Cyrus Jacob Shuster

  General Notes:

From the Westmoreland biographies:

CYRUS JACOB SHUSTER. Cyrus J. Shuster, one of the most enterprising and progressive among the influential business men of Delmont, Pennsylvania, and of that region generally, was born in Westmoreland County, and has been identified with its life and affairs throughout his entire career. On both sides of the house he is descended from old and distinguished Westmoreland county families, his father and mother's ancestors alike having made this region their home since the old pioneer days. The first to come to this region of the Shuster family was the present Mr. Shuster's great-grandfather, who came from Easton, Pennsylvania, at an early period. His son, Isaac Shuster, was undoubtedly born in Westmoreland county, and lived in this region throughout the seventy-five years of his life. His death occurred about 1861, and he is clearly recalled by his grandson, Cyrus J. Shuster. He married Anna Blose, and one of their sons, Daniel Shuster, was the father of Cyrus J. Shuster.

Daniel Shuster was born in Hempfield township, about three miles south of Delmont, and in the year 1856 settled on the one hundred acre farm which continued to be his home until the end of his life. Upon it he erected all the buildings which are still in use and here he did considerable general farming. He was, however, a shoemaker by trade and for a number of years followed that craft, finding this necessary because his farm was comparatively new land, which required considerable clearing and which it took a long time to bring into a high state of cultivation. Eventually, however, he succeeded and there founded one of the most desirable homes in the region. Eventually, he took to raising stock on the farm and became well known as a dealer in beef cattle and supplied the Greensburg hotels with meat. For a period of about fifteen years he was associated with his son Lewis W. in the operation of a general store in Greensburg, but this enterprise he disposed of on the occasion of his son's death in 1889. He was also the owner of mills, from which he derived a large portion of his income and which afterwards became the possession of his son, Cyrus J. Shuster. Indeed his investment in these mills was entered into out of consideration for his son's future business interests and also from the public-spirited motive of providing an important and useful industry for the benefit of the community-at-large. He was a Democrat in politics, and served the township for a number of years in the responsible post of tax collector, assessor, etc. In his childhood and youth he was a member of the Lutheran church of Greensburg, but about 1867 entered the church of that denomination at Delmont, which is situated but two miles north of his home. Daniel Shuster married Lucinda Rugh, a daughter of Jacob Rugh, whose home stood on what is now the site of the Kelly & Jones factory in South Greensburg. To Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Shuster thirteen children were born, of whom ten reached maturity, as follows: Lewis W., already mentioned as his father's partner in a mercantile enterprise in Greensburg, and who died in 1889 at that place; Harriett J., who became the wife of J. M. Silvis, of Washington township; Cyrus Jacob, mentioned below; Maggie, who became the wife of J. M. Klingensmith of Greensburg; Malvina, who is the widow of Frank C. Black, for many years a merchant at Greensburg, and whose death occurred in 1917; Edgar D., whose death occurred at his home at the age of twenty-two; Clara N., who became the wife of Charles R. Fritchman, a farmer and miller of Delmont; Albert J., of Greensburg; Gertrude L., who is now Mrs. C. W. Earnest, of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, who is a foreman in the wire mill there. Mrs. Shuster, Sr., died in 1911 at the venerable age of eight-two years.

