The Cameron County Historic Society will celebrate their 100th Anniversary on February 12, 2021. Here is some information about the 8 original board members who were elected February 12, 1921.
1921 First Cameron County Historical Society Board Members
Rile Prosser was born October 23, 1885, in Emporium, Pennsylvania, to parents Charles and Josephine Prosser. His father was a teamster. In 1900, census records indicate he was in school, and as of 1910, he was listed as a station agent for the Pennsylvania Rail Road (PRR).
He married Anna C. Fritz (1882-1951), and together they had three daughters: Maria, born in 1903; Josephine, born in 1905 and died in 1918 at the age of 12; and Melba G. born in 1910.
The 1920 census states he was still employed by the PRR. In 1921, he served on the first board of the Cameron County Historical Society. His occupation as of 1940 was listed as a telegraph operator for the PRR. He married Gladys L. Eberth on May 18, 1963, in East Aurora, New York, and died on October 17, 1979, in East Aurora, New York at the age of 93. He was buried in Cameron, Pennsylvania.
Charles Ebbert Plasterer was born April 30, 1876, in DuBois, Pennsylvania, to parents John, age 58, and Anna, age 40. He married Mary Belle Kitzmiller Plasterer on November 14, 1901, in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. They had one child during their marriage, Mary Katherine, who was born in Emporium in 1909.
The 1910 Census shows Charles Plasterer lived in Emporium and served as a teacher. In the 1920 Census, he was listed as Superintendent of Schools. He served on the first board of the Cameron County Historical Society beginning in 1921. As of 1930, census records indicate he was still employed as Superintendent of Schools, and in 1940 he was employed as the assistant superintendent. Two other children are listed as his, Frank and Carrie. Plasterer died at the age of 91 in Emporium during August of 1967 and was buried in the town.
Harry Edwin Elliott was born June 5, 1882, in Mansfield, Pennsylvania. He married Mabel Ora Renfrew on June 7, 1911, in Fayetteville, Pennsylvania. Together they had three children: Julia, Frederick, and Thomas.
Harry Elliott was known as “Pat” by his friends and served as a Forest Warden beginning in 1909 after graduating from the Mont Alto Forest Academy. Prior to Forestry college, he attended Normal School in 1902 and taught school for three years.
He was first assigned as forester in charge of a tract of land near Sinnemahoning, and in 1917, he was transferred to the Sizerville area. By 1920, he was named the first District Forester for the Elk District with an office in Emporium.
In 1921, he was named to the first board of directors for the Cameron County Historical Society. In 1923, he was transferred to Coudersport to serve as District Forester for the Susquehannock Forest District, where he remained until his retirement in 1950.
During the 1930s, he directed the work of ten Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camps. He was active in Boy Scouts in both Emporium and Coudersport. He served as president of the Coudersport Borough Council, Rotary Club and a number of other community organizations. Harry Elliott passed away on December 15, 1970 in Coudersport, Potter County, Pennsylvania.
William T. Welsh was born in July of 1891 in Emporium, Pennsylvania, to parents Thomas and Jennie (Bullis) Welsh. He graduated from Penn State University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemistry, and enlisted in the Army, earning the rank of Sergeant and serving in France. He was honorably discharged with a citation on June 9, 1919.
As of the 1920 Census, he was living in Emporium and employed as a chemist for Powder Works. In 1921, he served on the board as one of the first members of the Cameron County Historical Society. In 1924, he joined the High School faculty where he taught and served as High School Principal until 1929.
In 1928, he married fellow teacher Julia (Rogers) Welsh. From 1929 to 1942, he was employed as a chemist at Sylvania before he returned to teaching from 1941 until his retirement in 1958.
William Welsh had one daughter, Alice Julia Welsh Stisser, and one son, Charles William. On November 2, 1958, Welsh passed away at his home in Rich Valley. Emporium Schools closed early the day of his funeral out of respect.
