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 77

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 77

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The celebrated Baptist preacher, Morgan Edwards, of Philadelphia, visited his Dunker brethren in York County in 1770 and after- ward wrote an interesting report of their prosperity here.

Being non-resistants in principle and in church discipline, the first who emigrated to York County had no difficulties with the In- dians then here. During the Revolutionary war most of them took the oath of allegiance.

"The annual conference was held first in York County in 1789 on the great Conewago." The following named elders or bishops were present: Daniel Leatherman, Martin Urner, Jacob Danner, Heinrich Danner, John Funk, Jacob Stall, Heinrich Neff. Conrad Brom- bach, Daniel Utz, Andreas Eby, Samnel Ger- ber, Herman Blasser, Jacob Basehor, Abra- ham Oberholtzer.

Some of these may have been visitors from Lancaster County or Maryland.

The Dunkers or Brethren were so numer- ous in York and Adams Counties that a second meeting of the conference was held on the premises of Isaac Latchaws in 1819, when the following named elders or bishops were present: Benjamin Bauman, Samuel Arnold, Daniel Stober (Stover), Daniel Gerber, Christian Lang (Long), Jacob Mohler, John Gerber, John Stauffer, Benjamin Eby, John Trimmer, Jacob Preisz (Price), Daniel Reichardt, Frederick Kline, Daniel Saylor, the ancestor of D. P. Saylor, a prominent minister of the church who recently died. Nearly all these elders then lived in York and Adams Counties.

The services in general down to about 1810 were held in private houses, barns and

schoolhouses. They now have plainly con- structed but comfortable meeting-houses. The following is a list of the names of some prominent members of the Brethren Church, who lived in York County before the year 1770 and belonged to the Conewago, Ber- mudian and other congregations: Jacob Moyer and wife, James Henrick and wife, Hans Adam Sneider and wife, Barbara Sneider, George Wine and wife, Daniel Woods and wife, Henry Geing and wife, Joseph Moyer and wife, Nicholas Housteter and wife, Christian Housteter, Rudy Brown and wife, Tobias Brother and wife, Jacob Miller and wife, Michael Kouts and wife, widow Powser and widow Moyer, Stephen Peter, wife and daughter, Maud Powser, George Peter, Henry Tanner or Danner and wifo, Michael Tanner and wife, John Moyer and wife, Jacob Souder and wife, Henry Hoeff and wife, Hesther Weise, Christian Etter, John Peter Weaver, Barbara Bear, John Swarts and wife, Liss Bearing, Great Hymen, George Brown and wife, Peter Werds or Wertz, John Heiner and wife, Peter Fox and wife, Anthony Dierdorff and wife, Nicholas Moyer and wife, Manasses Bruch and wife, Michael Basserman and wife, David Erhard and wife, Ann Mummard, Daniel Baker and wife, Abraham Stauffer and wife, Henry Dierdorff and wife, John Burkholter and wife, Christian Frey, Andrew Trimmer and wife, Justus Reinsel and wife, Samuel Arnold, Peter Dierdorff and wife, Barnet Achenbach and wife, Mary Latche, Catherine Studybaker, John Neagley aud wife, Valen- tine Beissel and wife, Mathias Bouser, Philip Snell and wife, Adam Sower, wife and two daughters, Adam Dick and wife, Moralis Baker and wife, Henry Beissel and wife, Henry Radibush and wife, George Waggoner and wife, Rudolph Brown, Jacob Miller. Nearly all of the congregations of this denomination now have meeting-houses. The county of York is at present divided into three districts. The upper Codorus district has within its limits four meeting-houses, namely-Black Rock, in Manheim Township ;. Jefferson, near Jefferson Borough; Wildasin's, four miles southeast of Hanover, and Beaver Creek, near Abbottstown. The bishop or elder of this district is Henry Hohf, of Black Rock. The preachers are D. N. Bucher, of Abbottstown; Joseph Price, of Black Rock; Aaron Baugher, Jefferson; David B. Hohf. Edwin Miller, of Black-Rock; Moses Murray and David Hoff.

The lower Codorus district embraces the region of country around York and Logan- ville. In this district there are four meeting

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HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY.

houses, namely-Logansville, Herbst, near Winterstown; Union Meeting House, between York and Logansville, and West York, built quite lately in the borough.

The bishop or elder of this district is Jacob Shamberger, who resides in Baltimore County. The preachers are Jacob Aldinger, Christian Ness and Andrew Meyers.

The third district embraces the upper end of the county and contains four meeting- houses, namely: Bermudian, in Washington Township; Walgemuth's, near Dillsburg, Holzschwamm or Altland's near Bigmount in Paradise Township and Union Chapel in Strinetown.

