USA > Pennsylvania > Jefferson County > Commemorative biographical record of central Pennsylvania : including the counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion, Pt. 1 > Part 23
USA > Pennsylvania > Centre County > Commemorative biographical record of central Pennsylvania : including the counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion, Pt. 1 > Part 23
USA > Pennsylvania > Clarion County > Commemorative biographical record of central Pennsylvania : including the counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion, Pt. 1 > Part 23
USA > Pennsylvania > Clearfield County > Commemorative biographical record of central Pennsylvania : including the counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion, Pt. 1 > Part 23
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W. E. Gray is an orator and makes an eloquent as well as argumentative address before a jury or audience. He is true to his client in every detail, and is bound to succeed in his chosen profession. For the brief practice he has had, Mr. Gray has built up a reputation far better and more promi- nent than the average attorney of his age and experi- ence. He has made a big success in the quarter sessions, where he is employed more frequently than any young at- torney at the Bar.
Mr. Gray has proven himself a worthy chieftain of the rapidly advancing Republican ranks, wide-awake, cautious, quick to perceive, and ready to act, combining all the ele- ments of a first-class leader and safe counselor. The in- terests of the Republican party of Centre county are safe in his hands, and in a fair field and a fair fight we are bound to win.
W. E. Gray is one of our rising young lawyers, and is a young man who would fill the office with dignity, and to the best interests of the people. A Burgess of a town ought to be a lawyer, and a man who knows how to dispense law.
The next office of importance that expires this year is that of Burgess. W. E. Gray, Esq., has acquitted himself manfully during the last three years as chief magistrate of the borough, and, aithough he has to step down and out, he has made one of the best officers that we have had for years.
On October 2, 1889, Mr. Gray was united in marriage with Miss Ellen Green, who was born at Barre Forge, Huntingdon Co., Penn., Sep- tember 21, 1862; in 1874 she removed with her father's family to Patton township, Centre county. She was educated in the public schools in that locality and in the academy at Bellefonte. She is the daughter of G. Dorsey and Mary Gregg Green. One son, Samuel Hutchison Gray, born September 3. 1893, has brightened their pleasant home.
D ANIEL GARMAN, of Bellefonte, Centre county, proprietor of the " Hotel Garman" and of the handsome opera house in the same block, has been for many years one of the sub- stantial business men of that charming town.
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While achieving success as a Boniface he has been no less fortunate in other lines, and notably so as the owner of extensive livery barns and as a dealer in horses. Although he has of late delegated the active work to his sons, who seem to have inherited his capacity for business, he has by no means lost his influence and.prestige in financial circles. .
Daniel Garman is a Pennsylvanian by birth, having been born near Harrisburg, Dauphin county, February 12, 1820. His parents, George and Rebecca (Betzer) Garman, were both born and reared near Lancaster, Penn., but moved in 1806, shortly after their marriage, to Dauphin county. The father operated a distillery in con- nection with his agricultural pursuits, and pros- pered so well that at the time of his death, which occurred when he was fifty-eight years old, he owned three good farms. In. politics he was a- Democrat, and in religious faith he was a Luth- eran, The mother lived to the age of sixty-two years, and, of eleven children, nine-seven sons and two daughters-lived to adult age.
Our subject, the fifth child in order of birth, grew to manhood at the old home, and at twenty- three started out to seek his fortune, locating first at Jersey Shore, Penn., where he learned the jeweler's trade, and was for three years in that business with his brother. He also began there his career as a liveryman, which now dates back over forty-six years. . In 1856 he went to Lock Haven, Penn., and opened a jewelry store and livery stable, and engaged in the buying and sell- ing of horses. In 1857, while there, he was married to Miss Louisa Schroyer, who was born at Milton, Northumberland Co., Penn., in 1834, and in 1860 he moved to Bellefonte. A large stock of horses which he bought at that time en- abled him to establish himself in a profitable business at once: in 1861 he purchased a hotel, and has ever since been connected with that line. His present hotel and opera house were built in 1880, and his residence and barn in 1887.
