USA > Pennsylvania > Mifflin County > History of Mifflin County : its physical peculiarities, soil, climate, &c. ; including an early sketch of the state of Pennsylvania Volume I > Part 10
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A mother's, brother's, sister's voice, his first young dream of love. A fair bride blushing on his arm, an infant on her breast, And oh, the green mounds by the way where we laid them down to rest. And much he mused on perils past, of toils and hopes and fears, Like April skies, all mingled up with sunshine, hopes and tears. The golden wealth so wildly sought, and honors bright and brief, That won the restless throng's applause, but filled his heart with grief. I will not say he turned away in sadness or in gloom,
Or that the world he left behind was of his hopes the tomb; Though heaviness was in his heart, HOPE kindled in his eye, Behind him was a world of change, before a changeless sky.
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William Mc Kinney, Esq.
An unusually pleasant personal acquaintance with the subject of this sketch, makes it difficult to put up the customary biographical notice characteristic of this work without partiality, but it affords us pleasure to record him a gentleman of fine natural endowments and acquired abilities, an amiable sociable reputation, and has contrib- nted much to the prosperity of the towns and country in which he has from childhood been an honored resident, and by his strict at- tention to business committed to his care, he has been rewarded financially, and by the confidence and esteem of his personal and business friends. The subject of this sketch is a descendant of ROBERT TAYLOR, of Sweet Arrow (Swatara) Creek, below Harris- bnrg, Pennsylvania. The descendants of Robert Taylor, were Henry, Robert, Matthew, John and William Taylor, also one daugh- ter. Robert Taylor, first named, was the great grandfather of our subject. Then comes HENRY TAYLOR, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, who settled in Big Valley about 1755, and died in 1813, aged 82. His mother's name was MARY, the oldest on the maternal side, the old nncle Robert the oldest; then Jane, Samuel W., Mat- thew, Henry, Rhoda, Joseph, and David the youngest. The mother, named Mary, had five descendants, named Jane, William, Mary Ann, Rhoda and Sarah. William Mckinney, born 1795, in Canoe Valley. Came to Yeagertown, in this county, at the age of 6 years, and has since been a resident thereof. . His father went to Virginia on business, and on his way returning was drowned at Fort Cum- berland, he and his horse. His business has been a tailor, and during his residence in Reedsville, worked ten hands in the year 1840, and during his residence in that town he served as justice of the peace over twenty years. One peculiarity of his life, is that he has always been successful in all his undertakings. In conformity to universal experience, Mr. Kiuney, like every other descendant of Adam, found it was not good for man to be alone, and with rare judgment and good sense, (articles not usually bronght into requi- sition in such cases) selected as a helpmate for him, in the year 1822, a danghter of Samuel McNitt, of East End. She died in 1845, leaving eleven descendants, seven of whom still survive. Was married again in 1846. From the second marriage are four descen- dants, three of whom now survive. Our subject has resided in Lewistown twelve years. Was twenty-eight in Reedsville, during over twenty of which he served with unusual acceptance as justice of the peace. Was thirteen years in Milroy, is now 84 years of
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age, the 17th of September, 1879. Mr. Mckinney has in all posi- tions, in all the relations of life, been prompt and reliable, as his fre- quent and repeated election to official positions testify. Though now the years have crept upon him, it has been almost impercepti- ble, and he yet bids fair for many more. Active and vigorons in his habits, he is in no danger of rusting out, and the care he has taken to preserve his frame by an obedience to the laws of nature, to its present vigor, he may still be expected to keep it from wearing out. To Mr. Mckinney's long residence, his familiarity with old settlers, and with public affairs, and his splendid memory of early events, and his kindness in communicating them to us, we are largely indebted for facts contained in this work. May his shadow never grow less.
May never wicked fortune trouble him, May never wicked men bamboozle him Until his head's as old as old Methusalem, And then to the blessed New Jerusalem With fleet wings away. Earth has no gentler voice to man to give,
Then come to Nature's arms and learn of her to live.
James Cupples, Sem ..
