History of Cambria County, Pennsylvania, Volume III, Part 36

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


USA > Pennsylvania > Cambria County > History of Cambria County, Pennsylvania, Volume III > Part 36


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In March, 1891, he was transferred to Johnstown, as head of the congregation of St. John's Church, which was then worshipping in a temporary frame structure which had been erected after the destruction of the church by the memorable Johnstown flood. The year of his ar- rival a new school house was built, followed a few years later by the erec- tion of a convent, and in 1894 was laid the cornerstone of the present magnificent church, the total cost of which amounted to eighty-five thou- sand dollars. He built a school house in Moxham, secured land there for parochial buildings, and also acquired property in East Conemaugh. A new graveyard was purchased at Geistown. Amid the stress of these multiplied labors Dr. Boyle yet found time to give to every movement hav- ing for its object the moral and social welfare of the community a due share of attention and support, manifesting in the temperance cause an especially active interest.


In 1898 he was appointed Vicar Forane of the eastern part of the Diocese of Pittsburg, and in 1901, when the new Diocese of Altoona was formed, was made its first Vicar General.


In July, 1905, Dr. Boyle received from Pope Pius the Tenth the ap- pointment of Domestic Prelate of the Pontifical household. The cere- money of his investiture, which was held at St. John's Church, was of a most impressive character, the papal brief being read in Latin and Eng- lish by the Right Reverend Prothonotary Apostolic Joseph Suht, of Sts. Peter and Paul's Church, East End, Pittsburg, and an eloquent sermon being preached by the Reverend Matthew Smith, assistant pastor of the Sacred Heart Church, Altoona. The sermon was followed by a solemn Pontifical Mass, with the Right Reverend Eugene A. Garvey, Bishop of the Diocese as celebrant. The services were held Sunday, November 12, 1905, and were attended by a large concourse of citizens, including representa- tives of other churches and parishes, among whom were many of Dr. Boyle's former parishioners. It was felt, not only by those present, but by everyone familiar with the personality and work of Dr. Boyle, that the high honor conferred upon him was but a fitting recognition of his long and faithful pastoral ministration and of his steadfast loyalty and untiring zeal in the service of the church to which he owed allegiance.


Rt Rev. J. Boyle


THE NEW YORK PUE ! LIBRARY nasur Lenus and Tilden 1909


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HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.


In the carly part of 1901 Dr. Boyle sought temporary relaxation from the severity of his labors in a visit to his old home in Ireland. Before returning to this country he extended his travels to the continent, sojourn- ing in France, Switzerland and Italy. He then passed over to Asia, linger- ing for a time amid the sacred associations of Palestine and thence sought, as the final point in his wanderings, the land of the Pharaohs and the Pyramids. The degree of LL. D. was conferred on Monsignor Boyle last June by the faculty of Mt. St. Mary's College. In the history of the institution this honor has rarely been conferred except upon its graduates.


HARRY SULLIVAN ENDSLEY, lawyer, of Johnstown, Pennsyl- vania, was born September 26, 1855, at Brownsville, Fayette county, Pennsylvania. He is descended from John (Johannes) Endsley (or Ainslie), who came to America from Holland about 1765. He served as soldier in the Revolutionary war.


a He lived in Virginia between Frederick and Richmond, on a plantation called "Wizzard Cliff." He married a Miss Gilbert, a member of the Society of Friends. Their sole issue was a son, Thomas Endsley, who was born on their plantation in 1787. John Endsley, the founder of the family in the United States, died about 1830. His wife died about 1828. Their son, Thomas Endsley, married Mary McCloy, 1805, who was a daughter of John and Ann McCloy, the said Ann McCloy being a daughter of James McCullough and Nancy Mccullough, of Downpatrick, county Down, Ireland. James McCul- lough was a linen manufacturer.


Thomas Endsley and Mary McCloy Endsley had issue eight children, the fifth being Andrew Jackson Endsley, the father of the subject of this sketch, who was born at "Tomlinson House," on the National Pike, in Allegany county, Maryland, on January 16, 1824. His father, Captain Thomas Endsley, had the year before bought the large stone tavern and dwelling together with a farm of three hundred acres in and adjacent to the town of Somerfield, Somerset county, Pennsylvania, to which he re- moved with his father later in that same year, and at which place he died in 1852.


