USA > Pennsylvania > Jefferson County > Jefferson County, Pennsylvania : her pioneers and people, 1800-1915, Volume II > Part 105
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Returning home upon his release from the army, Mr. Scott resumed lumbering and also worked as a carpenter. He settled in Reyn- oldsville Nov. 22, 1864, and for sixteen years was in the employ of the lumber firm of Scott & Carrier. He retired from strenuous labor some twenty years ago. Mr. Scott has not had any ambition for public honors, but he has interested himself in securing reliable officials for his home town, having served as member 'of the election board with his customary effi- ciency. His political association has been with the Republican party. He was a charter mem- ber of John C. Conser Post, No. 192, G. 1. R .. of Reynoldsville, having kept up his inter- est in his Civil war comrades faithfully.
On Jan. I. 1865. Mr. Scott was married. at the "American House" in Brookville, to Ma- lissa D. Ferris, daughter of William and Mi- randa ( Doling) Ferris. She died Aug. 7. 1894, and is buried at Reynoldsville. Of the ten children born to this union but three are living, viz. : Thomas E., deceased; Adda, de- ceased : Charles and William, residents of Reynoldsville: Ada. Mrs. E. T. Bird, of Clearfield : Harry. deceased : Raymond, de- ceased : Remson, deceased ; and two that died in infancy. The family belong to the Uni- versalist Church, and are highly respected in its membership.
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JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
WILLIAM SHERMAN POSTLEWAIT. justice of the peace of Perry township, and one of the best known residents of his sec- tion. is a member of a family well known there. and whose early history is found in detail in the sketch of William Perry Postle- thwaite.
The Postlethwaites (as the name was for- merly spelled) were among the earliest set- tlers in this portion of Jefferson county. The first ancestor in Pennsylvania, John Postle- thwaite, came from England, between 1709 and 1713, and made a location on Conestoga creek, in Lancaster county. He engaged in farming, which calling most of the members of this family have followed.
John Postlethwaite (2), son of John, above. was one of four brothers who served in the Revolutionary war, William Postlethwaite, the grandfather of William Sherman Postlewait, being another. Their brother Samuel was captain of one of the first troops enlisted in the cause of independence.
John W. Postlewait, son of William and father of William Sherman Postlewait, was born in Perry township, and died Feb. 19, 1908, at Lindsey ( Punxsutawney ) in his sev- entieth year. Of his numerous family, ten were born to his first marriage, their mother being Elizabeth Wise, a native of Ringgold township. this county. George Wise, her father, came from Germany and settled on a farm in that township, operating a black- smith's shop in connection. He and wife were worthy people, of elevated character, and gen- erally held in high estimation. Both are now deceased. The ten children of John W. and Elizabeth ( Wise) Postlewait were as follows : George, residing in Virginia: William Sher- man; Andrew Johnson, of Greensburg, Pa .; Joseph and Mary Alice, deceased ; Anna Bell, wife of Clement Titus, of Meadville : Charles C., of Creekside, Pa .; John T., of Meadville : Laura and Lucetta, died in infancy. To John W. Postlewait and Maggie ( Elder), his second wife, were born four children, two dying in infancy ; Mark is at Pricedale, West- moreland county ; and Ella resides with her mother at Lindsey.
William Sherman Postlewait was born Dec. 0. 1864. in Ringgold township, grew up on a farm, and acquired his education in the dis- trict schools. He has been a lumberman. miner and farmer, at present owning and occupying a farm of eighty-seven acres on Mahoning creek one mile north of Valier, also operating a coal mine on his farm. Mr. Postlewait ap- preciates the advantages of good government,
and has endeavored to do his share by faith- ful service in the offices of supervisor and justice of the peace, now serving a second term in the latter capacity. In political faith he is a Republican.
On Nov. 15, 1894, Mr. Postlewait was mar- ried to Linda Uzilla Means, daughter of John and Elizabeth ( Fuller) Means, and born at Valier June 15. 1874. Her parents are fully mentioned elsewhere in this work. She at- tended high school at Punxsutawney. Four children are the result of this union, born as follows: Mary Elizabeth, Jan. 3. 1897: Olive Esther, June 4, 1900; Fanny Fern, March 18, 1902 ; and William Means, June 11. 1906. The eldest is a trained nurse and engaged at her profession, the others remaining at home. Olive Esther is a student in music, both vocal and instrumental, and is organist in the Pres- byterian Church at Valier. Mr. and Mrs. Postlewait are members of the Presbyterian Church, which he serves as elder, and he had been elder in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church previous to the union. Mrs. Postle- wait was a charter member of the Valier Pres- byterian Church, and had previously been associated with the Presbyterian Church at Perrysville. She has taught the infant class in the Sunday school for some time, is president of the Willing Workers and a member of the W. C. T. U., and has charge of the Mothers' Department. Women of her type are the real architects of the world's progress. As long as life shall last and humanity shall have to struggle with its problems, such mothers will be the world's greatest treasures.