There is no bishop or elder to this district at present. The preachers are John Raffens. berger, Samuel Kochenauer and Daniel Alt- land. The membership of the German Bap- tists in York County is now ahout one thous- and families, all farmers. They are a quiet unpretentious, industrious, well-to-do people, and as citizens are honest, upright, kind and just in all their relations. with their fellow- men. The annual meetings and love-feasts are attended by hundreds and sometimes thousands.

The River Brethren, sometimes known among themselves as "Brethren in Christ," is a sect that originated along the Susquehanna River, in Conoy Township, Lancaster County in 1786. and soon after a congregation was formed in York County. The authentic his- tory of this sect is rarely given. There have been published accounts which claimed to trace the origin to Germany in the year 1705. This statement has been published time and again in encyclopedias, but it is, neverthe- less, inaccurate.

The name is sometimes confused with the United Brethren (Moravians,) and the United Brethren in Christ.

The first services which afterward led to the organization of the River Brethren, were held in the house of Jacob Engel, a Men- nonite, who lived near Bainbridge, Lancaster County, and who afterward became the first bishop of the new church body. A temporary organization was effected in 1776. It was not then fully determined to form a new de- nomination. In 1784 the celebrated evan- gelist, Martin Boehm, conducted a noted re- vival in Donegal Township. Among the many who listened to the great preacher were six men: Jacob Engel, above mentioned; Hans (John) Engel, John Stern, Samuel Meigs and C. R. Rupp, the other can not be given.

These men met together frequently for prayer and to search the Scriptures. After many meetings they concluded that trine immer- sion was the only legal mode enjoined by the scriptures. They then went to George Mil- ler, a minister of the German Baptist (Dunker) faith, and asked him- to baptize them, but told him they did not wish to join his church. Upon that condition the right of baptism was refused them by the Dunker minister. They then in imitation of the Brethren, cast lots along the shore of the Susquehanna, and one of them drew the proper ticket; whereupon he baptized the others, and one of them in turn baptized him. From documents written at the time and still in existence, the facts herein given were obtained. This inter- esting ceremony took place in 1786. Jacob and John Engel and C. Rupp became the first ministers of the denomination. This sect has, ever since its origin, been entirely distinct from the Dunkers Brethren. The sect in 1880 had about eighty ministers, 100 congregations and 9,000 members in the United States, mostly in southern Pennsyl- vania, Ohio, Indiana and Kansas. Their religious services were conducted originally in the German language. At present Eng- lish is much used. As a class these people are strictly non-resistant, but upright and honorable in the highest degree. There are about 300 families of the sect in Lancaster County and in York County.

They worship in union meeting-houses in this county in the villages of Manchester, Strinestown and Longstown regularly, and oc- casionally other places. Services are very fre- quently held in private houses. Their love feasts, annually held, usually across the river, are eventful occasions. George Armold, of Longstown, is now their principal preacher, living in York County. A number of vener- able preachers of this sect have died in this county. Bishop Engle, of Lancaster County, makes periodical visits to the brethren in this county and conducts religious services.

A division of the denomination call themselves "Old School Brethren." Jacob Keller, of Manchester, is elder or bishop of them. Some of their preachers are David E. Good, George Strickler, John Strickler and Peter Williams. A number of ministers from Lancaster County visit York County regularly. The members of both divisions of this sect live mostly in Manchester and Hellam Townships, and are all prosperous farmers and excellent people.

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HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHIES.

DAVID JAMESON.

David Jameson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, about 1715, and graduated at the medical school of the celebrated university of that ancient city. He immigrated to America about the year 1740, accompanied by his friend and fellow-surgeon, Hugh Mercer, afterward distinguished in his pro- fession and as a general officer of the Revo- lutionary Army. He landed at Charleston, S. C., and, after a brief sojourn there, re- moved to Pennsylvania; resided for some time at Shippensburg, and finally settled at York, in that province, where his name and fame yet linger, and where a number of his descendants of the fourth and fifth genera- tions still reside. He became an officer of the provincial forces of Pennsylvania and attained the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the same, and of colonel in the militia of Penn- sylvania, in the Revolutionary war .* He also held, by executive appointment, civic offices in the county of York. The only ones of which any record is found are those of justice of the peace, the appointments bear- ing date October, 1754, and June, 1777 -- (Glossbrenner's History of York County, 1834)-and a special commission to him and his associate, Martin Eichelberger, Esq., to try certain offenders.

