History of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, Vol. II, Part 12

Author: Boucher, John Newton, 1854-1933; Jordan, John W. (John Woolf), 1840-1921
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 860

USA > Pennsylvania > Westmoreland County > History of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, Vol. II > Part 12

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Henry Ackerman, son of Philip and Christina (Reed) Ackerman, and father of Henry S. Ackerman, was born on his father's farm, February 2, 1801. He followed agricultural pursuits, owned an excellent farm, achieved the most gratifying success in this line, and was held in high esteem by his neighbors. Politically he was a life-long Democrat, and while taking a lively interest in the affairs of that organization never aspired to public office. He cast his first presidential ballot for General Jackson, and served one term as school director. In matters of religion Mr. Ackerman was a member of the Lutheran church at Youngstown, and frequently served as local officer. In 1828 Mr. Ackerman married Catherine Smith, a daughter of Joseph Smith, of Derry township. They had nine children, one of whom was Henry S .. mentioned hereafter. The death of Henry Ackerman occurred April 5, 1885, and his demise was sincerely mourned by a large circle of friends.

Henry S. Ackerman obtained his early education in the common schools of Unity township. After leaving school he engaged for some years in agri- cultural pursuits, and later learned the trade of carpenter, which occupation he followed with considerable success for nine years. In 1879 he opened a music store in Greensburg, opposite the Zimmerman House. He carries a full line of fine organs and other first-class musical instruments, and has established an extensive and profitable trade in Westmoreland, Fayette and Indiana counties. and has several men constantly in the field canvassing. In addition to musical instruments he also handles the White sewing machine. Mr. Ackerman is a man of keen business ability, and this with his unflagging energy and tenacity of purpose is a prominent factor of his signal success in business. Politically

Lemuel Offutt

HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.

he is a strong defender of the principles advanced by the Democratic party, and works earnestly and untiringly for its success. In 1880 he was nominated by the Democrats of Westmoreland county as a candidate for the legislature and was elected. During his term in the legislature he acquitted his duties with efficiency and credit, his conduct receiving the highest commendation at the hands of his party. In matters of religion he accords with the doctrines of the Lutheran church. Henry S. Ackerman married, January 15, 1880, Mollie C. Weaver, daughter of William Weaver, of Mount Pleasant township. West- moreland county, Pennsylvania.

LEMUEL OFFUTT, M. D., one of Greensburg's successful medical practitioners, was born May 8, 1851, on a farm between Darnestown and Sen- eca Mills, Montgomery county, Maryland. The Offutt family are descended, from Scotland through the following line of ancestry :

I. William Offutt, settled in Prince George county, Maryland, where he died in 1734. He married Mary Brock, by whom was born children including a son named William.'

II. William Offutt, son of William and Mary ( Brock) Offutt, died in Maryland, in 1737. He married Jane Joyce, and after his death she married Dr. James Doull. Among the children of William and Jane (Joyce) Offutt was one named William.

III. William Offutt, son of William and Jane ( Joyce) Offutt, was born in Montgomery county, Maryland, February 14. 1729, died in 1786. In 1750 he married Elizabeth Magruder, born November 8, 1730. Among their children was a son James.

IV. James Offutt, son of William and Elizabeth ( Magruder) Offutt, was born April 23, 1753. He became the grandfather of Dr. Lemuel Offutt. James Offutt's paternal great-grandfather with his two brothers emigrated from Scot- and early in the eighteenth century and located in Maryland, engaging in farming.

V. James Offutt, son of James Offutt, a farmer by occupation, was born near Great Falls, Maryland, October 3, 1803. He married Mary White, of Olney Maryland, March 17. 1849. She was the daughter of Samuel White, whose ancestors came from England. Among the children of James and Mary (White) Offutt was Dr. Lemuel Offutt, born May 8. 1851.

On the genealogical line of Dr. Offutt's great-grandmother ( Elizabeth Magruder, born November 8, 1730) the ancestors trace back to 1605, in Scot- land. when Alexander Magruder married Lady Margaret Deummond, daughter of "Loaird of Avernchiel. Clan Campbell." Alexander Magruder was born in 1569, in Scotland. His son Alexander, an officer under Charles II, emigrated to Calvert county, Maryland, in 1652, and died in 1677. His son Samuel mar- ried Sarah Beall, born 1669, died 1734. He died in Prince George county, Maryland, in 1711. He was a member of the Maryland house of burgesses -- 1701-1707. He held civic and military positions, and was a vestryman of St. Paul's Parish. This line of ancestry then runs through Ninian to his son Samuel, who married Margaret Jackson, who died in 1801. Samuel was born in Mont- gomery county, Maryland, in 1708: died 1786. Elizabeth, their daughter. born . November 8. 1730, became the great-grandmother of Dr. Offutt hy marrying William Offutt. as above mentioned.