Came from Antrim county, Ireland, in the year preceding the revolutionary war. An English man-of-war gave their emigrant ship a severe chase, but a dense fog saved them from capture. He, like many others of the early emigrants, first located in Chester county. After his marriage he removed to Mifflin county, and settled in Derry township, in Dry Valley, on a farm which he bought of a Mr. Burns. He raised a family of twenty-one children, only three of them sons. Was three times married. The youngest of these sons,
John Cupples,
Was born in Dry Valley, in the year 1800, December 22. Was mar- ried July 28, 1828. His brother James died at the age of eighty- eight, and his brother Robert at the age of eighty, showing the im- mensc, almost unprecedented, vigor and vital energies of their race. His descendants are six sons and two daughters, of whom there are now living four sons and one daughter. Mr. Cupples has been a farmer of great physical power, which was not slow in its devel- opment in his younger days on an opponent whom he considered his equal. In his later years he has been prominently identified with the religious interests of the community in which he resides. Those of his personal friends who are in his confidence and have had ac- 7
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cess to his political views inform us confidentially that those politi- cal views lean somewhat towards the Democratic party. His fam- ily, his home, his surroundings and future prospects are all that heart could wish or ambition desire. For many years he has been a resident of Ferguson's Valley, where his influence for good and the well-being of his neighborhood are so generously exerted. Though of advanced age he enjoys excellent health, and bids fair yet to re- main long with us; and so may it be.
James Shahen.
As was nearly unanimous with the settlers of lower Pennsylvania, the ancestors of the subject of our present notice came to this coun- try from the Emerald Isle. His grandfather from Ireland, and his father, born in Cumberland county, raised up to manhood and mar- ried in Lancaster county, and then removed to Fayette county. His name was John Shahen. Here James, the subject of whom we write, was born. His mother's father was from Germany. Came to America at an early date, and his maternal ancestors done good work in our revolutionary struggle. His father removed from Fay- ette county to Mifflin when James was seven years old, and he has since resided here. He married a Miss Todd in 1829; had eleven descendants, nine sons and two daughters. Only two of his descendants are now living. His home is in Ferguson's Valley. He has never moved, having inherited his parents' home at his mar- riage, and there he still resides. We meet no more lively, health- ful, cheerful specimen of humanity than Mr. Shahen, a model char- acteristic of the nationality from which he is descended, and to which this country is so largely indebted for the muscle and intel- lect that gives the American nationality a world-wide reputation on these two principal characteristics.
The Buchanan Family.
Among the pioneers of the immediate locality of Lewistown, were the Buchanan family. And so very early was their settle- ment, and so uncertain the data connected therewith, that we are at a loss for reliable references in their history, and uncertainties we do not use. This we have been able to obtain, that Arthur, Robert and William settled south of the river, and others of the family on this side. Robert Buchanan, Sr., the ancestor of all, soon after died. The name of his wife was Dorcas. Robert, Jr., was sixteen years old when Lewistown was laid out, and had an inherited inter-
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est in the town plot, which he lost, cause unknown. He married in 1823 to Miss Mary R. Tannehill, of Scotch descent, whose ances- tors were residents of Juniata county. Some of their descendants are still here. Robert's, Jr., sons were Andrew, William, Thomas and James, and perhaps others. The daughters, Polly, Dorcas and Lucinda, married and went west. This is all the reliable data of one of the most conspicuous and useful of the early families of Lewistown, which only is another proof of the value of family record and family history, which is so much sought by their de- scendants in the family and successors in the country ; their energy and ambition and enterprise, rescued from the wilderness and the savage, and handed down to posterity.
"Requiescat in pace."
John A. Wolfkiel, Esq.
Though a stranger in a strange land, we meet many pleasant cir- cumstances and incidents to relieve the lonely hours, and one of those pleasant incidents was the introduction to, and brief acquain- tance with the subject of this notice, a pleasant, genial gentleman of the olden style, " neatly, but substantially built." Mr. Wolfkiel was born in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, October, 1802, and remained a resident of that county until 1825, when he became an inhabitant of Mifflin county, and where he hopes ever to be one of that happy number who are so fortunate as to have their homes in Mifflin county ever. In 1826, or one year after his location in Mifflin county, he united his destinies with Miss Gilbraith, and most hap- pily then floated the "life boat " down the stream of time, and soon they found that barque manned by seven descendants, five of whom are now living. Four sons are the active railroad men of our county and vicinity. Our subject has been, himself an active worker all his life. His official experience has been that of all other substantial residents of our county, viz : School, township and county, as his neighbors have frequently called on him so to serve. As above stated, Mr. Wolfkiel has been a worker, not only has he wielded the scythe, the sickle and fail, but the mattock and the shovel have been to him familiar weapons. His life has thus been spent where
"The furrows were deep that the plowman had made, And their engines of war were the harrow and spade ;
Where the farmer sits down in the stillness of even, And his children sing songs to their Father in heaven. Where the soldiers of labor have homes on their lands, With their great stalwart chests and their big bony hands."