In 1886, his pleasant home was darkened by the death of his faithful partner in the joys and sorrows of life. Nine children of this happy union survive: (1) Edward is a merchant at Bellefonte. (2) Allen S., who was born in Belle- fonte, March 3, 1860, took a course in the high school, and then learned the harness maker's trade, which he followed for three years. In
1890, as his father desired to be released from active business, Allen S. Garman assumed the management of the hotel and opera house, which he still conducts in partnership with his brothers, Carney M. and Charles B. Allen S. is alert and intelligent, and finds time, notwithstanding his
business cares, to take an influential share in the work of the local Democratic organization, and in public affairs generally. On all questions of the day he keeps well informed, and in discus- sion he is amply qualified to hold his own ground. (3) Ira D. Garman, third son of our subject, is a jeweler in Philadelphia, Penn. (4) Minnie mar- ried Isaac Matland, of Williamsport, Penn. (5) Carney M. is a partner in the hotel and opera house management. (6) William is a clerk in the post office at Bellefonte. (7) Charles B. is one of the partners in his father's business. (8) Rebe married Charles Cruse, of Bellefonte. (9) Robert is a jeweler at Coatesville, Chester Co., Pennsylvania.
Daniel Garman in his younger life took an active part in politics, and served in the borough council and on the school board. He has been a Master Mason for forty-six years, and for thirty- five years has been identified with the Episcopal Church.
JOHN WAGNER, of Bellefonte. The salu- brious air of this mountain region is favora- ble to longevity, and the subject of this sketch, a hale and hearty citizen of ninety years, is evi- dence of the fact if any doubter were to be found. With his stalwart frame, six feet in height, his healthy complexion, Roman nose and intelligent eyes of bluish gray, Mr. Wagner is a fine speci- men of manhood, and his vigor makes one think of the times long past when three-score years and ten were not the ordinary limit of mortal exist- ence.
Mr. Wagner is a son of the Keystone State, having first seen the light in Northumberland county November 9, 1806. His father, John Wagner, was born in Berks county, Penn., in 1773, and died in 1850, and the mother, whose maiden name was Catherine Kuntzman, was called from earth at the age of sixty-seven years. The grandfathers on both sides were soldiers in the Revolutionary army, and Grandfather Wag- ner was taken prisoner by the British and placed with others upon an island, where he died of starv- ation. An uncle who was with him survived the hardships, and returned home to tell the sorrow- ful story. Our subject's father saw the martyr to the cause of freedom for the last time when the Hessians went into camp near Reading, Penn- sylvania.
John Wagner, Sr., was a weaver by trade, but later became interested in agriculture, which he followed during the remainder of his life. In 1812 he moved to Haines township, Centre county, where he made his permanent home, and
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until his death he was a prominent member of the German Reformed Church there.
The personal history of the subject of this sketch is most interesting, as his reminiscences cover incidents which seem far removed from this generation. He remembers seeing soldiers dur- ing the war of 1812, and his experiences in help- ing upon the farm with the primitive methods of that day would reconcile the modern farmer's boy to his lot, as Mr. Wagner had to "tramp out" the wheat on the barn floor, and to thresh clover and rye with the old-fashioned flail. What schooling he had was obtained in the neighbor- hood of his home in Haines township, and in early manhood he settled upon a farm there. In 1827 he married his first wife, Miss Helen Collier, by whom he had two children: (1) Katharine E. married Daniel Gathagan, and had five chil- dren, of whom two, Julia and Webster, are liv- ing. (2) Peggy married William Harmon, and both are now deceased; their children are: John (who lives in the country), Clark and Belle. Mrs. Helen Wagner died in 1828, and Mr. Wag- ner afterward wedded Miss Sallie Weisser, born in June, 1816. By the last marriage there were four children: (1) Emeline, who married Mr. Hess, and has six children; (2) Sue, the wife of Adam. Wagner, of Bellefonte, now retired from business. (3) Henry F., who died unmarried in his forty-seventh year; and (4) John C., who when last heard from was in St. Paul, Minn. Mr. Wagner has lived to see his great-grandchil- dren and other descendants make an interesting group.
In 1837 Mr. Wagner left his Haines township home for the vicinity of Boalsburg, and in 1859 he established his home in Benner township, but, on his retirement from active work in 1868, he set- tled permanently in Bellefonte. He is a leading adherent of the Reformed Church there. In his political sympathies he is a Democrat, and he is an advocate of free silver at "16 to I."
J C. MEYER. The reader of these memoirs will find the conviction' borne in upon his mind that underlying all differences of train- ing and environment there lies another factor from which the history of each individual takes its bias. An ideal, a steady purpose, needed: and where this is found life is simplified and all things tend to bring about, sooner or later, the desired end. Truly, "where there's a will there's a way," and fortunate is the man who early in life finds the right. channel toward which to di- rect his energies. Among those who seem to have solved the problem thus, is the subject of
this biography, now one of Bellefonte's success- ful attorneys.
