Commemorative biographical record of Washington County, Pennsylvania, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, and of many of the early settled families, Part 27

Author: J.H. Beers & Co
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Chicago, J. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 1540

USA > Pennsylvania > Washington County > Commemorative biographical record of Washington County, Pennsylvania, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, and of many of the early settled families > Part 27

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named: Hannah, George, Jean, James, Esther, Sarah, Andrew, Agnes, Mary Ann and John. George Dickson, the eldest son and second child in this family, was the grandfather of the sub- ject of this sketch. George Dickson was born December 7, 1735, and died in the fall of 1817. He married, in 1770, Rachel McKee, then twenty- nine years of age, a daughter of James McKee, of Chambersburg, Penn. In the summer of 1772 George came to Black Lick creek (now in Indiana county), accompanied by his younger brother, John, and bought 400 acres of land. There they built a cabin, cleared what land they could during the summer, and then went back to Chambersburg for the winter. In 1773 they returned and cleared more, and in 1774 George moved his family into the cabin. He continued to clear and cultivate the land until 1778, when, in the greatest haste, they were obliged to flee upon receiving news of the Wyoming massacre and near approach of the hostile Indians. With his wife and their small children, James, Andrew and Agnes, all mounted upon two saddle horses, they summarily returned across the mountains to Chambersburg. In 1782 George and his brother John again visited their property in west- ern Pennsylvania to find everything in ashes. Com- ing south ward to Pittsburgh, suitable land was found and purchased by George Dickson, it being some 440 acres on the north branch of Miller's run, and purchased from one Thomas Reed, an early settler, who held it under a patent grant. John Dickson went further west into Ohio, where he married and settled near Poland.

The family of George Dickson numbered eight children-three sons and five daughters. These uncles and aunts to Dr. James Dickson were James, born January, 1772; Andrew, born May 27, 1775; Agnes, born February 27, 1777; Mary, born Sep- tember 4, 1780; Rachel, born November 13, 1782; Hannah, born November 18, 1785; Elizabeth, born August 10, 1789; and William, the father of Dr. Dickson, born August 2, 1791. James, the eldest, married a Miss Frazee, and their family consisted of several daughters; James Dickson died in Cuyahoga county, Ohio. His brother, Andrew, also married a Miss Frazee, a sister of James' wife; Andrew died near DeKalb, Ohio, leaving a large family, chiefly sons. Agnes, the third child in George Dickson's family, died at the age of nine- teen near Noblestown, Penn .; she had doubtless been named for her father's sister Agnes, the wife of Mr. Bryar, of Chambersburg. Mary, the fourth member of George Dickson's family, married Joseph Burnside, and resided near Canonsburg, where her death occurred at an advanced age, hav- ing for many years before her death been totally blind; her family numbered three daughters and one son, namely: Margaret Jane (recently de- ceased), the wife of Rev. David Thompson, D. D.,

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of Monmouth, Ill .; Rachel, wife of John Foley; Mary Anne, now Mrs. Haslep, of near Monmouth, Ill .; and George Dickson Burnside, who died a few years since on his farm near Canonsburg. Rachel Dickson, the fifth in George Dickson's family, died near Scottsville, Penn., and was the wife of Solomon Irons; their family num- bered six children, viz .: James, John, Rachel, William, Joseph and Andrew. Hannah, George Dickson's sixth child, became the wife of Andrew Henderson, and of their six children four were sons, named respectively: George, John, Will- iam and Ebenezer. Hannah Dickson Henderson died near Granville, Ill. The next younger sister was Elizabeth, the seventh child of George Dick- son; she became the wife of James Stewart, and at her death which occurred near Clinton, Penn., left no family. The youngest child of the grand- father, George Dickson, was William, the father of Dr. James G. Dickson.

