USA > Pennsylvania > Crawford County > Our country and its people. A historical and memorial record of Crawford County, Pennsylvania. > Part 82
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Mr. Kebort is interested in the general welfare of this city and is a mem- ber of the Taylor fire department. Fraternally, he is associated with the Knights of Pythias, the Order of Elks and the Heptasophs. He married Miss Anna Louise Gahring, a daughter of George and Elizabeth (Erb) Gahiring, of Meadville, October 25, 1892, and one child, Harold Henry, who has since died, was born to the young couple.
Edward Eiler, proprietor of the Meadville Bottling Works, was born in Brooklyn, New York, February 5, 1862, and has lived in this city since he was two years of age. He is the fourth in a family of five children, his parents being Valentine and Barbara Eiler, who were natives of Germany. They are now living in Meadville. the father in his seventy-first year, and the mother in her sixty-ninth year. Their other sons are Jacob J., Peter A., and Valentine W., and their only daughter, Anna, is the wife of Charles P. Hagerman.
Edward Eiler received his education in the public schools of Meadville. and ere he had completed his studies he was employed during his vacations in a drug store. Later he was engaged in the grocery business, and in 1887 he became the owner of his present establishment. which he has since greatly improved and enlarged, thereby increasing its capacity, as the trade de- manded.
Fraternally. Mr. Eiler is a member of the Meadville Council, No. 78, Royal Arcanum. He was one of the founders of the Taylor Hose Company of Meadville, and lias always manifested great interest in local affairs. His wife was Miss Hattie Stebbins prior to their marriage, and they have one child, Burton Valentine.
Evalon C. Hoag, the son of Isaac and Sarah Badgeley Hoag, was born in Harmony, Chautauqua county, New York, March 2, 1845, was educated at the county district schools and at Jamestown Academy. He was also graduated at Eastman's Commercial College, at Poughkeepsie, New York,
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in August, 1863. In December of that year he entered the employ of the Atlantic & Great Western Railroad (afterward the New York, Pennsylvania & Ohio), in the office of General H. F. Sweetser, the general superintendent of the road, and remained there until August, 1868, when he came to the oil country. He was in the office of George K. Anderson, and afterward with Sam Q. Brown, at Pleasantville. In March, 1872, he was appointed assist- ant cashier of the Titusville Exchange Bank, and afterward cashier. Front 1879 to 1881 he was with the Tidewater Pipe Company. He was the treas- urer and a director of the Norfolk & Cincinnati Railroad until May, 1882, when, upon the organization of the Titusville Commercial Bank, he was elected its cashier, and he has held the position ever since. He was a member of the common council of Titusville, and a member of the school board from 1891 to 1895.
In June, 1873, he was married to Miss Mary Frances Smyth, daughter of Rev. J. J. Smyth. Of this union two children have been born, one of whom died in infancy, and the other, Mary Sterling Hoag, is now living.
Francis H. Gibbs was born February 21, 1817, at Rocky Hill, Connecti- cut. His father was a prominent business man and a large dealer in real es- tate. His grandmother was engaged in an established business of manufac- turing buttons for the patriot soldiers of the Revolutionary war.
On July 28, 1840, Mr. Gibbs was married to Miss Sarah Keith. The surviving children of this union are Emma. the wife of John J. Carter of this city; Charles L. Gibbs, also of this city; and Mrs. Fox, wife of Dr. Fox, of New York city. George Gibbs, the oldest son, died about twenty years ago at Corry, Pennsylvania, and Mrs. Sarah (Keith) Gibbs died at Nunda, New York, about thirty years ago. Several years afterward Mr. Gibbs married Mrs. H. B. Davis of Titusville, Pennsylvania. Mr. Gibbs died at his old homestead, in Nunda, New York, July 16, 1885.
