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Bearer, and was born at Ebensburg, Cambria county, August 8, 1839. Neither Waterloo nor St. Helena exile gave peace to France, and in the immediate years succeeding the downfall of Napoleon we have record of the Bearer family as residents of Strasburg, France, now Germany, and one member was Joseph Bearer, a man of wealth, influence and business connections. He sought to escape an impending draft and service in a threatening war, and in order to do so left most of his wealth behind him, and came with his wife and five children to the United States in the year 1817. He followed the trade of a carpenter after coming to this country, and first resided at Shippensburg, this State. He then, in 1829, came to the site of Johnstown, where he purchased a piece of land that is now in the heart of the city, which he soon sold to buy a farm in what is now Barr township. He lived and died on his farm, dying in 1856. He was strictly honest in all his business transactions and highly respected, and married Othelia Bush, by whom he had nine children: Joseph; Mrs. Mary Thrush; Louis; Ignatius; Squiire Francis; Mrs. Sara Luther; John; Mrs. Elizabeth Kold, and Mrs Harriet Bookmayer. Of these children John and Harriet are living. Squire Francis Bearer was born in Strasburg, then in France, January 1, 1817, and died at Carrolltown, this county, June 23, 1890. He was a farmer and stock-raiser and dealt in cattle, horses and lumber. Success crowned every effort that he made, and every enterprise in which he embarked. He was one of the wealthiest men of his time in the county, and for many years furnished most of the money to build and run the rafts that went down the Susquehanna river from his section of country. He was a man of standing and influence, and widely known and actively
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useful in business. He was upright and honest, his word was as good as his note. He was a democrat, and served for fifteen years as a justice of the peace. Squire Bearer married Margaret Ann Miller, a daughter of John G. Miller, of Carroll township, and to their union were born two children: Joseph and John G.C., a retired farmer, who now resides at Spangler. Mrs. Bearer was born at the village of Munster, this county, December 27, 1814, and died July 24, 1871.
Joseph Bearer spent his boyhood years in the routine of farm work, and attending the common schools during the winter months. Upon attaining his majority he engaged in farming and stock-raising, which he has followed successfully ever since. He still owns the old Bearer homestead farm, of which two hundred acres adjoin the thrifty borough of Spangler; thirty of them being within the borough limits, and underlaid with seven accessible and workable veins of coal, the lowest of which at eighty-five feet below the surface, is a seven foot vein of excellent coal. Through this property the Cambria county railroad is now (1896) being built. In 1876 Mr. Bearer purchased Mountain Meadows farm of one hundred and seventy-six acres underlaid with coal, and removed to it three years later. Of late years he has taken considerable interest in raising and introducing Jersey cattle and the Chester White hog. The cultivation and improvement of his property is a source of great pleasure to Mr. Bearer, who is a born agriculturist. He is a thorough, practical, careful and intelligent farmer, and always ready to avail himself of all modern appliances which will add to ease of cultivation and increase of products on the farm. In addition to the above he is a veterinary surgeon, and has a practice extending for miles in the neighborhood. He
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