Twentieth century history of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, and representative citizens, Part 104

Author: Swoope, Roland D. (Roland Davis), 1885-
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago, Ill., Richmond-Arnold publishing co
Number of Pages: 1040

USA > Pennsylvania > Clearfield County > Twentieth century history of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, and representative citizens > Part 104

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ough auditor, having been elected to the same on the Republican ticket. He was born at Jeffries, Clearfield county, Pa., August 22, 1886. and is a son of John H. and Elizabeth (Lowford) Phillips.

John H. Phillips was born in Clearfield county, Pa., in 1855. His father died when he was young and his mother married Henry Hangham, who lived and died in Clearfield county. His widow survives and is now eighty years of age. John H. Phillips was a farmer for a number of years and then en- gaged in merchandising at Jeffries, from which place he came to Irvona, where he still lives now retired after twenty years of active business life. He married Elizabeth Lowford, a daughter of Joseph and Mary Lowford, who were early settlers near Jeffries. Mr. and Mrs. Phillips have four children: Zachary T .; Charles E., who is a business man of Clear- field, married Sophia Hampton; Charles E., who is employed in the clay works at Jeffries, married first Edith Hace, and second Mrs. Boyer; and Sophronia Sarah, who is the wife of Edwin Newton, of Philadelphia, formerly of Clearfield.

Zachary T. Phillips was fifteen years of age when he accompanied his father to Irvona and assisted in the latter's store until 1908. when he purchased it and succeeded. He does a safe and satisfactory business and as a citi- zen is interested in all that concerns the de- velopment of the place.

In December, 1902, Mr. Phillips was mar- ried to Miss Annie Fitzgerald, a daughter of Joseph and Mary Fitzgerald, and they have four children : Mary Elizabeth, Catherine El- len, Rose Audrey and Geraldine Fitzgerald. Mr. and Mrs. Phillips are members of the

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HISTORY OF CLEARFIELD COUNTY

Presbyterian church. He is identified with the Philip, who married Alma Beinhour (he is A. O. K. of M. C. of Irvona, No. 152, Matta- wanna Castle.

HENRY M. COLEMAN, general farmer, residing in Bell township, Clearfield county, Pa., was born October 21, 1852, in Somerset county, Pa., and is a son of Josiah and Ann Maria (Nicodemus) (Coleman) Dull.

Josiah Coleman was a farmer in Somerset county, where he died in 1856. He is sur- vived by his widow and two of their four chil- dren, Henry M. and Ann Eliza, the latter be- ing the wife of Washington Ackuff, of Vin- ton, Benton county, Ia. The mother, who was born April 24, 1826, still survives and resides with her son. Her father was John Nicode- ums, who was a shoemaker by trade, living in Somerset county.

Henry M. Coleman had but few educa- tional or other advantages in his youth and as soon as his strength permitted he went to work and until he was eighteen years of age took entire care of his mother. He married in In- diana county and there followed farming un- til 1890, when he came to Bell township, Clearfield county. For five years he was en- gaged in the saw-mill business for Alpha Read, at McGees, afterward was an employe of the New York Central Railroad for four years, having resided at present place for twenty-one years, and is at present working at the tannery.

Mr. Coleman was married to Miss Maggie Sutter, who was born in Indiana county, Pa., August 8, 1863, a daughter of Philip and Barbara (Piper) Sutter. Mr. and Mrs. Cole- man have the following children: Myrtle Adella, who is the wife of John Beatty, of Bell township, and they have five children;

deceased, and left one child) : Manuel, who lives at home; Anna Barbara, who is the widow of Anthony Friedline, and has two children who live with their grandparents; Zetta. a resident of Ohio; and George Arthur, residing in New York state. Mr. Coleman is a very worthy citizen in every sense of the term but he has never taken any very active interest in politics. He is a member of the United Brethren church and formerly was one of its trustees.

