History of Cumberland and Adams counties, Pennsylvania. Containing history of the counties, their townships, towns, villages, schools, churches, industries, etc.; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; biographies; history of Pennsylvania, statistical and miscellaneous matter, etc., etc, Part 153

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Publisher: W. Taylor
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USA > Pennsylvania > Adams County > History of Cumberland and Adams counties, Pennsylvania. Containing history of the counties, their townships, towns, villages, schools, churches, industries, etc.; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; biographies; history of Pennsylvania, statistical and miscellaneous matter, etc., etc > Part 153
USA > Pennsylvania > Cumberland County > History of Cumberland and Adams counties, Pennsylvania. Containing history of the counties, their townships, towns, villages, schools, churches, industries, etc.; portraits of early settlers and prominent men; biographies; history of Pennsylvania, statistical and miscellaneous matter, etc., etc > Part 153

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AARON SHEELY, Gettysburg, was born in Mountjoy Township, Adams County, Penn., November 8, 1836. He received his education in the public schools and in Penn- sylvania College, and taught in the public schools of the county eight full terms. In May, 1863, he was elected to the office of county superintendent of schools, and was re- elected to the same office in 1866. In 1872 he was again elected to the county superin- tendency, which position he has filled continuously since. To meet a pressing local want Mr. Sheely, in 1867, established at Gettysburg a select school for the education and train- ing of teachers, which has been liberally patronized, and which is still in operation. He is the author of "Anecdotes and Humors of School Life," a 12mo. volume published by Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger, of Philadelphia, in 1877, and contributed the historial sketch of Adams County, in Egle's History of Pennsylvania, published at Harrishury in 1876. He has also written numerous articles on various subjects contributed to leading newpapers and magazines. In June, 1878, the honorary degree of A. M. was conferred upon him by the trustees of Pennsylvania College.

HENRY J. STAIILE, editor, Gettysburg, is a native of York County, Penn., born at York in 1823. His parents, John and Sarah (Small) Stahle (the latter a daughter of Maj. Jacob Small) were of German origin. John Stable served two terms as register of York County, and for many years as a justice of the peace. Our subject is the fourth of twelve children. He grew to manhood at York, where he attended the common schools and the York County Academy. He learned the printer's trade in the office of the York Gazette. serving three years. He then served a year and a half as foreman of the office, and in 1845, at the age of twenty-one years, he bought the Gettysburg Compiler, and has since published that paper. a period of forty-one years, during which time he has successfully conducted the paper and managed the business of the office. In politics Mr. Stahle is a Democrat and carries weight in his party, but has always declined public office. He has been twice presidential elector, and was a delegate to the convention that nominated Gen. George B. Mcclellan for president. He was one of the organizers of. and took an active interest in getting the railroads to Gettysburg, and has taken an active interest in every- thing that pertains to the advancement of Gettysburg and of Adams County for upward of forty-one years, and is now in the boards of the Water and Gas Companies, Evergreen Cemetery Association and the Adams County Agricultural Association. In 1846 Mr. Stahle married Louisa B., daughter of Ezra Doll, of Frederick City. Md. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Stable are Thomas, who is engaged on the paper with his father; Mary L., Harry M .; Anna D. (wife of Thomas C. Linn, an attorney in North Carolina): Kittie H. and Charles E., a student in Pennsylvania College. Mrs. Stahle died in 1879. The family are all members of the Reformed Church.

