History of York County, Pennsylvania : from the earliest period to the present time, divided into general, special, township and borough histories, with a biographical department appended, Part 196

Author: Gibson, John, Editor
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: F.A. Battey Publishing Co., Chicago
Number of Pages: 1104

USA > Pennsylvania > York County > History of York County, Pennsylvania : from the earliest period to the present time, divided into general, special, township and borough histories, with a biographical department appended > Part 196

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CUNNINGHAM R. GLASGOW, son of Hon, Hugh Glasgow, was born June 29, 1806, on the old. . homestead, near Slate Hill, York County. His father was a native of Chester County, and removed . when a young man, to York County, where he re- sided on the above mentioned farm until his death, in 1818. He was chosen to represent the district in the national congress and was associate judge of this county. While in congress, he secured the . establishment of Peach Bottom Postoffice, the first. and for many years the only one in the township. Prior to that time, the nearest office was Bel Air, Md. His mother Maria (Ramsay) Glasgow, was : a native of York County, a member of a family, which for many years has been prominent in this. township. They were married in 1804, and she died in 1820, leaving four sons, of whom the subject of- this sketch is the only survivor. He remained on, the farm until the age of thirteen, when he entered a store in Wrightsville, Penn., where he remained about six years, and then went to Baltimore, Md .. where he remained six years; returning to York County, he engaged in farming a vocation which he has since followed. In 1841 he purchased the farm of 125 acres, on which he now resides. This farm is mostly in York County, though the dwelling house is in Harford County, Md. In 1837 Mr. Glas- gow married Mary A. Beven, a native of York County. He has held the office of commissioner of Harford County, and has always enjoyed the con- fidence and esteem of his neighbors.

J. WILLIAM HICKMAN, M. D, is the eldest son of William C. and Victorine E. (Gibbons) Hick- man. His father was a native of Chester County, and his mother of Fayette County, Penn. They

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are of English descent, and reared two sons and four daughters. The Doctor was born in Chester County, September 23, 1856, and passed the first sixteen years of his life on the farm and in the public schools. Later he spent two years in the State Normal School, at Westchester, and theu entered the Washington and Jefferson College, where he be- gan the study of medicine. In 1873 the family moved to Michigan, where the father died in the fall of the same year, aged fifty-eight. The re- mainder of the family resided there two years, our subject teaching in the public schools. In 1876 he entered the office of Dr. G. A. Dougherty, at Wash- ington, Penn., where he pursued his medical studies, attending one year's lectures at Baltimore, and then entering Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, where he graduated in March, 1879. Shortly after- ward he came to Delta, where he enjoys a remun- erative practice, in addition to which he conduets a drug store. He was married to Miss Hannah J. Hickman, at York. October 3, 1879, and has one child-Carrie R. He is a member of the borough council, a Master Mason, and a member of the York County Medical Society, and of the Slateville Presbyterian Church. The Hickman family own and occupy the same land in Chester County which was taken up by their ancestors on their arrival in America.

SAMUEL P. JOHNSON, son of James W. and Sarah (Wilson) Johnson, was born July 20, 1845, on the homestead in Peach Bottom Township. His father was a native of Peach Bottom, and a son of James Johnson, who came from Dublin, Ireland, and purchased about 500 acres of land, a part of which still remains in possession of the family. James W. Johnson, father of Samuel P., was for several years justice of the peace. He was noted for his charity and benevolence, and suffered many pecuniary losses, in consequence of designing persons taking advantage of his too confiding nature. He died September 16, 1884, at the age of seventy-four. The subject of this s tetch was reared on the farm, and for many years had its management. In 1882 he purchased about 300 acres of it, and has since continued a successful farmer. He married Martha A. Fulton, December 7, 1869. and has four children : Sally W., James, Grace A. and Samuel P. In 1862 he enlisted in Independent Battery I, of Pennsylvania, and served nine months. Like his father, Mr. Johnson is respected by his neighbors and regarded by all as a good citizen.

