JOSEPH FORKER, president of
the Sharon National Bank, was born in Mercer, Penn., June 6, 1829, and
is a son of Gen. John and Isabella (Graham) Forker, the latter of whom
is still a resident of Mercer. Adam Forker, grandfather of our subject,
with his wife and family, located in Cool Spring Township early in the
present century, afterward removing to Mercer, where Adam and wife
died. Gen. Forker was a gunsmith by trade, and in the War of 1812
followed that business for the army at Erie, Penn. 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, and his widow still survives him. They reared five children,
three of whom are living. Joseph was the third eldest in the 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 be 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 & Co., and bought
out his brother's s store. In 1864 Mr. Forker sold out to his partners,
and went into the coal business in Hickory Township, and for the past
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 & Co., 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 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, and still occupies that position. He was
married in 1857 to Miss Mary Mathews, who died in 1861, leaving two
children: Frances (wife of Victor Delamater, of Meadville, Penn.) and
David M. (of Birmingham, Ala.). Mr. Forker was again married in 1877,
to Mrs. Ruth Harrington, of Sharon He is a Republican in politics, and
the family belong to the Episcopal Church.
Source: (History of Mercer County, 1888, pages 724)
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