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 47

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

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ard, the great-grandfather, was also a devout man, and, during the first period of his resi- dence in Baltimore, was a member of and exhorter in the church of Rev. Otterbein, of blessed memory. Benjamin Harbaugh, one of Leonard's sons, formerly of Baltimore, married Mrs. Elizabeth Reynolds, daughter of Maj. William Bailey of York, an officer in the Revolutionary Army attached to the Pennsylvania line, under the command of Col. Swope.

Mary Elizabeth, the oldest daughter of the original settler, Yost, was born near York, on Good Friday, 1753, and became the wife of Godfrey Lenhart, an old and well-known citizen of York, among whose descendants are the late Mrs. Kuntz; Mrs. Genther; Mrs. Louis Sudec of York; Mrs. Elizabeth Bailey, and her daughter Catharine, who was the wife of the late distinguished Prof. Samuel Tyler, LL. D. (of Frederick, Md. ) author of Baconian Philosophy, Life of Barnes, and various legal treatises: Rev. Henry Lenhart, late of Williamsport, Penn., and his son, Rev. L. Lenhart, for seventeen years a chaplain in the navy, and who while serving in that capacity went down with the Cumberland, in Hampton Roads, in the spring of 1864; Will- iam Lenhart, the distinguished mathemati- cian; and Catharine Lenhart, wife of the late John B. McPherson, so long a prominent and highly honored citizen of Gettysburg, cashier of its bank, and father of Hon. Ed- ward McPherson; William C. McPherson, his son; Hon. John B. McPherson, associate law- judge of the Dauphin and Lebanon District; Mrs. Andrew Mehaffy, (formerly of Columbia, now of New York City); Elizabeth, wife of Gen. Albion P. Howe, United States Army (Cambridge, Mass.); J. B. McPherson, Esq. (New York City;) Catharine, wife of Dr. Nor- man B. Scott; Dr. J. McPherson Scott; Mrs. Alexander Armstrong, and Norman Bruce Scott, Esq., all of Hagerstown, Md.

WILLIAM LENHART.

The eminent scholarship and somewhat remarkable career of William Lenhart (al- ready referred to) claim special and extended mention. The few octogenarians among us will remember an humble log-house that once stood at the north west corner of North George Street and Center Square, where, nearly a century ago, lived Godfrey Lenhart, "der Silwerschmidt und Uhremacher "-the silver- smith and clock-maker, and many a " grand- father's clock," after a long banishment, now recalled by the growing love for the antique, bears upon is broad open, smiling face, the in . scription "Godfrey Lenhart, Yorktown, Penn."

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That humble log-house (so faithfully sketched by Louis Miller in his "Chronics ") no doubt was the birthplace, January 19, 1787, of a child, whose powers of intellect, but for his physical misfortunes and scanty pecuniary resources, would probably have enabled him to "illustrate the name of his country throughout the scientific world." His father, Godfrey Lenhart, though a highly respectable citizen, and by the free suffrage of his fellow citizens, chosen to the (then) honorable and responsible office of high sheriff, which he held and faithfully filled from 1794 to 1797, was nevertheless a gentleman of limited means, and, therefore, really unable to give his children more than the ordinary and very meager common pay-school education of the day About the year 1801, however, when William was not above fourteen, Dr.

Adrian, then obscure, but afterwards famous as a mathematician, opened a school in York, and William Lenhart became one of his pupils. He at once began to develop that extraordinary talent, especially for the science of mathematics, in which he made such rapid progress that, before he quit Dr. Adrian's school, and before he had attained his six- teenth year, he had become a contributor to the"Mathematical Correspondent," a scientific periodical published in the city of New York, and when only seventeen, he was awarded a medal for the solution of a mathematical prize-question.

About this time he quit Dr. Adrian's school, and being an accomplished penman and accountant, accepted the offer of a posi- tion as clerk in a leading mercantile house in Baltimore. At this period of his life, it is said he was remarkable for his personal attractions, and, always, for excellence of manners and good conduct. As might be expected, however, he soon tired of such a business, and, though but little bettering his situation, accepted a position in some clerical employment in the sheriff's office. He re- mained in Baltimore about four years, during all which time, however otherwise employed, his leisure was devoted to reading, his favor- ite study, mathematics, and contributions to the Mathematical Correspondent and also to the Analyst, published by Dr. Adrian in Philadelphia. Afterward, he became book keeper in the commercial house of Has- singer & Reese in the latter city. As clerk and book-keeper his proficiency was un- rivaled, his salary was doubled at the end of the first year, and the accounts he made out for foreign merchants were long kept by his employers as models of perfection ; and in view of his eminent personal services, the

