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 34
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Dr. Barton was well equipped for such honor, having graduated in 1874 from this institution, later taking the degree of A. M. at Mercersburg College, and the honorary degree of Doctor of Science in 1894, at Franklin & Marshall College, at Lancaster, Pa. He has long been classed with the State's scholarly men, and was one of a com- mittee of three appointed to examine and pass upon school work from Pennsylvania
sent to the World's Fair at Chicago, in 1893.
Dr. Barton has been identified with the Democratic party, has served as chairman' of the Democratic County Committee of Fulton county, and as . a member of the Democratic State Central Committee. He fills many lecture engagements at the various county institutes in the State, in which work he is particularly happy and suc- cessful. However, a part of his vacation is always devoted to his relatives in Minneap- olis, where he is a very much loved mem- ber of the home circle. There he has mem- bership with the First Presbyterian Church. Fraternally, Dr. Barton is a Mason of high degree, being affiliated with Lodge No. 315, Shippensburg; George Washington Chapter, No. 176, R. A. M .; Continental Command- ery, No. 56, K. T .; and is a member of Zembo Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Har- risburg, Pa. He also belongs to Cumberland Valley Lodge, I. O. O. F.
GEORGE B. COLE, of Shippensburg, was born Nov. 6, 1835, at Freemansburg, Pa., a son of Jacob B. and Mary Ann ( Mes- senkop) Kohl. The Kohl family is of Ger- man-Holland extraction and the grandpar- ents of our subject were Jacob and Eliza- beth (Buck) Kohl, of Nockamixon, Bucks Co., Pa. Jacob B. Kohl was a coachmaker by trade. He died in Bucksville, Pa., July 18, 1838, in his thirty-fourth year, and is buried in the grave yard attached to St. John's Church, Haycock, Pa. The mother of our subject was a daughter of George Messen- kop, a prominent citizen of Lancaster, who for a long time was city treasurer. She died in 1888.
George B. Cole, while living in Baltimore, in 1857, changed the spelling of his name from Kohl to Cole, on account of mail com-
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plications. He was educated in the public schools of Lancaster and then came to Ship- pensburg. where he attended the academy. In 1852 he entered the employ of Arnold & Co., dry-goods merchants, as a clerk, later purchasing an interest in the establishment, and the name became D. W. Totten & Co. Later he sold his interest to Dr. Alexander Stewart, and, in 1860, embarked in the boot, shoe and hat business, which he continued for over thirty years, doing a most success- iul business, having the leading establish- ment in this line of trade.
In 1895 Mr. Cole, with Col. J. A. Kun- kel, of New York, organized the Shippens- burg Odorless Cold Storage Egg Case Filler Manufacturing Co., associating with then prominent business men. Mr. Cole is secretary, treasurer and general manager of this company. The business is in a flourish- ing condition, a large force being employed, and they have a large trade in this and foreign countries. Besides his interest in this company, Mr. Cole is a stockholder and one of the directors of the People's Na- tional Bank of Shippensburg ; vice-president of the Shippensburg Gas & Electric Co .; a member of the board of trustees of the Cum- berland Valley State Normal School; a di- rector in the Baltimore & Cumberland Val- ley Railroad Company, a branch of the Wabash System; a member and president of the city council ; and was at one time a mem- ber of the school board.
In 1856 Mr. Cole married Miss Eliza- beth Trone, of Shippensburg, daughter of George Trone. At her early death she left one daughter, Anna, who married Dr. Clark Cramer, of Newburg, Pa. Mr. Cole mar- ried (second) Miss Mary E. Gish, also of Shippensburg, daughter of John and Lydia Gish, and six children were born to the union, two of whom are deceased; Katie is
the wife of S. W. Means, of St. Paul, Minn .; Lon M. is the wife of Jacob H. Stoner, cashier of the People's Bank of Waynesboro, Pa. ; Edith is at home ; George is in the employ of the Bell Telephone Com- pany.
Fraternally Mr. Cole is a member of Cumberland Valley Masonic Lodge, No. 315; St. John's Chapter; and St. John's Commandery, Knights Templar ; and is also a member of the Scottish Rite branch in Philadelphia. He is one of the leading cit- izens of Shippensburg and the owner of property in the town and vicinity, and is considered a man of progressive ideas and much public spirit.
