History of Cambria County, Pennsylvania, Volume III, Part 10

Author: Storey, Henry Wilson
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 940

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HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

1890 he left the roofing department, and engaged in contracting with J. W. Mack and J. D. MeCrory.

In 1894 he entered the real estate firm of Jacob Replogle and Co., becoming the junior member of said firm. He subsequently bought out the interests of Jacob Replogle. the senior member, and the firm was changed to Fearl & Blauch. Upon the retiring of T. J. Fearl he be- came the sole owner of the real estate firm and continued in the name of D. D. Blauch until July, 1906, when the present firm of Blauch & Benshoff was formed by the taking in of Harry M. Benshoff as the junior member. Up to this time the business was exclusively real es- tate, but has since taken up fire insurance along with it.

Mr. Blauch became first connected with secret societies in 1875, when he became a charter member of Independent Castle No. 57, A. O. K., of the M. C. He was an officer in this order for nearly twenty years, and became a past commander, and for a number of years was an active member of the Select Castle of Pennsylvania, having filled the position of select marshal one year, and was presented with a gold medal for organizing the largest number of castles in Pennsylvania in 1885. In 1885 he organized Pride of Cambria Castle No. 52, Knights of the Golden Eagle, and was appointed D. G. C. of Cambria county, by G. C. George W. Couch, and in this capacity he served in the grand eastle of Pennsylvania. till 1889. when he was elected grand sir herald, and became the grand chief of Pennsylvania in 1891, and represented the state of Pennsylvania in the supreme eastle in 1893, since which time he has held his membership in the supreme castle, having been on several occasions a representative from this state. During his serv- ice as D. G. C. he instituted perhaps more new castles than any other member of the order in the western part of the state, having had the honor of introducing the first castles in six counties, beside many others. During his term as grand chief he instituted thirty-nine new castles, and increased the membership in the state one thousand, eight hundred and seventy-two. He became connected with the military branch of the order, and served as captain of Eagle Commandery No. 34, of Johns- town, when he was promoted to the rank of colonel, by lieutenant- General James P. O'Neill, which position he held for a number of years under General O'Neill. General Stiltz. and General Reinecke. He was elected and had charge of the Seventh regiment for three years, and was colonel of the Sixth regiment for two years. In the spring of 1906 he was elected brigadier-general of the First Brigade of Pennsyl- vania, which position he still holds.

Mr. Blauch is also a past chancellor of Johnstown Lodge, K. of P., of which he was a charter member. and past commander of Agla Commandery No. 218, K. of M., of which he was a charter member, and its first commander.

He became a member of Johnstown Lodge No. 538, Ancient and Accepted Masons : Portage Chapter No. 195, R. A. M .; Cambria Coun- cil No. 32, R. and S. M .;; Oriental Commandery No. 61, K. T .; Penn- sylvania Consistory S. P. P. S., 32° ; Syria Temple A. A. O. N. M. S. of Pittsburg. He is also a member and P. C. in Monarch Temple No. 2, L. of K. G. E. of Washington. D. C .. and P. C. of Progressive Castle No. 15, A. O. K. of M. C., of Pittsburg. Pennsylvania.

Politically Mr. Blanch is a staunch Republican, but an indepen- dent voter. He served his ward in the common council for two years. He has been a life-long member of the Methodist church.

Mr. Blanch was married, November 10, 1874, to Emily Campbell

HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

of near Armagh, Pennsylvania. Two children were born : Jessie May, born June 23, 1876, died January 11, 1879; and Eva B., born June 12. 1881, at home.

Mrs. Blauch was bern May 10. 1848, and died June 14, 1906. She was a daughter of Christopher Campbell and Jane (Murphy) Camp- bell.

Christopher Campbell was a son of James Campbell. who died January 29, 1829, and Jane (Barr) Campbell. who died January 30. 1832. He was bom in Ballynahinch, Ireland, in 1798, and came to America with his parents three years later, settling on a farm near Armagh. He died November 16, 1878. He married Jane Murphy, a daughter of John Murphy and Mary (Armitage) Murphy. She died August 9, 1873. They had children: Mary Jane, born June 20, 1830, married David MeCrory, died May 11, 1901; Elizabeth, born March 5. 1832, married Joshua MeCracken, died March 2, 1883; Annie, born February 15. 1834, married William Walker: James M., born September 9, 1836, died November 26, 1861; Margaret, born September 29, 1838, died September 19, 1861; John M., born October 1, 1840. married Martha Mack, died in Salisbury prison November 5, 1864 (was captured by Confederates, and died of fever). Lettica, born Angust 25, 1842, died in infancy; Christopher J., born March 16, 1846, mar- ried Emma Lynn, died April 7, 1886: Emily, born May 10, 1848, mar- ried D. D. Blauch, died June 14. 1906; William, born September 29, 1850, married Anzonetta Wilson.