ROBERT L. JONES, a prominent slate manu- facturer of Peach Bottom Township, is a native of Carnaervonshire, in north Wales, was born March 15, 1841; came to Peach Bottom Township in 1860, engaged in slate quarrying, in the employ of a Philadelphia company, and afterward for John Humphrey. August 22, 1862, he enlisted in Com- pany A, Third Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery, and served until June 14. 1865. During the last eight- een months his company was on the gun-boat "Shrapnel." He was never on the sick list nor lost a day from duty. He was discharged with the rank of first sergeant at Camp Hamilton, Va., and re- turned to West Bangor, where he resumed work at his old place, and continued so employed until 1871, when he became associated with four partners in operating a quarry. Selling out in 1879, he, in company with P. B. Shank, leased about twenty- five acres of slate land, and opened a new quarry about one-fourth mile from West Bangor, which has proved one of the most productive on the ridge. He manufactured, in 1883, with about twenty hands, 2,800 'squares of roofing slate. Since 1882 Mr. Jones has been sole owner, and his entire time is given to the management of the business. Though he attended school in Wales only two years (he- tween seven aud nine), and about two months in

America, yet he keeps his own books, and directs his large business unassisted. He married, in Phil- adelphia. in 1870, Miss Isabella Roberts, a native of Wales, and has four children: Emma, William J., Arthur and Isabella. Both Mr. Jones and wife are members of the Calvinistic Methodist Church, and he is treasurer in the Esdraelon Lodge, A. F. & A. M., and also treasurer of the Building and Loan Association of Delta.

FOULK JONES was horu in Carnaervon Coun- ty, Wales, December 25, 1822, and came to America in 1848. He settled in Peach Bottom Township, and engaged in slate quarrying for about eighteen months, and then crossed to Lancaster County, where he operated a quarry for ahout nine years, after which he returned to Peach Bottom, and bought a tract of slate land at Slate Hill, on which he, with a partner, opened a quarry, and worked it with varied success until 1873, when it was aban- doned. He was active in building the York & Peach Bottom Railroad, and was a member of its first board of directors, and he also contributed largely to the construction of the Maryland & Cen- tral Railroad, being, for a time, a director and pres- ident of the Pennsylvania Division. Mr. Jones owns three fine farms in Peach Bottom Township, besides one in Harford County, Md. On one of his York County farms he has conducted a successful dairy. He has a fair English education, received in Wales and after he came to America. He mar- ried, in Lancaster, Penn., November 5, 1885, Miss Rebecca Marshall, a native of that county, and has had born to him six children, three of whom are living: Maggie J., Dienal Wyn and Marshall F. Mr. Jones has held the office of township auditor and school director. The family are connected with the Presbyterian Church.

WILLIAM HOLLINGSWORTH KILGORE, M. D., of Delta, Peach Bottom Township, was born in Lower Chanceford Township October 31, 1815. His parents, John and Margaret (Nelson) Kilgore, natives of the same township, were of Scotch de- scent, and had eight children, of whom Dr. K. is now the only one living. His father was a farmer, and subject remained with him until he was fifteen years of age, attending the common schools. In 1830 he attended a Latin and Greek school in his township for one year and nine months, when he entered the office of Dr. Levingston, of Chanceford Township, and continued the study of Latin and Greek. In 1833 he went to Newark, Delaware Academy for one year, then to York Academy for two years, first as a student and then as assist- ant teacher. From there he went to Franklin Col- lege, New Athens, Ohio, for two years, and gradu- ated in 1836 as A. B .; then he taught at the Acade- my at Wheeling, Va., until the spring of 1837. At the office of Dr. Mellvain he next began the study of medicine, and in the fall of 1837 he entered the Jefferson College at Philadelphia, graduating in 1839. He first hegan to practice at Liverpool, where he resided four years, then removed to York, and remained until 1848; then to Peach Bottom Township. In 1851 he removed to Delta Borough, where he has since resided, and is very successful in his practice. November 24, 1840, he married Maria Louisa Haller, daughter of George Haller, Esq., and is the father of ten children: Edwin Hal- ler, William Nelson, Frances Louisa, Florence Su- san, Ida Augusta, Clara (deceased), Thomas P., Lucy J., John G. (deceased) and an infant unnamed. The Doctor has held a number of township offices, such as school director and judge of elections.

