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 56
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WJESTLING, GEORGE P., son of Dr. Samuel Christopher, was born May 4, 1808, in Pax- tang, now Susquehanna township, Dauphin county, Pa., and died May 31, 1883, at Har- risburg, P.a. IIe was educated in the schools of the borough and the Harrisburg Academy. Ile learned the art of printing with his brother, John S. Wiestling, who edited and
published the Pennsylvania Intelligencer. He afterwards worked as a compositor in the different newspaper offices at the State capi- tal. About the year 1842 he established himself in the wood and coal trade, in which he continued down through life, being one of the first to engage in it. For a period of fifty years he was leader of the Reformed church choir. Having a love for music, and being endowed with fine talents in that direction, he took special delight in their cultivation. He was an active member of the church with which he so long identified himself as its musical leader, and for forty- four years an elder. He was faithful to every trust, honest and upright in all his dealings with the world, earnest and sincere in every good work, and his memory will remain green in the hearts of those who honor him. Mr. Wiestling married Mar- garet Berryhill, daughter of Samuel Berry- hill.
""CLYDE, JOHN JOSEPH, son of Thomas Clyde (1788-1821) and Mary Dentzel (1789- 1845), was born December 14, 1813, in Me- chanicsburg, Cumberland county, Pa. He was educated in the schools of Harrisburg, and learned the trade of bookbinder. In 1834 he established himself in business in Brownsville, Fayette county, Pa., and two years after started the Fayette Journal, which he continued for three years. In 1840 re- turned to Harrisburg and purchased the bindery of Samuel H. Clark, connecting a bookstore therewith. In 1849 he was elected treasurer of the county of Dauphin, and in 1851 started the Whig State Journal. The year following purchased the Pennsylvania Intelligencer, uniting it with the Journal. In 1853 sold the establishment to John J. Pat- terson, and commenced the publication of the Chrystal Fountain. The same year bought one-third interest in the Pennsyl- vania Telegraph, which in 1855 he sold to Mr. Bergner. During the Presidential cam- paign of 1856 he published the American. The same year started the Daily Herald, which was continued until 1858, when he sold to O. Barrett and entered the service of the Lebanon Valley railroad as its agent. Mr. Clyde married first, in 1834, Emeline Harvey, born 1811, in Perry county, Pa., died April, 1870, at Harrisburg, daughter of John and Mary Harvey, and their children were: Virginia D., Joanna II., Mary A., Thomas II., Olive L., John Joseph, Edward
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W., Harvey E., and Annie C. He married, . he entered the Examiner and Herald office at secondly, Mrs. Eliza (Jacobs) Cornyn, of Harrisburg, now deceased.
- BERGNER, GEORGE, was a native of the vil- lage of Neunkirchen, a few miles distant from the free city of Bremen, in the kingdom of Hanover, where he was born on June 6, 1818. He came to America at the age of twelve years, and reaching Reading, Pa., he apprenticed himself to Engelman, a printer and a well-known almanac-maker, with whom he served his time. In 1834 he came to Harrisburg and worked as a compositor on the different German newspapers and journals. In 1838 he was sent by the execu- tive committee of the Anti-Masonic party to Somerset, Pa., to publish a German campaign paper, and during the Harrison campaign was sent on a similar service to New Bloom- field, Perry county. In 1841 he purchased the Vaterland Wacchter of his former em- ployer, Mr. Ehrenfried. During the Know- Nothing campaign of 1854 he published the American, in opposition to the tenets of that then dominant party. The following year he purchased the Telegraph, which he soon established on a successful and permanent basis. From 1857 to his death he was the publisher of the Legislative Record. In 1861 Mr. Bergner was appointed by President Lincoln postmaster at Harrisburg. He was removed by President Johnson in 1866, but upon the election of President Grant he was reappointed to the position, an office he held at the time of his death. During the Re- bellion his pen and his purse were at the service of the Union, while he himself went out as a private soldier in the First regiment, Pennsylvania militia, during the invasion of the State in 1862. Mr. Bergner's life was an active one, and yet apart from his own busi- ness affairs and official position, much of his time was given to the public. For many years he was one of the inspectors of the Dauphin county prison, was a trustee of the State Lunatic Asylum, vice-president of the Pennsylvania Agricultural Society, bank di- rector, etc. His business career was a very successful one. He died at Harrisburg, after a very brief ilhiess, August 5, 1874, aged fifty- six years.
