Philo Goff

  Philo Goff (58) was born 16 February 1811 near Frankfort, Hancock County, Maine, a son of John Goffe (49) and Jane Gregston (50). He came to the Pittsburgh area with his family, arriving in December 1817.

Philo married Prudence Marie Brown (76) of Pittsburgh in Allegheny City on 2 November 1830. Prudence was born in Virginia in September 1812. Together they had eleven children: Milton Browning (95), born 17 December 1831; Rebecca J. (133), born about 1833; Mortimer (129), born about 1835; Mary (128), born about 1837; Ann (132), born about 1838; Nellie (130), born about 1841; Elizabeth (288), born about 1843; Ada (289), born about 1845; Francis Deborah (245), born about 1848; and John Newton (131), born April 1850.

Philo was a carpenter in Sewickly, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, where he moved in 1835. He was an ardent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, as were other Goff members of his generation. He belonged to the Sunday-school founded by John R. Garrison (72), his brother in law, in Sewickly in 1837. In 1843, he was Treasurer, and in 1844, he was Secretary of the Sunday- school.

He died in an industrial accident in Sewickly on 15 April 1853. Originally buried in the Old Sewickly Graveyard, he was later moved to the present Sewickly Cemetery near his son, Milton Browning Goff.

After Philo's death, Prudence, left with a number of her own children and orphaned children of a daughter to support, sold land bought by Philo in Sewickly. She later moved to Allegheny City (now Northside Pittsburgh). She died in Martinsburg, West Virginia on 17 April 1876, and is buried in Sewickly Cemetery.

[GOFF: JGGoffHistory, MBGoffObit, OCACMar1866N176, SewicklyCemRec, SewLibTickler]