USA > Pennsylvania > Dauphin County > History of the sesqui-centennial of Paxtang Church, September 18, 1890 > Part 18
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36 JOHN HARRIS, the Founder, was the son of an Englishman of the same name, who made the first known white settlement at the place afterwards known as Harris' Ferry, in 1707, and who, in December, 1733, obtained from the proprietaries of Pennsylvania a grant of three hundred acres of land near his residence. He carried on a considera- ble trade with the Indians of the vicinity. In 1753, the Penn's granted to his son John Harris, the Founder, the right to establish a ferry. In 1784 the town was laid out, and it became the seat of justice of the new county, called Dauphin, after the French crown prince. As John Harris had laid out the town, and offered lots therein for county pur- poses, he was accorded the privilege of naming it.
37 ELIZABETH HARRIS, the daughter of Richard McClure, of Paxtang, was born in 1729, and died in 1764, and was a woman of undoubted energy and courage. Two incidents told of her illustrate this : The house was surrounded with a stockade, and one night the gate being left open an Indian entered and thrust his rifle through one of the port holes, pointing it at an English officer present. The night being damp the gun flashed. Instantly Mrs. Harris blew out the candle to prevent the Indian shooting a second time and he retreated. On another occa- sion a servant going up stairs on an errand with a piece of candle without a candle stick and coming down without it, Mrs. Harris asked what she had done with it, the reply was she had stuck it in the barrel of flaxseed. This, however, happened to be a barrel of powder. Mrs. Harris instantly arose and without saying a word went up stairs and carefully removed the candle.
38 BENJAMIN JORDAN was born on the ground where Milton now stands ; between 1805 and 1808 he engaged in the book publishing business, in Lancaster, and assisted in editing the Intelligencer. In 1808 he was appointed weighmaster of the port of Philadelphia. In 1816 he resigned and came to Walnut Hill, now owned by Mr. John Motter, in Dauphin county, to reside. Mr. Jordan represented the Dauphin district in the State Senate, 1846-1850. He was for many
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years precentor of Paxtang church. October 29, 1811, he married Mary, daughter of Edward Crouch and Margaret Potter.
39 JAMES INGRAM, son of William Ingram, a hero of the revolution, was an important personage in the early decades of Harrisburg history, and was a major of one of the militia battalions. One of his daughters became the wife of the late William Dick Boas, the journalist.
40 General JOHN KEAN was one of the earliest settlers of Harrisburg, one of the first judges of Dauphin county, a county commissioner for eight years, twice Senator from Dauphin and Berks, register general of Pennsylvania, Presidential elector in 1800, voting for Jefferson, and a justice of the peace at Harrisburg. In 1780 he entered the army, and was with it until the surrender at Yorktown. He was one of the most active and influential of the early citizens of Harrisburg. He was twice married-first, in 1786, Mary Whitehill ; secondly, Jane Hamilton. He left no male descendants.
41 JOHN KEAN came to America in 1742, and served as a captain in the revolutionary army.
42 WILLIAM KELSO was the son of Joseph Kelso, one of the first set- tlers west of the Susquehanna, who established the west side of Har- ris Ferry, which went by the name of Kelso's Ferry. The ferry-house erected prior to 1730 yet remains, although badly damaged by the flood of 1889. It is the oldest building in existence in the Cumberland Valley. The Kelsos of Erie are descended from this family.
43 JACOB KUHN was for many years a resident of Harrisburg, where he followed his trade as a cabinet-maker. At one time he was a stew - ard at the almshouse.
44 GEORGE KUHN, son of Jacob, was a native of Dauphin county, and in 1853 was elected a teacher in the public schools of Harrisburg, hold- iug the position for twenty-seven years, and in his time imparting the rudiments of an education to many men who are now prominent in all circles of life.
