USA > Pennsylvania > Cambria County > History of Cambria County, Pennsylvania, Volume I > Part 51
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Rhey, James, born in Dublin in 1792, died in Ebensburg in 1852. He married Susan Brookbanke, of Hagerstown. Mary- land; she was born in 1800 and died in Ebensburg. November 24, 1897. They had ten children, all having been born in Ebens- burg: Ann L. Rhey, born about 1817, and died in Paducah, Kentucky, in 1894; she married Lynn Boyd, a member of con- gress from the First District in Kentucky, in 1839, at Harris- burg. Lynn Boyd was speaker of the House in the XXXIId and XXXIIId Congress; he died at Paducah in 1859. John S .. born 1819, married Ann McFeely, a daughter of Col. John McFeely, of Carlisle; he died in his eightieth year. Mary, born 1821. died in 1892; she married Peter B. McCord. of Harris- burg, a nephew of Simon Cameron. Jane, born 1823, married John C. O'Neill. James W., born 1825. Andrew Jackson, born 1828, and was married. Margaret, born September 6, 1830, is now residing in Ebensburg, the last one of the family. Harriet, born 1832, died in 1864. Rose, was born in 1836 and died in 1877, in Leavenworth, Kansas; she was the wife of Thomas P. Fenlon. Ernest, born in 1841, died in St. Paul, in 1904, single.
Roberts, George. He came to Ebensburg, November 19, 1796. The ancestry begins with Randle Roberts, born about 1670, in North Wales. His son Thomas, born September 29, 1700, and died 1779, married Mary Green, who died October 28, 1777, and his second wife was Elizabeth Matthews. George, the son of Thomas and Mary Green Roberts, was born at Bronnlon, Montgomeryshire, February 11, 1769, and died in Ebens- burg in 1862. He and Janet Edwards were married at Llanerfel, same shire, May 20, 1795. Arrived in Philadelphia October 26, 1795. On September 20, 1796, they left for Ebensburg in company with Ezekiel Hughes, and a Mr. Bebb, who had married a sister of George Roberts, and who went to Ohio, where his son, William Bebb, became governor of that state. The others were Ruth Thomas, Owen Davis and wife, Dr. Francis and wife, Ann Roseland and Ann Evans. All walked from Philadelphia, and stopped for some time at a point about eighteen miles east of Blair's Mills, and arrived at their new home in the following month. They had 'six children, all being born there, who were: Evan, born January
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8, 1802, and died March 15, 1871, in Johnstown; he married Lucinda H. Proctor. (See Jesse Proctor.) John E. Roberts, married Mary Hughes, a sister of Ezekiel Hughes of Ebens- burg. Their children were: Thomas, Ann, Jane and George, who died in the Union army in the Civil war. George, born 1307; October 4, 1830, he married Ann Hughes, a sister of Mary Hughes; his second wife was Ann Janet Marven. His son John was killed in the Fredericksburg battle. Thomas, died about the time he left college. Edward Roberts, of Ebens- burg, married Susan Owens; their children were: Ella, who married Dr. Edward Plank, Annetta J. and George Henry Roberts. Mary Roberts married George J. Rodgers of Ebens- burg; Jane was their only child. (See Political Review, Churches, Judicial District and Postmasters for George and Evan Roberts.)
