Blair County PA Archives Biographies.....Huff, Henry B. June 16, 1839 - ????
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Judy Banja http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00004.html#0000757 December 18, 2024, 7:32 pm

Source: Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Blair Co, PA: Philadelphia, 1892.
Author: Samuel T. Wiley

HENRY B. HUFF,
ex-sheriff of Blair county, a member of the well known business firm of
William Beyer & Co., and one of the Union prisoners who was confined in the
celebrated Libby, prison of Richmond, Virginia, was born at Huff's Church,
Berks county, Pennsylvania, June 16, 1839, and is a son of George and
Caroline K. (Boyer) Huff. His paternal ancestry dates back to Baldwin Von
Hoof (now written Huff), who resided on the family estates near the city of
Passau, Bavaria. He was famous among the Bavarian knighthood and nobility,
and lost his life in the first crusade in July, 1099, at the storming of
Jerusalem. Henry B. Huff's paternal great-grandparents were John Frederick
and Susanna (Kime) Huff, both natives of Berlin, Germany. The former was born
July 8, 1773, and died April 26, 1818, at Huff's Church, Berks county, this
State, so called because of the donation of land at that place by him for a
church site and burial ground. The latter was born on Christmas, 1739, and
died May 12, 1809. They had four sons and five daughters living in 1818. One
of these sons was George Huff, sr. (grandfather), who was born August 1,
1779, at Huff's Church, where he followed farming and hotel-keeping until his
death, in 1845. He married Anna Mull, who lived to be nearly ninety-two years
of age. Of their children, one was George Huff (father), who was engaged in
the mercantile business at Huff's Church for a short time, and then removed,
about 1840, to Norristown, Pennsylvania. From there he went to Middletown,
and five years later removed to Altoona, this county, where he died January
19, 1858, aged forty-five years, four months, and twenty-six days. He married
Caroline Kreps Boyer, September 16, 1835, at Boyertown, Pennsylvania, which
was named for her family. She died at Altoona, February 3, 1876, aged
fifty-eight years, four months, and twenty-nine days. Henry B. Huff, on his
maternal side, traces his ancestry back four generations, to Jacob Bayer (now
written Boyer), who came from Germany with his wife and three sons-Valentine,
Philip, and Jacob. The latter had four sons: Philip, Jacob, Daniel, and Henry
(maternal grandfather), who was born October 19, 1778, and died March 18,
1857. He was a member of the legislature from Berks county in 1823, 1824,
1825, 1826, and 1831. He was one of the early founders of the flourishing
borough of Boyertown, which was laid out in lots in 1835, and duly
incorporated in 1851. He was married March 3, 1800, to Sarah Kreps, who was
born February 28, 1784, and died July 7, 1858. They had eleven children, one
of whom, Caroline Kreps Boyer, married George Huff and the Hon. George F.
Huff, now a member of Congress from the Twenty-first district of Pennsylvania.
   Henry B. Huff received his education in the common schools of Berks and
Blair counties. In 1851 he came from Middletown, Dauphin county, to Altoona,
where he worked in the railroad shops until April 17, 1861, when he enlisted
in a three months' regiment. At the expiration of his time he re-enlisted in
a nine months' regiment, and at the close of his second term of enlistment
became a member of Co. D, 184th Pennsylvania infantry, in which he served
until July 20, 1865, when he was honorably discharged from the Federal
service at Harrisburg, this State. He served in the Army of the Potomac, and
participated in all of its great battles from Fredericksburg to Appomattox
Courthouse. He lost his right eye in one of the terrible charges at
Chancellorsville, was captured by the Confederates at Petersburg, and spent
nine months in several of the principal prisons of the south before he was
exchanged in 1864. He escaped from the Charlottesville prison, but was
recaptured on the banks of the Cape Fear river, after an exhausting tramp of
thirteen days and nights, and was sent to Libby prison, where he remained
until exchanged. Returning to Altoona after being mustered out of the Federal
service, he was engaged in the dry goods business until 1870, when he was
elected sheriff of Blair county, and at the expiration of his term of three
years, embarked in the planning mill business with David K. Ramey. In 1876 he
dissolved partnership with Mr. Ramey and went to the Clarion and Bradford oil
field, where he met with varying success as an operator until 1884, when he
went to Pittsburg, and was engaged for seven years in locating and drilling
oil wells in the lower oil fields of western Pennsylvania. At the end of that
time, in 1891, he returned to Altoona and became a member of the present
prosperous insurance and real estate firm of William Beyer & Co. This firm is
one of the reliable and leading firms of its kind of central Pennsylvania.
   On the 27th of December, 1866, Henry B. Huff united in marriage with Jennie,
daughter of David K. Ramey, a resident of Altoona.
   Henry B. Huff is a republican in politics, and a member of the Presbyterian
church, and McPherson Post, No. 117, Grand Army of the Republic, of
Pittsburg. He is a member of Logan Lodge, No. 490 Free and Accepted Masons;
Mountain Chapter, No. 187, Royal Arch Masons, and Mountain Commandery, No.
10, Knights Templar. He is a man of business ability and experience, prompt,
and accurate and energetic in whatever he undertakes.


Additional Comments:
Originally submitted 2001. Transcribed by Ruth Curfman rcurfman@home.com

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