150 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY 1713. The citizens of Sadsbury having petitioned for a division of the township in 1743, the Court appointed Calvin Cooper, George Leonard, sr., James Wilson, Samuel Ramsey, Robert Wilson and James Miller, to divide the same. The neighbors of Edward Gorsuch, all of whom came to assist in making capture of the fugitives. They started from Philadelphia for the place where the fugitives were believed to be living, as soon as the warrant was issued, and taking different modes of conveyance. The party arrived at Christiana early on the morning of September 11th, and having secured the service of one acquainted with the locality, set out on hunt of the fugitives, and when they had neared a house kept by a negro named Parker, about three miles from Christiana, they espied one of the slaves coming down the lane from Parker's house. As soon as the slave saw them he retreated and fled to the house, pursued by the party, but he succeeded in eluding their grasp. From the information that had been given by the negro, Williams, it was soon perceived that the negroes of the neighborhood were upon the lookout, and as the party was approaching the house, a horn was distinctly heard, as a supposed signal for the assembling of the negroes. The slave that had been first seen made his way up stairs, and the party in search of him immediately surrounded the house, so as to prevent escapee Edward Gorsuch, the owner of the fugitive, and the Deputy Marshal, now entered the house, and demanded of the blacks that they surrender, which they refused, and began loading their guns, showing the utmost determination of resistance. Mr. Gorsuch told them if they would come down and surrender themselves, he would overlook the past; but the reply came from the negroes that " they could only be taken over their dead bodies." The Marshal read his warrant, and was proceeding to ascend the stairs when he was struck by a sharp instrument and compelled to desist from this attempt. He read his warrant the second and third time, and advised the negroes of the peril of resisting the authority of the government, and gave them fifteen minutes time to consider whether or not they would surrender. Edward Gorsuch had in the meantime stepped outside of the house and called to his slave, and endeavored to persuade him to surrender himself and submit peaceably to his authority, and while doing so was shot at by one of the negroes from a window, but the shot failed to take effect, the aim being too high. During this period, two white men, named Castner Hanway and Elijah Lewis, suddenly appeared upon the ground. This was seen to have the effect of inspiring enthusiasm into the negroes in the house, who immediately set up a cheering. By this time a large number of negroes had made their appearance armed with double barreled guns, pistols, corn-cutters, scythes and clubs. The organization had been complete, and as soon as the horn was sounded, as above indicated, the negroes assembled from all directions. The Marshal now approached Castner Hanway, one of the white men, who was upon horse-back, and asked of him that he render assist- OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 151 division was ordered, and the eastern part called Bart, and the western retained the old name, Sadsbury. Calvin Cooper was elected a member of the Provincial Assembly far six consecutive years, from 1749 till 1755. ance in making the arrest. Hanway demanded of him his authority, and the Marshal read him his warrant. Hanway then told him that he would meet with difficulty in making the arrest, and advised him to desist from the attempt. At the time the Marshal read his warrant, Lewis, the other white man, was also present, but neither he nor Hanway felt themselves bound to obey a mandate against the execution of which their Consciences revolted, and they chose rather to endure the consequences of refusal. Besides, an attempt, at this time, to execute the law seemed hazardous and likely to be attended with fatal consequences. By this time the number of negroes that had arrived has been estimated at from 75 to 100, all armed and evincing the most determined spirit of resistance. To the demand of the Marshal, of Hanway, to assist in making the arrest he remarked, "I will have nothing to do with it." The negroes in the house, seeing their friends in such abundance, sallied out, and raising a shout, surrounded Edward Gorsuch and his companions, and fired upon them. Edward Gorsuch fell, and his son, Dickinson, running to his assistance, was also shot in the breast and lungs and fell to the ground. Dr. Pearce was likewise shot in several places, but succeeded in making his escape. Deputy Marshal Kline, Joshua Gorsuch and the other two individuals, Nelson and Hutchins, who accompanied the capturing party, all made their escape, speedily, as best they could. Edward Gorsuch was mutilated by the negroes, his pockets rifled of about $300, and left lying dead where he fell. His son, Dickinson, was rescued from death through the influence of an old colored man, who begged of the murderers to spare his life, and he was shortly afterwards removed by some white persons, who visited the scene, to the house of Levi Pownall, where he lay a considerable time before he could be removed. As soon as the news of this occurrence reached Lancaster, John L. Thompson, then District Attorney, and J. Franklin Reigart, an alderman, accompanied by some of the most resolute citizens, repaired at once to Christiana, and after taking certain legal steps proceeded to arrest the blacks. Nine of them were taken in less than two hours. Castner Hanway and Elijah Lewis, hearing of the warrants, surrendered themselves without resistance. All were committed by Alderman Reigart, and conveyed to the Lancaster jail. The United States Marshal, the United States District Attorney, and the Commissioner, with a strong force of marines, and a detachment of the Philadelphia police, arrived shortly afterwards at Christiana and lent their aid in making arrests of suspected parties. Both parties proceeded to make arrests, and in a short time every section of country was pretty well scoured. A of additional prisoners were brought in, and among them two whites, a man named Scarlet, and the other Hood. 152 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY The citizens of Lancaster county petitioned the Legislature for the passage of an act that would cause the removal of the French refugees from Nova Scotia, who had been thrown upon them by the English government. An act was A difficulty was like to have occurred between the State and the United states authority, as to which the prisoners should be awarded. Mr. Thompson contended that the prisoners had been guilty of the highest crime known to the law of Pennsylvania, willful and deliberate murder, and that as this had occurred in Lancaster county, the prisoners should be taken to Lancaster for trial. District Attorney Ashmead, on the contrary, insisted that the prisoners had been guilty of treason, in levying war against the United States authorities. In this he was sustained by the Commissioner, E. D. Ingraham, and finally a compromise was effected, by which each party was allowed to dispose of its own arrests. On Monday, November 24th, 1851, the trial of Castner Hanway for treason, was commenced in the United States Circuit Court before Judges Grier and Kane. The counsel who appeared for the Uuited States, were United States District Attorney John W. Ashmead, James R. Ludlow and George R. Ashmead ; Robert J. Brent and James Cooper for Maryland. The counsel for Castner Hanway, were John M. Read, Thaddeus Stevens, Joseph J. Lewis and Theodore Cuyler. The trial lasted fifteen days and was conducted with masterly ability by the legal gentlemen, both for the prosecution and defense. The jury aftet retiring from the box, returned after an absence of ten minutes, with a verdict of "not guilty." Caster Hanway and Elijah Lewis were brought to Lancaster to answer any charge that might be preferred against them. An indictment was laid before the grand jury for murder, but the jury ignored the bill and thus ended the Christiana riot case. The Christiana riot case is an illustration of an attempt to execute an unpopular law, au undertaking that usually proves abortive. Conscience rules supreme in the actions of men, and the law must succumb. With whom lies the blame in such cases ? In the present instance both parties, the slave owners and the fugitives with their friends, had apparent justice on their side. The one owned his property by virtue of law and his education told him he was in the' line of his duty in seeking to reclaim it. On the other hand, the instinctive law of liberty induced the fugitives to seek for it and even fight in its defense ; and the friends of the fugitives sympathized with them in their contest for liberty. We can, therefore, condemn neither party, and must be allowed to say that what may be wrong in one, in another is the contrary, and therefore, can see no other rule of rectitude in life than to obey conscience, and if sincerely followed, though it be perverted, we are justified. This safe rule would establish charity, toleration and free opinion, unite mankind in a universal brotherhood, where free thought and free speech would crown the highest aspirations of man. OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 153 passed March 5th, 1756, and Calvin Cooper, James Webb, and Samuel Lefevre were appointed to carry its provisions into execution. The act empowered and required them or their survivors, that within twenty days from the passage of the act, they should order and appoint the disposition of the inhabitants of Nova Scotia, imported and permitted to be landed, in such manner and proportions as to them shall appear most equitable under certain limitations, having regard to such lands and plantations, or other employments as they might procure for them towards maintaining themselves and their families, and thereby relieving the province from the heavy charge of supporting them. Calvin Cooper was appointed one of the Justices of the Peace for Lancaster county, which office he held with satisfaction to the public for many years. His descendants became numerous and respectable, and while some of them settled along the valley, and about Cooperville, others settled at Lampeter and at the borough of Columbia and the Coopers residing there at the present day, are among his descendants. He was a valuable member in unity with the Society of Friends, and undoubtedly a worthy and serviceable man in the community. He was the grandfather of the late well-known and highly respected Jeremiah Cooper, of Sadsbury, who erected a large woolen factory in the valley, below Cooperville, about the year 1825. The present Coopers of Sadsbury, Bart, Lampeter and Columbia, are his descendants of the 5th; 6th and 7th generations. He departed this life near the close of the Revolutionary war, aged about eighty years. CRAIG, JOHN, was a member of the Legislature in the years 1782, 1783 and 1784. CRAIG, ROBERT, was a member of the Legislature in 1784. He was also a Commissioner of Lancaster county in 1778. CRUMBAUGH, REV. J. C., was born in Frederick county, Maryland. He received his education in the Pennsylvania and College, at Gettysburg, and graduated in 1851 with the highest honors of his class. He came to Lancaster and studied theology under the Rev. Dr. John C. Baker, and at the same time served as Principal of the Lancaster High - 13 - 154 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY School. He was licensed to preach by the Pennsylvania Synod in 1853, and shortly afterwards he was elected pastor of the new St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church.¹ With constantly declining health he continued to serve this con. gregation up to March 19th, 1857, when he resigned, and accepted the office of County Superintendent of Common Schools. It had been the hope of his friends that this new position affording him more out-door exercise, might restore his health, but in this they were disappointed. He died of consumption January 13th, 1859, at the early age of 28. As a student in college, he maintained a reputation for talent of the first order, standing ever at the head of his classes, and carrying away the honors over his mates. As principal of the Lancaster High School, he was a model for imitation, being able to maintain the most excellent discipline and order in the class and study rooms; and as a clergyman, he had the unbounded confidence and friendship of his whole congregation and of the community at large. CUNNINGHAM, JAMES, was a member of the Legislature in the years 1779, 1788, 1789 and 1790.   4 ¹ In the fall of 1851 a number of the young members of Trinity Lutheran Church, of which the Rev. John C. Baker was pastor, held a social gathering and conversed concerning the propriety of opening a mission school in the northwestern part of the city, and it was resolved to make the attempt, provided they could obtain the sanction of the vestry to their undertaking. This consent having been obtained, I arch, 1852, a Sunday-school, called the Lutheran, was organized with twenty-two pupils, J. C. Crumbaugh being its superintendent. With the resignation of Rev. John C. Baker as the pastor of Trinity Lutheran church, in January, 1853, the friends of a new church began to consult among themselves, and a meeting was held on the 2nd of April of that year, when it was resolved by those present to constitute themselves the nucleus of a new Lutheran church. On the 18th of May following, a committee was appointed to draft a constitution and bylaws, and another to solicit subscriptions for the erection of a church edifice. On the 15th of June, on motion of G. M. Zahm, the church was unanimously named " St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church." The small congregation generally worshiped in Fulton Hall or the lecture room of the Moravian church. On the 9th of October, 1853, the corner-stone of the new edifice was laid, Revs. Harbaugh, Kurtz and Krotel officiating. On the 24th of December following, the entire building having been completed, the consecration took place. The edifice cost over $20,000. OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 155 - D - DARLINGTON, EDWARD C., became a partner in December, 1841, with R. W. Middleton, in the publication of the Examiner and Herald.