Blair County PA Archives Biographies.....Collin, John B. September 28, 1831 - February 20, 1886
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Source: Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Blair Co, PA: Philadelphia, 1892.
Author: Samuel T. Wiley

JOHN B. COLLIN,
a prominent Pennsylvania railroad official, and a resident of Altoona from
1858 until his death, in 1886, was a man of fine education, great force of
character, and of decided convictions.  Mr. Collins was born in Malmo,
Sweden, September 28, 1831, his father being a professor of Greek and Latin
in a Swedish university of Gothenburg, in 1848.  During the years 1849 and
1850 he was employed in the machine shops of Messrs. Nydgist & Hohn,
Trollhalten, Sweden, coning to this country July 31, 1851.  He had been in
America one month, when, on September 1, 1851, he entered the machine shops
at Lowell, Massachusetts, where he remained until July 3d of the succeeding
year.  On July 5, 1852, he became an employee in the machine shops at
Lawrence, Massachusetts, and there remained until May, 1858.  In the same
month and year he entered the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company,
in the Altoona machine shops, upon the recommendation of Thomas P. Sargent,
assistant purchasing agent of the company, and here he remained until January
1859, when he returned to the Lowell, Massachusetts, machine shops, and in
these shops he worked until August, 1860. From this month in 1860, until
February 1863, he was employed by the Atlantic works in Boston, and in that
month came back to Altoona again, and here held a position in the office of
the engineer of bridges of the Pennsylvania railroad, where he stayed until
October of the same year. Returning to the Atlantic works in October, 1863,
he worked there until 1864.  During 1863, while in Boston, Mr. Collin worked
on a monitor for the government.  From October, 1864, until April, 1866, the
deceased was general foreman of the Altoona shops, and during the months of
April, May and June, in the last named year, traveled in the west.  On July
1, 1866, he was made mechanical engineer of the Pennsylvania railroad, with
office in Altoona, and in this position he remained until his death, which
occurred at nine o'clock Saturday morning, February 20, 1886, from atrophy of
the liver.  He was identified with Altoona's business interests, was president
of the Altoona Gas Company, and beside his handsome residence in the First
ward, was the owner of considerable real estate in the Seventh and Eighth
wards.  He possessed the confidence and esteem of the head officers of the
railroad company, and in his death that corporation lost an excellent
officer.  He was a member of St. Luke's Protestant Episcopal church, and
private funeral services were conducted at his late residence, on Fifteenth
avenue, by Rev. Allan Sheldon Woodle, after which Mr. Collin's remains were
interred in the Presbyterian cemetery of Hollidaysburg.
      On May 15, 1883, Mr. Collin married Kate Leet, and to their union were
born two children: John B. and Carl W.  Mrs. Collin, who is an intelligent
and interesting woman, still resides at her tasteful and beautiful home on
Fifteenth avenue.  Mrs. Kate (Leet) Collin is a daughter of Hon. Jonathan D.
Leet, a prominent man in western Pennsylvania.

Additional Comments:
Originally submitted 2001. Transcribed by Christy Stiles

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