OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

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in 1890 was made superintendent of the entire Gautier department, supervising the manufacturing and commercial affairs of the department. That his position is a responsible one is evidenced by the fact that twelve hundred men are employed in it.     Mr. Krebs is a republican, and is the president of the board of school controllers of the city of Johnstown, having been a member of this board since 1881. With the natural instinct of an intelligence progressive man, and a German, he takes an active interest in the educational affairs of the city.     Mr. Krebs is a member of the German Lutheran Church. JOSEPH MASTERS,  ex-Associate Judge of this county, is a son of George and Sarah (Custer) Masters, and was born May 22, 1834, near Davidsville. Conemaugh township, Somerset county, Pa. His grandfather, William Masters, was a native of England, whence he emigrated to America and located in Fayette county, and later removed to Somerset county, where he died. George Masters, son of the above and father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Somerset county in 1812. He was a weaver of coverlids by trade. In politics, he was a whig, and held a number of important local offices by appointment or election. In 1842, he was appointed a justice of the peace, and at the time of his death, in 1850, held this office of county commissioner. He was married to Sarah Custer, and was the father of seven children -- five boys and two girls, of whom four are living, viz:  Joseph, Kate, Amanda, wife of J. S. Custer, superintendent of the labor department of the Cambria Iron company, Johnstown, and Samuel, also of Johnstown, whose sketch follows.

Joseph Masters is self-educated, and he is a fine example of what a young man may accom-plish even under adverse circumstances. His actual schooling consisted of a two months' term under the old regime, when teachers boarded around among the schools' patrons; but so well has he improved his opportunities that few men have a better store of general information.     Mr. Masters came to Johnstown in 1850 at the age of sixteen years, and first found employment on the canal. He learned the trade of a black-smith, and helped make the first clay picks with which ground was broken for the Cambria Iron company's works, in the winter of 1852-3. Next, he was employed in a flouring mill, then known as the Red Mill, at the mouth of Hinkston's run, at eight dollars a month and boarding. Eighteen months later he was in charge of the mill, a position he held for about ten years, when he took charge of the lumber department of the Cambria Iron company, as buyer and seller. To this, in 1865, was added the superintendency of houses. His duties and responsibilities were further increased in 1878 by the addition of the superintendency of lands. His present position is that of superintendent of houses and lands for the Cambria Iron company.     Politically Mr. Masters is a republican, and his popularity is attested by the fact that he has been uniformly successful in his political ventures, even in the face of strong adverse majorities. In the sixties he served as councilman, school director and burgess of Millville borough. In 1882, when the normal Democratic majority in Cambria county was about 1,000, Mr. Masters was elected associate judge by the flattering majority of 900. In this office he served a term of five years, when the associate

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