USA > Pennsylvania > Allegheny County > Memoirs of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, personal and genealogical with portraits, Volume I > Part 15
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WILLIAM THOMAS TREDWAY, of Coraopolis, Pa., one of the leading lawyers of Pittsburg, Pa., was born in Warsaw, Coshocton Co., Ohio, on Feb. 12, 1862, and is the son of Crispen and Melvina (James) Tredway. His parents had six children, viz .: Clara Victoria Sharples, William Thomas, Joseph Fleming, Sarah Olive Elder, Garrett Emmett and Cora Iva Barrett. His father was a successful farmer, and his paternal ancestors came originally from England. There were three brothers that came to America; one went to Maryland, another to New York, and the third to some point in the west. The grand- father of William Thomas descended from the branch that settled in Hartford county, Md., and his great-grandfather, Crispen Tredway, settled in Coshocton county, Ohio, in 1770. His maternal ancestors were of German descent, his great-grandfather, Elias James, taking up a tract of land, under the congressional act, in Bedford township, Coshocton Co., Ohio. Mr. Tredway secured his elementary education in the Donley school, of Bedford township, Coshocton Co., Ohio, which he attended until his seventeenth year, and then went for two terms to the West Bedford public school. There he received a certificate to teach in the Ohio public schools, and taught for one year at Brush college, near what is now the
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postoffice of Tunnel Hill, Ohio. At the close of his school, in the spring of 1881, he attended a preparatory course at the Ohio Wes- leyan university, and later matriculated at the Jefferson academy, of Cannonsburg, Pa. In the fall of 1883 Mr. Tredway entered Washington and Jefferson college, going into the sophomore class, and was graduated from that famous institution on June 24, 1886. During his preparatory course he was a member of the Philo society, and at college of the Philo and Union societies. He was business manager of the Washington-Jeffersonian, the college paper, for two years, and during that time the paper was cleared of debt for the first time in fifteen years. He was also business manager of the Pandora, the college annual, the first number of which was published by his class in 1884, while a sophomore. He was also elected poet of his class, and delivered an honorary ora- tion at the graduating exercises. On leaving school, he became a law student with the firm of Weir & Garrison, of Pittsburg, Pa., and was admitted to the bar Dec. 22, 1888. He remained with that firm until 1892, when he became associated with Stone & Potter, and remained with them until the partnership was dis- solved, William A. Stone becoming governor of the State, and WV. P. Potter being appointed to a seat on the supreme bench of Pennsylvania. He is still associated with the firm of Stone & Stone. During this entire time Mr. Tredway's offices have been in the Bakewell building, of Pittsburg. Mr. Tredway makes a specialty of corporation and municipal corporation law, and stands high at the bar of Pittsburg. He was married, on March 14, 1894, to Cora Alice, daughter of Thomas Fawcett Watson, a highly respected citizen and one of the oldest residents of Coraopolis borough, and they have two children, Jean Watson and William Thomas, Jr. Mr. Tredway has been solicitor for the borough of Coraopolis since 1891, with the exception of three years, and is now discharging the duties of that position. He organized the Pittsburg, Neville Island & Coraopolis railroad, and represented it until it was completed and merged into the West End company. He also organized the Coraopolis National bank, the Ohio Valley trust company and the Valley trust company of the East End, Pittsburg, now the East End savings and trust company, all of which corporations he represents. While at college he was a mem- ber of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, was one of the charter members of the Pennsylvania Alpha Alumni chapter of that fra- ternity, and in 1902 represented that body at the biennial conven- tion, which met at the Majestic hotel, in New York city. He is a
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charter member and was first secretary of the Pittsburg circle, No. 48, of the Protected Home circle, and is a member of the Odd Fellows, the Knights of the Maccabees, the Royal Arcanum, Woodmen of the World, and the Americus republican club of Pitts- burg. He is also a member of the Blue lodge, Royal Arch and Chapter Masons, the American Institute of Civics, and the Method- ist church, of which body he is a trustee. Mr. Tredway is a republican by birth, conviction and practice, and has taken an active part in political matters of both the county and State. He is the republican county committeeman from Coraopolis, has been for the past three years a delegate to the State conventions, and has made political speeches throughout the county during many campaigns. He was a member of the campaign committee in 1903. Mr. Tredway has never sought political office, and his efforts have been for the furtherance of good government and the selection of the right men to serve the public in official capacities.
