Biographical annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania : containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens and of many of the early settled families, Part 4

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 4

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CONRAD HAMBLETON, of the firm of Wetzel & Hambleton, attorneys-at-law, is of Southern ancestry. His paternal grand- father, Dr. Oliver E. Hambleton, was a native of near Danville, Va., where he was a prominent practicing physician and a lead- ing citizen.

Dr. Hambleton had a son named John White Hambleton, who acquired a liberal education and selected the law as his pro- fession. He settled at Memphis, Tenn., where the breaking out of the war between the States found him already in possession of a fair practice. Being a native of the South, and in sympathy with the sentiment

of his section, he entered the Confederate army and served continuously from the be- ginning to the end of the war, receiving ' dangerous wounds, which, along with the fact that he rose to the rank of brigadier general, are conclusive proofs that he was a brave man and true to the cause which he believed to be right. Though living at the end of four years of hard campaigning he was in straitened circumstances and com- pelled to begin life anew. A short time after the close of the war he became acquainted with Miss Josephine Dallas Conrad, to whom he was married on Nov. 24, 1866. Miss Conrad was a native of Baltimore, Md., and daughter of Dr. A. M. H. Conrad, a physician, who died Sept. 9, 1855, in a yel- low fever epidemic at Vicksburg, Miss., when in his thirty-sixth year; her mother was Mary Elderkin, daughter of William Elder- kin, who in 1812 was one of the defenders of Baltimore, where he was a merchant in his earlier years, subsequently removing to Philadelphia, where he died when past ninety years of age.

John W. and Josephine D. (Conrad) Hambleton had one child, a son named Con- rad Hambleton, who is the subject of this sketch. He was born at Mason's Depot, Tipton Co., Tenn., Sept. 8, 1867. Several years afterward Mrs. Hambleton removed to Waynesboro, Franklin Co., Pa., where her mother had previously located, and there Conrad Hambleton passed the years of his childhood and youth. From the time he reached the legal age he attended the public schools of his town, and, that his hands as well as his mind might be given proper train- ing, when thirteen years of age he entered a printing office and for four years schooled himself in the art of printing. After passing through the Waynesboro public schools he entered upon a three years course in Dickin-

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son Seminary, at Williamsport, Pa., from which institution he graduated in 1888. After graduating from the seminary he for two years taught in the public schools of Waynesboro, employing what spare hours he had at studying law under the instruction of O. C. Bowers, Esq., of Chambersburg. He was admitted to the Franklin county Bar in April, 1891, and immediately after- ward opened an office at Waynesboro, where he remained until the spring of 1892, with the experience young lawyers usually under- go in their efforts at building up a practice. In 1892 he removed to Carlisle, where he settled permanently, and thenceforth gave to his profession his exclusive attention. For several years he practiced by himself, but in April, 1896, he entered into partnership with J. W. Wetzel, Esq., under the firm name of Wetzel & Hambleton, through which asso- ciation he has become interested in much of the most important litigation in the courts of Cumberland county.

Mr. Hambleton is a studious and methodical lawyer. He gives business en- trusted to him prompt attention, carefully prepares his cases, and tries them with a directness and force regarded as commend- able in attorneys much older and more ex- perienced. In politics, he is a Democrat both by inheritance and conviction, and is some- times discussed by the leaders of his party for public position, but as his chief delight lies in the practice of his profession he has thus far uniformly declined to be a candidate for anything.

MAJOR THOMAS SHARP. Among the early settled families of the upper end of Cumberland county were the Sharps. who have been prominent in this part of the State for at least three generations. They trace their ancestry back to Scotland, where at an

unknown date Thomas Sharp married. Mar- garet Elder, a daughter of a Scottish laird.

