Biographical annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania : containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens and of many of the early settled families, Part 5

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

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abroad, going to Basel, Switzerland, and practicing there five years and in London, England, for a year. His next move was to Frankfort-on-the-Main, Germany, where he remained, in active practice, for ten years, until his return to America. Dr. McDowell was recognized as one of the leading dental practitioners of Europe, and counted among his patrons many scions of the English, Ger- man and Russian nobility, as well as famous wealthy families, the Rothschilds among others.

Though a successful man in every sense of the word Dr. McDowell remained to the end an unaffected, lovable character, a Chris- tian of the highest type, and a saintly man in all the relations of life. While in North Carolina he was an elder in the Presbyter- ian Church. In politics he was originally a Whig, but after his return to America he allied himself with the Prohibition party.

In 1860 Dr. McDowell was married, in Carlisle to Hester M. McClellan, who sur- vives him, and makes her home in Carlisle. one of the most respected residents of that place. Mrs. McDowell comes from the same family as Gen. John B. McClellan, being a descendant of Sir Robert McClellan, a native of Scotland who was banished from that country because of his faith or political views, and came to America. He returned to Scotland, where he died, but he left two sons here. The McClellans orig- inally settled in New Jersey, later in Chester county, Pa., but John McClellan, Mrs. Mc- Dowell's grandfather, was a farmer of York county, owning 200 acres of land. He died there. Mitchell McClellan, her father, was. the first of the family to come to Cumber- land county, where he was engaged in farm- ing, near Carlisle, to which city he removed on retiring from active lite. He died on the homestead there in 1885, at the ad -.

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vanced age of eighty-five years, and his wife, Mrs. Susanna ( Black) MeClellan, survived until 1890. reaching the age of eighty-six years. Her father. Thomas Black, was an officer in the Revolutionary war. Mr. and Mrs. MeClellan were the parents of eight children, namely: John S., who is a resi- dent of Philadelphia. Pa. ; Martha, who mar- ried James Stuart and is deceased; Eliza- beth; Jane, who died young: Hester M., Mrs. McDowell; Margaret, who died in 1898, unmarried; James M., who died in Montgomery county, Pa. ; and Virginia H., of Carlisle. James M. MeClellan left three sons and one daughter : George B .. Arthur I .. Samuel A .. and Henrietta, of Philadel- phia. These boys are being educated by Mrs. McDowell. George B. and Arthur are attending Dickinson College, and Samuel A. is a student at the Grammar School.

REV. GEORGE NORCROSS, D. D., the eloquent and scholarly pastor of the Sec- cnd Presbyterian Church of Carlisle, is of English and Scotch-Irish ancestry. His great-grandfather, Abraham Norcross, was born in New Jersey, married Nancy Flem- ing. and afterward settled at Milton, Pa. After some years he removed from Milton to the then new county of Erie, Pa., where he lived the remainder of his life. Abraham and Naney ( Fleming) Noreross had a son, John, who was born in New Jersey, but grew to manhood on the Susquehanna in central Pennsylvania. He preceded his parents to Erie county, where he married Margaret McCann, who was born in the North of Ire- land about the year 1790. The eldest child of John and Margaret (McCann) Noreross was born near the town of Erie, July 9, 1809, and was named Hiram. He continued to reside in that part of Pennsylvania until in 1844, when he removed to Monmouth, Ill.,

where he died in 1879. He was a farmer all his working days and for nearly forty years a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church.

