John Samuel Artman
JOHN SAMUEL ARTMAN, merchant and manufacturer of Ford City, Armstrong
county, is one of the all around active citizens of his section, interested in
business and public life, well known in social circles and thoroughly
respected in all the relations of life. He was born Oct. 3, 1856, in
Westmoreland county, Pa., son of Michael and Rachel (Hill) Artman, of that
county, the Artman family being of German stock, he Hills of Scotch-Irish
extraction.Michael Artman grew up in Westmoreland county and attended the common
schools. He learned the trade of blacksmith, which he followed throughout his
active years, and he and his wife are still living in Westmoreland county
(1912), he at the age of eighty-four years, she aged eighty-two. They are
members of the Presbyterian Church. They had a family of six children, namely:
John Samuel; Miller, a blacksmith and wagonmaker by trade, who was a merchant
and postmaster at Milligantown, Westmoreland county; Emma, who married M.
Portner, M. D., of Bevan, Pa.; Martha, who married David Guthrie, a carpenter,
of New Kensington, Pa.; James; and G. H.John Samuel Artman was given a common school education. At the age of
fifteen years he commenced to learn to make grain cradles, with Matthew
Miller, of Westmoreland county, for whom he worked three years without wages,
and another year for which he was paid. He was twenty when he started out on
his own account, in 1876 coming to Armstrong county and settling in Manor
township, where Ford City now stands. For the next eighteen years he was in
the employ of T. Montgomery, making cradles, and Mr. Montgomery retiring at
the end of that period Mr. Artman continued the business at the old stand for
a number of years. In 1907 he located at his present place in Ford City, and
he is still engaged in the manufacture of grain cradles, selling his product
entirely to the wholesale trade. However, this one interest has by no means
claimed all his attention. In 1909, in company with H. H. Heilman, he stared a
shoe store in Ford City under the name of Artman and Heilman, and their
establishment is not only the leading one in the borough but in all this
section. They have a fine stock and a thoroughly up-to-date store, conducted
along the most modern lines, and the business is one of the most prosperous in
this region. For several years Mr. Artman was interested in the gas business,
drilling, leasing and selling, and met with success in that line as he has in
all his ventures. He also owns a valuable tract of land, 225 acres of the old
William Heilman homestead in Bethel township, this county, and is kept busy
with the management of his numerous concerns, though he has found time to do
his share in the work of local government. He has held the offices of school
director, tax collector, overseer of the poor and constable, filling their
duties with his customary ability and fidelity, and on political questions is
identified with the Democratic party. Fraternally he holds membership in the
Elks at Kittanning, and the Eagles and Knights of Pythias at Ford City.In the fall of 1878 Mr. Artman married Margaret Heilman, of Kittanning
township, who was born in that township, daughter of William Heilman, and they
have had two children: Edna B. received her education at Kittanning, Pa., and
Canton, Ohio, and is now the wife of Walter Bowser, of Ford City (they have
two children, Margaret and Dick); Earl D. has always worked with his father.
Mrs. Artman is a member of the Lutheran Church.Source: Pages 631, Armstrong County, Pa., Her People, Past and
Present, J.H. Beers & Co., 1914
Transcribed October 2001 by Lynn Beatty for the Armstrong County Beers Project
Contributed for use by the Armstrong County Genealogy Project (http://www.pa-roots.com/armstrong/)Armstrong County Genealogy Project Notice:
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