John Means was born in July. 1816, in Cen- ter county. Pa., son of John Means, whose wife's maiden name was Bose. He helped to clear up the home farm where Whitesville ( Jefferson county) now stands, theirs being the first house in that vicinity, and the place is still owned by his son, John M. Means. John Means was twice married, his second union, in 1851. being with Elizabeth Fuller, who was born July 2, 1834, at Claysburg, Blair Co., Pa., and was nine years old when she moved with the family to Valier ( then Whitesville), pass- ing the rest of her life in the same house. Mr. Means died in July, 1900, on the forty-ninth anniversary of his marriage, and was buried on his birthday. Mrs. Means died on Thanks- giving Day, Nov. 27, 1913, at Dayton. Pa .. while on a visit to her daughter Mrs. Win- slow, after a life of unselfishness. Mr. Means served during the Civil war in the 105th Penn- sylvania Regiment.
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JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANLI
ALEXANDER A. BOVAIRD, proprietor of Limestone Farm, at Sugar Ilill, is de- servedly classed with the useful members of society in Jefferson county, where he has found his life work in agriculture and oppor- tunities for service to his fellow men as a township official.
Mr. Bovaird was born on the family home- stead near Lane's Mills, in Washington town- ship, this county, Oct. 30, 1863, and was educated in the public school at Beech Tree, W. C. Smith being his first teacher. He was well trained in the practical duties of the farm, and eventually bought the 135-acre farm he still owns, in Snyder township. He turned all his energies to its improvement, following gen- eral agriculture, and giving special attention at present to the breeding of Percheron horses. Under his careful management it has increased materially in value and productiveness, and he may well take pride in the results of the twenty-five years he has given to its opera- tion.
On Jan. 1, 1889, Mr. Bovaird was married, at Beech Tree, this county, to Margaret J. Cooper, and three children have been born to them: William Lloyd is a graduate of the agricultural college at Winona Lake, Ind., married Anna Holt, and is now associated with his father in the operation of the farm. Martha is a graduate of the Clarion State Normal School, and for two years has been one of Jefferson county's teachers. Helen Margaret is still in school. The family attend the Presbyterian' Church at Sugar Hill, in which Mr. Bovaird has held the office of elder for many years. He is a stanch Republican on political questions, and has been somewhat active in local affairs, having filled several public positions in the township with ability and to the entire satisfaction of his fellow citizens.
GEORGE M. DAVIS, a well known and distinctively popular citizen of Jefferson coun- ty, who maintains his residence at Reynolds- ville, has been long engaged in active service as a railroad engineer, at the present time having charge of the operation of a work and wreck- ing train on the line of the Pennsylvania rail- road. He also conducts in his home town a thriving business as a florist, having a large and well equipped greenhouse.
Mr. Davis is on the paternal side of Welsh ancestry. his grandfather, Abraham Davis, having immigrated to America from his native Wales when he was a youth of seventeen years, becoming one of the pioneers of In-
diana county, Pa. He settled on a tract of wild land near the present village of Marion Center, but later obtained land in South Ma- honing township, that county, where he re- claimed a farm from the forest wilds and eventually he became the owner of a large landed estate. He was one of the wealthy and influential citizens of Indiana county at the time of his death, and his paternal generosity was shown in his gift of a farm to each of his children. He was a most earnest and zealous member of the Baptist Church, and in the pioneer days gave a tract of four acres as the site for what was known as the Mahoning Church of this denomination, the original church building having been erected almost entirely at his expense. He passed the clos- ing period of his long and useful life in the home of his daughter Rebecca, wife of the Rev. Aaron Neff. who was a pioneer clergy- man of the Baptist Church in Indiana county and other parts of northwestern Pennsylvania. Abraham Davis died about the year 1869, and his remains rest in the cemetery of the Ma- honing Church, of which mention has been made. His first wife, whose maiden name was Tompson, was of Irish ancestry, and was sixty-four years of age at the time of her death. She was a sister of Mrs. Uriah Mat- son, Sr., of Brookville. For his second wife Mr. Davis married a Mrs. McGaughy, widow of Thomas McGaughy. Both wives were de- vout members of the Baptist Church and their mortal remains rest beside those of Mr. Davis in the little cemetery of the Mahoning Church in Indiana county. Of the children of Abra- ham Davis the older sons were James, Wil- liam T. and Daniel C., and the youngest son, George M., was the father of George M., Jr. Of the daughters, Mary Ann became the wife of Col. James Hayes ; Agnes was the wife of John Neff, a farmer in Indiana county ; Jane was the wife of Joseph Marshall; and Re- becca. as previously noted, was the wife of Rev. Aaron Neff, a revered pioneer minister of the Baptist Church in this section of the State.
