Jefferson County, Pennsylvania : her pioneers and people, 1800-1915, Volume II, Part 98

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 98

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Charles H., a civil engineer for the United States government at Denver, is a graduate of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N. Y .; Archie is in Denver ; Ralph Meade is engaged as a clerk in the post office at Brook- ville.

The Neel family home has been at Brook- ville since 1892. Thomas S. Neel has led a re- tired life since 1901, but he has kept in touch with social and public affairs in the borough. where he is held in unqualified respect. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church, a Mas- ter Mason, and a member of the Union Veteran Legion.

JOHN R. MCLAUGHLIN, of Lane's Mills, is an old-time resident and a typical member of a numerous and much respected family in that locality, where it has been established since 1859. The Mclaughlins are well noted for sturdy character, industry, thrift and honesty, traits which have made them valued citizens.

John Mclaughlin, father of John R., was long known as "Grandfather" Mclaughlin. and at death was not only the oldest pioneer resident of Lane's Mills, but also the oldest man in Jefferson county. He was born June 16, 1815, near Londonderry, Ireland, son of John and Mary McLaughlin. His boyhood was spent on his father's farm, and he himself became the owner of a small farm which he sold when he migrated. He was a cooper by trade ; and, though conditions in the new land were much harder than those he had known, he decided in 1847 to try his fortune in America, setting out alone in order to prepare a home for his wife Mary (McElhaney ), whom he married in 1834 and who joined him the next year. He settled on a farm in Bristol township. Bucks Co., Pa., living there for nine years, when he removed to Lehigh county and located four miles from Allentown, and found work around the furnaces during the next two and a half years. Having friends in Jefferson county, he came out to see them, and finding the location favorable for a home site, pur- chased a tract of 100 acres in what is now Sny- der township ( then in Fox township. Clear- field county). He made a clearing, built a good-sized log house, and there spent the remainder of a long life, the last thirty years of which were in practical retirement. He did his share in opening and converting the forest tracts into fertile farms. his own being one of the best improved. He possessed a keen, intel- ligent mind and was ever ready to aid in enter- prises promoting the general good, doing his whole duty as a citizen. When ready to retire

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from arduous labor he turned the farm over to his son Marshall, with whom he continued to live, attaining the patriarchal age of ninety- six years, six months, dying in January, 1912, as the result of an accident, having fractured his hip by a fall. Funeral services were held in the M. E. Church at Lane's Mills, and the remains were interred in Wildwood cemetery. borne to their resting place by six great-grand- sons, G. W. S. and Thomas Humphreys, Ilarry and Harold MeMinn and Ralph and Warren Mclaughlin. Mr. Mclaughlin was originally a member of the Episcopal Church, but, after settling in Snyder 'township, united with the M. E. Church. lle led a sincere Christian life, showing his faith by his works, and was held in unqualified respect.

Mr. Mclaughlin founded a family which has been represented among the prominent residents. Of his nine children five are living, namely: John R., Marshall and Mrs. Katherine Humphreys, all of Lane's Mills; Mrs. Margery Stewart, of Portland, Oregon ; and Thomas, of Burdette, N. Y. The mother died thirty years before the father. Mr. Mc- Laughlin was survived by thirty grandchildren, sixty great-grandchildren and thirteen great- great-grandchildren, five different branches of the family having five living generations dur- ing his lifetime. One of the deceased sons. Samuel, was at one time a resident of Brock- wayville, but later settled at Beaver Falls. For imany years it had been the custom for as many members of the family as possible to gather at the old homestead near Lane's Mills on Mr. Mclaughlin's birthday, and he took great delight in having them about him. The Brockwayville Record of Jan. 19. 1912, spoke of him thus: "He was one of God's true noblemen. He was a man whose life walk was clean, honest and honorable to a marked de- gree. His existence furnished an example worthy of emulation and his memory should be sacred in the hearts of all who knew him and loved him. He was a man of generous impulses and his hospitality was boundless. In the vicissitudes of the pioneer days, when existence in the wilderness was a hard strug- gle, his was the kindly hand extended to the neighbor in distress or the shelter of his hos- pitable roof for the weary wayfarer. During his lifetime he bore adversity bravely and en- joyed prosperity quietly."