Thomas and Margaret (Elder) Sharp were Covenanters, and removed from their native land to the Province of Ulster in Ire- land. where four daughters and five sons were born to them. The daughters were: Jane. Martha, Mary and Agnes; and the cons were: Robert, Andrew, John, James and Alexander. Robert came to America first. and afterward went back to Ireland and brought over the rest of the family. They first settled in the forks of the Dela- ware river, in the eastern part of Pennsyl- vania. but later nearly all of them came into the Cumberland Valley. Robert Sharp first appears upon the records of Newton town- ship. Cumberland county, in 1775. Andrew settled in that part of the State now com- prised in Indiana county, and was killed in what was probably the last Indian fight that took place in Pennsylvania. Early in the summer of 1794, he and three of his neigh- bors and their wives started down the Kish- kiminitas in a flat boat on their way to Ken- tucky. Just before reaching the Allegheny river they landed for the night. While the men were preparing to camp they were sur- prised by a band of Indians. Two of the party darted into the woods, but Sharp and the other man ran to the protection of their families on the boat. While they were push- ing the boat into the stream the Indians opened fire upon them, severely wounding Sharp and killing his comrade. There being four rifles in the boat Sharp kept up a run- ning fight with the Indians while his strength held out, the women loading the guns while he fired them. The next day what remained of the party reached Fort Pitt, where they received all necessary attentions. Andrew Sharp had been shot in three different places, but notwithstanding the serious character of

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the wounds had prospects of recovering, but the heavy concussions of guns, fired in cele- bration of the 4th of July, started hemor- rhages from which he died. He was buried in the cemetery of the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburg, with the honors of war, he having been a soldier in the Revolu- tion. Many of his descendants are yet liv- inw in western Pennsylvania and the West, and one. Capt. Alexander McCracken, is commander of the United States cruiser "Des Moines."

Alexander Sharp, the last named of the Sharp brothers, served several short enlist- ments in the early part of the Revolutionary war, and later was engaged in the important service of furnishing supplies to the army. He located in Newton township shortly after the close of the Revolution, on land entered by his father, Thomas Sharp, in May, 1746. He was a man of great energy, and much of the improvement and development of his part of the county in his day were due to his enterprise. He engaged extensively at farming. milling. tanning and distilling, and shipped his surplus products by wagon to Baltimore. Captain Sharp, as he was famil- iarly called. inaugurated the custom of keep- ing wagons continually upon the road, and by intelligent and careful management made the traffic pay. His practical mind saw the advantage of having narrow tread wheels for mud roads, and broad tread for turn- pikes, and when the turnpike was completed from Baltimore to Hanover, he kept an extra set of wheels for each of his wagons at Hanover, and would change from narrow to broad tread on reaching the beginning of the turnpike. He took a paternal interest in the young men in his employ, directing their efforts so as to give them a good start in life. Among the employes in his tanner- ies was a young man named Robert Garrett,

who showed extraordinary.capacity for busi- ness. This young man he advised to go to Baltimore and open a commission business, promising him all the patronage he had, and to use his influence to secure him that of others. Young Garrett was then only about twenty years of age and had never been to Baltimore. He was reluctant to go, but having implicit confidence in Captain Sharp's judgment he yielded and subse- quently became one of Baltimore's most prominent and successful business men. This young man Garrett was the father of John W. Garrett, and the founder of the famous Garrett family of Baltimore.

Capt. Alexander Sharp was married to Margaret McDowell, daughter of John Mc- Dowell, of Kishacoquillas Valley, Mifflin county, and by her had five sons and one daughter : John married Jane McCune, and engaged at farming in Newton township south of Oakville. William M. graduated from Dickinson College, studied medicine and practiced his profession in Newville; he married Jane Wilson. Andrew married Rosanna McDowell, of Mifflin county, and engaged at farming in Newton; he died when yet in middle life. Thomas died in the thirtieth year of his age, unmarried. Eleanor married a Mr. McCune, of near Shippens- burg. The wife and mother, died Aug. 15, 1810, in her fifty-first year, and Capt. Sharp afterward married Isabella Oliver, a daugh- ter of James and Mary ( Buchanan ) Oliver, of the part of the county that is now included in Silver Spring township. By his second marriage he had no children.

Alexander Sharp, third son of Capt. Alexander and Margaret (McDowell) Sharp, was born in Newton township June 12, 1796. He graduated from Jefferson College in 1820, studied theology and was ordained a minister of the Associate Re-

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formed Presbyterian Church. On June 29, 1824. he was installed as pastor of the church of that denomination at Big Spring. About the same time he was elected Profes- sor of Theology in the Associate Reformed Seminary at Oxford, Ohio, but he declined the professorship and continued as pastor of the Big Spring Church up to the time of his death. The Presbytery of Big Spring in- cluded small congregations at Shippens- burg. Chambersburg. Concord, Gettysburg, Lower Chanceford, and one in Rockbridge county, Virginia. These churches were often without pastors, and at such times it fell to Mr. Sharp to minister to them, and being so widely scattered his duties required much exposure and a great amount of horse- back riding, which impaired his health and finally caused his death.

