BIO: DUNLOP - HARRIS - STEWART - PAXTON Families, Centre County, PA
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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.
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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 177
DUNLOP, HARRIS, STEWART, PAXTON genealogies, and other families with
whom inter-married, and explanatory remarks of their contemporaries,
indicating their enterprise and character as citizens of the County and
State.
DUNLOP
Note: *All the Roman numerals refer to the generations from the first
known ancestor, and not to the number of children.
The Dunlop family were Scotch-Irish Presbyterians residing in "Dunlop
Parish," Ayrshire, Scotland, during the period in the reign of Charles
II (1660-1685) when he attempted to enforce Episcopacy upon the
Scottish nation, in consequence of which persecution they abandoned
their estates and sought a new home in the County Donegal, North of
Ireland (which had then become a refuge for Presbyterians and
Covenanters who adhered to the "Westminster Confession of Faith"
adopted by the Scottish people in 1643, and ratified by the General
Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1647).
From recent correspondence with the Rev. W. E. Lattimer, of English
Dungannon, Ireland,
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 178
we have obtained a copy of the record of the Presbytery of Conway,
County Donegal, ordaining JOHN DUNLOP (I)*, a minister. From tradition
we learn he was the father of WILLIAM DUNLOP (II), who sat as a Ruling
Elder in the Presbytery of Tyrone, Ireland, in 1712, and at an advanced
age emigrated to this country with his family - a wife and four
children - prior to the year 1730, first locating at Donegal, now
Lancaster county, in this State (near the farm of that name now owned
by the Camerons), and in the neighborhood of which were residents by
name: Harris, Boggs, Lowry, Johnston and other well-known Scotch-Irish
families, largely, intermarried, and who later sought homes in other
parts of the State. William Dunlop (II) we find as early as 1730
petitioned the Court of Lancaster county to recommend him to the
Governor for appointment as an Indian trader. He moved from Donegal to
a farm adjoining the town of Shippensburg, where he died (his
granddaughter, Elizabeth Simpson, said at the age of 115). A deed
dated January 15, 1752, and of record in Carlisle, from Margaret,
William and Ephraim Dunlop to their brother, James Dunlop, conveying
the farm above mentioned, recites: "it being partly in consideration
that he forever maintain their Mother Deborah Dunlop, wife of William
Dunlop, who died intestate."
JAMES DUNLOP (III) soon after married Jane Boggs, daughter of Andrew
Boggs and sister of Col. John and Capt. Alexander Boggs, of the
Revolution, and provided his mother a home until her death some years
later. His sister, Margaret, having married, moved to one of the
Southern States. William was the commander of a vessel, and also the
Indian trader mentioned in Pennsylvania Archives, and Ephraim moved to
Tennessee, where he purchased a large plantation, and where he died
leaving a large estate. James pursued the practice of law in
Cumberland county, and was also engaged in the manufacture of iron at
what was then known as the "Dunlop Furnaces" in Path Valley, now
Franklin county, until about the time that Congress passed the Act
authorizing a battalion for immediate service to be raised in
Cumberland county (Jan. 4, 1776) when he abandoned all pursuits and
devoted his energies to raising and equipping of the regiment which was
afterward known as the "6th. Pennsylvania of the Continental line," and
was on the 10th day of January, 1776, commissioned its major. The
history of this regiment will be found in Pennsylvania Archives under
that name, and further details of its services in notes of the 2nd
Pennsylvania, Col. St. Clair, in Gen. Anthony Wayne's command. On the
25th of October, 1776, Major Dunlop was promoted to lieutenant-colonel
of the 10th Pennsylvania. He participated in all the numerous
engagements of that year with the British under Gen. Burgoyne at "Three
Rivers," "Isle Aux Noix," "Isle La Motte," "Ticonderoga," "Crown
Point", etc., "in which the battalion suffered severely in killed and
wounded, and their exposure in the swamps, without proper food or
clothing, as expressed by Col. Dunlop, "rendered their condition
pitiable," and is so reported by Gen. Wayne to the Committee of Safety
in Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. X, page 79. On the 2nd day of January,
1777, Col. Dunlop, resigned his command [see letter in Vol. I,
Pennsylvania Archives, page 694] because seniority in rank was not
recognized. Col. Dunlop's epaulets, sword and his discharge papers,
together with the continental money in which he was paid for his
services enclosed therein, are preserved by his descendants in
Bellefonte. On the 2nd of October, 1779, he was appointed lieutenant
of Cumberland county, and on the 28th of October, 1784, was
commissioned a Justice of the Common Pleas in Cumberland county.
During all these years the family tradition recounts many hardships
endured by himself and family, many narrow escapes and thrilling
adventures; fleeing to the forts to avoid capture by the Indians;
destruction and burning of their property, himself twice a captive;
devices of escape from them, etc. Col. Dunlop's wife, Jane (nee Boggs)
was a lady of fine education, quick perception, reliant, prompt to act
in an emergency, and protected herself and small children by flight on
horseback through forest pathways to places of refuge from pursuing
Indians on more than one occasion. In the quiet routine of family life
her loving disposition and motherly care, as well as her neat and
methodical management of the household appointments, were an example
for all and her advice and sympathy sought by many, other than her
family relations.
She was a daughter of ANDREW BOGGS (I) who located on the Susquehanna
at Logan's Ferry in 1730 (now Bainbridge). He had 200 acres of land
adjoining the Ferry, and died there in 1765. Andrew Boggs' wife was a
Miss Patton, sister of James who married Mary Allison. (Mr. Patton
died in 1746, and his wife the year following without issue). COLONEL
JOHN BOGGS (II), son of Andrew Boggs and Miss Patton, was an officer
of the Revolution, and a prominent man in Cumberland county, paymaster
of militia, sheriff of the county from 1780 to 1783, and Justice of the
Common Pleas of Franklin county in
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 179
1786. He moved to Centre county in 1795 and resided on the farm now
owned by Henderson on Buffalo run, west of Bellefonte, and died in
December, 1796, aged sixty-four years. His wife, who died July 11,
1815 was Miss Elizabeth Johnston, daughter of Col. Johnston, who was of
Scotch-Irish origin, and a colonel in the English army, who came to
this country about 1700, and obtained from the government a large body
of land partly (now) in Franklin county and in the State of Maryland
adjoining, upon which he erected a large fine house, for those days,
more like a fort than a dwelling, in old English style with wine
cellars, etc. Col. Johnston's wife was a Mrs. Findlay (I), a widow
with two sons, one of whom was the father of Gov. William Findlay(2),
Mrs. Gov. Shunk and Jane Findlay, who died in Harrisburg in 1836,
leaving a large number of grandchildren. The other son resided in
Baltimore, where he and his wife both died leaving one child, Eliza
Findlay (III), a little over two years old. The children of Col.
Johnston and wife (nee Findlay) were all grown and married before the
Revolution, except one who was not married until he was sixty-five; his
sons were all in the American army, as were also his stepsons. His
son, Dr. Robert Johnston, was a celebrated surgeon of the Revolution,
and about 1750 Dr. Robert went to China with a cargo of ginseng; was
there some years, and upon his return married Miss Nellie Pauline, to
whom he had been engaged, bringing with him the silk for her wedding
dress (samples of which are still preserved); they both died leaving no
children. His son, Thomas Johnston, was also distinguished for his
bravery on many occasions during the war, and his son, James Johnston,
who had obtained the same rank in the American army, was also known as
Col. Johnston (and in the family, as a means of designation, "Uncle
Jimmy"). After the war he went to England and while there had a carpet
woven with a blue ground, and the American Coat of Arms as a center
piece, which was the first imported carpet in this country.
Col. Johnston Sr., had four daughters, whose married names were:
Beatty, Brown, Campbell and Boggs, one of whom was a widow and she and
"Uncle Jimmy" (Col., Jr.) occupied the home of their father and kept
open house for all of the relations. "Uncle Jimmy," went to Baltimore
upon the death of his half-brother, Findlay, and took home with him the
child, Elizabeth Findlay, to whose education and training he gave
special attention. He was a member of the Legislature when it met in
Philadelphia, and boarded with a Mrs. Parker, a widow with four
children - one son and three daughters - whose reverses in fortune, it
is said, induced him at the age of sixty-five to marry the widow and
take the flock home. The daughters were very handsome; one was the
mother of Maj. Linton, great-grandmother of the beautiful Miss
Chamberlain, who had such fame both here and in Europe. Col. Boggs was
the first person buried in Bellefonte, on the hill now occupied by the
residence of Daniel Rhoads, west end of Linn street, his remains
afterward being removed to the new cemetery. His wife died July 11,
1815. Their children are as follows: Andrew Boggs Jr., (III), who was
an attorney [see Bar list, Centre county], was born September 1, 1773,
was also in the iron business in Centre county with his cousin, James
Dunlop; went west from Bellefonte, and married his cousin, Jane
Johnston; lived in Pittsburgh for a time, then on the Kiskiminitis,
where he made salt; the great flood of 1832 destroyed his works,
entailing a loss of $30,000. The Legislature voted him $15,000
damages, as it had partly been occasioned by the building of the
Pennsylvania canal. He owned the farm on which Saltsburg is now built.
He had eight children, and some years after the death of his wife,
married Sarah Biddle, cousin of Nicholas Biddle, of National Bank fame;
they had four children and finally moved to Springfield, Ohio, where he
and his wife both died. His descendants live in the West; one daughter
married Simon Drum, of the regular army who was killed at the taking of
the City of Mexico (two of whose sons are now in the army); his
(Andrew's) eldest son died unmarried, also two daughters, Jane and
Rebecca. His second son was lost on the Isthmus of Darien in 1852.
His daughter, Mary, married her cousin, John Miles; they died in
Kentucky, leaving no descendants. Anna Bella, his eldest child,
married Jacob Drum, and has two daughters living in Cleveland, Ohio.
Elizabeth (2), daughter of Col. John and Elizabeth Johnston Boggs, was
born in 1775, married James McLanahan before the family left Franklin
county, and moved to Baltimore where they both died, leaving a number
of children: Craig McLanahan (4), eldest son, lived in Hollidaysburg.
Robert (5) never married. William did live in St. Louis. Eliza Belle
was married to Dr. Johnston Boggs. Dr. Johnston Boggs (3), son of Col.
John and Elizabeth Johnstown Boggs, was born June 7, 1776; married his
cousin, Eliza Bell McLanahan (above mentioned); moved to Natchez and
died there. Francis Boggs (4), son of Col. John and Elizabeth Johnston
Boggs, was born February 25, 1778, and died when twelve years old. Ann
(5), daughter of Col. John (3)
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 180
and Elizabeth Johnston Boggs, was born October 24, 1779, married
William Wistar Miles, son of Col. Samuel Miles, of the Revolution, who
owned the land upon which the town of Milesburg is situated, Centre
Furnace and all of Brush Valley in Centre county. William W. Miles
died in 1808, leaving two sons, John (4) and William (4).
John (4) married his cousin, Mary Boggs, leaving no descendants;
William married Mary Kephart; had numerous posterity about Tyrone and
Kittanning, Pennsylvania. In 1814 Anna Boggs Miles was married (again)
to John Mitchell, who was an iron-master of Centre county, afterward a
member of Congress, canal commissioner, and held many offices of profit
and trust in Centre county. He first came to Centre county as a
manager at the iron works of John Dunlop. In May 1814 he was married,
and then engaged in the mercantile business in Bellefonte with his
brother, David. In October, 1818, he was elected sheriff of Centre
count, and as such was the executioner of James Monks, convicted of
murder, a crime so unusual in those days that the trial and execution
attracted to the town a vast throng of people from all the surrounding
counties. Mr. Mitchell was a surveyor and engineer of recognized
ability. In 1812 he laid out the Centre and Kishacoquillas turnpike.
In the year 1826 he made a survey for the State of the proposed canal
routes between the Susquehanna and the Potomac rivers. In 1827 he was
appointed engineer of the Erie extension from New Castle to Erie. In
1829 he was elected by the Legislature one of the canal commissioners
again appointed by Gov. Wolf in 1830. He had three children: David,
the only son, was killed in the Mexican war. Martha married P. B.
