Gen. Samuel Power and Elizabeth Penny

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Husband Gen. Samuel Power ^{1 2 3}

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           Born: Abt 1774 - Loudoun Co, VA
     Christened: 
           Died: 22 Aug 1840 - Freedom, Beaver Co, PA 1 4 5
         Buried:  - Beaver Co, PA

       Marriage: 

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   Other Spouse: Louisa Kean (      -Aft 1875) 6 - 3 Jul 1836 1

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Wife Elizabeth Penny ^{2 3}

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           Born: Abt 1778 - New Jersey
     Christened: 
           Died: 27 Aug 1830 - ? Beaver Co, PA 7
         Buried:  - Beaver Co, PA

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Children

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1 M Gen. Thomas J. Power ^{2 9}

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            AKA: George Thomas J. Powers 8
           Born: 7 Jul 1808 - Beaver Co, PA 2
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Mary Ann Johnson (      -      ) 2
           Marr: 1832 2

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2 M James Madison Power ^{5 10}

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           Born: 5 Oct 1810 10
     Christened: 
           Died: 12 May 1859 10
         Buried:  - Beaver Co, PA

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3 F Sarah Power ^{5 11}

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

         Spouse: John Eberhart (1792-1858) 11

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General Notes: Husband - Gen. Samuel Power

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He came to what is now Beaver County, Pennsylvania, in 1796, and settled where is now the county seat. He was a farmer, and took care to have his children taught the English language. He was elected sheriff of Beaver County in 1809; served as a member of the legislature; also as adjutant-general of the state. In later life he was a merchant at Freedom. His son, Thomas J., was the fifth of ten children.

He was a Major in the War of 1812, Adjutant-General of Pennsylvania for six years, and member of the State Legislature for some years; lived about forty years at Beaver, Pennsylvania.

He came to Beaver County, Pennsylvania, in the year 1796, and settled on a farm where Chewton was later located on the east side of the Beaver River. His wife brought with her a family of negro slaves consisting of "Old Kit" and his wife and four children\emdash two boys and two girls. From the two boys came all the Pennys of negro blood in Beaver County.
Mr. Power began to take an active part in the interests of the Democratic party soon after he came to Pennsylvania, and he was elected Sheriff of Beaver County in 1809 and served till 1812. His election brought him to the county seat, and he took up his residence on the southwest corner of McIntosh Square. He purchased a farm near Beaver on the upper waters of Two-Mile Run, where he continued farming some years, and at the same time he was engaged in merchandising with his son-in-law, John Eberhart, Jr., on the corner of Third Street on the public square in a building which stood where the Masonic Hall now stands.
He was elected to the State Senate and served in the years 1825 to 1827, and in 1829 was elected to the House, of which he was a member from 1829 to 1833. He was a man of much public spirit, and was instrumental in securing the first appropriation by the state to construct the Ohio and Pennsylvania Canal from Rochester to the Ohio state line west of Mahoningtown, and thus connecting by a similar enterprise in Ohio the cities of Pittsburgh and Cleveland by an unbroken line of water transportation. His action and interest in this enterprise gave him great popularity in the state, and at the expiration of his last term in the Legislature he was appointed Superintendent of the Canal and served in that capacity until the year 1836.
He served in the War of 1812 as Inspector with the rank of Major in the Second Brigade of the Sixteenth Division of Pennsylvania, Militia, and marched to Meadville under orders received from the Governor under date of September 5, 1812. He served, also, in an expedition toward Erie in the months of January and February, 1814, when it was supposed some of the English forces were dangerously near that place. He was appointed Adjutant-General of the State in May, 1830, and served till August, 1836.
He left to survive him two sons, Thomas J. and James M., both of whom became prominent in the State. James M. built a large portion of the Erie Extension of the Ohio and Pennsylvania Canal; was a successful merchant and iron manufacturer for a number of years in Mercer County; was elected on the Whig ticket in 1847 as Canal Commissioner, and in 1848 was appointed by President Taylor, Minister to Naples and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. He made the first and only improvements, under a contract with the federal government, that ever were made prior to the completion of the Davis Island dam, on the Ohio River, from the mouth of the Beaver to Pittsburg. Those improvements can still be seen at a low stage of water.
Thomas J. Power was a civil engineer, and was engaged, in his early years, on the Pennsylvania Canal and Portage Railroad; and also on the first surveys of what is now known as the Philadelphia Railroad. He was one of the promoters of the Erie and Pittsburg Railroad. He was Adjutant-General of the State from October 25, 1856, to February 5, 1858.
General Samuel Power died at Beaver, August 22, A.D. 1840, and " sleeps his last sleep " beside his wife, Elizabeth Penny, and his son James Madison Power, in the old grave yard in the northwest corner of the county town. His second daughter, Sarah Power, became the wife of John Eberhart, Jr., and Gilbert Leander Eberhart, who furnishes this sketch, is her fifth and youngest child.

1 John E. Alexander, A Record of the Descendants of John Alexander (Philadelphia, PA: Alfred Martien, 1878), Pg 30.

2 —, History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia and Chicago: A. Warner & Co., Publishers, 1888), Pg 804.

3 Rev. Joseph A. Bausman, A.M, History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania (New York, NY: The Knickerbocker Press, 1904), Pg 227.

4 —, History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia and Chicago: A. Warner & Co., Publishers, 1888), Pg 112.

5 Rev. Joseph A. Bausman, A.M, History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania (New York, NY: The Knickerbocker Press, 1904), Pg 228.

6 John E. Alexander, A Record of the Descendants of John Alexander (Philadelphia, PA: Alfred Martien, 1878), Pg 29.

7 —, History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia and Chicago: A. Warner & Co., Publishers, 1888), Pg 111.

8 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of Western Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1915), Pg 128.

9 Rev. Joseph A. Bausman, A.M, History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania (New York, NY: The Knickerbocker Press, 1904), Pg 224.

10 —, History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia and Chicago: A. Warner & Co., Publishers, 1888), Pg 116.

11 —, History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia and Chicago: A. Warner & Co., Publishers, 1888), Pg 646.