History of York County Pennsylvania, Volume II, Part 71

Author: Prowell, George R.
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: J. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 1390

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Mr. Hoshour was a very strong Lutheran and one of the building committee which erect- ed the commodious Lutheran Church in 1862. For many years he continued a member of its official body and liberally contributed to its support. For a long period he belonged to the town council and, on account of his reliable character and progressive spirit, could have held any office in the gift of the people. He only survived the death of his wife four years, she passing away in 1894, aged seventy-two years, and he, in 1898, aged eighty-two years. Both parents of Mr. Hoshour were interred at Glen Rock. They had these children : Sam- ttel K .; Isabella, who died young; Maria, who died at the age of nineteen years: Ella, who married N. C. Seitz, of Washington, D. C .; Magdalena, who married Prof. Aaron Grey; John H., of York, and two children who died in infancy.

Until he was twelve years of age Samuel K. Hoshour attended school at Glen Rock, after which, until he was twenty-three years old. he assisted his father on the farm. Then he embarked in the lumber business, in which he continued alone until 1872, when he en- tered into partnership with J. C. Fallan and Henry Gore for the operation of a general

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lumber and planing-mill business, later car- ried on under the style of Hoshour-Dise & Co. In 1887 the business was reorganized and in- corporated under the name of the Glen Mantı- facturing Company, of which Samuel K. Hos- hour is the senior member. He started the first lumber yard at Glen Rock and is justly regarded as the pioneer in that line. When Mr. Hoshour ventured into the field, forty years ago, it was with little business expe- rience and in a small way, but his conduct of it has caused it to expand into one of the largest industries of Glen Rock. He has al- ways been the head and front of the enterprise and has personal charge of the yard, being considered one of the most thorough lumber inspectors in this part of the State. His suc- cess is distinctly traceable to perseverance and energy, honest methods and fair business dealing.

Although successfully managing a con- stantly growing industry, Mr. Hoshour has never let personal matters outweigh his pub- lic responsibility and he has efficiently served in various offices to which his fellow-citizens have elected him. For six years he was chief burgess of Glen Rock, for many years was a member of the town council and for two years served as tax collector and two terms as as- sessor.

In 1842 Mr. Hoshour was married to Rebecca Hengst. daughter of Michael Hengst. and they have had children as follows: Rev. Edward E., pastor of Bethany Lutheran Church, of Philadelphia, Pa .; Samuel R .; Josiah W. : Lillie: Paul: Annie, who married George Moreland: Milton C .; and Eda and Edie, both of whom died in infancy. Mr. Hoshour belongs to the Red Men and to the Knights of Pythias, and assisted to organize lodges in both fraternities. He is also one of the leading members of the Lutheran Church, in which he has served on the official board. Since the age of sixteen years he has been a teacher in the Sunday-school. He is a man who, in every relation of life, is held in high esteem, and no history of this beautiful town. with its many great industries, would be com- plete without mention of the Hoshour family.

JOHN A. BARNETT was born in Dru- more township. Lancaster county, near Penn Hill. April 23. 1831. a son of Andrew and

Eliza ( Troy) Barnett, the former of Lancas- ter county, Pa., and the latter of Cecil county, Md., and grandson of John Troy on the ma- ternal side. Andrew Barnett was a native of Lancaster county, where he was a wagon- maker and pronounced one of the finest artisans in his line of work in that section. He was married to Eliza Troy, daughter of John Troy, a farmer of Cecil county, Md .. and this union was blessed with three children, viz. : Mary Jane, wife of B. F. Cunningham of Cecil county: John A .; and William N., who married Sallie Grove and died in Ohio.

Mr. Barnett's education, which he com- pleted at the age of eighteen years, was ob- tained in the public schools of Lancaster coun- ty. After leaving school he was a teacher for one term, but the work being distasteful to him he never resumed it, and instead learned the carpenter's trade, in which he was engaged for many years. Mr. Barnett was instru- mental in the installation of machinery at a number of slate quarries at Delta. He was married at the age of twenty-three to Mrs. Katherine ( Miller) Beatty, and two children were born to them. viz .: John Thomas, who died at the age of two years, and Hannah Eliza, the wife of John H. Pymer, a plasterer, and mother of one child-John B., at school. Mrs. Barnett died in January, 1898, and was buried at Slateville.

Mr. Barnett has been a lifelong Democrat. and has held a number of offices of honor and trust. For a number of years he has been burgess of Delta, being re-elected in a borough which is overwhelmingly Republican. by the largest vote ever cast for any candidate for that office. Mr. Barnett is a man of powerful physique, and has been noted for his activity and endurance. A personal record of the work done by him shows that, for a period of over eight years, he worked on an average thirty-one and one-fourth days each month, counting overtime.