¹ Shortly after this, Middleton withdrew from the firm, and Mr. Darlington continued the publication of the paper up to October 20th, 1858. During Mr. Darlington's connection with the paper, it was regarded as the organ of what was known as the Silver Grey Whigs ² of Lancaster county. Mr. Darlington was elected to the State Senate, in 1851. Mr. Darlington was a man quite retiring in his disposition, a great reader, and a writer who wielded the editorial pen with considerable ability. ¹ The Lancaster Examiner was started in the spring of 1830, by Samuel Wagner, who continued its publication until June, 1834. Wagner sold out his interest to George W. Hamersly and Luther Richards, who united it with the Herald. These continued the publication, under the new title, until December, 1838, and then sold their interest to R. W. Middleton. On the 8th of December, E. C. Darlington became a partner of Middleton ; but on the 22nd of the same month the latter retired, leaving Darlington sole owner and proprietor of the paper, which he continued to be until October 20th, 1858, when he sold out his interest to John A. Hiestand, John F. Huber and Francis Heckert. This latter firm was dissolved November 4th, 1862, by the death of Huber, one of its members. On the 9th of February, 1863, the interest of Huber was purchased by Edwin M. Kline, and the style of the firm became J. A. Hiestand & Co. On the 1st of January, 1864, T. E. & J. J. Cochran sold out the Lancaster Union to J. A. Hiestand & Co., and from that date the latter firm began issuing the Examiner semi-weekly, which has been continued up to this time. May 1st, 1864, Mr. Heckert's interest in the paper passed to John I. Hartman, and the firm was named Hiestand, Kline & Hartman. On May 1st, 1868, Mr. Hartman withdrew, and the paper is now published by Hiestand & Kline. ² After the adoption of the compromise measures of 1850, during the administration of Millard Fillmore, the Whig party divided into two branches ; those who favored the compromises and those opposed to them, In Lancaster county, the friends of the administration or of the compromise measures, received the name of Silver Greys, who were advocates of the policy of President Fillmore as regards the compromise measures on the slavery question. Isaac E. Hiester was at once regarded as the leader of the Silver Greys, and with him acted 156 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY DAVIES, EDWARD, was elected a member of the Legislature in the years 1834 and 1835. He represented Lancaster county in Congress from 1837 till 1841. DEERING, HENRY, a member of the Legislature in the years 1788 and 1789. DENUES, CHARLES, was born August 28th, 1823, in York county, Pennsylvania. In 1835 he removed, with his parents, to Lancaster, and was apprenticed to the turning and powder-horn making business; but the uncongeniality of his master caused our subject to shorten the term of his apprenticeship. When about seventeen years of age, acting on an occasion as cannonier for the Washington Artillery, he lost his right hand from the accidental discharge of the cannon. Being thus disabled for manual pursuits, he now turned his attention to the obtaining of an education, and having made some advance, in the year 1842 he began the Thomas E. Franklin, esq., Edward C. Darlington, William W. Brown, esq., John Sheaffer, of Manheim, James M. Hopkins, of Dm-more, John Steger, of New Holland, Michael Shirk, of West Cocalico, Samuel Worth, of Martic, John J. Evans, of Little Britain, and R. A. Evans, of Lancaster. The other wing of the party was headed by Thaddeus Stevens, Dr. Esaias Kinzer, George Brubaker, Peter Johns, David Bair, O. J. Dickey, George Ford, Alexander H. Hood, Samuel Eberly, and Hiram Erb, of Clay, Anthony E. Roberts, Frederick E. Hoffman, and Frederick Smith, of Conoy. In the Whig convention of 1851, the Silver Grey wing carried off the victory, nominating all the candidates for office except Esaias Kinzer, who, by a faithful canvass before the convention, had secured enough votes to nominate him to the State Senate, along with E. C. Darlington. The defeat of the Anti-slavery Whigs, was regarded as owing to the influence of the Examiner and Herald; and as a counterpoise to this paper, it was resolved to start a paper in their interest. Edward McPherson, of Adams county, was sent for, and he began the publication of the Independent Whig, devoted to the advocacy of Antislavery principles. In 1852 the Silver Greys were again successful, electing Isaac E. Hiester to Congress. At the National Convention held at Baltimore in 1852, the Silver Grey element of the country supported Millard Fillmore for President ; the distinctive New England element voted for Webster ; and the Anti-slavery Whigs united upon General Scott and he Was nominated. Scott having been so disastrously defeated in the canvass for President, the old Whig party began rapidly to decline. Iv 1853 the Native American party that had maintained a feeble existence in the large cities, began to revive under the name of Know OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 157 study of law with Hon. Thaddeus Stevens, and was admitted to the bar in 1844. He practiced for a time in Lancaster, a short period in York, Pa., and afterwards removed to Wisconsin, in which place he was attacked with disease, and and returned home in 1848. He now began teaching school, a career he followed, at different places, for a number of years. He was principal of the Millersville graded school for nine years. In 1859 he entered upon the study of theology, and having preached his trial sermon, served as a supply to a congregation at Columbia. In 1862 he raised a company for the Union army, and was commissioned captain, August 12th, 1862. His company was assigned as part of the 135th regiment of Pennsylvania volunteers, under Col. Porter.. He, with his men, protected two of the Union batteries at the battle of Grey's Farm. He participated with his company in the famed Nothings ; and lodges were organized throughout the country, which were filled chiefly by recruits from the old Whig party. In 1854 there were, therefore, three tickets in the field in Lancaster county, the Democratic, the Know. Nothing, and the Whig. The party manipulations in the Know Nothing lodges were conducted, in secret. In the nominations made in the county convention of the old effete Whig party, the best men in their ranks were selected as their standard bearers, and in the election which followed, some of those elected were Democrats, some Know Nothings and other Whigs. Anthony E. Roberts was elected to Congress on the Know Nothing ticket. The disintegration of the Whig party by 1855 was complete, and in that year the whole Know Nothing ticket in the county was elected. The Whigs remained at that time but a very feeble minority. About this period the Democratic party in Congress repealed the Missouri Compromise, and this had the effect of attracting into the Know Nothing ranks most of the anti-slavery element of the country ; and inasmuch as the secret oath-bound dogmas of the party were offensive to many of the recruits from the Democratic and Whig ranks, and the main principle now being hostility to slavery, the party re-moulded itself into an open organization, under the name of Republicans. A few of the old Whigs of Lancaster county feeling themselves entirely out-generaled in the new construction of parties, and out of an unwillingness to acknowledge the leadership of their opponents, attached themselves to the Democratic party, and thenceforth acted in its ranks. The great mass, however, of the old Silver Grey Whigs united their political destinies to the Antislavery wing under whatever name it called itself, and from that time Lancaster county has been overwhelmingly Republican. 158 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY conflict of Chancellorsville, after which they were mustered out of service, in May, 1863. Having returned home, he taught school again in the winter of 1863-4. In October, 1864, he was elected to the Pennsylvania Legislature, and reelected in 1865. During his last session he acted as chairman of the military committee. In the spring of 1866 he again began the practice of the law in Lancaster, which he yet continues. On January 1st, 1867, he was appointed Notary Public, and re-appointed January 12th, 1870. DICKEY, O. J., was born in Beaver county,. Pennsylvania, April 6th, 1823. His father, John Dickey, was a leading politician in the western part of the State, and at one time a member of the board of Canal Commissioners, and represented his district in the State Senate, also in Con. gresss, and was marshal of the western district of Pennsylvania at the time of his death. The subject of our notice received his education at the Beaver Academy and at Dickinson College, Carlisle, passing through the junior class of the latter institution. Having closed his classic career one year short of graduation, he entered as a student in the law office of James Allison, esq., one of the old leading lawyers of Beaver (the father of the. present Register of the Treasury), and was admitted a member of the Beaver bar. Designing Lancaster as the place where•he should locate for the practice of the profession, he came in 1846, with a letter of introduction to Mr. Stevens, who kindly received him and proffered to him the use of his office. Mr. Stevens having by intuition, as it were, perceived that our young barrister was made of solid material, employed him from the start at a fixed salary to attend to certain parts of his business. Mr. Dickey was thus afforded an excellent opportunity of becoming acquainted with the practical business of the profession, and rapidly did he profit with these advantages. This was an instance of a rare mind meeting with rare opportunities. His progress in :business was a very rapid and successful one. After a few years of steady and gradual rise in his profession, he, at the instance of his benefactor, became a partner with the latter, as to all the current business which OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 159 presented itself, save where Mr. Stevens was himself specially, employed. This partnership continued up till the year 1857, when he found it necessary from the press of business to open office of own. In the fall of 1856 he was elected District Attorney of Lancaster county, an office he filled with great credit and ability. After opening a separate office of his own, he still continued to have charge of all Mr. Stevens business when the, latter was absent or unable to attend to the same. In the year 1857 Mr. Dickey chose to himself a partner 'or life, in the person of Miss Elizabeth Shenk, of Lancaster. Upon the death of Mr. Stevens, in 1868, Mr. Dickey was nominated and elected to fill his unexpired term in Congress, as well as for the subsequent term of two years and in 1870, after a warm and spirited contest, he was again nominated by his party by an overwhelming majority, over J. P. Wickersham, and again elected to Congress. . As a lawyer, Mr. Dickey ranks amongst the first practitioners of the Lancaster bar ; his business being perhaps as lucrative as any that could be named. He is well read in his profession, and in the trial of a cause he has no superior. His arguments before a jury are sound, logical and convincing ; and he is able to bring out of his case all that is in it. As a politician, he has but few equals, having a strength with the masses that few possess. Born to rule, he enters an assemblage of tumultuous partisans and contending political aspirants, and organization follows his word and opposition retires. As by a word, he carries with him the meeting; and the result crowns his banner. He. is dexterous in his manipulations, active in circumventing his enemies, and always present in the midst of the political battle, saying in essence to his political friends, "follow me." His word has a charm in it, and he generally leads to victory. As a man, Mr. Dickey is high-toned and honorable, and his word on any occasion is as good as 'his bond. He is exceedingly liberal in his opinions, never permitting difference of sentiment to alter his conduct or feeling towards a personal friend. In this particular, he is exemplary. He as One of those of enlarged views who, during the dark days 160 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY of the rebellion (when partisan hate was visible all around), could accord to individuals of different opinion from his own, the same honesty of sentiment as he himself entertained. Mr. Dickey is not what might be called a fluent declaimer, but his speeches have the ring of energy, ability and force. His political harangues will, however, excite more applause and enthusiasm than will follow the outbursts of a nimre impassioned and eloquent orator. His manner of speak4 is rather better