Mercer County PAGenWeb


William W. Park  


WILLIAM W. PARK - - During many years the Park family have been identified with the life and interests of Mercer county, They are of Irish extraction, and trace their ancestry in this country to John Park, who, with his wife Eliza and their children, came from the Emerald Isle to the United States in 1841, and locating first in the state of New York the lived, there for about three years before coming to Mercer county, Pennsylvania. They established their home in Springfield township, and were farming people there for many years.

James Park, one of the children of John and Eliza Park, was born in 1828, in county Tyrone, Ireland. he married Elizabeth, a daughter of William Albin and a Miss Walker, who for many years were numbered among the agricultural residents of Findley township, Mercer county. William Albin being also a local minister, a good and pious man and well and reverently known throughout the county. James and Elizabeth (Albin) Park became the parents of five children, namely:
William W., who is mentioned below: Caroline Rebecca, the wife of John Johnson, a farmer in Cool Spring township: John Asbury, deceased: Anna Maria, the wife of John Ray, a farmer in Lake township; and James Ellis, who married Sarah Fisher, from Lake township, and is now engaged in agricultural pursuits in Liberty township. Both James Park and his wife were honored members of the Irwin Presbyterian church, and in politics he was a Democrat.

William W. Park, during many years one of the leading farmers and fruit growers of Lake township and the proprietor of Pleasant View Fruit Farm, was born on the 12th of August. 1856, on the farm in Wolf Creek township, now owned by Gilbert Johnson. From the Gordon school in that vicinity he passed to the Grove City College, and completed his training in the New Wilmington College. After leaving the school room he was for two years engaged in a mercantile business at New Wilmington, and going from there to Kilgore he was similarly employed during another two years, while during the four succeeding years he was in the mercantile business in Bethel, and then for two years was a merchant at Coitsville, Ohio. Returning at the close of that period to Mercer county, he in 1887 purchased the Pleasant Valley Fruit Farm of one hundred acres. This is excellent land, perhaps the best in Lake township. and is admirably adapted to its present purposes. As a representative of the Democracy. Mr. Park has always taken an active part in political work, and was five times elected a justice of the peace of Lake township, but twice he did not take out his commission. He also served one term as a school director in Wolf Creek township, one term as a member of the school board of Bethel borough and one term as the auditor of Lake township.

He married on December 13. 1882, Lissa Sarah, a daughter of Oliver and Ann (Mulholand) Beach, of Kilgore. and four children were born to gladden and bless their home, but one. Anna Florence, has been called from this life to the higher one. She was born on the 26th of January, 1885, and died on the 24th of March, 1908, loved and revered not only in her own home but by the many friends whom she had made in her short life. James Frank, the eldest of the children, born November 29, 1883, pursued a course in the Ohio Northern University at Ada, and is now in the employ of W. A. McKnight. a druggist of Sharon. He has been thus connected during the past four years. Roy Oliver. born on the 13th of November. 1891. is a student in the Sandy Lake Institute. Merrill, born on February 1, 1893. is attending the Stoneboro high school. Mr. Park is a member of the Royal Arcanum at New Wilmington and of the Bethany Presbyterian church.

Twentieth Century History of Mercer County, pages 943-944


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