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 42
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ception of six years spent at Maytown, and two years at Rowenna. Mr. Hackenberger began iffe as a farmer, and then became a manufacturer of cigars in Maytown. In 1847 he moved back to Bainbridge, and three years later entered the drug business, in which he continued until his death which occurred in 1887, when he was aged seventy-nine years. Mrs. Mary Hackenberger died in 1881, at the age of sev- enty-one years. They were members of the Luth- eran Church. He was a Democrat except during the war period, when he voted the Republican ticket. Of their children, john died at the age of fifty-four years: George W. is mentioned below : Mary A., who died in 1899, was twice married, first to John Groff, later to Philip Shaffer; Lavina became the wife of Lieut. Mullin, of Topeka, Kan .: Samuel, Jacob, Elizabeth and Catherine died young : Sam- uel ( 2) is a life insurance agent of Philadelphia.
The paternal grandparents of George W. Hack- enberger were George and Mary ( Hollinger) Hack- enberger, the grandfather born in Germany, and the grandmother in Lancaster county. They settled in that county, where they were farming people. When a very young man he took part in the Revolutionary war. The maternal grandparents of George W. Hackenberger were George and Elizabeth Caster, who came from Germany and settled in East Donegal township at an early day, engaging in farming. He died while still a young man, but his wife lived to be seventy-five years old.
George W. Hackenberger was married. in Eliz- abethtown, in September. 1861, to Miss Mary A. Pence, and to this union came the following chil- dren: Walter, who died young: Iva N., who mar- ried N. R. Hoffman, lives with her father, and is a drug clerk ; Lewis S .. a coach builder and painter in Lancaster, married to Amanda Manning : George W .. manager of two drug stores in New York City ; Harry F .. chief clerk in a drug house in New York City, who was with Gen. Miles in the Porto Rican campaign. as telegraph operator, 9th N. Y. Signal Corps. Mrs. Mary A. Hackenberger was born in Conoy township in 1842. daughter of William and Hettie ( Snyder) Pence. Her father was born in Maytown, and her mother in Conoy township, and they were farming people all their lives.
George W. Hackenberger spent the first eight years of his life in Bainbridge and Maytown. going to school, and then began stripping tobacco and mak- ing cigars for four years at or near Rowenna. Then coming back to Bainbridge, he continued in the same work till he was twenty-six years old. At that age he began teaching school. In 1873 he received a teacher's permanent certificate from the State Su- perintendent of Public Instruction, the late Hon. J. P. Wickersham. He followed this calling for
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thirty-four sessions, thirty sessions in one and the same school. He retired from teaching in 1897, to take entire charge of his drug store, in which his daughter Iva had been clerk, while he was teaching in the school room. Mr. Hackenberger became a druggist in 1878 and is now (1902) still engaged in that business. He was elected twelve times as auditor of Conor township. for three years each. He is a man of ability, highly respected in the com- munity, and holding to a marked degree the confi- dence of the general public. Mr. Hackenberger is a member of the G. A. R. and of the O. C. A. M. In politics he is a staunch Republican, and in relig- ious belief a devout member of the Lutheran Church. He is one of the solid and substantial men of his community, and well deserves a prominent place among the leading men of Conoy township, Lan- caster county.
Mr. Hackenberger had a somewhat brief but valuable military experience, enlisting in Co. H. 195th P. V. I., in February, 1865 ; he was discharged in January, 1866. He was made clerk in a general court martial. Department of Washington, where he was on duty for six months. While on picket duty during the closing days of the war, he partici- pated in the picket line firing against the noted Col. Mosby's forces. His regiment was in the 3rd Brigade, 3rd Division. Army of the Shenandoah. under. Gen. Phil. H. Sheridan.
JACOB HILDEBRAND. Among the well- known and respected citizens of Strasburg is Jacob Hildebrand, who has won the esteem and respect of the community through a long life, during which he has faithfully served his borough in a number of public capacities.
Jacob Hildebrand was born Nov. 16, 1822, of German and French ancestry, a son of Jacob and Mary (Heiney) Hildebrand. the former of whom passed the greater portion of his business life in Soudersburg and Paradise. In those days there were no free schools in the locality in which they lived. and as the parents were limited in means. young Jacob had few educational advantages, and was early thrown upon his own resources.
