this manner he constructed most of the forts about Pittsburgh, and besides
this took part in the battle of Bull Run. Mr. Miller Sr. was always ex-
tremely active in the afifairs of the community. He was a staunch mem-
ber of the Democratic party and took a lively interest in town affairs,
serving his fellow citizens for twenty-three years, with one break of a
year, in the capacity of school director. He was also the tax collector and
held a number of minor offices. He was married to Mary Bardonna, a
native of France, where she was born, and a daughter of Peter and Kath-
erine Bardonna, he of French and she of German blood. Mr. and Mrs.
Bardonna passed their youth in France and were married there, coming
to the United States in the year 1845, when they settled in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. Mr. Bardonna acquired a farm in the neighborhood of the
city, and there carried on farming operations until his death. To Mr. and
Mrs. John A. Miller were born seven children, three sons and four daugh-
ters.

William H. Miller, son of John A. and Mary (Bardonna) Miller, was
born January 23, 1862, in Hampton township, Allegheny county, Pennsyl-
vania. He received his education in the excellent public schools of Pitts-
burgh, and also attended night school in that city. Upon the completion
of his studies, his first work was as a farm hand on his father's property, but
he gave this up ere long to engage in the wholesale grocery business with
T. C. Jenkins. He continued in this enterprise for the space of two
years, when he abandoned it and returned to farming, only to once more
engage in the grocery business, this time in the retail branch. This second
venture proved to be the foundation of his present prosperous business,
and was made in the year 1888, in the town of Etna, Pennsylvania, his
present home. He rented a building in that town wherein to conduct his
business, up to the year 1902, when he had succeeded so greatly that he
was able to erect a building of his own, next door to his present location.
Here he remained until 1913, when his business gained such proportions
that he was obliged to again have recourse to the builder, this time putting
up his present handsome quarters. In the year 1898 Mr. Miller added
another business to his successful trade in groceries, and engaged in the
undertaking business, which he continues at present. Mr. Miller is very
active in the afifairs of his community, taking part in both the social and
political life of the town. He is a member of the Republican party, and
takes a keen interest in all political questions whether of local or general
significance. He has served his fellow citizens for many years on the
town council, six years as councilman and four and a half years as
burgess, and during that period held the office of president of the council.
He is a member of the local lodge of the Free and .'\ccepted Masons, of
the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and of the Order of Moose.
He is also very prominent in the work of the English Evangelical Lutheran



WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA 455

Church, of which he is a memher, and was one of the organizers of tlie
church in Etna.

Mr. Miller was married, December, 1888, to Clarice McCuIley, a
native of Hampton township, where she was born, and a daughter of
Henry and Mary (Hardy) McCulley. Mr. and Mrs. Miller have been
the parents of ten children, four of whom are deceased, the survivors
being as follows: May, John, Robert, Elvey, Ethel, Ruth.

Mirfield, Yorkshire, England, a busy manufacturing city, is the
KIDD locality in which this chronicle finds its beginning, with the birth,

on November 3, 1810, of William Kidd. He received a short
period of schooling, then became employed at the miller's occupation, which
had been the calling of his father, and eventually became the owner of a
grist mill at Cawthorne, near Barnsley, Yorkshire, which he conducted
successfully for several years. In 1854 he equipped a part of his mill with
wire-pulling machinery, meeting with such favorable results in the manu-
facture of steel wire that the latter industry gradually encroached upon
the room remaining for milling operations until the latter was finally
abandoned and the mill turned into a wire manufacturing plant, a concern
that had a prosperous career. William Kidd was a man intensely inter-
ested in public aflfairs, holding great admiration for the political and public
leaders of the day, men of the type of Richard Cobden and John Bright,
and although not a scholar, because of lack of opportunity, he was never-
theless a close student of all public questions and held firm and well founded
views upon the leading topics of the day. He was a member of the Church
of England. William Kidd married Elizabeth, born at Clayton West, York-
shire, England, March 11, 1813, daughter of George Hall, a manufacturer
of clogs, a wooden shoe worn by the peasant class. George Hall was the
father of John, Thomas, George, Amelia, Ann, and Elizabeth, of previous
mention, who married William Kidd. Children of William and Elizabeth
(Hall) Kidd; the first two born at Wakefield, the remainder at Cawthorne,
Yorkshire, England : Sarah ; Joseph ; Martha ; Elizabeth ; Ann ; William,
born January 8, 1843; Edwin, of whom further; Walter, born March i,
1847; Augusta, born March 10, 1853; and Harry, born in 1856.

