Jefferson County, Pennsylvania : her pioneers and people, 1800-1915, Volume II, Part 41

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 41

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dustry, though the confidence of his associates has not been limited to matters of commercial business. He was but twenty-one years old when elected a justice of the peace at Sykes- ville, being one of the youngest incumbents of such office in the State, and he served accept- ably for five years, refusing renomination. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party, in whose campaigns he has taken an active part.

During the Spanish-American war Mr. Sykes was a member of the 16th Pennsylvania Infantry and served for six months, being stationed at Porto Rico. He has since spent six months in travel along the Mexican border. Socially he affiliates with the P. O. S. of A., Knights of Pythias and Masons, in the latter connection holding membership in John M. Read Lodge, No. 534, F. & A. M., of Reynolds- ville : Jefferson Chapter, No. 225, R. A. M., of Brookville, and Bethany Commandery, No. 83, K. T., of DuBois.

By his first wife, Jennie (London), daugh- ter of James and Phoebe (Owens) London, Mr. Sykes.had six children : Asa W., Jr., Mar- tha, George W., J. B. (deceased), Roy Lon- don and Donald. The mother died in August. 1909, and Mr. Sykes was married in 1914 to Estella Kreider, of Lancaster County, this State. There are no children by this union.

JOHN CLAYTON DIGHT was born at Sandy Lake, Mercer Co., Pa., Nov. 17, 1876, the son of Rev. John M. Dight, deceased, and Mrs. Martha M. Dight, who now makes her home with her son in Brookville. The father was county superintendent of schools of Mer- ccr county at the time of the birth of the sub- ject of this sketch. Later he entered the min- istry of the United Presbyterian Church and was for more than thirty-two years pastor of the Mount Pleasant congregation, on the divid- ing line between Butler and Allegheny counties, this State. Rev. Mr. Dight served a term as member of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania in 1907, being the only United Presbyterian minister who was ever a member of the House of Representatives of this Com- monwealth.

Mr. Dight attended the public schools in Butler county, graduated at Clarion State Nor- mal School, Clarion, Pa., class of 1895, and also attended Westminster College. He taught country school two terms and was for three years principal of the high school at Harmony. Butler Co., Pa., resigning that position to en- gage in the real estate business, which he followed for several years. He made his home

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at Mars, Butler county, for a number of years, until the death of his father, and served a term as school director there, being president of the school board the entire time, and was also president of the Butler County School Direct- ors' Association; at the same time he was elected justice of the peace, serving one term. His friends announced his name for National delegate to the Republican convention at Chi- cago in 1912. He promptly stated he would support Col. Theodore Roosevelt for president if elected. He won in the primary in the Twenty-second Congressional district, Butler and Westmoreland counties, carrying every district but one in his home county, and se- curing a popular majority of six thousand. At the Chicago convention he was one of the three hundred and forty-four delegates who left the convention and went to another hall, where they asked Colonel Roosevelt to ac- cept the nomination of the Progressive party. In the campaign of 1912 he took an active part, being the manager of the speakers' bureau of the Progressive ( Washington) party in this State. Ile had charge of the Legislative Pub- licity Bureau at Harrisburg during the session of the General Assembly in 1913 and was active in aiding in the passage of a number of progressive laws. In 1914 he became manager and editor of the Brookville Republican, the weekly newspaper having the largest circula- tion in the county, and is still in charge of it. Under his management and editorship it has increased considerably in circulation.

Mr. Dight is married, his wife being farmerly Miss Blanche Harper, of Butler county. His brothers are : Dr. H. H. Dight, of Titusville, Pa .; Rev. H. W. Dight, pastor of the United Presbyterian Church at Brookville ; and Dr. E. K. Dight, of Seattle, Wash. Mrs. Alice Whitmyer, wife of Rev. H. E. Whitmyer, of Golden, Ill., is his only sister.

EUPIIRASTUS CARRIER was for a number of years one of the substantial agri- culturists and business men of Clover town- ship, in the neighborhood of the borough of Summerville, where he operated a fine farm, part of the old homestead of his father, Darius Carrier. A man of broad intelligence, execu- tive ability, progressive tendencies and un- sullied personal character, he deserved the high opinion which his neighbors formed of him, and was an honored citizen throughout his life, which closed when he was yet in his prime and apparently in the midst of his usefulness.

