JAMES W. BLEYER was born near Franklin, Franklin township, Pennsylvania, June 17, 1860. His father, Samuel Bleyer, was born in Connecticut, and his father, Alex. Bleyer, was a native of the New England States. The ancestry of the family is Scotch. Mr. Alex. Bleyer removed from Connecticut to Pennsylvania, and died in that State, and his son was reared in the State of his birth. Here he followed farming until he removed to Williamsport and remained a few years, and then returned to Franklin county, and still resides on a farm. The maiden name of his first wife was Barbara Kane, and she was the mother of James. She was a native of Connecticut, and she died in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, in 1875. James was reared and educated in his native State. He was fifteen years old when his mother died, and from that time he cared for himself. He had learned the printer's trade in the office of the Press at Chambersburg, at the age of fourteen, worked there one year, and with the exception of a few months has followed the trade ever since, and has set type in the principal offices east of the Mississippi river. In May, 1891, he bought the office and good will of the Brown County Republican, a weekly paper devoted to the interests of the Republican party.

He was married in 1890, to Hattie May. She was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of David and Alice May. Mr. Bleyer is a member of Cincinnatus Lodge, No. 287, K. of P., and of the National Telegraph Union. He has always been a sound Republican.