ALONZO BIGLER MAINES, who is well known to hotel men in Clearfield county as the proprietor of the Eagle Hotel, at Karthaus, Pa., one of the oldest hostelries in this part of the state, was born in Karthaus township, Clearfield county, near the Clinton county line, February 6, 1856, and is a son of John Thomas and Mary Jane (Miller) Maines.

The Maines family is an old and honored one in Clearfield county, where the grand- father of Alonzo B. Maines settled at an early date; while on his mother's side Mr. Maines is descended from a highly respected family of Center county. John Thomas Maines was reared in Clinton county, and as a young man gained a wide reputation in that section as a timber hewer, being considered one of the best in the country. Later he engaged in lumber- ing and farming, and he is still hale and hearty in spite of his seventy-eight years and lives at Pottersdale with his wife, who has passed the seventy-two year mark. Mr. Maines is a Democrat in politics. His wife attends the Methodist Episcopal church. To Mr. and Mrs. Maines there were born eight children: Alonzo Bigler; Telitha Ellen, who married

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John McGarvey of Bellefonte; Alma, who Youngstown, Ohio; Ward Lester, born Feb- married Frank Condriet of Karthaus town- ship; Libbie, who married Fred Moody of Lock Haven; J. Cameron, who resides in Pot- tersdale; Albert Hamlin, who lives in Grass Flat; Iva, who married George Brown of Clarence; and Lillie, who married Fred Carey and is living at home with her parents at Pot- tersdale.

Alonzo Bigler Maines was reared in Kar- thaus township, and there attended the local schools. As a young man he engaged in lumbering and farming, and for about eight years carried on a butchering business while living on a farm. To some extent he also fol- lowed rafting down the river to Lock Haven, . and for one year after locating in Karthaus he lumbered for George Dimeling. Mr. Maines owned a farm property at Pottersdale until shortly after buying the old Eagle Hotel stand from Fred Mosebarger in December. 1902, and he has since conducted this well known hostelry as a first-class house.

ruary 9, 1890, who is an operator of Kar- thaus ; and John Guy, who was born April 3, 1894. The mother of the above mentioned children died June 13, 1902, and Mr. Maines was again married, February 26, 1903, to Miss Ellen Elizabeth Conway, who was born in Karthaus township, daughter of Hugh and Mary Ellen (Kane) Conway, the former a native of Karthaus township and the latter of Lancaster county. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Maines: June Elzora, born July 5. 1904; and Beulah Fay, born March 15, 1906.

Mrs. Maines is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, while her husband is a lib- eral supporter of all church and charitable movements. Fraternally he is connected with the P. O. S. of A. and the Red Men, holding membership in DuBois and Williamsport.

JAMES LANG SOMMERVILLE, presi- dent of the Bituminous National Bank and a very prominent business man of Winburne, Pa., was born in Scotland, August 16, 1837. and is a son of John S. and Elizabeth L. (Lang) Sommerville.

Mr. Maines was married to Martha De- Hass, who was born in Elk county, Pa., daughter of David DeHass, and to this union there were born nine children: Edgar Leslie, born May 10, 1877, who married Miss Lizzie In 1846 John S. Sommerville, after the death of his first wife, came to America with his son, James L., and settled at Snow Shoe. in Center county, Pa. He was a coal miner and had a contract on the coal fields of that section. His death occurred at the age of six- ty-seven years. His second marriage was to Sarah Fulmer, who lived but a short time and he was married a third time to a Miss Rich- ards. Chatham and lives in Ossining; Ora E., born August 31, 1878, who married Charles Pot- ter of Portage, Pa .; Boyd L., born December 30, 1879, who died January 28, 1880; Alfred Leroy, born December 1I, 1882, who married Miss Minnie Moses and has a son, A. B .; Ferdinand, born December 28, 1883, who married Miss Maude Briel and has two chil- dren, Clare and Gard; Bessie DeLorence, born March 9, 1887, who married Raymond James Lang Sommerville is the only one of his father's children who survived to matur- Meeker of Karthaus; Rhoda Belle, born May 22, 1888, who married Nathan Reese of ity. He attended Bellefonte Academy and