Born September 15, 1856, Cyrus Jacob Shuster spent his childhood and early youth on his father's farm, where he experienced that splendid rural training which has produced for us the strongest element in out body politic. Here he assisted his father with the work of the place, and during the winter months, when there was but little to do, attended the local schools where he gained such formal schooling as was offered by them. He was of an extremely ambitious character, however, and desired strongly to make his way in some larger community, where the opportunity for advancement would be greater. At the age of nineteen, accordingly, he entered the establishment of his brother, Lewis W. Shuster, in Greensburg, and there remained for about four years. The two years following, however, were passed on the farm again, and in the year 1881 he entered the service of his father as miller in the general roller mill at Delmont, Pennsylvania. For a number of years this mill remained the property of his father and a Mr. Hugus, sheriff, equal partners in the enterprise. About 1894, however, Mr. Shuster, Sr., bought out his partner and conducted it until 1902, in which year his son purchased the same. From the 1881, when he first took the position of miller, Mr. Shuster remained in this capacity for thirty-six years, and in 1902 purchased the business from his father, as aforementioned. He still remains it owner and still maintains it in active operation. This mill is one of the most interesting and oldest in the community; for seventy-five years a mill has stood on this site, although the original building is no longer there. One of the earliest owners, if not the earliest was John Hughes, and later it became the property of ex-sheriff John Hugus and Mr. Shuster, Sr. The old mill immediately preceding the present building was built by Mr. Hugus, but this was burned in 1892, and Mr. Shuster Sr., erected the present one. The names of Peter Hammar and Daniel Blose are associated in the memories of the people as millers here, the latter serving immediately prior to Mr. Shuster's incumbency for a period of twenty-six years. The present mill is supplied with eight pairs of rollers and is rated as a fifty barrel mill. It is operated by steam power and produces the Gem brand of flour as its leader. This flour is made from home grown winter wheat, although the production of this crop has greatly deceased in Pennsylvania during the recent years. The section was formerly one of the finest wheat growing regions of Pennsylvania. But Mr. Shuster has not contented himself with his milling operations, but has been connected with a number of other large and important enterprises in the region. He was on of the group of men who founded the People's National Bank of Delmont, Pennsylvania, and was the original president of that institution. For that number of years Mr. Shuster was also strongly interested in the coal industry in that region, and for a considerable period conducted a number of enterprises in this line with a high degree of success.

Besides his business affairs, Mr. Shuster has amply proven his public spirit by his active participation in the public life of the community. Like his father before him, he is a Democrat in politics and has been most actively connected with the local organization of that party. He has held at various times practically all of the local offices, especially those of school director and ad member of the Common Council. In his religious belief he is a Lutheran and has for many years been associated with the church of that denomination at Delmont, and has been extremely active in advancing its cause in the community. For twenty years he has been secretary of the church society and for fourteen years superintendent of the Sunday school.

Cyrus Jacob Shuster was united in marriage, September 13, 1883, with Maggie E. Rowe, a daughter of Joseph and Mdary (Fink) Rowe, whose father died when she was a little child. Two children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Rowe: Maggie E., now Mrs. Shuster, and Joseph B. Rowe, who resides at Greensburg, where he is engaged in business as a carpenter. After the death of Mr. Rowe, Mrs. Rowe returned to reside with her parents, Michael and _________(Bethtel) Fink, at Beaver Run, and it was there that Mrs. Shuster passed her young girlhood and grew to maturity. Mrs. Rowe died some years after Mrs. Shuster's marriage at Greensburg. Mr. and Mrs. Shuster became the parents of the following children, three of whom are at present living: Alice M., who resides with her parents at Delmont, is a graduate of the Indiana Normal School at Indiana, Pennsylvania, and is now a teacher in the Delmont High School; Florence N., a student in the Indiana Normal School, a graduate of the class of 1917; and Joseph R., a student of the Greenville Nigh School, and at the present time a member of the freshman class of Thiel College at Greenville, Pennsylvania.

For the amount of schooling that he had received, Mr. Shuster is a man of remarkably broad education and the widest reading. A good general education it is quite possible to gain in our public schools, but he is a man of unusual erudition and great special knowledge on many branches of art and science. The reason for this is to be found in the fact that he is a natural scholar, one of those whose study by no means stops when they leave school for the last time. Indeed, it is then only commencing, and during their entire life they continue to be students, learning from everything with which they come in contact. It has already been remarked that Mr. Shuster is devoted to his family and home. This is closely connected with another profound taste of his, namely, readings, and it is said of him that if he is not to be found in his office you might count on his being at home with a book in his hand, deep in his life-long task of acquiring knowledge. It is this habit, without question, that makes him one of the most erudite and accomplished men of the city and an authority on many subjects of which most men of business are profoundly ignorant. He is a “self-made man” in a larger sense than that in which the term is generally used, in the sense, that is, that he made of himself everything that is possible in every department of his character and life. The phrase, as it is loosely used, conveys merely the idea that the one so designated has made a fortune or achieved position, and no more, but in this sense it becomes a title of far greater significance and honor and implies that he has used to the utmost those talents in trusted to him by the Master.

Cyrus married Margaret Ellen (Maggie) Rowe, daughter of Joseph Rowe and Mary Magdalene (Maggie) Fink, on 13 Sep 1883. (Margaret Ellen (Maggie) Rowe was born on 28 Mar 1855 in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania and died on 17 Sep 1933 in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.)