USA > Pennsylvania > Beaver County > Genealogical and personal history of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, Volume II > Part 10
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The Peffer family of Western Pennsylvania have been iden- PEFFER tified with a variety of important business interests since their advent in this country. They have shown themselves to be energetic and desirable citizens, and have been highly esteemed in the different communities in which they have resided.
(I) Gottlieb Peffer, who was born in Germany, emigrated to the United States and settled in Harmony, Butler county, Pennsylvania. He was a tailor by trade, and later purchased a farm north of Harmony, on which he resided until his death. He became a very prosperous member of the community, and was liberal in proportion to his prosperity. He assisted generously in the payment for the first Lutheran Church erected at Zelien- ople, Butler county. He married Martha Rice. They had children: J. Frederick, went to California in 1849, established a cattle ranch, and died
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there; William H., see forward; John, deceased, was a farmer; Gottlieb, a retired merchant; Joseph, a farmer, now living retired in Harmony; Frank, a retired merchant, lives in Ambridge, Pennsylvania; Mary, mar- ried Christian Texter, and lives in Evans City; Rebecca, deceased; Emma, married Peter Scheidemantel; Elizabeth, married Jacob Fleming, and lives in New Castle, Pennsylvania; C. G. L., a resident of Harmony.
(II) William H. Peffer, son of Gottlieb and Martha (Rice) Peffer, was born in Jackson township, Butler county, Pennsylvania, July 12, 1828. His entire life has been spent in his native county, where he owned and cultivated a farm of one hundred and forty-five acres in Lancaster town- ship. He and his wife are members of the Grace Reformed Church of Harmony. He married Judith Boehm, born in Bethlehem, Northampton county, Pennsylvania, in 1834, died in February, 1909, daughter of James Peter and Judith (Wasser) Boehm, both born in Northampton county. He taught in one schoolhouse for twenty-one successive years, both the English and the German language. He also followed the occupation of a stone mason. He was active in the public affairs of the community in which he resided, and served as justice of the peace for many years. He and his wife were members of the Lutheran Church. They had children: William, died in young manhood; Cordelia, married C. V. Bauer; Edwin, a teacher; Frank, at one time employed on the railroad, later a hotel pro- prietor; Judith, married Mr. Peffer, as above stated; Mary, married Jacob Shelley, and lived in Zelienople, Pennsylvania. William H. and Judith (Boehm) Peffer had children: Mary R., was a school teacher, and died at the age of eighteen years; Eliza, married James A. McGowan, and lives at Prospect, Pennsylvania ; Clarence Wesley, see forward; Jacob F., a clerk in Wheeling, West Virginia.
(III) Clarence Wesley Peffer, son of William H. and Judith (Boehm) Peffer, was born near Harmony, Butler county, Pennsylvania, September 17, 1862. His education was acquired in Peffer School, No. 4, which he attended for a period of five months each year. As he was the eldest son, some of the more responsible duties of the farm soon devolved upon him, and he became the chief assistant of his father. At the age of twenty years he accepted a clerkship in the store of his uncle, C. G. L. Peffer, in Har- mony, remaining there two years. For a period of fourteen years he was then a clerk for G. D. Swain, in Harmony. At the end of this period he became associated in the lumber business with John Ifft, under the firm name of John Ifft & Company, this being continued for nine years. In 1907 he came to Darlington, Pennsylvania, where he purchased the general store of Jonathan Marks, with which he has been identified since that time. He has added largely to the general stock of the business and increased its capacity in every direction. In addition to this he is also interested in farming lands in Butler county, Pennsylvania.