firm, at the end of the third year, admitted him as a partner, without other capital. Before entering upon his duties, however, and while on a visit to his parents at York, an unfortunate accident befell him which, doubtless, proved to be the turning point in a career which would, otherwise, have shed undying luster on his name and on his country. While enjoying a rural drive, his horse became unmanageable, ran away, break- ing the carriage, throwing him out and fract- uring one of his legs. On his supposed re- covery he returned to Philadelphia, and, · sometime after, while engaged in a game of quoits, was suddenly seized with excrutiating pain in his back and partial paralysis of the lower extremities. After eighteen months of the most skillful medical and surgical treatment by Drs. Physick and Parish. his recovery was pronounced hopeless. What wonder that his cup of misery overflowed in view of the fact of his engagement at the time to a young lady of most estimable character, and to whom he had been attached from early life. The injury he had received from the fall from his carriage, most proba- bly caused his spinal affection from which, and a subsequent injury. he was destined to sixteen years of suffering and torture, and eventually to pine away and die at an age when men, ordinarily, are in their prime. But incredible as it may seem, we are assured on the highest authority that during all that long interval of constantly increasing pain and suffering, he not only cultivated light literature and music, but, as before, devoted inuch time to mathematics. In music he made great proficiency and was considered the best parlor flute player in this country. In 1828 he sustained a second fracture of his leg, in consequence of which, and his already existing complication of disorders, his suffer- ings, at times, almost passed the bounds of endurance. He was now passing most of his time with his sister, in Frederick. But bis very lips became at length paralyzed from the progress of his disease, and even the pleasures of his flute were denied him. What must have been the talents, moral energy, and force of will, which. under bodily afflictions like these, made such ad- vances in abstruse science as to confer im- mortality on the name of their possessor? During the last year of his life he thus wrote to a friend :

"My afflictions appear to me to be not unlike an infinite series, composed of com- plicated terms, gradually and regularly in- creasing-in sadness and suffering-and becoming more and more involved; and hence

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the abstruseness of its summation; but when it shall be summed in the end, by the Great Arbiter and Master of all, it is to be hoped that the formula resulting will be found to be not only entirely free from surds, but per- fectly pure and rational, even unto an inte. ger."

During the sixteen years from 1812 to 1828 he did not, of course, nor could he, devote himself to mathematical science. But after- ward he resumed these studies for the pur- pose of mental employment, and continued his contributions to mathematical journals. In 1836 the publication of the Mathematical Miscellany was commenced in New York, and his fame became established by his contribu- tions to that journal. "I do not design," says Prof. Samuel Tylor, "to enter into a detail of his profound researches. He attained an eminence in science of which the noblest intellects might well be proud ; and that, too, as an amusement, when suffering from afflictionis which, we might suppose, would have disqualified him for intellectual labor. It will be sufficient for my purpose to remark that he left behind him a reputa- tion as the most eminent Diophantine Alge- . braist that ever lived. The eminence of this reputation will be estimated when it is recol- lected that illustrious men, such as Euler, Lagrange and Gauss, are his competitors for fame in the cultivation of the Diophantine analysis. Well might he say that he felt as if he had been admitted into the sanctum sanctorum of the great temple of numbers, and permitted to revel among its curiosi- ties. "

Notwithstanding his great mathematical genius, Mr. Lenhart did not extend his investigations into the modern analysis and the differential calculus as far as into the Diophantine analysis. He thus accounts for it: " My taste lies in the old fashioned pure geometry and the Diophantine analysis, in which every result is perfect; and beyond the exercise of these two beautiful branches of the mathematics, at my time of life, and under present circumstances, I feel no incli- nation to go." The character of his mind did not consist entirely in the mathematical tendency, which was developed by the early tuition of Dr. Adrian. Possessed, as he was, of a lively imagination, a keen susceptibility to all that is beautiful in the natural and intellectual world, wit and acuteness, it is manifest that he wanted nothing but early education and leisure to have made a most accomplished scholar. He was also a poet. One who knew him well says: "He has left some effusions which were written to friends

as letters, that for wit, humor, sprightliness of fancy, pungent satire, and flexibility of versification, will not lose in comparison with any of Burns' best pieces of a similar kind." Mr. Lenhart was of a very cheerful and san- guineous temperament, full of tender sympa- thies with all the joys and sorrows of Lis race, from communion with whom he was almost entirely excluded. Like all truly great and noble men, he was remarkable for the simplicity of his manners. That word, in its broad sense, contains a history of character. He knew he was achieving con- quests in abstruse science, which had not been made by . the greatest mathematicians, yet he was far from assuming anything in his intercourse with others.

