USA > Pennsylvania > Clearfield County > Twentieth century history of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, and representative citizens > Part 57
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Mr. Straw married Miss Mary Walls of Cherry Tree, and of this union there is one son, Clay M., born June 17, 1893, who is in 1884 and shortly afterward rented a
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farm in Jefferson County, which he culti- vated for one year. After a prospecting tour in Florida, he returned to Pennsyl- vania and in the fall of 1886 settled at Du- Bios and for the five succeeding years was in the employ of John DuBois in the log- ging camps in the lumber regions. In 1891, he went into railroad work and for two years worked as fireman on the B. R. & P. Railroad. Mr. Slaughenhoupt then made his first independent business venture, em- barking in the dairy business which he con- ducted until 1895, when he had the oppor- tunity of buying the already established grocery business of M. Manthe, of which he took advantage. This store is very fa- vorably located for business purposes, at No. 42 S. Brady Street, almost opposite the post office. He carries a large and care- fully selected stock of both staple and fancy groceries and enjoys a substantial trade. He owns additionally a half interest in the Keesage meat market on S. Brady Street and is a stockholder in the Union Banking and Trust Company as well as in the United Electric and Traction Company. Starting out with no capital, Mr. Slaughen- houpt has acomplished much and now oc- cupies a position of trust and confidence among his fellow citizens which is justi- fiable. He has always taken a thoroughly good citizen's interest in the welfare and advancement of DuBois and has identified himself with those civic bodies which work for such results. He was president of the DuBois Business Men's Asociation in 1908 and 1909. In politics he is a Democrat.
On February 26, 1884, Mr. Slaughenhoupt was married to Miss Anna Parry, a daugh- ter of Henry and Hannah Parry, of Snyder
Township, Jefferson County, and they have had five children, namely: Clyde, who as- sists his father in the grocery store, and married Laura McPherson; Bessie E., who married William Newmyer; and Lena May, Hannah C. and Anna May. The family be- long to the Reformed church. Mr. Slaugh- enhoupt is a charter member of the order of American Mechanics at DuBois and be- longs also to the Odd Fellows and Ma- sons, in the latter fraternity being a mem- ber of the Blue Lodge at Du Bois, the Chap- ter at Brookville, the Consistory at Wil- liamsport and the Shrine at Altoona.
JOSEPH G. HIGGINS, one of the well known citizens of Bigler Township, Clearfield County, Pa., where he owns seventeen and three-fourths acres of well cultivated land and carries on farming and also coopering, was born July 3, 1839, in Oxford County. Me., and is a son of Ivory and Mary (Hunt) Higgins.
The parents of Mr. Higgins spent their lives in Maine, where the father was a farmer and also a lumberman. They were highly respect- ed and well known people. To them were born children as follows: Ivory, George, Em- eline, Caroline, Debora, Joseph G., Sydney, Osburn, Charles, Ellen, Eben and Hannah.
Joseph G. Higgins attended school in the neighborhood of his home when a boy and then learned the cooper trade which he fol- lowed as his main occupation as long as it was profitable. In 1903 he purchased his present place from Joseph Kitko.
In 1865 Mr. Higgins was married to Miss Mary Johnston. a daughter of William and Elizabeth (Shultz) Jolinston, who were na- tives of Huntingdon County, Pa. Mrs. Hig- gins was the sixth born in a family of eleven
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children, the others being: James, John, Da- County, l'a., a son of Robert and Lydia ( Potts) vid, Sarah, Hannah, Samuel, Jane, William, Nancy and Ellen. To Mr. and Mrs. Higgins the following children were born: Orlanda, who is deceased; Josephine, who is deceased, was the wife of Joel Cornely; Luella, who is deceased; Stella; Gertrude, who is the wife of George Richards; and Maude, who is the wife of Alfred A. Packer.
Wherever he has lived, Mr. Higgins has been an active and useful citizen and his ster- ling qualities have been recognized. While liv- ing in Woodward Township he was frequently elected to office and served as constable there for eleven years, and after coming to Bigler Township he was again elected to office and served two years as supervisor, two terms as school director and two years as road master. With his family he attends the Presbyterian church.
MRS. MARY C. McDONALD, widow of William Henry McDonald, and daughter of David J. and Keziah (Wilson) Cathcart, rc- sides on her valuable farm of 116 acres, sit- uated in Knox township, Clearfield County, Pa., in which section she is well and favorably known. Her father was born in Ireland and was ten years old when he came to America, landing at New York. After his marriage he and his wife lived in Clearfield County, Pa., where all of their children were born.