The Carrier family has been numerously and creditably represented in this part of Jef-

ferson county for almost a century. In the year 1820 six brothers, Hiram, Darius, George, Nathan, Euphrastus and John Carrier, pur- chased ninety-six acres of land and all the mills at Troy, Jefferson county, they and their de- scendants continuing to own the sanie for many years, rebuilding the mills several times. In- deed, the Carriers have always been foremost in the milling interests of the county. Nathan Carrier especially became extensively engaged in lumbering in this county. He had come here from Connecticut (the early home of the family ) in pioneer times, and was one of the first settlers at Summerville. He died at the age of seventy-three years, his wife passing away in 1884. Their family consisted of nine children, three sons and six daughters, namely : Darius; Hiram; Harriet, Mrs. John Mclaughlin, of Clover township; Lucinda, Mrs. Hurd; Esther, Mrs. Weldon ; Isaac, who was a Union soldier during the Civil war; Mary, Mrs. Karner; Emaline, Mrs. Guthrie, and Agnes, Mrs. Davis. The parents and chil- dren all held membership in the Methodist Church.

Darius Carrier, father of the late Euphras- tus Carrier, died in the year 1891. He had a valuable farm of two hundred acres in the suburbs of Summerville. He married three times, his first wife being Elizabeth Hetrick, the second Rebecca Hetrick and the third Frances Sheppard. By the first and second marriages there were nineteen children.

Euphrastus Carrier was born at Summer- ville Nov. 6, 1857, son of Darius and Rebecca ( Hetrick) Carrier, and grew up on the home place, receiving such educational opportunities as the local schools afforded. His early years were spent assisting his father at agricultural work and lumbering, and after his marriage he engaged in the latter business on his own ac- count, for ten years running a lumber camp on the North Fork. He made this venture when but twenty-three years old, but he had been well trained under the competent instruction of his father, and his energy and perseverance combined well with practical experience to bring him success. The camp received all his attention during the winter season, and in the summer he farmed the paternal homestead. Upon the death of his father he inherited part of the tract, together with a fine home and substantial outbuildings, and he continued to live on this place and carry on its cultivation to the end of his days. He also had valuable interests in both grist and saw mills, prospering in both branches of that business, and had high standing among business men, being re-

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spected for his ability and for his absolute integrity in all his dealings with his fellows. Mr. Carrier died in 1909, in his fifty-third year, of neuralgia of the heart, and his taking away was sincerely mourned in the circles where he had been favorably known for so many years. While not active in public affairs he believed in the principles of the Republi- can party and supported them.

On Ang. 1, 1878, Mr. Carrier was married to Emma A. DeHaas, of Corsica, this county. member of a numerous family which has al- ways been highly regarded in that borough. Her parents had eight children, mostly daugh- ters, all of whom married well and are com- fortably settled in life. The DeHaas family is of French extraction, and its members have been characteristic for personal and mental at- tractions which have won them many friends. Eight children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Eu- phrastus Carrier, six sons and two daughters, viz. : William Darius, born June 1, 1879, died in 1913 leaving a widow and two children (they had lost two other children just a few weeks before the father's death by a railroad acci- dent) ; Myrtle Rebecca, born Feb. 26, 1881, married Floyd Green, who is a railroad engi- neer, and they are now living at LaCrosse, Wis. ; Thomas Raine, born March 18, 1883, is married and has four children (he makes his home at Summerville and is engaged in mining ) ; Nelson A., born May 25, 1885, a designer, is established in Chicago, Ill. ; Clare Carlisle, born March 18, 1888, is a railroad man ; Anna A., born Nov. 6, 1890, is married to Earl Bloom, a printer, of Pittsburgh, and they have one child; Cassins M., born May 7, 1804, is an electrical engineer ; Hobart G., born Oct. 2, 1896, is at home. The family are all members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, except Cassins MI .. who has adopted the re- ligion of his grandfather, being a Presbyter- ian. Mr. Carrier was anxious to give his chil- dren a proper start in life, and allowed them all liberal educational advantages, of which, it is only fair to say, they have availed them- selves gladly, already reaping the benefits of the privileges he extended to them so gen- erously.

