From The Book
CAMBRIA COUNTY PIONEERS
________________________
A Collection
of
BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL AND OTHER SKETCHES
RELATING TO THE EARLY HISTORY OF
CAMBRIA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
By James M. Swank
1910
_________________
From pages 53-56
JOHN ROYER, HUGUENOT
FROM THE JOHNSTOWN DAILY
TRIBUNE OF SATURDAY,
MARCH 11, 1899. REVISED
IN 1910.
_________________
Page 53
As
all readers of Pennslvania history know, the early
settlers of William Penn's
province were drawn from many
European countries. Before
the granting of his famous
charter in 1681 emigrants
from Sweden and Holland and a
few Finns and some English
had made settlements on the
Delaware. After the charter
had been granted England
and Wales sent large numbers
of Quakers and a few Episco-
palians; the Continent
sent still larger numbers of Luther-
ans and other Protestants
and a few Roman catholics; Ire-
land and france also sent
a few Roman Catholics, chiefly to
Philadelphia, and the North
of Ireland sent many Scotch-
Irish Presbyterians. many
Prosestants came from Germany,
France, Switzerland, and
Holland. The French,Swiss, and
Dutch immigrants have been
confounded with with the German
immigrants because they
usually spoke their South German
dialect and were of similar
religious convictions, and also
because they sailed from
the same ports and settled in the
same localities as the
more numerous Germans. They were
thus very naturally regarded
as forming a part of the
great German wave of immigration
to Pennslyvania in the
eighteenth century. Thousands
of these French, Swiss, and
Dutch immigrants have left
descendants who are known as
Pennslyvania Germans but
who are not all Germans at all.
Most
of the French Protestants who emmigrated to Penn-
sylvania came originally
from the provinces of Alsace, Lor-
raine, and Champagne, in
Eastern France, although these
emigrants had for sometime
previously, owing to religious
persecution at home, lived
in more friendly German, Dutch,
and Swiss districts. These
French Protestants were known
as Huguenots. Other Huguenots
came from other provin-
ces in france, and these
emigrated in large numbers to
Page 54
New York, South Carolina,
and other colonies and provices
of the New World, in cluding
Pennsylvania. Some Hugue-
nots had found an asylum
in England and Ireland after the revolution
of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 before emi-
grating to this country.
Among
the Huguenot emigrats from Central France
to Pennsylvania in the
early days were three brothers named
Royer. From one of these
brothers came John Royer and
his descendants. The brothers
settled in lancaster County.
The Rev. Mr. Stapleton,
of Lewisburg, Union county, an
authority upon Huguenots
emigration to Pennsylvania, says
that Sebastian Royer came
to Lancaster county in 1721.
We next hear of the Royer
family name during the Revolution,
when samuel Royer, the
father of John Royer, above men-
tioned, was a commissary
in the Revolutionary army. This
Samuel Royer had a brother
named Sebastian. In Baird's
Huguenot Emmigration to
America I find mention made of Noe
Royer, who emigrated to
South carolina between 1681 and
1686. He was the granson
of Sebastian Royer, a native of
Tours, the principal town
in the province of Tourraine ,
in Central France. Noe
himself was born in Tours.
His father's name was also
Noe Royer.I mention his an-
cestry because of the coincidence
in the name of his ances-
tor, Sebastian Royer, and
that of the Lancaster immigrant
mentioned by Mr. Stapleton,
and also of sebastian, the
brother of Samuel Royer.
Samuel Royer's wife was Cath-
rine Laubshaw, a native
of Switzerland. There are Royers
still living in Lancaster
county.
John
Royer, the subject of this sketch, was born in
Franklin County, Pennsylvania,
on November 22, 1778. We
first hear of him as a
clerk at Chambers' Iron Works,
about four miles from Loudon,
in Path valley, Franklin
county. These works embraced
Mt. Pleasant furnace and
forge, which were built
about 1783 by three brothers, Wil-
liam, Benjamin, and george
Chambers. The works were
burned in 1843. In 1800
John Dunlap built Logan fur-
nance, near Bellefonte,
in Centre county, and about 1805-6-7
John Royer and his brother-in-law,
Andrew Boggs, operated
this furnace under lease
from Mr. Dunlap, the firm name
being Boggs & Royer.