THE McCONKEY FAMILY. About the middle of the last century Hugh and James McConkey, two brothers of pure Scotch-Irish origin, emigrated from north Ireland to America. Hugh purchased land, and located in Lancaster County, Penn., and James

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went to Baltimore. John McConkey, probably a brother, came to America soon afterward, and dur- ing the Revolutionary war enlisted in Capt. Matthew Smith's company of Lancaster County Volunteers, in 1775, and endured all the perils and hardships of the famous march to Canada and the attack on Quebec. Judge John Joseph Henry, of the Lan- caster and York courts, in his personal reminis- cences of this battle, speaks in glowing terms of the endurance and bravery of his comrade in arms, John McConkey. Hugh McConkey, the ancestor of the family in this county, was born March 14, 1757, and on May 13, 1783, was married to Jane Neeper, of Lancaster County, who was born Sep- tember 5, 1760. Their children were Jesse, 'James, Anne, Andrew, Margaret, Janetta and Hugh J. The father, Hugh McConkey, who was a Revolu- tionary soldier, died at Peach Bottom, August 11, 1839.

JAMES McCONKEY, the second son, was born in Lancaster County, May 27, 1787. In the year 1808 he removed to Peach Bottom, and was in the em- ploy of John Kirk, who then owned the ferry at this place, and conducted a general merchandise business. He soon became a partner with Kirk on a capital of $500, borrowed from his father, which he soon returned with interest. Subsequently he purchased the entire business interest of the place and a tract of 300 acres of land on Cooper's Upper Rock Run. At the time of the invasion of the British toward Baltimore, in 1814, he enlisted and marched with his regiment to the defense of that city. He subsequently procured the bounty land on the western frontier for the members of his company. In the militia service afterward he at- tained the rank of major, by which title he was famil- iarly known. Early in his business career his father joined him in the management of the grist-mill at Peach Bottom. On account of the scarcity of wheat in the vicinity, caused by the sterility of the soil, in that vicinity, they floated wheat, corn and potatoes down the Susquehanna River in arks and keel-bottom boats. Here he ground the wheat into flour, corn into meal, and supplied the inhabitants over a large extent of country. In the year 18- he was elected by the Whig party to represent York County in the State senate at Harrisburg. He took a prominent part in urging the construction of the Susquehanna Canal from Columbia to join the Tide Water Canal in Maryland, which, when completed. in 1839, greatly increased the business interests of Peach Bottom. It was then that the farmers of this section began to use lime so extensively as a fertil- izer, and he brought immense quantities of the stone down the river and burned it here. In every re- spect he was a prudent, exact and prosperous busi- ness man, and at the time of his death, in 1861, had accumulated a handsome competence as the result of his assiduous labors. In every respect he was a prominent and influential citizen of his township, and intimately connected with the affairs of the county and State. In 1815 Maj. McConkey was married to Julia Ann Wiley, by whom he had eleven children. Of these two are now living: Stephen D., of Baltimore, and John Q. A., of Peach Bottom. Henry F., the eldest, died at home, while in business with his father, in 1859. William moved to Wrights- ville, and became a very influential citizen of that town, and was largely interested in the business affairs of that place. He was elected a member of the legislature from York County, which he repre- sented with acknowledged ability and credit. He died in 1880. The first wife of Maj. McConkey died in 1833. His second marriage was with Rachel Ramsay, who lived but a short time afterward. In 1838 he was married to Mary A. Ramsay. Their children were Charles R. McConkey and Mrs. Julia

