USA > Pennsylvania > Cumberland County > Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of the Nineteenth Congressional District, Pennsylvania > Part 32
USA > Pennsylvania > Adams County > Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of the Nineteenth Congressional District, Pennsylvania > Part 32
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C' HRISTOPHER CULP, whose name in ancient German records is written Kalb, came to Adams county in 1787. He married and had four sons: Christopher, Jr., Mathias, Peter and Christian, the latter three of whom reared large families. They were steady, industrious citizens, and Peter, the third son, was Ithe father of Henry Culp after whom was named Culp's Hill, which has such prominent place in the im- mortal story of Gettysburg.
G EN. WILLIAM REED, an active Pennsylvania militia officer during the Revolution and the war of 1812, served as a member of the State Senate, from Adams county, from 1800 to 1804, and was appointed as adjutant general of the State on August 4, 1811. While holding this
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last office he died suddenly on June 15, 1813, at New Alexandria, Westmoreland county, where he was organizing the State militia for possible service along the north- ern border of Pennsylvania.
H ON. ADAM J. GLOSSBRENNER born in Hagerstown, Maryland, August 31, 1810, was a son of Peter and Christina (Shane) Glossbrenner, and was largely self-educated. At the age of nineteen he commenced learning the printing business, and in 1827 began the publication of the Ohio Monitor at Colum- bus, Ohio, for Judge Smith. In 1828 he started the Western Telegraph, at Hamil- ton, Ohio. In 1829 he visited York on an engagement to remain a month or two and the visit was protracted to a term of fifty years. In 1831 he started the York County Farmer and two years subsequent married Charlotte Jameson, a daughter of Dr. Thomas Jameson, of York. In the same year he published the History of York County, which for the period covered and in point of accuracy and literary merit is the best extant. In 1834 he became a partner in the publication of the York Gazette, and continued his connection with that paper until 1860, when he became private secre- tary to President Buchanan. In the year 1862 he established the Philadelphia Age, and in the same year was nominated for Congress by the Democratic convention of York County in opposition to Hon. Joseph Bailey, who had been elected as a Demo- crat to the 38th Congress but had been re- pudiated by his party in York County. Af- ter a somewhat notable political struggle Mr. Bailey was nominated by a small ma- jority and elected. In 1864 Mr. Glossbren- ner was renominated by the Democratic Congressional Conference of York, Cum- berland and Perry counties and was elected by a large majority. After his retirement
from Congress he became connected with the Pennsylvania Railroad company at Philadelphia. Immediately subsequent to his connection with the York Gazette, in 1836, he was chosen clerk of enrollment of bills in the House of Representatives at Harrisburg, and two years later was ap- pointed by Governor Porter to take charge of the motive power department of the Co- lumbia and Philadelphia railroad. In 1843 he became cashier of the contingent fund of the House of Representatives at Wash- ington and in 1847 was appointed by Presi- dent Buchanan, officer in charge of emigra- tion and the copyright bureau in the De- partment of State at Washington, and in 1850 was elected sergeant-at-arms in the United States House of Representatives and re-elected to four successive Con- gresses.
In 1833 Mr. Glossbrenner was married to Charlotte Jameson, who bore him four children whose names are as follows: Emily Jameson, of York; Mary, deceased; Jame- son Shane, deceased; and Ivan, of York.
OHN L. MAYER, Esq., a distinguished lawyer of the York County Bar, was born at Shepherdstown, Jefferson County, Virginia, on August 5, 1810, and died at his home in York, Pennsylvania, August 17, 1874. He was a son of Rev. Lewis Mayer, D. D., and Catharine Mayer. The founder of the Pennsylvania branch of the Mayer family was Christopher Bartholomew Mayer, who was born at Carlsruhe, Germany, in November, 1702, and came to this country fifty years later. He was the grandfather of Rev. Lewis Mayer, D. D., a prominent and scholarly clergyman of the Reformed church. After his arrival in this country Christopher B. Mayer tarried a short time, with his wife and four children at Annapolis, Maryland, but shortly subsequent went to Monocacy J
John L. Mayer
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Station, now Frederictown, in the western part of the province.