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HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
From the age of fifteen to maturity he spent in clearing lands. The programme consisted in felling trees, grubbing saplings and burning brush. "Store clothes " were not the apparel donned by the rustic youth of those days, but the product of the flax and hemp patch, manufactured in the families of the wearer, were the habili- ments in which the youngsters attended the church, the school and the " apple-butter boilings " of that age, while the sheep-shear- ing products of the spring, were, by the industrial female hands, worked into flannels and fulled clothes for the colds of the coming winter, while attending the school of the neighborhood in the log school house, with the " chunks and daubing" out for lights, and the scholars clustered near the stove. But a change has come ; modern improvements have superseded the old time things, and the present generation find a different employment than even the last generation did.
Hence, under this system of change, we find Mr. Wolfkiel's sons engaged as follows : Andrew J., conductor on the Lewistown and Sunbury Railroad; Thomas M., engineer on the Bedford Railroad ; Samuel, engincer in water works at Bixler's Gap; Daniel D., engi- neer from Altoona to Harrisburg, on the Pennsylvania Railroad, and the oldest son, George, a farmer in Lincoln county, Kansas, for the past four years. Mr. Wolfkiel had the misfortune to lose the com- panion of his love and mother of his interesting family twenty- three years ago, and since then he has made the journey of life alone, having ever felt that he lived but for one and only one. His home is near Longfellow's Station, in the valley of the Juniata, above Lewistown.
Richard Coplin.
The family of the above-named individual have been conspicuous in the annals of usefulness in Mifflin county since the date of their earliest ancestor, 1806, when the above named Richard Coplin set- tled in east end of Kishacoquillas Valley, near to what is now the pleasant town of Milroy. He was a mechanic and pursued his avocation there, and raised his family of three sons and one danghter.
Isaiah Coplin,
The youngest son, is now the only survivor of the family. The older sous were named Willis and Richard, the daughter was named Sarah.
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HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
Isaiah Coplin not only began this world at the beginning of the month and the beginning of the year, but was born in the morning of the first day of the century, viz : on the morning of January 1, 1801, and as perfect system has always been his business programme, he was married January 1, 1822. His home has been in the east end of Kishacoquillas Valley, in the Juniata Valley, then a short time in Ohio, and then returned to Kishacoquillas Valley, in No- vember, 1826, and from there to Lewistown in 1873, in which year he was called on to part with his companion, who sleeps that sleep that knows no waking.
The family of Isaiah Coplin is Elizabeth, who married 'a Mr' Gilmore, and who was the mother of fifteen descendants. Then Owen Coplin, a resident of the town of Milroy at this date. Rich- ard, the next son, has ever remained single, and is a resident of Lewistown. Catharine married in 1851 ; has four descendants, (her husband is deceased), and resides at Patterson, Juniata county, Pa. Isaiah, the next son, is a resident of Virginia, near Norfolk, and has an interesting growing family. Willis V. B. is a resident of Lewistown, Mifflin county. The people of his native county, in looking around among their number for the right man to place in the responsible office of prothonotary, selected, with rare judgment and unusual unanimity, Mr. Willis V. B. Coplin for that position in 1874. The manner in which the duties of that important office was performed, may be inferred from the fact that after filling it three years he was re-elected to the same position for another term of three years, in 1847, without opposition, as no man in Mifflin county desired to be defeated, and all 'knew that the man who op- posed him would be, he was continued without opposition. The official positions held by Mr. Isaiah Coplin have been county com- missioner, then postmaster at the town of Milroy eight years, then took the census in the north half of the county in 1860, was one of the commissioners to locate our county poor farm and poor-house, and in 1851 was elected associate judge, but did not serve. His residence in the Juniata Valley was near the home of John Marsdon, Esq., (whose biography is in a preceding page of this work,) and between whom a strong friendship has ever existed, beginning in 1812 and 1813. His father was a soldier in the revolutionary strug- gle from Chester county, Pennsylvania. He was bound to the trade of shoemaking for a term of seven years. The indenture was made in 1764, and the old document is still preserved in the family.