VI. Dr. Lemuel Offutt, son of James and Mary (White) Offutt. was reared to farm labor and attended public and parochial schools, finishing his .studies in Andrew Small Academy. He then taught school three years and

HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.

read medicine under the tutorage of Dr. C. H. Nourse, of Darnestown, Mary- land, entering the medical department of the Maryland University, from which he graduated in 1876, having been a resident student in the Maryland Infirm- ary eighteen months. He located at Penn Station, Pennsylvania, May 8, 1876, and there practiced his chosen profession until December, 1883, when he moved to Greensburg, where he is still an honorable and highly successful physician. In politics Dr. Offutt has ever adhered to the time-honored prin- ciples of the Democratic party, but has never sought or held public office. Not unlike so many generations of his sturdy Scotch forefathers, he, too, is identified with the Presbyterian church. He is also connected with numer- ous beneficiary societies, In stating that Dr. Offutt is a self-made man the term is used in the true sense. By a defaulting county treasurer in Maryland his father lost his property and died when Lemuel was a small lad, hence he was early thrown upon his own resources, which were but a good sound body and a determination to gain for himself a place among men. Dr. Offutt has been twice married. In January, 1877, he married Sarah E. Dukes, of Baltimore, Maryland. She died in December, 1900. They had eight chil- dren : James H., a contractor : Mary E., wife of I. C. Ruffner ; Lemuel, died in childhood; Sarah D .; Susan R. ; William G., died in infancy ; Courtney C`, died in infancy, and Rose E. Offutt. For his second wife Dr. Offutt mar- ried, June, 1904, Leola R. Edwards, daughter of Rev. Charles Edwards, of Alliance, Ohio.

DANIEL REAMER ULERY. Among the trusty employes of the- Pennsylvania railroad system residing at Greensburg, Pennsylvania, is Daniel R. Ulery, born May 14, 1869, in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania.

(1) Henry Ulery (grandfather) came from Germany, his native country, and settled. in Unity township, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania. Here he married Hannah Hugus, and they became the parents of Sophia, who- married Henry Seaman, and they reared a large family. Augustus, born 1843, on the old homestead, of whom later. Fanny, married and lives in Venango county, Pennsylvania. Herman, married Sadie Blair, of West- moreland county. Henry Ulery was by occupation a farmer.

(11) Augustus Ulery ( father), born in 1843, has been a railroader nearly all his life. He now resides at Donahoe, a few miles out of Greens- burg. He has been division foreman on the Pennsylvania railroad many years. He married Elizabeth Jane Topper, whose brother and sisters were: Wilson J., Lovinia, Louisa, deceased ; and Samuel. Mr. and Mrs. Augustus Ulery had children : Daniel Reamer, born May 14, 1860, and Louis Marshal, born July 22, 1871. The last named is still single and remains at home. Polit- ically the father is a Republican, and was reared in the Reformed church.

III. Daniel R. Ulery obtained his education at the comon and high schools of Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Upon leaving school he had an am- bition to achieve something in life by his own efforts, and at once entered the employ of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, first as a water-boy. Proving faithful to this trust he received promotion to the agency at George Station, in 1884, and remained at his duties for seven years at that point. He was made agent at Donahoe, July 1, 1891, where he mastered telegraphy and remained to October 1. 1895. He has served in the telegraph service since 1895, and now has charge of the southwest junction, "the tower." at Greensburg. Mr. Ulery married. July 2, 1901, Anna Elizabeth Borlin, daugh- ter of Albert and Elizabeth (Steiner) Borlin, of Hempfield township. Mrs.

HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.

Clery's father ran a livery and also a restaurant at one time in the borough of Greensburg. He served in the Twenty-eighth Pennsylvania Regiment of Volunteers from Westmoreland county, being in service from 1861 to 1865, receiving an honorable discharge. He was born in Salem township April 24, 1843, married Elizabeth Steiner, June 25, 1868; she was born in West Newton, October 2, 1848. To Mr. Ulery and wife was born one child, Emily Elizabeth, June 29, 1903. In 1902 Mr. Ulery purchased a comfortable residence property at No. 355 East Pittsburg street, Greensburg, not far distant from the "Tower," where he is employed as telegrapher. His wife is a member of the Lutheran church, which they both attend. He is a mem- ber of Philanthropy Lodge, No. 225, A. F. and A. M., of Greensburg, Penn- sylvania ; M. W. A., No. 10,950; Branch No. 2 of the Grand Fraternity ; and' Pittsburg Division of the Order of Railway Telegraphers, No. 52. He also. carries a protective policy in the Sun Life Insurance Company of Canada.