Mr. Peffer married (first) September 17, 1896, Elenora Ifft, born at Petersville, Pennsylvania, died March 26, 1898, daughter of John and
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Sophia Ifft, of Zelienople, Pennsylvania. They had one child, Beulah E., born September 19, 1897. Mr. Peffer married (second) August 28, 1907, Margaretta Christiana Laderer, born in Lancaster township, Butler county, Pennsylvania, September 15, 1870. He is a member of the Grace Reformed Church, and Mrs. Peffer is a member of the Lutheran Church. Her father, Jacob Laderer, was born in Erkennbrechts-Weiler, Upper Bailiwick, Nur- tingen, Wuerttemberg, Germany, January 12, 1831, died February 21, 1909. After being graduated from the public schools he prepared himself for the profession of teaching by a course of study at a seminary at Nurtingen. He then taught school for a time at Darmsheim, and in 1854 emigrated to America with his young wife. Having studied for a time in Pittsburgh, he obtained a position at the parochial school of St. Paul's Church, in Zelienople, Pennsylvania. He also played the pipe organ in that church for a period of forty years. In addition to teaching in the school he gave private in- struction in music, on the fine piano made in Stuttgart, Germany, which had been presented to him by his mother upon his fourteenth birthday, at which time a good instrument was a rare and costly possession. Mrs. Peffer still has this instrument, and it is in remarkably good condition. In 1858 he purchased a farm in Middle Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and in 1864 a store in Middle Lancaster, which he conducted several years. He was a man of decided influence and prominence in the community, filling the responsible office of postmaster for eighteen years; for the same length of time he acted as secretary of the German Fire Insurance Company of Zelienople; and he was justice of the peace and school director for many years. Mr. Laderer married, in 1853, Sarah Geiger, born at Darmsheim, Upper Baili- wick, Boblingen, April 30, 1833, eighth of the nine children of John Jacob and Dorothea (Santer) Geiger, of Darmsheim. Jacob and Sarah (Geiger) Laderer had children: Mary Louisa, born September 10, 1854, married T. D. Mckinney, of Independence, Missouri; Henry Edward, born June 4, 1856, married Elizabeth Dornhoff, and lives in Portersville, Pennsylvania; William Carl, born September 21, 1857, married Matilda Wahl, and has a carriage factory at Evans City, Pennsylvania, where he also resides ; Jacob Frederick, born February 18, 1859, married Emma, daughter of ex-Governor Rich, and lives in McPherson, Kansas, where he is the proprietor of several stores for general merchandise; Sara Matilda, born June 27, 1866, married John Christophel, a farmer at Middle Lancaster ; Margaretta C., who married Mr. Peffer, as above stated. John George Laderer, the grandfather of Mrs. Peffer, was born June II, 1798, died December 27, 1847. He married Mar- garethe Schott, of Erkennbrechts-Weiler, Upper Bailiwick, Nurtingen, Wuerttemberg, and Jacob, the father of Mrs. Peffer, was their only child.
William Lafferty, a farmer, whose entire life was spent in LAFFERTY Ireland, married Ellen - and had children : Barney, see forward; John; James; Hugh; Patrick; Mary, died unmarried; Maggie, married - Flannigan; Nancy, died young. They all lived and died in Ireland.
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(II) Barney Lafferty, son of William and Ellen Lafferty, was born in county Down, Ireland, in 1802, died in Darlington, Beaver county, Penn- sylvania, in 1879. He was a carpenter by trade, and in addition to this cultivated a farm. He married and raised all of his children in Ireland, but in his old age came to America to live with them. He married Mary McMullin, born in county Down, Ireland, died in Belfast, Ireland, at the age of sixty-one years. She had an only brother, Patrick McMullin. Mr. and Mrs. Lafferty had children: William, deceased, was a farmer in Darling- ton township, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, married Margaret Reynolds; Hugh, died unmarried; Elizabeth, died unmarried; Barney, see forward; Patrick, died unmarried in April, 1887; Mary Ann, unmarried, lives on the homestead.
(III) Barney Lafferty, or, as he was christened, Bernard, son of Barney and Mary (McMullin) Lafferty, was born in county Down, Ireland, in March, 1836. He was educated in the district schools of county Down, and from an early age assisted his father in the labors of the farm. In 1852 he emigrated to America, deciding that the New World held out better prospects for advancement to a young man of energy and ambition. In this idea he was not mistaken, and he has made a success of his career in this country. He selected the state of Pennsylvania as a suitable place for a home, and for the first year worked as a laborer in Schuylkill and Luzerne coun- ties. He then went westward to Pittsburgh, where he worked in the coal mines. On July 5, 1861, he enlisted in Company G, Twenty-sixth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and served three years. He fought bravely at Shiloh, and later in the Army of the Cumberland. He was once wounded in the ankle. After the war he came to Darlington township, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, where his brother Hugh had settled in 1851, and to which sec- tion his brother Patrick and sister Mary Ann had come during the progress of the Civil War. For some time he was employed at the coal mines, and in 1885 purchased the Governor Todd farm of one hundred and four acres. He and all in the family are devout Roman Catholics, and he gives his political support to the Democratic party.
