USA > Pennsylvania > Beaver County > Genealogical and personal history of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, Volume II > Part 32
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War of 1812, industrious and thrifty in his habits, and a member of the Associate Reformed Church, known at that time as the Seceder Church. He married (first) Mary Dixon, who bore him a son Dixon. He married (second) Margaret Russell; children: Ellen, married William Brandon; William George, born 1808, died 1877; John; James, of whom further; Robert; Mary, married Alexander Watt.
(II) James Atwell, son of Robert and Margaret (Russell) Atwell, was born in Venango county, Pennsylvania, in 1812, and was brought to Butler county by his parents in 1816. He grew to manhood on the Marion township farm and continued in Butler county engaged in farming until his death. He married Martha Byler, and left issue.
(III) John B. Atwell, son of James and Martha (Byler) Atwell, was born in Butler county, Pennsylvania, being bereft of a father's care at seven years of age. He learned the carpenter's trade and followed that as his occupation for several years, forsaking it to engage in farming operations in Venango county, Pennsylvania. His labors were interrupted by the beginning of active conflict between the North and South when he enlisted in the Sixteenth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry. In all the battles participated in by his regiment he was in the ranks, fighting at Malvern Hill, where he was wounded, and at Gettysburg. He was a gallant soldier, daring in action and deported himself under fire with true bravery. At the close of the war he returned to his home and continued work on his farm until the present time (1914). He is a member of the Presbyterian Church and a member of the session of that denomination. He married Olivia Perry. Children of John B. and Olivia Atwell: James M .; Anna A., wife of David W. Lockhard; Floyd, of whom further ; Frank L .; Harriet V., married L. E. Sutton; Mary L., married Clarence Baird; Lottie E .; David P .; Susan.
(IV) Professor Floyd Atwell, son of John B. and Olivia (Perry) Atwell, was born in Emlenton, Venango county, Pennsylvania, November 12, 1871. He obtained an excellent education in the public schools and by a year's attendance at a private academy. He then taught school for four years, discontinuing the practice of what afterwards became his pro- fession, to enter Grove City College. Completing his collegiate course, he decided to follow teaching as his life work, and, after holding a position in the Emlenton school for three years, received an appointment as prin- cipal of the Pleasantville public school. He held this office for five years and served in the same capacity in the Ambridge public school for six years. In 1911 he accepted his present position as superintendent of the schools of New Brighton, and has there, during his short stay, done much toward improving the school system, raising its standard, and increasing its efficiency as an educational unit. He has conducted his work with tactful ability and has in most cases succeeded in establishing needed re- forms or innovations with little opposition. His own youthful days are not so far past but he can recall them vividly, and with this in his favor
Samuel R. Banks
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to bring him into understanding and sympathy with the juvenile spirits over which he has control, he advocates regulations that will conflict as little as possible with the preference of the pupils of the city's schools. For the varied departments of the schools he has assisted in the prepara- tion of curricula of wide scope, offering thorough and liberal instruction to the studious, and in all phases of his work has discharged his duties with the assurance and ease of the trained educator. Professor Atwell belongs to the Presbyterian Church and is a member of the session. He affiliates with the Titusville, Pennsylvania, Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, and Oil Creek Lodge, No. 303, Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows, in which latter he is past noble grand.
Professor Atwell married, in August, 1898, Mary M. Crawford, daughter of E. H. and Jane Crawford, of Butler county, Pennsylvania. Children : Loyal P., Floyd Carroll.
BANKS If the man who makes two blades of grain grow where but one grew before is to be held up as a benefactor of his race, then certainly the people of Ireland and their descendants are to be held up as world benefactors. Energetic, honest and public- spirited, they have ever given their best efforts in behalf of their own country and to America after they had emigrated thither. A family which is especially worthy of record in this direction is the Banks family, of Beaver county, Pennsylvania.
