Jefferson County, Pennsylvania : her pioneers and people, 1800-1915, Volume II, Part 99

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 99

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injured. After having served two years of his second enlistment he was discharged to give him the opportunity of veteranizing, rejoining his old company. When Captain Loomis, of Clarion, was killed, he took command of the company in the absence of the first lieutenant until the return to camp. Though he had many dangerous experiences he came home safely, resuming work as a lumberman. During the war his father had left his original home in l'olk township. and Shannon bought the prop- erty in 1866 and built a home there. About thirty acres were then under cultivation, and he continued to lumber off it. getting all the hemlock cut and finally selling the remaining timber. Mr. McFadden remains on this tract. which contains 158 acres, 90 under cultivation. He was actively engaged in its development until thirteen years ago, when he turned the work over to his son, who has carried it on along the same lines as his father followed. The present residence was built some twenty- eight years ago, the original house being used in its construction, and the barn was erected fifteen years ago. Both are in excellent condi- tion. as is everything about the premises.

Mr. McFadden has many interesting recol- lections of pioneer times. He killed his first deer when a bov of thirteen, barely able to hold a heavy gun. One winter he and Jim Rickard, a young companion. made a camp on Bear creek. in Elk county, and young McFadden killed four deer before Rickard had any. Dur- ing a month's hunting the former shot ten deer, the latter eleven. Mr. McFadden has shot a number of deer while out after the cows, or at deer licks, one lick being on the farm. He shot one bear, and knows by actual experience most of the phases of pioneer life. for when the family settled here it was no uncommon thing to hear the wolves howling in the vicinity.

For a number of years Mr. McFadden was closely associated with the administration of public affairs, having served as supervisor, overseer of the poor, school director, town auditor, etc., with great credit to himself and his supporters. On political questions he has been a stanch Republican, and in the latest presidential campaign was a strong Hughes man. He was an ardent supporter of Roose- velt and his Progressive policies. For fifty years he has held membership in the Zion M. F. Church. taking an active part in its work as steward. He originally joined the Grand Army post at Richardsville, but for the last ten years has affiliated with the post at Brook- ville.

On May 20, 1866, Mr. McFadden married

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Anna Webster, of Polk township, who was born Nov. 19, 1842, daughter of George and Lydia ( Rogers ) Webster, natives of New York and Vermont, respectively. They were mar- ried in Vermont. Mrs. McFadden was a baby in arms when her parents settled in Eldred township. Mr. Webster purchasing land and improving a farm which he operated until his death, June 9. 1855. He lumbered and manu- factured shingles to make a living during his early years, but when death came his widow was left in rather straitened circumstances with a family of eight children, viz .: Aaron, who settled in Polk township; Dolly. Mrs. L. Jacock; George, who died in August, 1866, from disease contracted in the army ; Oscar, settled in the West ; Asher C., a Congregational minister : Anna. Mrs. McFadden : John, died leaving a wife and six children (he entered the Union army when but sixteen years old) ; and Newton, formerly a merchant and post- master at Munderf. Newton Webster had been selected as postmaster for the new station in Polk township, which at the suggestion of Kate M. Scott was to have been called Mon- dorff, in honor of Henry Mondorff, of Brook- ville ; the government got the name Munderf. and so it remains.

Mrs. Lydia ( Rogers) Webster was born in Rutland, Vt., daughter of Stephen A. Rogers, a prominent farmer, and died Nov. 11, 1863. She was a Methodist in religious faith. As her father died when she was but twelve years old. and her mother a few years later, Mrs. McFadden had to depend upon her own re- sources from girlhood. But she was ambitious, and managed to obtain a good education, pay- ing her own way while she continued her studies. Commencing at eighteen years of age she taught school in Jefferson county until her marriage ; she died in 1903.

Mr. and Mrs. McFadden had two children : Gussie May, born March 7, 1867, married Bar- rett D. Schoffner, and died a year before her mother, leaving four children. Charles IIer- man, born June 15. 1870, has managed the home place for the last thirteen years : he mar- ried Lulu Belle Wingert, of Polk township, daughter of Jacob Wingert, and who died Dec. 20, 1914, leaving four children: Jay Yvon, Charles Gilbert. Myra Belle and Dessie Dorcas.

