Jefferson County, Pennsylvania : her pioneers and people, 1800-1915, Volume II, Part 17

Author: McKnight, W. J. (William James), 1836-1918
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers
Number of Pages: 972

USA > Pennsylvania > Jefferson County > Jefferson County, Pennsylvania : her pioneers and people, 1800-1915, Volume II > Part 17

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

policies and suggestions proved the medium through which the borough of Brookville gained its idyllic resting place for those who "rest from their labors."

Mr. Marlin was also the foremost figure in giving to Brookville its excellent system of waterworks, and the history of the same shall ever be a high tribute to him for his effective interposition and service. On the 28th of July. 1883. in signalizing his belief that Brook- ville was entitled to modern and effective water service, Mr. Marlin, with characteristic energy and earnestness, took the initiative in the effort to compass the desired municipal improvement. He set vigorously forth to determine the extent of cooperation he could obtain, with a view to effecting among the citizens the organization of a stock company. He drew up a subscription paper for this pur- pose and started out to raise subscriptions for five hundred shares of stock at fifty dollars a share, making a total of twenty-five thousand dollars. By evening of that same day he had the satisfaction of effecting a temporary organization, with stock subscribed to the amount of twenty-three thousand dollars. On the 30th of the month a permanent organiza- tion was made, with all stock taken by citizens of Brookville borough, and under the laws of the State the Brookville Water Company was duly incorporated. The work of installing the water system was forthwith instituted, and it has been kept up to a high standard during the intervening period of more than thirty years. Mr. Marlin was chosen secretary and treasurer of the company, and of this dual office he continued the incumbent many years, besides which he was offered, but declined, the office of superintendent. He may well be designated as the founder of this all-important public utility, and his connection therewith merits definite record in the history of Jeffer- son county. In politics, though never an aspi- rant for office, Mr. Marlin accorded loyal alle- giance to the Democratic party, and his religious faith was that of the Presbyterian Church, of which his widow also is a devoted member. He was one of the early members of Hobah Lodge. No. 276, F. & A. M., with which he continued in active affiliation until his death, and which he served fifteen years as sec- retary ; for seventeen years he served as secre- tary of Jefferson Chapter. No. 225. R. A. M .; and he was a member of Commandery No. 1. K. T., of Pittsburgh.

The domestic chapter in the life of Mr. Mar- lin was marked by ideal relations. His vener- able widow still occupies the beautiful home-

stead in Brookville, secure in the affectionate regard of all who know her, and extending gracious hospitality in her attractive home. On the 17th of January, 1856, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Marlin to Elizabeth Jane McCreight. Mrs. Marlin was the first white child born at Brookville, the date of her na- tivity having been Jan. 21. 1832, and it is needless to say that most interesting are her reminiscences of the earlier history of the borough and county in which her entire life has been passed, and in which she is now one of the most venerable and revered representa- tives of the pioneer element of Jefferson county citizenship. Mr. and Mrs. Marlin be- came the parents of one son, Benjamin Mc- Creight Marlin, who was named in honor of his maternal grandfather and who was born on the Ist of November. 1859. He is now secretary and treasurer of the Union Banking & Trust Company in the city of DuBois, Clear- field county, and as a citizen and man of affairs he is fully upholding the honors of the family name. He wedded Ella Henderson, daughter of Joseph B. Henderson, of Brook- ville, and they have two sons. William J. and John Bennett.

BENJAMIN MCCREIGHT was born in In- diana county, Pa .. in the year 1801, and as a youth he learned the tailor's trade. After serving his apprenticeship he set forth on foot to find a suitable location in which to start an independent business. He journeyed through an unbroken wilderness and at length came. in the spring of 1830, to the present site of Brookville, the attractive and prosperous lit- tle borough which is the capital of Jefferson county. He erected a frame cabin on the east- tern half of Lot No. 57. on what is now Main street, and he otherwise aided vigor- ously in clearing and reclaiming the land now included in the thriving borough of Brook- ville. He became prominent and influential in the affairs of the little hamlet which here came into being. and here he worked at his trade in connection with other activities that demanded his attention. In 1831 he returned to Indiana county, where, on the Ist of March, was solemnized his marriage to Eliza Hunter. his bride accompanying him on his return to the new home at Brookville, where they es- tablished their Lares and Penates in the pio- neer frame house which he had provided. The primitive dwelling was surrounded by a dense forest, and the youthful bride must have ex- perienced many lonely hours during the initial period of her residence here. A few months later the settlement was augmented by the

JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

arrival of Mr. and Mrs. John Daugherty, who established a home near that of Mr. and Mrs. McCreight, who received the newcomers with unaffected cordiality and satisfaction, for neighbors in the budding community were not- able for their absence. The intimate relation- ship between the two families continued until the associations were severed by the hand of death.

