- Born: June 29, 1858, Pennsylvania
- Died: December 15, 1927, Hamilton Township, McKean County, Pennsylvania
- Relationship: My second great-grandfather
John Wesley Wegley was my second great-grandfather. He was born on June 29, 1858, in Pennsylvania, the son of Joseph William Wegley and Eve Berkebile, and he belonged to the generation of the Wegley family that moved away from the family’s older Somerset County roots and established itself in northern Pennsylvania.
John eventually made his home in Kane, McKean County, where he and his family lived for decades. His surviving records reveal a working life connected with the oil and gas industry, a later period as a grocer, a large family with his Swedish-born wife Bessie, and a home on Biddle Street that became closely associated with several generations of the family.
The Son of Joseph William Wegley and Eve Berkebile
John was a son of Joseph William Wegley, born October 14, 1802, and Eve Berkebile. Joseph died on June 23, 1879, in Wetmore Township, McKean County, Pennsylvania, while Eve survived until 1888.
John’s own 1927 death certificate provides direct evidence for this relationship. It identifies his father as Joseph Wegley and gives his mother’s maiden name as Eva Berkible, an obvious spelling variation of Eve Berkebile.
This is particularly valuable because other men named John Wegley lived in Pennsylvania during the same general period. The combination of John’s parents, wife, residence, children, and death information allows us to distinguish this John Wesley Wegley from similarly named men.
| Field | Information |
|---|---|
| Document type | Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Certificate of Death |
| Full name | John W. Wegley |
| Sex | Male |
| Race/color | White |
| Marital status | Widowed |
| Spouse entry | Mrs. J. W. Wegley |
| Date of birth | June 29, 1858 |
| Age at death | 69 years, 5 months, 16 days |
| Birthplace | United States |
| Usual occupation | Oil & Gas Producer |
| Industry/business | Not separately stated |
| Employer | Not stated |
| Father’s name | Joseph Wegley |
| Father’s birthplace, city/town | Handwriting unclear |
| Father’s birthplace, state/country | United States |
| Mother’s maiden name | Eva Berkibile, as written |
| Mother’s birthplace, city/town | Not stated |
| Mother’s birthplace, state/country | United States |
| Informant | Fred Wegley |
| Informant’s address | Kane, Pennsylvania |
| Usual residence | 507 Biddle Street, Kane, Pennsylvania |
| Length of residence | 60 years, as recorded |
| County of death | McKean County, Pennsylvania |
| Township of death | Hamilton Township |
| Date of death | December 15, 1927 |
| Primary cause of death | Cerebral hemorrhage / apoplexy |
| Circumstances noted | Died very suddenly without the attendance of a doctor |
| Contributory condition | High blood pressure |
| Duration of high blood pressure | 2 years |
| Operation before death | No |
| Autopsy performed | No |
| Basis for diagnosis | Witness statement |
| Coroner | Signature appears to read W. C. Heffner, but the surname should be treated as slightly uncertain |
| Coroner’s address | Bradford, Pennsylvania |
| Coroner certification date | December 15, 1927 |
| Coroner action | The printed inquest language appears altered or crossed out; the certificate indicates the body was viewed by the coroner |
| Place of burial | Forest Lawn Cemetery |
| Burial date | December 19, 1927 |
| Undertaker | Signature difficult to read confidently |
| Undertaker’s address | Appears to be Mt. Jewett, Pennsylvania |
| Certificate filed | December 18, 1927 |
| Registrar | Appears to be Hattie H. Adair |
| Registration district no. | 682 |
| Primary registration district no. | 3003 |
| File no. | 116965 |
| Registered no. | 16 |
When Was John Born?
John’s death certificate records his birth date as June 29, 1858. It also states that he was 69 years, 5 months, and 16 days old when he died on December 15, 1927.
Those two pieces of information agree exactly. The internal consistency makes June 29, 1858 a particularly strong date for John’s birth.
