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BIOGRAPHICAL AND PORTRAIT CYCLOPEDIA

Mary, Edwin F., Milton, editor of the Spangler Sentinel; William, died early; Orville, a carpenter of Toledo, Ohio; Nellie, wife of H. M. Neff, of Hastings; Bessie, married John S. Glunt, of the city of Altoona; Kirby, now dead; Grace, wife of Westley James, of South Fork; Cora, Maggie and Rawley, now deceased; and three others, who died in infancy.     Edwin F. Spencer received his education in the Blair county common schools and the Williamsburg academy. Leaving farm work at fifteen years of age, he drove from Jamesville to Tyrone city, and then learned, with his father, the trade of carpenter, which he followed for seventeen years. The last ten years of that time he was engaged in contracting and building, and erected most of the houses built from 1876 to 1886 in Reade and White townships. In 1876 he had opened undertaking and furniture establishments at Glasgow and Coalport, which he disposed of in 1889 to come to Hastings and take personal charge of his present drug store, which he had purchased from B. A. Nelson in 1884. His drug store is in the Wyland block, and he has built up a fine patronage. Mr. Spencer is prominent in beneficial societies. He is a member of the junior Order of United American Mechanics, Glen Hope Lodge, No. 659, I.O.O.F.; Summit Lodge, No. 312, F. and A. M., of Ebensburg, of which he served as worshipful master for four years; and the Knights of the Golden Eagle, of which he is a past noble chief. He also served as deputy district grand master in 1893 of the district in which his castle is situated.     Edwin F. Spencer is a staunch republican in politics, and has been active in the interests of his party in Cambria county for over twenty years. He served his borough for six years as a member and the secretary of its

school board, and was a councilman for three years. In May, 1896, after one of the hardest political battles ever fought in Cambria county, he received the nomination for county treasurer, and was elected.     On July 29, 1872, Mr. Spencer was united in marriage with Ettie Megahan, daughter of William Megahan, of Williamsburg, Blair county. Mr. and Mrs. Spencer have had three children, a son and two daughters: William, deceased; Minerva and Leona.     In business Mr. Spencer is energetic and wide-awake, and has made a successful record. A representative business man and an influential factor in politics, he is courteous and congenial, and has the good-will and confidence of all who know him. CYRUS SHEPHERD, former school principal, and the present superintendent of the Conemaugh coal mines, is a son of William W. and Sarah (Beatty) Shepherd, and was born in Young township, Jefferson county, Pennsylvania, September 6, 1851. The earliest member of the Shepherd family in Pennsylvania came from England and was of English parentage; as well as of English nativity. In direct line from this emigrant ancestor was Joshua Shepherd, who came in early life to two miles south of Indiana, in Indiana county, where he operated a woolen mill for many years. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and died at eighty-three years of age. His son, William W. Shepherd, was born 1819, in Bedford county, learned the trade of carder and spinner, and worked in a number of woolen mills in different counties of Pennsylvania. He now resides in Franklin borough, to which he removed in 1892. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, like his father before him. He married

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