USA > Pennsylvania > Cumberland County > Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of the Nineteenth Congressional District, Pennsylvania > Part 39
USA > Pennsylvania > Adams County > Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of the Nineteenth Congressional District, Pennsylvania > Part 39
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In May 1874 while a student of The- ology he met General Sherman at Gettys- burg, and upon separating, the General took him by the hand and made this signi- ficant remark: "You were one of my brave boys; and you will have harder battles to fight in the profession you have now chosen, than you had in the army under my command." Rev. D. B. Floyd is a mem- ber of the Phi Delta Theta (college) Fra- ternity and while a student, was the cham- pion chapter founder of the fraternity, es- tablishing no less than eight chapters. He is also a member of Geo. H. Thomas Post, Grand Army of the Republic of Indiana.
In 1876 Rev. David B. Floyd was ordain- ed to the ministry by the Synod of Mary- land in session at Washington. February 15, 1877, he married Mary E., eldest daugh- ter of Nathaniel and Margaret (Wilen) Cut- ting. His fields of labor in the ministry have been as follows: Brandonville, West Virginia, during vacation in the summer of 1875; Uniontown, Maryland, from 1876 to 1882; Boonsboro, Maryland, from 1882 to 1885; and Zion's church, Newville, Cum- berland county, Pennsylvania, since 1885.
Rev. David B. Floyd is a frequent con- tributor to various periodicals. He is the author of "Necrology of Lutheran minis- ters, born in the Middletown valley, Mary- land;" of "Reynolds' Division in the Battle of Chickamauga;" of "History of the 75th Regiment of Indiana Infantry Volunteers ;" and of "History of Zion's Lutheran Con- gregation of Newville, Pennsylvania," from 1795 to 1895." By request of the commis- sioners from Indiana for the erection of monuments in the Chattanooga and Chick- amauga Military Park, he wrote the inscrip- tion for the monument erected to the 75th Indiana Regiment. He has also delivered several addresses and sermons before ex- soldiers and others, which were published by request.
C HARLES S. WEISER. The story of the Weiser family runs as a thread through the whole length of the fabric of history which the emigration, colonization and achievement of the Pennsylvania Ger- man people have woven. It was back in the time of Queen Anne of England and partly through her policy of encouraging emigration to the American colonies, that the first member of this family came to this country. His christian name has been lost in the lapse of years since then, but it is known that he was one of 4000 Germans who in 1708 were trans-
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NINETEENTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT.
ported from the Palatinate to Holland and from thence to England with the design of sending them to America as colonists. They camped in tents at Blackmoor, near Lon- don. An embassy of chiefs then in Lon- don are said to have suggested their colon- ization of a tract of land west of the Hud- son1. The voyage consumed six months and seventeen hundred died at sea. There appeared to have been an understanding that they should provide tar and raise hemp for the government naval stores to pay for their transportation, but from the German account of the transaction it appears to have been somewhat in the nature of a speculation at their expense. Gov. Hun- ter quartered them on Governor's Island, cared for the sick, apprenticed the young orphans and sent the able bodied to Liv- ingstone Manor to work out their contract. Here they remained three or four years in a sort of slavery, as their accounts claim, and then most of them removed to the Schoharie Valley, where land given by the Indians had been promised them. Among these was the great ancestor of the Weiser family, from one of whose sons the York county Weisers are descended. The colony at Schoharie did not prosper. The gov- ernor allowed the colonists to plant crops and then when everything seemed to be in a prosperous way, a question as to the val- idity of their titles was raised and the set- tlers were partially dispersed in 1723. Then began a search for a new home. They wan- dered southward until they reached the Susquehanna, where canoes were fashioned and in them the wanderers floated down the river to the north of the Swatara and thence to a fertile spot along Tulpehocken creek, where they settled among the In- dians in the fall of 1723. The father of Conrad Weiser having acquired a knowl- edge of the Indian language remained at Schoharie as an interpreter until 1729, when
with his wife and four children he gained the settlement on the Tulpehocken. He devoted himself to farming, but on noted occasions he served the State authorities as interpreter in conference with the Indians. In 1736 he was sent to treat with the Six Nations concerning a war threatened be- tween them and the Indians of Virginia. He was assisted August 14, 1752, by Count Zinzendorf, who met a numerous embassy of the Six Nations and preached to themn at Tulpehocken. At the conclusion of his remarks he said of Weiser: "This is a man whom God hath sent, both to the Indians and to the white people, to make known His will unto them." In 1752 he was ap- pointed a public school trustee. After a useful and eventful life he died at Wormels- dorf, July 13, 1760.
