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 41
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twice married; first, January 16, 1843, to Selina, daughter of John Heltzel, of Harris- burg; second, June 5, 1873, at Chapman, Pa., to Mrs. A. E. Iletzel.
YOUNG, JOSIAH CAROTHERS, son of Danicl II. Young and Sarah Duncan, was born April 17, 1821, at Harrisburg, Pa. He was edueated in the common sehools of the bor- ough and learned the trade of a carpenter, which occupation he followed several years. He subsequently taught school, and at the time of his death was a teacher in the publie schools of Harrisburg. For a long period he was engaged in mercantile pursuits at Dau- phin and Harrisburg. From 1860 to 1868 he was prothonotary and clerk of the courts of Dauphin county, a position he filled with great acceptability. He died at Harrisburg, April 1, 1881, aged almost sixty years. He wasa faithful and conscientious public officer, an honored and respected eitizen, while in the Methodist Church, of which body he was an ordained local preacher, highly esteemed as a sincere and devout laborer. Mr. Young married, September 21, 1843, Catharine Mary Kinter, daughter of George and Elizabeth Kinter, who survived him, and their children were Willian: N., John W., George C., Charles W., Albert H., Charles C., and William L.
CALDER WILLIAM, son of William and Mary (Kirkwood) Calder, was born in Har- risburg July 31, 1821, and died July 19, 1880. ]His father was a native of Harford county, Md., and was one of the pioneers of that county. He came to Ilarrisburg and became a member of the firm of Calder, Wilson & Co., which condueted a stage line business. After this enterprise was destroyed by the opening of the canal, he established a livery trade. Our subject had limited edu- eation from books, being indueted into the stage line business at the age of twelve years as paymaster of the firm of Calder, Wilson & Co. At the age of sixteen his father put him in charge of the Philadelphia packet line from Columbia to Pittsburgh, and at the same time was interested in his father's livery. In 1851 he assumed the manage- ment of his father's business, and in 1857 undertook the completion of the Lebanon Valley railroad. In 1858 he became a member of the well-known banking firm of Cameron, Calder, Eby & Co., which after- wards became the First National Bank of Harrisburg, of which Mr. Calder was chosen
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president. The same year he was elected a director of the Northern Central railway, and was active in preserving Pennsylvania's interests in that corporation. At the break- ing out of the Rebellion he rendered the Government important service through his large knowledge in the purchase of horses, and supplied the Government with no less than 42,000 mules, establishing the price so low as to effect a very great saving to the Government in this department. Mr. Calder was always foremost in the promotion of Harrisburg's industrial enterprises. He was one of the founders of the Harrisburg Car Works, the Lochiel Rolling Mills, the Har- risburg Cotton Mills, Foundry and Machine Works, the Fire Brick Works and the Penn- sylvania Steel Works. .
In 1873 he was commissioned by Governor Hartranft a trustee of the Pennsylvania State Lunatic Hospital, and reappointed in 1876. In 1876 he was appointed by the same governor a member of the commission to devise a plan for the government of cities, and in 1880, just prior to his death, he was elected director of the Pennsylvania Institute for the Deaf and Dumb. For many years he ably officiated in the management of city affairs through its councils. He was among the founders of the Harrisburg Hospital and the Grace Methodist Episcopal church, of which he was an attendant. He was for- merly a Whig, latterly a Republican, and influential in local and State politics, and one of the Presidental electors from this State in 1876.
Upon the occasion of President Lincoln's visit to Harrisburg, when a plot was laid to assassinate him on his return to Baltimore, Mr. Calder was selected to escort him safely to take another train from the one intended at first, and thus his enemy's designs were thwarted. His widow is Regina Camilla, daughter of Jacob and Catherine (Krause) Greenawalt. Their children were: Edmund Kirkwood, who died December 31, 1862, aged thirteen years ; William Jacob, Cathe- rine Krause, Theodore Greenawalt, Regina, and Mary Kirkwood.
GAUSE, LEWIS HI., son of Samuel Gause (1781-1865) and Mary Bailey (1784-186S), was born October 28, 1821, at Unionville, Chester county, Pa. IIe was educated in the country schools of Delaware and Chester county, and at West Town boarding-school.