adapted for juridical than partisan purpose8. His strength as a politician lies in his great organizing ability rather than in his oratorical. Since the demise of his great precursor in Congress, he is, perhaps, the leading thinker of his party in Lancaster county. DICKINSON, JOSEPH C., a member of the Legislature the years 1846. and 1847. Ile was one of the first who erected permanent buildings in Christiana. *DICKINSON, JOSEPH, emigrated to this country from Cumberland, England, by way of Ireland, about the year 1725. The ship on which he came a passenger having struck upon a rock, causing it to leak so rapidly that it was impossible to keep the vessel afloat, and was about given up as lost, and the passengers were preparing to meet their fate, when Joseph Dickinson volunteered to go down under the water, on the outside of the ship, and stop the leak, whi,.h hazardous undertaking he accomplished by inserting pieeis of dried beef in the crevices. He was united in marriap.le with Elizabeth, daughter of Guyon Miller, of Kennett, Chester county, in the year 1732, when he removed and settled near the Pequea creek, in Salisbury township. He had two sons, Joseph and Gaius, and seven daughters. His son, Gaius, and his grandson, Joseph, continued to reside on the property, while his son Joseph purchased land and resided in Sadsbury. Joseph C. Dickinson, Moses Pownall and Joseph D. Pownall, of Sadsbury, and Joseph Hood, of Bart, who were members of the Legislature at different times,. were the great grandsons of Joseph Dickinson ; also, Jacob T. Gest and Isaac Walker, of Sadsbury. Alma Dickinson, of Philadelphia, and *Contributed by Isaac Walker, of Sadsbury. OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 161 Mary Louisa Walker, late of Richmond, Va., but now Mary Louisa Roberts, of Robertson county, Texas, are both the great grand-daughters of his son, Gaius Dickinson. He was a man well educat9d, and was an esteemed and valuable member of the denomination of Friends. His great grandsons, James and Lewis Dickinson, still reside on the property in Salisbury; and J. D. C. Pownall, one of his descendants of the fifth generation, holds the property in Sadsbury. DIFFENDERFFER, and a companion by the name of Stone, were the two first settlers who took up the land upon which New Holland is built, and for a mile around it. They were natives of Germany, and came to New Holland in 1728. David Diffenderffer, a son of the first settler, became early identified with the American patriots in their struggle for independence. He entered the army, and served with credit for several years, bearing his part in several of the hard-fought battles of revolutionary history. He died in New Holland in 1846, at a very advanced age. His descendants are numerous. Dr. W. L. Diffenderffer is one of his grandsons. DILLER, ADAM, was elected sheriff of Lancaster county in 1827. DILLER, ROLAND, is a native of Lancaster, and a man of great activity and business perseverance. His educational facilities were superior to the great majority of the young men of his time whose lives were designed for active employments. He engaged in the mercantile business for some time; but, upon the death of his uncle, Frederick Seger, who was a conveyancer, he abandoned merchandising and took up conveyancing, a business he has followed ever since. He has also connected with scrivening that of surveying. Upon the organization of the anti-Masonic party, Mr. Diller was amongst the most prominent and active in that movement. He contributed actively towards the establishment of the first anti-Masonic paper in the county, and in all the political movements of his party he has ever maintained a leading position. He for many years acted as a magistrate of the county, and perhaps no man ever filled that office who seemed, by intuition, to comprehend the intricacies of law 162 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY better than the subject of this notice. One knowing Mr. Diller intimately, uses this language of him : " The cast of his mind is eminently legal, and had he read law regularly, and practiced the profession, he would have become one of the best jurists our county ever produced." He has for years been the legal adviser of his fellow-citizens in and around New Holland, and his advice is anxiously sought in all matters of business where a knowledge of law is required. Mr. Diller has always been a great reader, and his library is said to be one of the best, if not the very best, in Lancaster county. He possessed the basis, beyond all question, for extraordinary achievements, and but an arena was wanting to have rendered him one of the most conspicuous men of the nation. He has been frequently mentioned for Congress; but he rather chose a life, of retirement than one that brought with it great sacrifices and responsibilities. His wonderful methodical arrangement, if nothing else, displays a mind of no ordinary compass, and this. characteristic has been observed in all his business transactions. He possesses complete files of most of the papers he has ever received. Some years since he donated some of these to the Lancaster Athenaeum. DILLER, SOLOMON, a brother of the above, was a member of the Legislature in 1836 and 1837. ¹ DIXON, WILLIAM, was the principal founder of the Lancaster InTelligencer, which was started by him and his brother Robert, in the year 1799. The paper was issued regularly as a Republican (Democratic) organ by Dixon until his death in 1823. William Dixon was several times elected Treasurer of Lancaster county. He was a man of great popularity and sterling principle. ¹ William Dixon was, in Febrpary, 1806, found guilty of libel on Governor McKean, in that he charged the Governor with having made corrupt overtures to Henry Wertz, a Senator from Bedford county. On account of the contradictory statements made by Wertz, before the trial came off, he was not called as a witness ; and, although Dixon proved substantially all he had charged in his paper, yet he was found guilty, under the law of libel as it then existed. He was sentenced, by Judges Henry and Coleman, to three months' imprisonment in the county jail, and to pay $500 as a fine to the Commonwealth, and the costs of prosecution. He was committed in accordance with the sentence. The fine OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 163 DONER, JOHN, was born January 8th, 1818, in Lampeter (now East Lampeter) township, Lancaster county, Pa. His parents were of French descent, and in their religious faith, members of the old Mennonite church. His education was such as the schools of his neighborhood afforded, and he has been all his lifetime engaged in agricultural pursuits. After his marriage he removed to Manor township, where he yet resides. He was elected and served as a director of the Lancaster County Bank for a number of years. In 1860 Mr. Doner was elected a Commissioner of Lancaster county, and served through perhaps the most critical period of the county's history, the beginning and the greater period of the rebellion. It was a period that devolved upon the Board of Commissioners a weight of responsibility that never before had required to be assumed by any Board since the organization of the county. Mr. Dauer, as one of the Board during and costs were promptly paid by his political friends, and he was daily visited by members of the Legislature and citizens of the highest standing, all regarding him simply as the victim of political persecution. A number of Democratic citizens gave Mr. Dixon a supper in his place of confinement, which was handsomely illuminated on the occasion. Major John Light, and Joseph Lefevre, (afterwards a member of Congress), acted as president and vice president, and numerous toasts were drank in honor of Dixon in his captivity. Mrs. Dixon, wife of William Dixon, evinced great heroism during the imprisonment of her husband, and refused to ask his release of Governor McKean. When certain influential friends volunteered to accompany her to the Governor and endeavor to obtain a pardon, she replied, " For your friendship, and the offer of your company and intercession, gentlemen, I sincerely thank you ; but my husband has committed no crime. Why ask forgiveness ? A separation from the husband of my bosom is afflicting, but to supplicate the oppressor (who has torn him from my side) would be base servility." Dixon’s imprisonment was denounced by the whole Republican press of the day. A meeting of the leading Republicans of the borough of Lancaster was held at house of John Whiteside, and an address issued suggesting the propriety of changing the day of the county meeting from Wednesday, May 14th, till Saturday, the 17th, in honor of it being the day when Dixon’s term of imprisonment will have expired. As he will leave the prison about 12 o'clock, the address urged that the Republicans meet at Whiteside's tavern, at 11 o'clock, in order to give Dixon a fitting reception upon his leaving the prison. On the day of his release, accordingly, a large meeting of Republicans met Dixon at the prison and escorted him to his house 164 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY that period, faithfully and efficiently discharged the duties devolved upon him, and to the entire satisfaction of his constituents. Mr. Doner is at present engaged in agricultiral pursuits. DOUGLASS, JOHN, a member of the Legislature in 1756, 1761, 1762 and 1763. DOWNING, WILLIAM, a member of the Legislature in 1771. DUCHMAN, JACOB, elected Comity Commissioner in 1820. DUCHMAN, COL. JOHN H., was a prominent citizen of Lancaster city for many years. He was, by occupation, in his younger years, a hatter, and carried on this business for years. He kept for a number of years the Leopard hotel, in East King street. Early in life he became captivated with military glory and volunteered in the war of 1812-14. He served as first Lieutenant of the old Lancaster Fencibles, then under command of Capt. John K. Findley, which was famed for its admirable discipline, and which was disbanded about the breaking out of the Mexican war. Some years after this Col. Duchman raised a new company, also named the Fencibles, of which he was elected Captain. It was this company which escorted James Buchanan to Washington in March, 1857, at the time he was inaugurated President of the United States. This company remained in existence up to the breaking out of the rebellion in 1861, and became Company F of the 1st Pennsylvania regiment. Owing to ill health, Capt. Duchman was unable to march with his company, and 1st Lieutenant Emlen Franklin succeeded to the command. For some years he was clerk in the Lancaster bank. During James Buchanan's administration he held a position in the custom house in Philadelphia. Shortly after the breaking out of the rebellion he raised a company for the 79th Regiment, P. V. of which he was chosen Lieutenant Colonel. On account of advanced age and the rigors of the field, he was compelled to retire from active service after having served about one year. He died October 8th, 1866, in the 70th year of his age. DUCHMAN, WILLIAM, elected Recorder in 1845. OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 165 *DUFFIELD, GEORGE, was the third son of George and lfargaret Duffield, who emigrated from Ireland in 1730 and settled in Pequea, Lancaster county. They were descended from Huguenot ancestry, their forefathers having escaped from France on account of religious persecution and settled in England, and afterwards passed over into the north of Ireland. The name was originally du Fielde, but became an, glicised after the family had settled in England. The, subject of this notice was born October 7th, 1732. He received his academical education at Newark, Delaware, where afterwards he officiated as Tutor. He graduated at Nassau Hall, joined the church under the care of Rev. Robert Smith, of Pequea, and shortly afterwards commenced the study of theology under his supervision. He was licensed to preach the gospel by the Presbytery of New Castle, March 11th, 1756. He received a call from the united churches of Carlisle, Big Spring and Monohan (now called Dillstown), and was ordained at Carlisle, September 25th, 1761. During the pendency of his ordination and settlement at Carlisle, he was married March 5th, 1759, to Margaret Armstrong, sister of General John Armstrong, of Revolutionary memory. By this marriage he had four children. His youngest son, George, was for thany years connected as Register and Comptroller General, with the administration of the State of Pennsylvania under Governor Thomas McKean. At the time of his settlement in Carlisle and the united congregations, each ten miles distant from the borough, the Indians were numerous in the vicinity and often made hostile demonstrations, which required the body of the male members to arm themselves in self-defense. In all these dangers he participated, cheerfully accompanying his flock to the camp, to administer to them there the consolations of religion. The, church at Monohan was in such an exposed situation, that as a protection during the hours of worship, fortifications were thrown around it; behind which, while those stationed on the ramparts kept watch, the congregation might, without distraction or fear, engage in the worship of God. His deep interest in and sympathy with a population thus periled and. *Sprague's Annals of the American Pulpit, Vol. 3. 