USA > Pennsylvania > Dauphin County > Commemorative biographical encyclopedia of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania : containing sketches of prominent and representative citizens and many of the early Scotch-Irish and German settlers. Pt. 1 > Part 28
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watchmaker in London. He came to Penn- sylvania about 1785, and shortly afterwards established himself in business at Harris- burg, Pa. He was a skilled and ingenious workman. He was quite prominent in the carly affairs of the new town, and was among the first to jump into the water to tear down the obnoxious mill-dam in the Paxtang creek, in 1795. He was a volunteer in Captain Reitzell's company on the expedi- tion westward in 1794; and twice visited England on matters connected with his father's estate, then considered quite an undertaking; and what particularly dis- tinguished his last visit was his reception by his fellow-citizens of Harrisburg on his return, which was an ovation showing what a strong hold he had upon his friends in America. He died very suddenly, while sitting in his chair on Monday evening, November 6, 1809, aged 44 years, and the Oracle of Dauphin speaks of his loss to the community as " irreparable." Mr. Hill mar- ried at Harrisburg, February 3, 1790, Nancy Beatty, daughter of James Beatty and his wife Alice Ann Irwin. She was born May 2, 1771, at Bally Red-Ednagound, county Down, Ireland, and dicd May 7, 1839, at Steubenville, O.
- WORRALL, JAMES, is a native of Limerick, Ireland, the son of John Worrall, of that city, merchant, who failed in business in conse- quence of some decree of the first Napoleon. He had cargoes of provisions on the ocean, and when the continental ports were closed against them they had to be sacrificed or rot in the ships, a fate which bankrupted their owner. He then emigrated to this country, and being a man of education he began teaching, in which occupation he successfully continued until his death, at Philadelphia, in 1845. He left a large family, of whom James was the eldest. The latter entered the establishment of Carey, Lea & Co., book- sellers, where he remained several years, when he secured a position on an engincer corps under Judge F. W. Rawle. The first rod Mr. Worrall ever held was on a railroad in Northumberland county in 1831, and strange to say, the road was only commenced to be built in 1882, more than half a century later than its preliminary survey. Hc con- tinued with Judge Rawle into 1832. In 1833, under Judge Benjamin Wright, one of the engineers of the Erie canal, he assisted in making the surveys and maps of the great
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St. Lawrence canal, between Prescott and Cornwall. He then joined the engineer corps on the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, where he remained two years. In the fall of 1835 he helped Colonel Schlatter on a survey across New Jersey for a railroad from Trenton to New Brunswick, which, through the opposition of the Camden and Amboy railroad, was never built. Mr. Worrall then took service on the James river and Kanawha canal, under Judge Wright, consulting engi- neer, and Charles Ellet, Jr., constructing engineer. He was subsequently called back to Pennsylvania by Hother Hage to make a survey over the Alleghany mountains on a line from the Cumberland Valley to Pitts- burgh. He was given the division from Bedford across the mountains as far as the Laurel Hill, a reconnoissance from thence to Greensburg, and again a survey from the latter point to the Youghiougheny at the mouth of the Sewickly. This was in 1838, and here Mr. Worrall first showed his skill and judgment, but the fact of their existence was not to be discovered until some forty- five years afterwards, when the highest en- gineering ability of the year 1882 was called upon for an opinion on the location then made; they unanimously pronounced it the true location for the road, the South Penn- sylvania, and adopted it without hesitation. There was some difficult engineering sug- gested by Colonel Worrall east of Bedford upon which the syndicate of engineers was called upon to pronounce, which also they unanimously approved. It is questionable whether it would not have been hard to find, in the early history of engineering, an engi- neer, who, locating a road upon a single ex- amination, so marked it as that the improved science of forty years later adopted it as the best without hesitation. He was afterwards engaged with Milnor Roberts as principal assistant engineer in the Erie extension of the Pennsylvania canal ; in 1844 he became interested with others in canal and railroad contracts in the United States and Canada. In 1850 he was chief engineer of the Union canal, where he continued until the comple- tion of its enlargement, when he became principal engineer on the western division of the Philadelphia and Erie railroad. Upon the completion of this work he returned to Harrisburg. After the year 1861 he acted as clerk in the quartermaster's department during the war. At the close of the Rebellion he was again engineering across the State for
.projected routes to the West ; afterwards on a canal survey in Illinois, returning to Penn- sylvania in 1869, since which period he has been prominently identified with the fishery commission of the State, and to him much that has been accomplished in that direction is due.