(I) Matthew Banks was born in county Donegal, Ireland, and came to the United States in his early youth. He settled near Parkers Landing, Clarion county, Pennsylvania, and later removed to Butler county in the same state. There he bought a farm of approximately one hundred and seventy acres, and remained there for some years, being associated for a part of this time with his son, Samuel Rogers Banks. After the death of his wife he removed to Beaver county and located on a small farm near the crossroads in Brighton township. He married Elizabeth Rogers, who was also born in county Donegal, Ireland, and came to this country at a very early age. They were married near the village of Perryville on the Clarion side. Children: Samuel Rogers, see forward; Matthew, resides at Beaver Falls; William Thomas, see forward; Robert George, lives in the state of Oregon; Eliza Jane, married Matthew Logan and lives at Beaver Falls, Beaver county, Pennsylvania; Margaret Ellen, married Robert Gailey, and lives near Beaver Terrace, a suburb of Beaver; Rebecca, now deceased, married Nathaniel Blair, also deceased; Mary Ann, mar- ried William Bartley, and lives in Oklahoma; Rosetta, married John B. Long, and lives at College Hill, Beaver county, Pennsylvania.
(II) Samuel Rogers Banks, son of Matthew and Elizabeth (Rogers) Banks, was born in Clarion county, Pennsylvania, January 5, 1842. His education was acquired in the public schools of Butler county, where his boyhood and early youth were passed, and where his spare time was spent
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in assisting his father in his agricultural labors. He was of an intensely patriotic nature and at the time of the Civil War enlisted in Company M, Fourteenth Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry, and was subsequently trans- ferred to Company F. While he was in a number of engagements, he was fortunate to escape without a wound. He was, however, twice taken a prisoner, being exchanged the first time. At the close of the war he re- turned to the farm of his father in Butler county, then made an extended trip to the West, and after being occupied for some time with oil interests near Parker, Clarion county, Pennsylvania, he decided to engage in farm- ing. In 1879 he came to Beaver county, Pennsylvania, and there purchased a farm of one hundred and ninety-six acres in Brighton township. He erected large and improved modern farm buildings, and employed the latest scientific methods in the cultivation of this property on which he resided until his death, August 12, 1912. He was a public-spirited citizen, who gave his support to all projects for the improvement and development of the community in which he resided. His political allegiance was given to the Democratic party, and he and his wife were members of the Pres- byterian Church. He served his township for a considerable length of time as a school director, being always greatly interested in the cause of education.
Since his death, his widow still resides on the farm, which she man- ages with a very creditable amount of executive ability. Mr. Banks mar- ried, August 23, 1865, Margaret E. Logan, a native of Clarion county, Pennsylvania, daughter of John and Susanna Logan, both natives of Ire- land, where they were married and four of their children were born. After their arrival in this country they had four more children, but of all of these the only ones now living are Mrs. Banks and Mary Jane Stahl, who resides in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, near Monterey. Mr. and Mrs. Banks had children: Edgar T., now deceased, married Etta McBride; Ada Lena, married I. W. Morgan, and resides near the old homestead; Myrtle Cora, married Junius W. McBride, and lives in Beaver ; Elizabeth Ann mar- ried John McPherson, and lives in Beaver; Charles, a physician in Hart- ford, Ohio; Herbert M., engaged in the oil business and lives in Oklahoma ; Jessie May, married Thomas Garrett, and lives in Beaver, Pennsylvania. Mr. Banks was a man of domestic tastes, devoted to his family, and a faithful friend. His charities, which were numerous, were invariably bestowed in an unostentatious manner, and only the recipients of these benefactions know the extent of them.
BANKS (II) William Thomas Banks, son of Matthew Banks (q. v.), was born in Butler county, Pennsylvania, about 1851, died near Beaver, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, in 1902. About a year or two after his marriage he located in Beaver county, on a farm of one hun- dred and sixty acres which he had purchased in South Beaver township, and on this he lived until his death. He married, in Butler county, Pennsylvania,
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Huldah, born in Clarion county, Pennsylvania, in 1849, daughter of Alex- ander McCall. After the death of Mr. Banks, she married (second) Peter Peters, and again lives in Clarion county, Pennsylvania. Mr. and Mrs. Banks had children: Herman J., a farmer in Oregon, married Annie Brittain; Matthew Cleveland, see forward. Mr. and Mrs. Banks were members of the Mount Pleasant Presbyterian Church, and he was a staunch Democrat. Alexander McCall, father of Mrs. Banks, was a farmer and land owner in Clarion county, Pennsylvania, and was associate judge of the county for many years. He was also a member of the Presbyterian Church.
