Biographical annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania : containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens and of many of the early settled families, Part 24

Author: Genealogical Publishing Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Genealogical Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 994

USA > Pennsylvania > Cumberland County > Biographical annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania : containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens and of many of the early settled families > Part 24

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Shippensburg, and was afterward for some nine months in the old Carlisle Deposit Bank. Later he entered into partnership with George H. Stewart in the dry-goods trade, in the room now occupied by J. L. Hockersmith & Sons, grocers, several years later purchas- ing the interest of E. J. Forney, in the hard- ware firm of Forney & McPherson, which business was successfully conducted under the firm name of McPherson & Cox for more than three years, when Mr. Cox retired, dis- posing of his interest to S. W. Means. In 1872 he purchased the hardware store of Stevick & Rebuck, where he continued in business until 1900.

Mr. Cox was essentially a man of busi- ness, and enjoyed its pursuit. Strictly hon- est and upright himself, he set up the same standard for others, and was disappointed when he discovered methods less honorable than his own. He never sought public office and accepted but one, that of membership on the Shippensburg school board, to the duties of which he devoted much attention, making many practical improvements. Though so busy about his own concerns, Mr. Cox was always willing to lead an ear to those in busi- ness complexities, and on many occasions gave advice and counsel that brought order out of chaos.

On Nov. 26, 1846, Mr. Cox married Jane A. Young, of Shippensburg, who died in 1896. Mr. Cox is survived by one daughter and three sons : Linda, Samuel P. and John A., of Gettysburg ; and William A., of Ship- pensburg. One sister, Mrs. Sarah McClay, of Rolla, Mo., and one brother, John I., of Shippensburg, also survive.

For many years Mr. Cox was a member of the Middle Spring Presbyterian church, in which he was elder and trustee and for years had served as clerk of the sessions. He

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was a highly venerated citizen, and must be classed with those who contributed materially · to the upbuilding of the interests of the city of Shippensburg.

JOHN IRWIN COX. a retired farmer of Shippensburg, was born Feb. 20, 1824, in Southampton township. Franklin Co., Pa., a son of John and Martha ( Paden ) Cox, and grandson of Samuel and Mary (McComb) Cox.

Samuel Cox was born in 1755. at Ship- pensburg, Pa., and married (first) Mary McComb and (second) Annie Peebles : he was her third husband. Col. Hugh Paden, the maternal grandfather of John I. Cox, was born near Mount Joy, Lancaster Co., Pa., married a Miss Boggs. and reared a family of seven daughters and two sons. The fam- ily is of Scotch-Irish extraction.

John Cox, father of John Irwin Cox, was born June 17, 1781, in Franklin county. He carried on, in connection with his farm, the manuaicture of woolen goods at Middle Spring, using water-power, and the same site is now the location of the Shippensburg electric light plant. Mr. Cox died March 6, 1854. in his seventy-third year, survived by his widow until Aug. 25, 1858; she was born Feb. 17, 1807, in Mount Joy, Lancaster Co., Pa. They were buried at Middle Spring in what is known as the lower graveyard. Their family consisted of the following children : Mary L., wife of Charles McClay; Sarah Jane, wife of Francis McClay, of another family : Martha Ann, wife of John J. Young ; Samuel P., unmarried; William A., who married Jane A. Young and is deceased; John I., of this sketch; and Hugh Paden, who died at San Francisco.

John I. Cox spent his youth on the farm and attended the district school. At that time the sessions were held in an old log

structure which has given way to a handsome brick one. Mr. Cox recalls Robert Hunter as his first teacher. Later lie attended the Shippensburg Academy, where he was pre- pared for entrance to Jefferson College, at Canonsburg, Pa., where he was graduated in 1848. After graduation he began the study of medicine, but on account of failing health engaged in farming in Southampton township, Franklin county. He then formed a partnership with Hugh Paden, and they engaged in the manufacture of lumber at Lyons City, lowa, for some time. Tiring of this business, Mr. Cox disposed of his in- terests in that locality. The next eight years were spent in farming in Whiteside county, Ill., and he then returned to Ship- pensburg, where he has been connected with several business enterprises, conducting a store for the sale of agricultural implements, and later a boot and shoe store. Since 1881 he has lived retired.

Mr. Cox was married, April 13, 1858, to Keziah M. McCune, of Middle Spring, who was born Oct. 11, 1832, daughter of Alexan- der and Mary (Colwell) McCune. There have been no children by this marriage.

In political sentiment Mr. Cox is a Dem- ocrat, but in late years has cast his vote with the Prohibition party. Both he and his wife are members of the Presbyterian Church of Middle Spring, of which he has been a trustee many years. Although in the evening of life he is in command of all his faculties and not only enjoys good health, but the respect and affection of his fellow citizens.