In early life Mr. Gibbs was a wagonmaker by trade, and he worked sev- eral years at Charleston, South Carolina. He came thence to Nunda, where he was engaged several years in the manufacture of wagons, specially for use in the construction of the Genesee Valley canal and its subsequent mainte- nance. Afterward he entered into partnership with a Mr. Bogley of Dans- ville, New York, under the firm name of Gibbs & Bogley, and they operated extensively in the building of railroads in Iowa. They had large contracts in this work, which were highly lucrative in their results. Mr. Gibbs then returned to Nunda and started, on the banks of the Genesee Valley canal, a large warehouse, buying in large quantity wool, grain, apples, etc., for the New York market, and shipping by canal. This led him to New York city, where he engaged in the commission business on Water street, where he op- erated with success until the opening of the oil business on Oil Creek, when
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he came with another man to the oil country. They invested nineteen thou- sand dollars in the Noble well, and cleared in this venture twenty thousand dollars each. At about this time he purchased land on Sandy creek, Clarion county, Pennsylvania. This property brought no returns until 1885, but it has since paid more than the principal and interest on the original invest- ment. Then he purchased the Nunda machine works for eighty thousand dollars cash, and in company with C. M. Wheeler manufactured for the oil trade the Nunda engines and boilers. Out of this grew the great Gibbs & Sterrett Manufacturing Company, at Titusville, which, unfortunately, after- ward extended its business to the manufacture of mowers and reapers at Corry, Pennsylvania, an enterprise foreign to its original undertaking, af- fording a lesson of warning against the risk of expansion into outside fields. Up to the time when the Gibbs & Sterrett Company directed its operations into new channels, and thus divided its resources, few business firms in the United States enjoyed better credit, and it had only to adhere to the original character of its work to make permanent its success.
Charles L. Gibbs, the only surviving son of Francis H., is a graduate of Rochester University. He has represented the first ward in the select council of Titusville, has been engaged many years in oil production, and is now employed in the development of the Spartansburg field. ( An account of his past oil operations appears elsewhere in this work. )
Several years ago he was married to Miss Kate Vick of Rochester, New York.
Theodore B. Westgate, the son of Reuben B. and Huldah (Ferry) West- gate, was born at Riceville, Crawford county, Pennsylvania, July 13, 1858. and educated at the common schools and at a commercial college at Denver, Colorado. In his boyhood, when not at school, he was employed in his fath- er's sash and blind works in Riceville, and on his return from Colorado, in 1882, he joined his brother in operating the old sash and blind plant, which had been established by his grandfather. B. B. Westgate, in 1843. The orig- inal firm was B. B. Westgate & Sons. In 1866 the plant was sold to Joshua Bruner, who operated it two years. In 1866 the entire Westgate family moved from Riceville to Vineland, New Jersey, and resided there the next two years. At the end of that time Reuben B. Westgate, father of the sub- ject of this sketch, purchased back the sash and blind works and continued to operate them until his death, in August, 1874. After his death the executors of his estate continued to operate the plant until 1880.
The first wife, Huldah T. Westgate, died in 1866. In 1867 Reuben B. Westgate married for his second wife Miss Clemina Gray of Harpersfield. Ohio, who survives him.
In 1880 the sash and blind works came into the possession of Arthur H.
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and T. B. Westgate, who continued to operate it under the firm name of Westgate Brothers until 1884, when Arthur succeeded to the entire business, which he still carries on at Riceville. In 1886 the subject of this sketch came to Titusville and went into the service of the American Oil Company as book- keeper, and continued in that capacity for four years, when he became a part- ner in the company and was elected its treasurer, a position which he still continues to hold. In 1896 he was chosen a director of the Pure Oil Com- pany, and still holds the position. In 1892 he was elected one of the managers of the Producers and Refiners' Oil Company, Limited, a place he continues also to hold.
In June, 1895, he was married to Miss Lou G. Rouse, daughter of M. R. Rouse, and of this union there is one child.
William Earl Teege, son of William and Amelia (Soderman) Teege, was born in Titusville February 8, 1872, the youngest of three children, was educated in the city schools, and lived six years with the rest of the family at Batavia, New York. From 1887 to 1892 he had charge, in Rochester, New York, of a branch office of the Titusville American Oil Works. Since then he has been engaged at the works in this city. He represents the Teege inter- ests, which are owned by himself and two sisters, in the American Oil com- pany, of which he is secretary.
In 1896 he was married to Miss Cora Emma, daughter of M. R. Rouse. His father, William Teege, Sr., came from Mecklenburg, Germany, in 1861, to Titusville, where, except five years at Batavia, New York, he continued to reside until his death, in 1894. He had a farm near Batavia, which he operated five years. He was employed several years, in the '6os and after- wards, by the Titusville Pipe Company, at Titusville. After he left that com- pany he built one or two refineries at Titusville, on the south side of the creek. In 1885, in company with Frank Tackey and others, he built the American Oil Works, on South Brown street. He represented the first ward in the common council. His first wife died at Batavia and was buried there. In 1884 he was married to Mary Reiner, who survives him, living in Titusville.