Andrew Jackson Endsley prepared himself for the ministry, and attended Alleheny College at Meadville, Pennsylvania, and after leaving college was ordained and admitted as a member of the Pittsburg Meth- odist Episcopal Conference. While in the ministry he held stations as pastor at Brownsville, Pennsylvania, Wellsbury, West Virginia, Wellsville, Ohio, Allegheny City, Pittsburg, Canton, Ohio, and Johnstown, Pennsyl- vania. He also held and filled the appointment of presiding elder for several terms, and had the degree of D. D. conferred upon him by Mt. Union College in 1870. Dr. Endsley was a logician of high order, a forcible speaker and was recognized as one of the ablest men in the con- ference. In 1847 Dr. Endsley was united in marriage with Catherine A. Johnson, of Somerfield, Somerset county, Pennsylvania. Ten children were born to this marriage, eight of whom are living, viz .: Ella F. Ends- ley, Somerset, Pennsylvania ; Anna M., widow of Abner Mckinley, and since married to Captain John B. Allen, of Tampa, Florida; H. S. Endsley, of Johnstown, Pennsylvania; Katherine, wife of Henry Mat- thews, of Washington, District of Columbia; Lucy, wife of George W. Snyder, Somerset, Pennsylvania ; Wilbur K. Endsley, New York : Mary, wife of Paul A. Schell. Somerset, Pennsylvania; and Charles W. Endsley, of Uniontown, Pennsylvania. In politics, Dr. Endsley was an earnest Whig and Republican, and always took a live interest in all public ques- tions. Dr. Endsley died at Somerset, Pennsylvania, September 21, 1906.


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HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.


The head of the maternal branch of the family in this country was Patrick Sullivan, of Scotch-Irish descent. He moved from the eastern part of Pennsylvania to Somerset county. Pennsylvania, about 1790. He married Barbara Bowser, of York, Pennsylvania. They had several chil- dren, one of whom. Mary, married Henry Black, and one of their chil- dren was Judge Jeremiah S. Black. Susan, another daughter of Patrick and Barbara (Bowser) Sullivan, married Joshua Johnson. Among the children of Joshua Johnson and Susan Sullivan were Catherine A .. who married Andrew J. Endsley, and Matilda, wife of General William H. Koontz, of Somerset, Pennsylvania.


Patrick Sullivan, the maternal great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, lived at Elk Lick, Somerset county, Pennsylvania. He was a notable figure in that part of the country and owned one of the finest farms in the county. At the first election held in Cambria county he was on the ticket for assembly as representative of the district composed of Somerset and Cambria counties. The election returns on file in the court house at Somerset show the following result of said election in Cambria county :


Cambria Township. Patrick Sullivan received 59 votes. Alexander Ogle 66 3 votes.


Conemaugh Township.


Patrick Sullivan


69 votes.


Alexander Ogle no votes.


Allegheny Township. Patrick Sullivan 69 votes.


Alexander Ogle 66


18 votes.


These three townships embraced the whole of Cambria county.


In 1898 President MeKinley appointed Catherine A. Endsley, mother of H. S. Endsley, postmistress at Somerset, Pennsylvania, to which office she was reappointed in 1902 by President Roosevelt. This was a personal appointment of President Mckinley.


The education of Harry Sullivan Endsley was mainly obtained in the public schools, the high school of Canton, Ohio, being the last at- tended. In 1876 he entered the law office of General William H. Koontz, Somerset, Pennsylvania, and on August ?, 1878, was admitted to practice in the courts of Somerset county. Prior to taking up the study of law Mr. Endsley was in the offices of Wood, Morrell & Company, of Johns- town, Pennsylvania. After his admission to the bar he entered into active practice in the office of his preceptor. General Koontz. In 1880 he made the canvass for the Republican nomination for district attorney of Somer- set county, but was defeated. In 1882 he acted as chairman of the Inde- pendent Republican organization of Somerset county, since which time he has not been active in politics, though taking part as a speaker in various political campaigns as a Republican.


In April. 1892, Mr. Endsley removed to Johnstown, Pennsylvania. to accept a position as assistant solicitor for the Cambria Iron Company, and upon the resignation of Cyrus Elder, in 1900, the board of directors of the Cambria Steel Company elected Mr. Endsley as solicitor and general counsel for their corporation and its allied companies. Mr. Endsley has also followed the general practice of law, his attention and services having been mainly devoted to corporation cases. He has organized and is counsel for a number of important corporate interests, and is a director of the Johnstown Water Company, of the Manufacturers' Water Company, and the Republic Iron Company. He has held no offices except that of mem- ber of town council at Somerset, and for ten years past as school director for the school district of the borough of Westmont, where he resides, hav- ing been president of the school board for eight years. He is not a mem-


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HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.


ber of any church, but attends St. Mark's Protestant Episcopal church, of which his wife is an active member. He is one of the trustees of the Cambria Library Association, and a trustee of the Conemaugh Valley Memorial Hospital.


