Guffey, William

WILLIAM GUFFEY.

William Guffey was born in Sewickley township, Westmoreland County, Pa., Jan. 16, 1821, the fourth in a family of eleven children of James and Hannah (Scott) Guffey.

His parents were both of Irish descent.

William Guffey, his great-great-grandfather, emigrated from Ireland with his family about the year 1738, and eventually settled in Westmoreland County, Sewickley township, and was the progenitor of the many families of the name in Western Pennsylvania. He died in Sewickley, January, 1783.

His son, James Guffey, born in 1736, was two years old when his father emigrated. He was twice married. His first wife was Margaret, daughter of William and Margaret Campbell. His second wife was a Miss Findley. By his first wife he had three children, viz.: John, Polly, and Bell. By the second, Sarah and William. James Guffey died March 9, 1806, aged seventy years; his first wife, Margaret, May, 1791. John Guffey, son of James, was born in Sewickley, Aug. 6, 1764. His first wife, Agnes Lowry, was born April 18, 1773.

Eleven children were the fruit of this union, viz. James, William, Anna, John, Robert, Joseph, Alexander, Margaret, Isabella, Mary, and Nancy.

By his second wife, Rebecca Stewart, he had two children, viz.: Benjamin and Stewart. John Guffey was for many years justice of the peace, and spent his whole life on the place now owned by Maj. Dick and occupied by Jesse Husband. He was a man greatly beloved in his family, and highly respected by all who knew him.

James Guffey, eldest son of John, and father to William, was born at the old Guffey homestead Dec. 15, 1791. He was a soldier in the cavalry troop under Gen. Joseph Markle in the war of 1812, and was engaged in the battle of Mississinewa. Soon after his return from the army, April 20, 1813, he married Hannah, daughter of James and Mary P. Scott. The latter was born March 6, 1791, in Elizabeth township, Allegheny County, Pa. Her father at the age of seventeen emigrated from Ireland and settled in that township. After his marriage James Guffey settled upon the place now owned and occupied by his son William and daughter Sarah Jane. A log house had been built upon the place, but the land was cleared and improved and the present brick residence was built by him in 1833. He died here March 22, 1841. His wife survived him many years. She died at the homestead June 10, 1878.

Their children were as follows: John, born March 24, 1814, married Harriet Ingraham; three children living, viz., James G., Mary M., and Hannah S. Mary P., born May 23, 1816, wife of Jacob Funk, died Sept. 21, 1842. James Guffey Funk, her son, died from exposure in the army during the last war. James Scott, born Aug. 2, 1818, married Mary F. Byerly Oct. 20, 1844; a farmer living in Elizabeth township, Allegheny County, Pa.; two children living and three deceased. The latter were Henrietta, Mary J., and Martha R.; the former, Hannah S. and James Adam. William, subject of this sketch; Zacheus, born July 25, 1823, died at the homestead Sept. 22, 1842, a cripple for the last twenty years of his life; Joseph, born Nov. 20, 1827, died Aug. 1, 1828; Nancy L. and Margaret Ann, twins, born July 31, 1829. Nancy died, March 30, 1837, Margaret married to E.R. Griffith, now a farmer in Rostraver township. Mrs. Griffith died May 25, 1876; three children, Samuel C., James G., and John W. Sarah Jane, born March 6, 1832, always lived at the homestead, and since her mother’s death has kept house with her brother William; Rebecca, born Feb. 27, 1836, wife of John Freeman, a farmer in Ligonier township; five children, George, James, Sarah Jane, John, and Anna Lucinda.

William Guffey has spent his whole life on the place of his birth, receiving the education afforded by the common school of the neighborhood. A bachelor uncle, William Guffey, was half-owner with his father of the homestead farm, and upon his death, which occurred Oct. 2, 1840, he willed to his nephew William a portion of his property. This uncle lived and died at the homestead. By will of his father his property was placed under the control of his mother until her death. After his father’s death, which occurred when he was nineteen years of age, he managed his mother’s affairs. The farm was worked by his brother, James Scott, up to the year 1876, when the latter removed on to his farm in Elizabeth township. From twenty-one years of age Mr. Guffey has suffered from heart-disease, on which account he has not been able to engage in the hard work incident to the carrying on a farm. Upon the death of his mother he and his sister Sarah Jane purchased of the rest of the heirs their interest in the homestead. He employs to work the farm Mr. John C. West, whose wife, Anna Mary, daughter of Samuel and Catharine Henderson, had lived with Mr. and Miss Guffey from the time she was eight years of age, and was married at the homestead May 2, 1878. The family at present consists of Mr. and Miss Guffey, Mr. and Mrs. West, and their two children, Sarah Louisa and Mary Catharine.

The Guffey family in politics have always shown an unbroken Democratic front. It is said that at one time there were twenty-one Democratic voters in the family in the township of Sewickley. Mr. Guffey is no exception to this rule. Both he and his sister have for many years been members of the West Newton Presbyterian Church. Honorable in all business transactions, hospitable to all corners, charitable to the poor, of a genial, social disposition, Mr. Guffey well deserves the high estimate in which he is held by the community in which he has spent his days.