USA > Pennsylvania > Jefferson County > History of Jefferson county, Pennsylvania, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 81
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PAUL DARLING. - ALEXANDER M. MCCLURE.
S. S. Jackson $2,000 ; to David Eason $2,000 ; to H. Brady Craig $1,000 ; for beauti- fying and improving the grounds of the public schools of the borough of Brookville, $3,000 a year for twelve years ; to the erection of a Methodist Church in the borough of Brookville, when erected $3,000 ; for the benefit of the poor in the borough of Brookville and Rose township, $2,000 a year for nine years, to be divided each year in proportion of paupers in each district ; to A. J. Brady, judgment against him ; to E. H. and W. R. Darrah and the Moore boys, judgment against them ; to W. J. McKnight and T. L. Templeton, judgment against them for $2,000 and note for $3.000 ; to T. P. McCrea, note for $325; to Brookville Cemetery Company, the interest on $1,000 annually and perpetually, to be expended in keeping my lot and tomb in order ; to E. Clark Hall $50 ; to F. X. Kreitler $50; to A. L. Gordon $25; to William Dickey $25 ; to Uriah Matson, Robert Matson and Harry Matson, each $10; to John C. Hamlin $5,000 ; to Willie Orlo Hamlin, in addition to foregoing, $5,000; to the Presbyterian Church of Brookville $2,000 ; to the U. P. Methodist, Baptist and Lutheran Churches, each $1,000. After the above bequests are provided for, if there should be anything remaining, I direct the following to be paid : To Edward Scofield, $3,000 a year for nine years ; to H. C. Litch, Ed. A. Litch, J. B. Henderson and W. H. Gray, each $1,000 a year for ten years ; and as residuary legatees, to the Presbyterian and Metho- dist Churches of Brookville, in the proportion of two-thirds to the Presbyterian and one- third to the Methodist Church." A. L. Gordon, esq., and J. B. Henderson are named as executors of the will.
M cCLURE, ALEXANDER M., was born in Mifflin township, Allegheny county, near the present site of Mckeesport, on the roth day of October, 1824. He is the grandson of Andrew McClure, one of the first judges of Allegheny county, who came to America from Ireland, when he was about eighteen years old, and settled east of the Allegheny Mountains, but afterwards removed to Allegheny county, where he resided until his death, which occurred in 1845, at the advanced age of one hundred and three years. His father's name was also Andrew, and his mother, née Margaret Abraham, was born at Steubenville, Ohio, and resided there until her marriage with Andrew Mc- Clure, when they moved to Elizabeth township, Allegheny county, but only lived there a short time, when they moved to Mifflin township, where they both resided until their death. Mr. McClure died at the age of sixty-five years, and Mrs. Margaret McClure died March 29, 1875, at the age of eighty-four years. The old homestead is still held in possession by their son, Alexander M. McClure. They had six children, Francis, Sarah, Alexander M., Margaret, Andrew and Susan, and they are all yet living.
A. M. McClure was married July 3, 1849, to Sarah H. Cox, eldest daughter of William and Hannah Cox. She was born in Leicestershire, England, about seventy-two miles from London, December 13, 1827, and came with her parents to America in 1830. They set- tled at Saltsburg, Indiana county, but removed to a farm near the present site of the homestead, in Allegheny county, where she resided until her marriage. Mrs. McClure died April 27, 1880. They had twelve children, nine daughters and three sons, of whom seven daughters and two sons are yet living. Two daughters died in infancy, but the eldest son, William Alexander McClure, who was born January 13, 1857, and was en- gaged in the lumber business with his father, in Mckeesport, died May 3, 1880. He was married January 1, 1880, to Carrie Rath, of Mifflin township, Allegheny county. Hannah Jane, the eldest daughter, married James E. Patterson, March 25, 1879, and 85
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
resides at McKeesport; Josephine, married Edward Seifert, February 22, 1876, and lives in Big Run ; Susan M., living in Mifflin township, Allegheny county ; Catherine L., married James H. Barrelle, September 29th, living in Punxsutawney ; Andrew Francis, married Susan Charles, December 19, 1882, and resides on the old homestead in Allegheny county, Emma L., married W. H. Tyson, August 25, 1885, and lives in Big Run; John McC., Nora D. and Sarah Belle, are unmarried, and reside with their father at Big Run.