In 1847 Mr. McCreight was elected county treasurer, and he served two terms also as county commissioner, besides being called to other offices in the borough government. lle was one of the most honored and influential men of the county in the pioneer days as well as in later years, and through his earnest and well directed endeavors he prospered in his temporal affairs. After occupying his frame dwelling for some time he erected a frame house on the western half of Lot No. 56, and about 1842 he built for a home a substantial brick house on the western half of Lot No. 57, this attractive old homestead continuing to be his place of abode until his death. He was one of the pioneer merchants of Jefferson county, and he also purchased a tract of land and instituted the development of a farm, the same, many years later, being platted as the McCreight Addition to Brookville. He passed to his reward on the 3d of August, 1883, at the venerable age of eighty-two years, his cher- ished and devoted wife having passed away on the 26th of January, 1879. They became the parents of twelve children, all deceased but Elizabeth J., widow of W. D. J. Marlin, and Benjamin Craig McCreight.

Mrs. Marlin has witnessed the development of her native place from a mere forest ham- let to a prosperous and enterprising little bor- ough, and in the gracious evening of her life she is surrounded by hallowed memories and associations and by friends who are tried and true. She finds much satisfaction in the com- panionship of Miss Jane Parkhurst, who be- came a member of the Marlin household in 1859 and who has remained with Mrs. Marlin during the long intervening years, their rela- tions being marked by mutual affection and sympathy.

COL. WILLIAM W. CORBET. Ere an- other decade shall have fallen into the abyss of time it may be authentically recorded that the name of the Corbet family has been worth- ily and influentially identified with the his- tory of Jefferson county for a full century, and as one generation has followed another onto the stage of life's activities it will be

found that this old and honored pioneer fam- ily has given to the world men of sterling character, lofty ideals and fine mentality ; women of gracious personality and noble char- acter. Those who have borne and given dis- tinction to the patronymic have been folk well equipped for meeting the vital issues and re- sponsibilities of life and have stood representa- tive of the best in community life. Members of the family have served in positions of high public trust in the county and have played a large and beneficent part in connection with civic and material progress. The father of Colonel Corbet was the first prothonotary of Jefferson county ; and, as a young man, Colonel Corbet himself served with characteristic effi- ciency in the same office, besides which it was given him to accord distinguished service as a soldier and officer of a Pennsylvania regi- ment in the great polemic struggle through which the integrity of the Union was per- petuated. Judge Charles Corbet, a son of him whose name initiates this memoir, is one of the representative legists and jurists of Jef- ferson county, and is given individual consid- eration on other pages of this publication. and two other sons have likewise attained to marked prestige in business and the legal pro- fession, one in the State of Washington and the other in California.

William Wakefield Corbet was born at Coder, a little village near the present judicial center of Jefferson county, the date of his na- tivity having been June 4, 1827. He was reared to manhood at Brookville, where the family home was established when he was a boy. His great-grandfather, Daniel Corbet, was born in England in 1713, went while a young man to Ireland, where he remained a few years, and then emigrated to America and settled in the State of New Jersey, where he married Mary Todd, a native of Ireland or England.

William Corbet, eldest son of Daniel, and grandfather of Colonel Corbet, was born Jan. 16, 1751, in Hunterdon county, N. J., and after his marriage in 1775 to Sarah Clover moved to Mifflin county, Pa., and later, in 1814, to that part of Armstrong county which is now included in Clarion county, Pa., where his wife died in 1828, and where he resided until his death in 1831.

