History of York County Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 83

Author: Prowell, George R.
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: J. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 1372

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HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

ately began to organize congregations at the three places mentioned. Vestrymen and wardens were settled in each of the places. He visited other settlements and administered the religious rites to the church people. While in York and Cum- berland counties, as early as 1756, his at- tention was called to the unfortunate con- dition of the Indians, with whom he fre- quently associated while on his ministerial tours. Some Indians came to Carlisle to sell fur and deer skins, and he invited them into his church or building, in which he was conducting religious services. The few of them, who could understand English, at once became interested in him. When they returned they brought some of their friends to visit him, and shake hands with them. He then had great hopes of con- verting many of them to Christianity, but the French and Indian war broke out and all hopes of prosecuting his missionary work among them ceased. At this period he found himself and his parishes exposed to the incursions of the hostile red man, and he became chaplain of the troops under General Forbes on the western expedition. After the French and Indian war, he served as rector of St. James' Church, at Lancaster, for a period of twenty years. In 1770, he received the honorary degree of A. M. from King's College, N. Y. During his pastorate at Lancaster, he frequently conducted re- ligious services at York. When the Revo- lution opened, Mr. Barton was obliged to retire from his field of labor. He was not willing to take the oath of allegiance to the American government, and was permitted to sell his property and pass within the British lines. He arrived in New York in November, 1778, where he died of dropsy, May 25, 1780, aged fifty years. He was married, in 1753, to a sister of David Rit- tenhouse, the great astronomer. At his death he left a widow and eight children. One of his sons, Benjamin .Smith Barton, was a professor in the University of Penn- sylvania, and died in 1815. William Bar- ton, his eldest son, wrote the life of David Rittenhouse. The widow died at the age of ninety years. Rev. Barton published a sermon on Braddock's defeat. John Penn said of him: "He was a worthy pastor and missionary, and as such, his name should go down to posterity."

HORACE BONHAM, artist and editor, was born near York, November 26, 1835. His father, Samuel C. Bonham, a native of Lincolnton, North Carolina, removed to York in 1827, and soon took a prominent part in public affairs. Being an ardent Whig in politics, he was chosen associate judge of York County in 1840, during the campaign when General William Henry Harrison was elected president of the United States. He served with ability on the bench of York County for a period of ten years. Horace Bonham received his preliminary education at the York County Academy and afterward entered Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania, from which he graduated in 1856. In 1859 he was ad- mitted to the York County Bar, but never practiced law. In 1860 and 1861 he was editor of the York Republican. For a period of six months during the Civil War, he edited and published "The Recorder," the first daily paper printed at York. When the office of internal revenue assessor was opened at York under the government sys- tem, establishing such offices throughout the country, Mr. Bonham was appointed revenue commissioner by President Lin- coln. He filled this position with great credit to himself during the remainder of Lincoln's administration. Being a man of excellent literary training and possessed of an aesthetic nature, he became interested in the study of art in the pursuit of which he excelled in anything he attempted to draw or paint. His conception of historic scenes was admirable and he reproduced them with fine effect. His pen and ink drawing of the adjournment of Continental Congress at York, in 1777, after that body had re- ceived the news of the surrender of Bur- goyne and his army at Saratoga, is a model of artistic beauty. For the purpose of pur- suing his art studies he went to Europe and studied at Paris and Munich. Paintings of his placed on exhibition at Boston and Philadelphia received considerable attention and praise. In literary pursuits he dis- played talent in poetical composition in which he indulged as a diversion. He died at York, March 7, 1892.

JOHN MILTON BONHAM was born at York, November 26, 1835, son of Samuel C. and Elizabeth (Stehman) Bonham. He obtained his preliminary education at the

Chauncey Fr. Black

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NOTED MEN OF YORK COUNTY

York County Academy and was graduated

men lasted during the remainder of Presi- from the College of New Jersey, at Prince- dent Garfield's life. Mr. Black completed ton, where he excelled in the study of the his education at Jefferson College, in west- ern Pennsylvania. When his father became attorney-general in the cabinet of James Buchanan, in 1856, he removed with the family to Washington. During the suc- ceeding four years he engaged in newspaper work at the national capital, and in the ineantime was admitted to the bar of Som- erset County. He practiced law for a short time at Washington, and in the fall of 1860. moved to York with his parents and formed a co-partnership with his father in the prac- tice of law. For several years he was as- sociated with his father in the preparation of cases tried before the higher courts, where Jeremiah S. Black frequently ap- peared. Having natural inclination for newspaper work, his energies were turned in that direction.