After having taught school a good many years, he graduated in 1861 from the State Normal School of New Jersey, located at Trenton. In early life he commenced teach- ing; came to Harrisburg in 1843 as teacher in the boys' high school of the South ward, where he continued until 1851, when he be- came teacher of the sciences in the agricul- tural school at Mount Airy, conducted by Prof. John Wilkinson, for one year. From December, 1852, to the spring of 1855 he taught at Treemount Seminary, Norristown, when he took charge of the Olive Branch, which he edited two years. In 1857 he went to Springfield, Ohio, to engage in a news- paper venture, but purchasing a farm, fol- lowed farming two years, teaching during the winter. In 1859 he returned East, took charge of one of the public schools at Plain- field, N. J., subsequently entering the State Normal School as stated. During the Rebel- lion he entered the United States service, serving until the close of the war, and was made clerk to Maj. E. L. Moore, paymaster in the United States army. In October, 1865, he resigned, and established a select school at Harrisburg, which he successfully conducted ten years. In 1875 was elected by the school board of the city of Harrisburg supervisory principal of the Reily street schools. Mr. Gause studied law while con- ducting the Harrisburg Institute, under Jolm C. Kunkle, and was admitted to the Dauphin county bar December, 1868. IIe married, October 28, 1847, Sarah Fish Moore, daughter of Levi Moore and Sarah Fish, of Amherst, Mass., and their children were Leander M., Charles S., Helen, Frank L., Lucy G., and Laura B.
COWDEN, WILLIAM KERR, son of Matthew B. and Mary (Wallace) Cowden, was born January 5, 1822, in Lower Paxtang town- ship, Dauphin county, Pa. He was brought up a farmer, receiving such facilities of edu- cation as the schools of the township afforded prior to the adoption of the common school system. He continued the occupation of a farmer until 1868, when he removed to Har- risburg and engaged in the coal and lumber business, subsequently establishing a plan- ing mill. For a decade of years he was one of the inspectors of the Dauphin county prison. Mr. Cowden married Elizabeth M., daughter of Joshua and Mary C. (Gillmor) Elder.
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KUNKEL, GEORGE, son of Jacob Kunkel and his wife Rebecca Stine, was born on January 21, 1823, in Greeneastle, Franklin county, Pa .; died January 25, 1SS5. He be- came a printer in Philadelphia, and while earning fifteen dollars a week at the ease, in 1844 he left it to get twenty-five dollars to sing and play with the Virginia serena- ders. When they disbanded he organized Kunkel's Nightingale Minstrels, Mr. John T. Ford becoming the manager of the troupe, which was very successful. Mr. Kunkel was a noted bass singer. Kunkel's Minstrels were on the road eleven years, and dis- banded in Washington in 1855. Mr. Kun- kel was the original manager of the Jenny Lind theater. Washington, which stood on the site of the National theater. It was de- stroyed by fire, by which Mr. Kunkel lost eight thousand dollars.
After the disbanding of his troupe, with Mr. Moxley he, managed a theater in Rich- mond up to the time of the beginning of the war. In his company were J. Wilkes Booth and Edwin Adams, and his stage manager was Joseph Jefferson. Some time during the first year of the war Mr. Kunkel returned to Baltimore and became manager of the museum at Baltimore and Calvert streets. Afterwards he undertook the role of Unele Tom, in which character he first appeared in Charleston, S. C., in 1861. The city council of Charleston, on the occasion of his first appearance, held a meeting and passed a resolution forbidding any colored person from entering the theater under pain of punishment. Parson Brownlow published an editorial in his paper advising the driv- ing out of the troupe from the city.
In 1864, when manager of the Front street theater, he married Mrs. Ada Proctor, who was leading lady at that place. Two chil- dren, a son and a daughter, survived him.
In the character of Uncle Tom Mr. Kun- kel perhaps pleased more children than any other living actor. In 1883 Mr. Kunkel starred through England in the character of Unele Tom under the management of Jar- rett & Palmer. It was a most successful tour. The last time he played Uncle Tom was in New Haven, Conn., during New Year's week, 1SS5. He died suddenly at Baltimore, Md., January 25, 1885.
~SAVAGE, JAMES, was born in North Wales, February 25, 1823, and died in Cimmaron, New Mexico, November 10, 1881, where he
was superintending a mine for his brother, Col. E. G. Savage. He emigrated to America with his parents, who settled in Minersville, where he learned the trade of a machinist. In 1849 he came to Wieoniseo to put up the engine for the Lykens Valley breaker, which he ran a year, and then went to California. There he stayed two years, and returned in 1852 and accepted a position under the Short Mountain Coal Company. He hoisted the first car of coal ever taken out of the Wico- misco mines. In 1855 or 1856 he became su- perintendent of the Lykens Coal Company under George E. Hoffman. In 1861 he went to California again, where he remained until 1865, when he returned and located at Gil- berton, Schuylkill county, in charge of the Gilberton Coal Company. In 1867, with Col. E. G. Savage and Benjamin Kaufman, under the firm name of Savage, Brother & Kauf- man, he leased a traet of coal land of the Philadelphia & Reading railroad, developed what is now known : s " Brookside Colliery," and established the operation as a successful one. Then they sold it to George S. Rep- plier & Co. He was subsequently its super- intendent, and afterwards in various enter- prises in Tremont for ten years. Ile may justly be regarded as the pioneer of the Wi- coniseo coal mines.