-GRAYDON, MRS. RACHEL (MARKS), was a native of the Island of Barbadoes, and the eldest of four daughters. Her father, Mr. Marks-engaged in the West India trade- was of German birth ; her mother a native of Glasgow, Scotland. At the age of seven years her parents removed to Philadelphia, where Rachel was educated. She formed the ac- quaintance and married, about 1750, Alex- ander Graydon, a native of Longford, Ire- land, doing business at that time in the old town of Bristol, Bucks county, Pa. At this period the celebrated Dr. Baird wrote of her that she was " the finest girl in Philladelphia, having the manners of a lady bred at court." At the opening of the war of the Revolu- tion her oldest sons enlisted in the patriot army-one of whom, Alexander, has re- corded in the " Memoirs of a Life Passed in Pennsylvania" much concerning the ma- ternal affection, the fortitude and patriotic . spirit of an American matron. Taken pris- oner at the capture of Fort Washington, the devoted mother, accomplished, by personal appeals, the parole of Captain Graydon.
During the major part of the Revolution, Mrs. Graydon resided at Reading, and while there her house was " the seat of hospitality, and the resort of numerous guests of dis- tinction, including officers of the British army who were there stationed as prisoners of war." The Baron de Kalb was often there; and between her own and General Mifflin's family there was a strong intimacy existing. When the county of Dauphin was organized, the appointment of her son, Alexander, as prothonotary, occasioned her removal to Harrisburg. She was a lady much devoted to her family, and yet, in the carly days of this city, she was prominent in decds of love and charity. She died at Har- risburg at the residence of her son on the 23d of January, 1807, aged 73 years, and is interred in the Harrisburg cemetery.
BROWN, WILLIAM, of Paxtang, thus desig- nated in the act for the crection of the county of Dauphin to distinguish him from Capt. William Brown, of Ifanover, a cousin.
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Of the ancestry of this prominent man and, citizen we have the following : John Brown, "the pious carrier" of Muirkirk parish, Ayr- shire, Scotland, was captured by Graham, of Claverhouse, and his troops the first of May, 1685, and ordered to take the oath of conformity, which he refused to do. Claver- house bid him go to his prayers, because he had but a few minutes to live. He did pray with such power that when Claverhouse ordered liis meu to fire upon him they re- fused, and with a pistol and an oath he blew his brains out, and then turned to the widow and said, "What thinkest thou of thy hus- band now?" She answered, "I ever thought meikle of him, but never so meikle as I do this day." He said, "It were but justice to lay thee beside him." She answered, "If you were permitted, I doubt not but your eruelty would go that length; but how will you answer for this morning's work?" "To man I can be answerable, and as for God I will take him into my own hand," he replied and rode away. She laid down her child, tied up her husband's head with her apron, stretched out his limbs, covered him with her plaid, and sat down and wept long and bitterly. Without means, without a friend ยท to help, and liable to be persecuted, she was at her wit's end. But God cared for her and removed her to Ireland, where she found friends, and where she married again. From this second marriage sprung the Weir family of our county. John Brown's sons were James and John, both of whom came to America about 1720, the former settling on the Swatara, the latter in Paxtang. A son of John, born 30th of June, 1720, was Will- iam Brown, of Paxtang. He was a promi- nent aetor in Provincial and Revolutionary times, a representative man on the frontier, and as might be supposed a zealous Cove- nanter. At his own expense he visited Ire- land and Scotland on behalf of his religious brethren to procure a supply of ministers, and brought over the celebrated divines Lind and Dobbins. He was a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly in 1776, and during its sessions proposed the gradual emancipation of slaves within the Common- wealth, a measure not very favorably re- ceived at the time, but which four years afterwards was enacted into a law. He served again in the Assembly in 1784, and was a member of the Board of Property De- cember 5, 1785. He was afterwards, Octo- ber 2, 1786, appointed one of the commis-
sioners to superintend the drawing of the donation land lottery. Mr. Brown died on the 10th of October, 1787, and is buried in Paxtang church graveyard. Ile was not only an active, earnest and public-spirited Christian, of unquestioned piety of heart, but as a neighbor and citizen generous and kind-hearted, which insured respect and won friendship. He had no children, but to his paternal and loving care are we indebted for the education of his distinguished nephew, Rev. Matthew Brown, LL. D., presi- dent of Washington and Jefferson College.