Physically Rev. Dr. Sharp was a large and commanding person, and his character was so rounded and balanced that it was hard to detect in him any prominent traits or angles. He possessed a vigorous, com- prehensive mind, and a manner that was simple, kind and courteous. He was a true and reliable friend, much respected by his ministerial associates, and throughout the Synod of Pittsburg, to which the Presbytery of Big Spring belonged, was ,commonly spoken of as "Father Sharp." His home at the head of the Green Spring was the regular stopping place for the ministers of the Asso- ciate Reformed Presbyterian Church when visiting this part of the State. His neigh- bors, regardless of religious affiliations, often applied to him for advice and assistance in material affairs. He had rare presence of mind, and in case of emergency was remark- ably quick to see what was the best thing to be done. As an illustration of this charac- teristic the following incident is related of him: One evening, just before retiring, an

affrighted neighbor rushed into his house with the information that a candle moth had gotten into his daughter's ear, causing her intense suffering. Instantly it flashed upon his mind that the rye straws, with which the children had been playing in front of the door. might be of use in the case. He started off with his anxious neighbor on a run, pick- ing up some of the straws as he went. On reaching the patient Mr. Sharp cut a straw to a length to suit the purpose, and, insert- ing one end in the ear, applied his mouth to the other and sucked out the fluttering insect to the great relief of the young lady.

Rev. Alexander Sharp married Elizabeth Bryson, a daughter of William and Jane ( Harkness ) Bryson, of Allen township. William Bryson was long a prominent citi- zen of the lower end of Cumberland county, and the progenitor of an honorable and dis- tinguished family. His wife, Jane Hark- nessi was a daughter of William and Pris- cilla (Lytle) Harkness. William Harkness was born in Ireland. In 1750 he came to America, and about the year 1765 settled in Allen township, Cumberland county, where he lived until the time of his death. He mar- ried Priscilla Lytle, of Donegal, Lancaster county, and died in May, 1822, and he and his wife are buried in the cemetery of the Silver Spring Church. William Bryson died in October, 1818, and he and many of his descendants are also buried at Silver Spring. William Harkness was a soldier in the war of the Revolution. He was ensign of Capt. John Mateer's company, Col. Chambers' regiment, which was a part of Gen. James Potter's brigade. Potter's brigade served with distinction in various engagements about Philadelphia : At the battle of . the Brandywine it was on the extreme left; at Germantown it was on the right, where in driving in the opposing forces it advanced

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farther than the center of the line; at Chest- nut Hill. under Gen. Irvine, it helped to check the British advance, and. although Gen. James Irvine was wounded, and his troops driven back, Howe's attempt to sur- prise the Americans was frustrated. When Washington took up his march from White Marsh to Valley Forge, he sent Potter's brigade down the west side of the Schuyl- kill to guard his left flank. In his reconnoi- tering Potter came upon a detachment of British under Cornwallis, who had crossed at Middle Ferry, and in a spirited engage- ment which ensued between them retarded the British sufficiently for Sullivan's brig- ade, which had crossed the river at the Gulph, to recross in safety. A day or two afterward Washington crossed the river higher up without interference, and after reaching Valley Forge, he issued general orders in which he thanked Potter's brigade for the splendid services it had rendered. Rev. Alexander Sharp died Jan. 28. 1857. in his sixty-first year. His wife, Elizabeth (Bryson) Sharp, died Jan. 27, 1870, in the seventy-third year of her age, and the re- mains of both are buried at Newville. They had the following children: Alexander, Jane Elizabeth, William H. B., John Riddle, Thomas, Robert Elder and Margaret Ellen.

Alexander Sharp, eldest son of Rev. Alexander, graduated from Jefferson Medi- cal College, and removed to St. Louis, Mo., where he married Ellen Dent, a sister of Mrs. U. S. Grant. After practicing his pro- fession for a while in St. Louis, he removed to Auburn, Mo. This was at the beginning of the Civil war and sentiment in that local- ity was divided, the dominant part favoring secession. One day, on his return from a visit to a country patient, he found a Con- federate flag floating from his house, which was the highest in the village, and a crowd

standing around awaiting the outcome. In reply to his inquiry his wife explained that the boys wanted to put a flag upon their house, and as it was the first they had raised she thought it would be nice and gave her consent. Dr. Sharp then informed the crowd that as the house was his he would take the flag down, and return it to them, which he did in the face of threats that his life should pay for the act. In fear and trepidation his wife called out: "Boys, the hen coop is mine, you can put it on the hen coop." This ludicrous attempt at con- ciliation brought a shout of laughter from the Union element in the crowd, and acted like a shower bath on the Secessionists. Their ardor was cooled, and loyalty to the Union began to assert itself and crystalize about Auburn.

