Minerd.com Biography of Isaac T. and Hannah (White) Wortman of Pittsburgh, PA

Hannah (White) Wortman
(1863-1927)

Hannah married Isaac T. Wortman (1861-1914) in about 1884, when she was age 20 and he was 23. They had four children, of whom three are known: Anna E. Myers, George Elmont Wortman and Lois Wortman.

In 1900, the family lived in a rented house on Yoder Street in Pittsburgh's 23rd Ward, where Isaac worked as a brakeman on the railroad. By 1910, they had moved to Berwick Street in the Hazelwood section of Pittsburgh and he was a railroad conductor for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.

Tragedy struck on Jan. 12, 1914, when Isaac was killed at work. The Pittsburgh Gazette Times carried the shocking news:

Fall Between Cars is Fatal

I.T. Wortman, aged 50, of No. 1 Berwick street, Hazelwood, was killed instantly when he fell between two cars while at work on the Monongahela Connecting Railroad at Hazelwood yesterday afternoon. Wortman was a conductor and was walking on the tops of some cars when he fell.

Hannah's sisters Annie Hopwood and Emily Goff traveled to Hazelwood to attend the funeral, held in the Wortman home. The site of Isaac's burial is unknown.

Later that year, Hannah moved to 4742 Chatsworth Avenue in Pittsburgh. She survived her husband by 13 years. Circa 1927, she and her daughter Anna E. Myers shared a home at 4739 Second Avenue in Pittsburgh's 15th Ward.

She was struck down with a cerebral hemorrhage and died on July 30, 1927, just 26 days shy of her 64th birthday. She was laid to rest in the Smithfield Cemetery in Pittsburgh.

Hannah and Isaac are mentioned in the 1912 book by John W. Jordan and James Hadden, Genealogical and Personal History of Fayette and Greene Counties.

Daughter Anna E. Wortman (1884- ? ) was born on Nov. 30, 1884 in Dunbar, Fayette County.

At the age of 21, she traveled to Mahoning County, OH to marry 32-year-old Charles D. Myers (1874- ? ). Probate judge David F. Griffith officiated at the ceremony, held on April 3, 1906.

Charles was he son of Samuel S. and Anna (Livengood) Myers of New Haven (Connellsville), Fayette County. At the time of marriage, he was employed as a streetcar conductor in Pittsburgh.

Son George Elmont Wortman (1887-1965) was born on June 16, 1887 in Connellsville, Fayette County. He was of medium height and stout build, with brown eyes and brown hair.

He married Maude Della Betts (1888- ? ), of Pittsburgh, on Nov. 18, 1907, when he was age 22 and she 21. The marriage took place in Wellsburg, Brooke County, WV, by the hand of Rev. W.R. Moore.

Circa 1917, they lived in Pittsburgh at 148 Hazelwood Avenue. In June 1917, he registered for the military draft during World War I, and declared that he was a businessman, with offices at the corner of Webster and Grant Street. He also reported that his widowed mother depended on him for support.

In 1920, the Wortmans made their home on Marsden Street in the city's 15th Ward. That year, George's occupation was a taxicab chauffeur.

George died on Aug. 1, 1965, at the age of 78. No death notice appeared in the Pittsburgh Press or Pittsburgh Post-Gazette newspapers, suggesting he no longer lived in the city at the time of his passing. Nothing more about him is known.