These were the men who a century ago fulfilled the trust confided to them. They were all Scotch-Irish Presbyterians -- all save one born in the Paxtang of old -- and all save one rest beneath the hallowed God's acre which lies within the shadow of that historic landmark, Paxtang church. The founder and his friends (for they were his warm personal friends) lie within the same enclosure. They were but human, it is true, yet they were men who never shrunk from the fulfillment of duty, and we of to-day in calling up their names and honoring their memories will do well to follow their ex- ample.
-BERTRAM, WILLIAM, was born February 2, 1674, in the city of Edinburg, Scotland. He received his education in the university of his native place, studied for the ministry, and was licensed by the Presbytery of Ban- gor, Ireland, who gave him "ample testi- monials of his ordination, ministerial quali- fications, and regular Christian conversa- tion." He married, about 1706, Jane Gilles- pie, the widow of Angus MeClain, and their children were, John, first, second and third, who died in infancy ; Phebe, died at age of seventeen, and Elizabeth, married James Galbraith. During one of those periodical political exeitements in the British Isles, the son disappeared, and his parents, under the impression he had come to America, deter- mined, if possible, to aseertain his where- abouts, and came to Pennsylvania about the year 1730. Failing in their seareh, they de- eided to remain in this country, and the fol- lowing year we find the Rev. Mr. Bertram unanimously received by Donegal Presby- tery, which he joined. At the same time George Renick presented him an invitation to setile at Paxtang and Derry, which he accepted. He was installed November 17, 1732, at the meeting-house on Swatara. The
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congregations then appointed representa- tives, who executed to Bertram the right and title to the "Indian town tract," situated in Hanover township, on the north side of the Swatara, containing three hundred and fifty acres. On the settlement of Rev. Bertram the congregation in Swatara took the name of Derry, and the upper congregation, on Spring creek, was styled Paxtang. In 1735, Mr. Bertram complained of the "intolerable burden " he was under with the two congre- gations, and September 13, 1736, he was re- leased from the care of Paxtang. The Rev. William Bertram died on the 2d of May, 1746, aged seventy-two, and his remains are interred in Derry church graveyard, his wife dying prior thereto. He was a faithful min- ister of the gospel. It may be stated that, through his marriage with Miss Gillespie, his descendants became heirs to a handsome estate in Edinburg. Efforts were made.to secure this, but the difficulties inherent upon proving descent, we presume, have been the means of keeping the rightful parties fron enjoying this patrimony.
- MURRAY, JOHN, son of John Murray, was born about 1691, in Scotland; emigrated to the Province of Pennsylvania in 1732 in company with his brother and other friends. On the 10th of January, 1737, he obtained a land warrant from the proprietaries of Penn- sylvania, and on the "14th of ye 9th month," 1739, had the same located upon two hun- dred acres and twelve perches of land adjoin- ing the northwest side of "Swahatawro" (Swatara) creek, then in Hanover township, Lancaster county, Pa. Adam Read, an early settler and prominent in frontier times, held an adjoining tract on the north by improve- ment. On the 1st of March, 1744, John Murray obtained another warrant, which was located, about a year afterwards, east of the other tract, and between it and land of James Stewart. This latter tract is now within the limits of Lebanon county, the former, the homestead, being within the present bounds of Dauphin county, a short distance from Dixon's Ford on the Swatara. The date of death or name of John Murray's wife we have been unable to gather.
--- ROBINSON, PHILIP, son of Thomas Robin- son, was born about the year 1698, in the north of Ireland, came to the Province of Pennsylvania with his father's family, prior to 1730. His name appears on the first tax
list of Hanover township, Lancaster county. Hle settled with his family on Manada creek, near the Gap. During the Indian war, 1755- 1763, there was a fort on his farm for defense against the Indians and the safety of the settlers. His sons were already grown men, for in 1755 Governor Morris addressed a letter to Samuel Robinson, sending with it one hundred pounds of gunpowder to be used by the inhabitants of Hanover in " de- fense of themselves and their country." Be- side their farm, the Robinsons were millers, owning a mill on the Manada at the Gap, and furnishing supplies to the Government dur- ing that war. Philip Robinson died in May, 1770; his wife's name is unknown, and her death preceded her husband's.
