USA > Pennsylvania > Beaver County > Genealogical and personal history of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, Volume II > Part 22
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(III) Lucien Emmett McCullough, son of John (2) and Sarah Jane (Caldwell) Mccullough, was born in Vanport, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, August 14, 1860. The public schools in which he obtained his scholastic training were those of Vanport and Beaver, his studies being discontinued when he was eleven years of age to permit him to accept a position in a brick-yard in which his father was interested. He was later employed by Welch Gloninger and Pendleton Brothers, in 1888 entering the service of what was then Welch Gloninger & Company, now known as Gloninger & Company, the plant of the concern being located below Vanport. His connection with this firm began in the capacity of laborer, but his exhi- bition of his knowledge of the business and his evident executive ability won him a promotion to the position of superintendent after six years of steady rise in the estimation of his employers. He still discharges the many duties of that office in the capable and confident manner that has marked his entire administration of the position. Besides his relation with the firm of Gloninger & Company, Mr. Mccullough holds an interest in the Standard Fire Clay Company, whose plant is located at Fallston. In political affairs of national import, Mr. McCullough is in sympathy with the principles of the Republican platform, but in the casting of his ballot in local elections he is guided solely by the merits of the individual candidates, having served as school director of Vanport for a period of three years. He holds membership in the Presbyterian Church of Vanport.
Mr. Mccullough married Mary Waters, a native of Vanport, Beaver cc.unty, Pennsylvania. Children : 1. Sadie, married George Miller, of Beaver, Pennsylvania, and is the mother of one son, James L. 2. Leah, deceased. 3. James, deceased.
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(III) Robert C. Mccullough, son of John (2) and Sarah Jane (Cald- well) Mccullough, was born in Beaver county, Pennsylvania, January 24, 1873. He attended the public schools of Vanport, there obtaining the greater part of his education, and in 1895 entered the employ of the United States government at the Davis Island Dam, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, after- ward becoming lock tender at the same place. In 1904 he was appointed lock master at the Merrill dam below Vanport, and after filling this position for a number of years was elevated to the responsible office of superintendent of the locks on the Ohio river between Steubenville, Ohio, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and as such still continues in the service, his years of em- ployment with the government covering a period of eighteen years, which have witnessed his steady advance to his present position, so competently filed. His fraternal affiliations are with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Masonic order. His religious convictions are in accord with the beliefs of the Presbyterian Church, and in political action he is a Republican.
Mr. Mccullough married, April 14, 1904, Stella Marie Mengel, of Belle- vue, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania. They are the parents of five children : Stella Helen, Robert Mengel, Howard Caldwell, Martha Marie, Joseph Edward.
HUMMEL There is, in the record of the two generations of Hummels who have made Pennsylvania their home, a story of energy and determination that in the simple telling reveals more courage of character and more undismayed perseverance than the fanciful hero of fiction dares to boast. It is a story, not of thrilling deeds and hair- breadth escapes from threatening dangers, but a hand-to-hand struggle with adversity and misfortune, with daily bread as the prize. Its beginning leads to Wittenberg, Germany, where John Hummel was born in 1816. Here his early life was spent and here he married. After he had become firmly con- vinced of the greater abundance of opportunity in the United States than in his home-land, he came thither in 1850, leaving behind him his wife and family until he should be able to provide for them a comfortable home. This he was able to do two years later, when he had saved a sufficient sum from his wages as butcher and soap manufacturer, occupations he had followed in New Haven, Connecticut. The reunion after the two years of separation was a most happy one, Mr. Hummel meeting his wife and three children as the boat docked. In 1854 he moved to Cleveland, Ohio, and was there employed in Cole's slaughter house for many years, leaving Cleveland in 1867 and moving to Titusville, Pennsylvania. He rented a farm and there resided until his wife's death, which occurred in 1870, in that year establishing a butcher shop at Franklin, Pennsylvania. For five years he continued in that business and then retired from active participa- tion in affairs, spending the latter years of his life with his son. Casper J., in ease, comfort and quiet, his death occurring in 1899. He was the pos-
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sessor of a military record of six years service in the German army. From the time of his first interest in political issues and questions he was a sup- porter of Democratic principles, changing his allegiance in 1881, at the time of Garfield's election, to the Republican party,
He married, in Wittenberg, Germany, Regina Hipp. Children of John and Regina Hummel: 1. Margaret, deceased; married Nicholas Ikehorn. 2. John, a resident of Haysville, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania. 3. Casper J., of whom further. 4. Martin, died in infancy in Germany. 5. Eli, a con- tractor and oil well driller; resides at Titusville, Venango county, Pennsyl- vania. 6. Magdalena, married J. A. Roth, a barber; lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 7. Mary, married Stephen Finch, an inspector of armor plate for battleships, in the employ of the United States government. 8. Cyril Wellsworth, a contractor and oil well driller of Wyoming.