George M. Davis, Sr., was born on the old family homestead in Indiana county in the year 1832, and was reared there under the conditions and influences of the pioneer era. He helped with the work on the home farm during his boyhood and youth, meantime avail- ing himself of the advantages of the common schools of the period, and remained on the old homestead until his untimely death, at the age of twenty-seven years, his remains rest- ing in the old cemetery in which his parents
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JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
were also interred. Mr. Davis married Eme- line McGanghy, who was born Nov. 3, 1835, near Smicksburg, Indiana county, a daughter of James McGanghy, and of stanch Scotch ancestry. She taught school near Big Run in 1852 and 1853, when there was only one house in that borough. This revered pioneer woman and native daughter of Indiana county still resides in that county, and in 1916 she cele- brated her eighty-first birthday. George M. is the youngest of her three children, and was born on the old homestead near Plumville, Indiana county, on the 2d of July, 1859, only a short time prior to the death of his father, whose full name he bears. Laura Alice, the eldest, is the wife of Hugh R. Morrow, and they reside in the city of Johnstown, Cambria county, where they were living at the time of the historic flood that brought death and devastation to the citizens of that place, she and her husband having had a narrow escape at the time of this memorable disaster. Al- fred T. remains with his venerable mother on the old homestead farm.
George M. Davis (Jr.) passed the period of his childhood and youth on the old farm which was the place of his birth and his early educa- tional advantages were those afforded in the public schools of his native county. As a youth he served a thorough apprenticeship to the carpenter's trade, which he followed in Indiana county, as did he also in the State of Michigan, whither he went in 1879, remain- ing there, however, only a brief interval. He was not yet twenty-two years of age when he came to Jefferson county, and on the 14th of February, 1882, he established his residence at Reynoldsville, where he followed his trade until 1886. He then began work as a locomo- tive fireman on the line of the Reynoldsville & Falls Creek railroad, and on the 17th of June, 1880, assumed similar service on the Low Grade division of the Allegheny Valley railroad. On the 9th of July, 1892, he won advancement to the position of locomotive engineer, in which capacity he has since con- tinned to give efficient service. Since 1906 he has also given successful attention to mod- ern floriculture, and his fine greenhouse and propagating grounds are of the best type and facilities. He has built up a large and pros- perous business as a florist, the products of his conservatories finding ready demand in the local field. embracing Jefferson and neigh- boring counties. Besides his valuable prop- erty at Reynoldsville, he also owns real estate in Indiana county and in the State of New Jersey.
The political faith and proclivities of Mr. Davis are shown forth in the stanch alle- giance which he gives to the Republican party, and he has taken a loyal interest in public affairs of a local order. He has not been a seeker of official preferment, but he served seven years, and with characteristic efficiency, as a member of the municipal council of West Reynoldsville. He is affiliated with the Broth- erhood of Locomotive Engineers, the Senior Order of United American Mechanics and the Royal Arcanum.
In the year 1882 Mr. Davis married Elmira Pierce, who was born in North Mahoning township, Indiana county, this State, and who was a young woman at the time of her parents' removal to Reynoldsville, where her father, Abraham C. Pierce, passed the re- mainder of his life, as did also her mother. Of the two children of Mr. and Mrs. Davis the second. Tiny M., died at the age of two and a half years. Mary Emma was gradu- ated from the Pennsylvania State Normal School at Indiana, as a member of the class of 1906, and became a successful and popu- lar teacher in the public schools of Reynolds- ville, where she continued her services for five years. She is now the wife of Prof. Joseph R. Wilson, who is principal of the pub- lic schools at Indiana, Pa., and who, as a grad- uate in forestry, served on the Pennsylvania commission that investigated the chestnut blight and sought means for its obliteration. Professor and Mrs. Wilson have one child, Manon Elizabeth.