Kephart, and they had four sons: J. Matlock, killed in the Rebellion.
William died recently. J. Miles and Harry survive; both are married,
but have no descendants. Nancy Harris Mitchell was married to Dr.
Joseph H. Dixon, of Pittsburgh, a highly esteemed and prominent
physician, well known throughout Pennsylvania; he came of a family of
noted physicians; was a son of John Dixon of Cecil county, Md. He died
March 1897. His wife, who died several years previous, was almost as
well known as her husband; her life being devoted to charity and the
alleviation of suffering, she was beloved by all, and her death was
deeply lamented. They had no children. Mary Boggs (6), daughter of
Col. John and Elizabeth Johnston Boggs, was born November 19, 1781,
died June 14, 1809. Jane Boggs (7), daughter of Col. John and
Elizabeth Johnston Boggs, was born March 13, 1784, and married John
Royer, an iron-master of Huntingdon county, a prominent politician;
Mrs. Royer died at the residence of her son-in-law, Hon. Cyrus L.
Pershing, in Johnstown, October 28, 1869. Dr. John Boggs (8) son of
Col. John and Elizabeth Johnston Boggs, was born August 18, 1787,
married a Miss Allison; one of their daughters married a Bishop de
Schweintz, and lives in Bethlehem; one died young; and the eldest
married a Mr. Wharton of Philadelphia, who was an elder in the
Presbyterian Church, and they had two sons, Allison and Johnston, who
were Methodist ministers.
Ann Boggs (II), daughter of Andrew Boggs (I) and Miss Patton, married
Joseph Lowry, son of Lazarus Lowry, who came from the North of Ireland
and located at Donegal, Penn., in 1729. His (Joseph's) brother, Col.
Alexander Lowry was an officer in the Revolution, whose grandson of the
same name, Alexander, married Miss Margaret Speer, of Williamsburg,
Penn., and recently died in Butler, Penn., leaving seven sons and one
daughter. Joseph Lowry was engaged in two French and Indian wars, his
family twice driven from their homes and it burned to the ground; he
afterward moved his family to Maytown to educate their son, John C.
Lowry; he was placed in a classical school conducted by Rev. Colin
McFarquhar. John G. went into the army to quell the "whiskey
rebellion" in 1792 or '3; afterward accompanied his cousin, John Dunlop
to Centre county and became a manager at his Iron Works and later, in
connection with Judge Huston, the administrator of John Dunlop. He was
an elder of the Presbyterian Church almost from its organization in
Bellefonte until the time he left the town, a year or two before his
death. He was appointed treasurer for several terms, and when the
office was made elective, was the first to fill the position. His
first wife was Abigail, daughter of Richard Miles, who was a brother of
Col. Samuel Miles; they had one child, Edward, who died when a young
man, unmarried; his second wife was Rachel, widow of Capt. John
Lightner; they moved to St. Louis where Mr. Lowry died. (2) James, son
of Andrew Boggs and Miss Patton born ---; Andrew, son of Andrew Boggs
and Miss Patton, born ---; Mary, daughter of Andrew Boggs and Miss
Patton, born ---; Alexander, son of Andrew Boggs and Miss Patton, born
---. He (Alexander) was an officer of the Revolution and was a captain
in Col. Clark's command in Bertram Galbraith's battalion, and with the
battalion during the celebrated "Flying Campaign" in New Jersey in
1776, was at the battles of
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 181
King's Bridge, Long Island &c., on many occasions distinguishing
himself for great bravery. The children of Col. James Dunlop (III) and
Jane Boggs (II) are, viz.:
William Dunlop (I) born January 17, 1763, died unmarried. (IV) Andrew
Dunlop (2), born September 22, 1764, was admitted to the Bar of
Franklin County in 1785, and was one of the attorneys admitted to
practice at the first court held in Centre county in November 1800. He
represented Franklin county in the Legislature from 1796 to 1800.
Andrew married Sarah Bella Chambers, daughter of Col. James Chambers of
Chambersburg (son of Benjamin Chambers, who founded the town), and
Catherine Hamilton, aunt of Martha Hamilton Alrichs, mother of Jane
Alrichs, who was the wife of Ovid F. Johnston, the distinguished
Attorney-General of Pennsylvania; their children: Ovid F. Johnston,
prominent attorney in Philadelphia. Fannie A., widow of Hon. S. T.
Shugert. Miss Hannah and Miss Martha. The children of Andrew and
Sarah Bella Chambers Dunlop are as follows:
(V) James Dunlop (1) was born at Chambersburg on the --- day of ---
1795, and died on the 9th of April, 1856. He was married to Maria
Maderia. He was an eminent lawyer; graduated in Dickinson College,
Carlisle in 1812; was admitted to the Bar in 1817; a member of the
Senate in Franklin county about 1825. He was the compiler of Dunlop's
Digest of the Laws of Pennsylvania, and a Digest of the Laws of the
United States. In 1838 he moved to Pittsburgh, and was a member of the
firm of Dunlop & Maderia (George A. Maderia, his brother-in-law),
proprietors of the celebrated Siemans Edge Tool Factory. In 1855 he
moved to Philadelphia; he was stricken with paralysis in Baltimore and
died there April 9, 1856; their children were as follows: Sarah Bella
and Helen. Sarah Bella married John A. Wilson, a Pittsburgh merchant,
at one time very rich, and who afterward lived in Elizabeth, N.J.,
where Mr. Wilson died; they had four children: Tieman, Dunlop, Nellie
(married to a Dr. French) and Sarah Bella. Helen, daughter of James
and Maria (Maderia) Dunlop, was married to John Motter, of St. Joseph,
Mo., and had three children: Wilson, Dunlop and Helen (who was married
to W. D. Cook, of Pueblo, Colo.).
Jane Catherine Dunlop (2), daughter of Andrew (IV) and Sarah Bella
Chambers Dunlop, was married to Col. Casper Willis Weaver, of
Weaverton, Md.; she was quite an authoress, and contributed many
scientific articles worthy of publication in the Department reports
issued by the U. S. Government. They had nine children: Adam,
Catherine Willis (who married William Oliver Collins), Charlotte Dunlop
(who married Dr. Carlton Clare), Sarah Bella, Elizabeth, Andrew Dunlop,
Patrick Henry, Mary Josephine and Virginia Hadessa. Charlotte
Rhuhannah (3), daughter of Andrew (IV) and Sarah Bella Chambers Dunlop,
was married to Charles S. Clarkson, a major in the Mexican war, and
afterward, a colonel. They had six children: John (1) Minor, who was
married to ---, and by a second wife, Mrs. Bettie had Catherine (3),
unmarried. James Dunlop Clarkson (3), married to Ella Scott. David
(4), unmarried, resides in St. Louis. Josephine (5), married a Mr.
Clarkson; and Margaret (6), unmarried.
Josephine (4), daughter of Andrew (IV) and Sarah Bella Chambers
Dunlop, married Col. James Ludlow, son of Israel Ludlow, one of the
founders of Cincinnati. They resided at Ludlow Station (a military
post during the Indian wars). The fine large estate and hospitable
suburban home was the resort of all the family connection. They had
eight children: (1) James Dunlop Ludlow was married to Susie ---, and
in 1864 lived near Peoria, Ill. (2) Charlotte married Charles Jones,
who in 1864, was a practicing attorney in Cincinnati. (3) Sarah Bella
was married November 6, 1846, at Mr. Justice McLean's, Fourth Street,
Cincinnati, by Rt. Rev. C. P. McIlvaine, to Salmon P. Chase, a
prominent lawyer, statesman, diplomat, Judge of the United States Court
and a member of President Lincoln's cabinet. Their children were:
Jenette Ralston Chase, born September 17, 1847, a lady whose delightful
letters and literary genius are known under the nom de plume of "Mrs.
Hoyt". Josephine Ludlow Chase, born July 3, 1849, and Kate Chase, who
was married to Gov. Sprague of Rhode Island. (4) Catherine (Ludlow)
married Jacob Baker; her second husband was Lewis Whiteman and now
resides at Ludlow Station, which she has purchased. (5) Benj. C. was
married to Fanny Jones; he was a physician of high standing in the
Union army during the Rebellion, after which he resumed his practice in
Cincinnati. (6) Josephine was unmarried, and died in 1866. (7)
Rhuhannah married Randall Hunt, and resides in New Orleans; and (8)
Israel was an officer also in the Union army and now practicing law in
Cincinnati. Sarah Bella (5), daughter of Andrew (IV) and Sarah Bella
Chambers Dunlop, married (first) Hon. Jeptha D. Garrard of Kentucky,
and (second) Hon. John McLean of Ohio, postmaster-general and Justice
of the U. S. Supreme Court. Hadessa (6), daughter of Andrew (IV) and
Sarah Bella Chambers Dunlop.
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 182
HARRIS
(IV) Ann Dunlop (3), daughter of Col. James and Jane Boggs, was born
March 15, 1768; was married June 15, 1790 to James Harris, a direct
descendant of EDWARD HARRIS, of Scotland, who abandoned his large
estates, which were confiscated (and never recovered) in consequence of
the persecution of the Covenanters in the reign of Charles II, or his
successor, James II (1660 to 1689), and settled in the County Donegal,
near Rapho, in Ireland, his brother Charles accompanying him and
receiving like treatment.
Edward Harris (1) was married to Flora Douglass, of the famous family
of that name who resided near the borders of England. Their children
were Edward, Robert and James. Edward (II), son of Edward (I), married
and had children: Robert, William and Mary. Robert (II), son of Edward
(I), married Dorothy Wiley, and had children: Samuel, Robert and
Charles. James (II), son of Edward (I), married Mary Simpson and had
children: William, Ann and James, and by a second marriage (with Janet
McClure) had a son, John. William (III), son of James and Mary
Simpson, married Catharine Wilson, and emigrated from Ireland to the
Swatara, below Harrisburg (Donegal). Their children were: James,
John, William, Sarah, Mary and Robert. Ann (III), daughter of James
and Mary Simpson, married David Caldwell, who emigrated to Pennsylvania
and then moved to Carolina, and had a family of children. After the
death of David Caldwell, she married Robert Harris, son of Robert (II)
and Dorothy Wiley. James (III), son of James and Mary Simpson, never
married. He was a surveyor, and lived with his half-brother, John, at
Mifflintown, where he died September 8, 1804, and was buried in the
Presbyterian graveyard. He was appointed deputy surveyor for part of
Cumberland county on April 19, 1785, and his name is to be found among
many of the old surveys.
John (III), son of James and Janet McClure, was born in Ireland in
1723, immigrated to this country in 1752,locating on the Swatara
(Donegal). He was first married to Jane Poen, who died without issue.
His second wife was a cousin, Jean Harris, daughter of John Grizzele
Steel (son of Robert), and she died January 11, 1807, aged eighty-
three, leaving the following children: Jane, James, William, Grizzele,
Margaret and Ann. "Donegal" was settled by Scotch-Irish Presbyterians,
nearly all of whom occupied prominent positions in Colonial times, and
the records of the Revolutionary war, and that of 1812, fully establish
the fact of their purest patriotism and love of country. Every soldier
and officer of the Third Battalion was from this place, John Harris
early taking an influential part. He was one of the leading spirits at
the meeting at Carlisle July 12, 1774, to express sympathy for the
oppressed at Boston, and adopt measures for their relief. He was a
member of the Provincial Conference which met at Carpenters Hall June
28, 1776, and of the subsequent Convention, July 15, 1776. He was
appointed sub-lieutenant of Cumberland county March 12, 1777. From
1778 to 1781 he served as a member of the General Assembly. He was one
of the commissioners who met at New Haven, Conn., in November, 1777,to
regulate the price of commodities in the States. The Act for the
gradual abolition of slavery in Pennsylvania received his support,
although himself a slave owner. He was commissioned a Justice of the
Peace on 6th of February, 1779. In 1790 he laid out the town of
Mifflin, Juniata county, upon his estate, which comprised 375 acres,
and with characteristic forethought and consideration reserved a
portion for public use, now occupied by the court house, Presbyterian
and Lutheran churches, cemetery, &c.; he died there February 28, 1794,
and was buried in the Presbyterian burying grounds there. (IV) Jane,
daughter of John and Jean Harris, married James Patterson, son of Capt.
