The Tarr Family - Tarr Station
From the Bio Book of Westmoreland County PA
The Tarr Family - Tarr Station
About 1794, John B. Tarr, whose father was an emigrant from Germany before 1760, came from near Ellicott's Mills, MD., and settled where Henry W. Stoner now resides.In this part of the township he purchased several hundrd acres of land.His children were Henry, Peter, Christian, Daniel and Gasper.Of these, Christian Tarr was a senator and representative in the State Legislature from Fayette County, and a member of Congress.Gasper married Ann Reid, of Lancaster County, and lived in the brick house where his son Henry's son now resides.His children were Catherine, married to Paoli Shepherd; Frederick; Esther, married to George Sherbondy; John Balser; james R.; Gasper; Margaret, married to John Husband; Matilda, married to Robert Neal; Henry; Paoli; and Samuel, who died in his twenty-second year.Of these, the venerable John Balser Tarr was born Oct.9, 1799.He attended several terms of the neighborhood subscription school, three-fourths of a mile from his father's taught by John Selby.He was married in 1827 to Harriet Reagan, who died some ten years ago.He moved to his present farm in 1835.He served twenty-two years as magistrate, having first been appointed under the old constitution by the Governor, and several times elected by the people.His father, Gasper Tarr, was a soldier in the war of 1812, and helped to build Reid's Station, on the Allegheny River, above Kittanning.Amont the neighbors of his grandfather, in the early settlement of this region, were Jacob Gardner, Henry Loucks, Melchior Sherbondy, Matthias Camp, and mark Leighty.Tarr's Station was named after James R. Tarr, who owned the land on which it is located.Here are the extensive coke-works of Peter Tarr, embracing eighty ovens, also the one hundred and thirty-eight coke ovens of the Southwest Coal and Coke company (Frick & Co, Proprietors), which succeeded Stoner(Joseph), Hitchman & Co.It is a corporation which owns eleven hundred acres of coal land, employs over two hundred men, and has fifty dwellings for it workmen.It has another opening at Stonersville.Since the building of the South Pennsylvania Railroad in 1872 all of its engines have been coaled here.One of the most active of it sbusiness men, who has very largely conributed to the development of the place, is Joseph Stoner, whohas lately retired from the coke and mercantile business, and is now devoting his time to the Mount Pleasant Bank,of which he is a fourth proprietor.The Robbstown and Mount Pleasant turnpike was completed in 1821, and was chartered in 1819.The managers from this region were Gasper Tarr, John Stoner, and henry Null.The majority of its stock is now held by Henry N. Null, of Greensburg, but John B. Tarr is its secretary and treasurer.
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Re: The Tarr Family - Tarr Station
Samuel Tarr 10/10/02