(III) Matthew Cleveland Banks, son of William Thomas and Huldah (McCall) Banks, was born on the homestead in Beaver county, Pennsyl- vania, August 9, 1885. His education was a comprehensive one, and was acquired in the public schools of his section and at Pollock's Commercial College at Beaver, from which institution he was graduated in the book- keeping department, in 1906. He then took up the study of stenography, and held an excellent position for eighteen months in Pittsburgh. He was obliged to resign this because of impaired health, and returned to the more healthful, outdoor occupations of the farm. He became the man- ager of the homestead farm, and has been thus employed up to the present time. He has about ten acres devoted exclusively to th cultivation of fruit, and the remainder is for general produce. He conducts his farming operations on the latest scientific methods, and has met with proportionate success. He gives his political allegiance to the Democratic party, and has served as election inspector. He and his wife are members of the Mount Pleasant Presbyterian Church, and he is also a member of the local Grange, Patrons of Husbandry. Mr. Banks married, December 31, 1908, Maude E., born near Beaver, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, a daughter of John W. and Ada Gillespie. They have no children.
This family is of ancient Scotch origin, and is identical with EWING Ewen and McEwen. The family seat was in Aberdeenshire and Edinburghshire from early times. The Ewing family from the North of Ireland, from which most of the older Ewing families of this country are descended, trace their ancestry to Major Finlay Ewing, who received a grant of land for military service, three hundred acres, in county Antrim, Ireland. One of the first of the name in America was Richard Ewen, who settled in Maryland prior to 1659. Many of his descendants are numerous in Pennsylvania, Tennessee and the Middle West. Uninterrupted connection cannot always be established, owing to the loss and destruction of early records.
(I) Alexander Ewing, a farmer, removed from Washington county, Pennsylvania, to Beaver county, in the same state, in 1786, and settled there. He married - McConnell.
(II) James Ewing, son of Alexander and - (McConnell) Ewing,
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was a farmer in Raccoon township, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, and his farm of two hundred acres is still in the possession of his descendants. He married Elizabeth Todd, and had children: Alexander G., John, James D., Henry B., Susan, Walter Todd, Eliza.
(III) Walter Todd Ewing, son of James and Elizabeth (Todd) Ewing, was born in Beaver county, Pennsylvania, in 1834, and is now living, retired, in New Brighton, Pennsylvania. He was a tanner by trade, and followed his calling for a quarter of a century. He married Nancy Mor- row, and has had children: 1. James Henry, married (first) Ella Wade, and had children: Anna, Mary, Walter, Eleanor; he married (second) Laura Brown, and has had children: Sarah, Grace, Jane. 2. Edgar A., married Lelia Leaf, and has children: Edward and Franklin. 3. Frank A., born October 3, 1869; has been engaged in the clothing business in New Brighton for the past twenty-five years; a Republican in politics, and a member of the United Presbyterian Church; married, July 12, 1899, Bertha, daughter of T. M. Boal, of Steubenville, Ohio, and they have had children : Helen Morrow, born May 19, 1901; Charles Boal, May 16, 1904; Margie Harbison, June 1, 1909. 4. Mary A. 5. Homer H., as- sociated in the clothing business with his brother Frank A .; he is un- married.
STROHBACH While the family bearing this name has only come to the United States in recent years, they have already demonstrated their value to the country in various lines, and have shown the qualities of excellent and patriotic citizenship.
(I) Gottlieb Strohbach spent his entire life in Germany, where he was a farmer, and died at the age of forty-two years. He was a Con- servative in his political views, and a member of the Evangelical Protestant Church. He married and had children: Frederick C., of further men- tion; Catherine M., now deceased, who married - Sevring, and never came to this country.
(II) Frederick C. Strohbach, son of Gottlieb Strohbach, was born in Germany, and died there at the age of about sixty-four years. He was educated in the public schools of his native country, and at the age of fourteen years was apprenticed to learn the tailor's trade. At the age of eighteen years he entered the Prussian army, in which he served bravely for a period of nine years, in an infantry regiment, during this time taking part in the Polish War. He then returned to the tailoring trade, with which he was identified altogether for a period of forty years. He was a Con- servative in political affairs, and he and his wife were members of the Evangelical Protestant Church. He married Caroline Gebhart, born in Germany, and died there at the age of sixty-three years, daughter of Christian Gebhart, a contractor and builder in Germany. They had chil- dren: Frederick, now deceased; Gottfried, also deceased; Caroline, men- tioned above. Mr. and Mrs. Strohbach had children: Charles Frederick,
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of further mention; Frederick, died at the age of two years; Caroline, died unmarried at the age of eighteen years.
