John Best, Sr.

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Husband John Best, Sr. ¹

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           Born: May 1780 - Benburb, County Armagh, Ireland 1
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           Died: 1878 1
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       Marriage: 

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Wife

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Children

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1 M Samuel Best ¹

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           Died:  - New Orleans, LA
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         Spouse: Isabella Dickson (Abt 1806-1881) 1

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2 M James Best ¹

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3 M John Best ¹

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4 M William Best ¹

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5 F [Unk] Best

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         Spouse: James S. Bushfield (      -      ) 1

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General Notes: Husband - John Best, Sr.

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From his early training and constant reading in the land of his nativity, he learned much of the United States. He and his wife emmigrated there landing in Philadelphia in 1811, and thence journeyed over the Alleghany mount­ains in a wagon to Pittsburgh, and hearing of Washington County as a great wool-growing sec­tion, he concluded that the county seat, or its neighborhood, would be a proper place to settle in, and to that place he went. He purchased the property on the northeast corner of Beau and Franklin streets, and there erected and engaged in the wool-carding business, where the first stationary engine in Washington county was placed and owned by him. He remained as a prominent citizen of Washington till 1856, when his two sons, John and William, purchased farms near New Concord, Guernsey County, Ohio. His wife being dead, and his daughter married, he concluded to leave his adopted town and go and live with his sons.
He was a Mason, having entered that order in Ireland, in Lodge No. 722, which Lodge was organized in 1788, his own father having procured its charter from the Grand Lodge of Ireland, and the meetings were held in his house. He died at the advanced age of ninety-eight years, the oldest Mason at that time in America.

1 Editor, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 112.