A member of a family which has been established in Pennsylvania for nearly two hundred years, Joseph C. Stahlman, M. D., has been in general medical practice for over fifty years, spending nearly forty years of this time in Vandergrift, where he is at present one of the leading physicians of Westmoreland County.

Calla L. Stahlman, his daughter, who is a teacher of foreign languages in the Vandergrift High School, has not only traveled widely in Asia as well as in Europe and America, but is keenly interested in genealogical research and is also an authority on church history, her particular specialty being the translation of church records from German into English for the Daughters of the American Revolution, of which organization she is a member.

Dr. Joseph C. Stahlman was born September 20, 1858, in Armstrong County, son of Solomon and Catherine (Keck) Stahlman.  The Stahlman family was founded in America by Jacob Stahlmann (original spelling of the name) who arrived at Philadelphia from Germany on October 16, 1751.  His son, John Stahlman, who died in 1823, was a farmer of considerable means, adding to his agricultural properties, several gristmills, two of which are still in operation.  During the Revolution, he served in the Militia Battalion of Lancaster, commanded by Colonel Alex Lowrey, his particular organization being Captain Arlhort’s Company of the 5^th Class.  John Stahlman married Eleanor McCorry and they became the parents of ten children:  1.  Solomon.  2.  Jeremiah, who married Catherine Young.  3.  John.  4. Samuel, who married Margaret Reed.  5.  Jacob, who married Anna Maria Reed.  6.  Gabriel.  7.  Nancy, who married Henry Schuckers.  8. Rebecca, who married George Herbe.  9. Katherine, who married George Deitrich.  10.  Salome, who married George Dinger.  Of these children, Solomon and three of his sisters remained in Schuylkill County, while the others moved into Clarion and Jefferson counties.  John Stahlman’s son, Jacob, who was born August 22, 1805, settled in Clarion County about 6 1835 and died September 1, 1876.

A farmer, he married Anna Maria Reed (1804-71), and they were the parents of six children:  1.  Solomon.  2.  Felix.  3.  Isaac.  4.  Angeline, who married Ruben Rinard.  5.  Maria, who married John Furlong.  6.  Catherine Ann, who married Jacob Schaeffer.  

Solomon Stahlman, born January 20, 1832, in Lower Mahantongo Township, Schuylkill County, died January 3, 1899, at Limestone, Clarion County.  Always a farmer, his enterprise was richly rewarded and he was the owner of several farms before his death.  Always attentive to his church, he was very active in civic concerns as a Democrat although he declined to aspire to any public office.  Solomon Stahlman married Catherine Keck, born August 20, 1836 in Red Bank Township, died December 29, 1930, at Limestone.  

She was a daughter of Conrad and Magdalena (Moni) (Mohney) Keck.  Conrad Keck was born in the old Keck homestead in Westmoreland County, October 15, 1807, and died April 8, 1896.  A true pioneer, he was a very successful farmer, civic leader and business man, being a director of the First National Bank in New Bethlehem for eighteen years.  He was the youngest son of Phillip and Catherine Keck.  

Phillip Keck was a son of George Keck, and a grandson of Henry Keck, the first of the family in America, who arrived in Philadelphia in 1732.  Phillip Keck, after the Revolutionary War, migrated with his parents from Northampton County to Westmoreland County, where he married Anna Catherine Klingensmith, daughter of Andrew Klingensmith, and niece of Phillip Klingensmith, who family was massacred by the Indians near Hannastown in June, 1781.  

Phillip and Anna (Klingensmith) Keck were the parents of seven children:  1.  Elizabeth.  2.  Joseph.  3.  Phillip.  4.  Solomon.  5.  George.  6.  David.  7.  Conrad.  Phillip died May 27, 1808, leaving his widow with seven small children.  She picked up her possessions soon after and, braving the perils and hardships of the wilderness, marched on foot with her brood, seventy miles into the forests to Redbank Township, in what is now Clarion County.  

