USA > Pennsylvania > Westmoreland County > History of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, Vol. II > Part 3
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II. James Gallagher, son of Thomas (I) was born in Ireland, October
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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
14, 1789, died March 3, 1881. He married, February 6, 1821, Elizabeth Foster, the daughter of Thomas and Catherine Foster, nce Harrokl. She was born December 14, 1802, and died March 29, 1891. Their children were: I. Major General Thomas Foster Gallagher, born January 17, 1822, died November 3, 1883: 2. Major George, deceased: 3. William F., deceased; 4. Isabella, de- ceased ; 5. Sarah Ann, deceased ; 6. Mary Jane, wife of Dr. Joseph L. Cook, of Westmoreland county : 7. Martha, deceased; 8. Elizabeth F. : 9. James S .; 10. Robert Taylor, deceased.
III. Major-General Thomas F. Gallagher, oldest son of James Galla- gher ( II) was a lifelong merchant at New Alexandria, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania. He had a remarkable career in military and business life. Prior to the rebellion he was a prominent figure in the Pennsylvania militia move- ments, and advanced from the office of lieutenant to major-general, having been captain-brigadier and major-general, and after the rebellion became major- general of that body of state troops. His record as an officer during the great civil conflict from 1861 to 1865, was one of a marked success. He enlisted July 2, 1861, and was made the colonel of the Eleventh Pennsylvania "Re- serves" (fortieth in line). During his service he attained to the rank of brig- adier-general. He was commissioned as a leader against the famous "Morgan Raiders," participating in their capture. (An extended account of his army record will appear in the Civil war chapters, volume I of this work). The chil- dren of General Gallagher and wife were: Elizabeth, deceased : Anna Maria, deceased : Sarah Agnes, deceased ; Margaret McBride, wife of Jeffery W. Taylor, Esq., of Greensburg : Isabella, wife of Dr. James R. Jack, of New Alexandria : and James H. Gallagher.
IV. James H. Gallagher was educated in the public schools of his native town and graduated from Duff's Business College of Pittsburgh, in 1887. Afterwards he was engaged in the real estate business in Greensburg, and was deputy clerk of the Orphans' court and deputy register and recorder of Westmoreland county. Mr. Gallagher was elected in the autumn of 1902, and. in January, 1903, sworn into office, as recorder of deeds. His nomination was accorded him without opposition, and he was elected by three thousand, three hundred and forty majority. He was renominated in April, 1905, by the Re- publican party, with no opposition, for another term of three years, and was elected by a majority of about six thousand. He was chosen chairman of the Republican county committee by acclamation in 1904. and did splendid work during the Roosevelt-Fairbanks presidential campaign, aiding materially in bringing about a majority of nine thousand two hundred and forty-eight for the ticket in his county, double that of any former election. He is a member of the Presbyterian church, a Knight Templar, and also belongs to various social orders.
GEORGE DORN. deceased, who was a leading business man of Greensburg, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, was born January 1, 1818, in a pleasant little valley in Northern Germany, near the river Rhine, in the ancestral home of the Dorns, under the great confederation of states that formed an interregnum of the German empire from 1815 to 1835.
He was carefully trained to habits of industry, honesty and economy, and received his education in the rural schools of the fatherland. At the age of eighteen he conceived the idea of emigrating to this country, in quest of more profitable employment than he could then secure in Germany. In 1836 he located in Pennsylvania, and after a considerable struggle for work obtained
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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
employment on the Pennsylvania turnpike. Although young in years his ex- cellent deportment and display of good judgment in the care of teams secured for him the responsible position of stable manager at Turtle creek, where he had charge of all the horses used on one section of the pike. Atter a few years service at the latter place he removed to Greensburg, where he assumed control of the pike stables, continuing until the building of the Pennsylvania Central Railroad, which monopolized the trade and travel of the state, and the old pike, unable to enter into competition, was soon abandoned as a public highway, becoming a local thoroughfare. In consequence of this great change in mode of travel, Mr. Dorn engaged in a new line of business, opening a large livery stable at Greensburg. As a liveryman he met with remarkable success, and with his usual energy soon controlled the leading livery stable in western Pennsylvania, not including Pittsburgh, and was for over thirty years one of the most widely known and popular liverymen in his section of the state. In addition to this line of work he was interested in various other industrial enterprises in the county. George Dorn was a self-made man, worth over $100,000 at the time of his decease, all of which he acquired by honest industry and frugalilty. His business obligations were always promptly met and his contracts honorably fulfilled. He was popular and well liked both as a citizen and business man on account of his generous nature and sterling integrity. His life was one of activity and event ; he enjoyed none of the educational ad- vantages of the present era, nevertheless he was a man of varied information, endowed with a strong mind, the hewer of his own fortune and honest archi- tect of his own fame. In 1881 he sold the lot where the present jail building stands. Politically he was a strong Democrat, and ever evinced a lively inter- est in all pertaining to the welfare of the community. He was a member of the Evangelical Lutheran church, and was noted for his charity to the poor. He was an excellent linguist, speaking with fluency and ease the German, French and English languages.