It is supposed that it was his design to acquire a large tract of land and settle his family in that fertile region, but before he could accomplish this purpose death over- took him six months after his arrival and he was buried in the Gottes Oken cemetery of the Lutheran church at Frederictown, Maryland, on November 21, 1752. After their father's death the family gradually dif- fused, some settling in Pennsylvania and others remaining in Maryland and Virginia. George Ludwig Mayer, the oldest son and the father of Rev. Dr. Lewis Mayer quitted Frederictown for Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which henceforth became the seat of his ministerial activity, and where many of his descendants still live. Christian Mayer, second, founder of the Baltimore branch of the family was born at Ulm in 1763 and came to America in 1784, and settled in Baltimore where he passed the remainder of his life and died.
John L. Mayer, after a thorough prepa- ration entered Yale College in 1829 and was graduated in 1831. Subsequently he studied law with John Evans, Esq., at York, and was admitted to the Bar of York county, February 18, 1834, and pursued diligently the practice of his profession in York and adjoining counties for a period of forty years. He was a co-partner of his preceptor, John Evans, Esq., for many years, and the legal firm of Evans & Mayer possessed the largest clientage and tried the major portion of the cases in the courts of York County during the partnership. Af- ter its dissolution Mr. Mayer continued to hold a very large and lucrative practice. In politics he was nominally a Whig, very rarely took part in its activities and never held office.
Mr. Mayer was a man of very great eru- dition in his profession and an omniverous
reader of legal and judicial literature. In the extent and character of his legal knowl- edge he had no superior at the Bar. His arguments were close and exhaustive, his citation of authorities was voluminous; but it seemed necessary for him thus to cite them because of that keen analytical power he possessed of resolving cases into princi- ples, and then leading the mind to the par- ticular point by a line of thought that dis- tinguished his case from all apparent ana !.. ogies. He was moreover a scholar in the true sense of that word; an indefatigable student in various branches of learning out- side of his profession and he could adorn his argument with apt quotations and illus- trations drawn from a multitude of sources.
He possessed, too, a good knowledge of business, a practical mind, and by close at- tention and prudence amassed a very con- siderable competency which descended to his children in addition to the heritage of a distinguished name.
On December 16, 1858, Mr. Mayer was joined in marriage with Julia Lyne, which resulted in an issue of seven children, only three of whom are living.
7 ACHARIAH K. LOUCKS was a grandson of John George Loucks,who was one of the early emigrants from Ger- many that settled in the beautiful region of Berks County, known as Tulpehocken, where he purchased a tract of land. About the year 1780, hearing of the fertile lands west of the Susquehanna, he immigrated to York County to continue his chosen occu- pation of farming, and purchased land southwest of York. May 13, 1805, he pur- chased the mill and farm where Z. K. Loucks recently lived. George Loucks, son of John George Loucks, father of the subject of this sketch, was born August 18, 1787, and died October 29, 1849, aged sixty-two years, two months and eleven days. He
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followed the two occupations of miller and farmer at the Loucks' homestead. He pur- chased a great deal of real estate, and at his death owned the mill property. He was married to Susanna Weltzhoffer, of Hellam Township, and had three sons and four daughters. Zachariah K. Loucks, the subject of this sketch, was born March 4, 1822. He received his education in the York County Academy, under Rev. Stephen Boyer; for a number of years was a class-mate of the late Prof. Kirkwood, the famous astronomer and mathematician. He commenced business in York first as a clerk with the firm of Schriver, Loucks & Co., and afterward was a clerk for Loucks & Becker at the Old Manor Furnace in Chanceford Township, where he remained one year. He then en- tered the store of Henry Becker in York until 1839, when he returned to his home in Spring Garden Township, and attended to the duties of the grist-mill and farm until his father's death. After this event he and his brother, Henry I., succeeded their father in business at the old homestead, about one mile north of York, along the line of the Northern Central Railroad. For many years he turned his attention closely to farming and milling. Here,
on this site, was erected one of the first grist-mills west of the Susquehanna. The old two-story mill, distillery and saw- mill were destroyed by fire on April 29, 1864. The present commodious, five-story brick mill was built during the fall of 1864, at a cost of $30,000. It contains the latest improvements of milling machinery, and has a capacity of 150 barrels of flour in twenty-four hours. During the past twenty years it has been leased by P. A. & S. Small, of York. Cars are pulled by water power to the mill, over a switch from the Northern Central Railway to load flour. In connection with milling and farming, Mr. Loucks was largely engaged in other
