BIOGRAPHY: Peter L. CARPENTER, 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. 225-6
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PETER L. CARPENTER, the genial proprietor of the Capital Hotel at Johnstown, 
Pennsylvania, is a conspicuous example of the right man in the right place. He 
is a son of Joshua F. and Catherine (Levy) Carpenter, and was born in Johnstown, 
Sept. 10, 1855.
      His father is of English descent, and was born in Bedford Co., Feb. 19, 
1825. He located in Johnstown at the time the Pennsylvania railroad was opened 
for travel, about 1852, and was the first drayman to haul goods from the depot 
into the town. In 1858 he moved to Jennertown, Somerset county, where he kept 
hotel for three years. He then came back to Johnstown, and engaged in the 
manufacture of the famous "Carpenter's Linament," which is sold all over the 
country. In addition to the reputation he acquired as the proprietor of the 
liniment, he became known as an auctioneer. He is possessed of ready wit, and a 
no less ready command of the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect, and an action conducted 
by Mr. Carpenter in both English and Dutch, interspersed with ready-made jokes 
and songs, was worth going miles to hear. His constant traveling as salesman and 
auctioneer gave him a personal acquaintance with nearly every man, woman and 
child in Cambria and the surrounding counties.
     Our subject's maternal grandfather, Peter Levy, was for more than fifty 
years a resident of Davidsville, Somerset county. He was a merchant, and held 
the offices of county surveyor and justice of the peace. Squire Levy was well 
known for his sound judgment and unimpeachable honesty. He was a man of great 
vitality, and lived to be about ninety-two years of age.
      Our subject was brought up in Johnstown, and attended the public schools. 
He enjoys the memory of his "first trip to school," which was made on the 
stalwart shoulders of ex-Mayor Boyd, to the school-house at Jennertown. After 
leaving school he secured a position in the steel works department of the 
Cambria Iron company. He held this position for ten years, then resigned, and, 
with the late Henry Danges, drove overland to Michigan. After traveling through 
the West for a time, he secured employment at the Bass Machine works at Fort 
Wayne, Indiana. Two years afterwards he returned to Johnstown, and opened a 
restaurant under the famous Hulbert House, which was destroyed in the great 
flood. He conducted this for three years, then moved to the site of the present 
restaurant on Franklin street, which is still owned y him, but is managed for 
him by his brother George. He was very successful in the restaurant business, 
and on December 2, 1893, took possession of the Cambria Club house, owned by the 
Cambria Iron company. He changed the name to the Capital Hotel, and soon made it 
one of the best managed and most popular hotels in Western Pennsylvania. It is 
one of the few hotels run successfully without a bar. He has entertained guests 
of state and national distinction, among whom were Governor Pattison, Governor 
Beaver, Governor Hastings, Judge A. V. Barker, Judge Harry White, Judge 
Longenaker, and others.
     Mr. Carpenter's business qualities are shown by the fact that, while he 
began life with no capital but his hands and brain, he has accumulated 
sufficient capital to build twenty thousand dollars' worth of buildings since 
the flood. Part of this was earned by his acting as agent for various mercantile 
companies while in the restaurant business.