USA > Pennsylvania > Beaver County > Genealogical and personal history of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, Volume I > Part 29
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(IV) Samuel L. Potts, seventh son and eighth child of Jonathan and Elizabeth (English) Potts, was born May 2, 1803, died August 31, 1867. He was a merchant and inn-keeper, following these lines in Jefferson and Harrison counties, Ohio. He married, March 29, 1825, Elizabeth, daugh- ter of Thomas and Nancy Barnes. Children of Samuel L. and Elizabeth (Barnes) Potts: 1. Nancy, born September 21, 1826, married Dr. A. H. Taylor; children: Orville, Samuel, Robert, William, Lizzie, Margaret. 2. Jonathan Smith, born May 1, 182-, married Nancy Vandegrift. 3. Eliza- beth, born February 9, 1830, died November 8, 1877, married (first) Dr. A. W. Guthrie, (second) John A. Croskey; children, all of first marriage: James D., Elizabeth J., William Potts, Ettie. 4. Dilliann, born October 24, 1831, died March 15, 1856, married Ross J. Roberts; children: Elizabeth E., Samuel R. and Richard. 5. William O., of whom further. 6. Sarah C., born May 16, 1839, died March 1, 1840.
(V) William O. Potts, fifth child and second son of Samuel L. and Elizabeth (Barnes) Potts, was born September 19, 1836. When a young
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man, having completed his studies, he became a clerk in his father's store, subsequently leaving this service and becoming a school teacher, an occupa- tion for which his studious nature well prepared him. In 1862 he enlisted in the One Hundred and Twenty-sixth Regiment Ohio Volunteers and was made orderly sergeant of Company A, serving in the campaign of Virginia. Just prior to the battle of Gettysburg, he was sent to a hospital on account of disabilities. The rigors of the service and the insufficient nourishment that frequently fell to the lot of the soldiers broke down his constitution, and in November, 1863, he was sent to the Columbian Hospital in Wash- ington, where he was confined by illness until April of the following year, when he was discharged as unfit for service. Returning to his home he rested for a time, recovering his wasted strength and regaining his depleted energies, then obtained a position as clerk in the office of the provost-mar- shal of his district. Subsequently, from 1865 until 1873, he served Harrison county, Ohio, as deputy auditor and later as auditor, each for a four-year term. Mr. Potts married, June 27, 1871, Ella F., daughter of George L. and Rebecca Wharton. Children of William O. and Ella F. (Wharton) Potts: William Walter, of whom further; Howard Hathaway, born Janu- ary 18, 1875; Margaret Reed, born October 22, 1879.
(VI) William Walter Potts, eldest child of William O. and Ella F. (Wharton) Potts, was born in Cadiz, Harrison county, Ohio, January 25, 1873. He attended school until he was sixteen years old, and at that age entered the employ of the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis railroad, in the Cadiz (Ohio) office, remaining with that road until 1892. In that year he became identified with the First National Bank of Cadiz in the capacity of clerk, a relation existing until 1903, the years from 1897 to 1903 being passed as assistant cashier. The latter year witnessed his introduction to the business world of Beaver Falls, Beaver county, Penn- sylvania, when he assumed the duties of secretary and treasurer of the Federal Title and Trust Company of that place, also taking a place upon its directorate. This is not Mr. Potts' first experience with the methods and transactions of corporations, for during his Ohio residence he assisted in the introducing of independent telephone companies into the region in which he lived, being one of the moving spirits in the organization of the Harrison County Telephone Company, of Cadiz, Ohio, of which he was secretary. He also played an important part in the reorganization of the Cadiz Gas Company, now operating as the Harrison Light and Fuel Com- pany, and remained close to the directors of that company until it was firmly established upon a lucrative basis. Since taking up his residence in Beaver Falls he has become a member of the Chamber of Commerce, and holds membership in the Tamaqua Club; is also a member of the Masonic order, belonging to Parian Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, of which he is a charter member; Cadiz Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, and Beaver Valley Commandery, Knights Templar, being a charter member in last three bodies. He and his wife are communicants of the Presby-
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terian church and he is a trustee of the church of that denomination at College Hill. Mr. Potts, with an ease and grace that are never lacking in the man who has consorted much with his fellows in responsible capacities, has assumed a place in the business, social, religious, and fraternal life of his city that is unusual for one of comparatively recent residence, and all doors of the city's life are open to him in welcome. He is a Christian gentleman, competent in every way to be adjudged a representative citizen of Beaver Falls.
He married at Cadiz, Ohio, February 17, 1904, Maisie G., daughter of H. B. and Mary Jane (Simmons) Law, her father a druggist of Cadiz, Ohio. Children: William Law, born March 25, 1907; Richard Bradshaw, born May 29, 1909.