During the French and Indian war (1756) many murders and. depredations were com- mitted by the Indians on the frontier of Pennsylvania, extending to all the settle- ments from Carlisle to Pittsburg. A road had been opened from Carlisle through Cumber- land County, which crossed the North Moun- tain at a place since called Stra(w)sburg ; thence to Bedford and to Fort du Quesne (now Pittsburgh). Near Sideling Hill was erected a log fort, called Fort Lyttleton, on this road-since the "Burnt Cabins." This fort was constructed of logs and surrounded with a stockade work. Here we first find Capt. Jameson in his military movements. He was appointed an ensign by the proprie- tary governor of Pennsylvania, but at what precise period we are not informed. He very soon rose to the rank of captain, without an intermediate lieutenancy.

During his frontier service, Capt. Jameson was dangerously wounded in an engagement with Indians, near Fort Lyttleton, at Side-

ling Hill, on the road from Carlisle to Pitts- burgh, then Fort du Quesne. His sufferings and perils (being left for dead on the field), and rescue make a thrilling narrative.

It became necessary for him to repair to Philadelphia for medical aid, but it was but a few months till he assumed the field again, though he did not recover fully for six years. He afterward discharged the duties of brig- ade-major, and also of lieutenant-colonel, all of which he did to the entire satisfaction of the appointing power, at Carlisle and at dif- ferent points, then on the frontier of Penn- sylvania.

Capt. Jameson had been educated a physi- cian, yet his ambition had prompted him to solicit a command and to share in the dan- gers of the field. This did not interfere with his humane prompting to devote a por- tion of his time to the sick and wounded, and we have seen a letter written by Dr. Rush, in which he says: "I well remember to have seen your father (Dr. Jameson) dress the wound received in the shoulder by Gen. Armstrong, at the battle of Kitaning."

In Scott's geographical description of Pennsylvania, 1805, the following is found:

"Capt. Jameson is described by Burd as a 'gentleman of education, who does his duty well and is an exceedingly good officer.'"

"Col. David Jameson had command of Fort Hunter, Fort Augusta, Fort Aughwick, and was at the battle of Loyal Hanna, March 14, 1769."

Col. Jameson's age, on reaching this country, could not have been less than five and twenty years, for the medical school of the famed University of Edinboro' town then, as now, required six years' matriculation. In the French and Indian war, he must have attained the ripe age of forty. When the English colonies of America entered upon their long struggle for national independence, although he had passed the limit of age for military service, and his natural force had somewhat abated, and advancing years and wounds had in a measure enfeebled his physi- cal powers, he nevertheless seems to have been active and efficient, joining at the age of sixty "a marching regiment" to reinforce the Army of Washington, and otherwise aid- ing "the grand cause" of his country.

The following letter is from the Committee of York County t to the Committee of Safety in Philadelphia, dated December 31, 1876:

"In these times of Difficulty several gentle- men have exerted themselves much in the Grand Cause. Several Militia Companys have marched; more will march from this

* The commissions (military and civic)-now much worn and obliterated by time-held by him, except that of ensign, are in the possession of his great-grandson, Brevet Brig-Gen. Hora- tio Gates Gibson, colonel of the Third Regiment of Artillery, United States Army.

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HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY.

County, so as in the whole to compose at least a pretty good Battalion. The gentlemen who deserve the most, from the publick are David Jameson, Hugh Denwoody, Charles Lukens and Mr. George Eichelberger. They have been exceedingly useful. As most of the Companys who have marched have chosen their officers, pro Tempore, an arrangement will be necessary as to Field Officers. We propose David Jameson, Col., Hugh Denwoody, Lt. Colonel, Charles Lukens, Major and George Eichelberger, Quartermaster of the York County Militia, who now march. It will be doing Justice to merit to make the appointm't, and we make, no Doubt, it will be done by your Board. We congratulate you on the Success of the American Arms at Trenton."

It is also stated, on the authority of his son, Dr. H. G. Jameson, "that he had despoiled his fair estate near York of acres of its fine woodland, in order to contribute, without money and without price, to the aid of "the Grand Cause."

The intimate friend of Hugh Mercer, Ben- jamin Rush, James Smith, and Horatio Gates, and well known to other illustrious men of the Revolution, it is much to be regretted that the story of the life of a soldier of

" good old colony times.

When we lived under the King."

cannot be made more complete than the frag- mentary records left behind him enables his descendants to do.