A. Ross, widow of the late William G. Ross, Esq., of Lower Chanceford.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS MCCONKEY, son of Jame McConkey, by his first marriage, was born February 20, 1828. He received his mental training in the schools of the township, and also grew up as a clerk in his father's store. At the age of thirty-three years, upon his father's death, he and his brother, Charles R., succeeded the father in the mercantile business at Peach Bottom. In 1866 he purchased the interest of Charles R. in the store, grain and boat- ing business, in which he is at present engaged. He has served the township in various local offices. In 1874 he was nominated for county treasurer by the Republican party; in 1880 he was the party nominee for State senate. In both instances he received a large vote, but not sufficient to overcome the large majority of the opposition. In 1882 he declined the nomination of his party for congress. He was appointed postmaster in 1878, and has since held the position. As partners, he and his brother Charles own all the business interests of the village of Peach Bottom and a tract of 350 acres of valuable farming land. Mr. McConkey is an active Mason, a member of the K. T., Columbia Commandery, at Lancaster. In 1860 he was married, in Harford County, Md., to Sarah S. Whiteford, daughter of Hugh Whiteford, a descendant of Col. Whiteford, who commanded at Havre de Grace during the British invasion of Baltimore in 1814. They had two children, one who died young and Edward Everett McConkey, now in business with his father.

CHARLES R. McCONKEY, son of James McCon- key, by his last marriage, was born in 1839; attended the public and private schools of the vicinity, and afterward, for a time, was a pupil in an academy in the city of Philadelphia, then taught by Gen. Joshua T. Owens. Returning home he assisted his father in business until at the age of twenty-1wo, when his father died. Then with his brother, John Q. A., engaged in the lumber, lime, coal, grain and store business. Disposing of his interests at Peach Bottom, in 1870, he removed to Philadelphia, and was engaged there in the wholesale boot and shoe business. At the expiration of two years he re- turned to his old home, and embarked in the Juin- ber trade and the selling of fertilizers, which he still continues, and also assists in the management of a tract of 350 acres of farming land, of which he and his brother are joint partners. In 1872 he was elected a director in the York & Peach Bottom Rail- road, and was subsequently elected to the office of president of the railroad. For a time he was ap- pointed receiver of the corporation. He then assisted in reorganizing the road, and was again elected its president. He has served his township very satisfactorily as school director, and in various ways has been a public spirited and enterprising citizen. Mr. McConkey was married, December 27, 1866, to Rachel S. Alexander, a native of Belmont County, Ohio, daughter of James and Elizabeth (McGregor) Alexander. Her mother was a native of Peach Bottom. They have three children: Henry Alexander, Charles Reynolds and Mary E. Mr. McConkey and family are members of the Presby- terian Church, to which nearly all of his relatives and ancestors belonged.

WILLIAM J. MCCURDY, son of James and Martha (Hepburn) McCurdy, both natives of County Derry, Ireland, who immigrated to America in 1808, was horn March 16, 1813, in Lancaster County, Penn. His parents soon afterward removed to Peach Bottom Township, in York County. Feb- ruary 25, 1840, he married Alice J. Fulton, daugh- ter of John Fulton, and has five children living: James C., in Philadelphia; John F., in Chicago,

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Ill .; William H., a physician of Delta, and two daughters, Alice and Guianna, residing with their parents. He purchased the farm, on which he lives, in 1844, and by a judicious system of tillage has brought it into a high state of cultivation. In 1880 he became engaged in the business of canning fruit and vegetables, which he has since then suc- cessfully carried on in connection with farming. Mr. MeCurdy has held the offices of supervisor, auditor and school director, is a Mason, an Odd Fellow, and a deacon in the Baptist Church.

