BIO: George B. WACHOB, Clearfield County, PA
 
Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Banja & Sally

Copyright 2005.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/clearfield/

NOTE: Use this web address to access other bios:
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/clearfield/1picts/swoope/swoope.htm
_____________________________________________________________

From Twentieth Century History of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania,
and Representative Citizens, by Roland D. Swoope, Jr.,
Chicago: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, 1911, pages 697 - 699.
_____________________________________________________________ 

  GEORGE B. WACHOB, one of the leading men of Brady Township, master of Pomona 
Grange, and owner of 100 acres of valuable land which is situated one mile 
north of Luthersburg, is one of the most successful and enterprising farmers, 
stock men and dairymen, in this section.  He was born March 22, 1859, in 
Armstrong County, Pa., and is a son of James C. and Mary Ann (Gorley) (Miller) 
Wachob.
  James C. Wachob was born at what is known as the Stone House, near Ringgold, 
Jefferson County, Pa., grew to manhood there and was first married to Mrs. Mary 
Ann (Gorley) Miller.  She was a widow and had four children:  William, James, 
Lewis and David Miller.  From Jefferson County James C. Wachob moved with his 
family to Armstrong County and from there to Indiana County, where his wife 
died, in February, 1869.  They had four children:  George Barnard, John, Thomas 
and Russell, Thomas being now deceased.  James C. Wachob was married second, to 
Mary Rider, who still lives on the old farm.  His death occurred in 1901, when 
he was aged fifty-nine years.  To James C. Wachob's second marriage, three 
children were born:  Maggie, wife of John Shaffer; Sarah, wife of William 
Shaffer; and James.  In his early manhood, James C. Wachob drove a stage 
covering the distance between Clarion and Bellefonte, and it sometimes happened 
that he spent twenty-four hours on the top of his conveyance, during periods of 
bad weather.  Later he purchased a farm in North Mahoning Township, Indiana 
County, Pa., and devoted the remainder of his life to its cultivation.
  George B. Wachob was quite small when the family moved to Indiana County but 
he recalls that the journey was made in an old four-horse English box-wagon.  
The loss of his mother was deeply felt and he attended school but a short time 
afterward, deciding to leave home and make his own way in the world.  He was 
only fourteen years of age at that time.  His first employer was his uncle, 
John Gorley, who was a farmer in Indiana County, and he paid his nephew wages 
of $9.25 a month.  This good uncle also gave him a cow, which was the beginning 
of his business in livestock.  After leaving his uncle he worked at farming for 
three years for the late John T. Kirkpatrick, at Barnard, in Armstrong County, 
afterward following rafting and lumbering at Big Run.  He then went to 
Luthersburg and engaged for a time in teaming for the pottery, under Joseph 
Silers and Mr. Kirk.  In 1890 he returned to Armstrong County, where he 
followed farming for one year, and then worked three years in a saw mill, for 
D. H. Waggle, in Clinton County, Pa.  Prior to this he had kept hard at work 
but had not been able to lay much money aside, but during his stay in Clinton 
County, he was able to save $600, and this was his real start.
  It was just about this time that Mr. Wachob bought two small pigs of full 
blooded stock, from the well known stockman, L. B. Silver, of Cleveland, had 
them shipped to Renova and then brought them to his present place.  He named 
one of these William Breckenridge and the other Madeline Pollard, taking names 
that were then prominently before the public.  The former proved a prize 
winning animal at the subsequent fair at Grampian, and later dressed 824 
pounds.
  In 1895 Mr. Wachob started into the dairy business and has the oldest milk 
route in DuBois, and supplies the best class of residents as well as the hotels 
and most exclusive restaurants.  He does a very large milk business and has 
shown much enterprise in other directions.  One of his lines is the manufacture 
of a certain brand of sausage, which he puts up in a very attractive style, 
enclosing the edible in a hygienic wrapper.  This product cannot be supplied 
fast enough for its market.  He has about forty head of fine blooded cattle, 
beginning his herd with Pauline Paul stock, Holsteins, purchased from the Hayes 
stock farm of Cleveland, O.  Later he introduced a full blooded Jersey strain.  
In 1910 he went to New York and there bought cattle from Stephenson & Son and 
from Stephenson Bros., large and well known cattle dealers.  Later in the same 
year, Mr. Wachob and his son purchased six head of cattle from the Mudget farm, 
New York.  In 1897 Mr. Wachob built the first silo in Brady Township, to which 
he has added and this method of preserving green food the year through has kept 
his cattle in the very finest condition.
  Mr. Wachob's remarkable success in all of his undertakings might give 
encouragement to other youths situated as he was.  Starting out a mere boy he 
had to make his own way with very little help.  That he has succeeded proves 
that he combined industry, honesty, courage and good judgment, all with a 
prudence that his desire to become a man of independence, made him save his 
money.  He did not purchase his 100 acres of land all at once.  His first tract 
was bought from Jonathan Shaffer.  The old way of cultivating the land had been 
in sections and the entire farm, under such methods, produced no more than one 
acre does for Mr. Wachob, who makes use of entirely different methods.  He has 
brought the land to a very high state of cultivation but it has required 
intelligent study, a great amount of well directed labor and the expenditure of 
considerable money at first.  His buildings are suitable and attractive and he 
has erected two residences, one of which he occupies with his family.  He was 
mainly instrumental in having the Farmers' Institute held at DuBois, in March, 
1911, and at this time, he and his estimable wife entertained the visiting 
farmers for two entire days on their farm where the guests were glad to have a 
chance to view Mr. Wachob's admirable plans and his growing crops and valuable 
herds.  Without doubt a favorable impression was made and farmers returned to 
their respective homes with an entirely new set of agricultural ideas.  For 
years Mr. Wachob has been actively interested in the Grange and, as indicated 
above, he is serving as the present master of Pomona Grange at Luthersburg.
  On Christmas Day, 1882, Mr. Wachob was married to Miss Laura Shaffer, who is 
a daughter of Jonathan Shaffer, one of the early settlers in Brady Township.  
Mr. and Mrs. Wachob have one son, Thomas B., who is associated with his father 
in the stock business.  Thomas B. Wachob married Miss Hazel Doubles, a daughter 
of the late Con. Doubles, and they have a son, Lynn Ferman, who was born 
October 17, 1910.  Mr. Wachob, wife and son are members of the Methodist 
Episcopal church, in which he is a steward and a trustee.  He is a charter 
member of the order of Knights of Pythias, at Salem, Brady Township, where he 
attends the lodge.  He is one of the few Republicans living in Brady Township 
and recalls many exciting but friendly contested township elections.  He has 
never served in any office except as a member of the school board, in which he 
took a deep interest for some six years.