(II) Casper J. Hummel, third child and second son of John and Regina (Hipp) Hummel, was born at Wittenberg, Germany, June 8, 1848. He was a child two years of age when his parents came to the United States, and until he was eight years of age he attended the public schools. At that age he began to contribute his mite toward the support of the family by buying and selling slab wood. Two years later he obtained a position with a threshing outfit and was employed therewith for about five years, leaving to enlist in the Union army. Although he was but fifteen years and three months of age, he nevertheless evaded the questions of the recruiting officer and was accepted, possibly because his appearance was so much older than his years. His company was Company E, One Hun- dred and Eighty-eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and during the eight months of his service he was engaged in several skirmishes in the middle West and South. While a member of this company he accidentally broke his left arm, but refused to accept a furlough to allow his injury to mend.
Returning from the field he began to learn the blacksmith's trade, work- ing at it for one year, leaving to become a sailor on the Great Lakes. In three months, so quickly had he absorbed the necessary knowledge, he was made a pilot under Captain Thorne. He was compelled to give up this posi- tion in order to come to the assistance of his father, who had failed in busi- ness and was having difficulty in obtaining a fresh start. Accordingly he engaged in teaming until 1868, when he drove to Titusville, Pennsylvania, and hauled oil for two years, the wages for this labor being considerably higher than those paid for similar services in other sections. In 1870 he married Anna Rickert, and soon after became his father-in-law's assistant on his farm at Angola, New York, remaining with him for a year and a half. His next occupation was in Titusville, where he learned the tool dresser's trade, and then became an oil pumper. In 1873 all his savings and possessions were lost in the panic, and his position became decidedly precarious, inasmuch as he had neither money nor a home left. Disap- pointed by his ill fortune, but with confidence and faith in his own strength and a benign Providence, he accepted the first available situation and was
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employed in a Titusville barrel works at a dollar and a half a day. While there was nothing princely about his position it was very acceptable in his time of dire need, but unkind fate still pursued him and four weeks later his employer was forced to shut down his factory and Mr. Hummel was once more left without visible means of support. He then obtained a posi- tion with I. O. Shink, the employer for whom his brother worked, and performed general duties about his grocery store and at his oil wells. For a year he held this position, and at the end of that time devoted his entire time to the management of the oil wells, with an attendant large increase in salary, and was finally made superintendent. In 1876 he became the sole proprietor of two wells and ever since that time has conducted independent operations in connection with whatever position he has held. His employer voicing objections to the continuance of outside business relations, Mr. Hummel, to avoid unpleasant complications, resigned his position and imme- diately accepted another of similar nature at an advanced salary. Shortly afterward his former employer requested him to return to his old position, to which he consented, first giving his new employer two weeks' notice of his intended leave-taking. This was one of the principles he had incorpor- ated in his business creed and he was never known to leave an employer without giving due notice of his intentions. In his later life, nothing could convince him so quickly of a man's worthlessness as the knowledge he had deserted his position. For a time he managed the affairs of both men, receiving an excellent salary, and in 1879 moved to Bradford, where he became an oil and gas well-driller. In this occupation he became excep- tionally skilled and earned, among his associates, the sobriquet "Wild Cat Driller," having kept as many as nine sets of drills in operation at one time. In his varied operations he has included Bradford and Mckean counties, employing on an average thirty men. His business has also taken him to Warren, Forest and Potter counties, in 1884 Allegheny county, later Ems- worth and Baden, Beaver county; Evansville, Indiana; Lawrence county, Ohio; Lawrence county, West Virginia ; and Belmont and Monroe counties, Ohio. He has been remarkably successful in his business, competency and determination being prime factors in the pleasing record he has established. His only other business relations have been in the manufacture of novelties and electrical supplies, in neither of which he holds interest at the present time. In 1889 he purchased a farm of one hundred and seventy-two acres in Ohio township, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, and the following year made extensive improvements to the property and erected a new barn. Here he resides at the present time, conducting general farming operations and rais- ing stock of high grade. With his wife, he belongs to the Reformed Pres- byterian Church, and in political belief is a Progressive. His public service has been confined to holding a position on the school board.
