History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 129

Author: George Dallas Albert, editor
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USA > Pennsylvania > Westmoreland County > History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men > Part 129

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1 Sketched by one of his grandsons, and published in the Greensburg Gazette, 1834.

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GEORGE F. HUFF.

George F. Huff, banker and operator in coal and coke, now resident of Greensburg, is a native of Mont- gomery County, Pa., and is of German stock, his an- cestors on his paternal side having come to America from Bavaria. On his mother's side he is also of Ger- man descent. He is the son of George and Caroline Boyer Huff, both of whom are now dead, and who were respectively natives of Hoof's (Huff's) Church and Boyertown, Berks Co., Pa. They were the parents of eleven children, six of whom are living; among them, Henry B. Huff, Esq., a banker and oil operator in Bradford County, Pa., and William A. Huff, en- gaged in the banking business and a resident of Greensburg.

George F. Huff was born in Norristown, Pa., July 16, 1842, and when about four years of age was taken by his parents to Middletown, Dauphin Co., Pa., to which place they removed, and where he attended the public schools. They removed in 1851 to Altoona, Blair Co., where he went to school till about the age of eighteen years, when he entered the shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company there located, to learn the car-finishing trade, at which he was en- gaged for some three years. He then, on recom- mendation of his railroad employers, received invi- tation to position in the banking-house of William M. Lloyd & Co., where he was occupied until 1865, when he was sent by that company to Ebensburg, Cambria Co., to establish there a banking-house, of which he was made cashier. He remained there a year, meanwhile putting the bank on a firm footing, and was then recalled to the home house in Altoona. Remaining there a year he was again sent out on missionary work, this time to establish banks at La- trobe, Greensburg, Irwin's Station, and Mount Pleas- ant, Westmoreland Co., which he did, and became one of the firm owning and controlling the same, under the name of Lloyd, Huff & Co. The business of all of these banks was conducted by Mr. Huff, suc- cessfully at first, but in the panic of 1878 they were overwhelmed in the general disaster, on account of the extending of aid by Mr. Huff to others connected in business with him.

Immediately thereafter, or in 1874, the Greensburg Banking Company was organized, and Mr. Huff was appointed cashier. This banking-house under his management enjoys the full confidence of the public, and does a large and flourishing business.

In 1871 "The Farmers' National Bank of Greens- burg" was established, with a capital of $100,000, Mr. Huff being made its president. But in 1873 he re- signed his post, the bank being at that time reorgan- ized, Gen. Richard Coulter becoming its president, and Mr. Huff being unanimously elected its cashier. In consequence of the general depression in business incident to the panic of that time it was deemed ad- visable to remove the bank to Pittsburgh, where, legis- lation having been obtained to effect the purpose, it 84

was re-established as the "Fifth National Bank of Pittsburgh," Mr. Huff being chosen one of its direc- tors and elected as vice-president. He has since severed his official relations with that bank, though a stockholder thereof, on account of the increase of his banking business at Greensburg, and because of various other enterprises in which he is interested.

Aside from his banking business, Mr. Huff is ex- tensively engaged in the mining of bituminous coal and the manufacture of and shipping of coke, being interested with Gen. Coulter, under the firm-name of Coulter & Huff, and with the Argyle Coal Company, George F. Huff & Co., the Mutual Mining and Manu- facturing Company, and with Gen. Coulter and the Hon. James C. Clarke in the Greensburg Coal Com- pany. Mr. Huff was instrumental in organizing and establishing the United Coal and Coke Company, which does business in Westmoreland County, and of which he is a director.

In the operations of these several companies many hundred persons find profitable and steady employ- ment.

March 16, 1871, Mr. Huff married Henrietta Bur- rell, daughter of the Hon. Jeremiah Murry Burrell, deceased, formerly president judge of the Tenth Ju- dicial ' District of Pennsylvania, and subsequently United States associate judge of the Territory of Kan- sas, and who died Oct. 21, 1856.

Mr. and Mrs. Huff have been the parents of six children, two of whom are living,-Lloyd Burrell and Julian Burrell.

CAPT. JAMES J. WIRSING.

