JOHN AIKEN. Joseph Aiken, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, came to this country from Coleraine, County Londonderry, Ireland, near the beginning of the present century. He was a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian, his ancestry having been driven over from Scotland at the time of the persecution. Four brothers came, first stopping in Adams county, Penn.; then one settled and died in Lawrence county, Penn., another removed to Harrison county, Ohio, and two remained in Washington county, Penn., one in the northern part and Joseph in Canton township. The one last named was a linen weaver. He died in 1843, and was buried in North Buffalo churchyard. He had ten children, of whom William was the eighth. William learned the tailor's trade with Charles Hawkins in Washington, Penn., whom he served as an apprentice from the age of fourteen until he was twenty-one. He started in business first at West Liberty, W. Va, but soon moved to Short creek, Jefferson county, Ohio, where he remained many years. He is still living in a warm, heartsome old age, on his farm at Coolville, Ohio. He first married Nancy Daugherty the eldest of twenty-one children at West Middletown, Penn., in 1843; and several years after her death became the husband of Maggie Stollar, whose father belonged to the family of that name in West Finley township, in this county. John Aiken, the eldest of twelve children of William, was born in West Liberty, W. Va., February 7, 1844. When he was a few weeks old the family moved to McKee's Factory, Jefferson county, Ohio. After he attained sufficient age he worked at farming during the summer and attended school in the winter, until August, 1862, when at the age of eighteen, he enlisted in the Union Army, in Company D, One Hundred and Twenty-Sixth O. V. I. During the first nine months he served at Cumberland, Md., and Martinsburg, W. Va., when the regiment became a part of the Third Corps, Army of the Potomac, and later of the Sixth Corps. He served as private, corporal and sergeant. On September 18, 1864, when he was serving in this regiment under Gen. Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley, he received from the War Department a commission as first lieutenant in the Twenty-Ninth U. S. C. T., with an order to report for duty in the Army of the Potomac. He remained, however, with the old regiment for several days, and participated in the battles of Opequan, September 19; Flint Hill, September 21; and Fisher's Hill, September 22. On September 28, he started to join his new regiment, into which he was mustered October 10, 1864, at Poplar Grove Church, Virginia. This regiment then formed a part of the Fourth division of the Ninth Corps. It was afterward transferred to the Twenty-fifth Corps, in the Army of the James, in front of Richmond. Ten days after he was mustered in, he was placed in charge of and was the only officer in the company. From that time until he was mustered out in December, 1865, excepting a few days, he was in command of a company in this regiment. In the early part of 1865 he passed the requisite examination, and was recommended for promotion to a captaincy. He was informed that the commission was ordered, but it was so near the close of the war he never received it, and, consequently was not mustered. He was in the campaign that ended in, and was present at, General Lee's surrender. He was in twelve battles and many skirmishes, but was never wounded. In January, 1866, Mr. Aiken became a student in Washington and Jefferson College, and remained there two years; at the end of which time he began the study of law with Alexander Wilson, of Washington, Penn., and was admitted to the bar there, December 13, 1869, since which time he has devoted himself exclusively to the practice of his profession. He was elected a ruling elder in the First Presbyterian Church in Washington in February, 1883, and was commissioner to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church at Omaha, Neb., in 1887, serving as a member of the judicial committee of that body. The chief glory of his civil life, however, is in the relation of teacher in the Sabbath-school of the First Presbyterian Church since March, 1866, and from 1874 of the Student's Bible class, whose average annual enrollment has been about fifty. Over one hundred and twenty-five representatives of this class have gone into the Christian ministry. He is a director of the Washington Refining Company, also of the Washington Fire Insurance Company, the First National Bank of Washington, and a member of the Board of Trustees of Washington and Jefferson College. The subject of this memoir was married to Jennie Blaine in December, 1869, in East Bethlehem township, Washington county, and from this union there have come five children: Mary, attending the Western Female Seminary at Oxford, Ohio; Blaine, a student at Washington and Jefferson College; Rose, also at the Western Female Seminary at Oxford, Ohio; and Ella and John, in the Union School of Washington. Mrs. Aiken's father, Matthew Blaine, lives at Beallsville, Penn. His father, Leonard Blaine, was one of the old-time Scotch-Irish "School Masters." He did good service in the line of his profession for many years in the eastern end of this county.

Text taken from page 230 of: Beers, J. H. and Co., Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893). Transcribed April 1997 by Neil and Marilyn Morton of Oswego, IL as part of the Beers Project. Published April 1997 on the Washington County, PA pages at http://www.chartiers.com/.

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