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HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
Samuel Maclay
Located in Kishacoquillas Valley in 1752 or 1753, we are unable to determine precisely which, but it was not later than the last named date. The wife of Samuel Maclay was a daughter of Judge Brown. When Logan met Brown at Logan's Spring, he informed him " there was another white man in the Valley," and they to- gether made a search, and Logan introduced Brown to Maclay. Samuel Maclay perhaps visited the Valley before Brown's location, but he made no location of lands until 1754, when he located large tracts of land that are now the most valuable in the Valley. He died in 1810 at the advanced age of seventy-two years. The work and history of Samuel Maclay proves him to have been a true pioneer, holding a conscientious regard to the rights of others, and among others of the early pioneers, has left a line of descendants of whom our county and State may be justly proud, from their position, mor- ally, intellectually and otherwise, in a community where the stan- dard and average of their range as high as it does in Mifflin county. In that line of descendants we note
Robert P. Maclay, Esq.,
Son of the aforenamed Samuel Maclay, born April 18th, 1799, in Buffalo Valley. He first came to Big Valley when a child, and in the vicissitudes and Indian troubles was away at times, but per- manently located here in 1829. He had six descendants, but two are living, the oldest and the youngest. The subject of these notes was superintendent of the .construction of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railroad, one of the most important lines in the great south-west. . His son,
Samuel R. Maclay,
Was with him in the south-west, and was a resident of Missouri, on the breaking out of the rebellion. He returned to the Valley in 1867, and has since there resided, and with whom his father finds a most pleasant home at his advanced age. Samuel Maclay has a line of descendants of intelligent sons that few enjoy the privilege of serving in their own line of progeny.
The MACLAY FAMILY have ever been regarded as the exemplary substantials of the old families of the Valley ; and Judge Maclay, now at the age of eighty years, enjoys a health and vigor of body and of intellect that few enjoy who are a score of years in the minority of years. The other old families of this (his) locality,
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HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
were James Houston, the Campbells, John Haughwant, who first improved this farm where Maclay now resides, John Reed, long a justice of the peace at Greenwood. It is a luxury to converse with Judge Maclay on the early incidents of the Valley pioneers. His brilliant recollections, his well-balanced mind and large experience makes him not a volume of early history but a library thereof. He relates to us the circumstances of the arrival of Mrs. James Reed, the first white woman in the Big Valley, when Reed and Brown came together. Of the dark day of the solar eclipse in 1806, and the meteoric showers of 1833 ; of James Reed's oldest child, being the second born in the Valley, and Robert Taylor being the third one born there.
Robert Cox.
A noted author onee said : " Some men are born great, and others have greatness thrust upon them," and he might have added a third and more numerous class regard themselves as truly great, and wonder why mankind do not see them, as they see themselves. To the class first named, belongs the subject of this sketch, a man who inherited from a worthy ancestry, one of the best organizations of mind and body we have ever met. Here, on this classic locality, he was born in a house where a blacksmith shop near by now stands. He remembers Mrs. Judge Brown, and when a child, played at her house, and his home, during a long and well-spent life, had been in this most interesting locality. Here is the place where Logan got Judge Brown's little daughter, took her home and kept her all day. Here, Logan lived, and here Brown and Maclay met Logan for the first time. Logan's cabin was six or eight rods above the spring. Brown first came on a visit, and re- turned four years after to find his cabin over-grown with brush. He returned with his wife. Mr. Cox gives us this positively, and it was told him personally by Mr. and Mrs. Brown propria persona; has heard Reed and Brown converse on this subject; was with his mother, when her and " Granny" Brown watered their flax over on the flat, and was showed the stump of the old sycamore tree by Mrs. Brown, where she and her husband stayed the first night of their return from the east. Mrs. Brown did not let her little girl go withi Logan the first day he called for her, but by his urgency the second day, she allowed her to go and spent a most anxious day herself. When Brown eame with his wife, he came up to the old Indian war path where the railroad now runs through the narrows.