Capt. James J. Wirsing, of Greensburg, is the son of John and Mary Shafer Wirsing, and was born in the township of Donegal, Westmoreland Co., Nov. 9, 1840. His father, who died in 1852, was the son of John Wirsing, a native of Germany, who migrated in manhood to America about 1790, and some time there- after married at Philadelphia Catharine Elizabeth Althart, a native of Germany, whose acquaintance he made on board the ship which bore them to the country, and after living a while in Westmoreland County settled in Somerset County, on a farm near Petersburg, upon which he had a vineyard, of the fruits of which he made wine. He was, however, by trade a cooper, and was also an itinerant Methodist preacher, who worked at his trade during secular days, and preached here and there on Sundays. He was the father of several children, all of whom are now dead excepting one, Mr. Henry Wirsing, an aged man, who resides in Somerset County, Pa. Of the children above referred to was one named John, the father of Capt. Wirsing. He was born Jan. 7, 1798, and growing up became a farmer, and remained such during life. Dec. 18, 1821, he married Mary Shafer, daughter of Peter Shafer, pf Westmoreland County,

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by whom he had Dine children, seven of whom are living : Peter, deceased; Catharine, intermarried with John Kooser, now of Iowa; Eliza, who married W. R. Hunter, Esq., of Donegal, Westmoreland Co .; Harriet, the wife of H. M. Millhoff, of Donegal; Margaret, deceased; Thomas, now living in Illinois; John S .; Jeremiah, a resident of Somerset County ; and James J.

Capt. James J. Wirsing received his early education in the common and select schools of Donegal, and learned the plastering trade, and just after arriving at majority enlisted a company of soldiers for the late war in Ligonier Valley, and was chosen lieuten- ant. The company reported to Harrisburg, and there drilled for a while, when it selected the Eighty-fourth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry as the one to which it desired to be attached, and joined the regiment at Arlington Heights in the latter part of September, 1862. The regiment immediately pro- ceeded to the seat of active war, at first joining the Third Army Corps, under Maj .- Gen. Daniel E. Sickles, and participated in various battles, among which was the fearful fight at Fredericksburg, as well as the battle of Chancellorsville, in which Lieut. Wirsing was shot twice, through the leg and hip. The loss of the Eighty-fourth Regiment was so severe at the battle of Chancellorsville that, together with its prior losses, it came off that field with only about one hundred and fifty men and officers, Lieut. Wirsing being furloughed for sixty days on account of his wounds, and return- ing home. What remained of his regiment eventually went with the army to Gettysburg, on the way to which place, at Edwards' Ferry, on the Potomac, Lieut. Wirsing rejoined his command. At Gettys- burg he and his men were detailed to protect the army trains in the rear. After the battle of Gettys- burg they crossed over into Virginia and went into camp. At about this time the Third Army Corps was disbanded, and one division of its forces was placed in the Second Army Corps under Gen. Hancock. To this division belonged Lieut. Wirsing, who, in August, 1868, was promoted to a captaincy. He thereafter participated in many battles, being engaged in all of those of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, etc., on till Oct. 4, 1864, when he was severely wounded through both shoulders and his left thigh, and left in the field for dead, but was taken up by the enemy and carried off. After being held for nine days, during which he was confined in Libby Prison, being com- fortably cared for by a detail of Union soldiers who were prisoners also, he was, under a general agree- ment between the government and the Confederacy whereby soldiers unfit for duty for three months were exchanged, paroled and sent to hospital at Annapolis, Md., where he remained till December, 1864, and then received leave of absence from the War Depart- ment, returned home, and being unable to rejoin his regiment was honorably discharged in January, 1865, as "a prisoner of war," under a clause of the agree-

ment above referred to between the government and the Confederacy, and was therefore never duly "ex- changed."

Since the war Capt .. Wirsing has been engaged in various avocations, and is now conducting the business of insurance. At the fall election of 1878 he was chosen treasurer of Westmoreland County for the period of three years, and entered upon the duties of his office Jan. 1, 1879, and ably and honorably ful- filled the same during his official term.

June 5, 1867, Capt. Wirsing married Miss Lottie Fluke, daughter of William and Elizabeth Moore Fluke, of Bedford, Pa. Capt. and Mrs. Wirsing are the parents of six children, the first five born in Mount Pleasant, and the sixth in Greensburg. Their respective names are Myrtle, Edgar, William F., Her- bert, Mary Elizabeth, and Ralph.

DAVID WILSON SHRYOCK.

