John
Forker, teller of the Sharon National Bank, is one of the progressive
young business men of Mercer county. Joseph Forker, founder of
the Sharon National Bank, was born in Mercer, Pennsylvania, June 6,
1829, and is a son of General John and Isabella (Graham) Forker, the
latter of whom is still a resident of Mercer. Adam Forker, the
grandfather, with his wife and family, located in Cool Spring township
early in the nineteenth century, afterward removing to Mercer, where
Adam and wife died. General Forker was a gunsmith by trade, and
in the war of 1812 followed that business for the army at Erie,
Pennsylvania. He was afterward prominently identified with the
militia of the county, holding therein the rank of
brigadier-general. He was an ardent Democrat, served one term as
sheriff of Mercer county, and was one of the leading men of his
day. He died in 1865, in the faith of the United Presbyterian
Church.
Joseph Forker was the third eldest in his
family, and grew to manhood in Mercer. At the age of sixteen he
began learning the gunsmith's trade in his father's shop, at which
business he spent five years. In 1853 he began clerking in his
brother Henry's drug store, and in 1857 formed a partnership with
R.M.J. Zahniser and C. W. Whistler, under the firm of Forker, Zahniser
and Company, and bought out his brother's store. In 1864 Mr.
Forker sold out to his partners, and went in to the coal business in
Hickory township, and for the last twenty-four years has been actively
identified with the development of the Mercer county coal fields.
In 1868 he became interested in the furnace of Henderson, Allen and
Company, and since 1872 has been connected with the Spearman Iron
Company. Mr. Forker was one of the organizers of the Sharon
National Bank, in 1875, and was chosen as its first president. He
served until 1878, and was succeeded by James Westerman, who served
until his death, July 20, 1884, when Mr. Forker was again chosen
president. He was married in 1857 to Miss Mary Mathews who died
in 1861, leaving two children: Frances, wife of Victor Delameter, of
Meadville, Pennsylvania; and David M., of Birmingham, Alabama.
Mr. Forker was again married in 1877, to Mrs. Ruth Harrington of Sharon.
Source: (Twentieth Century History of Mercer County, 1909, pg. 581)
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