M. W. Alexander    

M. W. ALEXANDER, ex-county commissioner and farmer, post-office Mercer, was born March 21, 1826, in Findley Township. His father, Benjamin Alexander, was born in Washington County, Penn., and came to this county in 1816, and worked for awhile for Benjamin Stokeley. He died April 18, 1869, in his eighty-eighth year. He was married to Mary Elizabeth Hosack, by whom he had six children. William H., of Mercer, is the only living child. He was married again, to Rebecca Simpson, a native of Washington County, who came to this county when young with her father, Robert, and settled one mile from Mercer, in Cool Spring Township. By his second wife, who died in 1868, he had four children: Elizabeth N., James S., Mathew W. and Prudence. The last named married Patterson Findley, and lives in Jackson Township. The father was one of the first surveyors of this county, and served one term as commissioner. He served two terms as county surveyor, and was a strong Republican, and an elder in the Second United Presbyterian Church at his death. Our subject attended the common schools, and has always lived on the old homestead. He began for himself on reaching his majority, and was married in 1848 to Celia McChesney, a native of Findley Township, and the daughter of Samuel McChesney, a native of Washington County, Penn. She was one of six children, three of whom survive: Mary J., married Archibald Crawford; Sarah A., married James S. Alexander, and Thomas, who lives in Wheeling, W. Va. M. W. Alexander has seven children, all living: B.S., married Anna Eats; J. L., married Ella Cummings; Annie, married Benjamin E. Runkle; T. E., married Myrtle Hosack; Janetta B., married F. S. Morrison; Mary G. and Jennie S., who are unmarried. He was elected county commissioner in 1884; was director and president of the Mercer Agricultural Association; is a Republican, and he and wife are members of the Second United Presbyterian Church of Mercer.

History of Mercer County, Pennsylvania : its past and present : including its aboriginal history, its early settlement and development, a description of its historic and interesting localities, sketches of its boroughs, townships and villages, neighborhood and family histories, portraits and biographies of pioneers and representative citizens, statistics, etc. : also, a condensed history of Pennsylvania. Chicago, Ill.: Brown, Runk & Co., 1888.  Read this book on line - Free Trial  Search Hundreds of 1880s-1890s Pennsylvania County History Books for biographies and historical information on your ancestors.  View the book page images on line and print them out for your genealogy file!  Free Access to the old history books - plus birth & death records, census images and ALL other records at ancestry.com.