John C. Gorsuch
(1879-1962)
John C. Gorsuch was born on May 13, 1879,
at Bidwell,
Fayette County, PA, the eldest son of Richard
M. and Martha (Minerd) Gorsuch. He was raised in Maple Summit, Fayette
County, and is thought to have been named after his father's brother.
In the 1910s John purchased an 18-acre farm near the family home. He and later deeded it to his widowed mother. She once described the farm as "rough, there is a couple acres of it can be farmed but we have no way to farm it."
John married Carrie Dawson
(1882-1967), daughter
of Lee and Elizabeth (Stillwagon) Dawson. She was born on August 16, 1882, and spent most of her life in the
Connellsville area.
They had four children -- Roger Gorsuch, Margaret Lohr, Elizabeth Hamman and Ruth Buttermore.
In the photo seen here, John and Carrie stand at far left in the back row, with a group of relatives and friends at the Maple Summit Church. His cousin Marshall 'Ellsworth' Rowan stands in the front row, second from right.
John's parents often fought and his father
frequently left home for long periods of time. Nonetheless, John recalled,
"He was friendly with me up to the last time I saw him."
In the fall of 1911, John went to Edwardsburg, MI to get work. He received one letter from his estranged father, and replied, "and that was the end of our exchange of letters," he later recalled. John's father disappeared in the spring of 1912, never to be seen again. Over the years John tried to locate his father, and even was interviewed at length by a government investigator. A copy of the transcript, found in the National Archives in Washington, DC, is now in the Minerd-Miner-Minor Archives.
John returned to Western Pennsylvania in mid-June
1920, and settled in Connellsville, PA, where he worked as a laborer in a
foundry. In 1921, he resided at 238 East Fairview Avenue in Connellsville. The
city's Main Street is seen here in a rare postcard photograph.
One of John's granddaughters reports that "he was a very kind, gentle man. He was the male figure that I looked up to as a child. He was a farmer and in later years, janitor in a church."
He spent eight years as custodian of the Central Methodist Church in Connellsville, and previously for 17 years as custodian of the First Evangelical United Brethren Church. He retired on Nov. 21, 1961.
He was a member of the E.U.B. Church and its Men's Bible Class. Carrie belonged to the church's Women's Society of World Service and the Royal Circle Bible Class.
John died of a stroke on April 5, 1962. At the time of death, he had 10 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Carrie passed away on June 26, 1967, at the age of 84, in the Emerson Nursing home in Dunbar. The Connellsville Daily Courier said she had suffered "a lingering illness." They are buried at Green Ridge Memorial Park near Connellsville.
Son Roger lived in Chattanooga, TN circa 1962.
Daughter Margaret was married to Louis Lohr and resided in Brunswick, OH.
Daughter Elizabeth married John Hamman and lived in Connellsvile.
Daughter Ruth married Kenneth L. Buttermore and resided in Scottdale, Westmoreland County, PA.
Copyright © 2000, 2002, 2006 Mark A. Miner