My Genealogy Hound

R. M. ERWIN, Sewickley, was born Jan. 6, 1834, near Carlisle, Mifflin township, in the Cumberland valley, Cumberland county, Pa., and is, as near as he knows, one of the eighth generation born in America of Scotch-Irish descent. He is the second child born to James B. and Isabell M. (McElwain) Erwin. His grandparents were early settlers in the Cumberland valley, and were represented in both the war of the Revolution and of 1812. The paternal grandfather, James Irwin (who changed the spelling to Erwin), was born in 1742, and died April 14, 1819, and the paternal grandmother, Oliva Bard, was born March 28, 1767, and died March 3, 1840. They had seven children, as follows: Elizabeth, Martha, Catharine P., Mary, John, Oliva B. and James B. (father of our subject). The parents of Oliva (Bard) Irwin were captured by Indians, and their eldest child killed by being taken by the feet and dashed against a tree; the mother was ransomed at Fort Duquesne. R. M. Erwin’s maternal grandparents were Robert and Jane (Shannon) McElwain, former born in 1780, latter in 1790, and they lived to the age of seventy-five years or upward; they reared a family of eight children, viz.: Isabell M. (mother of our subject, and born in Mifflin township, Cumberland county), Elizabeth Ann, Mary, Andrew, Sarah Jane, Margaret E., Liberty M. and James Shannon.

R. M. Erwin had no early school advantages, and as soon as able worked to help support his parents. He followed carpentering, and did work by the day from 1855 to 1866 in Sewickley, except during his service in the army. He enlisted in Co. G, 28th P. V. I., served eighteen months, and was discharged on account of disability; Returning home, he engaged in storekeeping five years; subsequently he embarked in the coal trade, in which he continued sixteen years, and in 1885 he abandoned that line for the livery business. He has now the most extensive livery-stables in Sewickley. Mr. Erwin married Annecca, daughter of Bruce Tracy, and they have six children: Katie B., Anna M., William K., Robert M., Edward B. and June. He is a member of the G. A. R., K. of H. and the Jr. O. U. A. M.; he is a republican.