166 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY suffering on the frontiers, rendered him, throughout the whole of that region, exceedingly popular. So strong was the attachment for him, that in all perilous adventures, especially during the Revolutionary struggle, the men who had to take up arms for their homes, their liberties and their lives, always welcomed his visits in the camp with the .most cordial good-will. Mr. Duffield was a bold and zealous assertor of the rights of conscience, an earnest and powerful advocate of civil and religious liberty. During the pendency of those measures which were maturing the Declaration of Independence, while the prospects of the colonies seemed most gloomy, his preaching contributed greatly to encourage and animate the friends of liberty. He was not in the habit of writing out his discourses in full; but, having made a skeleton, and arranged his thoughts, awaited the inspiration of the occasion for the filling up. Several of these unfinished discourses which remain, breathe a spirit of the most pure and lofty patriotism, and withal are strikingly prophetic of the religious scenes which were to open out of all that darkness in which the country was then enveloped. During his ministry at Carlisle, he was twice earnestly called by the Second Presbyterian church of Philadelphia, then worshipping at the northwest corner of Arch and Third streets, to become their pastor ; and the commissioners with great zeal prosecuted their call before the Presbytery. Both the Presbytery and himself, however, judged that his presence at Carlisle was of more importance at that time than at Philadelphia. In the year 1766 Mr. Duffield was deputed by the Synod, in connection with the Rev. Charles Beatty, to make a missionary tour and visit the families that had made their way along the great valley that stretches through Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. The object of this mission was to administer the offices of religion to those families which had settled in what is now Franklin county, Pennsylvania, and through the range of country where Greencastle, Hagerstown and other villages now stand, as far as the Potomac, with a view to the organization of churches. OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 167 Some time after this, Mr. Duffield was called to the Third Presbyterian church in Philadelghia, where he officiated during the sessions of the Colonial Congress, anterior to and during the Revolutionary struggle. That church had been originally a branch of the First Presbyterian church, under the care of the Rev. Dr. Ewing. A controversy arose between them and the parent church, relative to their independence. Both the Presbytery and Mr. Duffield judged that it was his duty to accept the call and remove to Philadelphia. The circumstances under which he was translated to that charge, in connection with the old feuds that had divided the church, produced obstacles in the way of his labors at the commencement of his ministry. He was greatly admired as a preacher, and was recognized as a bold, animated and decided Whig, resolutely contending against the encroachments on civil and religious liberty made by the government of Great Britain. On an occasion shortly after his appearance in Philadelphia, the large church edifice, then standing on the corner of Third and Pine streets, which the First church claimed to have under its control, was closed and barred against his entrance, by their order, notwithstanding an appointment had been made for his preaching in it for the congregation accustomed to worship there, and by their direction. The house was opened by the officers of the Third church, and Mr. Duffield was assisted through the throng that had assembled to hear him, and introduced through a window. News of the people assembling on Sabbath evening spread; and application was made to Mr. J. Bryant, the King's magistrate, to quell what was called a riot. The magistrate proceeded to the spot, and, shortly after the commencement of public worship, pressed his way into the aisle of the church, before the pulpit, (on the very spot where afterwards Mr. Duffield's remains were interred, and where they yet sleep, and in the name of the King, read the riot act and required the people to disperse. The congregation was composed of zealous Whigs, who could not endure Tory influence or authority. The principal officer of the congregation, a Mr. Knox, rose and ordered the magistrate to desist. He refused and went on with his reading. A second time the 168 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY zealous champion of liberty, in hearing of all the congregation, with loud voice, demanded that the magistrate cease from disturbing the worship of God. He still refused; when, without further ado, he seized the magistrate, who was a small man, and lifting him up carried him through the crowd out of the house, and ordered him to begone, and not come back there to disturb the worship of God. The magistrate bowed to the stern assertor of popular liberty, and Mr. Duffield went on with his preaching. But the next day he was arrested and brought before the Mayor's Court, and was required to plead to the charge of aiding and abetting a riot, and give bail for his appearance for trial. He politely and respectfully refused to put in any plea or give the bail, averring, that as a minister of Christ, he was performing the duties of his office and was no way accessory to a riot, of the existence of which, there was no proof. The Mayor said that such a procedure would greatly embarrass the Court, who would be compelled to send him to prison if he did not plead and offer bail. His brother, Samuel Duffield, M. D., or other of his friends whomsoever he might name, would be accepted by him as bail. He still, with the utmost courtesy, declined. After some entreaty, the Mayor offered himself to be his bail, not wishing to commit him to prison. he cordially thanked his Honor for his unmerited kindness, but protested that he stood on the ground of principle, and that he was called, in the ,providence of God, to assert the rights and liberty of a minister of Christ, and of a worshiping assembly, and denied the legitimate interference and cognizance of the King's government in such matters. The Mayor delayed for several days deciding in the case, and requesting him to take the matter into consideration, suffered him to withdraw to his own house, under the assurance that he must again appear before the Court and give his definite answer. The occasion and procedure were productive of great excitement. The news that the King's government was going to put Mr. Duffield in prison, spread through the city and into the country, until it reached the region where he had formerly lived. Here the excitement became so great that the volunteer forces, to whom he was well-known, and by whom OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 169 be was much beloved, assembled, and resolved to held themselves in readiness to march, though distant a hundred miles or more, to the city of Philadelphia, if he should be imprisoned, and set him at liberty in opposition to the King's government. The occasion and opportunity for their valor were never afforded ; for he was never again brought before the Mayor’s Court. He was allowed to pursue his ministrial duties unmolested, and the First Church settled their matters with the branch, and recognized their right to call the minister of their choice without dictation or control. Attempts however, were made to prevent his introduction into the Presbytery to which the First Church and their pastor belonged. He insisted on his right, according to the social compact, to be received by them, refusing to commence his ministry in Philadelphia with allowed imputations of his character and orthodoxy. Eventually, when he had been so received, that his presence might not molest. men who did not sympathize with him in ecclesiastical matters, he voluntarily applied for and received a dismission to the other Presbytery, with whose members he had more especial affinity. During a part of the sessions of the Colonial Congress he was employed, with the Rev. Mr. (afterwards Bishop) White, as chaplain to that body. John Adams attended regularly on his ministry, and communed with his church during the sitting of Congress in Philadelphia. Mr. Duffield was eminently a man of devotional feelings and habits, and was instrumental in establishing the first prayer-meeting in any Presbyterian church in Philadelphia. So much did he value prayer, and so important did he feel it to be to excite and encourage the men that had left their homes and periled their lives in the cause of freedom, to look to God and put their trust in Him, that he would occasionally, in the darkest hours of the Revolution, leave his charge and repair to the camp, where the fathers and sons of many of his flock were gathered, and minister to them in the public preaching of the Word, and in personal converse. When the enemy were lying on Staten Island, and the American troops were on the opposite side of the Sound, on 14 170 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY a Sabbath day he preached to a portion of the soldiers gathered into an orchard, having ascended into the forks of a tree for his pulpit. The noise of their singing arrested the enemy's attention, who directed several cannon shot to be fired toward the spot whence it proceeded. As the shot came rushing through the trees, he suggested that they should retire behind a hillock, and not remote from the spot where they were, which was done under the enemy's fire, without injury, and there they finished their religious exercises, He was with the army in their battles and retreat through Jersey, during that dark and nearly hopeless period of the Revolution, and was almost the very last man that crossed the bridge over the stream immediately south of Trenton, before it was cut down by order of the American general. For this preservation he was indebted to a Quaker friend, whom he had essentially aided in his hour of trial—though of politics opposed to his own—and whose deliverance he had been the means of securing. The British officers had put a price upon his head, and were particularly anxious to destroy him, because of the influence he exerted among the soldiers of the American army. After the retreat from Princeton, he had retired to a private house in Trenton to seek repose, and was not aware that the American army had taken up their line of march and had nearly all crossed the bridge, until his Quaker friend, having ascertained that he was in the town, sought him out and gave him the alarm, just in time for him to escape before the bridge was destroyed by the retreating army of Washington. He continued the pastor of the Third Presbyterian church until the day of his death, and was greatly respected and beloved by them. He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Yale College, in 1785. He died in Philadelphia, among the people of his charge, February 2nd, 1790, aged 57 years. DUFFIELD, REV. GEORGE, was born in the village of 'Strasburg, Lancaster county, July 4th, 1794. His father, also named George, was a merchant, and for nine years Register and Comptroller General, under Governor McKean. His grandfather, also bearing the same name, was chaplain OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 171. the Old Old Continental Congress, an honor he held in connection with Bishop White. The subject of this notice graduated at the early age of sixteen years, at the University of Pennsylvania, then under the Presidency of S. McDowell, LL.D. He read theology, and was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Philadelphia, on the 20th of April, 1815. He immediately thereupon entered upon the duties of his profession, in which he faithfully continued to labor up to the day of his death. In 1817 he married, in New York city, Miss Isabella Bethune, a daughter of the well-known merchant, and sister of the Rev. George W. Bethune, D.D. In 1837 he was called to the Broadway Tabernacle as the 'successor of the Rev. Charles G. Finney. In 1838 he was called to the First Presbyterian congregation of Detroit, a position he at once accepted, and continued as the sole pastor thereof until April 27th, 1865, when the Rev. N. S. McCorkle was installed as associate pastor. The subject of this notice was honored with the title of Doctor of Divinity by the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Duffield was very regular and assiduous in his clerical ministrations, preaching regularly to his congregation, except when temporarily disabled, up to the period of his death. Even during the cholera epidemic of 1849, he steadily stood his post, and being severely prostrated by the malady, and from the effects of a chronic disease to which he had long been subject, he, at the earnest solicitation of his friends, accepted a leave of absence and went abroad for a year, and then returned completely restored to heakth. completely restored to health. In his own denomination, Dr. Duffield's learning and abitity made him one of its most eminent divines. He ranked in the same category with Drs. Lyman Beecher, Albert Barnes, S. H. Cox, Bethune, Spring, and Sprague. His influence was long exerted and will be permanent. He died at Detroit, June 26th, 1868. DUNLAP, JOHN M., is a native of Lancaster county, and a practicing physician in the borough of Manheim. He set out in life as a teacher of a subscription school, but soon after abandoned this for the study of medicine. He entered, as a student of medicine, the office of Dr. F. S. Burrowes, 172 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY . of Lancaster city, and graduated at the Jefferson Medical College, in 1845. He chose the borough of Manheim for the practice of his profession, and he was not long in establishing himself in a lucrative business, in