The rebel element, however, made it un- comfortable for him and his family at Au- burn, and he removed to Louisiana, Pike county, where he was permitted to practice his profession unmolested. But the war called for his services, and for some time he was acting assistant surgeon in the army hospitals at Cairo and Mound City. At the close of the war he was made special agent of the Post Office Department, and reorga- nized the mail service in the States of Vir- ginia and North Carolina. Afterward he was postmaster of Richmond, Va., and when General Grant was elected President he ap- pointed him United States marshal of the District of Columbia. At the close of Grant's second term he was appointed pay- master in the army, which position he held until 1889, when he was relieved on account of the infirmities of old age. He died at "The Presidio." California, of ailments caused by much horseback exercise in early life. Marshal Sharp's oldest son, Alexander, is a graduate of Annapolis, and has just been

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assigned to the command of the new cruiser "Chattanooga." His second son, Frederick Dent, died in the army. His other sons, Grant and Louis, are in business in Mon- tana, the former at Chinook, and the latter at Great Falls. His three daughters mar- ried respectively, Col. Petit, and Captains Nolan and Bennett, of the army.

Jane Elizabeth Sharp, the second child and oldest daughter of Rev. Alexander, died unmarried.

John Riddle Sharp, the second son, mar- ried Martha Woods, of Dickinson township, by whom he had two sons, Alexander, who lives at Larned, Kansas, and Richard W., who lives in the State of Washington.

Robert Elder Sharp died without issue. Margaret Ellen Sharp, the youngest child, married Thomas Patterson, of Fulton county, and has four sons surviving, Thomas A., Robert S., John and Ralph.

Thomas Sharp, the fourth child of Rev. Alexander, and the subject of this sketch, was born Dec. 6, 1836, at the head of the Green Spring in Newton township. He was reared on the farm and received an academic education, but owing to delicate health never engaged actively in any business or avoca- tion. At the outbreak of the Civil war he en- listed in Company A, 7th Pennsylvania Re- serves. While his regiment was in camp in Virginia, he was discharged, and shortly afterward appointed a Captain in the 65th Regiment of United States Colored Troops, and served in that capacity in the Mississippi Valley until the close of the war. He was mustered out of service at Baton Rouge, La .; in the fall of 1865. In 1866 he was ap- pointed a Second Lieutenant in the United States Infantry, and continued in the ser- vice of the regular army until he reached his retirement, serving in Texas, in the Depart-

ment of the Lakes, Dakota, Montana, Wy- oming, and the Columbus Barracks, Ohio. At the commencement of the Spanish-Amer- ican War he was stationed at Pittsburg as recruiting officer. He was retired in 1898, with the rank of Major.

Thomas Sharp married Ellen Rice, of Mackinac, Mich., who bore him the follow- ing children : James, Thomas, John Mc- Dowell and Ethel Marie. During the Span- ish-American War his three sons were in the army. James and Thomas belonged to the 17th United States Infantry, and par- ticipated in the battles which took place about Santiago, Cuba. Both are now members of the Society of San- tiago. James afterward served in the Philippines, where he contracted disease from which he died in 1902, in Pittsburg. After his discharge from the army Thomas turned his attention to civil affairs, and is now manager of a live stock company in Oregon. John McDowell, the third son, was a sergeant in the First Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, in the Spanish-American war, but his regiment did not get out of the States, and consequently saw no engagements. He is a civil engineer, and at this writing is lo- cated in Bedford county, Pa. Ethel Marie, the daughter, married Ralph Mancill Gris -. wold, United States Navy, and is now with her husband at Guantanamo Naval Station, Cuba.

