1874: A.N. Taylor Residence
Northwest Corner of Green and Fulton Streets
photo credit: Carl &
Mary Jane Defilippi Collection
A. N. Taylor:
Wealthy Smethport Merchant Falls to an Early Death from
Roof!
A. N. Taylor (deceased) was a native of Madison county, N. Y., and was
born June 11, 1822, of English descent, and died May 15, 1876, the result
of a fall, on September 25, 1875. Some time in the last century Robert
and James Taylor came from England, and April 10, 1785, the first named
married Sally Bailey, at Groton, Conn., but was lost at sea about six
months before his son, James, came into the world. Sally Taylor then
married John Bailey, May 31, 1796, and by him was the mother of several
children; again becoming a widow, she next intermarried, June 5, 1810,
with Daniel Goth. Deacon James Taylor, son of Robert and Sally (Bailey)
Taylor, was born at New London, Conn., December 28, 1788, and January 14,
1811, he married at Franklin, Delaware Co., N. Y., Lois Niles, who was
born August 28, 1787, at Colchester, Conn., and they had a family of seven
children, the subject of this sketch being the fifth child in order of
birth. June 13, 1824, the family moved to McKean County, and settled
on a backwoods farm. The father, James Taylor, was elected the second
sheriff of McKean county. A. N. Taylor very early gave evidence of
the untiring and indomitable energy that was so prominent a characteristic
of his life, and, having a taste for mercantile business, at about the
age of nineteen he entered, as a clerk, the store of Hawkins, Ford &
Taylor, his father being one of the partners in the firm. Two years
later he formed a partnership with his father, and commenced business in
the old Astor House
Hotel building. A few years later he bought out his father's
interest in the business, and built a store adjoining the Astor House,
which he occupied until it was burned down in the fire of March 28, 1868.
He afterward moved his store to the Sartwell block. When he first
commenced business he had but $400 in the world. Although it is impossible
to give a correct estimate, it is believed by those best acquainted with
his affairs, that he was worth at the time of his death not less than $300,000.
March 1, 1849, he became united in marriage with Ann E., daughter of William
E. and Betsy A. (Bard) Fuller, and born December 28, 1828, at Unadilla
Oswego Co., N. Y. Five years after her birth her parents moved to
Mexico, Oswego County, where her father carried on farming, and where he
died May 4, 1854; her mother died at the age of twenty-six, December 28,
1831. Mrs. Ann E. Taylor comes of "Mayflower" ancestry, her great-grandfather
having been one of the Lutheran ministers who crossed the ocean on that
historic vessel. Her grandfather, Isaac Fuller, was a lieutenant
under Washington, and was promoted on the field of Bunker Hill, where he
was wounded; he was a native of New Hampshire, where he married a German
lady, their children being William E., father of Mrs. Taylor, and Christopher,
formerly a Presbyterian clergyman of Rochester, N. Y., now deceased.
By the marriage of William E. Fuller and Betsy A. Bard three children were
born, viz.: Ann E., Charlotte T. (now deceased, who married the late
Hon. L. T. Moore, of Emporium, Penn., who in his lifetime had been made
the recipient of various political honors) and M. C. (of Bedford, Iowa).
To the union of A. N. Taylor and Ann
E. Fuller were born three children: Ada M. (now Mrs.
D. C. Young), Frank N. and Flora C. (now Mrs. J. J. Newman).
A. N. Taylor was a man of remarkable business capacity, and should be classed
among the most successful men of our day and time. His entire heart
and mind was in his business during his earlier days. He was keen
and shrewd, quick to detect the weakness of an opponent, and improve an
opportunity of favorable investment. Many men have complained that
he was a hard man to deal with, yet the assertion can be ventured, without
fear of successful contradiction, that no man whom he believed to be dealing
honestly and fairly by him was ever oppressed or wronged by his authority,
and that no man in McKean County was found to be more sympathetic and tender
hearted when approached in a proper manner. He was a business man
in every sense. He expected men to live up to their obligations.
He took all manner of chances, and gave accommodation and time to men whom
no other merchants would trust, in hundreds of cases. The loss that
McKean County, and the borough of Smethport especially, sustains in the
death of A.N. Taylor can not at once be estimated.
When a town loses one of its ablest, most energetic, successful and
wealthiest business men, the loss is not fully repaired in years.
