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 52

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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 52
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 52

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Col. William Butler, second son of Thomas, was born in York County; served during the Revolution as lientenant-colonel of the Fourth Regiment Pennsylvania Line, but acted as colonel, as the colonel of that regiment was a prisoner on parole.

Col. Thomas Butler was born May 28, 1749, in West Pennsborough, now Frankford Township, Cumberland County. He was an eminently brave sol- dier. In 1776 he was studying law with James Wilson, one of the signers of the Declaration, at Carlisle. Ho entered the war as first lieutenant of the Sec- ond Pennsylvania Battalion, under Gen. St. Clair, January 5, 1776; became

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captain in the Third Regiment in the line; fought in almost every battle in the Middle States, retiring from service January 1, 1781. At Brandywine (September 11, 1777) he received the thanks of the Commander-in- chief ou the field of battle for his intrepid conduct in rallying a detachment of retreating troops, giving the enemy a severe fire. At Monmouth he received the thanks of Wayne for defending a defile in the face of a heavy fire, while his brother's, Col. Richard Butler's, regiment made good their retreat. After the war he returned to his farm, but left it in 1791 to fight the Indians on the frontier. He commanded a battalion in the disastrous battle of the 4th of November, in which his eldest brother fell. Though his own leg had been broken by a ball, yet, on horseback, he led his battalion to the charge. He was subsequently promoted as major (1792) and as lieutenant-colonel (1794); was in command of Fort Fayette (Pittsburgh) during the whiskey insurrection; was sent to Ten- nessee, 1797, to dispossess intruders on unpurchased lands and treat with In- dians.

"Col. Butler," says Dr. Murray, "was subsequently quite well known for disobeying the order to cut off queues, the amusing history of which may be here stated. The Butlers were the stanch friends of Washington and his school, and not very partial to Wilkinson and his clique. The famous mili- tary order to cut off queues, issued by Wilkinson, was chiefly designed for Col. Thomas Butler, whose queue was dressed and head powdered (even during a campaign) before reveille. When the order reached the command, where it was especially intended, the subordinate officers, who generally wore the of- fensive appendage, called upon Col. Butler to get his advice and opinion for their guidance; and to the question 'What must we do?' he replied: 'Young gentlemen, you must obey orders.' And when asked if he designed cutting off his queue, answered: 'The Almighty gave me my hair, and no earthly power shall deprive me of it.' For this he was twice tried by court martial; first mildly reprimanded, and secondly suspended for one year, but before the sentence was pronounced he was gathered to his fathers (died at New Orleans September 7, 1805). And this gallant, sturdy, veteran son of Cumberland County died and was buried with his beloved queue." The most interesting fact is to come. The facts which we have briefly mentioned were " worked up with great humor by Washington Irving, in 'Knickerbocker's History,' Gen. Wilkinson being the original Von Puffeuburgh, and Keldermeester(master of the cellar) being a Dutch translation of Butler." The passage in Irving is as follows: "The eel-skin queue of old Keldermeester," recounts Diedrich, "be- came instantly an affair of the utmost importance. The Commander-in-chief was too enlightened an officer not to perceive that the discipline of the garri- son, the subordination and good order of the armies of the Nieuw Nederlands, the consequent safety of the whole province, and ultimately the dignity and pros- perity of their High Mightinesses, the Lords States General, imperiously de- manded the docking of that stubborn queue. He decreed, therefore, that old Keldermeester should be publicly shorn of his glories in presence of the whole garrison: the old man as resolutely stood on the defensive, whereupon he was arrested and tried by a court-martial for mutiny, desertion, and all the other list of offenses noticed in the articles of war, ending with a 'videlicet, in wear- ing an eel-skin queue three feet long, contrary to orders.' Then came on arraignments and trials and pleadings, and the whole garrison was in a fer- ment about this unfortunate queue. As it is well known that the commander of a frontier post has the power of acting pretty much after his own will, there is little doubt but that the veteran would have been hanged or shot, at least, had he not luckily fallen ill of a fever through mere chagrin and mortification,

John Hulten

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FRANKFORD TOWNSHIP.

and doserted from all earthly command with his beloved loeks unviolated. Ho obstinately remained unshaken to the very last moment, when ho directed that he should be carried to his grave with his eel-skin quone sticking out of a hole in his coffin."