EZRA NEFF, who is the able and honored incumbent of the office of justice of the peace in the borough of Reynoldsville, is a native of Indiana county, this State, and a member of a remarkable and honored pioneer family of western Pennsylvania. The lineage of this sterling family traces back to stanch Holland- Dutch stock. Two brothers of the name ex-

pressed too freely in their native land their religious convictions, and this brought down upon them the ill will of the government authorities, with the result that, to escape per- secution, they left Holland and immigrated to America. Here they became early settlers in Lancaster county, Pa., and the family name has continued to be one of no little prominence and influence in Pennsylvania as one genera- tion has followed another on to the stage of life. Many representatives of the Neff family are to be found in nearly all the eastern counties of Pennsylvania, and the western part of the State has had much to gain and noth- ing to lose in the representation it has received of this well known family.

John Neff, grandfather of Esquire Ezra Neff, was born in Lancaster county, and in 1816 became one of the pioneer settlers in what is now South Mahoning township, Indi- ana county, this State. There he cleared a small tract, erecting his primitive log house, and then turned his attention vigorously to the improving of his land. IIe played well his part as a pioneer, was honored by his fellow men, and in his industry was not denied a certain measure of temporal reward. He continued to devote his attention to the management of his farm until the time of his death, and his re- mains rest with those of his wife in the pioneer cemetery near Georgeville, Indiana county. Their children were: Jonathan, who died in infancy: Mary; Jonathan (2) ; Phoebe ; Aaron ; Sarah ; Absalom, and John, Jr.

Jonathan Neff. father of Ezra Neff, was born in South Mahoning township, Indiana Co., Pa., two miles east of Plumville, on Sept. 13, 1814, a date that indicates with significance and emphasis the fact that his parents were specially early settlers of that county. Mr. Neff passed his entire life in his native town- ship, and the homestead farm on which he passed the closing period of his life, near Ross- moyne, was within half a mile of the place of his birth. Jonathan Neff did not neglect the advantages afforded in the primitive schools of the early pioneer days, and the passing years brought to him circumspection and wisdom, with an intellectual power notably above the average. As a young man he clerked in a gen- eral store at the Five Mile House, so named because it was five miles distant from Punxsu- tawney, Jefferson county, but aside from this experience virtually his entire active life was spent in close and effective association with agriculture, through the medium of which he made due provision for his family and achieved independence and prosperity. The loving com-

JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

panionship of Mr. Neff and his wife continued for the remarkable period of more than sixty- eight years, the gracious ties being severed only when the venerable husband and father was called to eternal rest, Dec. 13, 1908, at the patriarchal age of ninety-four years, three months. About four years later the deeply bereaved wife and mother likewise entered into rest, at the age of ninety-three years, ten months. This noble pioneer couple passed their entire wedded lives within the boundaries of the township in which Mr. Neff was born. Both retained to the last wonderful mental and physical vitality, and the records of Penn- sylvania can show few instances of such long and solicitous companionship as marked the marital career of these fine old people.

On the 5th of March, 1840, Rev. Thomas Wilson solemized the marriage of Jonathan Neff to Mary Jane Farnsworth, who was born in the State of Ohio June 26, 1818, and was a mere child when her parents removed to Jefferson county, Pa .. locating on a pioneer farm at Big Run. Mr. and Mrs. Neff became the parents of six sons and two daughters, and both daughters are deceased. Elizabeth having been a young woman at the time of her death, and Sarah R., who became the second wife of Capt. Evan Lewis, of Smicksburg, Indiana county, having passed to the life eternal about the year 1806. All of the sons survived the parents, and concerning them the following brief data are given: Ezra was the eldest ; John F., formerly of Punxsutawney, Jefferson county. now resides at Apollo, Armstrong county ; Silas M. is a resident of DuBois, Clearfield county : Aaron A. remains on the farm which was the home of his parents at the time of their death. Dr. Edward L. is a representative physician and surgeon in the city of Pittsburgh ; Dorsey D. is ( 1916) serv- ing as justice of the peace at DuBois, Clear- field county.

In his young manhood Jonathan Neff served seven years as a member of the old militia company known as the Mahoning Volunteers, and in all of this period missed only two days of the annual three-day musters of the organi- zation. Mr. Neff cast his first presidential vo'e for Henry Clay, and thereafter voted at every presidential election until the time of his death-seventeen in all. He espoused the cause of the Republican party at the time of its organization and continued to give it his un- qualified support until the close of his remark- ably long life, the while he took pride in re- verting to the fact that each of his six sons adhered to the same political faith. For many

years he and his wife were devout and zealous members of the Mahoning Baptist Church, and always exemplified their Christian faith and their deep sense of personal stewardship in kindly thoughts and kindly deeds.

