BIOGRAPHY: Robert BARCLAY, Cambria County, PA 

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From Wiley, Samuel T., ed. Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria 
County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Union Publishing Co., 1896, p. 176-7
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ROBERT BARCLAY, burgess of Roxbury, this county, was born in Somerset county, 
June 27, 1834, and is a son of Thomas and Eliza (Daugherty) Barclay.
     His paternal grandfather was a native of Scotland, while his maternal 
grandfather was of Irish origin, and served as a soldier in the patriot army in 
their struggle for liberty in the war of the Revolution, and was the first man 
buried at Stoyestown, Somerset county, with military honors.
     Thomas Barclay, father, was born in 1805, in Westmoreland county, educated 
in the district schools, spent his early life in Westmoreland county, and when a 
young man, went to Somerset county. In 1846 he came to Cambria county, and was 
in the employ of the Cambria Iron company most of the remainder of his life.
     In political faith he adhered to the school of Clay and Harrison, was an 
old-line whig, and a republican from the organization of the Republican party 
until his death, and although he took a lively and intelligent interest in the 
subject of politics, yet never sought office. He was a consistent member of the 
Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Barclay's early life was spent in various 
pursuits. He is one of the few now left who operated on the Pennsylvania canal 
and old Portage railroad, a thoroughfare then of great importance, but which now 
lives only on the page of history and in the minds of those who witnessed its 
rise and fall. In 1855, after his marriage, he went to work for the Cambria Iron 
company and remained continuously in the employ of that company until 1878. We 
next find him serving on the police force of the borough of Johnstown, and, 
later, as weighmaster two years. He then teamed for a number of years and served 
for a time as watchman at the Gautier works of the Cambria Iron company until 
1889. In 1888 he removed to Roxbury and has resided there ever since.
     The Barclay family certainly did its patriotic duty in that crisis 
extending from 1860 to 1865, in which the life of the nation was threatened; 
for, in addition to serving ten months as quartermaster in the Army of the 
Potomac, he has five brothers who saw duty in that memorable conflict.
     Mr. Barclay was a strong anti-slavery man and abolitionist, hence upon the 
organization of the Republican party he became one of its original supporters, 
and has continued to vote with his first love to the present time, believing 
that upon the whole, it stands for those principles and has advocated those 
measures best adapted to the needs of the country, and in 1894, upon the 
organization of the municipal government of the borough of Roxbury, was chosen 
it first burgess, and is a director and member of the executive committee of the 
Roxbury Park association. On January 5, 1855, he married Mary, a daughter of 
Michael Barnhart, and to this union have been born eleven children, seven boys 
and four girls, of whom four boys and three girls are yet living.