Jefferson County, Pennsylvania : her pioneers and people, 1800-1915, Volume II, Part 92

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 92

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While Dr. Haven has had such a large field of endeavor in his immediate professional and business interests, yet his energetic tempera- ment and his versatile ability have ever been ready and willing to respond to the call of any cause affecting the good of his fellows, and he has been an efficient worker in this regard along many lines. He has adhered to the best ideals of his professional labors, and has kept up with the best thought of the time, both in practice and in his professional relations with his patrons and the community in general. Ile takes his obligations to his fellow citizens seri- ously and has used his intimate knowledge of local affairs toward most effective betterment.

He has been a most helpful worker in the Jeff- erson County Medical Society. For about five years he has been associated with the Pennsyl- vania Department of Health in its fight against tuberculosis, and has served on the local board of health. He always stands foursquare for the betterment of all public interests affecting the business, physical, mental or moral wel- fare of the people. As president of the board of directors of the Brookville Park Association he has done notable work to bring to the people of Brookville and vicinity the advan- tages of a public park and auditorium, and the completion of the work the foundations of which have been so wisely laid will bring forth words of commendation from the future citi- zenry.

Dr. Haven has long been a member of the Masonic fraternity, affiliating with Hobalı Lodge, No. 276, F. & A. M., and Jefferson Chapter, No. 225, R. A. M., both of Brookville ; with Bethany Commandery, No. 83, K. T., of DuBois, Pa .; Coudersport Consistory, thirty- second degree ; and Jaffa Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Altoona, Pa. He is also an Odd Fel- low, and a past grand in that order. On politi- cal questions he is a Democrat.

On June 17, 1882, Dr. Haven was united in marriage to Lulu B. Carrier, daughter of Hiram and Hila (Clover) Carrier, of Sum- merville, this county. Two children have been born to them, one daughter, Hila Sarah, sur- viving.

JAMES B. PHELAN, of Punxsutawney, has been associated with a number of the largest enterprises, private and public, in this section of Pennsylvania promoted within the last decade. Coal, lumber and financial inter- ests, and for a number of years local railways also, have combined to occupy him closely, but he has shown natural and cultivated ability in handling these various concerns, with the result that he is now one of the leading busi- ness men in his part of the State. Mr. Phelan has made his own success, for he started with- out means or influence, and the development of his capacity is one of the most remarkable features of his career, for with steadily in- creasing responsibilities he has managed to keep pace with their demands in a manner evi- dencing talents of the highest order.

Mr. Phelan spent his early life in Ireland, where he was born Dec. 10. 1856. Coming to the United States in December, 1879, he first settled at Osceola, in Clearfield county, Pa. Five years and three months after his arrival he became a citizen of this country. During

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the first five years of his residence in America Mr. Phelan was employed in the mines in Clearfield county. Then for a few years he was engaged as traveling agent for the Roches- ter Brewing Company, and in 1889 embarked on his own account in the wholesale liquor business at Osceola, where he continued until 1898. In that year he sold out his establish- ment and removed to Punxsutawney, where he was soon similarly engaged, having purchased an interest in the wholesale liquor business of S. E. Wilson. The firm became known as Phelan & Wilson, and Mr. Phelan continued his connection with the business for eight years. At that time, in company with Michael Burns, of Houtzdale, Pa., he bought in fee twenty-nine hundred acres of coal lands in Indiana county, Pa., and formed the Bear Run Coal & Coke Company. Before long he was interested in coal operations in Clearfield and Cambria coun- ties, and in the lumber business in Westmore- land county. In February, 1908, when Mr. D. H. Clark retired, he became manager and treasurer of the Jefferson Traction Company, which position he has filled ever since. In 1912 he was elected president of the Indiana County Railways Company, and continues to fill that office. He is a director of the Punxsu- tawney National Bank. The mere recount of his associations is sufficient to indicate the extent and importance of the interests he is now carrying, all of which have a vital rela- tion to the development of the territory in which his properties are located. There is every promise that he will be an influential figure in coal, lumber and traction circles for a number of years. At present practically all his time and energies are engaged in the ad- vancement of such projects.

Mr. Phelan's first wife, whose maiden name was Fannie Kennedy, died in 1900, leaving two daughters, Katherine and Frances. In 1901 he married (second) Clara A. McDonald, of Punxsutawney.