CICERO W. STONER, clerk of the courts of Adams County, Gettysburg, was horn in East Berlin, Hamilton Township, Adams Co., Penn .. October 20, 1846, a son of A. K. and Catherine B. (Woods) Stoner. natives of Pennsylvania, and of English and German origin. A. K. Stoner, a manufacturer and dealer in stoves and tinware, was the father of eleven children, five of whom are still living. Of the children living, C. W., clerk of the court of Adams County, is the eldest; the others being, respectively. Newton W., proprietor of the " Howard House." York Springs, Penn .; Dr. George W., chief of the Purveying and Quarantine Division, Marine Hospital Service, Washington, D. C .: Ida J .. wife of Capt. L. Y. Diller, of East Berlin, Penn. ; and Dr. James B., of Philadelphia, Penn. Our subject grew to manhood in the borough of East Berlin; attended the schools at that place. and. later, the Normal and Classical Institute at York, Penn .. and at the age of seventeen years commenced teaching school, a vocation he had a taste for and decided to follow. He

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taught for several years in Adams. Cumberland, and York Counties, Penn .. and in the State of Illinois, meeting with success, which occupation, with that of clerking. he pursued until 1583. Ile was elected auditor and assistant assessor in his native borough for several sue- cessive terms, and was secretary of the town council, and financial secretary of Camp 21. P. O. S. of A . when in 1844 he was elected clerk of the courts of Adams County, which office he still hohls, In 18744 Mr. Stoner was married to M. Louisa Spangler, of East Ber- lin, and to them two children, Ira E. and Harvey M .. were born. Mrs. Stoner died in 1877, and Mr. Stoner was married, in 1850. to Miss Sally P. Frey, a daughter of George Frey. OF Gettysburg. She died in 1882, leaving a son, Norman F., who died when six months old. Mr. Stoner and his two sons are at present residing in Gettysburg.

REV. JOEL SWARTZ. D. D., Gettysburg, son of Philip and Regina (Funkhauser), was born in Virginia, August 18, 1827. Hlis ancestors on both sides were among the early German settlers of Virginia. His father was the father of three sons and three daughters, tive of whom reached adult age. Our subject was reared on a farm; attended the schools of his neighborhood; about the age of eighteen was prepared for college in Monongalia Academy, under Rev. Silas Billings, and in 1851 entered upon a regular classical course at C'apital University, Columbus, Ohio, from which he graduated in 1851 with honors of his class, delivering the valedirtory. The following year he was ordained as a minister of the Lutheran Church, and from that time uuti! 1871 he was actively engaged in minis- terial work or in teaching. In 1865 he became a professor in the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Springfield, Ohio, whose board conferred upon him the title of D. D. in 1868. lle has been pastor of large and influential charges in Carlisle, Williamsport, Philadelphia and Harrisburg, where he and his wife were also actively engaged in local missionary work for friendless children, and succeeded in founding several flourishing " homes." In 1854 Mr. Swartz was married, at Columbus, Ohio, to Miss Adelia Rosecrans, of the same place (cousin to the General), of Dutch extraction. To them have been born the following named children: Sarah R., wife of II. O. Hildebrand, of Camden, N. J .; W. P., now a missionary in Guntoor, India: Charles K., student at Johns Hopkins University, Balti- more, Md .; Frank and George. Dr. Swartz has delivered many lectures, among which are the following: "Luther and Cromwell," " Milton and Napoleon." " Hle who Can Not Paint Must Grind the Colors," "No Man Owns Deeper Than he Plows," "Echoes. or low we Make the World we Live In," " Aims and Aids in Life." As a lecturer, Hon. George Sharswood, presiding judge of the supreme court of Pennsylvania, says: " It gives me great pleasure to express the opinion which I very decidedly entertain of the superior qualifications of the Rev. Joel Swartz, D. D., as a public lecturer. I have attended on his ministry in Harrisburg very frequently, and can say that in my judgment very few men equal him as a pulpit orator. Ilis language is chaste, his elocution without fault. and his style and delivery very attractive. I have no doubt of his ability to handle any subject which he undertakes in such a manner as to make it interesting to a general audi- ence. I have no hesitation in warmly recommending him." The York Record thus speaks of Dr. Swartz: "It was one of the finest and most entertaining lectures of the sea- son. Dr. Swartz was poetical, humorous, sharp, terse, vigorous and yet eminently prac tical. His imagery is very beautiful, he has a perfect flow of language." Dr. S. Sprecher, D. D., LL. D., president of Wittenberg College, Ohio, thus refers to the Doctor: " I re- gard Prof. Swartz as one of the best lecturers in the country. In refinement of sentiment, eloquence of language and beauty of elocution, he is surpassed by few. He has been very successful wherever he has lectured in this State." Dr. Swartz has also written con- siderable poetry, and his new volume of poems, " Dreamings of the Waking Heart," has been referred to by Dr. Sprecher in this wise: " The sweet, gentle, loving spirit of the author pervades the entire book. The one has the true poetical temperament, the other a true vein of genuine poetry; and, though there is not any remarkable strength or sublim- ity. there is a great deal of beauty of thought and language, lofty conceptions and grace- ful expressions. I think the attentive render will hardly fail to say . this is poetry'-poet- ry in spirit and in form." The author has been so much encouraged by the warm and hearty words of encouragement thus far given that he contemplates other and larger work in the same line in the near future. He has also received much applause for trans- lations of Latin and German hymns, notably the "Dies Ira" and Luther's "Feste Burg."

