History of Perry County, Pennsylvania, including descriptions of Indians and pioneer life from the time of earliest settlement, sketches of its noted men and women and many professional men, Part 111

Author: Hain, Harry Harrison, 1873- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Harrisburg, Pa., Hain-Moore company
Number of Pages: 1102


USA > Pennsylvania > Perry County > History of Perry County, Pennsylvania, including descriptions of Indians and pioneer life from the time of earliest settlement, sketches of its noted men and women and many professional men > Part 111


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One of the earliest settlers in the township was William Anderson, the lands being patented in September, 1766, and May, 1757, the two tracts comprising 150 acres. He also purchased other lands, and one property is yet occupied by an Anderson descendant, Arthur Anderson, at Anderson- burg, the village having taken the name of the Andersons. Each genera- tion of Andersons has been represented in the civil affairs of the county. The 100-acre property is described as "including his improvements, ad- joining the Limestone Ridge on the south, and Conococheague Mountain on the north, and a place called Crosses' Cabins on the west." William Anderson died in 1802. One of his children, Margaret, married James Johnston, of Toboyne Township, and became the mother of John Johnston, who attained considerable prominence as a member of the General Assem- bly of Pennsylvania, Another, his son, William Anderson, married Isabella Blaine, of the famous Blaine family, and was a member of the General Assembly before the creation of Perry County. Their daughter Isabella became the mother of Col. A. K. McClure, the noted editor, as previously stated. When Perry became a county, William Anderson was made an asso- ciate judge, which office he held until his death, in 1832. He was the Ander- son after whom the village was named. In the year in which the county was created he was assessed with more property than any one in the township, and the only one assessed with a "negro slave." He had five children, two of whom became prominent. William B. was a member of the General As- sembly and of the State Senate, and A. B. Anderson was an associate judge of the county. The stone house on the Anderson farm was erected in 1821, and the barn a year earlier. There is no deed to the Anderson farm, as it has remained in the Anderson family since warranted.


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There are several villages within the confines of Madison Township, among them Andersonburg, Centre, Cisna's Run and Kistler.


Andersonburg was long known as Zimmerman, after the proprietor of a well-known old road house or tavern at that point, as early as 1822, and which was in operation until about 1875. When the township of Toboyne was still intact it was the lower voting place. When William Anderson, II, became a man of prominence the name was changed to Andersonburg. The first store was in an old log building known as "the barracks," on the Anderson farm. It was kept by William B. Anderson, who was succeeded by Bryner & Ernest, who in 1863 built the present store building. In 1869 Joseph B. Garber purchased this store. It is now kept by Wm. C. Garber, who succeeded his father in 1904. Andersonburg is one of the oldest post offices in Perry County, having been a post office already when the mail was carried on horseback from Landisburg to New Germantown. A marble works was once located there. Andersonburg was long an impor- tant centre, and Dr. B. F. Grosh practiced his profession there from 1844 until his death, in 1857. He was the father of the late Alexander Blaine Grosh. In 1861 Dr. G. W. Mitchell located there and practiced until 1902, since which time it has not been the headquarters of any physician. When the Newport & Sherman's Valley Railroad was built, Andersonburg was made a station. J. C. Martin conducts a large undertaking business there since 1889.


In 1801 James Gray settled in what is now called the Sandy Hill District. He did a weaving business and operated a still. He was the paternal an- cestor of James A. Gray, who was sheriff in 1878, and of William B. Gray, who was a member of the board of county commissioners, 1891-93.


The old Hench tannery, located at Centre, was one of the most impor- tant in the county. It was located upon a part of the tract of 168 acres warranted by Jane McCreary and sons, on June 2, 1762. This tannery was erected before 1820, when Perry became a county, as Nicholas Loy was assessed with a tanyard in Toboyne Township (to which Madison then be- longed) in that year. On December 17, 1825, John Loy purchased it from his father. It then consisted of a "log building, two stories high, contain- ing two limes, one bate, beam house and currying shop." The bark was ground in an adjoining shed. "One pool, one leach and sixteen vats comprised the whole establishment." April 19, 1832, Atchison Laughlin purchased it, and on August 10, 1832, admitted George Hench into partner- ship, which lasted until 1837, when Mr. Hench became the entire owner upon the payment of $1,500 to Mr. Laughlin. Energetic, and a born tanner and business man, he began improving the plant. In 1842 he erected a large main building, and in 1851 put in steam, using the used tan as a fuel. In 1860 a sawmill was added. April 1, 1865, Atchison L. Hench, a son, was admitted into partnership, with a one-third interest. This lasted until April 1, 1872, when by mutual consent the son withdrew. At that time the assets of the firm had grown to $90,000. A few years later Mr. Hench removed to Carlisle, but continued in control of the tannery, which was operated until 1885. It passed to Henry Metz, and in 1894 the grounds and buildings were purchased by Robert Hench, who removed the vats. The original log mansion of Mr. Hench still stands, but has been remod- eled by Mr. Robert Hench into what is one of the modern country homes of Perry County.