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HISTORY OF CLEARFIELD COUNTY

later Lock Haven Academy, both of these be- Clearfield county. In 1910 he opened a new ing considered excellent schools, and then coal mine where he employs 100 men. He is a wide awake, intelligent, progressive man and his efforts not only benefit himself but add to the general welfare. went into civil engineering. He was assistant engineer on the construction of the Snow Shoe Railroad and other lines and was associated with his father in coal mining at Snow Shoe and also with the Bellefonte and Snow Shoe Railroad as engineer, until it was sold to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. Subse- quently he engaged in mining on his own ac- count. After the building of the Beech Creek Railroad he came to Winburne and leased coa! for the firm of Weaver & Betts, operating un- der the firm name of Sommerville & Buchanan, until the same was merged into the Beech Creek Coal Company. The country was nothing but a wilderness in this section at that time and no other coal operating had yet been done.

Mr. Sommerville came to Winburne in 1888, soon after the railroad had been com- pleted and has been identified ever since with the borough's leading business interests. He was one of the organizers and has been the only president of the Bituminous National Bank here. He was one of the first to be in- terested at this point and gave the name to the place, "Win" coming from Winn's Run, a lo- cal stream, the last name being the Scotch designation of "burn," the combination mak- ing the pleasant sounding name of Winburne. He has been interested in the promotion of all the utilities of the place and is president of the Winburne Water Company, water being piped from Center county, a distance of four miles. This company was organized July 30, 1903, Mr. Sommerville's engineering knowl- edge making him valuable as an advisor as to this improvement. He also laid out and built the town of Carnworth, in Knox township,

Mr. Sommerville was married in October, 1860, to Miss Jane Harris, a daughter of James D. and Mary M. Harris, of Bellefonte, where she was reared. These children have been born to them, namely: Bond V., who is chief assistant engineer of the southwest sys- tem of the Pennsylvania Railroad, residing at Crafton : Bessie L., who resides at home ; John S., who is superintendent of the Rock Hill Coal and Iron Company's mines at Roberts- dale, Huntingdon county, Pa .; Mary H., who lives at home; James H., who was a civil en- gineer with the West Shore Railroad, and was accidentally killed; Robert H. and Allen O., twins, the former of whom has charge of the Sommerville mercantile interests at Winburne, and the latter of whom resides with his fam- ily at Arcadia and is superintendent of mines of the Arcadia and Winburne district; D. L., who is now assistant superintendent on the Pennsylvania division of the New York Cen- tral Railroad, being stationed at Jersey Shore, Pa .; and two who died in infancy. Robert H. Sommerville is also secretary and treasurer of the Carnworth Coal Company, on Potts Run, in Knox township, of which his father is president.

Mr. Sommerville is a member of the Win- burne Presbyterian church, in which he is an elder, and was instrumental in the establish- ment of this church and active in its construc- tion. He is a member of St. Andrew's Society of Philadelphia, and the Pennsylvania Society of New York. Winburne owes much to his enterprise and foresight and he is justly con-

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sidered one of the most prominent citizens of the place.

EDWARD M. MCCRACKEN,* who is one of the representative citizens and sub- stantial business men of Ferguson township, where he is a justice of the peace and the owner of a farm and a saw-mill, has lived in this township since he was four months old. He was born January 19, 1872, in Jefferson county, Pa., a son of Frederick S. and Mary ( Michaels) McCracken.

Frederick S. McCracken was born also in Jefferson county and moved from there to Ferguson township, Clearfield county, in April, 1872, and has resided on his farm which is situated two and one-half miles west of Kerrmoor, ever since. Farming and lumber- ing have been his occupations together with attending to the duties of the numerous public offices to which he has been elected. He is a Democrat and on the Democratic ticket was twice elected assessor of Ferguson township, nine years tax collector and a number of times road supervisor. He married Mary Michaels, who also survives, and they have two children : Edward M. and Ida, the latter of whom is the wife of Samuel Bear, of Glen Hope, Pa. They are members of the Baptist church.

