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Below is a family biography included in the History of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania published in 1889 by A. Warner & Co. These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary. Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more. There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.
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THEOPHILUS J. VANDERGRIFT. In the very front rank of pioneer oil-producers and well-known, enterprising business-men of the country, stands the gentleman whose name heads this brief memoir. Born Nov. 25, 1846, in Pittsburgh, Pa., he is the youngest in the family of five sons and five daughters born to William K. and Sophia (Sarver) Vandergrift, former a native of Frankford, Philadelphia county, Pa., and latter of Allegheny county. He was educated in his native city, and early in life embarked in the oil-producing industry, in which his sagacity, reliability, practical knowledge and study of the oil-rocks have caused him to be regarded as high authority on the production of oil and natural gas, and placed him second to none among successful producers. He is engaged at present in the production of oil and gas in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, and in the manufacturing business at Jamestown, N. Y., where he now resides.
Mr. Vandergrift was united in marriage, Dec. 28, 1869, with Miss Ellen, daughter of James and Mary O’Donnell, of Pittsburgh, and by her has three sons and one daughter. Mr. Vandergrift has given much time and study to the science of geology and topography. The chapter on the geology and topography of Allegheny county, together with the “Columnar Section” accompanying it, in Part I of this work, is from the pen of Mr. T. J. Vandergrift.
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This family biography is one of 2,156 biographies included in the History of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania published in 1889 by A. Warner & Co.
View additional Allegheny County, Pennsylvania family biographies here: Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Biographies
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