USA > Pennsylvania > Beaver County > Book of biographies : this volume contains biographical sketches of leading citizens of Beaver County, Pennsylvania > Part 32
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Dr. Dawson's father is still actively en- gaged in cultivating his fine farm. He grows fruit in large quantities. He also devotes much time to stockraising,-selling mostly to East Liverpool markets. He is a stanch Republican, and has served as a school direc- tor, and in various other township offices. In early life he was a member of the Episcopal church, and assisted materially in building the church at Georgetown. Later in life, he joined the Presbyterian denomination in which he has been a trustee for twenty-five years.
Dr. Dawson was born in Beaver county, Pa., January 13, 1864. He obtained his pri- mary education in the district schools, which he attended during the winter months, until he attained the age of twenty years. In the summers, he assisted his father on the home- stead farm, and followed that line of work until his twenty-third year. He then de- cided on a professional career, and began the study of medicine. He studied one year under Dr. R. J. Marshall, of Fairview, merely as a preparatory course. In 1890, he entered Western Reserve University, of Cleveland, Ohio, as a medical student. He graduated with high honors in the class of 1893. Dr. Dawson then took a post-graduate course at Lakeside Hospital, Cleveland, and was ap- pointed house surgeon, filling that position very creditably, for sixteen months. During that time, he gained valuable experience in surgery, and gained an enviable reputation for himself. Dr. Dawson is very skilful in his profession, and is an enthusiastic operator in surgical cases. He first began practice in East Liverpool, Ohio. After an eight months' stay, an opportunity occurred where- by he could practice in his native town. He purchased the property of Dr. George J. Boyd and opened his present office in Fairview. He is a general practitioner, but devotes es- pecial attention to surgery. He supplies his own medicine to his patients, and is decidedly popular. By his cleverness and skill he has won the confidence of his clients in a very r:otable manner.
Dr. Dawson was joined in matrimony
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October 4, 1893, with Eleanor Loretta Coll, a gifted daughter of Hugh Coll. Mrs. Dawson is a native of Pittsburg, where her birth oc- curred in 1862. She was educated in the St. Mary's Academy at Pittsburg. Dr. and Mrs. Dawson have one son, Robert Doyne. He was born July 9, 1894, and in him all their domestic hopes are centered. Politically, the Doctor is a Republican, but is too busy to ac- cept office. He worships with the Presbyte- rian denomination.
OHN A. CAMPBELL, junior member of the firm of D. Campbell & Son, con- tractors in heavy masonry, is one of the most successful and prosperous men of Beaver Falls. He was born near New Galilee, Beaver county, Pa., in 1863, and is a son of David Campbell, whose father was John Campbell, a native and life-long resident of Scotland.
David Campbell, the father of John A., was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, and received a thorough mental training in the common schools there. He was then bound out as an apprentice to the trade of a mason, and after serving his time, worked as a journey- man until he came to this country. He lo- cated at Beaver Falls, Beaver county, Pa., in 1864, at the age of twenty-two years, and at once resumed work at his trade, being em- ployed on the Ft. Wayne R. R. construction. He subsequently started in business for him- self, as a general contractor, and being one of the first business men in the district, Bea-
ver Falls, at that time, not having a popu- lation of more than two hundred, he laid the foundations for nearly all the buildings built in that section of the county. He worked on the construction of an arch at Wallace Run. This was a long and difficult task, the wall under ground being thirty feet thick; and it required three years for its completion. He did all the masonry work for the cutlery shops, built the Economy Bank and Geneva College, did the masonry on the File Works and Axe Factory, and also considerable work on the P. & L. E. R. R. He has for many years been one of the foremost business men and most reliable citizens of Beaver Falls. In 1861, he was joined in wedlock with Margery McKim, of Scotland, and nine children re- sulted from this union, as follows: James, de- ceased; Jeanette (Gaston) ; John A., the sub- ject of this personal history; Robert, a stone mason by trade; Samuel, who follows the oc- cupation of a master plumber; Elizabeth, de- ceased ; Jane, deceased ; Margery ; and Myrtle, a graduate of the Beaver Falls High School. and of Beaver College, who is now a success- ful teacher at College Hill school. Mr. Campbell is a strong supporter of the Repub- lican party, but has never accepted office. He is a member of the F. & A. M., and of the mother lodge in Scotland ; the Ancient Order of United Workmen ; and the Odd Fellows.
John A. Campbell received his education in the public schools at Beaver Falls, and upon completing his schooling, became asso- ciated in business with his father. In 1887, he purchased the interest of Mr. Moffit in the
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MAJOR GILBERT L. EBERHART.