Not being satisfied with his avocation of a farmer, Mr. McClure at an early age em- barked in the lumber traffic, and for many years carried on an extensive trade along the Monongahela River. In 1861 he made his first business trip to the wilds of Jefferson county, and ever since has been carrying on a large business in this county, but has only made his home here since 1884, when he removed to his present residence in Big Run. Mr. McClure, besides his large lumber interests in Jefferson and Clearfield county, owns some of the best farms in Henderson township, and built the large hotel in Big Run, the Hotel McClure, besides being engaged in the mercantile business. He is one of the foremost citizens in furthering every enterprise that enhances the prosperity of the place.
INSMORE, MARION J., son of Robert and Mary Dinsmore, was born in Peters- D burg, Huntingdon county, May 12, 1837. His mother was a daughter of Thomas Johnson, Centre county, to whom his father was married on the 22d day of January, 1835. Robert Dinsmore was born in Boallsburg, Centre county, March 22, 1805, his father having emigrated from Ireland about the close of the Revolution, and settled in Centre county. He afterwards served in the War of 1812, and was honorably dis- charged at its close. He died in Boallsburg.
Mr. Robert Dinsmore removed to Huntingdon county in 1833. Before he left Cen- tre county he was engaged in cattle droving, and visited the western countries of the State, purchasing stock for the eastern markets. He engaged in farming in Hunting- don, for a few years, and removed to Armstrong county, where he purchased a farm about four miles from Kittanning, where he resided until his death, which occurred De- cember 23, 1853. His wife survived him a number of years, residing during the later years of her life with her son, Marion, at Punxsutawney, where she died, aged about sixty-five years. The family consisted of nine children, seven sons and two daughters, of whom four sons and one daughter are living.
Marion was the eldest child, and at his father's death the care of the family devolved upon him. The estate was found to be in a bad condition, encumbered with debts that threatened to involve the entire property ; but though a boy in years, young Marion Dinsmore put his shoulders to the wheel, cleared off all the indebtedness, stocked the farm, put it in a good state of cultivation, making it one of the best in the neighborhood.
When the war-cloud burst upon the country, young Dinsmore promptly enlisted, in Company K, Seventy-eighth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers. While on picket he was prostrated by typhoid pneumonia, which came near ending his life, and his recovery left him so debilitated, that his discharge from the service was necessary. In June, 1863. he returned home, and finally recovered.
He then determined to seek some other calling besides farming, and entered the Iron City College, at Pittsburgh, the winter of 1863 and 1864, and graduated therefrom May, 1864. This was the turning point in Mr. Dinsmore's career, to which he attributes all his future business success. To Rev. Mr. Harvey, Professor Smith, of the Iron City
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MARION J. DINSMORE .- A. M. CLARKE, M. D.
College, and other kind friends, he will ever feel the warmest feelings of gratitude for the great interest they took in the broken down soldier boy.
After finishing his course at the college Mr. Dinsmore engaged in cattle droving, in order to build up his strength by out-door exercise, and afterwards was employed as a clerk in Ross & Nechling's general store in Kittanning.
In April, 1865, he removed to Punxsutawneyan in Dr. Joseph Shields' store, and afterwards a partner in this establishment. June 20, 1870, he was elected cashier of the Mahoning Bank of Punxsutawney, and became its principal manager and financier until October, 188-, when he purchased all the stock of the con- cern, and became its sole owner, until December, 18, 1886, when he sold the bank to the present owners, since which time, he has not been engaged in any business.
Mr. Dinsmore was married November 15, 1865, to Miss Sarah E. Beney, daughter of James R. Beney, of Armstrong county, near Kittanning. They have had seven chil- dren of whom one boy and five girls are living; the youngest boy, Freddie Earl, the baby of the household, dying August, 1887.
LARKE, A. M., M.D. Asaph Milton Clarke was born in the town of Granby, Hart- C ford county, Connecticut, on the 22d day of March, 1808. His ancestors were among the early settlers of New England, having crossed the ocean from old England, in what year is not certainly known. Philetus Clarke, his father, was a son of Joel and Chloe Clark née Reed, and was born October 9, 1782. His mother was Penelope God- ard, daughter of Tilley Godard and Adah Holcomb, his wife. She was born December 6, 1787. The progenitors of Dr. Clarke seem to have been remarkable for their lon- gevity. John Godard, father of Tilley, died at the age of ninety-six years; his wife, Molly Hillyar, at ninety-seven ; Ephraim Holcomb, father of Adah, died at the age of eighty-four years, and his wife, Dorcas Hays, at the age of sixty-five, while Adah, the grandmother of Dr. Clarke, lived to the great age of one hundred and two years. Phi- letus Clark married Penelope Godard on the 20th of February, 1806. He died Janu- ary 12, A. D. 1852. When A. M. Clarke was about six months old his parents removed to Russell, St. Lawrence county, New York, where they remained until 1819, when they removed to Little Toby, now in Elk county.