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HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
John, their son, was then a child ; Mrs. Brown died in a house where the hotel now is, and Mr. Brown in the house now owned and occupied by Mr. Mann. The parents of Mr. Cox came here from Derry county, Ireland, in the year 1800. They stopped two. years in Philadelphia, and then came to Kishacoquillas Valley. The father died at the age of 84, and the mother at 76. At an early day there came an exceedingly high water in the creek, and it rose into the cabins near its banks. Robert Cox, then a small boy, was in the cabin alone, his parents absent. William Brown learning these facts, with much effort, saved him, by wading the stream and carrying him out. This was known as the pumpkin flood. He remembers Lewis and Connelly, the robbers, when Carr kept tavernat Patterson's ore bank. One was killed (Connelly) and Lewis had his arm broken, and died from its effects. Old Mr. Carr was con- spicuous in the affray. William Brown died September 14, 1825, and his wife in May, 1815, their son died in 1835, aged 54 years.
The parents of Mr. Cox were born in Ireland, the father in August, 1766, and the mother, in February, 1773, and the sister,. August 16, 1797, in Ireland, and Robert, May 16, 1806. Mr. Cox showed us an old pocket-book that belonged to his father, marked " Thomas Cox, 1790," also his naturalization papers, dated Septem- ber 9, 1806, signed " John Norris, prothonotary," authorized by an act of Congress in 1802. But the most valned and satisfactory. papers shown us by Mr. Cox, were the certificates of character brought from their old homes, in Ireland, of which their descen- dants may well be proud. We got the privilege of copying them,. and insert them here as another proof of the stock of which the early pioneer inhabitants were composed :
" We the undersigned persons do hereby certify that the bearer, Thomas Cox, was born and bred in the parish of Leethpathick, and county of Tyrone, in the North of Ireland, of honest, creditable parents, and since his infancy he always behaved himself soberly, honestly and inoffensively, for as far as we ever knew, on which account he requires this, our certificate of the same, which, at his request, we have given under our hands, this 9th day of May, 1803. "HUGH HAMILL, " Presb'y Min'r of Leekpathick and Donaughcady."
" I believe the above certificate to be true.
"A. C. DOWNING, Rector."
The mother brought with her the following :
" We the undersigned, certify that the bearer hereof, Jennet Cun-
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HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
ningham, was born and lived in the parish of Donaugheady, of honest parents, and since her infancy she has always behaved her- self honestly and soberly, and as she has desired our certificate of the same, at her request, we have given under our hands this 13th of May, 1803.
"JOHN HOLMES, Pres'by Minister. ROBERT ALEXANDER, ROBERT GAMBLE, ANDREW ROBISON,
Elders."
Their tombs in the old cemctery above Reedsville, read :
Thomas Cox, born August 11th, 1766. Thomas Cox, died May 15th, 1850.
Mrs. Jennet Cox, born February 14th, 1773. Mrs. Jennet Cox, died Jan. 14th, 1853.
Elizabeth Ann, born August 18th, 1797. Elizabeth Ann, died Sept. 18th, 1842.
Robert was never married, but is spending a happy life, high in the estimation of all who know him, near Logan's spring, a model of morals, health, body and mind.
The Alexander Family.
We have been handed by Mr. James Alexander, of Kishacoquillas Valley, " a record of the descendants of John Alexander, of Lan- arkshire, Scotland," who emigrated from Armagh, Ireland, to this country, and settled in Chester county, Pennsylvania, in 1736. The work contains two hundred and twenty pages, and written by Rev. John E. Alexander, principal of Washington College, Ten- nessee, from which we gather the following notes : John Alexan- der, born in lower Pennsylvania about 1756. Little is known of his childhood and youth. Was in the army at the capture of the Hessians. About the year 1780, he married Miss Margaret Clark, of Sherman's Valley, and in 1787, removed, with his wife and three children, Frances, Hugh and Samuel, to a tract of land in Little Valley, which he had purchased from Christopher Martin. This land lies four miles north-east of Lewistown. He was one of the founders of the Little Valley Presbyterian Church, and for many years, and until his death, an active elder thereof. Died November 23, 1816, and was buried in the old cemetery of the East Kishaco- quillas Church. His wife died November, 1834, and was buried by
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HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
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