READ, CAPT. ADAM, was a native of the Province of Ulster, Ireland, where he was born in 1703. He located in Hanover on the Swatara about 1725, and secured the possession of large tracts of land. He was a gentleman of education and became quite prominent in Provincial days. He was for many years one of His Majesty's justices, and during the French and Indian wars held the commission of captain, doing gallant service on the frontiers. Considerable of his corres- pondence is found among the archives of the State, mostly relating to Indian forays and earnest appeals for protection. Captain Read was an elder in Hanover church, and in the old graveyard on Bow creek rest his remains. He died February 2, 1769; and his wife Mary, born in 1712, on the 11th of June, 1783. Their two daughters married respectively -- Mary, John Harris, the founder of Harris- burg, and Eleanor, Robert Whitehill, of Cumberland county.
ELDER, JOHN, son of Robert Elder, who came from Lough Neagh, county Antrim, Ireland, to Pennsylvania in 1730, was born January 26, 1706, in the city of Edinburg, Scotland; died July 17, 1792, in Paxtang township, Dauphin county, Pa. He received a classical education, and graduated from the University at Edinburgh. He subsequently studied divinity, and in 1732 was licensed to preach the gospel. Four or five years later, the son followed the footsteps of his parents and friends, and came to America. Coming as a regularly licensed minister, he was received by New Castle Presbytery, hav- ing brought credentials to that body, after- wards to Donegal Presbytery, on the 5th of
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October, 1737. Paxtang congregation having separated from that of Derry in 1735, and Rev. Mr. Bertram adhering to the latter, left that of Paxtang vacant, and they were unanimous in giving Rev. John Elder a call. This he accepted on the 12th day of April, 1738, and on the 22d of November following he was ordained and installed, the Rev. Samuel Black presiding. The early years of Mr. Elder's ministry were not those of ease; for in the second year the Whitfield excite- ment took a wide spread over the Presby- terian Church. He preached against this re- ligious furore, or the "great revival," as it was termed, and for this he was accused to the Presbytery of propagating "false doc- trine." That body cleared him, however, in December, 1740; "but a separation was made," says Webster, "and the conjunct Presbyters answered the supplications sent to them the next summer by sending Camp- bell and Rowland to those who forsook him. He signed the protest. His support being reduced, he took charge of the ' Old Side' portion of the Derry congregation." Follow- ing closely upon these ecclesiastical troubles came the French and Indian war. Associa- tions were formed throughout the Province of Pennsylvania for the defense of the fron- tiers, and the congregations of Mr. Elder were prompt to embody themselves. Their min- ister became their leader-their captain -- and they were trained as scouts. He super- intended the discipline of his men, and his mounted rangers became widely known as the " Paxtang Boys." During two summers, at least, every man who attended Paxtang church carried his rifle with him, and their minister took his. Subsequently, he was ad- vaneed to the dignity of colonel by the Pro- vincial authorities, the date of his commis- sion being July 11, 1763. He had command of the block-houses and stockades from Easton to the Susquehanna. The governor, in tendering this appointment, expressly stated that nothing more would be expected of him than the general oversight. "His justification," says Webster, ."lies in the crisis of affairs . .. Bay at York, Steele at Conecocheague, and Griffith at New Castle. with Burton and Thompson, the church missionaries at Carlisle headed companies, and were actively engaged." During the latter part of the summer of 1763, many murders were committed in Paxtang, cul- minating in the destruction of the Indians on Conestoga Manor and at Lancaster. Al-
though the men composing the company of Paxtang men who exterminated the murder- ous savages referred to belonged to his obedient and faithful rangers, it has never been proven that the Rev. Mr. Elder had previous knowledge of the plot formed, al- though the Quaker pamphleteers of the day charged him with aiding and abetting the destruction of the Indians. When the deed was done, and the Quaker authorities were determined to proceed to extreme lengths with the participants, and denounced the frontiersmen as " riotous and murderous Irish Presbyterians," he took sides with the border inhabitants, and sought to condone the deed. His letters published in connection with the history of that transaction prove him to have been a man judicious, firm and decided. During the controversy which ensued, he was the author of one of the pamphlets: "Letter from a Gentleman in one of the Back Counties to a Friend in Philadelphia." He was relieved from his command by the governor of the Province, who directed that Major Asher Clayton take charge of the mil- itary establishment. Peace, however, was restored-not only in civil affairs. but in the church. The union of