Person:William Semple (20)

William Semple, father of John Bonner Semple, was born November 11, 1771, at Castledawson, in the North of Ireland, and in 1786 emigrated to the United States, settling in South Amboy, New Jersey, and later moving to Trenton, New Jersey, where he studied architecture. About the year 1795 he came to Pittsburgh, where he worked on the old court-house on the Diamond. He practiced his profession until the latter years of his life, during which he was the proprietor of a hardware store on Wood street, near Third avenue. By dint of industry, frugality and the exercise of unusual abilities, he prospered, acquiring a competence and becoming the owner of what is now the “Arthur Sullivan estate,” overlooking the Monongahela River, a place which was one of Nature’s beauty spots ere the advent of mills and factories hopelessly and permanently marred the perfection of her work.

Mr. Semple was one of those active in securing the establishment of a branch of the United States Bank in Pittsburgh, being one of the signers of the memorial endorsed “Petition from citizens of Pittsburgh for a branch at that place, 1817.” He married, May 16, 1801, Annie, daughter of Charles and Annie Bonner, the former a veteran of the Revolution, having fought in all the principal battles of the struggle for independence. Of the eleven children born to Mr. and Mrs. Semple the following reached maturity: Nancy C., who married John Bissell; Alexander B.; William M.; Samuel; Mary C., who married William Woods, M. D.; John Bonner, mentioned below; Ellen L.; and Francis. The qualities possessed in an eminent degree by William Semple and which seldom fail to command success in any enterprise were also characteristics of his brother, Alexander Semple, a prominent Pittsburgh businessman, whose daughter, Miss Mary P. Semple (died January 1914), was a member of The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America. On March 8, 1829, William Semple passed away, beloved by his employees, honored by his business associates and by the entire community for his integrity, energy and fidelity to principle, and leaving a name which will ever be held in grateful remembrance.

FRANK SEMPLE, private secretary, Sewickley.

William Semple, grandfather of our subject, was born in 1771, near Dublin Ireland, came to America in 1795, and at Trenton N. J., learned architecture. He came to Pittsburgh about the year 1800, and worked on the old courthouse on the Diamond. He followed his trade till the latter part of his life, when he kept a hardware store. He died in 1829. He married Anna, daughter of Charles Bonner, who fought in all the principal battles of the Revolution, and they had nine children:

Nancy Semple
Alexander B. Semple
William M. Semple
Samuel W. Semple
Mary C. Semple
Charles Semple
Ellen Semple
John B. Semple
Frank Semple.

Of these, Samuel W. Semple was a retail dry-goods merchant in Louisville, and later was in the iron business in the Pennsylvania mountains.

Another son, John B. Semple, the father of FRANK SEMPLE, was born in Pittsburgh, where he was in the wholesale dry goods business, and afterward, and at the time of his death, a member of the firm of Semple & Jones, bankers. He married Mary J. Blair, of Washington, Pa., and they became the parents of three children:

Louisa Semple, m. Clarke
FRANK SEMPLE
Mary Semple, m. Sharpe

At his death, in 1873, his son FRANK SEMPLE continued the banking business, and in 1881 his partner, John B. Jones, sold his interest, the firm then being known as Semple & Thompson, who conducted the business till 1888, when our subject sold his interest to Mr. Thompson, and has since then been engaged in the railroad business. He was educated in Pittsburgh, clerked in a dry-goods store, and later in a bank, after which he entered Yale College. Later he accompanied Prof. Benjamin Silliman, of Yale College, as private secretary, inspecting mines in California. At present he is attending to the private business of William Thaw.