Mr. Meyer was born January 31, 1861, on a farm called Pleasant View, lying south of Aarons- burg. The family is numerously represented in this section, and a sketch prepared by Hon. Henry Meyer, of Centre county, the author of "the Genealogy of the Meyer Family," will be
found elsewhere in this volume. The first of the line to settle in this State was Henry Meyer, who came from the Palatinate, Prussia, with his wife and several children, and located in Lebanon county. His-son Christopher had a son George, who had a son Jacob G., the father of our sub- ject. Jacob G. Meyer was born near Camp- belltown, Penn., October 16, 1824, and was twice married, first to Henrietta Christina Furst. our subject's mother, and second to Lydia A. Dutweiler (née Strohm). Jacob G. Meyer set- tled near Aaronsburg in early manhood, and cleared the farm now known as " Pleasant View," but in October, 1865, moved to the town to en- gage in general mercantile business. At the: time of his removal our subject was about four years old, and from his sixth to his twelfth year he attended the public schools of Aaronsburg .: He then entered the employ of B. F. Phillips, in a general store at that place, and remained two years, but his inclination for study was too strong to be suppressed, and he determined to prepare. for college under the tuition of Prof. D. M. Wolfe, of Penn Hall. To carry out this plan he walked five miles each Monday morning and Fri -. day night, and in 1878 he entered the sophomore class of Franklin and Marshall .College at Lan- caster, Penn. In June, 1881, he was graduated with the degree of A. B., being chosen valedic- torian of his class. He desired to enter the legal profession, but like many others in like circum- stances he turned temporarily to teaching. In August of the same year he was elected assistant principal of the schools of Bellefonte, his duties beginning in September, and so successful was he in this work that when the Bellefonte High School was organized, in the fall of 1883, he was chosen principal. The first class was graduated under his charge in June, 1884, and his career as an educator promised to be a most brilliant one; but he had been spending his spare time in prep- aration for his profession, reading for the previ- ous year under the direction of Alexander and Bower, and wishing to give his entire time to this work he resigned at the close of the school year. Devoting his attention to his books, he soon completed his course of reading, and was admitted to the Bar, December 24, 1884. He began to practice in partnership with Judge
Fros. R. Hayes, M.h.
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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
Adam Hoy, and secured an enviable reputation early in his career.
Being an ardent Democrat, he became prom- inent in political circles also; in August, 1886, he was nominated by his party for the office of dis- trict attorney, being elected in November fol- lowing by 666 majority. In 1889 he was again chosen to the office by a majority which was just twice that of 1886. During the last terin he had a peculiar experience, there being five homicide trials; for fifty years previous, there had not been a case of that nature. Of the five offenders, two received the extreme penalty of the law, and the others were convicted in lesser degrees. In 1894 Mr. Meyer was given the unanimous support of the Democratic party in his county for the State Senate; but as Centre county had furnished the last representative the nomination fell to Clear- field county. In municipal affairs Mr. Meyer has also been active, and in 1893 he was elected burgess of Bellefonte, overcoming an adverse ma- jority of 120. He is now giving his attention exclusively to his legal practice, which has as- sumed handsome proportions.
In 1887 Mr. Meyer married Miss Lizzie S. McAlmont, who was born near Jacksonville, Cen- tre county, February 14, 1865. One daughter, Edna E., blesses this union. Mr. Meyer and his accomplished wife are popular socially, and although he belongs to the Reformed Church they have for four years past been members of the choir of the Presbyterian Church. Socially Mr. Meyer has been identified with the I. O. O. F. for four years, and has passed the chairs in the Encampment. At present he is a member of the board of directors of the Odd Fellows' Orphans' Home at Sunbury.
T HOMAS RENICK HAYES, M. D., of Belle- fonte, Centre county, is of Revolutionary stock, and of ancestry that is of the hardy and sturdy Irish race, which so early came to the Susquehanna country and played so important a part in the development of that country and so- ciety.
In the old Derry churchyard, in Dauphin county, rest the remains of Patrick Hayes and wife. He was a native of Ireland, born in County Donegal in 1705, and in 1725 came to America and located in what is now Derry town- ship, Dauphin county. The records of the war- rantees of lands in that township show that Jan- uary 10. 1737, he became warrantee to 300 acres of land. His death occurred January 31, 1790. Robert, their second son, was born in 1733, and
in 1762 married Margaret Wray, of Derry town- ship. John Hayes, eldest son of Robert, became deputy surveyor of Northumberland county, and later of Union county. Many of the surveys in Centre county were made by him as a deputy- surveyor of - Northumberland county. His birth occurred in 1765, and in 1786 he came to Buffalo Valley, in what subsequently became Union county. In 1796 he married Margaret Gray, a daughter of Capt. William Gray, of the Revolu- tion [Capt. Gray, as a lieutenant, was prisoner from August 27, 1776, to December 8, 1776; he died at Sunbury, July 18, 1804, at the age of fifty-four], and resided on the river just above the town of Lewisburg. Robert Hayes, in 1790. bought the old Andrew Forster farm, located above Mifflinburg, which at his death was pur- chased by his son John. The latter died May 16, 1844; his children were: Robert Goodlow Harper, Nancy, David, Samuel, Joseph, Will- iam, Margaret, Anne and James; of whom the first named was the father of the subject of this sketch.