Esquire Ezra Neff was born in South Ma- honing township, Indiana Co., Pa., March 7, 1843, and in his boyhood and youth gave his due quota of assistance in the varied operations of the home farm, meanwhile not neglecting the advantages afforded in the common schools of the locality. The Civil war was precipitated shortly before he had attained the age of eight- een years, and it was not until 1863 that cir- cumstances were such as to permit or at least justify him in tendering his services in de- fense of the Union. He first enlisted in Com- pany A, 2d Battalion, Pennsylvania Volun- teers, and with this command was in service at the front until Feb. 7, 1864, when he re- ceived an honorable discharge. On the 11th of the following July he reenlisted and was appointed quartermaster's sergeant, in which position he served until November 11th of the same year, when he was again given an hon- orable discharge. His patriotic zeal again manifested itself when, on the Ist of March, 1865, he reenlisted, this time becoming orderly sergeant of Company B, 74th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, in which he was chosen first sergeant, in which capacity he served un- til the close of the war, his final discharge hav- ing occurred June 29. 1865. Under each en- listment Mr. Neff was in continuous service at the front, and though he was never wounded or captured the arduous service caused him, on the tith of April, 1865, to lose almost en- tirely the control of his voice, an affliction from which he has never entirely recovered. though the indisposition has become one of but slight significance to him in later years.

.After the close of the war Mr. Neff returned to his native township, where he continued to be associated with agricultural enterprises un- til the spring of 1869, when he became an em- ploye on the line of the Allegheny Valley rail- road. A short experience in, railroad work sufficed, and in 1870 he engaged in the livery business at Dayton, Armstrong county. One vear later he established himself in the same line of enterprise at Marion Center. Indiana county, but within a few months, in November, 1872. came to Jefferson county and established his residence at Reynoldsville, which was then a small and relatively unimportant village. Here he conducted a livery business for six ironths, and he was then, in May, 1873, ap- poin'ed constable of Winslow township. He

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was retained in this position by being regularly elected in the following year, and when the borough of Reynoldsville was organized he was, in 1875, elected a constable of the same, thus becoming one of the corps of officials in the new borough. He was reelected in 1876, and in February, 1877, he was elected justice of the peace of the borough, to assume the duties of which magisterial office he re- signed that of constable on the 17th of March. The best voucher for the efficiency and ac- ceptability of Esquire Neff's administration as justice of the peace is that offered by the fact that through successive reelections he has been retained in this office during the long in- tervening period, within which he has given constant thought and study to the legal phases as well as the points of equity and justice in- volved in the causes presented before him, and has shown such discernment and wisdom in his decisions that very few of them have been reversed by courts of higher jurisdiction. Incidental to his service he has intrenched him- self most firmly in the confidence and high esteem of the community, and no citizen of the .borough has a wider circle of friends within its borders. Esquire Neff has also served many years as local United States pension agent, and for ten years he held the office of notary public. For a time he gave considerable attention to the real estate business, but he now finds ample demands upon his time in the dis- charge of his official duties.

Esquire Neff is a man of admirably forti- fied political convictions and has never deviated from a line of strict allegiance to the cause of the Republican party, his first presidential vote having been cast while he was serving as a soldier in the Civil war, in November, 1864, and it is a matter of definite satisfaction to him to recall that this initial ballot was cast in support of the martyred President Lincoln. He is a charter member of John C. Conser Post. No. 192, Grand Army of the Republic, at Reynoldsville, and has held various offices in the same. He is affiliated also with the local organizations of the Benevolent Protec- tive Order of Elks, the Fraternal Order of Moose, the Knights of the Golden Eagle, and the Improved Order of Red Men. besides which he was for some time identified also with both the senior and junior branches of the Order of the United American Mechanics. Ile has been one of the broad-minded. loyal and public-spirited citizens of Reynoldsville, is well known in Jefferson county, and has a host of friends in this section of his native State. Both

he and his wife are active members of the Presbyterian Church in their home place.

