USA > Pennsylvania > Cambria County > History of Cambria County, Pennsylvania, Volume III > Part 20
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THE FRANKE FAMILY. Johann Christopher Franke was a descendant of an old Prussian family, and was born in the province of Saxe in 1791. He was well on in years when he emigrated to this country, and lived less than ten years after he settled in Somerset county in this state in 1857. He was a locksmith by trade, a good practical mechanic, and could turn his hand to almost any kind of mechanical work. While living in the old country he was married twice. The fam- ily name of his first wife is not now known, but she bore him three children, none of whom are now living. His second wife was Martha Bleiding, by whom he had three children.
In the year 1857 Johann C. Franke and his wife and children came to America and took up their home in Somerset county, about a mile and a half from Forwardstown. Later on he moved to the town just mentioned and worked there at his trade and also at tinsmithing and other mechanical employments until his death in March, 1864. He is remembered as having been an honest and industrious man, and a devoted member of the German Lutheran church. After the death of her husband Mrs. Franke married Caspar Wehn, of Johnstown, a shoemaker
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by trade, and who was a victim of the disastrous flood of May, 1889. He then was a widower, his wife having died during Christmas week of the previous year. The children of Johann Christopher and Martha (Bleid- ing) Franke were as follows: Ephraim Franke, a shoemaker of Johns- town ; married Anna Muehlhauser, and has seven children. Frederick Franke, an officer of the police station in Johnstown; married Lizzie Ripple. Louisa Franke, married William Miller, a Kansas farmer. He died in 1904.
Ephraim Franke, eldest of the children just mentioned, was born in the province of Saxe, in Prussia, on the 23rd day of August, 1844, and was thirteen years old when his parents came to America and settled in Somerset county, Pennsylvania. When a boy he was sent to country schools, but as he was the eldest son of parents in modest circum- stances it was necessary that he find some employment. He learned shoe- making and worked at it several months before he came with his mother to Johnstown, in September, 1861. Then he was seventeen years old, and soon afterward was apprenticed or bound for a year and three months to Conrad Schirmer, a shoemaker, whose shop at that time was on Market street. He served his time and afterward worked for Mr. Schirmer for a year, then went to work for Wood, Morrell & Co., and was in that employ seven years. When he left Wood, Morrell & Co., Mr. Franke went to Wheeling, West Virginia, and from that place to Pittsburg, and worked at his trade in both cities. He returned to Johnstown about 1874 or 1875, and opened a shop on his own account. Since that time he has been proprietor of a shoemaking business in the city, having been located on Adams street for several years, and a fair degree of success has been the reward of his industry and perseverance. He is a member of the German Lutheran church and of Harmony Singing Society, and in politics is a conservative Democrat.
He has been married twice. His first wife was Elizabeth Wilhelm, a daughter of William Wilhelm, of Johnstown. She died in 1873, leaving one daughter, Amelia Franke, who now is the wife of Henry Lentz, of Johnstown. On the 12th of August, 1874, Mr. Franke married Anna . Muehlhauser, daughter of Lenhardt and Veronica (Mutter) Muehlhauser, of whom mention is made elsewhere in this work. Seven children have been born of this marriage, viz .: Frederick William Franke, now in . the west. Edward Franke, born December 31, 1876; a business man and drug clerk of Johnstown. Louis Franke, born December 17, 1878; a druggist and pharmacist of Johnstown. August Franke, Otto Franke, Charles Franke, Annie Franke-these four living at home.
EDWARD FRANKE. Edward Franke, second son and child of Ephraim and Anna (Muehlhauser) Franke, was born in Johnstown, on the 31st of December, 1876, and received his education in graded schools and the Bennett & Greer Commercial College of that city. At the age of about eighteen years he began work as clerk for J. A. Larkin & Co., jewelers, remained with that firm about four or five years, and became a practical jeweler and watch repairer. He then opened a jewelry repair shop on his own account and carried on business about two years. After that he went with H. B. Heffley in the drug business, and is still con- nected with that house.
Mr. Franke is not married. He is a member of the German Lutheran church, of Linton Lodge No. 451, Knights of Pythias, and in politics votes independent of party affiliation. He is a member of Select Council.