MILLER The history of the German family of Miller in the United States is confined to two generations whose active lives have been lived with that country as the scene of their endeavors, although three generations have made their home upon its soil, the grand- father of Albert Miller having come thither to spend his latter days among his children, his wife having passed to her rest while they were residents of Wurtemberg, Germany. He was a farmer, had saved a comfortable com- petence in his home land, and to relieve the loneliness and dreariness of his life in the years when his mind could no longer be diverted from his cares by strenuous labor, he sought the homes of his children in the United States, dying in Wooster, Ohio, at the advanced age of ninety-four years. Although he survived his wife so many years, each was made happy for him by the loving attendance of his children, who eased for him the descend- ing plane of life, lavishing upon him the tender, thoughtful care so craved by those of many years. He was the father of: I. George, the first of the family to come to the United States, a farmer near Kittanning, Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, where he died. 2. Catherine Rough, who lived in Wooster, Ohio, in whose home her father spent his last years. 3. John F., of whom further.
(II) John F. Miller was born in Wurtemberg, Germany, in 1824, died in Smiths Ferry, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, April 10, 1861. His home was in his native land until he was fifteen years of age, and it was in the schools of that country that he received a sound, thorough elementary education, his studies being discontinued when he came to the United States in 1839. Pennsylvania was the objective point of his voyage, and he settled in Beaver, Beaver county. The necessity of making a living compelled a hurried choice of a vocation and he decided upon the trade of shoemaker, arranging terms for serving an apprenticeship with Robert Tallon, a boot and shoe maker of that place, with him learning the trade. He then established a shop of his own, and so carefully and skillfully was all of his work performed that he was deluged with custom, being forced
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to employ first one, then two, and finally eight men to supply the needs of the locality both in repairing and in making footwear. In 1851 the home of the family was made at Smiths Ferry, his residence and place of busi- ness until his death, a decade later. Both he and his wife were members of the Lutheran church. He married Mary Camp, born on the ocean, her parents being en route to the United States from Germany, in 1831, died in May, 1910. She was a daughter of Michael Camp, a native of Germany, a shoemaker by trade, who in 1831 settled in Philadelphia. The pursuit of his trade took him to Beaver, Pennsylvania, where the death of his wife occurred, when she was seventy years of age, he dying in Roch- ester, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, aged seventy-five years. Michael Camp was the father of: I. Michael, proprietor of the Pavilion Hotel in Roch- ester, Pennsylvania, where he died. 2. Mary, of previous mention, married John F. Miller. 3. Margaret, married Joshua Dawson; lives in Rochester, Pennsylvania. 4. Catherine, married Joseph Frick; lived in Salem, Ohio, both deceased. 4. Barbara, married James Robinson, deceased; lived in Bridgewater, Pennsylvania. 6. Martin, a bricklayer, lives in Chicago, Illi- nois. 7. Christ, twin of Martin, lived and died in New Brighton, Pennsyl- vania. 8. Henry, a grocer and shoemaker; lived in Smith's Ferry, Penn- sylvania. 9. John, a soldier in the Union army during the Civil War, was killed in action. Children of John F. and Mary (Camp) Miller: 1. Albert, of whom further. 2. Margaret, married John Fisher; lives in West Bridge- water, Pennsylvania. 3. Matilda, married Schuyler Frazier; lives in Phila- delphia, where he is superintendent of a chemical manufactory. 4. George, died aged five years, the victim of an attack of diphtheria. 5. William, died of the same disease as his brother George, aged three years. 6. John F., a brush manufacturer; lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
(III) Albert Miller, eldest of the six children of John F. and Mary (Camp) Miller, was born in Beaver, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, June 21, 1851. When he was ten years of age the death of his father made him the male head of the family, and thus early in life he began to prove his mettle by assuming his share of the responsibility of the support of the family, procuring a job driving horses engaged in drilling oil wells. Thus early in life did he become a bread winner and his labors for his mother and younger brothers and sisters was never relaxed until death claimed the former and the latter became self-supporting. In 1869 he started to learn the machin- ist's trade in the machine-shop of Robert White & Brother, remaining in their employ for two years, finishing his term of apprenticeship with Max- well & Porter, both being Allegheny City (Pittsburgh North Side) firms. An accredited journeyman of his trade, he sought and obtained employment in a chain factory at New Brighton, Pennsylvania, where he remained for two years, the five following years being spent in the employ of the Harmony Society in the Beaver Falls Power Works, where he was foreman machinist. He then traced a wide triangle across the country, going to Marshall, Texas, for a year working in the shops of the Texas Pacific railroad, then to Chi-
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cago, Illinois, where he was located for two years, and finally, in 1882 to Beaver Falls, there becoming associated with the Love Sewing Machine Com- pany, of Rochester. The next eighteen years of his life were spent as fore- man for Knott, Harker & Company, the Keystone Driller Company obtain- ing his services at the end of that time as foreman of the machine depart- ment, a position he holds to the present time. While in years Mr. Miller has just passed the prime of life, measured by events he is a patriarch in- deed. Called from his studies at an early age, he accepted with manly cour- age the duties imposed upon him, gave of his earnings to the needs of the family, and as a boy began upon a life of activity and toil that has fully shown his worth. He wasted no precious time in railing at adverse fortune, but marshaled his forces and stormed the ramparts of the world, and in the half century that he has been one of the men who "do things" has gathered, besides a comfortable competence, a wealth of experience closed to those whose way in life is sheltered and a knowledge of the manners and natures of his fellows inaccessible but to those who meet men in the busy life of the industrial world. He has been measured by the standard of those who are the life of that world, and has not been found waiting. Mr. Miller is a mem- ber of the Masonic order, belonging to lodge and chapter, and also affiliates with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. His political convictions are formed independent of party ties, and with his wife he is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.
