|
|
 |
|
| 76 | BIOGRAPHICAL AND PORTRAIT CYCLOPEDIA |
|
1894, when Mr. Sheridan's interest was purchased and the firm name since then has been Kunkle Bros. Their present large and well-arranged general mercantile establishment at 200, 202 and 204 Main street was erected by Mr. Kunkle in 1886, and has remained in his ownership ever since. The building fronts 20 feet on Main street, with a depth of 112 feet, and was specially arranged for the large and varied stock of general merchandise carried by the present firm. They do an extensive and prosperous business in a substantial and well-to-do section of surrounding county as well as in the town and along the line of the railway. On May 5, 1885, Ellsworth Kunkle married Mary Kate Masters, a daughter of Joseph Masters, now a superintendent of the Cambria Iron company. To their union have been born two children, a son and a daughter: Joseph Masters and Edna Marguerite. In his political views Mr. Kunkle is a republican, and while not an aspirant for office nor active as a politician, yet has served for several terms as an auditor of borough accounts. He is a trustee and a member of the Methodist Episcopal church of Coopersdale. He is a member of Morrellville Lodge, No. 50, I. O. O. F., and Lodge No. 376, Order of Heptasophs, and a charter member of Good Intent Castle, No. 133, Knights of the Golden Eagle. Commencing life wholly without means Mr. Kunkle possessed credit sufficient to give him a start in a line of business where he has achieved almost phenomenal success. To organize a business, build it up to large proportions, and so conduct it as to win and hold honorable standing, has been the labor that he has successfully accomplished under adverse and often discouraging circumstances. He confines his labors to the legitimate rou- |
|
tine of merchandizing and does not branch out into uncertain ventures, however promising of results. He also takes an active interest in the material prosperity of the general public, and has served for several years as a director in the Morrellville Building and Loan association, besides in other ways aiding in measures calculated for the public good. The early ancestors of the Kunkle family in this country were from one of the states of Germany, and some of their descendants settled in western Pennsylvania, where Henry Kunkle settled and lived in Centre township, Indiana county. He was a farmer all his life and a staunch republican. He died in February, 1894, aged eighty-nine years. His son, Solomon, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born February 18, 1837, and died October 10, 1863. Solomon Kunkle attended the early common schools, and then turned his attention to farming, in which he was engaged until his death. He lived a useful ife, was a republican and a Lutheran, and married a daughter of Joseph Gilbert, a farmer, blacksmith, and merchant during his sixty five years of life. Joseph Gilbert's ancestors came over on the Mayflower, which landed on Plymouth Rock. Mrs. Kunkle died May 1, 1871, and left two sons, Sylvester Vernon and Ellsworkth, whose name heads this sketch.
REV. DANIEL CROFFORD formerly a minister in the Brethren church, but now a prominent insurance man of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, is a son of David and Eliza (Berkey) Crofford, and was born February 24, 1846, near Davidsville, Somerset county, Pennsylvania. |
 |
Title Page | Contents | Image | Index |  |
