Harry L. Shively
Harry L. Shively, 87, of Route 71, Greensburg,
R. D. 1, died in his home. His wife, Mrs. Lucetta Baughman Shively, died in
1958. Surviving are three
children, Mrs. Cleeus (Bertha) Herman of Greensburg, R. D., William E. Shively
of Greensburg and Glenn R. Shively of New Stanton, R. D.; 13 grandchildren, and
16 great-grandchildren.
Research from the histories of Westmoreland County and the census records show this Shively family also is listed in the records as Shiebler, Scheibler and other various spellings. Harry L. Shively in listed on the census records with his parents, Samuel and Mary Scheibler. Samuel and Mary are buried in the Hillview Cemetery in Greensburg, Westmoreland County, as Samuel and Mary M. Shiebler. Samuel was the son of Jacob Scheibler.
From the History Of Westmoreland County,
Pennsylvania, Genealogical Memoirs, Compiled Under The Editorial Supervison of
John W. Jordan, LL.D, Of The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Illustrated, Volume
2, The Lewis Publishing Company,New York and Chicago, 1906, Page 95:
WILLIAM F. SCHEIBLER. The Scheibler family is German. The first member of the branch which
located in Pennsylvania was George Scheibler (I), who came from Germany in 1700
and effected settlement in Montgomery county. His wife’s Christian name was Catherine. They were pioneer farmers, and reared
two sons and one daughter: George, Catherine and Frederick Schiebler. They were of the Zwingle Reformed
church faith. The son George went
to North Carolina and became judge of the circuit court. Catherine remained at home, single.
(II) Frederick Scheibler, youngest child of
the American ancestor and his wife, was born 1763, died in 1843, aged eighty
years, and was buried in Hempfield township, in the old schoolhouse cemetery
grounds known as Feightners. They
espoused the Reformed religious creed and were devout members of that
body. Politically Frederick
Scheibler was a firm supporter of Jeffersonian Democracy. He owned a farm, and taught school in
the German language in the borough of Greensburg in an old log school
house. He had the honor of
establishing the first bank of Greensburg, and used to drive back and forth from
his farm nights and mornings while attending to the banking business. His early life was an exceptional one
for hard experiences, hair-breadth escapes and real romance. When but fifteen years of age he, being
well developed physically, was received as an enlisted soldier in the
Continental army. He was soon
captured and made a prisoner of war by the British forces and sent to the
military prison on one of the West India Islands, but made his escape by being
befriended by an American sympathizer who conducted a tavern on the
island. When he entered the tavern
he was a dejected, dirty, ragged youth, whose very condition appealed to the
sympathy of the innkeeper, who told him unless he would disguise that very
night the officers from the prison would be there in the morning and doubtless
recapture him. Consequently it was
planned that he be thoroughly cleaned and dressed in a good suit of clothes and
provided with a wig, or queue, then commonly worn. To the queue as a disguise he attributed his escape, and he
continued to wear the queue up to his death. The officer came to search the tavern in the early morning
and was informed that no person of the description was there. He then went to the bar of the inn and
there beheld his prisoner in the role of a neatly dressed bartender, so
perfectly disguised that he was not detected. He, too, was questioned about the escaped prisoner of war,
but feigned to be entirely ignorant of the person sought after by the British
officer, who finally purchased a drink and drank with the new bartender. The sequel of this narrative was the he
remained in the employ of the innkeeper for six years, during which period he
accumulated a good sum of money, and then sailed for New York, but was
shipwrecked off the coast and clung to the wrecked vessel for forty-eight
hours, after which he was picked up by a passing boat and landed in New
York. From that city he walked the
entire distance to his home in Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, having lost all
of his possessions when ship was wrecked except two dollars in his vest
pocket. His ambition while
on the islands was to save his money, return home, purchase a fine team of
horses and give his people a big surprise, but the fates decreed
otherwise. The family during these
seven long years of absence had never heard from him and believed
Page 96
him dead. Just as he was nearing the home place he
met his father and brother, who were haying. A small stream had to be crossed by means of foot-logs, one
of which was on either side of the wagon road. The father started on one and the “prodigal son” was about
to take the same log, thinking his father would know him, but the father then
retraced his steps towards the other foot-log and they finally passed over the
stream on different paths – the son going on to the house in which he was
born. His shoes had given out and
he was barefooted, and his attire covered with dust of travel made him present
a sorry sight. He seated himself on the door step beside a
sister who was spinning, and said he by her permission would rest a while. He asked many questions and finally
called for the “lady of the house,” from whom he requested something to
eat. This was soon provided
him. While eating he asked the
good woman what had become of a lock of hair she had taken from his head in
childhood, whereupon the mother carefully scrutinized her caller and soon
discovered her own long lost boy.
