John Sphar, p. 866

JOHN SPHAR. The Sphar family have been identified with the history of Washington county for many years. Mattern Sphar was born in Switzerland, and, in company with two brothers and one sister, emigrated to America at the age of seventeen years, about the year 1760. He first settled in Williamsburgh, Va., and on April 21, 1777, took the oath of allegiance under Queen Anne. He was there married to Margaret Shively, and in 1780 came to Washington county, Penn. and purchased of one Colonel Cooke 200 acres, on the Monongahela river, in what is now Washington county. He took an active part in the Whisky Insurrection, and was a soldier in the war of 1812. He died about the year 1822, leaving three children: John, Mattern (who moved to Adams county, Ohio, thence to Indiana), and Henry (lived in this county).

John Sphar was born in 1777, in Loudoun county, Va, and when but three years of age came with his parents to Washington county, Penn. He received a subscription-school education in Allen township, and as a young man was married to Susanna Redd, a native of Washington county, and reared the following children: Mary, wife of John Shively, in Guernsey county, Ohio; Jacob, was first married to Susan Wood, who died, and he was then married to Charlotte Wilson; Elizabeth, wife of Joseph Dunlevy; Daniel, married to Mary Speer and lived in Kentucky; Ann, wife of William Spah, of Indiana; Barbara, wife of William Hollingshead, Mattern, married to Margaret Coyle, of Ohio; Sarah widow of Joseph Beazell, in Allen Township; Rachel married to Robert Gailey, of Clarion county, Penn.; John, married to Lucy Ann Scott, and Henry. Of this family three are living, Sarah, John and Henry. The father voted with the Whig and Republican parties, and served as supervisor of the township. He and his wife were members of the Baptist Church. He died in 1856, having been preceded by his wife in 1852.

John Sphar was born February 26, 1817, on the old place in Allen township, Washington county, Penn. In 1839 he was united in marriage with Lucy Ann Scott, a daughter of Parker and Sarah (Carson) Scott, all of whom were natives of Fallowfield township. Her parents had twelve daughters, of whom Mrs. Sphar is the only one yet living. Mr. Sphar owns seventy five acres of the old homestead, where he has followed general farming. He cast a vote for William Henry Harrison, and since the organization of the Republican party has been an earnest supporter of that faction; he has served as a member of the school board and as supervisor. He is no less interested in religious than in political movements, having been licensed as a exhorter and class leader in the Ebenezer M. E. Church, with which his wife is also identified. The children of this influential family are as follows: Sarah, wife of William Rogers, of Fallowfied township; Parker S.; Henry, married to a Miss McElhaney, of Armstrong county, Penn.; James, deceased in his twenty-sixth year; John E.; Ann widow of Ephraim McKee; Gertrude, married to J H. Redd, and Wesley, deceased at the age of nine-teen years.

Text taken from page 866:
Beers, J. H. and Co., Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893).

Transcribed January 1997 by Judy & Lee Schaeffer of Pittsburgh, PA as part of the Beers Project.
Published January 1997 on the Washington County, PA USGenWeb pages at http://www.chartiers.com/.

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