James Patterson, who settled at Mexico, Penn., at a very early date,
and had a warrant for 407 acres of land dated February 6, 1755, being
the day after the land office opened for the sale of lands west of the
Kittatinny Mountains. This land he had surveyed on the 29th of the
same month, and it is the first land patented within the limits of the
present county. They had children: John and William, of whom, William
married Mary Riddle, whose son, Riddle Patterson is the father of
William H. Patterson, superintendent of public grounds at Harrisburg
(1878). Grizzelle (IV), daughter of John and Jean Harris, married
James Knox, Esq., a prominent citizen of Mifflintown, a J. P. and a
merchant from 1794. Their children were Thomas, John, Maria, Jane and
Hannah. All moved to the West. William (IV), son of John and Jean
Harris, died unmarried April 20, 1807, aged forty-eight years; he was a
surveyor. Margaret (IV), daughter of John and Jean Harris, married
John Stewart, Esq., a justice in Tuscarora. Ann (IV), daughter of John
and Jean Harris, married Samuel Bryson, Esq., formerly a distinguished
citizen of Mifflintown, who had served five years in the army during
the Revolutionary war, was wounded at Germantown and as County
Lieutenant refused to commission two colonels elected by the regiments,
which so incensed the people that on his
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 183
being appointed judge, a small army marched to Lewistown to drag him
from the Bench and force him to resign. The effort did not succeed but
there was great excitement and it was on the verge of serious trouble
and bloodshed. Their children were: James, Samuel, Polly and Jane
(Mrs. Ann B. died October 11, 1831).
JAMES HARRIS (IV), son of John and Jean Harris, was born on the
Swatara in 1755; with ample means and access to the extensive library
of his father, his early education was thorough. He adopted the
occupation of a civil engineer and April 19, 1785, was appointed deputy
surveyor of Cumberland county and on November 19, 1789, for all of
Mifflin county. In September, 1787, he laid out the road from
Frankstown to the Conemaugh river. He was married on June 15, 1790 to
Ann, daughter of Col. Dunlop; he moved to Spring creek in 1795 (the old
home known as "Willow Bank"), and in that year, in connection with his
father-in-law, laid out the town of Bellefonte upon their own property,
and to their generous appreciation of the future needs of the town much
is due. First donating the beautiful spring from which the town
derives its name, the ground for the court house, jail and public
buildings, cemetery, Presbyterian church, parsonage and academy. They
then appropriated one-half of all the proceeds from the sale of not
only the town lots but of out lots, covering a considerable portion of
their adjoining property, to the erection of the public buildings and
academy, and for an endowment of the latter. Accurate land books of
sales made and receipts of the commissioners of the county and trustees
of the academy for the proceeds to which each were entitled are still
in the possession of the family. James Harris was also a State Senator
from Mifflin county, and the first postmaster of Bellefonte. After the
erection of the county, he was State Senator from the District, from
1800 to 1808. From 1789 his name is connected with all the land titles
of Centre county, and his acquaintance with all the lands from the west
branch of the Susquehanna to the Conemaugh, afforded the large Eastern
land owners the only means of information in relation to their property
in that region. He was an intimate friend and relation, by marriage,
of Governor William Findlay; his correspondence with him in relation to
"Frontier Defence" will be found in Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. IV,
710. Mr. Harris was also largely engaged in milling operations and
other business enterprises in Bellefonte, and is justly regarded as one
of the fathers of the place; he died there December 2, 1828, aged 71
years. His wife (nee Ann Dunlop) who survived him, died in Bellefonte,
April 8, 1844, aged 77 years. She was a woman of more than ordinary
mind and cultivation. Her taste for metaphysical reasoning led the
ablest theologians of her day to seek her society, and she was the
author of a book entitled "The Alphabet of Thought," that was regarded
by all as a work of great merit, elucidating principles requiring much
study and great research. The children of James and Ann Dunlop Harris
were: (V) John (1) was a practicing physician for some years and
afterwards engaged in the wholesale drug business in Philadelphia, and
importers under the firm name of Harris, Hale & Co. He was married
first to Eliza Hoge, a niece of Judge Walker, his second wife being
Miss Ellen Orbison, of Huntingdon, Penn., who acquired such celebrity
during the Rebellion in the organization of help, collection and
distribution of supplies and delicacies for the Pennsylvania soldiers
in home and field hospitals. She is now residing in Vienna, where Dr.
Harris died while serving as U. S. consul. Dr. Harris had no children.
(V) Jane (2), daughter of James and Ann Dunlop Harris, was married
February 28, 1811, to REV. JAMES LINN, who died in Bellefonte February
23, 1868, after a pastorate of 58 years. We copy the following from
Linn's History of Centre county: "James Linn was born in Sherman's
Valley, in Cumberland Co., Penn., September 4, 1783, and was one of
seven children. His grandfather came over from Scotland in the early
part of the last century, and was of solid Presbyterian stock. His
father, John Linn, was born in Adams county, Pa., in the year 1749, was
graduated at Princeton College in 1773, studied theology with Rev.
Robert Cooper, and during his entire ministerial life, including a term
of nearly forty years, was settled as the pastor of Centre Church,
Sherman's Valley. He died in 1820 in his 71st year. He was married to
Mary Gettys, daughter of the founder of Gettysburg. Mr. Linn was
graduated in Dickinson college in 1805, and studied theology with Rev.
Joshua Williams at Newville. He was licensed to preach the Gospel
September 27, 1808, by the Presbytery of Carlisle. He himself
considered it an honor of no small measure to have been licensed by
such a body of ministers as then composed that Presbytery - a noble
band of venerable men and men of talent. In the spring of 1809 he
visited the congregations of Spruce Creek and Sinking Valley, now in
the bounds of Huntingdon Presbytery. From there he shortly after came
to Bellefonte. The Presbyterian Church is this place had just been
left vacant by the removing of Rev. Henry R. Wilson to Carlisle. His
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 184
preaching here and at Lick Run for a few Sabbaths resulted in unanimous
calls from both Churches, each for one half of his time. The
ordination and installation took place April 17th, 1810, in the court
house, which was then used as the place of worship. In this service
the Rev. Mr. Coulter preached the sermon, and the Rev. Mr. Grier
presided and gave the charge to the pastor. In 1839, the Bellefonte
Church wishing to secure his undivided labors, he was released from the
Lick Run charge, and by a unanimous vote was chosen a second time as
pastor in Bellefonte. In this relation he continued to the day of his
death. In October of the year 1859, which marked a half-century of his
pastorate, the Presbytery of Huntingdon celebrated the occasion by
special exercise of great interest, holding their fall meeting in
Bellefonte for this purpose. Shortly after this his strength began
perceptibly to fail to such an extent that it was decided to relieve
him from regular labors by calling a co-pastor. In the spring of 1861,
the Rev. J. H. Barnard was called to the co-pastorate, and remained
until 1866, and was succeeded by the Rev. Alfred Yeomans in December of
the same year". Dr. Linn's wife, Jane (nee Harris) died August 14,
1822; he (again) married, April 15, 1829, Miss Isabella Henderson.
The children of Rev. James Linn by his first wife were: (VI) Claudius
B. Linn (1), of Philadelphia, who was engaged in the wholesale drug
business, and was married to a Mrs. Baldwin, a widow with two children.
Sue Baldwin, unmarried, and William Baldwin, married to a daughter of
John A. Wilson, and at present superintendent of the Pittsburgh, Fort
Wayne & Chicago railroad, residing at Fort Wayne. Claudius B. Linn had
two children, a son, Lewis, and a daughter, Carrie, married to Dr. Carl
Siler, has several children. James Harris Linn (2) was an ironmaster.
For a short time engaged in that business in East Tennessee, afterward
at Howard Iron Works in Centre county, and for the last forty years of
his life was a member of the well-known firm of McCoy & Linn, of
Milesburg Iron Works, at which place he died April 6, 1876. He was
married September 15, 1843, to Harriet Stewart (daughter of Robert T.
Stewart), who died July 16, 1895. They had no children.
(VI) Hon. Samuel Linn (3), was a leading attorney of Centre county,
enjoyed a large general practice for many years, and was the foremost
land lawyer in this part of the state, where the conflicting titles and
interfering warrants were the subject of litigation involving difficult
legal questions, and there were few questions of this nature in the
surrounding counties in which he was not employed. He was elected
President Judge of this District, then composed of Clearfield, Centre
and Clinton counties. He was a most eloquent advocate, as a judge
clear, explicit, conscientious and just, but owning to his dislike for
criminal jurisprudence (which the position included), and which he
avoided when at the Bar, unless duty clearly pointed to the advocacy or
defense in extreme cases involving the good order of society or
malicious persecution, he resigned the judgeship in May, 1868, and
returned to the practice. He was an author of legal works and his
"Analytical Digest" of adjudged and parallel cases was a work involving
immense labor and of incalculable value to the profession. Some years
after his retirement from the Bench he formed a partnership in the
practice of law with Hon. William H. Armstrong of Williamsport, and
went there to live, where he died. Socially, he was highly esteemed;
few persons had the fund of anecdotes, or the happy faculty of relating
them. He was an elder in the Presbyterian Church, and a representative
of the same in all the high courts. He was born on the 20th of
February, 1820, and married on the first of December, 1847, to Miss
Augusta Moore, of Carlisle, Penn. They had seven children: James (1)
died when a young man; Many (2), married a Mr. Hemmingway and resides
in New Jersey; Harry (3) died recently; Claudius (4); Anna (5) married
to Dr. Cheney, resides in Williamsport; Blanche (6); Herbert (7).
(VI) Anna Linn (4), daughter of Rev. James Linn, who died March 25,
1847, married Judge John Irvin, Jr., a son of John Irvin and Mary,
daughter of William Fisher, who was born on the 21st of January, 1754,
in Chester county. Thomas Fisher, the grandfather of William Fisher,
was among the original purchasers of land in Chester county from the
Penn's, and at whose death it was inherited by his nephew and in the
fall of 1800 he moved to Centre county (then Upper Bald Eagle, now
Union township), where he purchased land, build a dwelling, sawmill,
and in 1812 erected the stone mansion now known as the old stone house
at Snow Shoe Intersection. John Irvin, the grandfather of Judge John
Irvin, Jr., was a Chester County Friend, came to the Bald Eagle Valley
in 1801, and settled on the place known as the Loughry farm, containing
400 acres of land, where he died in 1829, aged eighty years, leaving
two sons, William and John. The former, well known as one of the early
school teachers in the Valley, died in Unionville when over eighty
years of age. The latter, John Jr., father of Judge John Irvin, Jr.,
died in his pew
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 185
in the Bellefonte Friends Meeting house one Sunday in 1859. His other
sons were Ellis and William, of Clearfield county, and Dr. James, of
Colorado, and two daughters - Melissa, married to Lewis Hagerman (two
children surviving, John Irvin and Sarah), and Mary Jane, married to
Augustine Whiteman. Judge John Irvin, Jr., early in life engaged in
mercantile pursuits, and in 1841 entered into partnership in Bellefonte
with Henry Brockerhoff, conducting perhaps the most extensive business
of the time in this part of the State, their business extending over
many of the adjoining counties. On the 26th of December, 1846, he
retired from the business to engage in the manufacture of iron at
"Howard Iron Works," under the firm name of Irvin, Thomas & Co., and
continuing until 1865, when he sold the property to Grescom Bright &
Co., and moved to Bellefonte, expecting to retire from business, but
the great change from an active life induced him to engage with Col. P.
