USA > Pennsylvania > Cambria County > History of Cambria County, Pennsylvania, Volume III > Part 28
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Germany. Anna ' Muehlhauser, born in 1845; married Ephraim
Franke, of Johnstown. George Muehlhauser, born in 1848: a business man of Johnstown, of whom further mention will be made. Andrew Muehlhauser, born in 1850, lives in Germany. Barbara Muehlhanser, born in 1853; married Karl Endriss; now a widow living in Germany. Catherine Muelhauser. born in 1856; married George Bühler, a con- tractor, living in Freiberg, Baden, Germany.
George Muehlhauser was born in the city of Wurtemberg, Germany, on the 17th day of February, 1848, and received his education in the pub- lie schools of that municipality. In June, 1866, he came to America and took up his residence in Johnstown, at the home of his sister Mary, wife of William Young, who generously invited him to live with her family until he could establish himself in some profitable employment. He was a tinsmith by trade, but as that work was not done in this country as in Germany, he was compelled to learn again many of its branches. Hav- ing little money at the time he worked several months at whatever he could find to do, and at one time made hay on Gautier street (this was his first employment in America), for then Johnstown was only a small borough. After about five months he found work with W. F. Hay, a tin- smith having an extensive business, and received wages at the rate of one dollar per day until he had mastered his trade in accordance with the methods of the time. Young Muehlhauser proved to be an active, capa- ble mechanic, and it was not long before he could command regular journeyman's wages. He afterward worked for Mr. Hay fourteen years and three months, and during that time earned and saved enough money to start in business on his own account. In 1881 he became proprietor of & general tinsmithing shop, and in addition thereto carried in stock a
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HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.
line of stoves. ranges. etc. His first shop stood on the site of his present building, and was swept away by the Hood of 1889, together with all the stock, tools, fixtures, etc. In consequence of this misfortune his business was entirely ruined and his loss was considerable, but with commendable zeal he at once set up a temporary building. and on the 5th of July fol- lowing resumed business with a complete new stock in trade. His first shop stood on leased ground on Washington street, and this site he sub- sequently purchased, and in the course of time it became very valuable property. In the meantime his business had become prosperous. and he came to be numbered among the substantial men of the city. Such is his standing in the business community today. In politics he is a con- servative Democrat on national issues, but votes independent of party in his choice of local officials.
George Muehlhauser was a member of his sister's family and house- hold for about five years. On the 31st of January, 1871. he married Amelia Lorentz, a daughter of Rev. Edward and Johanna ( Hausdoefer) Lorentz. Mr. Lorentz was a clergyman of the Lutheran church in Ger- many, and after he died his widow and children came to this country and settled in Johnstown. She died in 1900. E. C. Lorentz, of the United States Weather Bureau in Johnstown, is a brother of Mrs. Muehlhauser, besides whom she has several sisters: Anna, wife of Dr. Francis Schill, Senior; Bertha, wife of Henry Yost : Hermine. deceased wife of Rudolph Luebbert : Johanna, widow of Rev. Paul Glasow, the latter of whom dur- ing his lifetime was a clergyman of the German Lutheran church: and Meta, wife of Rev. Karl Koehler. a Lutheran clergyman of Waldeck, Germany. With the exception of Mrs. Koehler. all these sisters are now living in Johnstown, except Hermina, who died September 30. 1906.
Children of George and Amelia (Lorentz ) Muehlhauser: Clara Muehlhauser, born 1823; unmarried, lives at home. William F. Muehl- hauser, born December 30, 18?8. unmarried: in business with his father. Matilda Muehlhauser, born June, 1881 : married William Hinkel, a book- keeper in the employ of Love & Sunshine, of Johnstown. Anna Muehl- hauser, born July, 1884; unmarried, lives at home. Edward Muehl- hauser, born December, 1886; unmarried: in business with his father. Amelia Muehlhauser, born August, 1894; lives at home.
JOHN LUDWIG TROSS, superintendent of outside work of the Valley Coal and Stone Company of Johnstown, has been a prominent figure in the business and industrial history of that borough and subse- quent city for more than forty years, and has lived in that vicinity more than half a century.
