Blair County PA Archives Biographies.....Hamilton, Jonathon August 8, 1811 - ???? ************************************************ 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, 9:56 am Source: Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Blair Co, PA: Philadelphia, 1892. Author: Samuel T. Wiley JONATHAN HAMILTON, a highly respected citizen and prosperous farmer of Logan township, is a son of Robert and Nancy (Smith) Hamilton, and was born in Frankstown township, Blair county, Pennsylvania, August 8, 1811. The Hamiltons and Smiths are of Scotch-Irish descent, and possess in a large degree those worthy qualities which so distinguish their race. Robert Hamilton was born near the manufacturing and seaport city of Belfast, in County Down, Ireland, and came, about 1798, to Cumberland county, this State, but soon afterward removed to Frankstown township, where he remained until 1818. In that year he purchased and removed to the farm in Logan township now occupied by the subject of this sketch, on which he resided until his death, which occurred in 1849, when he was in the seventy-eighth year of his age. He was one of the most extensive farmers of his day in Logan township, where he owned his home farm of one hundred and ninety acres and another farm, the larger part of which is now within the city limits of Altoona. He was a democrat and afterward a whig in politics, and a member of the Hollidaysburg Presbyterian church, and his house was the stopping place and home, for the time being, of all the ministers of his church who passed through Altoona. He was energetic and hospitable, and married Nancy Smith, a native of Franklin county, and a Presbyterian in religious faith, who passed away in 1858, at the advanced age of seventy-six years. They reared a family of eight children, five sons and three daughters, of whom four sons and two daughters are living: Mary, widow of James Hutchison, of Altoona; James, a resident of Illinois; Jonathan; John, of Altoona, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this volume; William S., of Lawrence county, Pennsylvania; and Sarah A. Jonathan Hamilton was reared on the farm where he now resides, received his education in the old subscription schools of Frankstown and Logan townships, and then embarked in farming, which he has followed continuously ever since. He owns one hundred and forty acres of the old homestead, and has his farm well improved and in a fine state of cultivation. In 1838 Mr. Hamilton married Mrs. Mary (McKee) Fleck, of Logan township, and to their union were born five children, three sons and two daughters: Joseph S., who enlisted in the 110th Pennsylvania infantry, and died from the effects of a wound received in the battle of Chancellorsville; Nancy A., Gabriel T., Hattie B., and John K. Mrs. Hamilton was a member of the Presbyterian church, and died in 1881, when in the seventieth year of her age, and left, besides the children named, one son by her first husband, who is Thomas Fleck, of Tyrone township. Jonathan Hamilton has been a member and ruling elder of the First Presbyterian church of Altoona since its organization. He has been a republican ever since the formation of that party, and although no politician, has held several township offices. In addition to farming Mr. Hamilton has dealt considerably in live stock, and has always stood high as an honorable and honest man. 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: 3.8 Kb