BIOGRAPHY: Martin DIETHRICH, 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. 388-9
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MARTIN DIETHRICH, a substantial farmer of Chest township, and who was with 
Sherman in the march from Georgia to North Carolina, is a son of Matthias and 
Magdalene (Bowman) Diethrich, and was born near "Water Street," Centre county, 
Pennsylvania, in March, 1837. His paternal grandfather, George Diethrich, was a 
native of Alsace-Lorraine, now a province of the German empire, but a part of 
France when Mr. Diethrich lived within its boundaries. He came, in 1825, to 
Pittsburg, which he soon left to locate in Chest township, this county, where he 
bought and cleared up a tract of one hundred and fifty acres of woodland. He was 
a successful farmer in his old-world home, and brought sufficient means with him 
to buy and improve his land in a few years, so that it was equal in value and 
improvements to those tracts upon which many of the early settlers had spent 
almost a lifetime of labor and toil. He married in Alsace-Lorraine, where all of 
his twelve children were born. The youngest child was Matthias Diethrich, who 
spent the first twelve years of his active life in the employ of the old canal 
company, being stationed at Hollidaysburg, Blair county. At the end of that time 
he returned to his father's farm, where he passed the remainder of his life in 
farming. He died in 1871, when over fifty years of age. He was a member of the 
Catholic church, and married Magdalene Bowman, who died in 1854, aged forty-four 
years. They were the parents of four sons and seven daughters: Matthias, who 
died early in life; Martin; Peter, who was a Union soldier, and died a prisoner 
in Libby prison; John, who is now deceased; Catherine, married Michael Cronan, 
and is now deceased; Elizabeth, wife of John Baker, a farmer, of Chest township; 
Lena, married Louis Beamer, of Susquehanna township; Annie, now dead; Clara, 
wife of Thomas Gill, a resident of the city of Altoona; the others died young. 
After his first wife's death Mr. Diethrich married Mary Eberhart, by whom he had 
one child, a son named Philip J.
     Martin Diethrich was reared on the farm, trained up carefully to habits of 
economy and thrift, and upon attaining his majority, engaged in farming and 
lumbering, which have been his life employments ever since. In 1866 he purchased 
and removed to his present farm of one hundred and seventy-five acres of good 
farming and grazing land, which is all underlaid with a valuable vein of coal. 
In addition to lumbering and farming he owns, in connection with his son, 
Albert, a mercantile establishment at Hastings. During the late Civil War, on 
December 22, 1864, he enlisted in Company E, One Hundred and Ninety-seventh 
Pennsylvania infantry, and was with Sherman in his march and battles from 
Savannah, Georgia, to Goldsboro, North Carolina, being discharged on August 28, 
1865, at Gaston, North Carolina. He is a democrat, and has served several terms 
as a member of the school board of his township. He is a member of the Catholic 
church, and his good health and good judgment have made him successful, 
influential and a man of standing in his community.
     On July 3, 1860, Mr. Diethrich married Christina Yahner, a daughter of 
Martin and Elizabeth (Shortin) Yahner, of Chest township. To Mr. and Mrs. 
Diethrich have been been born seven sons and six daughters: Louis, a farmer; 
Albert, a merchant, of Hastings; Annastatia, wife of John Bearer, of Susquehanna 
township; Magdalene, married Anthony Hagg, of Tyrone, Blair county; Elizabeth 
Geraldine, wife of Irvin Boucher, a resident of Spangler; Gertrude; Matthias A.; 
Ida, now deceased, and Loretta, Martin, Jr., Herman, Stephen, Cora, and Emery 
E., who are still at home.