Jefferson County, Pennsylvania : her pioneers and people, 1800-1915, Volume II, Part 93

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 93

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ORVIS CLYDE HOFFMAN, senior member of the firm of Hoffman Brothers, was born Sept. 27, 1874, at Trade City, Indiana Co., Pa., and obtained his early education in the schools of that place. Later he attended the Dilts School and Covode Academy, being given very good advantages. When ready to enter business life he became associated with his father in the drilling of wells, which was the driller's original employment, and continued with him until his death five years later. Then he oper- ated along the same lines for about five years more, in 1904 turning to diamond drilling, prospecting for coal. This has now become the principal branch of the business. He operated alone as O. C. Hoffman until 1909, when his brother Leon H. joined him, and they have had joint interests since. They have a full equipment of modern machinery, and the extent of their activities enables them to keep

a corps of skilled workmen large enough to undertake any contract, and thoroughly de- pendable because of their proved competence and experience. \ wide variety of operations in fields of entirely different character has trained them to meet almost any emergency of drill work, effecting a great saving of time and economy of labor. Hoffman Brothers have their office in the Eberhart building, Room I, Punxsutawney. For eight years, in addition to performing his duties as member of the firm of Hoffman Brothers, Mr. Hoff- man was interested in a mercantile business at Marchand, as one of the firm of Hicks & Hoffman. He holds membership in several of the most prominent social organizations of his town and county, belonging to John W. Jenks Lodge, No. 534, F. & A. M., of Punx- sutawney, the Punxsutawney Club, the Coun- try Club and the Iroquois Club, as well as the local lodge of the B. P. O. Elks. His religious connection is with the Central Presbyterian Church.

Mr. Hoffman married Nan Bell McAnulty, daughter of Henry MeAnulty, of Barnesboro, Cambria Co., Pa., and they have two chil- dren : Orvis Clyde, Jr., born July 30, 1913. and Betty Catherine, born Jan. 30, 1915.

LEON HALE HOFFMAN, younger member of the firm of Hoffman Brothers, was born Aug. 8, 1877, at Trade City, Indiana Co., Pa., upon the old homestead occupied by his grand- parents and parents. His early training was received in the local public schools, and he subsequently entered Covode Academy, in his native county, later taking the regular nor- mal course at the Indiana ( Pa. ) State Normal School, from which institution he was grad- uated in 1900. Mr. Hoffman was a member of the Huyghenian Literary Society and served one term as its president. He received class honors by being selected by the faculty as a junior contestant and was also one of the commencement orators. Mr. Hoffman began teaching school when seventeen years of age. His first two terms were taught at Cool Spring, North Mahoning township, Indiana county. The following year he was principal of the public schools at Hamilton, Jefferson county, and later taught two terms at Covode and Trade City, Pa. During the summer of 1901 he was also assistant principal of the Teachers' Training School at Penn Run, Indiana Co., Pa., which had an attendance of one hundred and twenty students. In the fall of 1901 Mr. Hoffman accepted a position with Dodd, Mead & Company, of New York, in the sale of their New International Encyclopedia, and has the

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distinction of having sold the first two sets in Pennsylvania. He held this position for four years, afterwards being promoted to general manager of the Pittsburgh ( Pa.) office, which position he held for more than one year. Dur- ing the time Mr. Hoffman was engaged in this business he was instrumental in placing in public libraries, among professional men, and in many of the best homes in the country, more than eight hundred sets of this valuable work. In 1906 he became interested in diamond drill- ing with his brother, and now devotes all his time and attention to that business, which has expanded sufficiently to keep both brothers well occupied. They are known deservedly as thor- oughly progressive contractors, their patrons having the assurance that any operations in- trusted to them will have the best facilities possible.

Mr. Leon H. Hoffman, like his brother, is a member of the Country Club and the Central Presbyterian Church, and he is also a Mason, affiliated with John W. Jenks Lodge, No. 534, F. & A. M. He married Margaret Elizabeth Dilts, daughter of Peter W. Dilts, of Punxsu- tawney, and they have a daughter, Sarah Jane, born in 1914. Their home is at No. 106 Gaskill avenue, Punxsutawney.

