, he accumulated sufficient to purchase property and build cabinet and undertaking rooms on Allegheny street, just opposite where he now resides. His present resi- dence adjoins the large and commodious building known as Wolf's Hall, built in 1879. Other buildings in the town which he erected bear evidence to his enterprise. After being a number of years in the furni- ture and undertaking business, he afterward transferred it to his eldest son, William, who still continues therein. Since Mr. Wolf quit the furniture and undertaking business he has lived a retired life in Hollidaysburg, although his sons usually consult him in business enterprises.
On January 7, 1850, he married Mary Elizabeth Hurm, a daughter of Godfred Hurm, of Weildorf, Germany. To their union was born a family of six sons: Wil- liam, now engaged in the cabinet making and undertaking business at Hollidaysburg, having succeeded his father ; Henry A., who has been a hardware dealer in Altoona for several years, and is now doing business at 1318 Eleventh avenue, as a partner in the Altoona Hardware and Supply Company ; Salem Joseph, also engaged in the hardware business in Altoona, to which he removed from Hollidaysburg the present year, pre- viously and since 1876 doing the principal hardware business in Hollidaysburg, his father being associated with him till 1884; Adam Richard, in 1880 started into the hardware business at Altoona, and lately disposed of his interest in the Altoona Hardware & Supply Company, with the in- tention of starting into the wholesale busi- ness; Charles E., is also a resident of the
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
Mountain City, and engaged in the hard- ware business at No. 1108 Eleventh avenue, and has made a thorough success of the same; and Frank X., who died at the age of sixteen years, in the year 1875. His five sons living are all married, and Mr. and Mrs. Wolf have already many grandchildren.
In political sentiment Mr. Wolf closely adheres to the Republican party, but has never aspired to any office. IIe is one of the oldest members of St. Mary's Catholic church of Hollidaysburg.
WILLIAM WORTH DUNMIRE, now
proprietor and editor of the Indepen- dent Loyal American, at Altoona, who has acquired considerable reputation as a writer, and in former years was a well known min- ister of the Methodist Episcopal church, is a son of Gabriel and Ann (Aultz ) Dunmire, and was born March 29, 1847, near McVey- ton, Mifflin county, Pennsylvania. The Dunmires are descended from an old Ger- man family, this branch being planted in America by Henry Dunmire (grandfather ), who emigrated from the Fatherland in 1784, and soon afterward settled in Mifflin county, where he lived until the shadows of death closed around him, in 1849, after an existence of four score years less one. He was a farmer by occupation, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. His son, Gabriel Dunmire (father), was born in Mifflin county in 1809, and now resides on the old homestead, being in the eighty- fourth year of his age. He is still active and vigorous, and can yet do a good day's work. He is a prosperous farmer, a mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal church, and a republican in politics. He had four sons in the Union army during the civil war.
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