Jacob Long
JACOB LONG, retired merchant, is now principally occupied in bee raising, and also has other interests in Armstrong county; he has lived in Red Bank township since he was ten years old. Mr. Long was born May 3, 1939, in Westmoreland county, Pa., son of Jacob and Sarah (Huffman) Long.
Jacob Long, his father, was born probably in Northumberland county, Pa., in 1796, and died in Armstrong county in 1867, at the age of seventy-one years. He was a weaver by trade. When he came to Westmoreland county he bought three acres of land, which he put under cultivation, but continued to work a his trade. In 1848, he left Westmoreland county and came to Armstrong county, settling in Red Bank township, where he purchased a tract of eighty-five acres, which, at the present time, is occupied by G. W. Hankey. He erected a weaving shop on his land and part of his crop was flax, which his sons assisted him to prepare for weaving. He married Sarah Huffman (her mother's maiden name was Good), and they had the following children: Emily, who married Peter Branthoover (both now deceased); Sarah, who died when twenty-one years old; Elinor, who died at the age of seventeen years; Hannah, who married John Wallet (both now deceased); Elizabeth, who died in Red Bank township, at the age of fifty years; Esther, who married Adam Carnahan, of Leechburg (both deceased); Solomon; Jacob; John who was killed at the battle of Gettysburg, during the Civil war; George, who is deceased; Abigail, who is the wife of G. W. Hankey and lives on the old Long homestead in Red Bank township; Mary, who is the wife of G. D. Smith, residing at New Bethlehem; Rachel, deceased, who was the wife of Wesley Neal, residing in Wayne township; and Jemima, who died when eight years old. The mother died when aged about seventy-eight years, and was buried in the Eddyville cemetery. Jacob Long, Sr., was nominally a Democrat in his political membership, but he was a man of good judgment and entertained independent views on public questions. He was a member of the German Reformed Church at Eddyville and at times served in church offices.
Jacob Long began his education in the schools of his native county and continued to attend school after the removal of the family to Red Bank township, Armstrong county. He was given good advantages, attending until twenty-one years old, after which he taught two terms in Red Bank township, first at Chestnut Ridge and later at the Cross Roads school. During the summers he worked for his father on the farm, in the winter time rafting logs on the creeks and digging coal both for his neighbors and in his own coal banks. During the Civil war period he bought a tract of seventy acres in Red Bank township, at that time mostly in timber, which he cut, rafting it to Pittsburgh. He also bought timber from other parties which he rafted to the market at Pittsburgh, being engaged in this work off and on for four years. He had considerable experience in the oil fields, where he worked for a year, there receiving the highest wages he ever earned. He was employed near Oil City and did drilling, pumping, hewing timber and cutting cordwood. He has made other purchases of farm land, his holdings today aggregating about 150 acres, one hundred acres of which are cleared and the balance in timber. Though he was engaged in lumbering for some years he sold considerable of his timber on the stump, and his son, George H. Long, now has a portable sawmill on his property and is cutting the remainder of his timber. Until 1885 Mr. Long carried on farming in connection with his other operations, in that year embarking in the general mercantile business, buying a store at Phoenix, Armstrong county, which he carried on for about twenty years. When he first gave up that business he lived retired about six years and then conducted his store again for three years, at the end of which time he again retired. His principal occupation at present is the raising of bees, of which he has a present thirteen colonies. He owns a half interest in a grist mill a Phoenix, which his son-in-law, C. K. Barnett, operates, and he owns a tract of twenty-two acres in Wayne township, this county, which is occupied by his son Barclay E. Long (an addition to the 150 acres before mentioned).
Mr. Long has held positions of high responsibility in his locality. He was formerly treasurer of the township, and for one term a notary public, his commission expiring March 10, 1913. He has been quite prominent in church work. Originally a member of the Lutheran Church, he served as elder, later joining the Methodist Church at Phoenix, of which he was a trustee, and he also taught in the Sunday school. Many years ago he was a member of the Armstrong county Grange. Politically Mr. Long is a Democrat.
In 1865 Mr. Long married Catherine Ann Doverspike, daughter of Daniel and Margaret (Beck) Doverspike, of Mahoning township, this county, who are mentioned elsewhere. Mrs. Long was born in December, 1839, and died April 21, 1912, at Phoenix, where she is buried. Nine children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Long: Valeria died in infancy; Nanina May died when between two and three years of age; Daniel Webster, late of Indiana Harbor, Ind., married Lottie Matthews; Barclay Esco, of Wayne township, married Cora Hetrick; George Hubert, of Red Bank township, married Dessie Smith; Effie married Luke Shumaker, of Clarion, Pa.; Elsie is married to David Keppel, of Indiana Harbor, Ind., Jacob H., of Vandergrift, Westmoreland county, married Bertha Little; Pansie is the wife of C. K. Barnett, of Phoenix, Pennsylvania.
Source: Pages 583-585, Armstrong County, Pa., Her People, Past and Present, J.H. Beers & Co., 1914
Transcribed January 1999 by Connie Mateer for the Armstrong County Beers Project
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