Hatch, John P.

JOHN P. HATCH, oil producer, was born in Sparta township, Crawford county, Pennsylvania, son of Levi and Sarah Eliza (Brown) Hatch. The ancestry on both sides is traced through a period of two hundred and seventy- five years, when the first representatives came from England to Massachusetts and Vermont. The paternal grandfather of John P. lived and died at Whitehall, New York, from which place Levi Hatch removed to Crawford county. Here he reared a family of six children, all of whom are living: Smith F.; Ann Eliza, wife of Martin Porter; Charles R.; John P.; Maria C., wife of Lester Fish, and Edwin B. Our subject obtained an academic education at Waterford Academy and Edinboro State Normal School, and also attended Duff’s Commercial College at Pittsburgh. Since the age of ten years he has been engaged in business, having received at that age fifty sheep from his father, from which he accumulated three thousand dollars before reaching his majority. In 1869 he engaged in the oil business at Woodock station on the Allegheny river. He was one of the original members of the Pleasantville Oil Exchange, and has been largely interested at Fagundus, Parker’s Landing, Petrolia (where he drilled the first well), and Butler county, experiencing all the vicissitudes of fortune incident to the business. In 1877 he came to this township, and has since been engaged in oil production. On the 29th of February, 1864, he enlisted in Company C, One Hundredth Pennsylvania Volunteers, and was in the service seventeen months, until the close of the war Politically he is a Republican, and has held the offices of justice of the peace, township clerk, constable, assessor, and collector in this township. He is connected with Pleasant Grove Methodist church, in which he has served as steward, class leader, and trustee. He was married July 16, 1881, to Belle B., daughter of Thomas Gregory of Franklin. They are the parents of three children: John P., Jr.; Irene M., and Elizabeth P.