The certificate gives his birthplace only as the United States, rather than naming a particular county. Other family records have associated his birth with Indiana County, Pennsylvania, but I would keep that more specific location qualified unless we have a contemporary birth, church, or census record that establishes it.
Marriage to Helen Elizabeth “Bessie” Swanson
John married Helen Elizabeth Swanson, who was commonly known as Bessie. Bessie had been born in Sweden, bringing a recent Scandinavian immigrant line into a Wegley family whose American roots extended back generations.
Later records sometimes identify her simply as Bessie or Betty Swanson. For example, the 1937 death certificate of their son Howard names his mother as Betty Swanson, while other records preserve the fuller name, Helen Elizabeth Swanson.
John and Bessie remained together until her death in 1923. When John died four years later, his death certificate correctly described him as widowed.
Their Children
John and Bessie had six known children:
- Minerva Pearl Wegley Foster, born March 20, 1888
- Frederick Wegley, born August 20, with the year still disputed between 1887 and 1889
- Ruth Leona Victoria Wegley
- Clarence John Leroy Wegley
- Raymond Walter Wegley, born June 1, 1901
- Howard J. Wegley, born April 26, 1903
Through Frederick, John became my direct ancestor. Frederick’s son Raymond Edward Wegley was my grandfather.
The children’s records have also proved extremely valuable for reconstructing John and Bessie’s family. Death certificates, military records, and other documents repeatedly identify the parents and connect the children with the family’s longtime Kane residence.
507 Biddle Street
One of the most important locations in this branch of the family is 507 Biddle Street, Kane, Pennsylvania. John and Bessie were living there by the time of the 1910 census, and the household remained associated with the address for many years. John’s 1927 death certificate still gives 507 Biddle Street, Kane, as his usual residence.
The address also appears in their children’s records. Frederick gave 507 Biddle Street as his home when he registered for the World War I draft in 1917, and Howard later gave the same address in military records. This makes 507 Biddle Street more than simply one address on a census page. It was a genuine family home for John, Bessie, and several of their children for a substantial period.
The home at 507 Biddle Street, built in 1890, remains standing today. It is a two-story, 2,258-square-foot single-family home, notable for its six bedrooms and history as a converted two-apartment property. In 2013, it sold at a public auction for $19,000, despite an average home value in the area of about $150,000. The house retains its historic charm but reflects the challenges of maintaining older properties.
Sixty Years in the Area
John’s death certificate contains another intriguing detail. It records a length of residence of approximately 60 years in the community associated with his death.
If that figure was accurate, John had been living in the McKean County area since roughly the late 1860s, when he was still a child. The exact meaning of the residence entry should be treated cautiously because it depended on the informant’s knowledge, but it supports the idea that John’s connection to the Kane and McKean County area began long before the 1910 census.
Working in Pennsylvania’s Oil Country
John’s occupations changed over the years, but the oil and gas industry was an important part of his working life. In the 1910 federal census, he was recorded as a pumper at oil wells.
A pumper maintained and monitored producing oil wells and their equipment. The occupation was especially relevant in northwestern Pennsylvania, a region closely associated with the development of America’s petroleum industry.
John’s death certificate reinforces this connection. His usual occupation was recorded as: Oil & Gas Producer. That description suggests the family member who provided the information at his death regarded the oil and gas business as his principal long-term occupation.
A Grocer by 1920
By the 1920 United States census, John’s occupation was recorded as grocer. He was still living with his family at 507 Biddle Street in Kane.
The difference between the 1910 and 1920 occupations does not necessarily indicate that he permanently left the oil business. People frequently changed occupations or operated more than one enterprise during their lives, and his death certificate later listed him as an oil and gas producer as his usual occupation.
Together, the records portray a man who adapted his work over time. He spent many years connected with Pennsylvania’s oil industry but also participated in Kane’s commercial life.
