year 1860 he purchased a house built of logs which stood on the site of his present home on Main street; this he remodeled and extended, and subsequently erected a beautiful brick dwelling for his home and three other frame dwellings; these were finished in January, 1889. He made his home in the brick building, but he had only occupied this home four months when the flood came and swept this and the other buildings away. When the work of destruction had been completed, Mr. Huebner, with indomitable courage and perseverance erected the house which was his home during the remainder of his life. Nicholas Huebner was a stanch Democrat, and a member of the Lutheran church.
Nicholas Huebner married, September 28, 1867, Elizabeth Renker, born May 4, 1838, in Londenhausen, Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, who left her native land March 10, 1867, for America, and arrived in New York on April 13 (Palm Sunday), a voyage of fourteen days by steamer from Bremen, Germany. Mrs. Elizabeth (Renker) Huebner is a daughter of Johannes and Gertrude (Eichenauer) Renker, who died in their native land, Germany. Johannes Renker was a blacksmith by trade, and a soldier in the German army. The children of Nicholas and Elizabeth Huebner were: 1. Adam, proprietor of the Maple Hotel, Johnstown, married Louisa Ott, who died in January, 1906, leaving husband and six children: Walter, married Emma Gehart; Annie, married Henry Block, two children; Margaret, married A. Cuddy Stiver; Edward, married Lulu Carter; Tillie, married George Freidel; Edna, at home. 2. Kate, wife of Louis Schmittberger, of Lorain, Ohio, and mother of three children: Meta, Freida and Gertrude Schmittberger. 3. Mary, who is at home with her mother. 4. George W., physician, graduated at the Jefferson College at Philadelphia, in 1894, serving one year at the Jefferson Hospital as resident physician; he returned to Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and practiced his profession for twelve years; he died December 21, 1906, aged forty years. 5. John J., a graduate of the Western University of Cleveland, Ohio, of the class of 1901; he is now the junior member of the firm of Ream & Huebner, real estate and general insurance: married Margaret Potter, one child, Elizabeth Renker Huebner. The death of Nicholas Huebner, which occurred October 27, 1904, deprived Johnstown of a well known citizen, deservedly esteemed for his many good qualities both as a man and a citizen.
JOHN W. JAMES, of Johnstown, is a representative of the Welsh element which has played so important a part in the upbuilding of Pennsylvania, having been born July 28, 1827, in Monmouthshire, South Wales, son of William Arthur James and grandson of William James, who was born in Breckenshire, Wales, and after his marriage moved to the mining regions of South Wales. His wife was Margaret -----.
William Arthur James, son of William and Margaret James, was born in Breckenshire, and was a child when taken by his parents to the mining district. His educational opportunities were extremely limited, and on reaching manhood he went to work in the mines. In 1848 he came with his wife and three children to the United States, making the voyage from Liverpool to New York in a sailing vessel and passing thirty-three days at sea. He went to Erie by the way of Albany and thence to Pittsburg, where he made his home, he and his two sons finding work in the neighboring coal mines. The employment, however, was very irregular, and they were obliged to move from place to place, stopping wherever they could obtain work. For a time they lived at Brady's Bend, Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, whence in 1855 they removed
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