Mr. Endsley was married, April 14, 1880, at Johnstown, Pennsyl- vania, to Ida Margaret Hay, a daughter of Frank W. Hay and Eliza A. Hay. Mr. Hay was for forty odd years one of the leading business men of Johnstown. His father, Michael Hay, M. D., came to Johnstown from New York, Pennsylvania. Ida M. Hay was educated at public and pri- vate schools in Johnstown, and afterwards entered Wilson College at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.


Three daughters were born to Mr. and Mrs. Endsley, namely: Lide H., 28th August, 1881; Katherine M., 13th August, 1888; and Margaret, 30th April, 1895. Lide H. Endsley finished her education at Mrs. Gris- wald's school, Old Lyme, Connecticut, and was married to William Per- rine Fairman, of 501 West Chelten avenue, Germantown, Philadelphia, on the 30th day of October, 1901. Mr. Fairman is a broker with offices in Drexel Building, Philadelphia. Katharine M. Endsley was graduated from the Johnstown high school, and afterwards entered "The Castle," Miss Mason's school at Tarrytown, New York.


Mr. Endsley is an ardent sportsman, and devotes some time each season to the recreation of fishing and hunting. He is also fond of outdoor sports, such as skating, lawn tennis and golf. He is president of the Johnstown Country Club, and is a member of the Amicus Club of Johnstown, one of the leading social organizations of the city.


GEORGE ALBERT WATERS, superintendent and general manager of the National Radiator Works of Johnstown, is a native of Davidsville, Somerset county, Pennsylvania, and was born on the 10th day of June. 1856. He gained his early education in common and public schools, and at the age of seventeen years started out to make his own way in business life. He then came to Johnstown to find work, and for three years was employed in James McConaghey's tannery, for the next few months at the A. J. Haws Brick Works, and afterward for about a year in the Gautier Wire Mill.


Having worked about five years at these various occupations and having accumulated a little money, Mr. Waters went west and visited Iowa, but returned after about six months and found work as a stationary engineer at the Gautier Works, where he was employed for about seven years. After that he became a partner in the firm of Vivis & Waters, and carried on an upholstery business in Johnstown nearly a year. Still later he was associated for ten years with his brothers, who comprised the firm of John H. Water & Bros., and carried on an extensive business in manufacturing and dealing in heating apparatus, and after leaving that firm he was for two years in the same general line with Smith & Flynn. He then returned to his brothers' works, which then had become known as the National Radiator Works, and which now is one of the leading industries of its kind in the country. Since about 1900 Mr. Waters has been connected with the National Radiator Works, and his present office is that of superintendent and general manager, which implies that the affairs of management and operation of the company's extensive plant are largely under his direction. The National Radiator Company is one of the largest concerns in its special line of manufacture in the country, and is known from the Atlantic to the Pacific in trade circles. The other officers of the company are Samuel B. Waters, president, and John H.


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HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.


Waters, secretary and treasurer. Mr. Waters is a member of the Order of Heptasophs, attends the Methodist Episcopal church, and in politics in- clines to the Democracy. He is a busy man, and finds little time to occupy his attention with outside matters, although he is interested in public affairs and the social side of life in the city of Johnstown.


On the 29th of April, 1881, George A. Waters married Eva B. Horner, a daughter of Jacob C. and Mary Ann (Shaffer) Horner. Eight children have been born of this marriage: Merle, Mary, Margaret, Eva, George, Alice, Verda and Curtis Waters.


EDWARD CHARLES LORENTZ, an employe of the Cambria Steel Company, river observer at Johnstown under government appointment, and who in connection with his official duties in that capacity also per- forms the voluntary duty of weather observer at Johnstown, is a native of Prussia, born in Waldeck on the 13th day of April, 1862.


His father, Rev. Edward Lorentz, was a clergyman of the German Lutheran church, and died in his native country, and his grandfather also was a minister of the same church. Rev. Edward Lorentz married Jo- hanna Hausdoerfer, who bore him ten children, of whom two died in in- fancy. He died in Germany, and afterward his widow and children came to America, in November, 1865, and came to Johnstown. Mrs. Lorentz died in that city in 1900. Children of Rev. Edward and Johanna (Haus- doerfer) Lorentz: 1. Meta Lorentz, wife of Rev. Charles Kochler, a Lutheran clergyman of Waldeck, Germany. 2. Matilda Lorentz, wife of George Heiser; both Mr. and Mrs. Heiser perished in the flood of 1889. 3. Bertha Lorentz, wife of Henry Yost, of Johnstown. 4. Hermenie Lorentz, wife of Rudolph Luebbert, of Johnstown; died September 30, ' 1906. 5. Emilie Lorentz, wife of George Muelhauser. 6. Anna Lorentz, wife of Dr. Francis Schill, Senior, of Johnstown. 7. Edward Charles Lorentz, weather observer at Johnstown, of whom special mention is made in this sketch. 8. Johanna Lorentz, widow of Rev. Paul Glasow former minister of the German Lutheran Congregation of Johnstown.


