Where are the Wirtners? They thrived 100 years ago, with huge farming families in Carrolltown and Patton, Pa. Catherine (Farabaugh) Wirtner was one of the matriarchs, with 15 children. But the men from the next generation did not procreate much, entered the priesthood or died under tragic circumstances. Cyril was a butcher who died suddenly of “apoplexy.” Vincent died in a railroad accident. T.H. was shot dead when he refused to give his car keys to a home intruder. Francis died of unknown causes when he was only ten. Their father John (a tinsmith who made the original cross on the spire of St. Benedict’s Church in Carrolltown) evidently lost his sight in a fence wire accident. Uncle John died when thrown from a horse near Loretto in 1848. Another uncle, Benjamin, also had a large family but 3 children died in the span of five days in 1865.  I think another one died from some incident involving lightning, a barn and a horse, but I can’t seem to find the exact anecdote. The Wirtners certainly had their fair share of tragedy. Only a handful of decedents are men and apparently none of them are found anywhere near the past settlements in Cambria County, Pa.