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 30
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Hc continued therein until, under the Consti- tution of 1790, which required the presiding judge "to be learned in the law," Judge Atlec was appointed. After his retirement, Judge Green returned to his quiet farm at the mouth of Stony ereck, where he had erected a mill and other improvements. He was thrice married ; married, first, in 1760, Effy Finney Robinson, daughter of James and Jean Finney, and widow of Thomas Robin- son. She died December 28, 1765, and is buried in old Hanover church graveyard.
- RUTHERFORD, CAPT. JOHN, son of Thomas Rutherford, the pioneer, was born February 16, 1737, in Donegal, Lancaster county, Pa. He accompanied his father to Paxtang in 1755. In the year 1760, in connection with the latter, he purchased the plantation, con- taining nearly four hundred acres, on which Rutherford station, on the Philadelphia & Reading railroad, is now (1895) located. This property, although divided into three tracts, is still owned by the descendants; and his mansion house, built before the Revolution, is used as a dwelling by his great-grandchil- dren. When the troubles with England arose, which led to the struggle for independ- ence, he was active in his opposition to British tyranny. He was a member and officer, throughout the war, of the " Liberty Associa- tion of Pennsylvania," and served as captain of a company in the campaigns of 1776 and 1777 in the Jerseys and Eastern Pennsylva- nia. He afterwards commanded a detach- ment from several companies against the In- dians. Throughout his life we find Mr. Rutherford's name connected with many en- terprises, both civil and ecclesiastical, which show him to have been a representative man and trusted citizen. He died at his home in Paxtang October 2, 1804. Captain Ruther- ford inarricd, February 4, 1762, Margaret Parke, born 1737 ; died January 18, 1810.
THOMAS, MARTIN, son of Martin Thomas and grandson of Durst Thomas, an early emigrant to Pennsylvania, was born March 15, 1737, in Heidelberg township, then Lan- caster county, Pa., and died July 15, 1802, in East Pennsboro' township, Cumberland county, Pa. He served, as a private, in the French and Indian war in his father's com- pany, and prior to the Revolution established a furnace in the neighborhood of Shamokin, Northumberland county, Pa. IIe served in the struggle for independenec as sergeant of
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Capt. Jolm Simpson's company, First bat- talion, Northumberland county associators, March 25, 1776, and subsequently sergeant in Third regiment, Pennsylvania Linc. During the " Great Runaway " of 1778, his family fled from the locality, and settled on the Yellow Brecches, in Cumberland county, where he built a stone mill, yet standing, and where he remained until his death. He disposed of his Northumberland county property, receiving a large sum in Conti- nental currency therefor, which, before he had the opportunity to re-invest, became worthless. He was one of the founders of Friedens Kirche, near the present Shire- manstown. He married, in 1767, Ursula Muller, born 1740, in Lebanon township, now Lebanon county, Pa .; died 1807, in East Pennsboro' township, Cumberland county, Pa .; daughter of John and Barbara Muller.