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firm, and has since devoted his entire time to its success. Although it has always been the leading firm of the kind in that district; since our subject has been identified with it, its business has increased steadily until it en- counters some difficulty in keeping apace with its contracts. At the present time it has a contract to build the shops of the Atlantic Tube Company, which will cover three acres of ground, at Moravia, Pennsylvania. The subject of this sketch is an enterprising and energetic young man, popular with his fel- low citizens and he has a host of friends wherever he is known.
Mr. Campbell was joined in hymeneal bonds with Mary C. Robel, a daughter of Lewis and Sophia (Cleis) Robel, of Germany, a native of Morgantown, West Virginia, where she received her education. Our sub- ject is a Republican in politics, and like his father, is a member of the Presbyterian church, of which he is an elder.
AJOR GILBERT L. EBERHART, of New Brighton,-editor, author, lawyer and soldier, Interesting references to his life and public service.
Some of the Eberharts came from Germany to Pennsylvania as early as 1727, landing at Philadelphia on the 16th of October, in that year, on a vessel named "Friendship."
All descended in a direct line from the cel- ebrated "Eberhart mit ihm bart," first duke of Wurtemberg.
John Adam Eberhart, duke of Elsass, Ger-
many, had four sons (Andrew, George, Mar- tin and Adolphus), all of whom came to America in the ship "Banister," under com- mand of Capt. John Doyle, landing at New York in the fall of 1758.
Andrew settled first in Sherman's Valley, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, and after- wards removed to Washington County, where he died in August, 1799, on his farm on which he and his wife were buried within three miles of the present location of the court house of that County.
His wife was Catherine Elizabeth Mercer, a sister of Brig. Gen. Hugh Mercer, M. D., who fell fatally wounded at the battle of Princeton, N. J., on the second day of Janu- ary, 1777.
Adolphus, youngest brother of Andrew Eberhart, served in the Revolutionary War, although quite young. He was the first man to make glass in America, and went into the business with Albert Gallatin in Fayette County, about 1786.
His descendants have continued in the bus- iness in the Monongahela Valley to the pres- ent day.
Andrew Eberhart was the father of two sons and four daughters. His eldest son, John, was born in Cumberland County, Pa., May 9, 1766. He removed from Washington to Beaver County in the year 1804, and settled on a farm within sight of the court house where he lived till his death, November 9, 1831. He was the father of two sons and seven daughters. He called his eldest John, who became a man of fine attainments, al-
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though he had no collegiate training. He spent a part of his early life in teaching, and was many years an active business man. He learned the trade of cabinet maker, and speci- mens of his handiwork, made of native maple, cherry and walnut, are still in use in some of the homes of the children of the older in- habitants of the County.
He was an active politician although never a candidate for office ; and some of his articles written in behalf of his favorites can yet be found in the files of the county journals of "ante bellum" days.
Although but a boy at the time, he enlisted and served in Capt. Thos. Henry's Company in the War of 1812. His wife was Sarah Power, second daughter of Gen. Samuel Power, and sister of James M. Power, who was one of the Canal Commissioners of Penn- sylvania, and Minister to Naples and the Kingdom of the two Sicilys. She was a sis- ter, also, of the late Gen. Thos. J. Power, of Rochester, Beaver County, who was a promi- nent politician and several years Adjutant General of the State. And as a civil engineer, he had much to do, in conjunction with his brother James, in promoting the public works, state and national, in Pennsylvania, notably in the first improvements made in the navigation of the Ohio River from the mouth of the Beaver to Pittsburg.
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Her father, Gen. Power, was sheriff of Beaver County from 1809 to 1812, and served as a major in the War of 1812, and took a battalion to Lake Erie to protect our frontier from a threatened invasion of the British. He
was of Scotch parentage, born in Virginia, and came to Beaver County, Pa., in 1804.
Gen. Power afterwards became Adjutant General of the State, which office he held for six years. He was also a member of the House and Senate from 1819 to 1836, and while in the Legislature he took a very active interest in all enterprises that tended to de- velop the wealth of the state, and advance the welfare of the people. And it was mainly through his vigorous efforts, while a member of that body, that the necessary appropria- tions were secured to connect Pittsburg and the Ohio River with Lake Erie, at the City of Erie, by canal through the Beaver and Shenango Valleys; and, by means of the Pennsylvania and Ohio canal, through the Mahoning valley, to bring Pittsburg and in- termediate towns in closer commercial rela- tions with Cleveland, Ohio, some twenty-five years before the advent of railways into West- ern Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio.
