My Genealogy Hound

GEORGE W. EAGYE, who Wilkinsburg, was born in Fallowfield township, Washington county, Pa., February 16, 1843. His grandfather, who was of German birth, and the son of a Frenchman, came and settled in Washington county in the latter part of the eighteenth century. He had sixteen children, all born here, the youngest of whom, Simon, married Catharine, daughter of Peter Yohe, who settled in what is now Somerset township, Washington county, Pa., in 1791. They had eight sons (of whom George W. is the fourth) and seven daughters. Simon Eagye was killed by a runaway team in 1860, in his sixtieth year; his widow died in 1886, aged seventy-five. The early years of our subject were passed on the home farm, and August 19, 1861, he enlisted in an independent cavalry company attached to the Ringgold cavalry, which afterward became Company D of the Twenty-fourth Pennsylvania Cavalry. He served with Sheridan till the close of the war, participating in all the engagements and raids of that general. At Lost River Gap, W. Va., his horse was shot from under him, but he never received a wound. For two years after the war Mr. Eagye kept a store at Upper Middletown, Fayette county, Pa., and in 1867 he engaged in the wholesale grocery trade at Pittsburgh, the firm being known as Smith, Johnson & Colvin. It is now Johnson, Eagye & Earl, and the annual sales have grown from $140,000 to a million. December 14, 1865, Mr. Eagye married Eliza M. Winnett, a native of Washington county, and daughter of Rev. Hiram and Nancy (Mitchell) Winnett, of English descent, and the result of this union are the following-named children: Leet M., Luthella B., Perie Almeda, Nellie C. and Edna J.; Charles Sullivan and Gertrude died in infancy. The family are identified with the Methodist Episcopal Church. In April, 1884, Mr. Eagye brought his family to Wilkinsburg, occupying the handsome house he had built on Franklin street. He is a member of the borough council, and is a republican with strong prohibition sympathies; is a member of the I. O. G. T. and I. O. O. F.