MANSFIELD A. ROSS, of Coraopolis, Pa., member of the firm of Ross, Shan- non & Staving, manufacturers of confec- tionery, in Pittsburg, Pa., was born in Addison township, Somerset Co., Pa., March 15, 1853, son of Moses A. and Cynthia A. (Mitchell) Ross. His par- ents had ten children, seven of whom are now living. His father was a mer- chant of the Keystone State for many years, and his paternal ancestors came from Masontown, Pa., his great-grand- father having been a color-bearer in the patriot army during the American revolution, under Mad Anthony Wayne. The Ross family is of Scottish origin, having come from the highlands of that country, and removed to Ireland to escape religious persecutions. Robert Ross, the great-great- grandfather of M. A. Ross, was born in 1709; married, in Ireland, Jane Latta, and came to America, where his son Robert was born in 1753. At the commencement of the Revolutionary war, Robert Ross the second entered the Continental army in the company which was commanded by Capt. James Taylor, and which was a part of 4th Pennsylvania battalion, commanded by Col. Anthony Wayne. Robert Ross served in the battalion during the second year of the war in Canada, was mustered out at the expira-
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tion of his term of service, and re-enlisted under General Wayne, with whom he served until the close of the war. According to family records, he was regimental color-bearer, and participated in the battles of Stony Point, Brandywine, and others in which his command was engaged. At the close of the war, he removed to Fayette county, Pa., where he was captain of a militia company which served in the Indian wars in Ohio and Indiana, and was severely wounded during Crawford's Sandusky expedition. He had a family of eight children, one of his sons, Robert, having been born in 1786, and at the age of twenty-three married Elizabeth Virginia Le Maire. Her father was a native of France, and her mother, Elizabeth Monshi, was also a native of that country, hav- ing been born in Paris. They were Catholics, loyal to King Louis XVI., and in 1791 took passage for the United States, during which voyage Elizabeth Virginia was born. Robert Ross the third served as a private soldier in the War of 1812, was taken prisoner at Detroit, and paroled. He again enlisted, participated in the fights at Lundy Lane and Fort Erie, being severely wounded at the latter engagement. Subsequently he enlisted in the regular army and died at Baton Rouge, La., in 1822. His son, General M. A. Ross, the father of Mansfield A. Ross, was born in Masontown, Fayette Co., Pa., in 1810, and was twice married-first, to Diana Mitchell, and the second time to Cynthia A. Mitchell, a sister of his former wife and the mother of Mansfield A. Ross. Gen- eral Ross was very prominent in military matters, having been captain of the Addison infantry, and rose through the various grades to brigade commander. He was also at different times a member of the Grand and National divisions of the Sons of Temperance, was first school director of Addison, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he served as a mem- ber of the general conference in 1869 and four terms as a member of the lay electoral conference. For seventeen years he was clerk of the township, was a man of superior mental attainments, and possessed a fine library. Two of Mr. Ross' maternal great uncles, James and Thomas Mitchell, were soldiers of the patriot army dur- ing the American revolution, and his great-grandfather, Captain Andrew Friend, was known far and near as a scout and Indian fighter of the early days. Mr. Ross obtained his early education in the public schools of Somerset county, and, when eighteen years of age, left his books to engage in the general merchandise busi- ness with one of his brothers, opening a store in Addison township. He remained there for five years, and then went to Coraopolis to
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follow the same business. He prospered in the general mercantile line in that borough for ten years, and was engaged in the real estate business in that town for three years. Mr. Ross then formed a partnership with Messrs. Shannon & Staving, who for the past three years have been conducting a large wholesale and manufactur- ing confectionery business in Pittsburg. Mr. Ross was married to Carrie A. Frey, of Brandonville, W. Va., and their home-life is indeed a happy one. Mr. Ross is a republican, a thirty-second degree Mason, a member of the Odd Fellows, the B. P. O. Elks, the Americus club of Pittsburg, and the Sons of the American Revolution. He is also a director in the Coraopolis National bank and the Ohio Valley trust company, and is well known in financial circles. Mr. Ross is a man that combines good business qualifica- tions with unusual geniality of manner, and he and his wife are noted for their hospitality, which they dispense with a lavish hand in their beautiful home in Coraopolis.