-- McILHENNY, SAMUEL, son of Samuel and Mary (Carson) Mellhenny, was born June 4, 1823, in West Hanover township, Dauphin connty, Pa. He was educated in the public schools of Lower Paxtang township, and was brought up a farmer. At the age of seventeen he apprenticed himself to William J. Kaul to learn the trade of a tanner, which he followed many years. In 1849 he com- menced business for himself at Linglestown, and took an active part in the political af- fairs of the country. Mr. Mellhenny was elected county auditor in 1869, serving three years, and in 1873 elected one of the county commissioners, and re-elected, filling that responsible station six years. During his term of office various needed reforms were made in the administration of the publie af- fairs of the county, and much eredit is due Mr. Mellhenny for his efforts in this direc- tion. IIe has filled the various township offiees, and in 1879 was appointed one of the inspectors of the Dauphin county pri- son. Mr. Mellhenny married, January 9, 1847, Catherine, daughter of Louisa and Sarah Maria (Albert) Culp. Their children
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were : Sarah R., John H., Mary Ann, Kate Ann, Lydia J., Elizabeth E., who married Jacob Balthaser, Samuel C., Susan S., George W., Emma E., William A., Anna Maria and Minnie C.
- WAUGH, BEVERLY ROBERTS, the son of Ri. Rev. Beverly Waugh, bishop of the Metho- dist Episcopal Church, and his wife Catharine Bushby, was born July 28, 1824, at Liberty, Md. His grandfather, James Waugh, was an officer in the Pennsylvania Line of the Revo- lution, who settled in Virginia at the close of the struggle for independence. Beverly re- ceived a thorough English and classical edu- cation and entered Dickinson College, where he graduated. His alma mater subsequently conferred upon him the degree of A. M. Mr. Waugh was licensed to preach by the Balti- more Conference, but accepted the position of professor of mathematics and English literature in the Baltimore Female College, an institution then in the full tide of success. In 1853 the trustees of the Pennsylvania Female College at Harrisburg secured him as principal of that institution, in which po- sition he labored faithfully and successfully to the day of his death. It was not alone in the capacity of teacher that Mr. Waugh de- voted his energies and talents, but his labors were varied, incessant, faithful, in season and out of season, for the good of humanity. His devoted Christian life-work ended on March 24, 1861, in his thirty-seventh year. Mr. Waugh married Sarah Shrom Beatty, eldest daughter of George Beatty and his wife Catharine Shrom, who with one child, Eliza B., married to Charles A. Kunkel, of Harrisburg, survive.
ETTER, BENJAMIN F., lawyer of Harris- burg, and ex-deputy attorney general of Pennsylvania, was born at Middletown, Dauphin county, September 29, 1824. He obtained his early education at the Middle- town Academy.' At the age of twenty-two began reading law with James Fox, a lawyer of Harrisburg, and was admitted to practice on November 24, 1851. He opened a law office in Harrisburg the same year, and has been engaged in general practice in the civil courts of the county and State since, a period of thirty-one years. Mr. Etter was appointed and served for six years as deputy attorney general under Attorney General William M. Meredith, and for a short time under At- torney General Benjamin HI. Brewster. His
safe and judicious opinions as a counselor, his integrity and fidelity to his clients, and his uncompromising desire to defend the wrong and encourage the right have given him a high reputation in the profession. Ile married, in 1857, Catharine A., daughter of Charles A. and Barbara A. (Keller) Snyder, of Lancaster, Pa. Her father was a relative of Governor Snyder. Their surviving chil- dren were Charles F., clerk in the First National Bank of Harrisburg; Nannie E., and George E. Etter. His parents, George and Nancy (Shelly) Etter, died at Middletown, the former in 1850, aged sixty-seven; the latter in 1826, aged thirty. His grandfather, Abraham Etter, settled in Dauphin county, from Lancaster, about 1800, where he died, and was of German origin. His maternal grandfather was Abraham Shelly, of York county, Pa.
EDWARDS, OLIVER, third son of Abraham Edwards and Martha Greenfield, was born October 24, 1824. His parents were natives of Baltimore, where they married, removed to Pittsburgh, and subsequently to Harris- burg about 1819. Oliver's education in the schools was limited, but his mind being ac- tive and inquiring, he read much and stud- ied at night after the work of the day was over, thus becoming very well self-educated, and developed into a man of considerable attainments. When young he learned the trade of bootmaking with his father; later in life he was selected as a seliool teacher under the common school system, and proved to be one of the most successful ever employed in the Harrisburg schools, as numbers of young men of the present day can testify.