The will of Col. Thomas Butler, filed in the records of the county, is dated September 20, 1787. It begins "I, Thomas Butler, of West Penns- borough Township, in the county of Cumberland and State of Pennsylvania, Gunsmith," etc. It bequeathes to his loving son, Richard Butler, and sponse, and to his loving son, William Butler, and spouse, certain prop- erty; to his wife, Eleanor, his personal property, with excepted legacies; to his daughter, Eleanor, one hundred pounds, "now in the hands of my son, Edward Butler," also fifty pounds, "now in the hands of my son, Pierce Butler." Also to said Eleanor Butler all claims of cow-cattle at the stand in the barn, and her riding horse, also five pounds a year while she remains single. To my "loving and worthy son, Capt. Thomas Butler, all my real estate in West Pennsborough, [ now Frankford] Township," county of Cumberland, etc. To loving wife, Eleanor, twenty pounds yearly. To my loving son, Pierce Butler, the sum of one hundred and seventy-five pounds. To Edward Butler the sum of one hundred and seventy-five pounds. His wife. Eleanor, and sons, Thomas and Edward, executors.

Col. Pierce Butler was born April 6, 1760. in West Pennsborough (now Frankford) Township, Cumberland County. He served in the Pennsylvania Line of the Revolution; was with Morgan at Saratoga and at siege of York- town and other engagements. He moved from Cumberland County, after the war, to the South. He was adjutant-general in the war of 1812. Ho was the father of William Orlando Butler, who succeeded Gen. Winfield Scott in Mexico, and ran for Vice-President (Democratie ticket) in 1848.

Mr. MeMaster, in his "History of the People of the United States," thus mentions Pierce Butler, in speaking of the delegates to the convention in 1787: .. Another Irishman, Pierce Butler, was in the South Carolina delega- tion. Butler was a man of ability, and had attained to some eminence in his State; but no distinction was to him so much a matter of pride as his blood, for he boasted that he could trace unbroken descent to the great family of Ormond"; and in a note he adds: "Butler was often twitted in the lampoons of late years with noble descent. As one of the ten delegates who voted against Jay's treaty, he is described as

" Pierce Butler next, a man of sterling worth,

Because he justly claims a noble birth."*

Col. Edward Butler, youngest son of Thomas, was born ( March 20, 1762) on the homestead in West Pennsborough, now Frankford Township, Cumberland County. He served as a valiant soldier in several regiments of the Pennsylvania Line. In the operations on the Miami, he was adjutant general under Wayne. He died in Tennessee in 1803. He was the father of Edward G. Washington Butler, of the Mexican war, who still lives, vener- able in years (aged now, 1586, eighty-six), in Louisiana, and who married the daughter of Lawrence Lewis and Eleanor Parke Custis, of Virginia, then the nearest living relative both of Gen. and Mrs. Washington-her father being the son of Fielding Lewis and Elizabeth Washington, the General's only sister; and the mother being the daughter of MIrs. Washington's only son, John Parke Custis, and of Julia Calvert, granddaughter of Lord Baltimore. Such was one of the distinguished families, whose first American home was under the shadow of the North Mountains, in the county of Cumberland.

*The Democratiad-A poem. Philadelphia, 1795.

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HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.

VILLAGE.

There is only one village in the township, Bloserville, called, like so many of the smaller towns of the valley, from a family who owned the land upon which it is built. The first house was erected at Bloserville in 1847. There is a postoffice here.

CHAPTER XXIV.

HAMPDEN TOWNSHIP.

H AMPDEN TOWNSHIP was formed from East Pennsborough Township in 1845. It is bounded on the north by the mountains which form the dividing line between Cumberland and Perry Counties; on the east by East Pennsborough Township; on the south by Upper and Lower Allen Townships, and on the west by Silver Spring Township.

The soil is well adapted for agriculture, and large crops of wheat and other cereals are raised annually. The Conodoguinet Creek here winds with more than its usual serpentine curvatures, from the center, but extending into the southern portion of the township, the land to the south being of the usual limestone formation, while that to the north is black, sandy loam land near the creek, and red slate farther away. Hampden Township lying near the Susque- hanna River, was one of the first portions of the north valley into which white settlers began, about 1730 or 1731, to push their way. These were at first Scotch-Irish, and later Germans.

They began settling in that portion of the township north of the Conodo- guinet, and also south of the creek and west of the road leading from the Conodoguinet to the Yellow Breeches, past "Frieden's Kirche " and immedi- ately below Shiremanstown. The portion east had been reserved as a proprie- tory manor, and upon it, at this period, the whites were not allowed to take up land. The part west of the above road was called the "barrens," because it was poorly timbered.