Mary C. Cathcart remained with her par- ents until her marriage. She attended the Turkey Hill School near her home three months in the year, during girlhood and later had the advantages of one term in the Jordan Township school and one term at Centerville. In January, 1862, she was married to William Henry McDonald. He was born in Indiana
McDonald, with whom he moved to Jefferson County, settling on a farm, farming and stock- raising being his business through life. On June 27, 1862, he enlisted for service in the Civil War, but returned home in March, 1863, on account of an attack of typhoid fever. Sub- sequently he was drafted but did not again face the hardships of a soldier's life, hiring a sub- stitute who took his place. For sixteen years he resided in Jefferson County, having previ- ously lived in Clearfield County after marriage and there Mr. and Mrs. McDonald's oldest son was born, John W. He was married first to Elizabeth Dougherty and after her death to Anna Sours Donahue. For some years he en- gaged in lumbering in Elk and Potter Coun- ties and then located in Tioga County, where he is in the hotel business.
After Mr. and Mrs. McDonald moved to Jefferson County the first time, four children were born, namely: David Aaron, William Henry, Daniel Alfred and David Austin. They then moved to Indiana County and while liv- ing there two more children were born, namely : Reuben M. and Dessa Ellen. They returned to Jefferson County, where James Armand, the youngest son was born. In April, 1879, Mr. McDonald and family came to Knox Town- ship, Clearfield County, where he bought the present homestead and with the help of his sons, cleared almost the whole of it. He made many improvements and built the present substantial barn. Mr. McDonald was a highly respected citizen of Knox Township, a man of good business capacity, of honorable char- acter and of a kind and friendly nature. He was a Democrat in his political views but never accepted any public office except that of school director, and belonged to no organization ex-
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cept the Grand Army of the Republic. His death occurred November 8, 1904, at the age of sixty-four years and his burial was in the Mt. Zion Cemetery attached to the Methodist Episcopal church in Knox Township.
Since the death of her husband, Mrs. Mc- Donald and her son, William Henry McDonald, manage the farm very successfully, carrying on general agriculture. Mrs. McDonald has a very pleasant home, keeping everything in good repair, and takes pleasure in hospitably enter- taining her many friends. A coal bank on the farm is profitably worked and there is also a valuable clay deposit. Mrs. McDonald is a member of Mt. Zion Methodist Episcopal Church and is deeply interested in its mission and charitable work.
S. J. WATERWORTH, M. D., who oc- cupies a prominent position among the medical practitioners of Clearfield County, Pa., and for the past seventeen years has been a resident of Clearfield, was born at Baltimore, Md., in 1872, and is a son of James Murray and Catherine (Lee) Water- worth. Both parents of Dr. Waterworth were born at Baltimore, where their lives were spent. The father died in 1890, at the age of fifty-five years; the mother is still living. There were but two sons, S. J. and James Murray, the latter of whom died in childhood.
S. J. Waterworth, in 1890, entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Baltimore, where he was graduated in 1893. He immediately entered into practice, se- lecting Jefferson County and in 1894 came from there to Clearfield. Dr. Waterworth was married in 1898, to Miss Catherine Cunningham.
A. R. VAN TASSEL, president of the Union Banking and Trust Company, at DuBois, Pa., having also other important business interests at this place, resides on his magnificent stock farm, a tract of 300 acres, situated near DuBois, in Clearfield County, Pa. Mr. Van Tassel has been a resident of DuBois since 1884 but he was born in the city of New York, March 31, 1853, of Holland ancestry.
Mr. Van Tassel was educated in the pub- lic and in a select school at Brooklyn, N. Y., and when he reached manhood he learned the tanning business and served an appren- ticeship to it at Woburn, Mass. Subse- quently he established a small tannery of his own, at Boliver, N. Y., which he sold in 1884 and then came to DuBois, where he entered into partnership with a brother and John DuBois, in the tanning business, which was carried on until 1899 under the firm style of DuBois & Van Tassel Bros. In the above year A. R. Van Tassel retired from the firm and erected his own tannery which has become one of the large indus- trial plants of the town, employment being given to from seventy-five to 100 men. This private enterprise, as others in which Mr. Van Tassel is interested, has been of public importance to the place, affording remunerative work to a large body of skilled men, serving to solidify capital here and also to exploit DuBois as a favorable point for business investment. Mr. Van Tassel was one of the organizers of the Union Banking and Trust Company, of which he has been president ever since its founding.
