William A Shuster
WILLIAM A. SHUSTER, superintendent of the works of the Pittsburgh Shovel Company, at Leechburg, Pa., was born at New Brighton, Beaver Co., Pa., Sept. 25, 1865, son of James H. Shuster.
Malachi Shuster, the grandfather of William Shuster, and the first of the family to settle at New Brighton, Pa., was one of the early wheelwrights there and was a well-known man. He died when aged sixty-five years. He had four daughters and the following sons: Lowrey, George, William and James H.
James H. Shuster, father of William A. Shuster, was born at New Brighton, Pa., July 29, 1832. He learned the wheelwright's trade with his father and followed the same until he moved to Beaver Falls, Pa., where he was placed in charge of the forging department of a large cutlery factory. He remained there for some years and then accepted a position with the shovel works, after which he retired. In politics he is a Republican, and he has served Beaver Falls in several official positions, in 1904, being elected a justice of the peace, in which office he continues. Mr. Shuster is one of the leading members of the Methodist Protestant Church at Beaver Falls. He married Clorinda Miller, and they have the following children: Emma, Ida, Ella, Blanche, Sarah, James Henry, Jr., John T. and William A. Mr. Shuster served three years, three months, nineteen days as a soldier in the Civil war, a member of Company M, 7th Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry, and during this time participated in many important battles which engaged the attention of the Army of the Potomac.
William A. Shuster attended the public schools at New Brighton until he was fifteen years of age, at which time he began to learn the shovel manufacturing business in the H. M. Myers shovel works at Beaver Falls, where he was employed fourteen years, becoming an experienced and reliable shovel maker. He then went to Hyde Park, in Westmoreland county, where he was employed as a foreman for two and a half years in the sheet mill. When the Pittsburgh Shovel Works were completed, in February, 1901, Mr. Shuster was secured as superintendent. The company purchased the old Mesta foundry and machine shops at Leechburg, and owns five acres of land, three acres of which are covered with the buildings needed for the plant in the manufacture of shovels. The company is well financed, H. P. Goff, of Pittsburgh, being its president. Employment is given to from fifty-five to sixty men, and every known kind of shovel is manufactured, this being one of the largest plants of the kind in the country. It is equipped with all the latest improvements in the way of machinery and is one of the important industrial establishments of Armstrong county. Mr. Shuster makes all his own patterns for the great variety of work done there.
On Oct. 20, 1887, Mr. Shuster was married to Kate Mary Lloyd, daughter of D. D. Lloyd, once a well-known merchant at Apollo, Pa. Mr. and Mrs. Shuster have the following children: Paul H., Norman L., David H., Alvin and Clare. The family belongs to the Lutheran Church. Politically Mr. Shuster is a Republican, and at the present time is serving a four-years' term as councilman. He is a Knight of Pythias, an Elk, a member of the Royal Arcanum and of the local fire company.
Source: Page 724 Armstrong County, Pa., Her People, Past and Present, J.H. Beers & Co., 1914
Transcribed October 1998 by Joyce Sherry for the Armstrong County Beers Project
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