RICHARD PARKER HENDERSON, son of Col. William M. and Elizabeth ( Parker) Henderson, was born at "Oak- land," the family homestead near Carlisle, Oct. 5, 1838, and all his lifetime knew no other home. His youth was spent upon the farm, and his education was obtained in the public schools of Carlisle and in Dickinson College. Upon reaching manhood he en-

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gaged at farming and milling with his fa- ther and brother. and was entering upon a successful business career when the war of the Rebellion broke out. Upon the com- mencement of hostilities he enlisted. April 21. 1861. becoming a private under his brother, Capt. R. M. Henderson, in Com- pany A, 36th Pennsylvania Infantry (7th Reserves). Soon after the organization of the company he was made corporal : sub- sequently he was promoted to second lieu- tenant and later to first lieutenant, which rank he held June 16. 1864. when he was mustered out of service. On March 13, 1865, he was brevetted first lieutenant, United States Volunteers, "for gallant con- duct at the battle of Gettysburg." On the same date he was brevetted captain "for gallant conduct at the battles of the Wilder- ness and Spottsylvania Court House." and major "for gallantry at Bethesda Church, Virginia." On Jan. 11, 1882, he was elected a member of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, in Class I, In- signia 2290, and his record as a companion of that order discloses the services which earned for him the brevets awarded to him. The records of the 7th Regiment, Pennsyl- vania Reserve Corps, disclose his loyal ser- vice until promotion awarded him with a commission, and his merit advanced him to a position on the staff of his division com- mander. Henceforward the battles he en- gaged in brought him honor, marked by pro- motion and by brevets. His commander, Major Gen. S. H. Crawford, wrote that he with another was "among the foremost" when Round Top, the strategical point in the battle line of Gettysburg, was seized for the Union troops. and that Capt. Livingston and he were "deserving of especial com- mendation for the prompt and fearless con-

veyance of orders entrusted to them on the 3d under the immediate fire of the enemy battery." [See Official Records of the Re- bellion, Series I. Vol. XXVII. Part I, page 656.]

After the war Major Henderson re- turned to his home and quietly resumed the business, which was interrupted four years before by his prompt response to his coun- try's call. He assisted his father in the mill- ing branch of his business, then in the grain and forwarding business, and after his fa- ther's death. in 1886, took upon himself the milling and forwarding business, and man- aged it successfully until he died. He was of a modest and retiring disposition, but much esteemed for his integrity, good busi- ness qualities and excellent judgment in mat- ters generally. For twenty years he was a director in the Carlisle Deposit Bank, and. the confidence his neighbors had in his pro- gressive ideas and sense of fairness carried him into the school board of his township, where the political party to which he be- longed had but a meager minority of votes. He was a member of Post No. 201, G. A. R., and a regular attendant at its meetings.

Major Henderson never asked for posi- tion and those that came to him came un- sought. He was content to walk in quiet paths, to manage his business quietly and carefully, and to enjoy the companionship of his friends, his comrades and his family. . He won the respect and confidence of all he met, and his honor and integrity in civil life were as conspicuous and unsullied as his courage on the field of battle. His death occurred at "Oakland" Feb. 10, 1901, and his remains are interred upon the Hender- son family plat in the Meeting House Springs graveyard, near Carlisle. He was never married.

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CUMBERLAND COUNTY.

DR. SAMUEL A. McDOWELL passed away in Carlisle in 1887, and his widow has since resided in that place, where she also had her early home. Though the Doctor lived abroad many years, returning to his native land but a short time before his death, he was well known and much esteemed in Carlisle and Cumberland county, and as a dentist who had the reputation of being a leader in his profession in Europe for many years he enjoyed considerable renown on the Continent.

Samuel A. McDowell was born in 1828 in Cumberland county, and was a son of John McDowell, a native of the county and a lifelong agriculturist, who lived near North Mountain in the neighborhood of McClure's Gap. John McDowell married Margaret Laird, who was, like himself, of Scotch-Irish descent. Samuel A. was but five months old when his father died, and he remained with his mother, spending his boy- hood and youth on a farm in Cumberland county. He first attended the district schools, and later was a student at Tusca- rora Academy. in Juniata county, Pa., after which he took up the study of dentistry with Dr. I. C. Loomis, of Carlisle. His first location for practice was at Toledo. Ohio, but his health failing there he moved South, settling at Goldsboro, N. C. When the Civil war broke out, in 1861, he was forced to flee to the North, and left every- thing, household goods, office fixtures, and all, to reach a place of safety. They were eleven days and nights getting to their northern destination, at Norfolk, Va., hav- ing been refused a pass to the North, so that they were obliged to retrace their steps and go through Tennessee and Kentucky, pass- ing through Bowling Green, in the latter State. They went to Pittsburg, Pa., and thence to Carlisle. Dr. McDowell then went

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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 4

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