Page 55
We
next hear of Mr. Royer as the builder, between
1808 and 1810, of Cove
forge, in Blair county, the Hunt-
ington county, Pennsylvania,
on the Frankstown branch
of the Juniata river, about
seventeen miles east of Holli-
daysburg. Mr. Royer carried
on Cove forge for ten or
twelve years. In the spring
or 1821 he moved from Cove
forge to Williamsburg,
in Huntington county, and in the
same year he was the successful
Whig canidate for the
lower branch of th Pennsylvania
Legislature, defeating Da-
vid R. Porter, the Democratic
canidate, also an ironmaster,
who at the time one of
the owners of Sligo forge, on
Spruce creek, Huntington
county, and who was elected Gov-
enor of Pennsylvania in
1838 and again in 1841, serving
six years. In 1823 Mr.
Royer moved from Williamsburg to
a point on the Kiskiminitas
river, to engage in the
manufacture of salt in
the company with his brother-in-law,
Andrew Boggs, who had laid
out the town of Saltsburg in
the winter of 1816-1817
and had given it its name.
From
the Kiskiminitas river Mr. Royer moved to Pitts-
burgh in the spring of
1826, where he opened an iron
warehouse. At the end of
three years, in the fall of 1829,
the Pennsylvania Canal
having been completed to Blairs-
ville, Mr Royer changed
his residence to that place, where
he acted as the agent for
the Pennsylvania and Ohio
Transportation Company,
goods then being trans-shipped
at Blairsville and hauled
over the northern turnpike to
Huntington, where they
met the eastern division of the
canal. Some time in 1832
Mr. Royer moved to Saltsburg,
again engaging in the business
of salt making, this time at
"Bogg's Works"
about two miles east of Saltsburg, on the
Westmorland side of the Conemaugh river. In the spring
of 1834 Mr. Royer transferred
his lease of the above named
salt works to George W.
Swank and moved to Johnstown,
becoming the agent of the
Pennsylvania and Ohio line of
boats and cars for the
transportation of freight and pas-
sengers between Philadelphia
and Pittsburgh. The Portage
Railroad was opened for
business in the spring of that
year. In this occupation,
for which he was admirably
fitted, Mr. Royer spent
the next eight or ten years, when ill-
Page 56
health compelled him to
retire. He was succeeded by Wil-
liam I. Maclay. In the
fall of 1838 Mr. Swank also moved
his family to Johnstown,
where he died on May 29, 1856,
at the age of 46 years
and a few weeks. He was born in
Westmoreland county in
1810 and was my father.
Mr.
Royer died at his residence on Washington street,
then called Canal street,
east of Franklin street, on March
5, 1850, aged 71 years,
three months, and thirteen days. His
popularity at Johnstown
is attested by his election in 1841
as the Whig canidate for
the lower house of the Legis-
lature from the didstrict
composed of Somerset and Cam-
bria counties. Ill-health
prevented him from being a can-
didate for re-election
in 1842 and Major John Linton be-
came the Whig candidate
and was elected.
Mr.
Royer was a man of more than ordinary ability.
His disposition was genial
and his manners were courtly.
He was a gentleman of the
old school. Mrs. Royer, whose
maiden name was Jane Boggs,
also a native of Franklin
county, but of Scotch-Irish
ancestry, survived her husband
many years, dying at Johnstown,
at the home of her son-
in-law, Hon. Cyrus L. Pershing
on October 28, 1869, aged 85
years and seven months.
She was born on March 13, 1784.
The remaines of both Mr.
and Mrs. Royer now rest in Grand
View cemetery. To Mr. and
Mrs. Royer were born eleven
children, only two of whom
are now living, Sarah Jane, who
became the wife of Robert
Bingham, and Mary Letitia, who
married Hon. Cyrus L. Pershing.
We give their names as
follows: Catherine, wife
of Gen. Edward Hamilton, John
Boggs, Samuel J., Theodore,
Elizabeth, wife of Dr. Charles
D. Pearson, Alfred, Nancy,
wife of William L. Shryock,
Alexander, Sarah Jane,
wife of Robert Bingham, Andrew
Francis, and Mary L., wife
of Hon. Cyrus L. Pershing. On
Sunday, January 22, 1899,
Alfred Royer, the last survivor
of John Royer's sons, died
at the residence of his brother-
in-law, William L. Shryock,
in Johnstown. Alfred Royer
told us that he was the
captain of the first train of freight
cars that passed over the
portage Railroad from Johnstown
to Hollidaysburg. This
was in the spring of 1834. For
more than fifty years the
name of Royer has been prom-
inent in the business and
social life of Johnstown.
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