Edwin Kidd, son of William and Elizabeth (Hall) Kidd, was born
in Cawthorne, Yorkshire, England, January 30, 1845. He was educated
in a private school in that locality. In young manhood he possessed a
triple occupation as farmer, miller, and wire-drawer, in 1869 immigrating
to the United States. He was in Boston, Massachusetts, for a time, later
accepting a position with a wire manufcturing company in Worcester, in
that state, afterward establishing there in independent business as Edwin
Kidd & Company. This organization continued for three years, when Mr.
Kidd sold out to the Crescent Wire Company, completing the deal in i88r,
when Mr. Kidd entered the employ of the concern that had purchased his
plant. In 1892 he moved to Sharpsburg. Allegheny county, Pennsylvania,
there founding the Kidd Steel Wire Company. G. P. Loomis was later



456 WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA

admitted to partnership in this enterprise and the name of the company
was changed to the Globe Wire Company, as it is conducted at the present
time. The firm does a creditable business and since its organization has
been a success, Mr. Kidd's extensive experience in that line being an im-
portant contributing factor to its prosperity. Mr. Kidd is identified with
the Masonic Order.



Michael Egan, a worthy representative of ancestors whose birth
, EGAN occurred in the Emerald Isle, from which country so many of
our patriotic and loyal citizens trace their descent, is a native
of Ross township. Old Perrysville road, Pennsylvania, his birth occurring
March ii, 1861, son of John and Bridget (Hynes) Egan, natives of Ire-
land, and grandson of and (Duncan) Egan, who lived and died

in Ireland, and of Andrew Hynes, a grocer, whose death occurred in Ire-
land.

John Egan (father) acquired a very limited education in the schools
of his native county, which he attended for a short period of time, and in
1842 he left the land of his birth and settled in Quebec, Canada, where he
was employed at clearing land for a Mr. McNulty, devoting his evenings
to study, and thus, despite the fact that his opportunities for an educa-
tion were very meagre, he became well informed on many subjects, owing to
his determination to better his condition. From Quebec he removed to
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1846, later took up his residence in Mt. Sal-
vage, Maryland, where he was employed for two years in a coal mine, at
the expiration of which time he returned to Pittsburgh and became book-
keeper and contracting boss for Thomas Rourke, his cousin, a stone con-
tractor, during which time he assisted in building the stations for the Balti-
more & Ohio and Allegheny railroads. Shortly after his return to Pitts-
burgh he took up his residence in Ross township, remaining there until his
death, in 1897. He married, in the old Catholic Cathedral in Quebec.
Canada, in 1843, Bridget Hynes, a native of Ireland, who went to Canada
at the same time as her future husband, and her death occurred about forty-
eight hours after that of her husband. They were the parents of eight
children, six of whom died young, the remaining members being Mary and
Michael.

Michael Egan attended the public schools in the vicinity of his home,
completing his studies at the age of fourteen, when he began to earn his
own livelihood. His first employment was driving a lumber wagon, later he
was employed for eighteen months by the Pennsylvania Railroad, and
about the year 1880 engaged in the real estate business, dealing largely in
Allegheny county land. He has achieved a large degree of success in
this undertaking, owing to his progressive ideas and up-to-date methods
of conducting his afifairs. In March, 1904, he removed to Avalon. where he
has since resided, taking an active part in all that concerns its welfare and
improvement. He is a Republican in politics, but has never sought or held
public office, although aiding materially in securing positions for others.
with the degree of A. B., and an active and popular member of his class.






9"



OL^t^Cy



WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA 457

He is a communicant of the Catholic Church, and a tncmlicr of Bellevue
Council, No. 1400, Knights of Columbus.



