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 95
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and the long march was resumed. On ap- proaching Gettysburg the regiment was de- tailed to guard the division supply train, some miles in the rear of the army, which duty required great vigilance and much swift marching, but was not as dangerous as actual participation in that deadly con- flict. After the war, when the battlefield of Gettysburg was marked, the 84th was ac- corded a place on the line of battle with other regiments, and its monument is erected there, although that is not the position it ocenpied.
During the army's return to Virginia the heat was intense and many men fell by the way side from sunstroke. The march- ing was so continuous that the soldiers had not the time to change or elean their eloth- ing, and thousands waded into convenient streams, and, taking off their flannel shirts, would wash them, wring them dry, then put them on again and continue their march. Robert Lamberton was one of the soldiers who did this, but he never perceived any evil effects therefrom. After again reach- ing Virginia the 84th repeatedly came in contact with the enemy, but participated in no general engagement until in the follow- ing May.
In the winter of 1863-64 the army was camped at Brandy Station, and there our subject again fell seriously siek. His ailment threatening his life he was furloughed home as soon as it was safe to move him, and care- ful nursing and rest brought back his health and strength. By May he was again fit for duty and joined his regiment at the open- ing of one of the hardest and bloodiest cam- paigns of the war. On the second day's fight in the Wilderness the 84th was in the thickest of the fray and lost many brave men, among them its lieutenant colonel. At Spottsylvania it participated in Hancock's
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charge and again suffered heavy loss. At North Anna Robert Lamberton was in an extremely dangerous situation, and two men were killed close by his side in less time than it takes to tell of it. From now on till the army reached Petersburg it was one con- tinuous series of engagements and the 84th was under fire day in and day out. Reach- ing Petersburg in the night, it was marched into an old clearing and placed in line of battle, in which position the men lay down and slept till morning. Robert Lamberton was the first to arise from his slumbers. He had built a fire and was cooking his break- fast when from a grove in their front a Confederate battery opened directly upon his fire. The first shell killed one man and wounded Lieut. Wingate and several others. The men flew to arms and began to throw up earthworks. but the enemy continued shell- ing until silenced by the Union artillery. For more than a week they fought and dug and dug and fought until their line of battle was fully established. The siege of Peters- burg was now on and the 84th had its full share in that desperate and bloody struggle. Being in Hancock's corps it participated in all the various movements made by that famous general's command and served gal- lantly until the last gun of the war was fired.
Robert Lamberton was one of the few men of the regiment that lived to return to his home. He had rendered to his country faithful and efficient service, and written his name on the scroll of fame, for he had par- ticipated in all of the following engage- ments: Fredericksburg. Chancellorsville, the march to Gettysburg. Wapping Heights, Thoroughfare Gap. Freeman's Ford, Bristoe Station, Kelly's Ford, Locust Grove, Mine Run, the Wilderness, Hancock's charge at Spottsylvania, North Anna, Pleasant Hill, Cold Harbor, the siege of Petersburg, Deep
Bottom (on July 27 and again on Aug. 15 and 16), Poplar Grove Church, Hatcher's Run (on Oct. 27, 1864, and again on Feb. 6 and on March 25. 1865), High Bridge (on April 6), and near High Bridge (on April 7).
After the war Robert Lamberton had charge of the ancestral farm until the spring of 1874. Soon after his return to his home he was elected justice of the peace, succeed- ing his father in the title of "Squire." Later he was also elected school director, and con- tinued to fill both offices while he remained in the township. In the spring of 1874 he and John Elliott entered the clothing, boot and shoe business, on North Hanover street, Carlisle, under the firm name of Elliott & Lamberton. In 1876 Mr. Elliott withdrew and went to the West, and the business was continued by Mr. Lamberton. About this time he was appointed county surveyor, to fill a vacancy caused by resignation. Sub- sequently he was elected to the position and held it until 1878, when he resigned, sold out his business and also removed to the West. He settled at Humboldt, Neb., where he engaged in business and resided until 1890 when he returned to his former home in Carlisle with health seriously impaired. In May, 1893, he was employed by the lum- ber firm of H. G. Beetem & Co., as secretary, and continued as such until that firm be- came merged into the Beetem Lumber & Manufacturing Company. He was then made secretary and treasurer of the new or- ganization, which position he filled until the day of his death. He died on May 12, 1904, of bronchial catarrh, a disease against which he struggled bravely and patiently for many years. His remains were interred in the family burying plot in Ashland cemetery, by the side of those of his wife. He was a member of the Second Presbyterian Church
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of Carlisle, the church of his parents, with which he had united early in life, was a men- ber of its board of trustees, and secretary of the board up to the time of his death.
Robert Clark Lamberton was married, on Jan. 9, 1873. to Sarah Rebecca Diven, daughter of Samuel Nelson Diven and Sarah Ann Clark, his wife, formerly of the city of Harrisburg. His wife died Dec. 28, 1896, having been an invalid for many years. To them were born the following children : Robert Clark, Sarah Margaret Clark and Jennie Diven, all of whom died in infancy ; and Clark Diven. Clark Diven Lamberton graduated from Dickinson College in 1902. with the A. B. degree. Since his gradua- tion he has taught a year in the Preparatory Department of Dickinson College, and is now a member of Princeton Theological Seminary, and of the Graduate School of Princeton University.
THE HUSTON FAMILY. The ear- liest appearance of the name Huston in Cumberland county was in 1743. In Feb- ruary of that year some of the inhabitants of East Pennsboro township petitioned the court at Lancaster for action in the case of a proposed road, and among the names on that petition appears that of John Huston. A history of the Virginia Hustons, written by Rev. Samuel Huston, states that John Huston came to America from Ireland about the year 1735 and "first settled in Pennsyl- vania." About the year 1745 he and his family removed to Rockbridge county, Va. John Huston had a son, Samuel, who mar- ried Elizabeth Paxton, and by her had nine children, among whom was a son Samuel, who became the famous Gen. Sam. Hous- ton of Texas. On July 4. 1848, a Demo- cratic meeting was held in Carlisle at which Gen. Houston, then United States senator,
was the guest of honor. He was the princi- pal speaker of the occasion and the chair- man of the meeting. Hon. John Clendenin, in introducing him to the audience, closed with these words: "The Democracy of Old Mother Cumberland delight to do him honor, and bid him a hearty welcome to the home of his ancestors." If, as early as 1848, in the man's presence, it was publicly said with- out contradiction that Old Mother Cumber- land was the home of Gen. Houston's ances- tors it can now be accepted as a settled fact. And as the John Huston on the old road petition was the only John Huston known to have been in the county prior to 1762 it can be also accepted as a fact that he was the grandfather of Gen. Houston.
When in 1750 Cumberland county was formed, there were among its taxables a Christopher Huston and a Samuel Huston. Both were located in the part of East Penns- boro township that is now Silver Spring. Christopher was there as early as 1744, as is shown by the records, and in 1748 was tax collector of the township. Whether these Hustons were relatives of the aforesaid John Huston cannot Le definitely deter- mined, but being all of Scotch-Irish nation- ality and settling in the same section so near the same time, the presumption is that they were. They may have been brothers.
In November, 1752. Samuel Huston took out a warrant for a tract of land, the survey of which was returned the following March. The tract contained 240 acres and was bounded on the south by lands of John Sample ; on the east by John Carson and Richard Peters ; on the north by Robert Car- rithers ; and on the west by John McClellan. The chain of title shows that this land has been divided up into two iarms which are now owned by Abraham Gutshall and Harry W. Shaull. This Samuel Huston was mar-
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ried to Isabella Sharon, of whose former history but little can be ascertained. It is known that a James Sharon, and after him his son James, lived upon and owned a tract of land in East Pennsboro, immediately to the west of where Samuel Huston located. but the last of the family disappeared from the locality soon after the Hustons came.
On Sept. 15, 1784, Samuel Huston made his will, which was probated on Oct. 12th, same year. In it he names four sons : Wil- liam, Samuel, John and Jonathan. John and Jonathan he designates "my two younger sons." Although not named in the will it appears from other court records that he also had a son James. No daughters are named. but it is a well authenticated fact that there were five, as follows: Margaret, Anne, Isabella, Mary and Jane. As near as can be ascertained these ten children ranged in order of age as follows: William, Sam- uel, Margaret, Mary, Anne, Jane, James, Isabella, John and Jonathan. There is noth- ing to show that William and John ever married. A William Huston was captain in a regiment of Cumberland county militia called into service in August, 1776, under Col. Frederick Watts, and it is probable that he was this William Huston. He dis- appeared from the East Pennsboro list of taxables in 1795. John Huston lived upon the old Huston homestead, bequeathed to him by his father, till his death. He died in ISII, and his estate became involved in liti- gation which was not terminated until in 1828.
Samuel married Esther Waugh, and by her had children as follows: John, Samuel, James, Richard, Esther and William.
Margaret married John Huston, a son of Christopher Huston, and by him had the following children : Jonathan, James, John, Samuel, William, Ann, Isabella and Mrs.
Kinkaid. John Huston purchased a tract of land in West Pennsboro while West Pennsboro yet included Dickinson and Penn townships. A few years afterward he moved to this newly acquired possession and he and his descendants were long some of the most prominent and influential people of that part of the county.
Mary, the fourth child, married John Mateer, whose name upon the early records is sometimes spelled McTeer. The Mateers were also some of the earliest settlers on the north side of the Conedoguinet creek in East Pennsboro, in the same neighbor- hood that the Hustons lived. Afterward they removed to the part of Allen township that is now Lower Allen. John Mateer was a captain in the war of the Revolution. John and Mary ( Huston) Mateer had issue as follows: Samuel Huston, John, Andrew, Alice, Isabella. Mary and Ann. Andrew, the third son, married Ann, a daughter of John and Margaret (Huston) Huston, of Dickinson township. He was a useful and prominent citizen of the vicinity of Lisburn during all of his active life, was long justice of the peace and universally known as "Squire Mateer." John Huston died in April, 1780, aged fifty-four years ; his wife, Mary Huston, died in February, 1812, aged seventy-three years, and the remains of both and also those of many of their descendants, are buried in the cemetery of the Silver Spring Church.
Anne Huston, the fifth child, married James Gibson, but nothing is known as to where they lived or what family they had.
In 1761 there came to America from County Antrim, Ireland, a scholarly young man named John Creigh, who for a time found employment in the family of Samuel Huston. Jane, the sixth child of Samuel and Isabella (Sharon) Huston, married this
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young Irish tutor and by him became the mother of a most illustrious family. John Creigh subsequently became a lawyer at Carlisle and rose to great distinction and usefulness. At the commencement of the war for American independence he joined the patriot army and speedily was advanced to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. In June. 1776. he was a representative of Cumber- Iand county to the convention which declared that the Colony of Pennsylvania was free and independent of Great Britain. He after- ward served with his regiment in New Jer- sey and participated in the battles of Ger- mantown and other engagements. After returning to his home he was chosen an as- sociate judge, also a ruling elder of the Pres- byterian Church at Carlisle. and held both offices up to his death. John and Jane (Huston) Creigh had the following chil- dren : Isabella. Thomas. Samuel, John. Mary and Elizabeth. The Creighis for three generations figured prominently in the social and business lite of Pennsylvania. The son John graduated from Dickinson College and from the medical department of the Univer- sity of Pennsylvania. He afterward lived at Landisburg. Perry county, where for twenty years he practiced his profession, and part of that time engaged in the manufact- ure of iron. He married Eleanor Dunbar and had a large family. One of his sons was the Hon. John D. Creigh, of California ; one Dr. Alfred Creigh. of Washington, Pa:, and another Rev. Dr. Thomas Creigh, who for fifty years was pastor of the Mercersburg Presbyterian Church.
James Huston, the son who was not named in his father's will, in September, 1785, bought a farm at the head of Penn's creek, in what is now Center, but at that time was yet included within the bounds of Cumberland county. In the deed conveying
it the seller is designated as "James Huston. of Philadelphia, innholder:" and the pur- chaser as "James Huston, Jr., distiller. of East Pennsboro, Cumberland county." "Ju- nior" here does not indicate that James Hus- ton, of East Pennsboro, "distiller," was a son of James Huston, of Philadelphia. "inn- holder." for there is a record in the orphans court of Cumberland county showing that he was a brother of Jolm Huston, who in the will of Samuel Huston is designated as one of the testator's "two younger sons." He in all probability was a nephew of James Huston, of Philadelphia, "innholder." James Huston was born in 1758, served in the war of the Revolution, and from 1780 to 1786 appears regularly on the East Pennsboro tax list as a freeman. He then disappears from the records and never re-appears in Cumberland county as a citizen. He re- moved to his farm in Penn's Valley, mar- ried, and ever afterward lived in that part of the State. He married Catharine Ewing, whose father. James Ewing, was one of the early settlers of the vicinity of McCormick's Fort. in Huntingdon county. In 1782. when about twelve years old, Catharine Ewing was captured by the Indians and for seven days marched through 'the wilderness in rain, sleet and snow to Canada. She was taken to Montreal and there held a captive until after the war, when she was exchanged and sent to Philadelphia. From Philadel- phia she finally found her way back to her home. James and Catharine ( Ewing) Hus- ton had issue as follows: Samuel, Mary, Thomas, Isabella, Catherine and Margaret. Four of these children married and raised large families. Some of their descendants are yet living in central Pennsylvania, but many have scattered to distant parts of the country and not a few have won fame and distinction.
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Isabella Huston, the eighth child, on Oct. 14. 1765, married James Clendenin, Rev. John Conrad Bucher performing the ceremony. James Clendenin was the young- est child of John and Janet ( Huston) Clen- denin and Isabella Huston's first consin. By him she had children as follows: Jona- than, John, Margaret, William, Jennie, Mary, Annie, Isabella and James. Her first husband died while she was yet a young woman and she afterward married Nathan- iel Eckels, a widower, who by his former marriage also had a family. Isabella ( Hus- ton ) (Clendenin) Ly Nathaniel Eckels, her second husband, had two sons, William and Francis Eckels, who lived in Silver Spring township, were prominent and influential citizens and raised large families, and some of their descendants reached high public po- sitions in the State and Nation. [The Clen- denin and Eckels family histories appear elsewhere in this volume. ]
Jonathan, according to his father's will, was one of the two "younger sons" of Sam- uel Huston. It is probable that he was the youngest child. He and his brother John jointly received all the lands of their father's estate, but at some time must have made partition of them, for when in 1808 John made his will he severally owned the farm originally located by his father, while Jona- than was sole owner of the farm adjoining him on the north. Jonathan married Mar- garet Rankin McIntyre and always lived on his farm in Silver Spring township. He died Nov. 10, 1830, near the place where he was born, aged seventy years. His wife died Aug. 24, 1846, aged seventy-six years. Their remains were first interred in Pine Hill graveyard, but subsequently removed to the cemetery of the Silver Spring Church, where their resting-place is marked by tomb- stones which are still in good condition.
Among the improvements that Jonathan Huston made upon the farm he long owned was a large stone house of a type common to the period immediately succeeding the Revolution. This he built about the year 1821, on an elevated point, where it stands to-day as a landmark of the past and a mem- orial to the man whose industry and enter- prise erected it. After his death the farm became the property of his heirs, who in April, 1847. conveyed it to Jacob Deamy. Since then it has had several owners and for the past twenty-five years has been the prop- erty of James Angeny.
Upon the land for which Samuel Huston obtained a warrant in 1752 is a burying- ground which in its time has been famous. It is located in the western part of the farm -now owned by Abraham Gutshall-near the edge of a precipitous hill. Originally it was in a dense wood of tall pine trees, from which circumstance it has been known. al- most from the first, as the Pine Hill grave- yard. Something of it still remains, but the wood about it has been cleared away to the very brink of the hill and the little shrunken graveyard is left up in a field where it is exposed to the danger of being farmed over and entirely obliterated. That neglected burying-ground now contains not a single tombstone upon which anything can be read, yet to the many descendants of the first settlers of that part of the county it is hallowed ground. Within its narrow con- fines reposes the dust of Samuel Huston and his wife Isabella Sharon; their nephew, Capt. Jolin Clendenin and his wife Eliza- bethi, who was an aunt of John C. Calhoun, and members of the Huston family of the second, third and fourth generations. It is also the resting-place of several Revolution- ary soldiers who were buried with the hon- ors of war, and whose funerals were proba-
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bly the most ostentatious and memorable events that that quiet section of the country ever saw. Interments of persons dying in the neighborhood were made in it as late as 1845. about which time the burying places connected with the neighboring churches began to be preferred and the prestige of Pine Hill graveyard began to wane.
A little north from the present farm- house, at the head of a hollow, a spring rises which until recently was the water supply for both the house and for the stock at the barn. Its presence originally determined the location of the buildings, as the first settlers always built near running springs. Just be- low that spring there once stood a still house which will bear mention in these annals, for James Huston, before he purchased of James Huston. "innholder," the plantation in Penn's Valley, in it acquired the title "dis- tiller." After James Huston removed to his possessions in Penn's Valley the distilling was continued by his brother, John Huston, who in May. 1787, bought of Thomas John- ston, distiller, "one Still and Head and worm. eight mashing Hogsleads, three shingling Bags and one fether bed," as may be seen from the bill of sale, which is a matter of record. Pennsylvania distill- ers in those days lacked reverence for the excise laws, and in 1794, when President Washington and his army came to Carlisle, to subdue the Whiskey Rebellion, John Hus- ton and some of his more adventurous neigh- bors retired within this still house, and bar- ricading its doors and windows watched through port-holes with loaded guns ready to fight and shoot if any soldiers came to disturb them. No soldiers, however, came or a bloody tragedy might have been en- acted. This old log still house afterward was turned into a tenant house which in 1849 was torn down and a more modern
dwelling-house erected in its stead. This second building in its turn also grew old and was removed, and now the spot where once stood an historic still house is farming ground and bears no vestige of ever having been otherwise occupied.
SAMUEL LINE HUSTON. In the first paragraphs of this history it is stated that the Hustons were among the earliest settlers of East Pennsboro, Cumberland county, in the part of that township that has since been erected into Silver Spring. Samuel Huston was the most prominent of the name and had issue five sons and five daughters. His eld- est daughter was named Margaret. She married John Huston, a son of Christopher Huston, of the same locality, and a probable relative, although there is a family tradition that they were not relatives. About the year 1790 John; and Margaret Huston moved from their East Pennsboro home to a tract of land in West Pennsboro township which John Huston had purchased from James Carothers in 1778. When John Huston bought this land it was within the bounds of West Pennsboro township, but in 1785 Dick- inson township was formed from West Pennsboro and after that it came within the bounds of Dickinson. In 1860 Penn township was formed from Dickinson and after that this particular farm lay within the boundaries of Penn. John Huston was born in 1744, his wife being a little younger, and both were in the eighties when they died.
John and Margaret ( Huston) Huston had eight children, as follows: Jonathan, James, John, Samuel, William, Ann, Isa- bella and Mrs. Kinkaid. John Huston died in 1828, and his wife died in 1831. The remains of both are buried in the cemetery of the Big Spring Presbyterian Church at Newville, but their graves are unmarked.
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John, the third child of Joli and Margaret (Huston) Huston, was born in 1795. He grew up on the farm in Dickinson township. and was trained to the business of farming. but while yet a mere boy did teaming on the road. At the breaking out of the war of 1812 his brother James enlisted in Capt. James Piper's company. which marched from Cumberland county by way of Pitts- burg to the Canadian frontier. John was re- turning from Pittsburg with his father's team and met the company on the way. He found his brother too ill to be of much sery- ice to his country and offered to take his place and was accepted. James brought the team home and John served as a soldier until the end of his company's enlistment. He saw the British ships which Commodore Perry captured brought into the port of Erie and used to describe to his children how their decks were covered with the blood and brains of the slaughtered. His brother James afterward died at home, unmarried.
On Feb. 23. 1822. John Huston married Elizabeth Weakley, Rev. George Duffield, pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Car- lisle, performing the ceremony. Elizabeth Weakley, whose name appears on some rec- ords Eliza was a daughter of Samuel Weak- ley and Hester Lusk, his wife. Samuel Weakley was born Oct. II. 1751, and was a son of James Weakley, and Jane, his wife, who were among the earliest settlers on the Yellow Breeches, in what is now Dickinson township. John and Elizabeth ( Weakley) Huston began their married life in Dickin- son township. and always lived there. In January, 1817, his father, John Huston, Sr .. bought of Robert Lamberton a farm containing 109 acres of land lying in the northern part of Dickinson township, which in the distribution of his estate came into the possession of his son John. Here the son
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