S. S. Levy, the son of Barnard and Lena ( Marks) Levy, was born in Titusville, Pennsylvania, November 15, 1872. He was educated at the city schools, besides receiving instruction in German and Hebrew from a private tutor. He was also graduated at the Bradford Business College in 1888. In 1889 he was bookkeeper for the New England Pants Company, in Philadel- phia, one year ; next he managed the business of the company from 1890 to 1891, and then the company moving its business to New York, he managed for it there from 1891 to 1892. He next kept books for Hiram Blow & Com- pany, in Kentucky, one year. In January. 1893, he returned to Titusville and
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engaged as accountant for the company of the Queen City Tannery, and he has ever since held the position.
He is a member of the Chorazin Lodge of Odd Fellows in Titusville, and of the Maccabees; also of the Elks and of the Oil Creek Lodge of the Masons; is at present the scribe of the Aaron Chapter, R. A. M., also a mem- ber of the Occident Council, R. & S. M .; and is also a member of the Presque Isle Lodge of Perfection, at Erie, Pennsylvania.
The paternal grandfather of Mr. Levy carried on an extensive business in the manufacture of fur goods in Kalwaria, in Russian Poland. A maternal uncle of the mother of Mr. Levy, Herr Mordecai Lipnock, was a distinguished Russian officer in both the army and the navy of the czar. Another Lipnock, a relative, a man of wealth and business enterprise, was known throughout the empire for his charities. He had a system of donating one-tenth of his income to charitable objects. He was an extensive dealer in leather, and the effect was to incline his descendants to the tanning business. The maternal grandfather of Mr. Levy, Marks, was a large manufacturer of pottery at Suwalki, in Russian Poland.
Rev. Joseph M. Dunn was born in 1844 at Summerhill, near the city of Dublin, Ireland. He was a student at the preparatory school of Trinity Col- lege, at Dublin, then attended the Seminary of the Diocese of Meath. He came to America in 1859, studied in New York, and was a student at Seton College. From that institution he went to Niagara University, where he completed his theological education. He was ordained a priest at Erie, Penn- sylvania, in 1869, the first ordained by Bishop Mullen. Father Casey was ordained at the same time. His first parish was that of Corry, this state, where he served two years, and next he was at Union City, also in this state, about twenty-two years. In February, 1892, he became the rector of the St. Titus' church in Titusville. and has continued its rector until the present time. Under his ministrations St. Titus church has steadily prospered.
Elisha Gilbert Patterson was born at Hudson, New York, October 26, 1833, entered the office of the treasurer of the Hudson River Railroad in February, 1851, and was assistant treasurer when he was appointed auditor of the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana Railroad Company, with head- quarters at Adrian, Michigan. He was superintendent associate of the Mil- waukee & Prairie du Chien Railroad, manager of the Kenosha, Rockford & Rock Island Railroad; assistant superintendent of the Chicago & Northwest- ern Railroad, and general superintendent of the Raritan & Delaware Bay Railroad; was manager for the land owners of the Holmden farm at Pithole, Pennsylvania ; was engaged with James McNair in petroleum production on Cherry Run, and he operated extensively in the Church Run district and in the
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development of the Bradford field, as a member of the firm of Emery, Pat- terson & Company.
He was chairman of the legislative committee during the war against the South Improvement Company, and as a member of the oil-country dele- gation he presented the case of his constituents before the railway officers in New York city. As chairman of the transportation committee of the Pro- ducers' Union, and a member of its legal committee, he wrote the address of the people of the Pennsylvania Oil Region to Governor Hartranft, drafted and advocated before congress the original inter-state commerce act, drafted the existing law regulating the operation of pipe lines, participated in the prosecution of the state suits, and opposed the scheme for their abandonment and the substitution of a criminal action, and withdrew from further partici- pation when it was decided upon by the committee. He was one of the pro- jectors and a charter member of the Tide Water Pipe Company, and has been interested in other lines for oil transportation. In late years Mr. Patterson has devoted himself to mechanical improvements in railroads.
He is a member of the society of Sons of the American Revolution and of the Sons of Colonial Wars.