John Eberhart, Jr., grandson of Andrew Eberhart and Catherine Mercer, was the father of five children by Sarah Power; three boys and two girls. All, except the youngest, now are dead, the eldest, the Rev. Wilford Avery Power Eberhart, having died at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, February 14, 1899.
Gilbert Leander Eberhart, the only sur- vivor of the family, and the subject of this sketch, was born in North Sewickley town- ship, Beaver County, Pennsylvania, January 16th, A. D. 1830. His mother died when he was nineteen months old, and he was then taken into the care of his maternal grand-
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father's family.
His first instructions in letters were re- ceived in a select school in the Beaver Acad- emy, and the first public school-house built, in Beaver. His first Sunday school lessons were given him in the old Presbyterian Church that stood on the public square in Beaver, while he was a member of an infant class taught by the late Captain John D. Stokes. Later he received some very wholesome drills in Kirkham's Grammar, the Western Calcu- lator, the English Reader and the New Test- ament, in a log school-house which stood on the banks of Big Brush run in South Beaver township, where one of his teachers was George McElroy, who made quill pens for his pupils with a razor; and, when needed, stirred them up to a sense of their duty with a hickory "ox-gad" seven feet long, without leaving the chair he occupied in the centre of the school- room. The other was James Bliss. Both
were thorough and efficient teachers. In his later school-boy days, Mr. Eberhart was sent to the Academy at Mercer by his uncle, the Hon. Jas. M. Power, who was then a mer- chant and iron manufacturer at Greenville, in Mercer County. Finally he entered Wash- ington (Pa.) College, where he spent two years. .. Soon after he left that institution, he engaged in civil engineering on the Erie and Pittsburg railway of which his uncle, Gen. Thos. J. Power, was then President. He pur- sued that profession some five years, when he engaged in teaching in Greenville, Mercer County, and soon became Superintendent of Public Schools of that county.
A short time prior to the outbreak of the Slaveholders' Rebellion, he took charge of the Conneautville (Pa.) Academy, but resigned that position, and on April 17, 1861, he en- listed for a term of three months as a Sergeant in "D" Company in Col. John W. McLane's Erie Regiment.
At the expiration of that term, he enlisted in the 8th Regt., Pa. Res. Vol. Corps, and was mustered in for three years at Washington City, July 28, 1861, as a member of the non- commissioned regimental staff. He served in that capacity until August 21, 1862, when Gen. Geo. G. Meade, then commanding the Second Brigade of the Pa. Reserves, assigned him to duty on his staff as his Commissary of Subsistence, and he remained in the Subsis- tence Department of the Army of the Poto- mac as long as that army was in the field, and afterward served at Beaufort, S. C., and Jack- sonville, Fla., until October, 1865.
During the Second Bull Run campaign, he . served on the staff of Gen. John F. Reynolds, then commanding the third division (Pa. Re- serves) of the Fifth army corps; and was hon- ored and highly complimented by both Rey- nolds and Meade for the coolness and cour- age by which, on August 28, 1862, he saved the division trains from capture and destruc- tion during a severe shelling by Rebel artil- lery.
In that action Maj. Eberhart's horse was so badly injured by a shell in the left shoulder that he was obliged to abandon the poor ani- mal to his fate.
September 3, 1862, he received a commis-
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sion as Quarter Master of the 8th Pa. Re- serves, and was mustered to rank as such from July Ist, 1862.
November 19, 1862, he became quite ill, and in a few weeks was reduced in weight from one hundred and forty to one hundred and fifteen pounds, as a result of the hard march through rain and snow from the battle- field of Antietam to Brooks Station, near Fredericksburg.
Major Eberhart, however, in spite of his severe illness, was present on duty in the field at the battle of Fredericksburg. December 13, 1862, where, by the discharge of a heavy cannon, near the muzzle of which he was standing, he lost his hearing for a time. When it gradually, but only partially returned, it was discovered that the drum of his right ear was perforated and the hearing totally destroyed.
The disease contracted in November, 1862, resulted in chronic disease of the digestive organs, and muscular rheumatism, from which he has been a constant sufferer to the present time ; and not until the year 1890, did he regain the twenty-five punds of flesh lost in the winter of 1862-3.