Mr. Lafferty married, December 1, 1875, Mary Roth, born in Germany, who came to America with her parents when she was two years of age, and died in May, 1892. They had children: Bernard, an engineer on the Penn- sylvania Railroad, married Lousia Steinley, and lives in Freedom, Pennsyl- vania ; Wilhelmina, unmarried, manages the household for her father ; Ellen, married Robert Myers, and lives in Rochester, Pennsylvania ; William, un- married, a brakeman in the employ of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company ; John, has charge of a stationary engine in a coal mine.
The Fitzgerald family of Beaver county, Pennsylvania,
FITZGERALD traces its ancestry to the "Emerald Isle," where the fore- bears were for the most part engaged in agricultural pursuits. With a natural love for the beautiful particularly in nature, they devoted themselves extensively to gardening.
Thoz M. Fitzgerald
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(I) John Fitzgerald, whose entire life was spent in Ireland, married Mary Conway and had children: James and Thomas.
(II) Thomas Fitzgerald, son of John and Mary (Conway) Fitzgerald, was born in county Kerry, Ireland, 1846, and came to the United States at the age of twenty-five years. The greater part of his life has been spent in and in the vicinity of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he was in the employ of wealthy families as a gardener. He came to Beaver county, Pennsylvania, in 1885, resided there three years, then removed to Dixmont, where he remained for a time, and finally settled in Beaver permanently ten years ago. He married Mary, also a native of Ireland, daughter of Anthony Healey, and they have had children: Joseph, born June 10, 1865, died June 4, 1884; John, born November 3, 1866, manager of the Plumbers' Supply Company in Erie, Pennsylvania; Thomas M., see forward; James, born September 16, 1869, married Gertrude Potts and lives in Pittsburgh ; Anna, born Novem- ber 7, 1870, died, unmarried, October 20, 1909; Mary Catherine, born April 8, 1875, died in April, 1905, married Edward Kennedy ; Edward Lawrence, born August 13, 1879, married Catherine McConnell; William A., born March 20, 1881, died November 27, 1884.
(III) Thomas M. Fitzgerald, son of Thomas and Mary (Healey) Fitz- gerald, was born in Allegheny county, Pennsy vama, February 27, 1868. His school education was commenced in the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, after a time he was sent to Ireland, and at the expiration of three years re- turned to this country and completed his education in this country. He has always been identified with business as a florist, and has achieved a more than satisfactory amount of success. He came to Beaver county, Pennsylvania, with a fortune consisting of one hundred dollars, and from this small be- ginning he has attained his present prosperity, owing to his indefatigable energy, his perseverance and his excellent business methods. At first he leased the Dravo place, remaining in that location for a period of eight years. By this time he had amassed a sufficient capital to enable him to purchase the Campbell place on Fifth street. At first he devoted the greater part of his time to raising vegetables, but later turned his attention to floriculture. At the present time he has six men constantly in his employ, and at times is obliged to add to this number. He is called upon to fill orders for all parts of the United States, the superiority of his output having become recognized far and wide. He commenced with one thousand feet of glass, and now has about thirty thousand; at first he had the ordinary wooden benches to sup- port his plants in the greenhouses, now he has model cement benches. Altogether he now has twelve greenhouses of large size, covering a huge tract of ground. He understands fully the needs and requirements of the different plants, the soil best adapted to their growth, the temperature and all the other conditions necessary to produce the most healthful and beauti- ful specimens. He is a member of the Pittsburgh and Allegheny Florist Association and of the Horticultural Association of the United States.
Mr. Fitzgerald married, July 30, 1895, Nora, daughter of Jeremiah and
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Catherine Miniham, and has had children: Catherine, John and Joseph, twins ; Helen, Anna, Agnes, all still at home. The family attend the Catholic Church, and Mr. Fitzgerald is Independent in his political opinions. He keeps well in touch with all important current events, and takes pleasure in forming his opinions in an unbiased manner.
