BIO: Philip B. CRIDER, Centre County, Pennsylvania Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Wayne Barner Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/centre/ _______________________________________________ Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania: Including the Counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion: Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens, Etc. Chicago: J. H. Beers, 1898. _______________________________________________ COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD, pages 72-73 PHILIP B. CRIDER. The lumbering interests of central Pennsylvania is one of the great industries which have been an important factor in the development of that section, and one of the chief sources of its great wealth. For nearly fifty years few men have played a more conspicuous part in this development than the venerable gentleman of Bellefonte, Centre county, whose name introduces this sketch, and who, though nearing his four-score years, is yet "in harness," hale and hearty, bidding fair for an unusually vigorous old age. For probably more than, one hundred and fifty years the Crider family have resided in this Commonwealth. Upward of one hundred years ago, the ancestors of our subject came from Lancaster County, and located on Chatham run, some five miles below the present borough of Lock Haven, then in Northumberland County, where William Crider (1) and William Crider (2), the grandfather and father respectively of Philip B., figured as wood-workers and millwrights, and where now reside a number of their descendants. William Crider (2) was married to Mary Walker, and among their children were: Gabrial, Elizabeth, William, Catherine, Philip B. (our subject), Mary Ann, Susan, Jacob, Washington, Joseph, Emily, Ruth and Enoch. William, the father of these children, and his wife were plain everyday people, industrious, good citizens, and kind neighbors whose remains now rest, as do those of some of the older generation, in the old Plum Creek graveyard in the Crider neighborhood above located. William died May 15, 1880, at the home of his son, Philip B., at Snow Shoe, Penn., aged ninety-four years, and his wife died at the old homestead in Gallagher Township, Clinton Co., Pennsylvania. D. S. Maynard, in his SC Historical Views of Clinton County, "thus alludes to Mr. Crider under the head of Gallagher Township: In 1845, Mr. William Crider moved from Pine Creek and settled near the Irish settlement, not far from one of the branches of Queens run. He is still living there at the advanced age of eighty-seven years, having raised to manhood and womanhood a large family of children, among them being P. B. Crider, of Lock Haven. Though having lived some years beyond the time allotted man, Mr. Crider is still in good health, with faculties unimpaired, and takes pleasure in talking of his pioneer experience in Gallagher Township. As was the case with most of the early settlers, he was a good marksman, and delighted in the chase. The first year he lived in the township he killed five bears, and the next year six, to say nothing of the deer, and other smaller game. Philip B. Crider was born at the mouth of Young Woman's creek, January 9, 1822, then in Lycoming County, now in Clinton County, Penn. That country being then new, and his parents poor, he had very meager school privileges, and COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD - 73 early in life started to be self-supporting. He learned the business of manufacturing woolen goods in the employ of John Rich and John Hillard, at their factory in the western part of the town of Pine Creek, Clinton County, and remained with these gentlemen some thirteen years. He then purchased the old homestead, where he farmed for several years, when he became identified with the lumbering interests of Centre County, operating first between the Moshannon creeks where he was engaged with Samuel Crist, of Lock Haven, then the most extensive lumber operator in the county, owning upward of fourteen thousand acres of good pine timber lands. He was so occupied several years, when he began manufacturing lumber for the Snow Shoe Railroad Company. Following this, Mr. Crist and himself purchased the plant and stock of the firm of Holmes & Wigton, and the new firm carried on extensive operations in the same line for a period .of years. Mr. Crider was next associated with Gen. Beaver, Edward Humes and others of Bellefonte, who had formed a company and controlled several thousand acres of timber land in Clearfield County, where he met with a severe accident, receiving a bad cut in one of his limbs by an awkward workman, from which he was disabled for two or three years. This led him to make a change in his business affairs, resulting in an exchange of business interests between him and Mr. Crist, which subsequently took him to Snow Shoe, where for many years himself and son, F. W. Crider, were extensive lumber operators, also having mills and yards in other localities. Some seventeen years ago they made the borough of Bellefonte their headquarters and principal point of operations. Their plant, which is located at the corner of Race and Lamb streets, together with mills in the woods, is one of the largest and best equipped in this section of Pennsylvania. The planing mills, lumber shedding, and other necessary buildings in all cover an area of five acres, while in the various departments of the business from fifty to one hundred hands are employed, and the proprietors have with characteristic enterprise availed themselves of every late and meritorious device in the way of machinery and appliances calculated to insure rapid and perfect production. The-firm manufacture and deal largely in white pine, yellow pine, hard wood and hemlock lumber, lath, paling and shingles, window and door frames, sash, doors, blinds, mouldings, stair work, and every description of mill work and building material as well as butchers' skewers. As foreshadowed above, the firm of P. B. Crider & Son operate mills and have large lumber interests in a number of the neighboring counties, which places them in the front rank of the manufacturers of lumber in this section, contributing to the commercial importance of these various places. Owing to the extent of their operations, the large capital invested, and many hands employed, they distribute large sums of money, and they are leading factors in the success of those communities. Our subject has been a most successful businessman. Possessed of good common sense, accompanied with business tact, and that energy which is characteristic of his German lineage, he has overcome obstacles and gradually forged steadily to the front until he occupies an envious position in business circles. His entire business career has been one of uprightness. Fair in all of his dealings with his fellow men, and of the strictest integrity, he now enjoys that satisfaction which such a life gives. He is an esteemed citizen of Bellefonte, and a man of considerable means, and of retiring disposition, modest and unassuming. In 1844, our subject was married to Catherine Miller, a daughter of John Miller, of Clinton County, Penn., a lady of uncompromising integrity, from the Crider neighborhood on Chatham run. To this union were born three children, namely: Fountain W., a sketch of whom follows; Isaac S., born August 31, 1847, who was a successful farmer on Beech creek, Clinton County, where his death occurred November 17, 1877, as the result of an accident while out hunting; and Josephine H., who was born August 22, 1850, and died May 4, 1870. The mother of these was born at Milton Penn., August 15, 1829, and died September 26, 1885. Their remains rest in the beautiful Cedar Hill Cemetery at Lock Haven.