He married (first) in 1875, Sarah Powers, born in Allegheny City, Pennsylcania, died 1880; (second) January 25, 1882, Mary, born at Darling- ton, Pennsylvania, daughter of Nathan and Ann McCowin, of that place. By his first marriage Albert Miller was the father of one child, Nellie, who died aged nine months. By his second marriage he has one child, Jean.
Nathan McCowin was a son of Samuel McCowin, whose parents were natives of Ireland. They came to the United States about 1795 and settled in the territory that was later incorporated as a part of Lawrence county, Pennsylvania. They cleared a farm from the woods that grew upon their tract and there passed the remainder of their lives. They were the parents of: 1. John, a farmer of Darlington township, Beaver county, Pennsylvania. 2. James, lived in Newcastle, Pennsylvania. 3. Josiah, a farmer of Darling- ton township, Beaver county. 4. William, lived on the homestead in Law- rence county. 5. Samuel, of whom further. 6. Thompson, lived in Enon Valley, Pennsylvania. 7. Harvey, also lived on the homestead. 8. Allen, a farmer of Lawrence county. 9. Margaret, married a Mr. Gibson.
Samuel McCowin was born in Lawrence county, Pennsylvania, 1802, died June 1, 1879. He grew to manhood on his father's farm and in early life was there employed. For one year he lived in Mercer county, but re- turned to Lawrence county as soon as possible, not being attracted by the first named place. In 1841 he came to Darlington township, Beaver county, entering into negotiations for the purchase of the land of the Canal Coal Company, finding, after one payment had been made on the purchase price,
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that a clear title could not be obtained. He then bought one hundred and fifteen acres in the same township from Mr. Hughes, making payment by working for him at exceedingly low rates, and lived there the reminder of his years. He here raised sheep in large quantities, besides his farming operations, and became a prominent man in the community, as a Whig and Republican holding all of the local offices, with his wife holding membership in the Methodist Episcopal church. His wife, Margaret, was a daughter of John Corry, of German descent, who was a farmer in Darlington township, Beaver county, Pennsylvania. Children of John Corry: 1. Washington, in- herited and lived on the homestead. 2. Nathan, lived in Darlington town- ship, Beaver county. 3. Mattie, married a Mr. Duggan. 4. Betsey. 5. Polly. 6. Belinda. 7. Barbara. 8. Sallie. 9. Margaret, of previous men- tion, married Samuel McCowin. 10. Rebecca, married John Mahon. Chil- dren of Samuel and Margaret (Corry) McCowin. 1. Polly, married Dickson Minor; lived in Darlington township, Beaver county, both deceased. 2. John, a riverman, died in New Orleans, Louisiana, just prior to the Civil War, the victim of an attack of cholera. 3. James, deceased, was a farmer. 4. Josiah, deceased; was a laborer. 5. Nathan, of previous mention, a rail- way engineer and later a contracting painter of Beaver Falls; married Ann - and was the father of Mary McCowin, wife of Albert Miller by his sec- ond marriage. 6. William, deceased; was a farmer of Montana, where he died. 7. Allen, deceased ; was a farmer of Darlington township, prosperous in his business. 8. Thompson, deceased; was a railroad employee of New Jersey, his death occurring in that state. 9, 10 and 11. Washington, Dixon and Samuel, all died in infancy, death caused by a contagious disease. 12. Mar- tha, married William Aikens; lives in Darlington township, Beaver county. 13. Harvey, born April 24, 1839; lives on a farm in Darlington township, Beaver county. 14. Elizabeth, married Alexander Anderson, both deceased. 15. Anna, married Joseph Davis, both deceased. 16. Margaret, married William Sykes; lives in St. Louis, Missouri. 17. Rebecca, died aged three years, death resulting from scarlet fever.