Mr. Hummel married Anna, daughter of John Rickert, a native of Titusville, Pennsylvania. Children: I. Fred W., a well driller of Robison, Illinois. 2. Rudolph, a missionary of the Presbyterian Church, now a min-
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ister in California. 3. Edna, died aged six years. 4. Laura V., married Jesse Hicks; lives in Ohio. 5. Helen, married Dr. M. A. Swaney. 6. Clin- ton R., a resident of California. 7. Casper J. (2), died aged fourteen years. 8. Eleanor. 9. Alice, twin of Eleanor, died aged four years.
McCANDLESS This is an old and honored family of Ireland, and is now in its fifth generation in this country. The first generation came to the United States when their chil- dren were small, and settled in Butler county, Pennsylvania.
(II) Robert McCandless was born in Ireland, and was a very young child when he came to this country with his parents. He was educated and grew to maturity in Butler county, Pennsylvania, and followed the occupa- tion of farming. After his marriage he settled on a farm in Center town- ship, where both he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives. Both were members of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. McCandless married Mary, a daughter of Joseph Jack, of Butler county, Pennsylvania, and had chil- dren : George J., of further mention ; Jane, married Samuel Irwin, and died in Butler county, Pennsylvania ; Mary, married Eli Eagle, and lives in Union- ville, Pennsylvania; Elizabeth, married Frank Fligger, and died in Butler county, Pennsylvania ; child, died unnamed.
(III) George J. McCandless, son of Robert and Mary (Jack) Mc- Candless, was born in Butler county, Pennsylvania, November 15, 1838, died in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, October 4, 1898. Like his father, he engaged in farming, and after his marriage bought about one hundred and fifteen acres of land in Butler county, on which he lived many years. He then purchased an old grist mill in Conoquenessing township, and operated this about ten years. In 1888 he removed to Beaver Falls, where he lived a retired life until his death. During the Civil War he was a soldier in the Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, served for a period of seven months, dur- ing which time he was an active participant in several skirmishes, and was then honorably discharged by reason of ill health. He was a Democrat in politics, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He had been a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows for a number of years. Mr. McCandless married, September 30, 1862, Samantha Young, born in Mercer county, Pennsylvania, February 17, 1843, now living in Beaver Falls, where she is a member of the United Presbyterian Church. They had chil- dren : Addison Young, a grocer of Beaver Falls, married Annie Heaven; Joanna, married Wesley Raisley, and lives in College Hill; Marcus William, a grocer, lives in Beaver Falls, married Mary Cox ; Robert Presley, a grocer in Beaver Falls; Beriah Nelson, superintendent of a nail mill at Struthers, Ohio; Oren Leonidas, a grocer in Beaver Falls; Josiah Couvert, of further mention; James, died at the age of fourteen years; Samantha Jane, died at the age of nineteen months; Edith Lena, died at the age of seven weeks; child, died unnamed; Sylvester Merle, a plumber, resides with his mother.
Robert Young, paternal grandfather of Mrs. Samantha (Young) Mc-
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Candless, was born in Ireland, and came to America in his early youth. He settled in Lawrence county, Pennsylvania, where he became an extensive land owner and farmer. He married and had children. Matthew Young, son of Robert Young, and father of Mrs. McCandless, was born in Law- rence county, Pennsylvania, and learned the trade of tanning. He became the owner of a tannery in Wolf Creek township, Mercer county, Pennsyl- vania, and in addition he had a farm of seventy-five acres, which he culti- vated. He died there at the early age of thirty-seven years. He was a Democrat in political matters, and a member of the Covenanters Church. He married Joanna Couvert, born in Butler county, Pennsylvania, who re- sided on the farm in Mercer county until one year prior to her death at the age of seventy-eight years, when she lived with her daughter Samantha, in Butler county, having never remarried. She was a member of the Covenan- ters Church. She was a daughter of Colonel John and - (Bennett) Cou- vert. Colonel John Couvert was a veteran of the War of 1812. He lived about four miles from Centerville, on a large farm which he owned and culti- vated, and died there when above ninety-four years of age. He was a Presby- terian. Mr. and Mrs. Young had children: Sylvester M., a merchant, died at New Castle, Pennsylvania; Caroline, married James Vogand, and died in Mercer county, Pennsylvania; Matilda, married William McKee, and died in Mercer county, Pennsylvania; Amanda, died unmarried at the age of twenty-six years; Sarah Jane, married James Johnson, and died at Oil City, Venango county, Pennsylvania; Samantha, married Mr. McCandless, as above mentioned; Marcus C., a carpenter and contractor, who lives at Youngstown, Ohio; Professor William H., an instructor in music, of New Castle, Pennsylvania.
