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BIOGRAPHICAL AND PORTRAIT CYCLOPEDIA

Iowa; George J., and Matilda, the wife of F. D. Saupp, of Altoona, Pennsylvania.     George J. Myers, whose boyhood days were spent near Williamsport, never had the advantages of common school education. He remained with his parents until he was twelve years old, and during these years his father taught him to read and write in the German language. He had a retentive memory, and being a constant reader and a close observer of human events, he has through his own efforts obtained a good practical education. When but twelve years old he worked on the old Portage railroad as errand boy, serving in this capacity six months, and in the following spring went to Johnstown, this county, where he worked on the old Pennsylvania canal from March, 1833, until June, 1837. In the latter year he went to Philadelphia and secured an appointment on the police force of that city, and although young and small, proved himself a courageous and efficient officer.     In November of 1837 he retired from the police force and went to Spruce creek to work as furnace-man for John Lemon, the blower at Pennsylvania furnace. He remained here for six years and then took charge of Mitchell's furnace in Upper Dauphin county, Pennsylvania, and in two years was able to clear $10,000, which he lost during the next two years on account of the Walker Tariff law of 1846. He was now penniless and from a financial standpoint had to begin life anew. He walked to his home in Blair county and soon secured work at the Elizabeth furnace; here he commenced to write English under Martin Bell, who was superintendent, and remained there fifteen months. For the next three years he was foundryman of the Ashville furnace of this county, owned by Hugh McNeal, of Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. About this time he built and

operated three coke ovens the first in this county, using the coke produced in the furnace he was operating.     In March, 1851, he located on his present farm in Gallitzin township, which at that time was a dense forest. By the 25th of the following September he had cleared a small tract of land and had built and moved into a small shanty. By dint of hard work and indefatigable energy, he has cleared and improved one hundred and fifty acres, and now owns one of the most desirable farms in the county.     In religious faith he and his entire family are devout and consistent members of the Roman Catholic church. In politics Mr. Myers was an old-line whig, but on the disruption of that party and the organization of the Republican party, he became a republican, and in 1856 attended the first Republican County convention held in Cambria county. His voice was heard from the hustings in the memorable campaign of 1840, when the log cabin and the political slogan of "Tippecanoe and Tyler too," enthused the masses, and made it one of the most noted campaigns in the history of political parties. He has always taken a very prominent part in the politics of his township as the following record will show: For three years he was county poor director; for twenty-five years, served as justice of the peace of Gallitzin township; was assessor of his township for seventeen years, road supervisor for six years, collected the school tax for his township for seven years; served on school board twelve years; as township auditor for twenty-nine consecutive years, and has acted as school treasurer of his township from 1876 to the present time. This evidences in a marked degree the confidence reposed in him by the people who know him best. At one period he filled five offices in his township.

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