-COWDEN, JAMES, son of Matthew Cowden, was born June 16, 1737, in Paxtang town- ship, Lancaster, now Dauphin, county, Pa .; died October 10, 1810, in Paxtang. Ile was brought up on his father's farm, enjoying, however, the advantages of that early educa- tion of those pioneer times, which, among the Scotch-Irish settlers, was remarkably comprehensive and ample. Apart from this, he was well-grounded in the tenets of the Westminster Confession, which among our pious ancestry formed a part of the instruc- tion given to all. Until the thunders of the Revolution rolled toward the Susquehanna, Mr. Cowden remained on the paternal acres, busily engaged in farming. At the outset, he was a strong advocate for active defensive measures, and in favor of independence. He was one of the leading spirits at the meeting at Middletown, June 9, 1774, of which Col. James Burd was chairman, and whose action, in conjunction with those of Hanover, nerved the people of Lancaster in their patriotic re- solves. Suiting the action to the word, Mr. Cowden and the young men of his neighbor- hood took measures toward raising a battalion of associators, of which Col. James Burd was in command, and a company of which was intrusted to Captain Cowden. His company, although not belonging to the Pennsylvania Line, was, nevertheless, in several cam- paigns, and did faithful service at Fort Washington, in the Jerseys, at Brandywine, and Germantown, and in the war on the northern and western frontiers, defending
them from the attack of the savage Indian and treacherous Tory. At the close of the war Captain Cowden returned to his farm. Under the Constitution of 1790, he was ap- pointed the justice of the peace for the dis- trict of Lower Paxtang, April 10, 1793, which he held up to the time he was commissioned by Governor Thomas Mifflin one of the associate judges of the county of Dauphin, October 2, 1795, an office he filled acceptably and creditably. In 1809 he was chosen presidential elector, and was an ardent sup- porter of Madison. Judge Cowden married, March 20, 1777, by Rev. John Elder, Mary Crouch, b. 1757, in Virginia ; died October 14, 1848, in Paxtang township, Dauphin county, Pa., and buried in Paxtang church graveyard ; daughter of James and Hannah Crouch.
MACLAY, WILLIAM, son of Charles Maclay, was born July 20, 1737, in New Garden town- ship, Chester county, Pa .; died Monday, April 16, 1804, at Harrisburg, Pa .; buried in Paxtang church graveyard. In 1742 his father removed to now Lurgan township, Franklin county, where his boyhood days were spent upon the paternal farm. When the French and Indian war broke ont he was at Rev. John Blair's classical school, in Chester county, and, desiring to enter the ser- vice of the Province, his tutor gave him a recommendation "as a judicious young man and a scholar," which secured him the ap- pointment of ensign in the Pennsylvania battalion ; he was promoted lieutenant in the Third battalion, Lieut. Col. Hugh Mercer. May 7, 1758. Accompanied General Forbes' expedition that year, and especially distin- guished himself at the battle of Loyalhanna. In Bouquet's expedition of 1763, he was in the fight of Bushy Run; while in the sub- sequent campaign of that gallant officer, he was stationed, with the great portion of the Second Pennsylvania, on the line of the stockade forts on the route to Fort Pitt as lieutenant commanding the company. For these services he participated in the Provin- cial grant of land to the officers connected therewith, located on the West Branch of the Susquehanna, and most of which he assisted in surveying. He studied law and was ad- mitted to the York county bar, April 28, 1760, but it is doubtful if he ever practiced his profession at that court, the continued Indian war, and his subsequent duties as surveyor, engrossing his entire time, although,
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from a letter of John Penn's, it would seem that he was afterwards admitted to the Cum- berland county bar, and had acted for the prothonotary of that county. At the close of the French and Indian war he visited Eng- land and had an interview with Thomas Penn, one of the Proprietaries, relative to the surveys in the middle and northern parts of the Provinee, and was the assistant of Sur- veyor Inkens on the frontiers. In 1772 he laid out the town of Sunbury and erected for himself a stone house, which was standing a few years sinee. Upon the organization of the county of Northumberland he was ap- pointed prothonotary and clerk of the courts. He also acted as the representative of the Penn family, and took a prominent part in the so-called Pennamite war. In writing to the secretary of the Province, in April, 1773, he says, " If hell is justly considered as the rendezvous of rascals, we cannot entertain a doubt of Wioming being the place;" but, much as he was prejudiced against the Con- nectieut settlers, he foresaw the future value of the land in that valley, and advised Penn not to sell his reservation there. At the out- set of the Revolution, although an officer of the Proprietary government, William Ma- clay took a prominent and active part in favor of independence, not only assisting in equip- ping