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 32
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tismal certificate, now in the possession of Jacob Shacffer, Cumberland county. Pa. These early Zimmermans, to be sure, are only slightly connected with the history of Dauphin county, but they are given for the purpose of more clearly showing the origin of the subsequent generations bearing that name, who have played an important part in the realistic drama of Dauphin county's history.
The last named Peter Zimmerman married Miss Mary Magdelene Beane, of near Jones- town, now Lebanon county, Pa., and moved to a small unfertile farm in Cumberland county, a few miles southwest of Fairview, close to the mountains; there were born to them eight children, of whom we have any record, five sons and three daughters, to-wit : Henry was born December 30, 1786, died March 12, 1839. Mary was born August 2, 1788, died August 10, 1873, and was the second wife of Jacob Shacffer, of Cumberland county, Pa. Elizabeth Zimmerman, of whom there is no record except that she married a certain Peter Blawser, and moved to the southern tier of counties of New York State. John Zimmerman, of whom there is no record, moved to Wooster, Ohio, where he died. Catherine Zimmerman was born November 9, 1795, married to Andrew Mona Smith and died June 7, 1862. Peter Zim- merman was born in 1796, the exact date is not known; he was married to Elizabeth Mona Smith, and died at his home in Wooster, Ohio, in 1880. Samuel Zimmer- man was born March 11, 1798, in East Hanover township, Dauphin county, Pa., married Sarah Lehman, and moved to Wavne township, Wayne county, Ohio, where he died March 24, 1888, and lies buried near Madisonburg, Ohio. Jacob Zimmerman, the youngest of whom we have any record, was born January 26, 1805, and moved to Bed- ford county, Pa., where he died August 26, 1867. The father of these children is said to have died in 1810, and lies buried in the old graveyard now almost obliterated by the rough hand of time, along the river road, a few miles southwest of West Fairview. It is from this family, as well as from the line of early ancestors above, that the Dauphin county Zimmermans trace their origin.
· SNODGRASS, JAMES, the son of Benjamin Snodgrass, was born near Doylestown, Bucks county, Pa., July 23, 1763. His grandfather eame from the north of Ireland about the
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year 1700, loeating in Bucks county, Pa. He graduated at the University of Pennsyl- vania in 1783; and was for a brief time a tutor therein. He studied theology under direction of the Rev. Nathaniel Irwin, then pastor of the church at Neshaminy, and was licensed to preach the gospel by the Presby- tery of Philadelphia in December, 1785. Af- ter preaching about a year and a half in desti- tute places in the central and northern part of New York, on the 16th of October, 1787, he accepted the call of the Hanover congre- gation of May previous, and until his ordina- tion on the 13th of May, 17SS, he gave his attention to that church. At his installation there were present of the Presbytery of Car- lisle the revered and honored ininisters Revs. John Elder, John Hoge, John Linn, John Craighead, Robert Cooper and Samuel Waugh. His pastorate extended over a period of fifty-eight years, and he was the last who ministered at Hanover. His death occurred July 2, 1846, and he lies interred in old Hanover church graveyard. The Rev. Snodgrass was twice married. His first wife, Martha, born November 12, 1760; died December 20, 1828; his second wife, Nancy, born in 1770; died January 24, 1839, and are both interred in the same graveyard.
STEELE, GEN. JAMES, the son of William Steele, Jr., and Abigail, daughter of Francis Baily, was born in Sadsbury township, Lan- caster county, Pa., in 1763. He received a good classical education. He represented Chester county in the Pennsylvania legisla- tive sessions of 1809 and 1810, served in the war of 1812-14 in the capacity of colonel, and for meritorious conduct promoted to in- spector general of the State troops with the rank of brigadier. He was an enterprising business man, and prior to the war erected a paper mill on the east side of the Octoraro, and in 1818 a cotton mill in the same neigh- borhood. General Steele removed to Harris- burg in 1839, dying there September 29, 1845, and was the first person interred in the Harrisburg cemetery. His integrity and zeal, whether as officer or private individual, made him universally beloved and respected. He was a Presbyterian, but his wife and some of his family were Methodists. His son, Franklin B. Steele, was appointed military storekeeper at the Falls of St. An- thony in 1837, and from that period was closely identified with the history and inter-
ests of the Upper Mississippi. He died Sep- tember 10, 1880. General Steele's wife was Miss Humes, of Lancaster county. After her husband's death she removed to St. Paul, where she died and is buried. Their chil- dren were : Frank, who married a Miss Bar- ney, of Baltimore, a granddaughter of Com- modore Barney; Sarah, married Governor Sibley, of Minnesota; Rachel, married Gen- eral Johnson, of St. Paul ; John, a physician of prominence, married Miss McClung, of Lancaster county, Pa .; Mary, unmarried, and Abby, married Dr. Potts.