After the close of his military service un- · der the province of Pennsylvania, David Jameson practiced his profession in York, (interrupted only by the period of his service in the Revolution), and died in York during the last decade of the last century, leaving a widow and children. In a memoir, prefacing a sketch of his services during the French and Indian war, and under the Province, by his son, Horatio Gates Jameson, M. D., the following reference is made to his abode near York:

"The spacious domain near the ancient borough of York, which, with a refined and cultivated taste, he adorned and beautified- though not after the manner (which could not be), of his ancestral home in "Bonnie Scotland," yet adding to its natural beauty all that art could devise to make it fair to view; and where he dispensed a generous and graceful hospitality-has passed, as usual in our country, out of the hands of his posterity; the last possessor of the blood (about 1869) being his great-grandson, Gates Jameson Weiser, Esq."

Col. Jameson married Emily Davis, by whom he had eleven children .- Thomas, James, Horatio Gates, David, Joseph, Nancy, Cassandra, Henrietta, Emily and Rachel. His sons all became physicians. Thomas settled in practice in York, James in Allen- town, Penn., Horatio Gates in Baltimore, and David and Joseph in Columbus, Ohio, and all left descendants.

HORATIO GATES JAMESON, M. D.,

was born in York in 1778, and married August 3, 1797, Catharine Shevell (Chevell), of Somerset, Penn., (where he then abode), and had issue: Cassandra, Elizabeth, Rush, Catharine, Alexander Cobean. David Davis, Horatio Gates. He seems to have sojourned, after his marriage, in Somerset, Wheeling, Adamstown and Gettysburg, until about 1810, when he removed to Baltimore, where he established himself permanently in prac- tice, founded and became president of the Washington Medical College, and. at one time, Health Officer of the city. About 1830 Dr. Jameson with his wife and daughter, Elizabeth Gibson, made a voyage to Europe on one of the packets running from Balti- more to the ports of Germany, and visited several places on the continent, but sojourned longest at Copenhagen, Denmark; to and from the American representative at whose court he was accredited as a special bearer of dispatches by the government at Washing- ton. While on his return from a trip to Texas, (where he had purchased lands), the faculty of the Ohio Medical College at Cin- cinnati, composed of Drs. Gross, Drake, Rives and Rogers-all celebrities in their profession-tendered him its presidency; ac- cepting which, he removed with his family from Baltimore to Cincinnati in October, 1835. The ill health of his wife compelled him to return to Baltimore in March, 1836, and resume practice there. On one (or two) of his journeys between Texas or the West and Baltimore, he was severely injured by the upsetting of a stage-coach on the mountains of (West) Virginia, and was unable to rejoin his family for months. His wife, Catharine (Shevell) Jameson, died iu Baltimore, No- vember 1, 1837; and he married in 1852, a lady of Baltimore, Hannah J. D. Ely, nee Fearson, (the widow of Judah Ely, Esq., with a son, Jesse Fearson Ely). Within the last year of his life, he left Baltimore and went to York, to spend his last days among the scenes of his childhood-so fondly re- membered and graphically described by him in a Baltimore journal in 1842. But the hope

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HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHIES.

and ambition of his life-to obtain and re- store to the family his patrimonial homestead and estate-he never realized; and he died, unpossessed of its acres and domicile, while on a visit to the city of New York in July, 1855-the same year in which the ancient homestead was destroyed by fire. His widow survived him nearly thirty years, and died in the city of Baltimore, August 19, 1884, at the ripe age of eighty years.

Dr. Jameson was celebrated for his surgi- cal skill and knowledge, and also had a wide repute for his successful treatment of cholera -- epidemic in Baltimore and Philadelphia, 1793-98 and 1832. He wrote several med- ical works, which were accepted as authority by the profession, and was an able and ear- nest advocate of the "non-contagion" theory. Like the great Dr. Rush, he belonged to the school of the immortal Sangrado of Gil Blas fame, whose theory of practice obtained even unto the days of the writer. The earliest recol - lection of the writer's youth is that of a fine old English engraving, which hung over the mantel in his grand-father's office. It repre- sented Galen discovering a skeleton in a for- est; and neither it, nor the lines engraved beneath, has ever been effaced from the wri- ter's memory. The latter are reproduced here, as a suggestive indication that the disciples of Galen, in those days, were devout men, fearing God:

Forbear, vain man, to launch with Reason's eye Into the vast depths of dark Immensity;

Nor think thy narrow but presumptuous mind, The least idea of thy God can find;

Though crowding thoughts distract the laboring brain,

How can Finite INFINITE explain.

HANCE HAMILTON.