John Murphy, grandfather of Mrs. Blanch, was the son of James Murphy of Belfast, Ireland. He died March 17. 1837, and buried in America. His wife Mary Armitage, who died March 7. 1860, was a daughter of John (or Geor.) Armitage of Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. and (Davis) Armitage.

JACOB BLAUCH. Bishop Jacob Blanch married Catherine Say- lor; he died in 1849, aged seventy-five years. He had ten children : Rev. Jacob Blauch, who was born in 1801, died 1879, was married to Sarah Blauch, and was the father of Rev. Henry Blauch; Rev. Jonas Blauch, who died a short time ago; Abram of this city, and Jacob the father of Mr. Blauch, the Pittsburg correspondent and base-ball sec- retary: Joseph, who died some years ago in Johnstown; and two unmarried daughters.

John Blauch, the second son of Rev. Jacob, was married to Frani Blauch. They had nine children ; nearly all dying young, except Sam- uel Blauch, who was married to Susan Lehman. IIe became a promi- nent minister and was made a bishop : he died some years ago. He was the father of seven children: John and Henry, of Krings Station; Elias, of Johnstown, and Mrs. Daniel Crawford; the rest of the chil- dren are all living in Cambria and Somerset counties.

The other children of Rev. Jacob's were: Henry, who married Frani Hershberger, and they had eight children, among them being Christian, who married Polly Ream and they had twelve children ;. Abraham Blanch married Sarah Lehman and had a number of children ; Peter of this city. and Rev. Levi of Somerset county.

Christian Blanch, the second son of Jacob, the first better known as "Big Christ," married Susan Cable, they had nine children : first, Jaeoh, who married Kate Bowman, and had eleven children ; Benjamin, who married Martha Baker, they had twelve children, two of whom are still living, namely, Abram of Iowa, and Mrs. Noah Short. of Somerset

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HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

county. The descendants of Christian are very numerous throughout the west.

The third, John, married Frani Short; they had nine children, among them being Christian of Friedens, aged eighty-two, who is still living.

Joseph, the fourth son of Big Christ, married Sarah Barnhart, and they had three children: Henry, the father of Dr. Blauch of Chi- cago, Illinois; Mrs. George Gordon, and Mrs. Dr. Beechley, of Iowa.

The daughters of Big Christ were Mrs. George Specht, Mrs. David Kupp, Mrs. John Zimmerman, Mrs. Soloman Horner, Mrs. David Specht, and Mrs. John Dibert, the mother of David, John, and Samuel Dibert, prominent in the history of Johnstown.

John, the third son of Jacob the first, died young, leaving one child, a daughter.

Henry, the fourth son of Jacob the first, married and had two daughters: Mrs. Jonas Weaver. and Mrs. Eash. He lived to the ripe age of ninety-four, and is buried at Bethel.

The daughters of Jacob (1) were Annie, who married Samuel Kline : Elizabeth, who married John Saylor; Mary, who married Henry Hershberger, and Franica, who married --- Berkey, and moved to Canada in 1806, where there are now over five hundred descendants of hers.

David, the youngest son of Jacob, married Mattie Lehman, she died young, and was the mother of three children. He married a sec- ond time to Mattie Mishler, and to this union there were born three children.

His third wife was Barbara Livingston, and she was the mother of five children: John, who died a short time ago at Holsopple, being a twin. His twin brother died at the age of twenty-two.

His fourth wife was Barbara Fyock Replogle, the mother of D. D. Błauch.

MARLIN BINGHAM STEPHENS, a prominent member of the Cambria county bar, practicing in the city of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, was born on his father's farm in the village of Dilltown, Indiana county, Pennsylvania, May 10, 1860. He is a lineal descendant of a sturdy and pioneer stock that established itself firmly in America be- fore the Revolutionary war, and is a great-grandson of Benjamin Stephens, who was a native of England and emigrated to America about the year 1756, and who was a soldier in the French and Indian war, serving in the campaign against the French posts on the Canadian border and was present at the capitulation of Montreal on September 8, 1760, after which he retired to his home in what is now the state of Maryland, near the town of St. Mary's, where his son, Samuel Stephens, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch was born, Feb- ruary, 1761.