John R. Mclaughlin was born in October. 1838, in County Donegal. Ireland, and was ten years old when his mother brought him to America to meet the father, who had come the year before. They sailed from Liverpool to

New York on the "Hettinger." and the ocean voyage took five weeks and two days, the ves- sel being delayed for some time; she was wrecked in a storm off the Irish coast on her next trip out from Liverpool. In Bristol town- ship, Bucks county, the family lived nine years on a farm owned by a Taylor family, and dur- ing this time John R. Mclaughlin obtained all his schooling, attending for a short time dur- ing the winter season. He accompanied the family in their various removals, and when his father cante to look over the situation in Jefferson county was with him, the rest of the family coming later. John R. McLaughlin had married in Lehigh county, in 1859, Mary Ann Humphreys, daughter of John and Mary Humphreys, and they immediately located near Lane's Mills, where he found work with N. B. Lane, in the mill, woods, etc. Later he bought sixty-eight acres in Snyder township, on Rattlesnake creek, adding fifteen acres to the original purchase some time later, when he had prospered sufficiently to warrant it. He farmed in the summer season and worked for Mr. Lane winters, so that improvements were slow at first, for the land was wild and had to be cleared as well as cultivated. He continued to reside there until fourteen years ago, when he sold his farming interests to his son Samuel and moved to Lane's Mills, where he has a comfortable home. By hard work and perseverance he made an excellent living on his farm, and he has the good will of his many friends and acquaintances.

Six children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Mclaughlin: John FI., who lives at Falls Creek, married Margaret Patton, and they have had children : Zella, John Ralph, Warren Patton, Robert Leslie, and Nellie Florence. the last named dying in infancy. Robert, un- married, lives at Tyler, Clearfield Co., Pa. : Thomas is living in Michigan: Samuel, who is on the home farm, married Martha Cochran, and their children are Howard, Wesley, Edith, Quinn Humphreys, Ethel and Evelyn. Mary Emma married William Askey, and died at Falls Creek. Catherine is living at home.

Mrs. McLaughlin died March 2. 1914, and is buried in the Brockwayville cemetery. She was born in County Cavan, Ireland, in 1839, came to the United States when a young woman, and lived in New York until her mar- riage. While in that city she joined the M. E. Church, and with her husband was among the organizers of the church of that denomination at Lane's Mills, taking an active part in its work. For many years she was a teacher in the Sunday school, and by her work and exam-

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ple did much to make the church enterprises successful. Mr. McLaughlin belonged to the Brockwayville M. E. Church before the church at Lane's Mills was established and took an earnest interest in its work, serving as steward, trustee and class leader for several years. When the Lane's Mills M. E. Church was founded he became one of its most valued sup- porters, and has been a class leader for twenty- five years. He has not been especially identi- fied with public affairs, but was interested in the welfare of the Republican party until he changed his allegiance to the Prohibitionists.

BENJAMIN C. REITZ. The insistent energy, circumspection and mental alertness that make for progressiveness and achieve- ment have been clearly shown in the career of Mr. Reitz, who is known as one of the most enterprising business men ever making Beaver township the stage of activity. For many years he conducted a prosperous general store at Pansy, having the only mercantile establish- ment in the village, and though he disposed of the business still resides in an attractive home which he built opposite his former store. In connection with farming he has manifested a progressive spirit, kept his land up to the maxi- mum of fertility by scientific methods of soil enrichment, and has made his farm a veritable model. Men of such ability and sterling char- acter are the worth-while citizens in any com- munity, and special interest attaches to Mr. Reitz for that in his native township he found ample scope for the productive application of his energies.

Benjamin C. Reitz was born .on a farm near Ohl. Beaver township, Sept. 9, 1862. He is a son of AAaron and Matilda ( Spare ) Reitz, and of an old and honored pioneer family of this county. The brothers of Aaron were Edward, Emanuel W., Jonathan and Benjamin W. The old homestead of Aaron Reitz is now owned and occupied by a son of his brother Jonathan. As a youth Aaron Reitz learned shoemak- ing, at Summerville, but about 1866 he virtu- ally abandoned the trade to devote his atten- tion to agriculture. He purchased and settled on an embryonic farm just north of the hamlet of Pansy, a portion of the tract of 130 acres having been cleared. The old residence which he erected in 1866 is still in excellent preserva- tion and occupied by his widow and other members of the family. Aaron Reitz was born in Northumberland county, Pa., was a child at the time of the family removal to Jefferson county, and was eighty years of age at the time of his death, April 13. 1915. His wife, born in

