USA > Pennsylvania > Cambria County > History of Cambria County, Pennsylvania, Volume III > Part 17
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William Smiley Morgan was the only son of Owen and Mary (Dalley) Morgan, and was born on the 16th day of May, 1843. Several years before his father's death he had succeeded to his businesss interests, and was engaged in the manufacture of lumber and woolen goods at Quemahoning, also conducted a large general store, in which was located the Post Office. He also had one of the best equipped farms in that section, four hundred acres virgin timber lands. He was an ener- getie and straightforward business man and held an influential position
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among the people in the county. For many years he was a member and trustee of the Methodist Episcopal church, and also for several years was superintendent of its Sunday school, steward and class leader. He always led a correct life, and exerted himself in the endeavor to in- fluence others to do the same; his example was always for good in the community in which he lived. His business life was a splendid success, but he never would think of resorting to any unworthy methods for purposes of personal gain. He was chosen to fill various offices of trust . and responsibility, and in politics he was a firm Republican. In 1882 he was elected to a seat in the house of representatives of the state legislature, and was re-elected at the expiration of his first term. Among the minor positions he filled from time to time may be mentioned those of school director, postmaster and justice of the peace.
Mr. Morgan died on the 4th of September, 1889. His widow survives him, and now lives in the city of Johnstown. Her name be- fore marriage was Rebecca Jane Griffith, and she was a daughter of William and Isabelle (Hare) Griffith. They were married on the Ist of January, 1865. Their children are as follows: Owen Morgan, a practicing dentist of Johnstown, he married Mamie J. Pugh, and has two children, Margaret L., and Richard P .; May Morgan, married Rev. C. P. Marshall, lives at Brady's Bend, Pennsylvania; Louisa Morgan, married Harry Benshoff, of Johnstown, a member of the staff of the Johnstown Journal, is also in the real estate business; Harry Morgan, died in infancy ; Margaret Morgan, married Dr. W. W. Gove, a physician of Johnstown; Griffith Morgan, unmarried; a dentist of Johnstown; Dolly Morgan, lives at home; Minerva Morgan, married George B. Smitten, D. D. S., of Washington, D. C .; June Morgan, died in infancy.
Dr. Owen Morgan, eldest son and child of William S. and Rebecca Jane (Griffith) Morgan, was born on the 3d day of March, 1867. His education was acquired in public schools and at Allegheny College, Meadville, Pennsylvania. Later he graduated at the Iron City Busi- ness College, Pittsburg. On account of a serious affection of his vocal organs his course of higher education was compelled to be abandoned temporarily. In 1890 he became an employe in the office of the Gautier department of Cambria Iron Company, and from there he was subse- quently transferred to the general offices of the company. Here he re- covered from his physical affliction and soon afterward matriculated at Baltimore College of Dental Surgery and College of Physicians and Surgeons, from which first institution he was graduated with the de- gree of D. D. S., in 1895. While a student in the Dental College he was elected president of his class, an honor never before conferred on a northern student, that office always having been filled by students from the south. After graduation Dr. Morgan located for practice at Ligonier, in Westmoreland county, and practiced there about six years. In 1901 he came to Johnstown. and in company with his brother Grif- fith opened an office in the Swank building and practiced in partnership about one year. Since that time Dr. Morgan has practiced alone, first in the Greer building and later in the Jordan, where he occupies an elegantly appointed suite of rooms.
Dr. Morgan is a Mason, a member of Somerset Lodge No. 358, F. and A. M., Morrellville Council No. 941, R. A. M., and Valley of Harrisburg Consistory thirty-second degree. He is an Odd Fellow, a member of Ligonier Lodge, Modern Woodmen of the World, Knights of the Maceabees, Knights of Pythias and of the Pennsylvania State
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Dental Society. Alpha Chapter of Psi Omega dental fraternity. H also is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church of Johnstown.
On the 7th day of February, 1890. Dr. Owen Morgan married Mamie Pugh, a daughter of Charles W. and Catherine (Custer) Pugh of Stoyestown, Pennsylvania. Mr. Pugh is a foreman in the Franklin plant of the Cambria Steel Company, and is an ex-burgess of Stoyes- town. He now makes his home with Dr. Morgan's family. Three children have been born to Dr. and Mrs. Morgan : William S. Morgan, died in infancy ; Margaret L. Morgan, born. December 10, 1892; Richard P. Morgan, born March 10, 1901.