WILLIAM H. MCCURDY, M. D., was born in Peach Bottom Township, October 26, 1854. His parents were William J. and Alice J. (Fulton) McCurdy; the former a native of Lancaster County, the latter of York County, and were respectively of Irish and Scotch-Irish origin. They were parents of nine children, of whom three sons and two daughters are living, and one son and three daugh- ters dead. William H. MeCurdy left home at the age of fourteen to attend Lewisburg University. Penn., and at the age of seventeen entered Lafay- ette College, where, in 1876, he graduated. After teaching in the common schools two years, mean- time reading medicine under Dr. Scarborough, of Dublin, Hartford Co., Md., he entered Jefferson College, at Philadelphia, in 1878. After graduating in 1881 he began to practice near State Hill, and in May, 1884, removed to Delta, where lie is now in practice. He married Miss Laura J. Jenness, a na- tive of Maryland, February 8, 1883, and has one child-Russell W. In 1879 he began the canning business in Peach Bottom Township. In 1881 took his father into partnership, and in 1883 consolidated thirty-one canning firms into the Northern Harford Packing Association, an incorporated company, with a capital stock of $200,000, of which he is the sec- retary. He was among the organizers of the Delta Building and Loan Association, is a member of the York County Medical Society and chaplain of Esdraelon Lodge, A. F. & A. M., at South Delta. His wife is a member of Slateville Presbyterian Church, while he is connected with the Delta Bap- tist Church.

WATSON A. MCLAUGHLIN, proprietor of the Railroad Hotel in Delta, was born to Jolin and Mary (Miller) Mclaughlin, in Mifflin County, Penn., Feb- ruary 14, 1842, is of Irish descent, and is the eldest of six children. The family immigrated to Dayton, Ohio, when the children were young, and there the parents died. Watson returned to Pennsyl- vania soon after this event, and for some years lived in Lancaster, attending school and clerking in his uncle's store. He began the miller's trade at the age of eighteen, and followed the business about ten years in Conestoga Township. During the war he enlisted in 1862, as teamster, served a year and then passed about one year in government employ at Washington, D. C., and next worked eighteen months at milling, after which he worked at mill- ing and on a tobacco farm at Lancaster County. In 1864 he married Miss Elizabeth Moore, a native of Lancaster County. They have had seven children, five of whom are dead. Those living are Daniel and Nora O. In 1874 he removed to Fawn Town- ship in York County, and kept hotel for one year, and afterward came to Peach Bottom. The follow- ing year he moved to Centreville, in Lower Chance- ford Township, and then to Delta, where he still resides, having conducted a hotel ever since leaving Lancaster County. In 1879 he embarked in slate quarrying, and spent a large sum of money in pros- pecting, having since then opened five different quarries, without finding a profitable vein. He is at this writing engaged in a new quarry in Harford County, Md., which promises to be remunerative. Since June, 1884, he has acted as superintendent of

a slate quarry in Peach Bottom Township for a Lancaster firm.

WILLIAM T. MCLAUGHLIN. second son of Theodore and Sarah (Eckman) MeLaughlin, was born in Harford County, Md., May 19, 1847. The family are widely known as millwrights. James Mclaughlin, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, with his sons Theodore, Parke, Daniel and Joshua, having for a great number of years worked at this trade in York and the adjoining counties of Lancaster, Cecil and Harford. The grandfather was a man of immense physical strength and en- durance, and was highly respected for his integrity of character. He died in Harford County, in 1876, at the age of ninety-nine. He was in Chester County, Penn., and it is reported that his infant slumbers in the cradle were broken on the morning of September 11, 1777, by the cannonading at the battle of Chad's Ford. The family are of Scotch- Irish origin. Willtam T. MeLaughlin's boyhood was passed on a farm, and his education obtained in a public school. At the age of twenty-six he formed a partnership with Foulk Jones, and for five years carried on farming and butchering at Slate Hill. With the same partner he then engaged in the hardware business at Delta. In 1883 he he- came sole proprietor, and has since successfully conducted it. He married Aunie M. White, Jan- uary 31, 1873, and has three children living: Howard L., Jarett B. and Theodore, besides one who died in infancy. He has served one term as borough auditor, and is a member of Mount Hebron Lodge, I. O. O. F. His parents are both living.