RINGLAND, JOHN, was born January 9, 1825, in Middletown, Pa., where he now re- sides. Ile was educated in the common sehrools of Middletown. At the age of fifteen
Lancaster to learn the art of printing, with R. White Middleton, who afterwards sold the office and removed to Carlisle, where he purchased the Carlisle Herald, John accom- panying him, as also back again to Lan- caster, when he sold out the Herald, and purchased the Lancaster Union. Here he remained until 1845. In 1846 Mr. Ring- land commenced the study of medicine with Dr. Benjamin J. Wiestling, of Middletown, and graduated from the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1850. He located at Portsmouth, now Middletown, where he entered upon the practice of medi- cine; but was subsequently compelled to re- linquish it, owing to impaired hearing. In the fall of 1852 he engaged in the lumber business at New Cumberland, in which he continued until the spring of 1855, when he returned to Middletown, and established himself in the drug business. In 1860 he was elected recorder of deeds and clerk of the orphans' court of Dauphin county, and re-elected in 1863. While in Portsmouth, in 1850, a postoffice was established there, and Dr. Ringland appointed postmaster. He has served as justice of the peace, was census enumerator in 1870, and filled vari- ous borough offices. Dr. Ringland married, in 1850, Margaret E. Smith, daughter of Henry Smith, of Middletown.
EGLE, WILLIAM HENRY, was born Sep- tember 17, 1830, in Harrisburg, Pa., and the fifth in the line of descent from the original emigrant, Marcus Egle. Ilis ancestors set- tled in Pennsylvania prior to 1740, coming on the one side from the Canton of Zurich, Switzerland, and on the other from Palati- nate, Germany. A great-great-grandfather served as an officer in the French and Indian wars; his paternal grand and great-grand- fathers served in the war of the Revolution, while his materal grandfather served in the war of 1812-14. His parents were John Egleand Elizabeth von Treupel, both natives of Pennsylvania. The father dying when the son was four years of age, the latter made his home with his paternal grandmother. He was educated in the public and private schools of Harrisburg, and at the Harrisburg Military Institute, under the famed Capt. Alden Partridge. In 1848 he was tendered the appointment of midshipman in the United States navy, but declined the honor. At the close of his school life he spent three
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years in the office of the Pennsylvania Tele- graph, during most of which time he was foreman of the establishment, subsequently having charge of the State printing, which was done in the office. In 1853 he under- took the editorship of the Literary Companion as well as the Daily Times; the latter after- wards merged into one of the newspaper ventures of Harrisburg. In 1854 and the following year he was an assistant teacher in the boys' school, and part of the time mailing clerk in the postoffice, which latter position he held until the fall of 1857, when he resigned to enter the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, from which institution he was graduated in March, 1859. The same year he established himself at Harrisburg, and was in the prac- tice of his profession there, when, in 1862, after the battles of Chantilly and the second Bull Run, he went to Washington in response to a telegram from Adjutant General Russell, of Pennsylvania, to assist in the care of the wounded. In September of that year he was commissioned assistant surgeon of the Ninety-sixth regiment, Pennsylvania volun- teers, and arrived at his post on the eve of the battle of Antietam. During the progress of that battle he was ordered to the field hos- pital for duty, where he remained several days. In the summer of 1863, during the Gettysburg campaign, he was appointed surgeon of tlie Forty-seventh regiment, Pennsylvania volunteer militia. At the close of service with the latter command, he resumed his profession, but, in August; 1864, accepted the appointment by President Lin- coln of surgeon of volunteers, and was ordered to Camp Nelson, Ky., to examine the colored regiments then being raised in that State. He was subsequently detailed with the battalion under Col. James S. Brisbin and Col. James F. Wade in the famous attempt by Gen. Burbridge to destroy the salt works in Southwestern Virginia. Upon his return from that ill-fated expedi- tion, he was ordered to the department of the James, under General Butler, as surgeon of the One Hundred and Sixteenth United States colored infantry. Subsequently as- signed to the Twenty-fourth army corps as executive medical officer, Gen. Wm. Birney's division ; he accompanied that division during the Petersburg and Appomattox campaigns. Upon the return from that duty he was or- dered to Texas, with General Jackson's divis- ion, as chief medical officer and stationed at
Roma, on the Rio Grande, until December, 1865, when he resigned the service and re- turned home, partly resuming the practice of his profession. In 1867 Dr. Egle was appointed an examiner for pensions, a posi- tion he retained four years. For twenty years he was annually elected physician to the Dauphin county prison, which he re- signed in March, 1887, when Governor Beaver appointed him State librarian, the Senate promptly confirming the nomination. Governor Pattison re-appointed him in 1891 and again in March, 1894, and he was con- firmed by the Senate and commissioned by Governor Hastings. The present effective- ness of the Pennsylvania State Library, in the front rank of the best libraries in Amer- ica, is largely due to Dr. Egle's management and has been greatly appreciated by students at large.
