Sheakley, James
public official, legislator, governor, was born April 24, 1830, in Sheakleyville, Pa. When nineteen years of age he went to California, and for three years was engaged in the mining of gold. He then returned to Sheakleyville and bought the old homestead. He embarked in the drygoods business in Greenville, in 1860; was one of the pioneers in the oil excitement in western Pennsylvania, and for nearly twenty years was extensively engaged in the production and shipping of petroleum. He served as a democrat in the forty-fourth congress, and in 1887 was appointed by President Cleveland as United States commissioner of Alaska, and the educational department made him superintendent of schools for southeastern Alaska. In 1892 he was appointed governor of Alaska by President Cleveland, and served in that high office with distinction.