My Genealogy Hound

BENJAMIN ALPHEUS JOBE, builder, post-office Turtle Creek, was born May 15, 1843, a son of Robert and Sarah (Martz) Jobe, the latter of German descent. John Johnston Jobe, grandfather of Benjamin A., was a native of Ireland, settled near Greensburg, Pa., and took up five hundred acres of land. He married a German lady. Their son, Robert, was born at Ligonier, and lived the life of a quiet farmer. Benjamin A. was reared on a farm, and when eighteen years old joined Co. H of the 11th P. R., and saw hard service with the Army of the Potomac, participating in every battle from Bull run to Cold Harbor. He received a gunshot at Gaines Mill, which destroyed the sight of his left eye, and was taken prisoner, but exchanged in time to share in the battles of Antietam and South Mountain. He was stunned by a fragment of a shell at Gettysburg, and after that battle was promoted from first sergeant to captain. At the battle of Cold Harbor he was struck by a timber from the breastworks, knocked insensible and taken prisoner. For nine months he was kept on the move, most of the time to prevent rescue, and was exposed for three weeks to the fire of the Union army at the siege of Charleston, S. C. In April, 1865, he was discharged, and took up carpenter-work, which he had followed a year before entering the army. In 1867 he came to Turtle Creek, where he has since been engaged in contracting. He built a sash and planing-mill, which was burned in 1886, entailing a loss of $12,000, but during the following winter he rebuilt, and is rapidly recovering his loss. In 1866 Mr. Jobe married Sarah Agnes, a native of Patton township, and a daughter of John and Margaret McClellan, of Irish descent. The family is associated with the Presbyterian Church, and includes four children, viz.: William John, Elmer Alpheus, Sarah Margaret and Royal Reece. The elder two are carpenters, the first with his father and the second in Colorado. Three sons, Robert Rudy, Francis Meade and Albert Irwin, died at an early age.