Upon the organization of the National Guard in 1870 Dr. Egle was appointed sur- geon-in-chief of the Fifth division, with rank of lieutenant colonel, and subsequently, in the consolidation of the commands, was transferred to the Eighth regiment. As a medical officer he was on duty during the so-called "Sawdust War" of 1871 and the railroad riots of 1877, as well as the Home- stead fiasco of 1892. In 1885 Dr. Egle was commissioned surgeon-in-chief of the Third brigade, which military position he now holds. He is the senior medical officer of the National Guard of Pennsylvania, hav- ing passed his twenty-sixth year of service with the Guard.
Acquiring an early taste for historical re- search, during the relaxation from profes- sional duties, when he retured from the army in December, 1865, he commenced the prep- aration of his History of Pennsylvania, pub- lished in 1876, a bi-centennial edition in 1883, and of which fifteen thousand copies were sold. Principally among his historical .publications are the Historical Register, two volumes (1883-1884); History of the County of Dauphin (1883); History of the County of Lebanon (1883); Centennial County of Dauphin and City of Harrisburg (1886); Pennsylvania Genealogies, chiefly Scotch- Irish and German (1886, reprint 1896); Har- risburg-on-the-Susquehanna (1892); Notes and Queries, historical, biographical and genealogieal; relating to the interior of Penn- sylvania; first and second series, two vol- umes (1878-1882, reprint two volumes 1894-1895); third series, two volumes (1887-
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1891, reprint 1895-1896, three volumes); fourth series, two volumes (1891-1895). He has also written a large number of biographi- cal sketches of prominent Pennsylvanians, at least two hundred of which were furnished Appleton's Encyclopedia of Biography, and also biographical sketches of the members of the Constitutional Convention of 1776, and of the delegates to the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the Constitution of the United States, published in the Pennsyl- vania Magazine of History. Dr. Egle was co-editor of the Pennsylvania Archives, second series, volumes I. to XII .; editor of the same series, volumes XIII. to XIX., and also of the third series, now passing through the press. The most valuable of these are those relating to the services of the Pennsyl- vania Line of the Revolution.
Lafayette College in 1878 conferred upon Dr. Egle the honorary degrec of A. M., ap- preciative of his services in American his- tory. He has also been honored by election a corresponding member of a number of his- torical societies of the United States as well as of several learned societies in France and England. He was one of the founders and the first presiding officer of the Pennsyl- vania-German Society, and by virtue of his services in the Rebellion is a member of the military order of the Loyal Legion, the So- ciety of the Army of the Potomac, and of the Grand Army of the Republic. Through his eligibility from an original member of the Cincinnati, he is a member of the State Society of Pennsylvania, is a member of the Society of Colonial Wars, a member of the Pennsylvania Society Sons of the Revolu- tion, Society of the War of 1812-14, and of the Society of Foreign Wars. In addition Dr. Egle preserves his membership with the Dauphin County Medical Society, State Medical Society, is a member of the Academy of Medicine at Harrisburg, and an active member of the Association of Military Sur- . geons of the United States.
