Blair County PA Archives Biographies.....Gwin, James Hervey October 16, 1845 - ????
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Source: Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Blair Co, PA: Philadelphia, 1892.
Author: Samuel T. Wiley

JAMES HERVEY GWIN,
one of the Mountain City's business men, and who is engaged in the lumber
business in the counties of Blair, Clearfield, Jefferson, and Indiana, is a
son of Alexander, sr., and Sarah (Hallman) Gwin, and was born in what is now
Logan township, Blair county, Pennsylvania, October 16, 1845.  His paternal
grandfather, John Gwin, was a native of Scotland, and some time prior to the
revolution came to Philadelphia.  He served in the American army during the
revolutionary war, at the close of which he married a woman who had resided
in Philadelphia while the British troops held that city and Washington lay at
Valley Forge.  He moved to Franklin county, and afterward to Burgoon's Gap,
which is now know as the famous horseshoe curve on the Pennsylvania
railroad.  He son, Alexander Gwin (father), was born in Franklin county in
1791.  He learned the trade of millwright, and erected the first water mill
built on the head waters of the Juniata river, at a point on that stream
about one mile above the present Juniata shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad
Company, where his widow now resides, now Gwin Station, on the Altoona,
Clearfield & Northern railroad.  He died in 1856, when in the sixty-fifth
year of his age.  He was an old-line whig in politics, a conscientious and
active member of the Presbyterian church, and a man who was strict and
careful in his family discipline, as the welfare of his children interested
him more than his business affairs, in which he was successful.  He married
Mrs. Sarah (Hallman) Kough, a widow, who had by Mr. Kough three children, one
of whom, Elizabeth, is not Mrs. Elizabeth Reese, of Frankstown.  To Mr. and
Mrs. Gwin were born six children, five sons and one daughter:  Sarah, who
died at the age of eleven years; Major George H., of Altoona, who enlisted as
a private in Co., B, 3d Pennsylvania infantry, April 20, 1861, for a term of
three months, and was honorably discharged July 30, 1861, on the expiration
of his term of service, and on August 26, 1861, reenlisted as
second-lieutenant in Co. F, 76th Pennsylvania infantry, for a term of three
years, was wounded in the right leg at Pocotaligo, South Carolina, October
22, 1862, received another wound in the right arm at the mine explosion in
front of Petersburg, July 30, 1864, and was honorably discharged at the
expiration of his term of service at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, November 28,
1864, with the rank of brevet major from November 28, 1864, and was engaged
in the mercantile business in Altoona from 1865 to 1891; Maxwell, who served
in Co. K, of the same regiment, from November, 1864, to the close of the war,
and now resides on the old home farm; Sergeant Alexander Crawford, who was
killed in the first assault on Fort Wagner, in July, 1863; and James Hervey.
     Alexander Crawford Gwin, the third son, who fell at Fort Wagner, was
very patriotic as a school boy, and displayed fine ability as an artist. 
When the guns of Sumter broke the stillness of peace he was among the first
to respond to President Lincoln's call for troops.  He first enlisted April
20, 1861, for three months, in Co. B, 3d Pennsylvania infantry, at the
expiration of which time he reenlisted in September, 1861, as a private in
Co. F, 76th Pennsylvania infantry, then known as the Keystone Zouaves, and
was promoted to first sergeant.  He participated in all the skirmishes and
battles of his regiment until he was killer.  He was a brave and daring
soldier, was complimented highly by his superior officers for coolness,
bravery, and fine soldierly bearing at the battle of Pocotaligo, South
Carolina, where his captain and many of his company were killed.  He fell in
the fore front of the first attack on Fort Wagner, July 11, 1863, and his
remains sleep in an unknown grave on Morris island, South Carolina, as his
family have never found where his body was buried.
     James Hervey Gwin was reared on the home farm, and received a common
school education near his home.  Shortly after he entered upon his last term
the teacher resigned on account of sickness, and the school directors
employed him to teach out the term, which he did with satisfactory results to
all concerned.  After the close of his school he learned telegraphy in the
railroad office at Altoona, and served as a telegraph operator on the
Pittsburg division of the Pennsylvania railroad for two years.  He then
(1873) resigned his position on account of night and Sunday work, and
embarked in the general mercantile business, which he followed in Altoona
until 1881, when he engaged in the lumber business.  In 1890 he withdrew from
all partnership operations, and since then has widened out his field of work
until he now operates two steam saw mills advantageously located in favorable
sections of Jefferson and Indiana counties.  He has his main office in the
Masonic Temple, Altoona, and a mill and lumber yard at Hillman Station,
Indiana county, Pennsylvania, on the Pennsylvania & Northwestern railroad. 
He finds a ready market for his lumber in Altoona, and receives orders from
different parts of the State.  He has a large and rapidly increasing business.
     In politics J. H. Gwin is a straight republican.  He is unmarried, and
has been for several years a member of the First Presbyterian church.
     Mrs. Sarah Gwin (mother), or known as "Aunt Sally," now (June, 1892,) in
her eighty-sixth year, retains her health remarkably well, being the oldest
citizen of that locality.  From early days she has taken an active part in
the education of the young, in the Sunday-school, church, and prayer
meetings.  She was one of the first members in organizing the first
Sunday-school on the Juniata, meeting in a log school house with slabs for
benches.  A member of the Presbyterian church at Hollidaysburg, nine miles
distant, wince the organization of the First Presbyterian church in Altoona,
in the year 1855, she has been a member of this church, attending services
regularly, until age prevents her doing so.  Mrs. Gwin, during the dark days
of the war, from 1861 to 1865, when mothers sacrificed so much for their
county's cause, was very patriotic for the Union and defense of the "old
flag," and as the years go by always on all National holidays displays the
stars and striped about her quiet country home.  Living now in the evening of
life in the enjoyment of a firm faith and trust in her Savior.

Additional Comments:
Originally submitted 2001. Transcribed by Donna Thomas.

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