JOHN H. HORROCKS, a veteran Union soldier, and chief of the Johnstown fire department, is a son of Jonathan and Sarah (Wilson) Horrocks, and was born at Pottsville, Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, February 15, 1848. Jonathan Horrocks is a native of Lancashire, England, and in 1840 came to Schuylkill county, which he left fifteen years later to settle in Johnstown, where he still resides. He was a coal dealer for many years, and is now in the seventy-ninth year of his age. He is a republican in politics, has been for many years a member the First Methodist Episcopal church of Johnstown, and served two terms as a councilman before the borough was organized as a city. Mr. Horrocks married Sarah Wilson, who was a native of England and a methodist, and died 1883, aged sixty-five years. Of their children John H. is the subject of this sketch; James D. is the chief of the fire department of Tacoma city, Washington, and Sarah has been assistant principal of the Johnstown High school for several years, and was elected by the readers of the Pittsburg limes, in 1896, as one of the most popular teachers in western Pennsylvania, thereby winning a free tour to Europe at the expense of that paper.
John H. Horrocks was reared at Johnstown, and at sixteen years of age left school to enlist on February 13, 1864, in company F, Twenty-First Pennsylvania cavalry. He served until July 28, 1865, when he was discharged at Harrisburg, and, nearly a year later, on June 13, 1866, he enlisted in the regular service of the United States. He was assigned to company F, Thirty-Fifth United States infantry, and was stationed in Texas, where he was discharged at Ft. Consho, June 13, 1869, as first duty sergeant. Returning to Johnstown he remained there until December, 1870, when he went to the oil regions and followed contracting in Armstrong and Butler counties up to October, 1879. He was then engaged in the coal and stone business at Johnstown up to March 1, 1885, when he went west, locating first in Warm Spring valley, Montana, and later, taking up a homestead in Pierce county, Washington, sixteen miles from Tacoma city, where he resided up to November 9, 1892. He then returned to Johnstown and has been engaged in the retail coal business ever since. He sells direct from the mines.
In his political views Mr. Horrocks is a staunch republican, and has always been active in the support of his party and its measures. A man of varied business experience and extensive travel, he is well informed and an entertaining conversationalist.
On September 1, 1895, Mr. Horrocks was appointed chief of the Johnstown fire department, which is already showing improvement, and promises increased efficiency and thorough organization under his charge
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BIOGRAPHICAL AND PORTRAIT CYCLOPEDIA
OF
CAMBRIA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
COMPRISING ABOUT FIVE HUNDRED SKETCHES OF THE PROMINENT AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS OF THE COUNTY.
ILLUSTRATED THE UNION PUBLISHING COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA, PA.** 1896
