[p. 950] one of the representative citizens and former miners of Big Beaver Township, in which his two valuable farms aggregating sixty-three and one-half acres are situated, was born June 26, 1848, at Shade Furnace, east of Johnstown, in Somerset County, Pa. His parents were Valentine and Anna Mary Market.
Valentine Market was born in Bavaria Germany, where he assisted his father, Michael Market, who was a maker of wine. After his marriage to Mary Smith he sold his business, and in 1842, in company with Michael Baer, came to America. At Pittsburg Mr. Baer left Valentine Market, settling in Butler County, Pennsylvania. Valentine Market landed in the city of New York June 29, 1842, and very soon found work but did not accept it, as Mr. Baer wished his company to Pittsburg, where, when they separated, Mr. Market found his capital entirely exhausted. He made his way to Bedford County and secured work as a blacksmith, where he remained three and one-half years, going from there to the Sarah furnace, later to the Shade furnace, working for two and one-half years at each place; then to Black Lake furnace, in Indiana, for one year; then three and one-half years in Cambria furnace, in Cambria County, three and one-half years more at Ben's Creek and then returning for one and one-half years to the Cambria furnace, and in the fall of 1858 he settled at Johnstown. Mr. Market lived there until the fall of 1880, when he came to Lawrence County, where he died three years later at the age of eighty-four years. His wife had died at Pittsburg, aged seventy-five years. They had the following children Joseph P., Valentine, Simon, John, Eva, Mary and an un-named infant.
John Market attended the German Catholic school at Johnstown and remained under the home roof until he was eighteen years of age. He was not more than fourteen years old when he started to work in the Johnstown furnace, and two years later was made driver of a cart, and still later was promoted to be the driver of a four-mule team used between the coal bank and the mill, and remained an employe of that furnace for about five years. In 1869 he came to Lawrence County and for three years worked in the mines of the Clinton Coal Company, and then followed digging coal, an industry he engaged in until 1903. In the meanwhile, in 1893, he had purchased his present farm from the Mary Blair estate, and moved on the property in the same year. It is managed by his son, Mr. Market's connection with mine interests for thirty-six years making him less enthusiastic as a farmer than he would be if he had spent his whole life in agricultural pursuits. The land has an excellent location, within three and one-half miles of Wampum.
On October 10, 1870, Mr. Market was married to Lavina C. Mangus, who is a daughter of William Mangus, and they have had eight children, namely: Katy, who died aged one year; Bella, who died aged one year; William, who married Stella Sumner, has two children, Charles and Edward; Elizabeth, who married George Tait, has four children, Mary, Earl, Hazel and Bertha; and Thomas, Edward, Fred and Agnes, all residing at home. Mr. Market is a stanch Republican. He has been an Odd Fellow for many years, and two of his sons, Edward and William, also belong to this order and the former is also a Knight of Pythias. There are few men in this section more thoroughly experienced in the details of mining, its many dangers and its profits, than Mr. Market, and many of his experiences are most interesting to hear about.
20th Century History of New Castle and Lawrence County Pennsylvania and Representative Citizens Hon. Aaron L. Hazen Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, Chicago, Ill., 1908
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