ALBON SYLVESTER FICHTNER, M. D., of Johnstown, Cambria county, Pennsylvania, a general practitioner of medicine and surgery, specialist in general and ophthalmie surgery, gynecology and diseases of the throat and chest, has been closely identified with the professional life of that city nearly twenty years, and with the profession of medicine for nearly twenty-five years, ever since he came to the degree at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Baltimore, in 1882. But Dr. Fichtner is a physician both by acquirement and native endowment. His father and grandfather were medical practitioners, and each in his time was a leading physician in the region where the scene of his professional life was laid.
Dr. Daniel Fichtner, grandfather of Dr. Fichtner, of Johnstown, was of German birth and ancestry, a son of Martin Fichtner, who emigrated from Germany and was the American aneestor of this branch of the family in Pennsylvania. He settled in Lancaster county, in the eastern part of the state, and by early oceupation in business life was a blacksmith. He died in 1845.
In Martin Fichtner's family were three sons who attained to posi- tions of prominence in publie and professional life. One of these sons was the late Judge Joseph Fichtner, who died at Newry, Pennsylvania, about 1883. He was edneated for the Imtheran ministry and preached several years before he entered the profession of law. As a lawyer he rose in the ranks of the profession to the office of associate judge of Blair county, and at the time of his death was receiver of a large iron company of that county. Jonathan Fichtner, another son of Martin, was prominent in public and social life, and served several years in the Pennsylvania legislature.
Daniel Fichtner, the other of the three sons referred to, was well known in medical cireles in Somerset county for more than fifty years. and also was known throughout all that region as a faithful minister of the Evangelical Church from about 1839 until his death in 1884. During the latter part of his life he practiced medicine in Preston connty, West Virginia.
Dr. Daniel Fichtner married Rebecca Ferner, daughter of John Ferner and sister of Rudolph Ferner, the latter of whom is now living in Somerset county. The children of this marriage were Benjamin Abbott Fichtner, Susan Catherine Fichtner (Mrs. Browning), and Martin Luther Fichtner.
Benjamin Abbott Fichtner, the eldest of these children, was born near the town of Somerset, Pennsylvania, Jannary 31, 1836. IIe took up the study of medicine under the direction of his father, and com- pleted his earlier professional education at Richmond Medical College, from which he was graduated with the degree of M. D. He began prac- tice in 1857 and continued it until his death, in the fall of 1901. In
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1860 he settled in Fayette county. Pennsylvania. and built the second house in what is now Markleysburg. Four years afterward he moved to Somerfield, in Somerset county, and in March 1865, he entered the Union army with the Eighty-Eighth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volun- teer Infantry, with which he served until the end of the war. In 1876 he located permanently at Confluence in Somerset county. During his professional life Dr. Fichtner enjoyed the reputation of being one of the ablest and most conscientious medical practitioners in whatever field he entered. More than that. he was a careful and constant stu- dent of medicine after graduation. and in his extensive practice he kept well schooled in the most recent discoveries in medicine and the most advanced methods of practice. Of course he was successful in professional life. and being a man of understanding and wide general reading he also held an enviable prominence in social circles. Ile was a ready speaker and logical debater. and possessed a superior knowl- edge of theologieal subjeets. Early in life he had united with the Evan- gelical Association, and ever afterward was a zealous advocate of its teachings; but he steadfastly opposed the doctrines of Esher and Esherism and Esherists.
He was a man of courage, physical as well as moral, and it was largely through his splendid courage and control that the infamous MeClellan gang of robbers was surrounded. captured and brought to justice. He was the first man at the house where the party was in hid- ing, and in answer to his demand its members sullenly yielded to the pursuers. In politics Dr. Fichtner was a Democrat of the Douglas school, and never was in sympathy with the southern wing of the party, or with its heresies of state rights or right of secession. In 1860 he supported Mr. Douglas, but when Sumter was fired on he at onee allied himself with the Republican party, without becoming one of its parti- sans : on the contrary, he ever maintained a certain politieal independ- ence both in action and expression, and with all his might vigorously op- posed party domination and ring rule. He never sought or desired office of any sort, and the extent of his holdings was that of auditor of Confluence borough, which office he filled several years.