Edward M. MeCracken obtained his educa- tion in the schools of Ferguson township. He went into the woods to work after he left school and through his industry accumulated enough money to purchase twenty-six acres of land, which he subsequently sold and then purchased the Allen W. Moore farm, of sixty- five acres, on which he has made many im- provements including the building of his farm house. He continues to be interested in lum- bering and owns a saw-mill and gives employ- ment to ten men in that industry.

On May 30, 1890, Mr. McCracken was married to Miss Minta Bailor, who was born in Boggs township, September 16, 1876, a daughter of Daniel and Phebe (Thurston) Bailor, and they have had eight children: En- loe, David, Margaret, Frederick, John, Levi, Harriet and Ada, all of whom survive except John, who died when only two days old. After purchasing his farm, Mr. McCracken served eight years as foreman of a gang in the lumber regions. At present he is operating on 450 acres of timber land and has just finished cutting the last remaining tract of white pine timber left in Ferguson township. He is a charter member and one of the stockholders in the Farmers and Traders Bank of Clear- field.

In politics Mr. McCracken is a Democrat and in 1908 was elected justice of the peace. The first township office he ever held was that of road supervisor, then served two terms as auditor, two terms as township clerk and one term as supervisor under the new law. He is a member of Susquehanna Grange, No. 1145, at Curwensville, and belongs to the Odd Fel- lows at Lumber City.

EMORY W. BELL, farmer and lumber- man for many years in Clearfield county, Pa., and the owner of a fine residence at Anson- ville, is one of the well known and highly re- spected men of Jordan township. He was born August 25, 1853, in Greenwood town- ship, Clearfield county, Pa., and is a son of William and Martha (Hoover) Bell.

William Bell was born also in Greenwood township, and was a son of Greenwood Bell, the Bells being early settlers here as were also the Hoovers. He married Martha Hoover. who was a daughter of Joseph and Rebecca (Price) Hoover. She died when their son,

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Emory W., was three weeks old. William coming a farmer. He died in 1885, aged six- Bell was married secondly to Julia Armigust, and they had three children: John Henry, Annie Laura and Mary Emma, twins, the for- mer of whom died; the latter married Ernest Shaftner. William Bell and wife were mem- bers of the Baptist church.

Emory W. Bell had few educational oppor- tunities in his youth. He has always been a hard working man and farming and lumbering have both claimed his attention. In 1878 he was married to Miss Mary Deihl, a daughter of Benjamin and Nancy (Smith) Deihl, na- tives of Pennsylvania. Mrs. Bell had the fol- lowing brothers and sisters: Urella, wife of William Tate; Thomas; Grant ; William; Ed- ward; Gertrude, wife of Harry Chesney ; Minnie, wife of Lewis McDarnold; and Lola, wife of Daniel Stitzman. Mr. and Mrs. Bell have one daughter, Nannie, who is the wife of Charles Strong, who is at Ansonville, in the meat business. Mr. and Mrs. Bell attend the Baptist church. He gives his political sup- port to the candidates of the Democratic party.

JAMES EDWARD McDOWELL, who has been postmaster at Irvona, Clearfield county, Pa., since September, 1897, is a hard- ware merchant at this place and a representa- tive and reputable citizen. He was born De- cember 23, 1853, at Newberry, in Lycoming county, Pa., and is a son of George McClel- land and Elizabeth Rosanna (Kyle) Mc- Dowell.

George McClelland McDowell was born in Mifflin county, Pa., in 1820, a son of John Mc- Dowell, who was born in Ireland but died in Mifflin county. In 1854 George M. McDow- ell moved to Millhall, in Clinton county, where he engaged in merchandising, later be-

ty-five years. He married Elizabeth Hosanna Kyle who was also born in Mifflin county and died in 1872, at the age of forty-nine years. Her father, Joseph Kyle, came from Scotland. To George McC. McDowell and wife the fol- lowing children were born: Joseph and Sam- uel, both of whom are deceased; Margaret Jane, who married James Flynn, of Charle- ton, W. Va .: James Edward; Mary Cather- ine, who is the wife of James T. Shilling ford, of Osceola Mills ; John Ralph, who is a hard- ware and lumber merchant of Pitcairn, Pa .; and Rosanna, who is the wife of Dr. Herbert Hogue, of Altoona, Pa.