Among the earliest of the Scotch-Irish settlers were two brothers, John and William Orr, who went from Scotland into Ireland and came from Parish Cal- ade, County Antrim, Ireland, and settled in Hampden Township on the north side of the creek, as early as 1743. The north side was the only side of the creek that then had timber-fine large trees, consisting of hickory, white oak, black oak, walnut, poplar, beech, buttonwood, locust, swamp oak, chestnut and other varieties. * There were plenty of fish in the stream-plenty of shad and a great deal of game on the north side of the creek, because it was wood- land, while on the south side it was low, marshy land and brush. There were deer on the south side. As late as 1785 there were plenty of shad, and parties would come to catch them with seines. The Youngs were also early settlers

and lived in the next bend above the creek. Other names will be given when we speak of the lots of the Louther (then Paxton) Manor.

One of the earliest, evidently, of the German settlers in this township was Jonas Rupp. After having come from the fatherland, and, in order to be- come a " denizen," taken the prescribed oath-among other things, "of hav-

*Some sixty or seventy years ago, says the writer's informant, " Mr. James Orr," there were thirty-three varieties of timber, large and small, on " the Orr farms."

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ing taken the Lord's Supper within three months before holding of the court."* (see Rapp's Biographical Memorial, p. 35)-he removed first to Lebanon and then into Cumberland County.

The pen picture of that early flitting we prefer to give in the language of one of his descendants: "The time of his removal " says I. D. Rupp in his biographical sketch. "had come. On a bright sunny morning the flitting moved orderly and slowly from the happy home, around which clustered hallowed memories, to be, for a while, cast among strangers beyond the Big River. The first place where they halted was at the newly laid out Fredericktown (Hummelstown), nine miles east from Harris' Ferry, to partake of provisions and to bait the horses and stock. The same day, just before nightfall, they reached Harris' Ferry, so named after John Harris, who settled here about 1718 and 1719. Here they tarried for the night. Early the next morning they forded the broad Susquehanna-for the water of the stream at this season of the year was shallow. Onward they went, five miles westward, when they reached. at high 12, the new home."

" Providence Tract " is the original recorded name of the tract or parcel of land which Jonas Rupp purchased from George Thawley. Part of this tract was taken up by William McMeans, Jr., December 10, 1742, and part thereof May 13, 1763. MeMeans sold, October 4, 1768, 211 acres to George Thaw- loy, who sold the same, in the fall of 1772, to Jonas Rupp, for £400.

" The improvements consisted of a log cabin, a mere apology for a log barn, and fifteen acres of cleared land, principally inclosed with a brush fence and saplings."

In the spring of 1773 Rupp erected a house one story and a half high, of hewn logs, close to a well which he had sunk. This house is still standing. In the course of ten years 100 acres were cleared and " his farm," says his de- scendant, " was soon distinguished from those of his Scotch-Irish neighbors."t

MILLS, BRIDGES, ETC.

Along the winding courses of the Conodoguinet Creek there are a number of flour and grist mills in the township. The first is Bryson's, situated in the extreme western portion of the township. It is on the south side of the creek and is supplied with water by the Silver Spring, which here empties into the Conodoguinet. It occupies the site of what was formerly known as " Briggs' mill." Further down, almost in the center of the township, on the north side and at the beginning of the great bend of the creek, is the Good Hope mill, now owned by J. B. Lindeman. It was built by Jonas Rupp about 1820. Across the creek from this mill John Whisler built a woolen factory, which is still standing, and which was once connected with an oil-mill. At an early date it seems to have been the habit of every householder living in the country to raise a patch of flax. and oil seems to have been one of the early products of this section.

Three bridges cross the Conodoguinet Creek in this township; one at Eberly's (built about 1842), one at Lindeman's (built 1823), and one in the southern section of the second bend, built. principally, by James Orr in 1834 and 1935. This latter is known as Orr's Bridge.

THE INDIANS.

The Indians had a number of villages in this lower portion of the county. They had a number of wigwams on the banks of the Conodoguinet Creek, north

"The certificate of the oath above alluded to is dated September 22, 1765.

+" A house built by the first Germans in Pennsylvania," says Rupp. " was easily distinguished from that of his Scotch-Irish neighbor's house, by Its huge chimney, always In the center of the edifice."-Biog. Mem. p. 41.

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HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.

of the turnpike three miles from the Susquehanna, on lands now owned, or lately owned by Albright, Rupp, Merkel, John Shoop and others, There were also several cabins half a mile north of Frieden's Kirche, in Hampden Township. "An aged aunt " says Rupp (History, page 352) " late of Hamp- den Township, informed me that she remembered well the evacuated Indian huts north of Frieden's Kirch, and those at Ruby's." The Indians had a path, crossing the Conodoguinet, near those wigwams toward Yellow Breeches.