He is of German birth and ancestry, the younger of two sons of Henry and Margaretta (Loefink) Tross. Henry Tross, his father, was born in Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, in 1813, and was a stone mason by trade. His wife, Margaretta Loefink, died about 1852, leaving two sons, William Tross, born March 25. 1842. and John Ludwig Tross, born January 10. 1849. After the death of his first wife, Henry Tross mar- ried Katherine Fox, and soon afterward left Germany with his family and came to America. He settled in Johnstown. having arrived in that then mere hamlet on the îth day of August. 1855. Here Mr. Tross worked for the Cambria Iron Company throughout the remainder of his active life, in all a period of about twenty-five years. He died in Johns- town on the 4th day of April. 1897. His widow still lives in the city, and makes her home with her stepson. John L. Tross. of whom this sketch is intended particularly to treat. Henry Tross was for many years an
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HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.
earnest member of the German Lutheran church, and an honest man in all the walks of life. His elder son, William Tross, was an engineer, and at the time of his death was engineer in charge of the works of the city electric lighting company. He married Maggie Hocker, who bore him seven children, six sons and one daughter, all of whom, with both father and mother, lost their lives in the terrible disaster of May 31, 1889. At the time the family lived in Woodvale, then a suburb and now the Elev- enth ward of the city.
John Ludwig Tross was a boy of about six years when his father's family emigrated from Germany and took up their residence in Johns- town. He attended the public schools of the borough, and at about the age of thirteen years went to work driving mules in the ore mines, and after he had learned how to drive he was given in charge of a team about the company mills and works. When he was sixteen he was employed in the mills, and in all, in one capacity and another, he worked for the Cambria Iron Company just about thirty years. He then left the com- pany's employ and started a first class dairy in the city, and was engaged in this business with fair success during seven years. In 1902 Mr. Tross. with several other business men of Johnstown, organized the Valley Stone and Coal Company, and acquired extensive and valuable mining and quarrying properties opposite Ferndale and just outside of the limits of the city. To the development and operation of these interests he has since directed his attention. In the work he has charge of excavating the stone between the surface and the coal beds, and also of opening the mines for the production of coal. In fact he has entire supervision of the company's outside work, as it is called, and hence is the responsible head of all operations preliminary to quarrying stone and mining coal ; and any commodity which has value in the market he does not suffer to be wasted. He has general oversight of the work of more than two hundred men and many teams.
Mr. Tross is an energetic business man, and it is largely through his capacity for hard work and excellent judgment in carrying it forward that the company has met with such remarkable success since it began operations, less than four years ago. He is interested in Johnstown and many of its best institutions, and has been an important factor in the development and growth of its industries. He is a member and for several years has been a trustee of the German Lutheran church, a mem- ber of Cambria Lodge No. 485, 1. O. O. F., of Johnstown Turnverein, and in politics inelines to vote independent of party obligations.
On the 1st day of October, 1821, John Ludwig Tross married Kath- erine Boecher, daughter of Conrad and Katherine Elizabeth (Hoffman) Boecher, of Johnstown. Mr. Boecher was born in Hesse Darmstadt, Ger- many, and came to Johnstown in 1870. He is an employe of the Cam- bria Steel Company. Children of John Ludwig and Katherine ( Boecher) Tross: Anna Tross, born July 9, 1872; married Edward Charles Lorentz, of whom and whose family life mention will be found in this work. Bertha Tross, born September 11, 1875; lives at home. John Lud- wig Tross, Junior, born August 21, 1878; died unmarried at the age of twenty-seven years. George H. Tross, born May 3, 1880; married Amelia Kress, and lives in Johnstown. Lena Tross, born December 26, 1883: lives at home. Frank Tross, born January 18. 1885; died in infancy. Robert A. Tross, born October 8, 1893; lives at home. Ludwig C. Tross. born February 5, 1897 ; lives at home.
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HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.
JONAS BLOUGH KAUFFMAN. In the early part of the last century Christian Kauffman and his brother left their former home in Lancaster county and settled near Davidsville in Somerset county.