GEORGE McNEILL GOURLEY was a man whose high sense of personal stewardship was manifested in all of the relations of his long and useful life, and his strength was as the number of his days. Pure, constant and noble was the spiritual flame that illumined his mortal tenement and that made itself visible in kindly thoughts and kindly deeds. Possessed of distinctive mental and moral force, he ex- erted this not only in the achieving of material success and prosperity but also in the further- ance of those things that made for the general good of the community and the well-being of

his fellow men. He was one of the honored and influential citizens of Jefferson county at the time of his death, which occurred at his home in the village of Big Run February 25, 1909, and this history exercises its proper func- tion in entering a brief tribute to his memory.

Mr. Gourley was born in Perry township, this county, Jan. 6, 1846, son of George and Mary Woods ( Elliott) Gourley, the former a native of Ireland and of stanch Scotch-Irish stock, the latter a native of Indiana county, Pa., where her parents were pioneer settlers. Her father was Thomas Elliott, and the family name of her mother was McNeill. George MI. Gourley was but two weeks old at the time of his father's death and the widowed mother later became the wife of James Kinsall, of Perry township. Mrs. Kinsall survived her second husband also, after his death disposing of her property, including coal land, near Frostburg, and erecting a house at Big Run, where she established her home and continued to reside until her death, in 1906, when vener- able in years. Of the three children of her first marriage the firstborn was John, who died when a young man: Thaddeus died in child- hood: George M. was the youngest. By her second marriage Mrs. Kinsall became the mother of seven children.

George M. Gourley remained with his mother until several years after her second marriage, being ten years old when taken into the home of his maternal grandfather, Thomas Elliott, in East Mahoning township, Indiana county, where he continued to attend school until he had attained the age of sixteen years. One of his schoolmates there was the young girl who was later to become his wife. The Civil war was precipitated shortly after Mr. Gourley had celebrated his fifteenth birthday anniversary, and his youthful patriotism was not long to be held within bounds, for at the age of sixteen years he left school and made his way to Camp Orr, at Kittanning, Arm- strong Co .. Pa., where, on his sixteenth birth- day, after having represented himself as being eighteen years old, he enlisted and was duly enrolled as a private in Company G, 103d Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, his company having been commanded by Capt. John Stuchel. The regiment was forthwith assigned to the Army of the Potomac, but later was trans- ferred to the Army of the South. The records of the great struggle through which the integ- rity of the nation was preserved show few instances of deeper loyalty and more faithful and efficient service on the part of youthful volunteers than were revealed in the military

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career of Mr. Gourley, who lived up to the full tension of the great conflict. Among the more important engagements in which he took part may be noted the following: Williams- burg. Yorktown, Chickahominy Swamp, the seven days' battle of the Wilderness, Fair Oaks, White Oak Swamp, Malvern Hill, Black- water River, Newbern ( N. C.). Little Wash- ington, Goldsboro and Elizabeth City. On the 20th of April, 1864. Mr. Gourley was captured by the enemy, and after having been con- fined for a time in Andersonville prison was removed to Florence. where his parole was granted on the 11th of December, 1864. In the following April his exchange was effected at Annapolis, Md. Incidental to his original enlistment he received his honorable discharge on the 20th of January, 1864, and after a visit to his home he re- enlisted in the same company and regiment, with which he continued until he received his final discharge, June 25, 1865, at the close of the war. In his mature years this gallant young soldier of the Civil war mani- fested his abiding interest in his old comrades in arms by maintaining affiliation with the Grand Army of the Republic, in which he be- came a charter member of Irvin Post, at Big Run, with which he continued in active and appreciative membership until the close of his life.

The arduous service and many hardships endured by Mr. Gourley in his military career left him with health much impaired, and after his return to Jefferson county he passed some time in the home of a cousin, Mrs. Marcus Gourley, in Perry township. After recuperat- ing his energies he established his residence at Big Run and engaged in hauling timber. In 1869 he went to the State of Kansas, where lie remained until 1872, as one of the pioneer farmers of the Sunflower State.

