You are here:  Cambria > Books > Biographical & Portrait Cyclopedia

OF CAMBRIA COUNTY. 457

Indiana county, and a member and the junior deacon of Summit Lodge, No. 310, Free and Accepted Masons, of Ebensburg. He is a republican politically, and has been for three years a member and the secretary of the school board of Hastings.
    Mr. Clark has, during the whole of his life, and particularly since coming to Hastings, been an active and enterprising business man. He has made his investments judiciously, and been successful in his particular lines of business. He is a pleasant and congenial gentleman, who is well deserving of his success.
    Alpheus B. Clark, on February 2, 1887, married Amanda Ache, whose father, Jacob Ache, is a resident of Gettysburg, Indiana. Their union has been blessed with two children: L. Steele and George.
    The progenitor of the Clark family in New England and Pennsylvania came from Holland, and Virtue Clark was a native of New Haven, Connecticut. He was a clockmaker by trade, and in 1841 came to a farm near Cherrytree, Indiana county, where he did some farming and followed the making of old-fashioned eight-day, brass-spring clocks, so famous as timekeepers, and now among the highest-prized articles in antiquarian collections. He was a member of the Masonic fraternity, and married Mary Catherine Grove, by whom he had nine children, six sons and three daughters, of whom the following grew to maturity: Samuel, who served in the One Hundred and Seventy-eighth Pennsylvania volunteers; James; Susan, married William Hamilton; Hannah, Sylvester, Luther M., and Alpheus B., who served in the One Hundred and Fifth Pennsylvania volunteers, and was wounded in one of the battles in which he participated. Luther M. Clark was born in York county, and was brought by his parents to near Cherry-
tree, Indiana county, where he was reared, and engaged in the lumber and general mercantile business. He is an extensive lumber dealer, has a large and heavily-stocked store, and has accumulated considerable wealth, being known as one of the leading business men of his section of Indiana county. He is republican in political affairs, but gives his time to business, being neither politician nor office-seeker.
    Mr. Clark married Elmira Hazlett, a daughter of Samuel Hazlett, of Clearfield county, and their children are: Alpheus B., the subject of this sketch; Cora, wife of Dr. James Miller, of Jeannette, Westmoreland county; Mary, married Dr. George Martin, of East Conemaugh; and Blanche, Sibyl and Dollie, who are still at home.


BENJAMIN WIRTNER, a retired business man and a highly respected citizen of Carrolltown, is a son of Nicholas and Petronilla (Greber) Wirtner, and was born in the Grand Duchy of Baden, Germany, November 30, 1824. Nicholas Wirtner was a farmer of Baden and served for thirty-five years as mayor of the town of Altdorf. He was a man of standing and influence in his community and died in November, 1844, aged eighty years.
    Benjamin Wirtner was reared on the farm, received his education in the schools of his neighborhood, and left home at eighteen years of age to learn the trade of tanner, which he followed in Baden, until 1845. He then worked for two years in Paris, France, and in February, 1847, came to the United States, landing at New Orleans, Louisiana, which he left in a few days to locate in St. Louis. Not finding work as he expected in that city, he returned to New Orleans, and after working


Previous page Title Page Contents Image Index Next page

Last Updated:
Copyright © 2000, All Rights Reserved
Lynne Canterbury and Diann Olsen