- BUCHER, JOHN JACOB, son of the Rev. John Conrad Bucher, a noted carly divine as well as an officer during the French and Indian war, was born January 1, 1764, in Carlisle, l'a. In 1790, located in Harrisburg as a hatter and furrier ; in 1796, elected coroner of Dauphin county ; in 1798, appointed jus- tice of the peace by Governor Mifflin, and represented Dauphin county in the Pennsyl- vania Legislature, sitting at Lancaster, nine successive terms from 1803. In 1810 he was appointed by Governor Snyder one of the commissioners for the erection of the public buildings at Harrisburg. In 1818, appointed by Governor Findlay an associate judge for the county of Dauphin, filling the office, honorably, until his death, October 16, 1827. Endowed with great wisdom and sagacity, and of unimpeachable integrity and honesty, he was called upon to fill many public and private trusts of honor and responsibility. His remains now lie in the llarrisburg ceme- tery. Judge Bucher married, March 27, 1792, Susanna Margaret Hortter, one of the five daughters of John Valentine Hortter, of Spires, Bavaria, who settled in Harrisburg in 1785. She was born in Germantown Sep- tember 24, 1774; died in Harrisburg, De- cember 30, 1838. She was three years old when the battle of Germantown was fought, October 4, 1777, and remembered the ex- perience of the family who were confined in the cellar of their residence, which was on the route of the battle.
ELDER, THOMAS, grandson of the Rev. John Elder, born January 30, 1767; d. April 29, 1853, in Harrisburg, Pa. He received a good English and classical educa- tion, especially under Joseph Hutchison, a celebrated teacher in his day. He subse- quently attended the academy at Philadel- phia, where he graduated. Studied law
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with General John A. Hanna, and was ad- mitted to the Dauphin county bar at the August term, 1791. He at once began the practice of a profession in which he became distinguished, and which he followed with great success for upwards of forty years, and " was eminent as a safe and sagacious coun- selor, a laborious and indefatigable lawyer." During the Whiskey Insurrection, he volun- teered as a private in Captain Dentzel's company, which marched westward, prefer- ring the ranks to that of a commissioned of- fice, which his company offered him. He subsequently held the office of licuten- ant colonel of the militia, and was fre- quently designated by the title of colonel. As a citizen in the early years of the borough of Harrisburg, Mr. Elder possessed public spirit and enterprise in advance of his con- temporaries generally. He was the promi- nent and leading spirit in organizing a com- pany to erect the Harrisburg bridge, the first constructed over the Susquehanna, and for many years the longest in the Union. Upon the permanent organization, he was unanimously elected the president, which office he held by annual re-election of the directors until his resignation in June, 1846. He was chosen president of the Harrisburg Bank in June, 1816, which office he held until his death. Governor Hiester appointed him attorney general of the Commonwealth, a position he filled with marked ability from December 20, 1820, to December 18, 1823, but he ever after positively refused to accept office, although he took decp and active in- terest for many years in the political affairs of the State and Nation. Hc was blessed with a physical constitution which enabled him to accomplish an extraordinary amount of labor without diminishing the elasticity of his spirits or the vigor of his mind. Hc lived to the advanced age of over 86 years. Mr. Elder was twice married ; married, first, March 23, 1799, Catharinc Cox, d. June 12, 1810; daughter of Col. Cornelius Cox, of Estherton, Pa. Thomas Elder marricd, secondly, May 30, 1813, Elizabeth Shippen Jones, born December 13, 1787, in Burling- ton, N. J .; died October 31, 1871, in Harris- burg, l'a .; daughter of Robert Strettell Jones and Ann Shippen.
-HARRIS, ROBERT, son of the founder, John Harris, and of Mary Read, daughter of Adam Read, Esq., of Hanover, was born in Harris' Ferry on the 5th of September, 176S. He
was brought up as a farmer, and resided in the carly part of his life in the log and frame building on Paxtang street, now used as a public school. His farm extended from the dwelling-house down the river to about the present location of Hanna street, and thence out over the bluff, including the ground oc- cupied by the Catholic cemetery, containing about one hundred acres.