Robert Goodlow Harper Hayes was born in 1797, and December 27, 1827, was married to Esther Renick Forster. He resided on the old home of his grandfather and father, where he died May 2, 1854. His wife's death occurred August 2, 1856. He had been an elder in the Presbyterian Church nineteen years.
Dr. Thomas Renick Hayes received his edu- cation at Academia, in Juniata county, under Prof. J. H. Shumaker, and at Lafayette College. In 1864 he was graduated from the Chicago Med- ical College, then practiced some years at Ocon- omowoc, Wis., successfully. In 1870 he located in practice at Bellefonte. In 1876 he assisted in organizing the Centre County Medical Society, of which he became an original member, and of which he has served as president. He has served as vice-president of the Pennsylvania State Med- ical Society. Dr. Hayes is the author of the "Medical History of Centre County." Hestands deservedly high in his profession. As a citizen he has contributed substantially to the interests of his adopted city in the erection of elegant dwellings. He has served in various positions; has been director of the First National Bank. and of the Bellefonte Building and Loan Asso- ciation.
Dr. Hayes, on December 28, 1871, was mar- ried to Miss Sarah B., daughter of Hon. H. N. McAllister (deceased), formerly of Bellefonte. Adhering to the faith of his ancestors for many generations back, he is a member of the Presby- terian Church, active and zealous for its pros- perity.
2
Tros. R. Hayes, M.D.
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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
T HE POTTERS of Centre county. A. Boyd Hamilton, late of Harrisburg, Penn., says that John Potter, the first American ancestor of the Potter family, was a native of Tyrone, Ire- land, of Scotch parentage, born about the year 1705. He immigrated with his family to Amer- ica in 1741, aboard the good ship Dunnegal, landing at New Castle, Delaware, in September of that year. He removed west of the river as early as 1746, and settled in Antrim township (now Franklin county), near Greencastle. In the early French war of 1747-48, he was in the serv- ice as a first lieutenant, and took an active part in the Indian war following Braddock's defeat. On the erection of Cumberland county, in 1750, he, on October 6th of that year, was commis- sioned its first sheriff, and again commissioned sheriff in 1753. On February 17, 1756, he was commissioned a captain in the Second Pennsyl- vania Battalion, and accompanied Col. Arm- strong's expedition against Kittanning September 7, 1756. He died about 1758. His children were: James, who was a general in the Army of the Revolution, Thomas, who was killed by the Indians, Samuel. Margaret Annie, Catherine, Mary, Hannah and Isabella.
GEN. JAMES POTTER, son of John Potter, ac- cording to Mr. Hamilton, and Hon. John B. Linn, in his "Annals of Buffalo Valley " and "History of Centre County," was born on the bank of the river Foyle, Tyrone, Ireland, in 1729, and was twelve years old when his father landed at New Castle in 1741. He was commissioned ensign in a company of which his father was captain, in Lieut .- Col. John Armstrong's battalion, and served as such in Armstrong's expedition against Kittanning September 7. 1756, and was wounded in the attack. On October 23, 1757, he was commissioned lieutenant of the second battalion, and February 17, 1759, he was promoted to captain. On October 2, 1764, he was command- ant of three companies on the northern frontiers. On July 27. 1764, he was in command of a com- pany which pursued the Indians who had killed a school master, named Brown, and his ten scholars, near the present site of Greencastle, Penn., and Capt. Potter was the first white man to enter Penn's Valley.
