USA > Pennsylvania > Allegheny County > Pittsburgh > Biographical review : v. 24, containing life sketches of leading citizens of Pittsburgh and the vicinity, Pennsylvania > Part 41
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Peter Jacob Stouffer received his early edu- cation at Mount Pleasant. Soon after leaving school, he was so injured by a fall that he was unable to enter business; and he engaged in school-teaching for a time, studying medicine in his leisure hours. After some years he took employment in a store at Uniontown. Subsequently he formed a partnership with
Henry White, under the firm name of Stouffer & White, which lasted from 1856 to 1860. In this period he continued his medical stud- ies with Dr. Lohr, of Mount Pleasant. He began the practice of medicine in 1870 at Connellsville. When he was in a position to renew his studies, he went to Cincinnati, where he attended the Eclectic Medical Col- lege. Since then he has practised in Mount Union, Mount Pleasant, Beaver Falls, and at Pittsburg, where he has been for the past nine years. His practice is restricted to chronic ailments exclusively, for which he and his sons make and sell remedies, well known to the public, including Dr. Stouffer's Cough Syrup.
On December 24, 1869, Dr. Stouffer mar- ried Sarah Yeagley, daughter of Henry and Phebe (Lincoln) Yeagley, of Fayette County, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Stouffer is a descendant of Baltzer Yeakle, a general in the Prussian army, who fled to this country because of re- ligious persecution, and settled in New Jersey, it is said, not long after the first set- tlements had been made in New England. Mrs. Stouffer's paternal grandfather was An- drew Yeakle or Yeagley, who married Sarah Davis, and resided in New Jersey until the birth of his youngest child, Henry. Henry Yeagley moved to Fayette County, Pennsyl- vania, near Connellsville, where he engaged in farming, and became a man of considerable influence, being much respected for his moral character and public spirit. He was one of the first advocates in Fayette of the free- school system, and did his utmost to advance the cause of education. Honest, industrious, and frugal, he accumulated a fair competence, which made him independent in his declining years. He and his wife were members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and their re- ligion was of that practical kind that is mani-
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fested in the daily acts of life no less than in a public profession of faith. His wife, Phebe, to whom he was married June 10, 1824, was a daughter of Benjamin and Eliza- beth (Oves) Lincoln, of Fayette County, and was one of nine children. Mr. and Mrs. Henry Yeagley had seven children, namely : George, a teacher, and at one time superin- tendent of public schools in Fayette, who married Eliza Mcray, by whom he had two sons and a daughter; Henry, an eclectic phy- sician, now of Lancaster, who married Sarah Dibert, of Johnstown, and has three sons and two daughters; Andrew, who married Mary Crily, of Johnstown (now librarian of the Carnegie Library there), and who died in Oc- tober, 1889, as the result of injuries received when making his escape at the Johnstown flood, breaking a blood-vessel in his lungs while jumping from roof to roof; Elizabeth Lincoln, who died in 1857, at the age of twenty-three years from typhoid fever; Sarah Y., who became the wife of P. J. Stouffer, the subject of this sketch, and who, previous to her marriage, was for fifteen years a teacher in the public and select schools; Rhoda L., who married Captain E. Dunn, a successful merchant in Connellsville, and has had three children, of whom two are now liv- ing; B. Lincoln, the youngest, a physician, who married Jane Flennigen, of Johnstown, by whom he had three sons, one of whom is now deceased, the father also dying in Febru- ary, 1895. Mrs. Stouffer has borne her hus- band two sons - Jacob Kenry and Benjamin WV., who were educated at Curry Institute, are engaged in electrical work, and are also in the job printing business. Dr. Stouffer and his wife are members of the Duquesne Heights Methodist Episcopal Church. He was for many years active in the Sunday-school of that society, and he is now the president of its
Board of Trustees. He resides on Duquesne Heights, where he built his present handsome residence. He is a member of the North- western Medical Association of the city, is connected with the State and national asso- ciations, and has twice been the president of the State Medical Association. In politics he has always been an active Democrat, but recently he has favored the Prohibition party.
ILLIAM V. MARQUIS, M.D., a well-known medical practitioner of Pittsburg, Pa., whose office is at 49 Klopfer Street, is of French Huguenot de- scent, and was born in Bucyrus, Ohio, March 7, 1837, son of David and Elizabeth (Marquis) Marquis.