By the death of his father, in 1791, much of the business affairs of the family wasearly intrusted to him. IIc was possessed of con- siderable public spirit, aiding in the establish- ment of various enterprises, including the bridge over the Susquehanna, the Harris- burg Bank, and the Harrisburg and Middle- town turnpike road, in the first two of which he was a director and perhaps also in the last. Mr. Harris was appointed to various public trusts. He was one of the State com- missioners to survey and lay off a route for the turnpike from Chambersburg to Pitts- burgh, also for improving the Susquehanna, in the course of which the commissioners descended the river below McCall's ferry. When the Assembly of the State decided to remove the seat of government to Harris- burg, Mr. Harris was selected as one of the commissioners for fixing the location of the capitol buildings preparatory to the removal.
During the mill-dam troubles, in 1795, Mr. Harris was one of the party of prominent citizens who finally tore down the Landis dam, the site of which was in the lower part of the city, and to which was attributed much of the sickness then prevailing here. He was one of the first to rush into the water, and it was said that he was then laboring under an ague chill, but never afterwards had a return of it.
During the war of 1812-14, Mr. Harris was appointed paymaster of the troops which marched to Baltimore, and acted as such at York, where the soldiers were discharged.
He was elected to Congress and took his seat in 1823, and by a re-election served therein until the 4th of March, 1827. On one of the occasions he brought home with him a picture, made before the days of daguerreotyping, of the celebrated John Randolph, of Virginia, representing him on the floor of the House of Representatives en- veloped in a large coat, extending his long, lank arms and his bony finger as he pointed it at Henry Clay and others in the course of his impassioned and sarcastic harangue.
Mr. Harris served in Congress during the
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Presidency of John Quincy Adams, and of course knew him. When General Taylor, as President, was in Harrisburg, Mr. Harris was appointed to deliver the address of wel- come on the part of the citizens. During the subsequent intercourse with General Taylor he observed to him that he had dined with
all of the preceding Presidents. He was married in Philadelphia in the spring of 1791, during the Presidency of General Washington, and dined at his table, and there or elsewhere with Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and probably Mr. Monroe. He was intimately acquainted with General Harrison when a lieutenant in the army, had entertained him at his house in Harrisburg, and was invited to dine with him during his brief term as President. He was on friendly terms with John C. Calhoun, and was well acquainted with General Jackson.
After the State capital was removed to Harrisburg, the residence of Mr. Harris, who had in 1805 purchased the Harris mansion from his brother David, and from that period occupied it, was the center of attraction at the seat of government. He entertained many of the prominent men of the State and of the Legislature. At his house might have been seen Governor Findlay, Samuel D. In- gram, Thomas Sergeant, William J. Duane, Governor Wolf, and various other persons of distinction, including Isaac Weaver, of Greene county, speaker of the Senate from 1817 to 1821, a gentleman of marked pres- ence, and who, Mr. Harris said, more resem- bled General Washington than any other man he had ever seen. During the Presi- dency of General Washington, Mr. Harris, then a young man, accompanied the party on board the Clermont, the steamboat of John Fitch, when that vessel made its trial trip on the Delaware.
The first prothonotary of Dauphin county was Alexander Graydon, and the first reg- ister Andrew Forrest, both sent from Phila- delphia by Governor Mifflin, with whom they had served as fellow-officers in the war of the Revolution. Governor Mckean for some reason refused to reappoint Mr. Forrest, and tendered the appointment to Mr. Harris. He, however, recommended the retention of Mr. Forrest, but Governor MeKean informed him that if he did not accept the office he would appoint some one else. He accord- ingly accepted it, but, it is said, divided the fees with Mr. Forrest for some time, and perhaps until his death.
Until the close of his long life Mr. Harris was quite active in body and mind. He died at Harrisburg September 3, 1851, being within two days of fourscore and three years of age. His remains repose in the beautiful cemetery now within the bounds of our city by the Susquehanna. His warm and life- long friend, Rev. William R. De Witt, D. D., delivered the funeral discourse, which we recollect well of hearing, in which he paid a most glowing tribute to the memory of Robert Harris. He died not unwillingly in the faith and hope of a Christian, and in the respect and kind regard of his fellow-citizens.
Mr. Harris married in Philadelphia, May 12, 1791, Elizabeth Ewing, daughter of the Rev. John Ewing, D. D., provost of the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania. Mrs. Harris was born in Philadelphia December 2, 1772; died at Harrisburg April 27, 1835, and is there buried.
