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 9
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118
52
CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
Schaeffer's claims for the position were su- perior to his own, and in a personal interview with the Governor recommended Dr. Schaef- ier's appointment. Before his second term in the Legislature was ended, he was elected an instructor in the Cumberland Valley State Normal School, and two years later was promoted to the important chair of Pedagogics and General History. In ISSS Pennsylvania College, at Gettysburg. after a searching inquiry into his ability and worth, honored him with the degree of Mas- ter of Arts, and in 1892 the same institution conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Science. In 1889 he was made principal of the Cumberland Valley State Normal School, which position he has held continu- ously ever since, a period of over fifteen years. He has worked hard in season and out of season, and the school under his care- ful and prudent management has prospered beyond the expectations of its most sanguine friends. Part of his duties as principal con- sists in lecturing at teachers' institutes and other educational gatherings, which work he has done so well that he has long been re- garded as one of the leading educators of Pennsylvania, and the institution of which he is the efficient head, as one of Pennsyl- vania's most successful and promising nor- mal schools.
O:1 June 6. 1872, Dr. Eckels was mar- ried to Anna, daughter of Daniel and Jane ( Brownawell) Humer, and to their union have been born the following children : Min- nie Gertrude, born March 7, 1873; George Humer, born Dec. 8, 1875; Nathaniel Ort. born Jan. 12, 1880. Minnie Gertrude is a graduate of the Cumberland Valley State Normal School, and of Bucknell University. She belonged to the first honor group in her class at Bucknell, and is now taking post graduate work at Pennsylvania Uni-
versity. George Humer Eckels is a grad- uate of the Scientific Course of the Cumber- land Valley State Normal School, and of the classical course of Pennsylvania Col- lege, Gettysburg, Pa., belonging to the honor list of his class in the latter institution ; he has also taken post graduate work in Latin and Greek at Cornell University, and he is at present principal of the Atlantic City High School. He was married Dec. 20, 1900, to Nettie Bae Roop, daughter of Dr. J. W. and Sarah Elizabeth ( Harp) Roop, of Har- risburg. Pa., and they have one child, Eliza- beth Anna, born Dec. 21, 1901. Nathaniel Ort Eckels is a graduate of the Cumberland Valley State Normal, and of the Philadel- phia College of Pharmacy, and at present is proprietor of a drug store in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania.
JOHN W. WETZEL, EsQ. About the time Cumberland county was formed one William Davidson took out a warrant for 228 acres of land lying in Middleton township, due north of Carlisle. In making his will he directed that the first one of his brothers or sisters, or brothers' or sisters' children, that came to America should have one-half of this land.
Through this peculiar bequest Samuel Davidson, a nephew, came into possession of one-half of this tract of land, and he on Dec. 21, 1773, conveyed it to George Wetzel, "of Middleton township, Blacksmith." The conveyance was dated in 1773, but it is probable that the purchaser was in that vicin- ity a year or two earlier, as he then already was "of Middleton township." This is the first appearance of the Wetzel name on the records of Cumberland county. This tract of land lies in the vicinity of Wert's school- house, North Middleton township, and is now owned by J. Wesley Hoy.
53
CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
George Wetzel was a native of Germany and came to America from Rotterdam in the ship "Bennet Galley," landing at Philadel- phia Aug. 13, 1750. He first settled some- where in the eastern part of the Province, where he married and remained until the Indian troubles had subsided, when the op- portunities for acquiring land and a home induced him to migrate to the Cumberland Valley. He lived upon this land the remain- der of his lifetime, farming and blacksmith- ing. He was a quiet and reserved citizen and participated very little in public affairs. During the war of the Revolution he was commissioned an ensign in the 10th Regi- ment, Pennsylvania Militia, but from the data at hand it does not appear that he was in active service, although he may have been. He died in 1786, leaving to survive him his wife Mary and four sons, named respectively : Jacob, George, Jolin and Mar- tin.
Jacob Wetzel, the eldest, was born March II, 1771, and had not yet reached his six- teenth year when his father died. He grew up on the farm, and along with farming learned blacksmithing, all his lifetime fol- lowing these two occupations in the same locality in which his father purchased a home in 1773. He was a worthy and in- fluential citizen and a member of the German Reformed Church of Carlisle from the time of its first organization. He served as one of its trustees for twelve years continuously and following his trusteeship was an elder up to the time of his death. For many years he was prominently identified with all its affairs, and its charter, dated Dec. 23, 18II, bears upon its face his name as one of its original incorporators. His brother John was also long a member of the same vestry, and the family, through all its different branches and generations, has uniformly
adhered to this church. The John Wetzel here named was a private in the Carlisle Light Infantry, one of the companies which in 1814 marched from Carlisle to the Niag- ara frontier and there participated in the battle of Chippawa and other engagements.
Jacob Wetzel married Phoebe Moses, a daughter of Peter Moses, of Tyrone town- ship, Perry county, Pa., and by her had the following children: John, Joseph, Moses, Jacob, Phoebe, Susan, Mary and Eliza, all of whom lived to maturity, married and set- tled down within a short distance of their birth place. As but few members of this large family sought homes elsewhere their de- scendants have become very numerous with- in the bounds of their native county. Jacob Wetzel died on Oct. 15, 1828; his wife died Oct. 14, 1825, and their remains were in- terred in the German Reformed graveyard on South Hanover street, Carlisle, but when the growth of the town made it necessary to remove that burying-place they were trans- ferred to the Wetzel family lot in the "Old Grave Yard" at Carlisle.
John Wetzel, the eldest child of Jacob and Phoebe ( Moses) Wetzel. was born May 3, 1805. He grew to manhood in Middleton township and became a farmer and incident- ally also did blacksmithing. On March 9, 1826, he married Catharine Wise, Rev .. John Ebaugh, pastor of the Reformed Church of Carlisle and vicinity, performing the ceremony. Catharine Wise was born Jan. 25, 1804, and was a daughter of George Wise, who was a son of Jacob Wise, and for a long time owned the property known upon the records as "Mansfield," lying on the south side of the Conedoguinet creek at Wise's Bridge, in what is now North Mid- dleton township. John and Catharine (Wise) Wetzel had children as follows : George, Jacob, Susan, Mary E., John, Cath-
54
CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
arine. Joseph, Phoebe. Moses, Henry and Eliza. This generation also all grew to ma- turity and. with a single exception, re- mained in the county of their birth, and they and their descendants form a very respecta- ble and influential element in the social and business activities of the section. John Wet- zel died on May 26, 1842; his wife died Oct. 5. ISSI, and both are buried at Car- lisle Springs.
George Wetzel, the first child of John . and Catharine (Wise) Wetzel, was born Dec. 25, 1826. in North Middleton township, on the farm long owned by the late Capt. George Braught. His parents lived on sev- eral different properties in that vicinity until in the spring of 1832, when they moved to the George Wise farm, and there engaged at farming for a period of eleven years. The father dying when the boy George was only a little over fifteen years of age, and there being ten other children still younger, it be- came necessary that they be early taught to be self-supporting. Accordingly George was apprenticed to the wagonmaking trade in Carlisle with Charles Pfleager, who by marriage was a cousin of the boy's father. He entered upon his apprenticeship early in the month of March, 1845. Three weeks afterward the Carlisle courthouse and town hall were burned, and the young man, wit- nessing their destruction, was so worked up by the excitement of the occasion that he soon thereafter joined the Union Fire Com- pany, and has been a faithful and enthusi- astic fireman through all his long lifetime. There was much doing at wagonmaking in those days, and upon completing his trade he built himself a shop and began business on his own account. Being a good mechanic he commanded a patronage which afforded steady employment both for himself and for a force of journeymen and apprentices. In
1866 he quit wagonmaking to engage in the hotel business. He kept the well-known "Pennsylvania House" for two years and afterward the "Franklin House" for six years. Being an ardent Democrat and an influential party worker he in 1861 was elected to the borough council, and in 1869 was elected county treasurer, which was then a two-year office. Afterward, when Carlisle was passing through a reign of ter- ror from firebugs and other lawless char- acters, he served a term as town constable, and the courage and fidelity with which he performed the trying duties of that position were highly commended. In 1846 he joined the Washington Artillery, one of Carlisle's famous military companies, of which he was a member for seven years. In September, 1862, when the Confederates crossed the Potomac and threatened to advance still farther northiward. he enlisted in the State militia under Capt. Ephraim Cornman, Col. Henry McCormick, and during the emer- gency did military service on the borders of Maryland. In religion, he followed the ex- ample of his ancestry and early united with the Reformed Church of Carlisle, sang in its choir, served as deacon and trustee and was otherwise prominent in promoting its interests. Since he has retired from the active duties of life he lives in the pleasant home of his daughter, Mrs. H. G. Rinehart, on North Bedford street, Carlisle, where, with faculties unimpaired, he continues to take a lively interest in the affairs of the day and composedly awaits the future.
On June 28, 1849, George Wetzel was married to Sarah Ellen Shade, Rev. A. H. Kremer, pastor of the Reformed Church of Carlisle, performing the ceremony. Sarah Ellen Shade was a daughter of John and Susan Shade. John Shade, her father, was a carpenter and builder, long of Carlisle, but
55
CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
formerly of Perry county and a descendant oi a Revolutionary ancestor. George and Saralı Ellen (Shade) Wetzel had the fol- lowing children : John W., Charles Henry, Catharine, Sarah Adelia, Rebecca Florence, Mary Elizabeth, George B. Mcclellan, Annie Matilda, Ida May and Frank Wil- liam Dale.
John Wise Wetzel, the eldest of these ten children, and the especial subject of this sketch, was born in Carlisle April 20, 1850. In his boyhood he attended the public schools of Carlisle, and then, after preparing under Prof. David Sterrett, entered Dickinson College, from which institution he grad- uated in 1874. While in college lie read law with C. E. Maglaughlin, Esq., and was admitted to the Bar of Cumberland county in April. 1874, two months betore his gradu- ation. He then entered upon the practice of his profession in the town of Carlisle and has steadily and assiduously pursued it ever since. He has made good progress and ranks high as a lawyer and counselor, both in the courts of his own and those of ad- joining counties. He is extensively em- ployed by leading corporations, being attor- ney for the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company, the Crescent Pipe Line, the Lind- ner Shoe Company, the Carlisle Carpet Mills, thie Letort Carpet Company, the Letort Axle Works, the Carlisle Chain Works. and others that might be mentioned. He is a member of the Cumberland County Bar Association, also of the Pennsylvania State Bar Associa- tion, and for many years has been secretary of the committee on Admissions to the State Bar Association. He is one of the incorpo- rators of the Dickinson School of Law at Carlisle, and since 1884 has been a trustee of Franklin and Marshall College, at Lan- caster City. He works hard, gives prompt
attention to business, is liberal and progres- sive in all things and an influential factor in the social and material development of his town and county. He is one of the in- corporators of the Merchants National Bank of Carlisle, and since 1893 president of its board of directors. He gives studious and careful attention to the finances of his sec- tion of the country and is a member of the Pennsylvania State Bankers' Association. He aids in establishing and promoting busi- ness enterprises, and was for a number of years a director of the Carlisle Gas & Water Company, is now a member of the Beetem Lumber & Manufacturing Company, and president of the Big Spring Turnpike Com- pany.
Like nearly all of his large family Mr. Wetzel, in politics, is a Democrat, and before his law business absorbed so much of his time and attention was very active and prom- inent in party management. In 1876 he was a delegate to the Democratic State Conven- tion and again in 1890. In 1880 he was elected District Attorney of Cumberland county by an unusually large majority, and in 1882, in an exciting and memorable cam- paign, was chairman of the Democratic ex- ecutive committee. Fraternally, he is a member of the order of Knights of Pythias, also of the Cumberland Star Lodge of Free" and Accepted Masons, in which he is a past master.
On Sept. 3, 1872, John W. Wetzel was married to Miss Lizzie Wolf, youngest daughter of John and Elizabeth Wolf, of Carlisle. Both are members of the Re- formed Church of Carlisle, in which Mr. Wetzel has been a deacon and is now an elder. To John W. and Lizzie (Wolf) Wetzel one child has been born, a son named George Frank Wetzel, who is a graduate of
36
CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
Franklin and Marshall College. He is also a member of the Cumberland county Bar and is practicing his profession at Carlisle.
MAJOR ISAAC WAGNER, late one of the prominent and highly esteemed citi- zens of Newville, was born Aug. 11, 1821, near Walnut Bottom. Cumberland county, son of Joseph and Hannah ( Rodes) Wag- ner, early settlers of the county. Joseph Wagner. his grandfather. came of German parentage. He married a Miss Walters.
Major Isaac Wagner was reared a farmer boy and was educated in the district schools of his locality. After reaching his majority he entered the service of his coun- try. joining Company F, 126th P. V. I., in which he served faithfully for three years, being promoted from time to time for sol- dierly gallantry. He was honorably dis- charged in 1864, with the rank of major. After his discharge he went to Green Springs. Cumberland county, where he en- gaged in general farming and stockraising, meeting with much success. He became a prominent man, was a director of the New- ville Bank, was assessor and tax collector of his township, and was frequently chosen to administer estates. In politics he was a strong Democrat of the Jeffersonian type. His death occurred Oct. 24, 1886.
In 1869 Major Wagner was united in marriage with Mary J. Christlieb, of Green Springs, widow of Charles Christlieb. They had two sons born to them, Walter and Homer J. The latter, a graduate of the State Normal School at Shippensburg, is principal of the High School and professor of General History at Centralia. Wash. ; he married Belle Over, of Newville, and they have one son, J. Homer.
By her former marriage, Mrs. Wagner had two children, viz: Isaac Clark Christ-
lieb, of Hutchinson, Minn .; and Joseph Linsay Christlieb, a skilled machinist in Washington. She was born in 1832 in Cumberland county, a daughter of Joseph and Margaret (Shillerbarger) Linsay. The Linsay family is of Scotch-Irish descent. Mrs. Wagner is a valued member of the United Presbyterian Church at Newville. Major Wagner belonged to Newville Post, G. A. R., where he was held in high esteem by his comrades.
GEORGE EDWARD REED, S. T. D., LL. D., seventeenth president of Dickin- son College, was born in Brownville, Maine, in 1846. His father, a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church, came to America from Devonshire, England, in 1836.
The father dying when the son was about six years of age, the mother, a woman of great strength of character, removed with her large family to Lowell, Mass., where George received the rudiments of his edu- cation. The family, however, being in straitened circumstances the boy was com- pelled at an early age to begin the battle of life for himself, which he did, serving for several years in various capacities in one of the large manufacturing companies of the city, first as a "runner" in the counting- room, and later as a "bobbin boy" in the mills. In the summer he worked on farms adjacent to the city, gaining in this severe school the stalwart, vigorous frame which has stood him in such good stead in later years. Having accumulated money enough to warrant the continued pursuit of the studies he had been compelled, temporarily, to lay aside, he in January, 1865, entered the Wesleyan Academy, Wilbraham, Mass., to prepare for college. This he accom- plished in one term and a half, doing in that
Mw Edward need
57
CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
surprisingly brief period the amount of work for which nine months are usually required. He regards this as the greatest achievement of his life, the record never having been sur- passed. In September, 1865, he entered Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., from which he graduated in 1869, with dis- tinction, in a class famous for the number of its members who have attained eminence in their various callings.
After graduating from college he spent one year in the School of Theology of the Boston University, and then began the work of the ministry of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church, serving two of the most important churches of that body, in Willimantic, Conn., and in Fall River, Mass. In 1875, when but twen- ty-nine years of ago, he was transferred to the Hanson Place Church, Brooklyn, N. Y., then and now the largest Methodist Church in this country. At the end of three years he was appointed to an influential church in Stamford, Connecticut. In 1881 he became pastor of the Nostrand Avenue Church, Brooklyn, where he continued for three years, and then again served the Han- son Place Church. On leaving the city of Brooklyn he was tendered a reception in the Brooklyn Tabernacle by citizens of the city, irrespective of denominational lines, in rec- ognition of public services rendered.
In 1887 Dr. Reed assumed the pastorate of Trinity Church, New Haven, and while serving his second year there he was hon- ored with a unanimous call to the presidency of Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa., one of the oldest colleges in the country. Here he has assiduously labored ever since and with eminent success. He gives careful personal attention to all duties of his position, and in the years of his ad-
ministration the number of students has more than doubled and evidences of the prosperity of the institution in all other lines are correspondingly apparent. In 1886 he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from his Alma Mater, the Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., and in 1889 the degree of Doctor of Laws from LaFayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania.
In addition to the various duties of his position as college president Dr. Reed is in great demand as a lecturer and a preacher in all parts of the country and with con- stantly increasing fame. He is a careful thinker, eloquent in diction. self-possessed, and interesting and attractive in the mode of presenting his subject. He distinctly enunci- ates his propositions and convinces the minds and wins the hearts of his hearers by clear- ness of statement and sincerity and earnest- ness of manner. While a clergyman by pro- fession, and devoted to his calling, he nev- ertheless holds pronounced opinions in re- gard to political affairs. He has always been a Republican, and when he deemed it neces- sary and proper never hesitated to publicly advocate his party's candidates and policies, but just as freely and courageously has led in independent movements when his sense of duty called him in that direction. Not -. ably was this the case while he lived in Brooklyn, when in his judgment it was nec- essary to act outside of party lines. As a political orator, no less than a preacher and lecturer, Dr. Reed has won enviable dis- tinction. Although in no sense a seeker after party recognition-his well known in- dependence being a handicap upon political aspirations-he for four years was Pennsyl- vania's State Librarian, a public position which he occupied at the request of Gov.
58
CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
William A. Stone. but resigned before the expiration of the term for which he was appointed.
President Reed in June. 1870, was mar- ried to Ella Frances Leffingwell, of Nor- wich. Conn., a lineal descendant of the fam- ous Puritan. Miles Standish. of the Plym- outh Colony. To them one son has been born. George L., who is a student in Dickin- so11 College.
CHARLES FRANCIS HIMES, PH. D .. LL. D .. for more than thirty years pro- fessor in Dickinson College, was born in Lancaster county, Pa., in 1838.
The Himes family is of Pennsylvania- German stock. the immigrant ancestor, Wil- liam Heim, coming from the Palatinate to Philadelphia in 1730, on the same vessel with the celebrated Peter Miller, of Ephrata, and settled in Chester county, Pa. One of his sons, Francis, born in that county in 1737, settled in York county, at Hanover, where he engaged in keeping a tavern, farm- ing, running an oil mill, etc. He died there in ISII. His youngest son, George, mar- ried a daughter of Daniel Barnitz. of Han- over, and for many years kept the "Oxford Tavern," at what is now New Oxford, Pa., one of the noted old time hostelries on the road from Philadelphia to Pittsburg. He subsequently engaged in various business enterprises, in many of these closely con- nected with Thaddeus Stevens, and he was also much interested in politics. He became a large holder of real estate, including iron works, in Adams and adjoining counties.
William D. Himes, eldest son of George and the father of the subject of this sketch, was born in New Oxford, Pa., in 1812. He married Magdalen Lanius, of York, Pa., a daughter of Christian and Anna (Von Updegraff ) Lanius. Her immigrant ances-
tor. Jacob Lanius, came from Meckenheim in the Palatinate in 1731. William D. Himes engaged in merchandising in Lancaster county. Pa., but, shortly after the birth of his eldest son, Charles F. Himes, called by the business interests of his father, Col. George Hines, he removed to New Oxford, Adams county, where he continued to reside until his death, in 1896. He was well known as a business man in the southern portion of the State. at one time largely engaged in iron manufacture. A younger son, Wil- liam A. Himes, resides at the old homestead.
Charles Francis Himes enjoyed unusual educational advantages for that time, at an academy conducted by Dr. M. D. G. Pfeiffer, a German physician, graduate of the Uni- versity of Berlin, and well known as a very learned and public-spirited man. He en- tered the Sophomore class in Dickinson Col- lege. near the close of the college year, in 1853. and was graduated at the age of seven- teen. in 1855, with excellent rank in his class. Immediately after his graduation he taught Mathematics and Natural Science in an academy in Wayne county, Pa., for a year ; he then went to Missouri, where he taught in the public schools, and read law at the same time. During a visit to the East, in 1858, he resumed teaching, and after being connected with Baltimore Female College for a year he became tutor, and afterward professor of mathematics in Troy Univer- sity. Troy, N. Y. From that position he went to the University at Giessen, Germany, in 1863, to prosecute scientific studies. In the fall of 1865 he returned to America to enter upon the professorship of Natural Science in Dickinson College. He at once proposed, and carried out successfully, elec- tive laboratory courses in the Junior and Senior years, among the very first of the kind in the country, according to the report
59
CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
of the National Commissioner of Education. and by pen and addresses advocated the New Education of that date. By his persistent advocacy of enlarged facilities for scientific instruction in the expended department, he contributed to the erection of the Tome Sci- entific building, and at its opening, in 1885. made the address, and assumed the Chair of Physics. Complete laboratory courses in Physics were at once added to the curricu- lum of the college. In 1896 he resigned the position, owing to the demands made upon his time by the purely routine work of the professorship. The Board of trustees of the college, "in recognition of his attain- ments and great services to the College," conferred the degree of LL. D. upon him. and the graduating class presented a portrait of him to the college. The concensus of opinion of the alumni, of the thirty-one years of his professorship, seems to be that as a teacher his success was due to the personal rather than conventional methods employed. not confined by the text-books, and inspiring to thoughtful study, whilst as a disciplina- rian he was eminently successful by reason of his friendly but dignified intercourse with his students. As senior professor in service he was acting president of the college for months at a time and aside from his duties as professor he was for many years treas- urer of the corporation, and secretary of the board of trustees up to the time of his resig- nation.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.