(IV) Josiah Couvert McCandless, son of George J. and Samantha (Young) McCandless, was born in Center township, Butler county, Penn- sylvania, November 20, 1874. His education was acquired in the public schools of Butler county, and in those of Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. Hav- ing completed his education at the age of seventeen years, he found employ- ment in a nail factory for two years, his especial work being the heading of the kegs. The record of his business activities until the present time is as fol- lows : In the employ of the Dietrich Glass Company ; as a glass cutter, for six years, for F. A. Eberline, in New Brighton, Beaver county; six months with the Pennsylvania Bridge Company ; seven years as salesman for the National Biscuit Company ; removed to Buffalo, New York, and was salesman for the New England Specialty Company (groceries) for some time; returned to Beaver Falls, and continued working for the last mentioned concern ; in 1908 he opened a grocery and delicatessen store at No. 2011 Seventh avenue, Beaver Falls, selling this on February 10, 1913. He then removed to a farm in Adams township, Butler county, and in November of the same year re- turned to Beaver Falls, and accepted a position with the J. B. Lytle Company, wholesale confectioners. Mr. McCandless is an independent in political opinion, and has served as a member of the board of school directors. He
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and his wife are members of the United Brethren Church, in which insti- tution he has served as a trustee for several years. Fraternally, he is a member of the Independent Americans and the Knights of Pythias.
Mr. McCandless married, December 25, 1892, Mary Jane Snyder, born in Lowellville, Mahoning county, Ohio, and they have had children: Jay Young, born April 15, 1894, died in July of the same year ; Laura Samantha, born August 10, 1895, married, November 11, 1913, William Karl Hespen- leide, and lives in Beaver Falls; Molly Joanna, born July 31, 1897, lives with her parents.
William James Snyder, father of Mrs. McCandless, was of German parentage, his parents having emigrated from Germany and purchased a farm in Mercer county, Pennsylvania. William James was their only child. His mother died when he was two years old, and his father when he was four years of age. He was taken in charge by William Graham, and his treatment was evidently not of the kindliest, as he ran away three times, and finally joined the army as a drummer boy when he was fourteen years old. He was captured by the Confederate soldiers, taken a prisoner to Andersonville Prison, and while there lived on raw onions. At the close of the war he returned to the Graham family and lived on a farm three tniles from Mercer until he had attained maturity. He learned the trade of iron working in New Castle, and lived the remainder of his life there with the exception of a few years. He rose to the rank of a boss in the furnace, later becoming a stable boss at a livery stable, a position he held until his death. He and his wife were Methodists. He married Laura Simmons, born in New Castle, Pennsylvania, a daughter of William and Nancy (Wat- terson) Simmons, the former born in Germany, emigrated to America, and located on a farm he purchased near New Castle, Lawrence county, Penn- sylvania. William James and Laura (Simmons) Snyder had children: Minnie Belle, married John N. Frazier, lives in Beaver Falls; Charles B., a stationary engineer, married (first) Myrtle Seafrost, (second) Jennie Young, lives in Deerfield, Ohio; Mary Jane, married Mr. McCandless, as above stated; Sarah Elizabeth, married Albert Bohemus, and lives on a farm at Deerfield, Ohio; Benjamin Franklin, deceased, married Maud Teaf- enbaugh, and lived at Beaver Falls; William John, died at the age of four months; James Clyde, employed on the ships on the Great Lakes, married Elsie Canarem, now deceased.