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LOUIS FRANKE, Pharm. D. Louis Franke, Doctor of Phar- macy, was born in Johnstown on the 17th day of December, 1878, and is third in the order of birth of the seven children of Ephraim and Anna (Muehlhauser) Franke, of whom mention is made in an earlier part of this sketch.
Dr. Franke was educated in the Johnstown public schools, and in 1878, when he was sixteen years old, he was employed in C. G. Campbell's drug store. In connection with clerical work there he took up the study of pharmacy, and devoted much of his leisure to it for the next three years. In 1897 he matriculated at the Philadelphia College of Phar- macy, attended upon the courses of that institution for the next three years, and was graduated. Doctor of Pharmacy, in 1900. In June of the same year he opened a general pharmacy and drug store on the South Side in Johnstown, in partnership with Dr. A. N. Wakefield. After two years he sold out his interest in that store and then established his present business on Horner street. He is a member of Trinity Lutheran church ; member and prelate of Linton Lodge No. 451, Knights of Pythias ; member of Vestal Camp, Woodmen of the World; the Cambria County Pharmaceutical Society, and the State and National Associations of Retail Druggists. In politics he is a Republican.
On the 6th of November, 1902, Dr. Franke married Kate Estelle Weimer. She was born on the 6th day of February, 1879, a daughter of Hartman H. and Emina (Keyser) Weimer, now of Johnstown, and formerly of Donegal township, Westmoreland county. Dr. and Mrs. Franke have one child, Robert Louis Franke, born January 26, 1904.
WILLIAM HESLOP, of Johnstown, Cambria county, Pennsylvania, comes of a family of artisans skilled in color making, color blending, and painting, and is of the third generation of Heslops in America who have followed that occupation in life and made a complete success of it. His American ancestor was James Gale Heslop, who was a son of Robert Hes- lop, the latter having been born in England and lived in the city of Manchester throughout the period of his life. Evidently he was a man of consequence, as he served as alderman of his native town of Manches- ter for sixty years, and for several years as its mayor. One of his sons was Joseph Heslop, who was killed at the battle of Waterloo. Others of the family were men of prominence in the generations in which they lived, but this narrative has chiefly to deal with the Heslop family and its life on this side of the Atlantic ocean; of James Gale Heslop, his son Gale and his grandson William, each in his time a prominent character in the business history of Johnstown and of Cambria county.
James Gale Heslop was born in England, on the 12th day of Feb- ruary, 1797, and was a British subject until he left that country for America in 1818, when he was twenty-one years old. He was skilled in the making and blending of colors, having acquired that art by an apprenticeship of eleven years' duration, and at a period when every workman in that particular occupation was required to make his own colors and blend them before he applied them. His genius as an arti- san lay not alone in his ability to make and blend colors, but in his re- markable skill in applying them to wall papers-a process called stain- ing-and in making colors for oils, calico prints, dyes and the like. Such workmen as he were not many even in England, and the British government forbade their emigration to America unless under the li- cense of a passport, which was almost impossible to obtain. Although young Heslop was a master of his trade in England, he received small
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compensation for his services and well knew that far greater opportuni- ties awaited him in America if he could by some means reach the shores of this country. This he was determined to accomplish, and eventually he succeeded through the kind assistance of his father, who happened to have influence with the master of a vessel about to sail for an American port. Through the connivance of his father and the captain, young Heslop was shipped as a cabin boy, although at the time he was of full age, strong and in good health. When the vessel reached port at Balti- more, the captain sent the young man ashore for the ostensible purpose of obtaining and bringing back to him a twist of tobacco, and at the same time handed him a small sum of money with which to make the purchase. But when he was about to go over the ship's side, the captain took him by the hand, bade him farewell and told him that he never expected to see him again. Thus the thing was done, and James Gale Heslop set foot on the free soil of America in the city of Baltimore in the year 1818. He easily found work in the city and remained there some time, then went to Philadelphia and was employed by Howell Brothers, manufacturers of wall papers. In 1825 he went to Pottsville, in Schuylkill county, married there in 1830, and two years afterward removed to Johnstown, arriving there on the 14th day of February, 1832. From that time until 1841 he was employed by the transportation com- panies operating in the region, at first with the canal boat builders, and afterward with the car builders for the old Portage railroad, for he was a skillful letterer and with his finely mixed colors did an excellent busi- ness in painting the names of canal boats on the stern and the com- pany's name on the sides of the cars. Indeed he was about the only ex- pert workman in his line in the locality at the time and soon gained suf- ficient capital to set himself up in business.
