VALENTINE
BEAVER, of Shenango, West Salem township, Mercer county, a veteran of
the Civil war, was born May 10. 1835, in East Salem township, son
of Peter Beaver, of Northampton county, Pennsylvania. In 1830 his
father married Hannah Wasser, settled on a farm in Salem
township and died on the old homestead in 1874. By this marriage
Mrs. Peter Beaver. who was the daughter of Tobias Wasser, of East
Salem township, became the mother of the following children:
Maria, wife of Hugh McMillen, farmer of Salem township;
Polly, wife of S. Gruber, a farmer; Eliza, wife of
Joseph Shade, a farmer of Salem township; Edwin, a farmer:
and Valentine, of this biographical notice. For his second wife.
Peter Beaver married October 12, 1843, Julia Stenger,
daughter of Philip Stenger, a farmer of East Salem township. She
was born in Lehigh county, Pennsylvania. By this union the issue was as
follows: Jacob, deceased; William, a physician in
Kansas; George, a carpenter working at the Bessemer shops at
Greenville; Reuben, a Presbyterian minister of Delaware township,
Mercer county; Drusilla, wife of William Reichard, a farmer
of Delaware township, Mercer county; Alice, wife of Frank
Huber, a workman at Greenville: and Henry, deceased. Politically,
the father was first a Whig, but later became connected with the
Democratic party. He was a devout member of the Lutheran church, an
exemplary Christian and a most worthy citizen.
Valentine Beaver
attended school, until he was about nineteen years of age, and was
employed on the farm until 1859, when he went to Illinois and followed
agriculture in Wabash county until 1861; then retraced his steps to his
native state and enlisted as a soldier of the Civil war. He joined the
Union forces on the original call for three-months' troops and June 10,
1861, re-enlisted with the "Mercer Rifles." under Captain Wormer,
officially known as Company G. Pennsylvania Reserves. He participated
in the battles of Cumberland Valley and Mechanicsburg, as well as in
the Seven Days' fight in front of Richmond; also at Bull Run, Antietam,
Shenandoah Valley and die battles of the Wilderness, etc. His company
was sent to the front in nearly all engagements, but he returned as one
of thirty-four members of his command without a scratch or scar, being
mustered out, June 12, 1864, having seen more than the average severe
fighting of the brave soldiery of the Union army. After his marriage in
1865, he worked two years in a coal mine, was then employed by the old
S. & A. Railway (now Bessemer line) as a carpenter, and for ten
years at the pumping station, near Osgood, Pennsylvania. During his
long service with the company, he lost but six days' time.
Mr.
Beaver was married in 1865, in West Salem township, to Catherine
Mathay. She was born October 3, 1845, in Germany, and came to this
country when less than three years of age, with her father and mother,
Peter and Mary (Eich) Mathay. The father was a farmer in that country
and died on his homestead in West Salem township, Mercer county, in
1900. The mother died in 1906. This worthy couple were devoted members
of the Lutheran church. The children born to Valentine Beaver and wife
are as follows: Henry Peter and George Albert, engineers on the
Bessemer railroad; Marguerite, living at home; Fred, deceased; Junius,
principal of the preparatory class of the high school Walter D., a
merchant at Greenville; Julia, wife of W. McDonald, an engineer;
Catherine and Elizabeth, residing at home: Mary, postmistress at
Shenango, Mercer county; Eva Josephine, attending school at Meadville
and Charlotte Louise, in the Greenville High School.
Source: Twentieth Century History of Mercer County, pages 941-942
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