SMULL, JOHN AUGUSTUS, the second son of John Smull and Harriet Pauli, was born at Harrisburg, Pa., September 1, 1832. Mr. Smull's parents came to Harrisburg shortly after their marriage, and there all their chil- dren were born. . The death of John's father, in 1841, left his widowed mother dependent upon her own exertions and those of the eldest son, Le Van, who was then in his fourteenth year. An acquaintance with a
number of members of the Legislature en- boldened her to secure a position for him which would, in some ineasure, aid in her maintenance. Le Van was appointed page to the speaker, the first one known to the legislative body. In the spring of 1848 Jolm was tendered the appointment of a midship- man in the United States navy, and would have accepted the position but for the op- position of his mother. Shortly after he concluded to learn the art of printing, and apprenticed himself at the Telegraph, then under the editorial supervision of Theo. Fenn, Esq., a noted journalist at that day. On the 14th of April, 1849, Le Van Smull dicd, and the vacant position of page was secured for his brother John, then in his seventeenth year. In 1861 the office of res- ident clerk was created. The duties of this position were multiform, not only during the session of the Legislature, but in the recess. With an energy and industry most remark- able, affairs in this department were so systematically arranged that everything went as clock work. He could tell everything relating to legislation, the progress of each bill, and to all inquiries would give the most satisfactory replies, his memory being un- usually retentive. During the closing days of the session he was ready for all queries as to the status of every species of legislation before the House, so familiar did he make himself with whatever appertained to the business of the Assembly. For a number of years Matthias' and Ziegler's Manuals were the guide books of legislative practice. In 1867 Mr. Smull enlarged the ordinary Direc- tory and Rules of the General Assembly by the compilation of the "Legislative Hand- Book," which has been published annually since 1873 as a State document. A rade mecum of information relative to the official life of the Commonwealth, it is the book of reference for all knowledge thereof. The work has been imitated in other States, and even by the National Government, but none of them can be compared to "Smull's Hand- Book " in usefulness. The necessities of legislation required the compilation of the work, and it is this necessity which perpetu- ates the labors of the lamented editor.
The duties of Mr. Smull's official position did by no means prevent him from taking an active interest in every public enterprise, and the citizens of his native town hold him in grateful remembrance for the energy hc displayed in contributing to the advancement
WIEN FORNEY.
CLARENCE E. SPAYD .
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of its industrial and business enterprises. He was largely instrumental in the erection of the city passenger railway, of which he was a director and secretary from the date of its organization. Ile was secretary of the Harrisburg Cemetery Association, and presi- dent of the Harrisburg Brick and Tile Com- pany. He was largely interested in several land and building associations, the Harris- burg car works, Farmers' Bank, and a mem- ber of the Fort Hunter road commission. He served many years as one of the inspec- tors of the Dauphin county prison and was the efficient secretary of the board; was vice- president of the Pennsylvania Agricultural Society, in the management of which he took an active part, being a working member of committees at all annual exhibitions the past fifteen years. The foregoing are only a few of the enterprises and institutions in which Mr. Smull was prominent. Others equally as important found in him an able advocate and friend.
On Wednesday, July 9, 1879, he left home for Asbury Park, in the hope of recuperating his lost energies, with the intention of stop- ping over at Philadelphia until Thursday noon. The day and night were exceedingly warm, and whatever may have been the cause, the next morning he was found dead in his bed. The announcement of the death of John A. Smull was received with sorrow at Harrisburg and elsewhere, for, as Colonel McClure fitly said in his editorial, "many a good and prominent citizen of Pennsylvania could have been better spared than John A. Smull, and his sudden death will carry grief to every part of the State." So widely known was he that not a newspaper in the Common- wealth but had some tender expression of re- gret over his death. At the following session of the Legislature memorial services were held, and several eulogistic addresses were delivered concerning the deceased parlia- mentarian, and the House of Representatives unanimously ordered a memorial volume to be published comprising a biography of Mr. Smull and the proceedings had in that body relating thereto. Mr. Smull never married, and at his death his estate went to a cousin, who died shortly after, and to his brother, William Pauli Sinull.
SANDERSON, ALFRED, is a native of the Cumberland Valley. His father, the late George Sanderson, was the second owner and editor of the Carlisle American Volunteer,
succeeding the late William B. Underwood in 1836, and continuing with it until 1845. In 1849 he removed to Lancaster, having purchased the Intelligencer, of which journal he was the owner and editor for fifteen years, and for over ten years was mayor of Lan- caster. His son Alfred was educated in the public schools of Carlisle and Lancaster and then learned the trade of a printer in the office of his father. In the month of August, 1864, he assisted in the establishment of the Daily Intelligencer, his associates being John M. Cooper, Henry G. Smith and William A. Morton. Subsequently he became associated with the late Hon. J. Lawrence Getz in the publication of the Reading Gazette and was for a time editor of the Pottsville Standard. In 1879 he assumed editorial control of the Shippensburg Chronicle, with which he re- mained for nearly three years. He was also connected with the Harrisburg Star and Star- Independent for over seven years. He has also written much for the Harrisburg Tele- graph and other papers, and his nom de plume of " The Old Fellow " is a familiar one to the people of the Capital city. For some time past he has been associated with the Rev. Dr. Swallow in the editorial conduct of the Pennsylvania Methodist, and his Rambler sketches are very popular with the readers of that paper. He is a strong, fluent and versa- tile writer, and there are few men better known in the editorial profession of Penn- sylvania than Alfred Sanderson.