JOHN DEPPEN GREYBILL. Con- spicuous among Carlisle's energetic and en- terprising business men is the merchant miller whose name introduces this sketch. He was born at Abbeville, on the Little Conestoga creek, one mile west from Lan- caster city, on Sept. 27, 1851.
According to tradition there came from Switzerland at an early date six Greybill brothers, who settled in different parts of Lancaster county. All of them were Men- nonites and brought with them the habits of industry and frugality characteristic of that sect. One of these six brothers, John Grey- bill, settled in Heidelberg township, Lan- caster (now Lebanon) county, where he purchased 600 acres of land. Here, on April 25, 1748, was born John D. Greybill's great- grandfather, Michael Greybill, who married Anna Brubaker, born Jan. 29, 1756. Michael and Anna (Brubaker) Greybill had seven daughters and one son. The son was born on Dec. 18, 1789, in Heidelberg township, and was named John. This John Greybill, on reaching manhood, married Susanna Brubaker, who was born June 20, 1791.
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John and Susanna ( Brubaker) Greybill lived all their days in Heidelberg township, and among their other children had a son named Henry Brubaker Greybill, who was born Oct. 15, 1825. grew to manhood in Heidelberg township. and learned the mill- ing trade. He married Elizabeth Royer Deppen, who was born Dec. 8, 1826, a daughter of Samuel and Mary ( Royer) Deppen, of near Wernersville, Berks county. Samuel Deppen's family was among the early settlers of Berks county. Mary Royer's parents were from the vicinity of Ephrata. Lancaster county, and belonged to the Ger- man Baptist Church. By occupation both the Deppens and Royers were farmers.
About the year 1849 Henry B. Greybill bought of Mrs. Livergood a gristmill located on the Little Conestoga creek, one mile west of Lancaster city. The mill stands where the Columbia Turnpike crosses that stream, and is an historical landmark, as it was built in 1717 by John Brubaker, the great-grand- father of Susanna Brubaker, who married John Greybill. Here he lived and engaged at milling for three years, and then sold out and bought a mill situated on the Conestoga, in West Earl township. The West Earl mill was another historical landmark, having been built as early as 1767. On moving to his West Earl purchase Mr. Greybill en- gaged in various enterprises, including mill- ing, farming and merchandising. He was a business man in the fullest sense of the term, centered all his energies upon his busi- ness enterprises, and naturally was success- ful and prosperous. He died in October, 1894, but his wife, at this writing, is still living.
Henry B. and Elizabeth R. (Deppen) Greybill had children as follows: Emma, who died at three years of age; John Dep-
pen, the subject of this sketch; Samuel D., who is farming the homestead farm in West Earl township, and Rufus D., who is a miller and is operating the old mill which his father purchased in West Earl in 1852.
John D. Greybill, the eldest son, was educated in the common schools, and at the Millersville State Normal School, where he spent one term. He inherited business en- terprise and early directed his attention into business channels. In 1873 he rented his father's mill and began milling on his own account. He was making fair progress, but was anxious to do better. Early in the year 1875, in the banking house of Blair & Shenk, in Lancaster city, he saw an advertisement of a large mill property for sale at Middlesex, Cumberland county. He looked it over, be- came interested and called his father's atten- tion to it. After some consideration they came to Middlesex and investigated, and on April 6, 1875, bought the property. That same spring John D. Greybill took charge of the new mill, which he operated for seven years. Like the two mills with which he previously was associated the Middlesex mill was a famous historical landmark. It was built long before the war of the Revolution by John Chambers, from whom it descended to his sons, who conveyed it to Robert Cal- lendar. Callendar was an Indian trader in this section prior to the formation of Cum- berland county, and rich and prominent. Robert Callendar died in 1776 and in the hands of his executors the property was sold at sheriff's sale, being purchased by Ephraim Blaine, who was the great-grandfather of the late James G. Blaine. Ephraim Blaine de- vised it to his grandson, Ephraim L. Blaine, who in 1818 sold it to Judge James Hamil- ton, whose executors sold it to Charles B. Penrose, grandfather of present United
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States Senator Boies Penrose, whose ex- ecutrix sold it to Jacob Stouffer, whose as- signs sold it to the Greybills.