The wife of Mr. Patterson was Ellen Maria Tefft, daughter of the late Israel K. Tefft, of Rome, New York, and niece of the founder of the firm of Tefft, Weller & Company of New York.
Charles Burgess was born in Pelsall, England, October 2, 1841, and in his early life he spent many years in iron and steel mills in and near Shef- field. At the age of twenty-four he came to the United States, in March, 1866. He first worked at Troy, New York, where he was engaged for a time in the Bessemer Steel Works, and was also employed in making special iron. After a year there he went to Pittsburg, and worked there for a short time in an iron and steel mill. Then he rented, just outside of Pittsburg, a forge, and began experimenting in producing various kinds of steel. Three years afterward he went to England, where he remained several months. Then he returned to America and went to Ironton, Ohio, where he engaged with the Ironton Walling Mill Company to manufacture some of his specialties of iron and steel. While there his products received the highest award at the Cincinnati Exposi- tion, against eight or nine competitors.
During his stay at Ironton he was married to Miss Charlotte Moreland of Detroit, Michigan, formerly of England. A few months afterward hie sold to the company for whom he had worked the right to manufacture and sell his iron and steel, and with his young wife made a trip to England, to visit their friends. After an absence of about four months he returned to Ironton. and found parties waiting there to organize a company for the man- ufacture of iron and steel under his direction. A company of six was formed,
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of which he was one, whose one-sixth interest was assigned to him in consider- ation of his skill and ability, and he was made the general superintendent and a director. The works, which were at Portsmouth, Ohio, were named, after him, the Burgess Steel and Iron Works. This plant was one of the most successful concerns during the panic from 1873 to 1875. His products were of such superiority as to win the highest premiums wherever exhibited. Three gold medals were awarded to him over many competitors. About two years afterward he sold his rights to the company. The Burgess Steel and Iron Works are still running under their original name.
Mr. Burgess then went again to England and sojourned there this time five years, because of his father's illness, until his father's death. Then he returned to the United States and engaged with the Cleveland Rolling Mill Company. He had charge of one of the company's departments, producing his specialties in iron and tool steel for five years.
He left there and came to Titusville in 1884, and with others he began to manufacture iron and tool steel. One-fourth interest in the plant was assigned to him by the company in consideration of his skill and experience, making him the general manager and superintendent. The works were op- erated about a year and a half under the name of Burgess, Garrett & Com- pany. Charles Burgess then purchased the interests of his partners, found- ing the Cyclops Steel Works, of which he has ever since been the sole owner.
Mr. Burgess is one of the ten citizens who in 1896 each subscribed ten thousand dollars to the stock of the Titusville Industrial Fund Association. He is a director of the association and a director of the Titusville Board of Trade. Two or three years ago he purchased the Jonathan Watson home, at the east end, and expended upon it several thousand dollars in reconstruction and repairs, making it his permanent family residence. It is needless to say that Charles Burgess ranks as one of the substantial representative citizens of Titusville.
Daniel Colestock, the son of Daniel and Catharine ( Myers) Colestock, was born September 29. 1843, near East Rochester, Columbiana county, Ohio. He is the youngest of twelve children, mine of whom are still living. The oldest brother is a retired clergyman of the United Brethren denomination, residing at Mechanicsburg, Cumberland county, Pennsylvania. At the age of fifteen Daniel learned telegraphy. At the age of seventeen he saw Presi- dent-elect Lincoln, in February, 1861, at Bayard, Ohio, who made a short speech to the crowd as the train, in which Mr. Lincoln was riding on his way to Washington, stopped at the station there. In the fall of 1861 Daniel went into the telegraphic service of the government and continued in the same until the close of the war. From 1862 to the end of the war he was with the late C. O. Rowe in the same service.
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After the close of the war he was in the employ of the American Tele- graph Company, at Washington, D. C., one year. In 1867 he came to Pitts- burg, Pennsylvania, and became chief clerk of the superintendent of the West- ern Union Telegraph Company at that place. Not long afterward Mr. Rowe became the superintendent of the division of western Pennsylvania of the Western Union Telegraph Company, and Mr. Colestock continued as his chief clerk during the rest of Mr. Rowe's life. The period of Mr. Colestock's service as chief clerk of the superintendent of the division was twenty-two consecutive years. In 1881 Mr. Rowe moved the headquarters of the division to Titusville, accompanied by Mr. Colestock, who thereafter with his family made this city his home. The headquarters of the division in 1888 were moved back to Pittsburg, and Mr. Colestock was there one year. On June I, 1889, he resigned liis position as chief clerk, returned to Titusville and pur- chased an interest in the Joy Radiator Works there, with which he has since been connected. After Mr. Joy's death, in 1895, his interest was purchased by the Titusville Iron Works, Limited, the two institutions merging under a corporate charter, with the name of The Titusville Iron Company, making the radiator plant a department of the Titusville Iron Company. Mr. Cole- stock is secretary of the general company and one of its directors; and he is the manager of the Radiator department.