GEORGE SWEITZER. merchant, Gettysburg, was born in Hopewell Township, York Co. Penn., July 4, 1821, a son of George and Catherine (Heekman) Sweitzer natives of York County and of German descent, the former of whom in early life was a miller, but in later years followed farming. They reared nine children, of whom George is the fourth. Our subject grew up on a farm in York County, and there received the benefits of the neighborhood schools. Being unable to follow farming, he carly in life embarked in mercantile trade in his native township, carrying on a dry goods store until 1860, when he added to the same a stock of groceries. In 1870, Mr. Sweitzer came to Gettysburg. where he established a general store, which he has since successfully carried on. He is a member of the Reformed Church: in polities a Democrat.

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SAMUEL MCCURDY SWOPE, attorney at law, Gettysburg, Penn., was born in that place October 4, 1851, being a son of John A. and Nancy (McCurdy) Swope, natives of Adams County. His father was of German and his mother of Seoteh-Irish descent. Adam Swope, grandfather of Samuel MeCurdy Swope, was among the early settlers of Adams County and by occupation a tanner. Mr. Swope's father, John A. Swope, resided in the borough of Gettysburg during his lifetime, which closed in 1880, October 25, at the age of sixty-five years and twenty three days. He was bitterly opposed to slavery, and was one of the original abolitionists in that part of the country. He was a man of natur- ally strong and bright mind, and was a great general reader. By occupation he was a saddle-tree maker. Our subjeet was the third of four children and grew up to manhood in his native village. Ile graduated from Pennsylvania College in the class of 1872. In 1874 he entered the office of Hon. David Wills, of Gettysburg, with whom he read law, and was admitted to the bar at Gettysburg in 1876, and two years later to practice before the Supreme Court of the State. lle was twice elected district attorney for the county of Adams (the second time without opposition) though a candidate of the minority party, and as such served six years, from January, 1880, to January, 1886. In polities he is a Re- publiean. In 1876 Mr. Swope was married to Anna Kate Stair, a daughter of William Stair, late of York, Penn .. and to the marriage have been born three children: Marrion. James Donald and Mary Stair, the latter two of whom are now living. Mrs. Swope is a member of the Presbyterian Church.