MAY In view of the amicable feelings that have always characterized whatever dealings have existed between the United States and Germany, and in consideration of the inestimable aid that was rendered the thirteen colonies by that country when the United States of America was in the process of formation and the American continent was writhing in birth throes preparatory to giving to the world a new nation, it is pleasant to consider the vast number of natives of Germany to whom the United States has offered a home. True, it was but payment of the debt incurred at the time of the Revolution, and the immigrants have again placed our country under lasting obligations to them by their works in raising our nation to a position of eminence among the other leaders of thought and civilization. Another strand in the ties binding the two lands was added when the May family of Germany came to the United States.
(I) George May, the e migrant ancestor, settled in Brighton township, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, and was one of the first to make a home in that sparsely settled region. His occupation in the fatherland had been that of farmer, and so he continued in his new environment, clearing the land from which he afterward derived a living. His wife had come with him to his new home and there both died, she having borne him several children.
(II) James May, son of George May, was born in Brighton township, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, died in Fallston, same county. In his youth he attended the schools of his birthplace, later in life engaging in general farming operations on his one hundred acres of land in North Sewickley township. He possessed inherent skill in farming, and continued therein with more than ordinary success, taking pride in the excellent appearance of his property, which he had improved to a marked extent and also enjoying the respect accorded him by his neighbors for the profitable results that attended his agricultural work. He married Mary Lafferty, whose parents were both natives of Ireland who had settled in Washington county, where Washington now is located. They were the owners of three hundred acres in that vicinity, later moving to Brighton township, Beaver county, where they died. James and Mary (Lafferty) May were the parents of ten children.
(III) John W. May, son of James and Mary (Lafferty) May, was born in North Sewickley township, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, December 15, 1859. When he was four years of age he was brought to Fallston, and in that place attended school, obtaining his education in the public institu- tions of that place. His first employment was in the keg works of the M. F. and S. Kennedy Company, and on January 2, 1885, he began in the grocery business in Fallston, one room of his house serving as his store.
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After seven years spent in these quarters his business had so expanded that it justified the building of a separate store, which he did in 1892, continuing in business in the place then erected to the present time. He handles an excellent line of groceries, as well as the numerous commodities useful in rural life, and holds the patronage of a large proportion of the residents of the country-side. Mr. May is a Democrat in politics, and has served his community as member of the school board and as councilman. His fraternal society is the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and with his wife he is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Mr. May married, March 22, 1883, Emma Ora Jackson, of Fallston, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, and has children : Maude R .; Clark J., lives at home; Lester W., a teamster and coal dealer of Fallston, Pennsylvania.
America is greatly indebted for its general prosperity to the BRAUN German nation. The emigrants who have come to the United States from Germany have brought with them those character- istics which make for the progress and right development of any country. Progressive to a certain extent are the Germans, but what they possess in richest measure are those qualities of thrift meastry and conservatism without which all progress is unprofitable the end The Braun family, of New Brighton, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, Is a case in point. Al- though they have had but two generations in this country, they have adapted themselves to conditions here with a readiness which is admir- able, and have done their duty with credit to themselves in whatever sphere it has been their fortune to live. The grandparents on the paternal side of the present generation lived and died in Germany.
(I) Louis A. Braun was born in Germany and was educated in that country. He learned the trade of tanning, at which he became an expert, and followed this in his native land. Having ascertained that conditions were better in the United States than in his own country, Mr. Braun emigrated to America, and settled in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, where for a time he followed the occupation of tanning. Later he established himself in the grocery business in Allegheny City, and was successfully engaged in this until his death. He was a man held in high esteem in the community in which he lived, and he and his wife were members of the German Lutheran Church. Mr. Braun married, in Allegheny, Elizabeth Goetman, born in Germany, who came to this country with her mother and located in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, her father having died in Germany. Mr. and Mrs. Braun became the parents of eight children.
(II) Louis A. (2) Braun, son of Louis A. (1) and Elizabeth (Goetman) Braun, was born in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, February 24, 1864. He received his education in the public schools in the vicinity of his home, and upon leaving school found employment in a soap manufacturing plant, where he worked until 1899. He then removed to New Brighton, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, where he worked in the hide and tallow business
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conducted by Fource, Sour & Company, for a period of two years. At the expiration of this time he bought out the plant of this company and operated it himself for another two years. He then organized the Braun Rendering Company, of which he was elected president and general man- ager, and which has been in a flourishing condition since its inception, owing to the excellent management of Mr. Braun. At the time of its organiza- tion, this company built its present plant in Daugherty township, near New Brighton, and this is equipped with every modern improvement for a plant of its kind.