WILLIAM BOVAIRD, proprietor of "Pleasant Glade Farm" and a prosperous stock grower of Sugar Hill. has been a lifelong resi- dent of this section, having been born Feb. 9. 1862, in the Beechwoods, in Washington town- ship. His father, Joseph Bovaird, was a native of Ireland, and died at his homestead. He

married Rebecca Hunter, a niece of Andrew Hunter, one of the well known characters of pioneer times.

William Bovaird attended school at the old Cooper schoolhouse, two miles distant from the farm, at what is now Beech Tree, and there he recalls his first teacher as Martha Mccullough. He made the most of the short terms then cus- tomary, but losing his mother when but seven years old. his education was acquired under difficulties. Farming has always been the call- ing of his choice, its possibilities fully meeting his ardent expectations. At the time of his marriage he located on a tract in the Beech- woods, soon removing to his present farm, which he rented, in the course of a few years buying it from his uncle, Matthew Bovaird. Here his earnest efforts toward betterment are such that he may well take pride in its condi- tion, which is almost entirely the result of his continued endeavor. This 162-acre farm, on the Brookville-Brockwayville road, at Sugar Hill, is appropriately named "Pleasant Glade." Mr. Bovaird has taken his place among the most progressive workers in his township and by thrift and good management has also ac- quired other property, he and his brother Alex- ander owning in partnership a farm of 257 acres in Polk township.

Mr. Bovaird has the reputation among his neighbors of being a thoroughly progressive, wide-awake citizen, who has the general good at heart. Ile has no ambition for public place or preferment, but takes a keen interest in good government, exercising his franchise to elect competent men to office. He is a Demo- crat in principle, believing in the Wilson poli- cies.

On April 20, 1891, Mr. Bovaird was mar- ried to Mary Frances Woods, of Brookville. daughter of Oliver and Louise ( Plyler) Woods, and they have become the parents of seven children, viz .: Matthew Oscar, who died when nine years old ; Joseph Oliver, born Feb. 28. 1894, a graduate of Brockwayville high school, class of 1910; Annie Louisa, born July 25, 1896, who graduated from the town- ship high school in 1912, taught for one term in Jefferson county, and is now living at home : William Edwin, born Oct. 11. 1898, who grad- uated from the township high school in 1915; Francis Andrew, born May 7, 1901, a student in the Sugar Hill school; David Oren, born Feb. 21. 1004; and Rebecca Esther, born May 0, 1905, also at school.

HENRY H. KENNEDY. of Brookville, was born in Clarion county. Pa., June 8, 1863, the son of George H. and Nancy J. ( Rogers)

Henry H. Kennedy

THE NEW YORK 1

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Kennedy. He came to Brookville with his parents when but four years of age, and his education was acquired in the Brookville schools. At the age of sixteen he left school, and worked in the woods at lumbering for a year. Wearying of this employment, he en- tered his father's store and remained with him until September, 1893. when he engaged in the gentlemen's furnishing goods business on his own account, conducting it some three years, until his appointment to his present position, in MeKnight & Son's drug store.

On Oct. 3, 1889, "Harry" Kennedy was mar- ried to Mary A. McKnight, daughter of Dr. W. J. Mcknight, one of Brookville's well known citizens, and three children have blessed this union: The eldest, Bonnie Agnes, died when but two months and four days old : the others, Penelope and Jean, still gladden the home of their parents.

"Neighbor" Kennedy and his wife are men- bers of the Presbyterian Church ( the church of his ancestors ). and, fraternally, he belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Artisans, Heptasophs and Knights of Pythias. Politically he is a Republican, and he has served the community efficiently in various offices, councilman, etc., and is now school director.

George H. Kennedy, father of Henry II. Kennedy, was born in Brookville in 1831 and lived to a healthy old age, dying April 26, 1916. He was the son of Samuel D. and Jane ( Slack ) Kennedy, both of whom were Pennsylvanians. Samuel D. Kennedy lived in Philadelphia until he was ten years old. In 1825 he came as a pioncer to Jefferson county and located near Brookville, in 1820 settling on the pike about a mile east of where Corsica now stands. He there built a log cabin without windows or doors. Wolves and panthers were numerous, and the members of the family were frequently chased into the cabin by them. Here Grand- father Kennedy lived and died, passing away in 1882, aged eighty-one years.

George H. Kennedy merchandised from 1848, closing out his establishment in Brook- ville in 1902. The house was known as Ken- nedy & Son.

ALTON R. CHAPIN has won for himself influential status in connection with important business and civic interests in Jefferson county, and is essentially worthy of designa- tion as one of the influential and representa- tive citizens of the vigorous little borough of Brockwayville, where he is the efficient and popular cashier of the First National Bank.