The 266-acre tract of Jacob Grove was warranted by him June 10, 1762, later having been owned by David Kistler, George I. Rice and Henry Kep- ner. The old Grove homestead was near the George I. Rice residence of recent years. As early as 1778, Jacob Grove had erected a gristmill and two stills on this property.


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The James M. Moose mill, south of Cisna's Run, on Sherman's Creek, passed from Win. Owings, in 1846, to James Marshall, who in turn sold to I. Graham McFarlane, in 1850. Daniel Hall owned it from 1854 to 1859, when it was owned for a year by Amos Stouffer. In 1860, it passed to Andrew Trostle, who was in possession until 1884. David Metz then pur- chased it, and in 1900 sold to James M. Moose. This mill is on lands taken up in 1767, by John Byers. The mill was erected by William Owings, in 1842.


The Bistline mill is located along Sherman's Creek, on the south bank, about a mile south of Cisna's Run. This tract was warranted by James Maxwell, May 7, 1787, and was originally 200 acres. Col. John Maxwell, who was county commissioner in 1824, and was a son of John Maxwell, was assessed with "a fulling mill and a power mill" in 1820, when the county was formed. In 1835, the assessment reads, "including a fulling mill, a carding machine and a still." From his heirs, in 1873, it was con- veyed to Abraham Bistline, and it is now owned by Newton Flickinger. Just when the mill became a gristmill is problematical. This property later passed to Thomas Adams, by whose name the mill was long known.


Centre is a village and post office on the Newport & Sherman's Valley Railroad, and was the location of the once famous old Hench tan- nery, just described. William Welch had a store and was postmaster here as early as 1835. Robert Dunbar succeeded him, but sold in 1840 to James McNeal, who ran it until 1860, when he died. George Hench then bought the building, and his son, Atchison L., William Grier and William Hollenbaugh carried on business under the firm name of William Grier & Co., in 1863. Hollenbaugh and Grier sold their interest to J. L. Evinger, and the firm of Hench & Evinger continued for some years. John T. Robinson, John Wolf, George J. Hench and John J. Rice followed in turn. Edward Hull was postmaster for a long time. He was a blacksmith and became a county commissioner. George Barclay carried on wagonmaking. John E. Waggoner has been the merchant and postmaster there for the past fifteen years.


Cisna's Run, which once aspired to be the county seat, is another small village and a station on the Newport & Sherman's Valley Railroad. On the old land warrants issued in 1755, it is known as Cedar Spring, being the location of a large spring, probably five feet deep, on the property of Wm. H. Loy. The lands lying around Cisna's Run were among the first to be warranted in the township. John Garner (Gardner) patented "two hun- dred acres, including his improvement on Cedar Spring, a branch of Sher- man's Creek," in February, 1755, and 100 acres in 1767. As early as 1830 there was a store in the George Bryner house, kept by John Reed. Later merchants have been Daniel Garber, John H. Bryner and George Ernest, David Ernest, Elias Snyder and Samuel K. Morrow. R. A. Clarke started a store about 1860. George Bryner and sons for many years conducted a wagonmaker and blacksmithing business there.


Kistler is a village lying several miles from the Newport & Sherman's Valley Railroad, on the road to Juniata County, where it intersects with the road from Ickesburg to Blain. The village was named Kistler in honor of David Kistler, who was instrumental in getting a post office there in 1884. The post office was abandoned after rural free delivery was insti- tuted. There were two stores there at one time. Henry Koppenheffer was the first merchant; starting about 1875.


In 1884 a post office was established at Bixler's mill and named Bixler, which also was discontinued with the advent of the rural free delivery system. Sandy Hill was also a post office and was discontinued for the same reason. Samuel Milligan built and kept the first store at Sandy Hill.


