BIOGRAPHY: John R. CORDELL, Cambria County, PA 

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Lynne Canterbury and Diann 
Olsen. 

Portions of this book were transcribed by Clark Creery, Martha Humenik, Betty 
Mirovich and Sharon Ringler.

USGENWEB ARCHIVES (tm) NOTICE All documents placed in the USGenWeb Archives 
remain the property of the contributors, who retain publication rights in 
accordance with US Copyright Laws and Regulations. In keeping with our policy of 
providing free information on the Internet, these documents may be used by 
anyone for their personal research. They may be used by non-commercial entities 
so long as all notices and submitter information are included. These electronic 
pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit. Any other use, including 
copying files to other sites, requires permission from the contributors PRIOR to 
uploading to the other sites. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb 
Archives to store the file permanently for free access. 
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cambria/ 
____________________________________________________________

From Wiley, Samuel T., ed. Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria 
County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Union Publishing Co., 1896, p. 407-8
____________________________________________________________

JOHN R. CORDELL, the proprietor of the Central Hotel, of Patton, this county, is 
a son of Richard and Mary (Clark) Cordell, and was born in Nashville, Tennessee, 
December 7, 1854. His parents were of southern birth, and residents of 
Nashville, where his father, Richard Cordell, followed the trade of cabinet-
maker. In 1862, while trying to escape from the seat of war, he, with his wife 
and three children, were killed in a railroad wreck, but two of the family 
escaping, John R., the subject, who was injured and sent to the hospital, and a 
sister who died about a month after the wreck from injuries received. On the 
death of his sister our subject was entirely alone in the world, and on leaving 
the hospital was sent to the capital at Nashville as a messenger boy; he 
remained three months in that capacity, and then joined the Seventy-Eighth 
regiment Pennsylvania volunteers as page boy, and remained with the above 
regiment until the close of the war, receiving his discharge at Harrisburg, 
Pennsylvania. After leaving the army he went to school for a year or two and had 
some experience as clerk in a general store until 1869. In the latter year he 
engaged in the lumbering business, which he followed exclusively for twenty 
years.
    In 1889 he embarked in the hotel business in Elder township, this county, 
and conducted a hotel until 1895. In January of the latter year he located in 
Patton, this county, and succeeded H. C. Beck as proprietor of the Central 
Hotel, the leading house of the town. It is a three-story building fifty by 
seventy feet, containing twenty-three bed-rooms, well furnished with all modern 
improvements.
    In religious belief Mr. Cordell is a member of the Roman Catholic church, 
and in politics is identified with the Democratic party, but in all local issues 
he casts his vote for the nominee who is best qualified to fill the office.
    On October 23, 1877, he celebrated his marriage with Miss Mary Lucinda, a 
daughter of Jacob Thomas, a lumber merchant of Elder township, and to their 
union one child has been born: Charles J.