During the Revolutionary war Benjamin Stephens and three of his sons served loyally in the struggle for American Independence, father and three sons John, Thomas and Samuel being at one time members of the same company, serving under Colonel John E. Howard, of the Maryland Line, and also with Captain Daniel Morgan's Virginia riflemen.

Samuel Stephens. shortly after the close of the Revolutionary war, was imbued, like many others of that period, with the spirit of adven- ture, and having learned of the productive soil in the valleys of the

HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

western slope of the Alleghenies and the abundance of game on its vast mountain ranges, set out to seek a home for himself in the wilds of western Pennsylvania. He was familiar with the country, although but a boy in years, having accompanied his older brothers, who trav- eled through the same on one of the military expeditions during the Revolutionary period to the headwaters of the Allegheny river and the Great Lakes. Samuel Stephens was accompanied to his new home by his brothers, John and Thomas, bringing with them their cattle and such household goods as were necessary and in common use at that time in a new country, and finally located in what is now Brush Valley township, Indiana county, Pennsylvania, near the present site of Mechaniesburg. John and Thomas remained with their brother Samuel for some time, assisting him to clear some land and ereet his eabin house, when they returned to their homes. Thomas had lost an arm as a result of a gunshot wound in the Revolutionary war. Samuel Stephens resided for a number of years on this farm, when he re- moved to the Black Lick creek and located upon the farm now owned by William S. Conrad, about a mile northwest of the village of Dill- town, Indiana county, Pennsylvania, about 1810, where he resided for about twenty years, when again longing for new fields of adventure and encouraged by the reports of the rich lands and great agricultural advantages of what was then called the "Far West," he removed to and located in what is now Rush county, Indiana, near the town of Rushville, where he spent the remainder of his days on his farm, and died in 1843 at the age of eighty-two years.

William S. Stephens, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born November 30, 1808, on the paternal farm near the present village of Mechaniesburg, Pennsylvania, and removed with his father's family to the Black Liek creek about 1810, where he resided until he was upwards of seventeen years of age, when in company with his brothers Abednego and Joseph he went to work at the old charcoal furnaces east of the mountain, and resided in the vicinity of Warrior's Mark, Huntingdon county, until 1835, when he returned to Indiana county and located and opened up a farm and erected mills upon the present site of the village of Dilltown. where he conducted his farm and operated his flour and saw mills until the time of his death, Feb- ruary 28, 1888, aged eighty years.

The mother of Marlin B. Stephens is Sarah Ann Stephens (nee Skiles). She is the great-granddaughter of James Skiles, who emigrated from the North of Ireland to the United States and located in Cumber- land county, Pennsylvania, in 1780, and in 1800, in company with Ephraim Wallace, also a native of Ireland, removed to the Conemaugh valley in Indiana county. There his son, John Skiles, married Sarah Wallace, a daughter of Ephraim Wallace, to which union was born a son, Ephraim Skiles, who married Mary Rodgers, a daughter of Robert Rodgers, who also came from Ireland to America at an early date and settled on the Conemaugh river near the present site of the old village known as Nineveh. Ephraim Skiles shortly after his mar- riage settled on a farmi near the present town of Wehrum, in East Wheatfield township, Indiana county, where he resided the remainder of his life and reared a large family. One of his daughters, Sarah Ann Skiles, born February 2, 1825, married William S. Stephens, and to this union were born Marlin B. Stephens, subject of this sketel : Olive F. Stephens, wife of Dr. L. H. Mayer, of Johnstown. and John H. Stephens, Esq., also of the city of Johnstown. Mrs. Sarah Ann

HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

Stephens resides on the old homestead at Dilltown, Pennsylvania, and being blessed with good health and a peaceful and contented disposition. is enjoying that happiness which is only known to those whose whole life has been one continous round of good, and whose highesi mibi- tion and greatest realization of happiness was in being a loving wife and a kind and affectionate mother, who loved her home and enjoyed the society of her husband and children. and now at the ripe old age of nearly eighty-two years, is overjoyed by the return of her sons and daughter to greet her at the old homestead at Dilltown, Pennsylvania.