J. R. W. Tibby comes of a family representative of that Scotch
TIBBY and Irish element which has brought to the formation of our

American citizenship qualities and traditions of peculiar value,
qualities of unflinching courage and hard headed practicality, and traditions
of honor and .social consideration the most binding. On both sides of the
house the families came originally from Scotland, but, at the time of their
immigration to America, liad passed a long period of residence in Ireland.
From the latter country James and Jane (English) Tibby, the grand-
parents of our subject, came to the United States in the year 1831 and
made their home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. James Tibby had been a
weaver in his native land, and he followed the same trade in Pittsburgh,
making bags and "Kentucky Jean," for which he had a .sale not only in Jiis
own region, but throughout the State of Ohio as well. He was extremely
successful in his operations and soon had a large force of men working at
his looms. As his wealth grew he invested it in property in Pittsburgh and
Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, accumulating a large amount in the Fifth and
Twelfth Wards of the former place and in the latter town as well. He
also started a grocery business later, and in this was equally .successful,
but in the year 1858, he retired altogether from active business life. Up
to this time he had continued to reside in Pittsburgh, and, indeed, after
his retirement remained in that city for five years, but in 1863. he removed
to Wilkinsburg, and there made his home during the rest of his life. His
death, which occurred in the year 1870, found him in his eighty-fifth year.
He was a man of great activity and energy, and deeply interested in public
afifairs. A Republican in politics, he was elected twice to the Pittsburgh
council and played a prominent role in the politics of the community. He
was a member, for some time, of the Associate Reformed Church, and later
joined the United Presbyterian body, but during the last years of his life
he became a member of the Covenanter Church, and in this persuasion died.
Among the children of Mr. and Mrs. Tibby was Matthew Tibby. the father
of our subject.

Matthew Tibby was born in Pittsburgh. February 16, 1825. The
early schools of Pittsburgh were popularly known as "paid schools." and
it was in one of these that Mr. Tibby received his education. St. Martin's
School, as the institution was called, was that which he attended, and
there he remained until the completion of his studies. He then turned to
the acquirement of a trade and chose that of painting, which he learned
under the direction of Simpson Horner, following the same for a number
of years. He was one of the earliest employees of the Pennsylvania
Railroad, at first working with the civil engineers, and later as a train
man. He was then promoted to the position of conductor and from that
stepped into the position of paymaster. How early were Mr. Tibbv"s as-
sociations with the great railroad may be seen from the fact that he was



458 WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA

one of those on the first train which ever left Pittsburgh. For a time he
held the position of foreman of the railroad paint shop, for which his
early training rendered him well adapted, but later returned to service on
the road itself, being appointed on a train which did not run on Sundays.
In the year 1866 he and three brothers started in the glass business, under
the firm name of Tibby Brothers, the enterprise being highly successful
from the beginning. From that time Mr. Tibby gave his attention to the
new business exclusively until his death, April 6, 1909. He was married
to Nancy McFarland, a descendant of a Scotch-Irish family, whose parents
came to the United States and settled in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the
early days. The McFarland family is now scattered pretty well through-
out the Pittsburgh district. Mr. and Mrs. Matthew Tibby were the parents
of four children, as follows : Mary Jane ; J. R. W., the subject of this sketch ;
Lizzie, died at the age of four years ; and Maggie, now Mrs. Charles N.
Hanna.

J. R. W. Tibby, the second child and only son of Matthew and Nancy
(McFarland) Tibby, was born September 24, 1856, in his father's dwelling
on Twenty-third street, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He obtained his educa-
tion in the local schools and, upon completing his studies at about eighteen
years of age, began to learn the glass business in his father's establishment.
In the year 1898 he became a member of the firm, continuing such as long
as the business remained in existence. After his father's death he suc-
ceeded him as president of the concern. Mr. Tibby has always been
vitally interested in politics, both local and general, and is an active member
of the Republican party in the community. He has never cared to accept
public office, however, and has consistently refused all oflfers of the sort
which have been made to him. He is a member of the Blue Lodge, Free
and Accepted Masons, and of the Benevolent and Protective Order of
Elks, Lodge No. 932.