The first attempt of the lad to make an honest living for himself was in 1822, when he engaged to drive a butcher wagon and deliver meat to the work- men building the Pennsylvania Railroad, between Ronk's Station and Leaman Place. Between the ages of thirteen and twenty years, the youth worked for Benjamin Herr, a farmer who lived about one mile east of Strasburg, laboring for his board and clothes, and it was through the kindness of Mr. Herr that he derived the little education which be- came his, as well as gaining the habits of study and investigation which proved useful in all his sub- sequent career. While living here he was permitted to attend the district school for several sessions, about four days out of each week, his benefactor paying the expense.
At the age of twenty, Jacob entered the cabinet- making shop of Joel Rice, of Strasburg, remaine i in his employ for two years, and at the expirat: " of this apprenticeship. he started into business f - himself, making furniture and working in carpen- try. until 1852. At this date he purchased from! W. S. Warren a stock of merchandise and entered into this business. remaining in the mercantile line uns: 1855, when he sold his stock and again resume !! his former trade, engaging extensively in building and contracting : in 1856 he was a member of the building committee in the erection of the town ha ...
In 1854. Jacob Hildebrand was elected by his fellow-citizens as chief burgess of the borough .: Strasburg, and for thirty years held other bororsi offices, but retired to private life at last, declining to serve longer. In 1860 he was elected justice ai the peace and immediately began to familiarize him- self with the higher duties of this office, applying himself assiduously to the studying of surveying. conveyancing, the drafting of wills, and other leoni papers upon which he would have to pass judgment. and until 1898 he was continued in the office. se efficiently serving that many of the difficulties of the neighborhood were amicably settled accord- ing to his judgment, without litigation. In the spring of 1848, he declined a re-election, and his son. I. Ross, was elected in his place. During one year he also filled the office of a notary public.
From 1863 to [87t, he owned and operated a job printing office in the borough, the purchase : being made in order to keep this industry in town. circumstances being such that otherwise it would i have been removed, and thus he made a permanent business which long flourished.
In 1871. Jacob Hildebrand was elected county surveyor, of Lancaster county, on the Republican ticket, and held the office for nearly four years : dur- ing that time he prepared with great labor and care- ful research connected drafts of the land originally granted by patent deeds in the townships of Stras- burg. Paradise, Bart. Eden, and the greater part of East and West Lampeter.
Jacob Hillebrand was married Nov. 16. 1847. to Eliza Spiehlman, who died in 1865. leaving ten chi :- dren : Elizabeth and Mary, deceased : William Wx Millard F. : Ella S .. the widow of Samuel Dougher- ty: John R .: O. J .. the wife of D. M. Aumen: : Laura K .. the wife of Charles Kemerly: Sallie D .. widow of J. W. Goodman ; and J. Ross. In Novem- ber. 1866. he married Elizabeth Kendig, the widow of John Pennell. Two of his sons are engaged in the leaf tobacco business, under the firm name of Hilde- brand Bros., of Strasburg.
'Squire Hiklebrand, as he is familiarly known. is recognized as one of the most useful citizens of Strasburg: from a small beginning, with almost no educational advantages, but by patient industry and study, he has advanced to a position of honor and trust in the community. and has transacto! a large amount of important business, acting very
BIOGRAPHICAL ANNALS OF LANCASTER COUNTY
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frequently as administrator, assignee and executor, in the settling of many estates.
Fraternally, Mr. Hildebrand is a member of Strasburg Lodge, No. 361. I. O. O. F., having been a member since 18.49, has passed through all of the offices of the subordinate lodge, has been secretary of his own lodge for forty years and has served as representative to the Grand Lodge of Pennsvi- vania. Mr. Hildebrand is also a member of the Lancaster County Historical Society in which he is much valued, and is one of the official members of the M. E. Church, having served in the capacity of trustee since 1862. In his long business and public career, he has amassed a competency, but what is better, he has secured for himself a reputation as : a high-minded, honorable man.
AMOS S. MOWRER, one of the old and most respected citizens of West Lampeter township, Lan- caster county, Pa., belongs to one of the oldest fam- ilies in that part of the State, settlement having been made here by his ancestors as early as 1700.
Through change and accident many of the old records of the pioneer families became mislaid, and beyond the fact that one of the early settlers of Lancaster county, coming here about the beginning of the eighteenth century, established the Mowrer family in this region, we have no authentic infor- mation until the time of great-grandfather Balsser Mowrer, a well-known wheelwright, who industri- ously pursued his trade and accumulated property. His farm was in the locality now included in Eden township, but his remains lie in the Strasburg cem- etery, near Providence, where the Reformed Church has a burial ground. His first wife was the mother of Adam, who was the grandfather of Amos S.