JACOB S. ZEARING. The name Zearing has appeared frequently upon the records of Cumberland county for a hundred years past. Henry Zearing was a citizen of East Pennsboro as early as 1808 and con- tinucd to reside in that and the adjoining

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township down to the time of his death. He had a brother named Lewis who long resided in the vicinity of Mechanicsburg, and who was a private in Capt. George Hendel's com- pany in the War of 1812. Lewis Zearing was prominent in business and public affairs and long held the office of justice of the peace. Afterward Henry Zearing in Allen township, and Martin Zearing in East Pennsboro, also were justices, and the title "Squire Zearing" for many years was a familiar sound throughout the county.

The Henry Zearing of a hundred years ago had a family of six children, three sons and three daughters. The sons were Jacob, Henry and John; and the daughters were Mrs. Monosmith, Mrs. Templin, and Mar- garet, the last named dying unmarried. The son Jacob by occupation was a cooper and a mason and always lived in the vicinity of Shiremanstown. He married Eliza Swiler, daughter of John and Catherine ( Kreitzer) Swiler, and a granddaughter of Christian Swiler and Susan, his wife, who in 1792 canie from Lancaster county and settled on the north side of the Conedoguinet creek in what is now Silver Spring township. The Kreitzers were also among the early settlers of the lower end of the county, but lived to the south of the Conedoguinet. Eliza Swiler's parents died while she was yet a young girl and she for years had her home with her Kreitzer relatives. Jacob Zearing died Dec. 31, 1883; he and his wife are buried in the cemetery of St. John's Church near Shiremanstown. Jacob and Eliza (Swiler) Zearing were the parents of the subject of this sketch, Jacob Swiler Zearing. They also had one other child, Henry Mono- smith Zearing, now living at Shiremans- town.

Jacob S. Zearing was born at Shiremans- town, Jan. 18, 1843. He was educated in

the public schools of that place and in Den- linger's Academy, at Camp Hill. where he spent two or three terms. On leaving the academy he clerked for a short time for Rudy White, who kept a small general store at Camp Hill. He next secured a position as clerk in a general store in Shiremanstown, which he filled for two and a half years. With this preliminary training as a salesman he entered the drug store of Dr. G. W. Reily, located at No. 10 Market Square, Harrisburg, where he remained continuous- ly for fifteen years. While engaged in the drug store he read medicine with Dr. Reily, and, although he never entered upon the practice of the profession, among his friends and acquaintances he has ever since been familiarly known as "Doctor Zearing." After leaving Harrisburg he engaged for a period of three years in the drug business with Dr. M. B. Musser, in Mechanicsburg.

On Jan. 16, 1873, while in business in Mechanicsburg, Jacob S. Zearing was mar- ried to Kate Hannah Witmer, of Middle- sex township, who was a daughter of Jacob and Hannah (Senseman) Witmer, and a descendant of two well known representative families of Cumberland county. After his marriage he quit the drug business and began farming in Middlesex township and has so continued ever since. Along with his farming he has always taken an active inter- est in political affairs. He is a Republican, but liberal and progressive in all matters, and has always stood well with conservative citizens generally. Politically, the district in which he lives is strongly Democratic, yet notwithstanding his Republican affiliations he has been elected school director for twenty-one years and was never defeated for the office. In county affairs he enjoys a like successful prestige. In 1882 he was elected county auditor ; in 1884 county com-

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missioner: and in ISS7 was re-elected as county commissioner. In the performance of his public duties he has always acted con- scientiously and without political bias or that fear of responsibility which governs the ' pear upon the tax list was Frederick, also in actions of many of our public servants. In Allen township. These two were located in the vicinity of the present village of Church- town. where some of their descendants still reside. the fall of 1903. in a hard-fought and close contest, he was elected director of the poor, which office he is now filling.

Jacob S. and Kate H. (Witmer) Zear- ing had children as follows: Robert Wit- mer. born at Mechanicsburg. Jan. 4, 1874; Kathrine Hannah, born in Middlesex town- ship. Dec. 29, 1878; and Nellie, born July 30. 1877. who died Aug. 19. 1878. Robert W. Zearing, the son, married Sallie Keyser, of Middlesex, who died a short time after their marriage. Kathrine H. Zearing. the daughter, married Frank E. Brenneman, of Middlesex, and they live at Terra Alta, Pres- ton Co., W. Va., where Mr. Brenneman is engaged in the mercantile business as a traveling salesman. They have two children, Marion and Pauline.