WILLIAM McSPARRAN, a native of Lancas- ter County, Penn., was born November 20, 1820. His parents, James and Eleanor (Neal) McSparran were of Irish extraction, the paternal great-grand- father having come from Ireland and settled on land purchased from the Indians, in the southern part of Lancaster County. This tract has ever since heen owned and occupied by the family, which is a large and influential one. The subject of this sketch. after having received a training in farm life and a fair education, entered the mercan- tile business at the age of twenty-one at Liberty Square, and after two years removed to Chestnut Level, where he remained two years more. He then removed to Peach Bottom in York County, where for five years he was engaged in the lumber and lime trade and in boating. In 1850 be removed to West Bangor and formed a partnership with James A. McConkey, which continued one year. At about the age of thirty-three he commenced farming, which business he continues to pursue with eminent success. When about twenty-five years of age he married Miss Alice Caldwell, who lived only three months after marriage. He next married when about thirty, Miss Masaline William- son, daughter, of Maj. Thomas S. Williamson, who was the pioneer of the Peach Bottom Slate busi- ness. She died in May, 1883, leaving one daughter, Henrietta, who now resides with her father. On the land occupied and managed by Mr. MeSparran, all the slate quarries now operated in York County are located. This tract comprises ahout 700 acres, fifty of which are leased as slate quarries. These pay a royalty on all slate taken out. which yield an income of about $3,000 per year. Three schoolhouses and three churches are located on the property, which in addition to the slate leases, is divided into three fine farms, two of which are rented out. Mr. Mc- Sparran's second wife was a near relative of Gov. Kirkwood, of Iowa. The family are members of the Slateville Presbyterian Church.

ROBERT W. MORRIS, a member of the Peach Bottom Slate Manufacturing Company, is a native of Dinorwig, Carnaervonshire, north Wales.

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He was born January 27, 1847. His parents, William and Catherine (Roberts) Morris, had three sons and five daughters, all of whom, except one brother and two sisters, came to America. Robert came to Slatington, in Lehigh County, and for eighteen months worked there in a slate quarry, then came to West Bangor, in York County, where he has pursued the same vocation ever since, hav- ing obtained an interest in the quarries of the above mentioned company in 1884. He was married, September 5, 1870, to Anne Jane, daughter of Hugh and Margaret Roberts, and has two sons and four daughters: Hugh R., Catharine, Annie, Bertha, Maggie and Willie. They removed from West Bangor to Delta in 1884 after the death of his father-in-law, and Mrs. Roberts, his mother-in-law, resides with him. Mr. Morris is a member of the Calvinistic Methodist Church at West Bangor. His parents died in Wales.

WILLIAM ORR, son of Mordecai and Mary (McNutt) Orr, both natives of Harford County, Md., was born June 3, 1820, near Darlington, Har- ford County. He came with his parents to York County, Penn., when about fifteen years of age, and settled in Lower Chanceford Township. He married September 11, 1842, Dorcas Jones, daughter of Theophilus Jones, of York County, and has five children: Mary A., Blain, Mordecai J., William B., Rachel W. and Alverda. Since his removal to Peach Bottom, twenty-seven years ago, Mr. Orr has been engaged in farming and shoe-making. He has been collector of taxes for the township, and is held in high esteem by his neighbors. He is a member of Mount Hebron Lodge, I. O. O. F.

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History of York County, Pennsylvania : from the earliest period to the present time, divided into general, special, township and borough histories, with a biographical department appended, Part 196

Author: Gibson, John, Editor Publication date: 1886 Publisher: F.A. Battey Publishing Co., Chicago Number of Pages: 1104

Author: Gibson, John, Editor
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: F.A. Battey Publishing Co., Chicago
Number of Pages: 1104