My Genealogy Hound

ABRAHAM OVERHOLT TINSTMAN, dealer in coke and coal-lands, post office Turtle Creek, was born Sept. 13, 1834, in East Huntingdon township, Westmoreland county, and was reared on the farm where the Emma Mine Coke-works are now located. He received a common-school education, and remained on the farm until twenty five years of age, when he went to Broad Ford, Fayette county, to take charge of the mill, distillery and lands of his maternal grandfather, Abraham Overholt. The latter was of German descent, born in Bucks county, in 1784, and about 1800 settled on a farm where the village of West Overton is now located, in East Huntingdon. His wife was Maria Stauffer, of Fayette county. Their daughter Anna, born in 1812, married John Tinstman in 1830, and died in 1866. She was the mother of ten children, of whom our subject is the third. John Tinstman was the fourth of ten children, and was born in 1807 in East Huntingdon, where he died at the age of seventy years. His father, Jacob, was born in Bucks county in 1773, and the mother, Anna Fox, was a native of Chester county. The father of Jacob was a German, who settled in Bucks county and removed to Westmoreland very early in the history of the latter region. In 1864 A. O. Tinstman became a partner with his grandfather, and continued to manage the business until the death of the latter, in 1870. Five years previous to this event, Mr. Tinstman and Joseph Rist had bought six hundred acres of coal-land near Broad Ford, and in 1868, in partnership with A. S. M. Morgan, they opened what is now called the “Morgan Mines” and engaged extensively in making coke. Morgan & Co. then controlled almost the entire coke business of this region, and built a mile of railroad to secure an outlet for their product. Mr. Tinstman was among the organizers of the Mt. Pleasant & Broad Ford Railroad company in 1870, and remained its president until the line was sold to the B. & O. six years later. In 1871 he became associated with Messrs. Frick and Rist (as H. C. Frick & Co.), and this firm built two hundred coke-ovens, now known as the “Novelty” and “Henry Clay” works. In 1872 Morgan & Co. bought four hundred acres of coal-lands at Latrobe, and Mr. Tinstman also made extensive purchases of other coal-tracts, which led to the loss of his entire possessions in the panic of 1873. He set bravely to work to retrieve his losses, and in 1878 and 1880 was enabled to purchase options on coal-lands in the Connellsville region. In the last-named year he sold thirty-five hundred acres at a good profit, and soon bought a half interest in the “Rising Sun” Coke-works. About this time he established the firm of A. O. Tinstman & Co. in Pittsburgh, and was highly successful in his operations. In 1881 he acquired Mt. Braddock & Pennsville Coke-works, and three years after sold all his coke interests. For the last four years he has engaged in the purchase and sale of coal-lands, and has made some large deals.

In January, 1876, Mr. Tinstman began housekeeping in Turtle Creek, having been married on the 1st of July previous to Miss Harriet Cornelia, daughter of Gen. C. P. Markle, of Westmoreland county. They have one son, Cyrus Painter Markle. The family is connected with the Presbyterian Church of Turtle Creek. In 1879 was built the fine mansion which Mr. Tinstman and family now occupy. The grounds include the site of a pioneer cabin, once the home of Mrs. Myers, and which gave shelter to George Washington after his raft had capsized in the Allegheny on one of his exploring expeditions.