Hiram Norcross, on June 1, 1837, mar- ried Elizabeth MeClelland, of Crawford county, Pa., who was the only daughter of Thomas and Sarah (Gibson) MeClelland, both of Seoteh-Irish extraction. Sarah Gib- son was the youngest daughter of Hugh Gibson, who was captured by the Indians in Sherman's Valley in 1756. at the same time that his mother, the widow of David Gibson, was shot and scalped. The scene of this bloody tragedy was Robinson's Fort, near the site of Center Church. Perry county, Pa. Of Hiram and Elizabeth ( MeClelland) Norcross's children the following lived to maturity : Rev. Dr. George. the subject of this narrative; Hon. William Charles, now a banker in Wichita, Kan. : Hiram Fleming, a lawyer of Los Angeles. Cal .; Isaiah, of Monmouth, Ill. ; Thomas Rice, of Liberty, Neb .; and Sarah Gibson, deceased, wife of Henry Beckwith, of New London, Connec- ticut.

Dr. George Noreross was born near Erie, Pa., April 8, 1838. His youth and early manhood were spent at Monmouth, Ill., where he was educated in Monmouth . College, an institution under the care of the United Presbyterian Church. After grad- uating from college in 1861 he began his theological studies in the Seminary of the Northwest, now MeCormick, Chicago, and continued them in the Seminary of the United Presbyterian Church, at Monmouth. During the latter part of this period he served as the supply of a church at North Henderson, and also held a professorship in Monmouth College. In October, 1864, he entered the Theological Seminary at Princeton, N. J., where he spent his last year of study in preparation for the ministry.

REV. GEORGE NORCROSS, D. D.

CUMBERLAND COUNTY.

Having received a call from the congrega- tion which he for seventeen months had al- ready served as stated supply, he, on June 6. 1865, was ordained and installed as pas- tor of the Presbyterian Church of North Henderson. Mercer county, Ill. Here he was among kind and appreciative people and his labors were greatly blessed.

In the spring of 1866 he was called to the Presbyterian Church (O. S.) of Gales- burg, Ill., where he labored for nearly three years, and then received the call which brought him to the Second Presbyterian Church of Carlisle. Here he has labored continuously and acceptably for more than thirty-five years. His pastorate began in January, 1869. at a time when the church had about 230 members, and the Sabbath- school an attendance of only 125 scholars and teachers. Both numbers have been greatly augmented; the roll of communi- cants to about 500 and that of the Sabbath- schools under his care to about 600.

A pastorate of thirty years' duration was remarkable in Carlisle history, and when the tltirtieth anniversary in Dr. Norcross's de- voted service in the Second Presbyterian Church arrived his friends gave the event a fitting commemoration. The celebration extended over two days, Jan. Ist and 2d. 1899, and ministers and laymen with like freedom participated in the interesting and memorable exercises. The sermons preached, and addresses delivered, along with many congratulatory letters received, were published in a volume called "The Story of a Thirtieth Anniversary," which forms an important chapter in the recorded history of this favored church.

During his first year at Carlisle the Manse was built, and during the second the old church building was torn down to make way for the present new Gothic structure,

erected at a cost of fifty thousand dollars and dedicated on May 29, 1873. In 1887 the present edifice was renovated and im- proved at an expenditure of ten thousand dollars, provided largely by the bequest of Mrs. Robert Givin and the generous gift of her only daughter, Miss Amelia Steele Givin, now Mrs. Walter Beall. The bene- factions of these faithful friends, at the same time, were supplemented by the congrega- tion, who expended about two thousand dol- lars upon the Lecture Room.

Dr. Norcross has represented the Pres- bytery of Carlisle four times in the General Assembly, viz. : In 1871 at Chicago, in 1874 at St. Louis, in 1885 at Cincinnati, and in 1895 at Pittsburg. In the last two Assem- blies he was chairman of important stand- ing committees. In 1877 he attended the first Pan-Presbyterian Council at Edin- burgh, Scotland, as an associate member, and was present at all the deliberations of that historic body. In October, 1899, he was elected moderator of the Synod of Pennsylvania, then assembled in the city of Erie. This is the second largest synod in the world, being outranked only by that of New York. The same year he was also a member of the Seventh Pan-Presbyterian Council, held in Washington, D. C.