JAMES A. SUTER, a prominent com- mission merchant of Braddock, was born in Bedford county, Pa., March 11, 1858. His parents, Solomon and Elizabeth (Heiner) Suter, were both of German descent. Mr. Suter attended school in his native county, where he lived on a farm, and when eighteen years old started to learn the carpenter trade. For eight years he worked as a carpenter and joiner, and was able, from the savings of his labor, to open a small grocery near his present location at No. 849 Braddock Ave. After another eight years, which were years of prosperity, he started in the commission business, where he soon built up an extensive trade and secured a competency. His upright dealings marked Mr. Suter as a man to be trusted with larger things, and in May, 1901, he was chosen director of the First National bank of Braddock, and also as director in the Braddock trust company, which was organized in May, 1901, with a capital stock of $125,000, and a surplus of the same amount. Mr. Suter was married, June 28, 1887, to Emma, daughter of John D. and Phoebe (Slick) Boyce. The Boyce family came from Michigan, and the Slicks are natives of Bedford county, Pa. Mr. and Mrs. Suter have three daughters, all in school, Gertrude, Corene and Evlyn. The family
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lives in a beautiful home at No. 227 Holland Ave., which was erected in 1900. Mr. Suter is a member of Bessemer tent, No. 92, Knights of Maccabees; Braddock Field lodge, No. 510, F. and A. M., and Braddock lodge, No. 78, Independent Order of Heptasophs. He and his family are members of the First Metho- dist Episcopal church of Braddock. In politics Mr. Suter is a republican.
CHRISTIAN D. STEEL, undertaker and embalmer, Carnegie, Pa., was born in Franklin county, Pa., Feb. 6, 1839, son of Samuel and Nancy (Dietrich) Steel, and comes from an old and respected Pennsylvania family. His grandfather, Rev. John Steel, who was a Presbyterian minister at Carlisle, Pa., was a captain in the colonial army during the Revolutionary war, and commander of Fort Steel, which was named for him. His father, Samuel Steel, born Jan. 2, 1802, was a woodworker and afterwards a farmer, and a man of decided political views. He moved to Baltimore in 1849, and in 1857 left Baltimore and took up his resi- dence in Union township, Allegheny county. He was an old-line whig, with abolition tendencies, and later an ardent republican. He and his son, while in Baltimore, cast the only two votes cast in Baltimore county in favor of Fremont for president. He died in 1863. Mr. Steel is descended on his mother's side from an old Pennsylvania family. His grandparents were Christian and Susan Dietrich. His mother, Nancy Dietrich, died in 1883, at the age of seventy-one. She was reared as a member of the German Reformed church, and died a devout Presbyterian. Christian D. Steel is one of ten children. The others are: Mary M., who inar- ried James Smith, and died when about forty years old; Andrew B., born in 1835, who fought in the 46th Pennsylvania volunteer infantry, in the armies of the Potomac and Cumberland, and was killed in battle when twenty-nine years old; Samuel, ex-senator, who resides at Greentree, Allegheny county, a veteran of the Civil war; Susan S., wife of Christian Lampe, a retired Civil war vet- eran, living near Pittsburg; David S., who lives in Pittsburg; John R., a farmer in Allegheny county; William, who died when five years old, in 1852; Catherine D., who resides at the home of her
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brother, Samuel, and Ella, now Mrs. John Holmes. Christian D. Steel attended school when a boy and worked on his father's farm. In 1862 he enlisted in Company H, 78th Pennsylvania volunteer infantry, and served three years, being honorably discharged in August, 1865. He fought under General Thomas at Franklin and Nashville, and in several minor engagements. After the war Mr. Steel engaged in the dairy business in company with three brothers, and afterwards the brothers embarked in the livery busi- ness, discontinuing this in 1883. Since that time Mr. Steel has been in the undertaking and embalming business with his brothers, and has met with encouraging success. He learned embalming when a young man. Mr. Steel has amassed a considerable fortune, and is a stockholder in both of the Carnegie banks. On Nov. 1, 1874, he was married to Miss Amelia Bradwell, a native of Alle- gheny county, daughter of Jacob and Frances Bradwell, both of whom are now deceased. A son of Mr. Steel, Jacob Steel, is in the undertaking business. He married Miss Mary Beadling, and has one child, Christian D. Christian D. Steel, the subject of this sketch, is a member of the G. A. R. In politics he has always been an ardent republican.
