A.
J. ZAHNISER, farmer, post-office North’s Mills, was born July 27, 1818,
in Mercer County, to William, born in Lancaster County, Penn., who came
to Mercer County, and subsequently married Eleanor Statler, a native of
the same county. She came to Allegheny County with her parents, Rudolph
and Barbara (Scroggs) Statler. There she was married to William
Zahniser, and settled with him in what was then Cool Spring. He died
May 7, 1856, and she March 17, 1852. Their children were: J. L., A; J.,
Michael, W. N., Katharine, Valentine, Bithynia and R. M. J. The father
of our subject was in the War of 1812, and made several trips to Erie
and Fort Meigs. A. J. Zahniser was educated in a log school-house, with
split puncheon floors, greased paper windows, open end fire-place and
log or split puncheon seats. He worked on the farm till he was twenty
years of age. He then taught school in the winter seasons, and worked
on farms in the summer, for a time. He afterward worked in a
still-house making whisky in the winter, and wooded plows in the
summer, for three years. He bought 105 acres of land in 1842, known as
the Warden farm, and now owns 185 acres. He then went to improving his
farm, and has continued on it to the present time. He was married in
1848 to Nancy J. Hosack, daughter of Col. Thomas Hosack, and by her had
one child, who died in 1851. Its mother died the same year. He was
never married again, his sister, Mrs. James J. Hosack, having kept
house for him since. She has three children: Eleanor, Thomas and W. J.
Our subject has filled all the important offices of the township, and
has filled other poets of trust.
Source: (History of Mercer County, 1888, page 1019)
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