that occupation in many states, finally locating in Freedom, Beaver county,
Pennsylvania, where he established in the manufacture of fire-brick. His
political tendencies were strongly Democratic and as a member of that
party he held the offices of postmaster, justice of the peace and burgess.
Mr. Bryan was at one time a member of the Episcopal church, and after
his second marriage attended the Presbyterian church.
BEAVER COUNTY 883
Mr. Bryan married (first) Agnes Price, (second) Mary, daughter
of Rev. Andrew and Katie (Riddle) McDonald. Rev. Andrew McDonald,
a Presbyterian minister, was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania,
in 1779, died April, 1846, son of John and Martha (Noble) McDonald,
both born at McGuires Bridge, county Fermanagh, Ireland, who came to
America in 1773. Children of Rev. Andrew and Katie (Riddle) Mc-
Donald: I. Ann, married Aaron Morton Bryan. 2. John, married Rebecca
Reid. 3. James, died aged thirteen years. 4. Andrew (2), married Jane
Irwin, whose brother was at one time connected with the Pennsylvania
state administration as treasurer. 5. Martha, married Thomas Christie.
6. Mary, of previous mention, married Henry Bryan. 7. Abram, married
Sarah J. Noss, and she lives at Rochester, Pennsylvania. Of the above
children all are deceased. Children of Henry and Agnes (Price) Bryan:
I. Mary, married Allen Reitzell. 2. William, married Melinda Fournier;
lives in Freedom; daughter Lottie, married Walter O. Corwin. Oiildren
of Henry and Mary (McDonald) Bryan: 3. Catherine P., died unmarried.
4. Fidelia A., married Charles Cheney (deceased) and lives in Freedom.
5. Clementine, died unmarried. 6. Henry Noble, died unmarried aged
twenty-six years. 7. Martha, died unmarried. 8. Flora McDonald, mar-
ried Robert McMoffett, deceased, and lives in Beaver Falls. 9. John, died
unmarried. 10. Ralph D., married Jennie Stetson, and lives at Sea Gate,
New York. 11. Frank E., unmarried, lives at Niles, Ohio.
The two most common spellings of this name are
SWERINGEN the one given at the head of this chronicle and
Swearingen. Members of the branch herein recorded
use the two interchangeably, a fault that will probably always be a
fruitful source of error in identifying family records. The record of
this branch begins with Gerret Van Sweringen, born in Beemsterdam,
Holland, in 1636. He was the youngest son of a family belonging to
the nobility, and received a liberal education. When a young man he
performed responsible duties in the maritime service of the Dutch West
India Company, and in 1656, when that company fitted out the ship
"Prince Maurice" with emigrants and supplies for the Dutch colony
on the Delaware river in America, he was appointed its supercargo.
This vessel sailed from the port of Amsterdam on December 21, 1656,
and was to have touched at New Amsterdam (now New York City),
but on the night of March 8, 1657, was stranded off Fire Island, near
the southern coast of Long Island. The next day, in freezing weather,
the passengers and crew, in a frail boat, gained the barren shore, where
they remained for several days without fire. On the third day they
saw some Indians, one of whom was sent with a message to Stuyvesant,
then governor of New Amsterdam, who came with a sloop and carried
them to that place. A part of the cargo of the stranded ship having
been saved before the ship disintegrated and sank, another ship was
884 PENNSYLVANIA
loaded, chartered at New Amsterdam, and on the sixteenth of April
they sailed for their destination, which they reached in safety in five
days. After the wreck Gerret asked to be released from the company's
service, as he intended to there make his home, and there being "nothing
more for him to do" his request was granted. In some of his writings
the events, political and military, of the time, are well-described, and
furnish confirmation of many historical topics, concerning which there
might have been room for doubt.
He married (first) at New Amstel, about 1659, Barbarah de Barrette,
who was born at Valenciennes, France. He was sheriff, commissary,
and a member of the council, being also "interested in the cultivation
of some low-lands, a duck-pond, and trade." In 1660 he went to Hol-
land, accompanied by his wife, and there remained a year in behalf of
the colony. Returning the following year, he resumed his former duties.