Ile was born in Ridgway July 28, 1859, and is the son of Justus C. and Statira Ruth ( Brown ) Chapin.

Justus C. Chapin, his father, was born in New York State in 1820. The family then moved to Erie County, Pa., where he studied law and was admitted to the Erie county bar in 1848, later coming to Ridgway, Pa., where he was a member of the Elk county bar and one of the most enterprising and influential citizens of that place, identified with various industrial and business activities in different parts of the county, until his death, in 1865. In 1854 Justus C. Chapin wedded Statira Ruth Brown, who was born in Clymer, N. Y., on the 13th of November, 1832. She was the daugh- ter of John and Electa ( Taylor) Brown. Her father, John Brown, was a drummer boy in the war of 1812. She survived her husband by more than forty years. During the last thirteen years of her life she made her home with her son, Alton R. Chapin, at Brockway- ville, until her death, which occurred Feb. 2, 1908. There were two children born to Justus C. and Statira Ruth Chapin. The eldest son, Barrett T. Chapin, was born in Ridgway Jan. II, 1856, and married Elizabeth McCauley, of Ridgway. He died May 22, 191I.

Daniel Chapin, grandfather of Alton R. Chapin, was born in Massachusetts, belonging to one of the stanch old Colonial families of New England. They came first to Ontario county, N. Y., and later were among the early settlers of Erie county, Pa. He served as a valiant soldier in the war of 1812. He died in 1842. Both he and his wife Alice passed the closing years of their lives near Eric, Pa. The old homestead is near the town of Wattsburg.

The Chapins are to be consistently desig- nated as among the oldest and most respected of the New England Puritan families, and many scions of the Chapin line have won fame and distinction in the higher walks of life. Coming from England with the Puritans, the original American progenitor was Deacon Samuel Chapin, who settled in Springfield, Mass., in 1642. This sterling Colonial settler was the ancestor of the greater number of rep- resentatives of the name now to be found in all parts of the Union. Establishing his resi- dence at Springfield, Mass., in 1642, Deacon Samuel Chapin acted a very important part in the civil and municipal affairs of that place. being authorized with five others to lay out the land which is now Springfield and to direct the affairs of that city. His statue may be seen to-day in the public square at Spring-

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field. Mass., and also in the Corcoran Art Gal- lery in Washington, D. C. It is from this worthy colonist that Alton R. Chapin traces his lineage in a direct line.

On the 3d of September, 1890, was solem- nized the marriage of Alton R. Chapin to Martha Bond, of Brockwayville, daughter of William and Elizabeth ( Cooper ) Bond, men- tioned elsewhere in this volume. Mrs. Chapin was born April 6, 1859, in Beechwoods, Pa. The two children born to this marriage are: Helen Bond, who is a graduate of Mrs. Small- wood's School, Washington, D. C .; and How- ard Justus, who graduates from Washington and Jefferson College in the class of 1918.

After attending Bucknell University Alton R. Chapin also graduated at the Eastman Busi- ness College, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. In 1878 he went to Brockwayville, Pa., where he and his brother purchased the large general store of R. W. Moorehead, which occupied the present site of that of R. W. Beadle & Co., which they successfully conducted for ten years. He has always been a stanch Republican, and was appointed to the office of postmaster under the administration of President MeKinley. In 1895 he purchased the furniture and under- taking business of R. A. McElhaney, to which he gave his personal attention up to the time he entered the First National Bank, where he has been cashier for the last fourteen years. He is also interested in real estate, and has large lumbering interests in the South at the present time.

In his native borough of Ridgway Mr. Chapin is a member of Elk Lodge, No. 379, F. & A. M., Elk Royal Arch Chapter, No. 230, and Knapp Commandery, No. 40, Knights Templar, of the time-honored Masonic fra- ternity. In 1895 he united with the Presbyte- rian Church, where he and his family are zealous and active members and where he is an officer in the church, besides having for- merly given effective service as a teacher in the Sabbath schools.

Alton R. Chapin has always been active and influential in the local affairs of his town, both educationally and religiously, as well as in a business way. lle is a man of integrity and ability, and can always be found, in both pub- lie and private life, kind and obliging and possessing tireless energy, and is everything that stands for a good citizen. He has served as an active member of the town council and school board, and takes a live interest in the civic affairs of the community.