business. At the time of the organization of the First National Bank of York, in 1863, he was elected a director. He was afterward elected vice-president, and in the year 1877 was chosen president of that in- stitution. He was a director and general financier of the York & Peach Bottom Railway when it was built; for many years a member of the board of directors of York County Agricultural Society and a life member of the same; one of the projectors and president of the Chanceford Turnpike Company and a director; was a director of the York City Market until its completion, when he resigned; vice-president of the Penn Mutual Horse Insurance Company, of York, and largely engaged in the real es- tate business. Mr. Loucks was married January 5, 1843, to Sarah Ann, daughter of Col. Michael Ebert, of Spring Garden. She was born March 18, 1822. Their eldest son, Alexander, resides in Manchester Township, and was married to Catharine Wambaugh. They have four children: Harry, William, Annie and Isabel. George E., the second son of Z. K. and Sarah Ann Loucks, was married to Susan Jane Myers. He resides at Hellam Station. Edward, the third son, was a law student in Philadel- phia, and graduated with high honors from the College of New Jersey, at Princeton; Isabella, the only daughter, was married to John W. Kohler, and died at the age of twenty-seven, leaving two children: Wil- liam I. and Edwin. Mr. Loucks, as a busi- ness man, has had an active and prosperous career. He was possessed of good judgment, keen discrimination and excellent financial and executive abilities. In politics he was originally an active Whig, cast his first Presidential vote for Gen. Harrison, and was an enthusiastic advocate of Henry Clay's election.
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J AMES HUTCHINSON GRAHAM, LL. D. Born September 10th, 1807, in West Pennsborough township, on the site of the log house erected by his grandfather, James Graham, on land granted his father, Jared Graham, in 1774, by the Penns. His father, Isaiah Graham, one of five sons, was a prominent politician. He served two terms in the State Senate from 1811, and filled the position of asso- ciate judge by appointment of Governor Findlay from 1817 to his death in 1835. He was a ruling elder in the Big Spring Presbyterian church. The son, James Hutchinson Graham, was prepared under Dr. McConaughy, at the Gettysburg Acad- emy, for the Junior Class in Dickinson College, and was graduated from that in- stitution with honor in 1827. He read law with Andrew Caruthers, Esq., of Carlisle, and was admitted to the bar in 1829. By his careful and painstaking treatment of his cases he soon acquired a prominent place among the younger members of the bar, and in 1839 was appointed deputy at- torney general for Cumberland county by Governor Porter. This position he filled with high credit for six years and then de- clined reappointment. In 1851 he was elected president judge of the Ninth Dis- trict, composed of Cumberland, Perry and Juniata counties, and was re-elected in 1861. On the bench he established a character as one of the foremost jurists of the State. On his retirement from the bench he re- sumed the practice of law and became the trusted counsellor of many. In 1862 the faculty and trustees of Dickinson College conferred upon him the degree of LL. D. and afterwards made him head of the law department of Dickinson College. Of Scotch-Irish and Presbyterian descent he was one of the earliest members of the Second Presbyterian church of Carlisle, and president of its board of trustees. He
was a director of the Carlisle Bank, and president of the board at the time of his election as judge. In every direction he manifested the character of a public spir- ited and useful citizen; and respected and esteemed by all for the purity and honesty of his life, and his consistency of conduct in all its relations, he left a deep impress upon the community in which he had passed his life. He was twice married and left a large family of children. He died in 1882. Three sons, John, James and Duncan G., adopted his profession. They were all graduates of Dickinson College and met with creditable success. The latter alone survives. He was deputy attorney general of the State under the second administra- tion of Governor Pattison. Lieut Samuel A. Graham, U. S. A., is a graduate of the naval academy at Annapolis, as well as of Dickinson College, and the youngest son, Frank G. Graham, also a graduate of Dickinson, is successful editor of the Kan- sas City Times. Miss Agnes Graham took the degrees of A. B. and A. M. at Colum- bian University, Washington, D. C.
H ON JOHN GIBSON, at the time of his death, July 6, 1890, President Judge of the county of York, and one of the most prominent figures in the judiciary of the State, was born in the city of Balti- more, Md., April 17, 1829, the third son of John and Elizabeth (Jameson) Gibson. The distinctions of ancestry were united in him to a conspicuous degree, Traced back through both the paternal and mater- nal lines, his lineage was a procession of generations marked by vigorous intellect, inborn integrity and deep religious feeling -characteristics drawn on the paternal side from Irish sources and on the maternal derived from Scottish nativity.
