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History of Cambria County, V.3

HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY. 289
life member of Johnstown Lodge, No. 175, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
    He married, August 8, 1905, Mary Ferner, daughter of Abraham and Margaret (Patterson) Ferner, and one of ten children: Gertrude; Margaret, deceased; Myra, married John Rhodes; Edith; Mary, mentioned above; Robert, deceased; Joseph; Stuart; Maude; Helen. One child has been born to Mr. and Mrs. Hornick -- Mary Margaret, July 26, 1906.

    WILLIAM CALDWELL, M. D., for many years prominently identified with the commercial interests of the city of Johnstown, Cambria county, Pennsylvania, and an old and respected citizen of that town, is a representative of a well known family of Pennsylvania which has been settled in the state for a number of generations.
    William W. Caldwell, the father of Dr. William Caldwell, was born in Franklin county, Pennsylvania. His father, living in the vicinity of old Fort Derry, in Westmoreland county, about 1797, where he followed the occupations of blacksmithing and farming. William W. was reared in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, and removed to Armstrong county, about 1814, and removed to Indiana, Indiana county, Pennsylvania, in 1816. He was a farmer and a blacksmith, and manufactured the nails used in building the first county jail in the county. He was of Scotch-Irish descent and was a Presbyterian. His political affiliations were with the Whig party, of which he was a prominent and active member. He was twice elected treasurer of Indiana county, 1838 and 1843, and was a man of considerable importance in his time. He married Martha George, and they had four sons and four daughters who grew to maturity, and two children who died in infancy. Mr. Caldwell died in Indiana county in 1856.
    William Caldwell, M. D., son of William W. and Martha (George) Caldwell, was born in Indiana, Indiana county, Pennsylvania, June 28, 1828. He was educated in the common schools and in the Indiana Academy, and was then apprenticed to learn the trade of printing. For two years he edited the Appalachian of Blairsville. He then took up the study of medicine under the preceptorship of Drs. Jackson and McKim, prominent physicians of Blairsville; Dr. Jackson was the founder of Cresson, Pennsylvania. He then matriculated at Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, and was graduated in the year 1853. He immediately commenced the practice of his profession in New Florence, whence he removed to Blairsville, Pennsylvania, and in 1854 returned to Johnstown, where he has since that time resided. Business life appealing more to his tastes than a professional career, he engaged in the mercantile business in Johnstown in 1857, and pursued this successfully until 1889. He and his family were all in the great flood which devastated Johnstown in May, 1889, and made their escape with difficulty. His wife lost her mother, two sisters, a nephew, a niece, and the child of a niece in the flood. Dr. Caldwell was active in the Whig party prior to the Civil war, was prominent in the campaign of 1840, and later became a Republican at an organization in 1856. He has always taken an active part in local politics, and was a member of the common council of Johnstown for twenty-five years; was president of the first Republican convention in Cambria county, which sent Colonel J. M. Campbell as a delegate to the national convention in Philadelphia which nominated Fremont for president; served for a year after the flood as treasurer of Johnstown, when it was a borough, the last years as a borough and was assessor of the Fourth ward about ten years. He has been a member of Cambria Lodge, No. 278, Free and Accepted


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