In 1879 Mr. Van Tassel was married first to Miss Jennie Thomas, who died in New
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York. She is survived by one son, Stephen tilda. He married Susan Gill, a daughter of T., who is associated with his father in John and Mary ( Rowles) Gill, who at one time lived in Clearfield County. She also died at Port Matilda. They had a family of six children, namely: Annie, who is the wife of H. H. Osman, of Port Matilda; Abednego Pit- man; John, who lives at Port Matilda; Mari- etta, who is the wife of Bion Williams, of Curtain, Center County; Minnie, who is the wife of Alvin Price, of Port Matilda; and Da- vid R., who resides at Altoona. business. In 1893 Mr. Van Tassel was mar- ried second, to Miss Alice Henderson, and they have three children, Blanche, Hender- son and Lillian. The family home, Hill- crest Farm, is one of the largest and most valuable stock farms in Clearfield County. Mr. Van Tassel gives special attention here to the breeding of Morgan horses. He has exhibited at numerous fairs and stock shows and has won innumerable blue ribbons and A. P. Stephens attended school irregularly in his boyhood on account of the long distance he had to walk for his instruction, and was little more than a boy when he started to work in the woods. He has been concerned in lum- bering ever since. For eighteen years he op- erated a portable saw mill in eighteen different places, partly in Clearfield, Center and Cambria Counties, but for the past six years he has con- fined himself to retailing lumber at Houtzdale. Recently he has associated his son-in-law, John Mills, with him as a partner, and the firm style at present is A. P. Stephens & Co. cups, the latest triumph in this line being one of his stud, Bob Morgan, won a blue ribbon at the Madison Square Garden exhibition, in 1910. The new residence erected by Mr. Van Tassel, on Hillcrest Farm, is beautifully located and is equipped with all modern comforts and conveniences. Mr. Van Tassel and family attend the Pres- byterian church. A Republican from prin- ciple, he gives his political support to that party but has never consented to permit his name to be used for office. He is iden- tified with the Masonic fraternity, and is one of the charter members of the Acorn Club, a social club of DuBois, Pa.
A. P. STEPHENS, a representative busi- ness man of Houtzdale, Pa., well known in the retail lumber trade, has been a resident of this borough since 1886. He was born June 6, 1850, at Port Matilda, in Worth 'Township. Center County, Pa., and is a son of Samuel and Susan (Gill) Stephens.
Samuel Stephens was a son of John Ste- phens, who moved from Center County to Ohio previously to his death. Samuel Ste- phens mainly followed lumbering and spent his entire life in the neighborhood of Port Ma-
Mr. Stephens was married first in 1871, 10 Miss Sarah Woodring, a daughter of Peter Woodring, of Center County, and they had one daughter, Nora M., who is the wife of John Mills. Mrs. Stephens died in 1878, and her burial was at Port Matilda. Mr. Stephens was married second to Miss Lizzie Melcher, of West Township, Center County, who died in 1904, and was interred in the Mt. Pleasant Cemetery. Mr. Stephens attends the Presby- terian church. He is a Republican in politics but is inclined to be independent. He is iden- tified with the Masonic lodge at Osceola Mills.
JOHN MILLS, the junior partner in the lumber firm of A. P. Stephens & Co., was born November 9, 1862, in Yorkshire, England.
SAMUEL T. MECKLEY
MRS. AMANDA E. MECKLEY
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His father, Edward Mills, came first to Amer- ica and when seventeen years of age the son joined his father at what is now West Houtz- dale, Clearfield County. Edward Mills mar- ried Eliza Wood, also of an old Staffordshire, England, family, and they had thirteen chil- dren, six of whom survived to maturity, namely: Stephen H., who lives in Somerset County, Pa .; John; Edward, who lives also in Somerset County; Joseph, who resides at Houtzdale: Daniel R., who lives with his brothers at Windber, Somerset County; and William H., who is a resident of Sheridan, Pa.
John Mills married Nora M. Stephens, and they have six children: Abednego Pitman, Nannie E., John L., Fred H., Sarah and Clif- ford. Mr. Mills is a Republican and at pres- ent is serving in the borough council and also is poor overseer. He belongs to the Houtz- dale Fire Company, and is identified with the Royal Arcanum and with the Masonic lodge at Osceola Mills.
SAMUEL THOMAS MECKLEY, a re- tired farmer of Bell township, Clearfield county, Pa., and a well known and highly re- spected citizen, was born in Center county, Pa., February 18, 1836, and is a son of John and Christina (Smith) Meckley.