William Dickson was born in South Fayette township, Allegheny Co., Penn., in 1791. On the death of his father he came into possession of the homestead, and became one of the most successful farmers in his part of the country, one of his spe- cialties being the rearing of fine-wool Merino sheep, his flock of such being the first introduced into his neighborhood. He was a man of exemplary piety, and honorable dealings with his neighbors. In the year of his father's deathi, 1817, he married, and was elected ruling elder, to fill the vacancy caused by his father's demise, in the Nobles- town (Penn.) Associate (now United Presbyterian) congregation, which office he continued to fill until his death, which occurred March 18, 1872, in his eighty-second year. He resided all his life on the farm where his father had spent the last thirty- four years of his life. William Dickson was twice married, his first wife being Margaret Glenn, a daughter of James and Jennie (Buchanan) Glenn, who came to western Pennsylvania a few years subsequent to the arrival of William Dickson's parents. The Glenns came from Lancaster county and settled in Westmoreland (now Allegheny) county, prior to 1800. Margaret Glenn was born in Lancaster county, Penn., in 1791. The mar- riage of William Dickson and Margaret Glenn oc- curred in 1817. Their children were as follows: Jennie Glenn, born August 21, 1818, died in in- fancy, May 9, 1819; Rachel, born July 18, 1820; George, born October 8, 1822; James Glenn, born February 15, 1825; Joseph, born December 10, 1826, died February 9, 1827; Mary J., born April 28, 1828; Andrew and William A. (twins), born June 15, 1831 (Andrew died in infancy, May 5, 1832). The mother of these children died No- vember 18, 1852, at the age of sixty-one years. For his second wife William Dickson married, in 1857, Susan Aikins, who preceded her husband a

little over two weeks in entering the Heavenly home, her death occurring March 1, 1872, and their remains repose in the cemetery at Robinson Run church, where are also the remains of Will- iam Dickson's parents.

Rachel, daughter of William Dickson, became the wife of Robert Potter, and with her two daughters, Maggie D. and M. Lulu, has resided near Noblestown since the death of her husband, July 16, 1887.

George Dickson, elder brother of Dr. Dickson, was married to Margaret French, daughter of Rev. David French, D. D., and her son, Rev. David French Dickson, has been mentioned earlier in this sketch. George Dickson's second wife was Eliza Glenn, who left no family at her death. In November, 1892, occurred the death of Annie Rankin, third wife of George Dickson. James Glenn Dickson is the next younger brother, and to present his lineage is the design of this sketch. Mary J. Dickson, a younger sister, married James Clark, and resided in Buffalo township, Washing- ton Co., Penn., until 1870, when they removed to Canonsburg, where her husband's death occurred December 18, 1885. Their family consisted of Nettie, who died in infancy; William Dickson Clark, whose wife (now deceased) was Mrs. Lizzie Mckeown; Marguerite S., the wife of Culbert M. Greer; Anna Mary, the wife of Rev. David Craig Stewart; and James Addison Clark, who resides with his mother.

William A. Dickson, the youngest of his father's family, like his father, William Dickson, came into possession of the ancestral estate, where with his family he resided for many years until his re- moval to the McBurney farm near Midway, Wash- ington Co., Penn. His wife was Elizabeth Mc- Burney, daughter of Robert and Eliza (Welsh) McBurney. William A. Dickson's family of eight children are: Margaret, Elizabeth, Robert, Anna S., William, Agnes, Walter and Bertha. William A. Dickson has in his possession his mother's Bible inscribed as follows: "Margaret Glenn, her book, August 12, 1812," which also contains record of the birth of each of Dr. Dickson's sisters and brothers. The ponderous volume "Boston's Complete Works " is in possession of Rev. David F. Dickson, and contains the annals previously quoted of Dr. Dickson's grandfather, George Dickson's family.

