USA > Pennsylvania > Genealogical and personal history of the Allegheny Valley, Pennsylvania, Volume I > Part 61
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(III) Oliver Byron, son of Robert and Hannah (McKissick) Cross, was born in Clin-
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tonville, Venango county, Pennsylvania, May 14, 1848. He was educated in the public schools and began business life as clerk in his father's store at Clintonville, and later be- came a partner, continuing until his father's death in 1873. After that date he became sole proprietor and continued there in successful business for thirty years more. He then retired from mercantile life and has since been en- gaged in the oil business. He is a Democrat and Prohibitionist in politics, and for two years served as constable. In religious faith he is a Presbyterian. He married, December 8, 1870, Elizabeth Davidson, born in Clinton township, Venango county, Pennsylvania, Jan- uary 12, 1848, daughter of Patrick Davidson, born in Ireland, came to the United States, be- came a farmer of Clinton township ; le mar- ried Miss Patterson, also born in Ireland; children: Martha, died unmarried ; Nancy, now living at Grove City, unmarried ; William, died unmarried; James, died in infancy ; Eliz- abeth (of previous mention), married Oliver B. Cross; their children: 1. Melville, an oil producer, married Jane Jacobs, and lives in Franklin, Pennsylvania ; children : Helen, born 1896; Eugene, 1898; Robert, 1904. 2. Leslie, an oil producer and contractor of Clintonville, married Doskey Pearce (or Pierce). 3. Henry, of Franklin. 4. Albert, a merchant of Middle- town, Ohio. 5. Jeannette, died aged sixteen years. 6. Julia, living at home. 7. Elizabeth, living at home. 8. A child died in infancy.
The Hutchinson family HUTCHINSON of Clintonville, Penn- sylvania, came there from Butler county, after a previous residence in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania. The family there springs from Irish ancestors in one branch, while another is of English descent, coming to Westmoreland county from the state of Maine. The conclusion is that Fergus Hutchinson was of the Irish family, and the father of Robert, father of Robert A. Hutch- inson, of Clintonville. Fergus Hutchinson was a pioneer settler of Butler county, and in religious faith a Methodist. He married and liad issue: Thomas, married Rebecca Keim; Robert, of whom further; White, married Sarah Stroup.
(II) Robert, son of Fergus Hutchinson, was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsyl- vania, died in Butler county, aged seventy-two years. He was educated in the public schools
of Westmoreland county, and moved to Butler county, where he purchased a farm, which he cultivated many years. In his latter years he moved to near Annadale, Ohio, where he died. He was a Democrat in politics, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He was a devoted Christian, a class leader, and one to whom disputes were referred for arbitration. He married Sarah Muller (?), who survived him, aged seventy-one years. Children : 1. An- drew J., married Isabel Van Dyke; both de- ceased; children: Elizabeth, married James Thompson ; Jackson ; Minnie ; Sarah. 2. Alex- ander, married Mary Young, who survives him, residing in Butler county ; child: James. 3. Margaret, married Josiah Dodd, who sur- vives her, residing in Iowa ; children : Clarence, Homer R., Anna and Ditemer. 4. Mary, mar- ried G. K. M. Crawford; both deceased ; chil- dren : Anna, married Jared Marsh; Harriet; William and Robert Bruce. 5. Elizabeth, mar- ried William Seaton ; both deceased ; children : Belle, married a Mr. Sloan; Maude, married James Speer. 6. Ellen, married Abner Sea- ton, whom she survives, living at New Castle, Pennsylvania; children: Anna, John, and Montgomery. 7. Robert A., of whom further. (III) Robert A., son of Robert Hutchinson, was born in Butler county, Pennsylvania, Feb- ruary 4, 1843. He was educated in the Butler and Venango county public schools, and began business life in Forest county as a lumberman, continuing five years. He enlisted Septeniber 13, 1861, in company L, Fourth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry, and received an honorable discharge February 4, 1865, fourteen months of his term of service being spent in the prisons at Andersonville and Milan. He saw hard service, and was engaged with his regiment at Gaines' Mill, White Oak Swamp, Malvern Hill, South Mountain, An- tietam, Culpeper, Middleburg, Rappahannock Station, and Kelly's Ford, where he was taken prisoner. He passed safely through the perils of battle to face the worst, hunger and disease in the awful pen at Andersonville, but survived even that and returned home at the end of his service. He then located at Oil City, Penn- sylvania, where for two years he was engaged in the oil business. He again engaged in the lumber business for four years, then again began operating in oil, and is still so engaged, residing in Clintonville. He is a Republican in politics, has been burgess of Clintonville the past six years and is still in office ; was school
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director four years and justice of the peace three years. He belongs to W. B. Mayo Post No. 220, Grand Army of the Republic.