On Sept. 10. 1865, Mr. Neff wedded Arminta Mary Neale, of Indiana county, who passed away in 1881. The three children of this union are all now deceased : Ella L., Bertie C. (died in 1882) and Thomas N. The latter died Nov. 5. 1903, leaving a son, Ezra B., and another, Thomas N., born on the 10th day of May, 1904.

Ezra B. Neff graduated from Girard College Feb. 17, 1916, when not quite eighteen years of age, and was one of the ten graduated out of a class of one hundred and ten, ranking third of the ten that graduated. After gradu- ation he spent about ten days with his Grand- father Neff, then going to Pittsburgh, where within a short time he secured a position as stenographer for the Reliance Life Insurance Company of Pittsburgh. After he had been with them for about five months he was pro- moted to the office of treasurer of the Michi- gan department, at Detroit, Mich., where he is now. The other boy, Thomas N. Neff, is with his mother, Mrs. Hettie C. Neff, who is and has been for a number of years in the em- ploy of the United States government, being at present head nurse in a sanitarium at Lapwai, Idaho. Thomas N., who is not yet thirteen years of age, is attending a township high school at that place.

The second marriage of Squire Neff was to Mrs. Lika B. (Gibson) Pearsoll, whom he wedded in the year 1883 and whose death occurred eight months after their marriage. On the 5th of May, 1885, was celebrated the marriage of Esquire Neff to Mrs. Louise M. (Seitz) Leroy, who was born Dec. 10, 1842, in Germany, and who was eight years of age when she accompanied her mother to America. No children have been born of this union, but both Esquire Neff and his wife delight to enter- tain in their pleasant home the young folk of the community as well as the friends of their own generation.

AMANUEL M. COOK, late of Barnett township, was a member of one of the most prominent families of that section of Jefferson county, having been a son of Jeremiah R. Cook and a grandson of John Cook, one of the ear- liest pioneers in this region. Mr. Cook was born June 24, 1853, at Cooksburg, which was named in honor of his grandfather. He was brought up to practical familiarity with the routine of work then followed by many, even in boyhood working with his father at lumber- ing and rafting and learning the details of the various occupations connected with the busi-

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ness. He became an expert river pilot, taking considerable square timber down the streams, as well as a number of the boats which he and his father built. They also operated a saw- mill, and were associated until some time after the son's marriage. At the age of twenty-nine years .A. M. Cook settled on the farm in Bar- nett township which he ever afterwards occu- pied, having a tract of seventy acres located half a mile east of Cooksburg, and fifteen miles from the county seat, Brookville. In his earlier years he had helped to clear and develop this very land, which is part of the homestead of his father and of his maternal grandfather, John Agnew, and the house built by Mr. Agnew back in the forties is still standing and in good condition, having been kept in thorough repair. Mr. Cook lived in it until he built the substan- tial residence now on the property, in 1890. Though the farm was partly improved when he settled there he had to clear out a great deal of brush, and in fact every corner of the prop- erty bears evidence of his enterprising nature and industry. The fine barn was built in 1901, spring water was carried into the house, and numerous other improvements marked his progress during the thirty years and more he resided there. He did general farming, and all his business interests were in that line. How- ever, he found time for the duties of citizen- ship, and took a keen interest in local affairs, serving seven years as school director of his township, and some years as supervisor. He never aspired to county office. On political questions he was allied with the Republican party. With his wife he belonged to the Pine Grove Methodist Episcopal Church.

When twenty years old Mr. Cook married 1.ouisa Hewlings. of Forest county, Pa., from near Redelyffe, who died after more than thirty years of married life. Of the children born to this marriage. Martin died when eight years old, and May (wife of Colonel Cook) when twenty-three years old; Albert is employed in the glass plant at Kane. Pa. ; Edward, a painter and decorator by occupation, is now settled at Newark, Ohio: Robert, of Cooksburg, is su- perintendent of gas hoses for the A. Cook Sons Company: Jesse. formerly a glass worker at Kane, is now with the 16th Pennsylvania Regi- ment on the Mexican border; Hattie is the wife of Edward J. Finnefrock, a merchant of Kane. For his second wife Mr. Cook married Mrs. Mary ( Barlett) Fidler, widow of Al. Fidler and daughter of Peter Barlett, of Clar- ion county, Pa. No children were born to this union. Mrs. Cook has six children by her first marriage. Her son Banks Fidler is now a

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Jefferson County, Pennsylvania : her pioneers and people, 1800-1915, Volume II, Part 41

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