Mr. Edwards was much afflicted with asthma and unable to do military duty, but in order to render some service during the war he became the agent for the reception and distribution of the Dauphin County Re- lief Fund for the support of those whose husbands, fathers and sons were in the army. It was a very onerous duty, and he performed it faithfully and well, declining any remuneration whatever for his services. In 1860 he was elceted one of the first alder- men of the city of Harrisburg. Upon the cleetion of Gen. A. S. Raumfort as mayor of the city he appointed Mr. Edwards as com- mitting magistrate and chief clerk in the mayor's office. He was elected to succeed Gen. Raumfort, and was inaugurated mayor
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of the eity in Mareh, 1866. IIc was subse- quently elected an alderman of the Fourth ward in 1872, which position lic occupied up until the time of his death, which oceurred in Harrisburg on the 13th day of October, 1874. Mr. Edwards was an active man, of quick perception, finc social qualities, and possessed of much useful information. The Rev. George F. Stelling, of the Fourth Street Lutheran church, preached a very able funeral sermon shortly after his death in re- lation to Mr. Edwards' religious experienee. On the 7th of August, 1851, he married Ra- chel Ann Chandler, daughter of Jonathan Chandler and Mary Griffith. The marriage took place in Harrisburg, where his wife was born, on the 13th of August, 1830, and died therein on the 5th of July, 1865. Two daugliters survived the parents, Mary Griffith and Rachel Louisa, married Daniel A. Mus- ser.
-BLACK, ANDREW KRAUSE, son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Krause) Blaek, was born January 16, 1825, at Harrisburg, Pa. He was educated in the public schools of the borough, and learned the trade of bricklayer and builder, in which oceupation he engaged until 1892. He served as a member of the select and common couneils of the eity of Harrisburg, and for several years was one of the inspectors of the Dauphin county prison. Hc represented the county in the Legislature in 1871 and 1872, and under the Constitution of 1874 represented the eity of Harrisburg in that body in 1877 and 1878. In Deecm- ber, 1891, was appointed by President Har- rison postmaster of Harrisburg. Mr. Black married, in 1849, Rebecca Irwin Clark, daughter of William and Maria Clark, of Clark's Ferry, and their children were: Emma, Harriet, George Murray, Alfred T., Irene Elizabeth, who married J. C. Harlicker, Maria Clark, and Amy Chaplin.
SHEAFER, MAJ. HENRY JACKSON, son of Michael Sheafer and Susan Cloud, was born May 21, 1826, in Laneaster county, Pa. When about six years of age his father removed to what was then ealled " Bear Gap," now Wi- coniseo, in the upper end of Dauphin county. Here he resided with his parents, getting a few months' schooling during the winter sea- son, until the age of fifteen, when he went to learn the drug business at Harrisburg. He continued in this employment for four years, when he went to South Carolina and resided
for some time in Columbia, the capital. Com- ing North, he settled in the town of Milton, Northumberland county, and engaged in the drug trade. In 1848 he was married to America O. Wood, daughter of Nicholas B. Wood. At the death of his father he re- moved to the old home at Wiconisco, for the purpose of settling his father's estate.
In 1856 he removed to Mendota, Dakota county, Minn., where he engaged in the lum- ber business in connection with Eli Pettijohn and Franklin Steele, of Fort Snelling. They built a large mill at the mouth of the Min- nesota river, and had extensive yards on the Minnesota river. In the fall of 1858 he was eleeted a member of the Minnesota Legisla- ture from Dakota county, and for some time took an active part in the polities of the young State. After the breaking out of the war all business was completely paralyzed, aud in the fall of 1861 he returned to Harrisburg. During the winter of 1861-62 he recruited a company for the One Hundred and Seventh regiment, Pennsylvania volunteers, and was mustered into service as captain of Company I. At the battle of Antietam his brigade fought in the noted cornfield almost fronting the Dunker church, and suffered terribly in killed and wounded. At one time the line being driven back, both color-bearers were shot dead and left on the field. Captain Sheafer, aseertaining the fact, returned alone and rescued the colors and rejoined his com- mand without injury. On December 21, 1862, he was commissioned major of the regi- ment. In the Gettysburg campaign, on the - first day of the figlit, shortly after Reynolds was killed, Major Sheafer was severely wounded, but did not leave the field until the afternoon of the third day's fight. Early in the fall he rejoined his command and par- tieipated with his regiment in the many bat- tles they were engaged in up to March S, 1865 (the expiration of his term of service), and was mustered out. After the war he made Harrisburg his permanent home and engaged in mercantile pursuits. In 1873 he was elected sheriff of Dauphin county, serv- ing his term of three years.