In 1841 Mr. Heslop opened a shop on what is now Captain Hugh Bradley's land, at the corner of Vine and Market streets, in Johnstown, and there began "staining" wall papers. Naturally, his mechanical ap- pliances were somewhat crude-decidedly so when compared with the almost perfeet methods of the present day-but they served a good pur- pose at the time, and by the simple use of a block of wood his vegetable colors, except green, were applied to strips of paper twenty-two inches wide and ten yards long, on a flat bed. In this way he continued busi- ness until 1848, when a cylinder press was introduced into use; and in the construction and manipulation of this new appliance he had a hand, for he was something of a general mechanical genius as well as a genius in color making and staining. Not long after this he installed improved machinery for Howell Brothers, his former employers in Philadelphia, and also for James Howard & Co., of Pittsburg. Even at that time his name and reputation were known throughout Pennsylvania. However, in the course of a short time he discontinued paper making and staining, and opened a store on Main street, in Johnstown, for the sale of papers and colors. He remained in business until about 1853, and then retired with a fair competency. He died at his home in Johnstown, on the 12th day of July, 1865. He had lived a good life, and commanded the re- spect of all men who loved the right rather than the wrong. He was de- voted to his profession, for profession it was rather than a mere trade or occupation, but he did not give undivided attention to it during the later years of his useful life.
During the several years immediately preceding the Civil war he took an earnest part in the general agitation of the slavery question, and arrayed himself clearly and firmly on the side of those who most bitterly
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opposed it. Indeed he was one of the rankest Abolitionists in all the re- gion, and held in utter contempt any measure that tolerated traffic in human beings, white or black. In political life he originally was a Whig, and later a strong Republican. For the negro he had no particu- lar regard, but he could not bear to see one of God's creatures held in bondage. The comfortable Heslop home in Johnstown was a noted station on the famous "Underground Railroad" between the slave states of the south and the free soil of the north. Pennsylvania territory then offered no secure place of refuge for escaping slaves, for the state was continually overrun with fugitive slave hunters, and no house and no home was safe against their searching parties armed with processes of law and the equally obnoxious sanction of certain state authorities. But notwithstanding all this, the home of James Gale Heslop offered at least safe temporary refuge to fugitive slaves, and both he and his good wife were instrumental in aiding them, feeding them and sending them along in safety to more friendly regions farther north, where slave hunters dare not follow. In his ardent belief in and advocacy of the universal freedom of mankind, Mr. Heslop subscribed for fifty copies of the Phil- adelphia North American, one of the leading abolition organs of the country, and caused them to be distributed and read in places where the doctrines therein taught would be calculated to do the most good. And in his zeal in aiding escaping slaves he prepared several secret places about his home in which they were temporarily secure. One of these places was in an old abandoned mine on the hill near his house, another in the house itself, under the roof, and still another in a secret collar un- derneath his stable, which was entered through a trap door on which his horses were bedded after the fugitive had been placed. His premises were frequently visited and searched by slave hunters, but not so much as one was ever taken while at his station. Mr. Heslop was brought up under the influence of the Church of England, but later in life identified himself with the Christian church, and was one of its elders and most exemplary members.
In 1830, while living in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, he married Char- lotte Bracewell, who was born in England, and was a daughter of James Bracewell of Bristol. She survived her husband thirty years, and died on the 3d of November, 1895. At the time of the Johnstown flood Mrs. Heslop was living with her son Gale, and was, with her daughter Harriatt, the only members of the family caught in the rush of waters. She remained in the ruined house from Friday afternoon until Sunday morning, and then was carried to safety on a raft.
Children of James Gale and Charlotte (Bracewell) Heslop: Gale Heslop, of Johnstown; married Elizabeth Rupp, and has had ten chil- dren. Harriet Heslop, of Johnstown; unmarried; lives with her sister, Mrs. Alexander Carroll. Alfred Heslop, a business man of Johnstown. Anna Maria Heslop, married Henry Leslie, and is now dead. Einma Heslop, married W. R. B. White, and lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Minerva Heslop, wife of Alexander Carroll, of Johnstown.