Mr. Tibby was married, November 25, 1884, to Eugenia Witten
Musser. a native of Pittsburgh, where she was born. Mrs. Tibby is de-
scended on both sides of the house from families associated with the pioneer
days of the community. Her paternal grandparents, John and Ruth (Wit-
ten) Musser, were early settlers in Philadelphia, and later went farther
west to Ohio, where Mr. Musser was a pioneer school teacher and farmer.
His family were engaged in the Revolution. On the maternal side Mrs.
Tibby traces her ancestry still further back. Four generations before her,
Mary (McClelland) Kirkpatrick, her great-great-grandmother, settled in
Pittsburgh on the "North Side," in the old Indian days, and when the good
housewives of Pittsburgh had to carry their washing down to the banks
of the Ohio river. With the Kirkpatricks, at the time of their migration
to this country from Ireland, in 181 1, came little Susan Carothers, aged
three years, and some time after her parents, Robert and Elizabeth (Kirk-
patrick) Carothers, followed her. Mr. Carothers was a weaver and plied
his trade in Pittsburgh, taking up later the weaving of carpets. They
were Mrs. Tibby's great-grandparents, and Susan Carothers, upon her mar-



WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA 459

riage with John GaUispie, became her graiKhnother. The Carothers had
made their home near where Boyle street, AUeglieny, now runs, and Mr.
GalHspie, himself a native of Ireland, migrating to this country, there met
his future wife. Mrs. Tibby's father was Witten Musser, a native of
Ohio, who, coming to Pittsburgh, married Martha Gallispie, a daughter of
the family mentioned above. To Mr. and Mrs. Tibby have been born six
children, as follows: Nancy McFarland, Martha Gallispie, Helen Eugenia,
Matthew Renwick, Ruth Ella and Willa M. Mr. and Mrs. Tibby and
their family are members of the United Presbyterian Church of Aspinwall,
Pennsylvania.



Felix Negley Humes is descended on his father's side of the
HUMES house from an Irish family, representative of the best type

of that race, which introduced so valuable an element of
courage and enterprise into the early population of this country, and formed
a racial foundation upon which all the various peoples that have since
poured into the United States, have been erected into our present com-
posite citizenship. On his mother's side he comes from an old Pennsyl-
vania family, who, through long residence in the western part of that
state, has become completely identified with the life and traditions of
that region. His paternal grandfather was a native of Ireland, John
Humes by name, who, while still a youth, emigrated to the United States,
at a time prior to the American Revolution. He went to the State of
Pennsylvania, and took up his abode in the western part, at a time when
that region was practically virgin wilderness, and the few settlements of
white men were clustered closely around the forts, which sparsely dotted
the country, for protection against the red man. ^Modern means of convey-
ance were then, of course, a thing of the future, and John Humes crossed
the wild Alleghenies with horses for locomotive power, and a heavy wagon
for conveyance. He settled in Westmoreland county, at the location of
the present town of Manor, and there took up the two occupations of farm-
ing and distilling. In both of these he prospered and grew to be a promi-
nent figure in the new community. During the Revolution he enlisted at
once in the cause of freedom of his adopted country, and was soon in
active service in the army of Washington, where he served as a teamster.
He lived to see the close of hostilities and the triumph of the cause for
which he fought, returning, after the war was over, to his home at Manor,
where he spent the remainder of his life. One of his sons, James Humes,
the father of our subject, was born at Manordale, Westmoreland countv.
Pennsylvania, and there passed his childhood and youth. There, too. he
married Mary Vance, a daughter of John Vance of Elizabeth township,
Allegheny county. He had two children by his first marriage, but Mrs.
Humes died after a short period of married life, and upon her death Mr.
Humes moved to Allegheny county and settled to the south of West Ta-
rentum. Here he was married. January i, 1824. to Mary Negley, by whom