FREEMAN C. GAY. The death of Freeman C. Gay, October II, 1900, removed from the town of Greensburg, Westmoreland county, one of its leading and substantial business men. He was born in Donegal town- ship, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, July 3, 1838, a son of William B. and Martha (Spear) Gay, and grandson of Peter and Elizabeth (Hayes) Gay.

Peter Gay (grandfather) was born in Franklin county, Pennsylvania. He started with his father and two brothers, William and Joseph, to emigrate to Indiana county, but in their westward journey, when they reached the Ligonier valley, Mr. Gay admired the country so much that he remained there and engaged in merchandising and stock dealing. He was a prosperous, business man, of broad and liberal views, and was one of the founders of the Lutheran church of Donegal and a supporter in all religious causes, although he was not a member of any church. He was a good scholar and an accurate surveyor. He was an old line Whig and served as justice of the peace for thirty-five years. By his marriage to Elizabeth Hayes, daugh- ter of Lewis Hayes, an early settler of the county, five children were born, two sons and three daughters, all of whom married and settled in their native county.

Willliam B. Gay (father) was born September 3, 1815. He followed throughout his active career the quiet but useful calling of agriculture, from which he derived a goodly livelihood. He served his township as justice of the peace for fifteen years, fulfilling his duties to the satisfaction of all concerned. In his political belief he was a Jeffersonian Democrat. He mar- ried, in March, 1835, Martha Spear, a daughter of William Spear, of Union- town, Pennsylvania. Mr. Gay died April 4, 1864; he was survived many years by his wife, who died January 7, 1883.

Freeman C. Gay, son of William B. and Martha (Spear) Gay, acquired a liberal education in the common schools, Stahlstown Normal school and Sewickley Academy. The first years of his active life were spent on the farm, and in 1865 he engaged in merchandising. continuing the same until 1873. He entered into partnership with Edward H. Bair in 1884, and they were engaged in a very successful business up to the time of Mr. Gay's death. The firm represented the German-American, Liberty, Niagara, Orient, Girard, Union, German Travelers, and Home Insurance Companies of the United States. The North-British. Lancashire and London, and Lancashire Companies of Europe, and the Fidelity Plate Glass Company. At the age

HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.

of twenty-three years Mr. Gay enlisted in Company K, Eleventh Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, was appointed corporal, and in 1862 promoted to second lieutenant. He participated in all the battles in which his regiment was engaged until the first day's fight at Gettysburg, where he was wounded and taken prisoner by the Confederates. He was one of the one hundred and nine men who escaped through the rose tunnel, and likewise was among those unfortunates who were recaptured. After twenty months in various southern prisons, where he suffered untold agony in mind and body, he was paroled March 1. 1865. For five years he served as superintendent of the County Home. He was an adherent of the principles of Democracy. He married, March 30, 1865. Harriet Louise Jones, who was born in Jonesville, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, January 31, 1846, a daughter of Robert and Sarah ( Hubbs) Jones. Their children are: Elizabeth, Charles, and James.

DAVID SHAW ATKINSON is descended from Scotch-Irish an- cestry. His grandfather came to America and settled in Maryland more than a century ago. He is a son of Thomas Atkinson, who resided in Mount Pleasant, and who was married to Elizabeth Shaw. Of his ancestry on his mother's side, David Shaw was in the Revolutionary war and was engaged at Hannastown in 1782, and in the Indian conflicts of that age. From this ancestry Mr. Atkinson took his name. He was educated in Mount Pleasant College, where he spent four years, read law with Hon. James A. Hunter and was admitted to the bar in 1868. Shortly after his admission he was associated in business with T. J. Weddell, Esq., and afterward with Hon. J. R. McAfee, and still later with John M. Peoples, Esq. At present he is in partnership with William C. Peoples, Esq. He has also, almost since his admission to the bar, been one of the owners and editors of the Tribune- Herald, a daily and weekly paper still published in Greensburg. He has not, however, allowed the newspaper business to in any way conflict with the practice of the law, to which he has given his steady and undivided at- tention for thirty-five years, and in which he has achieved abundant success. No better indication of his standing at the bar can be given than this: "That when upon the death of Hon. H. P. Laird a few years ago, it became the duty of the Westmoreland Law Association to elect a new president, there were no two opinions in the association as to whom this honor should be given." Mr. Atkinson was unanimously elected and has since been re-elected each year.