In the maternal line the Hoffman brothers belong to a pioneer family of Oliver town- ship, Jefferson county, their great-grandfather, William Fleming Clyde, having moved hither with his wife, Janet Bell (Mabon) Clyde, from Indiana county, Pa. They settled on and cleared the farm now occupied by Franklin P. Startzell, where Mr. Clyde died April 23, 1846. A number of years later Mrs. Clyde moved to Circleville, Ohio, where her death occurred Jan. 26, 1883. They had a family of four children :

(1) John Mabon Clyde followed farming, living on land adjoining his mother's farm until 1867, when he moved to Davidsville (110W Trade City), Indiana Co., Pa. In 1873 he settled at East Liberty ( Pittsburgh), Pa., where he died May 13, 1905. He married Martha Fair, who died Jan. 19, 1912, at Ches- wick, Allegheny Co., Pa. They left the fol- lowing family: W. P., living at Cheswick, Pa .; Albert, of East Liberty (Pittsburgh), Pa .: Sarah J., who married Philip H. Hoff- man, of Trade City ; and Elizabeth and Clara, of Cheswick. The eldest of this family. W. P. Clyde, is a contracting builder, member of the firm of Shutz, Shreiner & Clyde Com- pany, who have offices in the May building in Pittsburgh. He was formerly a member of the A. & S. Wilson Company, and for

more than twenty-five years has been actively engaged in construction work, engaged in the erection of many of the largest buildings in the city of Pittsburgh.

(2) William Johnston Clyde learned the carpenter's trade at Brookville, Pa. When the Civil war broke out he enlisted as a three months' man, and on Aug. 28, 1861, reenlisted in the 105th Pennsylvania Volunteers, after- wards becoming captain 'of Company A, of that regiment. He was killed at Brock's cross- roads, in the Wilderness, May 6, 1864, and is buried in the national cemetery at Fredericks- burg, Virginia.

(3) James Liggett Clyde was not yet twenty-one when he enlisted with his brother for service in the Union army. He was wounded at White Oak Swamp, Va., and died July 9, 1862, at the home of his uncle, Dr. Thomas Mabon, of Jacksonville, Indiana Co., Pa., where he is buried.

(4) Margaret J. Clyde died at Columbus, Ohio, Jan. 20, 1894, and is buried beside her mother at Circleville, Ohio.

WILLIAM H. GRAY is one of the mana- gers of the Jefferson County National Bank of Brookville, one of the substantial and valued financial institutions of this section of the Key- stone State, its resources being secure and admirably conserved and its influence large and beneficent in relation to the general busi- ness and civic affairs of the community in which it is established. It has the fortifying prestige implied in ample capital and effective and popular administration.

Mr. Gray was born in North Mahoning township, Indiana Co., Pa., March 7, 1841, and is a representative of the third generation of the family in this favored Commonwealth, which he represented as a valiant soldier of the Union in the Civil war. His grandfather, James Gray, of stanch Scotch-Irish lineage, was born in the North of Ireland, the part near Scotland, and became the founder of the fam- ily in America. The maiden name of his wife was Cannon. These sterling citizens settled in Huntingdon county, Pa., about twelve miles distant from the county seat, and there he pur- chased a large tract of land, which he developed into one of the productive and valuable rural estates of that county, both he and his wife continuing their residence on this old home- stead during the remainder of their lives. Their children were: Matthew, James, Wil- liam, Henry, John, Mrs. John Scott and Mar- gery, the last named attaining to the extremely venerable age of ninety-four years.

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Matthew Gray, father of William H. Gray, was born at Spruce creek, Huntingdon county. where he was reared to manhood on the old homestead farm and found his childhood and youth, compassed by the conditions and influ- · ences of the pioneer days. As a young man he was one of the sturdy pioneers who availed themselves of the historic old "Conestoga wagons" as a means of transporting merchan- dise and other goods from Pittsburgh to Phila- delphia. In later years he was employed also for some time in connection with the operation of one of the early iron furnaces. Finally he established his home on a farm in Mahoning township. Indiana county, this place having been owned by his father, and there he con- tinued his successful operations as an agri- culturist for a term of years. Eventually he returned to his old home at Spruce creek, Huntingdon county, and there died at the ad- vanced age of eighty-four years. His first wife, whose maiden name was Ellen Hull. died while they were residing in Mahoning town- ship, Indiana county, where her remains were interred in the little cemetery of the Gilgal Presbyterian Church. For his second wife Matthew Gray married a widow whose family name was Monk, and no children were born of this union. Of the children born to the first marriage the eldest was Sarah, who became the wife of John Ray: Maria, the second child. never married ; James is a resident of Newton, Kans., and celebrated his eighty-second birth- day anniversary in 1916; John sacrificed his life in battle at the time of the Civil war, hav- ing been a member of the 12th New York Vol- unteer Infantry: Elizabeth became the wife of John Johnston : William 11. is the youngest of the number.