Under date of September 15, 1865, while on duty at Jacksonville, Fla., he received a letter from Maj .- Gen. Rufus Saxton, then Asst. Commissioner of the Bureau of Freedmen and Abandoned Lands for the states of South Carolina and Georgia, in which was this sen- tence: "I am pleased to offer you the posi- tion of Superintendent of Freedmen's Schools for the state of Georgia." Maj. Eberhart ac-
cepted the offer, and under date at Charles- ton, S. C .. October 2, 1865, he received Spe- cial Order No. 18 directing him to "report in person, without delay, to Brig .- Gen. Davis Tillson at Augusta, Ga." October 6, 1865, he was "assigned to duty as Superintendent of Freedmen's Schools for the State of Geor- gia." He remained on Gen. Tillson's staff until October, 1867, in the meantime having established, in the face of difficulties and menaces which only the military power of the Government could curb and resist, over two hundred and fifty schools for freedmen. In the City of Atlanta and, also, in Savannah, he secured the erection of a fine school-house -- the first buildings of the kind ever erected in Georgia for negroes.
On his return to civil life, he resumed teaching, and, in the fall of 1867, became Superintendent of the public schools of Rochester. The next year, without his seek- ing, he was elected Superintendent of the Kit- tanning Schools, where he organized the first graded schools that City ever had. He held that position four years. when he resigned to enter on the practice of law. having in the meantime read with the late Judge Brown B. Chamberlin. He was admitted to the Beaver bar June 14. 1870, and soon after to Law- rence, Mercer and Butler, and the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.
In November, 1876, he was elected to rep- resent Beaver County in the lower house of the General Assembly, and served during the sessions of 1877 and 1878.
In 1883, he was elected without any soli-
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citation on his part, to the office of Chief Burgess of New Brighton, and re-elected to succeed himself; and, so well pleased were his fellow-citizens with his administration of the office, that they tendered him a third term, but his private business so engrossed his time he was obliged to decline the honor.
In 1884, he was a prominent candidate for Congress, for which in all the counties of the district there were aspirants, producing a di- visive and somewhat bitter rivalry; and. sub- ordinating his own desires to the good of his party, he withdrew, rather than jeopardize the success of his party.
In 1891, he was elected a delegate to rep- resent the senatorial district composed of Bea- ver and Washington Counties in a proposed convention to amend the State constitution.
His popularity in the district, as well as in his own County, was well attested by the fact that he received nine thousand, three hundred and fifty votes out of a total poll of thirteen thousand, one hundred and thirty- three.
In 1879, at the earnest solicitation of a number of the young men of New Brigh- ton, he organized a military company of which he was commissioned Captain and which was admitted to the National Guard of Pennsylvania as "B" Company, of the 15th Regiment of Infantry, in 1880, and the next year to the 10th Regiment,-the Hawkins regiment,-which became famous, as well for being the only volunteer regiment east of the Mississippi in the War with Spain in the Phil- ippines, as for its heroism and gallant partici-
pation in the battles about Manila after their capture by Admiral Dewey in 1898.
Major Eberhart, ever since boyhood, has been a member of the Episcopal Church, and is one of the judges of the Ecclesiastical Court, and a trustee of the diocese of Pitts- burg. Among the fraternal orders, he is a Mason, Odd Fellow, and Knight of Pythias as well as a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and the Union Vete- ran Legion, in all of which he has passed through the highest chairs. He has been twice President of the Law Associa- tion of Beaver County, and of the Soldiers and Sailors' Association of Beaver County. His wife is the youngest daughter of the late Dr. Peter Smith, formerly of San Francisco, but latterly of Wimpole street, London, Eng- land, where he practiced his profession the last ten years of his life. Their only surviv- ing child is the wife of Dr. H. S. McConnel, of New Brighton, one of the most prominent and successful physicians and surgeons in Pennsylvania.
For some eight years Major Eberhart was owner and editor of the Daily and Weekly Tribune of Beaver Falls, and in that capacity distinguished himself as a brilliant writer on all current topics, and gave his paper a wide reputation. His most notable political arti- cles were those on Protection by invitation of the N. Y. World during the Blaine campaign. He has devoted much time to literature, and is the author of a large number of disquisi- tions on Philology and other scientific sub- jects. He has established a good practice
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in his profession; and, as a public official, made a marked impression upon his constitu- ents for his fidelity to their interests, and the unswerving tenacity with which he adheres to the principles of his party.
As a public speaker and lecturer, he is fear- less, as well as entertaining and instructive ; and he has attained considerable notoriety as a poet, his poems entitled "The Fife," and "Ruth and I," having given him a very wide reputation. A fine collection of his poems appears in Herringshaw's "Poets of America," and many in other anthological publications.
ENRY HEURING, a stockholder and director of the Point Bottle Works. of Rochester, Pa., is the general manager of the establishment, and it is almost entirely due to his efficient service in that capacity that the plant is one of the most flour- ishing in Beaver county. He was born in Pittsburg, Pa., November 11, 1857, and is a son of Theodore and Mary (Renner) Heuring, -being of German parentage.
