The Bleakley Family of Franklin, Pennsylvania

This family is of excellent Scotch-Irish ancestry, as is attested by the record borne by the immigrant ancestor of the American branch, John Bleakley, of whom further.

(I) John Bleakley

John Bleakley, son of James Bleakley, was born in the town of Merley, county Tyrone, Ireland, October 20, 1788. With his wife (name unknown), he came to the United States in June, 1819, bringing an excellent introductory letter from his pastor, Presbyterian, and the following demit from his Masonic Lodge, No. 911, Jurisdiction of Ireland:

To all to whom it May Concern: We the Master Wardens and Secretary of Lodge No. 911, held in the town of Merley, and county Tyrone, and on the Registry of Ireland, do hereby certify that the bearer, Mr. John Bleakley, a regular registered Master Mason in said lodge, and during his stay with us behaved himself as an honest brother. Given under our hands and seal of our lodge in our lodge room, dated this 12th of June, 1819, and of Masonry 5819.

The above is signed by Mathew Hunter, master, James Bleakley, senior warden, James Dogherty, junior warden, John Hanna, secretary. John Bleakley first settled in Berks county, Pennsylvania, and in 1833 removed to Venango county, where he located permanently, and died September 11, 1869. His wife died soon after their arrival in this country, leaving one son:

1. James Bleakley, of whom further.

(II) James (2) Bleakley

James (2), son of John Bleakley, was born near Unionville, Berks county, Pennsylvania, September 13, 1820, died October 3, 1883. At an early age he was apprenticed to the printing business, and after completing a three year term of service he went to Butler, Pennsylvania, where he worked three years. In spite of a rather limited education, by hard work and application he was able to acquire considerable knowledge, as is shown by his next venture, which was in the newspaper publishing field. In 1842 he returned to Franklin, and in company with John Shugert, established the Democratic Arch, continuing its publication about two years and a half. The files of this paper from July, 1842, to October, 1843, still in possession of the Bleakley family, are the earliest continuous files extant of any newspaper in Venango county. In the spring of 1844 he engaged in business as a merchant, and through thrift and close application to work was soon able to accumulate a little money, which he invested in real estate in Franklin and throughout the country. In 1849 he erected the building occupied for many years by the International Bank. He continued in the mercantile business for about twenty years. In 1851 and for several years thereafter he was associated with A. P. Whitaker in the publication of the Venango Spectator. He was elected county treasurer in 1851, and held that office two years. In 1864 he assisted in organizing the First National Bank of Franklin, occupying the position of cashier until 1867. In 1868 he opened the International Bank, for many years one of the best known financial institutions of the country, and was its president until his death. In addition to his financial interests he was also connected with many other enterprises, among them being a tannery, foundry, oil refinery, and tinning establishment, and in real estate and other transactions. From the year 1859 until his death he was engaged in various branches of the oil business. He was one of the purchasers of the Galloway tract and outlot No. 8, famous for their production of Franklin lubrication oil. The block built by him on Liberty street, Franklin, is one of the most substantial in the city. In politics he was a Democrat until Buchanan’s election in 1856, but from that date affiliated with the Republican party. He was burgess of Franklin several terms, and served in the council of both borough and city.

He married Elizabeth, born May, 1822, daughter of Jacob Dubbs, who came from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, his native place, and was a pioneer merchant in Franklin. Children:

1. Elizabeth Bleakley, born January 16, 1845; married T. W. Bridgham.
2. Clara Bleakley, born April 6, 1847; married Alexander McDowell.
3. William Bleakley, of whom further.
4. Effie Bleakley, born November 26, 1851; married Dr. E. W. Moore.
5. Orrin Dubbs Bleakley, of whom elsewhere.
6. Harry Bleakley, born January 8, 1859.
7. Edmund Bleakley, born October 30, 1860; married Bertha Legnard.