He married, February 8, 1871, Elizabeth Henderson, born in Venango county, March 12, 1842, daughter of Thomas and Catherine ( Brenner ) Henderson. Thomas Henderson was a farmer of Venango county, died aged seventy-six years. Children of Thomas Hen- derson by first wife, Catherine Brenner: I. John B., married Luella Hovis, both deceased ; no issue. 2. Amanda, married William M. Blair, a farmer, deceased, she residing in Ven- ango county ; children : Thomas, married June Foster ; John, married Mary Hoffman ; Leon- ard (?), married Maud Rice ; Clyde, married Melda llovis ; Cora, married Daniel Hoffman ; Edith, married Charles Allen. 3. Elizabeth, married Robert A. Hutchinson. Children of Thomas Henderson by his second wife, Cath- erine Keller : 4. Minnie, married Frank Hovis, an oil producer of Clintonville; children : Esther and Margaret. 5. Sarah, died unmar- ried, aged twenty-five years. 6. Anna, married Albert White, a farmer of Venango county ; children : Alphena and Paul. 7. Boyd. 8. Robert, a farmer and oil producer of Venango county, married Nellie Trumble; children : Marie, Neal and Clarence. 9. Margaret, mar- ried Edward Eakin, an oil producer of Grove City, Pennsylvania ; children : Sarah, married John Thorn ; and Georgie Clifford. 10. Homer, an oil pumper and driller of Venango county ; married Ethel Barringer ; children : Delilah and Eugene.
Children of Robert A. and Elizabeth ( Hen- derson) Hutchinson: 1. Child, deceased. 2. Luella Ann, residing with her parents. 3. Bid- die, died in infancy. 4. Thomas Andrew, died aged seventeen years. 5. Mary Ellen, married George Eakin, an oil producer, residing in Clintonville ; children : Robert Jackson, Will- iam Wayne and Sarah Elizabeth. 6. William, an oil pumper of Venango county; married Malinda Nutt; children: Lewis, Sarah and Sterling. 7. Lloyd L., residing in Clinton- ville; married Winifred McLallen; child: Imogene. 8. Ralph, a student.
LAMBING Rev. Andrew A. Lambing, LL.D., Roman Catholic cler- gyman and author, was born at Manorville, Armstrong county, Pennsyl- vania, February 1, 1842. He is descended from Christopher Lambing, who emigrated to Amer-
ica from Alsace, in the vicinity of Strasburg, in 1749, and settled in Bucks county, where he died about 1817, at the age of ninety-nine years. Some of his family passed to Adams county, where his son Matthew married and settled in New Oxford, where Michael A. Lambing, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born October 10, 1806. The family came west to Armstrong county in 1823. Here Michael married Anne Shields, December 1, 1837. She was descended from Thomas Shields, who im- migrated from county Donegal, Ireland, about 1740, and settled in Amberson's valley, Frank- lin county ; but his grandson William came to Armstrong county in 1798 and made his home near Kittanning, where his daughter Anne was born July 4, 1814. Michael was the father of five sons and four daughters, of whom An- drew Arnold was the third son and child. Both parents were remarkable through life for their tender and consistent piety, and for the care they bestowed on the education and train- ing of their children. Three of their sons fought in the civil war, one of them losing his life and another becoming disabled ; two of their sons are priests, and a daughter a Sister of Charity.