He was born amid the scenes of frontier dangers, and his home was within hearing distance of the roar of the cannon during the war of 1812. One incident of his infancy is given in his own words : " Perhaps it might have been a joke of the old Canadian Indian who came to our house when mother was alone. I was sleeping in the cradle. The savage, taking out his knife and moving towards the cradle, said : ' Ugh ! me kill dam Yankee!' My mother cried : 'No, Socksusup, you will not !' And, perhaps fortunately for my childish scalp, I was left unmolested. My mother, who related the story to me, said she was not afraid; but a quivering, ghost-like thrill of horror creeps over me yet to think of it."
His parents were among the first to penetrate into the Little Toby wilderness, and, with those who were associated with them in reclaiming those untrodden wilds, have been noticed in the earlier pages of this work. The educational advantages in those days were limited in the extreme, but young Clarke was possessed of an inquiring mind, and the older he grew the more insatiate became his thirst after knowledge. As he says, his first lessons were received at his mother's knee; that mother whom he loved
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
and revered so tenderly, and who made her home near him until called from earth, only a few short years before him.
He was quite quick at repartee, and while in Huntington county in 1828, he fell in with a burly wood-chopper who had conceived an antipathy for him just because he was a " Yankee." One day young Clarke happened to step into the bar-room of the Glenn Hotel, in Half Moon Valley, where he was boarding, and found himself among a crowd of wood-choppers. The burly fellow aforesaid, who had noticed him frequently with a book, suddenly confronting him, said: "Ha! have you got your dictionary ?" " No, sir," said his victim, "but I will bring it if you wish." He replied, " All you are fit for is to dance at a dog's funeral." " I am aware of it, and I expect a job when you die," was the unexpected rejoinder. And the giant said no more, while the landlord and bystanders enjoyed his discomfiture.
At an early age he evinced a love for the medical profession, and studied under Dr. Jonathan Nichols, the pioneer physician of that part of the State, and to whom, he says: "I am more indebted than to any other person for my success in after years."
Dr. Clarke was married on the 6th of March, 1831, to Rebecca Mason Nichols, the daughter of his friend and preceptor, Dr. Nichols, and on the fiftieth anniversary of this event they celebrated their golden wedding at their home in Brockwayville, in the presence of their children, grand-children and friends.
Of Mrs. Clarke's ancestry, the record is not so complete. Her father, Dr. Jonathan Nichols, who has already been noticed in this work, was the first settled minister of the gospel in Jefferson county. He was born March 4, 1775, and was the son of Jonathan and Rhoba Nichols, née Martin. Dr. Nichols married Hannah, daughter of Hezekiah and Sarah Mason, née Wood, January 17, 1796, and died May 16, 1846. His wife died June 1859, aged eighty-two years.
The aged wife of Dr. Clarke, who was in very truth a helpmeet to him, still lives and resides at the old homestead in Brockwayville.
Dr. Clarke practiced his profession almost constantly to the day of his death, and was one of the best known physicians in the county. He was of the Eclectic school of medicine and was a graduate of the Cincinnati Eclectic Medical Institute.
He was identified with the northern part of Jefferson county for over sixty years. In 1836 he removed to Brockwayville, where he laid out the town and done much to give it its " first start in life," and where for almost fifty years he made his home, and whose every upward stride he watched with a zealous eye. Much of his history has been given in the history of the medical profession, of which he was an honored mem- ber, and his patient, faithful and gentle ministrations at the bedside of the sick and dy- ing will not soon be forgotten. His studies were not confined to medicine, but he was well versed in general literature, and had a loving acquaintance with the poets. Books were his delight and the solace of many a weary hour.
On Thursday evening, May 22, 1884, Dr. Clarke died very suddenly, at his residence in Brockwayville, of neuralgia of the heart. On the Monday evening previous he attended a meeting of the Borough Council, of which he was a member, walking home afterwards. This effort proved too much for him, and he was ill all night and continued indisposed until Thursday, when he seemed better and moved about the house singing, as was his wont, and laying plans for the morrow. As evening drew near he com- plained;of pains in his limbs, back, and loins, and his loving, faithful wife rubbed the affected parts with mustard water, which gave him almost instant relief. Shortly after,
James Humphreys
ALITTLE.