45 GEORGE LORRETT, was born September 15, 1773, on the farm now owned by John Matter, in Lower Swatara township, Dauphin county, and usually called the "Jordan Farm." His mother was a slave, and owned by the Crouches, who were one of the first families to own slaves within the confines of the Capital county, and were owners of a large number. After the death of Mr. Crouch, the mother of George Lor- rett became the property of Benjamin Jordan, Crouch's son-in-law,
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also George her son. George was a favorite of his master's family, and was industrious and frugal, so that at an early day he was one of the first black or African men to own realty in Dauphin county. When he died he was the last slave in the county, as he had never been set free by his master, Benjamin Jordan, although his freedom had been offered to him time and again, but always refused. At one time when Mr. J. asked him why he would not accept his freedom, as he was now the pos- sessor of a small plantation, he replied "Massey, dis I'se got to- day-to-morrow it may be gon, den I'se can go back to my massa, but if I'se free, yon not take me." He invariably went by the nick name of "King George," very rarely by that of "Black George." The euphonious title he secured by reason of his owning a small parcel of land, and not allowing the other people of his race to associate with or visit him, believing them to be inferior to himself. The land which he owned lies about one and a half miles N. E. of Middletown, and now owned by Jacob Ebersole. When Lucy and George Lorrett died, they were buried on his plantation, a short distance to the rear of the house, which was surrounded by a neat wire fence, where their bodies lay un- disturbed until the year 1888, when Mr. Ebersole secured permission from the elders and trustees of the old Paxtang Meeting-House to re- inter their bodies within that ancient enclosure. For be it remembered, that "King George," or George Lorrett, was a communicant of "The Paxtang." All glory to the privilege granted by these devoted " blue- stockings."-E. w. S. P.
46 ROBERT MONTGOMERY was born in the parish of Ballymore, county Armagh, Ireland. He emigrated to Pennsylvania about the year 1737, as the date of his certificate is May of that year. His descendants settled in Northumberland county.
47 WILLIAM MACLAY, the son of Charles Maclay and Eleanor Query, was born July 20, 1737, in Chester county. He was educated at Rev. John Blair's classical school, was an ensign in the Pennsylvania bat- talion during the Indian war, and promoted lieutenant 1758; distin- guished himself in the Forbes' expedition ; in 1763 was in the fight at Bushy Run, and commanded a company on the line of the stockade forts on the route to Fort Pitt. For his services he was given a grant of land. Studied law and was admitted at York in 1760. In 1772 he laid out the town of Sunbury. In the Revolution participated in the battles of Trenton and Princeton, and held the position of commissary of purchases. In 1781 was elected to the Assembly, and from that time held various offices in the State. In January, 1789, he was
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elected to the United States Senate, taking his seat there as the first Senator from Pennsylvania. He differed with Washington, and ob- jected to the presence of the President on the floor of the Senate during the transaction of business. While in the Senate he preserved notes of debates, and criticised private and public customs of the statesmen of the period, now famous as Maclay's Diary. He erected the stone mansion now occupied as the Harrisburg Academy. He was a strong man in his day ; able, independent, and courageous. He married Mary McClure Harris, daughter of John Harris the founder.
48 WILLIAM MURRAY married Isabella Lindley, of Scotland. After settling in Pennsylvania, he followed farming and held no political po- sitions save local ones. He did not live long enough to witness the struggle for Independence, but several of his sons were active partici- pants on the side of his adopted country. Of these, James was captain of a company that was in the service in 1776 and John was commis- sioned, March 7, 1776, captain of a rifle company in Col. Miles' regi- ment and rose successively to major, first major, and lieutenant colonel, and remained in the army until it was disbanded in 1783.
49 HENRY MCKINNEY, son of John Mckinney, an early settler from the north of Ireland, where the son was born, was an Overseer of the Poor in 1771, and served in the Revolutionary Army.
50 JOHN MEANS was a member of Capt. Murray's Company, Pennsyl- vania Rifle Battalion, in the Revolution.
51 ROBERT MCCLURE was a ruling elder in Paxtang Church, and county commissioner at the time of his death. In a notice of him made at the time, the writer said of him ; " He was one of those men who, while indulging in no pretensions, abounded ever in good works-a Christian who exhibited his faith in God by his acts toward men-and one of those steady-minded citizens whose example has a large influence on the patriotism and prosperity of the community in which they live."
