David C. Boggs
Father of Lavina Boggs who married Henry Townsend
Who Were Parents of
David Boggs Townsend and Lavenia Ann Townsend

Published in 1891

DAVID C. BOGGS, of South Buffalo township, ex-register and recorder, and one of the most popular democratic leaders of Armstrong county , is a son of David and Mary (McKee) Boggs, and was born in Plum township, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, December6,1824.

The Boggs family is of Scotch-lrish descent, and Thomas Boggs, Sr. (grandfather) , whose father, at an early day, left Scotland and settled in the town of Glassdrummond, in the county of Monaghan, Ireland, was born at Glassdrummond in 1722. He married Elizabeth Chambers, and their union was blessed with six sons and two daughters: William, Thomas, Elizabeth, John, Anne, James, David and Robert.

Thomas Boggs, Sr., left Ireland in the year 1805, and settled in western Pennsylvania, near New Brighton, in Beaver county, where he lived and died. David C. Boggs' maternal grandfather, McKee, was among the very early settlers of western Pennsylvania and located in Allegheny county, where he lived in perilous times, surrounded by savage Indians, whose delight was murder and plunder. Their wicked assaults had to be met and repelled, which necessitated the continual use of the gun, so that it was his constant companion, his only sure protector and defence. His valuables he had often to bury in the ground to secure their safety, and carry his gun while at work, and always take it with him when hunting for his cows.

David Boggs (father) was born in 1783, in Ireland, and came in 1799 to western Pennsylvania, where he settled in what is now Plum township, Allegheny county. He was one of the pioneers of that section, where he purchased two tracts of woodland near the site of Murraysville, and cleared out fine farms on them. In 1849 he sold his farms and removed to Apollo, where he died on November 3, 1856, when he was in the seventy-fourth year of his age. He was a Jeffersonian democrat, and for over thirty years filled the office of justice of the peace in Allegheny county. In early life he united with the Associate Presbyterian church, and was one of its most earnest as well as most useful members.

In 1806 he married Mary McKee, daughter of Squire McKee, of near Murraysville, and they were graciously permitted to enjoy fifty years of wedded life together . Their union was blessed with thirteen children, nine sons and four daughters:
Thomas, born in November, 1806;
Eliza G., born in May, 1809, and married to David McKee, a farmer residing in Tuscarora Valley;
Fannie M., born in September, 1811, the wife of Jacob Freetly, a prominent lawyer of Apollo;
John, who was born in July, 1813, and married Ann Boggs, daughter of William Boggs and a native of Ireland;
Anne,
Jane G., born in October, 1815, and married to Samuel Beatty, a farmer of Allegheny county;
Hon. Jackson, who was born April, 1818, and married Phebe J. Mosgrove, and who, from 1874 until his death in April, 1879, was judge of Armstrong county;
Robert, who died in infancy;
James, born in September, 1822, married Margaret A. Bailey, and is now practicing law in Clarion, Clarion county;
David C. and a twin brother, which died in infancy;
Cyrus, born in October, 1826, married Mary (Oswald) and is a lawyer;
William, who died in infancy;
Lavina, born in September, 1830, and married to Henry Townsend, of South Bend, Armstrong county.

David C. Boggs was reared on his father's farm and received a good common-school and busines education. He assisted his father in farming until he attained his majority, when he engaged in school-teaching, which he followed for nine years, five of them in one school district. In 1850 he embarked in the mercantile business at Worthington, but in two years disposed of his store to Peter Graft, with whom he was employed as a clerk for three years. In 1857 he was elected as register and recorder, and clerk of the Orphans' court of Armstrong county. He so well discharged the duties of these offices that in 1860 he was re-elected on the democratic ticket to the same offices by a majority ofthrity-two, although Abraham Lincoln had a majority of twelve hundred in the county and Andrew G. Curtin ran nine hundred votes ahead of his democratic opponent.

In 1864, upon retiring from the recorder's office, he engaged in the mercantile business at Kittanning, which he followed very successfully unti11866, when he purchased the Slate Lick farm, to which he removed his store. In 1870 he sold both store and farm to George B. Sloan and removed to near Clinton, Armstrong county, where he purchased one hundred and twenty acres of land, which he farmed for ten years and then disposed (1880) of it in order to purchased his present farm and "Bricker's Mill". He built a new mill, introduced the new process of making flour, and erected on his farm one of the finest residences to be found in South Buffalo township.

Mr. Boggs, Joseph Britton and R. W. McKee, Esq., of Pittsburgh, were instrumental in securing the building of the Rough Run or Winfield Branch R. R. through South Buffalo township. This road is eight miles in length and runs from Monroe to Winfield.

On February 16, 1847, he married Sarah Beatty, daughter of David Beatty, an extensive farmer and mill-owner of North Buffalo township. To their union have been born seven children, three sons and four daughters: Mary M., born August 27, 1848, and married to W. B. Mathews;
S. Almeda, born May 24, 1851, the wife of Dr. A. D. Johnson, of Allegheny city;
David born Apri120, 1854 and died September 3, 1854;
Jennie A., born April 22, 1856, and married Frank Dickie, who is in the livery business at East Liverpool, Ohio;
.William J., who was born Mrch 24, 1859 and married Annie B. Bricker, daughter of Harvey Bricker, of Slate Lick;
George M., born February 11, 1862, and a carpenter by trade;
and Emma B., born January 1, 1868, and married to W. B. Ewing.

He was instrumental in having a post-office established at his place in December,1890, and the post-office department honored him by naming it Boggsville. David C. Boggs is an uncompromising democrat, and on January 22, 1879, was appointed as bank assessor for the counties of Armstrong, Indiana, Clarion, Beaver, Butler and Lawrence.

During the late Civil War he was unable to leave his office and business, but he aided the Union cause both by money and influence. He raised on the courthouse the first flag around which the Armstrong soldiers rallied for the defense of the Union.