Byers, James

James Byers, retired merchant of West Middlesex, was born in New Bedford, Lawrence county, Pennsylvania, January 1, 1828, a son of Andrew and Margaret (Baird) Byers. The father was born in Virginia, 1784, and was the son of Samuel Byers, who came to Mercer county and settled in Shenango township, in 1796. At that date the father of Mrs. Johnson was aged but twelve years. The mother was born near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and when a child went to Liberty township. Mercer county. The father and mother of James Byers had eight children. The father was a teamster and for eleven years drove one of the old-time stage coaches. He died when aged eighty-nine years. James, the son, received a common school education and early in life became a clerk in a store at Pulaski and followed clerking for sixteen years. He then spent about three years at driving cattle over the mountains for a Mr. Moone, after which he clerked in a store again at Greenfield, in 1862, and at Pulaski. In 1864 he crossed the great western plains to San Francisco, California, returning by the way of Panama. In 1866 he began his mercantile career in West Middlesex. He was married in 1868 to Balinda Marsteller, born November 25, 1834, in Mercer county, Pennsylvania. The children by this union were: John A., born October 31, 1869; Margaret, born February 15, 1872; James Chauncy, born December 24, 1878.

Politically Mr. Byers was a Democrat, while in church connections he was Methodist Episcopal.