which he is yet steadily engaged. In 1863 he was nominated and elected a State Senator, a position he filled by a courteous and close attention to the duties of the office. DYSART, JAMES, was elected Clerk of the Orplitns' Court in 1851. - E - EBERMAN, JACOB, son of John Eberman, was elected County Treasurer in 1803. He was also elected Director of the Poor, a position he held for three years. He was commissioned by Governor McKean, a Justice of the Peace, but never acted in that capacity. He was a land agent for many years, and was instrumental in this line in securing and effecting land titles for the owners of property while the land office was located at Lancaster. ¹ EBERMAN, JOHN, was a clock-maker of Lancaster, and the manufacturer of the first town clock in Lancaster, and which is yet in existence. EBERMAN, JOHN, a brother of Jacob Eberman, was cashier of one of the old Lancaster banks for thirty years. EBERMAN, PETER G., son of Jacob Eberman, above named, held the office of Commissioners' Clerk for a period of upwards of a quarter of a century and until within the last five years. He is an Alderman of Lancaster City. ¹ The old town clock was made and put up by John Eberman in the old Court House, in 1786, at a cost of £550. About the year 1796 a new steeple was added to the building, the clock taken down and new hands put thereon, which were considerably larger than the old ones, improvements much commended at the time. It was on this occasion that Jacob Eberman, son of John Eberman, lost his hand. The clock was put up on a cold day of February, and his hand being numbed with the cold, was accidentally caught between the large wheel and pinion when the works were in motion, and the fingers literally ground off. OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 173 EBERLE, DR. JOHN, was born in Manor township, Lancaster county, in January, 1788. His father was, a blacksmith, and designed his son to follow the same occupation, but his nature, fitted for another career, prompted him to make exertions to have his life directed in a different channel. Without more than the ordinary education of the schools of his district, he began the study of medicine under the direction of Dr. Abraham. Carpenter, of Lancaster; afterwards he read with Dr. Clapp, in Philadelphia, and graduated Doctor of 'Medicine, at the University of Pennsylvania, in 1809. The subject of his inaugural address was animal heat. He entered upon the practice of medicine first in Manheim, Lancaster county, and after a few years removed to Lancaster city, where, a short time afterwards, he accepted a commission as surgeon to the Lancaster militia, and was present at the battle of Baltimore, in 1814. Whilst in Lancaster he became, for a short period, the editor of a political paper during a stirring gubernatorial election, and was thereby seduced into the meshes of office-hunters and unprincipled demagogues, and led into other kinds of practice, that for a season threatened him with entire ruin. In this way he lost all his practice as a physician in Lancaster, and was obliged to select a new location for the pursuit of his profession, and for this he determined upon the city .of Philadelphia. In 1815 he began the practice of his profession in this new location, where considerable time is usually required to establish an extensive business. Not long after. this he wrote some articles which attracted marked attention, and he was thus induced, shortly afterwards, to essay the editorial management of a medical journal. In 1818 the American Medical Recorder made its debut, under the editorship of John Eberle, M. D., as a quarterly, and was ably sustained by men who were willing to furnish him their contributions without any pecuniary reward. To the establishment of this journal Dr. Eberle greatly owed his subsequent advancement and reputation; he was soon thereafter elected member of the Linnan Society of Philadelphia, and in 1822 the Berlin Medical Chirurgical Society enrolled his 174 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY name in their list of foreign members. In 1825 he Was elected a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. He was active in promoting the interests of the Jefferson Medical College, and may be regarded as one of its most efficient founders. After the establishment of this institution he was appointed professor of the practice of Physic, in 1825, and in 1830 was transferred to the chair of Materia, Medico, in the same college. He was lecturer, also, on obstetrics. In the fall of 1831 he removed with his family to Cincinnati, and was elected Professor of Materia Medica in the. Ohio Medical College. In the changes which necessarily occurred on this occasion, he was called upon to resume the branch he had formerly taught in Jefferson College, and the practice of medicine again came within the immediate duty of his professional chair. He continued to discharge this responsible trust until 1837, when he was induced from many circumstances, once more to change the the scene of his labors, and he removed to Lexington, Ky. The professorship of the practice of medicine was now tendered to him in the medical department of the Transylvania University. He died shortly after his installment in this institution, at Lexington, February 2nd, 1838. Besides his labors as editor of the Medical Recorder, he is the author of several distinct treatises which will long render his name familiar to the medical student. In 1822 his treatise on Therapeutics came before the public, one which was conceded not only in this country, but in distant lands, to be the very best work on the subject ever issued from the American press. As evidence ,pf the high esteem placed upon it, the work was translated into several foreign languages, and has been quoted with marked approbation ever since. No American work on Therapeutics has ever yet been published so full of originality and real excellence. In 1830 appeared his practice of Physic, in 2 vols. octavo, a deservedly popular work, and since often reprinted. It was the only Philadelphia issue on practical medicine that had ever appeared, professing to be original to a great extent, and not a mere re-print of a foreign work with the addition OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 175 of a few brief notes. This, like his Therapeutics, found its way into all the respectable libraries of the profession, and was made a text-book in various colleges. In 1833 he issued the first edition of his treatise on the Diseases of Children, a work of considerable merit, and one which met with a fair sale. The life of Dr. Eberle was chiefly appropriated to the advancement of the profession he had selected as the business of his existence. His knowledge was the result of great individual effort, often under the most discouraging and adverse circumstances ; and, nevertheless, it was various and extensive. To modern science, he added a familiar acquaintance with Hippocratic medicine, and his regard for the ancients led him to estimate somewhat unduly their merits. That he labored not in vain, may be inferred from the extensive circulation of his writings, and the estimation in which they are generally held both by the students of science and by men of clinical experience. Dr. Alban Goldsmith, who was for five years a colleague of Dr. Eberle in the Medical College of Ohio, in a letter to Dr. Francis, of New York, thus writes of his lamented friend: "In a wide survey of medical men with whom I have had intercourse, I have rarely encountered one who possessed a larger share of professional knowledge in the several branches of healing than Dr. Eberle. To great extent of information he united a kind and courteous demeanor, and was never obtrusive in enforcing his practical opinions, except when they were assailed by ignorance and unwarrantable assurance. During the period that we labored together, he was a constant and indefatigable student, taking a wide survey of the philosophy of medicine. His lectures were always of a practical nature, and his hospital clinics filled with the most valuable facts, the result of careful observation. His deportment towards the junior members of the profession was universally kind and parental, and he was always ready to offer them aid in their inquiries. He was totally free from all professional envy, and his intercourse with his colleagues was characterized by the strictest laws of etiquette. Medicines or money were dispensed by him with like liberal- 176 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY ity to remove the sufferings and alleviate the calamities of the poor. In short, he was liberal to a fault and often care, less of his own proper interests. He deserves to be recorded as a successful pioneer in the valuable corps who have pro. moted the diffusion of real science in the great west, and his medical writings I think, may be justly estimated as havinc, added to the claims which indigenous literature and science have upon the Confederation of the American Medical Faculty." His remains, after being for a time deposited in Lexington, were transferred to the Episcopal Cemetery in Cincinnati, where a monument marks their final resting spot. EBERLY, SAMUEL, elected Recorder in 1839. he is the father of Adam J. Eberly, esq. EBY FAMILY. This family is an old and numerous one ; its members being scattered over different parts of Pennsylvania, the adjoining States of New York and Maryland, and likewise reside in Canada and the west. A perfect list of the individual members could not easily be had. Neither can all of the existing branches be traced to the parent stem. The ancestor who first came to America, and from whom the greater part of the family has sprung, was named Theodorus. Theodorus, a Swiss by birth, and a Mennonite in faith, left his native country on account of religious persecution, and resided for awhile in the " Palatinate" or " Pfaltz," an old division in Germany, whose chief towns were Manheim, Heidelberg, Simmern and Zwei Brucken. When William Penn, by his agents, offered free homes to persons of all religious denominations, Theodorus emigrated to America and settled on Mill Creek, Lancaster county, at a place lately known as Roland's mill, situated south of New Hollal.d, and near the line of Earl and Leacock townships. It is said he had five or six sons in his family, skilled in the various mechanical arts; so that with their assistance he built a mill, and erected such other buildings as were needed, without employing persons outside of his family, except for the purpose of burning charcoal to supply the smith forge, which they did not themselves sufficiently understand. OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 177 The place of Theodorus' birth cannot now be definitely ascertained, there being no record in existence showing the dition has it, that he came from Canton fact. Family tra " Schweitz," and must therefore have been of a race of hardy mountaineers. The date of his arrival in Pennsylvania, is fixed Colonial Records, in 1715. And in the same year appears the names of Jacob Hochstetter, Jacob Kreider, Johannes Shenk and others. Five years later, in 1720, the family received an addition by emigration, in the person of Peter Eby, said to have been a relative of Theodorus; and still another much later, whose kinship, however, was never recognized. In 1728, it appears that two persons were naturalized under the name of " Abye." These may have been sons of either Theodorus or Peter, and their names erroneously spelled by the government agent. It is to be observed that the descendants of Theodorus have always scrupulously adhered to the literal translation of the name, while some of the others have adopted the pronunciation of the German into the English, and wrote themselves " Eaby." So far as can be judged from the oldest known members, they must originally have been an active, quick-tempered, brown-eyed, dark-haired family. The name of only one of the sons of Theodorus is now certainly known, which was Christian. CHRISTIAN married a Mayer, and settled on Hammer Creek, in Elizabeth township, about three miles north of Litiz. He died in 1756. His wife died in 1787. They left a family of ten children as follows : Christian, Johannes, Barbara, married to Jacob Hershey, Peter, Anna, married to Christian Stauffer, Andrew, George, Elizabeth, married to Jacob Hershey, Samuel, and Michael. His oldest son, Christian Eby, who married Catharine Bricker, retained the mansion place on Hammer Creek, which he greatly improved by building a new stone dwelling house, the date of which is 1754, a large barn, and a newmill and a dwelling house and barn for his son John. He was a large, well proportioned and athletic man, re- 178 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY taining unusual health and vigor of both body and mind, up to the time of his death. He was elder in the Mennonite church, and wore a long beard, which in his later years had turned white. Regular stated Mennonite meetings were held at his house, until a building for that special purpose was erected in the neighborhood. He lived during the Revolutionary war, and foraging parties carried off some of his horses and cattle, as also large quantities of flour and grain out of his mill. On one occasion his wife's pewter dishes and spoons, and an oven full of newly baked bread and pies shared the same fate. During the winter in which the American army was en. camped at Valley Forge, a number of disabled soldiers were quartered in the old Lutheran church, near Brickerville, and were supplied weekly with milk and other necessaries from his and other neighboring farms. He died in 1807. His wife, who is said to have been an amiable and greatly esteemed person) surviving him several years. He left eleven children, as follows : 1. Elizabeth, wife of Joseph Bucher, resided near Litiz, and left descend. ants. 2. Christian, who resided on the home-place. 