BIOGRAPHY: John HONAN, 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. 272-3
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JOHN HONAN, respected as a citizen and successful as a business man, was born in 
Ireland, and is a son of William and Sarah (Maher) Honan. Desiring to escape the 
crowded conditions of his native country and to seek a wider field for his 
individual efforts, he came to America in 1860, locating in Minersville, now the 
Fourteenth ward of the city of Johnstown, where he has ever since resided. 
Having learned the trade of a shoemaker in his native country, he followed it 
two years in this country. Laborers at this time were much in demand by the 
Cambria Iron company, and he left the bench to become an employee of that 
company, working for a time in the mines, and later in the blast furnace and the 
steel mill. He then embarked in the hotel business in Minersville, which line he 
successfully pursued for ten years, since which time be has been engaged in the 
mercantile business.
     Politically he is a democrat who believes in a Jacksonian enforcement of 
Jeffersonian principles, and served his ward one term as councilman. In 1855 Mr. 
Honan married Bridget White, and seven children blessed this marriage. Five are 
deceased. Those living are John, and Bridget, wife of Attis Adams, of 
Minersville.