B. Wilson in the hardware business, under the name of Irvin & Wilson,
and they erected a fine brick block for that purpose, conducting a
prosperous business for several years, when he retired to assume the
management of some large trust estates, in which he continued to the
time of his death, August 14, 1889. He was elected an associate judge
of the county, serving out his full term. He was an enterprising
citizen, trusted adviser and warm friend. He had two children, viz:
(VII) Mary T. Irvin (1) was married to Edmund Blanchard, a prominent
attorney at law and partner of Ex-Gov. Curtin. He was a son of the
Hon. John Blanchard (hereinbefore mentioned), and was, until the day of
his death on the 27th day of Dec., 1886, the senior law partner of the
firm of E. & E. Blanchard. He was well known through the State, and
was largely engaged in other business interests. He was an
enterprising citizen, and perhaps no one in Bellefonte ever had the
material interest of the place at heart or contributed more in time or
means to promote its welfare. Every enterprise and improvement had his
assistance, and the personal ambitions or preferment of any of its
citizens had his unselfish and cordial support. They had the following
children: (VIII) Rebecca, Fred, Anna and Christine. (VII) Jennie
Irvin (2) was married to Joseph R. Bright of Pottsville, who is
extensively engaged in the iron and coal interests of that region.
They have the following children: (VIII) Anna, John, Howard, Edmund,
Harris Linn and Stanley.
(VI) Jane Eliza (5), daughter of Rev. James Linn, was married to
Daniel Welch, of Bellefonte, who was early engaged with his brother-in-
law, Jas. H. Linn, and cousin, Dr. J. H. Dobbins, in the iron business
in Tennessee; afterward a railroad conductor and business man, now
deceased. They had no children. The Rev. James Linn, D.D., was
married (a second time) to Miss Isabella Henderson, whose ancestor,
Daniel Henderson, lived and died in Chester county before the
Revolution. He had a number of children, one of whom removed to
Carlisle and married Margaret, daughter of Dr. Jonathan Kearsley, who
came from Dublin and then removed to Shippensburg; he was a deputy
surveyor of Cumberland and Franklin counties, and died on the 8th of
April, 1796. He had seven sons and four daughters, one of whom,
Isabella, was married to the Rev. James Linn, D. D., on the --- day of
---, 18---. His sons all occupied positions of trust or prominence in
the professions, as was also the case in the preceding generations.
Rev. James and Isabella (Henderson) Linn had one daughter, Margaret H.,
who was married to Wm. P. Wilson, a prominent attorney of Bellefonte,
for many years the law partner of his brother-in-law, Judge Samuel
Linn. He was well known through the State, and interested in many
large business enterprises; died August 3, 1878.
(V) Eliza G. Harris (3) was married to Dr. Daniel Dobbins whose
father was a clergyman of the Covenanter Church, and emigrated from
Ireland to this country, locating in the Cumberland Valley near
Gettysburg. Dr. Dobbins was an eminent physician and practitioner in
Bellefonte for more than thirty-seven years, he received a classical
education under the care and tuition of his father, who for a number of
years was engaged in teaching, and by whom were educated many men who
in after life became eminent in the different learned professions. The
Doctor was a student of Dr. Church of Philadelphia, and graduated from
the University of Pennsylvania in 1807, when he came to Bellefonte and
commenced the practice of medicine, which he continued with unremitting
industry until the day of his death, February 27, 1814. He was a man
of strong mind, sound judgment, an accurate and profound scholar, as
skillful and eminent in his profession as any man in Pennsylvania, and
a great excellence was that he never turned from his door, night or
day, any one who needed medical aid. The humble child of poverty, the
rich and the powerful, were all alike to him, all commanded his
services and in any severity of weather. He died a martyr to his
profession, universally regretted, esteemed and
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 186
respected, and the citizens of Bellefonte claimed the privilege of
being permitted to erect a monument to his memory. His wife died about
three years previous. They left two children; Eliza, who has since
died; and Dr. James H. Dobbins, for many years and at present (1898) a
leading physician of Bellefonte, who inherits many of the sterling
qualities of his father.
(V) James Dunlop Harris (4), was born in 1797, and married in 1824 to
Mary Ann Miller. He was one of the ablest civil engineers this State
ever produced. Linn's History records very briefly some of the
important undertakings in which he was engaged, viz: "In the incipient
operations preparatory to the legislation which authorized the
commencement of the Pennsylvania canal, he, in 1825, explored one of
the proposed routes for the canal to connect the eastern and western
waters, and the Act having passed February 25, 1826, he was immediately
appointed principal assistant to N. S. Roberts, Esq., who was charged
with the location and construction of the section adjoining Pittsburgh
and extending thirty-one miles to the mouth of the Kiskiminetas. On
Mr. Roberts' resignation, in May, 1827, Mr. Harris was appointed to
take charge of that line, which was so far advanced by the first of
June, 1828, that the Board of Canal Commissioners appointed him to the
additional duty of locating and constructing that part of the canal
extending from Blairsville to Johnstown, twenty-eight miles. He had
this line, including four dams, thirty locks and two large stone
aqueducts, so near completed in July, 1829, in substantial manner that
they could have finished during the season, when he was suddenly
removed by adverse influence of James S. Stevenson, acting canal
commissioner on the Western Division. Mr. Harris' memorial on the
subject to the Legislature in 1830 caused the defeat of Stevenson for
U. S. Senator. In 1831 John Mitchell and James Clark, overruling
Stevenson, appointed Mr. Harris, in connection with Robert Faries,
engineer to locate the whole West branch line of the Muncy Dam to the
Mouth of the Bald Eagle. Mr. Faries and Mr. Harris were associated in
the location of the canal and the line was then divided for
construction. Mr. Harris taking the western portion. In June, 1834,
he was principal engineer of the Pennsylvania and Ohio canal, and was
shortly after offered charge of the Bald Eagle canal, which he declined
as he had pledged himself to stay with his friend, Gen. Abner Lacock,
in the former enterprise. On March 25, 1836, he was appointed
principal engineer upon the extension of the North Branch Division, and
to have general supervision of that and the Susquehanna Division. In
the fall of 1838, he was designated, at the request of the citizens of
Schuylkill county and other counties interested in the trade of the
Union canal, as an able and disinterested engineer, to make
examinations relative to its enlargement. His exceedingly able report
will be found among the records of the House of Representatives at
Harrisburg for the year 1839". In speaking of his death and funeral
ceremonies attended by an immense concord of friends and neighbors, to
testify their regard for his memory, the Centre Democrat, published by
S. T. Shugert, in its issue of the 28th of February, 1842, among other
things, says: "he acted his part in many important places, in all of
which he sustained the character of an able, honest and conscientious
man. He was the patron of all public improvements, and also of more
limited and local pertaining to our town. He was the efficient
advocate of everything that was good and useful in civil and religious
society. The temperance cause, the Sabbath-school, the Presbyterian
Church, of which he was a ruling elder and a very cheerful supporter,
have experienced a severe stroke, and all deeply lament his loss". He
died on the 26th day of February, 1842. His wife, who survived him,
died February 1, 1851. She was the daughter of --- Miller, who married
a Miss Valentine, sister of Bond, Abram and George, the well-known
iron-masters of Centre county. The children of James D. and Mary A.
Miller Harris were as follows:
(VI) James (1) died in 1846. Thomazine (2) was married to Dr. George
L. Potter, grandson of Gen. Potter of the Revolution. Dr. Potter was a
leading physician of Bellefonte for many years, and a skillful surgeon
of the 148th Pennsylvania during the Rebellion. Their children are:
(VII) Mary Potter (1) who married John C. Miller and resides in
Bellefonte; have a son, Charles. James H. Potter (2), (of the hardware
firm of Jas. Harris & Co.), married Mary Sommerville, and have
children: Donald, Thomazine and Janet. Lucy Maria (3), unmarried.
George Potter (4), residing at Fort Wayne, is married and has two
children. Thomazine Potter (5), unmarried. (VI) Nancy Dunlop Harris
(3) was married to Rev. James Orbison. They devoted the early years of
their life to missionary work in India, in which country their four
children were born. Mr. Orbison's health being impaired they returned
to Bellefonte, where he died and was buried. Their children: (VII)
Rev. James Harris Orbison (1), who is married and now also engaged in
missionary work in India. Nellie Orbison (2) married to Rev. Beach,
now the Presbyterian pastor at Bridgeton, N. J. Miss Agnes Orbison
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 187
(3), unmarried and residing with her mother in this county, returned to
India, but her health did not admit of her remaining. Thomas J.
Orbison (4), now a student at the University of Pennsylvania. (VI)
Jane Harris (4) married James S. Sommerville, a civil engineer and
extensive coal operator of this county; (VII) their children: Elizabeth
(1); Bond (2), married Nina Ramsey and they have two children - Ellen
D. and Jane H.; Mary (3); John S. (4); James H. (5); Allen O. (6);
Robert H. (7); Donald Lang (8); Claudius L. (9), died in infancy. (VI)
Eliza Dobbins Harris (5) was married to William P. Humes, a banker of
Bellefonte, and a grand-nephew of Hon. W. W. Potter and Hon. Charles
Huston of the Supreme Court, and son of E. C. Humes, for many years and
until his death, recently, president of the First National Bank of
Bellefonte. They had one child that died when quite young.
(VI) Louisa Harris (6) was married to Hon. Adam Hoy, a prominent
attorney of Bellefonte. He died in the prime of life, the exacting
duties of an extensive practice contributing to the result. He was
appointed by the Governor to fill out the unexpired term of Judge Orvis
as President Judge of the District composed of Centre and Huntingdon
counties. Their children: (VII) Nancy H. (1), Mary (2), Albert (3),
Louise (4), married to Col. W. Fred Reynolds, a banker and capitalist
of Bellefonte, James Harris (5), Edward L. (6), Randolph (7).
(V) William Harris (5), son of James and Ann (Dunlop) Harris, born in
Bellefonte on the 12th of July, 1799, adopted the profession of a civil
engineer, and early in life took part with his father, James Harris, in
the location and construction of the various public works of that day,
and the later public improvements in connection with his brother, James
D., from which time until his death October 25, 1865, his service as
civil engineer, or in connection with the land titles of the county,
were constantly in demand as a result of his skill, efficiency and
painstaking accuracy. He was for several years largely engaged in the
foundry and machine business, which in those days embraced the
manufacture of all the more important articles of farm and home use, as
plows, harrows, and all kinds of stoves, etc. He located and had
charge of the construction of the Bald Eagle canal, of which he had
also direction and control of the business management, as well as the
engineering department, directing its maintenance, improvement,
repairs, and contracting for the same until 1865 when it was so damaged
by flood as to be abandoned. He located and constructed the Bellefonte
and Snow Shoe R. R. and when built he had the supervision of all the
engineering work as well as the exclusive charge of the lands and coal
mines of the Snow Shoe Land Association, a corporation connected with
the Railroad Company, establishing the lines of tracts, locating of the
mines, and the improvements thereon, and to whose careful and prudent
management was mainly due the largely appreciated value of the stock of
the company. He had fine social qualities, was fond of the society of
his friends and acquaintances, kind hearted and liberal even to his
injury, beloved by young and old. He was the most popular man in the
county, and although the Whig party, of which he was an adherent, was
largely in the minority in the county and district, he could be elected
to any office for which he would permit his name to be used as a
candidate and without effort upon his part, as he was naturally adverse
to political preferment. In the councils of the different political
parties the common remarks heard were, "I wish we cold persuade William
Harris to accept," or "I fear they will persuade William Harris to
run." He was elected treasurer of the county for two terms and was
State Senator from 1847 to 1850. He was married --- 1820 to Margaret
McLanahan, daughter of Robert McLanahan, of Franklin county, and
Rebecca Dunlop, and their children were: Rebecca and Ann and William,
all of whom died early in life unmarried; (VI) Jane, who resides in
Bellefonte; James, who was born on the 24th of September, 1832, was
married September 24, 1878, to Miss Lavinia Catharine Slaymaker, of
Lancaster county. After completing his education, James Harris early
in life engaged in the tanning business in Snow Shoe township (from
1851 to 1856). In 1857 he engaged in business at Milesburg Iron Works,
operated by his cousins, J. H. Linn and J. M. McCoy, with whom he
remained until the beginning the Civil war, when he enlisted in the
service of the United States, attaining the rank of Major, and upon his
return at the close of the war organized, in connection with his
cousin, John Harris (son of Joseph), the hardware house of J. & J.