-WALLACE, WILLIAM, was born October, 1768, in Hanover township, Dauphin county, Pa .; died Tuesday, May 28, 1816, and with his wife buried in Paxtang church graveyard. He was the eldest son of Benjamin Wallace and Elizabeth Culbertson ; received a class- ical education ; graduated at Dickinson Col- lege ; studied law at Harrisburg under Gal- braith Patterson, and was admitted to the bar at the June term, 1792. He became in- terested in the Harrisburg and Presqu' Iste Land Company, and about 1800 removed to Erie, in the affairs of which place and in the organization of the county he took an active and leading part. About 1810 he returned to Harrisburg and partly resumed his pro- fession. Besides being a member of the bar he was a partner of his brother-in-law, John Lyon, at Pennsylvania Furnace. He was nominated by the Federalists for Congress in 1813, but defeated. IIe was elected the first president of the old Harrisburg Bank and was burgess of the borough at his death. He was a polite, urbane man, of slight frame and precise address. Mr. Wallace had pre- viously married, in 1803, Rachel Forrest, daughter of Dr. Andrew Forrest, of Harris- burg, who died at Erie in 1804. Mr. Wallace married. 1806, Eleanor Maclay, daughter of Hon. William Maclav. She was born Janu- ary 17, 1774, at Harris' Ferry, and died Jan- uary 2, 1823, at Harrisburg.
CROUCH, EDWARD, son of Col. James Crouch, was born at Walnut Hill, in Paxtang, Novem-
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ber 9, 1764. He was a merchant by occupa- tion. At the age of seventeen he enlisted in the army of the Revolution, and commanded a company in the Whiskey Insurrection in 1794. He served as a member of the House of Representatives from 1804 to 1806, and was a presidential elector in 1813. Gover- nor Snyder appointed uim one of the associ- ate judges of the county of Dauphin April 16, 1813, but he resigned upon his election to the Thirteenth United States Congress. He died on the 2d day of February; 1827, and is buried in Paxtang graveyard. "In private life he was an able and an honest man," wrote one of his contemporaries, and the record of his life shows him to have been a gentleman of uprightness of character, and as honorable as he was influential. Mr. Crouch married, first, Margaret Potter, born 1775; died February 7, 1797; daughter of Gen. James Potter, of the Revolution. Their only daughter Mary, born October 23, 1791; died October 27, 1846; married Benjamin Jordan, who succeeded to the estate of Walnut Hill. He married, secondly, Rachel Bailey, born April 16, 1782; died Marclı 2, 1857.
- AINSWORTH, SAMUEL, son of Jolin Ains- worth and his wife Margaret Mayes, who was born November 11, 1765, in Hanover town- ship. His grandfather, of the same name, with his wife Margaret Young, were settlers in Hanover in 1736. In 1756 the family were driven out by the Indians and one of the children captured. The latter was never retaken. Samuel was brought up on his father's farm in Hanover, receiving a year's education in Philadelphia in addition to that acquired in the schools of the neighborhood. After the organization of the county he be- came quite prominent, and twice elected to the Legislature. He died while in attend- ance on this body, in Philadelphia, in Febru- ary, 1798. Mr. Ainsworth married, May 10, 1792, by Rev. James Snodgrass, Margaret McEwen, daughter of Richard MeEwen; born 1770, in Hanover; died October 29, 1867, near Lancaster, Ohio.
DOWNEY, JOHN, the son of John and Sarah Downey, was born at Germantown, Pa., in the year 1765. The elder Downey was an officer of the Revolution under Gen. John Tracey and was inhumanly massacred at the battle of Crooked Billet. The son received a classical education in the old academy there, and in 1795 located at Harrisburg, where he
opened a Latin and grammar school. At this period, in a letter to Governor Thomas Mifflin, he proposed a " plan of education," remarkably foreshadowing the present com- mon-school system, and which has placed him in the front rank of early American educators. Ile was for many years a justice of the peace, and served as town clerk for a long time. He was the first cashier of the Harrisburg Bank, largely instrumental in securing the erection of a bridge over the Susquehanna, and one of the corporators of the Harrisburg and Middletown Turnpike Company ; was a member of the Legislature in 1817-18, and filled other positions of honor and profit. lle died at Harrisburg on the 21st of July, 1827, and the Oracle speaks of him as "a useful magistrate and pious man." He wrote much for the press, and a series of articles published in the Dauphin Guardian, entitled "Simon Easy Papers," were from his pen-sparkling with wit; they are worth a permanent setting, as a valuable contribu- tion to literature, Mr. Downey married, June 5, 1798, Alice Ann Beatty, daughter of James Beatty, Esq., one of the first settlers at Harris- burg. She died in Ashland county, Ohio, May 14, 1841. Their daughter, Eleanor Downey, born 1811, at Harrisburg; died 1869, at Springfield, Ohio; married April 5, 1851, Hon. Daniel Kilgore, of Ohio.
