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ANDREW JOSEPH PIRHALLA, one of the leading real estate and insurance men of Duquesne, Pennsylvania, was born
September 25, 1865, in Austria Hungary, the son of George and Julia (Reisteter) Pirhalla. George Pirhallä
was born in Austria, Hungary, where he lived all of his life and followed farming for his livelihood. He died in
1899. He was married to Miss Julia Reisteter, born in Bohemia, but was of German parentage. She died in 1898. The
issue by this marriage was nine children, as follows: 1. Andrew, who died at the age of nineteen years. 2. Mary
L., who lives in Rome, Italy. 3. John, who met his death on the Pennsylvania Railroad at Braddock, Pennsylvania.
4. Stephen, lives at Oliphant, Pennsylvania, where he follows coal mining. The next four children died young. 9.
Andrew Joseph, the subject
Andrew Joseph Pirhalla attended the public schools of his native country at Hethars, Hungary, and came to America
February 10, 1886, first stopping at Cresson, Pennsylvania, where he visited a brother, John Pirhalla. From there
he went to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he worked at the trade of a cabinet maker, which he mastered in the old country.
He next went to Bakersviile, Kentucky, where he secured a position as time keeper on a new railroad then being
constructed through that section of the south. He next went to Morgantown, West Virginia, remained but a short
time, and returned to Pennsylvania, locating at Port Royal, where he worked in the mines until he met with an accident,
caused by an explosion in the mines of gas and fire damps, when he was badly injured. He was confined in the Homeopathic
Hospital at Pittsburg for eight months as a result, and when able to be employed was given a position as an elevator
man and clerk in the hospital, where he remained five years, never being absent a day in all that time. After this
he paid his native country a visit to see his parents, and remained there five weeks, but having once seen the
advantages of a free country like America he returned here, locating in Pittsburg; where he secured employment
with Dr. Blair, at Np. 406 Penn avenue, as clerk and office man. He continued at that work for two years, after
which he came to Duquesne and started a billiard parlor, which he conducted two years. He then became general agent
and manager for Ross & Stiner, wholesalers of Duquesne. With them he remained for five years or up to 1900,
when he purchased the lease and fixtures of the Hasiba Hotel, which he conducted five years. In 1905 he built the
Hotel Comfort in Duquesne, and conducted that until 1907, when he sold his interest and opened a real estate office
at No. 11, North First street, Duquesne, where he now does a successful real estate and insurance business.
On October 28, 1894, he married Catherine Brindza, daughter of Andrew and Catherine Brindza, of Austria-Hungary.
His wife came to America in 1891. By this union were born five children: 1, Julia Mary, born June 15, 1897. 2.
Josephine. 3. George. 4. Frank. 5. Andrew M., born April 2, 1904. The subject and his family belong to Holy Trinity
church of Duquesne. On May 20, 1906, he was elected supreme president of the Slavook Catholic Union of America
at their convention held in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, on that date.
From:
A Century and a half of
Pittsburg and her people.
By: John Newton Boucher
The Lewis Publishing Company
1908.
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