324

BIOGRAPHICAL AND PORTRAIT CYCLOPEDIA

vanced age of ninety, she reads without the aid of glasses.     Grandfather Jacob Wagner was a native of Germany. He embarked with his father on a sailing vessel bound for this country. His father died during the voyage and was buried at sea. He (grandfather Wagner) died at Schellsburg, Bedford county, Pennsylvania, aged ninety years, and his wife died at about the same age.     John H. Benford was reared principally in Allegheny City, and was educated in the public schools. He learned the carpenter trade in Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania. At twenty years of age he engaged in contracting on his own account, and has continued in that business ever since. In 1861 he removed to Huntingdon county, where he resided until 1874, when he came to this city. He makes a specialty of heavy contract work, such as tipples, trestles, coal-bins, etc.; also house-work, and is one of the largest contractors in the city.     Mr. Benford was married March 12, 1852, to Miss Isabella C., daughter of Frederick Garey, of Somerset county, Pennsylvania. Five sons and three daughters, born of this union, are living, as follows: Charles W., Mary F., married to O.V. Houtz, of Mifflin county, Pennsylvania; Carrie B., married to Frank Fitzsimmons, of Carleton, Thayer county, Nebraska; Harry C., assistant auditor for the Cambria Iron company; John G., carpenter; Jesse W., assistant in a rubber factory in San Francisco; Edna Pearl, at home. Three children are dead: William, died in infancy at the age of four months; Howard at five years; and Albert A., died at age of thirty-seven.     Mr. And Mrs. Benford are members of the Methodist Episcopal church; the latter for fifty-one years. Mrs. Benford is president of

the Children's Aid society, and active in church and benevolent work. Mr. Benford is also an influential member of several orders among them Mount Moriah Lodge, No. 300, F. and A. M., Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, of which he has been a member since 1862; Standing Stone Chapter, No. 201, R.A.M., of Huntingdon. In 1868 he was elected a life member of Mount Moriah Lodge; in 1887 an honorary member of the chapter. In 1890 he became a member of Oriental Commandery, Knights Templar, of this city, and in 1891 of the Mystic Shrine at Pittsburg. He has also been a member of the Royal Arcanum for fourteen years, and at one time was a prominent member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, but withdrew from it. Mr. Benford has held some local offices, and was the first three-year councilman from the Seventh ward. GRIFFITH J. JONES, a prosperous farmer and lumberman of near the village of Beulah, is a son of Thomas and Eleanor (Lloyd) Jones, and was born upon the old homestead, near Beulah, in Cambria township, Cambria county, Pennsylvania, May 13, 1833.     His father, Thomas Jones, was born in Wales, and emigrated to the United States in the year 1828. Son after landing in this country, he purchased a large tract of land near Beulah, upon which he resided until his death. He followed mining in his native country, but abandoned that avocation to engage in farming after he settled in his new world home. He married Eleanor Lloyd, a daughter of Griffith Lloyd, a native of Wales, and to them were born two children: Mary A., relict of James Evans, of Summit county, Ohio; and Griffith J., the subject of this biographical sketch.

Title Page

Contents

Image

Index