Levi Stepp
LEVI STEPP, proprietor of the "Stepp House," at Worthington, Armstrong county, and a veteran of the Civil war, was born in Butler county, Pa., Jan. 9, 1842, son of Michael and Catherine (Heckert) Stepp.
Michael Stepp and his wife were both born in Pennsylvania and before coming to Armstrong county, in 1859, lived in Butler county. He was a farmer, and owned the tract of sixty-seven acres in North Buffalo township on which he died in 1874, in his seventy-eighth year. He married Catherine Heckert and they had thirteen children, eleven of whom grew to maturity, as follows: John, who died in his twenty-first year; Peter, who died aged sixty-seven years; Michael, who lives in Butler county; Benjamin, who is deceased; Catherine, deceased, who was the wife of Abraham Boyd; George, who lives at Kittanning; Margaret, who is deceased; Lovina, who married Evans Chritchlow, of Indiana; Malinda, deceased, who was the wife of Thomas Hoak; William H. H., who was first lieutenant of Company B, 78th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, in the Civil war, now deceased; Levi; and two children who died in infancy.
Levi Stepp was seventeen years of age when he moved with his parents from Butler to Armstrong county, and here he enlisted for service in the Civil war, on Sept. 11, 1861, entering Company K, 78th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, as a private. He served out his first term of enlistment, and in December, 1863, reenlisted as a veteran. He was honorably discharged at Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 11, 1865, and was mustered out with the rank of second sergeant. He saw hard service and took part in the battles of Stone river, Chickamauga, Buzzard�s Roost, Dalton, Resaca, Burnt Hickory, New Hope Church, Altoona Mountain, Kenesaw Mountain, Pulaski, Florence, Green River, Neeley�s Bend, Hoover�s Gap, Lavergne, Tullahoma, Dry Gap and Chattanooga, as well as many minor engagements. He escaped without injury of any kind. After he returned to Armstrong county he learned the blacksmith�s trade at Slate Lick, in South Buffalo township, and followed the same for twenty-eight years at Slate Lick and Worthington, locating in the latter place in the spring of 1885. For ten years he continued in the blacksmith business here, in 1895 entering the employ of Peter Graff & Co. Since the fall of 1891 he has conducted the "Stepp House," which is the leading hotel at Worthington.
On July 15, 1869, Mr. Stepp was married to Mary C. Ferry, a daughter of John and Harriet (McCamish) Ferry, and a granddaughter of John and Catherine (McGinley) Ferry. Mr. and Mrs. Stepp have had the following children: Harry J., Maud (deceased), Ralph H., Dora (deceased), Arthur, Dell, Hallie A. (deceased), Annabelle, Jessie L. (deceased), and Grace R. Mr. Stepp and his wife are members of the Presbyterian Church at Worthington. In politics he is a Republican and has served on the school board and as councilman, and in 1910 was elected burgess of the borough.
FEERY. John Ferry, the paternal grandfather of Mrs. Stepp, was born in Ireland, and was one of the pioneer settlers in Butler county, Pa., where he cleared land, developed a farm and died. His wife was Catherine McGinley, also of Irish extraction.
John Ferry, son of John, and father of Mrs. Stepp, was born in Butler county. In 1862 he enlisted for service in the Civil war, entering Company C, 139th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and died while in the army, in 1863, a victim of typhoid fever, when but thirty-two years of age. He married Harriet McCamish, who was born in Armstrong county, and lived to the age of eight-one years, her death occurring March 6, 1906. She was a daughter of Thomas and Barbara (Painter) McCamish, the former of whom was born in Scotland and came very early to Armstrong county.
Source: Pages 772-773 Armstrong County, Pa., Her People, Past and Present, J. H. Beers & Co., 1914
Transcribed September 1998 by Kathy Zagorac for the Armstrong County Beers Project
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