(II) Henry O'Neill, fourth child and only son of Charles and Ellen
(McElravy) O'Neill, was born in county Down, Ireland, in October, 1835,
died in Darlington township, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, June 4, 1910.
He attended school in his native land, and when twenty years of age
came to the United States, having been employed at farming prior to
his emigration. He immediately enlisted in the service in which he re-
mained for so long a time, railroading, his first position being on the gravel
train of the old Fort Wayne Railroad, now the main line of the Pennsyl-
vania system to Chicago. In this capacity he remained for only six
months, at the end of that time being promoted to the rank of fireman.
It serves well to illustrate in what a primitive condition railroading was
when it is stated that at that time there were but three engines in use on
the Fort Wayne Railroad, while to-day that same division probably num-
bers its locomotives by the hundred. For four years he fired, and at the
conclusion of that period reached the pinnacle of road service, the en-
gineer's cab. From i860 to 1904 he was constantly at his post, watching
and adapting himself to the startling changes and revolutions that came
into his world of activity, in the size, strength, and speed of engines; in
the substitution of steel for wooden passenger coaches ; in systems of
signals; in methods of watering; and fitting himself to each innovation,
always more wonderful than its predecessor, always tending to greater
efficiency. His hand had been at the throttle of the first locomotives of
the road, whose speed a swift horse could more than equal, and had guided



86o PENNSYLVANIA

the mile-a-minute flyers that devoured distance with hungry greed. In the
midst of this bewildering metamorphosis, he, too, changed, but only in
action. Whether he peered through the mist for a block signal or ran
his train straight ahead, confident in the thought that the other two engines
of the road were behind him, he was ever the steady, vigilant, alert leader,
master of every throbbing valve and gauge before him, strong in his tried
ability, and ever conscious of his tremendous responsibility and the precious
value of the human freight that rode in the passenger coaches behind,
calmly placing their lives and physical well-being in his skilled hand. For
forty-four years he remained on the road as engineer, his regular, tem-
perate, habits enabling him to withstand the awful nervous strain that so often
breaks down the nervous systems and the physiques of the exponents of his
profession, and gaining the trust and confident reliance of those in authority
above him. If there was need of a special to convey an official bent on
important business, or in some crisis of life awaited at the end of a long,
hard run, he was chosen for its execution more frequently than any of his
comrades in the service, the highest tribute that could be paid to oqe who
had given the best years of his life in the service of one master. At the
time of the Columbian Exposition at Chicago he ran the old locomotive,
'â– John Bull," the first locomotive used in the United States in 183 1, to
that city, he being the only engineer in the road's service who could master
a sufficient amount of the construction details of the ancient engine to run
it on its own steam. In the year 1904 the Pennsylvania railroad granted
him a pension upon his retirement. He had in 1866 purchased forty-five
acres of land in Darlington township, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, now
know as Roselawn farm, and here he and his family lived for six years,
then returning to their former home in Allegheny, also remaining there for
six years. In 1878 they came once more to Darlington township, Beaver
county, and he purchased the Cochran farm of sixty-eight acres, east of
Darlington. Here he lived until his death, in a large frame house which
he caused to be erected, and on that farm his widow still resides. Mr.
O'Neill later added to his property the Oliver Braden farm of one hundred
and five acres, contiguous to his land. He never engaged in active farm
labor, his son, James Morgan, managing the home farm. It was one of
the greatest sources of satisfaction to him in his retired life that in the
nearly half century that he had spent as engineer he had never been in a
severe wreck, neither had he endangered the lives of his passengers nOr
jeopardized the reputation of his road for safety in travel. He was a
member of the Roman Catholic Church, devout in his devotions and reg-
ular in his attendance at its services.

He married, in 1857, Mary Morgan, born in county Down, Ireland,
April 15, 1837, daughter of James and Rosanne (O'Neill) Morgan, both
born at Dunmoor, county Down, Ireland. In that country he was a farmer,
and there married, his wife being a daughter of Thomas and Nancy (Mur-
ray) O'Neill, both of whom lived to a good old age in county Down.



