Daniel Slagle
DANIEL SLAGLE, of Templeton, Armstrong county, has been one of the most diligent officials of that village and Pine township for a number of years, having served faithfully in several trusts and shown his ability and public spirit in handling the various responsibilities which have devolved upon him. He is a native of Manor township, this county, born Sept. 16, 1843, and the family is of German descent, his grandparents, Hiram and Barbara (Hottenburg) Slagle, having been born in Germany.
Abraham and Christina (Bowser) Slagle, parents of Daniel Slagle, were both natives of eastern Pennsylvania. He was born in 1818, and came to Armstrong County, Pa., with his parents, locating in Manor township. Later he settled in Pine township, moving thither in 1847 from the Bowser farm in Manor township, upon which he had lived for several years after his marriage. He put up a log cabin a half mile east of Templeton, and for eight years after settling there followed mining. He then took up farming. In 1856 he went to Orr Hill Furnace, working at the furnace, and later to the Patton farm in Pine township, upon which place he had his home for thirty years, dying there in 1896. He followed farming there, and also worked at coopering. Though he had little chance for schooling in his youth, Mr. Slagle was so industrious and ambitious that he made his enterprises prosper, and he became one of the substantial residents of his section. His wife, Christina (Bowser), whom he married in 1839, also died in Pine township, Aug. 31, 1908. They were members of the Church of God. They were the parents of nineteen children, two dying at birth, and thirteen growing to maturity. We have the following record of this family: George, who is now deceased; Ann, deceased; Daniel; Jacob, living at Wickboro, Pa.; Melissa, deceased; Joseph, deceased; Salathiel, deceased; Wilson, deceased; Washington, deceased; James, deceased; John, who lives at Templeton, Pa.; Mary, deceased; Jennie, of Wickboro, Pa.; Melindia, of Westmoreland county, Pa.; Emanuel, of Climax, Pa; Smith, who is a miner in Pine township; Rose, who married John Johnson, of Templeton; and Alice, wife of M. Carl, a railroad foreman, of Wickboro.
Daniel Slagle had few educational opportunities in his youth. The school was three miles distant, and he attended only three months in all. But he has made up for early deficiencies by intelligent application and hard work. At the age of fourteen he started to work away from home, continuing thus until he was eighteen, at which time he enlisted in the Union army for service in the Civil war. On Aug.14, 1861, he joined Company B, 78th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, at Kittanning, this county, and was sent to Camp Wright, above Pittsburgh, remaining there two weeks. He then joined Gen. James S. Negley's brigade, going by boat to Louisville, Ky. The command then started through Kentucky and Tennessee, going to Chattanooga. While on skirmish duty at Elkton, Ala., in July, 1862, Mr. Slagle was wounded in the right eye, losing its sight, and on Jan. 2, 1863, at the battle of Stone River, he received an injury in his right forearm, being disabled until March 11, 1863. He was in the field hospital at Nashville, Tenn. Rejoining his company at Murfreesboro, he was in the campaign through Georgia, took part in the battles of Chickamauga, Resaca, Deep Gap, Atlanta campaign, and Lookout Mountain, being under fire for forty-two days and nights, and after the battle of Atlanta went back to Chattanooga. They were engaged in guarding trains for three months, and Mr. Slagle's time then expiring he received his discharge, Nov. 2, 1864, and returned to his home. The whole regiment at Nashville went out to drive General Wheeler out of Tennessee, going to a point on the Tennessee railroad to Pulaski and other places, being thus occupied for two months, returning to Nashville. Then they went by boat to Pittsburgh.
After his return from the army Mr. Slagle followed mining for fourteen years, being thus employed at Parker, Armstrong county, and in Apollo, Westmoreland county, where for nine years he looked after the opening of mines for N. Beal. In 1882 he settled at Templeton, in Pine township, Armstrong county, and bought a home, and there he has since resided. He owns considerable real estate in the village, and has been thoroughly identified with its activities. For eight years he was justice of the peace. He has been township auditor several terms, was supervisor of the township three years under the new act, and was collector and treasurer for three years, resigning in the fall of 1910, when he went out to Oregon, purchasing a twenty-acre fruit tract near Rainier, in Columbia county, which he still owns. His intelligent services have won him the esteem of all his fellow citizens, and he has made a creditable place for himself among them. He has always been a stanch Democrat in politics, and has done good work for his part in the locality.
On Feb. 28, 1865, Mr. Slagle married Martha Jane Leisure, of Armstrong county, daughter of Washington and Julia Ann (Wyant) Leisure, natives of Pennsylvania. The Leisures are of French origin. In 1860 Washington Leisure and his family went to Ohio, where they remained for two years, returning to Pennsylvania because of sickness in the family. His children were: Martha Jane, Mrs. Daniel Slagle; Priscilla, who married Cham Bowser, a miner and is living at Natrona, Pa.; Fried, deceased, late of Templeton, Pa.; Alexander, who is living in Allegheny county, Pa.; Catherine, who married Robert Huey, a miner, and is living at Natrona; William, of Kittanning, Pa.; Margaret, of New York City, wife of E. B. Sproule, a real estate dealer; and Daniel, of Natrona. The mother of this family was first married to Harry Gould, who died in 1848, leaving her with two sons; Henry, now deceased; and John, who married Christine Adams and resides at Youngstown, Ohio.
During the Civil war Washington Leisure enlisted in Company D, 103d Pennsylvania Regiment, Volunteer Infantry, was captured at the battle of Fair Oaks, and was in Andersonville prison for fourteen months. He was discharged in 1865, and coming back to Armstrong county settled in Madison township. He died there in December, 1878, aged fifty-four years; his wife died in 1907, at the age of eighty-two.
Mr. and Mrs. Slagle had a family of nine children, namely: Florence, wife of Jack McGinbey, a bricklayer, of Pittsburgh, Pa.; Cora, wife of Frank Swigart, a railroad man, of Pittsburgh; Anna, wife of A. M. Hilty, who is employed in a sheet mill at Vandergrift; Blanche, deceased; Ney, who is employed in a sheet mill at Youngstown, Ohio, married to May Slagle (he served three years in the United States army in the Philippine Islands, joining Company B, 1st United States Infantry and was honorably discharged in August, 1903); Daisy, wife of Morris Knighton, of Ambridge, Pa.; Lena, wife of C. C. Heasly, an oil field man , of West Virginia; George, who married Sarah Hobough, of Youngstown, Ohio; and Edna, married to Dale Hulings, a machinist, of Vandergrift, Pa. There are thirty grandchildren and three great-grand-children.
Mr. Slagle and his family are members of the Church of God at Templeton.
Source: Pages 450-452 Armstrong County, Pa., Her People, Past and Present, J. H. Beers & Co., 1914
Transcribed September 1998 by James R. Hindman for the Armstrong County Beers Project
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