In 1871 Mr. Colestock was married to Miss Mary E. Conlan.
F. D. Gaston .- At an early period in the history of this country the an- cestors of F. D. Gaston came to Massachusetts from France, and among the pioneers of the western section of Crawford county, Pennsylvania, many of his relatives were numbered.
Born in 1853. F. D. Gaston is the youngest of six children, the others being: W. G., of Cochranton; Athelston; E. H., deceased; A. B., of Mead- ville ; and Eunice L., of Springfield, Missouri. In 1873 F. D. and Athelston Gaston embarked in the lumber business in Utica, and for over a quarter of a century our subject has devoted his whole attention to the management of this enterprise. He removed to Meadville in 1889 and has built up a very extensive patronage.
In 1875 the marriage of F. D. Gaston and Miss Clara L. Henry of East Fallowfield was celebrated, and to their union five children have been born, namely : Edna, Ethel, Phylinda, Marie and Audley.
Rev. Henry Purdon, D. D., the founder and late rector of the St. James Memorial church in Titusville, was born in the city of Dublin, Ireland. Au- gust 15, 1835. (The account of the founding of the church in 1862, together with its subsequent history, and that of Dr. Purdon, will be found under the head of Titusville Churches, in this work.) Certain other parts of Dr. Pur-
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don's personal record are given here. He came to the United States in 1854, and completed his education in this country. Soon after his arrival in New York he entered the junior class of Union College, at Schenectady, New York, and was graduated at that institution in 1857. In the same year he entered the Theological Seminary of Virginia, graduating in 1859, and in July that year he was ordained to the deaconate of the Protestant Episcopal church. He then went to China, but returned in 1860 and settled for a time near Phila- delphia. On April 6, 1863, he was ordained to the priesthood. On July 29, 1876, he received from the Theological Seminary of the Diocese of Ohio the degree of Doctor of Divinity. He began in 1862 his work in the oil country, which ended with his sudden death December 21, 1898,-the death of a great and good man, beloved and honored in the city by all classes among whom he had labored as a Christian minister for more than a generation.
In 1869 Dr. Purdon was married to Miss Marina, daughter of the late Rev. Reuben Tinker of Westfield, New York. Their oldest child, Harry Sidney, was born in September, 1870, and he died in 1872. Two daughters, Marina Louisa and Alice Rodney, are left to their mother.
Eber E. Edson .- One of the old families of New England and Penn- sylvania is represented in Riceville, Crawford county, by the subject of this biographical notice and his immediate relatives. In tracing his genealogy we find that he is of the eighth generation of Edsons in the United States, and that the founder of the family in the New World was one Samuel Edson, born in England in 1612. He came to Massachusetts among the early set- tlers and was a resident of Salem, as is known, in 1639. About 1650 he re- moved to the town of Bridgewater, same state, and was one of the original land-holders there. He built the first gristmill in that place and was one of the influential and progressive citizens there up to the time of his death, in 1692. Succeeding him in the direct line of descent to our subject were three Samuels, the first, born in 1645. died in 1719; the second, born in 1690, died in 1771; and the third, born in 1714, died in 1803, all natives of Bridgewater. In the same town was born the great-grandfather of our subject, Jonalı Ed- son, in 1751. He removed to Westmoreland, New Hampshire, and there passed the remainder of his life. His son Jonah, the grandfather, was born in Westmoreland, in 1773, and departed this life in the vicinity of Riceville, this county, in 1848.
Eber E. Edson is one of the thirteen children born to Chelous and Julian (Bloomfield) Edson, who were married in 1827. The father was born i11 1806 and died in 1860, and the mother, born in 1809, died in 1890. In their family there were eight girls and five boys, and all but one of the num- ber lived to maturity and were married. Four of the sons and four daughters are living at this time.
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