George Shannon Mullin
Submitted by Richard
Mullin, North East, MD, great great great grandson
George Shannon Mullin, born June 14, 1786,
Franklin County, PA; died April 16, 1867, Mann's Choice, Bedford County, PA.
Married in Schellsburg, PA, about 1808, to Catherine
Hammer.
George S. Mullin came to Bedford County about
1805. He was first employed as an assistant to the local blacksmith in
Schellsburg. Later he ran a small tavern and blacksmith shop at
"Hammersmith" the farm of his father-in-law Tobias
Hammer. In 1815, he moved his growing family to the Old Fort House
(The Rising Sun Hotel) on East Pitt Street in Bedford, where they rented living
space.
In 1816, he purchased the land near Mann's Choice that would eventually
become the Mullin homestead. The property stretched from the present Route 31
back to the large stream known as the Raystown Branch of the Juniata. Near the
stream, close to where the Mullin/Herline covered bridge stands today, there was
an old log house as well as a sawmill and gristmill. The family continued
to rent living space in Bedford during the winter months when school was in
session, but stayed in the log house during the summer raising crops nearby.
George built a two story log tavern and a blacksmith shop out near the main
road. From that location he ran a hauling business, renting teams of
horses. Later, about 1840, the log tavern became the Mullin family home.
George was twice Sheriff of the County, receiving his first commission from
Governor Joseph Beister in October 1822, and his
second from Governor George Wolf in November 1832.
Between those periods of service, he was Proprietor of the Rising Sun Hotel from
1827 until 1831. In 1841, he was elected for three years to represent the
15th Senatorial District, composed of Bedford and Somerset Counties.
He was the father of eleven children, of whom nine grew to adulthood.
He and his wife are buried in the Bedford Town Cemetery.
Photo taken about 1862.
The land that once belonged to the Mullin family remained in the possession
of descendants until 1936. Today it has been divided and subdivided, but the
two-story log tavern still exists - beneath the siding of the home of Charles
Bockhouse in Mann's Choice.
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