GOLL John Goll is a member of a family typical of the strong German
stock which forms so large and so substantial a factor in the population of Pennsylvania. His parents were both natives of Germany and came separately to the United States where they met and were eventually married.
(I) John Goll, Sr., was born in the "Fatherland," October 5, 1841, and came to this country, an orphan, when only fourteen years of age. With him came two brothers, Jacob and William, both now deceased, and a half- sister, Rosa. They settled in Economy, Beaver county, Pennsylvania. John Goll soon engaged in the meat business and was butcher for the Economite Society for a time. On January 1, 1870, he married Margaret Shallenberg- er, daughter of Michael and Barbara (Keener) Shallenberger, who had come
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from Germany, where their daughter Margaret was born April 26, 1851, and settled first in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, finally removing to a farm in Beaver county, near New Gallilee, where they both died. The wedding of Mr. Goll to Miss Shallenberger took place in New Gallilee, after which they went to West Bridgewater, Beaver county, which they made their residence and where Mr. Goll continued his business of butcher for forty years, and which is still carried on under the name of Goll & Sons. Mr. Goll Sr. was a Democrat in politics, He and his family were members of the German Lutheran church. To them were born twelve children, ten of whom are living, as follows : 1. William, of West Bridgewater, Beaver county, engaged in the business of hauling and transporting merchandise; married Minnie Smith; children: Mabel, Thelma, Anna. 2. Albert, now with the Phoenix Glass Company ; married Ella Bradley ; child, Margaret. 3. Frank, a member of the firm of Goll & Sons; married Lovetta McKee; children : Laura, Edith, Bertha, Helen R. 4. Charles, a farmer in Big Beaver township; married Mary Campbell; children: Catherine, Dorothy, Charlotte. 5. Walter, em- ployed by the Pennsylvania Railroad; resides at West Bridgewater ; unmar- ried. 6. John, see forward. 7. George, a member of the firm of Goll & Sons; unmarried. 8. Edward, now head butcher with Boyle & Patterson, of Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania; unmarried. 9. Harry, a butcher at Wood- lawn, Beaver county; married Blanche Baker; child, John Edward. 10. Elsie Blanche, married S. C. Holland; resides in Bridgewater, Pennsylvania.
(II) John (2) Goll, son of John (1) Goll, was born in West Bridge- water, Pennsylvania, February 18, 1879. He obtained his education in the public schools of his native town, and upon the completion of his studies entered the employ of his father in his butcher's business and eventually en- gaged in the grocery business which he has followed for the past seventeen years, which now has its home on Market street, West Bridgewater, the same street upon which Mr. Goll's residence is situated. Mr. Goll is much interested in public affairs and is active in politics. He is a member of the Democratic party, and has three times been elected a member of the council. He is prominent in fraternal circles and is a member of Knights of Pythias, No. 265, of West Bridgewater, and of Beaver Lodge, No. 366, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of West Bridgewater.
Mr. Goll married, January 17, 1900, Dora Anderson, daughter of John O. and Charlotte (Johnson) Anderson, of Warren county, Pennsylvania, where she was born March 2, 1879. To Mr. and Mrs. Goll have been born two children, Laura Charlotte, December 7, 1900, Mildred Eleanor, Novem- ber 19, 1906. Mr. Goll and the members of his family are communicants of the Presbyterian church.
Since the time when Prussia acknowledged the sovereignty BALZER of the King of Poland, the Balzers have been residents of that region, and have played well their part, whether it called them to high or low degree, in the history of that land. This record
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has its genesis with Conrad and Margaretta (Fisher) Balzer, who spent their entire lives in Fulda, province of Hesse-Nassau, Germany. They were, as have been all the members of the family, strict adherents to the Roman Catholic faith. Children: 1. Andrew Henry, of whom further. 2. Nicholas, married in his native land, came to the United States with his wife, settled in Baltimore, Maryland, and there died. 3. Margaretta, came to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to join her brother, Henry, accompanied by her fiance, John Baptiste Balzer (not a relative), and they were married soon after, her husband becoming a glass worker. In 1879 John Baptiste Balzer and his family moved to Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, where he was one of the found- ers of the Co-operative Glass Works and one of the stockholders. He died in Beaver Falls, August 27, 1905, his wife dying in the same place, June 27, 1903. Their children, all married and living in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania : John, Charles, a member of the police force, Andrew, and Tina Meyer.
