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 58
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WITMAN, R. E., publisher, No. 103 North Second street, Harrisburg, Pa., was born in the State of New York, February 3, 1858, and is the son of D. S. and Margaret (Brewer)
Witman. The grandfather, Christopher, was a tanner by trade and had a family of three sons. The parents were both natives of New York, the father being born there in 1823. He was engaged in farming and in the lom- ber business during his entire life. Ile was married to Miss Margaret Putman, by whom he had six children, of whom but two sur- vive: Smith, in the lumber business, Gundan, Pa., and R. E. He died April 13, 1895. R. E. attended the public schools until seven- teen years of age, when he went to New York and taught school at Caneville for two years. In 1SS1 he began selling books, and soon received a good position with the Penn Publishing Company. He was afterwards taken in as a partner and continned in the firm four years, when he withdrew and es- tablished the firm of R. E. Witman and Company in 1891, at Harrisburg, in which he is interested at the present time. He was married, February 14, 1884, to Miss Mutam Beecher, daughter of Lyman and Susan (Kimble) Beecher, and a distant relative of Henry Ward Beecher, of New York. Their children are: Grace M., Fanny M., and Harry E. Mrs. Witman's parents were both natives of New York and had a family of three children: Bertha, Mntam, and Mabel. The mother still survives and re- sides in New York. In politics Mr. Witman is a Republican and he is a member of the Grace Methodist church. The parents of both Mr. and Mrs. Witman were members of the Baptist church.
STACKPOLE, E. J., city editor of the Daily Telegraph, was born in McVeytown, Mifflin connty, Pa., January 18, 1861, son of the late E. H. H. and Margaret (Glasgow) Stackpole. His father successfully conducted a wagon manufacturing establishment and black- smith shop for several years. He served one term in the Pennsylvania Legislature, and died in 1890, in office, holding at that time the position of superintendent of the public buildings and grounds. E. J. Stackpole is one of eight living children of a family of eleven. He received a common school edu- cation, and learned the trade of a printer in the office of the Mc Veytown Journal. HIe subsequently spent three years as editor and publisher of the Orbisonia Dispatch, being associated with B. F. Ripple. In 1883 Mr. Stackpole became assistant foreman of the Harrisburg Telegraph. Later he was em- ployed as a reporter for this journal and
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eventually was promoted to the important position of city editor. He has been for several years, and is now a correspondent for a number of newspapers in New York, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Heisan active Republican and has been commander of several leading clubs, among which were the Harrisburg Invincibles. He is also a veteran of the famous " City Grays," National Guards of Pennsylvania. He belongs to Robert Burns Lodge, No. 464, F. &A. M. Mr. Stackpole was married to Miss Kate Hummel, a daughter of the late Albert Hummel, for many years a prominent shoe merchant of Harrisburg. They have three children: Catherine H., Margaret and Edward J., Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Stackpole are members of the Covenant Presbyterian church, in which he is a deaeon.
- SPAYD, CLARENCE E., editor of the Harris- burg Star-Independent, was born in Dauphin county, Pa., December 9, 1869, and is a son of John W. Spayd and a grandson of Jona- than Spayd. Like so many young men of ambition he has had a remarkably suceess- ful experience in all his undertakings. At five years of age he was sent to the district school at Carsonville, in the upper end of this county. In 1SSO he entered the Millers- ville (Pennsylvania) State Normal School, and it was while at that institution that he became interested in penmanship, which re- sulted in his being the recognized expert in writing in the school. After spending several years at that institution, during which time he pursued a number of scientific studies, and a special course marked out by his own inclinations, he followed a line of reading embracing all branches of science and litera- ture. It was during his school days that he made the acquaintance of Miss Edith A. Mooney, a talented and ambitious young lady, who eventually became his wife.
Mr. Spayd spent three years in teaching, devoting the last year to the schools of Man- heim, Laneaster county, l'a., as assistant principal. Having gained considerable prominence as a penman, he was tendered several positions by leading schools of the country to teach the art, but preferring another field of work he accepted the posi- tion as eity editor of the Harrisburg Inde- pendent. When the Star was consolidated with that paper he continued to fill that position. It was during the first years of his newspaper career that the series of arti-
eles on penmanship which he had been con- tributing for several years to the Popular Educator, an educational magazine published in Boston and Chicago, gained so much popularity with teachers of the United States that the publishers prevailed upon him to write a book on the subject. Shortly after- wards, by working during his leisure hours, a book of several hundred pages, entitled "Complete Manual of Commercial Penman- ship," made its appearance. It sprung into popularity at once, and Mr. Spayd became well known as an author of pronounced ability among the leading educators of the country.