Samuel Weiser, a descendant of the Tul- pehocken settlement, came to York in 1780 and commenced the hat business half way between the present corner house and the square. In 1808 he also opened a dry goods store on the southeast corner of the square. He died in 1834. Charles, his third son, associated himself with his brother Jacob in the dry goods business from 1818 to 1846. In 1856 he formed a private banking house and in 1860 took his son, Charles S., subject of this narrative, into partnership. Mr. Weiser was at var- ious times a director of the York bank and president of the York and Gettysburg, and York and Susquehanna Turnpike com- panies. He was a member of Christ Luth- eran church. His death took place July, 1867, in the 71st year of his age. Mrs. Weiser was Annie, a daughter of Gen. Jacob Spangler.
Charles S. Weiser, the subject of this sketch, was their fourth son. He was born in York March 13, 1838, and was educated at the York County Academy. After taking the regular course he left that institution
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and for several years served as a clerk in the dry goods business conducted by his brother John. In 1861 he associated him- self with his father in the private banking business. In the early part of 1867, pre- ceding the death of his father, Jere Carl was taken into the firm which then became Weiser Son & Carl, and continued in ex- istence until 1889, when the partnership was discontinued, owing to ill health. While in active business life Mr. Weiser was asso- ciated with about 18 corporations, but af- ter retiring, he withdrew from most of the positions. Thus, he was borough and city treasurer for sixteen years and at various periods held the treasurerships of the York Water Company, York County Academy, York Hospital and Dispensary, Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, York County Mutual Fire Insurance Company, Board of Home Missions of the General Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod, of the Theological seminary at Gettys- burg and of the C. A. Morris Fund of St. Paul's church. He has also served as vice president of the Orphan's Home, as director in the York and Susquehanna Turnpike company and on the death of the late Post- master Small, filled that office for five months until President Harrison made an appointment. Mr. Weiser is a Democrat, but not a politican. He is a member of St. Paul's Lutheran church and a member of the church council. His record in the Ma- sonic fraternity is that of Past Master in York Lodge, and a member in Howell Chapter, No. 199, R. A. M., and York Com- mandery, No. 21, K. T.
On August 27th, 1866, Mr. Weiser was united in marriage with Isadora Brown, daughter of the late Wm. Brown, Esq., of York. To this union was born one child, Charles, who died in infancy.
By reason of his vast and varied business experiences his close identification with the
material and industrial progress of York county, Mr. Weiser is one of the best and most favorably known men of affairs. He has been a skilled financier, a man pos- sessed of first-rate executive capacity, irre- proachable integrity and withal a man of the cleanest personal character. He is a sympathetic patron of education, unselfish in his devotion to public charities, public spirited in all that pertains to the welfare of his community and a high-minded citizen of genuine worth and untrammeled convic- tions.
T DWARD W. SPANGLER, ESQ., a
leading lawyer and journalist of York, was born in Paradise (now Jackson) township, York county, Pa., Feb. 23, 1846, While a lad in the country he performed boys work on his widowed mother's farm, and during four months of the winter at- tended the free school of the district. Never relishing agricultural labors, he abandoned them at the first opportunity, and at the age of thirteen became a student in the York County Academy, of which the great com- moner, Thaddeus Stevens, was once the principal. After a year's study he entered as a clerk one of the leading dry-goods houses of York. In August, 1862, at the age of sixteen, he responded with others to the call of President Lincoln for nine months' volunteers, and enlisted as a private in Company K, One Hundred and Thir- tieth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers. After six week's service in the Army of the Potomac, he received his first baptism of fire at the battle of Antietam, in which his company lost in killed and wounded one- third of the number engaged. Mr. Spang- ler fired eighty rounds with which he was equipped, and, finding use for more, took ten rounds from the cartridge box of a dead comrade, eight of which he dis- charged before his regiment was relieved.
Edward Nr. Spangler
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NINETEENTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT.
During the engagement, the stock of his rifle was shattered by a Confederate bullet.
At the battle of Fredericksburg, his divi- sion, the Third of the Second Corps, made the initial and sanguinary charge on Maryes' Heights, where his Colonel was killed at he first fire. At Chancellors- ville his division was thrown into the breach to arrest the victorious Confederates in their headlong pursuit of the routed Eleventh Corps. During that terrible Sat- urday night, May 2, 1863, his company was fighting in the front line on the plank road on which Stonewall Jackson the same night was mortally wounded. The following morning General Berry, of Maine, who commanded a division of the Third Corps, was killed in his Company, and General Hays, the Commander of Mr. Spangler's di- vision, was taken prisoner. Although in the forefront of every battle, Mr. Spangler was unharmed in each. The term of enlistment having expired the regiment returned home and was disbanded.