William Heslop, died in infancy. Robert Heslop, died in infancy.
Gale Heslop, second child and eldest son of James Gale and Char- lotte (Bracewell) Heslop, was born at Pottsville, Pennsylvania, on the 4th day of October, 1832, and was an infant when his parents removed from that place to Johnstown. He was educated in the borough public schools, and was only eleven years old when his father took him from school and put him to work at his trade. At that time his father was doing the letter and name painting on nearly all the boats on the old
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state canal between Blairsville and the mountains, and in helping with this work he became expert in the art of letter painting, doing much of that work himself. Later on he did the better grade of work on the Portage railroad cars. On attaining his majority he became partner in business with his father, and from that time until the latter retired from active pursuits the firm name of Heslop & Son was well known in trade circles in Cambria county. After the senior partner retired, his son con- ducted the business alone until 1857, and then began his long period of service with the Cambria Iron Company. In 1899 he left the compar.y's employ and retired from active life to look after his own property inter- ests and to enjoy the fruits of many years of hard work.
Like his father, Gale Heslop always has taken an earnest interest in public and political affairs, and, while he has held office, it never has been for the advancement of personal interests. He is a Republican, and as the nominee of that party was elected a member of the council before the borough became a city. During his incumbeney of the office an at- tempt was made to appropriate various plots of public land to private uses, and he was largely instrumental in defeating the nefarious measure. For eleven years also he served as judge of elections. During the Civil war Mr. Heslop was drafted for service, and so far as he himself was con- cerned was willing to go to the front; but at that time he was in the employ of the Cambria Iron Company, and as that corporation felt that his service at the works could not be dispensed with even temporarily, Daniel J. Morrell, on behalf of the company paid the three hundred dol- lars necessary to secure his exemption.
On the 3d day of May, 1853, Gale Heslop married Elizabeth Rupp, daughter of John and Anna Elizabeth (Kaab) Rupp, both of whom were natives of Germany, and came to America in 1834, settling in Som- erset county. Eleven children were born of this marriage: William Heslop, a business man of Johnstown; married Margaret Hocker, and has three children. Harriet Heslop, married Archibald Thompson, and is now a widow living in Pittsburg. Franklin Heslop, married Elsie By- roads, and lives in Johnstown. Elizabeth Heslop, married Mowry Bon- ner, and is now a widow living in Johnstown. Harry B. Heslop, mar- ried May MeLaughlin, and lives in Coopersdale. Charlotte, married James Lindsey, of Pittsburg. Five died in infancy.
William Heslop, eldest son and child of Gale and Elizabeth (Rupp) Heslop, was born in Johnstown on the 3d day of July, 1854. He re- ceived a meager education in the public schools, and when old enough to work began to learn the trade of his father and grandfather. At twenty- one he began work for the Cambria Iron Company, and continued in the employ of that corporation for twenty-five years, chiefly as a practical house painter having charge of other men and the oversight of a vast amount of work, for the company owned more than eight hundred houses and buildings, and it was his duty to see that they were kept in proper condition. In 1889 Mr. Heslop left the company and started in business on his own account in Johnstown. Although he never was employed in a factory in which stained glass was manufactured, he never- theless acquired a perfect knowledge of that art by inheritance and native ability, and he seems also to have inherited something of his grand- father's genius for mixing and blending colors artistically; for since he began business his attention has been devoted chiefly to that line of work, and he has made a complete success of it. In his factory is produced all kinds of art glass, leaded stained glass, and even the more modern hard metal windows, employing copper, etc., in place of the less durable lead.
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His works are equipped with sand blast and staining furnaces and the latest improved machines and devices for producing the very finest grades of work. As a designer and blender of colors Mr. Heslop ranks with the most skillful workmen in the country. His business is large and he receives and fills special orders and contracts from many of the large cities. In 1902 Mr. Heslop admitted his son to partnership with him, and from that time until 1904 the business was carried on under the firm style of Wm. Heslop & Son. In the year last mentioned the firm incorporated under the name of Johnstown Stained Glass and Elec- tric Fixture Company, with ample capital to carry on business on an extensive scale, and with officers as follows: William Heslop, president ; E. H. Wise, secretary and treasurer, and William H. Heslop, superin- tendent and designer.
