BIOGRAPHY: Jacob C. HORNER, 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. 322-3
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JACOB C. HORNER, a descendant of one of the early pioneer settlers of Cambria 
county, Pennsylvania, is a son of Jacob and Catherine (Horner) Horner, and was 
born in Hornerstown, now the Seventh ward of Johnstown, July 26, 1835. His 
great-grandfather, Adam Horner, a native of Adams county, was one of the early 
pioneer settlers of Cambria county, locating here when the prosperous county was 
principally a forest. Jacob Horner, paternal grandfather, was born in Adams 
county, Pennsylvania; he too was a pioneer settler in Cambria county. Locating 
there when a young man, he purchased a large tract of land, now the Seventh ward 
of Johnstown, known as Hornerstown prior to its annexation to the above city, 
and named in honor of Jacob Horner. He followed the pursuits of a farmer, and 
died in 1842 at the age of sixty-four years. Christian Horner, maternal 
grandfather of our subject, was born in Franklin county, January 25, 1778, and 
died October 6, 1865.
     Mr. Horner was married the first time in 1799 by Rev. Stoy, the founder of 
Stoyestown, Somerset county. The same year he removed within the present limits 
of Cambria county and first located near Johnstown. He was compelled to camp out 
with his family under a tree till he had a cabin erected to protect them from 
the winter. This was the year before Johnstown was laid out by Joseph Johns. 
Subsequently Squire Horner, as he was familiarly called, removed to the Geis 
farm, Richland township. Here he resided until 1847, when he removed to Somerset 
county. Mr. Horner, in common with the residents of Cambria county at that early 
day, had to endure great hardships. Salt could not be produced at any nearer 
point than Bloody Run, in Bedford county. There the settlers, their only road a 
narrow bridle-path, would annually resort and exchange their furs for iron and 
salt, and then lead their horses, laden with these necessary articles, over the 
mountain to their homes in the then wilderness. Salt at that day cost four 
dollars per bushel.
     Jonas Horner, the father of Christina Horner, at an early day dedicated the 
bottom of the bank of Stonycreek now adjoining Sandyvale cemetery, as a family 
burying-ground. The first person buried in this lot was a daughter of Christian 
Horner, who died in 1800. In 1809 Governor Snyder commissioned Mr. Horner a 
justice of the peace for Conemaugh township, Cambria county. It will give some 
idea of Squire Horner's jurisdiction when we state the fact that Conemaugh 
township then embraced the territory in which are now included in the townships 
of Conemaugh, Croyle, Summerhill, Jackson, Taylor, Yoder and Richland and the 
towns of Johnstown and Wilmore. This office has held until he removed to 
Somerset county in 1847. Mr. Horner was married the second time in 1828. He had 
in all fifteen children. His remains are interred in the Horner family burying-
ground, since removed to Sandyvale cemetery.
     Jacob Horner, the father of our subject, was born in Hornerstown, now 
Seventh ward, Johnstown, in 1803, and at one time owned the greater part of the 
land upon which it was built and laid out the town, also Sandyvale cemetery, in 
the Seventh ward of the city of Johnstown. For a few years he was assistant 
superintendent of the old Portage railroad, and was a boss on a portion of the 
old Pennsylvania canal. In politics he was a democrat, and filled the office of 
poor-house director for three years, and that of council for several terms in 
the borough of Johnstown, and was captain and owner of three different canal-
boats in the old canal days. He died in December, 1874, and was buried in 
Sandyvale cemetery, January 1, 1875.
     Jacob C. Horner was reared in Hornerstown and received a common-school 
education. On leaving school he was employed on the old homestead farm and also 
boated on the old Pennsylvania canal. In 1857 he went to work for the Cambria 
Iron company, heating rails; he remained in their employ twenty-seven years. 
Since 1884 he has lived a comparatively retired life. Politically Mr. Horner is 
a democrat and served six years as councilman in the borough of Johnstown before 
the organization of the city, and four years as select councilman of the city, 
and is at present the oldest resident of his ward.
     In 1857 he married Miss Mary Ann Shaffer, a daughter of Martin and Mary Ann 
Shaffer, and grand-daughter of Judge Kurtz, of Somerset, Pennsylvania. They have 
five sons and three daughters living: Eva Belle, the wife of George A. Maters, 
of Johnstown; Dora C., the wife of Alonzo Singer, of Johnstown; Edward W., 
Curtis E., Jacob M., Bertie E., Otho I., and Emory C.
     His mother, Catharine Horner, died September 23, 1895, in the eighty-fourth 
year of her age.