and forwarding toops to the Continen- tal army, but marched with the associators, participating in the battles of Trenton and Princeton. During the Revolution he held the position of assistant commissary of pur- chases. In 1781 he was elected to the Assem- bly, and from that time forward he filled the various offiees of the Supreme Executive Couneil, judge of the Courts of Common Pleas, deputy surveyor, and one of the eom- missioners for earrying into effect the act re- specting the navigation of the Susquehanna river. About this period he visited England in the interest of the Penn family. In Janu- ary, 1789, he was elected to the United States Senate, taking his seat there as the first sena- tor from Pennsylvania. He drew the short term, and his position terminated Mareh 3, 1791, his eolleague, Robert Morris, sceuring the long term. His election to this body raised him upon a higher plane of political activity, but contact with the Federal chiefs of the Senate only strengthened his political convietions, which, formed by long inter- course with the people of Middle Pennsylva- nia, were intensely democratic. He began to differ with the opinions of President 16
Washington very early in the session; he did not approve of the state and ceremony attendant upon the intercourse of the Presi- dent with Congress-he flatly objected to the presence of the President in the Senate while business was being transaeted, and in the Senate boldly spoke against his policy in the immediate presence of President Washing- ton. The New England historians, Hildreth and Goodrich, repute Thomas Jefferson as the "efficient promoter at the beginning and founder of the Democratic party." Contempo- rary records, however, show beyond theshadow of a doubt that this responsibility or honor, in whatever light it may be regarded, eannot be shifted from the shoulders or taken from the laurels of Pennsylvania statesmanship. Before Mr. Jefferson's return from Europe, William Maclay assumed an independent position, and in his short eareer of two years in the Senate propounded ideas and gath- ered about him elements to form the oppo- sition which developed with the meeting of Congress at Philadelphia, on the 24th of Oc- tober, 1791, in a division of the people into two great parties, the Federalists and Demo- erats, when, for the first time, appeared an open and organized opposition to the admin- istration. The funding of the public debt, ehartering the United States Bank, and other measures championed necessarily by the administration, whose duty it was to put the wheels of government in motion, engen- dered opposition. Mr. Maclay, to use his own language, " no one else presenting him- self," fearlessly took the initiative, and with his blunt common sense (for he was not mueh of a speaker) and Democratic ideas, took issue with the ablest advocate of the administration. Notwithstanding the pres- tige of General Washington, and the ability of the defenders of the administration on the floor of the Senate, such was the taet and resolution of Mr. Maclay, that when, after his short serviee, he was retired from the Senate and succeeded by James Ross, a pronounced Federalist, their impress was left in the distinetive lines of an oppo- sition party, a party which, taking advantage of the warm feeling of our people toward the French upon the occasion of Jay's treaty with Great Britain, in 1794, and of the un- popularity of the alien and sedition laws, passed under the administration of President John Adams, in 1798, compassed the final overthrow of the Federal party in 1800. While in the Senate, Mr. Maclay preserved
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notes of its discussions, both in open and secret sessions, with observations upon the social customs of the first statesmen of the Republic, which have been published and edited by George Washington Harris. Upon his retirement, he resided permanently on his farm adjoining Harrisburg, where he erected the stone mansion for many years occupied by the Harrisburg Academy. In the year 1795 he was elected a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, and again elected in 1803. He was a presi- dential elector in 1796, and, from 1801 to 1803, one of the associate judges of the county of Dauphin. Mr. Harris, who edited his journal, gives us this summary of Mr. Maclay's character : "He was a man of strict integrity, of positive opinions, having im- plicit confidence in his own honesty and judgment; he was inclined to be suspicious of the integrity of others whose sentiments or action in matters of importance differed from his own, and the journal, to which ref- erence has been made, is evidence of the strength of his intellect." " In personal ap- pearance Mr. Maclay is said to have been six feet three inches in height, and stout and musclar; his complexion was light, and his hair, in middle age, appears to have been brown, and was worn tied behind or clubbed." Mr. Maclay married, April 11, 1769, Mary McClure Harris, daughter of John Harris, the founder of Harrisburg, and Elizabeth McClure, his wife; born April 13, 1750, at Harris' Ferry ; died April 20, 1809, at Harrisburg, and buried in Paxtang church graveyard.