After New Amsterdam was surrendered to the British in 1664, Sir
Robert Carr was sent to demand the surrender of New Amstel. Gerret
Van Sweringen writes concerning this: "The Fort and Country was
brought under submission by Sir Robert Carr as deputed with two
shipps to that intent. Sir Robert Carr did protest often to me that he
did not come as an enemy, but as a friend demanding only in friendship
what was ye Kmg's right in that Country. There was taken from the
Citty and inhabitants thereabouts one hundred sheep, and thirty or
forty horses, fifty or sixty cows and oxen, the number of sixty or seventy
negroes * * * and the estate of the Governor and myself, except
some house stuffe, and a negro I got away, and some other moveables
Sir Robert Carr did permit me to sell." It has been said of him that
after the surrender of the colony to the English he publicly broke his
sword across his knee, and throwing it to the right and to the left, re-
nounced all allegiance to the Dutch authorities. Shortly after the sur-
render he moved to Maryland, where in April, 1669, he, his wife, and
two children, on their petition to Lord Baltimore, were naturalized by
act of the general assembly held at St. Marys in that province. The
act is important because the ownership of land was restricted to British
subjects.
Some years after going to Maryland he wrote an account of the
Dutch settlements on the Delaware river, which account was probably
written for the Maryland council to use as evidence in the boundary
dispute between Lord Baltimore and WilHam Penn. It was executed
May 12, 1684, "at a council at Matapany Sewall, in the Province of
Maryland," and the jurat described Gerret as being "of the City of St.
Maries, gent, aged eight and forty years or thereabouts." He was an
"innholder" at St. Marys and owned land in that county and also in
Talbott county. In the proclamation of the charter of the city of St.
Marys, issued by Lord Baltimore in 1668, he was appointed an alderman
BEAVER COUNTY 885
of the city. In 1674 he built the city's stocks and whipping-post. He
was appointed sheriff of the county in 1686 and again in 1687.
Barbarah Van Sweringen, his wife, died about 1670, and he married
(second) Mary Smith, of St. Marys, the ante-nuptial marriage settle-
ment being executed October 5, 1676. He died in 1698 and his widow
some years afterwards, she "in the faith of the English church." The
children of his first marriage were: Elizabeth, Zachariah, Thomas, of
whom further; children of his second marriage were: Joseph, Charles,
Eleanor, who married a Carroll, Theresa, Dorothy, and another daugh-
ter, who married William Bladen.
(H) Thomas Sweringen, son of Gerret and Barbarah (de Barrette)
Van Sweringen, was probably born in St. Marys, Maryland, about 1665.
He was a landowner of Somerset county, Maryland, and there spent his
life, dying in 1710. His wife's given name was Jane. His sons were:
Thomas, Van, Samuel, John, of whom further, named in the above order
in his will.
(HI) John Sweringen, son of Thomas and Jane Sweringen, was prob-
ably born in Somerset county, Maryland, about 1702, and emigrated, going
to Montgomery county and there settling on Rock Creek, not far from the
present site of the city of Washington. He married and became the father
of Thomas, Samuel, of whom further; Van, John, and several daughters.
(IV) Samuel Sweringen, son of John Sweringen, was born about
1732. Shortly after the close of the Revolutionary War he settled in what
is now Hanover township, Beaver county, Pennsylvania. His house was a
stopping-place for the Indian scouts. The farm that he settled on still
belongs to his descendants. He married Catherine Condell. Children of
Samuel and Catherine Sweringen: William; Mary, married Jacob Colvin,
and was killed by Indians in 1789, being shot from her place behind her
husband while riding horse-back, with one of her children in her arms;
John, Van, Thomas. Samuel, Basil. Zachariah, of whom further.
(V) Zachariah Sweringen, son of Samuel and Catherine (Condell)
Sweringen, was born in Beaver county, Pennsylvania, in 1786, died May 31,
1867. He was one of the first native-born citizens of the county, and spent
his early life upon the home farm. He became a successful farmer and
sheep-raiser, the owner of several hundred acres of land, now divided into
productive farms. In middle life he became afflicted with rheumatism, and
for more than thirty years was a cripple, confined to his room by his
painful malady for the greater part of that time. Notwithstanding this
affliction he superintended the administration of his large interests and
added constantly to his already vast acres. In a large measure excluded
from the activity, pleasure and entertainment of his fellows, he still kept
closely in touch with all his friends and acquaintances, the gentleness of
his disposition under suffering so intense as to be at times almost unbear-
able showing them clearly the meekness of his spirit and his willingness to
have his body racked with pain while awaiting the healing touch of the
886 PENNSYLVANIA
Great Physician. He allowed himself but one passion, an implacable hatred
of the race that had brutally murdered his loved sister, a deed that had also
caused the death of her infant child.
He was twice married, his first wife being a Miss Wilcoxen, and to
this union seven children were born. Children of Zachariah Sweringen, all
born in Beaver county: i. Thomas, born in 1818; married (first) about
1858, Margaret Harsha; (second) Maria Gibbs; died June 18, 1891. 2.