In regard to the early history of the Marquis tribe there are, at least, two traditions. By one faction it is contended that the beginning was the emigration of William and Mary Marquis from Ireland in 1720 on the good ship "Mayflower "; that they settled in Frederick County, Maryland, some time later removed to near Winchester, Va., and remained there until 1770, when a part of the tribe migrated to Washington County, Pennsylvania. The original William and Mary had one son and one daughter. Whether the daughter lived and married is not known. The son, James Marquis, married, and had born to him at least one daughter and four sons; namely, William, James, John, and Thomas, the last the great- grandfather of the subject of this sketch. In 1774 two sons, John and Thomas, joined the Virginia Colonial army to quell what is known as Lord Dunmore's Rebellion. The army to which they belonged disbanded after that war in North-western Ohio. Returning to their homes in Virginia, the way led them through
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what is now Washington County, Pennsyl- vania, and it seems they were so enamoured with the country on the head-waters of Cross Creek that they immediately went back with their families. The other brothers, William and James, remained in Virginia, where some of their descendants reside at this day. It is said that the farm on which the battle of Winchester was fought by Sheridan and Early is owned by one of them. John and Thomas were also soldiers in the War of 1812, under General William Henry Harrison.
Another tradition has it that the parents of the tribe came here from France in 1685, after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. This theory is advanced by William V. Mar- quis, Esq., ex-Lieutenant Governor of Ohio. Still another faction, represented by the Rev. John S. Marquis, of Minneapolis and Wash- ington, contend that it was after the Massacre of St. Bartholomew in 1572 that they left their native land. But so far the matter has never been satisfactorily settled.
As to the services of the tribe to the church and education, the record is long and incom- plete. There have been at least six Presby- terian ministers named Marquis, who have gone out from the congregation at Cross Creek since the day of the Doctor's great- grandfather, Thomas Marquis, who came from Virginia, namely : another Thomas, a nephew of the preceding; James E. (an uncle of Dr. William V.), pastor, until his death about twenty-five years ago, of First Church of Bloomington, Ill. ; his son William, pastor of First Church, Rock Island, Ill., and cousin of our subject; John S., D. D., who died about two years ago in Washington, Pa., he being a grandson of John, brother of the orig- inal Thomas; another John, grandson of Thomas and uncle to the Rev. Simeon and the Rev. Levi of our day, one a pastor at Los
Angeles, Cal. ; and last, but not least, of the fourth generation, the Rev. John A. (son of James and great-grandson of the first John), now pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Greensburg, Pa.
While the tribe is not largely represented in law or medicine, as educators - in the ranks as teachers and professors - their name is legion. But as hewers of wood and drawers of water none have been recorded. One bi- ographer has said, "The distinguishing feat- ure of the tribe was red hair, Presbyterianism, and Democracy." The Doctor's great-grand- father, Thomas Marquis, was one of the first Presbyterian ministers west of the Alleghany Mountains. He nearly lost his life by Ind- ians one day, while preparing a sermon in the woods under a tree, while attending Pres- bytery on the old Ewalt farm, which is now Lawrenceville, Seventeenth Ward, Pittsburg. He spent his last years in Washington County, and died there at an advanced age. His son, a farmer of Washington County, grandfather of Dr. Marquis, was killed by the Indians when past middle life. He had a family of three or four children, one being David, above named, who was a farmer and also a mechanic.
Most of the life of David Marquis was spent in Pennsylvania, his native State; but he so- journed for a short time near Bucyrus, Ohio, where his son, Dr. William V., was born. Two years later the father came back to Penn- sylvania; and in 1850 he went to California, where he remained eight years engaged in mining and gardening. He then returned to Ohio, and spent the rest of his life in the neighborhood of Bellefontaine and Bucyrus, dying in 1890, at the age of eighty-five. His wife survived him until 1892. They were strict Presbyterians. Of their seven children, five of whom reached maturity, four are now living: Smiley; Wilson; Dr. William V .;
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and Sarah C., wife of Peter Painter, of Titus- ville, Pa.