Dr. Norcross is a man of acknowledged learning and culture, a ready and forceful speaker, and in recognition of his literary attainments, and faithful ministerial service, Princeton College, in 1879, conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. While he devotes himself rigorously to the work of his own congregation he, both as a minister and a citizen, is known as the friend of every reform. He has given much thought and labor to the temperance cause and when the question of Constitutional Amendment in interest of Prohibition was before the peo-

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ple in 1889 he addressed many public meet- ings in its behalf, and his famous "Ox Ser- mon," or, "Our Responsibility for the Drink Traffic." preached before the Presbytery, was printed and widely circulated.

After attending the sessions of the Pan- Presbyterian Council in Edinburgh, in 1877. Dr. Norcross and his wife made a tour of the continent. visiting the famous places of history and observing the different phases of European life. Accompanied by his en- tire family, he in July, 1890, again visited Europe, remaining abroad for more than a year. Seven months they spent at study in the city of Leipsic, Germany, and six months in traveling through Holland. Belgium, Switzerland. Germany, Austria. Italy and France, returning to their native land in August, 1891.

Dr. Norcross has been twice married. On Oct. 1, 1863. he married Mary S. Tracy, of Monmouth, Ill., who died March 25, 1866. After her death he removed to Galesburg. Ill., where on April 22, 1867, he wedded Mrs. Louise (Jackson) Gale, a daughter of Mr. Samuel Clinton Jackson, and widow of Major Josiah Gale, the son of Rev. Dr. Gale, the founder of Galesburg. By his first mar- riage he had one child, which died in in- fancy ; and to his second union there have been born five children, viz. : Delia Jackson ; George, who died at eight years of age; Elizabeth; Mary Jackson ; and Louise Jack- son. Of these Delia Jackson is married to Mr. Carl Foster. Mr. and Mrs. Foster re- side in Bridgeport, Conn., and have the fol- lowing children: Mary Louise, Julia M., Elizabeth Norcross and George Norcross.

In the year 1886, upon the occasion of the Centennial celebration of the Carlisle Presbytery, Dr. Norcross became the edi- tor of the publication called "The Centennial Memorial of the Presbytery of Carlisle."

The work consists of two volumes and is a valuable historical and biographical review of the origin and growth of Presbyterianism in Southern Central Pennsylvania. As the result of this and other literary work he was made a member of the American Society of Church History, now merged into the American Historical Association, and of the Scotch-Irish Society of America. At the request of the committee of arrangements, he in 1896 prepared a paper on "The Scotch- Irish in the Cumberland Valley," which he read before the Eightli Scotch-Irish Con- gress in Harrisburg. In this address he tells of the work of this brave and hardy people. of the early churches they established, and the blood they shed in the cause of liberty, concluding with the following eloquent pai- agraph :

"The War of the Revolution was begun and maintained for principles peculiarly dear to Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. As they were among the first to declare themselves in favor of separation from the mother coun- try, so they were among the last to lay down their arms, and that only when the great cause was won. They were conspicuous in almost every battle of the great struggle, and when the conflict ended in the triumph of their aspirations, it is not strange that the free representative principles of their church government should have been adopted as the model for our Federal Constitution. The Scotch-Irish Presbyterians at last had at- tained their ideal; a free church in a free State."

In 1898 the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church celebrated the two- hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Westminster Assembly, which was convened by the long Parliament of England in 1663. Dr. Norcross was requested to prepare a paper telling "The Story of the Westminster

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Assembly," which he did, and delivered une during the sessions of the General As- wembly at Winona Lake, Ind., in May, iNOS. This paper was published in the vol- ume "Westminster Anniversary Addresses."

MATTHEW LOUDON. On Dec. 4. 1751, the proprietaries of Pennsylvania is- sued to John Hopkins a warrant for 150 acres of land. This warrant was transferred :) Matthew Loudon, and on it were surveyed to him, on March 26, 1767, two adjoining tracts, one containing 172 acres and 67 perches, and the other 48 acres and 67 perches. This land lies on the slopes of the ridge between New Kingstown and Hoges- town. in what is now Silver Spring town- ship. but was then East Pennsboro. At the time the warrant was issued, it was bounded on the west by lands of Joseph Junken, and on the east by lands of William Walker.

