Stephen John Brinker and Alice Jane Leezer
Husband Stephen John Brinker 1
Born: 31 Oct 1836 - Butler Co, PA 2 Christened: Died: Aft 1918 Buried:
Father: John M. Brinker (1803-1884) 3 4 5 Mother: Elizabeth "Betsey" Henry (1808-1883) 3 6 7
Marriage: 26 Oct 1865 8
Wife Alice Jane Leezer 8
Born: Christened: Died: 8 Nov 1915 8 Buried: - Union Cemetery
Father: Peter Leezer ( - ) 8 Mother:
Children
1 M Harry L. Brinker 8
Born: Christened: Died: Buried:
2 F Laura Jane Brinker 8
Born: Christened: Died: Buried:Spouse: J. K. Griffith ( - ) 8
3 M William H. Brinker 8
Born: Christened: Died: Buried:Spouse: Sara Keltz ( - ) 8 Marr: East Pittsburgh, Allegheny Co, PA
4 M Samuel P. Brinker 8
Born: Christened: Died: Buried:Spouse: Amy Waggy ( - ) 8
5 F Lottie E. Brinker 8
Born: Christened: Died: Buried:Spouse: A. R. Bower ( - ) 8
General Notes: Husband - Stephen John Brinker
He was reared on his father's farm in Clearfield township, Butler County, Pennsylvania. In the year 1840 his father removed to the Ligonier Valley and began to clear a new farm in the midst of the great forest, which stretched unbrokenly over such a vast area in eastern America. He cleared a small place in the woods and built a house of round logs, with a clapboard roof. The primitive quality of the life of the family may be imagined when it is stated that their dwelling had but one room and there were ten children. As a lad Stephen J. scutched flax for his mother, and during the summer time helped to spin the wool from which the winter garments of the family were made. During the summer the children went barefooted and bareheaded, the boys wearing linen pants and shirts as their sole garments. It was of course necessary for the entire family to lend assistance in the task of securing a livelihood, even to the small children, and it was early the task of Mr. Brinker to assist in clearing and cultivating a small patch for the raising of grain. Here the principal crop was corn and this prolific staple proved the chief diet of the family. When Mr. Brinker was a lad of fourteen years, his father, with his son's assistance, built a new house in the middle of this plot of ground, which contained two rooms and to this they added later two additional rooms. At this age the lad was able to wield with skill the broad-axe, with which he hewed timbers for the second house, and indeed the lad had a natural bent for mechanical work of all kinds, which this early training developed to a high pitch of skill. He later followed the trade of carpenter and was always considered one of the most proficient and skillful in the community, especially in the use of the broad-axe. When a mere lad of eleven years of age, he had served an apprenticeship with a shoemaker in Cook township in the Ligonier Valley, one Henry Burrell by name, with whom he remained for two years and seven months. After he had finished learning the trade he received from his employer the sum of twenty-five cents per day for work on the farm. While still very young he went to Somerset County and spent about ten months learning to make shoes under Casper Jacobs, a native of Germany who had settled in that region. He worked for two years as a journeyman at this trade in a shop in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and then came back to Somerset County, where he worked in the same line under William Krouse. He was considered to be one of the most expert shoemakers in the region. He then returned to his father's home, where he worked as a carpenter for a few months, and then came to Stahlstown and there established himself in the shoe business. He ran a shoe shop there for Mr. Joseph M. Camel until the following spring, and then returned to his old trade of carpenter and hewed timber for the barn of Mr. William Irwin and afterwards for a house put up by Mr. Irwin. Once more, in the fall, he took up the shoe business and this time conducted a shop for William Koozer in Stahlstown. In the spring he returned to Mr. Irwin and worked for him during the remainder of the summer. In the year 1859 Mr. Brinker was employed by Mr. Mellon Hill, with whom he boarded, and for whom he hewed timber for use in the construction of the Pennsylvania Railroad. After working for about a year with him he returned to his father's home and there engaged in farming once more. With how much success may be gathered from the fact that in the year 1860 he raised three hundred and twenty bushels of buckwheat. With the spring of 1861 came the great Civil War, and Mr. Brinker enlisted in