Chief Justice 'Tilghman says: " Capt. James Potter was a man of a strong and penetrating mind, and one to whom early habits as an officer of the British provincial army, engaged in the defense of the frontier, rendered a life of peril. toil and enterprise familiar." He conceived the natural idea that, inclosed by the range of moun- tains which on every side met his view on his re- turn from Kittanning, there must be a fine coun-
try beyond, and on being ordered to Fort Au- gusta, his idea of a fine country to be discovered returned to him. Having obtained leave of absence, he set off with one attendant, passing up the West branch to the mouth of Bald Eagle creek, then passing up Bald Eagle creek to the place where Spring creek enters it, they took to the mountains, and having reached the top of Nittany mountain, Capt. Potter, seeing the prairies and noble forest beneath him, cried out to his attendant: "By Heavens Thompson I have discovered an empire." Immediately de- scending into the plain, they came to a spring at a place which was in after days of some distinc- tion. and known by the appellation of " Old Fort." Here they found themselves out of pro- visions, and for two days and as many nights the flesh scraped from a dried beaver's skin was their only subsistence. From here they started to re- turn to Fort Augusta, and by good fortune hap- pened on a creek, to which they gave the name of John Penn's creek. Pursuing the stream, they .
arrived where provisions could be had, and finally reached Fort Augusta. This was in all proba- bility in 1759, just after the purchase of 1758, when Potter was at Bedford, and had been first promoted captain of William Thompson's com- pany, and that Thompson was his companion. He afterward returned to Penn's Valley. and in . the spring of 1774 removed his family, and made the first improvement at the spring, a little north of where the "Old Fort Hotel " now stands on the turnpike in Potter township, where he built a log house which was fortified in 1777, and known as the "Upper Fort in Penn's Valley." He owned in this Valley, in 1782, 9,000 acres of land.
On January 24. 1776, he was elected colonel of the Upper Battalion, and in July a member of the Constitutional Convention. He was in com- mand of a battalion of Northumberland County Militia at Trenton, December 26, 1776, and at Princeton, January 3, 1777. On April 5. 1777. he was appointed third brigadier-general of the militia of the State, and was in command of his brigade at Brandywine and Germantown. He served with great ability upon the outpost of Gen. Washington's army while encamped at Valley Forge, and by particular request of the State Council he remained in the field during that winter. The house he occupied as headquarters during the time he was at Valley Forge is still standing, and is occupied by J. Ralter Rayser. It stands back a hundred yards from Trout creek. On January 9, 1778, he obtained leave of absence in consequence of the condition of his business and the illness of Mrs. Potter, whose
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" indisposition is with me a more urgent reason than any other for my return." During the sum- mer of 1778, he was in Penn's Valley assisting in repelling inroads of the Indians. He remained in Penn's Valley as late as July, 1779, when he retired with the rest of the inhabitants, and took his family to Middle Creek, in Snyder county. On November 16, 1780, when he became a member of the State Council, he still resided at Middle Creek. On November 14, 1781, he was elected Vice-President of the State, and May 23, 1782, he was unanimously elected major-general. In 1784 he was elected a member of the Council of Censors, taking his seat July 7, 1784: Mean- while he had resumed his residence on his farm above New Columbia, now Union county. In a letter dated White Deer, April 26, 1785, he says: "I have just come home from Philadel- phia, and will have to return, which will prevent my visiting Pean's Valley at this time." In that year he was appointed one of the deputy sur- veyors of the "Old Purchase." In 1786 and 1787 he was largely interested, with Hon. Timothy Pickering, in lands in the Purchase of 1784, and in 1788 turned his attention to im- provements in Penn's Valley, erecting the first house at Potter's bank, and the mills there. In the fall of 1789 he was injured in raising a barn on what was lately Foster's farm, east of the "Old Fort," and went to Franklin county for the benefit of Dr. McClelland's advice, and died therein during the latter part of that year.
Gen. Potter's first wife was Elizabeth Cath- cart, who died near Greencastle, in. Franklin county (then Cumberland), leaving two children: John, who died at Middle Creek, when he was aged about eighteen years; and Elizabeth C., who was married to Hon. James Poe, of Frank- lin county. Mrs. Poe died September 11, 1819, and Hon. James Poe on June 21, 1822, in An- trim township, Franklin county. Only one of their children, Susan M., wife of Samuel Van- Tries, who died in Bellefonte, December 10, 1882, aged seventy-seven years, came to Penn's Valley. Gen. Potter's second wife was Mary, widow of Thomas Chambers, daughter of James and Mary Patterson, of Fermanagh township (now Juniata county), and a sister of Capt. William Patterson. The second Mrs. Potter died in 1791 or 1792, in Penn's Valley, and is buried in the old Stanford or Cedar Creek grave- yard, near Linden Hall. The children born to the second marriage were: (1) James is mentioned farther on; (2) Martha, born on the Conoco- cheague, April 10, 1769, married Hon. Andrew Gregg; (3) Mary married George Riddles, a mer- chant of Middletown, and after his death she
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