Roberts, Hugh, was born in Wales in 1754, and married Elizabeth Roderigue; they came to Ebensburg about 1784. They had six children : 1. Robert H., married Mary Thomas, a daugh- ter of John Thomas, the gate keeper, and had four children: Milton; Jane, who married Robert Davis; Elizabeth, the wife of R. E. Emith; and Agnes, whose liusband was Dr. George Robinson. 2. David H., married Margaret Evans, a daugh- ter of John Evans; they had five children: Howard J., late of Johnstown; Newton I .; Chalmers T .; and Emily who married William Tate, Jr .; Dwight died in infancy. 3. Eliza, married Rowland Davis and had seven children: Thomas, who mar- ried a Miss Thomas; Harriet, married Messack Thomas; Row- land R., married Harriet Williams ; Robert, married; Mary Ann, the wife of Thomas Williams; Jane, whose husband was Thomas D. Jones; and Elsie, who married a Mr. Williams, of Iowa. 4. Mary, married John Williams, of Ebensburg; had no chil- dren. 5. Prudence, married Associate Judge Richard Jones, of Ebensburg, and had five children: Priscilla; Clinton R., who married Emeline Nutter; Harriet, married Thomas J. Lloyd; Malinda, married John Fox; and Catherine, the wife of Mack Ritter. 6. Evan H., born 1810; died, 1851; married Margaret Hughes; they had six children: Elizabeth, married Henry P. Edwards, Iowa; Edwin, died in the Union army; John D., married Mary Kinter, of Johnstown; Mary, died, single; Mar- garet, married Thomas D. Davis, of Iowa; and Emily, married John R. Hughes, of Iowa.
Roberts, Rev. Levi. His grandfather, Richard Rob-
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erts, was a native of Wales, and located in Virginia, where he married and had a large family. His son Joseph, born March 18, 1743, O. S., in Woodcock Valley, Huntingdon county, was mas- sacred by the Indians. Joseph married Agnes Seabrooks, a daughter of William Seabrooks, of Maryland; born March 18, 1743, O. S .; died August 24, 1833, and interred in the Angu .; graveyard, now East Taylor township. They came to the Val .. ley before the Revolutionary war, and five of their children grew to maturity, namely: Richard, Nancy, Jemima, Mary and Levi Roberts. Richard enlisted in the war, but was never heard of thereafter. Nancy married Jacob Sheets, and remained east of the mountains. Jemima, married Patrick Dimond, and Mary married John Shaffer, who are also buried in the Angus ceme- tery.
Levi Roberts was born February 9, 1779, and died Decem- ber 6, 1860, and was buried by the side of his wife. When he was two years old his father, Joseph, with abont a dozen of his neighbors led by Captain Phillips, while on a scouting ex- pedition to discover the intention of the Indians, who were on the warpath, were attacked by the savages led by a white man. Phillips, against the protest of the little band, surrendered on the promise they all would be treated as prison- ers of war, however, under a secret understanding, Phillips and his son were released, but all the others were cruelly put to death. Levi and his mother remained there until the end of the Indian war. On November 19, 1799, he married Elizabeth Gochnour, a daughter of David Gochnour, of Bedford county. (See Gochnour). In 1803 he and his mother, his two brothers- in-law,-Dimond and Shaffer-came to Cambria county and located on what is now known as the Angus farm, in East Taylor, which is about five miles north of Johnstown on the Ebens- burg road. Levi Roberts purchased a tract of land known as the "Vineyard," which had been warranted in the name of Reuben Gregg. and patented by Reuben Haynes of Philadel- phia. When Levi Roberts located here the forest abounded with wild animals, such as panthers, wolves, bears, deer, wild-cats, foxes and the like. There was but one family, who lived about a mile from his cabin, and another at what is now Conemaugh, nearer than Johnstown. The nearest grist mill was that of John Horner, in the latter place. He had several children, but only three sons and three daughters lived to full age. Three of his sons and one daughter survived their father. The six
,
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children were: William, born Dec. 19, 1801, and removed to Blackhawk county, Iowa; Nancy, born Jan. 22, 1804, married Samuel Good, and she died in 1849 in Jefferson county, Iowa; Susannah, born Feb. 18, 1808, married Anthony Hunt and re- sided in Johnstown; Sarah, born June 11, 1809, married John Singer (of Jackson), and died in 1832; Jacob, born Feb. 1, 1813, died Oct. 8, 1842. John Roberts was born Jan. 17, 1818, and died in Franklin borough, Jan. 24, 1906. He married Susan- nah Singer (see David Singer), who died Nov. 4, 1873. They had seven children. John Roberts was elected sheriff of Cam- bria county in 1855, as a Democrat, but in the first Lincoln campaign he joined the Republican party and remained with it.
