History of Linden Hall, (Centre County) Pennsylvania United States of America

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William Irvin, U.S. consul, was born at Linden Hall, Centre county, Pa., Nov. 15, 1805; son of John and Ann (Watson) Irvin. His grandfather, John Irvin, with two brothers, William and Gion came from county Tyrone, Ireland, to Lewistown, Mifflin county, Pa., in 1786, and crossed the mountains to the "new country" of Penn's valley, where they all became thriving farmers, mill owners and miners. He was prepared for college at Canonsburg, Pa., and entered Dickinson college in the class of 1825, but did not complete the course. He was graduated at Jefferson Medical college in 1828, and at the Homeopathic Medical college of Philadelphia in 1851. In 1833 he engaged with his brother James in the iron business at Milesburg, Pa., and the firm failed in 1857. He practised as a homeopathic physician at Bellefonte, Pa., 1851-54; engaged actively in the charcoal-iron business, 1854-62; was a clerk in treasury department, Washington, D.C., 1862-64, meantime devoting Washington, under the Pennsylvania sanitary commission; and was U.S. consul at Amoy, China, 1864-65. Fie was married, in 1836, to Martha M., daughter of Roland and Jean (Gregg) Curtin; granddaughter of Senator Andrew and Martha (Potter) Gregg, and a descendant of General Potter, the first white man to see Penn's valley. She was a sister of Governor Andrew Curtin, and their son and only child, Roland Clare Irvin, entered the U.S. Naval academy in 1860, was ordered in active service in September, 1863, and resigned, Sept. 26, 1866, after having attained the rank of master, to take charge of his father's estate. Consul Irvin died of Asiatic cholera, contracted while a volunteer physician in the hospitals, at Amoy, China, Sept. 9, 1865.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Linden Hall, (Centre County) Pennsylvania

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