Bedford County PA Archives Biographies.....Shaffer, Harvey
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Judy Banja jbanja@msn.com May 2003


HARVEY SHAFFER is a well-known farmer and business man of 
Colerain, Bedford County, Pa., where he was born on 
September 21, 1840.  He comes of pioneer ancestry.  His 
father, John Shaffer, and his grandfather, John Shaffer, 
Sr., both spent the greater part of their lives in Colerain, 
and by their industrious activity greatly assisted in the 
development of the township.
  John Shaffer was for years one of the most thrifty farmers 
of this section of the county.  He cleared a great deal of 
land, cutting the timber in winter seasons, and in the 
saw-mill that he erected he carried on a substantial 
business by manufacturing it into lumber.  In these 
occupations he was engaged from early manhood until his 
death in February, 1870.  He was a member of the Reformed 
church and in politics a Democrat.  Of the children born of 
his union with Mary Rawlings, of Colerain, four survive, as 
follows: Thomas, who lives in Ohio; Harvey, the subject of 
this sketch; Jacob, a resident of Ohio; and Franklin P., a 
well-known citizen of Colerain, Pa.
  Harvey Shaffer earned a creditable record for scholarship 
while a pupil in the public schools of Colerain township, 
where he grew to man's estate.  In August, 1862, inspired by 
patriotic ardor, he enlisted in Company F, One Hundred and 
Thirty-eighth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, which was 
assigned to the Army of the Potomac.  He participated in 
fourteen of the more important engagements of the Civil War, 
including among others the battles of the Wilderness, Cold 
Harbor, and the siege of Petersburg, and was with Sheridan 
in the Shenandoah Valley campaign.  Subsequently the Sixth 
Army Corps, of which his regiment formed a part, pursued 
Lee's army for four days, and then reaching Danville, Va., 
heard the news of the Confederate General's surrender.  In 
June, 1865, Mr. Shaffer received his discharge from the 
service.  Returning immediately to Colerain, he has since 
pursued the free and independent occupation to which he was 
reared.  In addition to general farming he was engaged for 
many years in manufacturing lumber, operating his saw-mill 
in the winter seasons.  His valuable farm contains two 
hundred and sixty acres of land, on which he has made 
substantial improvements.  His great success in his line of 
industry is due solely to his energy, enterprise, and 
superior management.  Politically, he has never swerved from 
the Democratic principles in which he was nurtured; and, 
though he has never aspired to official honors, he served 
three years as School Director of the township in which he 
lives.
  Mr. Shaffer has been twice married.  His first wife, 
Elizabeth A. Rawlings, of Colerain, Pa., died young, leaving 
two children, namely: Arbanna M., wife of D. M. Beegle, of 
Colerain, and William, also of this township.  Mr. Shaffer 
married for his second wife Matilda C., daughter of Samuel 
Morgart, of Colerain, Pa.  They have two children - John H. 
and Lena E.


Source: Bedford Biographical Review, 1899, Bedford Co., Pa