BEAVER COUNTY 86i

James Morgan came to Pennsylvania in 1850, settling at Allegheny, Penn-
sylvania, virhere he was employed by the railroad until his death, aged forty-
seven years. He was conspicuous among his fellows because of the magnif-
icent physical prowess with which he had been favored, being six feet
two inches in stature, and more than two hundred pounds in weight. Chil-
dren of James and Rosanne (O'Neill) Morgan: i. Mary, of previous
mention, married Henry O'Neill and lives on the home farm in Darlington
township, Beaver county. 2. Patrick, born in 1840; entered the shops of
the Fort Wayne railroad, first as carpenter and later as machinist. In
1862 he obtained an indefinite leave of absence from duty to go to the front
in the defense of the Union, enlisting in the 123d Regiment Pennsylvania
Volunteers, and receiving an honorable discharge in May, 1863. Upon his
return from the war he once more entered the railroad shops in his old
capacity, later becoming a fireman on the road and, in 1868, engineer.
This position he held until he retired on a pension, having been one of
the most trusted and best-known engineers in the employ of the Pennsyl-
vania railroad. During his connection with the road he was privileged to
hold the throttle of the locomotive that bore many famous men, renowned
in public and industrial life, to their destination, one of his most notable
commissions being his appointment as engineer of the train carrying James
G. Blaine upon his country-wide campaign, during which run the train
of the candidate for the presidency suffered no mishap of any kind, a record
that reflected favorably upon the man in the front cab, who received the
congratulations of the officials of the road for his excellent service. He
was also engineer of the train that bore President McKinley to the bedside
of his dying mother, the railroad officials having given the train a clear
track from Pittsburgh to Canton in the hope of getting the chief executive
to his destination before his mother breathed her last. The average speed
of the train on the run was a mile a minute, Patrick Morgan ably doing
his part in the race against death. 3. Anne, married John Grant, deceased,
and lives in Allegheny. 4. Phoebe, unmarried, lives with her brothers,
James and Patrick, at "Roselawn," Darlington township, Beaver county,
Pennsylvania. 5. James, lives at "Roselawn." Children of Henry and
Mary (Morgan) O'Neill: 1-2. Mary and Maggie, live at home, unmar-
ried. 3. Charles, an engineer on the Pennsylvania railroad; married Delia
Walker, and lives at Conway, Pennsylvania. 4. James Morgan, of whom
further. 5. Phoebe, unmarried; an operator for the Western Union Tele-
graph Company at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 6. Rosalia, a school teacher
in Darlington, Pennsylvania. 7. Alice, a school teacher.

(HI) James Morgan O'Neill, fourth child and second son of Henry
and Mary (Morgan) O'Neill, was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, De-
cember 18, 1869. His education was obtained in the Sixth Ward school
at Allegheny, the Douthitt district school, and, after the family moved to
Beaver county, the Darlington Academy, then under the supervision of
Professor Judd. As he grew to manhood he gradually assumed more and



862 PENNSYLVANIA

more of the responsibility of the management of the home farm until he
was in entire charge, as he has been since the death of his father, although
the latter was never concerned with the active operation of his property.
He, his mother, and his three unmarried sisters now reside on the home
farm, over which he exercises careful and competent supervision. The
property is well-improved, the large barns having been built in 1890, and
now house some of the best blooded live stock in that section, that being
a subject upon which Mr. O'Neill is an intelligent enthusiast. From his
fine Holstein cattle he obtains a supply of rich, pure milk, of which he
makes disposition to the retail dealers of the vicinity, conducting a pre-
tentious wholesale milk business. Besides some heavy Percheron horses,
giants in strength and endurance, handsome in their evident power, he has
several fast, graceful and pedigreed driving horses, of which one, a trotting
mare named "Justina H.," has a mark of Z.27. He is also the possessor
of two colts from "Allawood," which he is raising, and which should
develop into the finest horses which he owns. In these animals Mr. O'Neill
takes the pure delight of the connoisseur, and carefully watches their daily
welfare, lest their beauty or usefulness be marred or impaired. His pride in
the sturdy strenth of his Percherons is as great as in the fleet feet of his
driving horses, a combination, which, when found, denotes the true lover
of horseflesh. In political action Mr. O'Neill is a Democrat, and has
served the township as school director and supervisor. With his neighbors
he is popular and well-liked, straightforward in all his relations with men,
keen in wit, genial in disposition, and broadminded in regarding the faults
and peculiarities of others. These qualities and the integrity that has
been prominent in all the business dealing of his life have gained him the
reputation of a thoroughly "good fellow," wherever and however met.
His religious convictions are those of his family and ancestors, Roman
Catholic.