- FORNEY, WIEN, was born in the city of Lancaster, June 30, 1826, and began to learn the trade of a printer in the office of the Lan- caster Intelligencer when his cousin, the late Col. John W. Forney, was its editor and pro- prietor, and finished his apprenticeship on the Lancaster Examiner, under the late Ed- ward C. Darlington, a noted editor of the past. Subsequently he worked at case in Philadelphia, New York and other large cities. Among his fellow-compositors were Bayard Taylor and the famous " Mike" Walsh, who was a member of Congress from New York City more than forty years ago.
In 1845 Mr. Forney was employed on the Washington Union, the organ of President Polk's administration, and of which the late Thomas Ritchie was the editor. "Father" Ritchie was the founder of the Richmond Eu- quirer and was the contemporary and per- sonal friend of many of the eminent states- men of a half and three-quarters of a century
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ago. Mr. Forney was the first to collate news of a local nature for the Washington papers. In those days the Union and the old National Intelligencer were filled with editorials frequently columns in length, and with congressional proceedings and foreign news. Mr. Forney subsequently went to Philadelphia and became connected with the Pennsylvanian when it was published by Forney & Hamilton. In 1850 he went to Towanda, Bradford county, where he estab- lished and edited the North Pennsylvanian, which he started in opposition to the views of the late David Wilinot, who up to that time had been a pronounced and leading Democrat. This enterprise did not succeed and in about a year he returned to Phila- delphia.
For a short time he was associated with William V. Mckean in the editorship of the Pennsylvanian, Colonel Forney having retired when he was elected clerk of the House of Representatives at Washington. Then for two or three years he was a clerk in the Phil- adelphia postoffice under the late John Mil- ler, but still wrote for the press. In 1855, in connection with Henry Hayes, he established the Bellefonte Democratic Watchman, of which P. Gray Meck, the surveyor of the port of Philadelphia, is the present editor and pro- prietor. With this paper he remained until 1857, and the next year started the Central Press in the same town. In 1859 he went to Washington to accept a position in the House Library, and at the same time did considerable work for the New York Herald and other papers. In 1860 he went to Har- risburg at the carnest solicitation of General Cameron to take charge of the editorial columns of the Telegraph, and when Mr. Lincoln was elected President he went back to Washington and remained there during the exciting winter of 1860-61 .as a corres- pondent for several papers, and was also connected with the House Library. He re- turned to Harrisburg after the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, and resumed the editorship of the Telegraph, in which position he re- mained for six years. Then he became one of tho editors and publishers of the State Guard, the firm being Levi Kauffman, Wien Forney and Isaac B. Gara.
When this paper suspended he became editor of the State Guard, which was owned by the late Benjamin Singerly, who was the uncle of William M. Singerly, of the Record. Under both administrations of Governor
Curtin he was State librarian, as well as dur- ing the first term of Governor Geary. When the Harrisburg Independent was founded by E. Z. Wallower in 1876 he was its first editor. On this paper he remained for a year or two and then again resumed the editorship of the Telegraph, with which he remained until it passed into the hands of Thomas F. Wilson. Then for a short time he edited a daily paper at Steelton, but since 1883 has been the editor of the Independent until its con- solidation in 1891 with the Star by the Hon. B. F. Meyers, and held the same position on the Star-Independent until the spring of 1896 when he retired from newspaper work.
Mr. Forney was an indefatigable worker and versatile writer. His style was bold and fearless, he was always abreast the times, and hiseditorials wereread with avidity. Socially he is a most delightful conversationalist, and his reminiscences of the men and times of the past arc interesting, instructive and valuable. At the age of three score and ten he retains much of the vivacity and sprightliness of youth, his eye is still bright, his step elastic and his general health continues good. Few of the Pennsylvania editors of the past or present generation have had so varied, in- teresting and eventful an experience as Wien Forney.
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