W. H. TIPTON, photographer, Gettysburg, was born in that place August 5, 1850. and is a son of S. R. and Elizabeth (Kitzmiller) Tipton, both natives of Pennsylvania, and of German origin. S. R. Tipton is a resident of Gettysburg; he early learned the barber's trade, but for a number of years was engaged in the carriage business, canvassing principally in the Southern States. He devoted a few years to farming near Gettysburg. Our subject, the eldest of eleven children, seven of whom are still living, attended the common schools of his native county less than one year. He quite early developed a taste for drawing and whiled away many an hour in executing pictures, some of which, coming to the notice of Mr. C. J. Tyson, so greatly attracted his attention as to result in an engagement to learn the art of photography in 1863, when our subject was twelve years old, which he did in the gallery of Tyson Bros. and continued with the firm till 1866. when C J. Tyson purchased the interest of his brother. and Mr. Tipton was employed by him to conduct it, which he did until Oetober 8, 1866, when Mr. Myers was associated with him, and the business was conducted until 1873. under the firm name of Tipton & Myers. Mr. C. J. Tyson, his former employer. purchased Myers' interest in 1873, and remained as partner until 1880. Since 1880 Mr. Tipton has carried on the business himself, is meet- ing with marked success, and is doubtless one of the best known photographers in the country; his landscape work is known in every country, and golden opinions come in from it everywhere. From 1873 to 1882 he was a regular contributor to several of the leading photographic journals, and in some of the more recent publications on the art is quoted as eminent authority. From 1875 to 1886 he was, in connection with his other interests, agent for the New England Mutual Life Insurance Company of Boston, Mass., but was compelled to give up the agency on account of his rapidly increasing business. In 1871 he was married to Mary E., daughter of Eli and Esther (Brown) Little. Mary E. was a native of Franklin County and of German deseent. This union has been blessed with four children: Beulah M., C. Tyson, Bessie V. and Esther. The parents are members of the German Reformed Church. Mr. Tipton is Senior Warden of the Masonic Lodge, No. 336. He is also a past chief patriarch in Union Encampment, I. O. O. F. as well as Past Grand of the subordinate lodge of Odd Fellows, and a Past Sachem in the Improved Order of Red Men. He is a member of the Gettysburg Battle-field Memorial Association, and is serving his third term as chief burgess of Gettysburg. Mr. Tipton has three places of busi- ness in successful operation. The main gallery and office is located on Chambersburg Street, branch gallery and printing department at old stand on York Street, and a battle- field bazaar gallery at Round Top Park. During his official career he has inaugurated some much needed reforms; he prepared and the council adopted a series of effective ordinances for the sanitary improvement of the town; he established a health committee in conformity to the ordinances referred to; remodelled, and had adopted by the council, all licence ordinances, which are now on a solid footing; he remodelled the form of the license blanks, making the license fees payable to the borough treasurer, who is under bonds, and not to the burgess as heretofore. He is now aetive in having the streets and sidewalks improved, and having the town put in a more cleanly condition. The writer became personally well acquainted with the subject of this sketch and has tried to write in no spirit of eulogy, but with the sole object of historical fidelity. The strong hold Mr. Tipton has on the affections of his constituents is better accounted for by his attractive. social and moral qualities. The unselfish and generous impulses of his nature do not per- mit him to serve any one by halves, and yet his opponents never have cause to com- plain that his demeanor toward them was wanting either in justice or in courtesy. In all the offices he has held he has conducted himself to the entire satisfaction of the pub- lic, and with a degree of popularity in each, which few persons can command. In poli-

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ties he is a firm and unwavering Republican, neither turning to the right hand nor the left, and has a record, politically as well as morally, above reproach.