Edward Charles Lorentz was a little more than three years old when his widowed mother came to Pennsylvania and settled in Conemaugh bor- ough, as that part of the present city of Johnstown was then known. His earlier education was gained in public schools, and later on he was a student for some time at the Iron City Commercial College in Pitts- burg, where he took a business course. Ever since he left school Mr. Lorentz has been a constant student, and is known as a careful, thoughtful reader, and one of the best informed men in Johnstown. His tastes in- cline to scientific subjects, and in his special field of study and investiga- lion he is regarded as a reliable authority.


When he was thirteen years old he was given employment in the laboratory of the Cambria Iron Company, remained there four years. and then went to Pittsburg for the purpose of taking a course of study in the commercial college, as has been mentioned. On returning to Johnstown he again entered the Cambria Iron Company's service, and for the next four years was employed in the blast furnace department. After that and for eleven years he engaged in mercantile pursuits, and was proprietor of a shoe store in the city, but at the end of that period his business in- terests were disposed of and he returned to the Cambria Company, taking a responsible position in the rolling mill department. He is still there and is regarded as one of the old and reliable employees of that great Johns- town industry.


In December, 1889, Mr. Lorentz was appointed river observer at


THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY


Astor, Lenox and Tildan Foundations, 1909


Je Wilson


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HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.


Johnstown and in that vicinity, in the government service. In that posi- tion he succeeded to the place made vacant by the death of Mrs. Ogle, who was one of the victims of the disastrous flood of May, 1889. This position he still holds, and in addition to his duties in that capacity he also is weather observer for Johnstown and vicinity, a voluntary and purely honorary office, and yet one of considerable importance, and in which he takes a deep and commendable interest. The government supplies him with the necessary instruments and office equipment for his observations and investigations, and his reports, which are transmitted to the prin- cipal office at Pittsburg, and to Philadelphia and Washington, D. C., are regarded as official. He furnishes all the daily papers with the daily forecast.


On the 6th day of May, 1889, Edward Charles Lorentz married Emma Brodbeck, a daughter of Vincent P. and Mary (Zwick) Brodbeck. The Brodbeck family was the pioneer family of Portsmouth, Scioto county, Ohio. One child was born of this marriage, Carl Edward Lorentz, born March 3, 1892. Emma Brodbeck Lorentz died on the 12th of March, 1892, just nine days after the birth of her son. On the 17th of October. 1895, Mr. Lorentz married Anna Tross, daughter of John Ludwig and Katherine (Boccher) Tross, of Johnstown. The Tross family has been known in the business and industrial history of Johnstown for more than fifty years, and is made the subject of extended mention in these volumes. Three children have been born of the marriage of Edward C. and Anna (Tross) Lorentz: Meta Bertha Lorentz, born November 1, 1896. Ger- trude Catherine Lorentz, born January 13, 1900. Herbert Tross Lorentz, born June 21, 1904.


JOSEPH P. WILSON, general superintendent of the Argyle and Conemaugh Coal Mines, at South Fork, Cambria county, Pennsylvania, and who fills many other positions of financial and commercial impor- tance in that county, traces his ancestry back to the house of the Stuarts. in Scotland, when a MacCammet, with others of royal blood, was banished by Queen Anne. MacCammet emigrated to America and settled in the neighborhood of Valley Forge, in eastern Pennsylvania, and either his daughter or granddaughter became the wife of the grandfather of Joseph P. Wilson.


(I) John Wilson, the grandfather of Joseph P. Wilson, was born near Valley Forge, where his brother, Rev. James Wilson, served as an army chaplain. John Wilson came to the Horseshoe Bend on the Kiskimi- nitis river in 1778, and was one of the pioneer farmers near the present village of Vandergrift. After some years he removed to the vicinity of Spring Church, Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, where he died in 1837 or 1838. He was a Scotch Presbyterian. He was survived by his widow for a period of four years, she dying at the age of eighty. They reared a family of eight children: 1. Joseph, a farmer, deceased. 2. Thomas, de- · ceased. 3. John, deceased. 4. Samuel, deceased, was a blacksmith in Tip- ton, Blair county, Pennsylvania. 5. Polly, married Archibald Smith, of Armstrong county ; both deceased. 6. James, of whom later. ". Jackson, a farmer of northwestern Missouri.