His firm has always conducted a large general legal business, the court business falling mainly upon him. While not by any means a weak man in any branch of his profession, he is doubtless at his best in the trial of a case or in an argument before a jury ; his flow of language, his quick per- ception of the strong points of a case, and his majestic delivery which almost approximates that of the old-time orator make him a most \formidable op- ponent in any case. He has in the last twenty years been senior counsel in more than forty homicide cases in this and other counties, and has always conducted them with great skill. He has also been concerned in and has successfully conducted a very large number of the most important cases, involving the payment of large sums of money, tried in the civil courts of Westmoreland county. Aside from his law practice he has been engaged somewhat in banking and other business, but not so as to interfere with his profession. He has been a Republican and has made stump speeches in

VARiuson

HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.

every section of the county, in other parts of Pennsylvania and in the western states, yet, like few lawyers, he has steadily refused political preferment. Time and again has a nomination which was almost equivalent to an election been offered him for high positions, but in each instance he has positively declined. There is no doubt that he could have been in congress or on the bench years ago, had he consented to become a candidate. His friends have reason to believe and hope that he has yet before him many years of pro- fessional usefulness.

ALEXANDER EICHER, deceased, for many years an attorney of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, was born November 24, 1851, in the village of what is now known as Old New Stanton, in Hempfield township, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania. His great-grandfather, Abraham Eicher, was born in the neighborhood of the river Rhine, in France, and he was of German and French extraction. He was a tailor by trade. He settled at Hagerstown, Maryland, and from there moved to Ligonier, Westmoreland county, Pennsyl- vania, accompanied by his wife, Elizabeth Sophia (Golden) Eicher, and a large family which she bore him. Among their children was a son, Jacob. Eicher, (grandfather) who was born in Hagerstown, Maryland, in 1800. He was a millwright, a miller and carpenter, and a devout member of the Baptist church, being an elder therein for years. He married Sallie Slonecker, a lady of rare intelligence, daughter of John Slonecker. Among their children was a son, John Slonecker Eicher. In 1855 Jacob Eicher and his wife moved to Washington cunty, Iowa, and were there buried.

John Slonecker Eicher (father) was born July 25, 1823, in Pleasant Unity, Unity township, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania. His educational advantages were very limited, and although he had no trade or profession, was a very handy man, and for many years was known as the best auctioneer in the county. Prior to the Civil war he served as fifer for five or ten years in the state militia. In his day he was a factor of considerable importance in the Democratic party, and held the office of treasurer of Westmoreland county dur- ing the years 1869-70. He is a Campbellite in religion. Although advanced to four score and two years, he is possessed of his powers of body and mind to- a good degree, and is spoken of by many as the very soul of honor and manli- ness, a gentleman of the old style type, but ready to accept the best brought forth by modern civilization. He is a man of decided, deep convictions, and has yet to forsake a friend who has aided him, though others talk ill of him. He married Mary Pool, born May 20, 1833, in Hempfield township, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, just below the village of New Stanton, daughter of John Pool and his wife, Betsey (Houser) Pool, who was one of a family of eight daughters and no sons. John Pool was a son of Samuel Pool, Jr., and brother of the mother of the Venerable Harrison Null, of Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Samuel Pool, Jr., was a son of Samuel Pool, the founder of the Pool family in Westmoreland county. Mrs. John S. Eicher died February 14, 1861. In 1856 Mr. Eicher moved to Washington county, Iowa, but after a residence of twenty months there returned to Pennsylvania. He and his wife were the parents of three children : Alexander, born November 24, 1851, mentioned hereafter ; John P., born September 30, 1853, and Jacob, born December 20, 1858.

Alexander Eicher attended the common schools of Hempfield township until twelve years of age. He then entered the country store of his maternal uncle, C. H. Pool, in Pennsville, Bullskin township, Favette county, and re- mained there two years. The following five years he clerked in a general store in Pennstadt, now Penn borough, Westmoreland county, the proprietors thereof

HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.

being J. F. & D. Landis. In 1870 he was appointed deputy in the register and recorder's office of Westmoreland county, continuing for six years, three under Clark F. Warden and three under John M. Laird. On January 10, 1876, he en- tered the law office of Archie A. Stewart, in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, as a clerk, but with the object of becoming a lawyer, and he was engaged in that office up to his decease, September 23, 1905. He was admitted to the bar July 30, 1880, and built up a large practice. He was engaged in a number of noted trials, among which was the Painter case, the Ritenour case, and the B. F. Rynd case, which gave him an excellent opportunity to display the legal talent he so abundantly possessed. He was a Democrat in politics, and while a strict partisan enjoyed the respect of the members of the opposition party. He joined the Christian church in the early eighties, and was actively connected with the A. O. U. W., R. A., and N. U. His friends were not confined to the limits of Westmoreland county, but were to be found all over the state. He was ex- tremely kind-hearted and generous, possessed a fund of humor and jokes, with which he could entertain an audience, and therefore was popular and in much ·demand at social gatherings and dinners.