REV. MILTON VALENTINE, D. D., LL. D., professor of didactic theology and homiletics (elected 1884) and chairman of the faculty in the Theological Seminary of the General Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, at Gettysburg, was born at Union town, Carroll Co., Md .. January 1, 1825. His parents were Jacob and Rebecca (Pieking) Valentine, the former a native of Maryland, and the latter a native of Pennsyl- vania. The family is descended from George Valentine. who emigrated from Germany in the early part of the eighteenth century and in 1740 located on the Monocacy River, in Frederick County. Md., where he was engaged in agricultural pursuits until his death. which occurred in 1783. The land on which he lived is still in possession of the Valentine family. This George Valentine, who was the great-grandfather of our subject, was an earnest Christian and a devout member of the Lutheran Church. Dr. Valentine was next to the youngest of a family of six sons and three daughters. His youth was passed on a farm, and he was prepared for college in the academy at Taneytown, Md. In 18-16 he entered the freshman class in Pennsylvania College, and in 1850 was graduated from that institution. He then entered the Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, from which he graduated in 1852, having served as tutor in the college while pursuing his studies. The same year he was licensed to preach, and temporarily supplied the pulpit of the Lutheran Church, in Winchester, Va., in 1852-53. During the winter of 1853-54, he was engaged in missionary work in Allegheny City, Penn., and was pastor of the Lutheran Church at Greensburg, Penn., 1854-55. Owing to a throat trouble he retired from act- ive ministerial work in 1855, and from that time until 1859 was principal of Emmaus In- stitute, Middletown, Penn. From 1859 to 1866 he served as the pastor of St. Matthews' Church, in Reading, Penn., and from 1866 to 1868 he was professor of ecclesiastical history and church polity in the Theological Seminary, at Gettysburg. In 1868 he was called to the presidency of Pennsylvania College, and continued in this position for sixteen years, during a portion of the time (from 1868 to 1873) giving instruction also in the semmary. Dr. Valentine is a man of recognized ability and possesses untiring energy. Many of his sermons, together with essays and discussions, have been published in pamphlet form. Ile is the author of " Natural Theology, or Rational Theism," a work published in 1885, by S. C. Griggs & Co., of Chicago. This is being introduced in many colleges as a text- book, being indorsed by eminent educators of the country. Dr. Valentine was married December 18, 1855, to Miss Margaret G., daughter of Sterling Galt, of Carroll County, Md., of Scotch-Irish descent. They have four children, viz .: Sterling Galt, Ph. D., chemist at Colebrook Furnace, Lebanon; Milton Henry, a student of theology in the Theological Seminary; Esther Amelia and Margaret Grayson.

JUDGE DAVID WILLS. attorney at law, Gettysburg, is a native of this grand old commonwealth, a descendant of Scotch-Irish pioneers of Pennsylvania, from whence came many of the illustrions names that adorn American history. The story of the Scotch- Irish in America, though they came here only in sparse numbers, compared to other nation- alities, is one of the most interesting and edifying of the chapters of our nation's history. No people have ever before so strongly impressed their remote descendants with the dis- tinguished qualities of themselves as they have. Their vigor and strength of character, their fearless courage, their strong mental and physical characteristics, their unconquera- ble endurance and tireless activity have been the web and woof of some of the most illus- trious lives in American song and story. Judge Wills can trace his family history back to 1578, to Carrickfergus, Ireland. David Wills came to America in 1730 and settled on a farm in Chester County, Penn. Hle reared three sons, of whom David Wills, Jr., was the eldest. The latter removed to Cumberland County, this State, in 1750, and settled on a farm. He reared three sons, of whom James was the eldest, who also had three sons, one named James Jack, who was the father of the subject of this sketch. James J. was born in Cumberland County, in 1802, and his wife, Ruth Wilson, was a native of Adams County. She was the only daughter of George Wilson, an influential farmer and mer- chant of Menallen Township, Adams County, whose ancestors emigrated from County Tyrone, Ireland, about 1750. Our subject was born in Menallen Township, Adams County, one of two children, David and Ruth, the latter of whom is married to William Walhey, a farmer, living near Bendersville, this county. In carly life James J. Wills was a farmer, whose intelligent industry brought him great prosperity, and in the latter years of his life he retired from the farm and for the benefit of his children took up his abode in Gettysburg. In 1835 the heavy visitation of death eame to this little household in the demise of Mrs. Wills, and left him with his inconsolable grief to travel alone, save the companionship of his orphaned son and daughter, that path that leads us all to the silent city, whose gates were opened to him in the year 1883. James J. Wills was long a prominent and influential man in the affairs of the county, widely known and re- spected for his many excellencies of head and heart. In politics he was active and influ- ential in early life as a Whig, and then as a Republican. He filled, with ability and cred- it, the office of county commissioner, and was for many years an acting justice of the peace. David was thirteen years old when he left the farm with his father's family. He