one of the eastern counties of Pennsylvania, was reared near Ohl, Beaver township, where her parents, Henry and Elizabeth (Geist) Spare, settled when she was a child; she was twenty-five years of age at the time of her marriage. In her widowhood Mrs. Reitz has the devoted companionship of her eldest daughter, Wilhelmina Frances; Benjamin C. was the second child; Alice is the wife of Emanuel Thomas, of Vandergrift, Pa .; Eliza- beth, the wife of George W. Baughman, died on the same day as did her venerable father, .April 13. 1915. being forty-six years of age; Charles died at the age of thirty years; Daisy married Everett Reitz. a merchant at Pansy and a son of Simon Reitz, the two families being of distant kinship. Aaron Reitz was a Republican and served as supervisor of the poor for Beaver township before the county farm was established. He was a communicant of the Burkhouse Lutheran Church ; his widow is a devoted member of the Albright Church of God.

In youth Benjamin C. Reitz attended the district school and worked on the farm until reaching his majority. He soon afterwards purchased of Thomas Hepler the general store at Pansy, and when the post office was estab- lished and given place in the store. Mr. Reitz eventually became postmaster, retaining the po- sition until April, 1911, when he sold out. He long controlled a prosperous general merchan- dise business, based upon fair and honorable dealings, effective service and personal popu- larity.

Since his retirement from trade Mr. Reitz has given attention to the management of his farm property, and has been identified with lumbering. He got out much squared timber in the Sandy Creek valley and in the vicinity of Mayport and St. Charles. In cutting off one tract of timber he operated a saw mill for a time. He owns a well improved farm of 110 acres, is progressive and liberal, is a stanch Republican but has had no ambition for office. his only public service having been as a mem- ber of the election board.

At the age of twenty-two years Mr. Reitz wedded Irene McNutt, daughter of John Mc- Nutt. of Beaver township, and the two chil- dren of this union are Melvin M., a railroad employe residing at Elkhart, Indiana, and Nel- lie J., who remains at home. .

HUGH E. MCCRACKEN. late of Brook- ville, was engaged in merchandising for many years and took an interest in all local affairs. was an active church member, and held a high

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place in the esteem of his associates. He was born at Elderton, .Armstrong county, where his father, Joseph McCracken, was a lifelong far- mer. The latter was twice married, and his children surviving at the time of Hugh E. Mc- Cracken's death were: Alexander, of Elder- ton : John, of California : Mrs. Jane Walker. of Lock Haven; Mrs. D. D. DeMotte, of Clarksburg; Mrs. Kaylor, of Greensburg; and Mrs. C. Yount, of Elderton.

Hugh E. MeCracken was with his father until his marriage. He then worked as a sur- veyor with his father-in-law. James Caldwell, then for seventeen years kept store at Knox Dale, when, returning to Brookville, he estab- lished himself as a merchant near the Penn- sylvania railroad station, where he did a thriv- ing business until his death, which came sud- denly while serving a customer on the morning of Dec. 16, 1910. He had been in his usual health, and had walked to his home on West- ern avenue. a few hundred yards and, return- ing. resumed his attention to trade. He stooped behind a counter to search for an article when prostrated by a sudden attack of heart failure. He was sixty-three years old. He had main- tained social and church relationships with duties to family, home and community, none being allowed to suffer through neglect. 1Ie belonged to the Presbyterian Church, in which while at Knox Dale he had served as an elder. Fraternally he held membership in the I. O. O. F.

Mr. MeCracken married Elizabeth Caldwell. . 1800. For many years he had been a member

daughter of the late James and Margaret J. ( Cochran ) Caldwell, and of the seven children born five survived him: Ralph married Luetta Anderson, who is deceased, and their four children, Alma A., Norman, Martha Elizabeth, and John C., reside with his mother ; Mary Bell is the wife of C. Mahlon Rhoades, of Altoona. Pa. : David B. married Alice Kuntzelman ; Ar- thur Hugh, hardware dealer, married Annie Arthurs Henderson : Ethel married William Hartman, and they reside at Altoona.

JAMES CALDWELL, late of Brookville, was among the best known residents of Jefferson county, serving as county surveyor for many years and probably "surveyed more land than any other man, living or dead." He was born Ang. 25, 1823, in Mount Pleasant township. Washington county. whither his grandfather. James Caldwell, had come from the North of Ireland in 1811. He died upon his homestead in 1823, aged forty years. His wife, Isabella ( McKaskey), survived till old age, dying in 1848.

Joseph Caldwell read medicine with Drs.