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705
A. M. CLARKE, M. D .- JAMES HUMPHREY.
while lying on his bed talking to her, he suddenly put his hand over his heart, and said : " Oh, this terrible pain, it will kill me !" closed his eyes and quietly expired.
His death brought sorrow not only to his own immediate household and friends, but to the community at large, for all felt that a " good man had fallen "-one whose place could not be filled. The funeral took place on Sunday, and was one of the largest ever held in Brockwayville, over one hundred carriages following the remains to the ceme- tery, where Rev. E. R. Knapp, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church, conducted the burial services.
The family of Dr. Clarke consisted of ten children, six daughters and four sons : Hilpa A .. married to William A. Schram, of Ridgway; Adaline, drowned October 9, 1843; Penelope G., married to Dr. W. J. McKnight, of Brookville; Julia died January 23, 1839; Myrton died March 31, 1842; Sarah, married to Thomas M. Myers, of Brock- wayville ; Asaph M., residing in York county ; an infant son died April 16, 1847 ; Fran- ces Ada, married to John A. Green, of Brockwayville, and William D., residing in Brock- wayville.
The following fitting tribute to Dr. Clarke was written at the time of his death by one who loved him for his many good qualities of head and heart :
" Deceased was intellectually a remarkable man. Denied the advantages of wealth and education, he became not only a learned and skillful physician, but a literary man of high order. Books were the mine in which he delved, and from their pages he brought forth jewels of information and thought most rare. He loved poetry with an ardor words cannot express, and was not only familiar with the leading poets of the past and present, but was himself the author of a number of fragments which show him to have been possessed of a poetic fire, that, in the hands of one less modest and unassum- ing than he ever proved himself to be, would have made him an enduring name. His qualities of heart were no less choice than were those of his head. He was generous to a fault, and as meek and gentle as a child. Nothing seemingly gave him more pleasure than to do good to his fellow-men, and many there are who have partaken bountifully of his store. In the sick-room his presence was always a sweet solace, and his delicate touch almost as soothing as a narcotic. In the social circle he was ever popular, the diversity of his knowledge and the easy flow of his language rendering him a delightful companion. As a man and citizen he was highly respected, as was proven by the spon- taneity with which his neighbors gathered about his grave and dropped a tear to his precious memory. His death, like his life, was peaceful, and the name he leaves behind is as pure as the lily and as fragrant as the rose."
H UMPHREY, JAMES, was born October 8, 1819, near Huntingdon, Pa. His father, Richard Humphrey, was born in Ireland in 1762, and came to America when a young man, during the French war. The vessel in which he made the voyage, was chased by a French privateer. After living in different localities he located in Huntingdon county, where he married Margaret Wright, who was also a native of Ire- land, having come to this country with her parents while but a child. She died near Huntingdon, in 1841. Mr. Humphrey removed to Jefferson county in 1840, and died at the residence of his son, William, near Richardsville, in 1846, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. Richard and Margaret Humphrey were the parents of eight children : William, Thomas, Margaret, Richard, Jane, Mathew, James and John. Of these, the three eldest and the youngest born are dead. Margaret married William Darrah and
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
died in Illinois ; William died at his home near Richardsville; Thomas died at Strat- tonville, and John ac Richardsville. Of those living Mathew resides near Richardsville, Richard near Curwensville, Clearfield county, Jane, who married Samuel C. Espy, re- moved to Yankton county, Dakota, where she still resides.
James, the remaining member of the family and the subject of this sketch, in his youthful days learned the milling trade, and later engaged in boating on the Pennsylva- nia Canal, being engaged at the business in 1838 between Hollidaysburg, Columbia and Philadelphia. In the winter of that year he came to Jefferson county and worked at his trade of miller, with his brother, Thomas, who had charge of the grist-mill of Rob- ert P. Barr, in Brookville. The next spring he returned to his home in Huntingdon county, and resumed the life of a boatman until winter again set in, when he went to Greenville, Clarion county, where he worked for his brother, Thomas, and then came back to Brookville in 1840, and worked in the mill of R. P. Barr again until 1844, when he rented the grist-mill at Port Barnett, where he remained one year, then in 1845 re- turned to the Barr Mill again, where he remained as miller until 1848. In 1842, he and his brother, Thomas, purchased the mill property back of Corsica, where they built the grist-mill now owned by J. B. Jones.