Robert Gibson, the paternal grandfather of John Gibson, was born in County Down,
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Province of Ulster, Ireland. His son William became a celebrated minister of the Reformed Presbyterian or Covenanter church and came to America in 1797. He located at Ryegate, Vermont, but after- ward removed to Philadelphia, where he became pastor of a church. His death
occurred in 1838. Three sons, Robert, John, the father of our subject, and Wil- liam, became distinguished divines of the Presbyterian church.
On his mother's side Mr. Gibson was descended from a line of distinguished pio- neers and physicians. Dr. David Jameson, his maternal great grandfather, was a colo- nel in the provincial and revolutionary forces of Pennsylvania. The doctor was a native of Edinburgh and a graduate of the medical department of the university of that city. He came to America in 1740 and first settled in South Carolina. From thence he removed to York county and possessed himself of a homestead and plan- tation in York township, about two miles south of York. He married Eliza Davis and had three sons, Thomas, James and Horatio Gates Jameson, the latter of whom became an eminent physician and married Emily Shewell, of Somerset county. After his marriage, Horatio Gates Jameson re- moved to Baltimore and there in connec- tion with an active practice of his profes- sion, laid the foundations of Washington medical college. A few years prior to his death, which occurred in 1855, he moved back to his native county and located at York. Of Col. Jameson's daughters, Cas- sandra married Rev. M. J. Gibson, D. D., late of Duncansville, Blair county, Pa .; Catharine married Hon. Robert J. Fisher, late president judge of York county; while Elizabeth became the wife of Rev. John Gibson and the mother of our subject.
Though not born in York, Judge Gib- son spent all but a few earlier years of
life there and in the old York county academy, under such able tutors as Rev. Stephen Boyer, Daniel M. Ettinger and Daniel Kirkwood-afterward a noted as- tronomer-his education was begun and acquired. Leaving the institution at the close of his student days he entered the law office of his uncle, Hon. Robert J. Fisher, and there pursued the study of his chosen profession until admitted to the bar September 30, 1851, being at the time 22 years of age. He continued in active prac- tice thirty years, and only terminated his career at the bar to assume the higher duties and honors of the bench in 1881. Those thirty years were marked by active devotion to public interests. In 1868 Mr. Gibson represented his party in the Demo- cratic National Convention which met at New York and nominated Horatio Sey- mour for the presidency and in 1872 he was chosen with Hon. Thomas E. Cochran, of York county, and Hon. Wm. McLean, of Adams, a delegate to the State Consti- tutional Convention which met at Harris- burg and formulated the present organic law of the State.
In 1882 Mr. Gibson was nominated by his party for the office of judge. His nomi- nation was accepted by the Republican party and his election without opposition followed in November. He succeeded Hon. Robert J. Fisher, but Pere L. Wickes, the additional law judge elected in 1875, by priority of commission became president judge and held that position on the bench until the expiration of his term, January I, 1886, when Judge Gibson assumed the senior position.
A year later Judge Gibson's health, never robust, began to fail seriously. In the summer of 1890 his condition became so serious that he retired to the seashore to gain rest and retrieve his failing physical powers, but the effort was in vain and on
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July 6th he died at Atlantic City. The funeral on the 9th of July succeeding was largely attended. The services were lield at St. John's Episcopal church, of whichi the judge had been a vestryman, and his remains were laid to rest in Prospect Hill cemtery.
Mr. Gibson was married June 22, 1865, to Miss Helen Packard, the youngest daughter of Benjamin D. Packard, Esq., of Albany, N. Y., a distinguished journalist and the founder of the Evening Journal of that city. Their married life was one of great devotion and happiness and two sons and one daughter were born to them: Robert Fisher, who graduated at the head of his class at Yale and is at present a prominent young attorney and the editor of the York Gazette; John Jameson, a graduate of Lehigh and at present an elec-
trical engineer in Greater New York; and Charlotte.
John Gibson was more than a lawyer or judge, though it was in these capacities that the fine energies of his mind and na- ture were mostly revealed. He was emi- nently endowed for either literary or relig- ious callings and had he chosen to enter either of these fields, lie must have wrought success out of his abilities. The numerous literary productions which he left, such as the history of the county, reveal a flowing, graceful style. His devoutly religious na- ture was in a large part inherited from his Presbyterian ancestry. It made him an ac- tive member of the church, foremost in moral and spiritual movements in the com- munity, ever mindful and just on the bench and attuned his character to gentleness, sympathy and benevolence.