William V. Marquis was reared on a farm in Washington County, Pennsylvania, and at - tended the public schools. In his fourteenth year he entered the village academy, where history, Latin up to Sallust, Greek grammar and Testament, algebra and higher mathe- matics, were taught the boys in preparation for college. His father at this time, having been unfortunate in business, became an argonaut, in the hope of recuperating fortune. One, two, three years passed, but no fortune. The small means left in the hands of the mother were growing smaller by month and by day. As a consequence the boys must "strike out " for themselves. William's turn came when he lacked several months of fif- teen. The first year he earned some money as a harvest hand, next as a book agent, and in the winter he earned his board as chore boy, feeding stock, chopping wood, etc. He next came to Pittsburg, bringing his worldly posses- sions in a "bandanna trunk locked with a knot." As a hotel runner, porter, night watch, waiter, clerk, he had a year's experi- ence of city life, under (to copy a bit of polit- ical slang of the day) the "reign of ten-cent Jimmy" (Buchanan). No good news from the gold fields! The outlook was rather discour- aging. But difficulties only nerved him to greater effort, more persistent endeavor. Eighteen found him a "suburban school- teacher, with time for reading, opportunity for culture, which he did not fail to improve.
His course was onward and upward. At twenty he was a medical student, with no means or clear idea as to how he should at- tain to college privileges. Untroubled by that fact, he continued to study and to work, and earned enough at six months' teaching. to enable him to subsist a year. With the spring
of 1861 came war. He had been a rank aboli- tionist from the day he read "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and, "of course," as he says, "en- listed as a private the first opportunity," April 17, 10 A. M., "first for three months," then for "three years, or during the war." His regi- ment was sent to Kentucky, October, 1861.
The hospital steward was a nephew of the Colonel. He was a good pharmacist, but young and in delicate health. Known as a medical student, Private Marquis was often needed at the steward's tent; and a few months later at Pittsburg Landing, Tenn., where the little steward fell sick, he did his work for a while. When the steward was sent home, he had the place pre-empted. It
proved a bonanza for him. He was now learn- ing practically chemistry, botany, materia medica, better than in any school. The sur- geon in charge finding himself sufficiently oc- cupied with the more serious, difficult, and unusual cases, and his assistant being from time to time incapacitated or otherwise pre- vented from attending to some other cases that presented, the substitute steward, Marquis, was by force of circumstances led into doing, or, as he says, "trying to do," his work, treat- ing sick and wounded soldiers, doing all the good he could, and gaining no end of valuable experience .-
After some months he presented himself for examination as assistant surgeon. Having no diploma to show, and lacking the prestige of any school, he was met with by the Board of Examiners: "How's this? We never had ap- plicants other than graduates and a very few, one or two, course students." "Nevertheless, you had to examine them ? " he queried. "Oh, yes, and more: we had to reject several of them." "Let me beg that you will do unto me as you have done to the many good and worthy fellows who have gone this way be-
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fore." As a result of the examination Will- iam V. Marquis was commissioned and com- plimented, being made assistant surgeon of the Twenty-eighth Kentucky Volunteer In- fantry.
During the ensuing long wintry months of mud blockade he transcribed several text- books almost wholly. During the session of 1864-65 he attended the New York Univer- sity Medical College. In April, 1865, Dr. Marquis opened an office for the practice of medicine. In 1867 he was elected physician to the Poor Board, Allegheny City. He has been several times elected to the City School Board and the Board of Health, and is at pres- ent the president of the Board of Health.
He was first married June 25, 1863, to Eliza J. Forrester, daughter of Hugh Forres- ter, one of the well-known Forrester Brothers, stone-masons and extensive contractors and builders, Scotch Presbyterians by birth and education. In 1873 the wife died, leaving four children, three girls and one boy. The girls are still living - Winona V., Jessie G., and H. Josephine. The boy, Ralph, became a pharmacist, and died while working in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Dr. Marquis married for his second wife, May, 1877, Miss R. Belle McMillan. She is a daughter of ex-Sheriff Jonathan McMillan, of Mercer, and later of Butler County, Penn- sylvania. Two boys, William Harvey and Jack, are the children of the second marriage. Mrs. Marquis is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.
In 1892 Dr. Marquis opened in connection with his office a pharmacy ; and he still con - ducts it, although devoting little time to the business personally. Politically, he is a Re- publican. As has been shown, he began life in poverty, early learned the lesson and ac- quired the art of self-reliance, and sturdily
forged his way upward to become, as one has said, a "peer of the realm of medicine, of science, and of literature." The story of his career here briefly outlined may help to give nerve and confidence to some poor boy of the present day, ambitious, but afraid of being stranded.