(II) Andrew Henry Balzer, son of Conrad and Margaretta (Fisher) Balzer, was born in Fulda, province of Hesse-Nassau, Prussia, Germany, died in Crawford county, Pennsylvania. He grew to manhood in his native land and became a farmer on one of the large estates in the region where he lived, and there married. His was the most adventurous spirit of the family and, being convinced that in seeking a new home he could lose noth- ing, for there was little opportunity for advancement in his native land, and that he might improve his condition, about 1845 he and his family immigrated to the United States. They settled in Pittsburgh, and Henry Balzer obtained employment in a brickyard, at wages so greatly in advance of any paid in the homeland that the rest of his near relatives decided to try their fortunes in the United States, and came thither as before described, landing in this country April 27, 1852. Henry Balzer left Pittsburgh about 1860 and returned to the occupation to which he had been reared, farming, purchasing land in Crawford county, where he died. His agricultural pur- suits were richly rewarded, as he was a farmer whose operations had been conducted at first on a tract of land that was little more than a large garden, and the bountiful returns the soil yielded him astounded his neighbors, who planted and reaped in a manner that, in comparison with his, was prodigal. He and his family were Roman Catholics, regular and devout in their de- votions. His wife was a native of Germany, in which country they were married; among his children was Henry (2), of whom further.
(III) Henry (2) Balzer, son of Henry (1) Balzer, was born in Craw- ford county, Pennsylvania, died near Erie, Erie county, Pennsylvania. His early life was spent on the home farm in Crawford county, and after at- taining maturity he married, he and his wife starting their married life on a small farm in Erie county, Pennsylvania, near the city of Erie, and there remained all of their lives. His wife's name was Barbara Beam. One of their children was Henry, the third of the line to bear the name.
(IV) Henry (3) Balzer, son of Henry (2) and Barbara (Beam) Balzer, was born in Erie, Erie county, Pennsylvania, September 24, 1883.
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Ilis youth was passed in that place and his education obtained in St. Mi- chael's parochial school, which institution he left when he was sixteen years of age to learn the carpenter's trade, and after mastering that occupation he was employed in numerous places. In 1906 he and his family came to Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, and after being employed for a time as a journeyman he branched out into contracting, in which line of business he continues at the present time. He is a graduate of the right school to be successful in his work, that of practical experience and hard labor, and he possesses the proper proportions of courage and initiative to make it certain that those who compete with him in the arena of business will find an opponent well worthy of their most highly tempered steel. He is alert, energetic, and active, always looking for opportunities to work with profit and finding many such. His political judgment favors the Democratic party, and with this organization he casts his vote, affiliating with the church of his fathers, the Roman Catholic. His home is at No. 412 East Sixteenth street, Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.
Mr. Balzer married, November 28, 1906, Christina, born near Sim- eratz, Germany, July 23, 1887, daughter of William and Gertrude (Tates) Huppertz, her father born near the town of her birth December 4, 1854, her mother born in the same place May 29, 1857. William Huppertz was a shoemaker in his native land, and after his immigration to the United States in 1888 was employed in a pottery in Tarentum, Pennsylvania, for six months, later moving to Beaver Falls. For the ten following years he was connected with the Beaver Falls Chemical Works, and he then pur- chased seventy-two acres of land in Brighton township, farming for two years. For some reason this occupation was distasteful to him and he sold his property, returning to Beaver Falls and obtaining a position in the shovel factory, where he is employed at the present time. Children of William and Gertrude (Tates) Huppertz: I. Joseph, died aged ten weeks. 2. Joseph, died in infancy. 3. Mary, lives at home, unmarried. 4. Christina, of pre- vious mention, married Henry (3) Balzer. 5. Charles, married Christina Mailick, and is employed in the pottery at Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. 6. Gertrude, died in infancy. 7. Joseph, died aged seven months. 8. August, a carpenter, unmarried. 9. Theresa, aged eighteen years, lives at home. 10. William, aged fourteen years. 11. Elizabeth, aged thirteen years. 12. Cecelia, died aged ten months, the victim of an attack of whooping cough. Children of Henry (3) and Christina (Huppertz) Balzer: 1. Frederick William, born February 12, 1908, was drowned by falling into a tub full of water on June 7, 1909. 2. Carl Joseph, born January 9, 1910. 3. Gertrude, born August 12, 1911. 4. Girard Henry, born August 5, 1913.
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