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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA


The first schoolhouses of which there was any knowledge were at Sandy Hill, Centre Church and Clark's. The Clark schoolhouse was a very old one, but its early history is veiled in obscurity. The Centre school was also a very old one and was located on the tract of the Centre Presbyterian Church. There is reason to believe that even before it was established that it had a predecessor on the lower Linn farm near the Waggoner mill. The Sandy Hill school was established before 1800, and tradition places the location as south of the store, near the spring at the edge of the old "camp meeting" grounds. In his report to the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, in 1877, Prof. Silas Wright, then county superintendent of schools, said of this school: "It is related that pupils attending this school from the west end of Liberty Valley, traveled across Conococheague Hill, in a path which is even to this day occasionally crossed by a bear. These pupils, in the short days of winter had to take their breakfast before daylight and the supper table awaited their return until long after dark." Before the free school act there was a "charity school" in the Anderson orchard at Andersonburg.


Madison Township was early the location of many mills, stills and tan- neries. In 1762 Jacob Grove warranted 266 acres of land, near the village of Kistler. As early as 1778 he had erected a gristmill and two stills upon this property. This was one of the earliest mills to be built in the county and was found in all the assessments until 1820, when it was likely aban- doned. In 1778 William McCord was assessed with a tanyard, and in the assessment of 1814 it is in the name of Samuel McCord.


In that part of Madison Township known as Liberty Valley, Wm. L. Beale and Samuel Milligan erected a large steam tannery in 1847. It burned in May, 1849, but was rebuilt at once. In 1858 it passed to Beale & Swearingen, who operated it until 1865, when they sold to Hollenbaugh & Lurtz, who later admitted Samuel Brickley as a partner. Ten months later, at sheriff's sale, it was purchased by Beale & Swearingen, who sold to George Cook. He formed a partnership with George Mohler and James Emory. In 1875 George Mohler & Son became the owners and operated it until "the eighties," when it was discontinued.


An early physician who resided midway between Sandy Hill and Centre Church was Dr. S. M. Tudor. He kept a colored slave who had escaped from the South, and caused no little trouble to those who condoned slavery. His practice covered forty years, including the third quarter of the last century. He was succeeded by Dr. Lewis Rodgers, a graduate of Cleve- land Medical College, '70. Dr. J. Wesley Rowe, Jefferson Medical Col- lege, '71, was located at Centre for a short time.


There was once an old road house or tavern at the head of Waggoner's dam. It was owned and conducted by Daniel Shaffer. Dr. Theodore Mem- inger, a practicing physician of Philadelphia, desiring to retire, located in Liberty Valley in 1815. He was a member of the Society of Friends.


The business places of Madison Township, according to the mercantile appraiser, are as follows, the date being the time of entering business. Owing to the township being divided into two districts, known as South- west Madison and Northeast Madison (or Sandy Hill District), the names are listed in their respective districts. They follow :


Southwest Madison-A. W. Clouse, R. A. Smith, W. C. Garber, D. Roy Moose, J. E. Waggoner, general stores; J. C. Martin, furniture; W. H. Wag- goner, grain and feed ; Moose & Junkin, flour and feed.


Northeast Madison E. S. Adair, H. L. Bender, J. W. Heckendorn (1910), general stores ; G. E. Beck & Sons, tobacco and feed.


St. Paul's Lutheran Church. There were many families of Lutheran people residing between Loysville and Blain, and in 1855 they decided to


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organize a new congregation in the vicinity of Andersonburg. Its officers were: Jacob Arnold, Jacob Kunkle, elders; J. B. Zimmerman, Samuel Arnold, deacons; George Hohenshift, Henry Wolf, trustees. During the same year a church was built. Rev. Reuben Weiser resigned as pastor during its period of construction. On December 22, 1855, it was dedicated. It is built of brick, the size being 40x50 feet. From May, 1856 to 1858, Rev. Philip Willard as pastor. In 1858 it and Blain withdrew from the Loysville charge to unite and form the Blain charge. Its pastors, accord- ingly, have been the same as those of the Blain church. (See Blain chapter.)


Madison Township is usually listed for statistical purposes as Northeast and Southwest Madison Township, and is locally spoken of as Madison Township and Sandy Hill District. Twenty-one years after the erection of Madison Township the Court of Common Pleas, upon petition, divided it into two election districts-Madison. District and Sandy Hill District. Then for some years matters moved along satisfactorily, both districts having but one set of township officers, but in 1866 an effort was made to divide the township. The petition praying for the division was presented to the court at the April session of 1866. The court appointed viewers and they reported on August 6th favoring two townships, whereupon the court ordered an election to be held on November 24, 1866. On December 3, 1866, the returns were presented to the court and showed a majority of thirty-three against the separation, opposition having developed.