Harris. In 1884 and '85 he erected the large brick block, northeast
corner of High and Water streets, with a special reference to the
future home of the now extensive wholesale and retail hardware business
of James Harris & Co., John Harris having in the meantime disposed of
his interests to their cousin, James H. Potter. James Harris is an
elder in the Presbyterian Church. He is one of the best known men in
Bellefonte, and always abreast in any enterprise for the improvement of
the town or the alleviation of suffering or want wherever found.
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 188
William Harris (V) married (again) October 12, 1837, Miss Mary Fairlamb
of West Chester (sister of Dr. George A. Fairlamb, of Bellefonte). She
died July 13, 1845, leaving one child: George F., now Dr. George F.
Harris, a prominent physician of Bellefonte, who is married to Mary W.
Curtin, eldest daughter of ex-Gov. Curtin. Their children are Kate C.
and Adaline F. William Harris' (V) last wife was Miss Adaline Miles,
daughter of Evan Miles, whom he married December 21, 1847.
(V) Joseph Harris, son of James and Ann Dunlop Harris, was born in
the year 1801, and died July 14, 1845; was married to Miss Jane Miller,
a sister of his brother, James' wife. Like all his brothers, Joseph
Harris had a thorough education and training. He early inclined to a
general business life. He was a man of great energy and perseverance,
and particular in business details, prompt and honorable in all his
engagements. He was a warm and devoted friend, fond of society, and
his hospitable home, the resort of all the connection, always had room
for one more. He was an iron-master and in 1829 erected and carried on
the furnace and works at Howard; some years later, William A. Thomas
and Jacob Lex, of Philadelphia, became interested with him in the firm
name of Harris, Lex & Thomas. In 1837 Joseph Harris built the dam for
the Canal Co., finished the canal from Marsh Creek and cut a passage
from the creek near the dam to the works. The company then built
another furnace stack in 1840, and built an expensive rolling-mill,
putting it in operation that fall. Joseph Harris died July 14, 1845.
His children are: William A. (1) and Joseph D. (3), first and third
sons of Joseph and Jane Miller Harris; both died when they were young
men and unmarried. John (2), the second son was in the drug business
in Bellefonte and afterward in connection with his cousin, James
Harris, founded the large hardware establishment under the firm name of
J. J. Harris, now the largest hardware house in the county. He was
married to Miss Rachel Wagner. Their children: Joseph (1), Guy (2),
Charles (3), Jane M. (4), Anna (5), George (6), Mary (7). John Harris
died in Bellefonte, Dec. 19, 1894.
(VI) Mary (4) daughter of Joseph and Jane Miller Harris, was married
to Wistar Morris, a very wealthy gentleman of Overbrook, near
Philadelphia. Mr. Morris was the leading director of the Pennsylvania
railroad for many years, and in whose judgment the officials of that
corporation had the utmost confidence and chief reliance. They had one
child, Holly Morris (1), who was married to Dr. Wood, a celebrated
Philadelphia divine. They had children: Morris (1), Marguerite (2).
It was at their elegant country home President and Mrs. Cleveland were
entertained when they visited Philadelphia.
(VI) Eliza T. (5), daughter of Joseph and Jane Miller Harris, was
married to Evan M. Blanchard, a practicing attorney of Bellefonte. He
was a son of the HON. JOHN BLANCHARD, of Bellefonte, of whom Linn's
History says: "Hon. John Blanchard was born at Peacham, Vt., Sept. 30,
1787. When fifteen years of age his father died, and he assisted in
carrying on the farm, attending the public schools in the winter.
Supporting himself by school teaching, he prepared himself for college
and graduated at Dartmouth in 1812. He then removed to York, Pa.,
where he taught school and studied law, and was admitted to the Bar of
York County March 31st, 1815. He first settled at Lewistown, and in
the fall of 1815, removed to Bellefonte, which continued to be his
residence up to the time of his death. He at once became largely
engaged in the practice of law and took a high position at the Bar. He
was married in 1820 to Mary, daughter of Evan Miles. He was a Whig in
politics, but not an active politician, and after much persuasion
became the candidate of the party for Congress in the fall of 1844.
His speeches in Congress, particularly on the tariff question, are
characterized by great logical ability, and abound in evidence of great
research of statistics. He took sick about the close of his second
term, and died at Columbia, Penn., on his way home, March 8, 1849. His
widow survived him until January 9, 1857. She was born at Milesburg
March 23, 1799. Their sons, Edmund and Evan M. Blanchard, Esq., are
members of the Bellefonte Bar." The following brief estimate of Mr.
Blanchard's character is from the pen of Ex-Gov. Curtin, at one time,
Mr. Blanchard's law partner. "Mr. Blanchard was a thoroughly educated
man, and it is not an exaggerated eulogy to say a ripe scholar. He
retained his fondness for the classics, and read Latin and Greek
habitually in his hours of relaxation from professional labor. He was
active and zealous in the cause of education and participated in all
means intended to improve and enlighten the people who surrounded him.
In his professional reading, except in the preparation of his cases for
trial, he preferred books and writers in which elementary principles
are discussed, and had the fondness of the thoroughly educated and
accomplished lawyer for the common law. There are other phases of Mr.
Blanchard's nature which were scarcely known except to his intimate
friends. He had a keen
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 189
sense of the ludicrous and enjoyed wit and humor with rare zest. Those
who knew him well only realized the extent and variety of his literary
acquirements. Remarkable for his agreeable conversation, he was always
the leader in the social circle when not too ill, and then he gave real
enjoyment by his knowledge of modern classic literature, and amused by
apt and quaint illustration drawn from his well-filled memory. A man
of positive convictions on all questions that engaged his attention.
Mr. Blanchard was bred, and educated a Federalist in his political
opinions, and never abandoned the principles of that party, which he
had closely studied and well understood. It was a high compliment to
him and a just appreciation of his character, as well as to the
generosity and good sense of the people of the district in which he
lived, to elect him twice to Congress when it was well known he was an
avowed Federalist, when the name was odious and the party was defeated,
disbandoned and its leaders in retirement. As an advocate, Mr.
Blanchard was persuasive, clear in his logic, and always truthful in
his statements. In his forensic efforts, he was remarkable for the
simplicity of his language. His speeches were never long enough to
weary the court or jury, or to lose him the interest of the Court room.
That he was learned and truthful in his clients was the foundation of
his professional success is true to his memory; and the purity of his
social life and his integrity gave him the sobriquet of 'Honest John
Blanchard,' and more than all other qualifications gave him power in
the forum and influence in the community."
The law firm composed of Hon. A. G. Curtin and Edmund Blanchard,
being dissolved with Mr. Curtin was elected Governor of Pennsylvania,
E. M. Blanchard and his brother, Edmund, became partners under the firm
name of E. & E. Blanchard. They enjoyed a very large practice, and
were also solicitors for a number of large corporations: Pennsylvania
R. R. Co.; Bellefonte & Snow Shoe R.R. Co.; Beaver Mills & Lumber Co.;
Moshannon Land & Lumber Co.; Snow Shoe Land Association; Valentine Iron
Co., and others requiring much of his brother Edmund's time from home.
The confining office and detail work, for many years devolving entirely
upon him, gradually impaired his health, yet no one ever heard a
complaint or met him without a pleasant smile and cordial greeting that
reflected the best of health and spirits free of the really many
troubles and exacting duties that he bore so well. He had not an enemy
on earth, on the contrary all who knew him were more than is implied in
the word "friend" if occasion had required it. He had rare musical
talent, and a melodious voice that was the principal feature in
entertainments given by the Churches and Societies, whose requests for
his assistance were always cheerfully granted. And he, too, enjoyed
the sobriquet of his father, "Honest". He died in Bellefonte on the
7th day of Nov., 1894, deeply lamented by all, leaving to survive him
his wife and four children: (VII) Miss Elizabeth; Miss Mary; Edmund, a
law student in the University of Pennsylvania; and John Blanchard, an
attorney of this county in full practice, the solicitor of the
Pennsylvania railroad and other large interests.
Jane (VI), daughter of Joseph and Jane Miller Harris, was married to
John S. Hendrickson of Red Bank, N.J., the owner of large property
interests in that vicinity; they at present reside in Bellefonte, and
have the following children: Mary (1), Charles (2). Mrs. Hendrickson
died in Bellefonte Dec. 27, 1897. Joseph Harris' (V) second wife was
Jane Huston, sister of Gen. Huston, iron-master at Hecla Works. They
had one child: Sally Hopkins, who died quite young. Andrew Harris
(V), son of James and Ann Dunlop Harris, was born ---, and married Anna
Bella Johnston (sister of Elizabeth Livingston and Jane Mulholland);
they had one child, Dr. Lucien Harris, who died unmarried.
(IV) John Dunlop (4), son of Col. James and Jane Boggs Dunlop was
born April 22, 1770, and was married June 9, 1797 to Eliza Findlay, of
Franklin county, a granddaughter of Col. Johnston (her father and the
father of Gov. William Findlay were brothers). John Dunlop was the
first one of the family to locate in Centre county, and purchased among
other lands the Griffith Gibbon tract, upon which the town of
Bellefonte is situated, which he afterward conveyed to his father, Col.
James Dunlop, and his brother-in-law, James Harris, who laid out and
became the proprietors of the town. He was the most extensive land
owner in the county; among other lands, owning those adjoining the town
of Bellefonte, for a distance of six or seven miles east and west, and
forty thousand acres of timber land (now Snow Shoe and Burnside
townships), comprising the valuable bituminous coal field of that
region. In the order of essentials first required by the settlers of
the region, being remote from supplies, he contracted for the digging
of a head and tail race, and the erection of a grist or flouring mill
and a sawmill, which afterward became the property of his brother-in-
law, James Smith, now (1897) Hale estate, and devoted his time to the
development of the iron ore and erection of furnaces, the product of
which
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 190
were hauled west to Pittsburgh with teams, or east by arks on the
spring floods in Bald Eagle creek. He first built, in connection with
Col. Samuel Miles, Harmony Forge on Spring creek (now 1897) Milesburg
Iron Works, of McCoy & Shugert). He then built Logan Furnace, on Logan
branch, south of the town, now the Valentine Iron Co., in the meantime,
having built the stone house, corner of the Diamond, known as the Judge
Burnside property (now "Crider's Stone Building"), in which he for a
time resided, and then moved to the large stone house he had built at
Logan Furnace. He owned the furnace run by Boggs and Royer (both his
relatives), and in 1810, in connection with William Beatty (whom he had
bought with him from Franklin county), built Washington Furnace, east
of Bellefonte, now in Clinton county. He was the most energetic iron-
master in the county. On the morning of Saturday, October 8, 1814, he
returned home from a business trip to Pittsburgh, stopping at his home
only long enough to get a fresh horse, determined to visit one of his
mine banks before dinner, and immediately upon entering the bank
noticed the danger of the earth falling, and succeeded in getting all
the miners out safely, but was himself buried beneath the fall and
killed. His death was severely felt and lamented. He was fine
looking, of commanding appearance, being over six feet in height,
amiable in disposition and temper, and his moral and religious
character irreproachable. His wife (nee Eliza Findlay) died August 16,
1836. Their children: (V) Jane (1) was born December 3, 1800, was
married June 1817 to William Calhoun Stewart, a direct descendant of
(1) John Stewart, a Scotch Covenanter of the seventeenth century, who
fled from Scotland to the County Down in the North of Ireland, the
refuge for proscribed Presbyterians and Covenanters in the reign of
Charles II (1660-1685), and died in 1720; had a son, (2) Robert
Stewart, born near Glasgow, 1665, in reign of Charles Ii; died in 1730.
Upon the death of his father, he moved to Drumore township, County
Down, twelve miles from Belfast. The lives of father and son, John and
Robert Stewart, therefore embraced an important period in the history
of England, commencing in the reign of Charles I, under Cromwell,
Charles II, James II, William and Mary, Queen Anne, George I, and into
the reign of George II. Robert Stewart had a son (3) Samuel, born in
1698 near Glasgow, Scotland, died in 1770. He emigrated to the North
of Ireland with his father in 1720. In 1735, accompanied by his
brother, Hugh, he crossed the ocean, landing in Philadelphia, and
settling in Drumore township, Lancaster Co., Penn., near Chestnut
Level, a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian settlement ministered to by Rev.