ancient and modern classics, developing a decided taste for American literature. After leaving college, he studied law with Erastus H. Weiser and was admitted to the bar in 1857. He practiced his profession here for a few years and then went to War- rensburg, Missouri, where he formed, in 1860, a co-partnership in the practice of the law with Colonel James D. Eads. Soon afterward he left Warrensburg for Frank- lin, Pennsylvania, where he formed a part- nership with James H. Smith, formerly of York County. He also had an office at Petroleum Centre, Pennsylvania. He re- tired from the practice of law in 1875 to engage in the oil business, and was a mem- ber of the firm of Brough and McKelvy, with his office at Pittsburg. They con- ducted the purchase, `sale and transporta- tion of petroleum. This business was profitably closed out to the Standard Oil Company. Mr. Bonham and Mr. Brough were large holders of land in Venango County, on which oil was found. In 1878 he retired from active business and subse- quently devoted himself to literature, re- siding in the city of Washington, D. C. He is the author of the following works, published by G. P. Putnam's Sons: "In- dustrial Liberty," "Railway Secrecy and Trusts," and "Secularism." These works were very favorably criticized in this coun- try and in England. He died at Atlantic City, June 17, 1897.

CHAUNCEY FORWARD BLACK, lieutenant-governor of Pennsylvania, was born in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, in November, 1839. He was the eldest son of Jeremiah S. Black, the noted jurist and statesman. He obtained his elementary education in a private school and at the age of fourteen, entered Monongalia Academy, at Morgantown, West Virginia. Two years later his father sent him to Hiram College, Ohio. One of the instructors of that insti- tution and afterward its president, was James A. Garfield. Being a model in- structor, the future president of the United States exercised a strong and healthful in- fluence over the youthful mind of Chauncey F. Black. The close ties of friendship formed at this institution between these two

From 1873 until 1895, Mr. Black was closely identified with the journalism of this country. He was an editorial contributor to the New York Sun for a period of fifteen years, and in the columns of this paper ap- peared some of the ablest articles from his pen. For several years he was the cor- respondent for the New York World at Washington, and during that period con- tributed many articles to magazines on po- litical subjects and economic questions. He was a forceful and vigorous writer, his articles showing a wide range of intellectual culture and a broad and comprehensive knowledge of public affairs. He organized Democratic associations in a large number of the states of the Union and for several years was president of the Association of Democratic Clubs of the United States. In 1879, he represented York County in the Democratic State convention, and in 1880, was a presidential delegate to the Demo- cratic National convention which nomi- nated General Hancock for President of the United States.

In 1882, Mr. Black was nominated by the Democratic party of Pennsylvania for the office of lieutenant-governor on the ticket with Robert E. Pattison. The campaign was carried on with great vigor throughout the Keystone State, and resulted in the election of both Pattison and Black. At this election, Chauncey F. Black led the ticket in York County, where he had re-

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HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

sided since his father's retirement from the riflemen, in July, 1775. He served through Buchanan cabinet in 1860. It was a flat- the New England campaign, and was com- missioned first lieutenant in the Fourth Regiment of the Pennsylvania Line, Janu- ary 3, 1777. He was severely wounded at Germantown, was promoted captain, Janu- ary 1, 1781, and retired from the service Jan- uary 1, 1783. He was one of the original members of the Pennsylvania Society of the Cincinnati. Captain Campbell was chosen a delegate to the State Convention to ratify the Federal Constitution in 1787; served as a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1797 to 1800, and of the Senate from the York and Adams dis- trict, from 1805 to 1808. He died at his residence in Monaghan Township, York County, January 19, 1815. He left descendants, some of whom now reside in Texas.

tering vote and showed the popularity in which he was held by his fellow-citizens around his own home. He entered upon his duties January, 1883, as presiding officer of the Senate of Pennsylvania. His dignified bearing, affable manner, and courtesy won for him the admiration of the senators of both parties and of the officers of the various departments with whom he had official intercourse. Upon his retirement he received tokens of friendship from his associates while he served as lieutenant- governor. At the expiration of his term of office, he returned to Willow Bridges, his country home, a short distance southwest of York, in Springgarden Township. He resided here until the death of his mother in 1897, when he moved to Brockie, the family residence, built by his father in 1873. In this delightful retreat, Mr. Black spent the remainder of his life. Here he enter- tained many notable men, whose fame ex- tended over the whole country. During his entire career, Mr. Black was a student of the policy and principles promulgated by Thomas Jefferson, founder of the Demo- cratic party in the United States.