George Dorn married Elizabeth Mayberry, of Ligonier, and they had children : Julia, married John Long, a son of Samuel Long, who was a highly respected citizen of Hempfield township; George, bookkeeper for Lewis Tranger for many years, died 1872; John, one of the owners of the Greens- burg brewery : Jacob, died in young manhood ; Harry Markle, died August 17, 1895 ; and Louis Tranger, who has been a partner in the Greensburg Brew- ing Company for the past seventeen years, doing a very successful business. The death of George Dorn occurred July 2, 1885, and was sincerely mourned by a large circle of friends. Mrs. Dorn passed away March 1, 1891.
ROBERT ANDERSON FULTON LYON. The Lyon family, of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, was founded in this country by John Lyon, son of William Lyon, who with his family emigrated from Enniskillen county, prov- ince of Ulster, Ireland, to the province of Pennsylvania in the year 1763, set- tling in Cumberland county, now Milford township, Juniata county, about two miles west of Mifflintown. The warrant for the land of two hundred and sev- enty-three acres which was granted, is dated September 18, 1766. The prov- ince granted in 1773. John Lyon and others twenty acres of land for use of the Presbyterian church of Tuscarora, where the remains of Mr. Lyon were in- terred. He died in 1780. He married, in Ireland, Margaret Armstrong, sister of Colonel John Armstrong, a prominent and patriotic Pennsylvanian, of pro- vincial and revolutionary times. She was a woman of bright intellect and fine conversational powers. She died about 1793, and her remains were also in-
Alexander . McConnell
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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
terred at Tuscarora. Their children, all of whom were born in Ireland, were: William, James, John, Mary, Frances, Margaret and Agnes.
John Lyon, third son of John and Margaret (Armstrong) Lyon, came into. possession of one-half of the old homestead, the other half reverting to Sam- uel Lyon. He resided on the old farm until June 1, 1797, when he conveyed the same to Stephen Douglass and removed to Butler county, Pennsylvania, where he died about 1820. The will of John Lyon was dated December 3, 1779. He married Mary Harris, daughter of Captain Thomas Harris, and their chil- dren were: Thomas Harris, John, James, Margaret, Mary, Catherine, and Nancy.
John Lyon, second son of John and Mary ( Harris) Lyon, married Ann Harper, daughter of Daniel and Catherine (Gordon) Harper. Their children were : Gordon M., Harris, Mary, Daniel Harper, John, Joseph, George, Thomas Wilson, and Catherine.
Gordon M. Lyon, eldest son of John and Ann (Harper) Lyon, married (first) Mary Marshall, of whom one daughter, Elizabeth, was born; she mar- ried R. P. Douglass. Mr. Lyon married (second) Mary Anna, daughter of Jacob and Mary (Byerley) Kifer. Their children were: Thomas Franklin, Mary Emma, Margaret Cecelia, Robert Anderson Fulton, and Elmer Ells- worth, who married Clara E. Whitaker.
LLOYD S. FINDLEY, engaged in the restaurant business in Greens- burg, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, was born July 9, 1864, at West Overton, the son of George and Matilda (Neff) Findley. George Findley is by trade a blacksmith, and conducted a shop with good success in Mount Pleasant for a number of years. He subsequently removed to Kansas, where he has resided for a number of years. His wife was Matilda Neff, who died in November, 1901. Their children were: Cassins Markle, died in the west ; . Robert Taylor, Lloyd S., Ada M., died November 26, 1898; and Charles S.
Lloyd S. Findley was formerly a conductor in the employ of the Penn- sylvania railroad for several years. He has been doing a very successful res- taurant business in Greensburg for the past ten years. Mr. Findley married, October 16, 1883. Susan Barbara Kuhns, daughter of Reuben and Sarah Kuhns, of Greensburg. Their named children were: Ada Matilda, born Sep- tember 30, 1884: Wilbur Lloyd, October 2, 1885; Sarah, October 19. 1887, died October 3, 1889; Florence May, July 5, 1889; Josephine Marie, May 5, 1819: Susan Barbara, April 20, 1893: Agnes Naomi, October 14, 1905: Roy Reuben, September 16, 1897 : Robert Taylor, August 13, 1899; Francis Kuhns,. April 26, 1901 ; Margaret Elizabeth, March 22, 1903; and Gladys Althea, Feb- ruary 10, 1905.