3. Peter, who moved to Pequea valley, and afterwards became a Mennonite Bishop. 4. John, who lived at the mill, adjoining the old place. 5. Andrew, who died, middle-aged, leaving several children, that afterwards moved to the west. 6. Catharine, wife of Abraham Burkholder, resided in Earl township. 7. Barbara, wife of Joseph Snyder, moved to Canada. 8. Anna, wife of Jacob Wissler, resided in Clay township. 9. George. 10. Benjamin, who moved to Canada, was made a minister in the Mennonite church, and succeeded his brother Peter as Bishop of the Mennonites in Canada. 11. Maria, wife of Jacob Brubacher, resided in Elizabeth township. CHRISTIAN EBY, son of Christian the second, was married to a Hershey, and left the following children: 1. Catharine, died unmarried. 2. Elizabeth, wife of David Gingrich, resided in Lancaster county. Left eight children, among whom are Samuel, Christian, and John, who follow farming, and are useful citizens; the latter being an active school director, OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 179 and treasurer of the board of East Hempfield. 3. Anna, wife of Samuel Nissley, residing in Rapho township, had a family of children. 4. Maria, wife of Peter Eby, resided in Fenn township, and left two sons, Seth and Joel. 5. Barbara, wife of Abraham Reist, resided in Penn township, and had a family of children. 6. Rev. Benjamin, served as a minister among the Mennonites for many years, up to the time of his death. Retained the old mansion place, at Hammer creek, the greater portion of his life, and afterwards moved to Washington county, Maryland, where he died. He left four sons and one daughter, all residing out of the county. 7. Christian resided in East Hempfield township, and left three children. Fanny died unmarried; Ann, wife of John Gingrich, and Elizabeth, wife of Abm. Rohrer, both residing in Hempfield township. 8. Sem resides in Leacock township, follows farming, a worthy man, and father of a numerous family. 9. Susan, wife of Henry Stauffer, resides in Rapho township, and has two. sons and two daughters. PETER EBY, married to Margaret Hess, moved to Salisbury township, near the Gap, in 1791, and followed farming when his time was not taken up by his duties as a minister of the gospel or bishop in the Mennonite church. He was ordained a minister in 1800, and the second among his denomination in that neighborhood. Up to 1814 he preached in private houses; then a school-house was erected, and afterwards a meeting-house for that special purpose. This member of the family deserves more than a passing notice. His fame as a preacher was widely known, and served to fill the houses to their utmost capacity wherever he was known to officiate. The ministers in the Mdanonite church are not educated for the pulpit, nor adopt the ministry as a profession; they are chosen by lot, whenever a position is to be filled, from a small number of the congregation considered most worthy. Several ministers usually reside convenient to a particular meeting-house, where they are expected to officiate upon all ordinary occasions. On communion days, and other special occasions, a Bishop is required to be present. The bishops have also certain districts allotted to each, and the privilege 180 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY of presiding amongst them is generally accorded to the senior in office, or the most eminent in abilities. This position Peter held for many years, up to the time of his death; and his authority also extended over the church in Canada, until he was succeeded there by his younger brother, Benjamin. To form some idea of his powers as an orator, it is neces. sary to state that the principal sermon in the Mennonite churches was always prefaced by an introductory discourse from one of the younger ministers present ; and that on communion day, the subject invariably used to be Bible history, from Adam down, bringing out the prominent events and prophecies pointing to the new dispensation. The introductory discourse generally brought it down to the time of Noah and Isaac, when it would be taken up by the Bishop. and continued to the birth of Christ, His ministry on earth, and His final suffering and death. Old as the story had become, the audience never tired listening to it from the eloquent lips of Peter. When he slowly arose, all noise subsided into an almost painful expectation. Then he would break the silence with a kind and fatherly greeting to his hearers, and glide gently into the course marked out for himself. Proceeding step by step, describing, explaining, illustrating and sustaining his points as he went along, with copious quotations from the Scriptures, for all of which he drew upon his extraordinary memory, he would gradually warm up in his theme, and, when under full sway, his discourse moved along like a deep, clear stream, rolling ocean-ward, without a break or ripple, grand, majestic, and irresistible. His powers, however, were brought out most fully when he came to portray the acts and sufferings of his Master during his last few days upon earth. The scene in Gethsemane ; the sleeping disciples ; the noise and tumult breaking upon the stillness of the night, when the armed men came to take Him ; the doings before the Jewish and Roman tribunals ; the embarrassment of Pontius Pilate, and his fruitless devices to save Jesus ; the message sent him by his wife ; 'his last resort, when he gave the Jews to choose between Jesus and Barabbas, and the cries of the infuriated OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 181 multitude that pronounced his condemnation. Then the sorrowful train moving up Calvary ; the preparation to carry the fearful sentence into execution ; and lastly, the finishing act in the sublime drama ; the Saviour of mankind nailed. between heaven and earth, His side pierced, and yet, with parched lips, in the agonies of death, crying to the Father to forgive; the darkening of the heavens, the quaking of the earth, and the elements bearing witness, in thunders and lightnings, to the divinity of Him that was suffering. All this he would portray in a manner so vivid that the speaker would be forgotten in the subject. Then, as his voice, suppressed by emotion, and sinking into silence, would allow the attention of his hearers to return to the speaker, he would stand before them, tears streaming down his .cheeks, his countenance glowing, and his raised hands directing the penitent sinner, as it were, to the foot of a visible cross. His preaching was altogether extemporaneous, and its effect upon an audience great. And yet he was not a sensational preacher ; he addressed the judgment as well as the feelings, and his discourses abounded in arguments and reasonings that were listened to with admiration by the most polemical or logical. So much was this the case, that it frepuently happened, that strangers hearing him for the first time, although otherwise informed, would not be convinced that he was not a person regularly educated and trained for the ministry. His personal appearance also was greatly in his favor, being somewhat above medium height, well proportioned and fleshy, with a high, square, even forehead, a finely formed face, that had it not indicated quite as much force, might have been called classic ; a deportment easy, grave and dignified. An acquaintance of his, who had heard some of the most noted orators of the state and nation, in and out of the pulpit, gave it as his opinion, that for none of them, it seemed, had nature done so much towards making the " Orator," as grand old servant of the church. In the councils over which he presided as Bishop, his voice was equally potent. His clear intellect enabled him to probe difficulties to the bottom; and his impartial decis- 182 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY ions pronounced without fear or favor, were acknowledged to be just, and rarely appealed from. He died April 6th, 1843, in the 78th year of his age. His family consisted of nine children who arrived to adult age ; the names of only three were furnished the author, viz.: Peter, Christian and Henry, and one of the daughters, mar. rid to a Stauffer. JOHN EBY resided at the mill adjoining the old mansion place, and was a quiet, unobtrusive, but prominent man in the community in which he lived. A miller and a farmer by occupation, he dealt extensively in produce, which he had transported to Newport and Philadelphia, keeping a team of his own for that purpose, and also employing teams of his neighbors when they could be spared from the farms. He was a promoter of improvements. In the day of turnpikes he served as a director ; had roads laid out one to open communication between the town of Manheim and the Ephrata turnpike, at Durlach, and one from his place to Brickerville, besides others. The first school-house in the neighborhood was built on his farm, at his own private expense, where the youth of the neighborhood were educated by teachers procured by him. It was mostly through his influence that the Mennonites of Lancaster county purchased a large tract of land in Canada, to assist their distressed brethren in that part of the world, and which subsequently became the home of many of their descendants. He left eight children, viz: 1. Catharine, wife of John Hostetter, who resided in Manor township, her family consisting of seven children, John, Elias, Jonas, Abraham D., Martha, Mary and Catharine. 2. Jonas, married to Fanny Nissley, resides in West Hempfield township; family consisted of six children, who arrived to adult age, John N., Elias, (now a school director of Rapho), Samuel N., Simon J., Henry N., and Fanny. 3. Mary, wife of Jacob Yundt, resided formerly in Elizabeth township, but moved to Neipersville, Illinois ; family consisting of seven children. 4. Rebecca, wife of John Bomberger, resided near Manheim borough, and left three children, Martha, Christian and Sem. 5. Elias resided at the mill in Elizabeth township, followed OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 183 farming and milling; was elected sheriff of Lancaster county in 1851, serving three years ; died September, 1862, in the 57th year of his age. Left three children, Simon P., a practicing attorney in Lancaster city; Mary, and Eliza. 6. Elizabeth, wife of Samuel Risser, resided in West Hemp-field township, now in Mt. Joy borough. Her family consisted of seven children, Ann, wife of Jacob K. Nissley, Mary, Levi, Jonas, Reuben, Samuel and Joseph. 7. Levi resided in Rapho township; followed farming, and left five daughters, Sarah, Fanny, Fianna and Rebecca. 8. Anna, wife of Rev. Samuel Hershey, resides near Manheim borough. Her family consists of four children, viz: Levi, Henry, Mary and Anna. CATHARINE BURKHOLDER had a son by the name of Christian. He married Veronica Groff, who resided in West Earl township. Her grandchildren are: 1st, Seth, moved to Whiteside county, Illinois. 2. Christiana, late wife of John B. Sensenig, resided in Earl township. 3. Elias, moved to Whiteside county, Illinois. 4. Ezra, resides in West Earl township, is a justice of the peace, surveyor and scrivener. 5. Catharine, wife of John Martin, resides in West Earl township. 6. Menno, resides in West Earl township. 7. Frances, wife of Adam Myers, resides in Upper Leacock township. 8. Maria. 9. Groff. 10. Ann. These three reside in West Earl township. 11. Christian, deceased. 12. Peter, moved to Whiteside county, Illinois. ANNA WISLER'S FAMILY. 1. Andrew, moved to Michigan. 2. Jacob, resided in Clay township, farmer left four children. 3. Christian, resided in Clay township, followed milling, left four children. 4. Martha, wife of Jacob Landis, resided in Ephrata township, left three children. 5. Ezra, resides in Clay township, follows farming, family consisting of two sons. 6. Mary, wife of Levi Erb, moved to Canada, and now resides in Shenandoah county, Virginia, family consisting of two daughters. 7. John, moved to Canada, and afterwards to Shenandoah county, Virginia, where he was engaged in the iron business, and died leaving six children. 8. Samuel, resided in Canada, engaged in the 184 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY milling and manufacturing business, left family of some fl.ve children. 9. Levi, resides on the old Wissler family man. sion in Clay township, one of the first places settled in that neighborhood, and originally owned by a person named Groff. REV. BENJAMIN EBY, who succeeded his brother Peter as presiding Bishop of the Mennonites in Canada, Was married to an Erb, and left a family of eleven children, one of whom also became a minister of the Gospel. He moved to Canada in and settled where Berlin, the county town of Waterloo county now stands ; but which was at was at that time an unbroken forest. He died in a few years ago. His farm, like many others in that county, afterwards settled upon by Lancaster county people, was a part of the large tract purchased by the Mennonites, as mentioned in the notice of his elder brother John. Two of his sons became printers, and for many years published a newspaper, as also hymn books and other religious works. The latter being done under the supervision of their father. MARIA BRUBAKER'S FAMILY. 1. Sem, resides in Rapho township; has two sons. Martin N. is a justice of the peace, and follows surveying and scrivening. Rev. Jacob N. follows farming, and is a minister, of much promise, in the Mennonite church. 