the Synods brought the Rev. John Elder into the same Presbytery with Messrs. John Roan, Robert Smith and George Duffield, they being at first in a mi- nority, but rapidly settling the vacancies with New Side men. By the leave of Synod. the Rev. Mr. Elder joined the Second Philadel- phia Presbytery May 19, 1768, and on the formation of the General Assembly. became a member of Carlisle Presbytery. At the time the British army overran New Jersey, driv- ing before them the fragrants of our discour- aged, naked, and half-starved troops, and without any previous arrangement, the Rev. Mr. Elder went on Sunday as usual to Pax- tang church. The hour arrived for church- service, when, instead of a sermon, he began a short and hasty prayer to the Throne of Grace; then called upon the patriotism of all effective men present, and exhorted them to aid in support of liberty's cause and the defense of the country. In less than thirty minutes a company of volunteers was formed. Col. Robert Elder, the parson's eldest son, was chosen captain. They marched next day, though in winter. His son John, at sixteen years, was among the first. His son Joshua, sub-lieutenant of Lancaster county, could not quit the service he was employed in, but sent a substitute. Until his death,
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for a period of fifty-six years, he continued the faithful minister of the congregations over which he had been placed in the prime of his youthful vigor, passing the age not generally allotted to man -- that of fourscore and six years. His death was deeply lamented far and wide. Not one of all those who had welcomed him to his early field of labor sur- vived him. Charles Miner, the historian of Wyoming, gives this opinion of Rev. John Elder: "I am greatly struck with the evi- dences of learning, talent and spirit displayed by him. He was, beyond doubt, the most extraordinary man of Eastern Pennsylvania. I hope sonie one may draw up a full memoir of his life, and a narrative, well digested, of liis times . . . He was a very extraordinary man, of most extensive influence, full of activity and enterprise, learned, pious, and a ready writer. I take him to have been of the old Cameronian blood. Had his lot been cast in New England he would have been a leader of the Puritans." He had, with one who well remembered the old minister, "a good and very handsome face. His features were regular-no one prominent-good com- plexion, with blue eyes . . . He was a portly, long, straight man, over six feet in height, large frame and body, with rather heavy legs . . . He did not talk broad Scotch, but spoke much as we do now, yet grammatically." His remains quietly repose amid the scenes of his earthly labors, in the burying-ground of old Paxtang church, by the side of those who loved and revered him. Over his dust a marble slab bears the inscription dictated by his friend and neighbor, William Maclay, first United States senator from Pennsyl- vania. The Rev. Mr. Elder was twice mar- ried; married, first, in 1740, Mary Baker, born 1715, in county Antrim, Ireland ; died June 12, 1749, in Paxtang; daughter of Joshua Baker, of Lancaster, Pa. He married, secondly, Mary Simpson, born 1732, in Pax- tang; died October 3, 1786; daughter of Thomas and Sarah Simpson.
-MULLER, JOHN GEORGE, SON of Rudolph Muller (more frequently written Miller), was born September 21, 1715, in the Canton of Zurich, Switzerland; emigrated with his family to America in 1752, and settled in Lebanon township, Lancaster county, Prov- ince of Pennsylvania. He took the oath of allegiance October 23, 1752. He had been an officer in the Swiss service, and when the French and Indian war broke out he was
commissioned a lieutenant in Col. James Burd's regiment of Provincial forces, May S, 1760 (see Penn'a Arch., Od scr., vol. ii., p. 605), promoted to a captaincy on the northern frontiers, October 2, 1764 (ib. p. 615). Cap- tain Muller died April 19, 1765, in Lebanon township, leaving a wife Barbara Gloninger, who survived her husband several years, dying in 1783.
-STEWART, HUGH, son of Robert Stewart, was born near Glasgow, Scotland, June 11, 1719 ; died October S, 1798; buried in the graveyard of the old Covenanter church, three miles east of Harrisburg, Pa., of which church he was the main supporter. At the age of sixteen years he accompanied his elder brother, Samuel, and family, in their migration to the Province of Pennsylvania in 1735. IIe landed with a capital in coin equivalent to one dollar and twenty-five cents, and having learned the trade of weav- ing followed it for many years; settled finally in Paxtang township, about six miles from Harris' Ferry, where he acquired a large estate, for the times. His name first appears on the tax list of 1750. In 1780 he was assessed for four hundred and five acres. He was considered a very handsome man, of more than ordinary height, and retained through life his Scotch accent. Hugh Stew- art was twice married ; married, first, in 1750-1, Hannah Dallas, born 1727, in Ire- land; died 1760, and buried with ber hus- band. He married, secondly, in 1764, Nancy Moore, born 1735 ; died March 22, 1790.
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