John Thompson of Donegal Presbytery. He was married in Ireland to Mary
McClay; among other children they had a son (4) Samuel.
STEWART
(IV) Samuel Stewart, born in the County Down, Ireland, and brought to
Pennsylvania in the emigration of his father's family in 1735, and on
arriving at age settled as a farmer in Hanover township, Lancaster
county, about 1750. His warrant for one hundred acres of land was
dated May 17, 1754, and assessed for the King's use, 1759. From the
date of this settlement therein, in 1750 until 1764, this region was
subject to Indian raids, from which the inhabitants suffered fearfully,
and continued until the massacre in Lancaster by the Conestoga Indians.
The historic meeting in Hanover township, June 14, 1774, as the
earliest recorded movement toward independence, found faithful and
active participants in the Scotch-Irish. Samuel Stewart entered as a
private in Col. Timothy Green's battalion, June, 1776, in Capt. Rogers'
company, destined for the camp in the Jerseys. On the erection and
organization of the county of Dauphin, he was upon the first grand
jury, composed of prominent citizens. He was a member of the old
Hanover Church, eleven miles east of Harrisburg, the records of which
show that on November 2, 1788 he and his wife were admitted to the
Lord's Table. He died September 16, 1803, and was buried in Hanover
church graveyard. He was married to Nancy Templeton, daughter of
Robert and Agnes Templeton of Hanover, who died in 1788, and they had
among others the following children:
(V) Robert Templeton Stewart, born June 15, 1773, who married Mary
Dunlop, daughter of Col. James Dunlop. His father, Samuel Stewart, was
married a second time in 1789 to Agnes (Nancy) Calhoun, who was born in
1763, died August 29, 1823, and buried in the cemetery at Graysville,
Huntingdon Co., Penn. She was a daughter of William and Hannah Calhoun
of Paxtang township, Dauphin county. They had a son, (V) William
Calhoun Stewart, born in 1790 in Hanover township, Dauphin county, died
May 31, 1850 in Cincinnati Ohio. He was an iron-master and member of
the firms of Lyon, Shorb & Co. and Shorb, Stewart & Co. of Centre
county, Huntingdon and Allegheny county iron firms, and represented
their interest in Cincinnati. He was married, as stated above, June
1817, in Bellefonte to Jane, daughter of John Dunlop and granddaughter
of Col. James Dunlop
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 191
(she was a niece of his half-brother, Robert T. Stewart's wife), and
died in Cincinnati, April 27, 1841. Their children are as follows:
(VI) Helen, born in Bellefonte, died when a child. (VI) Laura, born
in Bellefonte, married Col. Charles Jones, planter of Red River,
Catahoula Parish, La. Col. Jones had some fifteen hundred slaves on
his various plantations, and strenuously opposed the ordinance of
secession until it was useless to contend against the overwhelming
sentiment in the State, when he entered the Confederate service as an
officer, and was shot in a dispute with Gen. Liddell of Mississippi, in
which also his eldest son, William, as well as Gen. Liddell, lost their
lives. Mr. Jones' family were all educated at Heidelberg, Germany, and
are as follows: Ella (1) married in Switzerland and died abroad.
William (2), shot in the dispute above referred to. Rosa (3), residing
with her mother at Jonesville, La. Cuthbert Bullett (4), of Washington
D. C.; Francois (5), a linguist in the State Department, Washington,
District of Columbia.
(VI) Rev. John Dunlop Stewart, born February 23, 1824, married
Margaret Schell, daughter of John and Margaret Schell, of Birmingham,
and had a numerous family, of whom the survivors are: Alice (1) born
February 25, 1849, married November 26, 1867 to Samuel Berlin. John A.
Collins (2), born January 19, 1856, married Bertha K. Martin of
Hollidaysburg. Laura (3), born December 12, 1857, married December 12,
1876, W. F. Meminger, Evangelist and have children---William S., Paul
Jones and Charles Richard. Jesse Smith (4), born May 16, 1866, a civil
engineer in Tyrone. Charles B. (5), born December 31, 1868, married
Carrie E. Gray. Harry Lawrence (6), born August 13, 1873. (VI) Rev.
William Calhoun Stewart, born June 17, 1829, died in New York City,
April 10, 1894; married (first) Mary Forgey Conklin, and had a son,
William Calhoun (1), residing in California; he married (second) Laura,
a sister of his first wife, and (third) Agnes, and had children -
Deborah (2), Agnes (3), Anna (4) and Nemeha (5). (VI) Jesse Smith
Stewart, born in Cincinnati, April 24, 1832, was first lieutenant of
Company A, 125th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, was killed in the
battle of Chancellorsville, in 1863; was married to Mary M. Clark of
Birmingham, and had children---Jesse (1) and William (2), both died in
infancy. (VI) Ella Stewart married Robert G. Bushnell, of Pittsburgh
(of Park Brothers & Co. steel works), who died December 28, 1894; their
children are---Jesse Stewart (1), Elinor Gray (2), Douglas Stewart (3).
(V) Eliza J., daughter of John and Eliza (Findlay) Dunlop was born
April 15, 1803, and died April 29, 1826, unmarried. (V) Catherine
Findlay, daughter of John and Eliza (Findlay) Dunlop, born September 1,
1806, died in Bellefonte August 27, 1881, unmarried. (V) Nancy Harris,
daughter of John and Eliza (Findlay) Dunlop was born May 25, 1809 and
died in Bellefonte, June 23, 1811. (V) Deborah Moore, daughter of John
and Eliza (Findlay) Dunlop, was born February 24, 1812, and died
September 8, 1869; she was married by the Rev. James Linn, on the 2nd
of September, 1836, to the Hon. S. T. Shugert, son of Joseph Bishop and
Mary (Mendenhall) Shugert, who was a descendant of Benjamin Mendenhall,
who, with his brothers, Moses and John Mendenhall and sister, Mary
Mendenhall, emigrated from England to this country with William Penn;
they came from Wiltshire.
(I) BENJAMIN MENDENHALL was held in high esteem both in his
religious society and as a citizen. In 1714 he served as a member of
the Provincial Assembly, and died in 1740 at an advanced age. His
wife, Ann, who was a daughter of Robert Pennell, of Chichester,
survived him. They were married in Chichester Friends Meeting, of
which they were both members, in 1689, and had nine children. (II)
Moses Mendenhall was a son of Benjamin and Ann Pennell Mendenhall.
(III) Caleb, son of Moses Mendenhall, had two sons, Moses and Caleb.
They were orphaned by the death of their father, when quite young;
their mother married (again) a man by the name of Adam Redd of
Centreville, Del., by whom she had one daughter, Miriam, who had
descendants in that region. The two boys, Moses and Caleb, when they
arrived at age, took the farm of three hundred acres on the right bank
of the Brandywine creek, a mile below the battle ground, September 11,
1777, owned by their father, and held it as a divided inheritance until
their death, the former dying in 1821, and the latter in 1825. Moses'
part of the farm descended to his son Caleb, and Caleb's farm to his
son, Moses, who continued to hold them, respectively until 1830 when
the former sold and the latter died, and it passed out of the family,
being held for over a century.
(IV) Moses, son of Caleb Mendenhall, the elder of the two brothers,
married Mary, daughter of Aaron and Ann James, then of the township of
Williston, county of Chester, and Province of Pennsylvania, on the 26th
day of the second month, 1771, at a meeting of the Friends at the
Kennett meeting house in the county of Chester, a copy of which
marriage certificate, with the signatures of those present is given
below (the Adam and Miriam Redd, whose names
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 192
appear, were the half-sister and stepfather on the bridegroom):
Copy - Marriage Certificate of Moses Mendenhall of the fourth
generation of Benjamin's line and Mary James (Daughter of Aaron and Ann
James) of the Township of Williston County and Province aforesaid.
Having declared their intentions of Marriage with each other before
several monthly meetings of the people called "Quarterly," one of which
was held at Kennett in the county of Chester, and the other at Centre,
in the County of Newcastle, according to the good order used amongst
them, and having consent of Parents and others concerned, their said
proposals of marriage was allowed of, by said Meetings.
Now these are to certify all whom it may concern that for the full
accomplishing their said intentions this twenty-eighth day of the
second month, 1771, they, the said Moses Mendenhall and Mary James,
appeared in a public meeting of the aforesaid people at Kennett Meeting
House and the said Moses Mendenhall taking the said Mary James by the
hand did in a solemn manner openly declare that he took her to be his
wife, promising with divine assistance to be unto her a loving and
faithful husband until it shall please the Lord to separate them by
death (or words to the same effect), and then and there in the same
assembly she, the said Mary James, did in like manner declare that she
took him to be her husband, promising, through Divine assistance to be
unto him a loving and faithful wife until it shall please the Lord to
separate them by death (or other words to the same effect), and
moreover, the said Moses Mendenhall and Mary James (she according to
the custom of marriage assuming the name of her husband)as a further
confirmation thereof did then and there to these present set their
hands.
Moses Mendenhall
Mary Mendenhall
And we, whose names are here under also subscribed being present at
the solemnization of said marriage and subscription, have as witnesses
thereunto set our hands the day and year above written.
Thomas Carlton Jane Temple
Thomas Temple Ann Lamborn
Thomas Mithous Ann Way
Caleb Pierce Hannah Baily
Benjamin Ring Mary Way
Thomas Carleton, Jr. William Levis
Jesse Cloud William Harvey
Mary Cloud James Wickersham
John Lamborn James Bennet
Isaac Mendenhall Isaac Baily
Miriam Redd Enoch Wickerhsam
Adam Redd Aaron James
Lydia Kirk Joshua Pierce
Phoebe White Jacob Heald
Joshua Gibson Isaac Mendenhall
John Gibson Samuel Grubb
Hannah Levis Phoebe Kirk
Mary Smedley Esther Marshall
Abigail Kirk Caleb Mendenhall
Adam Kirk
(V) Moses and Mary James Mendenhall had eleven children. (V) Ann
(ii), their second child, married Bennett Auge, a son of Daniel Auge, a
wine and shipping merchant of Bordeaux, France, originally from
Amsterdam, Holland. Bennett Auge was born in Bordeaux, France, 1778,
and at twelve years of age joined an elder brother in business in the
West Indies, and was overseer of the plantation at the time of the
insurrection at San Domingo in 1791. He was in the army of defence,
and left when the whites generally took refuge in the vessels and came
with his brother to the United States in 1801, and married in Chester
county; had five children, one of whom, Moses Mendenhall Auge, born in
Centreville, Delaware county, in 1842, married Mary Cowden, of
Plymouth. He was of a decided literary turn, and author of
Biographies, Essays, &c. One of the early Anti-slavery advocates,
editor of The Norristown Republican; moved to Philadelphia, where he
died February 21, 1892, leaving two daughters, Annie and Ella Auge.
(V) Mary, daughter of Moses and Mary James Mendenhall, the eighth
child, born 11th month 4th, 1782, married Joseph Bishop Shugert, whose
father was a prominent citizen of York county, and sheriff as early as
1759. Joseph B. had received a fine education, was a great reader,
fine penman and chose the employment of civil engineer and surveyor,
and was for some years employed on the Pennsylvania canal between
Lewistown and York. Soon after his marriage he moved to Centre county.
He was one of the earliest principals, if not the first, of the
Bellefonte Academy, and one of the commissioners of Centre county in
1815 and 1816, and as such settled and receipted to Dunlop & Harris,
proprietors of the town of Bellefonte, for the final payments due the
county from the sale of town and out lots appropriated to the erection
of the county buildings hereinbefore mentioned. A great portion of his
active life was spent in the location of the public works of the State
and later in life as a surveyor and manager of the large land interests
of Gen. Patton, Col. Samuel Miles, Gilbert Lloyd, and others in the
region or neighborhood of his home in the Quaker settlement in Half
Moon Valley, near Warriorsmark, at which place he died on the 14th day
of November, 1853. They had eleven children, viz.:
SHUGERT
(VI) John Wilson Shugert, for many years editor of the Democratic
paper published at Harrisburg, and afterward in an official position at
Washington, D. C., where he died, leaving a wife and two daughters.