Mr. Zearing's pleasant home is situated upon a rise near Middlesex Station, on the Cumberland Valley railroad, four miles cast of Carlisle. Evergreen and other trees sur- round and shelter the house and so mark the place that it can easily be seen and rec- ognized from a distance. Here he has lived since in 1875 and here he expects to spend his remaining days.

GOODYEAR BROTHERS. The Goolyears in Cumberland county are of German extraction and probably descended from J. Henry Gutjahr, who landed at Phil- adelphia from the ship "St. Michael" in September, 1753. The family settled first in Warwick township, Lancaster county, but more than a hundred years ago came to Cumberland county, the first appearance of

the name upon the records in this county being in 1799, when Peter Goodyear was as- sessed as land holder and resident in Allen (now Monroe) township. The next to ap-

In December, 1803, a Ludwick Gutyear bought at sheriff sale a tract of land lying along the York road, in Middletown (now South Middleton) township, adjoining lands oi James Hamilton and others. This tract contained 200 acres and was a part of the estate of Alexander Blaine, who was a brother of Col. Ephraim Blaine. Nine months after purchasing this farm Ludwick Gutyear died, and Rudolph Krysher and Frederick Goodyear, as administrators, set- tled up his estate. His wife survived him more than thirty years. Both are buried in an old graveyard in Churchtown and their tombstones bear the following inscriptions : Ludwick Goodyear, born Oct. 20, 1757; died September 16, 1804. Regina Goodyear, born March 15, 1756, died January 5, 1836.

Ludwick and Regina Goodyear had the following children: John, Jacob and Lena. At the time of their father's death none of these children were yet twenty-one years old, but the two sons were nearly so, and on reaching that age took the farm at the ap- praisement and owned it jointly for many years afterward.

John Goodyear, the eldest of these three children, was born in Warwick township, Lancaster county, March 11, 1784, and was a young man when his parents settled in Cumberland county. On Dec. 24, 1805, he was married to Ann Burkholder, by Rev. W. Helfenstine, pastor of the Reformed Church of Carlisle. Ann Burkholder was a daughter

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of Christian and Fronica Burkholder, who formerly were of Dauphin county. and was born March 16, 1783. They began their married life on the farm in the eastern part of South Middleton township and lived there to the end of their days. John Goodyear died Dec. 29, 1864; his wife on Feb. 28, 1861, and their remains are buried in a grave- yard on the Lisburn road, where once stood a Mennonite church, three miles east of Car- lisle. They had the following children : David, John, Catharine, Jacob. Abraham, Samuel. Benjamin and Regina.

Samuel Goodyear, son of John, was born July 16, 1818, and grew to manhood on the farm in South Middleton township. He en- gaged at farming in South Middleton until 1865, when he removed to Carlisle. where he first followed baking and later engaged at lime burning and dealing in coal. He mar- ried Mary Ann Morrett, who was a daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth (Strock) Morrett, of Churchtown. Jacob Morrett was a son of Hartman and Gertrude Morrett. both of whom are buried in the same graveyard in which Ludwick Goodyear and wife are buried. Samuel Goodyear died Dec. 15. 1891 : his wife died June 10, 1904, and their re- mains rest in Mt. Zion cemetery near Churchtown.

To Samuel and Mary Ann ( Morrett) Goodyear were born the following children : William, Jacob Morrett, Anna, John, Cath- arine and Rebecca : also Henry, Mary Jane, Regina Alice and Samuel, who died in in- fancy.

JACOB M. GOODYEAR was born Nov. 21, 1845 in the eastern part of South Middleton township, on the farm which his great-grand- father, Ludwick Goodyear, bought in 1803. He grew to manhood on his father's farm and was educated in the country district school. In September, 1864, before he had reached

the age of nineteen, he enlisted in Company A, 209th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers. The regiment was immediately sent to the front and two weeks after he enrolled as a soldier he was under fire. On the night of the 17th of November, while on duty on the picket line in front of Bermuda Hundred, he was captured and sent to Libby prison, where he celebrated the nineteenth anniver- sary of his birth. From Libby prison he was transferred to Castle Thunder and thence sent to Salisbury, N. C., where he was kept in prison until the latter part of the following February, when he was sent back to Richmond, where he was again confined in Libby for a short period. In March, 1865, he was exchanged and furloughed home to recruit his health, which had been badly im- paired by his prison treatment. . He soon afterward returned to the front, but by the time he reached his regiment it was dis- charged, the war being over. The regiment was mustered out of service at Alexandria, Va., but he received his discharge in Har- risburg.