James Corbet, tenth child of William and Sarah Corbet. and father of William Wake- field Corbet, was born March 19, 1794, in Mif- flin county. Pa., from which he migrated with his father and the family to what is now Clarion county. Being a man of enterprise he changed to Jefferson county, being the first

JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

of the family to locate therein, became one of its vigorous and resourceful young pioneers, was married to Rebecca Armstrong on March II, 1824, and settled at Coder, where for a time he operated a sawmill. His mental and physical powers well fitted him for leadership in community affairs in that formative period of the history of the county. Brookville, the county seat, was laid out in 1830, and the county organized for business purposes, James Corbet becoming the first prothonotary, clerk of courts, and register and recorder of Jef- ferson county, by appointment thereto that year by Gov. George Wolf. With the as- sumption of office he moved with his family to the new town of Brookville. becoming vir- tually one of its founders, and there in the spring of 1831 erected as his family domicile a pioneer log house on Main street. the site subsequently passing into the ownership of the late Norman F. Clark ; it is now owned by Hon. Curtis R. Vasbinder. Soon after his removal to Brookville James Corbet engaged in the general merchandise business. as one of the pioneer merchants of the borough, being a senior member of the firm of Corbet & Barr, which maintained headquarters in a small store that occupied a part of the present site of the "American House" block. He continued to be one of the influential figures in county and borough affairs, and commanded inviolable place in the confidence and esteem of all who knew him. In 1850 he was appointed post- master at Brookville, and his interposition was demanded also for service in the offices of burgess and justice of the peace, besides which he held for a term of years the office of county commissioner. In all places to which he was thus called he manifested the highest sense of stewardship and made a record that reflected credit upon his name and redounded to the general good of the community. Among his children were: William Wakefield; Sara C., wife of Hon. William P. Jenks, and Rebecca J., wife of Hon. Kennedy L. Blood. His wife died in Brookville Sept. 23, 1863, and he passed away Oct. 24, 1866.

William Wakefield Corbet was a child at the time of the family removal to Brookville, and in this borough he passed virtually his entire life, and added large and distinguished hon- ors to the family name. For a long period of years he was actively concerned with busi- ness enterprises at Brookville, giving his at- tention specially to merchandising and lumbering, and in all the relations of life he bore himself as a man of strong mind, noble aspirations and intrinsic loyalty of purpose,

with the result that his was impregnable van- tage ground in the confidence and goodwill of all who knew him and had appreciation of his sterling attributes of mind and soul. In 1857 he was elected prothonotary, and as a young man he showed himself admirably fortified for the effective discharge of the duties of this position.

When the Civil war cast its pall over the national horizon Colonel Corbet promptly sig- nalized his loyalty and patriotic ardor by tak- ing active part in the recruiting and organizing of the 105th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infan- try, and went to the front with this gallant command. As its lieutenant colonel he par- ticipated in a number of the many important engagements in which it was involved. and upon the resignation of its commander, Col. Amor A. McKnight, he was. commissioned colonel of the regiment. But he declined to re- ceive muster into this office, as his loyalty to his friend, Colonel McKnight, was such that lie preferred to wait until that valiant officer had sufficiently recuperated his health to re- sume command.

With all of the strength of his fine nature did Colonel Corbet contribute of his influence and cooperation in the furtherance of those things which conserve the general good of the community, and his genial and kindly nature, expressed in tolerance and sympathy, gained to him the affectionate regard of those who came within the compass of his benign influ- ence. He was one of the leading citizens of Brookville at the time of his death, which there occurred on the 4th of September, 1904, and his name and memory shall be held in lasting honor in the county that represented his home during the entire period of his long and useful life. He was a stalwart advocate of the prin- ciples of the Democratic party, his religious faith was that of the Presbyterian Church, of which his widow likewise is a devoted mem- ber, and he was an appreciative and valued comrade of the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic.

On the 21st of September, 1847, was solem- nized the marriage of William W. Corbet to Elizabeth A. McCrea, who still remains in the little home which he provided for the two of them after the death of their eldest daughter and the marriage of their other children, and is a popular factor in the representative social life of the community in which she has long maintained her residence. She is a daughter of the late John McCrea, to whom an indi- vidual memorial tribute is paid on other pages of this history. so that a repetition of the fam-

JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

ily data is not demanded in the present con- nection. Colonel and Mrs. Corbet became the parents of six children : Emily died at the age of thirty-four years; Lovisa W. is the wife of Lewis A. Brady; Charles, now presiding on the bench of the County courts of Jefferson county, is the subject of an individual sketch on other pages of this work; James McCrea is a lawyer and successful business man in the city of Spokane, Wash .; Burke is a prominent corporation lawyer of San Francisco, Cal .; Myrta is the wife of Hon. John W. Reed, of Brookville, who formerly presided as judge of the County courts.

