BIOGRAPHY: Joseph BEARER, 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. 320-2
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JOSEPH BEARER, one of the most substantial and successful business men of Caroll 
township and Cambria county, is a son of Squire Francis and Margaret Ann 
(Miller) Bearer, and was born at Ebensburg, Cambria county, August 8, 1839. 
Neither Waterloo nor St. Helena exile gave peace to France, and in the immediate 
years succeeding the downfall of Napoleon we have record of the Bearer family as 
residents of Strasburg, France, now Germany, and one member was Joseph Bearer, a 
man of wealth, influence and business connections. He sought to escape an 
impending draft and service in a threatening war, and in order to do so left 
most of his wealth behind him, and came with his wife and five children to the 
United States in the year 1817. He followed the trade of a carpenter after 
coming to this country, and first resided at Shippensburg, this State. He then, 
in 1829, came to the site of Johnstown, where he purchased a piece of land that 
is now in the heart of the city, which he soon sold to buy a farm in what is now 
Barr township. He lived and died on his farm, dying in 1856. He was strictly 
honest in all his business transactions and highly respected, and married 
Othelia Bush, by whom he had nine children: Joseph; Mrs. Mary Thrush; Louis; 
Ignatius; Squire Francis; Mrs. Sara Luther; John; Mrs. Elizabeth Kold, and Mrs 
Harriet Bookmayer. Of these children John and Harriet are living. Squire Francis 
Bearer was born in Strasburg, then in France, January 1, 1817, and died at 
Carrolltown, this county, June 23, 1890. He was a farmer and stock-raiser and 
dealt in cattle, horses and lumber. Success crowned every effort that he made, 
and every enterprise in which he embarked. He was one of the wealthiest men of 
his time in the county, and for many years furnished most of the money to build 
and run the rafts that went down the Susquehanna river from his section of 
country. He was a man of standing and influence, and widely known and actively 
useful in business. He was upright and honest, his word was as good as his note. 
He was a democrat, and served for fifteen years as a justice of the peace. 
Squire Bearer married Margaret Ann Miller, a daughter of John G. Miller, of 
Carroll township, and to their union were born two children: Joseph and John 
G.C., a retired farmer, who now resides at Spangler. Mrs. Bearer was born at the 
village of Munster, this county, December 27, 1814, and died July 24, 1871.
     Joseph Bearer spent his boyhood years in the routine of farm work, and 
attending the common schools during the winter months. Upon attaining his 
majority he engaged in farming and stock-raising, which he has followed 
successfully ever since. He still owns the old Bearer homestead farm, of which 
two hundred acres adjoin the thrifty borough of Spangler; thirty of them being 
within the borough limits, and underlaid with seven accessible and workable 
veins of coal, the lowest of which at eighty-five feet below the surface, is a 
seven foot vein of excellent coal. Through this property the Cambria county 
railroad is now (1896) being built. In 1876 Mr. Bearer purchased Mountain 
Meadows farm of one hundred and seventy-six acres underlaid with coal, and 
removed to it three years later. Of late years he has taken considerable 
interest in raising and introducing Jersey cattle and the Chester White hog. The 
cultivation and improvement of his property is a source of great pleasure to Mr. 
Bearer, who is a born agriculturist. He is a thorough, practical, careful and 
intelligent farmer, and always ready to avail himself of all modern appliances 
which will add to ease of cultivation and increase of products on the farm. In 
addition to the above he is a veterinary surgeon, and has a practice extending 
for miles in the neighborhood. He is a democrat in political convictions and 
expression. He is a staunch friend of the common schools, and has served for the 
remarkable period of nineteen years as a school director in the township of his 
nativity and adoption.
     On September 22, 1862, Joseph Bearer wedded Mary Hoppel, of Barr township. 
They have nine children: Maggie, wife of James Huber, of New Kensington, this 
state; Christina, married B.A. Zollnor, and undertaker and furniture dealer of 
Charleroi, this State; Rose, wedded Dr. T. O. Helfrich, of Spangler; Albert J., 
who will graduate from the medical department of the University of Cincinnati in 
1897; R. Milton, in business at Spangler, and Delia, Oliver A., Mollie M., and 
Walter J., who are still at home.
     Mr. Bearer is honest, strictly trustworthy and has the esteem of his 
neighbors.