(VI) Moses M. Shugert married and had a family residing near
Cincinnati. (VI) Aaron James was engaged in the iron business at
Hannah Furnace, where he was killed by accident. (VI) Eliza Keitley
married Elijah Merriman, and had two sons and two daughters. (VI) Mary
Ann married Rev. Hugh Mulhollan, and had a large family. (VI) Caleb
Mendenhall married, and has a family living at Titusville. (VI) Hannah
married. (VI) Dr. William Brindle, for many years a practicing
physician at Titusville, Penn., commenced practice in 1844 and
continued until his death February 12, 1866,leavaing a family residing
at Titusville. (VI) Dr. Thomas Burnside, also a practicing physician
at Titusville, now
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 193
deceased, leaving a family residing at that place. (VI) Delinda
married a Mr. Elder and has a family residing at Corsica, Jefferson
county. By a second marriage, Joseph B. Shugert had two children.
(VI) Lloyd, who was married, and killed in the battle of Gettysburg.
(VI) Almeda was married, and had a family, all now deceased. Joseph B.
and Mary (Mendenhall) Shugert's fourth child was (VI) Hon. Samuel
Townsend Shugert, born February 20, 1809, and married (V) Deborah
Moore, daughter of John and Eliza (Findlay) Dunlop on the 2nd of
September, 1836.
(VI) S. T. Shugert commenced the publication of the Centre Democrat
in Bellefonte in 1835, and continued its publication until 1845, when
he received an appointment in the U. S. Patent Office, Washington, D.
C., where he remained until the administration of President Buchanan,
when he was promoted to the office of Commissioners of Patents,
retiring at the expiration of that administration. During his
residence in Washington, the old Centre Democrat having passed out of
Democratic control, and the party without an organ at the county seat,
he purchased and established with Henry Hays as editor, the Democratic
Watchman, the first issue of which appeared on the 28th of November,
1855, and upon his return from Washington he was elected to the
Legislature and the State Senate, after which time he established
another newspaper in Bellefonte, taking the old name of the Centre
Democrat, which he continued a publication of until a few years prior
to his death, which occurred on December 21, 1895. His wife, Deborah
M. (nee Dunlop) having died September 8, 1869, he was (again) married
to Fanny Alrichs Johnston, daughter of Ovid F. Johnston, a
distinguished attorney general of Harrisburg, Penn.; by his wife he had
the following children:
(VII) John Dunlop Shugert (1) was married on the 23rd day of
December, 1869, to Mary S., the daughter of Dr. John and Jane Ann
Stewart McCoy. He read law in the office of the Hon. Samuel Linn, and
was admitted to practice on the 2d of February, 1860. In 1865 he was
elected treasurer of the county and upon the expiration of his term, on
the 6th of January, 1868, was elected cashier of the Centre County
Banking Company, which he, in connection with Hon. A. G. Curtin, Hon.
James Milliken, Hon. James A. Beaver, E. C. Humes, H. N. McAllister,
William P. Wilson, P. B. Wilson, F. S. Wilson, John T. Hoover,
Constance Curtin and J. P. Harris, had then organized, and in which he
is still engaged. Mary S., his wife, died September 29, 1883, leaving
the following children:
(VIII) John McCoy (1); Deborah Dunlop (2), died October 13, 1872;
Frank McCoy (3); Jean Stewart (4); Kate Dunlop (5); and William Findlay
(6), died October 4, 1882. (VII) Mary M. (2), daughter of S. T. and
Deborah M. Dunlop Shugert was married to James Moran; they have one
child: (VIII) Townsend Shugert. John Moran died on ---day of ---, and
she was married (again) to William E. Burchfield, and now residing in
Philipsburg. (VII) William Findlay Shugert (3), son of S. T. and
Deborah M. (Dunlop) Shugert, was married ---day of August, 1895, to
Miss Margaret Mills of Washington, D.C., a sister of the wives of
General William Mitchell and Major Dunwoody, of the regular army.
(VII) Eliza Dunlop (4), daughter of S. T. and Deborah M. (Dunlop)
Shugert died when young.
PAXTON
(IV) Jane Dunlop (5), daughter of Col. James and Jane (Boggs) Dunlop,
was born in Cumberland county, Penn., February 13, 1772, and died at
Gettysburg, Penn., November 14, 1862. She was married on June 20, 1794
to Rev. William Paxton, D. D., of Adams county, who was born in
Lancaster county, Penn., April 1, 1760, died in Adams county, Penn.,
April 16, 1845, and was a son of Capt. John Paxton, of Lancaster
county, Penn. Rev. William Paxton, D. D., was a soldier in the
Revolutionary war, being a private in a company of which his father,
John Paxton, was captain (Associated Company of Pennsylvania Militia,
September 11, 1776, and Second Battalion, Lancaster County Militia,
Col. James Watson in 1777). He was for fifty years pastor of the
Presbyterian church at Lower Marsh Creek, Adams county, Penn., and was
considered a wonderfully good preacher, a man of excellent ability as a
theologian. Their children were as follows: (V) Jane (1), died in
infancy. (V) Col. James Dunlop (2), son of Rev. William and Jane
(Dunlop) Paxton, was born in June 11, 1796, died at Baltimore February
10, 1864; was married March 18, 1819 at Millerstown, Penn., to Jane
Maria Miller who was born at Millerstown, Penn., January 18, 1797 and
died at Baltimore April 29, 1870. She was the daughter of Hon. William
Miller and Margaret Craig and their children were as follows: (VI)
Margaretta Eliza (1), daughter of Col. James Dunlop and Jane Maria
Miller Paxton, was born at Millerstown, Penn., November 29, 1819 and
died at Lake George, N.Y., July 15, 1895, and was married at
Gettysburg, Penn., May 9, 1854, to John McPherson Stevenson, who was
born in Bedford county, December 6, 1818. He was a son of John
Mitchell Stevenson and Nancy Russell.
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 194
He was engaged in the mercantile business in Baltimore, Md., from 1850
to 1870. Their children are as follows: (VII) William Paxton (1), son
of John McPherson and Margaretta Eliza Paxton Stevenson, was born
February 24, 1855, and married on September 29, 1881, Marianne
Witherspoon Woods (VIII); their children are: Walter Woods (1), born
September 9, 1882, and Margaretta Paxton (2), born September 1, 1883.
(VII) Rev. Alexander Russell (2), son of John McPherson and
Margaretta Eliza Paxton Stevenson, was born December 29, 1856, and was
married on April 11, 1882 to Mary Margaret Kennedy (VIII); their
children are: Thomas Kennedy (1), born November 10, 1883. Caroline
Paxton (2), born March 5, 1888, died November 28, 1895. Alexander
Russell Jr. (3), born May 28, 1893; and Stuart Riddle (4), born
November 14, 1896.
(VII) James Dunlop Paxton (3), son of John McPherson and Margaretta
Eliza Paxton Stevenson, was born February 9, 1859 and died February 1,
1860.
(VI) Rev. William Miller, D. D. (2), son of Col. James Dunlop and
Jane Maria Miller Paxton, was born near Millerstown, Adams county, June
7, 1824, married (first) August 11, 1852, Hester V. B. Wicks, and had
one child, Francis Herron, born January 3, 1854, died September 7,
1854. He was (again) married on November 8, 1855 to Caroline S. Denny;
their children as follows: (VII) Elizabeth Denny (1), born December 30
1858; (VII) Rev. James Dunlop (2), was married May 22, 1883; they have
no children; (VII) Amelia Maria (3), was married May 27, 1886, to Frank
C. Roberts (8), and they have four children---Caroline (1), died in
infancy; Catharine (2); Paxton (3), and Frank (4); (VII) William Miller
(4); (VII)Caroline Denny (5) was married on February 11, 1896 to the
Rev. Lewis S. Mudge; (VII) Hanna Denny (6) died February 27, 1896,
unmarried; (VII) Margaretta (7) and (VII) James Donaldson (8).
(VI) Dunlop (3), son of Col. James Dunlop and Jane Maria Miller
Paxton, born in October 1829 and unmarried. (V) Dr. John (3), son of
Rev. William and Jane Dunlop Paxton was married to Jane Wilson and had
the following children: (VI) Mary Jane (1) died in infancy and (6)
James Wilson (2) was married to Margaret Dunlop Smith, and had the
following children; (VII) Helen Jane (1), was married on May 22, 1883,
to her cousin, Rev. James Dunlop Paxton, son of Rev. William Miller and
Caroline S. Denny Paxton; (7) John (2) and Margery (3) both died in
infancy; (7) James Wilson Jr., being the fourth child.
(V) Eliza king (4), daughter of Rev. William and Jane Dunlop Paxton,
was married to Thomas Johnston, their children were: (VI) William
Paxton (1) died young and unmarried; (VI) John Thomas (2) married
Margaret Pinney, and had three children. Eliza (1). (V) Harriet,
daughter of Rev. William and Jane Dunlop Paxton married John Crawford
of Gettysburg, and had the following children: (VI) Anna Dodd (1) was
married to Hon. McPherson, and had five children, namely: (VII) John
Bayard (1), William Lenhart (2), Norman Bruce (3), Donald Paxton (4),
and Annie Crawford (5). (VI) Margaret (2) and Harriet (4), daughter of
John and Harriet Paxton Crawford, died in infancy and Sally Bruce (3),
their third daughter, is unmarried and resides in Gettysburg.
(IV) Elizabeth Dunlop (6), daughter of Col. James and Jane Boggs
Dunlop, was born in Cumberland county, February 13, 1774, and died in
Bellefonte on the ---day of ---, ---. She was married in the First
Presbyterian Church of Carlisle, October 26, 1795, to James Smith Esq.,
of Cumberland county, afterward a large land owner in the neighborhood
of Bellefonte. She was a woman of more than ordinary mind, fond of
reading and the examination and discussion of all the leading questions
of the day. It was then so unusual for ladies to express opinions on
public policy and conduct, that by reason of her advanced Anti-Slavery
views she was thought eccentric. They had two children: (V) William,
Smith (1) never married and is now deceased; (V) James Smith (2) never
married and is now deceased. She was married (a second time) to
Michael T. Simpson, a gentleman of fine education. He held an official
position in Washington D.C. They had one child: (V) Martha Simpson (3)
who was married to Brooke Mackall, a wealthy banker of Washington, and
their children were as follows: (VI) Lily (1) died unmarried; (VI)
Leonard (2) was married to Miss Rosa Gretta, of Richmond, Va.; they had
no children, and he was married (again) to a daughter of John Hancock,
of Washington, D. C., brother of Gen. Hancock; (VI) Brooke (3) is
unmarried; (VI) Louise (4), married a Mr. Owen, a surgeon of the U. S.
Navy; they have two children---Dunlop (1) and ---(2); (VI) Kate (5)
married Robert Christy, a practicing attorney of Washington, D.C., and
author of "Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases for all Ages." They had three
or four children: (VI) Covington (6) died when young; (VI) Benjamin
(7); (VI) Barton (8).
(IV) Deborah Dunlop (7), daughter of Col. James and Jane Boggs
Dunlop, was born in
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 195
Cumberland county, May 9, 1776, and was married to James Johnston, of
Franklin county; they moved to Centre county and settled at the mouth
of Wallace run. They had six children, of whom the first three died
unmarried: (V) Rebecca (1); (V) James Dunlop (2); (V) Mary (3); (V)
Anna Bella (4) married Andrew Harris, son of James and Ann Dunlop
Harris; they had one child; (VI) Dr. Lucien Harris (1), who died
unmarried. (V) Jane Johnston (5) was married to Mr. Mulholland; they
had no children. (V) Eliz. Johnston (6) married John Livingston,
principal of Bellefonte Academy.
(IV) Rebecca (8), daughter of Col. James and Jane Boggs Dunlop, was
born May 19, 1778, and died on Wallace run, in Centre county. She was
first married to Robert McLanahan, of Franklin county, and moved to
Wallace run, Centre county; they had two children: (V) James Dunlop
McLanahan (1), who was married to Eliza Welch, daughter of William C.
and ---Leyden Welch; their children were as follows: James (1) died
when young; William (2) married, and had one child, both now deceased;
Mary (3) never married, and died recently in Bellefonte at her cousin's
Harriet Linn. (V) Margaret (2), daughter of Robert and Rebecca Dunlop
McLanahan, was married to Hon. William Harris, son of James Harris, one
of the proprietors of Bellefonte, whose family is hereinbefore
enumerated.