The timid maiden who had been so shy threw off her restraint and embraced
her brother. He was of a roaming
disposition, and after a short stay at home started westward, and finally
halted in Hempfield township,
Westmoreland county, having walked
from Montgomery county over the mountains. Here he settled and married Salome Leichty, of a prominent
family, and the greataunt of the late Hon. Eli Leichty. She was born in 1763, died February 5,
1839. By this union one son was
born—John Jacob Scheibler.
Frederick, the father, was of the Reformed church, and in politics a
Democrat.
(III)
John Jacob Scheibler, only son of Frederick and Saolme (Leichty) Scheibler, was
born in 1788, in Hempfield township, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, at a
point near the present borough of Youngwood. He died October 7, 1861. He was a sturdy farmer, and supported the Democratic party. He, too, was of the Reformed church
faith. He married Catherine Truxel,
daughter of John Truxel and wife; she died May 4, 1841, and was buried in the
cemetery aforementioned. To John Jacob and Catherine (Truxel) Scheibler were
born: John, Jacob, William,
Elizabeth, Hannah and Sarah. John
and Jacob remained at home and fell heir to farms formerly possessed by their
father. William migrated to Iowa,
where he spent the greater part of his life and where his descendants reside.
IV.
John Scheibler, eldest son of John
Jacob and Catherine (Truxel) Scheibler, born April 22, 1810, died October 2,
1887. He married, May 13, 1830,
Mary Sell, daughter of Jacob Sell and wife, Rev. Nicholas P. Hacke performing
the ceremony. Mrs. Scheibler was
born April 4, 1811, died May 5, 1883, and was buried in the old cemetery, but
the remains were removed to the St. Clair cemetery at Greensburg,
Pennsylvania. The children born to
Mr. and Mrs. John Scheibler were:
Simon G., born March 25, 1832, of Greensburg, Pa.; Sarah, born June 7,
1834, married Jackson Baker, of Holton, Kansas; Hannah, born October 16, 1836,
married Rev. T. F. Stauffer, of Sioux City, Iowa and is now deceased; Julia,
born January 1, 1839, married Josiah Rumbough; Uriah Frederick, born March 23,
1841, married Mary Sutman, he died June 7, 1905; John S., born January 29,
1844, married Sally Clarke, of Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, she died in 1881,
he moved to Abilene, Kansas, where he still resides; Jacob, born August 24, 1846, died April 12, 1890; Isaac P. O., born June 23, 1849, died
single September 8, 1873; William F., born September 28, 1851, of whom later;
Eli, born January 24, 1854, married Alice Weimer, resident of Hempfield
township.
V.
William F. Scheibler, the second youngest son of John and Mary (Sell) Scheibler,
born September 28, 1851, obtained a good common school education and attended
the county normals. He then
followed the profession of a teacher in the Westmoreland county schools for a
period of eleven years. He farmed
some during this time and taught winter school. In the spring of 1889 he removed to the Fifth ward of
Greensburg borough, known as “Bunker Hill,” where he engaged in general
merchandising, which business has grown to one of large proprtions and which he
still conducts. His annual sales
have been as high as $35,000. He began in a modest way and his good wife
attended to the little store, while he “hustled” in the country purchasing and
trading for live stock and country produce, until the town grew up around him,
increasing his trade until his whole time with that of several clerks was
required to handle the large volume of business. He also handled real estate to quite an extent, and became a
prosperous business factor of the borough. For several years he has been engaged by the officers of the
Street Railway Company to secure right-of-way along the rural lines. In brief his has been an active career,
built up by energy and strict integrity.
While other men have sought ease and trifling pleasures, Mr. Scheibler
applied his every energy in the direction of his business, which has been
crowned with an almost phenomenal success. He is a Democrat in politics. While too busy in the marts of trade to seek out public
office, he served his native township as school director, and upon moving to
the borough of Greensburg, where he has lived and operated the past sixteen
years, he was made a justice of the peace, serving five years; also member of
the school board. He and family are members of the Reformed church.
He
married, September 29, 1874, at Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, Catherine E. Brugh,
daughter of Jacob and Catherine Brugh, the ceremony being performed by Rev. T.
F. Stauffer. Their children
were: Stella L., born December 25,
1875, married Harry E. Blank, an attorney of Greensburg, and they have a
daughter, Catherine Virginia, born September 12, 1902. Harry S., born July 27, 1877, married
Jessie Overly, of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and their children are: Ruth E., born March 13, 1900, and Helen
Reed, born October 12, 1902. He is
a traveling salesman for the Allen Kirkpatrick Grocery Company, of Pittsburg,
Pennsylvania. Florence Ethel, born
November 11, 1885, at home. At
both the store and the residence of Mr. Scheibler are to be seen the evidence
of education and refinement. The family
are greatly attached to one another,
even to the rosy-checked
grandchildren, who are of the seventh generation from the founder of the family
in America, George Scheibler, who landed in a strange land in 1700.
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