This is part two of a two-part series narrating the life story of Nancy Jane Mansfield Haney. This second part begins in Apollo, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania. Nancy, her second husband, Samuel Haney, and their children had moved from Webster, Westmoreland County to Apollo by the early 1880s. The story follows Nancy and Samuel to Saltsburg, Indiana County, Pennsylvania in 1895 and ends in Oklahoma Borough, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania in 1917. If you haven’t read part one of Nancy’s story and would like to do so before reading part two, you may do so here Nancy Jane Mansfield Haney: Moving Through Life – Part 1
Between 1881-1882, Nancy and Samuel settled in Apollo, Armstrong County, not far from where Nancy spent her childhood years. This small community along the Kiskiminetas River was well populated in the 1880s. One of the largest employers of the time was the rolling mill which had gone under various name changes with the most well-known name being the Apollo Iron & Mill Co. It is highly probable that Samuel went to work at this mill.
August 21st, 1882 Nancy was received into the United Methodist Church in Apollo, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania.[1] Her husband, Samuel, was received on August 26th, 1883.[2] In June of 1890, Nancy’s and Samuel’s daughter, Jennie (Eliza), married Lester W. Taylor in Allegheny county.[3] It is in this county that Jennie and her husband, Lester, would take up residence.[4] Two months after Jennie’s marriage, Nancy’s daughter, Melissa, purchased property in Apollo.[5] The family was here to stay, so it seemed.
By 1890 this small community that Nancy and Samuel came to call home was thriving. Its population had grown from 449 residents in 1860 to 1,156 in 1880.[6] The population reached its peak of 2,000 about 1890. The main attraction was the available employment at the Apollo Iron & Mill Co. All seemed to be going well for this company and the small community it occupied when, in 1893 in reaction to an economic downturn, the then president of the mill, George McMurtry, cut wages by 8 to 15 percent. In protest, several rollers angry with the current situation walked out in protest. In response, McMurtry closed the mill down for several months. He reopened the mill a few months later with non-union workers. With the exception of those who chose to leave the union, the doors of this growing company were forever closed to the unionized skilled laborers who once worked there. With no alternative form of employment in the local area, these skilled laborers drifted away.
In 1895, the same year McMurtry moved the Apollo Iron & Steel Co. down the river to a newly built community, Nancy’s daughter, Melissa, and son-in-law, John, sold their property in Apollo.[7] While Melissa, John and their children moved to their newly purchased eight acres of land just north of Saltsburg in Indiana County,[8] Nancy and Samuel with their son, Samuel M., settled in Saltsburg. Their son, James, had married in 1891 and was living with his wife, Frankie Kipp,[9] on Market Street in Scottsdale, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.[10]
Nancy and Samuel did not own property and appeared to have moved around in the small community of Saltsburg. In the early part of 1898, they moved from an area of Saltsburg known as the Extension to Ms. Murray’s property at Point Pleasant, at the opposite end of town.[11] By the end of the year, they were living at the Waddle’s property on the corner of Grant and Market Streets.[12] Samuel and his youngest son were employed as sheet iron workers.[13]
Nancy’s and Samuel’s youngest son move to Pittsburgh shortly after the turn of the century.[14] By World War I, he was married and living in Cleveland, Ohio near his brother James.[15] Nancy and Samuel moved to Salina, Westmoreland County as of 1907.[16]
Ten years later, Nancy passed away in the home of her granddaughter, Ruth Slicker Hardwick. Funeral services were held at the Methodist Episcopal Church in Apollo, and Nancy was laid to rest at the Riverview Cemetery in Apollo, Pennsylvania.[17] Her husband, Samuel, moved to Cleveland, Ohio where he lived with his son, Samuel, at 9342 Amesbury Avenue.[18] It was almost one year from the date of Nancy’s passing when Samuel crossed over the threshold of this mortal life joining his wife in the everlasting life leaving behind family and friends whom he loved.[19]
Nancy Jane Mansfield Haney’s Find-A-Grave Memorial
Sources:
[1] Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Church and Town Records, 1669-2013 for Nancy Haney, Ancestry.com, accessed 30, December 2018.