The names of Coale, Coal and Cole have all had a common
COALE origin. Coel, as the name was formerly spelled, founder of

Colchester, was one of the early kings of Britain. Justice
Cole lived in the reign of King Alfred. Another Cole defeated Sweyne,
the Danish chieftain, in looi at Pinhoe. William Cole and wife Ysabella
are named in Assize Roll, of the county of Cornwall, in A.D. 1201, show-
ing that Cole was at that time established as a surname. Various branches
of the English Cole family bear coats-of-arms, all indicating relationship
by the similarity of the device.

(I) Joseph H. Coale was born in Harford county, Maryland, where
his parents, Samuel and Lydia Coale, resided. It is known that later he
lived in Eastern Pennsylvania. He married a daughter of Joseph and
Susannah (Rigbie) Brinton, whose marriage occurred at Deer Creek, Lan-
caster county, Pennsylvania, in 1784. Susannah was the daughter of
James Rigbie, of Harford county, Maryland, born at West River, province



BEAVER COUNTY 863

of Maryland, in 1720, son of Nathan and Cassandra Rigbie, the latter
named a daughter of Philip and Cassandra Coale.

(II) Joseph B. Coale, son of Joseph H. Coale, was born in Harford
county, Maryland. He migrated with his mother and his step-father, David
H. Townsend, from the eastern part of Pennsylvania about 1830, and
settled at New Brighton, Beaver county, Pennsylvania. There he owned
and operated a mill, and died in June, 1846, in his thirtieth year. He
married Sarah V., youngest daughter of Benjamin Townsend, and had
children : Benjamin T., born in 1841 ; Garrison, born in 1843 '• Joseph
Brinton, of further mention.

(III) Joseph Brinton Coale, son of Joseph B. and Sarah V. (Town-
send) Coale, was born in New Brighton, Beaver county, Pennsylvania,
November 3, 1846. He received his education in the public schools, and
in due course of time entered upon his business career. His first position
was with the Bentley Twine Works, where his occupation was that of
sizing twine. He then formed a connection with the T. B. White Con-
struction Company, and was engaged in the construction of wooden bridges
until 1868. He then was employed by his uncle, Charles Coale, who was a
manufacturer of buckets and tubs, in his store on Ninth street, and when
this business was purchased by Hiram Reed, in 1873, he worked for that
gentleman for a period of two years. In 1875 he purchased a feed and
flour store in Sewickley, which he conducted for two years, then entered
the employ of the Novelty Iron Works, where he remained three years.
His next field of activity was in the position of a railway mail clerk, from
which he resigned in order to become a messenger between New Brighton
and Pittsburgh, the duties of which responsible office he discharged eleven
years. Having formed an association with Dawes & Myler, manufacturers
of sanitary goods, he is still holding this position greatly to the satisfaction
of the proprietors. In political matters he was formerly a Republican, but
is now a Progressive, and is now serving the third year of a four-year
term as a member of the borough council, this being his second term of
office. His religious affiliation is with the Methodist Episcopal Church,
and he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and of the
Order of United American Mechanics.

Mr. Coale married, Jone 20, 1883, Minnie M. Morgan, and they have
had children: Florence T., born in 1884; Susan B., 1885; Sarah V., 1887.



High among the wars of international nature that have had
LITTELL permanent and important effect upon the history of the

world is the American Revolution. Chief of all wars waged
among the people of one country is the Civil War, fought on American
soil. Of less importance and significance, but still vital to our country's
de>^elopment and prominent in its history, is the second war with England,
or the War of 1812. Of the four generations of the Littell family that
hav ; had American residence, three have been represented in the three



864 PENNSYLVANIA

conflicts named above, William, the emigrant, fighting in the Colonial
army for independence, and sharing the glory that came with the blessing
of liberty to the thirteen infant colonies; William (2), his son, fighting
against the same foe to maintain the position gained at such a costly sacri-
fice; and John S., father of Joseph M., of this chronicle, a participant in
the struggle that made everlastingly permanent that for which his father
and grandfather had bravely taken up arms to establish.