Trained in the school of rigid poverty, An- drew began work on a farm before he was eight years old, and a few years later found employment in a fire-brick yard, where he spent nearly six years, with four months' schooling in each winter ; and two years in the old refinery, a considerable part of which time he worked from three o'clock in the afternoon to six the next morning being at the same time foreman of the works. During this time he managed to steal a few hours as opportunity permitted to devote to study and useful read- ing, for reading has been the passion of his life. At the age of twenty-one years he en- tered St. Michael's Preparatory and Theo- logical Seminary, Pittsburg, where he made his course in the higher studies, frequently rising at three o'clock in the morning to continue his course, and being nearly all that time prefect of the students. He was ordained to the priesthood in the seminary chapel by Bishop Domenee, of Pittsburg, August 4, 1869. He was then sent to St. Francis College, Loretto, Pennsylvania, as professor, with the addi- tional obligation of assisting the pastor of the village church on Sundays with the exception of one Sunday in each month, when he minis- tered to the little congregation of Williams-
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burg, Blair county, about forty miles distant. On the following January he was appointed pastor of St. Patrick's Church, Cameron Bot- tom, Indiana county, where he remained till the end of April, when he was named pastor of St. Mary's Church, Kittanning, with its num- erous out-missions. While there he built a lit- tle church a few miles west of the Allegheny river, for the accommodation of the families residing there, and in the middle of January, 1873, he was sent to Freeport, with the addi- tional charge of the congregation at Natrona, six miles distant, but at the end of six months he was appointed chaplain of St. Paul's Or- phan Asylum, Pittsburg, with a view of better- ing its financial condition. This, however, was rendered impossible by the financial crisis of the fall of the same year, and he was named pastor of the church of St. Mary of Mercy, at the Point, in the same city, January 7, 1874. Here he placed the schools in charge of the Sisters of Mercy, bought and fitted up a non- Catholic church for the congregation, and placed an altar in it dedicated to "Our Lady of the Assumption at the Beautiful River," as a memorial of the one that stood in the chapel of Fort Duquesne during the French occupa- tion, in the middle of the previous century ; and also built a residence. But the encroach- ment of the railroads began to drive the people out in such numbers that he was transferred to St. James' Church, Winkinsburg, an eastern suburb of the city, October 15, 1885, where he still remains. The congregation was then small, numbering about one hundred and sixty fam- ilies, with a little frame church, but it soon began to increase rapidly. His first care was to open a school, which he placed in charge of the Sisters of Charity, and in the summer of 1888, he enlarged the church, which, however, was occupied only three months when it was entirely destroyed by fire. Nothing daunted, he immediately undertook the present com- bination church and school building, which was dedicated just a year after the destruction of the other. So rapid has been the growth of the town and the increase of the congrega- tion that an assistant has been required since the spring of 1897; and although parts of four new congregations have been taken from it, it still numbers nearly six hundred families.
As a writer, Father Lambing is the author of "The Orphan's Friend" (1875), "The Sun- day-School Teachers' Manual" (1877), "A History of the Catholic Church in the Dioceses
of Pittsburg and Allegheny" (1880), "The Register of Fort Duquesne, translated from the French, with an Introductory Essay and Notes" (1885), "The Sacramentals of the Holy Catholic Church" (1892), "Come, Holy Ghost" (1901), "The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary" (1904), and "The Fountain of Living Water" (1907). Be- sides these he has written a considerable num- ber of religious and historical pamphlets, and a considerable part of the large "History of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania," "The Cen- tennial History of Allegheny County" (1888), and "The Standard History of Pittsburg" ( 1898). He was associate editor of "Penn- sylvania, Historical and Biographical," 2 vols. (1904) ; and wrote the history of the western part of the state for it. And was also one of the assistant editors of "A Century and a Half of Pittsburg and Her People," 4 vols., 1908. In 1884 he started the Catholic Historical Re- searches, a quarterly magazine and the first of its kind devoted to the history of the Cath- olic church in this country, now continued by
Mr. Martin I. J. Griffin, of Philadelphia, as a monthly; and he is a constant contributor to periodicals on religious and historical subjects. The editor of "The Standard History of Pitts- burgh" says of him, that "he has done more than any other one man to place in permanent form the valuable and fast-perishing early rec- ords." For a number of years he was presi- dent of the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, and he is one of the trustees of the Carnegie Institute and the Carnegie Tech- nical School of Pittsburg.
As a churchman he was for many years president of the Clerical Relief Association of the diocese of Pittsburg, and was president of the board that prepared the diocesan school exhibit for the Columbia Exposition. For nine years he was fiscal procurator of the diocese of Pittsburg, and has long been the censor of books, and is now president of the diocese school board. Of regular habits and inherit- ing the health of his fathers, standing six feet tall, with heavy frame, he seemed built for labor and endurance, and he was more than thirty years on the mission before he was off duty for a single day on account of ill health, although he has never taken a vacation. In 1883 the University of Notre Dame, In- diana, conferred on him the degree of Master of Arts, and two years later that of Doctor of Laws.
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Dr. Paul Eli Cunning-
CUNNINGHAM ham, one of the best known physicians of Clintonville, Pennsylvania, is a descendant of Scotch-Irish ancestors who have for at least a century and a half been numbered among the inhabitants of the Keystone State.
(I) Benjamin Cunningham, great-grand- father of Paul Eli Cunningham, was born March 10, 1770, probably in Lawrence or Beaver county, and was presumably a son or grandson of the immigrant ancestor.