He has been a life-long Lutheran and is a prominent member of Memorial Lutheran church at Fifteenth and Shoop streets, Ilar- risburg, where he is elosely identified with Sunday-school work, having a elass of young women. He is also business manager of the Memorial Lutheran, a monthly journal pub- lished in the interests of the above church. Mr. Wien Forney, the venerable editor and famous war correspondent, retiring from the editorial chair of the daily and weekly Stur- Independent, which he filled for so many years, Mr. Spayd succeeded him and now holds that responsible position. This paper has a very large circulation in Central Penn- sylvania and is in a very prosperous condi- tion. As the editor of this well-known news- paper he has shown his capabilities as a writer and made friends for the paper by his fair manner in treating all classes, and hon- estly advocating the best interests of the people. Although but twenty-six years of age he was elected to common council from the Second ward in the spring of 1896. IIe has always been a stauneh Republican and is identified with several local interests, one of which is the Commonwealth Building and Loan Association, of which he is a director. He is known for his kind, generous disposi- tion, and his lively nature, pleasing conver- sation, and courteous and affable manner make him a favorite with all who are brought in contact with him. His residence at 1611 Swatara street is one of the eosiest in East Harrisburg, being surrounded by a beautiful lawn and attractively built. In his library, surrounded by his books and with his wife and daughter, he spends most of his time after leaving the Stur-Independent office. He is a liberal contributor to many magazines as well as some of the leading metropolitan newspapers of the country. The Chicago
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Times-Herald is one of his leading western papers. Ilis acquaintance with well-known educational as well as business and profes- sional men has been of inestimable value to him in his successful career.
MCCREADY, DUNCAN, editor of the Tele- gram, was born at Rajahmundry, India, De- ceniber 24, 1870. His father was inspector of ordnance in the British army, having gone to India at the outbreak of the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. Mr. McCready came to this country in ISS3, and received his edu-' cation at Thiel College, Greenville, Pa. He commenced newspaper work on the Warren Mirror, then he served for a year as night editor of the Jolinstown Democrat. In 1894 he became a member of the local staff of the Pittsburgh Leader. He assumed editorial charge of the Sunday Telegram under the new management.
PLUNKET, WILLIAM, M. D., frequently called Lord Plunket, was a native of Ireland, born about 1720. Little is accurately known of liis early life, save that he studied medi- cine, graduating from the university at Dub- lin, and emigrated to America. He first settled at Carlisle, where he practiced his profession until probably the breaking out of the French and Indian war, into which service he entered. He was commissioned lieutenant in Capt. John Hambright's com- pany in Col. William Clapham's battalion, June 12, 1756. In the Bouquet campaign of 1764 he was surgeon of the Second bat- talion, commanded by Col. Arthur Clayton, liis commission bearing date September 7, 1763. For this service he participated in the Provincial land grants on the West Branch, receiving from the Proprietaries six hundred acres of land in Buffalo Valley. About 1770 he removed to what was subsequently North- umberland county, locating a little above Chillisquaque creek, which he termed " The Soldier's Retreat," and became possessed of a large estate. He was one of the leaders in the so-called Pennamite war at the outset of the Revolution. A brief account of his ex- pedition to Wyoming is found in " Annals of Buffalo Valley," by Hon. John Blair Linn, pp. 87-8. At the beginning of the war for independence he entered heartily into the contest, and was commissioned colonel of the Second battalion of Northumberland county associators in March, 1776, but for some cause or another, possibly at the insti-
gation of his Wyoming enemies, he was ar- rested as being inimical to the principles of the Revolution. He was afterwards released as nothing treasonable could be proved against him. Sabine, in his " American Loyalists," imputes crimes to Colonel Phin- ket which he had neither fact or foundation for. At the close of the war he removed to Sunbury, where he died in the early part of May, 1791.
Dr. Plunket married Esther Harris, daugh- ter of John Harris, of Harris' Ferry, and sis- ter of the founder of Harrisburg. Of a large family of children only four daughters reached maturity. Of these, Elizabeth mar- ried Samuel Maclay, afterwards a senator in Congress and a brother of William Maclay, who married his cousin, Mary Harris. Isa- bella Plunket married William Bell, of Elizabeth, N. J. Margaret Plunket married Isaac Richardson, of New York State, and Esther Plunket married her cousin, Col. Robert Baxter, of the British army. Do- scendants of the first named have been very prominent in public affairs in Pennsylvania for at least a century.
