BIOGRAPHY: Jacob CASNER, Mifflin County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by P. S. Barr 

Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://files.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://files.usgwarchives.net/pa/mifflin/
_______________________________________________ 

The Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of the Juniata Valley, Comprising 
the Counties of Huntingdon, Mifflin, Juniata, and Perry, Pennsylvania.
Chambersburg, Pa.: J. M. Runk & Co., 1897, Volume I, pages 532-533.

  JACOB CASNER, merchant and postmaster, of Shanks Run, Ryde Station, Wayne 
township, Mifflin county, Pa., was born August 4, 1833, in the Kishacoquillas 
valley, Menno township, Mifflin county,  He is a son of Joseph and Martha 
(Williams) Casner.  His grandfather, Jacob Casner, was a native of England, who 
came to America when a young man, and settled in Juniata county, where he lived 
all his life.  He served as a private in the war of 1812-15 against Great 
Britain.  One of his sons was Joseph, born in Juniata county in 1804.  He had 
but a limited education, and began life on the farm, working for farmers in the 
vicinity.  At an early age he learned shoemaking, at which he subsequently 
worked both in Juniata and Mifflin counties.  He removed to Mifflin county and 
settled in the Kishacoquillas valley, Menno township, where he followed his 
trade and spent the remainder of his day, dying there in 1847.  In 1829, he 
married Martha Williams, a native of Juniata county, of Irish descent.  They had 
six children, as follows:  James, of Juniata county;  Samuel, deceased;  
William, was a soldier in the Civil war, now resides in Allensville in the 
Kishacoquillas valley;  Joseph, was killed in front of Petersburg, Va., while a 
soldier in the United States service; and Margaret (Mrs. George Bordel), of the 
Kishacoquillas valley, deceased.  Joseph Casner was a democrat.  His wife 
survived him a few years, dying in White Hall, in 1850.
  Jacob Casner attended the public schools in the valley, and at the age of 
eleven years began life on the shoemaker's bench, with his father.  When at the 
age of fourteen he lost his father, he continued working at the trade in order 
to support his widowed mother and the family.  At the age of seventeen he lost 
his mother, which also imposed upon him additional care in raising the younger 
members of the family.  Nobly and well did he discharge his duty.  He continued 
at his trade at White Hall until 1865.  He then removed to Ryde Station, then 
called Manayunk, in the Kishacoquillas valley, where he continued working at his 
trade, and also bought a farm which he cultivated during the summer season.  His 
first purchase of land was fifty acres, which he paid for with money he had 
earned and saved by hard labor at his trade.  For eleven years more he continued 
this work during the winter season and at night, when he could not attend to 
farm duties.  In 1875, he opened the first store ever kept at Ryde Station, and 
made a success of his undertaking.  He has now been in mercantile business at 
that place for twenty-one years;  he has also been postmaster for twenty-one 
consecutive years, without any change being made under the successive 
administrations.
  Mr. Casner was married in 1858, in Menno township, to Amanda Morgan, daughter 
of Francis Morgan, of Allensville.  They have had eleven children, as follows:  
Clara (Mrs. William A. Bratton), of Ryde Station;  Anna J. (Mrs. John S. Nepp), 
of Roanoke, Va.;  Barbara E. (Mrs. George W. Kauffman), of Bratton township;  
Mary F. (Mrs. George S. Appleby), of Huntingdon county;  Sarah E. (Mrs. R. L. 
Bratton), of Bellwood, Blair county, Pa.;  Frank, a farmer;  Gertrude V.;  
Blanch;  Ida;  Naomi, deceased;  and Martha L., deceased wife of William 
Marshman.  Mr. Casner filled the office of township auditor;  he was also 
elected a justice of the peace, but never served.  He is a Democrat.  Mr. Casner 
is a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and active in Sunday-
school work, having been for a number of years a teacher, and also assistant 
superintendent.
  The life of Jacob Casner indicates in a remarkable manner, how a youth 
beginning life in poverty, can achieve worldly success and command the unlimited 
confidence and respect of the community, simply by industry and integrity.