On June 20, 1872, soon after his return from the West, Mr. Gourley wedded his boyhood friend and schoolmate, Martha Ruth Hamilton, who was of the same age as himself. Mrs. Gourley is a daughter of the late James A. Hamilton, who came to Jefferson county from Indiana county, this State, in the spring of 1867, and who purchased land in the little vil- lage of Big Run, where he erected a comfort- able home. Mr. Hamilton became a pioneer merchant in the village and also became prom- inently associated with lumbering enterprise in this locality. He finally admitted to part- nership in his business his son-in-law, George M. Gourley, and son Robert A. Hamilton, and with the latter was associated also in the

manufacture of shooks for about five years, or until the supply of available timber for the purpose was exhausted. Upon the death of Philip Enterline his two sons retained the grist- mill at Big Run, until one of the Enterline brothers sold his half interest in the enterprise to George M. and James Gourley, and George M. Gourley continued to be the owner of a fourth interest in this business until his death, giving the major portion of his time and atten- tion to the management of the mill and sub- stantial business until the close of his life. His interest in the business is still retained by his family. Of the Hamilton family adequate record is given on other pages, in the sketch of the career of Robert A. Hamilton, a brother of Mrs. Gourley.

In addition to his active association with the operation of the mill Mr. Gourley became the' owner of and gave his general supervision to a fine farm near the borough of Big Run, but at all times he and his wife continued to reside in the old homestead which they erected 011 Main street, in Big Run. Mr. Gourley was a stalwart advocate of the cause of the Republi- can party but had no desire for political prefer- ment or public office of any order, though he served for a number of years as school direc- tor. In addition to his affiliation with the Grand Army of the Republic he long main- tained membership with the local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He was a director of the Farmers' & Miners' Trust Company in the borough of Punxsutawney and was known as one of the substantial busi- ness men and representative citizens of his native county. In September, 1897, he became postmaster at Big Run, and continued to hold this position until Oct. 1, 1903, his daughter Wilda being his efficient and popular deputy. He and his wife were charter members of the Presbyterian Church at Big Run, in 1888, and

he served as elder in the same until his death. He was the first of the charter members to be summoned to the life eternal, and besides him and his wife the others who thus became the organizers and charter members were : Thomas Simon, David McKee, William En- terline, and Mesdames Thomas Simon and David McKee.

When Mr. Gourley was called from the stage of life's mortal endeavors the entire community signalized its sense of personal loss and sorrow, and the funeral services, held at the church of which he was an elder, called forth a large assembly of friends, many of whom came from distant points to pay a last tribute of honor to the deceased. The services

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were conducted by Rev. Samuel Palmer, pas- tor of the church, and members of the Grand Army of the Republic, more than one hundred representatives of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and a delegation from the Sons of Veterans assembled to do honor to the loved friend and honored citizen who had been called to rest, a squad from the Sons of Veter- ans firing a military salute over the grave of the veteran soldier of the Civil war. Mahon- ing Lodge of Odd Fellows of which the de- ceased was a charter member, paid him the full honors of this fraternal order. In her bereave- ment Mrs. Gourley has been sustained and comforted by the gracious memory of the loving companionship which she and her hus- band long enjoyed, and also by the filial devo- tion of her children and the earnest sympathy of the host of friends which she and her hus- band had gathered about them. In the con- cluding paragraph of this memoir is given a brief record concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Gourley :

Myrtle is the wife of John M. Miller, who is associated in the ownership and operation of the flour mill with which Mr. Gourley was long identified : Clarence was graduated from Columbus Medical College, Columbus, Ohio, to which institution he had been taken to bear an operation for appendicitis, being accompanied by his uncle, Dr. Sylvester Sutton Hamilton, of Punxsutawney, and this experience decided him in his determination to adopt the medical profession, of which he is now a successful and popular representative at Mingo Junction, near Steubenville, Ohio; Silas H. is a partner in the operation of the Enterline gristmill, as one of the successors of his honored father ; Wilda is the wife of Dr. James F. Wood, a representative physician and surgeon at Barnesboro, Cambria Co., Pa .; Sylvester con- ducts a well equipped barber shop at Big Run; Lon, who remains with his widowed mother, is employed at the electric light plant in Big Run.