JOHN M. GRAFFIUS, late of Punxsutaw ney, has a strong claim to a permanent place in the history of the borough and that imme- diate portion of Jefferson county, where his life was spent and his work accomplished. A street in the town named in his honor, and the Graffius addition to Punxsutawney, testify to the active part he bore in advancing the material interests of the place, and how highly he ranked in the regard of his townsmen as well as among all his other associates. The influence he exerted throughout a busy and successful career was always in the right di- rection, his own actions were honorable and straightforward, and he lived up to the best traditions of a name which has been respected in Jefferson county since his grandparents set- tled here, in 1823. They were Daniel and Christina (Rush) Graffius, natives of Hunt- ingdon county, Pa., whence they came to this region, passing the remainder of their lives in Young township. He was a millwright by
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Mary b. Grafius
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JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
occupation. Of their eleven children, we have record of the five who were yet living in 1888. Mary, John, Israel, Samuel and Charles, and of Daniel, father of John M. Graffius. The grandfather was born in 1783 and died in 1849. The grandmother died in 1867. The father is of German origin.
Daniel Graffius, son of Daniel and Christina (Rush) Graffius, was born in 1809 in Hunting- don county, Pa., and removed thence with his parents to Jefferson county in 1823. For twenty-eight years before his death, which oc- curred in 1874, he resided in Young town- ship, in what is now the Graffius addition to Punxsutawney, keeping a temperance hotel at the junction of the Luthersburg and Rey- noldsville roads, and he was very well known to the lumbermen employed in the adjacent woods, providing a comfortable place for them. His kindly ways, obliging nature and sincere endeavor to accommodate his guests made him very popular with them as with all his fellow men, and he had a warm place in the hearts of a large circle of acquaintances. He is buried in the old Punxsutawney ceme- tery. Mr. Graffius was twice married, and by his first wife, Elizabeth ( Roads), had one child, Daniel, who settled in Bell township, Jefferson county. Ten children were born to his second union, with Sarah McConnoughey, five attaining middle age, namely: John M .; Anna Belle, now the widow of James St. Clair, of the West End, Punxsutawney ; William. deceased; Samuel, of Pittsburgh, Pa .; and Andrew J., of Bell township.
John M. Graffitis was born in Bell town- ship. Jefferson county, Jan. 31, 1836, and was a boy when the family moved to Young town- ship, where most of his life was spent. He had the ordinary training given to the youth of the period, principally of a practically na- ture, designed to fit him to take up the burden of self-support carly. Agriculture and lum- bering were his principal occupations, the lat- ter engaging most of his attention during his early years. He rafted his timber down to Pittsburgh, dealt in lumber, and owned a farm in Young township. near Punxsutawney,
which he operated profitably. The Graffius addition to Punxsutawney, laid out on his land, is named for him, and also a street in the borough, where he became very well known and was thoroughly respected. His widow makes her home in the Graffius addition, where she retains valuable real estate holdings, and also owns a large tract of land in the borough proper besides property in Bell township. Mr. Graffius died in 1893, and is buried in Circle
Hill cemetery, where a fine monument has been erected at his grave. Mrs. Graffius also placed a window in the Central Presbyterian Church to his memory.
In 1861 Mr. Graffius was married to Mary C. Clawson, and three daughters were born to them: Velma K. was married in 1881 to Mckean Harl, of Punxsutawney: Elizabeth C. is the widow of Clark Curry; Florence M. is the wife of William H. Adams, of Punx- sutawney.
Mrs. Graffius is the only survivor of the family of her parents, Matthias and Mary (Williams) Clawson. Her father was born in 1792 in Westmoreland county, Pa., son of Cornelius Clawson, and at an early day came to Jefferson county, settling in what is now the West End of Punxsutawney, where he was a pioneer. He bought six hundred acres of land lying in and about Punxsutawney, and engaged in the timber business and farm- ing, becoming one of the most successful men in this region. As early as 1855 he was known as a rich man, and by the time of his death, in In 1869, had accumulated a large estate. AAugust of that year he went out to Kansas, and died at Williamsburg, that State, a month later, at the home of his son-in-law, Daniel Fogle. He is buried there. His wife, Mary (Williams), a native of Indiana county, Pa., died in 1877 when seventy-eight years old. They had children as follows: Cornelius ; Benoni, deceased; John; Elizabeth, who mar- ried Daniel Fogle; and Mary C., widow of John M. Graffius. Of these, Prof. Benoni Clawson, born at Punxsutawney in 1831, was a successful teacher in Jefferson county for twenty years, meantime following farming also during the summer season, and afterwards devoted all his time to agriculture and lum- bering. On June 6, 1861, he married Mary A. Williams. and to them were born four chil- dren, William W., M. Bell, Daniel F. and Elsworth. Professor Clawson served during the Civil war in Company B. 74th Pennsyl- vania Volunteer Infantry, for six months, until the close of the war.