Jonas Kauffman was a son of Christian Kauffman, and is believed to have been born in Lancaster county, and to have been quite yonng when his father went to the sonthwestern part of the state. He was born in 1800, and died in 1862. He was a farmer, and at one time carried on a farm in what is now the Seventeenth ward of the city of Johnstown, in the particular locality generally called Moxham. Later on he lived on a farm in what is now Cambria City, and in 1859 he removed to Indiana county, where he died three years later. He was a member of the Mennonite society, and in polities first a Whig and later a Republican. He married Rachel Blough, a descendant of an old Somerset county family living in the vicinity of Stoyestown. She died in 1865. Their children : 1. Daniel Kauffman, married Sarah Wissinger, and lives in Adams township, Cambria county. 2. Mary Kauffman, married, first, Abraham Orris; married, second, Samuel Custer, and now is a widow living at Scalp Level, Pennsylvania. 3. Noah Kauffman, married Jane Beatty, and lives in Connellsville, Pennsylvania. 4. John H. Kauffman, married Cordelia Everhart, and lives in Johnstown. 5. Jonas' Blough Kauffman, now living in Johnstown. 6. Sarah Kauffman, married Gil- bert Oakes, died in Kansas. ?. Harry Kauffman, living at Scalp Level, Pennsylvania.
Jonas Blough Kauffman, fourth son and fifth child of Jonas Kanff- man and Rachel Blough, his wife, was born in Somerset county, Penn- sylvania, December 27, 1838, and received his education in common schools in Somerset and Cambria counties. He lived at home and worked on the farm until 1857, then went to the public works and was em- ployed in the puddling furnace until 1861.
On the 4th of October of that year he enlisted as private in Com- pany E of the Fifty-fourth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, for three years, or during the war. He was with the regiment in all its move- ments and engagements throughout the period of service, except on two occasions, when he was disabled and in the hospital. The first was on June 14. 1863, when on the march from Romney to New Creek, he met with a fall that fractured the left knee cap and kept him on a hospital cot until September following. He was released from the hospital and went back to his regiment just before the battle of Gettysburg. His second serious injury was received at Cedar Creek, August 12, 1864, when on the skirmish line he was shot through the right thigh. He laid in the open field about forty-eight hours, and after being found was trans- ferred to the Haddington Hospital at Philadelphia, from which he was discharged on October 31. He was appointed corporal in 1863, and valned that recognition chiefly because it came from a stanch friend and brave soldier. Colonel James M. Campbell, who commanded the regiment.
After the war Mr. Kauffman resumed work as puddler. He worked in Pittsburg and Cincinnati for two years, but was compelled to give it up on account of the weakening effect on his strength, due primarily to the wounds received in service. In 1867 he returned to Johnstown and entered the employ of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, taking care of the locomotives in Conemaugh vard near Johnstown, and continued there until 1849. Then for two years he and George S. Paul managed the Grange store at Franklin, and afterward until 1886 Mr. Kauffman was proprietor of a general store in East Conemangh. after which he was not engaged in active business until 1893, when he removed to Cone-
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maugh township and carried on a farm during the next nine years. While there he was treasurer of the school board, and also served two terms of supervisor of the township. After his return to Johnstown, Mr. Kauffman took up his residence in the Eleventh ward and filled an unexpired term as common councilman. He is a charter member, secre- tary and past grand of Conemaugh Lodge No. 999. I. O. O. F., and a member of Emory Fisher Post. G. A. R., of Johnstown.
On September 17, 1869, Jonas Blough Kauffman married Ellen Sarah Devlin, daughter of James and Eliza (Elliott) Devlin, of Cone- maugh. James Devlin came with his parents from Ireland to this coun- try when he was about three years old. His father settled at Armagh, in Indiana county, where for many years he was a hotelkeeper. He died in 1888, and his wife died March 22, 1898, aged eighty-seven years. After she became a widow Mrs. Devlin made her home with Mr. and Mrs. Kauffman.
Children of Jonas Blough and Ellen Sarah (Devlin) Kauffman : 1. Theodore Kauffman, born July 9, 1870, died at the age of two years. 2. James Milton Kauffman, born November 27, 1872: unmarried ; mem- ber of the firm of Crouse & Kauffman, merchants of Johnstown.
GEORGE HENRY COLE, of the Cambria Land and Improvement Company, the principal seat of operations of which is at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, is a son of the late Captain John Cole, and a grandson of Leonard Cole of Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, and who in 1845 brought his family to America.
Leonard Cole was a farmer and nurseryman, and followed that occu- pation both in Germany and after he came to this country. His first place of residence in Pennsylvania was at Shellsburg, Bedford county, and in 1866 he removed to Lee county, Illinois, where he afterward lived and died. His wife before her marriage was Barbara Holtzman. She died in 1877, and her husband died in 1902. They had children : John Cole, born in 1834: married Elizabeth Beckley, and had seven children ; Captain Cole died March 12, 1882. William Cole, who served in a Penn- sylvania regiment during the Civil war, and was killed in action at New- market. Virginia, May 15, 1864; he never married. Samuel Cole, niar- ried Robinson, and is a widower now living at Independence. Iowa. Elizabeth Cole, died young.