James E. McDowell was educated in the public schools at Millhall, to which place his parents moved when he was a babe, and later at the Pennsylvania State College. In 1860 he moved to Nittany Valley and carried on farming there until 1885, when he came to Irvona and in 1887 embarked in the hardware business. In 1897 he had been so recognized as a prominent citizen that he was appointed postmaster during the first administration of President Mckinley and has continued in the office until the present. He is the oldest mer- chant in the place from a business standpoint and is interested in a number of business en- terprises that have served to build up the place. He was a member of the first borough council.

In 1881, Mr. McDowell was married to Miss Anna M. Heard, a daughter of Jolin P. and Mary Jane ( McGhee) Heard, the former of whom was a farmer and merchant. They have one son, Winfield Heard McDowell, who was born in 1882 and is a resident of Union- town, Fayette county, Pa., being connected with the engineering department of the H. C

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Frick Coke Company. He was graduated in 1905 at Pennsylvania State College and spent two years in the West with his present com- pany. Mr. McDowell and son are Repub- licans. He belongs to Coalport Lodge, F. & A. M., No. 574; Clearfield Chapter, No. 228; Moshannon Commandery, No. 74; Scottish Rite (Valley) Williamsport, and Jaffa. Tem- ple, Mystic Shrine, at Altoona. Mr. Mc- Dowell is a member and liberal supporter of the Methodist Episcopal church at Irvona.

GEORGE J. WEBER, general merchant at Troutville, Pa., where he is also a justice of the peace, has been a lifelong resident of Clearfield county and was born November 5, 1865. on his father's farm in Bell township. His parents were Jacob and Elizabeth ( Hoeht) Weber, and his grandfather was John Jacob Weber.

Jacob Weber was born in 1833, in Ger- many, and was thirteen years of age when he accompanied his parents, John Jacob and Su- sannah (Schoch) Weber, to America. John Jacob, or Curly Weber, as he was known to his neighbors in those early days, located one mile south of Troutville, in the dense woods of Brady township, Clearfield county, and there spent the rest of his days, and after his death his son, Jacob Weber, came into pos- session of the farm. He lived on the old homestead until 1900 when he moved to Troutville. Jacob Weber was married first to Mrs. Elizabeth (Hoeh) Miller, widow of Christian Miller and the daughter of German parents, her birth having taken place in Ger- many. To her first marriage one child was born, Mary, who is deceased, and three chil- dren were born to her marriage with Jacob Weber: George Jacob, our subject; Lewis

Daniel, who is a resident of Troutville; and Susanna, who died at the age of two years. Mrs. Weber died in 1870 and in 1872 Mr. Weber married her sister, Miss Eva Hoeh. Seven children were born to the second mar- riage, namely: Elizabeth, who is the wife of H. M. Kuntz, of Brady township; Augustus F., who lives in Brady township; Catherine M., of Reynoldsville, Pa .; Mary A., who is now deceased; Rosanna, who is the wife of Otto Schoch, of Troutville; Nora, who is the wife of Godfrey Biehl, of Pittsburg; and Freeda.

George Jacob Weber was reared on the home farm and obtained a public school edu- cation. Being the eldest son he was early called on to give his father assistance but he developed more taste for a business career than for an agricultural life and in 1890 be- came a clerk in the store of a brother-in-law, in York county, and later took charge of a branch store for the same employer, at Phil- adelphia, where he remained for fifteen months. About the time the coal mines started into operation here, Mr. Weber returned to Clearfield county and in partnership with his brother, L. D. Weber, opened up a general store at Troutville, business beginning in April, 1892, and they continued together until June 2, 1902, when George J. Weber bought the interest of his brother, who had entered the employ of the Rochester and Pittsburg Coal and Iron Company, and since that time Mr. Weber has continued the business alone.

