BIOS: James BIRKEY, Davidsville, Somerset County, PA

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History of Bedford and Somerset Counties, PA; v.3; Bedford County by E.
Howard Blackburn; Somerset County by William H. Welfley; Lewis Pub. Co.,
NY/Chicago 1906; ppg. 486/7

James BIRKEY.

The ancestors of James Birkey, of Davidsville, were among the early
settlers of Jenner township.  His great-grandfather, Samuel Birkey, was
born about 1780 in that part of Bedford county which is now included within
the limits of Somerset county, and was the son of a German, the founder of
the Birkey family in this country.  Samuel Birkey was a farmer of Jenner
township, and also owned and operated a distillery, as did many other
farmers of that day and generation.  He married and he and his wife were
the parents of a large family.
Elijah Birkey, son of Samuel Birkey, was born about 1810 in Jenner
township, where he passed his life on the farm on which he was born.  He
was a republican and a member of the Dunkard church.  Mr. Birkey married
Nancy, daughter of Jonathan Miller, and the following children were born to
them: Samuel E., deceased; Mary, wife of ______ Gardner; Joshua, married
______ Blough; Rachel, wife of ______ Blough; John; Lavina, wife of ______
Thomas; and two who died in early life. 
Samuel E. Birkey, son of Elijah and Nancy (Miller) Birkey, was born in
1836 in Jenner township and was a carpenter, working at his trade among the
farmers of Somerset county.  At different times he was the owner of several
small farms.  For one term he served as school director of Quemahoning
township.  He was a Republican.  For twenty years he held the office of
deacon in the Dunkard church, in which he was an earnest worker.  He
married, in 1861, Mary, daughter of Tobias Blough, of Quemahoning township,
and their children were: James, see forward; Elijah, married Maggie Boyts,
had six children: Earl, Bertha, Millard, John, Robert and Margaret; Lucy,
wife of ______ Slick, has five children: Chester, Mary, Frank, Anna and
Martha; Maria, died at the age of eleven years; Freeman, died at the age of
five years; Joseph, died in childhood; John, also died in childhood; Ira,
at home.  Three others died unnamed.  The death of Mr. Birkey occurred in
1897.
James Birkey, son of Samuel E. and Mary (Blough) Birkey, was born in 1862
in Jenner township.  He went to the far west and was in the Klondike in
1897-98, where for eight months he was engaged in mining for gold.  During
this period he spent two months in traveling with dogs from Skagway to
Dawson City over the Chilcoote pass.  In 1898 he returned to Oregon and for
two years was employed in Stratton's Independent mines.  He then went to
Bisbee, Oregon, where for eight months he worked in the Copper Queen mines,
and in 1903 returned home.  Shortly after he went, in the interest of some
Johnstown people, to the mining district of Mexico.  On his return he
settled in Davidsville, where he has since led the life of a farmer.  He is
now serving as constable of Conemaugh township.  He affiliates with Western
Oregon Lodge, No. 65, F. and A.M., and is a Republican in politics.  Mr.
Birkey married, in 1903, Maggie Boyts, widow of Elijah Birkey, and they
have one child, Harold, born October 1, 1904.

[My note] My records show the following names to 'fill in the blanks' above:
Mary, wife of Peter Gardner (2) Samuel M. Cripe
Joshua, married Christina Blough
Rachel, wife of Benjamin S. Blough
Lavina, wife of Edward S. Thomas