John Cole (more frequently known in military and business circles as Captain Cole) was born in Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, on the 2d day of September, 1834, and was eleven years old when his parents came to America and settled in Bedford county in this state. By trade and occu- pation he was a tanner, and after returning from service in the army he operated several tanneries and was a successful business man. Soon after the outbreak of the war in 1861, Mr. Hite and John Cole, both substantial men in the community in which they lived, raised a com- pany of volunteers for the service, and on the organization of the com- pany the former was elected captain and the latter second lieutenant of Company B, Fifty-fourth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, as it be- came known when mustered into the United States service. A little later Captain Hite resigned and Lieutenant Cole was commissioned captain in his place. He served as such until the' final muster out in 1865. Captain Cole's army experiences were both interesting and severe. At Paw Paw, Virginia, on October 4, 1864, his entire company was captured by a
Vol. 111-13
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superior force of Confederate troops under Imboden, although the men of Company B made a stubborn fight against fearful odds. Captain Cole himself was sent to Libby Prison and confined in that awful pen six long months before an exchange of prisoners accomplished his re- lease. He at once returned to his regiment, and afterward took part in all of its battles until the engagement at High Bridge, Virginia, on April 6, 1865, when the command was captured. However, Lee sur- rendered soon after this affair, and he was released with the other men. He was once wounded in action, but was not long off duty on account of disabilities.
On returning home at the close of the war, Captain Cole lived at Stoyestown in Somerset county for twelve years, then came to Johns- town and worked at his trade at the old Woodvale tannery. In 1877 he went to Pittsburg, and three years later to St. Clairsville, Bedford county, and operated tanneries at that place, and also at Mill River in Fayette county. These interests occupied his attention until the time of his death on the 12th of March, 1882. His wife survived him seven- teen years and died on the 1st of January, 1899. Captain Cole was in all respects a useful citizen in every community in which he lived during his business career. He enjoyed the respect of his fellow men, and his in- fluence was productive of good results among them. He was a member and for many years one of the officiary of the Methodist Episcopal church, and in politics was a Democrat.
He married Elizabeth Beckley, daughter of John and Sarah (Barneh) Beckley, of Bedford county. John Beckley came of German ancestors and by occupation was a farmer. Children of John and Eliza- beth (Beckley) Cole: James Cole, married Phena Dahl, and is a con- tractor living at Leisening, Fayette county, Pennsylvania. George Henry Cole, married Mary J. Sill, and is a business man of Johnstown. John W. Cole, married Etta Cassel, and is a conductor on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, living at Connellsville, Pennsylvania. Flora B. Cole, unmarried, lives at Mt. Braddock, Pennsylvania. Jennie V. Cole, mar- rie W. J. Rowan, and lives at Mt. Braddock, Pennsylvania. Sarah C. Cole, married Robert Gibson, and lives at Dunbar, Pennsylvania. Thomas E. Cole, died in infancy.
George Henry Cole was born at Wills Creek, Bedford county, April 2, 1859. He was educated in the Stoyestown public schools and Iron City Commercial College at Pittsburg, and at the age of sixteen years began teaching school. He filled a teacher's chair during two terms and then turned his attention to other pursuits. He learned the trade of currier and finisher, and followed that occupation until 1888, when for a year he was connected with the Woodvale tannery. In the latter part of 1889 he became interested in a lumber business in company with J. B. Kellogg, and afterward for seven years was foreman with the Johnson Company at Moxham and the Lorain Steel Company after its removal to Ohio. In 1897 he acquired a partnership interest in the business of Brown & Otto, of Johnstown, real estate dealers and coal land brokers. In 1901 the firm incorporated under the name of Cambria Land and Improvement Company, and since that time he has been actively identi- fied with the business operations of that concern. Mr. Cole is an Odd Fellow, member and past grand of St. Clairsville Lodge No. 922, member of Johnstown Lodge No. 245, A. O. U. W., member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and in politics a Republican.