(II) James Wilson, fifth son and sixth child of John Wilson (!), was born on the old Westmoreland farm in 1810. He was engaged in farming until 1844, when he removed to Apollo, where he served as jus- tice of the peace for eight years. He was highly esteemed in the com- munity, was a Democrat, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.


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HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.


He married Jane Brown, daughter of Andrew Brown, who served in the war of 1812 under General Harrison, and was the owner of a valuable piece of land in Armstrong county. They had children: 1. A daughter who died in infancy. 2. Andrew, a machinist of Apollo. 3. John, born in 1831. was a soldier in the Union army and died while in service. Decem- ber 8, 1864: he is buried in the National Cemetery at Chattanooga, Ten- nessee. 4. Joseph P., the subject of this sketch. 5. James P., a mill- wright, died at Danbury, Illinois, 1881. aged fifty years. 6. George W., was a soldier in the Union army, contracted a disease while in service which caused his death at the age of twenty-one years, December 23, 1869. 7. William, died in childhood.


(III) Joseph P. Wilson, third son and fourth child of James (II) and Jane ( Brown) Wilson, was born near Apollo, Armstrong county, Penn- sylvania, January 26. 1833. He was brought up on his maternal grand- father's farm and received a good common school education. His first work was on the canal in 1846, and he followed this occupation until 1854, when he engaged in the mining of coal at Mckeesport, Pennsylvania. Soon thereafter the Westmoreland Coal Company was organized and opened mines at Irwin Station, where Mr. Wilson was employed by them from 1856 until 1863. He then became mine foreman for the Penn Gas Coal Company, Penn Station. and held this position until 1881. when he became general superintendent of the Argyle and Conemaugh coal mines. He was also one of the organizers and a member of the Roaring Spring Land Mining Company. operating zinc and lead mines in Jasper county, Missouri, where they own five hundred acres of land. He was a member of the Mountain Coal Company, owning nine thousand acres of good coal land in Adams township, which is now operated by individual coal com- panies on a royalty. He also owned a third interest in a seven hundred acre tract of coal land in Adams township, and was superintendent of the Dunlo Coal Company. of Dunlo, and president of the South Fork Supply Company and South Fork Water Company. He enlisted in September. 1862. in Colonel Jack's regiment, of Westmoreland county, but was dis- charged at the end of two months on account of defective vision in the right eye. He is one of the most progressive and influential business men of this section of Pennsylvania. and his opinion was sought and highly regarded by all. He was an ardent Republican. and ever ready to aid his party to the full extent of his power. He served four terms as a justice of the peace at Penn Station. the first term by appointment, and the three succeeding ones by election. He was a member of the following organizations: Westmoreland Lodge. No. 518. Free and Accepted Ma- sons. Greensburg : William Penn Lodge, No. 50. Ancient Order of United Workmen, Penn Station; Council, No. 79, Junior Order United Ameri- can Mechanies, South Fork: and Corona Lodge, No. 999, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Conemaugh. of which he was a charter member and past grand. Mr. Wilson died May 23, 1906, and was succeeded by E. H. Wright, of Westmoreland county, in the superintendency of the Argyle and Conemaugh coal mines.


He married. August 5. 1850, Catherine Suman, daughter of Philip Suman, of Westmoreland county. They had five children: 1. Anna L .. widow of D. L. Masters, of Westmoreland county. 2. John W., assistant superintendent and mine foreman of the Argyle Coal Mines. 3. Mary Jane, died at the age of seven years. 4. Alice V., widow of George B. Heffner. of Franklin county. 5. Mary, wife of George W. Schrock of South Fork.


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HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.


JOHN W. WILSON, only son of J. P. Wilson, was born at Lorimer Station, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania. August 3, 1859. He was educated in the public schools and the high schools of Greensburg, Penn- sylvania. He learned the trade of painting which he followed for some years, and then became associated with his father at the mines, and with whom he was associated until the latter's death. He gives his whole at- tention to the mining industry. He is a member of South Fork Lodge, No. 101, Knights of Pythias; Lafayette Commandery, No. 334, Knights of Maccabees, of Uniontown, Pennsylvania; also the Modern Woodmen of America, Couneil No. 1825.


He was married in 1884 to Alice Strong, of Parnassus, Pennsylvania, daughter of Robert and Isabella Strong. Seven children have been born to them: Margarett, wife of Arthur Rowe, of South Fork, Pennsylvania ; Robert J .; Frank C .; Catharine; Charles; Clyde; and Alice.




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