Rev. Isaiah W. Schumaker
REV. ISAIAH W. SCHUMAKER, a Baptist clergyman of Manor township, Armstrong county, was born Nov. 16, 1839, in this county, son of Daniel and Catharine (Ringer) Schumaker.
George Schumaker, his grandfather, was of German descent, and it is believed he was the original ancestor in America to come here from Germany.
He married a Miss Miller, and subsequently took up land in Armstrong county, Pa., which he operated, being among the early settlers in his section. His children were: Isaac, John, Peter, Daniel, Joseph, and three daughters. In religious belief he was a Dunkard.
Daniel Schumaker was born in Armstrong county and was a farmer all his life. He and his wife, Catharine (Ringer) Schumaker, were the parents of eleven children: Josiah, who died young; Eliza, wife of Thomas Young;
Joseph; Sarah, wife of Gideon Heckman; Isaiah W.; Margaret, wife of Josiah Shall; Lucinda, wife of Isaac Schumaker; John; Lebenus, a Baptist minister; Mary, wife of C.W. Webster; and Albert, a Baptist minister, who died unmarried.
Isaiah W. Schumaker attended public school in Armstrong county, and studied under Prof. Samuel Murphy, a noted educator of those times. Mr. Schumaker then devoted eight years to teaching school, two of them being spent in Maryland and six in Armstrong county. He was a close student, and through his own efforts became master of the dead languages, and well informed on all the topics of the day. In 1867 he became a minister of the Brethren Church, and served in that capacity for ten years, when he was admitted to the ministry of the Baptist denomination. He is well known as a clergyman in Armstrong, Indiana, Fayette and Westmoreland counties, and for forty-seven years has labored as a minister of the gospel. Eloquent and forceful, Mr. Schumaker has exerted a powerful influence for good, and endeavors to live out in his life the principles he teaches.
In 1860 Mr. Schumaker was married to Maria McKee, daughter of Thomas McKee, .of Armstrong county. Two children have been born to this marriage, Elmer and Milton. Elmer Schumaker married Rose Zitler, of Chicago, and they have three children, Lois, Ruth and Halsey; he is a Baptist minister, and served eleven years as missionary to Japan, but is now retired, on account of failing health. Milton is a physician and surgeon of Tarentum, Pa.; married Maggie Rhodes, of Armstrong county, and they have two children, Claude (a dentist) and Margaret.
Source: Page 468-496, Armstrong County, Pa., Her People, Past and Present, J. H. Beers & Co., 1914
Transcribed May 1999 by Michael S. Caldwell for the Armstrong County Beers Project
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