"During the autumn of 1839, intense suf- fering and great emaciation indicated that his days were almost numbered. His intel- lectual powers did not decay ; but like the Altamont of Young, he was "still strong to reason and mighty to suffer." He indulged in no murmurs on account of the severity of his fate. True nobility submits with grace to that which is inevitable. *

* * Lenhart was conscious of the impulses of his high intellect, and his heart must have swelled within him when he contemplated the victories he might have achieved and the laurels he might have won. But he knew his lot forbade that he should leave other than "short and simple annals" for posterity. He died at Frederick, Md., July 10, 1840, in the fifty-fourth year of his age, with the calmness imparted by philosophy and Chris- tianity. Religion conferred upon him her consolations in that hour when it is only by religion that consolation can be bestowed; and as he sank into the darkness and silence of the grave, he believed there was another and a better world, in which the immortal mind will drink at the very fountain-head of knowledge, unencumbered with the decaying tabernacle of clay by which its lofty aspira- tions are here confined as with chains .*

LEWIS MILLER.

Mr. Miller was an "old Yorker" and a very remarkable man, well known to many of our old readers, to whom the following sketch of his family, life and character will doubtless be interesting :

Lewis, or "Loui," Miller as he was famil- iarly called and known among the peo- ple of York, was the eighth son, and the tenth and youngest child of John Ludwig Miller, a native of Nuremberg, Germany, and

*For most of the materials in the sketch of the Lenhart's, I am indebted to Hon. Edward McPherson. H. L. F.

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his wife, Catharine Rothenberger, of Heidel- berg, Germany. The parents were married in 1770, by Rev. Joseph Miller in Erbach, in the Odenwald, a wild and romantic tract of Upper Germany, the seat of the famous family of Katzenellenbegen, and of the castle of the Baron Von Landshort, around which our immortal Irving has woven his en- chanting romance of "The Spectre Bride- groom." John Ludwig Miller was born A. D. 1747, was educated at a gym- nasium, or high school, founded by Melanch- thon, and was a classmate of Heinrich Schu- bart. At a very early age he was appren- ticed to learn the "art and mystery" of making white crockery-ware, (or as "Loni" says in a recent letter, "China, to set on tables").

LEWIS MILLER.

Soon after their marriage, in 1771, John Ludwig and his wife, Catharine, emi- grated to North America, taking ship, first at Rotterdam, last from Cowes, England, in the ship "Minerva," Capt. Johnson, bound for Philadelphia. On the voyage their first child, Michael, was born, baptised, died and buried in the briny deep. Their next child, Elizabeth, was born in Philadelphia in 1775. She became the wife of John N. Kolb, of York, by whom she had seven children, all sons, several of whom survive and reside in New York City. Elizabeth died in 1864, or 1865, aged about ninety years.

The family of John Ludwig Miller, must have resided in Philadelphia for several years, for it appears that beside Elizabeth, two sons, David and Philip, and probably John, were born there, David in 1777 and Philip in 1780.

These were the stormy

"times that tried men's souls," and ah! how much more interesting the family tradition would be, could it now be gathered from the lips of Ludwig and Catharine who so peace- fully sleep in the little graveyard in the rear of the old German Lutheran Church.

Between 1780 and 1782 the family must have removed to Montgomery County, Penn., for there, on the Rittenhouse farm, in the latter year, his brother John died; and there, in 1784, was born his brother Joseph, who removed to Montgomery County, Va., and there died in 1842, in his fifty-eighth year.

Some time between 1784 and 1787 the fam- ily removed to York; since here, in the latter year, was born another son, Benjamin, who emmigrated to Upshur County, W. Va., where he died in 1864, aged seventy-six years and seventeen days. John M. Miller (a second John), was born in York in 1790, emigrated to Rockingham County, Va., where he died in 1866, at the age of seventy-five years, nine months and ten days. Catharine, the second sister, and ninth child, was born in York, January 8, 1793, died at the age of eleven months, and lies buried in a little school- house graveyard near the old John Roth mill, Manchester Township. Her father, John Ludwig Miller, was the "schoolmaster at that schoolhouse at that time; but the schoolhouse is no more to be seen," says "Loui."