David W. Shryock, Esq., of Greensburg, is a native of Westmoreland County, and was born in 1816, eight miles north of that borough, upon a farm which his grandfather purchased in 1782, for "forty-five pounds, Pennsylvania currency," the deed of which is regis- tered on page 55 of volume i. of Westmoreland County records of deeds. His ancestry on his pater- nal side were German. John Shryock, his great- grandfather, with two brothers of his, and with other German Palatines, landed in Philadelphia in 1788. He settled in York County, Pa., where he died in 1778.

On his maternal side Mr. Shryock is of English de- scent, his ancestors having been of the number who constituted one of William Penn's colonies. They settled in Bucks County, Pa. His grandfather, David Wilson, served several years in the Revolutionary war.

Mr. Shryock, being the oldest of four brothers and three sisters, like all in the days of his childhood born upon farms, was put down to hard work from boyhood. Until he attained his majority he had to content himself with such limited means of education as the very common schools this part of the State afforded sixty years ago. At the age of twenty-one years he struck out for himself in the world, and spent most of three years as a member of an engineer corps in the service of the State of Indiana, and which was engaged making preliminary surveys and locating lines which have since been utilized by corporations in building some of the railroads in that State.

At the age of twenty-seven years he married a Miss Dickie, daughter of a worthy farmer in the county, and to gratify the wishes of his parents he took up his residence at the old homestead, where he con- ducted the farming operations for several years. In the fall of 1850 he purchased the office of the Westmore- land Intelligencer, a weekly newspaper, published at Greensburg, and the organ of the old Whig party in the county. He moved to town, and on the 8th of November, 1850, the first issue under his editorial

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conduct of that paper appeared. The construction of the Pennsylvania Railroad through the county was then in progress. The heavy work in the vi- cinity of Greensburg brought there a large increase of population, which gave a new impetus to its growth and enterprise, making dwellings and suita- ble business houses scarce. For several years Mr. Shryock, like all other new-comers, labored under in- conveniences from this source, but in 1855 he pur- chased a lot on Main Street, adjoining the Methodist Episcopal Church, from which a previous owner had re- moved all the antiquated buildings. On this he erected that year the large two storied brick now there, and which he designed for his dwelling and printing- office mainly, but had in it also a law-office and store- room to rent. At that time it was among the best and most modernly constructed houses in town,-the first dwelling with a metallic roof,-and has doubtless yielded the owner the largest revenue on the original cost of any building in the place.

Mr. Shryock subsequently changed the name of his paper to that of the Greensburg Herald, and from the time he entered upon his editorial career up till 1870, twenty years, his was the only organ in the county to antagonize the old Democratic party, which up to. 1860 was in the majority from one to two thousand votes. Some of the gubernatorial and Presidential campaigns between 1850 and 1870 were very heated, and sometimes bitter and personal. During that period there were times very trying to those at the head of public journals, who realized the responsibil- ities of the position, and felt the necessity of mould- ing a right public sentiment on all the questions be- fore the country. The editorial columns of the old Herald bear ample testimony to Mr. Shryock's faith- fulness in the position he occupied, as well as fear- lessness in the advocacy of the doctrines of the party with which he affiliated, and his true loyalty to his country during the four years of civil war. He seems to have had the confidence and respect of his party in an unusually high degree. He was made one of the delegates for the Twenty-first District to the National Republican Convention of 1860, where he voted for the nomination of Mr. Lincoln, after casting his first ballot for Mr. Cameron under instructions from the State Convention.

In August, 1862, after the passage by Congress of the first internal revenue act, Mr. Shryock was commis- sioned by the President assessor of internal revenue for the Twenty-first District of Pennsylvania, then embracing the counties of Fayette, Westmoreland, and Indiana. This office imposed upon its incumbent duties of the most laborious, responsible, and perplex- ing character. Here was a new law to execute, the provisions of which were new to everybody. It taxed for war purposes every branch of business in the coun- try. In its execution the assessor and his assistants were the first officers to come in contact face to face with the people, allay their prejudices, and try to re-