In 1879 John D. Greybill visited the Mil- lers' Exposition held in Cincinnati, and new processes there exhibited convinced him that a new epoch in milling had arrived and that to succeed millers would have to adopt these new inventions. He acted promptly. In 1882 he and the late Charles R. Woodward formed a partnership, and in Carlisle built the first roller mill that was erected in the Cumberland Valley. It is of one hundred and fifty barrel capacity and besides being the first roller mill also enjoys the distinction of being the largest merchant mill in the val- ley. The firm at first was composed of Charles R. Woodward. John D. Greybill and John G. Robb, all of Carlisle, and known by the name of Woodward, Greybill & Co. In about a year and a half after its formation Major Robb withdrew, and the firm became Woodward & Greybill, which was further simplified in 1890 by Mr. Woodward sell- ing his entire interest in the property and the business to Mr. Greybill. In 1892 Mr. Grey- bill associated with him Mr. J. A. Davis, who for some time had been milling at the head of the Big Spring. Cumberland county, but was formerly of Ohio. Mr. David con- tinued a partner in the business until in 1899, when he withdrew, and since then Mr. Grey- bill has been the sole owner and operator. He is a miller in every acceptation of the term, manufacturer and merchant as well. He inherited the handicraft and principles of the business from his father and has per- sistently practiced them from early manhood down to the present day. The improve- ments and new milling processes which have come up in the progress of time he adopted as their usefulness and advantages were proven, and his present large establishment
is an all around up-to-date mill, owned and personally managed by a man who is master of all the details of the milling business. He is also interested in enterprises aside from his milling business. In 1887 he helped to organize the Millers' Mutual Fire Insurance Company, the home office of which is at Wilkesbarre, Pa., and has been a director in it ever since it was begun. Although a com- paratively new organization, this company carries risks amounting in the aggregate to over three millions of dollars, and its fin- ancial credit is of the best. He was long a director in the Farmers' Bank of Carlisle, and when it was merged into the Farmers' Trust Company became a director and vice- president of the new organization, the heav- iest financial institution in the Cumberland Valley.
John D. Greybill married, first, Salinda Rupp Grabill, a daughter of Isaac H. and Phianna (Rupp) Grabill, of West Earl town- ship, Lancaster county. By this marriage he had one child, a daughter named Salinda May, who was born Feb. 27, 1875. She married Monroe P. Haverstick, and has a daughter named May. Mr. and Mrs. Hav- erstick reside in Manheim township, Lan- caster county. Mrs. Salinda R. Greybill died March S, 1875, in Lancaster county, and on Jan. 16, 1877, John D. Grey- bill married for his second wife Miss Barbara Hertzler, daughter of John and Fanny (Erb) Hertzler, of South Middleton township, Cumberland county, by whom he has had children as follows: Deppen Hertz- ler, born Jan. 18, 1881, who died in infancy ; Harry Hertzler, born July 22, 1882; John Roscoe, born Sept. 5, 1885, and Florence Elizabeth, born April 2, 1892. Harry Hertzler Greybill, the eldest son, at this writing is a student in the Senior class at Dickinson College; the next son, John Ros-
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coe, is a member of the Sophomore class at Dickinson, and the daughter, Florence Eliza- beth, is attending public school in Carlisle.
Mr. and Mrs. Greybill are both of Men- nonite ancestry, but circumstances making it inconvenient for them to keep up their re- lations with that denomination the family now worship in the Methodist Episcopal Church of Carlisle, where they are members and regular attendants. In the matter of politics Mr. Greybill follows his convictions rather than party bias and it is a little diffi- cult to classify him. He is of Republican antecedents, but by profession and practice a Prohibitionist, and reserves to himself the privilege to vote for honest men and honest measures, no matter under what party flag he finds them.
