Blair County PA Archives Biographies.....Ambrose, William A. October 26, 1854 - ???? ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Judy Banja http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00004.html#0000757 December 16, 2024, 12:47 pm Source: Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Blair Co, PA: Philadelphia, 1892. Author: Samuel T. Wiley WILLIAM A. AMBROSE, a successful lawyer, and the junior member of the able and well known law firm of Neff, Hicks & Ambrose, of Altoona, is of Scotch-Irish extraction on the maternal side, and was born at Milton, Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, October 26, 1854. Patrick Ambrose was a native of County Armagh, Ireland, and a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian, who came to the United States in 1754, served as a non-commissioned officer in the revolutionary war, and died in 1793 at his home on Spruce Creek, Huntingdon county, where Alexander Ambrose, the grandfather of William A. Ambrose, was born in 1790. He was one of the most expert furnacemen in the state, "blew" nearly all the furnaces in Huntingdon county, and in 1857 came to Fostoria, where he died in 1879. He was a Methodist and a democrat, and had served as a justice of the peace. He was a hale and hearty man, who retained all his mental faculties unimpaired until his death, had excellent descriptive powers, which he used to great advantage in relating stories and events of the past, and when in the eighty-ninth year of his age his health and physical strength were such that he planted and cultivated a field of potatoes from which he gathered, unaided, a crop of over one hundred bushels. William A. Ambrose was reared at his grandfather's home, in Antis township, and after attending the common schools, entered the Pennsylvania State Normal school, of Lock Haven, Clinton county, from which excellent educational institution he was graduated in the class of 1880. Before entering the normal school, and during its vacations, he had taught five terms in the public schools of Blair and Clearfield counties, and immediately after graduation he became a law student in the office of Judge G. R. Barrett & Son, of Clearfield. He was admitted to the bar in the spring of 1883, and opened an office at Phillipsburg, but only remained a few months, when he came to the city of Altoona, where he has practiced his chosen profession successfully ever since. In 1884 he formed a law partnership with William L. Woodcock, which continued one year, when he withdrew to become a partner with Capt. Robert Johnson, in the real estate business, under the firm name of Ambrose & Johnson. Their partnership existed until August, 1890, when it was dissolved, and Mr. Ambrose became a partner with D. J. Neff and J. D. Hicks in the present firm of Neff, Hicks & Ambrose, which has one of the largest law practices of central Pennsylvania. On April 13, 1881, Mr. Ambrose was united in marriage with Mary E., daughter of James L. and Sarah J. McCoy, of Altoona. Mr. and Mrs. Ambrose have one daughter, named Florence. William A. Ambrose is a republican in politics, and a member of the Eighth avenue Methodist Episcopal church of Altoona. He has always been active in the best interests of his party and church, enjoys a good law practice, has served since 1885 as United States Commissioner for the western district of Pennsylvania, and is a stockholder and director of the Altoona, Clearfield, and Northern railroad. Additional Comments: Originally submitted 2001. Transcribed by Linda Shillinger LindasTree@AOL.COM This file has been created by a form at http://www.usgwarchives.net/pafiles/ File size: 3.8 Kb