Not content with the result, those who desired the division had a bill presented to the State Legislature which passed and was signed by Gover- nor John W. Geary, on February 26, 1867. Considering the matter at issue the bill is more or less of a compromise, as no provision was made in the act for the election of justices of the peace. This fact, whether an over- sight or not, withholds one essential of an independent township. That the act still holds it as one township is designated by the following language: "Provided, that the said township shall be and remain divided into two election districts, whilst it continues as one township." Those practically insignificant matters are the slight ties that bind Sandy Hill District to Madison Township, for while they otherwise elect two sets of officials, yet both districts vote for the same candidates for justice of the peace. It is a matter of conjecture whether or not there is in the whole State of Pennsylvania a similar example. The voting place of the Sandy Hill Dis- trict, or Northeast Madison, is at the Sandy Hill store, and that of Madi- son Township, or the Southwest District, at Andersonburg.


Sandy Hill Reformed Church. This church was organized by Rev. F. S. Lindaman, September 14, 1873, by electing George L. Ickes and Samuel Bender, elders, and Jacob Kuhn and Samuel Showers, deacons. As early as the pastorate of Rev. C. H. Leinbach at Blain (1842-59), he had preached in the schoolhouse there. The newly organized congregation also worshiped in the schoolhouse until January 3, 1875, when the new frame church building was dedicated. It belongs to the Blain charge, whose pastors minister to its people. The list of pastors appears in the chapter devoted to Blain.


Stony Point United Evangelical Church. This church is located three miles west of Kistler, on the Blain road. About 1836 ministers of this faith first preached in a small schoolhouse, no longer there. They later preached at the house of Conrad Ernest, later, in a vacant "still house," and again in the schoolhouse. In 1866 they built the church. In 1903 it was remodeled. It is a part of the Perry Circuit, being served by the pas- tor who resides at Elliottsburg. See Spring Township for pastors.


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Emory M. E. Chapel. The first Methodist organization in Madison Township (then a part of Toboyne), was at Bruner's mill (Trostle's), about 1815. The Bruner brothers, devout Methodists, are credited with being largely responsible for the establishment of Methodism in western Perry County. In the earlier years preaching services were held in school- houses. The church was built in 1838, among those interested being Jacob Bixler and John Flickinger, the latter giving the land upon which it was built. It is a part of the Blain charge, but up until 1875 was a part of the New Bloomfield charge, under which chapters the pastors' names appear.


St. Mark's Church. The Lutheran people residing at and around Kistler built a church in 1894, which was known as St. Mark's Church. Its terri- tory was too narrow, with Loysville immediately below and St. Paul's al- most against it above, with the attending result that it was soon found to be a heavy charge upon its supporters. The building was sold in 1919 and the church dismantled.


MARYSVILLE BOROUGH.


Marysville covers more territory than any borough in the county, ex- tending from the Cumberland County line, at the crest of the Kittatinny or Blue Mountain, to the top of Cove Mountain, where it is bounded by Penn Township. It is located on the Susquehanna River, which is its eastern boundary, and extends westward a mile or more to Rye Township, from which its lands were taken for incorporation in 1865. It differs from every other town in the county from the fact that it is a "railroad town," its male citizens, with few exceptions, being employed by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. It is not surrounded by any great amount of agri- cultural lands, the mountains shutting them off on two sides and the river on a third. This would not seriously affect its markets were it not that only eight miles to the south is Harrisburg-the State Capital-with a population of practically 100,000, to which trade naturally gravitates. Marysville is the only town in the county with a street car line and the advantage of the facilities afforded thereby. Its street car facilities ex- tend up the Cumberland Valley to Newville, farther east than Lebanon, in the Lebanon Valley, and to Philadelphia, along the main line, via Hershey, Elizabethtown and Lancaster. The line to Marysville was opened on June 2, 1902.