(III) Charles Frederick Strohbach, son of Frederick C. and Caroline (Gebhart) Strohbach, was born in Prussia, Germany, July 26, 1837, and was educated in the public schools of his native land. He was apprenticed to learn the trade of shoemaking, and upon the completion of this ap- prenticeship entered upon his military duties, serving in the Prussian army somewhat more than four years. He then resumed his occupation of shoemaking, and was engaged in this until he came to the United States in 1866. Here he followed the occupation with which he had been iden- tified in Germany, and located in Freedom, Beaver county, Pennsylvania. In addition to this occupation, he took up farming, which line he continued for seven years, but now only manufactures shoes for the members of his own family. He is a Republican in politics, and has taken a prominent part in the public affairs of his community. He is a member of the school board of Marion township, Beaver county, and has served as secretary of this body for three years. At the same time he was assistant assessor of the township. He is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and his wife is a member of the Evangelical Associated Church.
Mr. Strohbach married, May 3, 1868, Fredrika Duerr, born on the Winebiddle Farm in East Liberty, now East End, Pittsburgh, September 12, 1844, daughter of Zachariah Duerr, who was born in Wertenberg, Germany, and died in New Sewickley, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, at the age of seventy-three years. He was eleven years of age when he came to this country, and was a farmer all the active years of his life. He married Sarah Landenshalager, also born in Wertenberg, Germany, died in New Sewickley in 1897. They had children: John Martin, of New Sewickley, married Margaret Post, and had six children; Christena, now deceased, married Andrew Fisher; Fredrika, mentioned above as the wife of Mr. Strohbach. Mr. and Mrs. Strohbach had children. I. Franklin Arthur, died at the age of twenty-two years. 2. Lydia Louisa, married T. S. Hare, of Conway, Pennsylvania, has three children. 3. William Henry, deceased; married Lillian Evans; has three children. 4. Otto Albert, of Terre Haute, Indiana; married Susan Goodnight ; no children. 5. Josiah R., of further mention. 6. Joseph, unmarried. 7. Sarah, married Thomas Dawson, of Freedom; has two children. 8. Emma, married David Daw- son, of Freedom; has one child, Lillian, now four and a half years old. 9. John, died aged seventeen years, January 5, 1902. 10. Edward Charles, married Gertrude Carey ; resides in Freedom.
(IV) Josiah R. Strohbach, son of Charles Frederick and Fredrika (Duerr) Strohbach, was born in Etna, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, January 3, 1877. He attended school in New Sewickley, and upon the completion of his studies accepted a position in the Glass House, Roch- ester, Pennsylvania, where he remained employed for sixteen years, and then came to Conway, Pennsylvania, and accepted a position as clerk in
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the employ of his brother-in-law, Thomas S. Hare, these being the only two positions he has occupied, a fact which testifies to his capability and efficiency. He is a Republican in politics, and has served for several times as a member of the election board. He is a member of the Evan- gelical Associated Church, of Freedom, National Order of Kings, of Free- dom, and a charter member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, of Roch- ester.
HARRIS Many of the Harris surname in the United States are de- scendants of English ancestors, those of this record are of Welsh descent. Settlements by those of the name was gen- eral in character and confined to no one region or locality, in consequence of which New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New England families are found bearing, so far as can be ascertained, no relation to each other, excepting the identity of name. Harris, both as a name of persons and of places, was early introduced into Western Pennsylvania by Ephraim Harris, who came to Butler county from the eastern part of Pennsylvania, and there settled. He was a farmer by occupation and in 1825 caused the town of Harrisville to be laid out, the sale of lots in the place commencing on April II of that year. Soon after the surveying of the site and the first sale of property, a post-office was established, Ephraim Harris being the first postmaster, succeeded in the following year by his son, Samuel E. Another of his sons, Major John R., established there, two years after the survey of the town site, as a merchant, built a carding mill, opened a tavern, and there continued in trade until his death in 1874.
(II) Samuel E. Harris, son of Ephraim Harris, was born in Harris- ville, died in New Brighton, Beaver county, Pennsylvania. He obtained a common school education and was ever a tiller of the soil, at one time being proprietor of a hotel in Butler county, which he sold when he went to New Brighton, where his death occurred. In his active life he was in- dustrious, thrifty, and energetic, never devoting much time to public affairs, but holding firm and decided views upon all of the momentous questions of the day, his feeling rising strongly against the system of human servitude as then practiced. He married and had children, one of his sons being Ephraim, of whom further.
