Blair County PA Archives Biographies.....Condron, James September 12, 1813 - ????
************************************************
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 13, 2025, 8:58 am

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

JAMES CONDRON,
one of the prominent business men of Blair county and a large real estate
owner and lumber dealer, residing in Hollidaysburg, is a son of Jacob and
Elizabeth (Lochard) Condron, and was born September 12, 1813, in Frankstown
township, Blair county, Pennsylvania.  The family is of French descent, and
was planted in America at a very early day.  James Condron (grandfather) was
a native of Lancaster county, this State, and removed to what is now Blair,
but was then Huntingdon county, settling near Frankstown.  Later he went to
Ohio, locating in the vicinity of the city of Columbus, where he died.  Jacob
Condron (father) was also born in Lancaster county, but came with his father's
family while yet a lad to what is now Blair county, and was reared on a farm
near Frankstown, where he continued to live until 1839, when he removed to
Indiana county, and resided there until his death, which occurred in the
spring of 1865, when he had attained the age of seventy-seven years.  He was
a farmer and carpenter, and built a great many barns for the farmers of his
locality.  He also constructed boats or arks to transport flour and grain on
the Juniata River, and in times of high water would run these loaded boats to
Columbia.  After removing to Indiana county he was exclusively engaged in
farming.  He was a whig in politics, and a member of the Evangelical Lutheran
church.  He married Elizabeth Lochard, by whom he had a family of children. 
She was a native of Fort Littleton, this State, and died in Indiana county in
1872, aged eighty-two years.  She also was a life-long member of the
Evangelical Lutheran church.
      James Condron was principally reared in the township of Frankstown,
where he attended the common schools-taught at that time in log school
houses-until he had attained the age of sixteen years, when he secured a
position as clerk in the general store of Washington Webb at Canoe Creek,
this county.  He remained with Mr. Webb about five years, and then went to
Rockhill Furnace as acting manager of the store and furnace owned by James A.
Bell, and continued in that position for three years.  In 1841 he formed a
partnership with Samuel Good, under the firm name of Good & Condron, and
embarked in the general mercantile business at Canoe Creek, this county. 
This partnership continued until 1844, when Mr. Condron withdrew, and
removing to Frankstown, began a general merchandise business at that place in
his own name.  Here he found a field for his energy and fine business ability,
and was not long in organizing a large and lucrative trade.  He handled flour,
feed and grain in large quantities, and sent several boats loaded with grain
to the city of Philadelphia.  He shipped as high as twenty thousand bushels
of wheat from his store in one year.  In 1857 Mr. Condron removed his
headquarters to Hollidaysburg, where he has resided and been engaged in
business ever since.  In addition to his general store he began operating the
ore mines here, and successfully conducted this combined business until
1870.  He also began handling lumber shortly after removing to Hollidaysburg,
in which trade he is still engaged.  In addition to all his other enterprises
he became a dealer in real estate, and has bought and sold about fifteen
thousand acres of Cambria county farming and timber lands.  He still owns
some twenty thousand acres of this land, on which is located a steam saw
mill, at Dysart Station.  This station stands on his land, and is now
surrounded by quite a village.  He has been a large and very successful
dealer in lumber for many years.  He has also been something of a contractor
and builder, having erected many fine houses in Hollidaysburg, among them
being the opera house in that city.
      In 1846 Mr. Condron united in marriage with Ellen Jones, a sister of C.
B. Jones, of Hollidaysburg.  To their union was born a family of children,
three of whom survive, two sons and a daughter.  Their eldest son, Angus B.,
is engaged in the lumber business with his father, and the other, Joseph B.,
is proprietor of a large planing mill in the same city, and also deals
extensively in lumber.  The daughter, Delia C., is employed in the pension
office at Washington, D. C., where she has held a responsible position for
several years.
      In politics Mr. Condron is a stanch republican.  He is one of the
veterans who voted for William H. Harrison for president in 1840, and for his
grandson, Benjamin Harrison, for the same office in 1888.  He is a member and
trustee of the Presbyterian Church of Hollidaysburg.  He has been one of the
directors of the Crescent and New York Railroad since its organization.  He
is a pleasant, affable gentleman, has accumulated a handsome fortune, and
resides in a modest but elegantly appointed brick residence in the city of
Hollidaysburg, where he is surrounded by all modern conveniences and the
comforts and luxuries which so fittingly crown an active and successful
business career.

Additional Comments:
Originally submitted 2001. Transcribed by Lisa McLaughlin   lmclaughlin3@neo.rr.com

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

File size: 5.7 Kb