Matthew Loudon was a younger brother of James Loudon, and with him came from Scotland in 1754. According to some ac- counts there was also a brother John. These three brothers settled in the Raccoon Valley, in what is now Perry county, early in 1755. They were soon afterwards driven away by the Indians, and came to the south of the Kittatinny Mountains, where they remained for five years, waiting for the Indian hostil- ities to subside. When peace was restored, John and James Loudon ventured back to their possessions in the Raccoon Valley, but their brother Matthew, having formed new alliances, remained in the Cumberland Val- ley. While waiting for peace he met in the vicinity of where now is Hogestown, a young lady named Elizabeth McCormick, a daughter of Thomas McCormick. Their acquaintance ripened into love, and they were married, beginning life on the south- ern slopes of the ridge where he acquired

the lands referred to, now ( 1903) included in the farms owned by Albert Breen and John C. Parker. Here Matthew Loudon's possessions grew with the growth and de- velopment of the country. In 1763 he was taxed with 150 acres of land. and from year to year this amount rose till in 1787 it reached 350 acres. His personal property increased in the same rapid proportion. and according to the assessment rolls of East Pennsboro township, he was for a long time in affluent circumstances, and one of the leading citizens of the section.

Matthew Loudon and Elizabeth McCor- mick, his wife, had children as follows: Mary, Archibald and Catharine ( who died in infancy). Mary, the eldest child, was born in May, 1761. and on March 14, 1782, married Col. James McFarland. by whom she had ten children, four sons and six daughters. Archibald was born on March 17, 1763. Nine years before, as his parents were on their way to America, his cousin, Archibald Loudon, was born at sea. This cousin subsequently lived and died at Car- lisle, and their names being similar, the two are apt to be confounded with each other on the records.

Archibald Loudon, son of Matthew, married Margaret Bines, daughter of Thomas and Margaret (Vance) Bines, and . began life as a farmer on the ridge a little to the northeast of where is now New Kings- town, and near where his father settled when he came into the Cumberland Valley. He prospered, and being enterprising, he and John Walker, a neighbor, engaged at manu- facturing iron at Mt. Holly, Cumberland county, during the years 1800 and 1801. The venture was a financial failure, both partners losing heavily. He continued to live on his farm near New Kingstown until about 1820, when he exchanged it for a

CUMBERLAND COUNTY.

farm lying on the Juniata river, opposite Newport, Perry county, and with his family removed to it. Here he died March 22, 1832. His wife died five days after her husband, and the remains of both lie interred in the cemetery of the Silver Spring Church. Archibald Loudon and Margaret Bines, his wife, had children as follows: (1) Eliza- beth McCormick, the eldest child, mar- ried James Bell, and by lim had four children, only two of whom lived to grow to maturity. (2) John McCor- mick. born Sept. 18. 1792. married Nancy Giffin, who died Aug. 29, 1834. He died Sept. 16, 1880, and both are buried at Silver Spring. They left no children. (3) Matthew, born in December, 1794, married Sarah Fulton, in 1840, by whom he had four daughters. After his marriage he lived for some time in Perry county, but subsequently moved West and settled in the State of Missouri. Late in life he returned to Perry county, and died there on April 21, 1855. (4) Margaret, born Sept. 15, 1796, married Henry Ewalt, and by him had two sons and one daughter, viz. : William Henry, born in March, 1827, died in February, 1875: Loudon Bines, born April 16, 1836, died Nov. 30, 1903; and Margaret, born Sept. 21, 1838. Henry Ewalt died Jan. II, 1871, in the seventy-first year of his age, and his wife died Feb. 5, 1874. in her seven- ty-eighth year. Both are buried at Silver Spring. (5) Thomas Bines, born in June, 1799. married Martha Irvine, in February, 1830. He died at Middlesex, Cumberland `county, Dec. 31, 1848, and his wife died while on a visit at Hogestown Nov. 27, 1879, aged about eighty years. Their re- mains lie buried in the Silver Spring grave- yard. They had no children. (6) James, born Feb. 22, 1802, married, in 1836, Mrs. Ann Englehart, and settled in Harford