In 1857 Dr. Fichtner married Louisa Jane Darby, a descendant of a prominent old family of West Virginia, and who died in the spring of 1894. Nine children were born of this marriage. three of whom- Walter Lee, Ulysses Grant and Clarence Ellsworth Fichtner-are dead. The others are Benjamin Besson Fichtner of Confluence; Louisa Jane Fichtner, now Mrs. McFarland, of Uniontown, Pennsylvania : John Daniel Fichtner, of Uniontown: Sarah Rebecca Fichtner, now Mrs. Morrison, of Uniontown: Dr. Albon Sylvester Fichtner, of Johnstown : and Fanny Felicia Fichtner.
Dr. Albon Sylvester Fichtner was born in Preston, West Virginia, on the 9th day of August, 1858. His earlier education was acquired in public schools, and after leaving school he became a teacher, in which capacity he held principalships at Addison, Pennsylvania. Deer Park. Maryland, and at Confluence. Pennsylvania, and also filled an impor- tant pedagogieal position in the State Normal School at Addison before he attained his twenty-third year.
Although a successful teacher and having special qualifications for that work. he nevertheless determined to enter the profession of medi- cine, and to that end began a thorough and systematic course of pre- Jiminary study under the direction of his father. Later on he matrieu- lated at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Baltimore, Maryland,
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and was graduated from that institution with the degree of M. D. in 1882. Having come to the degree, Dr. Fichtner began his professional career at Cranesville, West Virginia. He lived there until 1888, and then came to Johnstown, where he has since practiced and where he has come to be recognized as one of the leading physicians of Cambria county. His location was in the suburb known as Morrellsville, now the nineteenth ward of the city, where he has built up an extensive and profitable practice. As a general practitioner Dr. Fichtner possesses and displays many of the distinguishing traits of his father. He is a close student, a careful diagnostician and pathologist, and is well versed in general therapeutics. While in college he gave especial attention to the study of ophthalmic and general surgery, and availed himself of the advantages of the clinies in those departments. Ile also made special courses in diseases of the throat and chest and in gynecology, and now so far as his general practice will allow he specializes along those lines.
In connection with a busy professional life Dr. Fichtner has been and still is identified with various public institutions of Johnstown and Cambria county, and has shown himself an efficient public servant. He was the first surgeon appointed on the staff of Conemaugh Valley Me- morial Hospital, and was president of the Morrellville Board of Health previous to the incorporation of that borough with the city of Johns- town. He is now a member of the Johnstown Board of Health, the Cambria County Medical Society. medical examiner for several life insurance companies, and also is serving in the municipal office of school controller. In politics he is a Republican. Dr. Fichtner is a member of Morrellville Lodge, No. 50, I. O. O. F., a charter member of the Junior Order of American Mechanics, member of the Mystic Chain, the Foresters of America, and of other social and benevolent or- ganizations. In 1891 he organized the Morrellville Building and Loan Association, an organization which has performed the beneficent work of providing homes for many families of small means.
In 1881 he married Latilla M. Mayer, by whom he has four chil- dren : Ellsworth Fichtner, a student of medicine in the Western Uni- versity of Pennsylvania at Pittsburg: Annie E. Fichtner, a graduate of Emerson School of Oratory, Boston, Massachusetts; Sarah Ficht- ner, who was educated at Irwin Female Seminary and Conservatory of Music; and Rachel R. Fichtner.
SWOPE FAMILY. Joseph Swope, great-great-grandfather of the present youngest generation of that branch of the Swope family in- tended to be treated in this sketch, was born in Alsace, that much dis- puted territory which has alternated between French and German sov- ereignity for the last half century and now is a part of the possessions of the German Emperor. However, during the entire life of Joseph Swope the territory of Alsace was under the dominion of France.