Dr. James Glenn Dickson was brought up on his father's farm in South Fayette township, Alle- gheny county, and received his primary education at the subscription schools of the neighborhood, which was supplemented by a few terms at the public school, and instruction under the preceptor- ship of Rev. John M. French, pastor of the Asso- ciate Church at Noblestown; then in 1843 he en- tered Jefferson College, from which he graduated

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in 1847 under the presidency of Dr. Robert J. Breckenridge, of Kentucky. In 1848 he com- menced the study of medicine with Dr. J. V. Her- riott, of Canonsburg, attending during the winters of 1849-50 and 1850-51 Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Penn., where in the spring of 1851 he received his medical diploma. In the summer of that year he commenced the practice of his chosen profession at Mount Jackson, Lawrence Co., Penn., remaining there one year. Then at the solicitation of his preceptor, Dr. Herriott, he re- turned to Canonsburg and entered into a partner- ship with him, which existed about two years, at the end of which time Dr. Herriott removed to Philadelphia, Dr. Dickson continuing the practice alone in Canonsburg. Upon the return of his old partner, after an absence of several years, Dr. Dickson again associated with him, but at the end of three years Dr. Herriott moved to Valparaiso, Ind., since when our subject has been alone in his professional practice. He has enjoyed an un- broken, most successful practice of over forty years in Canonsburg, a longer period than has fallen to the lot of any other physician of the place.

Dr. Dickson was married September 4, 1856, to Margaret H. Buchanan, who was born February 28, 1828, in North Strabane township, Washing- ton Co., Penn., a daughter of Alexander and Mary (Miller) Buchanan. Two children were born to Dr. Dickson and wife, viz .: Mary Jeannette and William Alexander, both living with their parents. William A. was married September 24, 1885, to Margaret Gabby Allison (daughter of Hon. Jona- than and Margaret (Gabby) Allison), whose death occurred September 6, 1886, followed six weeks later by the death of their infant daughter, Mag- gie Olive. On October 23, 1890, occurred the marriage of William A. Dickson and Mary Lizzie Martin, daughter of Dr. John W. and Elizabeth (Allison) Martin. Their infant daughters are Aneita Marie and Margaret Elizabeth, who, with their parents, are part of Dr. Dickson's household. The family are members of the United Presby- terian Church, the Doctor having united with it when it was known as the Associate Church. Po- litically, he was first an Old line Whig, and, since the organization of the party, he has been a stanch Republican. The commodious family residence was built by the Doctor some eight years ago, on the corner of Pike street and Greenside avenue.

The years herein recounted bring the Dickson lineage through ten generations; of the tenth there are in direct line eight representatives, viz. : Three children of Rev. David F. and Annie M. (McCready) Dickson-George, David and Zetta; three grandchildren of Mary J. (Dickson) Clark, viz .: Clark and Lucile Greer, son and daughter of Culbert Means Greer and Marguerite S. (Clark) Greer, and Anna Mary, daughter of Rev. David

Craig Stewart and Anna M. (Clark) Stewart; added to these the Doctor's two grandchildren, be- fore named (Aneita Marie and Margaret Elizabeth), and the eight representatives of the tenth genera- tion from John Dickson, of Glasgow, Scotland, are recounted.

The Doctor is wedded to his profession, and as he is by nature, as well as by education, emi- nently qualified for his, the most benevolent of all professions, he commands and enjoys the re- spect and confidence of his many patrons.

C OL. CHILLION WASHBURNE HAZ- ZARD, editor and proprietor of the Monon gahela Republican, was born in Mononga- hela City, Penn., May 5, 1849, in the same house and in the same room in which his mother was born and married. He is a son of Hon. Thomas R. Hazzard and Harriet M. Hamilton, the former of whom was born in Chemung county, N. Y. The paternal ancestor of Thomas R. Hazzard was from the North of Ireland.

C. W. Hazzard was educated in the common schools of Monongahela City, and afterward at- tended an academy taught by Henry Lee, at West Newton, Westmoreland Co., Penn. Mr. Lee was formerly a professor in Washington College, and belonged to the celebrated Lee family, prominent in the Revolution, and some of whose descendants were leaders in the Confederate service during the Civil war. After completing his education in West Newton, he entered the Monongahela Republican printing office as an apprentice. His father pur-