Upon his return to civil life he was ap- pointed Deputy United States Marshal of York County. He held this office for a few weeks only, when his leg was broken by the kick of an abandoned Confederate horse, and being incapacitated for active duty, he resigned. Upon convalescence he resumed his studies at the York County Academy, and also registered as a student of law. Af- ter attending a course of lectures in the law department of the University of Penn- sylvania at Philadelphia, he was admitted to the York Bar, March 4, 1867. He soon acquired a very lucrative practice, which he has since retained. He has practiced in the neighboring county courts, in the United States District Court, and is an active prac- titioner in the State Supreme Court during the week appointed for the argument of York County cases. He has studiously eschewed politics, save his filling the office
of President of the York Republican club in 1881, to which he was elected without his knowledge, and which position he sub- sequently resigned, having joined the in- dependent wing of his party. In 1881 he was one of the principal promoters in the building of York's beautiful Opera House, and superintended its first year's manage- ment.
He has been active in furthering local progress and developing home industries. He has also taken an active part in the st- burban development of York, and laid out his real estate with streets extending from North George street to Cottage Hill, which section is known as Fairmount, and is now made accessible by two handsome iron bridges spanning the Codorus creek.
In January, 1892, Mr. Spangler pur- chased the York Daily and York Weekly and the extensive job-establishment con- nected therewith. With the assistance of his two able publishing partners, he at once introduced new features and methods into the conduct of the business andinfused new life into the publications, resulting in a very large increase in their circulation, carrying them to the forefront of inland journals. He is President of the York Daily Publish- ing Company and owns a controlling inter- est.
In January, 1886, he organized the Spangler Manufacturing Company,of which he is President, a corporation organized un- der the laws of this State. The company manufactures a general line of agricultural implements, which on account of their su- perior excellence are sold throughout the United States.
In September, 1873, he married Mary Frances Miller, and the union has been blessed with two sons and two daughters. He possesses great energy and executive ability, is a sound and able advocate, and a witty, pungent and forcible writer.
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He is attorney for the First National Bank, York; ex-director of the Farmers' National Bank; a trustee of the York County Historical Society; member of the Grand Army of the Republic, of the Penn- sylvania German Society, and of the Penn- sylvania Society of the Sons of the Revolu- tion. He is the author of, and has just is- sued avolume of over seven hundred pages, profusely illustrated, entitled, "The Annals of the Families of Caspar, Henry, Baltzer, and George Spengler, who settled in York County, respectively in 1729, 1732, 1732 and 1751, with Biographical and Historical Sketches, and Memorabilia of Contempor- aneous Local Events," which has already met with great favor.
In this work is given the ancestry of Mr. Spangler as follows:
GEORGE SPENGLER, THE COMMON ANCESTOR.
The first of the family of Spengler who achieved fame was George Spengler, Cup- bearer to the Prince-Bishop of the ecclesias- tical principality of Wurtzburg. Godfrey of Piesenburg, who was also Chancellor to the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa.
This Bishop and his Cupbearer accom- panied the Emperor on his Crusade to the Holy Land. The Emperor was drowned, 1190, in the Syrian river, Calycadnus, while trying to urge his horse across the stream. His camp was then immediately removed to Antioch, where he was provisionally buried.
The Bishop and his Cupbearer died soon afterwards. They were carried off by that dreadful scourge, the plague, which af- flicted the Crusaders, and were buried in the Church of St. Peter at Antioch. Of those whom the Emperor had brought across the Bosphorus, not a tenth, it is said, reached Antioch.
Since then the genealogy runs regu- larly.
THE GERMAN GENEALOGY.