(III) Ephraim Harris, son of Samuel E. Harris, was born in Harris- ville, Butler county, Pennsylvania, died in New Brighton, Beaver county, Pennsylvania. In his boyhood he attended the public schools of Harris- ville, and as a young man went to Pittsburgh, where he learned the painter's trade, following that as his life occupation. He was married in Pitts- burgh and in 1848 moved to New Brighton, the scene of his activities until his final summons. He was a man of simple principles, doing his duty according to the light furnished him, and lived quietly and peacefully among his neighbors, his daily contact with them being most cordial and his public relations enjoyable. All forms of church work received his warm
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support, personal and financial, and he filled the offices of trustee and steward of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He married Martha Crilly, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, her father, a ship carpenter, being of Irish descent. Children of Ephraim and Martha (Crilly) Harris: Homer H., lives in Oregon; Mary, deceased; Oliver C., of whom further; Anna, a resident of Salem, Ohio; Charles F., lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ; Harriet J. and Robert R., both of New Brighton.
(IV) Oliver C. Harris, son of Ephraim and Martha (Crilly) Harris, was born in New Brighton, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, September 19, 1849. After completing a course of study in the public schools of his birthplace he learned his father's trade with that artisan and for many years made that his business. In later years he still contracts for such work, but performs little of the actual labor involved personally, a corps of workmen executing the contracts awarded him. Mr. Harris has been prominently identified with public affairs in the county for many years, as a Republican having been elected judge of elections on several occasions, for twenty-two years a member of the New Brighton school board, and was in 1900 elected register and recorder for a term of three years, ful- filling the duties of his office faithfully and well for that length of time. Besides his work at his trade, his only other business connection has been as director of the Beaver County Building and Loan Association, an in- stitution of firm founding, a position he held for a number of years. The Sunday school of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of New Brighton felt the beneficial effects of his earnest workings for sixteen years, during which time he was at its head as superintendent, when the Sunday school had a larger enrollment than that of any other school in the county. During his administration as superintendent worthy results for the church and community were achieved through the Sunday school, his agency guiding the excellent work that was done. His fraternal relations are with the Royal Arcanum, the Woodmen of the World, and the Protective Home Circle.
Mr. Harris married, August 4, 1870, Elizabeth A. Ross. Children : I. Lois, deceased. 2. Wilbur R., educated in the public schools of New Brighton, was for two terms prothonotary of Beaver county, now con- nected with the Federal Court at Pittsburgh. In the Spanish War he held the rank of adjutant; is now serving on the colonel's staff of the Tenth Regiment, Pennsylvania National Guard. 3. Walter W., a painter, lives in New Brighton, also was in the Tenth Regiment in the Spanish- American War. He married Nellie McGee; children : Oliver, Paul, Walter, Frances and Elizabeth. 4. Ida B., married Herbert Douglas, and has two children: Helen and Herbert.
STEWART
The name of Stewart, originally spelled Steward, is de- rived from the occupation of him who first used it. The steward of an estate was a man of consequence in the
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days when surnames were assumed, as well as since. One family of Stewarts furnished four kings of England.
(I) William Stewart was of Scotch ancestry, and at first settled in Pennsylvania where Allegheny City now stands. Later he removed to Beaver county, Pennsylvania, where he settled near Monaca, and engaged in farming. He was twice married. By his first wife he had children: William, Charles, David, Andrew, Archibald, John, of further mention. By the second marriage he had: James and Jane.
(II) John Stewart, son of William Stewart, was born in Moon town- ship, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, and followed farming all his life. He married Barbara Ann Kronk, and had children: Mary Ann, born August 17, 1842; married, in 1875, John Hutchinson, and had one child, Catherine, born February 24, 1877. 2. Archibald, born January 29, 1844; married, June 22, 1880, Gertrude Miller, and had children : Anna Legina, born April 25, 1881 ; John A. M., born December 19, 1886; Carl W., born December 9, 1888, died young. 3. Elizabeth Jane, born May 18, 1848; married John Smiley, and has one child, John Stewart. 4. Joseph Kronk, deceased. 5. Catherine N., married, February 18, 1896, Dr. C. C. Bippis. 6. William James, of further mention. 7. Sarah Emma, deceased. 8. John S., died young.
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