PAXTON MANOR IN HAMPDEN.

A small portion of the manor of Paxton was embraced in Hampden Town- ship. This, extending from the road past Frieden's Kirche, and between the two creeks to the Susquehanna, was reserved by the Proprietary government as a special reservation for the Indians, and consequently was not so soon set- led by the whites as the adjoining lands. Of the twenty-eight lots or parcels of lots into which it was divided, some few fell in Hampden Township. These were:

Lot No. 23, called Westmoreland, containing 282 acres, 36 perches and allowance, a warrant for which was issued to Edmund Physick dated December 10, 1767; patent August 15, 1768; afterward owned in whole or parts by Hershberger, Funk, Nichols, Bollinger, Rupp, Ruby, Shopp, and lately by Albright, Rupp, Meckel, Shopp and others. The Indian wigwams " three miles from the Susquehanna," above alluded to, were on this tract.

Lot No. 24. 287 acres: Rev. William Thompson, Daniel Sherbahn, John Sherbahn; lately William Stephen, Samuel Eberly and others. The cabins "half a mile north of Frieden's Kirche," above alluded to, were on this tract.

Lot No. 25, 150 acres: Alexander Young, Robert Young, late Dr. Robert G. Young.

Lot No. 26, 2093 acres: for this tract, called "Manington," a warrant dated 17th of May, 1767, was granted to Jonas Seely, who conveyed, in Decem- ber, the same year, to Conrad Maneschmidt, to whom a patent was issued Aug- ust 15, 1774. Maneschmidt and wife conveyed, September 20, 1774, a portion of this tract to Ulrick Shopp, and it is still owned by his descendants.

Outside of the portion of the township which was embraced in this manor, John Wisler owned a large tract on the south side and within the first bend of the creek. About half a mile farther down and on the north bank was the residence of Daniel Basehore, who settled there about 1791, on what was then known as the Rye Gate Tract. It was while attempting to rob Mr. Basehore's house that Lewis, the robber, was taken prisoner, and lodged in the Carlisle jail. South of this Rye Gate tract there was another tract called "Steyning," containing 187 acres, which was surveyed to James McConnell by warrant January 15, 1763-for which a patent deed was issued January 16, 1808, to Jonas Rupp, which was afterward owned by David Rupp, Sherbahn, Early, and (now) the Erbs.

CHURCHES,

Frieden's Kirche .- The history of the old stone church known as "Frieden's Kirche " is as follows: A German Reformed congregation had been organized in the lower part of the county, and, in 1797, they agreed to build the house (now occupied exclusively as a schoolhouse) for the purpose of holding their religious meetings, and for school purposes until another structure should be built. This house was built of logs, with one portion designed for the teach- er's residence. In this same year (May 26, 1797), the congregation purchased land connected with the schoolhouses from Henry Snively and Nicholas Kreut- zer; and, in 1798, the stone church was erected under the supervision of a

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HAMPDEN TOWNSHIP.

building committee, consisting of Frederick Lang, Jonas Rupp, Leonard Swartz, and Rev. Anthony Hautz, then stationed at Carlisle and Trindle Spring. Martin Rupp and Thomas Anderson were the builders.

A Lutheran and German Reformed Congregation had been organized in 1787 or 175, who had a log house for public worship in Louther Manor, sev- eral miles northeast of Frieden's Kirche, known as " Poplar Church, " so called beenuse it stood in a grove of lofty poplar trees. In May, 1806, this congre- gation, on the payment of £405 17s. 3d. (being one-half of the cost of Fried- en's Kirche, land, building of schoolhouse, and inclosing the grave-yard ), became consolidated with the German Reformed congregation of Frieden's Kirche. At this time the following persons constituted the vestry of the congregations: German Reformed Frederick Lang. Jonas Rupp, Frederick Schweitzer, Chris- tinn Swiler, Henry Manessmith and Martin Rupp; Lutheran-Nicholas Kreutzer, John Wormley. Christoph Eichelberger, Andrew Shuely, Christofel Gramlig and Daniel Scherban.

April 20, 1812, the joint congregations purchase l five acres more on which the present dwelling house, contignons to the church stands. In 1830 another small parcel of ground was purchased to enlarge the grave yard. In 1864 about two more acres were purchased from Thomas Oyster for the same pur- pose.

