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BIOGRAPHICAL AND PORTRAIT CYCLOPEDIA

born October 26, 1857, who married Louis Emigh, of Adams township.     Always thrifty and prudent, Mr. Varner has toiled hard, managed well and commands the respect and good will of his neighbors. THOMAS McKERNAN is a son of Patrick and Margaret (O'Rourke) McKernan, and was born December 16, 1830, in County Cavan, Ireland. His grandfather, who was also Patrick McKernan, was born and died in the Emerald Isle. His maternal grandfather was Felix O'Rourke, who was a native of Ireland, but emigrated to America about 1815, and located in Virginia, where he died in 1820. Patrick McKernan was born in Ireland, and died on his native soil.     Thomas McKernan was reared and educated in the land of his nativity, but came to America in 1851. In 1853 he located in what is now the Sixteenth ward of Johnstown, this county, then Yoder township. He was one of the early settlers of that locality. Among the families contemporaneous with him were Daniel McDonald, Adam Kurtz, Francis Gillis, Daniel Lysett, Patrick Biggin, John Sturger and others. He accepted employment in a blast furnace of the Cambria Iron company, worked here for six months, and then, for the next eight or nine years, worked in the ore mines of the same company. After this long experience in the mines, he entered the mills, where, until 1884, he was employed in various capacities.     Politically, he is prominently identified with the Democratic party, and has held several responsible offices. He served as clerk of the borough of Cambria city, now Sixteenth ward of Johnstown; was school director several terms, and justice of the peace in the former borough of Cambria city.

Mr. McKernan married Miss Ann Galligan, a native of Ireland, and to this union seven children have been born, five boys and two girls: Margaret, Patrick, Susan, Thomas, Peter, Philip and Joseph. PHILIP McKERNAN was born in Cambria city, March 19, 1865. He received a good common-school education, and, on leaving school, entered the brick-works of A. J. Haws, of Johnstown, and remained in their employ for fifteen years.     In October, 1892, he entered the mercantile field, forming a partnership with a Miss Stibich. They opened a general store in the Sixteenth ward of Johnstown, under the firm name of Stibich & Co., and have since conducted a successful business.     In matters political he adheres to the principles of the Democratic party, and takes a prominent part in all local politics;. at present represents his ward on the board of school controllers, and, when the city of Johnstown was organized, was elected alderman of the Sixteenth ward, which office he has filled acceptably to the present time. HENRY F. WOMER, M.D., of Johnstown, who stands high in his honored and useful profession, is a son of Michael and Elizabeth (Frain) Womer, and was born December 28, 1848, in that part of Union that is now Snyder county, Pennsylvania. The American ancestry of the Womer family, like unnumbered thousands of other families, reaches back but a few generations, and loses the links of its chain with Daniel Womer, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch.     Daniel Womer was born, reared and died in Lebanon, Snyder county, and saw a century, lacking two years, his life-span reaching

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