One pack horse transported the family’s meager belongings and the children had the duty of driving the family pigs through the tangle of trees and rocks.  Conrad, by the time he was fifteen, had already become an adult in hardship and toil and, dressed in a home-made suit of homespun, walked seventy-five miles back to Brush Creek Church in Westmoreland County to receive catechetical instruction and to become a member of the Brush Creek Lutheran Church.  

The pastor, Rev. John Michael Steck, shortly visited the family and returned again and again, eventually organizing a congregation at Red Bank and later building a church at Shannondale.  

Conrad Keck married, September 4, 1835, Magdalena Moni, daughter of a prosperous Red Bank farmer.  Mr. And Mrs. Keck were the parents of nine children:  1.  Catherine.  2.  Rachel.  3.  Solomon.  4.  Abraham.  5.  Benjamin.  6.  Jacob.  7.  Lydia.  8.  Philip.  9.  Maria.  Catherine, the oldest, married Solomon Stahlman and had six children:  i.  Aaron.  Ii.  Conrad.  Iii.  Dr. Joseph C.  iv.  Dr. Frederick C.  v.  Benjamin.  vi.  Ida R., who married W. H. Fleming. 

Dr. Joseph C. Stahlman, after attending the Clarion County public schools, went to Rimersburg Academy, Reed Institute and Duff’s Business College in Pittsburgh.  Then, determining to become a doctor, he entered the Western Reserve Medical College at Cleveland and graduated in 1887 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine.  

During his period of study, he advanced himself by teaching school for seven years in Clarion County districts.  Dr. Stahlman’s first practice was in Richardsville, Jefferson County, where he established himself in 1887 and where he remained until 1899.  

That year, having meanwhile taken postgraduate work at the Philadelphia Polyclinic Hospital, Dr. Stahlman moved to Vandergrift, where he has been in active general practice ever since.  A member of the American Medical Association and the Pennsylvania State Medical Society, Dr. Stahlman is also a member of several Masonic bodies, among them being Kiskiminetas Lodge, No. 617, Free and Accepted Masons, of Vandergrift, Pittsburgh Consistory, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite and Syria Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine of Pittsburgh.  

A member of the Presbyterian Church, Dr. Stahlman is also interested in civic concerns and, non-partisan in politics, has served as a member of the Jefferson County School Board.  Dr. Stahlman is keenly interested in photography as a hobby.

Dr. Stahlman has been twice married.  He married (first), on March 15, 1882, Mary Elizabeth McElhoes, who died February 29, 1920.  She was a daughter of Irad and Martha (Warnic) McElhoes.  Irad McElhoes, a native of Mifflin County, served during the Civil War as a sergeant in Company I, 62d Regular Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, 1861065.  His paternal great-grandfather, Robert McElhoes, served during the Revolution and was engaged in the battle at Brandywine as a member of the 3d Battalion of Chester County Militia, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel John Hannam.  His maternal great-grandfather, Cornelius Shehan, was also a soldier of the Revolution serving in Captain Matthew McCoy’s Company of the Cumberland County regiment.  Dr. and Mrs. Stahlman were the parents of two children:  1.  Merna, who married J. C. Painter, of Springdale, and died in 19___.  2.  Calla L., previously mentioned.  In 1925 Dr. Stahlman married (second) Nellie McCleary, of Stro___, Maine.

Dr. Joseph Calvin Stahlman; From an unknown source – probably Physician’s Directory, published before 1899 (when he moved to Vandergrift)

Dr. Joseph Calvin Stahlman was born in Redbank township, Armstrong county, September 20, 1858.  He is the son of Solomon and Catharine Stahlman; was married to Mary Elizabeth McElhose, March 10, 1882; read medicine with A. D. McComb, of West Millville, Clarion County, and graduated from the Medical Department Western Reserve University, Cleveland, O., March 9, 1887.  Located at Richardsville, April 5, 1887, where he remains at present.