Col. C. W. Tyler    

COL. C. W. TYLER, attorney at law, Meadville, was born in Montrose, Susquehanna Co., Penn., March 6, 1838. His grandfather, Simeon Tyler, was of good New England stock, a native of Massachusetts. His grandmother was a Brewster, also of Massachusetts, and a descendant of the Puritan Brewsters. His father, Simeon Tyler, Jr., was born in Connecticut, but moved with his father into Susquehanna when that county was a wilderness. His family consisted of five children, of whom the subject of this sketch is the youngest; only one other, a sister, is now living Col. Tyler was raised on a farm, and, in his early days, shared the privations incident to a new and partially developed country. At the early age of ten years he was apprenticed to learn the printer’s trade, dividing his time for several years between the printing office and the local academy, with an occasional summer on the farm. In the summer of 1855 he worked at his trade in Syracuse, N. Y. In January, 1856, he attended New York Central College, at McGrawsville, Cortland Co., N. Y. In July of that year he left this institution for Homer, N. Y., in the same county, where he remained for nearly two years, attending a seminary which ranked high as an educational institution. During this time he taught school one winter in Dryden, Tompkins Co., N. Y. From Homer he returned to Montrose, where, after working one season on a farm, he read law with Hon. F.B. Streeter, who was Solicitor of the Treasury under President Pierce. Col. Tyler was admitted to the bar in 1860. Being in poor health, early in 1861 he visited Minnesota, returning to Montrose in the spring of 1862, much benefitted by his Western trip. In August of that year he assisted in raising a company of volunteers, of which be was elected Captain, and joined the One Hundred and Forty-first Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry at Harrisburg. He was with his regiment in the Army of the Potomac, participating in all the great battles of that heroic army from Second Bull Run to just prior to the surrender at Appomattox. At Chancellorsville and in the wilderness he received slight wounds. At Gettysburg, July 2, 1863, he was severely wounded by a minie ball through the right leg. Returning to his regiment in the following December, he was promoted to be Major, vice Maj. Spalding, who lost a leg at Gettysburg and who subsequently died. In June, 1864, he was promoted to be Lieutenant-Colonel of the regiment, vice Lieut. Col. Watkins, killed on the 18th day of May, before Petersburg. About this time Madill, Colonel of the regiment, who for some time had been in command of a brigade, was promoted to be Brigadier-General, which entitled the subject of our sketch to a commission as a full Colonel, but owing to an unfortunate order of the Secretary of War, promotion was denied to officers whose regiments were below the minimum. In March, 1865, ill health compelled Col. Tyler to resign his commission, and he returned to Susquehanna County and engaged in the practice of Jaw. At the request of Hon. W. H. Jessup, Assessor of Internal Revenue for that district, Col. Tyler was appointed one of the Assistant Assessors. Soon after Mr. Jessup was removed by President Johnson, and the position was tendered to Col. Tyler if he would become a supporter of the President in his conflict with his party. Col. Tyler declined to “Johnsonize,” as it was called, and he was soon removed, to accommodate some one more pliant. In August, 1867, Col. Tyler removed to Meadville, entering into partnership with B. Lyle White in the publication of the Meadville Republican. Two years later, disposing of his interest in the Republican, he purchased the Crawford Journal, which he conducted until 1872, when he retired from the printing business, and again embarked in the practice of law, in which profession he is still engaged, being now associated with P. F. Hallock, Esq., under the firm name of Tyler & Hallock. In 1876 Col. Tyler was elected, as a Republican, to the Pennsylvania Legislature, serving during the years 1877 and 1878. He was again elected in 1880 for a new term of two years. He was one of the “Independents” during the Senatorial contest in the Legislature, which attracted the attention of the whole country. He was nominated for re-election in 1882, but defeated at the general election, owing to dissensions in the Republican party, although he received within twenty votes of the highest on his ticket. In the spring of 1883 the citizens of the First Ward of Meadville, without distinction of party, unanimously elected him to the City Council, of which he is still a member. He is one of the Trustees of the Meadville Theological School; a Past Master of Crawford Lodge, No. 234, A. Y. M., and a Past Grand of Crawford Lodge, No. 734, of the I. 0. 0. F., which Lodge he has at several times represented in the Grand Lodge of the State. Col. Tyler was married, March 14, 1864, to Lucy T. Warner, of Montrose, Penn. They have had four children, only two of whom are now living: Lizzie B., born in August, 1866, and Mabel, born in October, 1868.

History of Crawford County, Pennsylvania: containing a history of the county, its townships, towns, villages, schools, churches, industries, etc., portraits of early settlers and prominent men, biographies, history of Pennsylvania, statistical and miscellaneous matter, Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co., 1885, page 715. View image of this page of the book on line at ancestry.com.  Free access  More Crawford County History Books  Search Hundreds of 1880s-1890s Pennsylvania County History Books for biographies and historical information on your ancestors.  View the book page images on line and print them out for your genealogy file!  Free Access to the old history books - plus birth & death records, census images and ALL other records at ancestry.com

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