Lewis Miller, the principal subject of this sketch, was born on the 3d day of December, A. D. 1795, in York, in a small one-story frame, weather-boarded house, then and for many years afterward. standing on the east side of South Duke Street, where the neat little cottage of Rev. John Fritz now stands. On the rear end of the German Lutheran Church-lot, stood a small schoolhouse, where, according to a time-honored and pious Ger- man usage, a parish school was kept, some- times by the chorister, foresinger or orgauist, of the congregation. Whether Lonis's father served in any of these offices is not known; but certain it is that for many years he bore the high, more dignified and honorable one of Schulmeister, in the little old log school- house that once stood in the rear of the Ger- man Lutheran Church. Here he tanght both German and English at one and the same time, and here it was that "little Loui" graduated.

German and English in the same school at the same time by the same master! No won- der our good old Pennsylvania German dia- lect became sadly mixed up, for this was a common practice in many parts of the State.

On the completion of his education, Loui was apprenticed to his brother John (M.) to

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learn the art and mystery of house-carpenter- ing. After the completion of his term of apprenticeship, he worked at the business as a journeyman, successively, for Peter Small, Henry Small, George Small, Abraham Gart- man, Jacob Gartman, George Jacobs, James Connelly, and. perhaps others, for a period of nearly forty years, and was employed on most, if not all, the principal public and private buildings. built or rebuilt in York during that period.

His father died in 1822, aged seventy-five years; his mother in 1830, aged eighty years, and they (as already said) and their daughter Catharine (Mrs. Kolb), lie buried in the Ger- man Lutheran graveyard in York

In 1840 Loui and several other Yorkers, among them Mr. Henry Hertzog and the late Dr. Alexander Small, crossed the Atlantic, and Loui made a tour chiefly on foot, of some of the principal countries of Europe. They took passage at New York in May, in the good ship " Garrick," Capt. A. S. Palmer, bound for Liverpool, making the passage in twenty-two days. In Liverpool they "put up " at the Waterloo Hotel, kept by William Lyon. " Thence," as Loui says, " to Bir- mingham, etc., etc., to London, etc., etc., and saw all in England." Dr. Small, after spending a few days in London, parted company with the rest and went to travel on the continent. Loui and Hertzog remained in London about a week, seeing all that could be seen in that time. During their strolls about the great metropolis, Hertzog, occa- sionally in doubt about their own whereabouts, inquired as to the names of the streets. etc., whereat Loui, lest the distinguished Ameri- can travelers might be mistaken by their English cousins for ignorant country-Jakes, became very indignant. And, as Mr. Hert- zog says, on an occasion of unusual excite. ment in the streets-great crowds of people, splendid civic and military displays -- he ventured to inquire the cause. A policeman very politely answered that the Queen was passing on her way to the palace. This was too much for Loui, who, though remarkably observant, and, as we all know, booked everything, was ever too proud to seek infor- mation at the hands of those whom he con- sidered his inferiors.

From London they went to Holland, up the Rhine to Mainz, where they parted, Hert- zog going to Strasburg (France), bis native place, and Loui proceeding further up the Rhine, visiting all the chief towns and cities of Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Bo- hemia, Bavaria, France, Italy and Poland : keeping a complete diary and making numer-

ous sketches of places, monuments, and other objects of historic interest. The parties all returned at different times. Hertzog in No- vember, 1840, Loui in the fall of 1841, and the doctor, perhaps, somewhat later.

