USA > Pennsylvania > Cambria County > History of Cambria County, Pennsylvania, Volume III > Part 23
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On the 1st of December, 1857, he married Mary Ann Shaffer (born September 10. 1837), daughter of Martin and Mary Ann (Kurtz) Shaffer, and granddaughter of the late Judge Kurtz of Somerset county, one of the judges of the circuit court. On the 1st of April, 1858, after their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Horner began keeping house in their pres- ent home, where they have now lived almost half a century. The dis- astrous flood of 1889 moved the house from its foundation, but caused no further damage. While the flood was at its greatest height Mr. Horner took refuge on the roof of his house, while his wife and some of their children were lodged in the branches of a large tree. Although all of them escaped death in the awful rush of waters, their situation was perilous in the extreme. Martin Shaffer, father of Mrs. Horner, was a hatter by trade, first at Connellsville and afterward at Somerset, Penn- sylvania.
Children of Jacob C. and Mary Ann (Shaffer) Horner: 1. Eva Belle Horner, born July 13, 1859; married George A. Waters, superin- tendent National Radiator Works, Johnstown. 2. Dora Catherine Horner, born September ?2. 1861; married Alonzo Singer, machinist, lives in Johnstown. 3. Edward Watson Horner, born Angust 6, 1863; married Lizzie Knepper, lives in Johnstown. 4. Curtis Eldon Horner, born Feb- ruary 11. 1866; married Annie Richardson, lives in Johnstown. 5. Jacob Martin Horner, born April 26, 1868: married Nettie Scott, lives in Baltimore, Maryland. 6. Bertie Ethel Horner, born September 1, 1871; married James Flower, lives in Johnstown. 7. Elda Horner, born February 6, 1874: died in infancy. 8. Otho Ira Horner, born March S. 1815: married Jennie Dull. now dead: he lives at home. 9. Emory Cleveland Horner, born February 22, 1849; married Emma Harvey, lives in Johnstown.
WARREN WORTH BAILEY, editor of the Johnstown Democrat. - was born in Hendricks county, Indiana, January 8, 1855. the son of Elisha and Elizabeth (Faught) Bailey. The first to represent this fam- ily in the United States was one who settled in Virginia at a very early day. He was of Scotch-Irish blood, and his descendants emigrated to.
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Kentucky at an early day in the history of that state His grandfather. Thomas Bailey, was a resident of Bourbon county, Kentucky, and among his children was Elisha Bailey. father of Warren W. Bailey. He was born April 2. 1802. He was a carpenter by trade. afterwards successively a farmer and a contracting painter. He had a common school education. Early in his life he was a Methodist. but became a direct convert of Alexander Campbell. and for many years took an active part in pro- moting the spread of the doctrines preached by Campbell. He was ever profoundly interested in politics. but never held more than the minor offices. In his political convictions he was a Jeffersonian. and while himself a slave owner, while residing in Kentucky. he was opposed to the institution of slavery, believing that it should be abolished by the govern- ment. on payment to the owners of their property. This view was modi- fied before his death, in 1883. Prior to that time he had become inter- ested in the teachings of Henry George, and through the influence of this he had come to regard compensation for slavery to be only less objectionable and indefensible than slavery itself. He married Eliza- beth Faught. in 1853. She had but limited educational advantages. her father having been a pioneer of Indiana. having moved there from Ken- tucky when Elizabeth was but three years of age. settling in Hendricks county. twenty miles west of Indianapolis, when the country was an un- broken wilderness. The whole Faught family became disciples of Alex- ander Campbell. and one of her brothers became a minister of the Chris- tian church. She was a woman of great natural force and her influence upon her sons was always stimulating and wholesome. . She died at the home of her son Warren W., in Johnstown. December 9. 1903.
Warren W. Bailey has really been his own schoolmaster. for he was only permitted to attend the common schools up to the time he was fourteen years of age, when he went to work. First he learned telegraphv. when but sixteen, and followed it as an occupation on the Indianapolis & St. Louis and the Pennsylvania railroads until he was about twenty years of age. when he decided to engage in journalistic work. At Kan- sas. Illinois, he became an apprentice on the News, under W. W. Bishop, working nights and mornings, as well as Saturdays, going to school for one winter. He advanced rapidly and soon had charge of the business and did the bulk of the editorial work. In 1877 he and his brother Homer became owners of the Carlisle (Indiana) Democrat. In 1879 the Vincennes Reporter was purchased and the Democrat was consoli- dated with it under the title of the Vincennes News. In 1887 the paper was sold and both brothers went to Chicago. where W. W. became a mem- ber of the editorial staff of the Evening Mail and later of the Daily News and the morning News-Record. In 1893 W. W. Bailey came to Johns- town and secured control of the Johnstown Democrat. February 1.
