OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

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Catherine (Border) Swank, and was born in Johnstown, August 6, 1857.     His grandfather, Samuel Swank, was born and reared in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, where he engaged in agriculture all his life. He died in his native county in 1884. Jacob Swank (father) was born in Somerset county, and removed to Cambria county in 1856, locating in Johnstown, where he engaged in the pottery business, being a practical potter himself. He continued this business successfully until the time of the late Civil War. In 1862 he embarked in the hardware business in Johnstown, and conducted the business successfully until the flood of 1889, in which terrible disaster he lost his life, aged fifty-seven years.     He was a member of the English Lutheran church, and in politics was identified with the Democratic party. Mr. Swank was a very successful business man. He was a hard worker, and by honest methods and close attention to business he gained the confidence of all who knew him. His marriage with Catherine Border, a native of Somerset county, who also lost her life in the memorable flood, resulted in the birth of a number of children.     Morrell Swank was reared in Johnstown, and received a good common-school education. On leaving school he entered his father's hardware store as a clerk, and continued with him in that capacity until the great flood. His father having lost his life in the flood, Mr. Swank, in connection with his brothers, Harry and George W., has conducted the business under the firm-name of the Swank Hardware company.     Mr. Swank has been twice married. In 1884 he was united in marriage with Miss Ella, a daughter of the late Dr. Fry, of Johns-

town. By the first marriage Mr. Swank has one daughter living: Zora. In 1893 he married his second wife, Miss Ariminta Fry, a sister of the deceased wife. In the great flood of 1889 Mr. Swank lost his wife, one child, father, mother, brother Frederick and sister Jennie, besides about twenty other relatives. REV. ELIAS ROWLAND, a Union veteran of the late war, and a much-respected and influential citizen of Blacklick township, is one whose life has been full of incident and change. He is a son of William and Clarissa (Rundel) Rowland, and was born in Blacklick, then a part of Cambria township, Cambria county, Pennsylvania, February 16, 1833. The Rowlands are of Welsh descent, and William Rowland or Rowland Williams, as he was called in Wales, according to a peculiar custom of that country, came to the United States about the commencement of the present century, and settled in the vicinity of Ebensburg with his family, which consisted of his wife and two sons and a daughter. The sons were Ellis and Griffith, and the daughter, Janet, married William Williams, a baptist minister; the second son, Griffith Rowland, was a farmer and a baptist, like his father before him, but in addition to farming, he also kept a hotel. He died in 1847, aged seventy-six years, and his remains were interred at Bethel church, where they still rest. He was an energetic man, and married Jane Jones, a native of Wales, by whom he had seven children: William, Maria, who married John B. Crumb, and after his death wedded Joseph Craig; Isaac, Jacob, who was killed in childhood; Griffith, Jr., John and Eliza, who wedded Enoch Reese. All of these children, who grew to maturity, were baptists, and settled

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