MANASSES KREBS was born at New Holland. York county, Dec. 23. 1832, son of Henry Krebs. The father was born Jan. 13. 1782. in Lebanon county. and received a com- mon-school education. He learned the car- penter's trade, which he followed in New Hol- land. Manchester township. until his death in 1847. Henry Krebs married Frances Miller,

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HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

of Lancaster county, and the children born to them were: Susanna, born Aug. 4, 1822, died Brethren Church.

in York county ; Silas, born Nov. 6, 1824, died young in York county: Catherine, born June 4, 1828, died in Lebanon; Sarah, born Nov. 30, 1830, died in York; Manasses was born Dec. 23. 1832; Ephraim, born Aug. 4. 1834, died at New Holland; Henry was born Dec. 15. 1837.

Manasses Krebs received a common- school education, and for twenty-six years en- gaged in lime burning on John H. Wogan's farm in East Manchester township. After- ward he worked a farm on an island in the Susquehanna river near New Holland, con- tinuing thus until 1902, since which year he has lived retired in a fine farm home at New Holland.

Mr. Krebs has been married three times and has been the father of twenty-three chil- dren, some of whom died in infancy. His first marriage was to Henrietta Good, who died in New Holland, and the children born to this union were: Marcellus married Elizabeth Pierce, and died in Ohio; Henry married Clementine Flory and resides at New Hol- land; William married Fanny Demmy and lives in Kansas ; Fannie married Augustus Bil- lett and lives in Cumberland county ; George (deceased) married Sarah Little. Mr. Krebs' second marriage was to Hannah Fry- singer, a daughter of Jacob Frysinger, and their children were: Edwin married Agnes Blessing, and follows cigarmaking in Hellam; Martha married Hiram Billett and lives in Dauphin county ; Annie married Harry King. and resides in York ; Jacob F., a graduate of the Kingston school, taught three years in York county, and at the present time is time- keeper at the large quarry in East Manches- ter township; Samuel, a blacksmith, married Mary Brenneman, and lives at Round Town; and Elmer, a baker of Wrightsville, married Cora Abel. Mrs. Hannah Krebs died at New Holland, where she is buried, and Mr. Krebs married (third) Rebecca Frysinger, her sister. The following children were by this marriage : Elizabeth died at New Holland; Dora mar- ried Henry Kunkel and lives in York; Aaron resides at home: Amanda and Daisy were twins, the former dying in infancy, and the Neel, of Lower Chanceford township, daugh- latter lives at home: Thomas is at home.

Mr. Krebs is a Republican, but never

sought office. He is connected with the United

WILLIAM N. MCALISTER, postmaster of Laurel, Chanceford township, was born Oct. 3, 1843, on his grandfather's farm in Chanceford township, son of James and Isa- bella C. (Neel) McAlister.

James McAlister the first, great-grand- father of William N., came from Scotland, and settled in New York before the Revolu- tionary war. Thence he traveled to Pennsyl- vania, and settled in Hopewell township, York county, where he took up 500 acres of land, dying in the early part of 1800 and leav- ing a large family. John McAlister, one of the older children of James, married a Miss Proudfit, and received a third of the original tract of James McAlister's land, which had been divided between him and his brothers, Thomas and Andrew. He was a life-long farmer and died in 1847, aged seventy-three years, his wife surviving him until three years later, when she passed away in her seventy- fifth year. He was an elder in the Hopewell U. P. Church, which was then known as the Associated Reformed Church. The children born to John McAlister and his wife were: James, the father of William N. ; Thomas, who married Agnes Torbet; Mrs. Samuel Moore, who died in Washington county, Pa .; Agnes, who married William Gemmill, and died in East Hopewell township: Eleanor, who married Sampson Smith and died at the cross-roads in East Hopewell township; John R., who graduated from the Xenia (O.) Seminary and the Washington-Jefferson Classical College, was a U. P. minister for thirty years, and who married Maggie Mc- Lean, and is now living in Pittsburg, Pa .; Martha Jane, who married Andrew Ander- son, and died in Hopewell township; Eliza- beth, who died unmarried; Euphemia C., and Samuel A., of East Hopewell township.