In 1875 William Heslop married Margaret Hocker, daughter of John Hocker of Johnstown. Three children have been born of this mar- riage: Clara Heslop, born October, 1876, lives at home. William H. Heslop, born November, 1877, superintendent and designer of the Johnstown Stained Glass and Electric Fixture Company. Ida Heslop, born December, 1880; married Philip Bender, of Johnstown. Mr. Heslop and family are members of the Lutheran church.
ANSON BURLINGAME COOPER, a practical man of business of Johnstown, Cambria county, Pennsylvania, holding a position of trust and responsibility for many years for the Cambria Steel Company, is highly honored and respected in the community in which he makes his home. He has many of the desirable characteristics of his ancestors, those on the paternal side being Irish, and the maternal, Scotch.
Joshua Cooper, grandfather of Anson Burlingame Cooper, and the pioneer ancestor of the Cooper family in this country, was born in coun- ty Tyrone, north of Ireland, about 1778. He emigrated to the United States in 1786, and came to Somerset county, where he was reared and followed the occupation of farming. He secured a tract of land in what is now Jenner township, Somerset county, but which was then a part of Bedford county, on the ground afterward selected for the stone pike lead- ing from Philadelphia and Baltimore to Pittsburg. Joshua Cooper lived with his widowed mother, four brothers and one sister, who had crossed the ocean with him. Upon the completion of the stone pike before men- tioned, there was a great demand for teams and wagons for the transpor- tation of goods between the large cities, and the Cooper family were not slow in taking advantage of this means of transacting business. Joshua Cooper was twice married. By his first wife he had children-five sons and three daughters: 1. William, lived to an advanced age near Johns- town, and was buried near Jenner. 2. Francis, married, and had four sons and six daughters. 3. Charles, and 4, Hugh; there is no record extant except that they ended their days in Somerset county. 5. Josh- ua, located in Westmoreland county, near Murrysville. His land later became valuable natural gas property. One of his sons, Dr. John M. Cooper, has been for years a prominent dentist in Pittsburg. Joshua Cooper married his second wife, Jane Boyd, in Somerset county, and by ler he had one son and seven daughters: 1. James, see forward. 2. Agnes, died in her girlhood, of typhoid fever. 3. Rachel, married Chrisley Berkey, a carpenter and cabinet maker, lived for many years in Jenner, removed to Johnstown early in the sixties, where Mr. Berkey died in 1866, leaving her with five children-four sons and one daugh- ter. 4. Rebecca, married, in 1850, Rev. John Riley, a minister of the
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United Brethren church. They lived in Somerset, Westmoreland and Mercer counties for eighteen years, then removed in 1868 to Missouri, where Rev. Riley recently died in Asbury, Jasper county. They raised several children to maturity. 5. Jemima, married, in 1850, Rev. David Shearer, also a minister of the United Brethren church. He was well and favorably known in Cambria county, having been a resident of Johnstown for a number of years, and also filling many of the appoint- ments of that conference. He died recently at Greensburg, which had been his home for some time. They had four children, all lived to ma- tnrity, but all with the exception of one son are now deceased. 6. Kez- iah, married about 1853, John Barnes, a son of Daniel Barnes, an old resident of Johnstown during the best days of the Pennsylvania canal. They lived for a few years on the Barnes (afterward Barnhart) farm, near the "Whiskey Springs," but later removed to Illinois and settled on a farm near Rushville. The father, whose occupation was chiefly that of farming, died some years since. Several sons and daughters were born to them. 7. Jane married, about 1855, Henry B. Barnes, a plas- terer by trade, and a brother of John Barnes, mentioned above. They made Johnstown their home with the exception of one year spent in the west, and another year at the old Cambria Furnace, where Mr. Barnes had charge of the coke yard. Many of the finest houses in Johnstown attest the skill and faithfulness of his work. He was actively engaged in his trade until shortly before his death, which was due to a stroke of paralysis. Six sons and four daughters were born to this couple. The eldest son died in infancy : and another died in boyhood. All the other children are residents of Johnstown, as is their widowed mother. 8. Levina, married Joseph Ankeny, of Jenner, Somerset county, Pennsyl- vania, in 1858. They removed to Johnstown in 1864, where they resided for thirty years, Mrs. Ankeny dying there in 1894.
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