William N. Arbuckle    

W. N. ARBUCKLE, farmer, post-office Balm, was born December 11, 1835, in Hickory Township. His father, Joseph, was born in Berks County, Penn., and married Eliza Moore, a daughter of John Moore, an early settler of Hickory Township, and who is mentioned in another part of this work. Joseph Arbuckle died in Shenango Township in 1871, his wife had died on her way home from a visit to a neighbor’s in November, 1856. They were buried in the Clarksville cemetery, and had ten children: Isabella, Culbertson, John, Rebecca, James, William N., Elizabeth, Maria, Harriet and Joseph S., who, in his seventeenth year, enlisted in the Fifty-seventh Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers. The father was a stone and brick-mason. He walked from his native locality to this county, carrying all he had on his back. He said "that when he arrived he found his feet were blistered." He did his first mason work in this county for a Mr. Pearson, it being the old stone woolen-mill which stood on the site of the "Broadbent Woolen Mills," in Jefferson Township. He also built a furnace for John and Joseph McClure at Sharpsville. Our subject was educated in the country schools, and was married February 23, 1860, to Elizabeth Bagnall, daughter of William Bagnall, of Jefferson Township, whose sketch appears in this work. She was born October 20, 1841. Mr. Arbuckle was drafted in the first draft made on Mercer County, served a short time, and then hired a substitute, and in the second draft he was called upon again. He paid his fine, and after having secured a little home for his family he enlisted in Company H, Fifth Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery, and served until the close of the war, and is a sufferer from the effects of that service in the cause of his country. On his return from the war he resumed farming, and subsequently engaged in the real estate business with W. J. McKean, of Mercer. In 1873 they bought their present farm in Springfield Township, where they have since remained. Their marriage has given them five children: Minnie A., married J. M. Vanhorn, a carriage manufacturer, Balm, Penn; William P., attended the common schools, and graduated at Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, preached one year in the Centerville Circuit, married Anna Whieldon, and is attending Boston University Theological School, preparing for the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church, while his wife is pursuing her musical studies in the same city; May, married Charles Brown, a merchant of Pittsburgh; S. Carrie is at home; Jesse E. entered Boston University College of Liberal Arts in the fall of 1888. He and his family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he has been a steward. He is a Republican, and one of the enterprising farmers of Springfield Township, and every member of his family have the advantage of commencing life with college instruction.

History of Mercer County, Pennsylvania : its past and present : including its aboriginal history, its early settlement and development, a description of its historic and interesting localities, sketches of its boroughs, townships and villages, neighborhood and family histories, portraits and biographies of pioneers and representative citizens, statistics, etc. : also, a condensed history of Pennsylvania. Chicago, Ill.: Brown, Runk & Co., 1888.  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.