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 17
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Arthun B. Long.
The subject of this notice was born in Lancaster county, Penn- sylvania, in November, 1806, and there other members of the family
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now reside. He came Mifflin county in 1827. He was married to Miss Shaw, of Mifflin county, in 1829. The Shaws and the Longs are of the oldest and the most substantial of the substantial people who compose the population of Mifflin county. Henry Long, & brother of the father of Arthur B. Long, was one of the old-time residents of Little Valley, more than a half a century ago, when Mr. Townsend, Mr. Martin, Mr. Stoneroad, Mr. Kelly, Mr. Wills and others composed the population of that charming locality. Ar- thur B. Long and Mr. Shaw, the father of Mrs. Long, built the Mount Rock mills, on Kishacoquillas Creek, forty-six years ago, and since then they have done an almost unceasing work for their patrons. The Shaw family was composed of four daughters and three sons, who with their descendants, then as now, was an import- ant element in Mifflin county's population. Mr. Long was engaged in his mill for some years, and then engaged in the manufacture of thrashing machines, and was exceedingly prosperous and success- ful. He afterwards went to Fayette county, removed his family thither and engaged in the manufacture of the Hathaway stove, which then sold at fifty, forty-five. and forty dollars each, according to size. He afterwards erected the Lewistown foundry, and went into the manufacture of these stoves, still more extensively, with a Mr. Duncan. He then erected his fine family home on Third street, where the family now reside. This firm engaged very largely in the furnace business, erected Hope furnace, &c., &c., and on a re- action of business were compelled to suspend. Friends advised the bankrupt law to cancel old indebtedness, but this Mr. Long's sense of honor and right compelled him to refuse. He then engaged in the railroad work, his noble companion caring for the family, and by his own energies and the co-operation, economy and management of his noble wife, at the end of eighteen years of labor, he canceled all his old indebtedness, and began the world anew with a clear conscience and a reputation for integrity that is the lot of few. He then engaged in the lumber business in Clearfield county, Pennsyl- vania. He bought lands and engaged in this work in 1861, and of course was succesful; erected shingle machinery; bought these lands at ten dollars per acre ; prosecuted business very successfully, and finally sold these Clearfield lands at thirty dollars per acre, and he and the sons went to northern Michigan, and engaged in the manufacture of lumber, purchasing and paying for one hundred thousand dollars worth of her best pine timbered lands. There, now, the most unprecedented success attends their efforts. It is
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now six years since this Michigan enterprise was undertaken, and its result is a marked commentary on business abilities and com- petent management. A most remarkable element in the financial success of this family is the superior mind, fine health, great men- tal powers and good management of the wife of him of whom we. write. Most truly has she been "a helpmeet" for him. Their de- scendants are four sons and one daughter living, and one son and one daughter dead. The father and mother of Mrs. Long were married at Milton, Pennsylvania. Her grandfather, named Wat- son, was from Ireland. Watsontown was named after him. Her grandmother Shaw used to take her father, when a child, in her arms, to the spring with her when she went for water, to prevent the Indians from stealing her infant before her return. The family have long been identified with the Presbyterian Church. Mrs. Long was received into the church by Rev. Woods, who for forty years was pastor of this church. She was united in marriage by him, and by him were her children baptized. The world has few fami- lies like that of Mr. and Mrs. Long. Their daughter is married to Dr. Hurlbut, of Lewistown, a native of the New England States, and is now Lewistown's leading and most able physician. These facts and experiences again proves, and is most markedly illustrated in this family, that superior intelligence and unbending integrity of purpose is the best law of human life. The four sons and the father are now in Michigan prosecuting their lumber interests in that region. The names of these sons are William J., George H.,. John S. and Albert B. These and the wife of Dr. Hurlbut compose this family.
Hon. George Weilder.
The Kishacoquillas Valley, in addition to its beautiful scenery of mountain and valley, hill and plain, its beautiful homes, and its his- torical reminiscences, has another characteristic that is not enjoyed by any location we have become acquainted with, and that is the substantial intelligence of hier inhabitants, and the unanimity of this characteristic. Neither are we alone in this opinion. We hear it from all observers at home and abroad, who cannot fail to see this commendable virtue of the people above referred to. Prom- inent among these people thus characterized, is the gentleman named above, and of whom we give this brief sketch, as one of the prominent intelligences of our county. The father of Judge Weilder, located in Kishacoquillas Valley, an emigrant from Lan -.