ELDER, JAMES, son of Robert R. and Sarah (Sherer) Elder, was born August 18, 1826, in Swatara township, Dauphin county, Pa. His early years were spent on his father's farm. At the age of twenty-four he removed to New Castle, Pa., where he engaged in mer- eantile business until the death of his father
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in 1858, when he returned, and with his brother Robert, purchased the homestead farnı. During the war for the Union Mr. Elder raised a company for the emergency. In 1867 he embarked in the coal trade with a younger brother, withdrawing in 1869, and entered into partnership in the lumber busi- ness, in which he continued until failing health compelled him to relinquish all active pursuits. He left the farm and took up his residence in the city of Harrisburg, where he died January 12, 1877, in his fifty-firstyear. Mr. Elder married, March 2, 1854, Rebecca O., daughter of John Whitehill, and their children were: Catherine O., Robert R., Mar- tha K., and Ida.
-NEAGLEY, JOHN, son of Daniel and Mar- garet (Gable) Neagley, was born October 10, 1827, in Lykens Valley. His ancestor, Jacob Neagley, an emigrant from Wurtemberg, Germany, settled first in Berks county, sub- sequently removing to Lykens Valley, where he permanently located. He had two sons, Joseph and George. Joseph, born Septen- ber 15, 1766 ; died July 12, 1828 ; married Maria Hoffman, born January 8, 1773 ; died February 18, 1840. Their children were: Daniel, George, Elizabeth, Magdalena, Cath- erine, and Sarah. Daniel, the eldest, born November 12, 1797 ; died February 2, 1873; married Margaret Gable, and their children were: George, John, Joseph, William, Daniel, Isaac, Mary, Catherine, Sarah, Margaret, and Hannah. Of these, John Neagley received a limited education, and Icarned the trade of a cabinet maker at Liverpool, Perry county. Upon his return home he estab- lished himself in business, but at the expira- tion of two years removed to Freeport, Ill., subsequently coming back to Pennsylvania, where, for a period of seventeen years, he conducted eabinet making and undertaking at Liverpool. In 1869 he established a a planing mill at Millersburg, which he now carries on. Mr. Ncagley married, De- eember 28, 1853, E. R., daughter of John and Anna Murray.
-DETWEILER, JOHN SHELLY, was born on the 1Sth of October, 1829, in Londonderry township, Dauphin county, on a farm occu- pied by his father, David Detweiler, near what is now known as the Buck Lock, Penn- sylvania canal. His mother, Susan Det- weiler, was a daughter of William Shelly, of Shelly's Island. When ten years old he
attended the school in the neighborhood of his birthplace, and continued there until he was sixteen years old, when he came to Har- risburg and entered the printing office of Theophilus Fenn, where he remained but a short time, and then went to Lancaster, entering the office of the Lancaster Exam- iner and Herald.
Leaving the Examiner office, Mr. Detweiler entered Franklin and Marshall College, at which institution he pursued a course of regular studies and graduated with high honor, after which he began the study of the law with Gen. George B. Ford, of Lan- easter eity, and was admitted to the bar of that county in 1850. IIe remained in Lan- caster only a few months after his admission, and eame to Harrisburg in the winter of that year, entering at once in the practice of the law here, in which profession he con- tinued until the breaking out of the Civil war.
At the organization of the Ninth cavalry, Mr. Detweiler took an active part in secur- ing the necessary companies to make up the regiment, and as captain of Company E was very prominent in securing a completed or- ganization. He was commissioned captain October 17, 1861. While on duty in Ten- nessee he was appointed on the staff of General DuMont. On the 19th of March, 1863, Captain Detweiler was appointed major of the regiment, and on the 2d of April of the same year he resigned his com- mission and returned to Harrisburg, when he was appointed United States recruiting officer at this point, which post he held until the elose of the war. In 1864 Mr. Detweiler was appointed deputy United States assessor of internal revenue under Charles J. Bruner, which office he held until it was abolished in 1871. In 1872 he was appointed by Judge Cadwalader register in bankruptcy, which offiee he held at the time of his death. In 1874 Mr. Detweiler was nominated and elected by the Republicans county solicitor for the term of three years. Major Detweiler married Eunice Parke, daughter of Benjamin Parke, of Harrisburg, and they had three children who survived their father. Ile died at Harrisburg, Pa., August 16, 1878.
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