John Meckley was born January 6, 1811, and followed the stone mason trade and also engaged in farming. On April 1, 1850, he moved from Center county, Pa., to the old C. Neff place, New Washington, Pa., and from there to Bethlehem, Pa., where he resided un- til his death, December 20, 1883. He mar- ried Christina Smith, who was born October 6, 1815, and died March 24, 1896. She was a daughter of Fred and Sally Smith, the for- mer of whom was born in Germany, and came
to America and settled with his family at Bellefonte, Pa. From there he moved to Penn's Valley and still later to Spring Mills and his death occurred in Center county. He was a stone mason by trade. Ten children were born to John Meckley and his wife, three daughters and seven sons. The daughters are deceased. The survivors of the family are : Samuel Thomas; George, a farmer residing in Kansas; John J., living in Burnside town- ship; James, living in Bell township; William, residing in Kansas ; Henry, a resident of Ore- gon ; and Louis, a carpenter by trade, living at Oakdale, Pa.
The early education of Samuel Thomas Meckley was secured in the district schools. He learned the stone mason trade with his father and lived at home and followed this trade until his marriage. In 1864 he enlisted for service in the Civil war, in answer to the last call, entering Co. K, 105th Pa. Vol. Inf., Army of the Potomac, Captain McKnight, and served one year and was mustered out in July, 1865. After the close of his military service, Mr. Meckley returned home and continued to work at his trade, in the same year locating on his present farm. He spent many years actively engaged here but is now living re- tired, being surrounded with all the comforts of life.
On October 27, 1867, Mr. Meckley was married to Miss Amanda Ellis, who was born in Bell township, Clearfield county, April II, 1847, a daughter of Richard S. and Julia Ann Ellis. To Mr. and Mrs. Meckley the follow- ing children were born: Warren B., who was born in 1869, married Hattie Sharp and they have five children: Millie A., who was born in 1870, is the wife of R. Pierce. of Bethle- hem, Pa .; Margaret J., who was born in 1872.
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is the wife of D. Ganoe, of Bell Township, and they have six children : Ollie A., who was born in 1874, is the wife of Charles Beck, of Phil- ipsburg and they have one child; Henderson, who was born in 1878, is the home farmer ; Ellis, who was born in 1882, is engaged in farming in Nebraska; and Horace, who was born in 1885, resides at La Jose, Pa. He mar- ried Nora Gearhart and they have two children.
For forty years Mr. Meckley has been one of the leading members of the Methodist Protest- ant church at Mahaffey and was one of its organizers. He has never been very active in politics but has voted with the Republican party since he cast his first presidential ballot for Abraham Lincoln. He is a valued mem- ber of the G. A. R. Post at Curry Run.
DAVID ALEXANDER McCARDELL, postmaster at Westover, Chest township, where he also carries on a general mer- chandise business, was born at Indiana, Pa., Dec. 26, 1841. His parents were John and Jane ( Pilson) McCardell, and he is a grandson of David McCardell, who came to America from Scotland, settling in Indiana county, Pa.
John McCardell, father of our subject, was born in Indiana county, but removed to Clearfield county, locating at Burnside, where he died at the age of 84 years. He married Jane Pilson, who was a daughter of William Pilson.
David A. McCardell, our direct subject. after attending school, engaged in the farming and lumbering industries. In 1861, at the age of 20 years, he enlisted for three years' service in Company D, 105th Regt. Pa. Volunteers, under Col. McKnight, his regiment being assigned to the Army of the
Potomac. He fought under Meade at the great and decisive battle of Gettysburg and was with the army in its subsequent opera- tions under Grant and Meade until he was mustered out August 31, 1864. Although he took part in some hard fighting on va- rious occasions aside from Gettysburg, he was never seriously wounded. On his re- turn from the war he took up' his residence on the parental homestead in Burnside township, but subsequently bought a farm near the Mt. Joy church, not far from New Washington, where he remained engaged in agriculture until 1882. He was then en- gaged in the lumber business at Burnside for several years, but later entered into the livery business, which he conducted for five years. Selling out in 1891, he came to Westover and engaged in a livery business here, which however he sold out in 1895. and was thereafter engaged in the grocery and restaurant business up to 1904, at which time he was appointed postmaster of Westover. He now conducts a general merchandise store, in which the postoffice is located. He is a Republican in politics and has served on the school board for 15 years. He is also a member of the borough council and has served as burgess, one term in 1905. He has been a member of the Odd Fellows iodge at Burnside for 35 years, be- ing a charter member and having passed all the chairs. He also belongs to the Grand Army post at Cherry Tree.