FRANK J. KLUMPP, chairman of the department of assessors, Pittsburg, was born in Pittsburg in 1867, and there attended the common schools. After- wards he also attended Duff's commercial college, and graduated from that institu- tion in 1895. When fourteen years old, Mr. Klumpp learned to make lamp chim- neys, and was engaged in this work for about fifteen years. In 1899 he gave up this vocation, and, in September of that year, was elected to his present office to fill an unexpired term, and re-elected in 1901. In the shake-up which the Ripper bill caused, Mr. Klumpp fell with the rest, but was reappointed by Recorder J. O. Brown. Mr. Klumpp has long been prominent in various branches of public activities. In 1893 he was elected to the school board from the twenty-eighth ward, and served in this capacity until 1897. He also served two terms in the common council of Pittsburg as the representative of his ward, being elected in February, 1896, and re-elected, without opposition, in 1898. In the fall of 1898 he was
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elected to the legislature from the fifth district, and in this contest received a handsome plurality of votes over four experienced polit- ical opponents. Mr. Klumpp belongs to the Masons and the Junior Order of United American Mechanics. He is a member of the German Evangelical church.
LABANNA H. WALTER, real estate, insurance and loan agent, and notary public, of Carnegie, was born in West- moreland county, Pa., April 18, 1844. His parents were David and Dorcas (Carnahan) Walter. Mrs. Walter was the youngest daughter, by his second marriage, of David Carnahan, a pioneer settler of Pennsylvania, and famous Indian fighter. David Walter was a farmer and blacksmith, and also kept a country store on his farm. He was born in 1814, and died in 1877, in Coffee county, Tenn., where he had moved in 1870. He and his wife were menibers of the Presbyterian church. He took an active interest in educational affairs, and was a trustee of an academy at his death. In politics he was an ardent abolitionist, and believed in a vigorous prosecu- tion of the war against slavery. His wife, Dorcas (Carnahan) Walter, died in 1885, when seventy-seven years old. Mr. and Mrs. David Walter had nine children. Of these, Mary died when eight years old, and three others died in childhood; Philip was killed in Tennessee by a falling limb from a tree, while trying to stop a . forest fire, having previously served three years in the Civil war as a private in Company G, 4th Pennsylvania cavalry, Army of the Potomac; Nancy J. married William Alcorn, and lives near Salts- burg, Westmoreland county; David C. is a farmer, residing in Westmoreland county; Malvina is now Mrs. Williamson, and lives near Murrysville, Pa., and L. H. Walter, the subject of this sketch, who was educated in the schools of his native county and after- wards farmed for a time. In August, 1864, he enlisted in the Civil war, and was discharged froin the service in May, 1865. In Sep- tember, 1882, he embarked in the insurance business, and has been successfully engaged in this business ever since. He was at first in the employ of R. H. Brown, but has been for the past ten years conducting an agency in his own name. He has also for the past eight years been a notary public. Mr. Walter was married, March
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16, 1870, to Miss Anna M. Thorn, a native of Pennsylvania and daughter of Robert and Elizabeth (Calhoun) Thorn. Mr. Thorn is now dead, but his wife is still living, an honored resident of Butler, Pa. Mr. and Mrs. Walter have two children, John T. and David J. The latter is associated in business with his father. Mr. Walter is collector for the Royal Arcanum, treasurer of the Anchor building and loan association, and a member of the board of trade. He and his wife are prominent members of the First Presbyterian church of Carnegie.
WILLIAM F. ENGLEHART, of Coraopolis, Pa., superintendent of the shipping department of the Consolidated lamp and glass company, was born in Washington county, Ohio, July 7, 1858, son of Peter and Anna Maria (Rien) Englehart. His parents had six chil- dren, five of whom are now living. His father was a successful farmer, and his ancestors on both sides came from Ger- many. Mr. Englehart obtained his early education in the Matamoras district school of Washington county, and when fourteen years of age went to work on his father's farm. He fol- lowed that vocation until he was eighteen years of age, when he secured employment in the glass works of Hobbs, Brorunier & Co., of Wheeling, WV. Va. He continued with that concern for twelve years, and then went to Fostoria, Ohio, to work in the shipping department of the Butler art glass works. That plant was de- stroyed by fire, and he went with the Fostoria lamp and shade com- pany, of which he was a stockholder, and when the lamp and shade company was consolidated, he continued his relation as stockholder and superintendent of the same department. During his residence in Fostoria, Mr. Englehart went into the oil business, under the firm name of Landis, Kopp & Englehart. They operated oil wells for a time with indifferent success, but later bought forty acres of woodland that proved exceedingly remunerative. When the Fostoria company removed to Coraopolis and became part of the Consolidated lamp and shade company, Mr. Englehart came with them as superintendent of the shipping department, and has since filled that position with signal ability. He was married, on June 2, 1896, to Ida Elizabeth, daughter of F. W. Harmon, of Hicksville,
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Ohio, and they have one son, Wallace Harmon, who was born on July 4, 1902. Mr. Englehart is a republican in politics, and is now serving his second term as councilman of the borough. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and a stockholder in the Coraopolis National bank and the Ohio Valley trust company. Mr. Englehart is a quiet, unassuming gentleman, has many friends, and is the true type of the good citizen.