Marlin B. Stephens was reared on his father's farm until the proper age, when, like many other young men similarly situated, and desiring to enter one of the learned professions, he attended the normal and select schools of his native connty and prepared himself for teach- ing in the public schools. After teaching for several years and being encouraged by his success in that line, he determined to press on in his efforts to secure an education and to finally realize the dreams of his youth and ambition of young manhood, and become a member of the legal profession, which was to his mind an eminent and distinguished position in the line of literary attainments, as well as to enable him to enter a profession the study and practice of which is peculiarly in- teresting in the necessary research and fascinating in the practical application of the same. In order that his ambitions might be realized he became a student at the Classical and Scientific Institute of Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, where he prepared himself for the study of law. Soon after the completion of his studies at this institution he entered the law department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, October 1, 1884, and from which he was graduated with the law class of June, 1886, with the degree of LL. B.

Mr. Stephens was admitted to the bar and licensed to practice law in the several courts of the state of Michigan on May 5, 1886, upon his application and examination in the Twenty-second Judicial Distriet of that state. He then returned to his native state and was admitted to the bar of Wyoming county, on April 12, 1887, before Hon. John A. Sittser, president judge. He was also admitted to the Luzerne county bar, at Wilkes-Barre, May 16, 1887, before Hon. Stanley Wood- ward, president judge. where he opened an office and practiced his pro- fession for a short time. He then removed to and located in the city of Johnstown, and was admitted to the bar of Cambria county before Hon. Robert L. Johnston, on motion of Hon. W. Horace Rose, Esq., March 12. 1888. where he has since practiced his profession. He was also admitted to practice in his native county (Indiana ) on motion of Hon. J. Wood Clark, before Hon. Harry White, president judge, and to the supreme court of Pennsylvania in the western district of Pittsburg, October 13, 1890, on motion of F. A. Shoemaker, Esq., and to the district court of the United States before Hon. Joseph Buffing- ton, judge of the western district of Pennsylvania on motion of Harry S. Lydick, Esq., September 25, 1900.

Mr. Stephens has since his admission to the bar confined himself to his chosen profession, but at the same time has always taken an active interest in public affairs, and has held several important political and appointive offices. all of which, however, have been of such a character as to be in the line of his professional work. He was selected by the city council as solicitor of the city of Johnstown in April, 1896, for a term of two years, and was again elected to the same position in April, 1898, and was serving in this capacity as the legal advisor of the city when

THE NEW YORK PUBLI LIBRARY Astor Lenox a d Thdon + wn 2 ons 1909

J.m. Shumana.

HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

in November, 1898, he was elected to the office of district attorney for Cambria county. Mr. Stephens was elected as the candidate of the Republican party, in the principles of which he has always been a firm believer, and in him its policies have ever found a staunch and active supporter. After serving a term of three years, he was re-elected for the same office in November, 1901, and served until January, 1905. Mr. Stephens has his office in Alma Hall, on Main street, in the city of Johnstown, where he first located in November, 1888, and has associated with him in the general practice of the law his brother, John H. Stephens, Esq., since 1896.

HON. JAMES M. SHUMAKER, superintendent of public grounds and buildings at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, president of the Dollar Deposit Bank of Johnstown, and former sheriff of Cambria county, Pennsylvania, is a native of Fairfield county, Ohio, and was born July 8, 1851, son of Simon and Mary Bower Shumaker. He comes of one of the oldest German families of Berks county, Pennsylvania, a county always strong in its German population, and to whom it is almost wholly indebted for its remarkable wealth of resources and the sub- stantial character of its people.

John Shumaker, the founder of the family of that surname in this country, was the great-grandfather of James M. Shumaker, of Johns- town, and immigrated to America in 1742. He settled first at Philadel- phia and removed thence to Berks county, where he was a pioneer. His son, John Shumaker, was born in that county, married there, and had a large family of seventeen children, among whom was Simon Shumaker, father of him of whom this sketch is intended to treat.

Simon Shumaker was born March 10. 1810. When a young man he worked in the woolen mills of the locality in which he lived, later engaged in the work of construction of the Erie canal from Williams- port, Pennsylvania, to Havre de Grace, Maryland, and still later be- came a manufacturer of woolen goods and carried on business on his own account. In 1846 he removed to Fairfield county, Ohio, lived there until 1854 and then returned to Pennsylvania, where he died May 30, 1880, at Muney Valley. Simon Shumaker was twice married. His first wife was Mary Walton, and his second wife was Elizabeth Bowers, daughter of Peter Bowers, of Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, and who was born in that county in 1824. Six children were born of this marriage: Annie Shumaker, who married John Ramsey, of Clin- ton county, and is now dead; Thomas J. Shumaker of Williamsport, a veteran of the war of 1861-1865, whose service covered a period of three years and six months and included twenty-seven battles; Emily Shumaker, wife of John Shoemaker, of Clarkstown, Pennsylvania ; Rebecca Shumaker, wife of Peter Marshall, of Hebron. Lycoming county, Pennsylvania: and James M. Shumaker, of Johnstown and John S. Shumaker, of Muncy. Lycoming county.