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CONTEMPORANEOUS
BIOGRAPHIES
CONTEMPORANEOUS BIOGRAPHIES.
A RTHUR B. FARQUHAR, the lead- ing manufacturer of York, Pennsyl- vania is of mixed Scotch, German and Eng- lish ancestry, and was born in Montgomery County, Maryland, September 28th, 1838. He is a son of William Henry and Mar- garet (Briggs) Farquhar.
The chain of lineage on both the paternal and maternal side has been honorable and conspicuous. His earliest ancestors be- longed to the historic coterie of Scottish Chiefs, and was known as the Clan Farqu- har. William Farquhar, great-great-grand father, emigrated from Scotland about the year 1700, taking with him a number of religious refugees, with whom he settled in Frederick County, Maryland. The mater- nal ancestor, Robert Brooke, of the House of Warwick, was born in London in 1602, and in 1635 married Mary Baker, daughter of Roger Mainwaring, the dean of Worces- ter. In 1650 he emigrated to Charles county, Maryland, with his wife, ten chil- dren and twenty-eight servants. Here subsequently, Robert Brooke became the commandant of the county and president of the Council of Maryland. His children and grandchildren afterwards gradually diffused and most of them settled in what is now known as Montgomery County, Md. In 1812, Amos Farquhar, paternal grandfather of Arthur B., removed to York County, Pennsylvania, where he erected a cotton factory, which proved unsuccessful after the war with England had been concluded. On June 14, 1813, while a resident of York
County, his son, William Henry, father of the subject of this sketch, was born. He was a precocious lad, a proficient Latin and Greek scholar at the age of thirteen, later a mathematician of note and withal a man of the highest cultivation and attainments. Moncure D. Conway, a distinguished Uni- tarian divine and literateur, characterized him as the most accomplished gentleman whom it had been his good fortune to meet. He died February 17, 1887, and was inter- red at Friends' Burying ground, Shady Spring, Montgomery County, after many years spent in scholarly pursuits and devo- tion to his own peculiar ideals.
· Arthur B. Farquhar, was educated in pri- vate schools and at Benjamin Hallowell's select school for boys at Alexandria, Vir- ginia. After the completion of his aca- demic education, he spent a year in the management of his father's farm, but al- ways showed a ruling fondness for mechan- ics, which was generously fostered by his father. In view of the proclivities exhib- ited by his son, the father early conceived the idea of fitting him for some phase of the manufacturing industry and consequently gave him every advantage in the pursuit of a practical mechanical education. He was afterward sent to York where he learned the trade of machinist, and so pronounced was his proficiency that at the expiration of two years he was admitted to a partnership in the business. This concern, under the firm name of W. W. Dingee & Co. contin- ued to do a prosperous business until the
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outbreak of the Civil War, but during the progress of that conflict it was severely crip- pled. These reverses were followed by a severe loss by fire which so /completely wrecked the enterprise that the assets were barely sufficient to pay twenty-five cents on the dollar. Mr. Farquhar was not satis- fied, however, with such an adjustment and persuading his creditors to let him retain the assets and start anew, he again began business and at the end of two years was enabled to liquidate the indebtedness dol- lar for dollar. From that modest begin- ning-a small frame shop with but seven hands employed-the present colossal es- tablishment, the Pennsylvania Agricultural works, has grown. In 1889 the A. B. Far- quhar company, limited, was organized with a capital of $500,000. This stock, with the exception of one share, is owned entirely by members of the Farquhar fam- ily. The annual business of the A. B. Far- quhar company aggregates more than one million dollars and is yearly increased. A large part of the products of the Agricul- tural Works is shipped to the Argentine Confederation, Brazil, Mexico, Chili, and South Africa. The success of the estab- lishment is largely due to the careful selec- tion of foremen for the different depart- ments, all of which are supervised by men who are masters of the various branches of mechanics and artisanship represented. To this of course must be added the rare busi- ness ability and keen foresight of the ex- ecutive head. The motto of the concern has always been:“ Perfection attained, suc- cess assured."
The name of Farquhar in the city of York has been a synonym of progress, and its present prominence as a manufacturing centre is in a great measure due to the en- ergy, integrity and executive ability of A. B. Farquhar, the founder of the Pennsyl- vania Agricultural Works. In addition to
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