In 1863, Mr. Black was married to Mary Dawson, daughter of Hon. John L. Daw- son, whose home was at Friendship Hill, Fayette County, in the historic mansion built and owned by Albert Gallatin, the great financier and cabinet officer. They had three sons: Jeremiah S., J. L. Dawson and Chauncey Forward. Louise, the only daughter, who was one of the founders of the Yorktown Chapter, D. A. R., at York, died December 10, 1900. Mrs. Black, who was a woman of many accomplishments, died November 20, 1899. Mr. Black spent the last years of his life in quiet retirement at Brockie, where he died December 2, 1904.

CAPTAIN THOMAS CAMPBELL, of the Revolution, was born about 1750 in Chanceford Township, York County. His father took up a tract of land at an early day, situated on the "Great Road leading from York to Nelson's Ferry." He was of Scotch-Irish descent and a farmer by occu- pation. When the Revolutionary struggle began, he enlisted as a private in Captain Michael Doudel's company, attached to Colonel William Thompson's battalion .of

REV. ROBERT CATHCART, D. D., pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of York from 1793 to 1837, was born at Cole- raine, Ireland, November, 1759. He ob- tained his education at the University of Glasgow, from which he was graduated in 1780. He was licensed to preach in his native land and in 1790 came to America, at the request of his uncle, Rev. Robert Cathcart, residing at Wilmington, Dela- ware. In 1793 he was chosen pastor of the First Presbyterian Church at York and the church at Round Hill, in Hopewell Town- ship, serving the former forty-four years, and the latter forty-two years, preaching on alternate Sundays to each congregation. For thirty successive years, Dr. Cathcart was elected by the Presbytery to which he belonged, its representative to the general assembly of that denomination, and for twenty years was stated clerk of that body. Rutger's College conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity, and the same degree was given him by Dickinson College, at Carlisle, of which he was a trustee for thirty years. For a quarter of a century, Dr. Cathcart was president of the Board of Trustees of the York County Academy and during that time took a very active and prominent part in building up that institu- tion. He was liberal in his contributions to the American Bible and Tract Society and the American Sunday School Union. Dur- ing his long residence in York he took a prominent part in the affairs of the borough

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NOTED MEN OF YORK COUNTY

and county, always advocating and support- ing every measure intended to promote the public good of the community. Dr. Cath- cart was married in 1796 to Susan Latimer, of Newport, Delaware. They had three sons and two daughters. He died at York, October 19, 1849.

PHINEAS DAVIS. The first locomo- tive that burned coal put into successful use in America was made in York in 1832, and the honor of its invention and construction belongs to Phineas Davis, who was born at Grafton, New Hampshire, in 1795. He be- came an orphan at the age of thirteen years, and having to depend upon his own energy and ability to gain a livelihood, he left his village home in the Granite State, went to the city of Lowell, in Massachusetts, and there endeavored to secure a situation. Owing to the discouragement that attended his efforts, in a few weeks he set outfor Providence, Rhode Island, and from there to Connecticut, spending several months in the towns along the southern border of that state.

Nothing definitely is known of him dur- ing the succeeding years until his arrival at York, Pennsylvania, in 1809, a barefoot boy. Jonathan Jessop, a well-to-do member of the Society of Friends, was then the prin- cipal watchmaker of the town. He lived west of the Codorus. One morning while diligently plying his trade, the poorly-clad yet bright and intelligent looking New Hampshire boy entered his place of busi- ness in search of a situation. The lad was not discouraged by his previous failures to secure profitable employment. His ardor was not dimmed nor his energy checked, and he approached his future employer, who at once gave him a position in his store. He was apt to learn and attentive to duty and soon showed his inventive turn of mind by producing a new gold watch, the product of his own skill and application. His repu- tation was made as a watchmaker, and he would doubtless have prospered in that business or any other. The beautiful mechanism of his watch was a subject of favorable comment among the inventors of those days, and soon thereafter some one else took up his design and had it patented.

The educated mind of the day was then turning its attention to steam as a motor. Phineas Davis, during his leisure hours in five competitors.