KORNMANN Hesse-Cassel, formerly an independent state of the Ger- man Empire, since 1866 incorporated with the Prussian state, and now a part of the province of Hesse-Nassau, has long been the seat of the family of Kornmann, represented in Beaver county, Pennsylvania, by Frederick Kornmann, the emigrant ancestor, and his children. The history of the name in the German Empire covers genera- tions, during which time its members bravely sought out their end and destiny in whatever fields they were placed, gave willingly of their services
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to defend the homeland from the conquest of the invader, and in all things deported themselves as true men and as true Germans.
This record begins with Frederick Kornmann, born in that part of Germany, where he lived and died. His trade was that of nail-maker, and as such passed all of his years. For several years he was a soldier in the German army, engaging in many battles, his foes in some instances being the army of no less worthy an opponent than Napoleon of France. His death occurred when he was seventy years of age, his wife's age sixty-six. He married Gertrude Brandt, a native of the same part of Germany as he, and had children : 1. Jacob, died in Germany ; was a disciple of the trade of his father, later a farmer. 2. Conrad, ran away from home more than sixty years ago, since which time no reports have been received from him by his family. 3. Frederick, of whom further. 4. Mary, married, in Beaver county, Pennsylvania, James Harsha; died in New Brighton, Pennsylvania ; one of their sons, Frederick, resides in New Brighton at the present time. 5. John, came to America and later returned to his native land, where he died. 6. Catharine, unmarried.
Frederick (2) Kornmann, son of Frederick (1) and Gertrude (Brandt) Kornmann, was born in Hesse-Cassel, Prussia, Germany, November 22, 1833. He was nineteen years of age when he came to the United States, having as a boy attended the common schools of his homeland, and he came at once to Beaver county, Pennsylvania, apprenticing himself to the black- smith's trade in Freedom. He worked at this trade until he was thirty-three years of age, and with his savings purchased a farm of forty acres at Smiths Ferry, Pennsylvania, selling his property after one year and buying ninety acres of well-improved land in New Sewickley township, in which place he has since resided. This land he has caused to yield plentifully, and has acquired title to two others of like size in the same township, witnesses to the careful investment he has made of his profits as they accumulated from his industrious labor. At one time he raised full-blooded Holstein cattle upon his farm and conducted a dairy business, but from this line of activity he retired some years since. He was skilled in the care and breeding of cattle, his stock comparing favorably with that of any farmer in the neighborhood, and the products that he distributed through the medium of his dairy were of the highest quality and purity. A Democrat politically, he served the township as school director and as supervisor, while he was a member, with his wife, of the Lutheran Church.
Mr. Kornmann married, in 1856, Barbara, born in Hesse-Cassel, Ger- many, who came to the United States in 1852, died in Beaver county, Penn- sylvania, May 22, 1913, aged eighty-two years, daughter of George and Mary (Jahn) Schueler. Children of Frederick (2) and Barbara (Schueler) Kornmann: I. Mary. 2. Jeannette, married George Franz, deceased; lives in Freedom, Pennsylvania. 3. Frederick Jr., a farmer of Rochester town- ship, Beaver county, Pennsylvania. 4. Adam, a resident of Rochester, Penn- sylvania, engages in the moving picture business. 5. Catherine, deceased;
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married John Grossman. 6. George, lives on a farm owned by his father. 7. Charles, a stationary engineer, resides in Freedom, Pennsylvania. 8. Margaret, lives unmarried in Rochester, Pennsylvania. 9. John, an elec- trician, of Rochester.
AMSLER The founder of the Swiss family of Amsler in the United States was the grandfather of William Hammann Amsler, of this narrative, who before his immigration to the United States in 1834, held rank in the regular army of Switzerland. His occu- pation in the homeland, before and after his military service, was that of farmer, and that was his calling after his settlement in Beaver county, whither he had come soon after his arrival in the United States and where he died, aged eighty-two years. His wife, Mary (Havily) Amsler, likewise died in that locality, both being members of the Reformed Evangelical Church. They were the parents of several children, of whom five grew to maturity; Jacob, died in Switzerland; John Gottlieb, died in Rochester, New York; Rose, deceased, married Samuel Doublebiss; Lucetta, deceased, married Fred Bock; Charles Henry, of whom further.
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