(III) William James Bleakley

William James, son of James (2) and Elizabeth (Dubbs) Bleakley, was born in Franklin, July 6, 1849, died September 27, 1908. He was educated in the local public schools, followed by terms in the Waterford Academy and Oberlin (Ohio) College. At an early age he entered upon a business career that was destined to be constant. He was teller in the First National Bank. In 1868, when James Bleakley, his father, established the International Bank, he became his assistant and in 1872 became cashier; in 1883, on the death of his father he became president of the International Bank, and under his management the International Bank continued its career of substantial prosperity. He remained in that position until 1902 when the bank became the Franklin Trust Company, when he retired in order to give his time to other matters of importance, particularly to the extensive and varied interests of the Bleakley estate of which he was the chief executor. At the same time, while managing his personal business, he entered largely upon public enterprises. He was president of the Venango Water Company several years, an organizer and president of the Franklin Electric Company, and helped to organize the Franklin Steel Casting Company, of which he was treasurer. He was identified with the Marvin Manufacturing Company in its infancy and brought this company from practically nothing to one of the largest manufacturing corporations in the city today. For a number of years and to his death he was a trustee of the State Institution at Polk, and his counsel was highly valued by the board and others connected with the institution. As a business man he was a prodigious worker, yet doing things without noise or ostentation. His impulse toward the practical benefit of others was evinced in his management of the Bleakley estate. He began on a large scale the scheme of building homes for people of limited means, to be acquired on easy payments, and many homes on Bleakley Hill and Oak Hill attest the beneficence of the system.

Added to the multifarious and exacting demands of private business Mr. Bleakley was much in request in public affairs. Politically a Republican, he served twelve terms in the city council and was elected mayor in 1887 and 1888 and 1891. During his administration he succeeded in reducing the debt of the city and establishing a sinking fund for the extinguishment of the bonded indebtedness. In 1908 he was elected a member of the school board, and at the time of his death he was serving his third term as president. In him the public schools and pupils had an active friend. He felt the necessity of lifting the mind out of the levels of mere trade and traffic, and while overweighed with other unavoidable business cares, he still found time to aid most effectively in every detail pertaining to his office as school director. He was largely instrumental in the erection of the present magnificent high school building, in which he had to contend with some opposition, but, as in the case of many other of his enterprises, the results vindicated his judgment. He was one of the best known men in the Pennsylvania oil region, and as a financier had few equals. He measured up to the full stature of a true and good man, and in his doings, large and small, public or private, he exemplified the old fashioned, rock-ribbed virtues of honesty, square dealing and brotherly kindness. He was faithful to every trust, competent and reliable in every duty that devolved upon him. Although his time was fully taken up with business, personal and official, he devoted his considerable attention to his domestic enjoyment. His strong personality, clear mind and fair methods commanded the respect of the many with whom he came in contact, and secured their confidence and friendship. But, successful as he was in his relations with the outside world, he was at his best in his own home. He loved it, and spent with his family all the time he could spare from the unceasing demands of business. In that well ordered home, the haunt of comfort and hospitality, he found the rest, refuge and content that his nature craved. He was a cordial host, the center of cheer among his guests and family. He was an adherent of the First Presbyterian Church, and a member of its board of trustees, always giving the benefit of his counsel and generous support to the building of its temporal interests.

The following resolutions on the death of Mr. Bleakley were adopted by the Franklin School Board:

To the President of the Board of Directors, Franklin School District:

Pursuant to the resolution passed at the special meeting of the School Board held September 28th, your committee has the honor to present the following in memory of our late President, William J. Bleakley:

After a continuous service of more than twelve years as a member of the Board of School Directors, and while serving his twelfth year as its President, William J. Bleakley died September 27, 1908. It is fitting that his long and faithful service deserve recognition by the formal action of the Board. We therefore offer this tribute to his memory, and direct that it be placed upon the record of the Board:

Chosen by his fellow citizens for so many years to fill the office of School Director, though his personal interests seemed to demand his attention, he gave freely of his time, talents and energy to the duties of his office, thus exhibiting in an unusual degree that rare quality of good citizenship which subordinates the demands of private business to the public good.

In all his official acts he ever kept in view the best interests of the schools, fearlessly and conscientiously advocating whatever measures would tend to their improvement, being actuated by a supreme desire to aid in the advancement of the cause of general education in our city.

It is therefore obvious to all who have been more or less intimately associated with him in his work that the Franklin School District in his death loses a staunch supporter in all that could contribute to its advancement in educational matters and that his associates greatly feel the loss that has come to them through his sudden and unexpected death.