MONTGOMERY, MRS. RACHEL, the eldest daughter of Jolin and Rachel Rush, was born at Byberry, in Philadelphia county, Pa., in 1741. She was full sister of the celebrated Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declara- tion of Independence. Rachel received an excellent education and was a woman of re- fined taste and manners. She married, about 1761, Angus Boyce, a merchant of Philadel- phia. He died a few years later, leaving one child, Malcolm. Mrs. Boyce married, about 1769, the Rev. Joseph Mongomery, then pas- tor of the Presbyterian congregation of New Castle and Christiana Bridge, Del., and sub- sequently member from Pennsylvania in Congress, 1781 to 1783. In 1785 Mr. Mont- gomery, having been appointed recorder and register of the new county of Dauphin, re- moved with his family to Harrisburg. Here
he died, in 1794, leaving his wife with three children, one by his former marriage. Mrs. Montgomery died on Saturday, July 28, 1798, at Harrisburg.
ELDER, ROBERT, son of Rev. John Elder, was born June 11, 1742, in Paxtang ; died September 29, 1818. He was educated at the academy in Chester county, and was destined by his father for the ministry. His inclinations, and the breaking out of the French and Indian war, when the boy en- listed with his father as a ranger on the frontiers, determined otherwise. With his Scotch-Irish neighbors, he entered heartily into the contest for independence, and throughout the war of the Revolution was in the field or engaged in organizing the associators, of which he was colonel, suc- ceeding Colonel Burd in the command of the companies raised in Paxtang. At the close of the conflict he continued his occu- pation of farming, avoiding public office, preferring the quiet of domestic life. Col- onel Elder married Mary J. Thompson, of Derry, born October 19, 1750; died August 18, 1813.
. SIMPSON, MURRAY, was born about 1744, in Buckingham township, Bucks county, Pa .; died February 3, 1807, in Huntingdon, Pa. His parents, John and Mary Simpson, went South and were residing in North Caro- lina in 1783 and in Georgia in 1791. The son learned blacksmithing, and, in 1763, settled on the Susquehanna, in what was then Upper Paxtang township, Lancaster, now Dauphin county. On the 15th of An- gust, 1775, he was commissioned second lieutenant of Capt. James Murray's company in the Fourth battalion of associators, of Lancaster county. On the 28th of January, 1777, Lieut. Col. Cornelius Cox, of the bat- talion, ordered him to remain in the " Conti- nental smith-shop " at Bristol. He served during the greater part of the Revolution, toward its close in command of a company of militia, when he returned to his farm. In the spring of 1793 he removed to Hunting- don, where he passed the remainder of his days. Hemarried Margaret Murray, daughter of Capt. James Murray, of the Revolution. She was born in 1756 in Paxtang township, Lancaster county, Pa., and died April 27, 1826, at Huntingdon, Pa. They were the grandparents of llon. J. Simpson Africa.
