My Genealogy Hound

JAMES F. SYKES, contractor and builder, Chase, was born in India, Sept. 13, 1843, a son of William and Sarah (Francis) Sykes. His father was a native of Manchester, England, a theatrical manager by occupation, and opened the third theater in India, and first in Canada. He settled in Pittsburgh in 1852, and resided there nineteen years; then removed to Toronto, Canada, where he died in 1870. Mrs. Sykes was a daughter of Stanley Francis, a pioneer of Allegheny county. James F. was reared in this county, where he learned the carpenter’s trade. In 1884 he located at Elrod’s, in Versailles township, where he has since been actively engaged in business as a contractor and builder. He married, in 1862, Margaret, daughter of Angus Kerr, of St. Thomas, Canada, and has eleven children: William, Maria (Mrs. George Mahlow), Mary A., Margaret (Mrs. Bayard Taylor), James, Allie, George, Frank, Charlie, Minnie and Lettie. Mr. Sykes is a member of the M. E. Church, the Royal Templars of Temperance and Mystic Chain. He is a justice of the peace for Versailles township, and a stanch advocate of prohibition.