Friend Jessop's store, had been a diligent student of natural philosophy and chem- istry, and now became absorbed in studying the properties of steam and its application to machinery. He associated himself as a partner with Mr. Gardner in the York foundry and machine shops, on the west side of the Codorus in York, and while en- gaged in making tools and implements his genius was turned toward the locomotive engine, then a new invention and very crude in its construction. All that had yet been built were of English manufacture and burned wood, and great improvements were needed to make it of much use. On Janu- ary 4, 1831, the Baltimore and Ohio Rail- way Company offered a prize for a loco- motive engine of American manufacture. The sum of $3,500 was to be awarded to the inventor and manufacturer of the best engine delivered in Baltimore for trial June I, 1832. It was demanded that the engine burn coke or coal and consume its own smoke. Phineas Davis became one of the competitors for the prize, and at the York foundry, of which he was half owner, he built, and on the time appointed for trial. conveyed his engine on wagons to Balti- more. He called it "The York."

The Baltimore Gazette of July 31, 1832, says: "We are gratified that the locomotive steam engine, "The York,' constructed by Phineas Davis, of York, Penna., com- menced operation under the most favorable auspices at 9 o'clock yesterday. It started from Pratt Street depot for Ellicott Mills with a train of fourteen loaded cars, carry- ing together with the engine tender, a gross weight of fifty tons. The whole went off in fine style and was out of sight of the depot in six minutes. The rapid gliding of the immense train was one of the most im- posing and beautiful spectacles we have ever seen."

The York Gazette of August 9, 1832, says: "The York" made the journey (thir- teen miles) in an hour and five minutes. Return trip with one car, a passenger coach, in fifty-seven minutes. The last mile was made in three minutes.

The competitive trial was made on Sat- urday, August 4, 1832. "The York," with Phineas Davis, the inventor, who was engineer, won the first prize. There were The train which the .

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HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

engine pulled, exclusive of the tender, con-

Davis secured new patents for his inven- sisted of seven cars weighing twenty-five tion and was just approaching the height of tons. The fuel used by the engine was prosperity when he met an unfortunate anthracite coal.

Davis' engine was mounted on wheels thirty inches in diameter, like those of com- mon cars, and the motion was produced by means of gearing with a spur wheel and pinion on one of the axles of the road wheels. The greatest velocity for a short time on a straight track was thirty miles per hour. It could travel curvature of four hundred feet radius at the rate of fifteen miles per hour. The engine weighed but three and one-half tons, and was found too light for advantageous use or on ascending grades. Performance of this engine fully convinced the board of directors of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and its engi- neer corps that locomotive engines could be used successfully on railways having curves of four hundred feet radius, and since that time they have been in use in this country.

In 1832 Davis and Gardner, in their York shops, made several locomotives of a "grasshopper" type, same as "The York." only heavier, for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. These engines had vertical boil- ers similar to those now used on steam fire engines. The boilers were fifty inches in diameter and contained 282 fire tubes six- teen inches long, and tapering from one and one-half inches at the bottom to one and one-fourth inches at the top ,where the gas discharged through a combustible chamber into a stack. These engines weighed six and one-half tons. One of them, the "At- lantic," was set to work in September, 1832, and hauled fifty tons over a rough road with high grades and short curves, at the rate of fifteen miles per hour. This engine made a trip at the cost of $16, doing the work of forty horses which had cost $33 per trip.

death at the age of forty, on September 27, 1835. He had command of one of his en- gines in taking a party of Baltimoreans on an excursion. It was the result of a casual and unseen defect in the railway. One of the chains had become broken and the end of a bent rail, which was displaced, caught the flange of the engine wheel and threw the engine off the track. The momentum of the cars in the rear threw them with great force on the tender and in turn upon the engine, when Phineas Davis was in- stantly killed.

Thus ended the brilliant career of a man whose place in history has only recently been recognized.

Phineas Davis was married in the Friends' meeting house at York, August 15, 1826, to Hannah Taylor, the great- granddaughter of William Willis, who built the first court house in York.

Among those who were present at the wedding, according to the records, were Jane L. Cathcart, E. S. Cassatt, (Mrs. Sam- uel Small) and Mary M. Barnitz.

Hannah, wife of Phineas Davis, died of cholera, in York, July 23, 1830, after having been sick only three hours. They had two children-Willis, who married and moved to South America, and Nathan, who en- listed in the Union army and died during the Civil War. The remains of Phineas Davis were buried about thirty feet to the northeast of the northeast corner of the Friends' Meeting House at York.

