My Genealogy Hound

ROBERT RALSTON, Wilkinsburg, was born in Salem township, Pa., in 1832. His grandfather, John Ralston, came from Ireland in or about 1789. James, son of the latter, was then three years old. He married Catharine Stewart, and settled in Penn township, this county, in 1838. He died in 1861, aged seventy-five; his widow in 1865, both members of the Beulah Presbyterian Church; they had six children, of whom Robert is the youngest. He passed his early life on the farm, and received but little schooling. When of age he went to Fort Wayne, Ind. In 1858 he was in Central Iowa, where he engaged in farming, and on returning to Allegheny county, was employed as watchman at Oakland for six years. He engaged in farming near Parnassus and Sandy Creek, and settled, in 1876, in Sterrett township, where he purchased his present home. He engaged in farming for some years, and is now watch man at the Phoenix Crucible-works at Brushton station. In 1858 Mr. Ralston married Margaret Beatty, a native of Washington county, daughter of Jameson and Margaret (McIntyre) Beatty, of Scotch descent. Mr. Ralston is a republican, and has been supervisor of Sterrett two years.