BIOGRAPHY: Alvar I. AKERS, Cambria County, PA 

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From Wiley, Samuel T., ed. Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria 
County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Union Publishing Co., 1896, p. 146-7
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ALVAR I. AKERS, deceased, a former citizen and reliable business man of 
Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and a son of Wilson Lee and Jane (Atkinson) Akers, was 
born May 24, 1837, in Carrolltown, Carroll county, Ohio.
     His ancestors were of English origin, the family being transplanted from 
England to America, prior to the Revolution, by four of its descendants: Israel; 
Ralph, who settled in Maine; one who went to Virginia, and another, who settled 
in Ohio.
     Ralph Akers, the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a 
farmer and settled in Bedford county, where he died. He was a soldier in the 
Revolutionary War.
     Robert Akers, grandfather of our subject, was born and reared in Bedford 
county, where he lived all his life and followed agricultural pursuits. He 
married Nancy Hanks, and his family consisted of five children: Israel, Wesley, 
Timothy, Nancy and Wilson Lee, the father of the subject of this record.
     Wilson Lee Akers (1814-1895) was born in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, and 
lived there until about 1834, when he removed to Carrolltown, where he shortly 
afterward married Jane Atkinson, a daughter of a prosperous newspaper man and 
woolen manufacturer. He was first in partnership with his father-in-law in the 
newspaper business, and later with Mr. George Rhey in the agricultural business, 
Mr. Rhey being a furnace man who ran the farms. After leaving Carrolltown Mr. 
Akers came to Johnstown and took charge of the gardens and grounds surrounding 
the residence of the late Daniel J. Morrell. He was an artistic gardener, and 
the first city florist who planted the public gardens of the city. Later he went 
to Altoona and engaged in the grocery business; but in 1886 he returned to 
Johnstown, dying there in the autumn of 1895. He gave a good common-school 
education to his son, Alvar I. Akers, who left home at the age of fourteen and 
became a clerk in a company store in Johnstown, where he remained for five 
years, when he was given charge of the company store of Baker's at Conemaugh 
Furnace, and was made postmaster at that place, although under age. In this is 
set forth the honesty and efficiency of Mr. Akers as a youth. He remained there 
until about 1860, and then formed a partnership with Mr. Frederick Leoch, under 
the firm name of Leoch & Akers, and carried on a grocery and meat store until 
the breaking out of the Civil War. Being filled with patriotic ardor and having 
the spirit of a brave man, he enlisted in company B, One Hundred and Thirty-
third regiment, Pennsylvania volunteers, upon the first call, serving the full 
term of enlistment in the commissary department. For stealing away and bringing 
the body of his brother John home he was court-martialed. After having done 
faithfal service for his country he returned home and formed a partnership with 
Louis and Herman Baumer in 1864, and as the firm of Akers & Baumer the 
partnership continued until the flood of 1889, in a general mercantile business. 
He was an industrious, thrifty man and built the house where his widow now lives 
on Akers street, Eighth Ward, then a woods in Upper Yoder township.
     His wife was Catherine Gahr, a native of Bavaria, who came to America about 
1857 to take care of an invalid brother studying for the priesthood. She was the 
mother of fourteen children.
     Mr. Akers possessed many of the traits of his estimable father, Wilson Lee 
Akers, the the latter having been a self-educated man of more than ordinary 
intelligence, who was a constant reader, well informed on all current events, 
and also a man of considerable literary ability, contributing to various 
periodicals. Both were converts to Roman Catholicism; both were men of forceful 
character; both were good citizens.