ABRAHAM DEHUFF died at York in 1895 at the age of 96 years. He was born in York in 1798, and during his whole life followed the occupation of a jeweler and watchmaker. In 1855 he received a gold medal at the Harrisburg State Fair for a watch not larger than a three-cent piece, which he made. He also made two similar watches, one of which he presented to President James Buchanan and which is

Phineas Davis soon afterward became manager of a shop of the Baltimore and Ohio Company, in Baltimore, and to him, Ross Winans and John Elgar, of York, (the inventor of switch turnstiles, drill bear- ings and plate wheels), is due the honor of now in the National Museum at Washing- solving most of the problems which pre- ton, D. C. The other was purchased by the Prince of Wales during his visit to this country shortly before the Civil War. Mr. Dehuff's grandfather served in the Revo- lution under General Lafayette. sented themselves in connection with the great system of railroad travel and inland transportation. The first steel springs used in this country were placed on "The York."

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JAMES EDGAR was born in the south- ern part of York County, November 15,

1744, of Scotch-Irish ancestry. His father subsequently removed to North Carolina, but young Edgar remained on his farm until the outset of the Revolution. By the Committee of York County, he was chosen a member of the Provincial Conference of June 18, 1776; and elected by the people to the convention of July 15, following. He was a member of the Assembly, 1776-7, from York County ; of the Provincial Coun- cil of Safety from October 17 to December 4, 1777, when he took his seat in the Su- preme Executive Council, an office he filled acceptably until February 13, 1779. In the

autumn of this year he removed to Wash- ington County, and upon the organization thereof was appointed one of the justices July 15, 1781, and served in the Supreme Executive Council from November 30, 1781, to December 4, 1782. He was a member of the Council of Censors, November 20, 1783, and chosen to the Assembly in 1785, having previously served in that body in 1781. He represented York County in the Pennsyl- vania Convention of November 20, 1787, to consider the proposed constitution for the government of the United States. He was appointed by Governor Mifflin one of the associate judges of the courts of Washing- ton County, August 19, 1791, serving therein until his death. Judge Edgar was prominent in the so-called Whiskey Insur- rection of 1794, on the side of law and obedience thereto; and when the troops marched to quell the disturbance, he was appointed a member of the Committee of Conference to confer with the commission- ers of the United States, and the State of Pennsylvania, relative to a prompt return to state and national allegiance. Judge Edgar was a leading spirit in the Presby- terian Church of York County, with which he connected himself at the age of sixteen. For many years he was a ruling elder in the church and was nine times a member of Old Redstone Presbytery. Brackenridge, in his "History of the Western Insurrec- tion," states that he was a "kind of Rabbi in the Presbyterian Churches in western coun- try." Rev. Dr. Carnahan gives this esti- mate of his character: "James Edgar had a good English education, had improved his mind by reading and reflection; so that in

theological and political knowledge he was superior to many professional men. He possessed an eloquence which, although not polished, was convincing and persuasive." Judge Edgar died on his farm, on the Ist of January, 1806.

REV. ADAM ETTINGER, for sixty- two years a clergyman of York County, born in 1787, was one of the original preachers of the Evangelical Association in York County. His father, Rev. Adam Et- tinger, was a clergyman of the German Re- formed Church, and died in 1809. His mother was a sister of Rev. John Stouch, of the Lutheran Church. In the fall of 1813, under the administration of Rev. John Wal- ter, the first fellow-laborer of Rev. Jacob Albright, founder of the Evangelical Associ- ation, Adam Ettinger joined that denomi- nation, which at that date had only fifteen preachers and 769 members in America. No minister of the gospel was a more de- voted follower of the doctrines and prin- ciples of the church of his choice than he, giving not only his time but his means to the support of the cause he so faithfully ad- vocated. He was married early in life to a daughter of Conrad Miller, a soldier of the Revolution, and well-to-do farmer of Hope- well. His father-in-law and mother-in-law then formed part of his family, and their home became a place for religious meetings, and in summer time camp-meetings were held in the woods adjoining it. To the church and its interests he was generous and philanthropic beyond his means. He died October, 1877, aged ninety years. His remains were interred in Prospect Hill Cemetery.

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History of York County Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 83

Author: Prowell, George R. Publication date: 1907 Publisher: J. H. Beers Number of Pages: 1372

Author: Prowell, George R.
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: J. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 1372