Elizabeth, born in 1819; married, in 1838, Lemuel Sweringen, and died one
year later. 3. Samuel, born in 1821, died at Poe, Pennsylvania, in 1884;
married Mary McKibbon. 4. Catherine, born in 1823, died in 1859; mar-
ried Thomas Standish, a descendant of the famous Captain Miles Standish,
the military leader of the Plymouth Colony. 5. Gerret Van, born in 1824;
married Margaret McCrea. 6. John, born in 1826, died young. 7. Zach-
ariah, of whom further. 8. Leonard, born in 1833; married (first) in
1855, Elizabeth Moore; (second) Jennie Robinson. 9. Basil, born Feb-
ruary 23, 1835, died January 22, 1892; married, in 1866, Melissa J.
Strouss. 10. Mary, born in 1837; married Samuel Duncan. 11. John,
born in 1838, an invalid from birth, died of heart disease in July, 1890;
after his father's death he lived with his brother, Basil. 12. William H.,
born in 1840; a veteran of the Civil War, the only one of the children
of Zachariah Sweringen living at the present time (1913). 13. Rezin W.,
born August 27, 1847; married, September 29, 1868, Mary E. Council, of
New Cumberland, West Virginia. 14. A child, died in infancy in 1849.
(VI) Zachariah (2) Sweringen, son of Zachariah (i) and (Wil-
coxen) Sweringen, was born in Beaver county, Pennsylvania, January 31,
1828, died June 25, 1906. He grew to manhood in that locality, attending
the public schools, and at his father's death inherited one hundred and
forty acres of the home estate. He purchased a nineteen acre tract adjoin-
ing, and on the one hundred and fifty-nine acre farm resulting conducted
general farming operations. Throughout the locality he was regarded as an
authority upon all thing equestrian, and by the casual advice he would offer
to his neighbors in the course of a conversation probably deprived the local
veterinarians of many a fee. In 1867-68 he erected a substantial dwelling
upon his farm, so well constructed that it is in use at the present day. His
political faith was Republican, and as a supporter of that party he was
several times placed in local office by his neighbors.
Mr. Sweringen married, in 1859, Rachel Gilliland, born in Allegheny
county, Pennsylvania, June 24, 1832, died January 2, 1912, surviving her
husband nearly six years. She was a daughter of David and Sarah
(Harsha) Gilliland, both old residents, and in all likelihood natives of
Allegheny county. David Gilliland was a farmer in the earlier years of his
life, but later moved to Pittsburgh to accept a position as foreman of a
department in a United States arsenal at that place. It was while here
employed that he met his death in 1862, a victim of an explosion that
caused a number of fatalities. Children of Zachariah (2) and Rachel
BEAVER COUNTY 887
(Gilliland) Sweringen: i. Errett Van, died June 4, 1894; was a car-
penter by trade. 2. David Ellsworth, died in January, 1872, aged eight
years. 3. Charles G., of whom further. 4. Lula S., died in April, 1904.
5. Mary L., died March 15, 1910.
(VII) Charles G. Sweringen, third son and child of Zachariah (2)
and Rachel (Gilliland) Sweringen, was born on his father's farm in Beaver
county, Pennsylvania, June 25, 1865. He obtained an education in the
public schools, and for a time followed the occupation of farmer. De-
ciding that a trade would be more beneficial and congenial, he apprenticed
himself to that of carpenter, and after becoming a journeyman worked in
Sewickley for a period of seven years. In 1906 he returned to his father's
farm and is now owner of the homestead. He has improved the property
by the erection of a new bam, and continues the line in which his father
engaged, general farming, and also raises quite a good deal of stock. Oil
has been struck on his land, and at the present time there are fourteen
wells producing daily. Mr. Sweringen is a successful farmer, and has met
with excellent results in his stock-raising operations. Added to his material
fortune is the high regard with which he is considered by his large circle of
friends and wider range of acquantances. His political sympathies are
Republican in state or national issues, but in local affairs he allies himself
with no party. With his wife he is a member of the Presbyterian Church.
His fraternal relations are with the Glasgow Lodge, No. 485, Free and
Accepted Masons, and Sewickley Lodge, No. 426, Knights of Pythias.
Ha married, June 6, 1900, Fannie Cain, born in Beaver county,
Pennsylvania, December i, 1875, daughter of John and Elizabeth (Kronk)
Cain. Children of Charles G. and Fannie Sweringen: i. Leah Fay, born
January 25, 1902. 2. Charles Audrey, bom August 3, 191 1.