It is claimed by Mr. Bailey that the real turning point in his life and one which changed his whole outlook was the simple reading of a book. "Progress and Poverty." in 1882. He had been interested in the social problem since the dreadful panic of 1873. For years he had been studying the problem with an anxious desire to find some satisfactory solution. In this study he became a free-trader-not merely a tariff reformer. but a real free-trader. believing. as he still does. in the utter extirpation of the tariff. He rejected socialism because it led infallibly to the subordination of the individual and ultimately to a despotism. under military forms, if not in name. When "Progress and Poverty" came into his hands he was ripe for its message, and he seemed to grasp its fundamental idea and unreservedly accepted the theory there taught.
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From that day to this he has been inspired by it. Mr. Bailey was per- sonally acquainted with Henry George, and later with such men as he drew to him, including Dr. Edward McGlynn. the famous Catholic divine; Thomas G. Shearman, the eminent lawyer and statistician; William Lloyd Garrison, son of the great liberator; Jerry Simpson, of Kansas; John DeWitt Warner, of New York, and a score of others who have made their names known as advocates of the right of every man to free access to natural opportunities.
It goes without saying that the subject is a stanch Democrat. He was never a candidate for office but once; when scarcely of age, at Kan- sas, Illinois, he was nominated for village clerk on the Citizens' ticket, but removed from the place prior to the election. He was on the Bryan electoral ticket in 1900, and during the campaign that year was connected with the Democratic National committee, at Chicago, as assistant to Willis J. Abbot, manager of the Press Bureau, writing much of the matter sent out by that bureau, and conducting a symposium through twenty-five prominent papers on behalf of the Democratic National com- mittee, with Murat Halstead. on behalf of the Republican National com- mittee.
At one time Mr. Bailey was a member of the Christian church, but of more recent years has had no direct relation with the church. The only fraternal society to which he belongs is the Brotherhood of Elks. For five years he was president of the Chicago Single Tax Club. He is at this time a member of the Henry George Lecture Association and one of its advisory committee. He has been a member of the Chicago Press Club since 1888. Is the president of the Economic Circle of Johnstown.
Mr. Bailey was married, at Chicago, Illinois, Sunday, August 12, 1894. by Rev. W. F. Black, to Georgiana, daughter of Theodore and Mary E. Coffin, who formerly resided at Indianapolis, Indiana. To Mr. and Mrs. Bailey two children are born: Marion Louise, born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, December 12, 1897; Warren Worth, born at the same place, January 29, 1901.
EDWARD HOMER BAILEY, one of the proprietors of the Johns- town Democrat, was born near New Winchester, Hendricks county, In- diana, February 1, 1858, the son of Elisha and Elizabeth (Faught) Bailey. Mr. Bailey's regular school days were limited to less than four years at the common schools of Kansas, Edgar county, Illinois, from 1869 to 1873. December 15, 1873, he entered the office of the Kansas News as a printer's apprentice, serving three years-the first year at one dollar per week : the second year, two dollars per week, and the third, three dollars. At the close of his apprenticeship he went to Terre Haute, Indiana, where he was employed on the Express for a short time. then owned by Major O. J. Smith. now noted as the president of the American Press Associa- tion, New York. Later he served as a compositor in the Indianapolis Sentinel office, and the Cincinnati Commercial, being set to work at the latter office by Murat Halstead, to whom he appealed, after failing to secure recognition from the foreman. He also served as a compositor on the Chicago Times, securing employment. under direction of the pro- prietor, Wilbur F. Story, after the foreman refused to recognize him. March, 1817, he went to Carlisle, Indiana, where he secured the foreman- ship of the Register, a small weekly. William Herron, father of the now famous George D. Herron. D. D., gave the entire plant to Mr. Bailey for two weeks' back pay. The name of the paper was changed to the Carlisle Democrat, and Mr. Bailey took his brother. W. W. Bailey,
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in partnership with him. without remuneration. They struggled along for more than two years, during which time enemies of the paper broke into the office at night and removed all the type, which was dumped into the muddy streets. but friends rallied to their rescue and spent a whole day and more in fishing from the mud nearly all of the type. In 1829 Mr. Bailey located in Vincennes, Indiana, consolidating the Carlisle Democrat with the Vincennes Reporter, when the paper was known as the Vincennes News, which was published several years as a weekly, but later as a daily, finally going into a receiver's hands in 1881. Mr. Bailey then went to Chicago, where he worked as a compositor in the job depart- ment of the Blakely Printing Company. Later he was sole editor of the Lake View Record, Lake View, a suburb of Chicago, but when that place was annexed to the city proper the Record was killed, as it had lived on home pride and what legal business it could obtain. In 1891 Mr. Bailey became the editor of the Bloomington (Illinois) Daily Leader, a Republican paper.