Joseph Swope had neither brothers nor sisters, and this is true also of his son, Aloysius Swope, of whom and whose family this sketch is intended particularly to treat. Thus it will be seen that it is not a numerous family in its early history. Little is now known of Joseph Swope except that he was a farmer and a man of peace, that in the spring of 1815 he was impressed to service in Napoleon's army and with his team and many of his neighbors was carried away. He re- turned to his home after the terrible battle of Waterloo, but was then broken in health and died in the fall of that year. His wife was Mary Gerber, who also was a native of Alsace. After the death of her hus-
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band she continued to live in Alsace nearly twenty years, and then in company with her only son, Aloysius, came to America, settled in Al- legheny township, Cambria county, Pennsylvania, and died there in the year 1857. Her brother, Frank Gerber, eame to America with Lafayette and his army and fought with the Continental forces during the revolu- tion until the famous battle of Yorktown, when he was killed.
Aloysins Swope, only son and only child of Joseph and Mary (Gerber) Swope, was born in Pheterhausen, Alsace. August 15, 1811. In 1833, when twenty-two years old. he came to America with his widowed mother and settled in Allegheny township, Cambria county. He bought a farm and farming was his occupation in life. He lived on the farm he first purchased for about fourteen years, and then re- moved to what was then White township, but now is Chest township. In this loeality he acquired possession of two of the very oldest as well as the largest farms of Chest township. The one he first occupied was known as the Glen Connell place, with which settlement much that is interesting in the early history of Chest township is associated. He purchased the farm from the McConnell heirs and built a house, the material for which, except the stone and logs used in its construction, was brought by wagon from Philadelphia. It was a very large house and for the time and place was considered almost a mansion. IIere Mr. Swope lived a number of years and then bought what was known locally as the Proudfoot place, about two miles distant from the Glen Connell place. This loeality, too, has its history, and here once lived Richard J. Proudfoot. a distinguished member of the Pennsylvania legislature in 1857 and 1861. Here Mr. Swope spent the remaining years of his life and died April 12, 1879.
Aloysius Swope was a eapable and successful business man. Many years before his death he saw the importance of the ownership of con- siderable tracts of land and made purchases accordingly. These lands have since become quite valuable and are still owned by his descendants. He took little interest in the affairs of the community, and being an invalid led a rather quiet life. At the beginning of the late civil war he was too old to enlist, but sent three of his sons to the service, one of whom, Peter J. Swope, died in the Broad and Cherry Streets Hos- pital in Philadelphia. Oetober, 1863. His death was due to fever con- tracted while at the front.
In.1838 Aloysius Swope married Mary Noel, a daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth (Spiecher) Noel, then of Allegheny township. Mr. Noel was a native of Rhenish Prussia and came from the Fatherland to America in 1834. He was a farmer by principal occupation. Children of Aloysius and Mary (Noel) Swope: 1. Joseph Peter, see forward. 2. Peter Jacob, died unmarried. He enlisted in Company A of the Eleventh Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry in 1862, and died in the Hospital in Philadelphia, October 1863, from fever contracted in the service. 3. John Michael, married Emma Lamborn and lives at West- over, Clearfield county, Pennsylvania. He enlisted in Company F of the Fourth Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry, and served one year dur- ing the war of 1861-65. 4. TIenry, married Helena Farabaugh and lives near Patton. Pennsylvania. 5. Annie, unmarried, lives on a farm near St. Lawrence. Cambria county. 6. Elizabeth, unmarried, lives on the farm near St. Lawrence with her older sister Annie and her younger sister Rachel. 7. Rachel Matilda. unmarried, lives on the farm with her sisters Annie and Elizabeth Swope.
Joseph Peter Swope, eldest of the children of Aloysius and Mary
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(Noel) Swope, was born on his father's farm just outside of the pres- ent borough of Chest Spring, Allegheny township, December 5, 1838. His opportunities for gaining an education in the common schools were quite limited, for he was the eldest son, and from early childhood he helped his parents with the work of the farm. He did, however, at- tend the district school of the township and there acquired the rudiments of an education, and later in life he employed every opportunity of study and reading and in that way enlarged on the foundation laid in the few months schooling he had when a boy. For many years he has been regarded as a well informed man, a thoughtful reader and a care- ful observer of men and affairs. Mr. Swope was at the time of his death the oldest living descendant of Joseph Swope, of Pheterhausen, Alsace, the soldier of the Napoleonic war. But unlike his ancestor of Alsace he is ancestor of a numerous line of descendants, especially on his mother's side, and among them on both sides are some of the best families and capable business men of northern Cambria county.