Charles Arthur Dunkerley, a rising business man and
DUNKERLEY prominent citizen of Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, is of
English and German ancestry, and was born October
10, 1888, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a son of William Henry and Mary
Elizabeth (Leonard) Dunkerley.
( I ) Mr. Dunkerley 's paternal grandfather was Joseph Henry Dunkerley,
a native of England, who spent a considerable part of his early life in that
country. He was married there to Harriet , and about the year i860
came to the United States and settled in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where
he followed his trade, that of machinist, until the year 1885. He then
removed to Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, where he made his home and con-
tinued to follow his trade until the time of death in the early part of 1908,
at the advanced age of seventy-five. To him and his wife were born three
children, two of whom had died in infancy at the time of his emigration
from England. The third was William Henry, of whom further.
(II) William Henry Dunkerley was born in England in the year 1858,
but came to this country with his parents as a child. He lived in Pitts-
888 PENNSYLVANIA
burgh until the time of his parents' removal to Beaver Falls when he was
twenty-seven years of age, when he accompanied them and found employ-
ment in the steel works there as a machinist, his father's trade also. In
1894 he entered the grocery business at No. 1327 Third avenue, Beaver
Falls, where he remained doing a successful business until his death in
1900. He and his family were communicants of the Episcopal Church,
and he was a member of the Knights of Pythias. Independent in thought
and deed, he was not a member of any political party, save as he was im-
pressed with the justice of their particular claims. He married Mary
Elizabeth Leonard, a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she was born
in the year 1863. Mr. Leonard, her father, was a native of Germany, and
his wife of England. They came to America separately, and here met and
were married, making their home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Upon the
breaking out of the Civil War, Mr. Leonard entered the army of the
Union and served through that historic conflict. He died shortly after,
leaving a widow and six children, three boys and three girls. Mrs. Leonard
was a second time married, this time to a Mr. White, but of this union there
were no children. Mrs. Dunkerley is still a resident of Beaver Falls. To
her and Mr. Dunkerley were born three children, as follows : Joseph Henry,
a resident of New Brighton, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, where he holds
a position as teller ; Mary, now Mrs. Harry R. Finney ; Charles Arthur, of
whom further.
(Ill) Charles Arthur Dunkerley was educated in the local public
schools and at Duff's Business College, from which institution he grad-
uated in the year 1907. He began his business life in the position of as-
sistant bookkeeper in the office of the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railway
and here he remained until 191 1, in which year he decided to embark upon
a business enterprise of his own and accordingly built, at No. 315 Four-
teenth street, Beaver Falls, a two-story and basement store building and
here established himself as a grocer. In this line he has since been success-
fully engaged, and carries at the present time (1913) a stock valued at
about fifteen hundred dollars. He is a model shopkeeper, and his store
always presents a spotless appearance. Despite his notable success in his
present business, Mr. Dunkerley expects soon to withdraw from it for the
purpose of forming a partnership, under the firm name of Emerick &
Dunkerley, to deal in shoes. Mr. Dunkerley is a Republican in politics, and
takes a keen interest in public affairs. He is a member of the Junior Order
of American Mechanics.
Mr. Dunkerley married. May 30, 1906, Mary McLean, a native of Scal-
loway, Shetland Islands, daughter of Allan and Agnes (Anderson) Mc-
Lean. Mr. McLean was born in Stornaway, Scotland, and his wife in
Great Yarmouth, England. They were married in Aberdeen, Scotland,
and lived there two years, afterwards removing to Glasgow, and after ten
years residence in that city, in October, 1903, he came to America and
settled in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, whither he was followed by his
BEAVER COUNTY 889
daughter, Mary, in May, 1904, and by Mrs. McLean in 1906. While in
Scotland Mr. McLean was in the business of fish curing, but since his ar-
rival in America has been employed in the hollow-ware works at Beaver
Falls, where he and Mrs. McLean still reside. To them were born eight
children, as follows: Susan, died when but eight years of age; Mary, now
Mrs. Dunkerley; William, died when eighteen months of age; Clara, now
Mrs. Lyle Richmond, of Beaver Falls; Allan, aged eighteen years; Alex-
ander, aged seventeen years ; Duncan, aged sixteen years ; Agnes, aged ten
years, the four younger children all living at home. Mr. and Mrs. Mc-
Lean are members of the Presbyterian Church, and he is a member of the
Loyal Order of Moose. Mr. and Mrs. Dunkerley are the parents of two
lovely little daughters, Ruth, born November 8, 1908, and Jean, born De-
cember 8, 191 1. Mr. Dunkerley and his family are members of the Metho-
dist Protestant Church.
