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BIOGRAPHICAL AND PORTRAIT CYCLOPEDIA

The school boy days of Edward R. Dunegan were spent upon the farm, and he was given such educational advantages as were offered by the common schools. He was of a studious turn of mind and improved well his time, and was soon found well qualified for the profession of teaching, which he followed in connection with farming a number of years in Clearfield township. When the clouds of war arose, and the country was threatened with dismemberment, he left the school room and the farm to take up the life of a soldier. He enlisted on July 24, 1862, in company K, One Hundred and Twenty-fifth regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer infantry, and, upon the organization of the company, he was elected first lieutenant, and served until May 20, 1863, when he was mustered out at Harrisburg, this State. Among the more important battles in which he participated were the following Chantilly, August 31, 1862; South Mountain, September 13, 1862; Antietam, September 17, 1862, where one-third of the regiment was killed or wounded; Fredericksburg, December 17, 1862, and Chancellorsville, May 1-3, 1863. It was during the latter conflict, on Sunday, May 3, when the Union troops were making their retreat from the disastrous battlefield, under Geary's division of the Twelfth Army corps in the neighborhood of the Plank road, that the bravery of Lieutenant Dunegan was so marked as to attract the attention of General Geary, who complimented him in person for his gallant conduct, and afterwards urged his promotion to the position of captain in a very complimentary letter of recommendation, addressed to Andrew G. Curtin, then Governor of Pennsylvania.     Mr. Dunegan has always been a staunch democrat, and, prior to his enlistment in the service of his country, had been elected county

auditor. In 1864 he was elected a county commissioner, and served with credit a full term of three years. At the close of his service as commissioner, he engaged in the mercantile business at St. Augustine, and has continued that line to the present time. During 1879-80-81 he served as clerk to the board of county commissioners. In 1868 he was elected a justice of the peace in Clearfield township, and has served continuously in that office to the present time. His long-continued service in this office is the highest testimony of the esteem in which he is held by his neighbors, and those who know him best.     Lieutenant Dunegan is still actively engaged in the mercantile business in St. Augustine, Pennsylvania, and there is nothing affords him more pleasure than to meet an old comrade and recount the exciting scenes they participated in during the battle-storms of the great rebellion. MICHAEL BRACKEN, a highly respected citizen and successful lumber merchant and contractor, of Gallitzin, this county, is a son of Michael and Mary Coughlin Bracken, and was born in Johnstown, this county, March 26, 1832. His father, Michael Bracken, was born in Kings county, Ireland, and for a number of years was a tenant of Lord Ross, the scientist. He emigrated to America in 1827, and located for a short time in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and in 1828 removed to Johnstown, where he resided for six or seven years. From Johnstown he removed to the Viaduct, near Mineral Point, this county, where he remained until his death in 1863, aged seventy-four years. He engaged in farming to some extent, but devoted a large part of his time to contracting. His wife was also a native of Ireland, and with her husband

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