Bios: REV. JOSEPH K. BYLER, 20th Century History of New Castle and Lawrence County Pennsylvania and Representative Citizens
  
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      REV. JOSEPH K. BYLER,
  
  [p. 966] Amish preacher and a recognized leader among his people,
  resides on a farm in Neshannock Township. He was born in Mifflin County,
  Pennsylvania, April 15, 1847, and is a son of Solomon and Annie
  (Kauffman) Byler.
  
  Solomon Byler, a son of Christian Byler, was born in Mifflin County
  Pennsylvania, and lived to the age of seventy-eight years. He moved from
  his native county to Wilmington Township, Lawrence County, about the
  year 1849, and purchased a farm on which he lived several years, then
  moved to Pulaski Township. He married Annie Kauffman, a daughter of
  Isaac Kauffman of Juniata County, Pennsylvania, and they became parents
  of eight children, of whom the following grew to maturity: Moses, of
  Wilmington Township; Joseph K.; Christian, of near Pittsburg; Isaac, of
  Pulaski Township, and Annie, wife of Moses Wendgard, of Geauga County,
  Ohio. Religiously the parents of this family belonged to the Amish Church.
  
  Rev. Joseph K. Byler was reared and educated in Pulaski Township,
  whither his parents had moved when he was young. He helped farm the home
  place, on which he lived until the second year after his marriage, and
  then rented a farm in Mahoning Township. About the year 1888 he
  purchased his present farm of fifty acres in Neshannock Township, where
  he carries on general farming and stock raising. He has a fine orchard
  of three acres and a well improved farm throughout. A man of industry
  and frugal habits, he earned a competency and is considered one of the
  substantial and reliable residents of the township. Although a man of
  deep learning, his educational advantages in his youth were limited and
  his education was acquired only through individual research and long
  years of study. A man of the highest Christian type, with all the
  qualifications of a leader, he has been a power for the accomplishment
  of good, not alone in the congregation over which he has guidance, but
  throughout the community. His transactions in the field of business have
  always been characterized by the strictest honesty and fairness, and
  there is none more universally accorded the respect and confidence of
  the people than he. He is a man of wide acquaintance. The Amish live
  close to nature, following the simple life of the early Christians, are
  a moral and law-abiding people and elevate the moral tone of any
  community in which they are found. Were more to follow their precepts,
  their unpretentious manner of living, and adopt their frugal and
  industrious habits there would be little use for the costly penal
  institutions and alms-houses so necessary in our country.
  
  Rev. Byler was united in marriage with Sarah Yoder, a daughter of
  Benjamin Yoder, of Mifflin County, and they have had four children to
  grow up, namely: Betsy, wife of David H. Byler, of Wilmington; Lydia,
  wife of Isaac Yoder, of Wilmington; Sarah, wife of John L. Yoder, of
  Neshannock Township, and Eli, who is living on the home place. In
  politics Mr. Byler is a Republican, but reserves the right to cast his
  ballot for the man best suited for the office.
  
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  20th Century History of New Castle and Lawrence County Pennsylvania and
  Representative Citizens Hon. Aaron L. Hazen Richmond-Arnold Publishing
  Company, Chicago, Ill., 1908
  
  Co. Histories <http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/lawrence/>
  Updated: 11 Feb 2002