Western Pennsylvania Genealogy
Compiled by Douglas H. Lusher


Family Group Record



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Wilson Robert Darrah and Mary [2] Neese




Husband Wilson Robert Darrah 1 2

           Born: 24 Dec 1824 - Bangor, Penobscot Co, ME 2
     Christened: 
           Died: 18 Feb 1905 - Brookville, Jefferson Co, PA 2
         Buried: 


         Father: Robert Darrah (1797-1865) 3
         Mother: Lina Mitchell (      -      ) 3


       Marriage: 1860 4

   Other Spouse: Cornelia A. Van Vleck (      -1858) 4 - Mar 1846 4



Wife Mary [2] Neese 1

           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: Bef 1914
         Buried: 


         Father: [Unk] Neese (      -      ) 1
         Mother: Catherine Shuman (      -1885) 1




Children
1 M Wilmoth E. Darrah 4

           Born: 21 Jan 1866 - Brookville, Jefferson Co, PA 4
     Christened: 
           Died: Aft 1917
         Buried: 
         Spouse: Ida Lee Enfield (      -      ) 5
           Marr: 1893 5


2 F Cora May Darrah 4

           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: while young
         Buried: 



3 F Alma C. Darrah 4

           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: while young
         Buried: 



4 M Guy R. Darrah 4

           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: while young
         Buried: 



5 M Malcolm W. Darrah 4

           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: while young
         Buried: 




General Notes: Husband - Wilson Robert Darrah


He was a child at the time of the family removal to Pennsylvania, and there he was reared to adult age, and while he profited by the advantages afforded in the common schools of the day, his broader education was that gained in the school of experience. As a boy he found employment for a time in carrying the mail from Kittanning, Armstrong County, to Ridgway, Elk County, his journeying between these places being made on horseback and the intervening nights en route being passed by him at Brandy Camp. As an immature youth he also found employment as a driver on the towpath of the old Erie canal, and later he was engaged in the capacity of fireman on the Michigan Central railroad, at a time when arduous work was involved in supplying the requisite fuel to the old-time wood-burning engines and when the track was of strap-iron rails.
At the age of nineteen years he returned to New England, and after remaining two years in Hartford County, Connecticut, he gained a brief experience in connection with pioneer life in Kansas. He next engaged in agricultural pursuits in the State of Michigan. After the death of his first wife there, Mr. Darrah sold his Michigan farm and returned with his children to Brookville, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania. Upon returning to Brookville he engaged in lumbering on the Mile Hill tract, and in this enterprise he became associated with his brother, Edward H., who was his able coadjutor for many years. He became one of the prominent and successful representatives of the lumber industry in that section of the state and eventually extended his operations into Michigan, where he owned valuable tracts of white pine timber, besides which he became identified also with lumbering in the State of Washington, to which section of the Pacific coast country he made his first trip in the year 1886. He achieved substantial success through his long association with the lumber industry and continued to maintain his home at Brookville, where he lived virtually retired for several years prior to his death. He erected a commodious and attractive residence on Mill street, and there his death occurred, about two months after his eightieth birthday anniversary. He became widely known as an aggressive business man of much initiative and executive ability. Mr. Darrah was a man of strong mental grasp and had well fortified convictions concerning governmental and economic policies. Though he was essentially a business man and had no desire to enter the arena of practical politics, he gave loyal allegiance to the Republican party and was liberal and public-spirited as a citizen. His religious faith, characteristically unostentatious in its exemplification, was that of the Presbyterian Church, of which both his first and his second wives likewise were earnest adherents.


General Notes: Wife - Mary [2] Neese

from New Salem, Red Bank Twp, Armstrong Co, PA

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Sources


1 —, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Her People Past and Present (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1914), Pg 946.

2 —, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People, Vol. II (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Company, 1917), Pg 35.

3 —, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People, Vol. II (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Company, 1917), Pg 97.

4 —, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People, Vol. II (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Company, 1917), Pg 36.

5 —, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People, Vol. II (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Company, 1917), Pg 37.


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