Theodore Heuring, the father of our sub- ject, was born in Munster, Germany, and was a young man when he came to America, obtaining employment as a common laborer. After his marriage, he became a raftsman on the Ohio River and settled at Pittsburg, but later became a sawyer, and then foreman of the saw mill of McClintoc & Co., of Pitts- burg. In 1873, he removed to Rochester, Beaver county, Pa., where he was employed
as foreman of the L. Oatman Mills, and later as foreman of the box makers of the Rochester Tumbler Company. He was an ambitious man and a hard worker, and rose from the ranks of the day laborer to a pros- perous condition in life. He died in 1898, when sixty-seven years old. and his wife now enjoys life at the age of sixty-five years. She resides in the house built by her husband on New York street. Her maiden name was Mary Renner, and she is a native of Elk county, Pennsylvania. Their union was blessed by the birth of the following off- spring: William, of Chicago: Henry, the subject of this biographical record ; Annie, the wife of J. T. Conlin, whose personal history also appears in this book; Kate, the wife of John Beck, of Carnegie, Pa. ; John, deceased : Frank, a boxmaker; Theodore and Charles, twins, both of whom work in the Rochester Tumbler Works; and Andrew Packer, who is also employed at the Rochester Tumbler Works: and Joseph, a glass blower at the Point Bottle Works.
Henry Heuring was reared and educated in the borough of Rochester, and at an early age entered the box manufacturing department of the Rochester Tumbler Company. He con- tinued to work at that until 1887, when he became an organizer, stockholder and presi- dent of the Point Bottle Works, Limited. This plant was established, in 1879, as the Rochester Flint Vial & Bottle Works, by David McDonald, president, and C. I. Mc- Donald, vice-president. The business did not flourish as was expected. and it was later sold
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at sheriff's sale,-being purchased by the fol- lowing: J. M. Buchanan; S. B. Wilson; J. C. Cunningham; J. C. Irwin; and P. Mc- Laughlin. The name was changed to that of the Point Bottle Works, the concern was re- organized, and P. McLaughlin was made pres- ident. Under this head business was con- tinued until 1887, when the enterprise again changed hands and was completely re-organ- ized under the name of the Point Bottle Works. Henry Heuring, the subject of these lines, was chosen president, and P. J. Huth, secretary and treasurer, and under this man- agement the plant for the first time was made a paying venture. Mr. Heuring continued as president until 1897, when he assumed the duties of general manager, his former posi- tion being filled by C. A. Darmbacher. The plant is one of the principal manufacturing establishments in Beaver county, and its products are shipped to all parts of the coun- try. The yearly output amounts to $90,000, and the company gives constant employment to one hundred and twenty-five men. The factory consists of two large buildings, both of which are well equipped with the latest of ma- chinery used in the business. A switch is also run up into the yard to the shipping house, making the best of facilities for shipping. Mr. Heuring has given his entire time and atten- tion to the business, and under his skilful guidance it has prospered and is increasing with great rapidity. The subject of this memoir was, for two years, president of the Central Building & Loan Association, of which he was one of the organizers.
Mr. Heuring was joined in matrimonial bonds with Josephine Huth, a sister of P. J. Huth, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this Book of Biographies, and their children were: Agnes, deceased; Harry; Gracie; Marilla ; Irene; and Richard, deceased. Fraternally, he is a member of the Elks.
AMUEL CLARENCE GORSUCH, a machinist by trade, has been con- nected for many years with iron and steel works and has been a resident of Beaver Falls, Pa., since 1883, being, until recently, a heater in a plant there, which he assisted in building. He was born February 21, 1860, in Springfield, Blair county, Pa., and is a son of Henderson and Elizabeth (Gates) Gor- such, and grandson of Benjamin Gorsuch. The first of the family who came to America, was the great-grandfather of Samuel Clarence, and was a native of Wales. After reaching Amer- ica, he settled in Baltimore, where he spent his last years. He, with his brother, was engaged in the cotton business. His son Benjamin, the grandfather of the subject hereof, was reared near Baltimore, where he became ap- prenticed to learn the trade of a blacksmith. After completing his apprenticeship, he en- gaged in that line of business on his own behalf, and was known as a very successful business man and a skilled mechanic; he fol- lowed that line of business all 'his life. He removed to Huntingdon county, Pa., for some years, but later settled in Blair county, near Klopperstown. He followed blacksmithing
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