county, Md., where he died leaving no chil- dren. (7) Mary Ann, born May 1, 1804, never married. She died at Hogestown, at the home of her sister, Mrs. Margery B. Snowden, Oct. 26, 1848. (8) Margery Bines, born Sept. 30, 1808. married, in 1832, Dr. Isaac Wayne Snowden, and had the following children: Nathan Randolph, born Oct .- 7, 1833, died in August, 1900; Archibald Loudon, born Aug. 11, 1835; Margaret, born Jan. 10, 1838, died March 25/ 1854; Sarah Gustine, born April 54 1841; and Maud Loudon, born March 31, 1848. Dr. Isaac Wayne Snowden died June 4, 1850, and his wife died Jan. 25, 1888. Both are buried in the cemetery of the Sil- ver Spring Church. (9) William McCor- mick, born Nov. 12, 1812, married Eliza Patterson, went West and settled in Mis- souri. Three children, two daughters and a son, were born to them. Both parents are dead, and their remains are buried at Han- nibal, Missouri.

Matthew Loudon's first wife, Elizabeth McCormick, died at a date not now known, and he afterward married Ann Copenger, by whom he had five children. He died Jan. 10, 1801, at the age of seventy-two years, and his wife, Ann Copenger, died Feb. 17, 1829. He and his two wives lie buried in the same grave in the cemetery of the Silver Spring church. The Carlisle Weekly Gasette, Jan. 14, 1801, contained the following notice of his death : "On the 10th instant at his farm in East Pennsboro, Mr. Matthew Loudon. None who knew this man will hesitate to say that he possessed the moral and social virtues in an eminent degree. As a husband, a father, a neighbor and a member of society, both civil and re- ligious, his actions were the testimonials of sincerity and real friendship, and strongly indicated the goodness of his heart. His

CUMBERLAND COUNTY.

remains were interred in Silver Spring graveyard on the 12th instant, accompanied thither by an uncommonly large and respec- table number of his relations and neighbors who were sensibly affected by the loss of this worthy citizen."

Matthew and Ann ( Copenger) Loudon had issue as follows: (1) Elizabeth mar- ried Thomas Carothers and by him had five children : John, who went to Missouri and died there in 1855: Matthew, who died young : William, who went to Texas, and it is not known what became of him ; Thomas, who went South, married and settled in Texas: and Nancy, who married a son of James Armstrong, of Carlisle, and had two sons who located at Columbia, Pa. (2) John Loudon married Polly Hoge, daughter of John Hoge, and moved to Ohio in 1816. (3) James, born April 1, 1781, married Mary Pinkerton, and had one son named Matthew. James Loudon died Jan. 27, 1847. and his wife died May 19, 1857. and both are buried in the Silver Spring burying ground. (4) Catharine. born Feb. 15, 1783. married Andrew Carothers, of Carlisle, and by him had three sons, as follows: John C., who went to Missouri, and there married a Miss Carothers, who died without children ; Matthew. who married a Miss Wilson, moved to Shelbyville. Mo., and had a large family of children: and James, who settled in California. Mrs. Catharine (Loudon) Carothers died Jan. 19. 1820, and her hus- band afterward married Mrs. Isabella 'Creigh ) Alexander, widow of Samue! Alexander. Andrew Carothers died July 27, 1836, and was buried by the side of his first wife in the cemetery of the Silver Spring church. His second wife died June 4, 1861, in the seventy-fifth year of her age, and is buried in the Old Graveyard at Car- lisle. (5) Ann, born Oct. 29, 1785, was a

deaf mute, and died unmarried Jan. 18, 1845, at the home of her brother James at Roxbury, in Monroe township, and her re- mains are buried at Silver Spring.

