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Archie F Rairigh
ARCHIE F. RAIRIGH, a carpenter and contractor of Cowanshannock township,
was born in that township, on a portion of the farm where he now resides,
March 16, 1852, a son of William and Elizabeth (Knisley) Rairigh.William Rairigh was born in 1796, in Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, and
became a pioneer of what is now Cownshannock township, Armstrong county, Pa.
Here he cleared and improved a homestead, a portion of which is owned by his
son Archie F., and died upon it in 1878, in his eighty-third year. He married
twice his first wife being Barbara Brilhart, who bore him three children:
Lavina, who married George Mealey; Moses, and Jesse. By his second marriage to
Mrs. Elizabeth (Knisley) Zimmerman, born in Bedford county, Pa., he had four
children: Catherine, who married George Clark; William K.; Solomon A. and
Archie F. By her first marriage Mrs. Elizabeth Rairigh had three children:
Elias; Esther, who married Robert Martin; and John.Archie F. Rairigh was reared on his father�s homestead and sent to the
public schools of the neighborhood. When only eighteen years old, in 1869, he
began his business career as a painter, and followed that trade for fifteen
years, in 1885 commencing to work as a carpenter. His business grew to such an
extent that since 1892 he has been devoting himself to contracting and
building, and with the exception of three years, when he was at Pittsburgh and
Vandergrift, he has spent his life on the old homestead. Among other important
contracts he has carried out have been the following: The erection of the
Presbyterian Church at Rural Valley in 1892, the Cumberland Presbyterian
Church at Yatesboro; the Appleby Manor Church, near Ford City, in 1891, and
the reconstruction of the same edifice in 1908; the building of the Baptist
Church of East Franklin township in 1893; the carpenter work in the Sagamore
public school building in 1906 and the Scotdale public school building in
Cowanshannock township in 1911; the designing of the public school building in
Rural Valley in 1911; the designing and erection of the Rural Valley National
Bank building in 1911, one of the best banks in the county; as well as other
work of less importance.In 1875 Mr. Rairigh married Catherine Nichols, daughter of Charles and
Liddy (Forsythe) Nichols, of Pine township, this county. They have had
children as follows: Winona who married Charles McKinley; Lenora, who married
Ralph McKenny; Lawrence; Lucretia, who is deceased; Esmerelda, who married
Woodford Rankin; Delcy B., who married Harry Gilmore, and Ruby M., who married
George Keys. Mr. Rairigh is serving his second term as overseer of the poor of
Cowanshannock township. In politics he is a Republican. In every relation of
life he has proved himself a man of the highest integrity and his success has
been attained along legitimate lines.Source: Page 910, Armstrong County, Pa., Her People, Past and
Present, J.H. Beers & Co., 1914
Transcribed February 1999 by Nanci Michalkiewicz 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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