the Union Army, April 1, in that year. He became a private in Company K, Eleventh Pennsylvania Regiment of Reserves, which was sent to Washington, D. C., and afterwards served in the Army of the Potomac for a period of three years. He eventually received his honorable discharge at Washington in the autumn of 1863. During the interval Mr. Brinker had seen much active service and been present in many of the most important engagements of the war, particularly those connected with the Virginia campaign. He did not take advantage of his discharge to take up a peaceful life again, however, but once more enlisted in the spring of 1864, this time in Company E, Two Hundred and Eleventh Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, under Colonel Dodds, of Philadelphia. Once more he returned to the front and continued in active service until the surrender of General Lee at Appomattox Court House. He was one of those to take part in the Grand Review of Troops held at Washington immediately after the war, and he was also fortunate enough to be so close to the principal actors at Appomattox that he saw General Lee offer his sword to General Grant and later shook hands with the great Confederate general. At the close of hostilities Mr. Brinker returned north, but while in Virginia first received news of the assassination of President Lincoln. He was finally mustered out of service at Arlington Heights, from which he marched to Grand River, back to Asylum Heights and from there to Harrisburg.
He then established his home at Pleasant Unity, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, where he followed his trade of shoemaking for six years, and then removed to Monongahela City, Washington County, Pennsylvania, where he took charge of a large saw mill on the river there, and continued in that capacity for two years and seven months. Mr. Brinker then removed to Tarr Station, Southwestern Railroad, and worked as carpenter there during the summer and as a coal miner during the winter for ten years. He was employed by the Southwest Coal Company, and afterwards became associated with that concern. Eventually, however, he sold out his interest and returned to Pleasant Unity, where he purchased some property and remained during the following ten years. It was in the year 1890 that Mr. Brinker finally came to Greensburg, where he bought a desirable lot, measuring sixty by one hundred and twenty feet, and there built a handsome house, on the site of the old Baer Mills. Here he lived for some seven or eight years, but in 1897 or 1898 he sold this and purchased another house, in which he made many improvements. At the time that he bought it the house contained only four rooms, but this number was increased to ten, and the place was entirely modernized with many improvements. After coming to Greensburg, Mr. Brinker engaged in the contracting business, in which he met with a very high degree of success, and besides his large business in the immediate vicinity did a considerable trade at Youngstown, Ohio, building fourteen houses in that town as well as an equal number in the country surrounding. He also built four houses at South Greensburg. He continued in this business for a quarter of a century or more, and then retired from the responsibility incident to the running of his own enterprise, returned to his old trade of carpenter and worked in this capacity for the firm of Kelly & Jones, as he could not endure to be idle.
1 Fenwick Y. Hedley, Old and New Westmoreland, Vols. III & IV (New York, NY: The American Historical Society, Inc., 1918), Pg 1064, 1103.
2 Fenwick Y. Hedley, Old and New Westmoreland, Vols. III & IV (New York, NY: The American Historical Society, Inc., 1918), Pg 1104.
3 —, History of Butler County, Pennsylvania (R. C. Brown & Co. Publishers, 1895), Pg 1186.
4 —, History of Butler County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Waterman, Watkins & Co., 1883), Pg 172, 841.
5 Fenwick Y. Hedley, Old and New Westmoreland, Vols. III & IV (New York, NY: The American Historical Society, Inc., 1918), Pg 1063, 1104.
6 —, History of Butler County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Waterman, Watkins & Co., 1883), Pg 302.
7 Fenwick Y. Hedley, Old and New Westmoreland, Vols. III & IV (New York, NY: The American Historical Society, Inc., 1918), Pg 1036, 1064, 1104.
8
Fenwick Y. Hedley, Old and New Westmoreland, Vols. III & IV (New York, NY: The American Historical Society, Inc., 1918), Pg 1106.
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