Col. Hance Hamilton, the first sheriff of York County, and one of the most influential of the early settlers, was born iu 1721, and died February 2, 1772, aged fifty-one years. In the first legal records of York County, he is generally alluded to as of Cumberland Township (now Adams County), though he probably died at his mill property in Menal- len Township; his will having been ex- ecuted in that township. The executors named in it are his brother, John Hamilton, Robert McPherson, Esq., and Samuel Edie, Esq. The active executor was Col. Robert McPherson. His remains were first interred in what is known as Black's graveyard, the burying-ground of the Upper Marsh Creek Presbyterian Church, where they reposed for eighty years, and were then dis-interred and placed a short distance south of the eastern

entrance of Evergreen Cemetery, at Gettys - burg. Concerning the headstone, which is now much weather-beaten, the following re- ceipt will be perused with interest:

Received 2nd of September, 1772, of Robert Mc- Pherson, fifteen shillings, for making a headstone for Hance Hamilton's grave. ADAM LING.

0-15-0.

The signature to this document is in Ger. man. Among the first public trusts with which Hamilton was charged, was the will of his brother James Hamilton, made June 23, 1748, "in the County of Lancaster." York County was formed the next year. It was acknowl- edged in the presence of Abraham Lowry, William Brown and James McGinly. The will was proven before "Sa. Smith, Esq., of Newberry Manor, west of the Susquehanna," December 22, 1748, The estate amounted £139 13s 7d. York County was erected by an act of Assembly, August 19, 1749. In October of that year an election was held for sheriff and coroner, when Hance Hamil- ton was elected to the former office, and Nicholas Ryland to the latter. These officers were at that time elected annually, and at the next election in 1750, a serious riot en- sued between the supporters of Hance Ham- ilton, and those of his opponent, Richard McAllister, the founder of Hanover, as a result of which the sheriff refused to go on with the election. The coroner, Ryland, opened another box, with other officers and took votes until evening. At the general county election in those days, all persons who voted, were required to go to York. There was but one poll in the county. At the election, the sheriff is represented, in his own statement, as having declined to assist in counting the tickets, and to make a return, giving as his reason that he was " drove by violence from the place of election, and by the same vio- lence was prevented from returning there, whereby it was not in his power to do his duty, and therefore could not make no re- turn." On a public hearing by the Provin- cial Governor and Council at Philadelphia, it was unanimously agreed " that it was not owing to Hamilton that the election was ob- structed, and likewise that he could not, in his circumstances, as proved by the witnesses, make a return." The governor, therefore, granted Hamilton a commission as sheriff during his pleasure. The court of York, in view of the absence of a return, directed that the commissioners and assessors for the previous year, serve for another year until there shall be a new election. As a result of this riot, and consequent want of a return, York County was without representation in

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HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY.

the General Assembly for that year. In 1751, Hance Hamilton was again re-elected sheriff, with Alexander Love as coroner. After the expiration of his term of office as sheriff, Hamilton became one of the judges of the court of common pleas of York County. In April, 1756, as captain, he com- manded a company of Provincial troops from York County, that took part in the French and Indian war. He was at Fort Littleton (now in Fulton County), where he wrote a letter describing the capture by the Indians of McCord's Fort. He was at Fort Littleton in the fall of 1757. He was also in Armstrong's expedition against Kittaning, where a bloody and important victory over the Indians was won by the " Scotch-Irish of the border."

On the 31st of May, 1758, he was com- missioned by William Denny, Lieutenant- Governor, as "Lieutenant Colonel of the First Battalion of the Pennsylvania Regi- ment of foot soldiers iu pay of the Province." Col. Hamilton carefully kept all his business documents, and many of them, including the executors' accounts, are now in possession of Hon. Edward McPherson of Gettysburg. Among them is his will, dated January 27, 1772, only four days before his death. It was probated March 11, 1772, a receipt of James McClure was given 10s 6d "for ex- penses laid out in attending at York to prove the will," also a receipt of Sarah Black for £3 2s 6d for two gallons of liquor and three gallons of rum, "expended at the funeral" of Hance Hamilton. At the "wakes" in those days, it was a common custom to use liquors. His personal property was sold March 19-20, 1772. Among the articles advertised were "six negroes, two of which are men well acquainted with farming busi- ness, one very likely wench, two fine prom- ising boys and one child." There were quite a number of slaves in his township at the date of his death. What they brought is not known. On the 26th of September, 1760, "William Buchanan, of Baltimore Town," signed a receipt to Hance Hamil- ton of £200 for one negro man; £70 for one negro boy. Hamilton's real estate was sold April 1, 1773, to David McConaughy, Esq., Dr. William Cathcart and John Ham- ilton as "trustees for his heirs." The en- tire estate was about £3,000 in Penn- sylvania currency, nearly equally divided between personal and real property. This was a large amount for these colonial days. Nothing is definitely known of his children, except that one of them " was ap- prenticed" in September, 1767, to Dr. Robert

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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 77

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