LFRED BUNGEY, for many years a prominent and extensive contractor and builder in Allegheny, was born in Little York, York County, in 1808. His father was born in Germany; and his mother, in maidenhood Catherine Wilt, and an only daughter, although born in this country, was of German ancestry. Alfred went to school in York for the usual period, and then learned the carpenter's trade with a brother-in-law, who was living there. About 1830 he came to Pittsburg, working first for a Mr. Patterson, until his marriage in 1832. Soon after that he bought a lot of land, and built a house for himself upon it, and then engaged in building houses for others. Being able to speak the German language, he could employ German workmen, which was of considerable advantage to his business. He built the first railroad bridge across the Allegheny River, also the first Union Station in Allegheny, and the grain elevators near by, which were burned down during the riots of 1877. He later had a journeyman, Mr. Smith, with whom he finally formed a partnership, making the well- known firm of Bungey & Smith. Although building many business blocks and private residences, the firm engaged largely in rail- road and railroad bridge contracting, doing a large amount of work for the Pittsburg, Chi- cago & Fort Wayne Road. It was known as one of the most reliable business houses in the city.
Mr. Bungey retired from active occupation
a-
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some twenty years before his death. He owned a large amount of real estate in Alle- gheny. Thirteen of his houses destroyed by the fire of 1875 were rebuilt by him in brick. When Mr. Bungey came to Allegheny, it was „. a small place, and he had a pleasant home on Ohio Street. Later he built a larger one on Federal Street, above North Avenue, where the family has lived since 1845. A stock- holder in the Riddles Bank, he lost twenty thousand dollars by its failure. This, which occurred about the time of the fire, might have discouraged a man of less strength of charac- ter; but Mr. Bungey, however, retrieved his losses, and continued to be a successful man. He came here with nothing, and, finding no employment, walked on to Cleveland, finally coming back from that place, and se- curing work in this city. At the time of his marriage he was earning only one dollar per day; but his perseverance and energy brought success, and he died a wealthy man. He was a member of the Presbyterian church.
Mrs. Bungey's father was John Anderson, a Protestant, born in Belfast, Ireland. He came to Pittsburg in 1801, and learned the carpenter's trade, which he worked at for some years. While building a house for the father of Dr. Mowrey, he fell, and was injured . so that he could not work. He built a resi- dence, including a store, and surrounded by a large yard, out on Liberty Street, down in the heart of the city, where he dealt in general merchandise until the first fire. Then his buildings were burned, and his wife and six small children were rendered houseless. After this he moved to Ross township, where he owned a large farm, and remained there during the rest of his life. His other chil- dren were: Sarah, who died in Colorado in January, 1897; Jennie, who married William Murdock, a well-known builder of this city;
Margaret, whose husband was lost in the war, Rosanna, now living in Fort Wayne, Ind .; Mary and Joseph, both deceased; Robert, who died in Allegheny in 1896; and William and John, also deceased.
Mrs. Bungey has been the mother of nine children, of whom two died in infancy. The others were: Alfred, Jr., who died when nine- teen years of age; Julia, who married John K. Shinn, of Allegheny, and left three children - Eva, Joseph, and William; Lizzie, who be- came the wife of the Rev. Mr. Anderson, and died leaving one little girl; Charles B. and Henry, who are also deceased; Luella, who is the wife. of Dr. Kech, of Allegheny; and Sarah, who is the widow of Henry F. Neison, late of Allegheny, and has three children. Luella was previously the wife of Dr. T. W. Pitcairn, by whom she had three children - Clara, Luella, and Bertha. Mr. Bungey died in April, 1891, over eighty-two years of age. Mrs. Bungey has since lived on the old home, which she cherishes on account of its associa- tions as well as because of its substantial and beautiful appointments.
ROFESSOR WILLIAM DICKSON ROWAN, well known in Alle- gheny and Pittsburg as one of the founders and managers of the Park Institute, was born in Butler County, son of John and Margaret (Dickson) Rowan. The paternal grandfather, James Rowan, a gentleman of Scotch-Irish descent, came to Western Penn- sylvania over seventy years ago, settling in Butler County. He carried on ship-building in Philadelphia, and served with distinction in the War of 1812. Professor Rowan's grandfather on the mother's side was William Dickson, also a native of the north of Ireland,
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who emigrated when a young man to Butler County. He was educated as an Episcopal clergyman, but for some reason never preached. After coming to Pennsylvania, he became a well-known teacher of Greek, Latin, law, and mathematics for many years. John Rowan is a farmer in Butler County. Both he and his wife are members of the Presbyte- rian church, of which he is an Elder. He has held numerous public offices, and has been a Justice of the Peace for a number of years. His children are: Ella, now Mrs. Alfred Shanks; Belle, the wife of the Rev. J. G. Vaughn, a Methodist minister; and Professor W. D. Rowan, the subject of this sketch.