On returning from the army Mr. Good- year located in Carlisle, where for two years he engaged in the manufacture of pumps. He then removed to what is now South Dick- inson township, where for a period of five years he followed farming, after which he returned to Carlisle and embarked in the lime business, to which he later added a coal- yard. He continued in the lime and coal business until 1894, when he was elected sheriff of Cumberland county as a Democrat, to which party he always belonged, as did his fathers before him. As an official he was uniformly courteous and efficient and dis- charged the important duties of his high office with general satisfaction .. In munici- pal matters, as well as in the larger field of county affairs, he has been an active factor,

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and was a member of the Carlisle town coun- cil for seven years continuously. Fraternally, he is a member of Carlisle Council, No. 574. Junior Order of United American Mechan- ics ; of True Friends Lodge, No. 56, Knights of Pythias : also a member and past officer of Capt. Colwell Post, No. 201, Grand Army of the Republic.

On Sept. 26. 1867, Jacob M. Goodyear married Ellen C. Miller, a daughter of Squire Levi Miller. of Mt. Holly Springs. and to them the following children have been born : Fisk. Samuel M., William H., Annie, J. Frank. Carrie C., John J., Charles Albert. Norman S. and Norton Miller. Of these Norman is dead.

Oi this large family are FISK GOODYEAR and SAMUEL M. GOODYEAR, the two brothers who comprise the firm whose name heads this historical sketch. Both were born while their parents lived in South Dickinson town- ship. Fisk on June 26, 1868, and Samuel M. on Sept. 13, 1870. After the family removed to Carlisle, and the boys had reached the proper age. they entered the Carlisle public schools, and in them received the principal part of their education, Fisk graduating from the high school in 1886. After leaving the high school he spent one year with a mer- cantile house in Philadelphia as clerk and bookkeeper. After that for five years he was an employe in various capacities at the Carlisle Indian Training School, resigning to go into business with his brother.

Fisk Goodyear mingles much with the business and social life at Carlisle and is one of the town's substantial and most esteemed young citizens. He is a past captain of Capt. Beatty Camp, Sons of Veterans, of Carlisle; a past chancellor of True Friends Lodge, No. 56, Knights of Pythias ; a member of Lodge No. 91, I. O. O. F .; past master of Cum- berland Star Lodge, No. 197, F. & A. M .;

a member of St. John's Chapter, No. 171, R. A. M .; past commander of St. John's Commandery. No. 8. Kinghts Templar ; a member of the Order of Elks, and of the Rajah Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Reading.

On leaving the schools of Carlisle, Sam- uel M. Goodyear, the other brother, took a course in the Harrisburg Business College. He then secured a position with the Gettys- burg & Harrisburg Railroad Company, in its office at Carlisle, which he held for four years, after which he secured a position as stenographer and clerk in the general office of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company, at Harrisburg, where he spent another four years. By this time his father had been elected sheriff and an opportunity arose for him to enter business on his own account. Like his older brother he is an active business and social factor in the com- munity in which he has lived since early childhood. He is a director in the Farmers Trust Company, the heaviest financial in- stitution in the Cumberland Valley; a di- rector in the Hamilton Library Association and Cumberland County Historical Society, and has been a school director of Carlisle for seven consecutive years, six of which he has been secretary of the board. He is prom- inent in fraternal circles, being a member of the Knights of Pythias and the Masons. In the Masonic fraternity, he has for years represented the Grand Lodge of Penn- sylvania as deputy for District No. 3, com- prised of the counties of Cumberland, Frank- lin and Fulton. Because of his rank and gen- eral good standing he is present at many of the social functions of the fraternity, and consequently has pleasant associations throughout the entire State of Pennsylvania.

On Oct. 10, 1894. Samuel M. Goodyear was married to Edna Grace Weibley, of Car-

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lisle, by Rev. W. Maslin Frysinger, D. D., pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Carlisle. Edna Grace Weibley is a daughter of Edward and Fanny ( Haver- stick) Weibley, and a granddaughter of Jo- seph and Margaret (Shrom) Weibley. Fan- ny Haverstick was a daughter of Benjamin and Lydia (Mylin) Haverstick, who came from Lancaster county, but were long prom- inent citizens of Silver Spring township, Cumberland county. Both lived to a great age, Mr. Haverstick dying in 1881 at the age of eighty-nine years, and his wife in 1903. at the age of ninety-six. Samuel M. and E. Grace (Weibley) Goodyear have two sons : Jacob Morrett, Jr., born March 16. 1896; and Donald Haverstick, born March 26, 1902. Mrs. Goodyear's parents and grand- parents were Methodists, but both she and her husband belong to the First Lutheran Church of Carlisle, in which Mr. Goodyear holds the position of vestryman.