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Adam Mowrer was born, reared and spent his whole life in this county, where he followed agri- culture very successfully. He married the widow of John Shaffner, and from this union seven chil- dren were born: John, who became a successful farmer and engaged extensively in the lime business near Quarryville, living to be about ninety years old; Adam, who became a farmer of Providence township, where he died at the age of eighty : Jacob, the father of Amos S. ; David, who became a farmer of Eden township, where he died at the age of eigh- ty-seven ; Margaret, who married John Templeton ; Mary, who married Elijah Keene, and lived to the age of eighty-five: and Julia, who married Henry Keene. The longevity of this family was most re- markable, almost all of them filling out more than the four-score of the Psalmist. and all of them reared families noted for vigor of body as well as strength of intellect.
affairs. For many years he was a staunch Whig. and when that party was merged into the Republican party, he found himself in harmony with the change. Jacob Mowrer was married to Mary Strohm, the daughter of Henry and Mary (Lefever ) Strohm. Airs. Mowrer was born in 1799. her life extending to ISot. when she passed away at the unusual age of ninety-one years and nineteen days. Both the father and mother belonged to the Old Mennonite Church. The following children sur- vived at the death of these worthy people. The brothers and sisters of Amos Mowrer, who was the oldest. were: Elizabeth, who resides in West Lam- peter township: Martin, who is a miller in Dayton, Ohio, and has become well known through various inventions, one of these being the machine used in the manufacture of corn grits ; Alam, a farmer of West Lampeter : Isaac, a resident of Xenia. Ohio, a traveling salesman : and Mary, who is the widow of Abraham Eshleman, of Strasburg township.
Amos S. Mowrer was born Feb. 15. 1828. in West Lampeter township, in the locality of Big Springs, and was reared on the farm, where, accord- ing to the custom of the day boys were expected to have many duties. Being the eldest in a large and growing family, his schooling was frequently inter- rupted. and although he was apt and studious, he was not able to accomplish as much as he desired. In Inter life. a steady course of general reading, and a naturally quick comprehension have enabled him to supply all deficiencies. Being a man of progress. he has identified himself with public affairs, and has given his influence toward religious and social ad- vancement, gaining the confidence of his fellow-citi- zens to such an extent that he has been called upon to serve in many of the local offices, including that of county commissioner.
Formerly he was a Whig and later became a Re- publican, and has so efficiently served on the school board that he has been elected five terms, and was once appointed to fill a vacancy ; for fifteen years he has been the capable auditor of the West Lampeter township board: he has also served as the auditor of the Penn Township Fire Insurance Company. In fact. Amos S. Mowrer is one of the citizens of his township who possesses the esteem of almost all$ within its borders, who have unbounded confidence in his integrity.
Amos S. Mowrer was married Jan. 10. 1857. to Annie Harnish, a daughter of Michael G. and Eliza- beth (Warful) Harnish, who was born Feb .. 15. 1836. and died Tune IT, 1881. To them were born eleven children : Mary Elizabeth, who died in child- hood : Barbara. Serents, and Harnish, all deceased : Emma, who married B. Frank Gontner, of West Lamipeter township: Anna. who married David H. Huber, of his township: Jacob H .. a resident and implement dealer of Lancaster City. married to Mars P. Kready : Mary and Elizabeth, twins, the former at home. the latter. the wife of Jacob L. Hess, of West
Jacob Mowrer, the father, was born in Strasburg township, July 9, 1803. and died July 4, 1892. After his marriage he settled in West Lampeter township where he engaged extensively in farming, operat- ing a farm of too acres, becoming well known as a man of estimable character, and prominent in public : Lampeter township: Ella, who married Jacob F.
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Charles of that township ; and Adda, who resides in Lancaster City.
Since 1896 Amos S. Mowrer has lived retired from active life, and with his daughters. Mary and Adda, makes his home in Lancaster City, at No. 547 West Walnut street. During her lifetime. his wife was one of the most devout of women, and a con- sistent member of the Reformed Mennonite Church, where she was valued and beloved for her many traits of Christian character. Mr. Mowrer is passing his advancing years among his old surroundings, be- loved by a great circle of friends, who remember how cheerfully and generously he has ever devoted time and means to the advancement of his family and neighborhood.
MRS. MARTHA SHIREMAN. Among the well-known and most highly esteemed residents of East Donegal township, Lancaster county, was Mrs. Martha Shireman.