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-BEATTY, JAMES, the fourth in descent from John Beatty, who settled in the Province of Ulster, Ireland, in 1690, was born 1746, in the townland of Ballykeel-Ednagonnel, parish of Hillsborough, county Down, Ireland; died December 1, 1794, at Harrisburg, Pa. From the family record, in the possession of his descendants, we have this entry: "That my children may know the place of their nativity, I, James Beatty, was born in the Kingdom of Ireland, and county of Down, parish of Hillsborough, and townland of Ballykeel- Ednagonnel, in the year of our Lord 1746, and came to America in the year 1784. My wife, Ally Ann Irwin, was born in said king- dom, county and parish, and townland of Tillyngre, within two miles of Hillsborough, three of Lisburn, and three miles of Dromore, and six miles of Bally-nahinch, and ten of Belfast, which last place we sailed from the 27th of June, 17S4." In the fall of this year, he settled at Harrisburg, Pa., and thus be- came one of its first inhabitants. He subse- quently was the purchaser of a number of lots in the town, some of which remain in possession of his descendants. He was quite prominent in his adopted home, and held several official positions under the borough · charter. He was buried in the Presbyterian graveyard, of which church he held member- ship. In personal appearance, Captain Beatty was about five feet eight inches, thickset, florid complexion, dark hair and blue eyes. He was an active and energetic business man, and his death was a great loss to the young town. James Beatty married, in 1768, at Tullynore, Alice Ann Irwin, born 1750, in the townland of Tullynore, parish of Hills- borough, county Down, Ireland, daughter of Gawin Irwin and Mary Brereton ; died June, 1805, at Harrisburg, Pa., and there buried. They had issue, all born in Ireland.
-WILLARD, JOHN PETER, was a native of Switzerland, born in 1745. He came to America as a soldier in the British service, but shortly after landing effected his escape. He then volunteered in the cause of the Colonies, and was with other deserters sta- tioned on the Indian frontier or as guard of prisoners of war. At the close of the Revo- lution he took up a tract of land in Lykens township, called " Amsterdam," where he settled, began farming, and subsequently married. Ile died in 1821, at the age of 76. His wife died the following year (1822), aged
77. They left the following family : Adam, who came into possession of the homestead. His children, Joseph, John A., Henry B., and Adam, Jr., then divided the farm. Part of it yet remains in possession of the descend- ants. Samuel remained in the valley, a farmer, and had a large family. Anna Maria married John Philip Umholtz.
- BOYD, CAPT. ADAM, the son of John Boyd and Elizabeth Young, was a native of North- ampton county, Pa., born in 1746. He learned the trade of a carpenter, and was following that avocation when the war of the Revolution called to arms. He was an early associator, and when the State of Penn- sylvania had formed its little navy for the protection of the ports on the Delaware, Lieutenant Boyd received a commission therein. During the year 1776, and the carly part of 1777, he was most of the time in command of the armed sloop "Burke," and rendered efficient service in the conflict between the Pennsylvania navy and the British ships " Roebuck " and " Liverpool" in May, 1776. Growing tired of that branch of the service, Lieutenant Boyd requested to be discharged, that he might volunteer in the land forces. Being honorably dismissed from the navy, he at once entered the army proper, holding the same rank therein. He was at the battles of Brandywine and Ger- mantown, with two of his brothers, one of whom was killed in the latter engagement. Subsequently, Lieutenant Boyd acted as " master of wagons," and as such remained with the army until after the surrender at Yorktown. Returning to the home of his mother, near Newville, he married and set- tled in Harrisburg. Upon the incorpora- tion of the borough of Harrisburg, in 1791, he was chosen a burgess, Dr. John Luther be- ing the other. In 1792 he was elected treas- urer of the county, and held the office until 1806, when he declined a re-election. In 1809 Mr. Boyd was elected a director of the poor, and during his term of office the county poorhouse and mill were erected.
Mr. Boyd died on May 14, 1814; was in- terred in the Presbyterian graveyard, but subsequently his remains were removed to the Harrisburg cemetery. Mr. Boyd mar- ried, in 1784, Jeannette Macfarlane, of Big Spring, Cumberland county, daughter of Patrick and granddaughter of James Mac- farlane, who came from Ireland to Pennsyl-
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vania in 1717. Mrs. Boyd died in carly life at, Ilarrisburg, leaving one child, a daughter Rosanna, who married Hugh Ham- ilton in 1807. This estimable lady lived until 1872, when she died, the oldest in- habitant of Harrisburg, having been born here in 1786.
