SAMUEL
ROYAL.—The broad and honorable career of Samuel
Royal, of Fairview township, Mercer county, has covered a number of
diverse fields, for he has gained a standing both as a soldier, a
blacksmith, a farmer and an earnest and effective Prohibitionist, He is an
English man, born in Weymouth, Dorset, England, on the 24th of May, 1841.
His father, John Royal, was a native of the
same locality, and was for many years a relief officer there. He married Margaret
Harris, of Dorset, England, and the eight children of their union
were as follows: Lettuce; Henry; Margaret; John,
Jr.; Thomas; William H.; Samuel; and Joseph
H.
The mother of the family died in 1848 and the father in 1867, their
children being now residents of British Columbia, Australia, America, and
other quarters of the globe.
Samuel
Royal received a fair education at what were known as the British
and Town Hall schools and at the age of fourteen was apprenticed to the
trade of a blacksmith. In 1857, two years thereafter, he sailed for
America to improve his prospects in this country. He first located in
Ashtabula county, Ohio, where he remained for one year and there formed
the acquaintance of old John Brown, the noted
Abolitionist. He then went to Warren, Ohio, where he followed his trade
until the breaking out of the Civil war in 1861. He enlisted in Company G,
Sixth Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, and was honorably discharged in the
following year. He became a resident of Otter Creek township, Mercer
county, in 1863, establishing and conducting a small blacksmith shop in
that locality. But the war fever was in his blood and in 1865 he abandoned
his forge and re-enlisted for service in the Union cause, joining Company
K, Ninety-first Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. With this command he
served until the close of the war. Returning from the front he resumed his
work as a blacksmith, founding and establishing a shop at Fredonia, which
he conducted until 1893, when he retired from the active business life on
account of his health and located on his present farm.
On October 6, 1860.
Samuel Royal was united in marriage to Miss
Mary Ann Baker, who was born in Warren, Ohio, in 1841, and is now
deceased. The five children of their union are as follows: J.
F., now living at Warren. Ohio; Samuel H.,
a resident of Hempfield township, Mercer county; Lettuce
A., now Mrs. Warren Stewart, who
married a Delaware township farmer; Mary E.,
the wife of W. M. Mowry, of Greenville,
Pennsylvania; and Margaret, Mrs.
William Stewart, also a resident of Warren, Ohio. In 1872 Mr. Royal
married as a second wife Mary Ann Kashner, a
native of Delaware township and daughter of James
and Abbie (Smith) Kashner. The three children of this union were: William
H., a farmer of Fairview township, who married Carom
I. Billig and has three children, Robert,
Martha Cora, and Anna
M., who died July 8, 1899, as the wife of Austin
Kremis; and Warren, a resident of
Greenville, Pennsylvania, an engineer on the Bessemer Railroad, who
married Kate Young, and is the father of Howard,
Theodore R. and Floyd. Both Mr. and Mrs. Royal are stanch members
of the Reformed church, and, as stated, Mr. Royal is one of the best known
advocates of Prohibition in the county.
Twentieth Century
History of Mercer County, 1909,
pages 843-844.
