Absalom B Riggle
ABSALOM B. RIGGLE has lived at his present place in Burrell township, Armstrong county, since 1870, and is one of the prosperous and respected farmers of that section. He was born in Allegheny township June 24, 1846, and was nearly a year old when his father, Daniel Riggle, moved to Burrell township in 1847. His grandparents, John and Sarah (Shetler) Riggle, were of German extraction.
Daniel Riggle, the father, was born May 12, 1812, in Westmoreland county, Pa. For a while he lived in Allegheny township, this county, settling in Burrell township in 1847. He died in 1886, aged seventy-four years, and his wife, Mary Robb, who was born in 1818, daughter of John and Mary (Shotts) Robb, died in 1904, aged eighty-six years. They had a family of twelve children, five sons and seven daughters: Hettie; Saloma, who married Hiram Myers, of Bethel township, and had five children; Elizabeth; Absalom B.; John, of Texas, who married and had four children; Sarah, who married Wilson Hotham, of Kansas (now deceased), and has three children living; D. Thomas, born Oct. 18, 1855, who married Margaret A. Altman, of Burrell township, and has three children; Anna, who died when twelve years old; Maria, widow of John McCullough, of Pittsburgh; James W., living in California; Augusta, who married Isaiah Spong, of Bethel township, and has five children; and Miles A., of Burrell township, married to Emma Spencer.
On Sept. 4, 1864, Absalom B. Riggle was mustered into the Union army as a member of Company C, 14th Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry, one of the noted regiments of the State. He was wounded in the shoulder at Front Royal, saw considerable active service, and was discharged while in the Mower general hospital at Chestnut Hill, near Philadelphia, Pa., in August, 1865. Returning to his old home he settled down to general agricultural pursuits, in 1867 purchasing from William Bahme the farm of forty-three acres in Burrell township upon which he has since made his home. He is a man of substantial worth and highly esteemed in his neighborhood.
On Nov. 18, 1869, Mr. Riggle married Susanna Farster, of Kittanning township, whose father, Jonathan Farster, was a farmer; he married Margaret Waltenbaugh. Mrs. Riggle has two brothers living, Henry and David Farster. Mr. and Mrs. Riggle have had seven children, three sons and four daughters, namely: Preston A., who married Celia Newel and has two children; Millie, who died when twenty-two years of age; Margaret, wife of J. E. Yount, a farmer, of Burrell township (they have three children); Ellis W., general agent with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company at Verona, Pa., married to Clara Warden (no children); Thomas F., a farmer of Burrell township, who married Edith Shafer and has five children; Luella, who married D. H. Shaw, a miller, of Kittanning, and has two children, Josephine and Daniel Murry; and Pearl, who died when eleven years old. The family are members of the Lutheran Church, associated with St. Michael's (the Brick Church) in Burrell township.
Source: Page 687, Armstrong County, Pa., Her People, Past and Present, J.H. Beers & Co., 1914
Transcribed September 1998 by James R Hindman for the Armstrong County Beers Project
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