FAGER, JOHN, son of John Jacob Fager and Rosanna Lutz, was born June 10, 1768, in Oley township, Berks county, Pa. His grandfather, John Henry Fager, born in 1714, in Germany, married Susanna M. Leu- ter and emigrated to America, settling in Oley township, Berks county, where he died in 1778. His son, John Jacob, born 1738, in the Palatinate; died in 1815, at Harrisburg : married Rosanna Lutz, born 1739; died 1802. Their son Jolin learned the trade of a hatter in Reading and came to Harrisburg about 1790, where for a number of years he carried on the business. He was one of the founders of the Evangelical Lutheran church at Har- risburg in 1795 ; served as commissioner of the county of Dauphin, and for a number of years was a member of the town council. After retiring from active business, late in life, he was the collector of tolls at the east end of the Harrisburg bridge. He died at Harrisburg on May 10, 1848, lacking one month of being eighty years of age. Mr. Fager married Sarah Cleckner, born 1772; died 1844, at Harrisburg ; daughter of Fred.
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erick Cleckner, Sr., one of the first settlers at Harrisburg. They had ten children, of whom those reaching mature years were Sarah, mar- ried George Adams, of Harrisburg ; Catha- rine, married Frederick Kelker, of Harris- burg ; Samuel, George C., and Dr. John H.
-FINDLAY, Gov. WILLIAM, the second son of Samuel Findlay and Jane Smith, was born near Mercersburg, Franklin county, Pa., June 20, 1768. His progenitor, beyond whom he never traced his lineage, was Adju- tant Brown, as he was called, who took part in the famous siege of Derry, and afterwards emigrated to America with his daughter Elizabeth. The daughter married Samuel Findlay, of Philadelphia. A son by this marriage settled, about 1756, in Cumberland (now Franklin) county, Pa. In the year 1765 he married Jane Smith, a daughter of William Smith. She died in her thirty-fifth year, the mother of eight boys, six of whom survived her. The subject of this sketch was the second of this family of sons. The Scotch-Irish settlers appreciated the import- ance of a good education. A knowledge of the common English branches they deemed indispensable for all their children, while one son in a family at least, if it could be accomplished by any reasonable sacrifice, received a classical education. William, in his boyhood, displayed that activity of mind and thirst for knowledge which were the characteristics of his manhood. His leisure hours were devoted to reading such books as were accessible. Ilis instruction was, how- ever, such as could be obtained in the schools of the neighborhood. The meager advan- tages afforded him were studiously improved, and the natural activity of his mind and his ambition to excel enabled him to make sub- stantial acquirements.
On the 7th of December, 1791, hie was married to Nancy Irwin, daughter of Archi- bald Irwin, of Franklin county, and com- menced life as a farmer on a portion of liis father's estate which, at the death of his father in 1799, he inherited.
He was a political disciple and a great ad- mirer of Mr. Jefferson. The first office which he ever held was a military one, that of brigade inspector of militia, requiring more of business capacity than knowledge of tactics. To the veterans of the Revolution- ary war it was given to become generals and colonels. In the antunmi of 1797, that im- mediately succeeding the inauguration of
John Adams as President of the United States, at a time when the only newspaper published in Franklin county was the organ of the Federalists, with its column strictly closed against the Republicans, Mr. Find- lay was elected a member of the House of Representatives of the State Legislature, which then sat in Philadelphia. He was again elected to the House in 1803. Mr. Jefferson had succeeded Mr. Adams in the Presidency, and the Republicans were in the ascendant in both National and State gov- ernments. The capital had, by the act of April 3, 1799, been temporarily established at Lancaster. Mr. Findlay, at this session, proposed that it should be permanently es- tablished at Harrisburg. The proposition then failed; but it was eventually carried, and in 1812 the removal was effected. He proved himself a leading member, and one of the most useful in the House, being placed in the most responsible positions. When the act to revise the judiciary system was before the House, Mr. Findlay offered additional sections, providing that a plaintiff might file a statement of his cause of action, instead of a declaration ; for reference of matters in dispute to arbitration; that proceedings should not be set aside for informality ; that pleadings might be amended, and amicable actions and judgments entered without the agency of an attorney.
These provisions were not then adopted, but they afterwards became and still are a part of the statute law. The object aimed at by their mover was doubtless to enable parties to conduct their own case in court without professional assistance. This the enactments have failed to accomplish ; but they have been of great advantage to attor- neys themselves, enabling them to cure their own errors and omissions, to which they as well as the unlearned are liable.
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