James McAlister was born on the home- stead farm in Hopewell township, Feb. 3, 1810, and acquired his education in the com- mon schools and the academy at York. He was reared on the farm, and for eight years he taught school. He married Isabella C. ter of William and Elizabeth ( Marlien ) Neel. William Neel came from Scotland and settled

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in America ; his wife was of Irish parentage. Mr. Neel died on his farm in 1864. Mr. and Mrs. McAlister were members of the U. P. Church, in which he was a ruling elder. Polit- ically he was an old-line Whig until the Re- publican party was organized, when Mr. Mc- Alister joined the new party as one of the first Republicans in the section. For many years he served as school director. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. McAlister were as fol- lows: David P., born in Hopewell township, attended the public school and Westminster College, was a school teacher for five years, enlisted in Company A, 21st Cav. (Capt. Mc- Call, of York, commanding ) and served eight- een months, dying in a hospital at Washing- ton, D. C., from wounds received in battle : William N., whose sketch is found below, and Jane Mary, who died at the age of six years.

William N. McAlister was educated in the common schools of York county and the academy at Stewartstown, and after graduat- ing from the latter taught three years in Hope- well township. On Aug. 27, 1864, he enlisted at Harrisburg. in Company L, 9th Pa. Vol. Cav .. under Capt. George L. Smith, in Kil- patrick's Western army, participating in the raid through Georgia and the fights at Waynesboro and Milledgeville. He was honorably discharged from service at New- bern, N. C., April 29. 1865, and returned home, where until 1877 he engaged in farm- ing. In that year Mr. McAlister founded a mercantile business at Laurel, where he estab- lished a postoffice (naming the town), of which he has since been the incumbent, with the exception of four years during Cleveland's administration. He erected the first building (a warehouse) in the village of Laurel, where he has been the agent for the Adams Express Company since the year 1878 and station agent for the Peach Bottoni railroad since 1877. Mr. McAlister united with the Hopewell U. P. Church at the age of sixteen years, and has been prominent in its work ever since, having been choir leader for forty years and elder for the past five years. From early life he has also been actively con- nected with Sunday-school work. Mr. Mc- Alister has been a life-long Republican and cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln.

On Dec. 23. 1863, in East Hopewell township, Mr. McAlister married Maggie

Liggett, who was born in the township named and died in 1864. She was the daughter of William and Grace (Collins) Liggett, who were of Irish descent. To Mr. McAlister and his first wife one child was born-Maggie B., who became Mrs. J. Grant-Wallace, of High Rock. Mr. McAlister's second marriage was to Amanda J. Wilson, born in Fawn township, daughter of David and Jane ( Manifold) Wil- son, the latter of whom is the aunt of Sheriff Manifold of York county. To Mr. and Mrs. McAlister the following children have been born: Jennie W., who married William J. Cockley, of Manchester township. York coun- ty ; Miss Mary ; Nellie I., and Blanche N., liv- ing at home ; and Helen Proudfit.

Mr. McAlister has the standing in the community of an honest, upright and public- spirited citizen, as ready now to support good government as he was to preserve it in the dark days of the Civil war.

MORRIS MILLS HAYS, a representa- tive of an old settled family of Pennsylvania, was born Sept. 13, 1841. The name was orig- inally spelled Hayes, but the American branch of the family for several generations, have used the present orthography. The emigrant ancestor of the family came from Wales, and settled in Chester county, Pa. In 1770 Jesse Hays moved from Chester county into York county, and purchased land one mile north of Yocumtown, but this tract was afterward sold to furnish a substitute for service in the war of the Revolution, he himself being a member of the Society of Friends, and therefore a 11011- resistant. By occupation he was a tailor. In 1780 he married Margery Mills, daughter of James Mills, the builder of the stone house east of Yocumtown, later known as the Bru- baker property. To this marriage came three children : Susan, Hannah and Mills.

Mills Hays was born in 1786. On Aug. 13, 1817, he was appointed one of the three justices of the peace for the Third district, composed of Newberry and Fairview town- ships under the constitution of 1790, and he served continuously in that position until 1839. In 1851 he was elected associate judge of York county, serving one full term of five years. Judge Hays married Eve Crull, and their children were: John; Sidney, who mar- ried William Eppley; Mary, who married

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George W. Hall: Jesse, born July 24, 1818, who married Mary Miller, and Jane, who mar- ried Samuel P. Herman. Judge Mills died in Newberrytown, in June, 1858, aged sev- enty-two years.