HON. WILLIAM ALFRED PEFFER was born on the Peffer ancestral homestead in Dickinson township, Cumberland Co., Pa., on Sept. 10, 1831. He was the young- est child of John and Elizabeth (Souder) Peffer, and a grandson of the Philip Peffer, who settled upon the Yellow Breeches in Cumberland county in 1773. He received no educational training beyond that afforded by the country district school, but he natur- ally inclined to reading and study, and by the time he reached his twentieth year he had accumulated a considerable library of miscellaneous books. At fifteen he taught his first school, at McAllister's, on the turn- pike a few miles west of Carlisle. After- ward he taught for two years among the Quakers of Lancaster county, Pa., where he acquired habits of thought and expression, and imbibed principles, which remained with him all through life. When seventeen years of age he was offered a course in Dickinson College, to be followed by two years at the law school, tuition to be payable out of earn-
ings in the profession after graduation. The offer was declined because of a belief that a successful lawyer could not be honest with himself. In company with a few other young Cumberland countians, he in 1850 went to the California gold mines, and in the autumn of the following year was slated for election to the first Legislature of that State, but refused to stand because of his age. In 1852 he returned to Pennsylvania, and in December of that year married Sarah Jane Barber, daughter of William Barber, the founder of Papertown, now Mount Holly Springs. In 1853 he moved to north- ern Indiana and began opening a farm in the thick woods of that section. . There he be- came acquainted with Schuyler Colfax and was a delegate to a convention that named that gentleman for Congress. Mr. Peffer was born a Democrat, and cast his first vote for Franklin Pierce for President, but like many others of his party was opposed to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and in the campaign of 1856 took an active part for Fremont and Dayton. From 1857 to 1859 times were hard in Indiana, and with the hope of bettering his condition he re- moved to southwestern Missouri, where he bought land and continued farming, and, during the fall and winter months, taught school. Here on July 4, 1860, he delivered an address in which he advocated the Union cause. War coming on the next year he re- moved his family to Illinois, where, after securing them against want, he enlisted in Company F, 83d Illinois Regiment, and was made fifth sergeant. Because of his knowl- edge of military tactics he was detailed to drill the company and instruct the men in handling arms. In March, 1863, he was ap- pointed to a lieutenancy, and from that time on was on detailed duty almost continuously until mustered out at the close of the war.
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He acted as quartermaster, adjutant, post adjutant, Judge Advocate of a military com- mission, and depot quartermaster of the en- gineering department at Nashville, Tenn .. in which last named capacity he had charge of all engineer supplies for the military di- vision of the Mississippi. He was in two engagements, the second battle of Donelson, in February, 1863. and the battle of Nash- ville. in December. 1864.
While on post duty he at odd hours read law and concluded to enter that profession, and after the war made his home in Tennes- see. Shortly after leaving the army he was admitted to the Bar at Clarksville, began practice there, and was soon retained in some important cases involving questions of con- stitutional law growing out of the war. He was conservative and disposed to assist the people in restoring peace and good will, and with that end in view opposed the radicalism of Gov. Brownlow and avoided all occa- sions for needless irritation. By special re- quests of citizens he delivered a series of public addresses in the counties of middle Tennessee, counseling good-natured acqui- escence in the new regime. Mr. Peffer was making satisfactory progress in the prac- tice of the law in Tennessee, but social con- ditions there then were not agreeable to northern people, and so early in 1870 he moved his family to Wilson county, Kans. Taking up a claim near the county seat, he opened a law office, and later established the Fredonia Journal, putting two of his chil- dren to work at setting type for the paper. That country was then new and he interested himself in agriculture and politics, as well as literature and the law. He organized the Republicans of the county, held several fairs at his own expense, and personally collected material for Wilson county's exhibit at the Centennial Exposition. His activity gave
him prominence and public preferment fol- lowed. He was elected to the Kansas State Senate for the term covering the years 1875 and 1876, and in that body was chairman of the committee on Corporations, was third on the Judiciary committee and managed the bill appropriating money for the State's dis- play at the Centennial fair. His district comprised two counties. Wilson and Mont- gomery, and in 1875 he sold out and moved into Montgomery, where he established the Coffeyville Journal, and continued his ef- forts at promoting the best interests of his adopted State. In 1880 he was presidential elector of the Garfield ticket, and while his prospects in general were encouraging his field was circumscribed and far away from political centers, so he quit the law and in 188I accepted the editorship of the Kansas Farmer, an agricultural paper of wide cir- culation, published at Topeka, the capital of the State. This position he retained ten years, during most of which time he was also an editorial writer on the Daily Capital, the leading Republican paper in Kansas.