concile to and secure their prompt compliance with the law. Nor was this all : there were no decisions, explanations, or instructions, based upon the law to guide them in determining the true meaning of its elaborate and multifarious requirements. And yet justice and uniformity in its interpretation were ex- pected at their hands. For over four years he dis- charged the duties of that office, and at the same time edited and published the Herald. But his loyalty to the Republican party and its pronounced doctrines, and his refusal to indorse Andrew Johnson and those who became his special exponents and had practi- cally left the party, among them Senator Cowan (in aid of whose election as senator Mr. Shryock had given his best endeavors), procured the latter's re- moval from office. Soon thereafter Mr. Shryock as- sociated with him in the publication of the Herald his son, John D. Shryock, who was then chief clerk in the Soldiers' Orphans' School Department at Har- risburg, under the administration of Governor Geary. His son's health, however, failed, and he died in October, 1871. Soon thereafter the health of Mrs. Shryock, the mother of his six children, gave way also and she died. Under these afflictions Mr. Shry- ock disposed of his newspaper to two gentlemen, who immediately united it with the Tribune, which had been started eighteen months previously by J. R. Mc- Afee, Esq., and since the early part of the year 1872 the Tribune and Herald has been a weekly organ of the Republican party in the county.

Then for the first time in his life Mr. Shryock was practically out of business for four months. How- ever, in May, 1872, he was appointed and confirmed collector of internal revenue for the old Twenty-first District, and entered upon the duties of that office on the 21st of that month. This position he filled till Oct. 1, 1876, when the district was divided, and the counties composing it were consolidated with the Twenty-second and Twenty-third Districts. Mean- time he had again married, in March, 1874, Miss Martin, of Northumberland, and the fell destroyer had carried away his second daughter at the age of twenty-three, his only remaining son at the age of twenty-one, leaving him but two daughters, the eldest married, and the youngest, the latter also pass- ing away at the age of sixteen years in November, 1877. He was now just where he was as to family thirty-four years previously. In January, 1878, he and his wife removed to Mount Pleasant, an old town, twelve miles south of Greensburg, in the coking coal region, where, associated with two other gentlemen, a private banking-house was opened, he taking charge of it as cashier. In the three and a half years he re- mained connected with that enterprise they built up a nice and remunerative business, the house gaining the confidence of the public to as large an extent as he could possibly have hoped.

For several reasons, among them the fact that the location and surroundings were not deemed comfort-

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able and healthful, on account of the sooty atmos- phere, produced by the vast and constantly-increasing quantity of coal being converted into coke, Mr. Shry- ock resolved to change his base. In September, 1881, he, with a number of other gentleman of large means in the county, subscribed the stock and organized "The Merchants' and Farmers' National Bank of Greensburg." Selling all his interest in the "Mount Pleasant Bank," Mr. Shryock returned to Greens- burg, and was made cashier of the new bank, which opened for business Oct. 24, 1881, with a paid-up capital of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, to the interests of which he is now giving his undivided attention.

An earnest man, he is conscientious and zealous in all he undertakes. And although while he was en- gaged in politics his antagonisms with his fellow- citizens of the Democratic party were at times sharp, yet he has in that party some of his warmest personal friends, who esteem him highly for his integrity and generous social qualities. In religious faith Mr. Shryock is a Presbyterian, having united with that church in early life. At the age of thirty-three years, and has exercised that office in his church ever since. In 1857 and in 1866 he was honored with a seat in the General Assembly as one of the commissioners from his Presbytery. He inherited a robust constitution | allel with the slope-heading.

in 1849, he was chosen and ordained a ruling elder, ' with a grade of one foot in twelve, and has been ex-

from an ancestry of strong mental and physical de- velopment, and long-lived, some of them reaching the age of ninety-five years. Now in his sixty-sixth year, weighing over two hundred pounds, he is as strong and active on his feet as many men at forty. He and his most estimable wife have a very comfort- able and attractive home, in a pleasant part of the town, where, by their cheerfulness and proverbial hospitality, they make the many friends who visit them full welcome and happy.

J. W. MOORE.

Mr. J. W. Moore, whose portrait appears in this book, resides in Greensburg. He is a gentleman well and favorably known in the business circles of Westmoreland and Fayette Counties, in which he has large coal and coke interests, especially in the coke-works of J. W. Moore & Co. in South Union township, Fayette County, called the Redstone Coke- Works.