(II) William, son of Benjamin Cunning- ham, was born May 15, 1805, probably in Law- rence county, where he spent his early life, removing about 1858 to Venango county, where he passed his remaining years. He mar- ried (first) November 23,. 1826, Margaret White, by whom he became the father of the following children, all of whom are deceased, with the exception of the eldest : Eliza, lives at East Brook, near Newcastle; Sarah, Milo, and James. Mr. Cunningham married (second) Polly Weimer, and the following children were born to them : William, deceased, married Mary Walsmith, who lives in Newcastle and is now the wife of John Ross; Henry L., mentioned below ; Margaret, married Frank T. Miller, an oil well driller, of Washington, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Cunningham was killed in a runaway accident, and Mr. Cunningham married a third wife, by whom he had no children. He and his second wife were United Presbyterians. Mr. Cunningham died in 1878.
(III) Henry Lewis, son of William and Polly (Weimer ) Cunningham, was born May 12, 1848, in Lawrence county, and was ten years old when the family removed to Clinton township, Venango county. His education was received in the public schools of these two counties, and when about sixteen years old he went to Franklin, Pennsylvania, where he learned the shoemaker's trade, which he fol- lowed in that place for about twelve years. He then moved to Clintonville, where he en- gaged in shoemaking and farming. In poli- tics he was a Republican, and for six years filled the office of assessor. He married Mary Elizabeth Hovis, whose ancestral record is ap- pended to this sketch, and their children were: 1-2. Born respectively in 1880 and 1882, dy- ing unnamed. 3. Frank William, born Sep- tember 6, 1884; married Stella M. Hoffman ; children: Howard L. and Harold F .; died April 28, 1911. 4. Paul Eli, mentioned below.
5. Child, died unnamed in 1889. Mr. Cunning- ham died in Clintonville, June 27, 1902, and his widow now resides in the same place.
(IV) Dr. Paul Eli Cunningham, son of Henry Lewis and Mary Elizabeth (Hovis) Cunningham, was born May 2, 1886, at Clin- tonville, Pennsylvania, on a farm two miles north of that place. He first attended the public schools of Clintonville, passing at the end of four years to those of Clinton town- ship, and then entering the high school, which closed after he had spent two years there. In 1903 he entered Oil City Business College, graduating in February, 1904, and for two years thereafter was employed in the oil fields. In 1906, deciding to make the practice of med- icine his life-work, he matriculated in the Med- ical Department of the University of Pitts- burgh, graduating June 15, 1910, with the de- gree of Doctor of Medicine. He immediately returned to his native place and there entered upon the active practice of his profession, in which he has ever since been continuously en- gaged, acquiring a lucrative connection and building up an enviable reputation. Polit- ically, Dr. Cunningham is a Prohibitionist. He was for four years school director, and is now serving a five years' term as president of the board of health. He affiliates with Em- lenton Lodge, No. 562, F. and A. M., and Horton Lodge, No. 470, Knights and Ladies of Honor. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.
(The Hovis Line).
John C. Hovis, grandfather of Mrs. Mary Elizabeth (Hovis) Cunningham, married Eliz- abeth Walters.
Eli, son of John C. and Elizabeth ( Walters) Hovis, was a carpenter and married Barbara Monjar. Their children were : 1. John Frank- lin, a physician of Saginaw, Michigan, married Fanny Cobbet, and has two children, Lyda and Frederick. 2. Mary Elizabeth, mentioned below. 3. Jackson, of Kenosha, married Mat- tie Crow, and has three or four children. 4. Lydia, married Joseph Osborn, a farmer of Clintonville, and is now deceased. 5. Richard M., of Clintonville, married Frances van Dyke, and their children are: Eli, married Luvisa Murrin, and has two children: Samuel, of Blairsville, married Silvia Vanderlin, and has one child. Wilda ; Ollie, widow of Hiram Hil- liard, has four children; Elsie, married War- ren Kerr, and has one child; Myrtle, Maggie
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and William. 6. Mary, died at the age of twelve years. 7. Thomas, clerk, at Vander- griff. 8. Philip, mail-carrier of Clintonville, married Irene Duffy ; children : Francis, Cath- leen, Richard and Duffy. 9. Florence, married William Crile, a railroad detective of Free- port. 10. Barbara, married John Duffy, a coal driller of Murrinsville. 11. John F., a merchant of Clintonville; married Daisy Davies. 12. Lillian, married Bert McKain, a driller of Clintonville; children: Theril and Vivian. 13. Richard, a merchant of Clinton- ville. 14. Julia. Eli Hovis, the father of this family, is now living in Newcastle, Pennsyl- vania, his wife having passed away in 1888.
Mary Elizabeth, daughter of Eli and Bar- bara (Monjar) Hovis, was born March 4, 1849, in Venango county, and became the wife of Henry Lewis Cunningham, as mentioned above.