The valley in which Marysville is located is known as Fishing Creek Valley, being drained by a creek of the same name which flows into the Susquehanna at Marysville. The lands at the mouth of this creck, on which Marysville is located, were first warranted by Samuel Hunter, on September 8, 1755, the tract extending two miles along the river and three miles up the valley. In 1766 and in 1767 he warranted adjoining tracts. Near the present site of Seidel's forge, on the creek, he erected a sawmill, which was Marysville's first industry. In 1767 he sold the property with the sawmill and other improvements, described as at the mouth of "West's Fishing Creek," to Elizabeth Stewart, for twenty pounds.


A portion of this land, after passing through several hands, came to R. T. Jacobs, who, on January 24, 1821, patented a tract containing 500 acres and allowance, extending a mile along the west bank of the Susquehanna and west about a mile and a half. Title later passed to Robert Clark, then to Frederick Watts ; and later, to Jacob M. Haldeman was transferred "one undivided moiety," and to Jacob and Christopher C. K. Pratt, the other "moiety." Jacob Pratt sold his share to Hiram P. and Thomas W. Morley. Jacob M. Haldeman then bought out all these parties, and on December I, 1860, sold to Margaretta D. Fenn.


BOROUGHS, TOWNSHIPS AND VILLAGES


TOOI


At that time there were but five buildings in what is now Marysville. At the west end of the railroad bridge over the Susquehanna, Samuel Strasbaugh kept the "Kittatinny House." Richard T. Jacobs' house at the sawmill, now Seidel's forge; David Stahler's, John B. Reiff's and William W. Jackson's were the others. The first house erected after 1860 was the Railroad Hotel building, which was built by John Rhiver. It was occu- pied as a hostelry for years by George Falk, and later by his son, Charles Falk, and others. The second was built by Simon Eppler, and was later used as a hotel by John Rhiver, and still later as I. B. Traver's store building. A store room was the third, being located where Harry Richards long kept a boarding house.


A. J. Ellenberger, a Marysville merchant, is the oldest resident of the town (in 1920), having located there in 1847, when there were but three houses beside the farmhouse.


When the Fenns owned it, before there were many houses there, it is occasionally referred to as Fennwick. In the spring of 1861 building lots were plotted by Theo. Fenn and offered for sale. From that time the


MARYSVILLE, AS SEEN FROM COVE MOUNTAIN.


real erection of homes began. In 1865 the movement for the incorporation as a borough was begun, and the act incorporating it as the Borough of Haley, passed the legislature April 12, 1866. The act is signed by Gov- ernor Andrew G. Curtin, and provides: "That the town of Haley, in the county of Perry, shall be and the same hereby is erected into a borough, which shall be called the Borough of Haley." Within a year, on February 27, 1867, an act of the legislature changed the name from Haley to Marys- ville. The first election was held in April of that year, and John B. Reiff, owner of the farm on which most of Marysville is built, was elected chief burgess. Unlike many of the other towns, the erection of schoolhouses, churches and the improvement of streets was not begun until after the borough's incorporation.


About the time the county was organized (1820) there was a house located where, in after years the Pennsylvania Railroad joined the North- ern Central, in which a band of horse thieves had headquarters. It was owned by a family named Henry, who owned a large stone still house and another two-story log house close by. There was also a still house where Seidel's forge stands.


In 1862 Theo. Fenn and wife sold to John B. and Henry Seidel a tract of 150 acres of land which included the old Hunter sawmill and the water - power connected therewith. In 1856 Thomas Morley had rebuilt this mill.


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The Seidels took it down and built a forge instead in 1862. Later the firm was Seidel & Sons, and still later Seidel Bros., being composed of A. J. Seidel and J. Harper Seidel, once a Member of Assembly from Perry County. About 1895 it was operated as a chain works for a few years.


The first schoolhouse was built within what is now the borough limits, in 1853, being located where the Holmes drug store stands. Harriet Singer was the first teacher. There was a single-room schoolhouse built on the river bank in 1868, costing $400, which was in use until 1885, J. L. Hain being the last to teach there. The two-room frame building below the railroad was built in 1871, at a cost of $2,300, and was in use until 1913. The old two-room building above the railroad was built in 1868, at a cost of $2,500, and was in use until 1885. The four-room building, on the site of the present large building, was erected in 1885, J. L. Hain having been the first principal. The new building, one of the best in the county, was erected in 1913 at a cost of over $25,000. R. R. Anderson, of York County, was the first principal at this building. There was also a two-story brick building on Lincoln Street, built in 1895, and in use until 1913, when it was sold to the Knights of Pythias. Marysville has a greater number of pupils in school than any other district in the county.




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