The home life of Colonel Corbet was one of ideal relations and associations, and it may well be said that his home was a veritable sanc- tuary to him, a place in which his noble char- acteristics shone forth in their highest form, so that there remains to his widow and chil- dren a measure of compensation in the gra- cious memories that are theirs of a devoted husband and father.

ROBERT BUCHANAN STEWART is now living retired, having withdrawn from ac- tive business associations after a notable career in the lumber industry, with which he was connected for a period of forty years and by far the largest operator ever engaged in that line in Knox township. He gave employment to many men, cleared up large areas of forest land, and not only played a leading part in the development of this region along material lines, but was a foremost advocate and sup- porter of progress in social and educational affairs, his breadth of character and purpose having long been a dominating factor in the advancement of the locality. For many years he also had extensive agricultural interests.

Mr. Stewart is of Irish ancestry, his grand- parents having been natives of Ireland, whence they came to this country at an early day, set- tling east of the mountains in Pennsylvania. Samuel Stewart, his father, was born in Penn- sylvania. and settled in Indiana county, where he died in 1882 at the age of eighty-three years. In his younger life he followed farming. and he also conducted a tannery and a distillery. To his first marriage, with Jane Wilson, were born three children: Joseph, who entered the Union army and was never afterwards heard from; James, who died in the State of In- diana ; and Matthew, who was a Confederate soldier during the Civil war, and was not heard from afterwards. Mr. Stewart's second mar- riage was to Elizabeth McFarland, a native of Pennsylvania, daughter of John McFarland,

a native of Ireland and an early settler in In- diana county. She died in 1867, aged sixty- seven years, and was buried in Brushvalley township, Indiana county. Five children were born to this union : Robert Buchanan ; Miriam, who married Nelson Lomison and survived him; Nathaniel W., a retired farmer of In- diana county, and a Civil war veteran ; William M., deceased, who was also a farmer in In- diana county and a Civil war soldier; and Samuel M., now of Johnstown, Pa. For his third wife Samuel Stewart married Margaret Virtue, by whom he had one son, John, who met an accidental death when twenty-one years old, by falling on a saw in a sawmill.

Robert Buchanan Stewart was born July 16, 1835, in Brushvalley, Indiana county, and remained on the home farm until he reached the age of nineteen years. He gave most of his time to farming during his residence in that county, having purchased a tract of 150 acres in Centre township, though he had to borrow one hundred dollars to make the first payment. He gave $1.400 for the property, and in 1865 sold it for $3,480 and purchased a half inter- est in a tannery at Homer City, for $2,300, entering into partnership with Peter Johnson. But the venture turned out unprofitably, and he gave it up after three years, selling his inter- est long afterwards, in 1892, for five hundred dollars. He and Mr. Johnson continued in partnership, however, for six years. engaging in the lumbering business and milling, and when they ended the association, in 1874. each took a sawmill as his share. In 1873 Mr. Stewart moved to the farm in Knox township, which was his home for so many years, the property comprising 580 acres, of which he had 350 acres cleared and highly cultivated. In 1885 he raised one thousand bushels of wheat, besides other grain. Lumbering, how- ever. was his principal business, and he car- ried it on forty years after his removal here. operating also in Clearfield and Armstrong counties, and running as many as five sawmills at one time. During the financial panic of 1873 he was carrying on two sawmills in Knox township. Entirely as the result of his own judgment and good management he accumu- lated a handsome property, and in 1904 closed out his last mill and retired to Brookville to enjoy the leisure he had earned so well, giving up all business cares except the management of his real estate interests. Some unfortunate mining investments made inroads on his for- tune, but he still has valuable property hold- ings. Upon his removal to Brookville he bought the residence of D. F. Hibbard, where

JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

he lived until 1915, when he returned to Knox township, settling at his present home, which he purchased for his daughter Mrs. Blanche Smith. Meantime he had sold a large part of his old farm to his son I. N. Stewart.