NORMAN CLYDE MILLS, M. D., of Eleanor. McCalmont township, and who is the present incumbent of the office of county coro- ner, has gained secure success and prestige as one of the representative physicians and sur- geons of his native county. Dr. Mills was born at Brookville Nov. 16, 1877, son of John and Maria J. (Hughes) Mills, the latter a daugh- ter of Joseph Hughes, who was a respected pioneer of Rose township, this county.

John Mills was born in Westmoreland county, Pa., and was a child when the family

removed to Clarion county, where his father, Isaac Mills, reclaimed and developed a farm near Corsica, adjacent to the Jefferson county line, both he and his wife passing the rest of their lives there. John Mills was reared and educated in the "3 R's" in Clarion and Jef- ferson counties, eventually establishing a home in Rose township, near the old homestead of his wife's parents. A man of sterling char- acter, marked executive ability and unquali- fied personal popularity, he was elected county treasurer, and removed to Brookville for the more convenient performance of his duties. After an effective administration he continued his residence there, selling the farm. For some years subsequently he was actively identified with lumbering operations, and in this field of enterprise was associated with Robert Darrow. He had also attained skill as a pilot of timber rafts on the rivers. On June 30, 1890, Gover- nor Beaver appointed Mr. Mills associate judge of Jefferson county, for the short term, ending Jan. 1, 1891, his commission being still in the possession of his son Dr. Norman C. Mills. During the latter part of his active career Judge Mills was engaged in mercantile business at Brookville, being associated with his son-in-law. Thomas H. Means, under the firm name of Mills & Means. They were es- tablished in the old "Central Hotel" building. Later he was a partner of another son-in-law, R. C. Connor, in the dry goods business, under the firm name of Mills & Connor, occupying what is now the store of Means Brothers, op- posite the "American House" in Brookville. Subsequently the Judge became financially in- terested also in a mercantile establishment at Kittanning, his interest in the Brookville store being sold to his partner, Mr. Connor. He never lost his interest in agriculture, and pur- chased a fine farm in Eldred township, on the Sigel road, giving it general supervision after his retirement from mercantile business. Judge Mills was well known and highly hon- ored as a pioneer citizen at the time of his death, which occurred at Brookville in Septem- ber, 1908, when he was seventy-eight years of age. His widow, who still resides in that bor- ongh, will celebrate the eightieth anniversary of her birth in 1917 and is revered as one of the oldest members of the Presbyterian Church there. Mr. Mills also belonged to that church. and in politics he was a stalwart advocate of the principles of the Republican party. They became the parents of twelve children, of whom six attained to maturity : William W. is now a successful contractor in Topeka, Kans .; Mary E. became the wife of Thomas H.

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Means, deceased, of Brookville, a merchant : Laura, who also resides at Brookville, is the widow of George E. Brown; Nora is the wife of R. C. Connor, a merchant at Kittanning ; Stella is the wife of Robert W. Martin, a re- tired manufacturer at Swarthmore; Norman Clyde completes the family.

Norman C. Mills graduated from the Brook- ville high school and for two years attended Kiskiminetas preparatory school, afterwards completing the freshman year in Yale Univer- sity. In preparation for his profession he then entered the medical department of the Univer- sity of Pennsylvania, in which he finished the prescribed four years' course and was gradu- ated in 1902. For one year he served as interne and house physician in the Phoenixville Hos- pital, and for two years was engaged in the general practice of his profession at Norris- town, Pa. In 1905 he became associated as assistant with Dr. Free, at Big Soldier. in Jef- ferson county, the following year removing to Eleanor, still retaining his association with Dr. Free. From 1908 to 1915 the Doctor was en- gaged in practice at Big Run, and since that time he has been retained as surgeon for the Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal Company, with headquarters at Eleanor, developing also a large and representative private practice. He became a member of the Jefferson County Medical Society in 1906, and has served as its secretary and treasurer since 1910. He is a member also of the State Medical Society, and has served as coroner of Jefferson county for a year, having been elected in 1915. His polit- ical allegiance is given to the Republican party. Ile is a communicant of the Protestant Epis- copal Church, and is affiliated with the Benev- olent Protective Order of Elks. The Doc- tor finds his chief diversion in occasional hunt- ing and fishing expeditions, it being his cus- tom to devote one week each year to the hunt- ing of deer.

