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MATTHIAS HOMER, Jr., ticket receiver of the Pennsylvania 
Railroad Company at Altoona, and who was for several years a 
member of the wholesale mercantile house of M. Homer & Son, 
of Philadelphia, is a son of Matthias and Rebecca (Bowman) 
Homer, and was born in the city of Philadelphia, 
Pennsylvania, October 8, 1853. Mr. Homer was born June 19, 
1813, in the great manufacturing city of Birmingham, in the 
northwestern part of Warwick county, England. At seventeen 
years of age he left Birmingham and came to Philadelphia, 
where he soon became a wholesale dealer in fancy goods and 
toys. He has prospered in his business, which he has 
conducted successfully for over half a century, and during 
all those long years has been known as an honest and fair 
dealing man. He is a republican in politics, and a 
consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He has 
been a resident of Merchantville, New Jersey, for many 
years, although doing business in Philadelphia. He has 
always taken an active and useful part in the municipal 
affairs of Merchantville, of which he was a burgess for 
several years, and of whose town council he is now a member. 
He is a prominent member of the Masonic fraternity, and 
stands deservedly high as a citizen and man. He married, on 
January 1, 1852, Rebecca Bowman, a native of Philadelphia, 
and a member of the old Swedes Protestant Episcopal church 
in Southwark, Philadelphia, who died January 16, 1870, at 
forty-two years of age. Mr. and Mrs. Homer reared a family 
of three children, one son and two daughters. M. Homer, Jr., 
although born in Philadelphia, was reared at Merchantville, 
New Jersey, and received his education in the public schools 
of Merchantville and the graded schools of Philadelphia. 
Leaving school he engaged in the wholesale fancy goods and 
toy business with his father, with whom he remained until 
1877, when he and his brother-in-law, Jacob L. Tripler, 
embarked in the beef and pork packing business at 
Norristown, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. They followed 
that line of business until 1881, when, on October 6th of 
that year, Mr. Homer became a clerk in the general office of 
the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in Philadelphia. In a 
short time he was promoted to the position of ticket 
receiver at Atlantic City, New Jersey, where he remained 
sixteen months, and then was appointed to his present 
position of ticket receiver at Altoona, May 1, 1887. On June 
6, 1886, Mr. Homer was married, by Friends' ceremony, to 
Ellen B. Bedell, daughter of Matilda S. and the late William 
Bedell, of Norristown, this State. To their union have been 
born, in Altoona, two children, both sons: Maurice Bedell, 
and Henry Lippincott. In politics Mr. Homer is a republican. 
He is a member of Trinity Lodge, No. 79, Free and Accepted 
Masons, of Atlantic City, New Jersey, and is a man of good 
business capacity, as is attested by his success in his own 
different business enterprises, and in the various 
responsible positions which he has held under the 
Pennsylvania Railroad Company. Transcribed and submitted to 
the Blair USGenWeb Archives by Linda M. Shillinger  
LindasTree@AOL.COM