My Genealogy Hound

WILLIAM HARBAUGH, retired, Sewickley, was born March 23, 1818, in New Lisbon, Ohio, son of William and Sarah (Springer) Harbaugh, old settlers of Uniontown, Fayette county, Pa. He was reared in New Lisbon, Ohio, and followed farming up to his twenty-seventh year, when he came to Pittsburgh and here entered upon the produce and commission business; subsequently he embarked in the pork and wool business. He now lives retired; is a republican, and has served frequently as councilman and afterward as burgess. Mr. and Mrs. Harbaugh are the parents of six children: Charles Thorn, Mrs. Caroline Moore (deceased), Mrs. Sophronia Nevin, Sarah Springer, Roxa B. and Mrs. Annie Strobel. The Harbaugh family are all members of the Presbyterian Church.

Mrs. Harbaugh (Sophia Thorn) is the granddaughter of Thomas Hoey, who moved in 1810 to a farm of 320 acres on the Ohio river where Sewickley now stands. The Indians at that time often robbed his corn field. Thomas Hoey was a native of Ireland, of Scotch descent, born in County Down, where he was reared and became a merchant. He married there, and was the father of two daughters and one son, when he came to America in 1800 and settled on a farm near Brownsville, Pa. Mr. Hoey died in 1836 aged seventy-four years. The Hoey family were Episcopalians. His daughter, Sophronia, married Charles Thorn, a M. E. minister and missionary worker, who, traveling for many years, settled in Sewickley with his wife and two daughters, Mrs. Harbaugh and Mrs. White.