2. Henry E. resides in Elizabeth township, and is the present owner of the old Eby mansion place, on Hammer creek, follows farming and has a family. 3. Isaac, resides in Rapho, and is a farmer. 4. Jacob E., resides on the old Brubaker mansion place, in Elizabeth township, and follows farming. 5. Maria, wife of John Reist, resides in Penn township. 6. ____ , wife of Jacob Brubaker, resides in Lancaster township. 7. Anna, wife of Rev. Horst, resides near Manheim borough. There was a Christian Eby, who resided near Neffsville, and died in 1867, near Brickerville. He was a descendant of Theodorus by another branch. Left nine children: John, resides in Cumberland county ; Eliza, wife of Abm. Metzler; Christian, resides in Conestoga Centre; Mary, wife of Erhard Lutz ; Anna, wife of Elias Barr, resides in Lancaster city OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 185 Benjamin moved to Ohio; Lydia, wife of E. Pfautz ; Ephraim p,, resides near Brickerville ; Catharine, wife of Daniel Flory. There was an Ephraim Eby, who lived near Elizabethtown, a much esteemed man. He had seven children; Jacob, merchant and banker, resides in Harrisburg ; Ephraim, merchant, resides in Philadelphia ; Mrs. Grove, of Columbia, and Mrs. Weaver, of Lancaster city. Three dead. A third brother, Jacob, resides in Ohio. There was a Jacob Eby, a cousin of the elder Christian, who settled on a farm on Hammer creek, Elizabeth township, now owned by Jacob R. Hess. He left three sons Abraham married, but had no children ; Peter, who lived a hermit (Einsiedler), in a pleasant little home in Elizabeth township; died in 1836, leaving a will, by which he directed all his estate and property, of which he possessed a considerable amount, to be distributed in flour among the deserving poor, irrespective of age, sex, nation, color, or religion. This was faithfully carried out by his executors, such distribution being made. gradually, and lasting three or four years; two wagon loads were sent to Lancaster city, and there distributed from the hardware store of Geo. Louis Mayer. He also wrote and published a small religious work, most copies of which were either sold-or distributed after his death. The other son, Abraham, left four children, viz : Abraham Peter, John and Jonas. Of these the first named lived in East Cocalico township, and had eight children. The second lived near Manheim borough, and had two sons; the third left one son in Iowa, and the last named resided near Shoeneck, and left one daughter, wife of Henry B. Erb. There was a Peter Eby who settled in Upper Leacock township, and married a Roland. His family consisted of eight children: Peter, Samuel, Henry, John, David, Christian, Andrew, Ann, wife of Abm. Wenger. The two oldest, Peter and Samuel, served in the Revolutionary war, under Capt. Roland, and were present in the American army when the British took New York, in 1776. Samuel afterwards married and resided in Leacock township, and followed farming. He left four children, Samuel, Jonas, Barbara, wife of Wm. Good; Elizabeth, wife of John Good. - 15 - 186 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY His son, Jonas Eby, married a Line, and his family coil. sists of three children, viz: Samuel Eby, a justice of the peace, surveyor and scrivener, and banker, residing in Eliza. bethtown; Isaac, and Lavina, wife of Martin Leber. There was also Isaac Eby, of Leacock township. father of Major Christian Eby, who at one time was the owner of Roland's mill, where Theodorus settled, and adjoining which some of his descendants still live. Jacob S. Eby, who resides on a farm in Upper Leacock township, that has been in the name for about a century, is the son of Jacob, and a grandson of Daniel Eby. Moses and Joel Eby, of Intercourse, are said to be or the same branch as Jacob S. Eby, although they write their names Eaby. There was also Christian Eby, of Rapho.township, lately deceased, who followed farming and milling, and who left a family of well-doing children, among whom are Jacob and George. The only descendants of Samuel Eby, who lived about two miles south of Manheim, are a daughter, married to Henry Kurtz, of Mt. Joy borough, and a daughter married to ____ Eberly, of Clay township. ECKMAN, JOHN, a member of the Legislature in 1794. EDIE, JOHN, elected State Senator in 1792. EDWARDS, THOS., a member of the Legislature in the years 1729, 1730, 1731, 1732, 1735, 1736 and 1739. EILER, JOHN, elected sheriff of Lancaster county in 1842. EHRENFRIED, JOSEPH, was born in the city of Mayence, in Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, on the 25th of December, 1783. His parents were members of the Roman Catholic faith, and designed him for the priesthood, and sent him to school to be educated for this purpose. At the age of nineteen he left his native country, and emigrated to America about 1802. He began his career in this country as a school teacher, in 1803, in the "Grove School House," in East Donegal township, Lancaster county. Not, long after this period Mr. Ehrenfried received the situation of translator and book-keeper in Albright's printing establishment, in OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 187 the city, of Lancaster, where he acquired a practical knowledge of the "art preservative of all arts ;" and in 1808, in connection with William Hamilton, he established the rikfreund, a German paper, which he disposed of to John Baer, in 1817, by whose sons the paper yet continues to be published. He Continued in the establishment of Mr. Baer as editor, translator and compositor for twenty years, during which time he translated into German "Buck's Theological Dictionary," and published in German the works of Dietrich, Phillips; wrote and published in German " Ehrenfried's Colloquial Phrases," besides a number of other works. About 1837 he made two visits to his native country, and after his return he removed to Harrisburg, the capital of the State, and published the Vaterland's Waechter ; and during the administration of Governor Ritner, he held the office of German State printer. He subsequently established the Friedensboten, a German newspaper, at Allentown, Pa., which he disposed of some time thereafter, and accepted the office of Deputy Register of Wills, of Lancaster county, in 1845, which he filled until the autumn of 1860, performing the duties thereof entirely to the satisfaction of his superior officer anti the community at large, and retiring only at the dictation of age and increasing infirmity. In 1809 Mr. Ehrenfried married Mrs. Ann Smith, formerly Miss Ann Hubley, a daughter of Bernard Hubley, esq., of Lancaster city, and had celebrated both his silver and his golden wedding days, an event that happens to so few in proportion to the number of marriages. About the year 1816 he became receiver of the doctrines of the New Church (Swedenborgian), through the instrumentality of Professor Frederick Damish, a Salon music teacher, a congenial and intimate friend. In 1835 or 1836 he became connected with the "Lancaster New Jerusalem Society," and held the office of president for twenty years. In the welfare of his church Mr. Ehrenfried always manifested a deep interest, as did he also in that of the church at large. He was cotemporary with Damish, Young, Girling, and Keefer. Mr. Ehrenfried died March 6th, 1862, in the 79th year of his age. In his conduct and deportment he was one of the 188 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY meekest of men, was most highly esteemed by all classes of citizens, and we hazard the assertion that he died without an enemy. He was an industrious and working man, and in addition to his usual vocation did much in compiling and translating from the English into the German language, Only a short time before his death he was engaged in the translation of Noble's Lectures, for the Monatschrift. The following, as illustrative of his entire rectitude of principle, deserves to be recorded. Having proved unfortunate, he became involved in debt, and all his property passed from his hands. After living in Harrisburg and having regained a footing, he visited Lancaster and gave public announcement in the papers, that he would meet his creditors on a certain day, and pay them his indebtedness, at a place specified. He met his creditors, according to announcement, and paid all his debts, great and small, and from that day forth acted upon the scriptural injunction, " Owe no man anything." EICHHOLTZ, HENRY, was, in September, 1818, appointed Prothonotary of the Supreme Court of the Lancaster district, in the room of John Hoff; deceased. EICHHOLTZ, JACOB, was born in the borough of Lancaster, in the year 1776, and shortly after the declaration of American Independence. He, in after years, congratulated himself in having the fortune to be born an American instead of a British subject. His parents were of German ancestry, and having a large family, were not in circumstances to afford the subject .of our notice more than a limited English education. His father and three of his brothers bore arms in the struggle of the American Colonies for independence. At the early age of seven years, he showed signs of that inborn trait which, in after life, enrolled him as a painter of wide repute, and rendered him a marked man in his day. It was as a child up in his father's garret with a piece of red chalk, that he was in the habit of delineating the infantile specimens of his art upon the walls; but his father was unable to appreciate the budding genius, and little heeded these monitions of superior intellect. Besides a few lessons obtained from a sign painter, young Eichholtz received OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 189 no instruction in that art for the knowledge of which his whole soul was aspiring and. he, in after years, was in the habit of remarking the intense agony that seized him when the sad tale of the sign painter's suicide was brought to his ears, occasioned by unrequited love. All the bright hopes that had dawned upon his youthful vision seemed in this occurrence as buried forever. Sadness for a time seated itself upon the throne of his spiritual existence, and but blank grief seemed to be invited in the prospect of his future career. The instruction in painting he had already received was but as nothing, but the little seed had been sown in a fertile soil. He was next apprenticed by his father to learn the coppersmith business, and whilst engaged in this business, his predilection was still showing itself in the sketches of his fellow apprentices pictured on the walls of the shop with charcoal. After the expiration of his apprenticeship, he began business as a coppersmith upon his own account; but ever and continually the ruling passion of his inner life was manifesting itself. Chance, as it were, brought a painter to Lancaster, and this formed a pivot of his after career. He now had an opportunity to gather from this painter all the information of which he was in possession as regards the art of his aspirations. Prior to this period,. he says: "I had made some rude efforts, with terrible success, having nothing more than a boot jack for a palette, and anything in the shape of a brush, for at that time brushes were not to be had even in Philadelphia. At length I was fortunate enough to get a few half-worn brushes from Sully, when on the eve of his departure for England. This was a great feast for t me, and enabled me to go on until others were to be had." Having by this time a family of several children, he hesitated the abandonment of the coppersmith business for that of painting, not being fully convinced of the pecuniary result might follow such a step. To attempt to support his family by painting, seemed hazardous, and his prudent e forbade nature forbade a doubtful enterprise. He therefore still carried on the business of his trade, and alternated his time between coppersmithing and painting. The specimens of his 190 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY skill as a painter went forth, and his reputation steadily grew. His shop became the resort of the fashionable and wealthy.. It was no unusual thing for him to be called out of his shop to see a fair lady who desired her picture painted, The coppersmith immediately became the face painter. gt length his patronage in the career of his choice enabled him to abandon the coppersmith business and devote all his time to painting. His fame as a painter spread, and he was called upon by the highest magnates of America to have their likenesses painted. Among others he painted a portrait of Nicholas Biddle, President of the United States Bank. He was now urged by a friend, who appreciated his superior abilities, to visit Boston, then the seat of the American fine arts. He resolved to act upon this suggestion. He visited Boston, and was accorded a handsome reception by gentlemen who were able to appreciate his skill. He took with him a specimen of his workmanship, and called upon the eminent painter, Stuart. Of this interview, Eichholtz says: " Here I had a fiery trial to undergo. My picture was placed alongside of the best of his hand, and that lesson I considered the best I had ever received. The comparison was, I thought, enough ; and if I had vanity before I went, it all left me before my return." Stuart, however, assured him that he should not be discouraged, and that the specimen of his skill warranted his perseverance. Upon his return, finding his native town too small to support a painter, he removed to Philadelphia, where, by an incessant practice of ten years and constant employment, he gathered a competence, and afterwards returned to his native