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Note: iam James McKnight, published in 1917 by J.H. Beers & Company, Chicago, page 452.
JAMES B. PHELAN, of Punxsutawney, has been associated with a number of the largest enterprises, private and public, in this section of Pennsylvania promoted within the last decade. Coal, lumber and financial interests, and for a number of years local railways also, have combined to occupy him closely, but he has shown natural and cultivated ability in handling these various concerns, with the result that he is now one of the leading business men in his part of the State. Mr. Phelan has made his own success, for he started without means of influence, and the development of his capacity is one of the most remarkable features of his career, for with steadily increasing responsibilities he has managed to keep pace with their demands in a manner evidencing talents of the highest order.
Mr. Phelan spent his early life in Ireland, where he was born Dec. 10, 1856. Coming to the United States in December, 1879, he first settled at Osceola, in Clearfield county, Pa. Five years and three months after his arrival he became a citizen of this country. During the first five years of his residence in America Mr. Phelan was employed in the mines in Clearfield county. Then for a few years he was engaged as traveling agent for the Rochester Brewing Company, and in 1889 embarked on his own account in the wholesale liquor business at Osceola, where he continued until 1898. In that year he sold out his establishment and removed to Punxsutawney, where he was soon similarly engaged, having purchased an interest in the wholesale liquor business of S.E. Wilson. The firm became known as Phelan & Wilson, and Mr. Phelan continued his connection with the business for eight years. At that time, in company with Michael Burns, of Houtzdale, Pa., he bought in fee twenty-nine hundred acres of coal lands in Indiana county, Pa., and formed the Bear Run Coal & Coke Company. Before long he was interested in coal operations in Clearfield and Cambria counties, and in the lumber business in Westmoreland county. In February, 1908, when Mr. D.H. Clark retired, he became manager and treasurer of the Jefferson Traction Company, which position he has filled ever since. In 1912 he was elected president of the Indiana County Railways Company, and continues to fill that office. He is a director of the Punxsutawney National Bank. The mere recount of his associations is sufficient to indicate the extent and importance of the interests he is now carrying, all of which have a vital relation to the development of the territory in which his properties are located. There is every promise that he will be an influential figure in coal, lumber and traction circles for a number of years. At present practically all his time and energies are engaged in the advancement of such projects.
Mr. Phelan’s first wife, whose maiden name was Fannie Kennedy, died in 1900, leaving two daughters, Katherine and Frances. In 1901 he married (second) Clara A. McDonald, of Punxsutawney.
Note: Taken from “Jefferson County, Pennsylvania - Her Pioneers and People,” Vol. II, by Dr. Will
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