- BRICE, INNIS, M. D., the son of Brice and Elizabeth Innis, was a native of Hanover, born in 1751. He received a good education, studied medicine at Philadelphia, and was in the beginning of a successful practice when the war of the Revolution broke out. He was commissioned a hospital surgeon in the Continental service, took ill dur- ing the cantonment at Valley Forge in De- cember, 1777, returned home and died on the 2d of January, 1778, aged twenty-six years. He is buried in Hanover graveyard. His father, Briee Innis, Sr., born in 1711, an early settler in Hanover, was so shocked by the sudden death of his son that he died a few weeks afterwards, on February 18, 1778. Mrs. Elizabeth Innis, born 1715, died Janu- ary 3, 178S. Besides Dr. Brice Innis they had: Ann, married - Irwin; Rachel, mar- ried David Sterrat ; Dr. James, who was a surgeon of the Pennsylvania Line ; Elizabeth, married John Gilchrist; and Mary, married Col. Timothy Green.
.- SIMONTON, WILLIAM, M. D., was born 1755, in county Antrim, Ireland ; died April 2.1, 1800, in Hanover township, Dauphin county. Pa. He was brought to this country at the age of ten by his uncle, the Rev. John Simon- ton, pastor of the Great Valley Presbyterian
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church, in Chester county, Pa. Under the direction of this uncle he received his aca- demie and professional education. Soon after completing his medical course he en- tered upon the practice of his profession, but at what place is unknown. In 1784 he pur- chased a tract of land called " Antigua," con- taining one hundred and eighty-two acres, situated in West Hanover township, from Joseph Hutchison. Upon this farm he re- sided all his life. All the traditions which have reached us concerning his standard, as a physician, a man, and a Christian, are highly favorable. A fitting testimonial to his life, labors and character was prepared by the Rev. James Snodgrass, pastor of Han- over church, and delivered on the occasion of his funeral. His remains are interred in old Hanover graveyard. Mr. Simonton married, November 17, 1777, Jean Wiggins, daughter of Dr. Jolm Wiggins, an officer of the Revolution. She was born in 1756 in Paxtang, Lancaster county, Pa., and died October, 1824, and buried by the side of her husband.
LUTHER, JOHN, was a native of Freuhlin- gen, Germany, born on the 1st of April, 1756. In his youth he came to America, and with either his parents or friends located in Virginia. me studied medicine, and married in that State, coming to Harrisburg in 1785, the year it was laid out, purchasing the lot now occupied by the Harrisburg Na- tional Bank and the house adjoining, the latter of which he erected. Here he at once began his profession, which proved a suc- cessful one. He was chosen at the first elec- tion held under the charter given the bor- ough, one of the burgesses, and subsequently served as a member of the town council, of which body he was at one time president.
From the " Reminiscences of an Octoge- narian," we have this description of Dr. Luther: "He was a man somewhat resem- bling the great reformer, Martin Luther, if I dare judge from the printed representation I have seen of the latter. He was of medium height and proportionately stout. He was a very pleasant man and agreeably received whenever he entered company. He carried a snuff box and made frequent use of its contents. He wore black cloth coat, vest and breeches, with buckles on his shoes. Ile was popular as a physician and estcemed highly for his skill. He wore his hair in a cue, as was common in the early times of
Harrisburg, but wherever he went there was healing in the creak of his shoes. When he felt your pulse, told you to put out your tongue, and smelled the ivory on the top of his cane, you might be sure he was hunting for a fever, or something direful, that might require a dose of calomel and jalap . . . Dr. Luther was of a jovial disposition, and it was said, as was the custom of those days when anti-fogmatics was necessary to keep off fever and ague, that he ' didn't object to his patients taking a little tansy bitters in the morning.' His practice was extensive."
Dr. Luther died at Harrisburg on Monday, January 28, 1811, in his fifty-fourth year.
Dr. Luther married, May 21, 1779, Bar- bara. Weaver, of Philadelphia. She was probably the mother of all his children. The doctor subsequently married Eva IIis- ser, born in 1766, died at Harrisburg, Wed- nesday, August 15, 1804. Dr. Luther had four children : Catharine, Cornelius, Martin, and John. All of his sons became physicians. Drs. Cornelius and Martin remained at Har- risburg, and succeeded, in a great measure, to their father's practice. Cornelius died quite young and Martin April 29, 1829, aged forty-five years. Dr. John Luther set- tled in New Holland, Lancaster county; mar- ried Elizabeth, daughter of Peter Diller, and raised a large family. Catharine Luther married Dr. King, of Hummelstown, and on becoming a widow married Judge William Lyon, of Cumberland county. The remains of Dr. Luther, his wife and two sons are in- terred in the Harrisburg cemetery.
