Blair County PA Archives Biographies.....Kendig, Henry B. February 11, 1833 - ????
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Judy Banja http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00004.html#0000757 December 19, 2024, 7:18 am

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

HENRY B. KENDIG, 
chief clerk of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company's machine shops at Altoona,
and a man who saw hard service during the great civil war, and is highly
esteemed as a citizen, is a son of Jacob and Susan (Reifsnyder) Kendig, and
was born February 11, 1833, near Newville, Cumberland county, Pennsylvania.
The Kendigs are of Swiss origin, and the family was planted in America in the
latter part of the seventeenth century by representatives who emigrated from
the blue mountains of the land of Tell and Winklereid and settled in Chester
county, this State. In later years branches of the family removed to other
sections of the State, one locating in Lancaster county, where Tobias Kendig
(grandfather) was born about 1769. He was reared and married in that county,
but in middle life removed to Cumberland county, where he continued until his
death, in 1855, at the advanced age of eighty-six years. Among his sons was
Jacob Kendig (father), who was born in Lancaster county in 1809, and there
grew to manhood. While yet a young man he removed with his father to
Cumberland county, where he resided until 1847, when he located in Franklin
county. He was a blacksmith by trade, and spent most of his life in that
occupation. He became quite successful, and in later life engaged in the
mercantile business, following that for some years, after which he
practically retired from active business, and passed his last days in
undisturbed quietude. He continued his residence in Franklin county until
death removed him from earthly scenes, which event occurred in October, 1891,
when he had passed two years beyond the scriptural limit of four-score. In
politics he was first a whig and later a republican. He married Susan
Reifsnyder, a native of Cumberland county, this State, by whom he had a
family of five children. She died in 1842.
   Henry B. Kendig grew to manhood in Franklin county, and received a good
English education in the common schools and at the academy in Shippensburg.
After leaving school he learned the tinner's trade and worked at it for a
short time, when he engaged in teaching, and followed that occupation for ten
years. He taught in the counties of Cumberland, Franklin, and Dauphin, in this
State, and one year in Illinois. In 1862 he enlisted in Co. D, 126th
Pennsylvania infantry, for nine months, was promoted to be orderly sergeant,
and served ten months before being discharged. Immediately after receiving
his discharge he re-enlisted in the 21st Pennsylvania cavalry (July, 1863),
and served with that organization until the close of the civil war, holding
the rank of first lieutenant. While in action at Boydton Plank Road he was
wounded by a carbine ball, and would undoubtedly have been killed by the shot
but for the fact that the ball struck a brass button on the breast of his
coat, and its force was thereby greatly broken. It consequently inflicted
only a flesh wound, from which he quickly recovered. He was discharged at
Lynchburg, Virginia, on July 8, 1865, and February 1, 1866, came to Altoona
and accepted a position as a clerk in the office of a Mr. Custer, chief clerk
in the motive power department of the Pennsylvania railroad. He held various
clerical posts with that company until 1873, when he was made shop clerk of
its Altoona machine shops, and has held that position ever since.
   On October 14, 1856, Mr. Kendig was married to Margaret Raum, a daughter of
Henry Raum, of Cumberland county, this State, and to their union was born a
family of three children, two sons and a daughter. The daughter, Madaline, is
the wife of Lieut. M. F. Harmon, United States artillery, who is now stationed
at Chester, this State, as instructor in the military school at that place.
The sons are Sheridan K. and Ekward E., both still living at home with their
parents.
   In his religious convictions Mr. Kendig is a Baptist, and is a member and
trustee of the First Baptist church at Altoona. Politically he is a
republican, and has served as a member of the school board for a period of
six years, and of the city council two years. He is a member of Mountain
Lodge, No. 281, Free and Accepted Masons, and of Stephen C. Potts Post, No.
62, Grand Army of the Republic.

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

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