I. GEORGE SPENGLER,
Cupbearer to the Bishop of Wurtzburg, was born about 1150 and died 1190. His son was also named
II. GEORGE SPENGLER,
who lived at Winsbach, in the Margravate of Winsbach, in the year 1230. From his marriage with a Redtlinger, sprang
III. KILLIAN SPENGLER,
who lived in 1270. He resided at Kutzen- dorff, and was married to Margartha Gaumy. They had a son also named,
IV. KILLIAN SPENGLER, living in 1302, who married a Von Rosen- busch. Of their four sons,
V. PETER SPENGLER,
continued the line. He had a residence at Elbersdorff, near Winsbach, and married Catherina Von der Ansach, and had three sons, one of whom was
VI. HANS SPENGLER,
who was twice married. (Johan Spengler, an officer in the Palatinate army, who en- tered the Netherland army in 1640, and founded the Holland branch of Van Speng- lers, was a descendant of this Hans.) From Hans' second marriage with Christina Westendorff, sprang a son,
VII. HANS OR URBAN SPENGLER, of Donauworth, Franconia (Franken), who settled in Nuremberg 1476 and died De- cember 15th, 1527. His son,
VIII. GEORGE SPENGLER,
was Clerk of the Council of Nuremberg, and died in 1496. He married Agnes Ul- mer 1468, who died 1505. Among their children was a son,
IX. GEORGE SPENGLER,
born 1480, die1 1529. (He was a brother of the famous Lazarus Spengler, the coad- jutor of Martin Luther). He, George, was married to Juliana Tucherin 1516. Their son,
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NINETEENTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT.
X. FRANTZ SPENGLER,
was born 1517 and died 1565. Among his numerous offspring were Philip Jacob Spengler, born May 3, 1556, and XI. LAZARUS SPENGLER,
"Procurator" in Nuremberg, born 1552, died 1618. His second wife was Bartrand Geroldin, whom he married in 1593. Among their children were Hans George, Anna Maria and Margaretha, familiar names among the descendants, and
XII. HANS SPENGLER,
born 1594. He left his native land during the "Thirty Years War," 1618-1648, and ac- cording to the opinion expressed by our cousins in Germany, was exiled on account of his protestant faith. He settled in Switzerland. His son,
XIII. JACOB SPENGLER,
became a citizen of Schoftland, Canton Berne, (now Aargau) Switzerland. His son,
XIV. HANS RUDOLPH SPENGLER,
emigrated to "Weyler (Weiler) under Steinsberg," near Sinsheim, on the Elsenz, Rhenish Palatinate, now in the Grand Duchy of Baden. He married July 16, 1618, Judith, daughter of Jacob Haegis, de- ceased, of Beisassen, at Sinsheim. His second marriage, in 1619, was with Marie Saeger, of Duehren, near Sinsheim. Among his numerous children was,
XV. HAN'S KASPAR SPENGLER,
born at Weyler, January 20, 1684. Married Judith, adopted daughter of Martin Ziegler, February 9, 1712; emigrated to America in 1727, and settled in York County, Pa., 1729. His son.
XVI. RUDOLPH SPENGLER,
was born March I, 1721, at Weyler, and emigrated with his father to America in 1727. Was settled by his father on 360 acres of land in Paradise Township, York County, Pa., 1735. His son,
XVII. HENRY SPANGLER,
was born August 3, 1753, and was a mem- ber of the Seventh Company, Seventh Bat- talion, York County Militia, in the war of the Revolution. His son,
XVIII. RUDOLPH SPANGLER,
was born June 27, 1800; married Sarah Harbaugh, a grand-daughter of Yost Har- baugh, a paticipant in Braddock's Expedi- tion, and a Captain in active service in the Revolutionary War. His son
XIX. EDWARD W. SPANGLER, is the subject of this sketch.
R EV. W. MASLIN FRYSINGER, D. D., pastor of Allison Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church, of Carlisle, and a man of ability and scholarship, is a son of George and Sarah S. (Barnitz) Fry- singer, and was born at Hanover, York County, Pennsylvania, April 18, 1840. The Frysingers are of German-Swiss origin and originally lived in the Frysinger territory of Germany raided and broken up during the Thirty Years War. Three Frysinger brothers, one of them a Lutheran minister, before the time of the American Revolution emigrated to Pennsylvania and settled in the western part of York County along the Codorus creek, near Hanover, where Cap- tain George Frysinger, grandfather of Dr. Frysinger, was born and reared. Captain George Frysinger was a wagon maker, and in earlier years built the old Conestoga wagons. He was in a militia company at the North Point fight, in the War of 1812, where the captain ran away and Mr. Fry- singer led the company in that action, for which act of gallantry he was commis- sioned its captain. He was a Lutheran and an old line Whig, and married Eliza- beth Ritter, by whom he had eight children. He died April 5, 1870, aged eighty-four years. His son, George Frysinger, now the oldest living editor in Pennsylvania, was
19
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BIOGRAPHICAL AND PORTRAIT CYCLOPEDIA.
born at Hanover, November 4, 1811, and at an early age learned the trade of print- ing. He soon became proficient in the art, and for over forty years edited the Lewis- town Gazette. He retired from active busi- ness in 1886, and still resides at Lewis- town, this State. He was an old line Whig, but joined the Republican party at its or- ganization, giving it all the strength of his influence, but declining all honors offered to him. He was an early Odd Fellow, and inclines to the faith of the Friends. He married Sarah S. Barnitz, of Hanover. Mrs. Frysinger was born July 13, 1813, and is still living. To their union were born three sons: Dr. W. Maslin, George R., late editor of the Lewistown Free Press; and Charles who died in infancy.