As a boy James M. Shumaker was sent to school during the winter terms, but in the warm months of the year it was necessary that he work to help support the family. He learned the trade of a woolen worker. At the age of sixteen years he started out to make his own way in life and in 1874 found employment in the woolen mills of Wood, Morrell & Co., as foreman of the spinning room, where he worked eight years. In 1882 he had saved enough of his wages to purchase and become proprietor of a store in Johnstown, at the corner of Washington and Clinton streets, where he carried on a successful business until the

HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

disastrous flood of May 31, 1889, which swept away his property, made complete wreck of all that he had gained by previous years of hard work, and even cost him the life of a devoted wife and four children, leaving him a widower, childless, and without a home. After the awful disaster Mr. Shumaker was active in the work of relief, and was sec- retary of the committee of reinterment of the unknown dead; and largely through his efforts a plot was purchased in Grand View cem- etery, and there the unidentified bodies of unfortunate victims were finally laid at rest. In the performance of this duty Mr. Shumaker was in part actuated with a desire to discover in some manner the remains of his wife, but without success, and to this day he is in ignorance of her burial place. He also was a member of the committee that pur- chased tombstones to mark the graves of those who perished and were not identified.

Since attaining his majority Mr. Shumaker has been a strong Republican, although his most active participation in politics has been within the last twenty years. At the general election in November, 1891, he was.the Republican candidate for the office of sheriff of Cambria county, and was elected at the polls by the decisive majority of nearly five hundred votes although at that time the county was strongly Demo- cratie. He has since become a well known figure in political circles in his own county and frequently is seen in the higher councils of his party in the state. He served in the session of the state legislature of Cambria county, in 1891. After the expiration of his term of office as sheriff he took a prominent part in the development of the interests and resources of the new municipality of Johnstown, and became president of the Dollar Deposit Bank, which position he still holds; and as loyal Republican of known quality and integrity he was ap- pointed to his present position of superintendent of public grounds and buildings at Harrisburg. He is a director of the Johnstown Trust Company, a trustee of the Johnstown Savings Bank, a trustee of the Conemaugh Valley Memorial Hospital, president of the Con- sumers' Ice Company and a charter member of the Grand View Cen- etery Association.

On the 28th of June, 1877, James M. Slmmaker married Lena Streum, who bore him five children: John S. Shumaker; James G. Shumaker, who died- in 1885; Edith May Shumaker: Irene G. Shu- maker and Walter S. Shumaker, all of whom, except the second, with their mother, were victims of the flood of 1889. On the 12th of No- vember, 1891, Mr. Shumaker married Antonia Lambert, by whom he has six children-Mabel, Warren, Donald E., Esther Shumaker, Roy A. and Harold Raymond.

WEBSTER BODINE LOWMAN, M. D., deceased, of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, was during a long and unusually active career not only widely recognized as one of the foremost physicians and surgeons in the state, and by virtue of his great ability called to important official positions in the line of his profession, but was a potent factor in the origination and development of various large enterprises which were prominent in bringing the city of Johnstown to a foremost place among the municipalities of Pennsylvania. His efforts were ever directed to the amelioration of suffering, the promotion of good and useful purposes, and the maintenance of lofty principles in personal and public life.

He was born in Indiana, Pennsylvania, March 25, 1841, and came of a sturdy Dutch ancestry, the American branch of his family having

HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

been planted by his paternal great-grandfather, an immigrant from Holland. From him descended Andrew Lowman, who was born in Greencastle, Franklin county, Pennsylvania, where he followed the trade of tanner. About 1834 he removed to Indiana county, where he died, after successfully conducting for many years a large milling and distilling business.

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History of Cambria County, Pennsylvania, Volume III, Part 10

Author: Storey, Henry Wilson Publication date: 1907 Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company Number of Pages: 940

Author: Storey, Henry Wilson
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 940