In June, 1889, Mr. Weber was married to Miss Margaret Rishel, a daughter of Daniel Rishel, late of Troutville, and they have two children: Ruth Golden and Ethel Jeannette. Mr. Weber and family attend the Reformed church of which he has been a member since

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HISTORY OF CLEARFIELD COUNTY

he was fifteen years of age. In politics he is a Democrat. Since 1894 he has been serving on the school board and since 1909 has been a justice of the peace. Mr. Weber has been one of the stockholders of the DuBois Na- tional Bank since its organization.

HERMAN SAMUEL MAC MINN. civil engineer, who was one of the pioneer settlers of DuBois, Pa., where he has made his home since 1877, is a descendant of the oldest fam- ilies of the Colony of Pennsylvania, his for- bears on all lines of ancestry having emigrated to Pennsylvania before the Revolution. The oldest on the maternal side (of German blood) came over with Pastorius, on invitation of William Penn, and settled at Germantown, near Philadelphia, August 16, 1682. The first on paternal side, was Angus Mac Calman, a boy of fourteen years of age, born in Argyle- shire, Scotland, descended through the Cal- mans from the Buchanans, of Sterlingshire : the clan's possessions were situated on the south and eastern border of Locklomond. Angus came to America early in the year 1744. just before the breaking out of the war be- tween England and France. The manner of his coming at so early an age, and alone, was peculiar. His father and uncle living together with their families, had charge of the Ferry across Lockawe. The timber on the moun- tains in that district was being cut and trans- ported on boats to Belfast. Ireland. At some act of his uncle, the high spirit of the boy took offence and he resolved to leave home and go to Ireland on one of the boats that was about to leave from the port of Bonawe. Here the families had formerly lived, a few miles from Lockawe. Once in Ireland, he fell in with the spirit of emigration (at fever heat at that time )

to go to the Plantations, where there was great clemand for laborers. Crossing Ireland to one of the ports of embarcation he went on board vessel and after a long voyage arrived in Phil- adelphia, where he had no difficulty in finding an employer, a good home with a countryman from the "Lower Counties," where he was adopted for a number of years for his passage, remaining with his benefactor until grown to manhood, when he went to Chester County, and after a time he married Mary Evans, a daughter of one of the Welsh families settled in those parts. His Gaelic name, difficult of pronunciation in English, changed gradually by phonetic spelling until assumed as at pres- ent. Six children were born to them, three sons and three daughters, namely: Samuel, James, John, Ann (married Thomas Edwards), Hannah (married Matthew Doyle), and Mary (married John Anthony Wolf, a sea captain). Angus MacCalman followed farming, his wife died before the Revolution, while his children were yet young. Angus, the father, married second. Mary Williams, also Welsh ; their issue was two daughters. Angus died in Delaware County, in 1804, and was buried in the Middle- town township Presbyterian burying ground.

Samuel MacMinn. his eldest son was born in the year 1757, was twenty years of age at the time of the battle of Brandywine, that could be heard plainly from where he lived, he he- came very expert as a marksman, and served in the Continental army under Washington during the New Jersey campaign. On April 19th, 1785. he married Christina Fields. daugh- ter of William Fields, the ceremony was per- formed in Christ Church, in Philadelphia by the Rev. Bishop William White. The Fields were of the English family from near Brad- ford, England, Christiana Field's mother was

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Twentieth century history of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, and representative citizens, Part 104

Author: Swoope, Roland D. (Roland Davis), 1885- Publication date: 1911 Publisher: Chicago, Ill., Richmond-Arnold publishing co Number of Pages: 1040

Author: Swoope, Roland D. (Roland Davis), 1885-
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago, Ill., Richmond-Arnold publishing co
Number of Pages: 1040