The Cunninghams are a Scotch family, although
CUNNINGHAM many of the numerous immigrants of this surname
who came to America previous to the beginning of the
beginning of the eighteenth century were descended from ancestors who
had lived in Ireland perhaps for many generations. But from whatever
country the immigrant Cunninghams may have sailed in their quest of new
homes on this side of the Atlantic ocean, the fact remains that probably
very nearly all of them came of the ancient Cunningham Clan, which was
seated in Ayrshire, Scotland, as early as A. D. 1200.
(I) Philo McGregor Cunningham was born at Ellwood City, Lew-
rence county, Pennsylvania, July 22, 1836, and was a farmer and a dealer
in hogs, cattle, sheep and wool. He married, in 1865, Alice M. Davidson,
and had a number of children.
(II) William Mehard Cunningham, son of Philo McGregor and Alice
M. (Davidson) Cunningham, was born in Wayne township, Lawrence
county, Pennsylvania, November 25, 1868. He acquired his education in
the public schools in the vicinity of his home, then assisted his father in
the care and management of the farm until he was twenty-five years of age.
He then learned the tailor's trade with L. D. Boggs, of New Brighton,
Pennsylvania, with whom he remained associated until 1899, when he started
in business independently, and has been successfully identified with this
since that time. He married, September 19, 1900, Lida F. Boyd, and
they have one child, Elizabeth, born October 15, 1901.
The little mountainous country of Switzerland has furnished
STEINER some of the most energetic and enterprising citizens of the
United States, and the members of the Steiner family, now
so well represented in Beaver county, Pennsylvania, are no exception to
this rule.
(I) Daniel Steiner, the immigrant ancestor of the Swiss Steiners now
890 PENNSYLVANIA
in the United States, was born in Switzerland, March 24, 1813. After his
marriage he emigrated to America, settHng in Allegheny county, Penn-
sylvania, where he remained for a time, and in 1842 removed to Belmont
county, Ohio, where he located on a farm he had purchased. There his
death occurred, December 13, 1873. Until the year i860 he was a staunch
Democrat, but at that time he affiliated with the Republican party, to
which he gave his political support until his death. He and his wife were
members of the Evangelical Protestant church. He married (first) in
Switzerland, Elizabeth Yanny, bom in that country, September 24, 1812,
died in Belmont county, Ohio, October 14, 1853. They had one child,
Daniel Arnold, see forward. Mr. Steiner married (second) Barbara
Braun, and had children: Louisa, born May 9, 1857, married Thomas
Miller, now deceased; Bertha, born 1858, died 1879; Pauline, married
Christian Gailer; Theodore U., now of Belmont county, Ohio.
(H) Daniel Arnold Steiner, son of Daniel and Elizabeth (Yanny)
Steiner, was born in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, October 3, 1841. He
was but an infant when his parents removed to the farm in Belmont
county, Ohio, and there his early years were spent and there he was edu-
cated in the public schools. In the spring of 1864 he enlisted in the army,
becoming a member of Company C, 170th Regiment, Ohio Volunteer In-
fantry, and served until September of the same year. He re-enlisted in
Company I, 194th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and served until the
close of the war, being honorably discharged at Camp Chase, November 2,
1865. The most important battles in which he actively participated were :
Maryland Heights, Island Ford and Winchester. He was an ardent Demo-
crat, and a man of influence in the local politics, serving as burgess of
Rochester and of Monaca, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, and as justice
of the peace in Aliquippa, in the same county. In 1873 Mr. Steiner re-
moved to Rochester, Pennsylvania, there learning the trade of shoemaking,
with which he was occupied for a period of fifteen years. He then re-
moved to Monaca, where he resided eleven years, and on September 16,
1899, removed to Aliquippa, where he now owns property on Beaver
avenue. He is a member of Rochester Post, No. 183, Grand Army of the
Republic.
Mr. Steiner married, in Rochester, Catherine Elizabeth Trax, born in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, December 11, 1849. Children: i. Alice Ger-
trude, born January 3, 1870; married John W. Morehouse, of Monaca,
Pennsylvania ; children : James, William, Walter, Bertram. 2. Eugene Bert-
rand, see forward. Mrs. Steiner is a daughter of Jacob Trax, who was
born in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, September 7, 1824, died May 29,
1907. The greater part of his life was spent in Beaver county, Pennsyl-
vania, where he was occupied as a cabinetmaker. In 1868 he formed an
association with Miller & Dobson, and they organized a planing mill. He
married Catherine Elizabeth, born in Germany, 1827, who came to this