OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

215

1855, and is a son of James and Mary (Kelly) Burns.     In county Donegal, Ireland, on March 10, 1832, was born James Burns, the father of the subject of this record. James Burns was reared upon his native island until eighteen years of age, when, desiring to better his condition and to seek a liberty not attainable in that country, he emigrated to America in 1850. What is now known as South Fork was then known as the Halfway House. It was to this point that Mr. Burns came. The Pennsylvania railroad was then being built, and he secured a position in the construction of that road as sub-division boss. He was in this employ about four years, when he removed to what is now Cambria city, where he purchased a tract of land and became one of the earliest settlers and founders of the place. For about eighteen years after locating in the latter place he was engaged in the ore mines of the Cambria Iron company. After the expiration of that time he purchased a farm in Lower Yoder township, and lived upon it a quiet life as a tiller of the soil, until death ended his active and industrious life on January 27, 1878.     Politically he was a democrat of the strongest convictions, a man who labored zealously for his party; and although he had but a limited education, yet was frequently called to political positions of trust and honor. He was a man of considerable mathematical talent. He served a number of years as tax collector in Cambria city borough, and also in Lower Yoder township. When the district court was held in Johnstown, he served a number of years as tipstaff.     His marriage with Mary Kelly resulted in the birth of nine children: Cornelius, who resides on the old homestead, in Lower Yoder

township; James P., subject; John A., who is a locomotive engineer, of Chicago, Illinois; Charles, alderman of the Fifteenth ward, Johnstown; Daniel, now deceased, was a traveling salesman for Corliss Brothers, collar and cuff manufacturers; Jerre, in the hotel business, in Elyria, Ohio; Mary, the wife of Edward Waltz, of Morrellville, this county; Patrick and Katie both died in infancy.     James P. Burns had the advantages of but a common school education. Striking out into the world on his own account, he cast his fortunes among the coal miners of the anthracite coal regions of Penesylvania [sic], following this line of work about one year, when he returned to Johnstown. He took a position under the employ of the Cambria Iron company, where he learned the trade of a wire galvanizer, and worked at that trade for that company about sixteen years. He then learned the trade of a roller, and for a year and a half was engaged in the rolling of clock springs, paragon wire and brush wire. This was a line of work requiring the greatest skill; and so apt was Mr. Burns in the conception and execution of the work, that he was given a foremanship in that department a short time prior to the flood, which destroyed the enterprise. Although the establishment which had given him employment had been carried down in the path of destruction, yet Mr. Burns was not without a business and an avocation. A short time prior to that great calamity he had built a hotel in Minersville, now the Fourteenth ward of Johnstown, and after the flood devoted his energies to the running of this popular place, the Arlington hotel, a first-class frame building.     June 29, 1880, Mr. Burns and Kate, a daughter of Michael Connelly, were happily married, and their union has resulted in the birth

Title Page

Contents

Image

Index