The first marriage of Mrs. Shireman was with Christian Heisey, who was born in East Donegal township, and died upon his farm there, in 1846, at the age of forty-one : he was buried in Reich's ceme- tery. His parents were Joseph and Elizabeth (Kauffman) Heisey, well-known citizens of the township. The occupation of Mr. Heisey was farm- ing. in which he was very extensively engaged. To his marriage with Martha Zeigler were born: Eli, who died at the age of fifty-two. married to Anna Reicht: Barbara, deceased: Zeigler. deceased : and Jacob B., born in East Donegal town- ship, ou Nov. 3, 1853, who resides in Maytown, married Barbara Welchans. a daughter of William and Anna (Drebenstadt) Welchans, and had four children. William. Martha Z ... deceased. Anna and Mary. The parents of Mrs. Jacob B. Heisey had these children: Clara ; Joseph, a car- penter in Harrisburg: Amra, who married Jeff. Shireman, of Maytown: Samuel: Barbara : Anna, who married William Staum: George: and May, who married a Mr. Stewart. a cigar-maker of Lan- caster.
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The second marriage of Mrs. Shireman was to Dr. William J. Shireman, in Maytown, whose death occurred in October, 1894, at the age of sixty-five : he was a man of means and prominence, and a con- sistent member of the Reformed Church. For a number of years he successfully practiced dentistry in Maytown, and at his death, left many who felt deeply bereaved.
Joseph W. Shireman, the brother, of Dr. Will- iam J. Shireman, was born in East Donegal town- ship, died in Maytown. March 15. 1900, at the age of seventy-four. and was buried in the burving ground of the Reformed Church. His parents were Freder- ick and Lydia ( Welchans) Shireman, of East Done- gal and York counties, respectively: shortly after their marriage they settled in Maytown, where the former carried on a business of cabinet-making. The children born to Frederick and Lydia Shireman
were: Aaron, who died in 1894; Samuel, a farmer of Dauphin county: Jacob, who died at the age of fifty: Joseph W., deceased: Anna, who was Mrs. Michael Fazle, deceased; and Dr. William J., who died in 1891.
Mrs. Shireman was born in East Donegal town- ship. Feb. 5. 1815, and died in September. 1902. She had had a long residence in the township. and was universally esteemed. She had been an interested witness of the growth and development of the coun- try and in spite of advancing years remained to the | last one of the most active, intelligent and entertain- ing ladies of the vicinity.
CALVIN COOPER, of Bird-in-Hand, East Lampeter township. Lancaster county, now in his seventicthi year, was born there and still lives within 150 vards of his birthplace, having bought a part of the original tract on which his father first located when he came to that vi- cinity in 1827. Mr. Cooper was the third child
in the family of nine born to Mark P. and Sid- ney ( Conard) Cooper : is a grandson of Calvin Cooper, who was a noted carpenter by trade, and one of the principal mechanics who erected the first bridge across the Susquehanna river at Columbia : and a great-grandson of John Cooper, who was among the first settlers who came to this part of the country from Wales, and settled in the neighborhood of Christiana.
The ancestors of Sidney ( Conard) Cooper came from Germany ; she was a daughter of Abraham Conard, who married Catharine Evans, March 24. 1706. Calvin Cooper is therefore a descendant of Everard Conard, whose parents were among the first settlers to locate in the vicinity of New Garden. Chester county, and among the offspring of one "Thomas Kunders." who emigrated from Germany through the influence of William Penn, and located. with others, who accompanied him. upon 500 acres of land in Germantown, Philadelpina, about the year 1683.
Calvin Cooper. whose name introduces this notice. received his education in the private schools then common, before the passage of the public school laws of the State. and also had one term of four months at a private boarding school at Jenners- ville. Chester county, and one term at a similar school of a higher grade in Wilmington. Del. After this his attention was directed to guiding the plow and to the methods then used for growing field crops. His farm consisted of about ninety acres. and he well remembers the arduous duties of a farmer's life before the introduction of the labor saving im- plements now so common on every well equipped place. To handle the sickle deftly, swing a scythe close to the ground and roll up a good swath. and to swing a cradle gracefully were accomplishments which all good farmers sought after and paid good wages for.
In the fall of 1858 Mir. Cooper married the eldest
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daughter of Peter and Lydia Hunsecker, of Man- heim township, the former of whom was of Ger- man descent, and the latter of Welsli.