Mr. McCardell was married in 1865 to Elizabeth Mitchell, who died in 1870 at the age of 28 years. Of this union there were three children, all of whom are now de- ceased. Mr. McCardell married for his sec- ond wife in 1873. Mary P. Neff, who was
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born Oct. 27, 1850, a daughter of Joseph L. and Eliza M. (Gallaher) Neff. To this marriage children have been born as fol- lows: Emma, wife of V. K. Rowland, of Westover, Pa., who has five children ; Sarah B., wife of George F. Westover, who has four children ; Elmer B., who married Tillie Moore of Westover and has three chil- dren; James, who married Lena Hurd, re- sides at Cresson, Pa., and has three chil- dren ; and Willard D., a resident of Cherry Tree. Mrs. McCardell is a member of the M. E. church, and also belongs to the Re- becca lodge, I. O. O. F., at Burnside.
L. WILLIAM ROWLES, whose well cultivated and improved farm of twenty acres lies in Knox Township, three miles east of Olanta, Pa., was born in Lawrence Township, Clearfield County, Pa., May 25, 1866, and is a son of Joseph H. and Ruth (Hickok) Rowles.
Joseph H. Rowles was born March 25, 1835, in Lawrence Township, Clearfield County, and now lives retired on his farm of forty-five acres. His father, H. F. Rowles, came to Clearfield County when he was a boy of eight years and found work at Curwensville when that town had but two houses. He there married Susanna Henry and they settled in Pike Township until after the birth of three children, when they moved into Lawrence Township, where three more were born. He was one of the old-time pioneers. He was a raft pilot and made eight trips on the river be- tween Marietta and Clearfield, and lived to be eighty-six years of age. Joseph H. Rowles first went to school in a log cabin where slabs were used for seats and desks
and later attended other schools, for he was so anxious to obtain an education that he went one term after he was twenty-one years of age. He worked hard, sometimes on the farm and at other times in the woods and by cutting in the timber he made enough to enable him to buy his farm, on which he settled after marriage. His first house burned down and he thus lost all the old family papers. For thirty-five years Mr. Rowles served Lawrence Township as a justice of the peace and also was school director. During the Civil War he served seven months in the Federal Army and was fortunate enough to return home entirely unharmed. He is a member of Lawrence Post, G. A. R., Clearfield County.
Joseph H. Rowles married Ruth Hickok and a family of twelve children was born to them, as follows : Melissa, who died when one year old; C. L. V .; William L .; Roxie; Susie ; Alman and Herman, deceased; and Aaron, James, Lewis, Harriet and Josephine.
L. William Rowles attended the country schools near his father's house, in boyhood, and afterward went to work in the woods and continued at this hard work for about one year after his marriage and then pur- chased his twenty-acre farm in Pike Town- ship, of John M. Chase. At that time it was all woodland and he has completed its clearing and has erected all his substantial buildings. The coal is leased to M. J. Kelly & Co.
Mr. Rowles was married May 10, 1888, to Melissa M. Dunlap, a daughter of John R. Dunlap. of Knox Township, and they have ten children, all of whom are yet at home, a large and happy family. They are
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named respectively: Warren, Clem H., terests. He is a director in the Brick and Fire Waine A., John R., Clinton K., Crate MI., Minerva J., Burley M. and Bigler D. and Biddle C., who are twins. Mr. Rowles and family are members of Mt. Zion Methodist Episcopal Church of which he is a trustee and a steward. lle has always been a Democrat since he cast his first vote. For three years he has been a member of the school board of Knox Township. No fam- ily in the township is better known than the Rowles.
T. LANSING SNYDER, one of Clear- field's representative business men who is prominently identified with many important interests of different kinds, was born in Clear- field County, Pa., December 10, 1860, and is a son of Thomas G. and Martha E. (Litzen- berg) Snyder. On the paternal side his grand- father was David Snyder, once a well known manufacturer and the founder of the Sweden- borgian Society in Pennsylvania. On the ma- ternal side his grandfather was John Litzen- berg, and one of his great-grandfathers was John Stanley, who came from Derbyshire. England, to Pennsylvania with one of the Penn colonies.
T. Lansing Snyder was but two years old when his father met a soldier's death. He con- tinued with his mother and when he grew to the age of responsibility took charge of her large and important interests, including the management of extensive timber tracts and of coal lands of great value. In 1884 the Bloom- ington Coal Company leased a large portion of the rich coal property and named their first mining town in honor of T. Lansing Snyder. Mr. Snyder has many individual business in-
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