At the time of his fatal fall he had in contemplation the use of a portion
of his ample means for the building up and improvement of the borough,
and had already taken energetic steps in that direction. He left
a widow and three children, one son and two daughters; and though well
provided for as to the things of this world, nothing can fully compensate
the loss of a kind and wisely indulgent father and husband. Mr. Taylor,
always a Republican in politics from the organization of the party, was
once elected associate judge by an overwhelming majority. During
the days of the Civil War he had the fullest faith in the ultimate success
of the Union arms, and he had lost since that time none of his love for
the principles of his party or his zeal for their success.
taken from: The History of the Counties of McKean, Elk,
Cameron and Potter, Pennsylvania ©1890
1902: Popular Sheriff Buys
A.N. Taylor Residence
William B. Clarke, sheriff
of McKean County,
was born in Westbrooke, Conn., in 1845, and when he
was two years of age his father moved to New York City. He was educated
in the high schools of that city, from which he subsequently graduated. 
When about eighteen years of age he entered the employ of Jacob Lorillard,
the celebrated tobacconist, for whom he worked for four years. The
Lorillard establishment employed over 600 men at that time, and Mr. Clarke
was the principal bookkeeper, having also entire charge of the internal
revenue branch of the business. There was a heavy tax on tobacco
in those war times, and thousands of dollars of internal revenue tax was
paid monthly by this one establishment. Mr. Clarke had the confidence
of his employer to such an extent that very few men possess before the
age of twenty-one years, and he has in his possession a letter of recommendation
from Jacob Lorrilard which he values very highly. In 1866, at the
instance of a brother-in-law, who owned a majority of the stock of the
Home Petroleum Company, he visited Oil Creek, the valley of which was then
booming as an oil territory. This company owned the Blood farm, which
was then a fine producing territory, and Mr. Clarke was induced to take
the position of assistant superintendent, and was given considerable charge
of the property. He remained in the employ of the company nearly
nine years, during five of which he lived at Titusville. He came
to McKean County in 1875, locating at Tarport, and for four years had charge
of the oil properties of Col. A.I. Wilcox. For a long time he was
in the employ of his father-in-law, Fredrick Crocker, whose producing interests
were very large, and during a portion of the time he superintended the
extensive coal business of Sheriff Bannon. In January, 1884, he was
appointed the principal deputy sheriff under Sheriff Bannon, and in 1887
was elected to the office of sheriff, proving himself one of the most popular
officials of the county. He was married in 1876 to Edna Crocker,
daughter of Fredrick Crocker, the well known oil producer, and they
have one son. Mr. Clarke has taken the thirty-second degree in Freemasonry
and is a member of the consistory at Bloomsburg; is also a member of the
Knights of Pythias.
taken from: The History of the Counties of McKean, Elk,
Cameron and Potter, Pennsylvania ©1890
Ralph Emerson Hockenberry, M.D.
For years active in Smethport affairs, Dr. Ralph Emerson
Hockenberry has built up a sizable medical practice here and has interested
himself in many
organizations and their efforts and achievements.
Dr. Hockenberry was born May 16, 1902, son of Charles
E. and Dora Ann (Gruver) Hockenberry, both of Butler County. His
mother died in 1916. The
father, long engaged in farming, makes his home in Butler County.
Public schools there provided Ralph Emerson Hockenberry's
early formal education, and afterward he studied at the West Sunbury Vocational
School and
for a year at Grove City College, in Grove City. For a year a
pre-medical course at the University of Pittsburgh, where he was awarded
the degree of Doctor of
Medicine in 1930. There followed an interneship of one year's
duration at St. Francis' Hospital, in Pittsburgh. Then, in 1931,
Dr. Hockenberry began a
general practice of medicine in Smethport. He has carried on
this work since that time, and has taken a lively part in the community
affairs of Smethport and its environs. In addition to having built
up a good practice here, he serves on the staff of the Kane Community Hospital,
and is a member of the McKean County Medical Society, the Pennsylvania
State Medical Society and the American Medical Association.
In politics Dr. Hockenberry is a Republican.
He served in his college days as a member of the Reserve Officers' Training
Corps, and was a first lieutenant in the United States Army Medical Reserve
Corps after completing his active service. Dr. Hockenberry was called
into service in the army, February 1, 1941, for one year. He was
stationed at Camp Blanding, Florida, and as this is written is at Fort
Benning, Georgia. Promoted to captain, December 24, 1941, he has
been with the 124th Infantry Regiment since being called to active duty.
In Smethport he belongs to the Rotary Club. Fraternally he is affiliated
with the Phi Rho Sigma medical fraternity and with the Free and Accepted
Masons. In the Masonic Order he belongs to McKean Lodge, No. 388,
Coudersport Consistory, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, and Zem Zem Temple,
Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.
On December 25, 1931, Dr. Ralph Emerson Hockenberry
married Irene Elizabeth Goeddel, of West Sunbury, Pennsylvania.
taken from The History of Northwestern Pennsylvania, ©1943