Blair County PA Archives Biographies.....Hamilton, John March 8, 1816 - ????
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Judy Banja http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00004.html#0000757 January 10, 2025, 9:54 am

Source: Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Blair Co, PA: Philadelphia, 1892.
Author: Samuel T. Wiley

JOHN HAMILTON,
now resident of Altoona, and a stockholder of the Edison Electric Light
Company of Altoona, is a son of Robert and Nancy (Smith) Hamilton, and was
born in Scotch valley, Blair county, Pennsylvania, March 8, 1816.  The
Hamiltons were Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, who held strictly to the faith of
their race.  Robert Hamilton was born near the ancient city of Belfast, in
County Down, in the celebrated north of Ireland, which was the early home of
the Scotch-Irish race.  He came, about 1798, to Pennsylvania, where he was a
resident of the Cumberland valley for a short time, and then removed to near
Frankstown, in the Scotch valley. From the Frankstown neighborhood he
removed, in 1818, to the farm in Logan township, near Juniata, on which his
son, Jonathan Hamilton, now resides.  He died in 1849, at the advanced age of
seventy-eight years.  At the time of his death he owned three large farms, and
ranked as one of the most extensive as well as successful farmers of Logan
township.  Mr. Hamilton was an ardent democrat up to the time of the Jackson
and Clay campaign, during which he became a whig, and supported that party
ever afterward.  He was a stirring, energetic man, and held several township
offices during his lifetime.  He was a member of the Presbyterian church of
Hollidaysburg, of which his family were members, and his house was the home
of all the ministers who passed through Altoona.  He married Nancy Smith, who
was born in the Cumberland valley, in Franklin county, and died in 1858, when
in the seventy-sixth year of her age.  To Mr. And Mrs. Hamilton were born
eight children, five sons and three daughters, of whom four sons and two
daughters are living:  James of Illinois, now eighty-four years of age;
Jonathan, who resides on the old homestead, and whose sketch appears in this
volume; John; William S., a resident of Lawrence county, Pennsylvania, now in
the seventy-fourth year of his age; Mary, widow of James Hutchison, late of
Altoona, and resides on Union avenue in that city; and Sarah A., who resides
with her brother Jonathan on the old homestead.
      John Hamilton was reared on his father's farm, and received his
education in the old subscription schools, which were often taught by
incompetent, dissipated and brutal teachers.  Leaving school he assisted his
father in farming until 1844, when he purchased his present farm, on a part
of which a portion of the Seventh ward of Altoona is built.  In 1883 Mr.
Hamilton retired from active life and removed to Altoona, where he has
resided ever since.
      In 1844 John Hamilton married Elizabeth, daughter of John Lytle, of
Gaysport, who died in 1851, and left two children:  Franklin L., and Robert
H.  Mr. Hamilton was remarried in 1856 to Margaret Peterson, daughter of
Louis Peterson, of Allegheny City, this State, and by his second marriage has
one child living, a son, Lewis T., of Dakota.
      In politics Mr. Hamilton is a republican, and when Blair was a part of
Huntingdon county he served as juror at Huntingdon.  He is an active and
influential member of the First Presbyterian church of Altoona, and has been
for some time a stockholder of the Edison Electric Light Company.  Mr.
Hamilton is a fine looking man, of rather dignified appearance, and has
always commanded the respect of the different communities in which he has resided.

Additional Comments:
Originally submitted 2001. Transcribed by Beth Fladaker  Eflad@aol.com.

This file has been created by a form at http://www.usgwarchives.net/pafiles/

File size: 4.0 Kb