Outside the office he had political freedom and stumped the county for Cleveland and Stevenson in 1892. The night after the election, at a great mass-meeting in Bloomington, which was Mr. Stevenson's home town, Mr. Bailey was on the platform with Mr. Stevenson, and made an address. Soon after this he was relieved of the editorship of the Leader, and then purchased a half interest in the Normal ( Illinois) Advocate, an mdependent paper. Selling his interest in 1893. he came to Johnstown, Pennsylvania. with his brother. W. W. Bailey. with whom he has since been associated in the proprietorship of the Johnstown Daily and Weekly Democrat. Mr. Bailey is an avowed, out-and-out Democratic free-trader, and is an advocate of the single tax theory, uni- versal suffrage, anti-imperialist. and is opposed to capital punishment. He was a delegate several times to the Cambria county Democratic con- ventions. was the treasurer of the county committee in 1893 and a dele- gate to the state convention in 1903. Mr. Baily is connected with no church organization, but is firm in his belief that there is a Supreme intelligence. that life is eternal. Jesus lived and was one of the greatest teachers of truth on earth. He is a follower of Tolstoy.
Among the societies with which he is connected are the following : Knights of Pythias. he serving as trustee of the Johnstown Lodge No. 15 :: Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks: Johnstown Turn Verein : Johnston German Quartet Club; Johnstown Penwood Club, and several other social organizations, including the one that owns the famous grounds at Scalp Level. formerly occupied by Roger Davis and other artists. He is also a member of the Johnstown Vigilant Fire Com- pany, the Democratic State Editorial Association and the Pennsylvania State Editorial Association.
Mr. Bailey has forged his way, against many an obstacle, to the front in political circles, and has the acquaintance of many of the past and present great men of his day and generation. He was a devout ad- herent of William Jennings Bryan, who was his first choice in 1896, when Bryan did not even seem to be a "dark horse." He attended the great meeting at Madison Square Garden, New York, August 10, 1896. when Bryan accepted the nomination. and before Bryan had finished speaking he left the hall to address an overflow meeting in the park. He attended the Bryan acceptance meeting in Indianapolis, in 1900. having a seat in the Associated Press box. He was the reporter for the Chicago Times at the National convention in 1888, when Benjamin Harrison was nominated president. and personally interviewed many of
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the distinguished delegates. He also attended the Democratic conven- tion of 1884, in Chicago, when Cleveland was nominated ; and again at Chicago when Cleveland was renominated in 1892. He was present at the 1904 National convention, when Judge Parker was nominated and supported him at the election that year under protest.
July 13, 1878, Mr. Bailey married Sarah Eleanor, daughter of the Rev. James L. Griffin, deceased, formerly recorder of Sullivan county, Indiana, and later a minister in the Christian church for many years. The children of this union are: 1. Byron Dean, born at Vincennes, In- diana, October 19, 1879. He attended the Vincennes University, the common schools of Chicago and the schools of Johnstown, Pennsylvania : also received instruction under a private tutor. He has been connected with the Johnstown Democrat since 1893 as its subscription clerk and advertising specialist. He was absent two years to perfect the art of advertising, being with large department stores in Kansas City, Mis- souri, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and an advertising agency in New York. 2. Bessie, born at Vincennes, Indiana, August 11, 1883. died March 24. 1884. 3. Eilleen, born at Vincennes, Indiana. March 22, 1885. 4. Ed- ward, born at Johnstown, Pennsylvania. April 14, 1893.
JAMES H. GEER. James Geer, better known to the early residents of Blairsville, Pennsylvania. as "Old Jimmy Geer," was one of the pioneer hotel or inn keepers. Blairsville, Pennsylvania, was in those days one of the many hustling towns. along the canal, and it was but a natural consequence that this inn keeper should be widely known in this section of the state. He married and reared a family, which he later took with him to Erie, Pennsylvania, where he died.