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On the 26th day of February, 1849, Mr. Humphrey was married to Miss Mary J. Lamb, of the vicinity of Corsica. Five children have blessed this union- Wilbert Newton, Mary Araminta, Annetta, Eva Alma, and James Malcolm. Of these, Annetta, a babe of eight months, died at Brookville, March 1, 1856, and Mary Araminta, died at Port Barnett, March 1, 1859, aged six years ; Wilbert is married to Miss Kate Bu]- lers, and Eva to Frank A. Barber, while James Malcolm, the youngest of the family, remains with his parents.
In 1856 Mr. Humphrey purchased the Port Barnett property of A. P. Heichhold, assignee for Jones & Johnston. In 1876 he associated with him in his business his son, Wilbert N., and the firm is now James Humphrey & Sons. Since 1876 they have had a general store in connection with their other business.
In 1882 they built a new saw-mill with a capacity of from thirty to forty thousand feet per day. They have also a shingle, lath and planing-mill in connection with it. They have also greatly improved and remodeled their large grist-mill. Mr. Humphrey, a few years ago, purchased the property of Jacob Kroh, jr., just west of Port Barnett, on the Brookville road, where he has a beautiful home and can enjoy the fruits of his early toil. He is one of the solid business men of the county, and bids fair to be able to superintend his large business interests for many years to come.
G IBSON, W. M. B., M.D. The subject of this biographical sketch scarcely requires
I any mention of ancestral connections, for he stood out alone, an isolated being, from any other Gibson alive or dead-an unique and eccentric character. As far as consan- guineous inheritance goes, his sum of qualities-which distinguish one person from an- other -might as well have been of spontaneous growth. Yet to follow the conventional paths of biographical writers, some trace of his ancestry should be given.
His great-grandfather, on the paternal side, was one Hugh Gibson, who lived in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, previous to the Revolutionary War, and whose two sons, John and Levi, pioneers of Indiana county, were captured by the Indians and delivered into the hands of the British. Their release came only with the termination of the strug- gle, and thereat John Gibson resumed his residence in the county last mentioned. Will-
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W. M. B. GIBSON, M. D.
iam Gibson, the son of John, located in Clarion county (then Armstrong) in 1803, the year in which Louisiana was purchased of France. James, the son of William, was the father of the person of whom we write.
The great-grandfather on the maternal side was of Hibernian stock, who bore the characteristic appellation of McFadden, while his spouse was of German extraction, whose name was Jack. Owen Meredith, the grandfather, was a native of Chester county, from whence he emigrated to Centre, and thence to Clarion. The Merediths were of English and Welsh lineage.
William Meredith Bruce Gibson was born on the roth day of January, 1843, five miles from Clarion town, in Monroe township. The exact spot of his nativity was half way between two iron furnaces, three-fourths of a mile on either side ; and in this fact there is an illustration of the " eternal fitness of things," inasmuch as our Gibson was " between two fires " all his days. And this fiery circumstance wielded another in- fluence, and a more potent one, over the life which was then in the matrix that shaped the years of manhood. A continuous warfare was rife between the youths of the fur- naces, in which the boys of the country adjacent took sides; and, too, the forces of the furnaces often coalesced and did battle against their heterogeneous enemy, the rural striplings. Many a trouncing, in these sanguinary affrays, did our hero both give and receive ; and as his young ideas were here first taught to shoot at educational targets, so were the seeds of pugnacity sown, which grew into a bountiful crop, especially in hostilities of an intellectual character. When Right and Justice were on his side, he was as aggressive as the flux of the invincible ocean, and as immovable as the eternal hills.
At the age of fourteen the precocious lad entered upon the career of school teaching, alternating his time between that avocation and attending the Dayton Union Academy, of Armstrong county. Between his fourteenth and nineteenth years he taught nine terms, and in his fifteenth the study of medicine was commenced. At the age of seven- teen he was accorded, by an unanimous voice of the County Institute of Armstrong, over which Superintendent Calhoun presided, a professional certificate; and with this credential of educational efficiency, he went forth into other States to disseminate knowl- edge. In 1860 he was the principal of the academy of Bullitt county, Kentucky, a few miles south of Louisville ; but in consequence of an attack of ague he returned to Penn- sylvania, and taught a couple of terms of school at Goheenville, in Armstrong county, and in the winter succeeding presided over the graded school of East Brady.
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