When Jacob M. Goodyear in 1894 was elected sheriff he transferred his lime, sand and coal business to these two sons, who, doing business under the firm name of Good- year Brothers, have proved most worthy successors. They are careful, systematic, well-trained business men and have bright prospects of success, for they practice the principles which bring success.

HENRY EWALT. The records of Cumberland county show that a John Ewalt purchased from Edward West, on Jan. 6, 1796, 200 acres of land lying on the Juniata river. In the deed conveying it it is stated that John Ewalt was "of Juniata township." John Ewalt, then, was a citizen of Juniata township, Cumberland county (since 1820 Perry county), as early as 1796. Nothing has been ascertained from any source to fix more definitely the time of .his

coming, nor where he had previously lived. There is a tradition that he came from the vicinity of the Trappe, Montgomery county, but as this is entirely without support it is hardly safe to unqualifiedly accept it.

The name Ewalt is of German origin and in Germany persons bearing it have long been prominent as poets, theologians and professional men. The first appearance of the name in America was in 1733, when a Ludwig Ewalt and family arrived in Phil- adelphia. In September, 1753, a John Ewalt came, and the Provincial records show that on May 2, 1758, there was a John Ewald, a soldier "in Captain John Black- wood's company of the Pennsylvania regi- ment." He was thirty-six years old; born in Germany; enlisted on May 16, 1758, and was a laborer. Prior to enlisting in Black- wood's company he belonged to Clapham's Provincials. There was also a John Ewalt in Peters township, now Franklin county, as early as 1763, who after a few years' residence there removed to Bedford county, where in the early days he was a man of in- fluence and prominence. He died Nov. 12. 1792, leaving a family of nine children, among them a son named John. According to tradition the Bedford John Ewalt, to es- cape religious persecution, fled from Ger- many to Holland and from Holland to America.

The land which John Ewalt purchased from Edward West lay at the lower end of the present town of Newport, on the south bank of the Juniata. According to the best information at hand he lived there continu- ously from some time prior to 1796 down to the time of his death. While there is noth- ing on the records to indicate that he ever lived in the Cumberland Valley there is a strong probability that prior to settling on the Juniata he spent some time there. His

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first wife was Mary Sample, daughter of a John Sample who died near where now is Hogestown. in October, 1794. The Sam- ples were among the first settlers of that sec- tion and it does not appear that the family of John Sample ever lived anywhere else. Consequently it is a natural inference that John Ewalt in his younger days either re- sided in that vicinity, or that he, through some special circumstances, was thrown into association with the Sample family.

When John Ewalt settled on the Juniata he was not yet thirty years of age. That part of the State was then thinly populated, settlements were a long way apart. but he soon figured in public affairs, his name standing associated with those of persons of known influence and prominence, an indi- cation that he was a man of intelligence and force of character. Along about 1800 he was a member of the board of poor directors for Cumberland county and as early as 1807 was advocated at public meetings and in the newspapers for county commissioner, an office that he held in the years 1810, 1811. 1812 and 1813, a period during which the building of public bridges was agitated. Both in the newspapers and on the records he is frequently referred to as "Col. Ewalt," a title he probably acquired through being connected with the militia.

Col. Ewalt's principal business was farming, but like many farmers in his day he also engaged in distilling. He frequently bought and sold real estate and during the twenty-five years of his greatest activity was taxed with variable amounts of farm and mountain land, which one year reached in the aggregate 530 acres. His business qual- ifications and credit were of the best, and in November, 1814, he was elected a director of the Pennsylvania Agricultural and Manu- facturing Bank, of Carlisle. He died at the

house of John Koch, in Juniata township. on Saturday morning, Feb. 25, 1826. He had been ailing but was able to move about, and on the evening before set out from his home to go to a store a few miles distant. On the way he was suddenly attacked with a cliill so violent that it was with great diffi- culty that he was enabled to reach the home of Mr. Koch. The chill continued unabated and was succeeded by a stupor that ended in death. A newspaper report of the inci- dent ends by saying : "He was lamented by all who knew him." His remains, it is gen- erally supposed, are buried in the Presby- terian graveyard at Middle Ridge. His first wife died ten or twelve years before he did and her remains are buried at the same place. After the death of his first wife, Col. Ewalt married Mrs. Catharine Fahnestock, widow of Dr. Daniel Fahnestock, who long was a practicing physician and prominent business man of Juniata township. His sec- ond wife survived him, but by her he had no children.

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Biographical annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania : containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens and of many of the early settled families, Part 24

Author: Genealogical Publishing Co., Chicago, pub Publication date: 1905 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Genealogical Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 994

Author: Genealogical Publishing Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Genealogical Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 994