Alexander Elder

biography

ALEXANDER ELDER, farmer, post-office Henderson, was born September 21, 1812, in Westmoreland County, Penn., to William and Elizabeth (McManus) Elder, natives, the father of Edinburgh, Scotland, and the mother of the State of New Jersey. They were married in Westmoreland County, and were the parents of eleven children, of whom our subject was the youngest. He was educated in the common schools, and under his brother. His father taught school for over forty years in Legonier Valley, part of the time in his own house. He was a graduate of Edinburgh, Scotland, and was master of thirteen languages. 

The children of William and Elizabeth Elder were: Elenor, wife of Andrew Henderson; Elizabeth E., Mary E., Jane E., William, a Greek and Hebrew scholar, settled in Union County, Iowa; James, also a teacher, settled in Union County, Iowa; Joseph, a teacher and surveyor from youth to old age, in Westmoreland County; John, married a daughter of James Major, of Venango County, resides in Wells County, Indiana; David E., married Margaret Braden, of Derry Township, Westmoreland County, a farmer; Jacob E., married Rebecca Howell, of Fairfield Township, Legonier Valley, Westmoreland County. A. H., a son of Joseph Elder, is a graduate of Westminster College, and a United Presbyterian minister in Cleveland, Ohio. Another of Joseph’s sons, J. G., is a physician in Fisher, Ill., and the youngest son, B. S., lives on the old homestead in Westmoreland County, Penn. 

Our subject began for himself, teaching school, and taught twenty-four winter terms, nearly all in Mercer County. He clerked three years in Venango County, was married in 1838 to Margaret, daughter of John Carmichael, and had nine children: Mary J., married John Phipps, who is dead; Charlotte, married John Wilson; Eliza, married Samuel Carroll, is dead; Sadie, married John Carroll; John C., married Sadie McClelland, and has three sons, Fulton, Harry and William A.; William, married Emma, daughter of A. J. Jacobs; Alfred, attended medical college in Cincinnati, studied medicine under Dr. Galbraith, of Franklin, took a course at Bellevue Hospital, N.Y., practiced in Defiance, Ohio, some time, and is now practicing in Hubbell, Neb.; Eveline, deceased; Edith, married John L. Jacobs. 

Our subject settled upon his present farm about 1839. It was then in the woods. He began clearing and has improved 115 or 120 acres, besides building a fine brick house. He has always been a Democrat. His wife died February 17, 1888. She was a member of the Holiness Band, or Saints of God, a society in Hendersonville, of which he is a member. Mr. Elder has followed surveying at intervals in Mercer County since 1840.