C.J. Goodenough one of the more prominent citizens of Cameron County involved in politics, was born in Whitesville, Allegany County, New York, on July 15, 1867. He came to Cameron County as an independent merchant in 1888. From 1895-1907, he served as Prothonotary, Register, Recorder, and Clerk of Courts.
In 1897, he joined the mining department of the Emporium Mining Company. He married Florence Olmstead in 1899. He served as a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in Harrisburg from 1914-1932, and as Speaker of the House from 1923 to 1931.
From 1918-1926, he served as President of the Emporium Foundry Company, and in 1921, became one of the original members of the Cameron County Historical Society board of directors.
In 1932, Gifford Pinchot appointed him to serve on the Public Service Commission, and he remained on that effort through 1937.
At the time of his death in 1938, he was serving as the President of the Emporium Trust Company. Goodenough was travelling to the West Coast and stopped over at the Cleveland Clinic for a minor surgery. However, complications set in requiring blood transfusions, and he developed pneumonia and died. He was buried in the family plot in Whitesville, New York.
Marian Larrabee 1917
Marian Larrabee, an Emporium school teacher for over four decades, served on the first board of the Cameron County Historical Society, beginning in 1921. She was born May 5, 1874, in Emporium, to parents M. M. and Georgiana (Mayo) Larrabee. In 1869, Georgiana Larrabee, who was Miss Mayo prior to her marriage, traveled from Maine to visit her paternal grandparents who lived in Cameron. While visiting, she was invited by the Emporium School Board to remain and teach in the new addition of Emporium’s East Ward School. Miss Mayo was one of the first female teachers in Emporium schools, and married Marian’s father, M. M. Larrabee, shortly after beginning her teaching career.
Marian Larrabee attended college in Grand Rapids, Michigan, graduating in 1900. In June, shortly after graduating, she began teaching in schools in DuBois, but within a short time she had returned to Emporium to teach, following in her mother’s footsteps.
In 1906, Marian became a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), by proving her Revolutionary ancestry through her father’s family. She helped form the Cameron County Historical Society in 1921, and served as Cameron County’s Regent from 1921-1926.
Larrabee was a faithful and beloved teacher in the primary department of Emporium’s public schools for more than 40 years. There were several families whose children were taught by Mrs. Larrabee, and grew up to have children of their own under her tutelage.
Marian Larrabee lived in Emporium until her death on November 27, 1938. She was buried at the Newton Cemetery.
James Pollard McNarney was known across Cameron County as a “tough prosecutor” following his move to the area from eastern Pennsylvania.
He was born on August 16, 1855, in Wayne County, Pennsylvania to parents Thomas and Anna McNarney. The 1880 Census records indicate he was serving as a school teacher in Lock Haven, and in 1890, he married Helen “Nellie” Taggert (1869-1938). Taggert was “an indomitable temperance worker,” and together they had five children in 13 years: A daughter, Jean, and sons Ivan, Joseph, Wilford, and James.
In 1921, he was named to the Cameron County Historical Society Board. He passed away in the same year as his wife, on September 28, 1938, in Emporium.
Ross Wilton Clawges was a lifelong educator who worked at many schools throughout central Pennsylvania, serving on the first board of the Cameron County Historical Society during his time working in Cameron County Schools.
Clawges was born on December 13, 1883, in Brockway, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania. Following his high school graduation, he attended Grove City College and took courses at the Lancaster (PA) Business College.
On April 18, 1906, he married Clara Ethel Trench, a native of England. Together, they had three children: Margaret, Ross W., and Evelyn.
In 1909, he was listed as a school teacher in the DuBois City Directory. For several years, he taught school in Jefferson County, serving as principal in Reynoldsville for eight years. In 1916, he was elected Superintendent of Schools in Emporium.
In 1921, he served as a founding board member of the Cameron County Historical Society. The 1930 Census indicates he was a Supervising Principal in North Huntingdon, Westmoreland County, and in the 1940 Census, he was listed as the Principal of schools in Cambria County, Pennsylvania. Clawges died in September of 1976 in Phillipsburg, Centre County, and was interred in the family plot in Falls Creek, Jefferson County.
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