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caster county, in the month of March, 1811. His name was PHILIP WEILDER, of German ancestry. In this valley he lived, and here he died December 13, 1842. His business was farming and tanning. The old homestead is now, and ever has been in the hands of his son, Hon. George Weilder, by whom important additions have been made thereto: Judge Weilder came to the valley on the removal of his father thereto, when a mere child, and here has since been his home. In 1871 he was called on to serve the people of Mifflin county as Associate Judge of our court, a position he filled with credit to himself and his constituents, and this his abilities amply qualified him to do. His other official positions, though of minor importance, had their responsibilities, and among them a ten years' successive term as school director, and during that time was presi- dent of the board. In 1848 he married Miss Morgan, a member of one of the old families of Mifflin county, and a most intelligent and interesting family are the offspring of this happy union. There are four of the descendants living, and one dead. The rising genera- tion is the hope and guarantee of the future prosperity and stabil- ity of our State and nation. Most marked are the instances of superior minds that have sprung from Mifflin county, and a survey of the rising generation of young men indicates that the end is not yet, and there are no more marked prospective cases of energy and perseverence than in the rising family of whom we now write, in- herited from paternal and maternal ancestry, and well cultivated in the young and growing minds.
The Bratton Family.
James Bratton, the great-grandfather of the present generation of that name, came to this country and located at Hamilton's Bend, abont 1760. They were about the first permanent settlers at that place. His son, Samuel Bratton, was there during his entire life- time and there he died. Bratton township was named after this family. A son of Samuel, above-named, is Charles Bratton, who was his successor, and still a resident of the same vicinity and is at the advanced age of eighty-three years. He has numerous descendants. and here we find them among the substantial business citizens of Mifflin county. The old home is occupied by a son, the fourth generation from him first named. We have been unable, after the best efforts in our power to get more full and explicit data of this old important and influential family and have to limit our- selves to the few brief notes above given. In conversing with an
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aged gentleman of the above family, he could give his early boy- hood recollections but nothing of his later years. He could not even give the names of his own descendants. This is a characteris- tic of the human mind. Early impressions are fresh and vigorous while life shall last, but the impressions of maturer years are ephemeral and not retained. We once knew an aged minister who died at the age of eighty-five years who was visited by another eminent minister when on his death-bed, who had studied for the ministry with him. He could not remember that gentleman's name or that he had ever seen him, though his home had been in his fam- ily for years, but he could repeat the Lord's prayer and the Apos- tle's creed without hesitation and with perfect correctness. Hence we cannot over-estimate the value and importance of early impres- sions that are to be carried to the grave when the occurrences, words and feelings of later years are forgotten.
Major William Wilson.
In the subject of this notice we find one of those marked in- stances of health and longevity that ever follows an obedience to nature's laws, past his fourscore years yet with a mind as bright and clear as at vigorous maturity for the reason that he has not been poisoned by narcotic juices, noxious fumes or stimulating cups His father located in Kishacoquillas Valley in October, 1770. He first made his home with another family of the same name in the west end. The father of Major Wilson, was one of the party who followed the Indians who captured the MeNitt boy, spoken of in another part of this work. The mother was from Chester county. The grandfather on the mother's side, built a mill where the Kisha- coquillas woolen mill now stands. The major remembers his father conversing of the MeNitt boy's capture. He was born August 28, 1799; hence is now past 80 years old. Born in west end of Big Valley. His business has been a farmer principally. He went into the woods in 1823 to open up a farm on lands located March 6, 1755. At this date and at this beginning he adopted the since adhered to plan to use no liquors. Hence he was the first of whom we have any record to begin that work in. Mifflin county. His employees wanted liquors, he gave them none, and refused to em- ploy those addicted to its use. This question become a matter of discussion then in the valley, and in 1831 it assumed a definite form and an able advocate under the pastorate of Rev. William Amon, see his communication on this subject in this work. In
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1845 Major Wilson was a candidate for the legislature, was sought by his associates to bny liquors to make friends and voters. His reply was that if his election would be secured by the purchase of one drink of whiskey, he would prefer defeat. But he was elected by a large majority on his firm principles, and on these he has al- ways stood, hence, his fine health at his advanced age. He had a sister married on the noted dark day when they had to light candles to eat dinner. His brother, Samuel Wilson, D. D., is a resident of Sterling, Illinois. Has a daughter at Atchison, Kansas, married to Mr. William C. North.
