BIOGRAPHY: Hon. Michael FITZHARRIS, 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. 430-1
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HON. MICHAEL FITZHARRIS, an ex-member of the Pennsylvania house of 
representatives, and an influential business man and leading democrat of 
Gallitzin, is a son of John and Mary (Stanley) Fitzharris, and was born in 
county Meath, Ireland, August 1, 1844. The Fitzharris family has been long 
resident in county Meath, where John Fitzharris was born and reared. He was a 
son of John Fitzharris, Sr., who lived to nearly one hundred and seven years of 
age, and whose remains are interred in the parish of Donnymore. John Fitzharris 
came to Hollidaysburg, Blair county, in 1850, and followed mining there for a 
quarter of a century. He then, at over eighty years of age, retired from active 
labor, and passed his time among his children until May 30, 1889, when he was 
drowned in the great Johnstown flood, at the advanced age of ninety-eight years. 
He was a stout and active man, a zealous member of the Catholic church, and was 
well preserved for his years when he went down in the flood. He married Mary 
Stanley, who was also a member of the Catholic church, and died in 1871, at the 
age of sixty-eight years.
     Michael Fitzharris was brought, at six years of age, to this country by his 
parents, and received his education in the public schools of Hollidaysburg. He 
worked for a while in the coal and ore mines, afterwards enlisting in company D, 
Eighty-fourth regiment, Pennsylvania volunteers. He was soon promoted to 
sergeant, and the regiment afterwards being consolidated with the Fifty-seventh 
Pennsylvania, he was transferred to company G of the new organization. He 
participated in all the battles of his regiment, and served until the close of 
the war, being discharged in 1865. Returning from the Union army, he was 
variously employed up to 1872, in which year he came to Gallitzin, where he has 
resided ever since, except ten years spent at Altoona.
     In 1866 Mr. Fitzharris married Julia McCarthy, of Blair county. They have 
ten children living: Mary J. (Mrs. D. B. Farley, of Philadelphia); Alice, Clara, 
Cecelia, Ellen, John M., William M., Edward, Frederick, and Joseph. They lost 
one daughter, Rena, who died at two years of age in 1875.
     When he came to Gallitzin, on April, 1, 1872, Mr. Fitzharris opened a 
hotel, which he conducted up to April 8, 1875. He then removed to Altoona, Blair 
county, where he ran the St. Charles hotel four years, and was in the general 
mercantile business for two years. At the end of that time, on March 31, 1881, 
he returned to Gallitzin and took charge of his hotel--the Gallitzin house--
which he has conducted ever since. This hotel is first-class in its management 
and accommodations, and modern in its appointments, being heated by steam and 
lighted by electricity. It is popular with its guests, and has an extensive 
patronage. Mr. Fitzharris has always taken a deep interest in his borough, for 
whose advancement he has worked in various ways. He is a director of the water 
company, and has served continuously as president of the building and loan 
association, since its organization nine years ago, in 1887. Although he had but 
limited opportunities in boyhood, yet he gained practical ideas that were the 
golden keys to success, and he is now one of the representative and substantial 
business men of Gallitzin. He has surrounded himself with home comforts, has 
high standing and warm friends, and has become justly popular in Cambria county. 
He is a member of the Catholic church, whose work he has always cordially 
supported.
     Michael Fitzharris is an old-line democrat, and his political career 
commenced in 1873, when he helped to organize Gallitzin and was elected as its 
first burgess. He served a second term as burgess from 1882 to 1884, was 
postmaster from 1885 to 1889, and is now serving his sixteenth consecutive term 
as a member of the school board, of which he has been president several times. 
He has been a delegate at various times to County and State Democratic 
conventions, and in 1880 was a delegate to the National Democratic convention 
held in Cincinnati. In 1890 he was elected by his party to the legislature, from 
Cambria county, and served in the session of 1891-92, being a member of several 
important committees, and representing the true interests of his constituents 
independent of party consideration or personal interests.