chased the newspaper plant, and admitted his son to a joint ownership. This he left, however, to accept a commission in the Twelfth Pennsylvania Reserves. He served through the war, and left the service a brevet major at the close of the cam- paign. He was in forty-two fights, including Drainesville (December 20, 1861), Mechanicsville, Gaines' Mills, Newmarket Cross Roads, Malvern Hill, Second Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietanı, Fredericksburg (where he was wounded), Gettys- burg, Bristoe Station, Mine Run, Wilderness (seven days), Spottsylvania (his brevet reading "promoted for gallantry at Spottsylvania"), North Anna and Bethesda Church. He is specially men - tioned in general orders for gallantry in action, as appears in the official records of the Rebellion published by Congress. In 1863 Capt. Hazzard was transferred from the line to the staff as Di- vision mustering officer, and served in that capac- ity with Gens. Sykes, Crawford and McCandless. After the war he returned home and resumed the publication of the Monongahela Republican, of which he then became publisher and editor. On the formation of the National Guard of Pennsyl- vania after the war, Col. Hazzard was made

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Assistant Adjutant-general of the Seventeenth Di- vision, on the staff of Maj .- Gen. Thomas F. Gal- lagher, with the rank of colonel. On the reorgan- ization of the guard, he was appointed on the staff of Gen. James A. Beaver, as a brigade inspector- general, serving as such until his chief was elected Governor of the Commonwealth. Col. Hazzard then relinquished his position in the National Guard. He has served in various military posi- tions of a civil character: as president of the Washington County (Penn.) Veteran Association; is one of the managers of the Gettysburg Battle- field Memorial Association; is secretary of the Pennsylvania Reserve Veteran Association; was elected Commander of the Department of Penn- sylvania, G. A. R., at Reading, January 30, 1880, and has been several times chairman of the com- mittee on resolutions in the National Encampment, of which body he has attended every encampment since the organization of the G. A. R., except that at San Francisco, Cal. He has been somewhat in demand as a speaker on G. A. R. occasions, and has delivered over two hundred addresses in its in- terests. As a newspaper man, he has been thirty- nine years a printer, during thirty years of which he has been editor. He has been secretary of the Editorial Association of Western Pennsylvania, Virginia and Eastern Ohio since its organization. He was made postmaster of his native city almost immediately after leaving the service, and resigned on the day when Mr. Cleveland was first inaugu- rated. He was the first State president of the Pa- triotic Order of the Junior Sons of America, and for six years published its official organ, a monthly journal called the Junior's Friend. In 1880 he established the daily edition of the Monongahela Republican, now in the twelfth year of its existence. He is a prominent Freemason, and has taken all of the degrees to the thirty-third, Sir Knight twenty-second, and is a member of Syria Temple, Mystic Shrine. He served for four consecutive years as Grand Regent of the Royal Arcanum of the State of Pennsylvania, and is at this writing Supreme Vice Regent of the Order at large.

Col. Hazzard was united in marriage with Miss Mary B. Goff, and they have two children: De- Vernon, a student at Washington College, and Harriet H. Col. Hazzard is ably assisted in his editorial office by Miss Jane King, who promises to be one of the brightest newspaper writers in the State. He was secretary of the Monongahela Valley Agricultural Society, and one of the di- rectors in the Monongahela Driving Association. He is a trustee, on behalf of the State, of the Cal- ifornia Normal College, and a trustee of the Mo- nongahela Memorial Hospital. Col. Hazzard has two brothers: Joseph De V., an orange grower in Florida, and T. L. Hazzard, M. D., professor of physiology in the Western Pennsylvania Medical

College, at Pittsburgh. Mr. and Mrs. Hazzard attend the First Presbyterian Church at Mononga- hela City.

N N. PATTEN, M. D., is a physician of large practice and wide reputation, one who has earned his success in life, beginning when a boy on his father's farm, in the endeavor to climb the ladder of life. He is a native of Pennsylvania, born in Union township, Wash- ington county, January 11, 1847, a son of Williamn (a farmer) and Isabella (Porter) Patten, the latter of whom was a sister of Mrs. Morrison (mother of Mrs. Alexander, of Monongahela City). They were the parents of nine children, of whom the following is a brief record: one son died in infancy; Matthew is a farmer in Iowa; Martha and Eliza- betli are both residents of Union township, this county; Mary is the wife of Thomas Estep, and lives in East End, Pittsburgh, Penn .; William J. is a farmer in Kansas; Sarah Belle lives in Union township; Newton N. is the subject of this sketch; J. Alfred is in Union township. The father died in 1886, aged eighty-seven years four months; the mother is yet living, aged eighty-eight years seven months.