One son. James Geer, returned to Blairsville and took up residence in the old homestead. He married a Miss Fails, who died a couple of years later. There were no children to this union. James Geer. a num- ber of years later, married Phoebe Jane Patch, a daughter of one of the most highly respected Blairsville families, and one son. James H. Geer, was born to this union, August 2, 1843. His father died the same year, and the family then moved to Johnstown, where Mrs. Geer's relatives were "lock-tenders." Mrs. Geer later married Evan G. Lewis, a practical pattern maker, who had charge of the pattern department of the Cambria Iron Company for many years. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis were numbered among Johnstown's first families, and were most highly respected. Mr. Lewis died in Johnstown in 1897, and Phoche (Geer) Lewis died the following year, 1898.
James H. Geer was educated in the public and private schools of Johnstown, but left the schoolroom at the age of fourteen and found employment in the pattern department of the Cambria Tron Company, in whose employ he has been ever since, except when he vielded to pa- triotic impulses to serve in the Union army during the Civil war, and the following seven years, which he spent in the west. In the year 1862 James H. Geer, then only a lad of nineteen, enlisted in Company A. One Hundred and Thirty-third Pennsylvania Volunteers, as a private and served for a period of ten months. Later he enlisted in Company F. One Hundred and Ninety-fourth Pennsylvania Volunteers, and served for a period of four months under Captain John Downey. During these enlistments Mr. Geer took part in the battles of Antietam, Chancellors- ville and Fredericksburg.
After the close of the war Mr. Geer went west and for the follow- ing seven years worked as a pattern maker. It was while there that he
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met and married Anna M. Fought, daughter of Peter and Margaret (Egan) Fought, formerly of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, but later of the state of Illinois. In 1840 Mr. Greer returned to Johnstown, Pennsyl- vania, resumed his former position, and since then, a period of thirty-six years, has remained in the employ of the Cambria Iron and Steel Com- pany. In the year 1841 Mr. Geer was transferred from the pattern de- partment to the draughting department and there he worked for the next ten years. In 1881 he was made master mechanic of the works, and in 1884 was again promoted to the position of assistant chief engineer. He held this responsible position for twelve years, and in 1896 a new department was created, and Mr. Geer was appointed to take charge as the superintendent of mechanical department. He was next promoted, in 1904, to the position of engineer of construction, one of the highest and most responsible positions of the Cambria Steel Company. There is no branch of the steel industry with which Mr. Geer is not familiar, and whatever he is or whatever he has accomplished is the result of per- sonal effort and industry. Mr. Geer has shown himself to be "a man who does things" and has been steadily advanced solely on the grounds of merit.
The tremendous modern expansion of the iron and steel industries began with the William Kelly invention called the "pneumatic process of refining iron," and it was even before this time that the skill and in- genuity of Mr. Geer was recognized, as he was called upon at that time by Daniel J. Morrell, general manager of the Cambria Iron Company, to assist Mr. Kelly in the experiments which resulted in the manu- facture of steel from iron. It is the tendency of the age to devote one's entire energies to a special line, continually working upward and con- centrating his efforts towards accomplishing a desired end. What Mr. Geer has accomplished in his particular line cannot be adequately told in words. It is certainly not asserting too much to say that his name suggests a power in the steel trade, a power that to a large degree controls and directs the workings of the company with which he has been so long connected, and he stands today as one of the leading representatives of the steel industry, having been actively associated with the following prominent men in that line of enterprise: D. J. Morrell, W. Jones, J. M. Swank, J. McMillen and Powell Stackhouse.
Children of James H. and Anna M. (Fought) Geer: Louis, born February 1, 1870, died December 22, 1871. Albert M., born August 12, 1872, died April 28, 1904; he was a pattern maker by trade; he inter- married with Katherine Detrich, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and their children are: Margaret, Dwight, Louis, Helen, James, Dorothy, Albert. Erastus L., born August 11. 1874. Harry R .. born August 11, 1874, intermarried with Lula Sheridan, of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, one child, Ruth. Frank D., born September 19, 1876: intermarried with Clara A. Heck, of Butler, Pennsylvania, one child, Frank D., Jr. James, born November 4, 1878.
JOHN ESTERLY, of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, originally a car- penter and joiner, afterward a merchant and now a general contractor. is a native of that city, son of the late Jacob Esterly, of Johnstown, and grandson of John Esterly, of Waldhausen, Oberampt, Weltsheim, Ger- many, the latter of whom never came to this country.
