|
J. S. SHIVELY, furniture dealer, was born December 15, 1828, on a farm
in Union county, Pennsylvania, son of Christian and Maria (Stees) Shively,
natives of the same county and of German extraction. Christian Shively,
grandfather of J. S. Shively, fought the Indians at Templeton’s Ford,
Union county, and his captain, Patrick Watson, was wounded at this time,
from which he died. The children of Christian Shively were named as
follows: Barbara; Rachel; John; Christian; Daniel; George, and Benjamin,
all of whom died at old age. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary war.
John Stees, the father of Maria, was a Tory, but did not take up arms
against the colonists. He was the father of seven children: John; David;
Abraham; Rachel; Maria; Sally, and Betsey, all deceased.
Christian Shively, the father of our subject, was a farmer, and died in
1857. His widow died about the year 1870, the mother of five children:
George, a farmer in Clarion county; Susan, widow of James Say; Thomas,
also a farmer in Clarion county; J. S., and Robert, a farmer in Columbiana
county, Ohio. Christian’s first wife was Barbara Wise, by whom he had five
children; Betsey only surviving and married to David Reaser. The parents
were members of the Dunkard church and the father served in some of the
small offices of the township. Our subject was educated in the log school
house with slab seats and puncheon floor, slab writing desks and greased
paper window lights. He began for himself at the age of eighteen years and
upon reaching his majority he commenced keeping what was known as the old
Stone House hotel on the Erie and Philadelphia pike in Clarion county,
which he continued for five years. He then went into the dry-goods
business at Scrubgrass and continued there and at Lisbon, once nicknamed
Fort Chisel, for seven years with good success. This he sold in 1862 and
removed to Oil City, where he purchased the Oil City hotel from James
Colgin. After two years’ experience in this he entered the grocery and
feed business on Main street and followed it for several years. He then
bought and built property worth forty-five thousand dollars, nearly all of
which was consumed by the great fire of 1866. He rebuilt as much as his
means would warrant and went into the furniture business on Main street,
where he remained until 1882, when he removed to his present place and
here he carries a stock of about ten thousand dollars. He was married to
Lea J. Herpst, daughter of John H. and Mary Herpst of this county, by whom
he has five children: Clifford; Florence, deceased at the age of nine
years; Laura, married to T. B. Simpson; May, deceased wife of G. W. Darr,
and Edna, at home. He is a member of the I. 0. 0. F., L. of H., Royal
Arcanum, E. A. U., and T. of T. He furnished a substitute for the war, is
a Republican, and with his wife belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church.
History of Venango County, Pennsylvania
: its past and present, including its aboriginal history, the French and
British occupation of the country, its early settlement and subsequent
growth, a description of its historic and interesting localities, its rich
oil deposits and their development, sketches of its cities, boroughs,
townships, and villages, neighborhood and family history, portraits and
biographies of pioneers and representative citizens, statistics, etc.,
etc.
Chicago, Ill.: Brown, Runk & Co., 1890, page 906.
Read this book on line -
Free Trial
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
.
|