Joseph P. Swope lived at home with his parents until the second year of the civil war, when with his brother Peter J. he entered the Union service. They enlisted, September 10, 1862, in Company A of the Eleventh Pennsylvania Cavalry (Captain George S. Ringlove, Colonel Samuel P. Spear), and were mustered into service at Camp Curtin, Harrisburg, and in October were hurried forward to their regi- ment, which for some time had been in the field. They went first to Camp Suffolk on the Elizabeth river, between Portsmouth and Peters- burg, Virginia. The regiment took part in several skirmishes, but the first real battle in which Mr. Swope was engaged was at Kelley's Farm, Virginia, followed in succession by that at Franklin, Staunton Bridge, Ream's Station and Smith's Farm near Petersburg, Virginia. These battles were interpersed with numerous minor engagements and skirm- ishes and were followed by others of like character. The Tenth at first formed a part of the Army of Virginia and North Carolina under Major General Ben. Butler, and later was attached to the Army of the Potomac. During his army service Mr. Swope never was seriously wounded, and although at Ream's Station his horse was shot under him he was only slightly injured. He was mustered out and discharged at Pittsburg, July 22, 1865.
Returning to his home after the war Mr. Swope remained on the farm two years, then married and soon afterward went with his wife to Luzerne county, where they lived two years. From 1870 to 1895 he was a farmer in Chest township, Cambria county, then retired and took up his residence in Cresson, remaining there four years. From that time until his death, February 15, 1906, he lived in Patton, Cambria county. When he moved from Luzerne county to Chest township Mr. Swope undertook the work of clearing and opening a new farm. It was a considerable undertaking, even at that time, but he was young and strong, with plenty of moral courage and perseverance, and he had the assistance and encouragement of a loyal young wife. This made the work easier and it was finished in good season; when he retired from aetive farming pursuits, after twenty-five years on that place, Mr. Swope had what probably was the best farm in all its appointments in Chest township.
Like his father Mr. Swope led a quiet life, exeept during his army service, which was not without its exciting events. He was a success- fui farmer, a man much respected in every community in which he lived, a firm and consistent Democrat and a capable public servant in
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the offices to which he has been elected. He never sought political honors, having little inclination for indulgences of that character, yet on one or two occasions yielded to the requests of his fellow townsmen and accepted nominations. He served as school director and also as township supervisor.
Joseph Peter Swope married, May 26, 1867, Louisa (Glasser) Bau- man, daughter of Francis and Mary (Ernst) Glasser. Her parents were natives of Bavaria and she was born at Bethlehem, Berks county, Pennsylvania. At the time of marriage they were residents of Chest township, and Mr. Glasser was a farmer. Five sons have been born to Joseph P. and Louisa Swope, namely : Albert J., married Blanche Litz- inger, one child, Harold. Peter M., married Mary Durin, and operates a planing mill at Carrollton, Pennsylvania. Joseph R., married Bessie Gill, one child, Cordelia. Ambrose H., married Anna McCombie. Her- man J., married Barbara Rieger. Albert J., Joseph R., Ambrose H., and Herman J. Swope are associated together in a flouring mill in Johnstown, an enterprise started by three of them in September, 1904. Herman Swope became a member of the firm in April, 1905, having then recently returned from an extended stay in the west.
The Swope family are Independent politically. Ambrose II. was a delegate to Democratic state convention before he ever cast a vote. The four brothers purchased the Cresson Record in 1899, which they conducted for seven years. They also owned and operated the Beaver Dam Mill from 1900 to 1904, when they sold and came to Johnstown. That mill property was one of the oldest flouring mills in the northern part of the county, erected by George Walters in 1856.
KREBS FAMILY. The surname Krebs is well represented in Pennsylvania, and during the last half century the family has fur- nished men of excellent standing in the industrial and professional life of the Commonwealth. Whether all who now bear that family name are descendants of the same European ancestor is uncertam, but that the family originated in Prussia is a reasonably well settled fact.
Johann Carl Krebs, with whom this narrative begins, was an offi- cial of the Prussian government, and his office was that of Oberamt- man, or chief magistrate of the county, an office of dignity and respon- sibility and its incumbent chosen from men of character and intelli- gence. Of the life and public services of Johann Carl Krebs, other than is here mentioned, little is known exeept that he married and had several children and that seven of his sons were officers of rank in the Prussian army.
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