N. N. Patten received a liberal education at the common schools of his native township, which was supplemented with a course of study at Elder's Ridge (Penn. ) Academy. Subsequently he entered Washington and Jefferson College, from which he graduated in 1869. He then commenced the study of medicine in Monongahela City with Dr. M. P. Morrison, a cousin, and attended lectures at Jef- ferson Medical College, which granted him his de- gree of M. D. in 1873. Dr. Patten at once com- menced the practice of his profession in Pittsburgh, Penn., which he followed there with eminent suc- cess for a period of ten years; then for three years was the head physician at the Pittsburgh City Farm, Homestead, Penn. In 1886 Dr. Patten re- moved to Monongahela City, where he has since been in the general practice of his profession, his ride being a very wide one, his skill as a physician, and his courteous and social manner as a gentle- man, having made him extremely popular, and sur- rounded him with hosts of friends. The Doctor in politics is a Republican; in church connection, a Presbyterian.

OHN F. COOPER, cashier of the People's Bank of Monongahela City, was born Decem- ber 7, 1847, in Fallowfield township, Wash- ington Co., Penn., on the farm which he now owns and occupies, and which was the prop- erty of his father before him.

One of the earliest settlers in what is now Fal-

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lowfield township was Frederick Cooper, a native of Germany, who emigrated to this country prior to 1770, and first settled in Frederick county, Va., where he lived until 1771. On April 20 of that year he came to this region, which was yet a wil- derness, and purchased from Andrew Devore "one certain tract or parcel of land lying on the north side of the Monongahela, and bounded by lands of Paul Froman and James Devore." A peculiarity about the description of the said tract of land was that the quantity was not mentioned. He retained this tract of land about a year, and sold it to Abraham Miller in April 1772. At that time the boundary dispute between Pennsylvania and Vir- ginia was raging, both provinces claiming jurisdic- tion over this region. Bedford county had been erected March 9, 1771, and the inhabitants of the Monongahela Valley were called upon to pay their shares of the taxes to maintain the county govern- ment. And the majority of these having come from Maryland and Virginia, and being doubtful, in the absence of an established western boundary, whether they were living under the government of Pennsylvania or that of Virginia, resistance to the collection of these taxes followed. On this account much ill feeling and turbulence prevailed, and con- tinned for some years, steps being finally taken by the two colonies, in 1780, for a permanent settle- ment of the boundary contention, and the jurisdic- tion of Virginia was withdrawn. Washington county was erected March 28, 1781.

When Frederick Cooper first came here, he left a wife and three children-John, Mary and Eliz- abeth-in the East. Owing to the feuds, discords and litigations amongst the inhabitants of the con- tending jurisdictions, because of the boundary con- troversy and the resultant inability of the settlers to make adequate defense against the Indians who had again become troublesome, he sold his land to Abraham Miller in 1772, and returned to the East, remaining there several years. His wife having died, he married Elizabeth Kyle, returned to this county with his family, and purchased 287 acres of land which had been warranted on April 17, 1769, to Jacob Froman, and surveyed under the name of " Wrangle." The warrant was returned to Fred- erick Cooper December 27, 1784, and he lived upon this land the remainder of his lifetime. From one of a series of historical sketches of early fam- ilies written by Dr. J. S. Van Voorhis is gleaned the following: Of the children of Frederick Cooper, Catherine became the wife of Thomas Ward, who built the first house in Belle Vernon; Margaret married John Roland, and both died near Wooster, Ohio; Abraham removed to Guernsey county, Ohio; Frederick owned a farm in the " Dutch settlement," and was the father of Samuel and F. K. Cooper, all now deceased; Rebecca be- came the wife of Daniel Jacobs; George removed

to Ohio; Valentine lived and died (a very aged man) on the original Cooper homestead at the mouth of Maple creek, a farmer and distiller by occupation.