MCCAMMON, JAMES, of Scotch ancestry, was a native of the county Down, Ireland, born about 1778. He was educated at Edin- burgh, and received his degree of doctor of medicine at the university of that city. He subsequently served two years in the London Hospital, under that celebrated physician, Dr. Fordyce. He came to the United States about 1804, and located at Newville, in Cumberland county, where he had a very general and extensive practice. In Septem- ber, 1811, he removed to Middletown, where his brother John resided and was postmaster -at that period a preferable field to the Cumberland Valley-and was very suecess- ful. He died at Middletown on the 7th of November, 1815, and was buried in the old Presbyterian graveyard on High street, in that borough. He left a wife and three chil- dren, who afterwards removed to Zanesville,
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Ohio. Dr. McCammon was a skillful sur- geon, and ranked high in his profession. Socially he was agreeable in conversation and of refined manners.
-VERBEKE, JAMES C., M. D., was born in Holland, in the year 1785. His father was a native of that country, and his mother was born in Yorkshire, England. The son was educated for the ministry, but afterwards studied medicine at the university at Leyden, where the two degrees of doctor of medicine and of pharmacy were conferred upon him.' After finishing his course he entered the French army as physician, and through the efforts of his father was assigned to the regiment commanded by Colonel Leh- manowsky, a friend and acquaintance, with the request that he should have a watchful care over him. The doctor remained with the regiment in all its memorable campaigns, being always employed in the provisional military hospitals, performing the duties of the two branches of the profession only, as persons were not allowed to practice more than such as were inseparable from the other, so that each might thoroughly under- stand his calling, and be enabled to gain a livelihood. In consequence of this condi- tion of things he never was on the field of battle, but was always engaged in administer- ing to the sick. Even at the battle of Waterloo, when the hospital was taken and retaken six times in one day by the English and French, he saw nothing of the fight. After that sanguinary and decisive conflict, when the star of Napoleon had set, he en- tered the Dutch navy as a physician, on board a man-of-war, where he remained two years and then resigned. Afterwards, being detected in a plot, in which Colonel Leh- manowsky was also engaged, to carry off Napoleon to St. Helena. they had to flee the country, when he was helped by friends to reach England, and was engaged by the celebrated Scotch navigator, John Arrow- smith, as physician on board of his vessel, then about making a trip to America, which landed at Philadelphia in 1817. The port physician, Dr. Perkins, after examining his letters of reference and his diploma, immedi- ately gave him a situation as clerk in his drugstore. Miss Gertrude Kemmelar, hay- ing come to America to visit a brother, and landing at Philadelphia, chanced to call at the drugstore on Second street, near Callow- hill, with a prescription, when both coming
from the same country, and the doeter being addressed in his own language, an acquaint- anee was formed, and in 1818 they were married at the house of John Dillinger, a friend, with whose family Miss Kemmelar 'stopped. In the year 1819 they removed to Harrisburg, where the doctor opened a drug- store on Market square in the house of John Norton, and practiced medieine in the coun- try and all the surrounding towns, traveling as far as IIalifax, Middletown, and other places, on horseback, through which he be- came universally known, some of the oldest inhabitants still remembering him. After a few years of practice he relinquished it, to enter into other business, and was successful in gaining a considerable estate. Mrs. Ver- beke died in 1855, and Dr. Verbeke in 1856, leaving two children, William K. and Margaretta Dillinger, who married The- ophilus Fenn.
-AUCHMUTY, ROBERT, M. D., the son of Sam - uel Auchmuty, was born near Sunbury, North- umberland county, Pa., in the year 1785. He was descended from an old Celtic family of Scotland. Robert Auchmuty, the first of the American family of that name, an emi- nent lawyer, was in practice at Boston, Mass., as early as 1719. He died in 1750, leaving several children. Among these, Robert, who in 1767 became judge of the Court of Admi- ralty at Boston; Samuel, who was rector of Trinity church, New York City; and Arthur Gates. The latter came to Pennsylvania as early as 1765, and located in then Lancaster county. In that year we find him commis- sioned as an Indian trader, " with permission to trade with the natives at Penn's creek, Shamokin, and such other forts as may by his Majesty or the Provincial authorities be established." He first settled at the mouth of Penn's creek, on the Isle of Que, and from thenee removed to the opposite side of the Susquehanna, a few miles below Fort Augusta, in what is now Lower Augusta township, Northumberland county. During the war of the Revolution, Samuel Auchmuty, one of his sons and father of the doctor, entered the patriot army and was in service from the winter at Valley Forge until the close of the war. The veteran's remains rest in the old burial ground at Millersburg unmarked, and the spot unknown. Dr. Robert Auchinuty re- ceived a good education, studied medicine, and began the practice of his profession at Millersburg about 1830-31. Apart from the
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duties of his profession he served many years as a justice of the peace, being first commis- sioned by Governor Ritner. He was an en- terprising, active citizen, and a warm advo- cate of the common school system, when that noble measure was adopted, and was a gen- tleman beloved and respected by his fellow- citizens. He died at Millersburg in 1849, at the age of sixty-four, and is buried in the new cemetery at that place. He was the father of the late S. P. Auchmuty, of Millers- burg.