The following description of the Redstone Works is taken from the "History of Fayette County":

" These works, owned and operated by J. W. Moore & Co., are situated about three miles south of Union- town, near the railroad leading from that town to Fairchance. The property embraces about six hun- dred acres of land, with a frontage of nearly two miles along the railroad. A part of this land was purchased ! in 1880, and the construction of ovens then com- menced. On the 1st of May, 1881, seventy-five were completed, and ninety-five have since been added. It is the intention of the owners to increase the number to three hundred.

"The mine is entered by a slope or 'dip-heading,'

tended. to six hundred feet. Three hundred feet from the entrance is the first flat-heading, which extends southward, and from this another runs par-

"Several blocks of houses, each containing eight rooms, and intended for use of the miners, have been built at the works. A large brick store-building has also been erected. Two stone quarries have been opened on the property near the oven-beds. The location of the works is near the head of a mountain stream, which furnishes an abundant supply of pure water. The coke manufactured here is contracted for by J. D. Spearman Iron Company, in Mercer County, Pa."

HEMPFIELD TOWNSHIP.

ORGANIZATION, BOUNDARIES, ETC.

HEMPFIELD TOWNSHIP was organized April 6, 1773. Its boundaries, determined by the judges of the first Court of General Quarter Sessions, were :

Beginning at the mouth of Crabtree Run and running down the Loyalhanna to the junction of the Conemaugh River; thence down the Kiskiminetas to the mouth thereof; thence with a straight line to the head of Brush Run ; thence down Brush Run to Brush Creek ; thence with a straight line to the mouth of the Youghiogheny ; thence up the same to the mouth of Jacobs Creek, to the line of Mount Pleasant township.

Its present boundaries are north by Salem, north- east by Unity, southeast by Mount Pleasant, south by East Huntingdon, southwest by South Hunting- don, west by Sewickley, and northwest by North Huntingdon and Penn townships.1

1 By act of 14th March, 1845, that portion of the township of Hemp- field which lies south of the Big Sewickley Creek was attached to and directed to thereafter constitute a part of the township of East Hun- tingdon, and that the said creek should thereafter be the division line between the said two townships.

In 1872 a part of the division line was changed between Penn and

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GRAPEVILLE, HEMPFIELD TOWNSHIP, WESTMORELAND CO., PA.

RESIDENCE OF GEORGE W. CROUSHORE,

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The township contains some very fertile land, and an abundance of coal underlies its soil. It is well supplied with schools and churches and other evi- dences of well-defined civilization and intelligence.

The officers chosen at the first township elestion were John Brown, constable; Samuel Miller and Alexander Thompson, overseers of the poor; and Wendell Oury, supervisor. Its citizens are of an in- dustrious and prudent character, as were their ances- tors before them, who left to their posterity the ex- cellent characteristics they possessed.

The first settlers were nearly all Germans, mostly from the eastern and southern counties, with some direct from the fatherland, and all of the Lutheran or Reformed faith in religion. Among them were John Harrold, the Brinigs, Froelichs, Henrys, Rughs, Allemans, Drums, Ottermans, Marchands (from Switzerland), Benders (now called Painters), Kun- kels, Longs, Gangweres, Detars, Rosensteels, Millers, Snyders, Turneys, Fritchmans, Mühlisens, Klingen- smiths, Myers, Steinmetz, Strohs, Altmans, Thomases, Barnharts, Mechlings, Haines, Buergers, Urics, Tru- bys, Rohrers, Williamses, Huffnagles, Ehrenfriedts, Alshauses, Hubers, Kemps, Reamers, Keppels, Al- wines, Kiehls, Smiths, Silvis, Kemerers, Kifers, Shrums, Whiteheads, Saams, Byerlys, Eisemans, Clines, Walthours, Baughmans, Detmars, Wageles, Corts, Grosses, Seaners, and others.

These worthy pioneers constituted no inconsider- able part of the hardy and substantial people who gave character to this part of Westmoreland, and from them have descended many of the most promi- nent citizens of the county, and others who have removed to distant parts of the United States.

HARROLD'S, OR ST. JOHN'S REFORMED CHURCH.

This was one of Rev. John William Weber's origi- nal churches, and its congregation, with that of Brush Creek, divides the honor of being the oldest of the Reformed faith in Western Pennsylvania. Balthazer Myer, a German schoolmaster, gives us the names of children baptized by himself before they had a min- ister, together with their age and the names of parents and sponsors. The first on the list is

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History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 129

Author: George Dallas Albert, editor Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author: George Dallas Albert, editor
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: