USA > Pennsylvania > Lancaster County > Biographical annals of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania : containing biographical and genealogical sketches of prominent and representative citizens and of many of the early settlers > Part 18
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Phares S. Moore was reared on the farm which he now occupies, and he has resided there continu- ously except while a student at school. He attended the district schools from the age of seven years until he was seventeen. Then for two years he was a stu- dent at York Collegiate Institute, York, Pa. His education was completed by a term at the Eastman Business College, Poughkeepsie. N. Y. His busi- ness career began with a clerkship in the First Va- tional Bank of Lancaster, where he remained three years, and there laid the foundation for a thorough and practical business career. Returning home he took charge of his father's milling business in West Hempfield township, continuing in that capacity un- til Nov. 1, 1898, when he purchased the property and has since successfully conducted the same. The mill on this site was first built by Christian Hertzler in 1811, and has been in the Moore possession for more than forty years. It is operated by water from the Big Chickies creek, and is of forty horse power capacity.
Mr. Moore married, in Penn township, in March, 1895, Miss Emma S. Gross. She is a native of Penn township, and a daughter of Levy S. ami Elizabeth ( Espenshay) Gross, farmers of Penn township. To Phares S. and Emma S. Moore have been born three children, Michael G., Serena G. and Levi G. In politics Mr. Moore is a Republican.
MOSES SNAVELY, a retired miller, who is passing the last years of an industrious and highly useful life in an honorable retirement in Intercourse,. Lancaster county, was born in that village Feb. IS. 1842, son of Joseph and Martha ( Hershey) Snavely.
Joseph Snavely was born in Lebanon county, and the mother in Leacock township, Lancaster county. The father was a farmer all his life, but spent lis last fifteen years in retirement. They were married in 1825, and lived for a time in Clay township, but presently removed to their farm in Leacock tow !- ship. where the greater part of their mature lives was spent. He was born in TSot, and died Aug. I, 1871 : she was born in 1804, and died July 14, 1857. They were both members of the Mennonite Church, and their remains are resting in the cemetery con- nected with the Hershey Church.
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Joseph and Martha Snavely were the parents of the following family: Elizabeth, who lives in In- tercourse, unmarried; John, who died in 1900, un- married ; Joseph, living retired in Wayne county, Ohio, who married first a Miss Martin, and second, a Miss Tigert; Martha, deceased wife of Solomon Warner; Samuel, who married Anna Rudy, and is dead; Henry, a retired farmer in Earl township, who has had two wives, Elizabeth Hershey and Fanny Martin; Anna, married to Israel Eberly, a retired farmer of Stevens, Pa .; Benjamin, who is unmarried and living with his sister at Intercourse ; Moses ; Ja- cob, who married Malinda Rutter, and lives in Wayne county, Ohio; Lydia, who died young; and Amos, a farmer in Wayne county, Ohio, who mar- ried a Martin.
The paternal grandparents of Moses Snavely were John and Elizabeth (Long) Snavely, who spent their married lives in Lebanon county. His father came from Germany. The maternal grand- parents of Mr. Snavely were John and Anna (Hurst ) Hershey, both of Dauphin county, Pa. His father was born in Lancaster county.
Moses Snavely was married in Leacock town- ship to Miss Susanna Clark, and there were born to this union the following family: Hettie A., late wife of Phares Eby ; Jesse Miller, who married Ida Lantz, and lives in Paradise township, where they have a family of three children, Elmer, Ralph and Jesse ; Magdalena and Elizabeth, both of whom died young : Susie, at home. Mrs. Susanna (Clark) Snavely, born in Salisbury township, May 2, 1846, is a daughter of Jesse and Hettie (Shirk) Clark, of Lancaster county. Her father was a farmer, but lived retired during the ten years prior to his death, which occurred in 1893, at the age of eighty-one years. His widow survived until 1896, when she died at the age of eighty-one years. They were buried in Ashland county, Ohio, having removed to that section in 1869. Both were members of the Mennonite Church. They were the parents of the following family:' Fanny, wife of Amos Esben- shade of Lancaster county, who moved to Ashland county, Ohio, in 1866, and who had eighteen chil- dren: Martin, who married Jemima Hess, and is a life insurance agent in Ashland county, Ohio: Peter, a farmer in Salisbury township, who married Anna Brackbill; Susanna, the wife of Moses Snavely; Jesse, who died young ; John, who married in Ashland county, Ohio, and is a retired farmer ; Catherine A., who died young.
Moses Snavely remained with his parents until he reached the age of twenty-four, when he began farming in Leacock township. Ten years later he purchased a mill in Paradise township, which he carried on for eighteen years, and then retired to a pleasant home in Intercourse, leaving the mill in the hands of his son, who has become a very popular miller. Mr. Snavely and his wife belong to the Mennonite Church, and he is a Republican. For the last three years he has been a director of the Co-
nestoga National Bank at Lancaster. His business talents have long been recognized, and he is highly esteemed by all who know him.
HENRY F. HOSTETTER, a resident of Man- heim township, belongs to one of the old and hon- ored families of Lancaster county, and was born on the farm where he is now residing, Nov. 28, 1841, a son of Christian and Catherine (Franck) Hos- tetter. His father was born in Donegal township in 1805, and was there reared. A year after his marriage he purchased the farm on which his son, Henry F., is now residing. It comprises ninety- seven acres, and as long as the parents lived it was their home. It was about 1827 that the elder Hos- tetter bought it, and greatly improved it. In 1852 he erected the farm home, and there he lived until his death in 1879. The son of Christian Hostetter, he was a man of much character and force. and with his wife belonged to the Old Mennonite Church.
Catherine (Franck) Hostetter was born Sept. 2, 1807, and died in December, 1886. She was the daughter of Deacon John and Maria ( Bowman) Franck. Christian and Catherine Hostetter had a family of ten children: Maria, late wife of Jacob Oberholtzer: Michael, a resident of Manheim bor- ough, a retired farmer: John, a carpenter in Lan- caster : Christian, a retired farmer of Donegal town- ship; Catherine, the widow of Isaac L. Stoner, of Penn township: Henry F .: Benjamin, who died at the age of seventeen years: Anna, the wife of To- seph G. Gachenhauer, of East Hempfield township; David F., a farmer in Manheim township; one who died in infancy.
Henry F. Hostetter was born and reared on the old homestead, where he still resides. midway be- tween Neffsville and Petersburg. Educated in the public schools, at the age of twenty-four he began operating the homestead, which he carried on for eleven years, when he moved to a farm belonging to Abraham Huber, near Lancaster, where he spent two years. On the death of his father he returned to the homestead to care for his mother during her declining years, and on her death he purchased fifty- seven acres of the family estate. and has made that his home till the present time. His entire attention is given to the tilling of his soil, and his name is classed with those of the most successful agricul- turists of the section.
Mr. Hostetter was married Oct. 24, 1865, to Miss Anna B., a daughter of John and Fannie (Buckwalter) Huber, and born in Leacock town- ship, May 9, 1846. Mr. and Mrs. Hostetter are the parents of two children: Fannie, who died April 15, 1897, in her thirty-first year; and Katie, who is the wife of Willis S. Kilheffer, of Lancaster. They have two children, Annie and Abraham.
Mr. and Mrs. Hostetter are members of the Oid Mennonite Church, of which he is a trustee. The family all stand high in the esteem and confidence of the community.
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BIOGRAPHICAL ANNALS OF LANCASTER COUNTY
ABRAHAM BACHMAN, one of the pro- gressive and public-spirited men of Lancaster coun- ty, belongs to one of the solid, respected and sub- stantial families who for many years have taken part in the affairs of this part of the great Common- wealth of Pennsylvania.
Abraham Bachman was born Aug. 13, 1843, a son of John and Anna ( Herr) Bachman, in Pequea township, where he was reared and educated. His father was a competent cabinet-maker. and owned an establishment, and while but a lad Abraham took an interest in this trade and began working in wood also, later learning the trade of carpenter under the supervision of his brother, Benjamin H. Bachman. For many years he followed journey work. begin- ning contracting on his own account in 1875, since which time he has been busily engaged and is con- sidered one of the most satisfactory workmen in his line in Lancaster county. Many of the best built residences and barns in this locality are the work of his skilled hands.
Abraham Bachman married Catherine Houser, a daughter of John Houser, of West Lampeter township, and five children have been born to this union: Jacob F., who is a farmer of West Lam- peter township: Henry H., a mechanic in the em- ploy of William Wohlsen, in his sash and door works, in Lancaster; A. Morris, a blacksmith of West Lampeter township; john W., a cabinet- maker and carpenter, associated with his father in business; and Lydia Ann, the wife of Moses R. Landis, of East Lampeter township.
The father and sons are all Republicans, and are among the best citizens of the township, well repre- senting the business interests of that part of Lan- caster county.
GEORGE M. DELP, one of the representative men of Manheim township, was born in Lower Lea- cock township, Lancaster county, Oct. 3, 1843, and is a son of John and Anna ( Meixell) Delp.
John Delp was born in Montgomery county, Pa., and when a young man came to Lancaster county, where he met and married Miss Anna Meix- ell, who was a native of Lancaster county. and a daughter of John Meixell, of Leacock township. After their marriage, the young couple spent several years in Montgomery county, Pa., and about 1840 returned to Lancaster county. Here John Delp died, about 1856, when he was fifty-five years of age. In his politics he was an ardent Abolitionist, and was the son of parents who were members of the New Mennonite Church. His widow with her two youngest sons went West to make her home near Sterling, Ill. She passed away at the age of seventy-eight years, having been the mother of twelve children: Jacob, who resides in Kansas, and is a veteran of the War of the Rebellion ; Catherine, who married Henry Roland, of Manheim township, and is dead; Elizabeth, late wife of Henry Butt, of Lancaster; Mary, the widow of Henry Faltz, of
Lancaster county ; Michael, a veteran of the war of the Rebellion and now a farmer in Kansas: John, who lives in Whiteside county, Ill .; Francis, who served in the Union army, and is a resident of Lan- caster : George M .; David, who served in the Union army, and is a farmer and stock raiser in Wyoming ; Samuel, who died at the age of two years: Samuel (2), a soldier in the war of the Rebellion, and now a farmer in Whiteside county; Isaac, a mechanic and a stone mason in Kansas.
George M. Delp was reared to a farm life, and was compelled by the death of his father to care for himself at the early age of thirteen years. For sev- eral years he found employment among the neigh- boring farmers, working by the month until he was about eighteen years old. He attended school dur- ing the winter's season, and worked during the sum- mer. It was a hard struggle but it fitted him for the activities of life before him, and was a large factor in his success.
Mr. Delp enlisted in Co. E, 79th P. V. I., Sept. 20, 1861, when he was less than eighteen years, and was mustered out March 4, 1805. Among the battles in which he bore a gallant part were those at Perryville, Stone River, Chickamauga, and at White Point, where he was taken prisoner ; he was immured at Richmond. Danville and Ander- sonville, where he was confined eleven months, and then taken from there to Florence, S. C., and to Goklsborough, N. C., where he was rescued by the Union troops. On the first day at Chickamauga he was slightly wounded, but he has never recovered from the effects of his prison life. After he was mustered out, Mr. Delp returned home and for two or three years was engaged in the butcher business at Neffsville. After this for some two years he worked out by the month.
When Mr. Delp married, he settled on a farm, and for some two years lived on a rented place. Later he purchased a farm of twelve acres about a mile southwest of Neffsville, and this has been his home to the present time. His acreage has been in- creased by subsequent purchases of twelve acres in one tract and sixteen in another, and he proved him- self a hard-working and successful farmer. He built the home in which he lives and the farm build- ings have all been newly built by him. By his indus- try and thrift he has accumulated considerable prop- erty, and is well regarded by his fellow townsmen, who have elected him supervisor of Manheim town- ship.
Mr. Delp was married in 1868 to Miss Maria Shriner, a daughter of Jacob and Sarah Shriner, of Manheim township. To them came a family of seven children, all of whom are living: Ida, the wife of Benjamin Hertler, of Mechanicsville, Lan- caster county ; John, at home : Ulysses, who married Ellen Huber and resides in Warwick township: Sadie, the wife of Meno Hess, of Manheim town- ship : Laura, Ellen and Mahlon, at home.
Mrs. Delp died in April, 1889. Mr. Delp belongs
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BIOGRAPHICAL ANNALS OF LANCASTER COUNTY
to the Old Mennonite Church, is a man of much character, and stands well in the community v. here he has passed so many industrious and useful years.
HENRY M. MAYER, a resident of Rohrers- town who needs no introduction to the citizens of his section of Lancaster county, was born March 23, 1844, in Manbeim township, on the farm now owned by the John Keller estate, near the city of Lancaster. He comes of old Pennsylvania stoc !: , being of the sixth generation in descent from John Mayer, who came hither from Switzerland in the seventeenth century, and settled in Manheim town- ship, taking up a large estate purchased from the Penns.
Martin R. Mayer, father of Henry M., was born in April, 1798, in Manheim township, near Lan- caster City. He was the owner of some 540 acres, including the Keller farm before mentioned. For over thirty years he served in the ministry of the Old Mennonite Church.
Henry M. Mayer was reared in his native town- ship, and received the greater part of his educa- tion in its common schools. He attended the Lititz Academy for two years, 1800 and 1801. Taking up the vocation to which he had been trained from boyhood, he worked on the farms of his father and brother until his marriage. In the spring of IRON be commenced farming on his own account, in East Hempfield township, where he resided for seven- teen years, successfully engaged in agricultural pur- suits, and acquiring a high reputation as one of the most intelligent. up-to-date farmers of that region. Diligence in the improvement of the land, the crops, the manner of cultivation, in everything, in fact, pertaining to the proper and profitable conduct of a farm, was rewarded with the most encouraging results. But Mr. Maver in this. as in all other work he has undertaken, merely followed the nat- ural bent of his character for thoroughness, perse- verance and painstaking industry, and his place was as nearly a model farm as unceasing labor and judi- ciously expended means could make it. In 1885 he moved to Rohrerstown. in East Hempfield town- ship, in order to give more attention to his survey- ing and conveyancing interests, which were becom- ing extensive, and there he has ever since resided, prominently identified with the town and its affairs. Mr. Mayer is holding important trusts in settling up and managing large estates, and he has by his fidelity and sterling integrity in the conduct of such business won the hearty respect of all with whom he has been associated. Mr. Maver was the first vice-president of a national bank ever elected in Lancaster county and was one of the officers of the Fulton National Bank of Lancaster when it was first organized.
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In In 1880 he was elected a trustee of the State Normal School at Millersville, which position he still holds, and since 1883 he has been chairman of the Committee of Instruction and Discipline of that in-
stitution. The affairs of his town have also received his attention, his services as member of the board of school directors in East Hempfield township cov- ering the period from 1872 to 1884, during eleven years of which he was the efficient. secretary of the board. All in all, Mr. Mayer has led a life alike of value to the community and creditable to himself. for although he had the advantage of worthy an- cestry to give him standing in the world, he has lived fully up to the standard. and the universal esteem which he enjoys is the best evidence of what he has accomplished on his own merits alone. In 1878 he joined the Church of God at Rohrerstown, and the same year was elected one of the elders of the church, still serving in that capacity.
In November, 1867, Mr. Mayer was united in marriage with Frances M. Hershey. ellest daugh- ter of J. Hoffman and Barbara Hershey, of West Hempfield township. Two daughters blessed this union. Dora E. and Mamie B., of whom Mamie (lied in her eighth year. Dora is the wife of Harry E. Hershey, treasurer of the Steinman Hardware Company, to whom she was married in February, 1900.
JOHN WITMER HESS. M. D. : deceased). Few physicians of Lancaster ever left behind them a more lasting memory than Dr. John Wimmer Hess. who passed out of life Nov. 13. 1895, after a pro- fessional career marked with unusual success and followed with a faithfulness which precluded active interest in every other line of endeavor. Dr. Hess was, first, last and all the time. the physician, care- ful, patient, watchful and skillful.
The Doctor was born March 7. 1840, in Eden township, Lancaster county, and although only fifty- five years of life were granted him he accomplished more in alleviating pain and advancing his beloved science than have many whose life span extended much farther. He was a son of Daniel and Barbara ( Witmer) Hess. the former of whom was a farmer and also a hotel-keeper for many years on the Co- lumbia pike, four miles west of Lancaster. The fol- lowing children were born to Daniel Hess and his wife: Dr. John W .; Martin, a soldier during the Civil war, who has retired to the Soldiers' Home : Witmer J., a farmer at Mountville, Pa. : Edward, a farmer in Kansas : Catherine and Emma. deceased : Elizabeth, widow of John S. Hoover, of Mountville : Alice, who married George Trout, a farmer of Landisville : Ellen, who married Harry Detrich. of Manor township : and Zena, deceased, who married Alfred Coble. of South Bend. Ind. The Hess family is of Swiss extraction and more extended mention of its members will be found elsewhere.
Dr. Hess received the educational advantages af- forded by the district schools, and later graduated from the Millersville Normal School, where he was regarded as an unusually bright and ambitious sttt- dent. Soon after he entered upon his medical read- ing, with Dr. Alexander Cassidy, of Millersville,
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and then entered Jefferson Medical College, in Phil- family. This union was blessed with seven chil- adelphia, graduating from that institution in 1864, dren, five of whom are living: Mary W., the wife and immediately commencing practice with Dr. Cas- [ of A. Walton, a farmer of Bart township : Amos, in sidy, his old preceptor. Dr. Hess married, and then | the creamery business at Quarryville ; Edwin M., of started upon his own career, remaining in Millers- Lancaster ; Hugh W., the postmaster at Quarryville, where he has a livery business; and Joseph H., a ville until November, 1870, when he removed to Lancaster. Almost immediately he entered upon a i laundryman in Chester county.
large and engrossing practice, and, as stated, so faithfully did he attend to its demands that he re- fused all political or other office, although he sympa- thized strongly with the Republican party. He passed away in November, 1895, and was buried in Woodward Hill cemetery. In 1873 he joined Lodge No. 43, F. & A. M. ; and he also belonged to Chapter No. 43 R. A. M. ; Council No. 19; Commandery No. 13, K. T .; The Lodge of Perfection ; and the Knights of Pythias.
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In 1864 Dr. Hess was united in marriage to Miss Sarah A. Baer, born in Hempfield township, daugh- ter of Martin H. and Mary ( Baer) Baer, the former of whom was a farmer. Mr. Baer died in 1837, at the age of thirty-five years, a member of the Men- nonite Church, and was buried in the Mennonite cemetery in Millersville. Mrs. Baer married ( sec- ond) Jacob Bausman, more extended mention of whom will be found elsewhere. Mrs. Hess is kind and liberal, and with other members of the family recalls Dr. Hess and his work with pardonable pride, justly considering him one of the representative men of Lancaster. Her pleasant home is in the city, where she is surrounded by many attached friends. She belongs to the Reformed Church. Her family also has long been a prominent one in Lancaster county.
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EDWIN M. GILBERT, a leading member of the Lancaster County Bar, is a descendant of John and Florence Gilbert, who came to the American shores from Cornwall, England (where they be- longed to an old and honored family), in company with William Penn in 1682. They settled in By- berry, on a land grant from the Penns, this ancient estate being still in the hands of their descendants. These early Gilberts were farmers by occupation, and Quakers in religion. The family came to Lan- caster county in the early part of the nineteenth century and settled near Bird-in-Hand. When the Gilbert family removed from Bucks county they settled at Gilberton, in Carbon county, to which they gave their family name, and after living there six months they were captured in 1781 by the In- dians and taken to Canada, where they were kept in captivity a number of years. There the elder Gilbert died, and his body was buried along the Niagara river. This was E. M. Gilbert's great- great-grandfather, and his grandfather, John, who was a farmer, was born in captivity.
Joseph H. Gilbert, father of Edwin M., died in 1893, in Eden township, where he was a farmer and had a tannery. Hannah H. Whitson, his wife, was the daughter of Micah Whitson, of a noted Quaker
Edwin M. Gilbert was born in Eden township, on the old homestead, March 9, 1862, and had his education in the district school, and in the Union Academy at Colerain, under Prof. Andrews, com- pleting it in the State Normal School at Westches- ter. Young Gilbert then came to Lancaster to be- come a student in the law office of J. W. Johnson. For three years he studied law, and for a time taught school, pursuing his legal preparation during the interim of the school sessions, and was admitted to practice Oct. 14, 1885. Two years later. according to the rules of the courts, he was admitted to prac- tice in the Supreme and Superior courts, in both of which he has since been a constant worker. Mr. Gilbert is an ardent Republican, and was honored 1 1 with the position of solicitor for the prison inspec- tors of Lancaster county, and has served as, and is I now. city solicitor of Lancaster.
On Jan. 2, 1887, Mr. Gilbert was married to Miss Carrie V. Yonkers, whose ancestors were the founders of the now famous Yonkers. N. Y. This union was blessed with one child, Rodney Yonkers, who is now a student of Yeales Institute. With the exception of the Young Republican Club, Edwin M. Gilbert belongs to no organization save the Society of Friends of Bart Meeting. Bart township, devoting his entire time to the practice of the law, in which he has been very successful.
JOHN G. WESTAFER, editor and proprietor of the Elizabethtown Chronicle, and one of the lead- ing and most influential citizens of Elizabethtown, Pa., was born in Middletown, Dauphin Co., Pa., on April 8, 1850. His parents were George and Mary ( Zimmerman) Westafer. of York and Dauphin counties respectively : the father was a man of prominence, being both constable and tax collector of Middletown for a period of twenty-five years. He passed out of life in 1863. at the age of seventy- three years, and the mother survived until 1885, dying at the age of seventy-eight years ; their burial was in the cemetery at Elizabethtown. They were consistent members of the Church of God.
John G. Westafer was the only child of his par- ents, and was educated in the public schools of Mid- dletown. Between the ages of fifteen and nineteen he was under the tutorship of J. W. Stofer. in the printing business, on the Middletown Journal. In November, 1869, he came to Elizabethtown, and on Dec. 6 established the Elizabethtown Chronicle, this excellent journal being now in its thirty-fourth volume. It began its existence as a six-column folio, which has been enlarged into an eight-column folio, and it has a very large circulation among a
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