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- REILY, LUTHER, M. D., the seventh son of Capt. Jolm Reily, of the Revolution, and Elizabeth Myers, was born October 7, 1794, at Meyerstown, Dauphin, now Lebanon county, Pa. On the death of his father he came to Harrisburg, and shortly after began the study of medicine with Dr. Martin Lu- ther. In the war of 1812-14 he marched as a private in Capt. Richard M. Crain's com- pany of volunteers to Baltimore, subse- quently being detailed as assistant surgeon. At the close of the war he resumed the prac- tice of medicine at Harrisburg, and subse- quently was at the head of the profession there. Although not taking an active part in politics, he was more or less prominent in public affairs. He was elected to and served as member of the Twenty-fifth Con- gress. Dr. Reily died at Harrisburg on February 20, 1854, deeply lamented by the community, who appreciated him as "the good doctor." His wife Rebecca, daughter of Henry Orth, survived her husband. only a few months. Their children were Eliza- beth, died unmarried, Emily, married Dr. George W. Porter, John W., Dr. George W., and Caroline.
- KEAGY, JOHN M., M. D., was born in Mar- tic township, Lancaster county, Pa., about the year 1795. He was of German descent . on the maternal side, the name of his mother's family .being Litzenberg. He re- ceived a classical education, studied medi- cine and graduated in 1817. In 1819 he published a series of educational articles in the Baltimore Chronicle, which were reprinted at Harrisburg in 1824, in an octavo pamph- let of thirty-eight pages. In 1827 Dr. Keagy became principal of the Harrisburg Academy, and during the same year published his "Pestallozian Primer," a work made up largely of the more modern object-lessons, but under the name of "Thinking Lessons,
and Lessons in Generalization." By this method, as soon as the child knows a vowel and a consonant, he is taught to spell and read the syllables which they form. In the introduction the author advocated the teach- ing of a child to read words, "as if they were Chinese syllables," and without a pre- vious knowledge of the letters, a practicable mode which avoids the absurdity of telling a child that see a tea (which should spell seat) spells cat. He remained at Harrisburg about two years, when he went to Philadel- phia to take charge of the Friends' High School. Shortly before his death, which oc- curred at Philadelphia in the winter of 1836- 37, and is buried in Laurel Hill cemetery. Dr. Keagy was elected professor of the lan- guages in Dickinson College, but did not live to act. Besides being a classical scholar, the Doctor knew Hebrew, German and French; he knew the principles of me- chanics, and insisted that steam boilers should have more fire surface. Had he been brought up as a machinist, he would have invented tubular boilers, having constructed a copper model composed partly of tubes.
WIESTLING, JOSHUA MARTIN. M. D., son of Dr. Samuel Christopher Wiestling, was born February 28, 1797, in now Susquehanna township, Dauphin county, Pa .; baptized at Shoop's church by Rev. Christian H. Kurtz, and died January 15, 1854, at Harrisburg, Pa. In the year 1811, being then of the age of fourteen years, he moved with his parents into the town of Harrisburg, where he con- tinued to reside until his death. Although afforded but limited facilities of acquiring an education by attending the schools of that period, yet, having the advantage of the in- structions of his father, who was a man of thorough education and culture, and being himself an indefatigable student, reading and studying whenever and however the op- portunity presented, he grew to manhood with his naturally fine mental endowments ad- mirably cultivated and liberally developed. Of studious habits and love of knowledge, these characteristicsadhered to him through- out his life. A man of original thinking powers, and possessed of mental capacity of a high order, he gave, notwithstanding an extensive and laborious medical practice, diligent investigation to all the leading ques- tions of the day, and careful study in the wide and diversified field of general knowl- edge. He was, consequently, upon all the
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