--- STEWART, ANDREW, was the son of Andrew Stewart and Mary Dinwiddie, whose remains lie in old Paxtang churchyard. The first Andrew Stewart with his brother Archibald Stewart came to America prior to 1733 and settled in Paxtang township, then Lancaster county, Pa. The former remained there, while Archibald drifted down the Kittoch- tinny Valley into the Valley of Virginia, and settled in Augusta county, that State. He was the head of a large family and whose descendants have been represented in the recent history of our country by the rebel chieftain, Gen. James E. B. Stuart, "the Murat of the Confederacy," and by the Hon. A. H. II. Stuart, a prominent Virginia states- man of the old regime. The youngest son of Andrew Stewart, Sr., was the subject of our sketch, also named Andrew. He was born in Paxtang in 1748, and was a farmer by occupation. He was one of the leaders in the movement for the erection of the new county of Dauphin, and hence was named as one of the commissioners. In 1792 Mr. Stewart sold his plantation in Paxtang, and removed to Western Pennsylvania. He died in Allegheny county about the year 1S27, the date of his will being the 14th day of June that year. Capt. John Rutherford and Thomas Brown, of the county of Dauphin, were the executors named in his will, but the former passed away before the settlement of the estate. We have no information as to any descendants.
-HAMILTON, JOHN, son of John Hamilton, was born June 17, 1749, in New London, Chester county, Pa .; died August 28, 1793, at Harrisburg, Pa. Under the will of his father he inherited a " plantation and fulling-mill, bought of James Long, on Shearman creek, in Cumberland county " (Perry county). He was educated principally in the celebrated academy of Rev. Mr. Alison, Chester county. When upon a visit to his patrimony in the Juniata region, he was attracted to the su- perior excellence of a tract of land called " Fermanagh," now in Juniata county. He
purchased it. On the Shearman's creek farm Hugh Alexander was his adjoining neigh- bor; he became attached to his daughter, and at twenty-three years of age ho married her; established himself at "Fermanagh," and creeted a large stone mansion. This house is standing. It has been occupied by himself, his son John and a grandson, Hugh Hamilton. He became, by successful indus- try and in right of his mother, Jane Allen Hamilton, of great fortune for his day. The . inventory of personal property at his death, in 1793, makes his effects in money £7,500. At that moment he had active enterprises of various kinds in full operation-at Lost creek, at Fermanagh, in Shearman's Valley and at Ilarrisburg. Ile was one of the ori- ginal lot holders at Harrisburg. One of his largest houses was that at the southeast cor- ner of Market square; another on his lot, Front street and Raspberry alley. In 1792 he employed at his warehouse and stores, on what is now Mulberry street, between Second and Third streets, " as many as fifteen mules and a far greater number of horses, upon which he sent nails and salt and other mer- chandise to Pittsburgh." Sending nails to Pittsburgh at this date would be reversing the usual course of trade. He was one of the last of those in the interior who held slaves, a half dozen in all. All but one continued in the family until the death of his widow, not as slaves, but as free laborers on the farms. Mr. Hamilton was a sergeant in Capt. Gibson's company, Col. Wilson's bat- talion of Cumberland county associators, in 1776; captain of a company in Col. Samuel Lyon's battalion in August, 1777 ; and also captain in Col. Buchanan's battalion in 1778, and was out in two campaigns, 1776 and 1781. In the family records of the Me- Alisters, of Lost Creek, Juniata, one of whom married a granddaughter of Capt. Ilamil- ton, we have the following narrative : " The American army, December, 1776, shattered, disheartened and decreasing daily, were mak- ing precipitate retreat across Jersey into Pennsylvania, before the victorious army of Howe and Cornwallis. In this gloomy hour a meeting of the people was called at the farm of Mr. William Sharon within a couple of miles of Mr. Hugh MeAlister, near the present town of Mexico, to consult and de- vise measures to reinforce Washington and the army. All the neighbors below the Nar- rows met. John Hamilton, of Fermanagh, was made chairman. It was unanimously
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