On July 4, 1882, George H. Cole married Mary J. Sill. daughter of James and Mary (Clark) Sill, of St. Clairsville. Mary Sill Cole died
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August 12, 1898, and on September 6, 1899, Mr. Cole married Emma A. Greenwalt, daughter of Peter J. and Mary A. (Black) Greenwalt, of Clarion county, Pennsylvania.
RICHARD R. EDWARDS. Rev. Richard R. Edwards, better known in Johnstown and Cambria county as R. R. Edwards, was born in Merthyr Tydvil, South Wales, in the year 1821, and died at his home in the city of Johnstown on the 13th day of June, 1885. In his younger days he was employed in the rail department of Cyfartha rail mills. In the early part of the year 1847 he emigrated from his boyhood home and crossed the Atlantic ocean in a sailing vessel which took eleven weeks on the voyage to America, and arrived at the port of New York with his entire family.
Soon leaving New York, Mr. Edwards settled with his family at Minersville, in Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, where he changed his occupation and became a coal miner. He lived at Minersville a little more than a year, and then moved to Coal Dale, in Carbon county, where on account of a scarcity of dwelling houses for rent he was compelled to move three miles out into the wilderness to a small place called Foster's Tunnel, where he located his family near an abandoned mine. He lived there until the fall of 1849, then gave up coal mining and entered the service of the American Tract Society as agent for the state of Pennsyl- vania. In that capacity he made a complete canvass of the whole state, after which, in 1851, finding that he was unable to maintain his family with his scanty earnings in selling books for the society, he became con- nected with the Foreign Bible Society, and as his new duties would keep him from home much of the time he moved his family to Ashton, three miles east of Foster's Tunnel, where the country was more thickly set- tled. During the years 1851 and 1852 he moved to Easton, and was ap- pointed missionary to establish Sunday schools and organize union churches in addition to selling and distributing bibles for the society. Soon afterward he organized a Sunday school at Glendon and another at Slatington, and still later in other places within the state.
Through earnest, persistent effort in his special field of work Mr. Edwards accumulated a little money, and at his own request was per- mitted by the Bible Society to change the scene of his operations to the western part of the state. He then located at Ebensburg, the county seat of Cambria county, and while there determined to prepare himself for the gospel ministry under the instructions of Rev. Mr. Powell, then pastor of the Welsh Congregational church at Ebensburg. At this time, while Mr. Edwards was engaged in the performance of his threefold duties of selling and distributing bibles, carrying forward his missionary work and preparing to enter the ministry, that Johnstown was beginning to command attention as an industrial and commercial center. As soon as the Cambria Mills were completed and ready for operation, Welsh settlers began to come in, for, as is well known, persons of that nation- ality prevailed in point of numbers in the early manufacture of iron and the production of coal in this particular region.
As early as the year 1853 Mr. Edwards made several visits to Johns- town in order to investigate the spiritual needs of the Welsh people there, and in the spring of 1854 he removed with his family to that then hamlet and took up his abode in a house on Market street. near the locality where dwelt nearly all of the heaters, rollers and puddlers em- ployed by the iron company. To this people and others of his own na- tionality Mr. Edwards devoted his attention as a missionery laborer.
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HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.
In the latter part of 1854 he organized a union prayer meeting and as- sembled the worshippers in different houses in the neighborhood of the fiats until a sufficient number was gathered to organize a Union Welsh church society, the services of which at first were held in the brick school house at the west end of Market street. In 1855 Mr. Edwards was in- stalled pastor of the Welsh Union Congregation, which then comprised the Independents, now known as the Congregationalists, the Calvin Meth- odist, now the Welsh Presbyterians, and the Baptists. As the Welsh population increased with the rapid growth of the locality, so also did the number of regular attendants at the services, and about 1855 or 1856 the Baptist people withdrew and formed a separate society and held meetings in the school building which stood at the corner of Market and Stony Creek streets; and in the course of another year or two the Calvinistic Methodists organized a society of their own and held services in a building which stood on the site now occupied by the First Baptist church edifice, on Franklin street. The Independents secured a lot at the corner of Union street and Locust alley, through the aid of Mr. Ed- wards, and there that society built its first regular church home. How- ever, after the edifice was completed the society was considerably in debt, and in making arrangements to meet the obligation the pastor's salary was so nearly forgotten that it averaged not more than six dollars a month. This sum was not sufficient to pay the pastor's living expenses, and in consequence he resigned and united with the Methodist Episcopal society at the corner of Franklin and Locust streets.
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