William H. Gray gained his early education in the common schools of Jefferson county, where he was reared to adult age in the home of the late Esquire Alexander McKinstry. with whom he remained ten years. He then estab- lished his residence in Brookville. where he entered upon an apprenticeship to the carpen- ter's trade and where he was living at the in- ception of the Civil war. He forthwith mani- fested his intrinsic patriotism and youthful loyalty by tendering his services in defense of the Union. In the early part of the year 1861 Mr. Gray enlisted, becoming a private in Com- pany I, 105th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infan- trv. with which he proceeded to the front and with which he lived up to the full tension of the great internecine conflict. He participated in many engagements, including a number of the important battles marking the progress of

the war, and at the battle of Gettysburg re- ceived a severe wound in the upper part of his right leg, though the injury did not long in- capacitate him. He took part also in the memorable battles of Bull Run, Chancellors- ville and the Wilderness, and in the last men- tioned received a wound in his right arm. Mr. Gray continued his faithful and effective services as a soldier in the ranks of the boys in blue until October, 1864. when he received his honorable discharge, at the expiration of his term of enlistment. In later years he has vital- ized his interest in his comrades in arms by his active affiliation with the Grand Army of the Republic, holding membership in E. R. Brady Post, No. 242, at Brookville. He has been one of the appreciative and valued comrades of this post, in which he has filled various official positions, and as a representative of which he has attended many of the State encampments of the Department of Pennsylvania, as well as a number of the national encampments of the great patriotic order whose ranks are being rapidly thinned.

After the close of his military career Mr. Gray returned to Brookville, and here he con- ducted for ten years a photographic studio. In 1875 he engaged in the general merchandise business, in which he continued his successful operations until 1885, in that year selling his store and business and purchasing a farm in Rose township, near Brookville. He gave his personal supervision to clearing the farm of brush and stone and otherwise improving the property, upon which he erected a substantial and commodious house and two excellent barns, one of which is 40 by 80 feet in dimen- sions, and the other 45 by 60 feet. With char- acteristic energy and discrimination Mr. Gray gave his attention to diversified agriculture and the raising of high-grade live stock, and he was specially prominent in the raising and keeping of fine horses. He continued to super- vise his fine farmstead until 1910, when he sold the property to Richard Reitz. the present owner, but in the meanwhile he had maintained his home at Brookville, where, in 1882, he erected his present attractive and modernly appointed brick residence, in which he and his wife delight to extend gracious hospitality to their many friends.

Mr. Gray has been one of the influential fig- ures in the development and upbuilding of the substantial business controlled by the Jefferson County National Bank, of which he has served as a director and as vice president since 1882. His personal and capitalistic cooperation have been given also in the furtherance of the suc-

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cess of other important local enterprises, as indicated by the fact that he is vice president of the Solar Electric Company and a member of the directorate of the Brookville Manufac- turing Company and the Brookville Glass & Tile Company. He has been one of the man- agers of the Pennsylvania Memorial Home at Brookville since its organization in 1801. Ile is liberal and public-spirited as a citizen, and while never ambitious for political office ac- cords stanch allegiance to the Republican party.

In the year 1868 was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Gray to Mary Darling, who was born in Brookville, daughter of the late Dr. George Darling, who upon coming to Penn- sylvania from Massachusetts, which was the place of his nativity, established his home in Mckean county, this, State. The family was founded in New England in the Colonial days. Further data concerning the Darling family will be found in the sketch dedicated to Paul Darling, on other pages of this work.

In conclusion is entered brief record con- cerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Gray: George G. resides upon and has the manage- ment of a part of his father's landed estate in Rose township; Elenora is the wife of David L. Taylor, president of the Brookville Title & Trust Company ; James Allen is now a resi- dent of the State of South Dakota; Arthur F. owns and conducts a steam laundry at Punx- sutawney, Pa .; Alice and Paul E. died in childhood.

JOHN PEARSALL, an early settler in Jefferson county and one of the pioneer offi- cials of Warsaw township, was born March I, ISOT, in Saratoga county, N. Y. He was a son of Peter and Mary ( Burtis) Pearsall and a descendant of Henry Pearsall, who settled at Hempstead, on Long Island, about 1635. When a young man, attracted by the rich prom- ise of the Pennsylvania forests, John Pear- sall purchased a thousand acres of white pine timber lands situated on Bennett's branch of the Susquehanna river, and in October, 1829, moved to Sinnamahoning, where he and his father engaged in lumbering. Later he bought several hundred acres of white pine timber from John Brockway, on the stream known as "Little Toby," near the present site of Brock- wayville, Jefferson county, and in the summer of 1831 moved to his new purchase, where he carried on lumbering for the next ten years. In the summer of 1841 he purchased part of the John Dixon farm and settled on that part formerly occupied by the Cornplanter Indians.