CHARLES A. COOPER, of Coraop- olis, Pa., a member of the civil engin- eering firm of Edeburn, Cooper & Co., of Pittsburg, Pa., was born in Moon town- ship, Allegheny Co., Pa., Nov. 25, 1845, son of William and Nancy (Gilchrist) Cooper. His father was a prosperous bookbinder, and died at the age of seventy-five, and his mother survived to her eighty-third year. He is of Scotch- Irish descent; his paternal great-grand- father was a soldier in the Continental army during the struggles of the colonies for independence, serving under Anthony Wayne, in Captain Macey's company, was wounded at Three Rivers, and for some time was confined on the British prison ships. Nearly the whole of Charles A. Cooper's life has been spent in Pittsburg. He obtained a thorough training in his profession of civil engineering in the special schools of Pittsburg, and, when twenty-one years of age, secured a position with the United States government on the survey of the Ohio river, remaining on that work for two years, and then went with the Pan Handle railroad. Later he engaged in surveying for the water-works in Pittsburg, and in 1871 became a member of the present firm of Edeburn, Cooper & Co. Since then he has been instrumental in completing many large contracts, among them being the first survey for the Pittsburg & Lake Erie railroad, the new water-works at Sewickley, Pa., Wellsville, Ohio, and Coraopolis, Pa. He also built the first general sewerage plant in Pennsylvania at Wilkinsburg, where he constructed twenty-one miles of sewer. He located and built the Montour railroad, opened the mines of the Imperial coal company, and has planned and executed a great deal of paving for the boroughs of that sec- tion of the State. He made his residence at Coraopolis in 1887, and was one of the incorporators of the Coraopolis National bank,
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of which institution he is now vice-president. He is also a director in the Ohio Valley trust company, and was one of its incorporators. He was married, in 1870, to Margaret J. Meek, of Moon township, and they have three children: F. M., member of his father's firm; Mrs. Mary Cooper Davidson, and Ethel. Mr. Cooper is a republi- can and a member of the Presbyterian church.
DR. WILLIAM CONNER SHAW, a general medical practitioner, with offices located at No. 1009 Wylie Ave. and No. 213 Frick building, Pittsburg, Pa., is a descendant of one of the oldest Scotch- Irish families in Pennsylvania. His great-grandparents, Samuel and Eliza- beth (Lowry) Shaw, came to America about the year 1771, and settled in the Juniata valley, where they lived until 1785, when they removed to Allegheny county and purchased a farm near the town of Wilmerding. His grandfather, David Shaw, was born in County Down, Ireland, May 21, 1761, and came with his parents to America while still in his boyhood. At his death the farm near Wilmerding, which he had inherited from his father, became the property of his two sons, William A. and John Shaw, the former of whom was Dr. Shaw's father. Dr. Shaw's paternal grandmother, Jane Ekin, was born in York county, Pa., Aug. 2, 1764, and died Aug. 4, 1866. She was the daughter of Robert and Margaret (Jamison) Ekin, who came from County Derry, Ireland, about the middle of the eighteenth century and settled in York county, but afterward removed to Versailles township, Allegheny Co., Pa. On the maternal side his mother was Sarah Theresa Conner, the eldest daughter of Rev. William Conner, a United Presbyterian minister, whose last charge was at Blairsville, Indiana Co., Pa. He was a son of Cornelius Conner, Jr., who, with his two brothers, John and William, and his father, Cornelius Conner, Sr., served in the Amer- ican army in the war for independence. Cornelius Conner, Sr., was a sergeant in Capt. Benjamin Harrison's company, in the 13th Virginia regiment, during the Revolution, under Col. William Russell. The Conners were also noted Indian fighters. After the Revolution the family settled in Allegheny county at the same time and in the same neighborhood with the Dents, Craigs and Nevilles,
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