F. L. Bensinger, Nathan Evans, M. F. Elliott.

William J. Bleakley married, May 17, 1876, Mary S., daughter of John and Mary Anna (May) Lamb (see Lamb). Children:

1. Anna Mary Bleakley, born February 4, 1877; married, February 4, 1903, George B. Woodburn; one daughter:
   1. Margaret Woodburn, born August 8, 1906.
2. Orrin Louis Bleakley, born February 10, 1879; married, June 29, 1904, Florence Dickey Campbell; children:
   1. Elizabeth Jane Bleakley, born April 15, 1905
   2. Florence Evelyn Bleakley, October 2, 1906.
3. Frederick James Bleakley, born October 23, 1880; married, October 2, 1907, Ethel Niedlander; one son:
   1. Frederick J. Bleakley Jr., born December 25, 1909.
4. Margaret May Bleakley, born December 16, 1882; married, November 4, 1908, Louis E. Habegger; children:
   1. William J. Bleakley, born September 27, 1909.
   2. Margaret Louise Habegger, born August 7, 1910.
5. Evelyn Elizabeth Bleakley, born November 26, 1884; married, February 4, 1909, Victor W. Stewart.
6. William Jay Bleakley, born December 31, 1888.
7. Donald Sherburne Bleakley, born June 9, 1894.
8. Kenneth Huntington Bleakley, born December 2, 1896.

(The Lamb Line)

John Lamb Jr., son of John and Nancy (Sparks) Lamb, was born near Bellefonte, Centre county, Pennsylvania, June 13, 1806, died November 18, 1863. At an early age he was apprenticed to the tanner’s trade. In 1829 he came to Allegheny township, Venango county, and purchased a small piece of land in the woods, on which he built a log cabin, started a tannery, and began clearing up a farm. The farm grew to be one of the largest and finest in Venango county, and the little home a popular and well known wayside inn in the old stage and coach days, and the tannery expanded into an extensive mercantile and lumber business. Through his efforts a postoffice was obtained for the neighborhood, which bore his name and was kept at his house. On the discovery of oil he engaged in the production and refining of that commodity in a limited way, as the oil business was only in its infancy at the time of his death. He was active in politics, and was a Democrat until Lincoln’s nomination for president, when he became a Republican.

He married (first) April 23, 1833, Mary Bailey, daughter of Captain William Smith, of Waterford, Pennsylvania; she died November 1849. He married (second) February 1, 1853, Mary Anna, daughter of Rev. Hezekiah and Margaret (White) May; she died November 17, 1877. Children by first wife:

1. William Smith Lamb, born September 17, 1834
2. Alfred Lamb, December 28, 1835
3. David Lamb, September, 1840
4. Nancy Elizabeth Lamb, September 28, 1842
5. Sarah King Lamb, October 2, 1844
6. Henry Rowan Lamb, April 14, 1849.

By second wife:

1. Mary Smith Lamb, April 18, 1854, married William J. Bleakley (see Bleakley III).

Rev. Hezekiah May was born at Haddam, Connecticut, December 25, 1773, died July 4, 1843. He was a graduate of Yale College, and was distinguished for his learning, piety and abilities, and was a licensed preacher of the Gospel upward of forty years. He was extensively acquainted in the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New York, Pennsylvania, in all of which he labored in the Gospel ministry. He was a noted minister in the early days of the Congregational, and later, Presbyterian church. He came to Venango county under the patronage of the New England Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in this country. He secured a tract of one thousand acres of land at Old Town, three miles above Tionesta, Pennsylvania. He was in Franklin in the earliest days of that town, but afterward removed to Tionesta, where with the help of his sons he cleared a large tract of land at Old Town, and erected a large sawmill at the place. Old Town was the remains of an ancient Indian village when he located there. It was called Sa-qua-lin-get, translated, “the place of council.” It was purchased by Mr. May from John Ranger, a revolutionary soldier.

See: Genealogy of the Allegheny Valley Pennsylvania

Source

Jordan, J. W. 1840-1921. (1913). Genealogical and personal history of the Allegheny Valley, Pennsylvania. New York: Lewis Historical Pub. Co.

This genealogy is based upon the source cited above. Only the structure and formatting have been changed for clearer presentation; the genealogical and biographical content has been preserved.