JUDGE ALEXANDER DANIEL McCONNELL was born in Loyalhanna township, Westmoreland county on March 10, 1850. He is one of the two judges of the several jury courts of Westmoreland county, and since September 1, 1873, has resided at Greensburg.
(I) The founder of the family in the United States was Danicl McCon- nell, a native of Dumfrieshire, Scotland, born 1710. When yet a young man he came to Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, where he married Peggy Kirk- patrick, a young woman of Scotch-Irish parentage. To them were born four sons and several daughters. The sons were Samuel, David, Hugh and Daniel. The first three of these sons were married to sisters, daughters of Thomas Whiteside, an English gentleman, who came to Lancaster county, Pennsyl-
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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
vania, in the eighteenth century, and who there married Margaret Porter. To them were born five daughters and three sons. The three daughters who were intermarried with the three McConnell brothers, as above stated, were named Rebecca, Martha and Violet. Samuel, the oldest of the three McConnell brothers, married Violet, the yongest of the three Whiteside sisters, while Hugh, the youngest of the brothers married Rebecca, the oldest of the sisters. David McConnell married Martha Whiteside, who in order of birth was the third of the five daughters of Thomas and Margaret ( Porter ) Whiteside.
In respect to church connection the MeConnells were seceders of the old type, while the Whitesides were Presbyterians. In those days this difference was regarded as a very substantial matter, and the parents of the respective contracting parties, in each case, objected to the marriage on that account, but in each case the marriage took place in spite of such objection.
(II) David McConnell, second son of Daniel and Peggy (Kirkpatrick) McConnell (I) was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, 1764. He mar- ried Martha Whiteside, in 1785, and lived in Lancaster county until 1800, when he came to Westmoreland county. They had a family of twelve children, all of whom lived to maturity and reared families, exceut one, who died in in- fancy. They nearly all located in western Pennsylvania, where their descen- dants are still to be found, but many of them are also dispersed throughout al- most all of the northern and western states. They have engaged in a great variety of pursuits. Among them are business men, farmers, and mechanics. The various professional pursuits have attracted many of them, and among them are to be found scores of teachers from all the original branches of the family. At this writing ( May, 1905) there are now living of David McCon- nell's lineal descendants four ministers, of whom Rev. Samuel D. McConnell, D. D., LL. D., and Rev. David McConnell Steel, both of New York city, are two: four lawyers, of whom two are judges, and five physicians. Of the fam- ilies of the four sons of David McConnell, three of them were, for many years, represented in the Eldership of Congruity Presbyterian church.
(III) The eldest son, Daniel, grandfather of Judge Alexander D. Mc- Connell, was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, April 19, 1794, and when but six years of age he came with his parents to Westmoreland county, where he continued to reside until the time of his death. He married, January 16, 1817, Hannah McBride. She was the daughter of James McBride, son of James McBride, Sr., who had settled on the Loyalhanna creek in what is now known as Loyalhanna township, long prior to the Revolutionary war. Both of these James McBrides performed military duty in the Revolutionary war. At the date of taking up the land on Loyalhanna creek, the nearest neighbor of the MeBrides was ten miles distant from them. Several times they were driven from their lands by the Indians, but they always returned, and the farm has ever since been held in the McBride family, and is now owned by another James McBride, a lineal descendant of the original James McBride. Daniel McConnell was a farmer and resided on his farm in Salem township until his death, March 8, 1865. His widow, Hannah ( McBride) McConnell, died at the same place, April 14. 1884. There they reared a family of ten children-three sons and seven daughters. Of these David Kirkpatrick McConnell (IV) was the eldest son. He was born November 18, 1819. He also was a farmer. David Kirkpatrick McConnell was, on October 31, 1844, intermarried with Harriet Sloan, third daughter of John Steel Sloan and Jane (Christy) Sloan, of Salem township, Westmoreland county. The Sloan and Christy families were both Scotch-Irish pioneers in Westmoreland county and of the Presbyterian
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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
faith. The Christy family located in the neighborhood of New Salem prior to the revolutionary war, and the Sloans near the same place a few years later. It therefore appears that the ancestors of the subject of this sketch, as they are represented in the families of his four grandparents, have all been identified with the history of Westmoreland county for more than a century. David Kirkpatrick McConnell and Harriet (Sloan) McConnell had nine children, five sons and four daughters, all now living except John S., who met death by an accident. David Kirkpatrick McConnell( father of Judge McConnell) died on December 5. 1900, leaving to survive him his widow who still lives on the old homestead in Salem township. Their children are:
I. James Graham McConnell, of Colorado.
2. John Sloan McConnell who died in Colorado several years ago, but whose family, consisting of a widow, Hannah ( Richards ) McConnell, a daugh- ter, wife of Rev. Charles Beatty of Pittsburgh, and a son Robert K. McConnell, who is a member of the Allegheny county bar-now reside in Pittsburgh, Penn- sylvania.
3. Alexander Daniel McConnell (\) of Greensburg, Pennsylvania.
4. Sarah McConnell Reynolds of Arkansas, wife of Hon. J. E. Reynolds.
5. Melissa McConnell Foster, wife of James W. Foster, of Salem town- ship, Westmoreland county.
6. Mary McConnell Buchanan, widow of D. M. Buchanan, of Salem township. Westmoreland county.
7. Katherine McConnell Sterling, wife of James M. Sterling, of Latrobe, Pennsylvania.
8. David Ellsworth McConnell, of Salem township, and
9. Robert Henry McConnell, of Victor, Colorado.
(\) Judge McConnell was educated in the public schools of Loyalhanna and Salem townships, New Salem Academy, and Washington and Jefferson College. For several years he was the assistant of H. M. Jones, superintendent of public schools of Westmoreland county. He located in Greensburg. in Sep- tember, 1873. as a teacher in the public schools, and soon thereafter was elected principal of these schools, and continued to serve in that capacity until June 1, 1876. On motion of Senator Edgar Cowan, August, 1877, admitted to prac- tice in the several courts of Westmoreland county, and has continuously since that time devoted himself exclusively to the law. He was prepared for ad- mission to the bar in the office of the late Judge James A. Hunter. In politics he has always been a Republican. He was chairman of the Republican county committee in 1878. In the following year he was nominated as a candidate for the legislature, but at that time the county was overwhelmingly Democratic, and a reduction of the amount of the Democratic majority was the full measure of his success. He received the nomination of his party in Westmoreland county for congress in 1882, but the rule of rotation that year threw the nomination in the district to Fayette county. He was nominated for judge of the court of common pleas in 1880. The Republican party, however, met defeat that year as it did for several years thereafter. A law was enacted in 1805. allotting two judges to the tenth judicial district, and Governor Hastings, on practically the. unanimous endorsement of the Westmoreland county bar, appointed him. on June 17. 1895. to the new position thereby created. He received the Republican nomination, and in November of the same year was elected for a full term of ten years by a majority of about three thousand. He was, on April 15, 1905. without opposition, nominated to succeed himself by the Republican party, and on July 3, following. he was endorsed by the Democratic county committee and his
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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
name directed to be also placed on the Democratic ticket as the candidate of that party. During his term of office many important questions have been presented for solution, notably among these was a recent question pertaining to the law governing the approval of the contract for the erection of the new court house, now in course of construction. The correctness of the decision rendered by him in that matter, was stubbornly contested but it was unanimously approved by both the superior and the supreme courts of the state. Westminster College conferred on Judge McConnell, June 18, 1902, the degree of LL. D., an honor which has, in the last century, only been conferred on four other members of the Westmoreland county bar, viz. : Justice Coulter, Hon. Edgar Cowan, Hon. H. P. Laird and Hon. James A. Logan. Judge McConnell is a regular at- tendant of the First Presbyterian church of Greensburg. He is one of the trustees of the Morrison Underwood fund which by its donor was devoted to certain educational purposes. He is also a director of the Westmoreland Hos- pital, located at Greensburg. He is a member of the Masonic society, and of the Scotch-Irish society of Philadelphia. He was intermarried, March 24, 1876, with Ella J. Turney, eldest daughter of Adam J. and Emma ( Eyster) Turney, of Greensburg, Pennsylvania.
Adam J. Turney was a grandson of Rev. John William Weber, a pioneer Reformed minister, who established numerous churches in western Pennsyl- vania, among which is the church on the corner of Smithfield street and Sixth avenue, in the city of Pittsburgh.