Mrs. Graffius is held in affectionate esteem by the many friends she has gathered about her during a busy and useful life. Before she was seventeen years old she taught one term of school in McCalmont township, and one term in Young township. Jefferson county. She is very active in church work, and for the last eleven years has taught the Woman's Bible class in the Reformed Church in the Graffius addition, which she joined after her husband's death. Though reared in the Meth-
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odist faith, Mrs. Graffius united with the Cum- berland Presbyterian Church with her husband and his mother, remaining in its membership until she formed her present association. For thirty-two years she has been a leading worker in the W. C. T. U., having for the last ten years been president of the Punxsutawney branch, and she has served as president and vice president of the Jefferson county organi- zation. She was one of the organizers of the Punxsutawney society. Few women in this section are better known, and none is held in greater esteem.
WILLIAM LINCOLN PATTERSON owns and occupies one of the fine farms which contribute to the attractiveness and prosperity of the beautiful district of Jefferson county known as the Beechwoods, this ideal rural property comprising 127 acres, eligibly situ- ated on the highway extending between the villages of Lane's Mills and Beechtree. This is the old homestead on which he was born and reared, and as a progressive farmer and loyal citizen he is fully upholding the prestige of a family name long and worthily linked with the civic and industrial history of Jef- ferson county.
William L. Patterson was born Oct. 21, 1863. a scion of that admirable Scotch-Irish element of citizenship that has played a most important part in the development and up- building of the Beechwoods district. His fa- ther. Robert Patterson, was born in County Donegal, Ireland. in June, 1825, and was reared and educated in his native land. He was a youth of twenty years when, in 1845. he accompanied his parents on their immigra- tion to the United States, and the family home was first established in the State of New York. His parents, John and Isabella (Smith) Pat- terson, passed the closing years of their lives in Washington township, Jefferson Co., Pa. Robert Patterson, who was the eldest of the children, came in 1846 to Jefferson county, his maternal uncle, the late Matthew Smith, hav- ing shortly before established his home in the Beechwoods. Matthew Smith was one of the venerable and honored pioneer citizens of the county at the time of his death, and a tribute to his memory is entered on other pages of this volume. After joining his uncle in the Beechwoods Robert Patterson pur- chased a tract of heavily timbered land and set himself to the strenuous work of reclaim- ing a farm in the midst of the forest wilder- ness. He was compelled to make a clearing on his land before he could find room for the
erection of his pioneer log shanty, and his resolute purpose, his industry, his integrity and his youthful vigor well fortified him for assuming the burdens and responsibilities of pioneer life. Each year was marked by ad- vancement in the reclamation and cultivation of his land, and the ultimate result was the development of the beautiful "Glen Echo Farm," which is now the property and home of his son William L. Robert Patterson made for himself a secure place as one of the able, influential and honored citizens of the com- mmunity, took loyal interest in all things per- taining to the general welfare, and was one of the leading citizens of Washington township, where he and his wife continued to reside on their old homestead until they died. They were zealous and devoted members of the Presbyterian Church, and his political alle- giance was given to the Republican party. As a young man Robert Patterson wedded Jane Ann Davenport, who was born in the city of Philadelphia about the year 1830, a daughter of William and Jane ( Miller) Davenport. Of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Patterson one son and two daughters are now living.
In the old Beechtree school, at the time when it was under the pedagogic regime of John R. Graves, William L. Patterson began his education, and later he continued his studies in this school under the direction of John 11. Cooper and William Cooper, his last teacher, when he was seventeen years of age, having been J. M. Smith, who is now a rail- way conductor in the West. At the home farm Mr. Patterson applied himself diligently and earnestly, giving to his honored father the fullest possible assistance and cooperation in all departments of the farm work, and this early experience has proved of inestimable value to him in his independent operations as an agriculturist and stock grower. The old homestead has continued as the stage of his activities during the long intervening years, and his only lapse from active association with the home farm was for a brief interval dur- ing which he was employed with an engineer- ing corps on the line of Buffalo, Roches- ter & Pittsburgh railroad, and another period of seven years during which, after his mar- riage. he operated an adjoining farm, a tract of 123 acres which he purchased of his father. At the expiration of the period noted he re- turned to the old homestead, of which he has since been the owner, and to the management of which he has given his attention with char- acteristic progressiveness and ability, improv- ing the property extensively until it is one
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