Levi Roberts sold his farm in 1839, and five years there- after he went to Jefferson county, Iowa, and lived there with his children for several years, but returned to his old home before he died. About 1820 he joined the German Baptist church and was chosen to be one of their ministers, and as such traveled in the adjoining counties for many years.
Rose, Allen. His father, William Rose, was one of five brothers who came to America from England in the eight- eenth century. William resided in Philadelphia for a while, then came to the vicinity of Bedford, and finally located near Jenner Crossroads, Somerset county, where he died in 1847. Allen was born in March, 1793, at Bobs creek, near Bedford, when the territory of Cambria county was a part of Bedford county. In 1826 he married Elizabeth Freame, a daughter of Moses Freame, who lived at or near Dibertsville, Somerset. Two years later he removed to Geistown, then known as "Slick- ville," and in the next year (1829) to Johnstown. Allen Rose was a carpenter and a manufacturer of bored log pumps. On August 14, 1851, at what is now Rosedale, which was named in his memory, he and his wife died at the same instant during an epidemic of cholera. Their children were: Wesley J., born near Dibertsville, April 17, 1826, died April 29, 1900; Eliza J., the wife of L. B. Cohick; Marshall, who died in California; John S., who was drowned in 1857; Lewis S., died in 1879; W. Horace Rose; George W., and Agnes F., married Evan Thomas, of Brady's Bend.
Wesley J. Rose married Martha Given, a daughter of Rob- ert G. Given, who was a lieutenant in the Cambria Guards iu the Mexican war; their children were: Elizabeth F., married Samuel E. Young; Emma J., married James S. Gallagher;
Vol. I-36
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Margaret T., whose husband is Alfred P. Ellis; John M., Wal- ter E., Harry G., who was killed in the flood of '89; Howard J., who died in infancy; Annie M., the wife of Robert L. Taw- mey; Robert G., and Frank Z. Rose. Martha Given Rose died in January, 1886.
Wesley J. Rose was one of the prominent citizens of Johnstown for fifty years or more. He was a lovable man and had all the admirable qualities of a good neighbor, a kind father and a most skilful mechanic. He had a remarkably retentive memory and was peculiarly interested in local events. In his seventy-one years' residence in Johnstown he witnessed all the important events in its march of progress, and was a part of many of its successes. The correctness of his statement, or the accuracy of its essentials were seldom, if ever, doubted. Very many of the important facts recorded in this work would have been lost without his accurate memory. He had a collection of 550 photographs of residents of Johnstown who were his friends.
Settlemyer, Godfrey, was a soldier in the Revolu- tionary war. and located in Summerhill township, near Wilmore, about 1800, and died there in 1842, and is interred in the Intheran cemetery. He was a member of the first grand jury in Cambria county, which found a true bill against a woman for homicide, who served three years in the eastern pen- itentiary. He had seven children: Elizabeth S. Ketner, George; Polly, married Daniel Dimond; Jacob, Catherine, John and David Settlemyer. Among his descendants are the Rev. W. H. Settlemyer, of Baltimore; Mrs. Elizabeth Black, of Wil- more, and G. W. Settlemyer and his son, Clifton T., residing near Wilmore.
Shaffer, Henry. of Richland township. His father, George Shaffer, was a native of Germany, and coming to Amer- ica before the Revolutionary war, served in the Continen- tal army; he located in the Kishacoquillas valley, in the east- ern part of the state. His son, Henry Shaffer, born 1792, enlisted in the War of 1812, and in the same year married a Miss Weaver, born 1794; they had three sons: Henry, Jacob and John P .; and six daughters: Mrs. Dunniva, Mrs. Gabriel Dunmire, Mrs. Henry Kring, Mrs. Levi Shaffer. Mrs. Dewees and Mrs. George Orris. Jacob Shaffer married Elizabeth. Pringle, and their children were: John, Henry, George, Jacob, David, Christian, William, Catherine and Mary Shaffer.
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HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.
Skelly, Philip. He was also known as Felix O'Skalley, but .the name has been anglicised to Skelly. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. In 1778 he and a Mrs. Elder, a relative, were captured by the Indians in the Juniata valley. Skelly escaped and joined the Continental army and fought with it until the surrender. He married Margaret Me- Afee, and resided on his farm near Wilmore. He died July 3, 1835, and is buried in the Loretto cemetery. They had nine children : Daniel, Hugh, Michael, Margery, Eleanor, Cather- ine, Mary, Elizabeth and Ann Skelly.
Singer, David. He was born in York county, Decem- ber 23, 1790, coming here when but a boy. The Goods, a dangh- ter of whom afterwards became Mr. Singer's wife, had pre- ceded him "to the west" a number of years, coming from Lancaster county. They had settled on what is now the Singer farm, in the spring of 1796-four years before Joseph Johns founded "the Town of Conemaugh," now the city of Johns- town.
Jacob Good purchased the farm from Jacob Stutzman who had bought it, together with what is now the Cover farm, four years before, from Benjamin Rittenhouse, the original patentee of the traet, which was quite a large one, including more than these two farms.
When Mr. Good settled here he brought with him his wife- Mary Bosley Good-their son, Christian, seventeen years of age, and a little daughter, Mary, then about six months old. Mr. Good, having purchased the farm mentioned above, set to work with his axe and built a little shanty of split timber. As the cold weather approached in the autumn a more suitable shelter had to be provided. This was a large house built of rough, round logs, chinked with mud, and with a fireplace in it, which "required as much stone to build as would build an ordinary house these days." This massive chimney had two places for fire, one on each side, and the fuel used was logs from the clearing. In the home thus founded Mr. and Mrs. Good lived until their deaths. That of the former occurred in October, 1813, and that of the latter, July 20, 1837.
About two years after the family came here, the son, Chris- tian, who is the grandfather of Christian Good, the "Back- woods Philosopher," so well known on the streets of Johns- town, went back to the eastern part of the state and married Susannah Singer, a half-sister of David Singer. He brought
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HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.
his bride here, and in 1808 he purchased from Abraham Longe- necker the part of the Stutzman tract of land which was left after his father's purchase of what is now the Singer farm. This land he sold in 1814 to Adam Cover.
David Singer's father, John Singer, died in York county in 1792, when David was two years old, leaving him the young- est of a family of orphans. Of these Samuel and Susannah were children by his first wife, while Christiana, Barbara, John and David were full brothers and sisters by the second wife. Their mother afterwards married a Mr. Prowell, who belonged to a Philadelphia family.
Susannah and David were followed to Cambria county by two of the other children, Samuel and Christiana. Samuel was the founder of the Singer settlement in Jackson township. He is the grandfather of ex-Register and Recorder James M. Singer, of Jackson township.
Christiana married Joseph Dimond and settled with him in what is now East Taylor township, near the present Angus farm. They reared a family of three daughters, who are now living in the west. Two of them married men named Gough- nour, from near the old homestead in Taylor township, and the third is now Mrs. Metz. They, with Miss Mary Singer, a daughter of the other brother, John, living in Harrisburg.
The other sister, Barbara Singer, married a man named Spence and spent her days near Harrisburg.
David Singer, after his father's death, lived with relatives in York county until he was fifteen years of age, when he made his way across the mountains to the then newly-formed county of Cambria, coming to the home of his half-sister, Susannah. Soon he bound himself out to learn the trade of a weaver under the Rev. Jolm Mineeley, a gifted Irish gentleman, who was a well-known Dunkard preacher and a popular school teacher, as well as a weaver.
Mr. Singer seems to have given up this trade after some time, however, as we find him a few years later again working for Jacob Good on his farm at "Hillsborough," as it appears to have been called before the name "Cover Hill" was brought into use and in a few years became its owner. David Singer and Mary Good were married in 1815, the ceremony being per- formed, it is thought, by the Rev. Meneeley, as preachers were not numerous in those days.
The children of Mr. and Mrs. Singer recall many interest-
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ing anecdotes concerning the lives of their parents, which they delight to relate. In the early days before the Old Portage railroad was built, and the Pennsylvania canal opened, when iron ore was transported from Hollidaysburg to Pittsburg by hauling it over the mountains on wagons and floating it down the river on flat boats, the wagon route down the side of the mountains coming into Johnstown by the Frankstown road, led past the Singer farm. Mrs. Singer used to lodge the team- sters over night, and frequently, it is said, as many as thirty of them were entertained in the old log house, to which an addition had been built.
David Singer was a very small man, being about five feet, six inches tall, but as active and as lithe. as a cat. One cold winter's day as he was coming down the mountains with one of the ore-wagon teamsters, upon reaching the South Fork ereek he found it frozen over and apparently impassable. Being anxious to get home before night, however, Mr. Singer under- took its passage, agreeing to ride the saddle horse and drive the team across. The ice was strong enough to bear the weight of a man, but the team broke through at every step, and in the middle of the river Mr. Singer's. horse stumbled and went down, throwing him into the water under the ice. With sur- prising agility, the other driver related, he swam ont, regained control of the team, and got the whole outfit safely across. Then in his water-soaked clothes he started to run up the hill to the home of Mrs. Smay, a woman noted for her great mus- cular strength and masculine feats, who used to feed the team- sters and their horses at that point. As he approached the house, Mr. Singer's progress began to be greatly impeded by his freezing clothes and his vitality was well nigh exhausted; but Mrs. Smay saw him, and, running out into the road, picked him up in her arms and carried him into the house, where he was thawed out.
Mr. Singer made one trip to Pittsburg by flatboat. At that time the ore was floated down the river in cheaply-built vessels, which were sold in the Smoky City for coal barges on the Ohio river, the boatmen making their way back to Johns. town on foot.
Mr. and Mrs. Singer were the parents of six sons and seven daughters, as follows: Christiana, born December 14, 1815; John, born February 3, 1817, died March 23, 1881; Mary, born August 28, 1818; Susannah, born February 1, 1820; Elizabeth,
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born August 16, 1822; Barbara, born Jannary 23, 1824, died in June, 1887; Jacob, born March 11, 1826, residing on the . Singer farm in May, 1907; David, born November 5, 1827; Samuel, born March 8, 1829, died April 7, 1877; Aaron, born May 18, 1831; Sarah, born May 17, 1833; Catherine, born June 21, 1835, and Christian, born May 15, 1839.
Of these David, Catherine and Christian died in childhood. Mary passed away at the old homestead in 1844, while all the other children survived their parents. The eldest daughter, Christiana, was married in 1836 to Jonas B. Horner, who was killed on June 21, 1852, by the accidental discharge of a shot- gun while he and his little son were shooting fish in the Stony- creek river. The son is David J. Horner, the well-known car- penter of the Von Lunen road. Mrs. Horner died in this city February 23, 1897.
Susannah became the wife of John Roberts, of Taylor township. (See Levi Roberts.)
Elizabeth, who was the wife of Morganza A. Brown, of Fairfield avenue, died on the South Side, October 4, 1891, leav- ing no children. Sarah married John Carroll, of Bedford county.
Aaron Singer was for many years a well-known blacksmith in this city. On Nov. 6, 1903, he died at his home at the corner of Somerset and Haynes streets, South Side. He was united in marriage with Miss Charlotte Augusta Smith, of Singer street, by the Rev. Kezie, then pastor of the United Brethren church in this city. Mr. and Mrs. Aaron Singer were the par- ents of eight children, four of whom are dead. At the time of the Johnstown Flood Mr. Singer was carried into the waters with his home on Somerset street and would probably have been drowned had he not been rescued by two ladies, the Misses Mollie and Ida Arthur, who lived next door to him. As a result of his experience in the water Mr. Singer was crippled.
Slick, William, Sr. His first wife was Rebecca Hemp- hill, who died in 1846, and by whom he had eight children, name- ly: Eliza, married William Makin; Nancy, wife of John Ams- bangh; Julia Ann, whose husband was Robert E. Rodgers; George R., Benjamin F., William Jr., Joseph and John. His second wife was Rachel Benson, who died in 1860.
Stineman, Jacob, Sr. The founder of this family in America was Christian Stineman, a native of Holland. At first he located in Schuylkill county, but later came to Bedford county. Jacob was born there, and removed to Conemangh township,
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Cambria county, in 1803, where he became a farmer and miller; he died Sept. 28, 1853. He married Elizabeth Ling, of Bed- ford, in 1805, and they had eleven children; the elder was John Stineman, Jacob, Jr., Daniel, Eli, Philip, Susan, married Alex- ander Wisel; Sarah, married Peter Klout; Elizabeth, married Adam Kobler; Margaret, first became the wife of Frederick Croyle, and her second marriage was with Valentine Belle; Laura, married Samuel Flenner; and Samuel Stineman. His second marriage was with a Mrs. Sell, but they had no children.
Jacob Stineman, Jr., married Mary Croyle, a daughter of Thomas Croyle, then of Summerhill township. (See Thomas Croyle.) He died in 1875; they had seven children : Elizabeth, married Jacob Seigh; Joseph P., Captain George B., married Martha Paul ; Daniel T. Stineman, was a member of Co. F. 198th Pa. Inf., and was killed at Hatcher's Run, Va., Feb. 9, 1865; the Grand Army Post at South Fork is named to his memory; Sen- ator Jacob C. Stineman married Ellen Varner, and Mary Ann married Joseph S. Stull.
Storm, John. He was among the first arrivals in the McGuire settlement, and built the Storm grist mill (see Rivers, Mills, etc.) ; he was born May 3, 1756, and died at Loretto, Feb. 14, 1816; he married Susan Wysong, born July 25, 1777, and died Nov. 11, 1837. Their children were: John, born Feb. 23, 1797, and died Sept. 27, 1847, married Rosanna McCoy, born in 1781 and died Jan. 11, 1859; Peter, born May 17, 1798, and died Jan. 17, 1849, married Ann MeConnell, born Oct., 1801, and died Ang. 10, 1853; they had eight children and among them were: Mary, Ann, Susan, Elizabeth, Sarah and Francis Storm. Patrick, born Feb. 21, 1804, and died Nov. 7, 1885, married Mary Parrish, born May 18, 1810, and died March 10, 1883 (see Joshna Parrish) ; Louis Storm, born June 12, 1809, and died May 2, 1892, married Margaret Pfoff, born Ang. 23, 1815, and died Sept. 14, 1898; Joseph, born June 28, 1811, and died June 3, 1826.
Stutzman, Abram. He was a native of Germany, and about 1750 he located in Switzerland. His son Abram, born there, came to America and located on the Conococheague creek, in Franklin county, in a German settlement. His son, Jacob Stutzman, was born there in 1777, and died in Taylor township, this county, in 1859. He was a shoemaker, and came to Cambria county about 1792. He married Susanna Ullery (See Daniel Ullery), whose father owned a tract of land on the
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east side of the Stonycreek river, near Moxham, and Jacob Stutzman owned 231 acres, which included the Osborne, Suppes and other farms, on the west side. They had ten children, namely: Daniel, Abraham, Jacob, John, David, Elizabeth, wife of Abraham Weaver; Hannah, who married George Knable; Susanna, intermarried with John Knable; Mary, who married Samuel Berkey, and subsequently Christian Good; Samuel and Stephen. Stephen Stutzman's first marriage was with Rachel Berkey, in March, 1849; their children were: Peter, Sarah, the wife of Aaron Strayer; Franklin, Jacob S., Mary Jane, inter- married with Slater W. Allen; Lovina and Elizabeth, who were twins; the former married Dr. L. S. Livingston, of Johnstown, and the latter Joseph D. Finley, of Glenford, Ohio; and Will- iam S. Stutzman, of Upper Yoder. His second marriage was with Mary Fyock, widow of Samuel Fyock, of Paint township, Somerset county.
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