Fayette County PA Archives Biographies.....Cochran, Mark Mordecai July 13, 1854 - ????
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Marta Burns marta43@juno.com August 26, 2024, 1:50 pm

Source: Gresham and Wiley, 1889: Biographical & Portrait Cyclopedia, Fayette Co, PA, pg 152
Author: John H. Gresham & Samuel T. Wiley

    Mark Mordecai Cochran.  Among those who have cast their 
fortunes with their native county, and who might worthily be 
placed in the van of young professional men of the county is 
Mark M Cochran, a rising young lawyer of the Fayette county 
bar.  He is a son of Mordecai Cochran and Susanna Welsh 
Cochran, and was born at the old Cochran homestead, Tyrone 
township, Fayette county, Penna, July 13, 1854; and is the 
youngest of a family of thirteen children, of whom three 
died in infancy, three after middle age, and seven who are 
now living.
    His father, Mordecai Cochran, was born on the old 
Cochran homestead in Tyrone township, October 8, 1797, where 
he lived until his death December 29, 1880.  He was among 
the first to engage in the manufacture of Connellsville 
coke, and the first to introduce it in the Cincinnati 
market.  
    In 1843 he with two nephews, Sample Cochran and James 
Cochran, floated two boats loaded with coke to Cincinnati, 
and after a favorable test sold the same to Miles Greenwood, 
a prominent foundryman of that city.  It was the first 
Connellsville coke ever sold for money, and thus being 
enthusiastically reassured of the value of this product, he 
and his nephews returned home, determined to push forward 
the industry, which they afterward did most successfully.  
They and their sons became prominent in the business, and so 
remain up to the present time.  
    Samuel Cochran, the paternal grandfather of M M Cochran, 
was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, August 24, 1750, 
and was a son of John Cochran, a Scotch Irish Presbyterian, 
who had emigrated from the north of Ireland, and settled in 
Chester county about 1745.
    February 12, 1776, Samuel Cochran, as a private soldier, 
enlisted in the War of the Revolution in a company commanded 
by Captain Samuel Hay; his company belonged to the Sixth 
Pennsylvania Battalion.  He re-enlisted the following year 
with Captain Hay, this time with the Seventh Pennsylvania 
Regiment.  He did hard service at Paoli, Brandywine, 
Germantown and Valley Forge.  At the close of the war he 
went to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and there married Esther 
John, daughter of Daniel John, the latter a prominent Quaker 
and the grandfather of Gideon John, the last named elected 
sheriff of Fayette county in 1832.  
    Samuel Cochran came "West" and located in Fayette county 
in 1789, for a while in the "Washington Bottoms" near the 
present day site of Perryopolis, remaining there until the 
spring of 1792 when he removed to Tyrone township and 
purchased a farm of Captain Joseph Huston of 300 acres.  On 
this tract of land he built a primitive log cabin, but he 
soon replaced it by a more commodious structure, and in 1811 
he erected the large barn recently rebuilt by his grandson, 
Lutellas Cochran.  
    Besides being a splendid farmer, Samuel Cochran was a 
practical surveyor and a consistent member of the Tyrone 
Presbyterian church up until his death, July 2, 1837.  His 
children were: Samuel Cochran Jr, James Cochran, John 
Cochran, Thomas Cochran, Isaac Cochran, Mordecai Cochran, 
and Esther Cochran, wife of John Strickler, the latter an 
only child by a second marriage.  He devised his farm to his 
two sons, Mordecai and James.  
    The other sons of Mordecai Cochran were: James W 
Cochran, known as "Big Jim," Alexander C Cochran, and 
Lutellas Cochran.  They all engaged early in making coke 
with their father and boated it down the river.  In 1867 
they purchased their father's plant on the Youghiogheny 
river and afterwards entered into partnership with W H Brown 
of Pittsburgh, enlarging their original plant "Sterling" and 
in 1871 built a large coke plant on Hickman Run, called 
Jimtown, in honor of the managing partner, James W Cochran.  
This farm of Brown and Cochran were the largest coke 
producers at that time in the state; but in 1873 the 
partnership dissolved on account of the death of two of its 
member, W H Brown and Alexander C Cochran.  The affairs in a 
few years thereafter were settled by the surviving members 
of the family.  
    M M Cochran grew to man's estate on the old farm in 
Tyrone township.  He was educated at Bethany College, West 
Virginia, from where he graduated in 1875.  He immediately 
entered the law office of Hon C E Boyle as a student-at-law 
and was admitted to the bar June 5, 1877, and has 
successfully continued in the practice of law ever since.  
    In 1883 he was elected by his party-the 
democrats-district attorney of Fayette county, the duties of 
which responsible office he discharged with fidelity to the 
interests of the people and with honor to himself for a term 
of three years.  In 1881 he was elected a member of the 
board of trustees of Bethany College, his alma mater, and in 
this position he has ever since continued to serve.  
    January 1, 1879, he was married to Miss Emma J Whitsett, 
daughter of Dr James Estep Whitsett of Bethany, West 
Virginia, but now of Perry township, this county.  Two 
children have blessed their union: Percy B Cochran and Emma 
Cochran.  In 1880 Mr Cochran with his two brothers, James W 
Cochran and Lutellus Cochran, and H S Darsie purchased a 
fine field of coking coal in Georges township, and are the 
present proprietors of the same.
    He took a leading part in the construction of the 
excellent bridge at Dawson, that spans the Youghiogheny 
river, being one of the original corporators and directors 
of the company.  Mr Cochran is mild and unassuming in 
manner, yet firm and determined in whatever he undertakes. 
He neglects nothing which tends toward developing the 
material resources of old Fayette. 

Additional Comments:
Originally submitted 2000.

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