Wilson and Henderson in Hickory, Washing- ton county, practicing in Jefferson, Butler and Allegheny counties. His death occurred when he was aged sixty-six years, near Sharpsburg, Allegheny county. In 1819 Dr. Caldwell mar- ried Ann Smith, daughter of William and Mary ( Caldwell) Smith, who died in 1860, aged seventy years. They had four sons and four daughters, James being the second.

James Caldwell attended the public schools, including the high school in Allegheny City. Most of his mature life was spent in Jefferson county, which he first visited in 1845, remain- ing one year. In 1848, the year of his mar- riage, he settled in Eldred township. For twelve winters he taught school, but surveying was the principal business of his life. and familiarity with local surveys made him emi- nently the fittest person for the office of county surveyor, which he filled so capably for twelve years, during 1859-65 and 1868-74. In the fall of 1865 and winter of 1866 he was a men- ber of the engineer corps which made the sur- vey of the proposed route for the Atlantic & Great Western railroad, his line being from Brookville to Franklin, Venango Co., Pa. In the winter of 1876-77 he made the survey for the proposed railroad from Brookville to Shef- field, to open a new line to Buffalo, N. Y .. his son Joseph G. Caldwell, being assistant. About 1867-68 he removed to Brookville, where he made a permanent home, dying at his residence about nine o'clock in the morning of March 28, of the Presbyterian Church of Brookville, Rev. Dr. Conway conducting the funeral services.

In July, 1848. Mr. Caldwell married Mar- garet J. Cochran. daughter of James and Eliza- beth Cochran, and she survived hin, as did their six children, viz. : Elizabeth, Mrs. Hugh E. McCracken : Joseph G., of Brookville, now deceased : Isabella, widow of Samuel Larry and living at Allegheny; Mary, wife of Harvey McGiffin, of Brookville : Ella, Mrs. William Porter, of Brookville ; and James B., formerly of Brookville. now in the West.

MATTHEW HUMPHREY was during his lifetime one of the most prosperous agricul- turists of Warsaw township, and his fine farm in the neighborhood of Richardsville is still occupied by his daughter, Mrs. Jordan. He was a native of Iluntingdon county, born Feh. IO, 1818, son of Richard Humphrey. The father was born in 1762 in Ireland, and came to America during the Revolutionary war, the vessel in which he made the voyage being chased by a French privateer. After living in

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various localities he made a settlement in Hunt- ingdon county, and there married Margaret Wright, also a native of Ireland, who came to this country with her parents in child- hood. She died near Huntingdon in 1841. Mr. Ilumphrey removed to Jefferson county in 1840, and died at the home of his son William, near Richardsville, in 1846. in his eighty-fourth year. Eight children were born to this couple : William died at his home near Richardsville ; Thomas died at Strattonville ; Margaret. Mrs. William Darrah, died in Illinois ; Richard set- tled near Curwensville, Clearfield county ; Jane married Samuel C. Espy, and removed to Yankton county, S. Dak .; Matthew; James settled on the Brookville road, west of Port Barnett : John died at Richardsville.

Matthew Humphrey was twenty years old when he came to Jefferson county, where his brother William preceded him, and both ac- quired adjoining lands, Matthew buying the tract in what is now Warsaw township where his daughter Mrs. Jordan lives. He paid two dollars an acre for it, which was wild and heav- ily covered with pine timber. During the early years Mr. Humphrey followed lumbering to a considerable extent, making square timber and rafting it down to Pittsburgh, and for thirty years he had a store at Richardsville. But he retained ownership of the farm, which he im- proved. having "stumped" about one hundred acres. Ile gave all his time to his work, taking no part in public affairs, though he was a good citizen in the best sense, using his influence for the furtherance of worthy movements and the support of capable officials. He was tall and thin of build, and his sociable nature and kindly wit endeared him to all who had any opportunity to become acquainted with his generous character and friendly attitude. He was a Baptist in religious association.

Mr. Humphrey married Susan Nolph. of Freeport, who died not long afterwards, leav- ing one child, Emma J., now a resident of Scranton. His second wife was Martha Hess. who was reared in Lancaster county, where her father, Dr. John Hess, spent much of his life. eventually moving to Punxsutawney, near which place her brothers had built a sawmill. Mr. and Mrs. Humphrey lived on the farm until they died, he on April 20, 1899, she on Nov. 28, 1910. They were the parents of four children : John, who died in infancy ; James, died when twenty-one years old ; William, who for twenty years managed his father's store and is now a farmer in Idaho; and Mary M., widow of Harry M. Jordan, who lives at the

home place. She and her husband have erected all the buildings now standing on the property.

