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WHO WAS WHO in PLUM TOWNSHIP
~ Titusville Herald ~
January 20, 1959
By H. W. Strawbridge

George Homan

The Homan family arrived in Venango County from Patton Township, near Bellefonte in Center County, about 1841. Michael Homan was driving a herd of cattle towards Ohio, when he was so impressed with Venango County that he purchased what is now the Fuller place near the Bethel Church between Dempseytown and Franklin. He gave up going to Ohio.
Michael, who was of Pennsylvania Dutch descent, was a regular drover. He brought, sold and drove cattle here and there. His wife was Susan Shoup. She died May 12, 1875 and Michael died May 12, 1876. To each of their nine children he gave a farm. One of his children was George Homan, who was born in Center County on Nov. 7, 1832. George married on Jan. 2, 1860 to Miss Elizabeth Duncan, a daughter of James & Elizabeth Gilky Duncan. She was born Feb. 24, 1836, in Butler County. However, she was reared north of Dempseytown. Her father had been a prominent resident of the county and he eventually moved to Franklin where he died. The Duncan family was of Scotch descent.
George and Elizabeth Homan first lived on his father’s place at Bethel. There their first two children were born, then they moved to a farm north of Dempseytown where the rest of their children were born. Their children with years of births were: James Walter Homan (1860); John Homan (1862); Harry Homan (1863); Edward Homan (1865); Charles Homan (1867); Frank Homan (1870); Augustus Homan (1872); Clifford Homan (1876); Mrs. Susan Elizabeth Homan Long (1879).
All grew to maturity except Augustus who died Nov. 27, 1877, at the age of five. The little fellow choked on a kernel of corn one day and it went into his lungs. He developed consumption and died probably a few years later.
James Walter married Miss Effa Birtcil of the Cooperstown vicinity. He followed the oil business and ran leases on Bully Hill. He died at Franklin. He had first been engaged to Miss Dora Richey, a pretty girl from Wallaceville, but she died in 1885 of tuberculosis.
John married Miss Adaline Loker of Plum Township and they lived in Plum. He was primarily a farmer, but later worked for the Whittacker & Deihl Construction Co., a bridge concern. He worked on a bridge near the present Tionesta Dam, then went with the company to Reading, Pa., and worked. He died June 17, 1930. His daughters live in this area – Mrs. Dorothy Strawbridge and Miss Isabel Homan of eastern Plum Township, and Mrs. Maude Dempsey of Townville. Miss Isabel Homan also maintains an apartment in Reading, where lives a brother, Joseph Homan.
Harry married Miss Anna Irwin of Cherrytree Township. He worked in the oil fields. He died in Titusville in 1899.
Edward married Miss Julia Karns of Franklin. He worked for years at the Galena Oil Works in Franklin which refined oil, shipping it away in barrels, and made lubricants. It got a bulk of its heavy oil from Galloway. Edward died in Detroit.
Charles lives yet in Los Angeles. He never married. He too followed in the oil business. He will be 92 in February, and has been out in California for 40 years.
Frank married Miss Mae Baker of Utica. He worked for the Atlantic Refining Company in Franklin. He died in Rocky Grove in 1956.
Cliff, 82, lives with his sister, Mrs. Susan Long, in Franklin. He never married. He too worked in the oil fields, first at Sistersville, W.Va., then out in the western states of California, Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas. He was a veteran of the Spanish-American War, being one of the few remaining veterans of that war remaining in Venango County.
Mrs. Susan Long, youngest of the family, lives in Franklin with her daughter, Miss Jeannette Long and her brother. He late husband was Colonel Elmer Ellsworth Long, whose occupation was that of a merchant. He first maintained a store in Akron, O., then respectively in Cherrytree, Wallaceville and Rocky Grove. He died in 1911.
George and Elizabeth Homan, parents of the above children, lived for years on the farm north of Dempseytown. In June, 1881, they moved onto a 66-acre farm in Plum Township, trading farms with Eli Seely. George’s Oakland Twp., farm contained 108 acres, thus Seely paid a difference of $1,500 on the trade. When George bought his Plum Township farm there was a log house on it yet, and also the same barn that stands today. It is the present E. J. Roetering place, or what was known as the Lewis Bower place a few years ago. Likely Eli Seely built the barn.
About 1883 George had the present house built, hiring George W. Beers to carpenter it. H. Ben Haslet plastered it. It stood just south of the log one. The kitchen of the new house was built over the well. Family members say there was a grad orchard on the place one time, as so many farms then had. There was a good bearing butternut tree and a walnut tree below the barn.
George Homan was a man of sterling character and genial disposition. He was six feet in height and weighted 185 or 190 pounds. He was primarily a farmer, but he also did considerable custom butchering. He would also cut up the meat and prepare much sausage. People thought no one could prepare sausage like George could. Another job he did a lot was shearing sheep.
His wife was less than six feet tall and weighted perhaps 150 pounds. She, having a large family, kept very busy making all the boys’ clothes until they could earn their own, knitting all their mittens, socks, etc. She also did a lot of quilting. She was a midwife, having been called upon many times when a birth was to occur in the area.
George and Elizabeth had been early members of the Lutheran Church at Dempseytown. About 1890 when the Second Advent Church of Wallaceville organized, they became charter members of it and George helped to build the church structure. He was an elder in this church. He was also one of the three trustees named in the deed for the land on which the church sat. George was also a member of the Dempseytown IOOF lodge. He liked music and could both sing and play the violin.
In March, 897, George assumed the office of a Plum Township road commissioner for one term. In March 1900, George and Elizabeth sold their Plum farm to Edward Bower for $1,700. They sold it subject to stipulations concerning an oil lease of 25 acres by the Stringtown Oil Company. The Homans then moved to Utica for awhile, following which they moved into the Long house in the Wallaceville community. Mrs. Homan was quite sickly and bedfast with arthritis for two years or so before her death in the Long home on Aug. 29, 1903, the day of the Cooperstown Harvest Home Picnic.
Later George moved to Rocky Grove and lived his remaining years there with his son, Frank. He had been ill with a kidney ailment two weeks, when he died on July 9, 1915. He was buried in the Lutheran Cemetery at Dempseytown, following the service in the Evangelical Church of that place.

Transcribed by Penny Kulbacki Minnick
minnick862@verizon.net

Disclaimer:there may be errors due to transcription of information from both early and late (current contributors) work.