Alexander Torrentine was the large land owner in Menno town- ship in 1755, and at a very early day a German settlement was made in West End. The residence of Major Wilson, for the past twen- ty-four years, has been in the Juniata Valley, above MeVeytown. A daughter is married to Mr. Joseph T. Wills, in Tama county, Iowa. Wilson's father's family were twelve in number, eight sons and four daughters. The grandfather's family was five sons and three daugh- ters. He was married by the Rev. Mr. Hill in 1823, January 21. His wife was Miss Baily. She died October 13, 1848. Married a second wife, who was a consin of the first, December 11, 1849. She died in 1874. He is now alone; of a happy, genial disposition, and bids fair for very many years of usefulness. No poisons of tobacco or whisky have ever destroyed those active, vigorous nerves, of which the brain is the great centre, hence the retension of his fac- ulties to the present great age, and the brilliant intellects of his de- scendants, for the effects of this dirty nerve-destroying weed -- to- bacco, has not been entailed on his posterity. How remarkably we see the text verified that "the iniquities of the parents shall be vis- isted on their children to the third and fourth generation ;" at that time the line of descendants cease or the deadening influence of this narcotie poison is outgrown. Pure air, pure water and congenial food builds up and sustains our systems. The father of Major Wil- . son was one of the elders in the first organization of West Kisha- coquillas Church-James Johnston and a Mr. Stevens the first min- isters. Was also a justice of the peace for many years, at Green- wood. Major Wilson had the contract and graded the pike from Reedsville to Petersburg, in Huntingdon county. There are many old men and things of West End, of which we cannot get satisfac- torydata. Hugh McClelland, a prominent man there in 1774, James McGregor, a revolutionary soldier, died and was buried in West End, in the ninety-first year of his age. He had a fine life and reputation
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but no money. There were also other old soldiers here, of which we cannot procure information. The Oliver family, related to the Wil- sons, we can obtain no data of. The Campbells, the Wilsons and others above named have done a work during the past century in the West End, that it is the privilege of but few to enjoy or to do.
The Mennonites of Kishacoquillas Talley.
The best commentary on the correctness and substantial pros- perity of a life of moral rectitude that is to be found in this world, is illustrated by the numerous families of the above faith in Big Valley. They began here at an early day, and, while numerous of their descendants have removed toward the setting sun, the repre- sentatives of the ancient ancestry of a half and three-fourths of a century ago are still the occupants of these ancestral possessions ; and not only so, but large additions have been made by each suc- ceeding generation to those ancestral possessions. The township. of Menno took its name from the numerous population of this faith who compose the inhabitants thereof. The characteristics of the people are a high-toned religious sentiment, strict morality, in- tegrity and all the qualifications that constitute a perfect system of moral rectitude and first-class citizenship.