William Littell came to the American colonies from Belfast, Ireland,
with his brother James, both entering the Colonial army at the outbreak
of the Revolution. Because of his aptitude for clerical work, William
Littell performed much service in the capacity of clerk, watching over the
distribution of arms, ammunition and stores, serving as private secretary to
General George Washington throughout the war, while his brother became
a private in the ranks. According to a written account still in the posses-
sion of his family William Littell had the following experiences: He
was taken prisoner, February 13, 1777, marched into Brunswick, and
paroled. There he was befriended by one person who gave him a guinea,
and by another who gave him a dollar, and he was told to divide this with
his fellow prisoners. He was then marched to New York City, and there
placed in confinement in the "Old sugar house." While there he received
a letter from Andrew Robinson or Robertson, enclosing two dollars. He
was given permission to work in the city for General Beechy until there
was an exchange of prisoners. He then went back to prison. There he
found his messmen and artillerymen with their rations before them, which
consisted of spruce beer and bread. Later he received all the money that
was due him from the state. The letter mentioned above, enclosing the
two dollars, is now in the possession of one of his grandsons. At the close
of the Revolutionary War, William Littell located on land in Hanover town-
ship, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, which is still in the possession of his
descendants, and followed his trade of painting. He was a supporter of
Whig principles and for many years served as a justice of the peace, his
commission being dated April 10, 1795. The farm on which he located con-
sisted of four hundred acres, which he partly cleared and cultivated, and
on which he died, about the year 1820. That section of the state was then
in little better condition for habitation than it had been before anyone
of white blood set foot upon the American shore. Wild beasts roamed the
surrounding forests in great numbers, settlers were few and widely sep-
arated, communication with the eastern villages and hamlets was uncertain,
supplies must be grown or hunted, and above all was the terrible, haunting
fear of savage and barbarous natives. It was to a home in the midst of
all these dismaying conditions that William Littell brought his wife, litth
more than a girl in years, Elizabeth Walker. In the life of William LitteJ
there had been a romance of rare beauty and sweetness, and when unfavor-
able fortune had made it impossible for him to marry the girl of his choic e,
he still cherished the ideal he had held, which found fulfillment in 'he



BEAVER COUNTY 865

daughter of his former sweetheart, whom he made his wife. It is recorded
that on many occasions, when there were rumors of the presence of maraud-
ing Indians on the war-path in the vicinity, Elizabeth Littell would spend
the night in the limbs of a nearby tree, one of her babies held close in her
arms, while below would prowl the painted, befeathered murderers who
sought her blood and that of her family. The constant terror in which the
family lived in beyond comprehension, and yet the little family, so dan-
gerously exposed to savage ravages, was divinely guarded from all the
harm that threatened, and there grew to manhood and womanhood. Al-
though Elizabeth Littell was spared from torture and death at the hands
of the Indians, her brother, Robert Walker, was less fortunate, and was
killed in conflict with a band of the aborigines at Toledo, Ohio, in 1813.
The children of William and Elizabeth (Walker) Littell were: i. James,
died in Calcutta, Ohio. 2. Betsey, married John Reed, and died in Pitts-
burgh. 3. Jane, married Joseph Calhoon, and died in Greene township,
Beaver county, Pennsylvania. 4. William, of whom further. 5. David, of
whom further. 6. Mary, married James Todd, and died at Beaver Falls.
7. Thomas, lived in Oregon. 8. Alice, married William Sharp, and died
at Mechanicstown. 9. Agnes, married Bennett Libby.