William D. Rowan was reared as a farmer boy. After receiving his early education in the district schools, academies, and more ad- vanced institutions, he taught school for some years. His success in teaching was so marked that he was called to the chair of mathematics in the Western University, where he took charge of the commercial department. In 1889 he, together with Professors Levi Ludden and Charles R. Coffin, organized the Park Institute, which is now a prosperous in- stitution, having from two hundred and fifty to three hundred pupils. The institute is too well known to need extended description here, but it may not be amiss briefly to outline its aims and methods. Its proprietors aim to lay the foundation of a broad and substantial edu- cation for young people desiring to enter either professional or business life. In order to secure this end, the best teachers are ob- tained, and every facility, appliance, or appa- ratus is carefully sought for. The institute, fronting on the Allegheny Parks, has an abundance of fresh air and sunshine, and is near the Carnegie Library. There are classi- cal, scientific, English, and commercial courses. The last-named department is under
Professor Rowan's immediate supervision. He is a thorough mathematician, a fine com- mercial lawyer, and has remarkable skill in imparting knowledge to others. Professor Rowan's pupils are to be found in positions of responsibility in banks, railroad offices, manu- facturing establishments, and stores, .and every place where trained heads are needed to carry on the commercial activities of the country. Bankers, clergymen, lawyers, busi - ness men, manufacturers, and educators have been attracted by the methods of instruction employed in the institute, and are sending their sons and daughters here to be educated. Professor Rowan has other business interests not connected with his school. He is the secretary of the Leechburg Foundry and Ma- chine Company of Pittsburg, manufacturers of machinery for rolling-mills and for tinplate plant. He was one of the organizers of the Keystone Driller Company at Beaver Falls, makers of drilling machinery for oil and water wells. Also, he finds time from a busy city life to carry on a large agricultural busi- ness on his large farm near the city.
On the twelfth day of September, 1883, Professor Rowan was united in marriage with Miss Amy A. Clarke, a daughter of the late Captain J. W. Clarke, who was well known. as a coal operator and a steamboat owner on the Monongahela River. A graduate of Pitts- burg Female College, and a member, of the Sixth Presbyterian Church of Pittsburg, she was a lady of a lovable character. She died in the summer of 1893. The Professor's chil- dren are: Charles Latimer, Joseph William, and Gertrude Dickson. . He still retains his membership in the church of his natiw town in Butler County. In politics he is a Demo- crat, and he is a member of the Royal Ar- canum. Professor Rowan has travelled exten- sively in the United States, and has visited
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the Sandwich Islands, Mexico, and parts of South America.
OSEPH A. MCCREADY, M.D., one of the best known physicians of Pitts- burg, was born October 28, 1847, in Columbiana County, Ohio, son of Joseph and Martha (Campbell) McCready. Robert Mc- Cready, the great-grandfather of Joseph, was born in Scotland, and came to this country in 1772. After working for a time on a farm in New Jersey, he went to York County, Pennsylvania, where he was engaged in school-teaching until the outbreak of the Rev- olutionary War. Then he took up arms in the cause of independence, and rendered due ser- vice under Washington. Subsequently he re- turned to York County, and in the fall of 1776 he came to Western Pennsylvania, locating on a farm of three hundred and thirty-two acres in Washington County, near Elders- ville, now occupied by his grandson, Robert B. W. McCready. He was a Justice of the Peace for many years, County Commissioner, a Ruling Elder of Cross Creek Presbyterian Church in the latter part of his life, and he served as Adjutant in the Lisbon company during the War of 1812. A man of command- ing presence, with a voice of unusual strength, he seemed well suited for military duties. He died in 1846, aged ninety-four years, and was buried in Cross Creek Cemetery, where a monument has been erected to his memory.
Joseph McCready, son of Robert and grand- father of Dr. McCready, was a native of Washington County. From there he removed to Columbiana County, Ohio, where he was living at the time of his death, in his seventy- fifth year. Joseph and Martha McCready were the parents of five children, as follows: Cynthia J., the wife of Robert Smith, of Ash-
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