Below we quote the origin and progress of this " peculiar people, zealous of good works," which, we hope, will be of interest to the reader referring to this important element of the citizenship of Mifflin county :
"Menno Simons, the Dutch Reformer, born at Witmarsum, in Friesland, in 1496, was educated for the priesthood in the Catholic Church, but having his attention attracted by the beheading of a man in his neighborhood to the subject of infant baptism, he left the Church of Rome, in 1536, and joined the Doopsgezinde. That sect is believed to have originated in the Waldenses, but after he became its leader, its members were generally called Mennonites They rejected the baptism of infants, would neither swear nor fight," avoided the unrepentant, maintained the ordinance of feet-washing, were plain in dress and speech, and were generally husbandmen and artisans, many of them being weavers. Menno taught the complete severance of Church and State, and then, three hundred years ago, anticipated the religious principles embodied in our own Federal Constitution. His followers were the most bitterly perse- cuted of all the modern Christians, having been tortured, drowned, beheaded and burned by the thousands. Iu the year 1569, in the
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city of Antwerp alone, two hundred and twenty-nine were burned to death. As they offered no resistance, they could only find safety in flight, and. the consequence was much dispersion. Some found their way up the Rhine, others to Prussia, and some ultimately to Russia. From them originated the Baptist Church of England, and, according to the late Robert Barclay, also the Quakers, who much resemble them in creed and observances. The relations be- tween the Mennonites and Quakers were very intimate, and after Penn had secured his province, he invited them to come here. On the 10th of March, 1682, Jacob Telner, a Crefeld Mennonite, doing business in Amsterdam, Dirck Sipman and Jan Strepers, of Crefeld, each bought five thousand acres of land here, and on the 11th of Jnne, 1683, Govert Remke, Levart Arets and Jacob Isaacs Van Bebber, all of the same city, each one thousand acres. Soon after- ward they sent to Pennsylvania a little colony of thirty-three per- sons, consisting of the following men and their families: Abraham Hermann and Dirck Opden Graeff, Levart Arets, William Strey- pers, Reynier Tyson, Jan Lucken, Johannes Bleickers, Abraham Tunes, Jan Lensen, Jan Scimans, Thoves Kunders and Peter Keur- lis. These families were nearly all relatives. They reached Phila- delphia on the 6th of October, and, together with Francis Daniel Pastorius, who arrived a few weeks earlier, were the founders of Germantown. They immediately began to dig the cellars and build the huts in which was spent the following winter, and, accord- ing to a letter written home by Streypers, they had a hard time of it. Says Pastorius: 'It could not be described, nor would it be belived by coming generations, in what want and need, and with what Christian contentment and persistent industry, this German- ยท township started.' He had no glass, and made the windows of his house of oiled papers. Streypers wore leather breeches and leather doublets.
" Ere long other emigrants began to arrive in the little town, and among them were Van Bebber and Telner. The latter seems to have been the central figure of the whole movement, and during his thirteen years residence in Germantown his relations with the leading Quakers in Philadelphia were close and intimate. He was a merchant, an extensive land owner, the author of a book or two, and gave the ground for a market. Another arrival was Cornelius Born, who wrote in 1684 to Holland : 'I have a cow which gives plenty of milk; a horse to ride around ; my pigs increase rapidly, so that in the summer I had seventeen, when at first I had only
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two. I have many chickens and geese and a garden.' His daughter married Anthony Morris. Bockenogen, an ancestor of the late Henry Armitt Brown, arrived in 1684.
"On the 18th of April, 1688, Dirck and Abraham Op den Graeff, Gerhard Hendricks and Francis Daniel Pastorins presented to the Friends' Meeting the first public protest ever made in America against slavery, and whenever hereafter men trace analytically the causes that led to Shiloh, Gettysburg and Appomattox, they will begin with the tender consciences of the linen weavers and hus- bandmen of Germantown. The town was incorporated on the 31st of May, 1691, and maintained a separate existence until 1707, but always with great difficulty in getting the offices filled. Among the decrees was one that ' on the 19th of First month in each year the people shall be called together and the laws and ordinances read aloud to them.'
