My Genealogy Hound

CALVIN RUFUS CHURCH, engineer, post office Turtle Creek, is descended from English ancestors, through a long line in America. The homestead in East Haddam, Conn., has always descended to sons named Joseph Church. Calvin Church was born on this homestead in 1799, and went to Rome, Ashtabula county, Ohio, when twenty-two years old. There he engaged in farming, and afterward moved to Thompson, same state, where he kept store and hotel, and died in 1857. His wife, Susan, nee Crowell, was also a native of Middlesex county, Conn. Calvin Church was one of the defenders of New London during the war of 1812. His son, Calvin Rufus, born at Rome, Ohio, Aug. 6, 1829, attended the common schools and Kirtland Academy. After working a short time as a blacksmith, a hotel clerk and in a Connecticut spoon-factory, he took up railroad work, beginning as a brakeman on the Erie. He came to Allegheny county in 1853, and continued on the Pennsylvania system (with the exception of one year in Tennessee) until 1870. After the first year he had charge of a locomotive, and had two narrow escapes from injury. Since 1870 Mr. Church has had control of the engine of the KY. & C. G. C. Co. here. He owns two houses, one of which he built, in Wilkins township, with two and a half acres of land. He has served as inspector of elections, and is now school director, and acts with the republican party. He and Mrs. Church are members of the M. E. Church, and he is associated with the following benevolent orders: I. O. O. F., K. G. E. and K. P. Jan. 1, 1855, Mr. Church married Mrs. Annie Rogers, who died in 1867, leaving five children, of whom four are now living: Annie L., wife of David Gilchrist, of McKeesport; Charles R., of Turtle Creek; Emma L., wife of John McKeever, of Reynoldton; Harry, Turtle Creek, and Carrie, who died at four years of age. In 1868 Mr. Church married Mrs. Hannah Dempsey, who bore him two children — Jacob O. (died when three years old) and Susan Melinda — and died June 5, 1873. Mr. Church next married Maggie Vaughn, and they have one son living, William Alexander McIntosh.