52 ROBERT MCCLURE was a prominent member, and a ruling elder in Paxtang Church. Although young when the Revolution took place, he was in active service at Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth.
53 Alderman PEFFER was more generally known to the people of Dauphin county than almost any other within her borders. He was an officer in the War of 1812, and commanded a company on the frontier, and it was said that no braver man was to be found in the service. He was County Commissioner, 1848-1850 ; was a prison inspector, and
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secretary of the board; a notary public, and at the time of his death, an alderman in the city of Harrisburg.
5+ DAVID PATTON was the son of David Patton, Sr., an emigrant from north of Ireland. He was a native of Paxtang, and was quite promi- nent in church affairs. The father was an elder in the Old Church.
55 JOHN RITCHEY died in 1831. He was a ruling elder in Paxtang Church ; was a prominent and wealthy member of the community in which he lived ; honored and esteemed by all. Margaret, his wife, a cultured, refined woman of strong Christian character, was devoted through her life to the promotion of the cause of Christ.
56 THOMAS RUTHERFORD, was born June 24, 1707, and baptised by the Rev. John McClave, in the parish of Derry-lousan, county of Tyrone. He emigrated to America in 1729, going to Donegal, in Lan- caster county, in pursuit of Jean Murdoch, whose family had preceded him, and with whom he had had an understanding before either left Ire- land. They were married on the 7th of September, 1730, by Rev. James Anderson, and after the death of John Murdoch, father of Jean, in 1744, he removed about 1750 to Paxtang, and was the ancestor of the Rutherfords of Paxtang valley.
57 JEAN (MURDOCH) RUTHERFORD, came to America in 1728, and be- came the wife of Thomas in September, 1730.
58 CAPTAIN RUTHERFORD commanded the company in the Revolution- ary war that assembled at Middletown on the 12th of August, 1777, and participated in the campaign in the Jerseys and on the Brandywine, and in 1779 marched with a company to Bedford to protect the border, and remained six weeks.
59 SAMUEL RUTHERFORD was a Lieutenant in the Revolutionary army.
60 SAMUEL RUTHERFORD was a ruling elder in Paxtang church.
61 JOHN RUTHERFORD was a surveyor, and in 1817 a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly.
62 Col. RUTHERFORD was for many years prominent in the military and political affairs of the State, and was a member of the House of Rep- resentatives 1809-1821 and 1829-1831.
63 Capt. RUTHERFORD held many places of public trust ; was superin- tendent of the Wieonisco canal in 1837, an auditor of the county, a jury commissioner, vice president and treasurer of the State Agricul- tural Society, and during the rebellion a quartermaster in the army. Dr. Egle says of him : "He was a strong anti-slavery advocate, as were
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all his family, and many a weary pilgrim in the days of the fugitive slave act, sore of foot and heart, found in Capt. Rutherford hospitable assistance, material aid, and manly encouragement." He married Eliza, daughter of Samuel Rutherford.
6+ SAMUEL RUTHERFORD was the son of William, who began farming in Ross county, Ohio, in 1839, but upon the death of his father, in 1850, returned to Paxtang and became the owner of the homestead, which has been in the family since 1763.
65 ABNER RUTHERFORD was for many years a prominent citizen of the State ; from 1835 to 1841 he was captain of the Tenth company, 98th regiment, Pennsylvania militia ; he was one of the founders of the State Agricultural Society, of which he was vice-president for many years, and during the last fifteen years of his life president of the First National Bank of Hummelstown. In early life he joined the anti- slavery society of Pennsylvania, and was a consistent member until the work was finished by the war of the rebellion.
66 In early life SAMUEL RUTHERFORD was one of the masters in the school connected with Paxtang church ; he was one of the founders of the State Agricultural Society, of which he remained a member during his life. He was an earnest opponent of slavery, and for many years a member of the Anti-slavery Society of Pennsylvania. The farm upon which he spent his whole life was a part of the original tract purchased by Thomas Rutherford in 1755.