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was long enough there to lay the foundations of that ripe and solid education that has al- ways distinguished the men of excellence in our country. The active boy bere gathers lessons that, apparently, he can find nowhere else. With his farm duties he attended the district school. He was then sent to Pennsylvania College, where he graduated in 1851, when he at once pushed out into the wide world and fearlessly took up the wager of bat- the in the struggle of existence. He went to Cahaba. Ala., and became principal of the academy at that place, and at the end of the scholastic year returned to his native State and entered the office of Hon. Thaddeus Stevens as a law student, at Lancaster. He was admitted to practice in 1854, and at once opened his office in Gettysburg, where he has since remained. His success in his chosen profession was marked and brilliant from the first, and of all this his previous life as a student, or as principal of the academy, had giv- en earnest of abundantly. He entered the preparatory department of the college in 1845, joined the Philomathean Society and was awarded the distinguished honor of contest ora- tor. Young as he was, impressing the older boys at school, as he has impressed his fellow- men since, that strength of intellect and force of character are commanding qualities. He has several times been burgess of the borough of Gettysburg, and also served as president of the town council, and councilman and attorney for the borough of Gettysburg for ten years. He was elected county superintendent of schools of Adams County in 1854, be- ing the first officer elected to that position under the new law, creating and defining that office. Upon him there devolved the work of organizing and systematizing the complex affairs of this position, and the results show that the selection was a most fortunate one for the people. He is now, and has been for nearly thirty years, a director and the attorney for the Gettysburg National Bank: president of the Baltimore & Cumberland Valley Rail- road since 1880, and also director and attorney of the Gettysburg, Hanover & Baltimore Railroad systems. In 1874 he was elevated to the high and important judicial position of president judge of the Forty-second Judicial District, and here, as elsewhere, filled the many and difficult requirements of his exalted position ably and well. He organized and carried to completion the Gettysburg National Cemetery, organizing the association, in- teresting the governors of the eighteen States, whose soldiers are buried in the cemetery, and awakening the splendid charity and patriotism of the people of the whole country, that has resulted not only in these magnificent grounds, monuments, avenues and mem- orial stones of this great national cemetery, but from Judge Wills has come, flowing out from his work here, the entire system of battle-field cemeteries of the entire country: The surviving soldiers, especially the descendants of those who repose in these beautiful cem. eteries, should, as they certainly will, hold the name of Judge Wills in ever grateful re- membrance. And when love and affection has tenderly laid his form to rest, this splen- clid cemetery, its beautiful gravelly walks, its trees and flowers and lawns, its many gleam- ing granite columns, all will be his fitting and perpetual monument. (See page 175. et se q.) June 19, 1856, Judge Wills was married to Jennie S., daughter of Hon. D. M. Smy- ser, of Norristown. She also is of Scotch-Irish descent. To this union seven children have been born, four of whom are living, as follows: Mary E., wife of John S. Bridges, of Baltimore: Annie M .; Jennie W. and Emma R. The family is attached to the Presbyter- ian Church, of which Judge Wills has been an elder for the past fifteen years, and for the last ten years, Sunday school superintendent. The Judge has been very frequently sent as a delegate to the Presbytery of Carlisle, and also as commissioner to the General As- sembly of the Presbyterian Church of the United States. In 1880 he was sent by the Gen- eral Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of the United States as a delegate to the Al- liance of the Reformed Churches of the World holding the Presbyterian system, which met in the city of Belfast, Ireland, in June, 1884, and took an active part in that distin- guished body, doing good service on some of its important committees.

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Author: Publication date: Publisher: W. Taylor Number of Pages: 1280

Author:
Publication date:
Publisher: W. Taylor
Number of Pages: 1280