At the age of twenty-seven years Dr. Mills wedded Elizabeth F. Stine, of Port Kennedy, Montgomery Co., Pa., who died in 1912, at Big Run, three children surviving her, John. Elizabeth and Mary. She had been a suc- cessful kindergarten teacher in Philadelphia. In 1914 Dr. Mills married Mildred Sutter, daughter of Jacob Sutter, of near Reynolds- ville, a representative lumber and coal oper- ator, manager of The Central Land & Mining Company (headquarters, Philadelphia), who was also a successful teacher in the primary schools of this county.

HOFFMAN BROTHERS, Orvis Clyde and Leon Hale Hoffman, maintain their busi- ness headquarters at their home town, Punx- sutawney, Pa., which is very convenient to their operations in the local coal fields. But their work and reputation are by no means limited to that section, for their practical services and counsel as expert drillers are sought and valued wherever there is need for them. Their patrons are found in all parts of the United States and Canada, particularly in the regions of bituminous coal deposits. Orvis C. Hoffman, the elder of the two broth- ers composing the firm, has been in the busi- ness actively for a quarter of a century, and during his earlier experiences was associated with his father, the late Philip Herman Hoff- man, who was a pioneer in the well drilling business in this part of Pennsylvania and one of the foremost men of his day in that line.

The Hoffman family is of German origin, and their grandfather, Heinrich or Henry, spelled the name Hofmann, his children chang- ing to the present form. He was a native of Germany, born in 1806, and lived in that coun- try until some time after his marriage to Cath- erine Henkel. They came to America in 1840 with one child, Elizabeth, making the voyage in a sailing vessel, and after many experiences landed at Baltimore, Md. They did not re- main there long, continuing their journey by way of the old Pennsylvania canal to Beaver county, Pa., where Mr. Hofmann farmed for one Jacob Bimber. After a few years' resi- (lence there they came to Jefferson county, Pa .. being among the pioneer settlers at Round Bottom, in what is now Perry township, near the town of Valier. Mr. Hofmann engaged in farming and lumbering. subsequently pur- chased a farm in that township known as The Pines, upon which he lived for some years, and thence removed to Trade City, Indiana Co., Pa., buying a farm in North Mahoning township, from the Holland Land Company. The original tract comprised fifty acres, to which he added another thirty, and upon this place he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives, Mr. Hofmann dying in 1887, in his eighty-second year. and Mrs. Hofmann living to the age of eighty-seven years. They were devout and active members of the Ger- man Reformed Church, and were among the organizers of the Round Top Church of that denomination, walking seven miles to attend services there during the time their home was in Jefferson county. They were always zeal- ous in the cause of religion. This couple reared three children : Elizabeth, born in

PIANO LIBRARY

con & Hoffman

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Hessen, Germany, July 21, 1839, married Hartman Knauff, and died July 11. 1915; Philip Herman was the father of the Hoffman brothers; Mary, born in 1846, was an early school teacher at Punxsutawney, later married Marion Stear, and died April 19, 1874.

Philip Herman Hoffman was born Jan. 28, 1844, in Perry township, Jefferson county. near the present town of Horatio, and died Jan. 25, 1896, on the old homestead of his parents near Trade City. He became an in- fluential business man of this section. In his earlier life he followed farming, conducted the hotel at Trade City for some years, was en- gaged as a dealer in farm implements, and was a pioneer well driller in this part of Pennsyl- vania, running a Keystone Portable drilling machine which he operated in Jefferson and the surrounding counties. It was not alone in business that his energetic and progressive character was felt. Any good cause had his sympathy and, support, and he was promi- nently associated with the English Lutheran Church, taking an active part in its work. He looked after his aged parents during their closing years, and became the owner of the old home place, where he too settled. Mr. Hoff- man married Sarah Jane Clyde, who was born March 3, 1858, daughter of John Mabon and Martha (Fair ) Clyde, her birthplace being what is now the Startzell farm in Perry town- ship, near Markton. She died June 17, 1913, at Punxsutawney, at the home of her son Leon Hale Hoffman on Gaskill avenue. Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Hoffman : Orvis Clyde; Leon Hale; Verna Mabel, who is a public school teacher at DuBois, Pa .; and Murat B., deceased.

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Jefferson County, Pennsylvania : her pioneers and people, 1800-1915, Volume II, Part 92

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