(IV) Rebecca Dunlop McLanahan was (again) married to Robert Steele of
Centre county and had the following children: (V) William Steele (3)
never married and now deceased; (V) Mary Steele (4) was married to
James Gordon, a large land owner of Centre county and had the following
children: (VI) Robert (1) was never married; was a member of the
Anderson Troop, and killed early in the war of the Rebellion; (VI)
William Leslie (2) married to Miss Muffly, and had a numerous family
residing in Kansas; (VI) Theodore (3) was married to Esther Graham and
died leaving no children; (VI) James D. (4) was a civil engineer, and
was killed in a railroad accident in New York State; he was never
married; (VI) Martha (5) married Joseph R. Muffly, a broker of
Philadelphia; they have two children: Elizabeth (1), married June 2,
1897 to Joseph L. Montgomery; and Lillian (2); (VI) Hon. Cyrus Gordon
(6) was married to a daughter of Hon. John F. Weaver of Clearfield.
Cyrus studied law in Bellefonte, was admitted to practice and then
moved to Clearfield, where he enjoyed a large practice, and was two
years ago, elected President Judge of that District, although the
political party to which he was an adherent was largely in the
minority. (They have several children); (VI) Isaac Newton (7) is a
civil engineer, and also a graduate in mechanical engineering; is not
married.
(IV) James Dunlop Jr., (9), son of Col. James and Jane Boggs Dunlop,
was born October 18, 1780; was an attorney, admitted to practice law in
Centre county in August, 1801. [see Bar list]. He went south and died
there in 1824. He was married to a Miss Dunbar, and had a daughter
married to a Mr. Smith of Natchez, Mississippi.
(IV) Mary Dunlop (10), daughter of Col. James and Jane Boggs Dunlop,
was born December 26, 1784 and died June 12, 1827, and buried in the
First Presbyterian Churchyard in Pittsburgh, Penn. She was married
January 10, 1809 in Bellefonte, by the Rev. Henry R. Wilson, to Robert
Templeton Stewart (5), (a half-brother of William C. Stewart, who
married Jane, daughter of John and granddaughter of Col. James Dunlop).
He was born June 15, 1773, and died in October, 1835, at Hollidaysburg,
while en route to Pittsburgh, and buried at Saltsburg, Indiana county.
He was a son of Samuel (IV), Samuel (III), Robert (II), John (I),
hereinbefore mentioned. He settled in Bellefonte in the year 1800, and
was admitted to the Bar of Centre County at the November term of court,
1800. He was retained in the famous slander suit of McKee vs.
Gallagher, August term, 1801, in which there were fourteen lawyers for
the plaintiff and twenty-two for the defendant. In 1810 he was
appointed postmaster and continued in office until 1819. In 1810 he
engaged in mercantile pursuits with his half-brother, William C., and
in 1819 entered into partnership with John Lyon in the manufacture of
iron; residence at Coleraine Forges, Huntingdon county. In 1828 Lyon
and Stewart sold Coleraine Forges to Joseph and James Barnett and
Anthony Shorb. He moved to Pittsburgh in 1823, and built the Sligo
Rolling Mill. Represented Allegheny county in the Pennsylvania
Legislature in 1831-1832. Disposing of his interests in the iron
business, Mr. Stewart went to manufacturing salt in the Kiskiminetas.
He was a man of genial disposition and social habits, and of great
practical humor. In person he was above the ordinary size, and of very
dark complexion, which he inherited from his grandmother Stewart.
Robert T. and Mary Dunlop Stewart had the following children: (V)
James Dunlop Stewart (1), born April 4, 1810, died September 26, 1812.
(V) Jane Ann Stewart (2), born December 2, 1811 and died October 3,
1812. (5) Stephen Decatur Stewart (3), born January 22, 1814, died
September 6, 1858; he was married July 9,
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 196
1839, and had five children, the survivors of whom are: Jane (1),
married to Edward Foster, who have several children; Ellen (2), married
to Frank E. Taylor, resides at Philipsburg and have four children;
Harriet (3), unmarried and Elizabeth (4), married to I. Lose, and have
several children. (VI) Harriet Stewart (4) born June 10, 1816, and
married September 15, 1843, by the Rev. Samuel Cooper, to James Harris
Linn, son of the Rev. James Linn, D. D. She died July 16, 1895, and
Mr. Linn died April 6, 1876. They had no children. (V) Samuel Robert
Stuart (5) born November 2, 1817, died September 23, 1851, unmarried.
(V) Jean Ann Stewart (6), born June 13, 1820 and was married on
February 13, 1843, by the Rev. James Linn, D. D., to DR. JOHN M. MCCOY,
in relation to whom Linn's History of Centre county says: "Dr. McCoy
was born in what is now the town of Belleville on the 4th of February,
1816. His parents died when he was quite young and he came to his
uncle Alexander McCoy, who lived at Potter's Fort, and made his home
with him, attending Mr. Breckinridge's school. He studied medicine
with Dr. W. I. Wilson, between whom and himself there existed the most
intimate friendship. His parents were Francis and Mary (Michall)
McCoy, natives of Mifflin county. One of their sons, Francis, was a
merchant at Hollidaysburg, Penn., and another, Robert H., was engaged
in the iron business at Philadelphia, in which city his death occurred.
Francis, Sr., was married a second time, and by the last wife had three
children, namely: William, who was a soldier and died during the Civil
war; Susan, who became the wife of James Patterson, of Williamsburg,
Penn., and Catherine, who married George Fay, of Williamsburg
Pennsylvania. In 1837, Dr. McCoy graduated in the Medical Department
of the University of Pennsylvania, and located first in the practice of
medicine at Penn Hall (then known as Centreville), whence he moved to
Bellefonte in 1841.
He occupied an office upon Allegheny street, and had among his
students Dr. Geo. L. Potter, Dr. J. B. Mitchell, Dr. George A.
Fairlamb, Dr. Woods, and others, all having become noted practitioners.
In 1845, in connection with Dr. Potter, Dr. McCoy purchased the drug
store of Dr. John Harris, and the firm of McCoy & Potter continued
until July 17, 1848. At that time Dr. McCoy withdrew from active
medical practice, and entered into the iron business with Gen. James
Irvin, Moses Thompson and James Harris Linn, under the firm name of
Irvin McCoy & Co. After the death of Gen. Irvin and the withdrawal of
Moses Thompson, the name took its present form. James H. Linn died
April 6, 1876, but the firm name has remained unaltered since. Dr.
McCoy was an excellent manager and first-class business man, and to his
tact, good judgment, and general information the success of McCoy &
Linn's Iron Works is to a great extent to be attributed. He was a
kind-hearted employer and much esteemed by the men in his service. He
in every way tried to add to the happiness and comfort of those over
whom he had control. He kept the works moving nearly all the time when
financial distress and want of orders induced many to shut down in
order to give the employees work, though at the pecuniary loss to the
firm. The medical profession lost much by his withdrawal from
practice, as he was a cheerful and valuable adviser, never failing to
proffer his best advice upon all occasions. As a physician he was
extremely pleasant in the sick room, always encouraging a patient, and
curing nearly as much by his cheerfulness as by his medicine. He stood
high as a physician and his skill and success are still highly spoken
of. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church for many years, and an
amiable gentleman, whose loss with both a public and private calamity.
He died at Milesburg Iron Works suddenly, of heart disease on Sunday
morning, January 19, 1879." The children of John M. and Jean Ann
Stuart McCoy were:
(VI) Frank McCoy (1), graduated at the Pennsylvania State College,
and preferring the iron business, became the manager of McCoy & Linn at
Milesburg Iron Works, the prosperous condition of which is largely due
to his efficient services, economical methods and good judgment. He
succeeded to the principal ownership of the works and now successfully
conducts the same. He was married October 30, 1879 to Esther Eleanor
Allison, daughter of William Allison, a well-known and prominent
business man of Centre county for many years. His ancestor, Archibald
Allison, landed with his family in America June 18, 1773. His wife
Mary was the third daughter of John Kennedy, and was born in Scotland,
shire of Galloway, parish of Kirkmaiden, November 1, 1730. He died in
Paxton township (now Dauphin county) October 6, 1783, and his widow
Mary in Potter township, Centre county, June 6, 1808. They had a son,
Archibald Jr., who though young in years, took an active part in the
defense of the frontiers, to which proper reference is made in Linn's
"Annals of Buffalo Valley," page 174, and was an exceedingly bold and
courageous man. After the war he pushed on up into Penn's Valley,
where he married Eleanor, third daughter of George and Margaret
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 197
McCormick, May 7, 1789. George McCormick was the first settler at
Spring Mills, bought his land of Reuben Haines and built the first mill
there. He bought of the Penn's the eastern third of what was known as
the Manor of Succoth, north of the Great Spring tract, and died May 3,
1845, on the place still owned by his descendents. He left a widow,
Eleanor, who died January 27, 1848.
A numerous family blessed this union, the names with dates of birth
being as follows: George, August 18, 1792, died September 28, 1866;
William, April 5, 1794; James, February 26, 1796, married Margaret
Hutchinson, and died September 18, 1863 at North Liberty, Ohio;
Margaret, May 26, 1797, married William Kelley, son of Col. John
Kelley, and died in Union county, May 12, 1846; David, May 22, 1799,
married Lucetta McKibben, and died December 22, 1877 in Clinton county;
Mary, May 11, 1801, died September 27, 1856, in Adams county, Ohio;
John, November 22, 1803, died January 23, 1844; Jane, September 22,
1805, married Thomas Riley, and died in Kansas; Eleanor, February 8,
1811, married Dr. John Grossman, of Adams county, Ohio.
William Allison, Mrs. McCoy's father, resembled his father in
character and was one of the prominent men of this section in his day.
His first employment was as a clerk in a store at Harrisburg, where he
remained six or seven years. He then went to Brown's Mills in Mifflin
county, now Reedsville, and in July, 1827, opened a store in
partnership with J. & J. Potter. After the dissolution of the firm in
1829, Mr. Allison conducted the business for a few years, and then
returned to his old home near Spring Mills. The death of his father in
1845 brought to him a large amount of work in connection with the
settlement of the estate, and this with the improvement of his share of
the property, occupied his time for many years. In December, 1847, the
failure of J. & J. Potter, of whom he was a creditor to a large amount,
occasioned a protracted litigation, but Mr. Allison's claims were
finally sustained. In the meantime he purchased a hotel and factory,
and considerable real estate at Potters Mills, and made his home there
in the old residence of James Potter. His declining years were marked
by uninterrupted prosperity, his business tact and great executive
ability enabling him to manage his extensive interests with success.
He possessed a remarkable memory and having kept himself well-informed
upon passing events, he became in later years a veritable encyclopedia.
During his late years he was confined to the house by a paralytic
stroke, but his cheerful spirit did not fail him. He died February 11,
1877, and his remains rest in the family burial lot near Spring Mills.
His wife, to whom he was married June 25, 1847, was Miss Sarah A.
McNitt, a daughter of William R. and Esther (McCoy) McNitt, and
granddaughter of Robert McNitt, one of the earliest settlers in
Kishacoquillas Valley. They had the following children: William M.,
born November 4, 1850; Esther E., January 15, 1852; Edward, August 2,
1855; Lillie E., September 28, 1860, and Archibald, June 27, 1863.
The children of Frank and Eleanor Allison McCoy are as follows: Anna
Allison (1); Mary Stewart (2), died in infancy; and John (3).
(VI) Harriet Linn McCoy (2) was born July 15, 1845, and died
September 8, 1853; (VI) Mary Stewart McCoy (3) was born July 9, 1847,
and Stewart McCoy (3), was born July 9, 1847, and died September 29,
1883. She was married December 23, 1869, leaving a family hereinbefore
mentioned.
(IV) Joseph Dunlop (11), son of Col. James and Jane Boggs Dunlop, was
born March 19, 1786, and died unmarried.