The original German spelling of the surname. Esterly was Ooesterle. Of the several children of John Ooesterle (or Esterly) three came to live in America. They were Matthew, Barbara and Jacob Esterly. Matthew
John Testery
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. 1909
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settled in Minnesota and died there. Barbara married Casper Hecker, and is now a widow living in Johnstown.
Jacob Esterly, the other of the three children who made homes in this country, was born at Waldhausen, in Germany, on the 14th day of February, 1837, and was a weaver by trade. He immigrated to America in 1866 and settled in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, where he was a farmer. After about a year he removed to Johnstown and lived there until his death. At first he was employed by Lambert & Kress in their ale brewery, later worked for the . Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and still later was a puddler in the works of the Cambria Iron Company, remaining in that employment until his death, on the 17th of June, 1904. He was an industrious, home-loving man, a devout member and one of the organizers of St. Paul's German Lutheran church in Johnstown and frequently was an officer of the society of that church. In politics he originally was a Democrat, but afterward became a strong Republican. His wife survives him and still lives in the old homestead place in Center alley, in the Twentieth ward of the city.
Jacob Esterly married Mary Albrecht, a daughter of Matthew Al- brecht of Bliederhausen, the same German province from whence came her husband. Her parents never came to this country. Children of Jacob Esterly and Mary Albrecht: John Esterly, a business man of Johnstown; William Esterly, died in infancy; Catherine Esterly, mar- ried Jacob Colbert and lives in Johnstown; Mary Esterly, married James Manges and lives in Johnstown; Annie Esterly, married Gustav Opalka and lives in Johnstown ; Jacob Esterly, unmarried, lives at home; Harry Esterly, killed when three years old: Margaret Esterly, married Hyle Crouthers and lives in Johnstown. Freda Esterly, unmarried, lives at home.
John Esterly, eldest of the children above named, was born in Johnstown on the 20th day of March, 1868, in what then was known as the borough of Conemaugh, but now is a part of the city. He was edu- cated in the public and parochial schools, and was a boy of thirteen years when he began work for the Cambria Iron Company at "picking cobbles," as the sorting out of small lumps of iron in the ash heaps from the furnaces was then called. His later transient employment was as teamster for the Johnstown Water Company, laborer on the work of construction of the railroad from St. Clair's dam to Fairfield avenue, two years in the bricklaying department of Cambria Iron Company, and after that he learned the carpenter trade with J. J. Strayer, a contractor and builder.
After four years with Mr. Strayer, except one year spent in the city of Pittsburg, John Esterly became a practical carpenter. He re- turned from Pittsburg to Johnstown just at the time of the Great Flood in 1889, and lost his tools in that disaster; yet his loss was much less than thousands of others. He worked two years at his trade in the city, and then opened a general merchandise store in Morrellville, where he was in business from 1891 to 1900, then selling out to Cupp Brothers. From that time until 1904 he was proprietor of a shoe store on Fairfield street in Morrellville, and then gave up mercantile pursuits for general contracting in Johnstown and its suburbs. In February, 1904, Mr. Esterly sustained a great loss by fire, which consumed his business and dwelling houses, amounting to about $8,000.
During his active business career of something like twenty-five years, a period which has witnessed several changes in the character of business done, John Esterly has been a successful man. He always has been a
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hard worker, doing whatever promised a fair return in wage or profit. and no man will question his business capacity or his personal integrity. Ile has done well and has deserved all the reward which is the result of his endeavors. He is a stockholder in the Union National Bank and the Citizens' Light, Heat and Power Company: member of Johnstown Lodge No. 538, F. and A. M., and of Morrellville Council No. 941, R. A. M. He is a member of the English Lutheran church, superin- tendent of its Sunday school. and has been president of the church coun- cil since 1895. In politics he is a conservative Republican.
On the 5th day of May, 1890. John Esterly married Agnes Paulisky. who came to Johnstown in the spring of that year. She was born in Metzenseifen. Austria, on the 14th of January, 1871, and came to America to live with her uncle in Cleveland, Ohio, when she was thirteen years old. Five children have been born to John and Agnes Esterly : Albon Jacob Esterly, February 2. 1891: Emma Ella Esterly, April 21. 1893: William Winfield Esterly, July 28, 1895; Florence Catherine Es- terly. died in infancy: Helen Blanche Esterly, born February 9. 1902.
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