There, too, he followed lumbering and agri- culture, reared his large family and spent the remainder of his life, passing away Dec. 24. 1886, in his eighty-sixth year. This property was part of the territory now known as War- saw township, and when that township was created, in 1842, he was elected its first auditor, being one of the influential citizens of his community then as always.

On March 8, 1826, Mr. Pearsall married Hannah Morey, and they had one child. Han- nah Margaret. Mrs. Pearsall died Feb. 28. 1827, and two years later, on June 9, 1829, he married Deborah Ann Brill, whose death oc- curred July 31, 1884, in her seventy-seventh year. Mr. and Mrs. Pearsall are buried in the Baptist churchyard at Richardsville. They were the parents of five sons and four daugh- ters, born in the following order : Hannah Mar- garet (his daughter by the first marriage), John Henry, George Alfred. Caroline, \daline. David, James Burtis, Winfield Cornell and Florence Ermina.

GEORGE A. PEARSALL, son of John and De- borah Ann (Brill) Pearsall, was born near the present site of Brockwayville, on Little Toby, April 23, 1835. In 1842 his parents moved to Warsaw township. Here he grew to manhood and assisted his father, farming in the summer and lumbering in the winter. On July 3, 1856, he married Eliza Catherine Larmer, daughter of Benjamin and Julia (Totten ) Larmer, and engaged in lumbering for himself on the Clarion river and the North Fork of Red Bank until 1867, when he moved to Brookville, identified himself with the mer- cantile business, and soon became one of Brookville's most successful and highly re- spected citizens. He engaged in various other enterprises and was generally successful. The latter part of his life was spent in retirement and on March 28, 1908, he passed away in the town that had been his home for many years.

CLARENCE E. PEARSALL, son of George .1. and Catherine (Larmer) Pearsall, was born in Warsaw township Jan. 29, 1863. When he was four years of age his parents moved to Brookville, where he later attended the public schools. When seventeen years old he went to Michigan and engaged in lumbering until the spring of 1883, when he returned to Brook- ville and assisted his father in the mercantile business. On Sept. 9, 1883, he married Ger- trude E. Andrews, daughter of Alonzo and Caroline ( Long) Andrews (the latter daugh- ter of Michael Long), and after the comple- tion of a course at business college in Pitts-

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burgh moved to the Pacific coast and engaged in lumbering. After the death of MIrs. Pear- sall, on April 12, 1891, he traveled extensively in Central and South America. Shortly after his return to the Pacific coast he married II. May Wilson, daughter of David and Hettie A. (Johnson ) Wilson, on Jan. 16, 1898. Ilis residence is in Eureka, California.

GUSTAVE EDWARD HAGSTROM, of l'unxsutawney, treasurer of the Farmers' & Miners' Trust Company, has borne himself in that capacity with such evident apprecia- tion of the responsibility of his duties, and apparent fitness for them, that he may justly be ranked now with the influential financiers of Jefferson county. Mr. Hagstrom has at- tained his honorable position through his own achievements, with additional credit due in that it has come among his old-time associates, the men with whom he has worked during the principal part of his business career. Noted for his keen judgment in financial problems, and no less for undeviating probity and relia- bility, the numerous transactions which he handles are considered safe by all concerned in them, and the feeling of security which has made the Farmers' & Miners' Trust Company well patronized has been largely based upon his substantial qualities.

Mr. Hagstrom is of Swedish birth, and his father, Charles O. Hagstrom, also a native of Sweden, followed 'stone cutting and mining in that country until he came to America. This was in 1880. He first settled in Tioga county, Pa., where he was employed as a stone cutter and miner for several years. In 1893 he re- moved to Punxsutawney, following mining in this section from that time until his death, in 1890. His wife, whose maiden name was Caroline Swenson, was like himself a native of Sweden, and she now makes her home at Anita, Jefferson county. They were the par- ents of the following children: Gustave Ed- ward, Carl. Hilda, Frederick, William, David, Robert and Henry.