46o WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA

he had thirteen children, one of whom was the subject of this sketch. He
was a prominent and weaUhy man in his community, a farmer by occupa-
tion, and had tlie good fortune to discover coal banks on his property, just
below the Tarentum borough line. He was a member of the Democratic
party all his life up to the time when the issues leading up to the Civil
War began to be raised, when he modified his standpoint, voting at times
with the newly born Republican party. The Negley family, into which
James Humes married, is a very old one in that part of the country. They
came originally from Switzerland, where the first of the name of whom
there is positive record was born in the Canton of Berne. This John
Negley was a man of deep religious feeling, and of much personal courage
and power. He was one of those who went with the famous Zwingli on
his preaching excursions into Germany from Switzerland, in the cause of
the Reformation. Later in life, in the year 1685, the very year of the
birth of the two greatest exponents of the Reformation in music. Bach and
Handel, John Negley accompanied by his two brothers, Casper and Benja-
min, left forever the scene of his religious labors, and emigrated to Amer-
ica. One of the brothers settled in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, and from
him sprang the branch of the Negley family, residing in Allegheny county.
A son of his, Alexander Negley, enlisted in the Continental Army, and
served as a private iii one of the two companies, dispatched by General
Washington, to the protection of the settlers around Fort Pittsburgh, in
the unsettled state of the country, immediately after the war. In this way
the Negleys reached Allegheny county, which was for so many years to
prove their home. Alexander Negley settled in East Liberty Valley, being
one of the earliest settlers in that neighborhood and the first in the valley.
Here he acquired a large tract of land, which he operated as a farm. Alex-
ander Negley's birth was in 1739. his death occurring in 1792. He was
married to Mary .\nn Buckstresser, in 1762, Mrs. Negley's death not tak-
ing place until 1829. A son of Alexander Negley, Felix Negley, by name,
was the father of Mrs. James Humes. He was born May 13, 1782, and in
1796 went to live on the site of the present Borough of Tarentum ( the
third ward), .'Mlegheny. He was very enterprising and industrious, and
took a conspicuous part in the development of the resources and industries
of the neighborhood. He built a saw mill and a grist mill, and in i82r, a
carding factory. In 1824 he entered into partnership with Ale.x'ander Mc-
Allister, in the wool carding business. His death occurred in 1832. He
was married in 1800 to Ruth Horton., and their daughter Mary was born to
them February 8, 1805.

Felix Negley Humes, the oldest of the thirteen children of James
and Mary (Negley) Humes, was born November 15, 1824, i" West Ta-
rentum, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, just opposite to where the Alle-
gheny Valley Hospital now stands, in the old Negley homestead. The
scene of his birth was an old log house, a relic of pioneer days, which
still stands to this day, as the frame of a building which has been erected



WESTERN rKNNSYLVANIA 4^"

around it and of which il iorms llie support. Mr. Humes received his
education in the local schools, but ceased his attenrlance upon tliem early
to take part in the active business of life. He was first employed as a
farmer and also secured a position as a boat hand on the canal, but later
was attracted to the oil business, great deposits of which were being found
in western Peinisylvania. Having once made a beginning in this line, he con-
tinued in the same for many years, being very successful and carrying his
operations over a number of states. He drove many oil wells, and also water
wells. One of the first oil wells ever drilled in Oil Creek, Pennsylvania,
was put down by Mr. Humes, and he also sank one of the first salt water
wells at Peterson Station, Pennsylvania. During the course of his career
he has drilled wells in Ohio, Tennessee and Iowa, as well as all over the
western part of Pennsylvania. He has now lived retired from active
business at Tarentum for twenty-five years, but has by no means withdrawn
from the active life of the community. On the contrary he has taken a
conspicuous part in it, particularly in the line of politics, and served his
fellow citizens as burgess for three years, something over thirteen years
ago. Three of his brothers, Robert, William and Thomas, enlisted in the
Union Army during the Civil War, and served through that historic con-
flict, Robert Humes attaining to the rank of captain.

Felix Negley Humes was married, March 13, 1851, at Sligo. Alle-
gheny county, Pennsylvania, to Mary Ann Wilhelm, a daughter of George
and Lydia (Hall) Wilhelm, of Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, where she
was born. Mrs. Humes is descended on her mother's side from very early
New England stock, an ancestor of hers being one of the Pilgrims. They
were very early settlers in Armstrong county also. George Wilhelm re-
moved from Armstrong county to Allegheny county, when his daughter,
Mrs. Humes was only eight years of age, and there died.

To Mr. and Mrs. Humes have been born four children, as follows :
Harry Kier, mentioned at length below, Minnie May, born December 2j.
1858, in Tarentum, Pennsylvania, and now living in Carnegie. Pennsyl-
vania; Annie Bell, born March 27, 1861, and now a resident of Tarentum;
Fronie Vogan, born February 22, 1868, died in Tarentum.

Harry Kier Humes, the eldest child of Felix Negley and .Annie ( Wil-
helm) Humes, was born August 27, 1856, in the State of Iowa, during
the time that his father was out in that state on business in connection with