Rev. Dr. W. Maslin Frysinger was reared in Lewistown, attended the Lewistown academy, and when not quite twenty years of age entered the Methodist Episcopal ministry of the East Baltimore conference. In connection with preaching he took stud- ies in the course of Dickinson College, which conferred on him the degree of A. M. in 1872, and eight years later gave him the degree of D. D. During his long min- istry, Dr. Frysinger has filled the follow- ing stations: Junior pastor, York, three years; pastor Mount Holly Springs, two years; Huntingdon Avenue, Baltimore, three years; Eighth Avenue Church, Al- toona, one year; Jackson Square Church, Baltimore, one year; and Emory Church, Carlisle, three years. Impaired health compelled his relinquishment of regular ministerial work for a time, and leaving Carlisle he became the Sunday school and book agent for the Central Pennsylvania conference and served in that capacity from 1872 till 1882, during which time he or- ganized the Conference Book Room at Harrisburg and established there in 1875 the Pennsylvania Methodist, which he edi-
ted for seven years. He also continued preaching in connection with his agency and editorial duties, and in 1882 was elec- ted president of Morgan college of Balti- more, an institution of learning founded in the interest of the Freedmen, and served for six years, during which period (1884) he established an academy at Princess Anne, Maryland, for the benefit of the col- ored people. He then rested for one year from all active work on account of his health, and the next year was made editor of the Baltimore Methodist, which position he resigned five years later, in 1894, to ac- cept charge of Allison Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church of Carlisle, which he has served acceptably up to the present time.
In May, 1868, Dr. Frysinger married Sarah, daughter of Edwin Allen, of Newark, New Jersey.
During the late Civil War, Dr. Frysinger offered himself three times as a soldier but was rejected each time on account of his youthful appearance. Dr. Frysinger's la- bors are appreciated by his people and he is active and earnest in every movement for the happiness and spiritual growth of his fellow men.
E' DWARD D. ZIEGLER, Esq., a lead- ing lawyer of the York County Bar is a son of Jacob and Anna Mary (Danner) Ziegler, and was born in Bedford, Bedford County, Pennsylvania, on March 3, 1844. He is descended from an old German fam- ily, the early record of which in Pennsyl- vania, can not easily be procured beyond his proximate ancestors. His grandfather, John Ziegler, was a native of Bucks County Pa. His father was a minister of the Reformed Church, the date of whose birth is January 5th, 1809. The latter was edu- cated in the schools of York County and obtained his collegiate and theological edu- cation at Gettysburg, Adams County, this
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9.00 Regler
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NINETEENTII CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT.
State, afterward devoting his life to pas- toral and related work in connection with the religious body already mentioned. The major portion of his labors was confined to Bedford and Adams Counties and dur- ing his residence as pastor of the Reformed Church in Bedford, Edward D. Ziegler, the subject of this sketch, was born.
Edward D. Ziegler received his prelimin- inary education in the common schools and after receiving a thorough preparation, entered the collegiate department of Penn- sylvania College, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in the year 1862, and four years later was graduated with honors. Immediately sub- sequent to his graduation he came to York County and was employed as a teacher of Latin, English and Mathematics in the York County Academy, which was then under the principalship of Professor George W. Ruby, Ph. D. Here he taught for two' years and simultaneously read law with Henry L. Fisher, Esq., at the time the lead- ing criminal lawyer of the York County Bar. He was admitted to practice in the courts of York County on November 4, 1868, and to the Supreme Court in 1877 and other courts of Pennsylvania later. Shortly after his admission, Mr. Ziegler met with signal success as a criminal lawyer, a reputation that has been since amply sus- tained.
Entirely aside, however, from his crimi- nal practice he has a large and varied cli- entage in Orphan's Court and civil proced- ure.
In politics Mr. Ziegler is a Democrat and his initiation into the active arena began in 1868. He was elected Clerk to the County Commissioners in the year 1871 and served for a period of two years and during the subsequent three years was elected at- torney for the same office. In 1880 he re- ceived the nomination and was made the candidate of his party for the office of Dis-
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