JOHN STARTZELL settled in Brookville at the close of his military service in the Civil war, and his active business career covered a period of forty years, during which he was associated with the administration of public affairs and the promotion of religious and social enterprises. His father, Jacob Startzell, was born Feb. 22, 1807, at Shamokin, North- umberland Co., Pa., as was his mother, Cather- ine Weary. In 1840 they migrated to Jefferson county with one single and one double horse wagon, soon purchasing one hundred acres of woodland in Ringgold township. He put this into cultivation as rapidly as possible, erecting buildings and continuing the work of improve- ment and also followed contracting and build- ing. The latter part of his life was spent in Brookville, where he died June 12, 1897, when over ninety years old. He was a member of the Lutheran Church, and a Republican. Mrs. Catherine Startzell had died March 18, 1852. at the age of forty-eight years, leaving a large family, viz .: George, who married Charlotte Postlethwaite; Daniel; Eliza, who married Joseph Mooney, of Guthrie, Okla .; Alvin, a carpenter, of Falls Creek ; Henry, a miller, in Kansas : Mary Ann, wife of Jerry Hemminger, of Northumberland county ; John : Amandus. stock raiser and banker; Ruscia Ann, wife of Charles Boyer, of Northumberland county ; I uce'ta, wife of Samuel Busard, a lumberman of Jefferson county ; and William. His second wife was Chestine Schlegel, by whom he had two children, Catherine ( who died young ), and Teena (who married Wils Perry and is de- ceased ).

John Startzell was born April 30, 1842, in Ringgold township, and attended school in the neighborhood, doing his share on the farm until he left to engage in lumbering. After he had been one year in the woods the war broke out, and he became a soldier, joining Company G. 105th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, serv- ing nearly four years. In his first engagement, at Charles City Cross Roads, he received a gunshot wound in the face and was captured. but was paroled after nineteen days in Libby prison and sent to hospital, being exchanged a few months later. In January, 1864, he re- enlisted as a veteran. He was wounded in the right ankle in the battle of the Wilderness. being disabled for further field duty, and was then transferred to Company B, 24th Veteran Reserves, and retained at Washington until the war ended. He was again wounded, being shot in the left knee by a cavalryman whom he was arresting in Washington.

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After his army service Mr. Startzell entered the milling business at Brookville, being thus identified throughout his business career. He also branched out into other undertakings, con- ducting a store and engaging quite extensively in lumbering in company with his brother, Ilenry, and James Humphrey, operating for ten years the old Port Barnett grist and lumber mill. He has lived retired since lyon. As councilman for three terms, borough treasurer, and member of the school board, Mr. Startzell had opportunity to demonstrate business principles as applied to public service, which assumed better conditions as the re- sult of his disinterested official activity; on national issues he has always been a

Republican. £ Ile is past commander of F. R. Brady Post, and also holds membership in the .A. O. U. W. Ilis religious connection is with the M. E. Church, in which he has served as trustee continuously for over thirty years. For some years he was overseer for the Paul Darling home for the poor, until it was sold, creating the Paul Darling Poor Fund of about seven thousand dollars, of which he has been a trustee for twenty years.

In 1867 Mr. Startzell married Catherine Bur- kett, daughter of l'eter Burkett, of Armstrong county, and seven children have been born to them : Emma J. is the wife of R. M. Hastings, formerly of Charleroi, Pa., now of Buffalo ; Thomas M. is mentioned below ; Flora V. lives at home : Minnie died in infancy ; Maggie M. is the wife of R. W. Moorehead. now living at New Kensington; Frederick is at Battle Mountain, Nev. : Blanche died in infancy. The following concerning Thomas M. Startzell ap- peared in the press at the time of his death, Ang. 20, 1807, at the age of twenty-eight years :

"Thomas Startzell. the young man who was killed last night by coming in contact with a live wire while at work for the Buffalo Trac- tion Company, was one of the best known ball players in Buffalo. Last year he was signed by Manager Rowe for the Buffalo Baseball Club, and pitched several winning games, but on account of the large number of pitchers on the pay roll he was released about the middle of the season, and at once signed with Geneseo, and made a wonderful record with Manager Wadsworth's club. When Startzell first came to Buffalo from Brookville, Pa., which, by the way, is the home of Pitcher Whitehill, late of the Syracuse team, he was signed by Manager T. E. Mulroy, of the Oakdale team of the City League. He participated in almost every game played by that crack amateur team two years ago, and was chiefly responsible for the win-

ning of the pennant that year by the Oakdales. llis work was noticed by Manager Franklin, and on that account he was signed for the Buffalo Eastern League Club."