The Farmers Alliance movement reached its greatest development in Kansas in 1890, and Mr. Peffer being in sympathy with it, he was in constant demand as speaker at Alliance meetings. In response to these calls he that year delivered more than a hundred speeches, and did his editorial work "on the wing," writing on his knees, on benches in waiting rooms, on wagon seats, on the open prairies, wherever, during the day or the night, a moment could be devoted to writing. There was no system about the Alliance meetings. They were scattered over the State at random, with no direction from any organized head, except that each county chose the time for its own meetings and without reference to the others. The Alliance, however, worked a revolution in
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Kansas politics. A large majority of the members of the Legislature chosen that year were members of the organization, and when the time came they all voted for Mr. Peffer to represent the State in the United States Senate. This was the beginning of the People's or Populist party. In May, 1891, there was held at Cincinnati, Ohio. a national conference comprised of about fourteen hundred delegates, representing the Alliance and other various farm and la- bor organizations. Of this large conference Mr. Peffer was made permanent chairman. and by it arrangements were made for the formation of the National People's party. which held its first nominating convention at Omaha, Neb., July 4. 1892.
Mr. Peffer's election to the Senate was wholly without his seeking, and did not cost him one cent. His career in the Senate was marked chiefly by advocacy of doctrines he had taught in editorial writings and public addresses. He believed in organization among farmers, in public warehouses, and in use of warehouse receipts for grain and cotton as temporary currency. He believed in public banks and that the government should lend money to needy people on good security at an interest rate that would pay for the attendant expenses; in government ownership, or control, of all means of public transportation, and that coal mines ought to . be owned by State or national government and operated in the interest of consumers. He believed that public utilities, such as water works and lighting plants, like school- houses, ought to belong to the people and be subject to their control. He favored the use of paper money for all sums of one dollar and its multiples, making the precious metals commodities to be bought and sold by weight ; and also favored the submission of all great public questions to the people for
ratification before being enacted into laws. The first measure he introduced proposed an investigation into the necessary expense of the business of lending money, outside the value of the money lent, with the view of ascertaining what public banking would cost, and his last bill provided for a system of government banking. One of his bills provided for the construction of govern- ment freight railroads ; another for organiz- ing the present railway system under one management, subject to national supervis- ion. He urged the investigation of the management of banks during the panic of 1893, and secured passage of a resolution to investigate the bond sales to syndicates in 1894, 1895 and 1896. He also proposed a measure to abolish the present practice of conducting funeral obsequies and proces- sions on the death of Senators and Con- gressmen.
Mr. Peffer's tastes from boyhood ran in literary and political lines, and the labors of the after years of his life, in the main, have been confined to the same channel. In 1869 he published a national story in blank verse called "Myriorama"; and another in prose entitled "The Carpetbagger in Tennessee." Prior to his election to the United States Senate he found sufficient time from his pressing editorial duties to do much literary work. In 1883 he published a story called "Geraldine," or "What May Happen," in which he reproduced on paper many of the social customs of the good people of old Cumberland, apple butter boilings, spelling schools, rope making. etc. This he followed up with sketches of the settlement of Kan- sas, leading into the great war of 1861, and concluding with a description of the growth and development of the State he had chosen for his home. In 1888 he published his "Tariff Manual"; in 1889 he contrib-
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uted an article to the Forum, entitled " The Farmers' Defensive Movement," and in 1890 his pamphlet. "The Way Out." appeared, followed in 1891 by "The Farmers' Side." While in the Senate, he. at the request of magazine publishers, wrote several articles for them, and since his retirement he has devoted his time entirely to literary work. Some of his later pro- ductions have attracted much attention, nota- bly "The Passing of the People's Party," "The United States Senate," "Republic in the Philippines," "Imperialism, America's Historic Policy," and "Americanism and the Philippines." This last named work, at the request of the Republican National Com- mittee, in 1900, he condensed into a cam- paign document, of which the first edition printed consisted of a million copies. In 1902 he began the preparation of an index, by subjects, to the discussions which have taken place in Congress from the beginning in 1789 down to date. He was engaged on that work when this sketch was written and estimated that four years more would be required to complete it.
Mr. Peffer's theories were so new and in some respects so startling, and his coming into national prominence so sudden, that, naturally he was much talked about and belabored on all sides. His long and heavy beard. besides being good matter for car- toonists, furnished a descriptive symbol to the party to which he belonged. It is doubt- ful whether, during the time that he was in the public eye, any other man was more fre- quently held up in pictures. While his theo- ries were new, Senators soon discovered that he was honest and sincere. His manner was diffident rather than aggressive, he respected the great body of which he was a member and the body respected him. He was tem- perate in his habits, modest in demeanor,
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