OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

353

Dr. B. F. Mardis was born October 20, 1859. In his early life he worked on the farm and in the saw-mill of his father, meanwhile attending the public school while it was in session. His work for the profession of dentistry began when he entered the office of Dr. Wagoner, in December 1883, where he remained until June, 1884. At this time he became a student at the University of Maryland, where he spent a year, and then entering the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, he took the full course of two years, and graduated with honors in 1888. It was the directing of the whole mind and energies at one point that brought to Dr. Mardis this deserved success.     After graduating he practiced his profession at his home for about two years, and in August 1889, opened an office in Morrellville, Pennsylvania. For several years he was associated with Dr. Tomb, but is now located in his own building, which he built in 1895, and is pursuing his profession with the same diligence which marked his work as a student.     Dr. Mardis is a member of New Florence Lodge, No. 558, I. O. O. F. On September 1, 1836, he married Ida O., daughter of F. M. Litchenfelter, of Bolivar, Indiana county, and has two bright children, and a pleasant home on Barron Avenue, Johnstown. D. S. BURKHART, justice of the peace at Morrellville, and an active republican in political affairs, was born on the homestead farm in Jackson township, Cambria county, Pennsylvania, January 11, 1859, and is a son of Philip and Mollie (Shoemaker) Burkhart, respectively of Scotch and German descent. His paternal grandfather, Joseph Burkhart, was a life-long resident and successful farmer of Jackson township, in which he owned a farm containing a large vein of

cannel coal, then quite valuable. This farm was bought for $13,000 by a prospective mining company that failed, and it was taken back by Mr. Burkhart, who resided upon it until his death in 1884, at eighty-one years of age.     Joseph Burkhart was a Dunkard, a republican, and a music teacher. He was twice married. His first wife died at sixty-three years of age, leaving a family of five sons and six daughters. By his second wife, who is still living he had one child, a daughter. Of the five sons by the first marriage, Philip was the father of Squire Burkhart, the subject of this sketch. Philip Burkhart was born on the home-farm, received his education in the schools of his neighborhood, and then followed farming and tanning as his lines of special business. He was an active republican like his father, and like his father, would never accept an office. He was an active dunkard. He married Mollie Shoemaker, a daughter of Jacob Shoemaker. To their union were born four children: Samuel, a confectioner in Johnstown; D. S.; Frank, engaged in the butchering business; and James, who died in infancy. Mrs. Burkhart comes of a family noted for its longevity, her grandmother living to be ninety-three years, and her great-grandmother dying at one hundred and two years of age.     D. S. Burkhart grew to manhood on the old homestead farm in Jackson township, where he received his education in the public schools. Upon attaining his majority he left the farm and farm pursuits to enter the employ of the Cambria Iron company, for which he worked for several years, at Johnstown. Then the Pennsylvania oil field became to him, as to hundreds of others at the time, an inviting field for labor, and he removed to Mckean county; but not finding sufficient in-

Title Page

Contents

Image

Index