Mr. Braun married, in 1882, Matilda Schreader, of North Side, Pittsburgh. They have had children: Harry, deceased; Nelda, deceased; Lawrence; Elsie, deceased; Louis. Mr. and Mrs. Braun are members of the German Lutheran Church, and he gives his political support to the Republican party. While he is not desirous of holding public office, he is ever ready as a good citizen to support any movement which is for the general good, and gives liberally both of his time and means for any purpose of this character.
During the la ter half of the eighteenth century five families
ELDER bearing the ame } Elder emigrated from Ireland to America, settling in various sections of what is now the state of Penn- sylvania, where many of their descendants are living at the present time. Among these emigrants was the direct ancestor of the branch under dis- cussion here.
(I) John Elder was born in Ireland in 1710, and his father was born in 1690.
(II) John (2) Elder, son of John (1) Elder, was born in Ireland in 1756, in county Down. He was a weaver by trade and had amassed a con- siderable fortune. Unfortunately he went on a bond for an acquaintance in Ireland, and being compelled to pay this, was obliged to part with all of his property. He married Mary Elder, also born in county Down, Ireland, and they had children: John, born in 1783, died in 1852, was a farmer in Coshocton, Ohio; Matthew, born in 1788, died in 1863, was the proprietor of a wool and flour mill in Beaver county, Pennsylvania ; Thomas, died in 1867; James, died in 1835; William, see forward; Samuel, born in 1804, died in 1861 ; Margaret, married John Gray in Ireland, emi- grated to America, and settled in Iowa.
(III) William Elder, son of John (2) and Mary (Elder) Elder, was born in county Down, Ireland, in 1801, died in 1862. He emigrated to America, and in 1827 had earned a sufficient sum of money to bring his parents to America. His brother Matthew was already located in Darling- ton township, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, on Little Beaver creek, and Matthew and his brother William conducted a flour mill there for many years, taking the flour to Philadelphia by wagon. William Elder finally purchased six hundred acres of land, a part of the farm of J. V. White,
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which was close by, and he was engaged in farming during the remainder of his life. William Elder was a Whig, and later an Abolitionist. He and his family were members of the Associate Presbyterian Church, better known as Seceders. Mr. Elder married Sarah Stewart, born in county Down, Ireland, in 1806, died in May, 1888. They had children: John Stewart, see forward; Samuel Rankin, now deceased, lived on a part of the homestead in South Beaver township; Robert Boyd, who served in the Union army during the Civil War, died of an attack of typhoid fever in South Carolina; Mattie Jane, married John Creighton, a farmer, and is living in South Beaver township.
(IV) John Stewart Elder, son of William and Sarah (Stewart) Elder, was born in Darlington township, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, in 1835, died September 5, 1886. He studied for the ministry at Westminster Col- lege, New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, and was graduated from this institu- tion, but his health had become impaired by too assiduous application to his books, and he was obliged to return to the outdoor occupations of the farm. After the death of his father, the farm was divided into three parts and he lived in the house on the old homestead. He and his brother Samuel R. cultivated five hundred acres in partnership under the firm name of Elder Brothers, and for many years were exter vely engaged in the raising of sheep. John Stewart Elder married his cousin, Sarah Ellen Stewart, born in Wellsville, Ohio, in 1837, died October 4, 1888, daughter of James and Mary (McKinzie) Stewart, and granddaughter of John Stewart, who claimed descent from the royal house of Stuart, of Scotland, in which country he was born, and from whence he migrated to Ireland. James and Mary (McKinzie) Stewart emigrated to America, and settled on a farm two miles west of West Liverpool, Ohio. He removed to Wellsville, Ohio, where he became a well known merchant. They had children: Martha; Sarah Ellen, mentioned above; Mary, married William Fulton, and lives at Clinton, Illinois; James Jr .; Rachel. John Stewart and Sarah Ellen (Stewart) Elder had children: William S., died in infancy; James S., lives on the old homestead, married Cora Creighton, and has children: Ralph, Margaret, Chalmers and Newton; Robert Boyd, unmarried, lives on the farm; William Carl, see forward.
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