Mercer County PAGenWeb

A. J. Zahniser


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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