On his return, Loui resumed his trade, and continued to work at it in the employ of the principal bosses then carrying on the carpen- ter business in York. He was a man of a very social and genial nature, though withal, some- what peculiar, eccentric, and at times even comic. In his humorous mimicry he was almost perfect, and with a little stage training would have rivaled Owen himself. As a Pennsyl- vania " Dutch " Solon Shingle, he would have been unsurpassed and unapproachable. More- over, he was a man of quick and keen per- ception and æsthetic taste ; an ardent lover of all that was grand and beautiful in art and nature, or noble in human conduct. Though a lover of the sublime, he had a keen and lively sense of the ridiculous. He was an amateur of no mean skill in the arts of rustic drawing, and painting in water col- ors. "Loui Miller's Books, or Chronics," as- they are familiarly known to many of our peo- ple, are two large rustically illustrated mann- script folios, and now occupy(or should)a place in the Cassat Library. They have been the source of a vast deal of genuine amusement, as well as of much valuable information on topics of local and family history. To Loui Miller, the temptation to "picture off," or transfer to paper, in some comic, awkward, and inimitably ludicrous manner, the gro- tesque images made upon his peculiarly sus- ceptible brain by queer people in queer pre- dicaments, was so perfectly irresistible as to amount to a passion, and the good natured and harmless manner in which he " took off" with pen or pencil, India ink or camel's-hair brush, many of our old citizens, not a few of whom are still living, would, in almost any other person, have been considered, and per- haps even treated as grossly libelous. Neither Punch, Puck nor Harper, could rival some of these quaint caricatures in their way. For these (as many of the old masters had for their favorite subjects), Loui had a genius, a talent and a style peculiarly his own.

The first book opens thus:

" THE BEGINNING of the CHRONIC, from the year 1799 to 1870."

At the top of the first page is a neat pen- and-ink sketch of his old home and birthplace on South Duke Street. It was a small one- storied log, weather-boarded house, and many will remember the unique and elaborate legendary carvings in wood, which the skill- ful and cunning hand of old Loui Miller

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HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY.

executed and placed above its humble doors and windows.

He then proceeds: "All the pictures con- tained in this book * are true sketches, * I, myself being there upon the places and spot, and put down what happened, and was close by, of the greatest number, saw the whole scene enacted before my eyes-that man is but a picture of what I can see, who taught me by times to visit, and improve the mind. I see all is vanity in this world.

". Be good yourself, nor think another's shame Can raise your merit or adorn your fame;

The man whose mind on virtue bent. Pursues some greatly good intent With undiverted aim.'

" Written by Lewis Miller, Jr .. in South Duke Street, York, Penn., April 6, 1816."

The stanza seems to be incomplete, but contains quite enough to show the serious turn of his mind, even in his early manhood.

Under date of 1799 are the following (illustrated) entries :

"Rev. Jacob Goering administers baptism in the old Lutheran Church to a child.

" Singing the 306th hymn.

.. . Das Lied .- Nun lasst uns froelich singen, Vou Wunder grossen Dingen, Die aus der Taufe kommen, Zu Nutz un Trost der frommen.'

" Ich taufe dich in dem Namen Gottes, der Vater der Sohn und Heilege Geist, Amen."

"Old Mrs. Bannix, the sexton's wife, and I, little Loui Miller, standing close behind the minister."

Another:

" May 26, 1799, was baptized a son of George Finnefrock and his wife, Elisabet. The sponsors were Jacob Miller and wife, Sa- bina. The little son was born April 22.

"Ludwig Miller, school-master. Lewis Shive and John and George Bernitz were also present, assisting Ludwig in the singing."

How wonderful it now would be, Could we Time's rusty bars unlock. Or lift his dusky veil and see The fate of little Finnefrock!

One more. This was the occasion of what Loui calls " the holding of the first Demo- cratical meeting ever held in York." He says it took place in the old log-house, lately standing on the Weiser property, on the north side of East Market Street, between the banking house of Weiser, Son & Carl and the Central Hotel, in the fall or winter of 1799. His record of the event is substantially as follows:

"BURYING THE BLACK COCKADE."

"The first Democratical meeting in York in 1799 at Furry's tavern in East Market Street.

The chairman was Col. George Spangler; secretary, John Weyer; and the following persons were also present: Martin Hellman, Daniel Stauffer, George Dietz, Peter Dietz, Conrad Welshhans, Michael Edwards, John Stroman, Henry Weiser, John Mosey, Jacob Spangler, Frederick Laumaster, Peter Wilt, Henry Sheffer, Philip Kissinger, Peter Small, Jacob Shultz, Jacob Cremer and Maj. Rocke. After the meeting, burying the Black Cock- ade in Furry's Garden."

(Here follows Loui's picture of the funeral procession,) and then the solemn funeral dirge sung at the grave-all the more sol- emn for its being in German:

"Nun, schwarzer-Seidner Kokarde. Wir legen dich, jetz, in den Garteu; 'Warst lang genug schon auf dem Hut, Fuir dieses bist du nicht mehr Gut. Du Schwarzer must fergraben werden; Staub und Ashe must du werden,

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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 47

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