67 MICHAEL SIMPSON, the son of Thomas, the pioneer, was a farmer of limited educa ion ; when the Indian forays following the de- feat of Braddock spread dismay and desolation along the frontiers, he became an ensign in the provincial service, and served under Forbes and Bouquet, and in the expedition which brought peace to the settle- ment. At the outset of the Revolution he was a lieutenant of Captain Matthew Smith's company, and was attached to the Quebec expedi- tion under Arnold ; was subsequently first lieutenant, First Pennsyl- vania, and was in command of his company at the battle of Long Island. December, 1776, commissioned captain, and as such was in the battles of Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown, and White Plains. He was not retired until 1781, and served his country and its cause faithfully and well. Subsequently, as brigadier general of the militia, he was known as General Simpson. He was of aristocratic bearing, and yet much loved and respected.
68 JEREMIAH STURGEON was the son of Jeremiah Sturgeon, one of the
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earliest settlers in Paxtang. He was a substantial pioneer farmer, and quite prominent in military circles, in the old time "battalion days."
69 ANDREW STEWART and his wife came from Scotland, prior to 1740. He was a Covenanter of the most rigid faith, and the earliest of the Reformed Presbyterians in America. On the organization of the Cove- nanter church at Paxtang, he and his wife became members. Rev. John Cuthbertson frequently tarried at his house while on his mis- sionary tours, and in his diary under date of August, 1751, notes the baptism of Elizabeth, daughter of Andrew Stewart. But little is known of this hardy pioneer, save that in his day and generation he was ever faithful to the Solemn League and Covenant.
70 SAMUEL SHERER, was the son of Captain Joseph Sherer. The latter came with his father from Londonderry, Ireland, in 1734, and located in Paxtang.
71 WILLIAM SWAN, of an English family, which came over about 1750 and settled in the Hanover's and at Paxtang.
12 CAPTAIN JOSEPH SHERER, the son of Samuel Sherer, was a native of the North of Ireland, born in 1731. His parents came to America in 1734, locating in Paxtang. He was the recipient of an ordinary English education, and was brought up as a farmer. During the French and Indian war he served as a non-commissioned officer. At the commencement of the Revolution he commanded a company in Col. Burd's battalion. Captain Sherer was a member of the Lancaster committee, and a member of the first Constitutional Convention of the State, which met in Philadelphia July 15, 1776. He married February 6, 1759, Mary McClure, had eight children : Mary, married Samnel Cochran ; Samuel, John, Jean, Richard, Joseph, William, and Cath- arine. Captain Sherer was a man of influence on the frontiers prior to the Revolution, brave, energetic, and spirited.
73 REV. DR. WALLACE was born in Erie. His childhood and youth were spent in Harrisburg. From 1827 to 1830 he was a cadet at West Point ; he resigned and became a divinity student at Princeton; he occupied a prominent place in the Presbyterian church, attaching him- self to the New School organization. He had charge of various churches in Pennsylvania and in Kentucky. Was for a time professor in Delaware College, and for fifteen years editor and principal contribu- tor to the Presbyterian Quarterly Review.
14 JOHN WIGGINS came with his father from the north of Ireland to
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America in 1732. He was one of the early pioneers of Paxtang, and during the Indian forays of 1755-1763 was more or less prominent as an officer in the ranging companies. He was an ancestor of Judge John Wiggins Simonton, of Dauphin county.
15 Doctor Egle in his history of Dauphin county says, "Mrs. ELEANOR MACLAY WALLACE was a woman of fine talents and great force of char- acter. As a young lady she had gone with her father to the Capital, and acted as his private secretary. While she enjoyed society, she was more deeply interested in the political questions which came be- fore the first Congress for settlement. It was in harmony with those early tastes that after her marriage she read more than one elementary work in her husband's legal library. She was a woman of profound piety, of fine social qualities, and of noble gifts and attainments of mind."