The Family in Kane
John and Bessie’s household appears in the federal censuses. Their children grew up as Kane developed industries such as lumber, oil, natural gas, and manufacturing.
The records occasionally contain errors common in census work. Their daughter Ruth, for example, appears under a mistranscribed name in one census, while the ages reported for John do not always line up perfectly from decade to decade.
Those inconsistencies remind us that census ages should not automatically override stronger evidence. In John’s case, his death certificate provides an exact birth date and exact age at death that agree with one another.
Losing Bessie
Bessie died in 1923, leaving John a widower. They had spent decades together and raised six children, several of whom were already adults with lives of their own by that time. John remained at the Biddle Street residence after her death. His own death followed only four years later.
December 15, 1927
John Wesley Wegley died on December 15, 1927, at the age of sixty-nine. Contrary to older information on this page, his Pennsylvania death certificate places his death in Hamilton Township, McKean County, not in Shade, Somerset County.
This distinction matters because it keeps John’s final years geographically consistent with the rest of his documented life. He had been associated with Kane and McKean County for decades, and his usual residence at death was still recorded as 507 Biddle Street in Kane.
A Sudden Cerebral Hemorrhage
John’s death was sudden. The coroner recorded the principal cause as: Cerebral hemorrhage, apoplexy. In modern terminology, this describes a hemorrhagic stroke, in which bleeding occurs in or around the brain. The certificate further states that John died suddenly without the attendance of a doctor.
The contributing condition was high blood pressure, which the certificate indicates had been present for approximately two years. No operation preceded his death, and no autopsy was performed. According to the certificate, the diagnosis was based on a witness statement. Because John died suddenly without a physician present, the death was handled by the coroner.
A Family Pattern of High Blood Pressure and Stroke
John’s cause of death becomes especially noteworthy when compared with the later death of his daughter Minerva Pearl Wegley Foster. Minerva died suddenly in 1938 at only fifty years old, with her death certificate recording apoplexy and longstanding high blood pressure.
That does not allow us to diagnose a hereditary medical condition across generations. It does, however, document a striking similarity in the recorded causes of death of father and daughter.
Both John and Minerva experienced sudden fatal cerebral events in which high blood pressure was specifically noted in their death records.
Fred Wegley Was the Informant
The informant on John’s death certificate was Fred Wegley of Kane, Pennsylvania. This was John’s son Frederick, my great-grandfather. That makes the document particularly important genealogically. His own son supplied much of the personal information on the certificate, including the identification of John’s parents. Frederick identified his grandfather as Joseph Wegley and his grandmother as Eva Berkible. Even with the spelling variation, the record directly ties three generations of the family together.
Burial at Forest Lawn Cemetery
John was buried on December 19, 1927, four days after his death. The certificate identifies his burial place as Forest Lawn Cemetery. His burial returned him to the Kane community with which he had been associated for most of his life. Bessie had died before him, and the cemetery became part of the physical record of this branch of the family in northern Pennsylvania.
John’s Place in My Family
John Wesley Wegley’s life represents an important geographic turning point in my direct family line. His father, Joseph William Wegley, was born into the older Somerset County branch of the family, while John established his adult life far to the north in McKean County.
From John and Bessie came Frederick, and through Frederick came my grandfather Raymond Edward Wegley. Later generations would travel much farther, eventually establishing themselves in Arkansas and Oklahoma, but Kane remained an important family center during John’s generation.
The records now give us a much clearer picture of John than the old page did. He was not simply a name between Joseph William and Frederick on the family tree, but a longtime Kane resident, husband and father of six, oil and gas worker, grocer, homeowner at 507 Biddle Street, and the beginning of a branch whose descendants would eventually spread across several states.
Most importantly, his death certificate corrects a longstanding error in the family record. John Wesley Wegley died in Hamilton Township, McKean County, Pennsylvania, on December 15, 1927, while his home remained at 507 Biddle Street in Kane.