BIOGRAPHY: William B. DIBERT, 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. 152
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William B. DIBERT

WILLIAM B. DIBERT, an enterprising hardware merchant of Johnstown, belongs to a 
family that has for several generations taken a prominent part in the history 
and development of Johnstown.  The family is of Holland-Dutch origin, and was 
transplanted from the Old to the New World by the great-grandfather of the 
subject of this sketch.  Numbers of the family settled at a very early day in 
Bedford county, whence John Dibert, grandfather, removed to Somerset county, and 
settled at what was afterwards called Diberville, in honor of its oldest and 
most prominent settler.  He remained in Somerset county, engaged in the pursuits 
of an agriculturist and a tanner and distiller until about 1816, when he removed 
to what is now Johnstown, and resided there the remainder of his life, dying at 
the age of forty-five years.
     Coming to Johnstown, he engaged in the hotel and mercantile business, 
invested largely in real estate, and became one of the most wealthy and 
prominent citizens of the place.  His son, John Dibert, father of William B., 
received a fair education for business in the mercantile establishment of his 
father, and devoted himself to mercantile and banking pursuits all his life.  In 
about 1850 he founded the hardware house now owned and operated by the subject 
of this sketch.  On August 1, 1869, he formed a partnership with John D. 
Roberts, and founded the banking firm of John Dibert & Co., which was 
successfully conducted until Mr. Dibert's life was lost, and the business house 
demolished, in the great flood of May 31, 1889.
     William B. Dibert is the son of John and Martha (McClain) Dibert, and was 
born in Johnstown, January 5, 1857.  At the age of sixteen he began a mercantile 
career, when he took a clerkship in the store of his father.  He remained with 
him until the latter's death, when he succeeded to the business, and has 
successfully conducted it ever since.  In 1878 Mr. Dibert and Lizzie, a daughter 
of Rev. James A. Lane, of Johnstown, were married and their marriage has been 
blessed in the birth of three daughters: Florence L., Laura L., and Mary E.