76 WILLIAM WALLACE was the eldest son of Benjamin Wallace and Elizabeth Culbertson, and was born in Hanover, 1768. He was grad- uated at Dickinson, studied law with Galbraith Patterson, and ad - mitted to the bar in 1792. Interested in the Presque Isle Land Company, he removed to Erie. About 1810, he returned to Harrisburg and resumed the practice of the law. He was defeated as the Federalist candidate for Congress in 1813, was the first president of the old Har- risburg bank, and burgess of the town of Harrisburg at the time of his death. He was distinguished for his social qualities, entertaining strangers hospitably, Chief Justice Gibson being frequently among his guests.
77 GEORGE WHITEHILL, the son of John, was born in Donegal, Lan- caster county, in 1760. His father purchased land in Paxtang prior to the revolution and removed thither. He began the hardware busi- ness at Harrisburg about 1800 ; was appointed by Governor Snyder one of the associate judges of the county, in 1817, but in July, 1818, with his colleague, Obed Fahnestock, resigned, owing to the commissioning of Judge Franks as president of the court by Governor Findlay.
78 Captain WALKER, was the son of James Walker and Barbara Mc- Arthur, and was born in Paxtang. He was a farmer ; learned survey- ing, and was deputy surveyor 1804-1809. In 1810 began "merchan- dising " in Harrisburg, and in 1814 marched to the defense of Balti- more as captain of the "Harrisburg Volunteers." In 1821 was ap- pointed prothonotary by Governor Hiester, and in 1824 was elected sheriff. It was said of him that he was an ardent patriot, a popular officer, and an active, enterprising citizen.
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79 ROBERT WILSON was born in the town of Killyleah, county of Down, in the north of Ireland, May 1, 1792. He emigrated to America in 1816, and after residing in various places he settled at Highspire in 1822, where he resided until his death. In 1823 Mr. Wilson erected a distillery which became well known for the superiority of its product. He was one of the oldest Masons in the country, having joined lodge No. 792 in the county of Killyleah, Jan. 14, 1814. He was a commu- nicant of Paxtang, having joined in 1826 ; was a man of strong con- victions and extreme partizanship, public spirited, and benevolent.
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PAXTANG CHURCH ORGANIZATION-1890.
PASTOR. Rev. Albert B. Williamson. ELDERS.
John B. Rutherford,
Spencer F. Barber,
Francis W. Rutherford,
Matthew B. Elder.
TRUSTEES.
John Elder, President,
James Boyd,
Silas B. Rutherford, Treasurer,
James C. Walker,
William F. Rutherford, Secretary, James R. Walker,
J. Q. A. Rutherford,
Herbert Elder,
James A. Rutherford,
J. Newton Gray,
Governor James A. Beaver,
William Kunkle.
COMMUNICANTS.
John B. Rutherford,
Mrs. Eleanor S. Rutherford,
Silas B. Rutherford,
Miss Eleanor G. Rutherford,
John A. Rutherford,
Miss Martha K. Rutherford,
William F. Rutherford,
Miss Susan E. Rutherford,
J. Quincy A. Rutherford,
Miss Louisa Gray,
Francis W. Rutherford,
Mrs. Ada B. Barber,
Howard A. Rutherford,
Mrs. Frances R. Elder,
James Walker, James R. Walker,
Mrs. Daniel Crouse,
J. Newton Gray,
Spencer F. Barber,
Mrs. Leah R. Kunkle,
Mathew B. Elder,
Mrs. Mary J. Elder,
Herbert Elder, Daniel Crouse,
Mrs. James A. Rutherford,
James Pearl,
Mrs. John P. Rutherford,
William Kunkle,
Miss Jane D. Rutherford,
Mrs. Abner Rutherford,
Miss Adaline M. Rutherford, Miss Martha Gray,
Miss K. Virginia Rutherford,
Mrs. Annie W. Rutherford,
Miss Elizabeth M. Rutherford,
Mrs. Adaline M. Rutherford,
Mrs. Margaret B. Rutherford,
Miss Mary McBay,
Miss Eliza Reed,
Miss Anna E. Rutherford,
Miss Mary B. Rutherford.
Miss Matilda Elder,
Mrs. James Pearl,
Mrs. A. B. Williamson,
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