LEWIS EVANS, an old-time resident of Warsaw township, has been busily engaged in hunbering and farming during the course of an energetic life, and has a finely improved prop- erty to show for part of his labor. Mr. Evans has been allied with all phases of the trans- formation of this locality from a wilderness to a civilized community, possessing the ad- vantages which modern ideas demand. In the pursuit of his business affairs he has taken part in its material advancement, and his par- ticipation in its public and social activities has been loyal and helpful. True to obligations in both private and public associations, he is a citizen whose name may well be classed with the best. The record of his life explains his enviable standing among his fellow men.

William and Esther ( Evans ) Evans, parents of Lewis Evans, were of Wales, whence they came to America in 1841. After several years' residence in other parts of western Pennsy !- vania they came to Jefferson county in 1848, settling at Richardsville, in Warsaw township. The father was a woolen manufacturer, and rented the woolen factory of William Rich- ards, then almost a new plant, in operation for only a short time. Flere wool was carded for people in the vicinity, and some cloth, flannels, etc., were manufactured. Mr. Evans continued to operate the factory for three years, after which he cultivated his farm, the property now occupied by his son Lewis. It consisted of one hundred acres, for which he paid two and a half dollars per acre, going into debt for the greater part. It was entirely in the woods, not a stick of timber having been cut. However, it was on a traveled road, and Mr. Evans selected a home site on the hill where his son now lives, there spending most of his remain- ing years. He himself cleared thirty-eight acres, and continued to farm until 1864, in which year he sold to his son Lewis and re- sumed his old trade, spinning, finding em- ployment in factories, principally in West Virginia. At the expiration of two years he returned to the farm, upon which he passed his latter days with his son. They were Bap- tists and associated with the church at Rich- ardsville, of which they were early members ; Lewis Evans still has the letter which his mother brought from the East Brady ( Pa. ) Church, given her in March, 1848. William Evans died at the age of seventy-six years,

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JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

and is buried with his wife, who died .Aug. 5. 1856, in the Baptist cemetery. Of the twelve children born to them three died in childhood, the others being: Elizabeth, married Henry Moore, a lumberman in Elk county and near Sigel, Jefferson county, who later moved to the farm in Clarion county where they both died. Thomas became a clergyman of the Baptist Church, serving at Coshocton, Ohio, Johns- town and Warren, Pa., and dying at Johns- town in January, 1869, after about ten years in the ministry. William, a shoemaker and later a merchant, lived at Richardsville for several years and later at Brookville, and died in March, 1911, aged seventy-five years; he was a prominent man in his day, having been postmaster at Richardsville, justice of the peace and overseer of the poor, and a veteran of the Civil war. Anna is the widow of James Wil- liams, who was an engineer and later inter- ested in a hotel at Richardsville ; she lives at Newcastle. John spent all his life at the home place, and died at the age of forty-seven years. Lewis is next in the family. George, a lumber salesman, died in 1892 at Reynoldsville, at the age of forty-six years. Mary Ann married George Chamberlin, of Richardsville, and died in 1885. Wallace Samuel, a farmer in Warsaw township, died in 1884, at the age of thirty- four years.

Lewis Evans was born July 14, 1844, at East Brady, Armstrong county. He was four years old when the family settled in Jefferson county, and had the ordinary training and educational advantages enjoyed by boys in his day, princi- pally of the practical kind gained by work. From the age of seventeen he was engaged in lumbering, winter and summer, cutting tim- ber and driving logs until he attained his ma- jority. Ile then bought the home farm from his father, with but thirty-eight acres under cultivation, and followed lumbering while clearing his own property, besides taking jobs for the putting in of square timber, being associated with C. R. Vasbinder and B. H. Moorhead. They would run square timber to Pittsburgh, though much of their output was sawed at Richardsville. From twenty to thirty men were employed in these operations. Mr. Evans continued in himbering as long as it gave profitable work in this neighborhood. up to some fifteen years ago. Meantime he was also improving his farm, and at the pres- ent time has ninety acres under cultivation. He has added to the property until it com- prises 165 acres, and has an interest in 350 acres of stump land adjoining. Practically all the improvements the place boasts are the result

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Jefferson County, Pennsylvania : her pioneers and people, 1800-1915, Volume II, Part 99

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