" In 1662, twenty years before the landing of Penn, the city of Amsterdam sent a little colony of twenty-five Mennonites to New Netherlands, under the leadership of Pieter Corneliz Plockhoy, of Zierick Zee. They were to have power to make rules and laws for their own government and were to be free from taxes and tenths for twenty years. Each man was loaned a hundred guilders to pay for his transportation. They settled at Horsekill, on the Delaware, and there lived on peaceful terms with the Indians for two years. The hand of fate, however, which so kindly sheltered Telner and Pastorius, fell heavily upon their forerunner, Plockhoy. An evil day for his colony soon came. When Sir Robert Carr took possession of the Delaware on behalf of the English he sent a boat in 1664 to the Horsekill, which utterly demolished the settle- ment and destroyed and carried off all their property, 'even to a nail.' What became of the people has always been a mystery. History throws no light on the subject and contemporary docu- ments there are none. In the year 1694 there came an old blind man and his wife to Germantown. His miserable condition awak- ened the tender sympathies of the Mennonites there. They gave him the citizenship free of charge. They set apart for him at the end street of the village, by Peter Clever's corner, a lot twelve rods long and one rod broad whereon to build a little house and make a garden, which should be his as long as he and his wife should live. In front of it they planted a tree. Jan Doeden and Wilhelm Rut- tinghuysen were appointed to make up a ' free-will offering' and to have the little house built. This is all we know, but it is surely a
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satisfaction to see this ray of sunlight thrown upon the brow of the old man as he neared his grave. His name was Cornelius Plockhoy. " The Pennsylvania Dutchman is not to be despised. Said Mr. Pennypacker: Pastorius possessed probably more literary attain- ments and produced more literary work than any other of the early emigrants to this province, and he alone of them all, through the appreciative delineation of a New England poet, has a permanent. place in the literature of our own time. Wilhelm Ruttinghuysen, in 1690, built on the Wissahickon the first paper-mill in the colo- nies. The Bible was printed in German in America thirty-nine years before it appeared in English, and in the preface to his third edition, in 1776, Sanr was still able to say : 'To the honor of the. German people-for no nation can assert that it has ever been printed in their language in this part of the world.' No other known literary work undertaken in the Colonies equals in magnitude the 'Mennonite Martyrs' Mirror of Van Braght,' printed at Ephrata in 1748, to complete which required the labors of fifteen men for three years. The President of the first United States, Congress and seven of the Governors of Pennsylvania have been men of German descent. The statue selected to represent the military reputation of Pennsylvania in the nave of the Capital at Washington is that of a German. Said Thomas Jefferson, of David Rittenhouse : 'He has not indeed made a world, but he has by imitation approached nearer its maker than any man who has lived from the creation to this day.' There are no Pennsylvania names more cherished at home and more deservedly noted abroad than those of Wister, Shoemaker, Muhlenberg, Weiser, Hiester and Keim, and there are few Pennsylvanians, not comparatively recent. arrival, who cannot be carried back along some of their ancestral lines to the country of the Rhine."
Having thus set before our readers the origin and history of this denomination, so prominently represented in our county's best peo -- ple, we must, against our wishes, close this department of our work .. There are hundreds of other families we would like to note, and it would be not only a great pleasure to us, but also to their future- generations to read, as this record goes down to them through future years, notes of their ancestors that may otherwise be lost.
To gather further information and of other families, we have done our utmost, but the parties we have met have failed in procuring us the appropriate data; hence we can do no more, and here we close.
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CHURCHES.
E purpose to note, in this work, the organization, progress and present status of all the churches in Mifflin county, so far as information regarding them is obtainable ; but information sought and not obtained cannot be used. We have been favored with a his- torical sketch of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Milroy, which being very full and complete, was used in the miscellaneous de- partment of this work. We have gained valuable information of the old Presbyterian Church, above Reedsville, and our readers are under obligations for the same to Col. John P. Taylor, through whose courtesy and kindness we have been favored with this and . much other valuable information.
We copy below the original call to Rev. James Johnston, who was married to a daughter of Judge Brown, whose memory is in- timately connected with Chief Logan. The document copied below is in the handwriting of Master Arnold, who " wielded the birch " over some of our gray-haired ancestors, and the composition of this document shows him to be a man of unusual talent and business ability, and the signatures will, many of them, be as familiar as household words to the reader at the present day ; it will be read with interest by all classes. It is as follows :
"Mr. JAMES JOHNSTON, Preacher of the Gospel :
"SIR :- We the subscribers, members of the United Congregation of East and West Kishacoquillas, having never in this place had the stated administration of the Gospel ordinances, yet highly ap- preciating the same, and having a view to the advancement of the kingdom of Christ and the spiritual edification of ourselves and fam- ilies, have set ourselves to obtain that blessing among us, and there- fore as we have had the opportunity of some of your labors among us in this place, and are satisfied with your soundness, piety and ministerial ability to break the bread of life, we do most heartily and sincerely, in the name of the great Shepherd of the flock, Jesus Christ, eall and invite you to come and take pastoral charge and oversight of us in the Lord.
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