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| OF CAMBRIA COUNTY. | 209 |
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(Neland) Mannion, and was born in the parish of Ballinderreen, County Galaway, Ireland, June 10, 1818. His parents were natives of County Galway, and life-long residents of Ireland, where they reared a large family of sons and daughters, all of whom remained in the "Emerald Isle" except the subject of this sketch. Mr. And Mrs. Mannion lived lives of thrift and economy on their farm, and their remains were interred with the dust of their ancestors in the old family burying grounds. John Mannion was reared on the farm, and carefully trained to farming, while his parents took great pains to instruct him thoroughly in the faith of the Catholic church. After coming to the age of manhood he was variously employed until 1846, when he resolved to seek the improvement of his fortunes in the United States. Landing at New York city, June 10, 1846, he accepted the first employment that came to hand, which was work on the New York and Erie railroad. In a short time he left the railroad and went to the Delaware and Hudson canal, on which he worked until 1848. In that year he came to western Pennsylvania, and after working for a short time on the Pennsylvania Central railroad he went into Indiana county and spent eighteen months there as a farm hand. At the end of that time he secured profitable work in the lumber region of Clearfield county, where he spent two years. He then, in 1852, purchased a small farm of seventy-three acres in Susquehanna township, paying for the same with gold brought from Ireland. Upon this farm he settled the next year and engaged in agricultural pursuits on a limited scale. With each succeeding year Mr. Mannion's adaptability for farming and farm management |
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has become more apparent in acquired acres and increased cereal and stock production. Having embarked in farming he manifested a spirit of energy and determination which insured success and prosperity. By additions he increased his seventy-three acre farm to one hundred and sixty-five acres, and he now owns six other good farms in Susquehanna and Clearfield townships, besides some valuable coal lands. He has also dealt largely and successfully in real-estate, and at one time held nearly all of the site of the villages of Platt and Plattsville. Mr. Mannion has been the moving impulse in many improvements in his section of the county, and has manifested much foresight and taste in his varied business undertakings. With but limited educational opportunities in his youth he has gathered from reading and observation such supplementary education as to render him competent to personally transact all of his own extensive business, and to bear himself with case in intelligent and educated company, while his reading and thought have always been along the current of public events, and especially in all that has reference to the early history of Cambria county, with which he is thoroughly acquainted. He is a stockholder in the Patton bank, and a consistent member of the Catholic church. In politics he has always been Democratic since coming to this country, and held the office of school director and helped to elect the first county superintendent of Cambria, before he received his naturalization papers at Ebensburg, August 12, 1855. Continually busy with his own affairs yet he has never refused to lay the cares of business aside and devote himself to his party's need or the public interest. He has served in township and county conventions, and, in 1883, was a dele- |
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