Mr. Eicher married, at Greensburg, Pennsylvania, October 4, 1873, Ella M. McClelland, daughter of Archibald and Mary (Funk) McClelland, the former named having been a native of Ireland, a contractor and builder. Her death occurred in the spring of 1898. Their children were: Clark Warden. born June 17, 1874, attended the schools of Greensburg, and Washington & Jeffer- son College, at Washington, was a member of Company I. Tenth Pennsyl- vania Regiment, and served in the Philippines during the Spanish-American war. He is a lawyer, a member of the Westmoreland county bar, and practiced with his father under the firm name of Eicher & Eicher. He married Sarah Glunt, of Greensburg. Alexander, Jr., born April 24, 1878, also attended the schools of Greensburg and Washington and Jefferson College, of which latter institution he was a member of the famous football team, and in 1898 was elected captain, but went to the war before the season opened. He graduated at the head of his class in Greensburg high school, and stood among the first of his class at college in his junior year. He served during the entire period of the Spanish-American war as a member of Company I, Tenth Pennsylvania Regiment, and during this time was never on the sick list. He is also a lawyer, a member of the Westmoreland county bar, and engaged in practice with his father and brother under the firm name of Eicher & Eicher. He married Winona Gallagher, who resided in the vicinity of Uniontown. Mary McClel- land, born August 25, 1880, became the wife of J. Ed. Stevenson, of Greensburg. Elinor McClelland, born March 16, 1882, became the wife of Robert C. Jones, of Boston, Massachusetts. Romayne McClelland, born June 29, 1883. John S., born November 23, 1884. Archibald, born May 23, 1890.

BRENISER FAMILY. The numerous and well known family of which Harry R. Breniser, of Ligonier, is a member, has been for at least a century identified with Westmoreland county. Peter Breniser, so far as is known, spent his entire life as a farmer in Derry township. His children were: Abram, Peter, Jacob, mentioned hereafter : Barbara, married Tobias Kimmell; Susan, married Cyrus Cavin : and Christopher. a merchant at Hillside.

Jacob Breniser, son of Peter Breniser, was born in 1819. in Derry township, and during bis early manhood was a farmer and stock drover. In 1850 he moved to the Ligonier valley and settled about two miles north of Ligonier vil- lage. He subsequently moved to the borough, where he engaged in mercantile

HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.

business during the remainder of his life. He married Sarah Hargnett, and they had children: John, Albert, Peter, mentioned hereafter; Susan, wife of John Johnson : Catherine, married J. Q. A. Blair ; Nettie, wife of William Thomas ; Sarah, wife of S. S. Dice ; and Ida, married Charles Bassart.

Peter Breniser, son of Jacob and Sarah ( Hargnett) Breniser, was born April 12, 1851, in Ligonier township, and until he was twenty-five years of age remained with his father on the homestead. He then married and began farming for himself on the home farm. In 1881 he moved to Ligonier borough and established what is now known as the National Hotel, of which he was proprietor for two years. He then went to Greensburg, where for six years he was proprietor of the Zimmerman House. Thence he removed to Dubois and for two years and a half conducted the National Hotel, after which he returned to the Ligonier valley and for a brief period resumed the life of a farmer. In 1900 he built the Hotel Breniser, at Ligonier, which he successfully conducted for a time, and then transferred the management to his son, Harry R. Breniser. Mr. Breniser married, October, 1876, Hulda J., daughter of Jesse Ramsey, and they have three children: May, a graduate of Duff's Business College, Pittsburg, now manager of D. H. Tollman's loan office; Harry R., mentioned hereafter ; and Hargnett, at home.

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History of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, Vol. II, Part 12

Author: Boucher, John Newton, 1854-1933; Jordan, John W. (John Woolf), 1840-1921 Publication date: 1906 Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Lewis publishing company Number of Pages: 860

Author: Boucher, John Newton, 1854-1933; Jordan, John W. (John Woolf), 1840-1921
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: New York, Chicago, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 860