GRAHAM William Graham, the first member of this family of whom we have any definite information, was born in Scotland. He emi- gratcd to America and the first known record of him is dated 1794 when he took out a patent for a tract of land on Ten-Mile creek, Wash- ington county, Pennsylvania, but he is known to have settled previous to that time on old Chartiers creek, in Washington county, where he built and operated a grist mill and followed his trade as a miller. A few years later he removed to the mouth of Bear creek in Arm- strong county, where he built the first grist mill in that section and finally purchased a farm in Perry township, Clarion county, then a part of Armstrong county, below the mouth of the Clarion river and opposite the present town of Parker. It was later made a stopping place for steamboats on the Allegheny and the property became known as Graham's Landing. He resided here until his death in 1835. His wife's name was Sally Rogers and the children were James, Rebecca, William, referred to below ; Mary, Samuel.
(II) William (2), son of William (1) and Sally (Rogers) Graham, was born 1796 in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania. He inher- ited part of his father's farm in Clarion county and purchased the holdings of the other heirs of the estate and lived in the old homestead the greater part of his life, but moved in his later years to East Brady, where he died in 1872. He was a Presbyterian in
religion, and a Democrat in politics. Married (first) Janet Wasson in 1826, who died De- cember 28, 1828, leaving a son, Joseph W. Graham. In 1831 he married (second) Mar- garet, daughter of John Mechling, a Western Pennsylvania pioneer. They had the following children : George, referred to below; Aaron, married Sidney Gibson, now living at Ren- frew, Butler county, Pennsylvania; Sarah, married William Jardine, of East Brady, died in 1876; Amanda, married John P. Forcht, now living in Butler, Pennsylvania.
(III) George, son of William (2) and Mar- garet (Mechling) Graham, was born June 11, 1832, in Perry township, Clarion county, Pennsylvania, died in East Brady, Pennsyl- vania, March 6, 1899. He grew up on his father's farm, received a public school educa- tion, learned the trade of carpenter, and was a pilot on the Allegheny river. He served in the civil war as a member of Company B, One Hundred and Sixty-ninth Pennsylvania Regi- ment, and after the close of his term of serv- ice returned to Brady's Bend, Pennsylvania, where he re-entered the employ of the Brady's Bend Iron Company as a carpenter ; was later made master mechanic and superintendent of construction. On the failure of the Iron Company he engaged in the lumber business at Brady's Bend with Judge A. Cook, of Cooksburg, and in 1874 removed to East Brady, where the lumber and planing mill business was operated on a larger scale and under the firm name of Graham, Forcht & Company, later Graham & Cook, until 1890, when he sold his lumber interests to his son, Newton E. He married Margaret, daughter of Daniel Fritz, born in Berks county, Penn- sylvania, died at East Brady in 1902. Her father was of Pennsylvania Dutch parentage. The children of George and Margaret ( Fritz) Graham are: John William, married Ella Sed- wick; Ella Mary, married John F. Neely, now living at New Castle, Pennsylvania ; Newton Ellsworth, referred to below; Ida May, born 1864, died 1880; George, married Mollie Young, now living at Butler, Pennsyl- vania; Celia, married Joseph A. Neely, died 1910, leaving two children, Marion and Joseph Applegate; Frank Fritz, born 1868, died 1897.
(IV) Newton Ellsworth, son of George and Margaret (Fritz) Graham, was born at St. Petersburg, Clarion county, Pennsylvania, July 2, 1861. He moved at an early age with
Nuoton E. Graham
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his parents to Brady's Bend. He received a common school education and entered the em- ploy of his father in the lumber business; in 1885 founded the East Brady Review, of which newspaper he was editor and publisher until 1890, when he purchased his father's interest in the lumber firm of Graham & Cook at East Brady ; in 1902 he purchased the Cook inter- ests and organized the Graham Lumber Com- pany, which still continues; in 1900 he was one of the principal organizers of the Peo- ple's National Bank of East Brady, of which he was elected president and has held this of- fice continuously . since the organization; is president and principal owner of the East Brady Water Works Company, director in the Central Allegheny Valley Telephone Company and interested in oil, gas and other industries. Always an active Republican, has held a num- ber of borough offices, county chairman, dele- gate to state conventions and delegate to the Republican National Convention at Chicago in 1904; is a member of the Duquesne Club, Country Club, Athletic Association of Pitts- burgh; a Knight Templar and Shriner. He married, in 1886, Lenora, daughter of James Young and Mary ( Wallace ) Foster, and has one daughter, Maurine.
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