SHANNON MCFADDEN, of Polk town- ship, now living in retirement, has borne a commendable part in the advancement of Jef- ferson county, both as regards its development industrially and its progress in matters of gov- ernment. During his active years he served the township in various official capacities, and while so engaged improved many opportunities for giving his fellow citizens the benefit of better system in the regulation of affairs of interest to all. displaying public spirit which justified the confidence they had shown in selecting him. Industrious and successful in the management of his own concerns, he ap- plied himself with equal fidelity to his public duties, in all of which he made an excellent showing both for himself and for those he represented. Mr. McFadden has led a useful life, and has had the satisfaction of living to see the fruits of his endeavors-the most grati- fying reward of sincere effort.

Mr. McFadden is of the third generation of his family in western Pennsylvania, his grand- father. Jacob McFadden, having come to America from Ireland at an early day and set- tled in Clarion county, where he remained until his death. He married Elizabeth Hettrick.

Jacob McFadden, Jr., father of Shannon McFadden, was born in Clarion county Oct. 7. 1812, near Summerville. He came to Jeffer- son county in 1832 when most of the land was still in its primitive condition and the settlers widely scattered. The wild game which abounded was still the chief source of supply for fresh meat. Mr. McFadden first lived in Oliver township, where he improved a farm, selling that property upon his removal to Polk township. in 1848. to the place where his son Shannon yet lives. He would buy a timber lot and carry on the work of clearing, selling the land after he had lumbered over it. In fact, lumbering was his chief occupation, and he followed it until he reached old age. Twelve acres of this property had been cleared when it came into his possession, and he cleared off about fifty acres, meantime engaging in agri- culture as the land became fit for cultivation. In 1862 he removed to another farm of 167 acres, in the upper part of Polk township, upon which he died at the age of seventy-nine. Though he began life poor. Mr. McFadden became prosperous, making his way by sheer force of determination and diligent attention to all undertakings. He was a big man phy-

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sically, standing six feet, three inches (his son Shannon is six feet, one and a half inches), rawboned and powerful, energetic and capable, and was an expert hewer, considered the best man with an ax ever in Polk township. He mnade notable improvements on all the proper- ties he owned. NNo man of his day in this neighborhood was more highly respected. He took a leading part in religious work, and was instrumental in organizing the first Methodist Episcopal Church in the township, both he and wife being among its active members. Politi- cally he was a Republican, an enthusiastic party worker, and filled a number of local offices.

On March 19, 1835, Mr. McFadden was married to Rebecca Reed, a native of West- moreland county, whence she was brought to Jefferson county in her infancy, her parents, Peter and Rebecca (Shannon ) Reed, settling in Oliver township. Her father was a native of Germany, her mother of England. They improved an excellent farm in Oliver town- ship and there spent the remainder of their days, both dying in old age. Their family consisted of sixteen children. Mrs. McFadden died two years before her husband, at the age of seventy-three years. Of the nine children born to them, seven grew to maturity, viz .: Shannon; Levi, who died in the Civil war as a member of the 11th Pennsylvania Reserves ; Reed l'., also a soldier in the Civil war, a lum- berman by calling, who died at Ridgway, when seventy-two years old; Jonathan R. ; Elizabeth inakes her home with Shannon; Reeser P., a farmer of Polk township, living on the place last occupied by his parents ; and Enoch, a far- mer of Warsaw township.

Shannon McFadden was born March 15, 1836, in Oliver township, where he spent his early years and had such educational advan- tages as the local schools afforded. After leaving home he worked in the lumber woods until the Civil war, when he enlisted under the first call in Company I, 8th Pennsylvania Volunteers, attached to the Army of the Poto- mac. Three months later he re-enlisted, in Company 1, 11th Pennsylvania Cavalry, also in the Army of the Potomac, and served until after the war, being in the army four years, three months and eighteen days. Shortly after entering the service he was promoted to a ser- geantey, and in June, 1864, was commissioned second lieutenant, holding that rank at the time of his discharge at Philadelphia in August, 1865. His company took part in over thirty engagements. Once, in a hand-to-hand fight, he received a bayonet wound in the right hand, but with this exception was never seriously

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Jefferson County, Pennsylvania : her pioneers and people, 1800-1915, Volume II, Part 98

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