John Hays was born Oct. 11, 1810, in Newberry township, where he spent his entire life. For many years he was a director in the Dover Fire Insurance Company, and filled many local positions of trust and responsibil- ity. He married Jane Morris, daughter of Charles Morris, of Warrington township. of Scotch-Irish descent, the latter of whom was one of a company of soldiers who marched to the defense of Baltimore in 1814. John Hays died in 1885, in Newberry township, and is buried at Paddletown church. His wife passed away in 1901, at the age of ninety years, and was laid to rest beside her husband. Their children were: Sidney, who married David Ort; Adacinda, who married A. B. Kurtz: Morris Mills; Granville, who married Kate Reiff: Crull, a soldier in the 166th P. V. I. and also the 9th P. V. C. during the Civil war ; Ellen; Lucetta ; Servatus, who mar- ried Kate Feiser, and is a merchant at New- berrytown, and John Pierce, a graduate of the Shippensburg State Normal School, who mar- ried Maggie Flora, of Franklin county.

Morris Mills Hays passed his early days on the farm, and acquired his education in the public schools, in the Normal and Classical school at York, and the Millersville State Normal School. For three terms he engaged successfully in teaching. In November. 1882, he was elected a member of the State Legis- lature, being re-elected in 1900. In the com- mittees on Labor and Industry, Insurance, Military and Geological Survey, he gave ef- ficient service. His occupation is farming, and he is the owner of a valuable farm one mile east of Newberrytown. He is a practical surveyor, and has found time in the midst of his farm labors and official duties to utilize his talents in that direction. So capable a pub- lic official has he proved that he has been called upon to fill various local offices, and has al- ways fulfilled their duties with fidelity of pur- pose, and marked executive ability. He is a wide reader, and is the owner of an extensive library of well selected works.

On Feb. 20. 1876, Mr. Hays was married to Sarah M. Krone. Six children have blessed their union, namely : Ira, at home ; Kent, who

married Dora Zorger, and lives in Newberry- town; Boyd, who married Bertha Stoner, and lives in Newberry township, and Dale, Ruth and Jo, all living at home. Mr. Hays is president of the Dover Fire Insurance Com- pany and has been upon its board of directors since 1885: his father was also a director in the same company from 1859 until his death. In 1898 Morris M. Hays was elected justice of the peace, but resigned to take his seat in the Legislature, and in 1905 was again elected to the judicial office named.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN HANTZ, in his lifetime a well-known hardware dealer in York, Pa., belonged to an old and honored family that more than a century and a half ago emigrated from Germany and settled in Pennsylvania.

John Nicholas Hantz married Anna Bar- bara Burghart in the Province of Starkenburg, Sponheim, Germany. He died in the Father- land, aged about sixty years, leaving four chil- dren, namely: John Andrew, Maria Cather- ine, Mary Margaretta and Catherine Elizabeth. On June 22, 1751, the widow of John Nicholas Hantz was married to John Peter Strayer. The entire family set sail for America, locating in Dover township, York Co., Pa. They were among the few settlers in that part of the coun- try in 1758, and John Peter Strayer was one of the founders of the well-known Dover Church, and at times, during the absence of the minister, was empowered by the Lutheran Synod to officiate at certain religious services. He also taught the first parochial school in the Dover Church.

John Andrew Hantz, who accompanied the emigrant party to America in 1734, be- came the progenitor of the Hantz family in America. One of his sons. Andrew Hantz, was born in Dover township, York county, married Mary Sharp, and had the following children : John, Jacob. Philip. Daniel, Joseph, Catherine, Susan and Mary Ann.

Jacob Hantz. the second son, was born in 1797, and for a number of years kept the "Hantz Hotel," later known as the "Motter House," which business he discontinued when elected sheriff in 1842, being the first Whig ever elected to that office in York county. He later engaged in the hardware business, under the firm name of Hantz. Frick & Co., at the stand later occupied by his sons. B. Franklin

BENJAMIN F. HANTZ

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and Charles F. Hantz, until they died. In 1821 he married Magdalena Hershey, and at his death, in 1868, left three sons, Henry A., Ben- jamin Franklin and Charles F. Of this family, Henry A. married Henrietta L. Beeler, and they have three daughters: Annie M., wife of Ivan Glossbrenner; Lucy H., wife of Edward Chapin ; and Mary A., wife of Robert Stair.

Benjamin Franklin Hantz was sent first to the public schools, later completing his edu- cation in the York Academy. Upon leaving the latter institution he engaged in the hard- ware business, which line he followed through- out his life, and in which he was eminently successful. His death occurred March 10, 1886, and he was laid to rest in Prospect Hill cemetery. A man of true worth and sterling traits of character, Mr. Hantz was held in re- spect by all who knew him, and his friends were only limited by the number of his ac- quaintances.