[2] Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Church and Town Records, 1669-2013 for Samuel Haney, Ancestry.com, accessed 30, December 2018.
[3] Pennsylvania, County Marriage Records, 1845-1963, database, Ancestry.com (https://search.ancestry.com/ : accessed 30, December 2018, entry for Jennie Taylor, 25, June 1890; citing Pennsylvania County Marriages 1852-1973; County: Allegheny; Year Range: 1889-1890; Roll Number: 549747.
[4] 1900 United States Federal Census,” Ancestry.com, (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 28, January 2018), entry for Jennie Taylor (age 31), Pittsburgh Ward 5, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
[5] Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Deed Book 75:75, S.M. Jackson to Melissa Slicker, 13 August 1890; Recorder of Deeds Office, Kittanning.
[6] Martin, Louis C., Tin Plate Towns, 1890-1910: Local Labor Movements and Workers’ Responses to the Crisis in the Steelworkers’ Union, A Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, Vol. 74, No. 4, Autumn 2007, pp. 494-495, online, https://www.jstor.org accessed 30, December 2018.
[7] Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Deed Book 84:196, John Slicker to Esther Owens, 4, November 1895; Recorder of Deeds Office, Kittanning.
[8] Indiana County, Pennsylvania, Deed Book 6976:296, Julia A. Hartlett to Malissa J. Slicker, 10 December 1895; Recorder of Deeds Office, Indiana.
[9] Pennsylvania Marriages, 1852-1968, database, Ancestry.com (https://search.ancestry.com/ accessed 30, December 2018, entry for James Haney, age 20, 7 Oct 1891; citing Marriage Records. Pennsylvania Records. VariousCounty Register of Wills Offices, Pennsylvania.
[10] 1900 United States Federal Census, Ancestry.com, (https://search.ancestry.com/ accessed 30, December 2018), entry for James Haney (age 29), Scottdale, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.
[11] Saltsburg, The Indiana Gazette, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Weds, 13, April 1898, pg. 13, column 1, database, Newspapers.com (https://newspapers.com : accessed 30, December 2018), entry for Samuel Haney.
[12] Saltsburg, The Indiana Gazette, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Weds, 12, October 1898, pg. 13, column 2, database, Newspapers.com (https://newspapers.com : accessed 30, December 2018), entry for Samuel Haney.
[13] “1900 United States Federal Census,” Ancestry.com, (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 30, December 2018), entry for Samuel Haney, Saltsburg, Indiana County, Pennsylvania.
[14] Local Correspondences, Saltsburg. The Indiana Weekly Messenger, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Weds. 11, April 1906, pg. 13, column 1, database Newspapers.com (https://newspaper.com : accessed 30, December 2018) entry for Samuel Haney.
[15] U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995, Ancestry.com (https:///.search.Ancestry.com : accessed 30, December 2018), entry for Samuel Haney; citing Cleveland, Ohio, City Directory, 1917.
[16] Local Correspondences, Saltsburg. The Indiana Weekly Messenger, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Weds. 29, May 1907, pg. 2, column 1, database Newspapers.com (https://newspaper.com : accessed 30, December 2018) entry for Samuel Haney.
[17] Died, Mrs. Nancy Haney. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Sat. 27, January 1917, pg. 3, column
8, database Newspapers.com (https://newspaper.com : accessed 30, December 2018) entry for Nancy Haney.
[18] U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995, Ancestry.com (https:///.search.Ancestry.com : accessed 30, December 2018), entry for Samuel Haney; citing Cleveland, Ohio, City Directory, 1917.
[19] Ohio Department of Health, death certificate 1256 (1917), Samuel Stewart Haney, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Columbus.
© Robin Slicker, 2019. All Rights Reserved.
A Slicker Family History 