Blair County PA Archives Biographies.....Ermine, Sylvester February 22, 1820 - ???? ************************************************ 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, 3:16 pm Source: Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Blair Co, PA: Philadelphia, 1892. Author: Samuel T. Wiley SYLVESTER ERMINE, a resident of near Tipton, and one of the old and substantial farmers of Blair county, is the sixth child and third son of George and Sabina (Devlin) Ermine, and was born in Sinking valley, Blair county, Pennsylvania, February 22, 1820. George Ermine was a resident for many years of Sinking valley, in which he died at the advanced age of eighty-one years in 1866. He learned, in early life, the trade of blacksmith, which he followed to some extent, but gave the most of his time to farming, in which he took considerable interest. He was Jacksonian democrat in politics, and had been for many years before his death a consistent and useful member of the Catholic church. He married Sabina Devlin, a native of Sinking valley, and who died in 1863, when in the seventy-fifth year of her age. To them were born ten children, six sons and four daughters: John, Maria, Eleanor, Lucy A., Matthew, Sylvester, George, Aaron, Catherine A., and Martine D. These children are all dead except Sylvester, the subject of this sketch, and George, who is engaged in farming in Sinking valley. Sylvester Ermine grew to manhood in Sinking valley, and was carefully trained in all of the operations and details of farming. He received his education in the last old subscription and the first of the common schools, and commenced life for himself as a teamster at Allegheny furnace. In a short time he left teaming to remove near Fostoria, where he was engaged in farming until 1865, when he purchased his present farm near Tipton. His farm, which lays well and is very productive, consists of one hundred and thirty-three acres of well improved land. Sylvester Ermine married Eleanor Harrison, and to their union were born eight children, four sons and four daughters: John H., who married Nancy McFarland, and is a butcher and stock speculator at Tyrone; Alice Emma, deceased: Thomas F., a teamster at Tyrone, who married Mary Glasgow; Lulu wife of William Fuoss, a miller of near Tyrone; Irene, now dead: W. Murray of Bellwood, married Bertha B. Reilly, and is a trainmaster on the Pennsylvania & Northwestern railroad; Florence E., and George S. Mrs. Eleanor Ermine is a daughter of Jerome and a granddaughter of Capt. John Harrison, the latter of whom was a native of Philadelphia, and became a pioneer settler of Logan valley, where he owned several large tracts of land. He was a whig and married and reared a family of eight children: James, Jerome, John, Hamilton, Mary, Elizabeth, Rachel, and Lucy. Jerome Harrison (father of Mrs. Ermine) was born in 1812 in Philadelphia, where he was reared and educated. He came with his father to Blair county, but soon returned Philadelphia, where he learned the trade of coachmaker, after which he returned to Blair county and settled near Birmingham. He was an old-line whig, followed coachmaking, and was for many years a deacon in the Methodist Episcopal church. He was twice married. His first wife was Nancy Stephens, by whom he had three children: Thomas, Eleanor, and Alice. By his second wife, Margaret Clawson, daughter of Josiah Clawson, he had one child Sylvester. Sylvester Ermine is a democrat in politics, and has cast his ballot for all the democratic candidates for president from James K. Polk, in 1844, down to Grover Cleveland, in 1888. Additional Comments: Originally submitted 2001. Transcribed by Sharon McCartney Russell jerusse@erols.com. This file has been created by a form at http://www.usgwarchives.net/pafiles/ File size: 4.0 Kb