JOHN DICK COCHRAN has
been a successful farmer of Boggs Township, Armstrong County, throughout his
active years, but he has also had other interests, having been engaged for
many years in the sale of agricultural implements, and he has filled various
local offices. As farmer,
businessman and public servant, he is well and favorably known in his
district. Mr. Cochran was born
June 3, 1853 in Boggs township, on the north fork of Pine creek, and is a son
of James Sloan and Jane (Gibson) Cochran, belonging to old and respected
families of this region on both paternal and maternal sides.
The Cochran family was
originally from the North of Ireland and has been settled in Pennsylvania for
about two centuries. William
Cochran, great-grandfather of John Dick Cochran, was the son of Sir John
Cochran, and was born in eastern Pennsylvania.
Shortly after the Revolutionary was, William Cochran settled in what is
now Armstrong County, where his son James, grandfather of John Dick Cochran,
was born in 1787. He settled on a
farm, acquiring the ownership of a large tract 800 acres, then all in its
primitive condition, put up log buildings, and passed the remainder of his
life there. When he first came
there, he lived among the Indians, and they often hunted together.
Besides farming, James Cochran engaged in the manufacture of iron,
being the leading member of the company which projected Ore Hill Furnace, in
1845, and gave a fifty-acre tract of land upon which that furnace was erected.
He built the original furnace and operated it on his own account for
some time before selling it to the company.
He was one of the prominent men of his day in that and various other
connections. In religion he was a
strong Presbyterian, in politics a Democrat, and he filled a number of
township offices. His wife,
Esther Gibson, of near Kittanning, was a member of the family of that name so
numerously represented in Armstrong and Indiana counties, and the following
children were born to their union: William (born Dec. 10, 1813, died Feb. 6, 1876, married Mary
S. Quigley), John G., Samuel, Lowry, James Sloan, Levi G., Jane and
Washington.
James Sloan Cochran was born
March 11, 1821, and was reared on the old home place in Boggs Township, the
farm now owned by his son John Dick Cochran.
For a time he was at Parker, engaged in the manufacture of brick, and
then moved to Washington Township, where he kept a boarding house during the
period of the Civil War. He then
settled on part of his father�s homestead, a tract of 114 acres which he
improved very materially, replacing the log buildings with more substantial
structures. Few men of his day
were better known than Mr. Cochran. He
taught school for ten winters, during the days when the teacher boarded some
of the pupils, and during the greater part of his life he held township
office. He was auditor of
Armstrong County one year, at the time of his election to that position
polling the largest vote ever received by a Democratic nominee. He was also a candidate for member of the State Legislature.
A prominent member of the United Presbyterian Church, he served a
number of years as elder, and helped to build various churches in his section.
Mr. Cochran died Nov. 27, 1890, and his wife, Jane (Gibson), died June
21, 1886. They were the parents
of six children, two sons and four daughters:
A son that died in infancy, John Dick, Sarah, Jennie, Elizabeth and
Matilda.
John Dick Cochran attended the
common schools near his home and passed his early life assisting with the work
on the homestead. He has
continued to make its cultivation his principal occupation since it came into
his possession, at the time of his father�s death, but he had also been
interested in selling agricultural implements having acted as a traveling
salesman for the McCormicks for twenty-five years and for the Whitley Company
nearly twenty years. Mr. Cochran
has been honored with election to most of the township offices, having served
as school director for three years, assessor three years, overseer of the poor
four years, twelve years as a constable, and several years as a tax collector.
In political connection he is a Republican.
On Oct. 19, 1880, Mr. Cochran married Rebecca Jennie Lewis, of Indiana County,
PA, and they had six children, two sons and four daughters, namely: Charlie
G., who was married Aug. 15, 1906, to Olive M Bahma; James Lewis, at home;
Verna Nellie, deceased; Maudie May, who was married to Dee Gahagan Oct. 27,
1908; and Hazel Bell.
Source: Page 489-496, Armstrong County, Pa., Her People, Past and Present, J. H. Beers & Co., 1914
Transcribed September 2001 by Donna Rae Smith for the Armstrong County Beers Project
Contributed for use by the Armstrong County Genealogy Project (http://www.pa-roots.com/armstrong/)
Armstrong County Genealogy Project Notice:
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