Gustave Edward Hagstrom was given public school privileges in Tioga and Elk counties, and took a business course at Punxsutawney. When a mere boy he commenced mine work during vacation periods, and continued in that line of employment until he reached the age of twenty years, in 1898 obtaining a position as clerk with the Elk Run Supply Company at Anita, this county, which he held until 1903. For a year more he was similarly engaged with Mr. Malberg, at Anita, in October, 1904, be- ginning his association with the Farmers' &

Miners' Trust Company, of Punxsutawney, in the capacity of bookkeeper. He was retained as such, with constantly increasing responsibil- ities, until January, 1913, when he was made treasurer of this solid banking institution, having shown exceptional talent for the re- quirements of that office. Mr. Hagstrom en- joys many pleasant social connections in the borough and county, being a member of the Punxsutawney Club and the Country Club, and affiliating with the local lodge of B. P. O. Elks. His high personal standing with the associates of all his activities speaks well for his record in citizenship and private life.

Mr. Hagstrom married Emma C. Johnson, daughter of Elias Johnson, of Anita, this county, and five children have been born to this union : Eveline, Edward, Alice, Louise and John.

CHARLES HAMILTON SHOBERT, who has spent most of his life in Brookville and vicinity, was born Jan. 31, 1842, at New Bethlehem, Pa. His father was Joseph Sho- bert, who was born in Westmoreland county, Pa., but lived in Brookville a great many years, residing there at the time of his death, when he was seventy-four years of age. The mother of Charles, Mrs. Rachel ( Hamilton) Shobert, was the daughter of Charles Hamilton, and she also died at Brookville, at the age of seventy.

The name "Shobert" was originally "Schu- bert," having been changed by an error in the United States Government records at the time of the war of 1812 with Great Britain, in which war John Schubert (afterwards "Sho- bert," who was the grandfather of Charles) saw much service as an officer. He had come direct to America from Germany, and he was of the same Schubert family as Franz Schu- bert, the celebrated German composer and musician. Settling in Westmoreland county, at the termination of the war, he died at But- ler, Pa., aged ninety-eight years.

The subject of this sketch, Charles Hamilton Shobert, attended school at East Liverpool, Ohio, until he was thirteen, when he became employed as a clerk on a trading boat plying the Ohio river. He was next engaged as clerk in a Brookville store, but in 1857 resigned the position to learn the trade of cabinetmaker, at which he served an apprenticeship of three and a half years, and continued to work at it in Brookville until 1866.

In February, 1865, Mr. Shobert married Annie Butler, daughter of David Butler, a pioneer of Jefferson county, who resided on

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the Butler homestead, about two miles east of Brookville. Soon after his marriage Mr. Sho- bert removed to Pinecreek township, near Brookville, where he became engaged in farm- ing and lumbering, for a great many years rafting and piloting both boards and square timber on Red Bank Creek and the Allegheny and Ohio rivers. He piloted through Pitts- burgh the largest lumber fleet that ever came down the Allegheny. He was also engaged in some important construction and furniture work in Brookville, building the oldl Craig & Wilson furniture factory, and in later years (after moving back to Brookville from his farm) he built the larger plant of the Brook- ville Furniture Company, in which plant he was foreman and the first to successfully manu- facture furniture on a large scale in Brook- ville. The Furniture Company's plant having been destroyed by fire, Mr. Shobert then built, and operated for a long time, the large brick furniture plant of the Deemer Furniture Con- pany, located on the Pennsylvania railroad at Brookville.

Mrs. Charles H. Shobert is not only the daughter of a pioneer of Jefferson county, but a direct descendant of two of the oldest and most illustrious families in America, viz., the Wadsworths and Butlers. Her father, David Butler, was the son of James Butler, and was born in Massachusetts, being one of eight chil- dren. He came to what is now Jefferson county in 1808 (locating in the wilderness, two miles east of the present site of Brookville), and helped the Barnetts, who were his relatives. to blaze the first trails and establish the first settlement at Port Barnett. Mrs. Shobert's grandfather, James Butler, married Esther Wadsworth. He was killed in the Revolution- ary war, in which many Butlers fought for the Colonies, and of whom General Washington (whose mother was a Butler) is reported by historians as having said that "Whenever I want anything done right. I always get a But- ler to do it." Esther (Wadsworth ) Butler was a direct descendant of William Wadsworth, who was born in Northamptonshire, England. in 1595, and who was a neighbor of Oliver Cromwell (afterwards Lord Protector of Eng- land) and present at Cromwell's marriage. William Wadsworth first came to Virginia in 1621, later returning to England; but again coming to America in 1633. he settled in Hart- ford, Conn., where he was an "original plan- ter" (pioneer) or selectman, and also deputy to the "General Court." He was the father of Capt. Joseph Wadsworth and John Wads- worth, who was deputy governor of Connecti-

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Jefferson County, Pennsylvania : her pioneers and people, 1800-1915, Volume II, Part 93

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