(II) William (2) Littell, fourth child and second son of William (i)
and Elizabeth (Walker) Littell, was born in Hanover township, Beaver
county, Pennsylvania, in 1794, died in 1854, aged sixty years. He followed
the occupation of farmer all his life, only interrupting his agricultural
operations to enlist in the American army at the time of the second war
with Great Britain. He and his family were disciples of the religious teach-
ings of Rev. John Anderson, a minister of the Seceders Church, who
founded a theological seminary, in all probability the first west of the Alle-
gheny mountains, from which grew the institution now located at Xenia,
Ohio. He married Cynthia Smith, born near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in
1801, died in 1853, daughter of John Smith, of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
Children of William (2) and Cynthia (Smith) Littell: i. John Smith, of
whom further. 2. Eliza, married G. L. Robertson, and died at Mechanics-
burg, Pennsylvania. 3. Rebecca Ann, married John Calhoun, now deceased ;
she lives in Raccoon township, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, aged eighty-
seven years. 4. Maria, married J. P. Ewing, and died in Raccoon town-
ship. 5. Nancy, married John Ewing, and died in Kansas. 6. Cynthia
Jane, married John McHenry, and died in Raccoon township, Beaver
county, Pennsylvania. 7. Washington, served in the Sixteenth Regiment
Ohio Infantry, in the Civil War ; lives in Creston, Ohio. 8. William M., a
resident of Corydon, Iowa. 9. David, died in Lawrence, Kansas. 10.
James M., a member of the Twenty-third Regiment Iowa Volunteer In-
fantry, died at Rolla, Missouri, from a disease contracted in the service.
II. Henry C, fought through the Civil War in the Sixteenth Regiment
Ohio Volunteer Infantry, died at Beaver, Pennsylvania, in 1867, likewise
as the result of sickness contracted in the Union service. 12. Morgan, died



866 PENNSYLVANIA

aged one year. 13. William McElwee, captain of a company attached to
the Twenty-third Regiment Iowa Infantry; he was named after the Rev.
William M. McElwee.

(Ill) John Smith Littell, eldest child of William (2) and Cynthia
(Smith) Littell, was born in Hanover township, Beaver county, Pennsyl-
vania, October 22, 1822, died March 31, 1901. He obtained his education
in the public schools, and in the course of his studies displayed matha-
matical ability of a high order, which augured well for his success in an
engineering profession or in scientific research, but the path of his life
directed him to the pursuit of agriculture, in which he was actively engaged
tmtil the firing of the shot that marked the beginning of the four years of
strife that brought him so much of fame and reputation. The account of
his mihtary life is better recorded by a historian who wrote while the
deeds were fresh from the doing than by one who bridges a space of nearly
half a century, and of his career Bates, in his "Martial Deeds of Pennsyl-
vania," writes:

He early joined a militia company and in 1853 was elected captain, and after-
wards brigade inspector of the nineteenth division. He recruited a company for
the Seventy-sixth Pennsylvania Regiment, of which he was captain. Sooii after
its organization it was ordered to the Department of the South, where it was
engaged with the enemy at the capture of Fort Pulaski, and in the battles of
Pocotaligo, James Island, Morris Island, and in the first and second assaults on
Fort Wagner, in all of which he led his company with a steadiness and devotion
which characterized his entire service. At Morris Island, on the tenth of July,
he was slightly wounded, but kept the field. On the following morning he was
again hit, receiving a flesh wound in the right arm and side. The assault on
Fort Wagner proved very disastrous to the regiment, the loss being nearly half
of its entire strength. In the summer of 1864 it was taken to Virginia and at-
tached to the Army of the James. On the thirty-first of May Captain Littell
was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and on the following day, in the
action of Cold Harbor, received a severe wound, the missile entering the right
thigh, tearing quite through both limbs and emerging from the left. After lyirig
in the hospital for a time he was taken to his home, but his wound was slow in
healing and his recovery was protracted. On the seventeenth of August follow-
ing he was promoted to colonel. In January he sailed with the expeditions,
first under Generals Butler and Weitzel, and finally under General Terry, for the
reduction of Fort Fisher, commanding the approaches to Wilmington, North
Carolina. Colonel Littell was of Pennepacker's brigade, and followed that gal-
lant officer in the desperate assault upon the stronghold. In the midst of this
struggle and while leading on his regiment in the face of a destructive fire, he
was struck by a minie-ball in the left thigh, which passed through, penetrating
a pocket-book containing a roll of bank notes, and finally lodging in the body.
It was an ever memorable day for the armies of the Union, and though experi-
encing intense suffering, he still had spirit to rejoice over the glorious victory
achieved. He was removed to Fortress Monroe, after having the ball extracted,
and, when sufficiently recovered, to his home. As a merited recognition of his
valor on this field, upon the recommendation of General Terry, he was brevetted
brigadier-general.

While Lieutenant-Colonel Littell (his rank at that time) was recover-
ing from wounds received at Cold Harbor, a number of inferior officers
tried to secure his discharge, thinking that by his removal their chances
for advancement would be strengthened. This action, however, is no index
to the regard in which he was held by the regiment at large, but was merely