My Genealogy Hound

THE HUSTONS of Center County*. As related in the general history of the Huston family, there was a James Huston that his father, Samuel Huston, did not name in his will. This James Huston was born in East Pennsboro, now Silver Spring, township, in 1758, and served in the War of the Revolution as a private under Lieutenant George Dickey, of the Third Battalion, Cumberland County Militia, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel David Bell. He also served in Captain George Crawford’s Company of Cumberland County Militia. In 1785 he bought a large tract of land in Penn’s Valley, now in Center county, from James Huston, of Philadelphia, “innholder,” who was probably his uncle. To this land he removed in the following year, and afterward always lived in that part of Pennsylvania. On Nov. 20, 1787, he married Catharine Ewing, who, when a little girl, was captured by the Indians, and carried to Canada, but after the war, she was exchanged and returned to her home. James and Catharine (Ewing) Huston had the following children: Samuel died unmarried, in 1877, in his ninetieth year; Mary married Charles McGhee; Thomas married, first, Jane Barber, and, second, Elizabeth Hammond; Isabella married James Barber; Catharine died unmarried; and Margaret married Dr. Charles Coborn. James Huston died on May 6, 1801, at the age of forty-three years, his wife, Catharine Ewing, died on Dec. 29, 1848, in her eighty-second year, and their remains and the remains of their son, Samuel, and daughter, Catharine, are buried near the old fort on the farm in Penn’s Valley, which James Huston bought in 1785.

Mary Huston, who married Charles McGhee, had children as follows: Sarah Ann, Catharine E., Isabella, Elizabeth, and Thomas Huston. All of these children married and settled in the West.

Thomas and Jane (Barber) Huston had four daughters, viz.: (1) Sarah M. married Rev. James B. McBride. (2) Catharine married Dr. John George Hartswick, of Clearfield, a graduate of Pennsylvania University of 1854, who died in March, 1896, after a long and successful professional career, and they had three children: Elizabeth (who married William Irvin Swoop, a Clearfield attorney), Thomas Huston (who in 1887 graduated from the medical department of Pennsylvania University, but died in March, 1891, in Mesilla Park, New Mexico, where he had gone in search of health), and Howard B. (who prepared for the law, and married Jennie P. Betts, by whom he has two sons, Frederick Gregory and Thomas Huston). (3) Mary, died at the age of four years. (4) Isabella Barber, in September, 1852, married Franklin David Sower, of Norristown, who was killed in the railroad wreck at Exeter, on May 12, 1899. He was a lineal descendant of the famous printer-publisher-preacher, Christopher Sower, only son of Christopher Sower, born in Laasphe, Germany, who came to America in 1724, and commenced publishing in 1738.

Thomas and Elizabeth (Hammond) Huston had children as follows: Jane E. married James P. Coborn; James married Mary Jane Shannon, of Kankakee, Ill., and died in Kansas, leaving a large family; Joseph H., a prominent physician located at Clintondale, Clinton county, married Evelyn H. Riddle, of Waterford, Pa., and has one son and two daughters; Samuel married Helen Cuttle, of Clearfield, by whom he has two daughters, Mary B. (who is the wife of John Leitzinger, a merchant of Clearfield) and Evelyn (who is the wife of Rev. J. Edward Curzon); Col. Charles F. McGhee served in the 56th P. V. I. during the Civil war, and is now living unmarried in Indiana; Ruth Evelyn, born in December, 1848, married Lieutenant William Wayne Rogers, of Company E, 93d P. V. I., of the Civil war, who died leaving one son, James Coburn Rogers, a member of the 1903 medical class of the University of Pennsylvania; Thomas, Jr., born in April, 1850, now living in Indianapolis, Ind., married Miss P. Desmond, and has three daughters, all of whom are at home; and one son died in infancy.

Isabella, the fourth child of James and Catharine (Ewing) Huston, married James Barber and had children as follows: Sarah, Catharine, Mary, Elizabeth, James H., John and Andrew.

Margaret, the youngest child of James and Catharine (Ewing) Huston, was born Sept. 18, 1800, near Aaronsburg, in Penn’s Valley. In 1814 there located at Aaronsburg a physician named Charles Coborn, who was born Oct. 30, 1785, in Woodstock, Windham Co., Conn. His ancestors came from England at a very early date, and settled in Connecticut, where the family lived through several generations. Col. R. Coborn, an uncle of Charles Coborn, did gallant service in the Revolution, and was killed in the battle of Saratoga. Dr. Coborn practiced medicine at Aaronsburg for many years. He married, first, Miss Peggy C. Potter, daughter of General James Potter, of Revolutionary fame, son of John, who was one of the early settlers of the vicinity of Shippensburg, and the first sheriff of Cumberland county. Mrs. Peggy (Potter) Coborn died without issue, and Dr. Coborn on June 30, 1830, married Margaret, daughter of James and Catharine (Ewing) Huston, and to them the following children were born: James Potter, Catharine H., Mary, Martha Shumway, Lydia Sigourny and Margaret H., of whom only James P. and Margaret H. lived to adult years. Dr. Coborn died April 25, 1858, and his wife Aug. 21, 1861.

*Center County should be Centre County, Pennsylvania.