Armstrong County

Robert Townsend The man whose name heads this sketch, until late years a resident of South Bend township, was born in this county, December 3, 1796. The lady whom he afterward married, Elizabeth, daughter of Samuel and Eva B. (Miller) Hine, was born August 27, 1797. They were joined in wedlock by Squire Paul, in … Read more

Smith Neal The grandfather of the subject of this biography, Smith Neal, after whom he was named, was born in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, in 1764. As a lad he enlisted in the colonial army and served one day in the Revolutionary war. In 1796 he settled in Butler county, being one of its earliest pioneers. … Read more

General Robert Orr Robert Orr was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania (probably in Hannahstown), upon March 5, 1786. His father, (a sketch of Robert Orr, Sr., appears in the chapter devoted to Sugar Creek township) whose name descended to the subject of our sketch, had been one of the defenders of the Pennsylvania frontier; had … Read more

PLUM CREEK TOWNSHIP   Rice Henderson, son of Brice and Anna Henderson, was born in Indiana county, Pennsylvania, in 1829; came to this county in 1846 and settled at Elderton, where he now resides. He followed blacksmithing twenty-five years; has since followed farming; was for six years county commissioner; was married in 1848 to Nancy … Read more

Wesley Pontious The grandparents of Wesley Pontious*, on both sides, were from Germany. His father and mother, Jacob and Elizabeth Pontious, who were born, respectively November 3, 1783, and September 15, 1789, came from east of the mountains to Wayne Township, Armstrong County, in 1816, Mr. Pontious having been out the year previous and purchased … Read more

George S. Putney The father of subject of this sketch, David Putney, the beginner of the improvement which developed into Putneyville, where his descendants reside, was born in Connecticut, October 18, 1794, and came to Pittsburgh, then considered a town of the Far West, before he was of age. There he married, upon September 29, … Read more

John Ralston Concerning the ancestors of the subject of this biography but little need be here said, as they have prominent places elsewhere in this volume. His father, David Ralston, a pioneer of Scotch-Irish descent, settled in Plum Creek township, Armstrong county, in 1800 and met with a tragical death nine years later. * His … Read more

ROBERT COCHRAN Robert Cochran was the son of Robert and Catherine Cochran, an old pioneer family who settled in Allegheny county, where he was born in the year 1805. He learned the carpenter’s trade when a boy and worked at it for fifteen years in Pittsburgh when that city was quite a small place. At … Read more

Charles Read Among the first settlers of Armstrong county we find the name Read. Michael Read, grandfather of Charles Read, emigrated from County Derry, Ireland, in 1794. He died in Armstrong county, April 15, 1817, in his fifty-ninth year. For three years he resided at Laurel Furnace, east of the Allegheny mountains, from whence he … Read more

Robert P. Hunter, M.D. Robert Hunter, grandfather of our subject, was born in Westmoreland county, in 1782, and was one of the first settlers of Indiana county. He married Miss Mary Lawrence, a native of New Jersey, born in the year 1781. There were born to this pair fourteen children, nearly all of whom grew … Read more