The names of the children of Valentine Cooper were Jackman, Washington, Jehu, Frederick, Elizabeth, Nancy, Narcissa and Josiah C. Of these, Jackman died in Upshur county, W. Va .; Washington has special mention further on; Jehu removed to Marshall county, Ill. ; Frederick was a school teacher, and died in 1852; Nancy married Newton Van Voorhis, and both are now deceased; Elizabeth became the wife of Apollos Speers, who lived in Allen township opposite Belle Vernon; Narcissa married Martin Weaver, and removed to Huron county, Ohio; Josiah C. is still living, and is a practicing physician in Philadelphia.

Washington Cooper, second son of Valentine, al- ways remained a citizen of Fallowfield township, where he was born. He was twice married, first to Sarah A. Thompson, by whom he had five chil- dren: Margaret A., Mary E., Sarah A., Narcissa and Malinda J., all now deceased. Mr. Cooper's second wife was Ruth A. Graves, who was born in 1815 in West Pike Run township, this county, a daughter of John and Ann Graves, Quakers, who came from near Wilmington, Del., and settled in West Pike Run township, Washington county, where they purchased a farm. They were regular attendants of the Friends' meeting house, a short distance from their residence, and were universally respected. Five children were born to them, viz. : Albina, who married Josiah John, a Quaker, and they resided in Pike Run township; Jehu, who mar- ried and after his wife's death moved, with his two children, to Marshall county, Ill. ; Taylor, who married Susan Borom, and lived on the homestead farm in Pike Run township; Ruth A. ; and Mary A., who married Ellis Johnson, and they afterward lived in Stark county, Ohio (he died in his one- hundredth year, and she lived to a ripe old age; the late Hon. James G. Blaine was a pupil of hers). The children born to Washington and Ruth A. (Graves) Cooper were five in number, as follows: John F., our subject; Eli M., who was born in 1849, and died in 1889 unmarried; Charles J., de- ceased in infancy; Jehu V., a farmer in Fallowfield township, owning a place of 106 acres, a portion of the old homestead (he married Jennie V. Wil- son, and they have four children living); and Annie A., wife of William West, a farmer in Sum- ner county, Tenn. The father died in October, 1866, aged sixty-six years; the mother resides with her son John F.

John F. Cooper attended the common schools of his township, which were above the average of country schools, in the meantime assisting his father on the farm. In 1881 he was elected register of wills for Washington county, and re-

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elected in 1884, serving two terms. At the expira- tion of his term of office, in 1888, he returned to the farm, where he remained until January 1, 1891, when he assumed the duties of cashier of the People's Bank of Monongahela City, he hav- ing been elected to that position in December, 1890. On January 19, 1871, Mr. Cooper was united in marriage with Miss Sarah J. Crow, who was born in Fallowfield township, this county, a daughter of Benjamin and Susan (Thompson) Crow. Squire . Crow was born in Washington county, and was a farmer and carpenter, also a justice of the peace a number of years. Mrs. Crow was born in Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. John F. Cooper had born to them seven children, viz .: Frederick F., clerk for the Catsburg Coal Co .; Olive R., Alice C., Frances J., George W., Ethel E. and Charles McIlvain. The mother died Janu- . ary 23, 1888. She was a member of the M. E. Church, Mr. Cooper of the Presbyterian Church. He resides with his children on the old homestead farm, which he owns, four miles southwest of Monongahela City, on the Brownsville road in Fallowfield township. The farm comprises 113 acres, and he raises thereon grain and stock.

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Commemorative biographical record of Washington County, Pennsylvania, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, and of many of the early settled families, Part 27

Author: J.H. Beers & Co Publication date: 1893 Publisher: Chicago, J. H. Beers Number of Pages: 1540

Author: J.H. Beers & Co
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Chicago, J. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 1540