Phebe Tyler was born April 10, 1843, the daughter of David and Isabelle (Mahaffey) Tyler.
The village of Tyler was named for her father, one of the pioneers of this section of the Bennetts Branch Valley. The family moved to Clearfield County, settling here in Huston Township in 1848.
Miss Tyler was a woman of broad education and thought. Realizing that his family should have a good education her father employed a governess for his daughters, and Miss Phebe learned to speak French and German with fluency.
Phebe’s greatest accomplishment was in building the Nurses’ Memorial Home for the Maple Avenue Hospital in DuBois in 1923. Tyler initially donated $15,000, which was later found to be insufficient so she contributed more.
She continued to manage the project until it was completed, even though she was confined to her bed.
Miss Tyler also contributed greatly to welfare and charity. She was an active member of the Presbyterian Church of Penfield and in her own community.
She organized the first Sunday School in her town, which was held in a sawmill and later donated land for a church with the only stipulation being that it could not be taken over by one denomination. She later raised funds with her friends’ help in order to construct a building on the land.
She was liberal in her contributions to welfare work, not only organized work, but she contributed to the education of ambitious young men and women to assist them in their higher education.
Her contributions to welfare and charity were widespread. No one ever went by her home who was in need that was not helped.Â
After her father’s death in 1882, the burden of looking after the financial interests of the family fell on her shoulders.
(The land Mr. Tyler had bought became very valuable on account of timber.) She also succeeded her father as postmaster at Tyler for 13 years.
Miss Tyler always did her own thinking and followed her own thoughts. She always knew what she wanted and insisted upon having it that way. She kept entire control of her business affairs up to the last.