Emma (Eyster) Turney is the daughter of Rev. Michael Eyster, a Lu- theran minister, who died, while yet a young man, in Greensburg. Judge Mc- Connell and wife are the parents of five children, four sons and one daughter. Kirk, the eldest son, is a graduate of Washington and Jefferson College, and is now a student at law. Turney, the second son, is a clerk in the bank of the Barclay Trust Company of Greensburg, while Alexander, Emma and Robert are yet in school. They were all born in Greensburg. Judge McConnell be- lieves that his position requires him to administer the law as it is, rather than as he might desire it to be, and that it forbids the use of it as a personal instru- ment wherewith to reward friends or punish enemies, that in the facts of every case is to be found the law of that case, and that no amount of patient labor expended on the proper ascertainment of the facts, or of research, in the ac- curate ascertainment of the law, can be any greater than what is due to every case great or small. He believes too that the epigram of President Roosevelt should be unflinchingly applied in a court of justice, viz. : that "every man shall have a square deal, no less, no more." That faith he has carried into act on the bench, and both political parties by renominating him have given ap- proval of his course.
SAMUEL O. W. LOWRY, a real estate dealer and general financial operator of the firm of Lowry & Boarts, of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, was born near the borough of Greensburg, July 4, 1843. Robert Lowry, father of Sam- uel O. W. Lowry, was born in the North of Ireland, and when he was but nine years of age came to Philadelphia with an uncle, having lost his father in early childhood. He learned the cloth weaver trade in Philadelphia. In 1839 he came to Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, having married Nacy Thornton in Philadelphia. She was a native of Ireland, coming to America in her teens. Robert Lowry walked the entire distance from Philadelphia to this county and settled near New Alexandria, where he farmed with Samuel Patterson, of Derry township. Later he moved to Greensburg vicinity, where he farmed and
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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
hauled ccal from a coal-pit. He died, in May, 1898, aged eighty-three years. Their children were: Mary Jane, born 1838, died May, 1905 ; she married George Lindsay ; Martha, born 1840, died 1868, married James H. Steel ; Mar- garet P. born 1842, married Joseph W. Steel, and died about 1900; Samuel O. W., born July 4, 1843; James N., born 1845, was killed July 10, 1864, at Spottsylvania, Virginia ; he was a soldier in the Union cause during the Civil war ; Matilda, born 1847, married William Hice, of Allegheny City, Pennsyl- vania ; Robert C., born 1849. died October 21, 1904, at Greensburg, Pennsyl- vania, and was buried at New Alexandria, Pennsylvania ; Agnes, born about 1851, married Rev. T. C. Sproul, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ; Elizabeth, born 1854, is single and resides at New Alexandria.
Samuel O. W. Lowry was born July 4, 1843, obtained a good common school education in Westmoreland county, and then learned the trade of har- nessmaker and saddler, which he followed for others and for himself for sev- eral years. He enlisted in the Union army, February 16, 1864, as a member of Company K, Eleventh Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, under Colonel Rich- ard Coulter, of Greensburg, Pennsylvania. He was assigned to the Fifth Army Corps, General G. K. Warren commanding, the Third Division com- manded by General Crawford, and Second brigade, General Baxter, command- ing. He saw much active service, having participated in nearly all the battles of the Army of the Potomac from the "Wilderness" fight to Lee's surrender at Appomattox, including those great engagements known in Civil war history as Spottsylvania (where his brother was killed), North Ann, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Virginia, and Hatch Run. He was at the grand review in Wash- ington, in 1865, and returned without serious illness or any wounds. He re- sumed his harness trade a short time and then became a salesman for sewing machines on the road, continuing until 1874. He then embarked in the har- ness and saddle trade at Mckeesport, Pennsylvania, and followed that until 1887, when he engaged in real estate business at that place, continuing until 1897, when he removed to Greensburg, Pennsylvania, engaging in the same business and forming a partnership with L. N. Boats in 1901. He has numer- ous financial interests, making his a busy life. He is secretary and treasurer of the Greensburg Petroleum, Gas and Mining Company of Burkesville, Ken- tucky ; also connected with the Eli Sell General Merchandise Company. He is a stockholder and director in the Wilkinsburg Trust Company, besides real estate interests at Mckeesport, Pennsylvania. His residence is on a twenty-five acre farm, well improved, adjoining the borough of Greensburg, where he en- joys the comforts of an independent life. Politically Mr. Lowry is a Repub- lican. While a resident in Mckeesport he served six years as member of the school board and the same period as member of the common council. He is an elder in the Westminster Presbyterian Church of Greensburg. He is a mem- ber of Colonel Samuel Black Post, No. 59, G. A. R., at Mckeesport, Pennsyl- vania, of which he was the commander in 1807.
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