…bringing our past into the future
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
Elisha Robinson Elisha Robinson, one of the best known of the early settlers in Armstrong county, was born in Windham, Connecticut, December 4, 1791. His parents, Andrew and Olive Robinson, were of English descent, and of a family which had been for several generations in New England. The subject of our sketch learned a trade … Read more
Frederick Rohrer Frederick Rohrer was born in Westmoreland county about 1794. He learned the printing business in Pittsburgh in the Mercury office and came to Kittanning in the latter part of the year 1818 or in the early part of the year 1819, during which year or about the month of February, 1819, he started … Read more
John Schwalm The career of the subject of this sketch is a remarkably good illustration of the success that can be attained in life, however humble the beginning, through industry, enterprise and honesty. John Schwalm was born in Hesse-Cassel, Prussia, February 27, 1835, and was the son of John George and Catharine Elizabeth (Koehler) Schwalm. … Read more
The Shoemaker Family – George Shoemaker One of the earliest settlers of the county, and one now represented by a large family, was George Shoemaker, who came from Virginia and located at Cochran’s mills, in what is now Burrell township, about the year 1800. His wife was Margaret Miller. They were the parents of ten … Read more