Joseph Alison Eyster and Elizabeth Catherine Heyser

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Husband Joseph Alison Eyster ¹

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           Born: 24 Sep 1823 - Chambersburg, Franklin Co, PA 1
     Christened: 
           Died: 3 Dec 1900 - Chambersburg, Franklin Co, PA 1
         Buried:  - Cedar Grove Cemetery, near Chambersburg, Franklin Co, PA

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         Father: George Senseny Eyster (1795-1858) 1 2
         Mother: Eleanor Susannah Alison (1799-1836) 1

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       Marriage: 7 Sep 1848 1

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Wife Elizabeth Catherine Heyser ¹

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           Born: 26 Feb 1827 1
     Christened: 
           Died: 19 Jan 1909 1
         Buried: 

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Children

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General Notes: Husband - Joseph Alison Eyster

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He received his early education in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and was for a time a student in Washington College at Washington, Pennsylvania, where he was a classmate and warm friend of James G. Blaine. After leaving college he made a tour of the west on horseback, with a view of locating there, but, at the earnest solicitation of his father, he returned to Chambersburg and became a partner with his father in the general merchandising business. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he became the senior member of the firm of Eyster Brothers, and the house became the chief supply for many articles to the military encampments in the vicinity of Chambersburg. He conducted a straw board mill north of town. In 1862 he went into partnership with William Heyser in the manufacture of white writing paper at the Hollywell Mills southwest of Chambersburg. In 1873 he sold out of that firm and built a straw board mill at Halltown, West Virginia. Although having sustained heavy losses by fire and storm, Mr. Eyster's skillful management enabled him to overcome these discouragements and come out successfully.
While on a business trip to Winchester, Virginia, during the Civil War, he was made a prisoner and taken to Libby prison, where he met and became a warm friend of Commander Albert Kautz, U. S. A. His generous disposition made him a favorite in the prison where he was regarded as a benefactor by his fellow prisoners. This same quality, combined with his genial manner, cheerful disposition, unostentatious helpfulness, and flow of genuine wit, made him a favorite wherever he went. He was released from Libby prison through a court action.
Although he removed to Philadelphia to live, he never lost his attachment for his home town and when he retired from active business on account of failing health, he returned to Chambersburg to spend the remaining years of his life. After a long illness from dropsy and Brights disease, he passed away.
When a boy he learned the printing business and helped to do the press work on an old Ramage press for the printing of Cobb's Speller, which was a reprint.

1 Ella Campbell Slagle Nichols, Family Record (Pittsburgh, PA: Privately published, 1914).

2 Editor, Biographical Annals of Franklin County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905), Pg 681.