Matthew Loudon made his will April 6. 1799, and left his estate, subject to certain allowances, to his sons, John and James, to be divided between the two by the judgment of seven men appointed by his executors. To his son Archibald, he, some years before, had given what he considered his portion. In 1822 James' land was purchased at sheriff's sale by Thomas Carothers, his brother-in-law, who in March, 1827, con- veyed it to Andrew Carothers, Esq.

Matthew Loudon, James Loudon's son and only child, was born March 7, 1812. He married Catharine Myers, by whom he had three children : John Myers, Elizabeth and Alfred James.

Matthew Loudon never wandered far from the place of his birth. In 1845 he pur- chased from the Forney estate a farm near the village of Hogestown, and upon it en- gaged at farming while health and strength remained to him. He was a quiet unosten- tatious man and much respected for his in- tegrity and modest worth. From early in life he was a member of the Lutheran Church at Trindle Spring, and for many years one of its deacons, also a trustee, in - which capacity he was serving at the time of his death. He died Oct. 30, 1885. and his wife died April 18, 1893. in the seventy- seventh year of her age. Their remains lie buried in the cemetery of the Trindle Spring Church.

John Myers, the oldest child of Matthew and Catharine (Myers) Loudon, was born May 27, 1841. He married Lyde J. Ellis, who is of English descent, and they became the parents of the following children: Mar- garet Ellis, born Dec. 12, 1875 ; Mary Cath-

CUMBERLAND COUNTY.

arine, born April 17, 1880; John Matthew, born June 24, 1882; Lillie Bell, born April 17. 1886, died Dec. 18, 1901 ; Miriam Cris- tobel, born Sept. 12, 1889.

John Myers Loudon was a farmer, and up to his death engaged at farming on a place belonging to the Loudon heirs, not far from where he was born, in Silver Spring township. He died Aug. 6. 1894, and since his death his widow and children continue the work, and maintain intact the unity of the family. Margaret Ellis, the eldest daughter, married Albert Clouser, lives in York. Pa., and has had the following chil- dren : Mary Elizabeth, born Aug. 9, 1893 ; Charles, born May, 1894, died August, 1894; Jolin Horace, born May 1, 1898; and Al- bert. born Feb. 17, 1903.

Miss Elizabeth, the second child of Mat- thew and Catharine ( Myers) Loudon, was born Sept. 16, 1843. She resides in Me- chanicsburg.

Alfred James, the third and youngest child of Matthew and Catharine (Myers) Loudon, was born Aug. 7, 1847, and grew to man's estate on the farm on which he was born, and on which he has always lived. He was bred a farmer, and was limited in education to the curriculum of the country district school, but he is of a spirit that keeps him in close touch with public affairs, and with the most advanced ideas in his private vocation. He has been a Knight of Pythias since 1871; a Mason since 1873, and a Patron of Husbandry since 1882. He is a Republican in politics, and has long been regarded a party wheelhorse in his section of the county. He frequently figures in county conventions and occasionally in State conventions as a delagate. For nine consec- utive years he was school director, each time elected by a good majority, notwithstanding the strong anti-Republican bias of his dis-

trict, and in 1902, he was a nominee for county commissioner but was defeated by only a small majority. On Feb. 19, 1885, he was married to Mary Ellen, daughter of the late Simon Seiler, of Hogestown, and their children were: Matthew James, born Dec. 28, 1885, died May 21, 1888: Simon Seiler, born April 28, 1888; Archibald Pink- erton, born Nov. 11, 1892; Charlotte Eliza- beth, born Feb. 25, 1896; Mary Marguerite, born Feb. 26, 1897. . The family are regular attendants of the Presbyterian church at Silver Spring, and are universally respected for their high character and good neighborly qualities.

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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 5

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