Benjamin Franklin Hantz was united in marriage with Rebecca Graybill, who, with three children, survived him. The eldest, Charles Edward, married Miss Emma House- holder, and now resides in York. Mary Alice, the only daughter, married Rev. William An- stadt, and they are located in Hollidaysburg, Pa. Grant married. Miss Irene Bender, who occupies the homestead, where four generations have lived. Mrs. Rebecca Hantz, the widow of B. Franklin ·Hantz, died after a brief ill- ness, Dec. 20, 1905, and was laid to rest in the family lot at Prospect Hill cemetery.

CHARLES G. HILDEBRAND, M. D., one of the leading medical practitioners of Springfield township, York county, has been practicing his profession since 1889, in Lo- ganville, where he was born Dec. 31, 1859, son of Dietrich Hildebrand.

Dr. Hildebrand attended school at Logan- ville and the. York County Academy, after which he spent three years at the York Col- legiate Institute. He then read medicine with Dr. Yost, of Glen Rock, who was at that time located at Loganville, and attended a medical school at Baltimore, from which he was graduated in 1881. Dr. Hildebrand first located at Winterstown, where he remained eight years, in 1889 settling for practice in

In 1880 Dr. Hildebrand married Catherine Feigley, daughter of Martin and Ellen (Reikerd) Feigley, and the following chil- dren have been born to this union: Esther M. died in 1896, in her fifteenth year; Charles died in infancy; Leroy is a graduate of Pat- rick's Business College, of York; Nora is liv- ing at home.

In his political views Dr. Hildebrand is a Republican, and he has served his borough as school director and councilman. His pro- fession connects him with the York County Medical Society, of which he was president in 1904, and also the State and National Medi- cal associations.

HON. LEVI M. MYERS, of York coun- ty, Pa., formerly an honored member of the State Legislature, belongs to a very old Penn- sylvania family which originated in Germany.

Frederick Myers, the great-grandfather of Levi M., was born in Germany, and was the first of the family to leave the Fatherland and to seek a home in America, settling in Dover township, York Co., Pa., where he lived an upright life, and at his death left many de- scendants. In those early days, as in the modern era, the transportation question was one of great moment. Mr. Myers owned a number of strong teams, and conducted a gen- eral hauling business, covering the distance be- tween Pittsburg over the mountains to Balti- more. This was a most lucrative enterprise. and he was a very substantial man in his day. owning farms in Dover and in Monaghan townships valued at something like $7.000. But the panic of 1818, following the war of 1812, found him with more responsibilities than he could meet and before he could settle his affairs he had practically lost everything. This is not an uncommon misfortune, but it is not always met with the honesty and reso- luteness which characterized this upright old German. Retaining nothing from his cred- itors, he passed his last years with his sons and was an honored and respected man to the last. His children were: Jacob, John. William and Catherine, and three other daughters whose married names were Bentzel. Gross and Grove.

Jacob Mvers, grandfather of Levi M., was his native town, where he has since remained, born in 1798, in Dover township. York coun- in the full enjoyment of a large and lucrative ty, and obtained his education in the German patronage.

schools. being twenty years of age before he

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learned to speak in the English language. Later he became one of the influential men of his section of York county. He purchased the property now owned by his son, Peter A. Myers, and on it his life was spent, and there he died in 1876, preceded by his wife in 1862, at the age of sixty years. They had these children : Jacob and John ( twins), Elizabeth, Susan, Henry, Mary. Frederick, Samuel, George, Martha, Peter, Catherine and William. Jacob Myers was a stanch Democrat all his life.

William A. Myers was educated in the common schools of Monaghan township and performed the usual duties on the home farm until the age of twenty years, when he went to Lycoming county and worked at the lumber- ing business for a short time. After his re- turn to York county he taught school for a season, teaching during the winters and farm- ing during the summers, also taking a great deal of interest in horticulture. In 1877 he bought a small property of twenty acres, which is now owned by his son. Harry C. Myers. In 1884 he purchased a farm of eighty-four acres which he continued to cultivate until his retirement in 1902, the tract now being owned by Hon. Levi M. Myers. William Myers now lives in a comfortable residence which he erected at Mt. Pleasant, where he is a highly respected resident. Mr. Myers was united in marriage, Oct. 11, 1870, to Mary Hamacher. born in Cumberland county, daughter of Daniel Hamacher. They had these children : Amos L., deceased : Levi M .; Elizabeth I., de- ceased : and Harry C. The family belongs to the Church of God. and Mr. Myers has been an elder of that sect at Mt. Pleasant, for eleven years. Politically he is a strong Democrat and has served for the past decade as a justice of the peace.

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History of York County Pennsylvania, Volume II, Part 71

Author: Prowell, George R. Publication date: 1907 Publisher: J. H. Beers Number of Pages: 1390

Author: Prowell, George R.
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: J. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 1390