St. John's Erangetical Lutheran Church .- In 1865 the Lutherans por- chased from the German Reformed congregation their interest in a portion of ground near the old church, and commenced the erection of a new brick build- ing, which, under the name of " St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church, " was completed and dedicated July 2, 1566. Juno 23. of this year, the German Reformed congregation held their last communion service in the old church, which still stands, after having withstood the storms of nearly ninety years, in a good state of preservation. It is used for a Sunday-school, and occasionally for funeral services, but it is now chiefly valuable as an antique relic of the past.

The other churches in the township are the Salem Church; Methodist, on the turnpike, about two and one-half miles north of Mechanicsburg, erected in 1825; the Good Hope Church (Church of God denomination), erected in 1843; and the Mount Zion Church, on the State road leading from the river to Ster- ritt's Gap, about four miles from West Fairview, which is a large frame building erected and dedicated in 1857.

HAMLETS.

There are two small places in the township. One is called Good Hope, which consists of a few dwelling houses, a wagon and blacksmith shop, a store, which has been kept there for sixty years, and a postoffice-the only one in the township established about thirty-three years ago. Sporting Hill is a cluster of less than a dozen houses, one of which was formerly a store, and another a hotel. It is about five and a half miles west of Harrisburg, on the turnpike road leading to Carlisle. "During the French and Indian war," says Rupp, "a man was shot by the Indians near this place. Several persons met on public business at Mr. Wood's, late John Everly's; one of the com- pany went down toward McMean's (Kreutzer's) spring, where he was shot and scalped."

MISCELLANEOUS.

Hampden is well supplied with good school buildings, five in number, and with numerous good roads in every portion of the township. The oldest of these date as follows: From Harris Ferry westward, November, 1734; from

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HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY.

Hoge's Spring to the Susquehanna River, October, 1759; from Trindle Spring to Kelso's Ferry, January, 1792.

The Cumberland Valley Railroad runs along the southern border of the township, dividing it from Upper Allen and Lower Allen Townships.

CHAPTER XXV.

HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP AND BOROUGH OF NEWBURG.

"THE township of Hopewell, a twin sister of Pennsborough, was formed in 1735. These were then the only two townships in the North Valley, and this county was still a portion of Lancaster. They were divided by a line crossing at the " Great Spring," now Newville. Hopewell included then not only the corner of Cumberland, but most all of what is now Franklin County. Later (1741) this township of Hopewell was divided by a line "beginning at the North Hill, at Benjamin Moor's; thence to Widow Hewres' and Samuel Jamison's, and on a straight line to the South Hill," and it was ordered that "the western division be called Antrim, and the eastern, Hopewell." The ter- ritory of Antrim was nearly or altogether coincident with what was afterward the county of Franklin. Hopewell was gradually reduced to its present limits by the formation of Southampton, on the south, in 1791, and Mifflin, on the east, in 1797.

The land in the township is of a rolling character, of slate or dark slate formation, and, since lime has been freely used as a fertilizer, has become quite productive. The Conodoguinet Creek runs in a northeasterly direction through the southern portion of the township.

EARLY SETTLEMENT.

The early settlers of this upper portion of the county are invariably the Scotch or Irish, or the admixture of both, who, becoming dissatisfied and moved by the spirit of adventure, like Homer's heroes, passed

" The shadowy mountains and the roaring sea"

to found themselves new homes in the, then, almost unknown recesses of this North Valley.

" Roll baek the shadows of the crowning years, And, lo ! a sylvan paradise appears ! As bright and bounding then as now thy flow, Fair Susquehanna, ever murmuring low. But where the farm land basks, where busy town Beneath its guardian spires has nestled down, Stood darkling forests, then of sturdy oak, Tall pine and poplar, echoing to the stroke Of men by fever of adventure moved, Or dream of gain, to leave the fields they loved, And with foud wives and prattling children roam Far to these wilds to build anew a home."

As early as 1731 settlements were made along the Conodoguinet, within the limits of what is now Hopewell Township. There is good evidence that, as early as 1738, this section of the valley between Shippensburg and the North Mountain was as thickly settled as almost any other portion of it .*

*The number of freeholders in Hopewell in 1751 was 134.

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HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP.

" There is a well authenticated tradition," says Rev. S. S. Wylie, in his address at the "historieal exercises" at Middle Spring Church, in 1876, "handed down in the Johnson family of our church, that John Johnson, the grandfather of George Johnson, with his wife behind him, rode from his resi- dence, three and one-half miles above Shippensburg, along a narrow bridle path, through nlmost continuons forest, passed the former residence of Wen- del Foglesonger, crossed Middle Spring at the dilapidated Creamer Mill, and attended preaching in the woods in the vicinity of this church years before there was any house erected; and we know the first meeting house was built in 1738."

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

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