Robert Edward Best and Mary G. Ely

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Husband Robert Edward Best ^{1 2}

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           Born: 21 Sep 1888 2
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         Father: James D. Best (1858-1917) 2 3
         Mother: Tina May Keltz (      -      ) 1 2

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       Marriage: 26 Oct 1914 2

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Wife Mary G. Ely ²

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           Born: 
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         Father: John Ely (      -      ) 2
         Mother: Kathryn Kelly (      -      ) 2

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Children

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1 M John Keltz Best ²

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           Born: 22 Jan 1916 2
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General Notes: Husband - Robert Edward Best

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His early educational training was received in the public schools of Jeannette, Pennsylvania, and he later attended the Mercersburg Academy, from which institution he graduated with the class of 1906. He then matriculated at Amherst College, where he spent a period of three years, and later entered Dickinson Law School, at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, from which he graduated in 1912 with the degree of Bachelor of Law. Mr. Best was admitted to practice before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 1913 and began practicing in Greensburg, although he made his home in Jeannette. He was a member of the law firm of Martin & Hollinsworth after his admission to the bar.
Mr. Best was a staunch supporter of Republican policies and principles, although he participated scarcely at all in local politics. He did, however, hold several important offices and was burgess of Jeannette, filling an unexpired term in the year 1913, and being assistant district attorney, 1918-1922. He was also a prominent figure in social and fraternal circles and was a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Lodge No. 486, of Jeannette, of which order he was exalted ruler in 1918; the Phi Delta Theta, college fraternity, and the Delta Ki, legal fraternity.
Besides his legal practice, he was associated with a number of important industrial concerns in the region, and was secretary and treasurer of the Phenix Oil and Gas Company of Jeannette, and secretary of the Jeannette Union Plaining Company. For a time before being admitted to the bar, Mr. Best was employed by the First National Bank of Jeannette and also by the Jeannette Savings and Trust Company.

1 Samuel T. Wiley, Biographical and Historical Cyclopedia of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: John M. Gresham & Co., 1890.), Pg 51.

2 Fenwick Y. Hedley, Old and New Westmoreland, Vols. III & IV (New York, NY: The American Historical Society, Inc., 1918), Pg 196.

3 Samuel T. Wiley, Biographical and Historical Cyclopedia of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: John M. Gresham & Co., 1890.), Pg 48.