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Orion Siggins
ORION SIGGINS, dealer in real estate and lumber, West Hickory, was born in
what is now Harmony township, Forest Co., Penn., June 3, 1848, and is a son of
George S. and Rachel (Dawson) Siggins. His paternal grandfather was George
Siggins, whose wife was Jane Young, a descendant of the great British Admiral
Hood. George Siggins, last mentioned, was a son of John and Sarah Siggins,
natives of the County Sligo, Ireland and was born in the parish of Drumcliff,
in that county, in 1778. The family emigrated to America in 1793, and settled
in Centre county, Penn., where John Siggins died in 1801; his wife, Sarah,
died in Youngsville, Warren Co., Penn., in 1835, at the age of eighty five
years. George Siggins, from information derived from his only surviving son,
James Y. Siggins, of Pleasantville, Penn., came from Centre county to
Stewart’s Run, near where John A. Dawson now resides, in Harmony township,
Forest county, about 1801 or 1802, and cleared quite a tract of land. Some
years later, on account of a heavy frost, which ruined his crops, he removed
to what is now Harmony township, below Fagundus, built a saw-mill and
manufactured and shipped lumber down the Allegheny river to Pittsburgh. The
war of 1812 breaking out soon after his mill began running, he was drafted,
and stationed at Erie, being there at the time of Perry’s victory. After the
war he sold his mill to Isaac Ball, and settled below Tidioute, soon after
migrating to Hickory Town (now West Hickory), a once famous Indian
reservation, where he purchased of a squatter by the name of John Thompson,
1,000 acres, on which the family descendants now reside. He was a life-long
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and died January 17, 1865, aged
eighty-seven years. His children were John, William, Mary, Nathaniel H.,
George S., Isaac C., James Y., Jane (Mrs. Cyrus Richardson) and Rebecca. The
maternal grandparents of Orion Siggins were Thomas and Hannah (Connelly)
Dawson, pioneers of Stewart’s Run, Venango Co., Penn. George Simpson Siggins,
father of the subject of this sketch, always followed farming as an
occupation, and cleared and improved the homestead farm where Orion now
resides, and where he died August 20, 1875, aged sixty-six years. His children
were Harriet E. (Mrs. Wesley C. Howe), Hannah (Mrs. James Gilfillan), Rachel
R. (Mrs. John Gilfillan), Orion, Elizabeth (Mrs. Clinton Smith), Francis B.,
Jane I. , Julia E. (Mrs. Frank Wheeler) and Justina. Orion Siggins was reared
on the old homestead, where he has always resided, following farming up to
1877 since which time he has been in the real estate business, also lumbering
quite extensively. He married, November 26, 1884, Miss Alice M., daughter of
Joseph and Rachel (McGrew) Hall, of Steubenville, Ohio and to this union was
born, October 17, 1889, one child, a daughter. Mr. Siggins is one of the
prominent and leading citizens of Forest county, full of vim and enterprise,
and always ready and willing to give liberally of his means for the welfare of
the community in which he lives. He donated the grounds for the fine tannery
and for numerous other purposes at West Hickory; gave large possessions to the
Western New York & Pennsylvania Railroad; also assisted in the
construction of other public benefits, and by this liberal policy founded a
now flourishing town.Source: Page(s) 949-950, Chapter 15 Biographical Sketches – Tionesta Township
and Borough of Tionesta
Hickory and Harmony Townships
History of Counties of McKean, Elk and Forest, Pennsylvania.
Chicago, J.H. Beers & Co., 1890.
Transcribed December 2005 by Nathan Zipfel for the Forest County Genealogy
Project
Published 2005 by the Forest County Pennsylvania Genealogy Project
Return to Forest County Home Page
(c) Forest County Pennsylvania Genealogy Project
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