On Nov. 22, 1864, Mr. Stewart married Sarah J. Johnson, daughter of Peter John- son, and she died July 3, 1871. the mother of one child, Orlando, who is now a farmer of Knox township ; he married Flora Bell, and to them were born six children. Mrs. Stewart is buried at Homer City. On Feb. 5. 1878, at Belleview, Pa., Mr. Stewart married (second ) Dillie L. Sebring, a native of Indiana county, daughter of William and Sarah ( Fyock) Se- bring, who were married at Mechanicsburg. Pa., in April, 1851. Mr. Sebring was a car- penter until he retired during his latter years. and died at Greenville, Indiana county, at the age of eighty-three. His wife, who survived him, was born Nov. 14, 1825, in Somerset county, Pa., daughter of David and Mary (Hoffman) Fyock, both of whom died in In- diana county. After Mr. Sebring's death his widow lived with her daughter Mrs. Stewart. They had four children : Albert, a farmer and carpenter of Knox township; Mary, wife of Albert Knabb, a stave manufacturer, of Pitts- burgh (he was also engaged in the manufac- ture of barrels at Warren, Pa.) ; Ellis, of Knox Dale ; and Mrs. Stewart, who was reared at Greenville.

Six children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Stewart : Mand C. married Samuel G. Lowry, a carpenter, now on the Stewart land ; Blanche R., who married Centennial Smith, of Knox township, has two children, Ivan and Robert ; Ira Norris, of Knox Dale, is secretary of the Stewart Coal Company, and is mentioned else- where : Mr. Truby is established in business at Brookville as a dealer in automobiles ; Inez A. is the wife of James McCann, of Knox Dale, a stockholder in the Stewart Coal Com- pany : Rheba M. is the wife of J. M. Rhoads, deputy county treasurer, of Brookville. Mrs. Stewart, the mother of this family, died at Brookville May 11, 1914, aged fifty-four years.

Mr. Stewart and his family have long at- tended the United Brethren Church at Knox Dale, which he served as steward for twenty years in succession. He also took a promi- nent part in the administration of the local government. filling a number of the township offices, and discharging his duties with such conscientious regard for the general welfare that there could be no question of his fitness for such responsibilities and no doubt as to the high standards he held. Politically he has

always been a Republican, and during the Civil war he enlisted, in April, 1861, as a member of Company H, 12th Pennsylvania Reserves, which regiment was attached to the Army of the Potomac. He saw much active service, the 12th taking part in all the general en- gagements of that army throughout its term, which expired June 1, 1864, when he was mus- tered out after an honorable record. He was wounded in the arm.

IRA NORRIS STEWART, of Knox Dale, secretary of the Stewart Coal Company, is one of the young business men of Jefferson county rapidly attaining prominence through his stic- cessful coal operations. The company which he helped to found has during the five years of its existence as such progressed to an im- portant place among the industrial corpora- tions of this section, its mines affording employment to a large number of men, and as he has done much toward shaping its busi- ness policy a share of the credit is due him for the remarkable development of its proper- ties. Mr. Stewart has shown business actmen and capacity typical of the members of his family. His father .. Robert B. Stewart, now a retired citizen of Knox township, was one of the leading agriculturists and lumbermen of that section of Pennsylvania for forty years, the record of his industrial activities forming a significant part of the history of Knox township and Jefferson county. An account of his life will be found elsewhere in this work.

I. Norris Stewart was born June 29, 1881, at Knox Dale, on the property which his fa- ther occupied for so many years before his retirement. His literary education was ac- quired in the local schools and at Mount Union, Ohio, and he also took a commercial course in Pittsburgh. His early business experience was in the line of agriculture, for he was engaged on his father's large farm until he started as a coal operator, and for six years he owned 283 acres of the home place, selling his inter- est in that piece of land in 1916. Meantime he had shifted his attention from farming to mining, until the latter now takes practically all his time. In 1908 he was one of five men who formed what was known as the Stewart Coal Company, and their early operations were conducted with thirty-five or forty men, the daily production amounting to about two hun- dred tons. This has been gradually increased, the output in 1916 being between fifteen hun- dred and sixteen hundred tons a day-thirty to thirty-five carloads - of Lower Freeport

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Jefferson County, Pennsylvania : her pioneers and people, 1800-1915, Volume II, Part 17

Author: McKnight, W. J. (William James), 1836-1918 Publication date: 1917 Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers Number of Pages: 972

Author: McKnight, W. J. (William James), 1836-1918
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers
Number of Pages: 972