During the Civil war Mr. Cooper twice joined the emergency troops and went forward as first non- commissioned officer to meet the invading Rebel forces who threatened a raid upon that fertile re- gion. He was elected for three terms as a member of the Pennsylvania Board of Agriculture, serving eight years, and he has served three terms of five years each as one of the justices of the peace of his township, the duties of which office, with surveying, conveyancing and scrivening, and the growing of nursery trees have occupied his time fully. With the help of a loving and industrious wife he has raised a family of three sons and two daughters, who are now fighting the battles of life, each in his own chosen life pursuit ; these children are: Harry H., post-master of Nacogdoches, Texas ; Elmer E., traveling salesman for the Moline Implement Work, Dallas, Texas; Milton C., supervising prin- cipal of the Asa Packer school, Philadelphia ; Mena May, wife of W. Ross Esbenshade, of Leaman Place, Pa. ; and Ella Sidney, wife of Harry W. Bar- nard, of Collamer, Chester Co., Pennsylvania.
CHARLES C. BRINTON, a general farmer, was born Sept. 5, 1838, in Salisbury township, on the farm where he still resides and where agricul- ture has been the pursuit of his life. His parents, Caleb and Ann (Richards) Brinton, were respect- ively born on a farm adjoining the one just men- tioned, and on another just across the boundary line in Chester county, near Kennett Square.
Caleb Brinton was reared a farmer, settled on the present farm in Salisbury township in 1830, and there passed the remainder of his life, dying Dec. 18, 1851, at the age of sixty-four years ; his widow survived until Nov. 6, 1888. when she expired at the advanced age of eighty-eight. Both were bright lights in the Society of Friends, and their mortal remains were laid to rest in the Salisbury meeting house cemetery. Caleb Brinion had been twice married, the first time to Eliza Fox. who bore him seven children, as follows: Moses, of Ne- braska, now deceased; Rebecca, widow of Joseph Hood, of Philadelphia: George, a retired merchant in West Chester: Letitia, deceased wife of Robert Swisher; Mary A., of Landstown. Pa., widow of Clarkson Brosius, the father of Hon. M. Brosius (deceased) ; Hannah, widow of John Carter, of Emporia, Kans .; Elizabeth, who died unmarried. To Caleb and Ann (Richards) Brinton were born four children, viz: Phoebe, who died in 1861; Isaac, who died in Andersonville prison, a member of the 57th P. V. I .; Charles C .; Sergt. Channing Brinton, of Co. K, 97th P. V. I., who was killed in front of Petersburg, Va., and whose remains were brought home for interment in the Sadsbury cemetery.
The paternal grandparents of Charles C. Brin-
ton were Moses and Hannah Brinton, of Salisbury township, and the maternal grandparents were Isaac and Mary Richards, of Chester county, whose farm was deeded to their forefathers from William Penn direct.
Charles C. Brinton began his education in Hun- secker's Academy at Trappe, Montgomery Co., Pa., and next at the age of sixteen entered the Millers- ville Academy ; the remainder of his life has been passed on the farm with the exception of three months in 1861, when he was in the Union army, but he had no part in any battle.
Charles C. Brinton has been twice married : first. on Oct. 28, 1875, he was united in matrimony at his present home by the mayor of Lancaster, Cap- tain Stauffer, with Anna Baker, daughter of Elisha and Ruth Baker and a native of Chester county; she was called away in April, 1883, at the age ci thirty-six years, leaving one child, Channing. born June 19, 1879, who died April 15, 1883. Their re- mains found repose in the Sadsbury meeting house cemetery.
The second marriage of Mr. Brinton took place in Philadelphia, March 12, 1890. to Anna Dickin- son, and this union has been graced with four chii- dren. Charles, Caleb, Anna and John M. Mrs. Anna (Dickinson) Brinton was born in Salisbury township, Dec. 13, 1857, and is a daughter of Henry and Anna ( Baldwin) Dickinson, of Lancaster and Chester counties respectively. Henry Dickinson was a farmer by calling, but also conducted a gen- eral store at Roseneath. Salisbury township. He was also a justice of the peace for many years. Somewhat late in life he retired to private life. his death occurring in 1896, at the age of seventy-five vears, and that of his wife in 1898, at seventy-four, the remains of both being interred in Sadsbury meeting house cemetery. The children born to Henry and Anna Dickinson were eight in number and named as follows: Lorenzo; Lydia, deceased : Phebe, of Reading, Pa .; Henry, deceased : Haves, employed on the railroad at Reading: James, fore- man in the steel works at Steelton; Bavard. of Steelton, a doctor; and Anna, now Mrs. Brinton.
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