town. He died May 11th, 1842. The following is a copy of Sully's account of his first meeting with Mr. Eichholtz : " When Governor Snyder was elected I was employed by Mr. Binns to go on to Lancaster and paint a portrait of the new chief magistrate of the State. Eichholtz was then employing all his leisure hours, stolen from the manufacturing of tin kettles and coffee-pans, in Tainting ; his attempts were hideous. He kindly offered me the use of his painting room, which I readily accepted, and gave him, during my stay in Lan caster, all the professional information I could impart, (in that interim he had visited and copied Stuart). I was much surprised and gratified. OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 191 I have no doubt that Eichholtz would have made a first-rate painter, he begun early in life, with the usual advantages. I my intercourse with Eichholtz I have admired in him a man of frank, simple and unpretending manners, whose conversation marked his good sense, and whose conduct evinced that propriety which has led to his success and ultimate independence. Mr. T. B. Freeman informs in 1821, he saw at Harrisburg a portrait, by Eichholtz, which excited curiosity ; and going to Lancaster, called upon him and invited him to Philadelphia, where the, first portrait he painted was Freeman's, and soon afterwards Commodore Gales." Dunlap' s History of the Arts of Design, Vol. II, p. 228. EICHHOLTZ, LEONARD, was an innkeeper, and kept the tavern with the sign of the "Bull's Head." He was father of Jacob Eichholtz, the painter, and died April 26th, 1817, in the 67th year of his age. He had been for many years an elder of Trinity Lutheran church, and a highly esteemed and respected citizen. ELLMAKER, Antos, son of Nathaniel Ellmaker, was born February .2nd, 1787, in New Holland, Lancaster county, Pa. Giving early indications of marked ability, his father determined upon giving him a first-class education, and for this purpose sent him to Yale College, where he finished his collegiate career ; afterwards he completed his law studies at the celebrated law school, under Judge Reeves, at Litchfield, Connecticut. He began the practice of his profession at Harrisburg, and was not long in establishing himself in his profession. In 1816 he married Mary R, daughter of Thomas Elder, esq., of that place. He was an officer in the army that marched from Pennsylvania to the defence of Baltimore, in the war of 1812. He was appointed Prosecuting Attorney for Dauphin county, and was elected three times from the same county a member of the House of Representatives. In 1814 he was elected a member of Congress, but declined to take his seat, having been appointed President Judge.of the district composed of .the counties of Dauphin, Lebanon and Schuylkill. He resigned his judgeship and was appointed Attorney. General of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which position he also resigned, and afterwards, in 1821, removed to Lancaster, where he began the practice of his Profession. Here, as a lawyer, he met with extraordinary 192 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY success, and retired from his labors in independence. Ile was the candidate of the Anti-Masonic party for Vice Prei, dent of the United States, in /832. In 1834 he received the, next highest vote to James Buchanan for United States Senator, when the latter was elected: He died November 28th, 1851. Amos Ellmaker possessed, in a considerable degree, the )particular characteristics of his father. He was no courter .of popular favor, but on many occasions, when proffered, !he aefused to accept distinguished stations. Upon the acces. :Eike of James Monroe to the Presidency, Mr. Ellmaker was tendered the appointment of Secretary of War, a post for which he was admirably qualified, but which he promptly declined, notwithstanding the urgent solicitations of his friends to accept the same. He preferred the quiet enjoyments of private life to all the pomp and consequence of official position. Mr. Ellmaker possessed, in an eminent degree, those characteristics that go to make up the soul of a great man. In addition to a vast fund of information on all subjects, he possessed a lively, social disposition, that made his presence pleasing to all ; and no one had more of that elevation of mind and generosity of soul Which distinguish men of rare endowments, than he. In all the relations and positions of life, he was a model worthy of imitation. He was distinguished for great courtesy to the younger members of the profession, and was ready at all times to take by the hand young men struggling to rise. by their own industry and merits. As a lawyer, he always advised the settlement of differences by amicable adjustment, without resort.to legal means; and many there are who, having taken his advice, escaped the costs and harassing attendance upon courts from protracted and ruinous law-suits. As counsel, his effort always was to have the parties to settle their differences among themselves, although such advice was against his interest as an attorney. But he took it be his duty to guard the interests of his client, and not look upon him as a bird caught in a snare to be plucked. OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 193 He entertained the highest regard for strict integrity, and no one devoid of this trait of character could secure his confidence or friendship. His associates must be free even from the suspicion of a lack of principle. He regarded honesty as the foundation of human excellence, but with those lacking this ingredient of character, he chose to have little intercourse, as they were unable to command his esteem. He took a lively interest in all the political movements of the day; and although not conspicuous as a politician, yet his views and opinions had great weight in controling the course of public affairs. Indeed, his sentiments in all the movements of the Anti-Masonic and Whig parties were anxiously sought for and highly respected. His judgment was rarely at fault, and his inflexible honesty and steadiness of purpose caused his counsels always to be regarded as wisdom. He continued to enjoy the esteem and high consideration of his numerous friends unimpaired until his death. Nathaniel Ellmaker, esq., son of Amos Ellmaker, has for many years been one of the leading lawyers of Lancaster. His Orphans' Court business is, perhaps, the largest of any lawyer at the Lancaster bar. ELLMAKER, LEONARD, emigrated from Germany and settled in Earl township, in 1726: His son, Nathaniel Ellmaker, was elected a member of the Pennsylvania State Senate in 1796. He was noted for his indomitable perseverance, independence, integrity and love of truth, and bore the reputation of being a man of considerable ability. ENGLE, HENRY M., a leading farmer and fruit grower or East Dongel township, Lancaster county. He was one of the first in the county who began fruit growing as a business and pusuit. He was elected President of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society , in January, 1869, a position he has held by annual reelections up to the present time. He was elected a member of the Legislature in 1870, receiving the support of both political parties. Mr. Engle bears an unimpeachable reputation for honesty, entertains no political aspirations, and became a candidate for office, on the occasion above referred to, simply in deference to the wishes of friends. 194 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY *ERB FAMILY. Nicholas Erb, the first known ancestor of this name, came to America with his family in the year 1722. He was a Swiss by birth, and, it is said, his father desired him to become a Catholic. priest, but he joined the Mennonites and left his native country on account of religious persecutions. He resided for,some time, before emigrating to this country, at a place called " Wester Walter Hoff.” Where this place of temporary residence was located, is not, known. In all probability it must have been a farm on the outposts of some province in Germany that had dangerous neighbors, and the time must have been somewhat turbulent, as it is known that he lived under the promised protection of his Lord or Superior, and in case of an unexpected attack, it had been agreed that he should give notice by firing a gun. It is .also related that, either to try the efficiency of the signal or the faithfulness of his landlord, he fired the gun, and in a short time had the satisfaction of seeing his protector, with his retainers, coming to his .assistance as fast as horses could bring them. He settled on Hammer creek, in Warwick township, near where the mill, lately owned by David Erb, one of his descendants, now stands. He was a farmer by occupation. He had a family of five children—four sons and one daughter ; the latter married to a Johns. John, eldest son of Nicholas Erb, came to America with his father, married a Johns from Leacock township, lived for some time with his father, but subsequently moved near to Manheim, where he died. His children were : Jacob, John, Christian, Daniel, Peter and Magdalena. Nicholas Erb, second son of Nicholas Erb. Christian Erb, third son of Nicholas Erb. Jacob Erb, a prominent clergyman in the United Brethren congregation, stationed at the Otterbein church, in Baltimore, and frequently presiding elder, is a descendant of either Nicholas or Christian. Jacob Erb, fourth son of Nicholas Erb, resided on Hammer creek, in Warwick township, where Erb's mill now stands. He was a leading man among the German popula- *Contributed by Levi Reist, esq., of Warwick. OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 195 tion in the northern part of this county from 1760 to 1790. He was a member of the Legislature when it sat in Philadelphia in 1787, 1788, 1789, and 1790. He had two sons, and John and Christian. Magdalena Erb, daughter of Nicholas Erb, married to a Johns, of Leacock township. Jacob Erb, son of John, and a grandson of Nicholas Erb, resided near the Mouth of Cocalico creek ; had three sons, John, David and Emanuel. The two former settled in York county, Pennsylvania, and Emanuel kept the homestead. He had one son, Jacob, who still owns the home place, together with some five or six hundred acres of land in Warwick and West Earl townships, and is extensively engaged in farming and stock-raising. John Erb, son of John and grandson of Nicholas Erb, had one son also named John, who settled in Conoy .township, from whence he moved to Linn county, Indiana, with all of his family except Christian S., who now resides in Conoy; a business man, justice of the peace, and bank director. Christian Erb, son of John and grandson of Nicholas Erb, born February 6th, 1755, died August 1st, 1812, resided in Warwiek township, about one mile north of Litiz ; and was married to Anna Bomberger, born February 8th, 1752, died September 17th, 1823. She is reputed to haye been a stately and prim old lady, who, being a Mennonite; wore her dresses plain, but of rich materials, with a snowy kerchief and cap. She was well versed in the Scriptures. They had two sons : Christian and Jacob, between whom their father's place was divided--and a daughter, married to Henry Hostetter, who moved to Hanover, York county, Pennsylvania. Christian, the eldest son, moved to the neighborhood of Dayton, Ohio, having sold his part of the farm. Jacob Erb, the younger son of Christian, and great grandson of Nicholas Erb, born March 7th, 1781, resided the greater part of his life on the old farm, subsequently moved with his son Henry to Penn township, and afterwards into Manheim township, about one mile north of Lancaster, where he died. He was an active business man in the earlier part of his life and carried on farming and distilling. He was 196 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY married to Elizabeth Becker, who, dying young, left him a family of seven small children to raise, which parental duty he performed in the most commendable manner, never marry. ing the second time. He no doubt inherited his mother's taste as to dress, and was known as " gentleman Erb." He became a member of the Legislature in 1833-34 and 1834-35, serving two terms. He was elected on the Anti-Masonic ticket, but declined to follow the ultra men of that party in their extreme measures (of whom Thaddeus Stevens, at that time also in the House, was one), and became classed with those calling themselves National men. His children were Ann, married to Christian Kauffman, moved to Ohio, who had four sons in the Union army. Henry, married to Elizabeth Spickler, now living in Manheim township with his son-in-law, Jacob Myer. Sarah, married to Joseph Bomber. ger, lives in Ciiimberland county, Pennsylvania, and whose son, Jacob Bomberger, was a member of the Legislature from that county in 1872. Eliza, married to Elias Eby, ex-sheriff. Catharine, married to David Witwer, moved to Franklin county. Levi, married to Mary Trissler, now residing at Columbia furnace; Virginia, and Mary, married to Elias Bomberger, living in Maryland. Daniel Erb, son of John, and grandson of Nicholas Erb, had four sons : John, Joseph, Daniel and Jacob. The first named was a minister of the old Mennonite persuasion, and moved many years ago to Cumberland county. Joseph had one son, Daniel S., who resides in Penn township, and follows farming. Daniel has three sons, David W., Daniel W., and John. The old home place that has been in the family for over a century, is owned by Daniel W.; and Israel G. Erb, esq., a rising young man in the neighborhood, is the son of David W. Peter Erb, son of John, and grandson of Nicholas Erb, bad four sons: Isaac, Jacob, Christian, and another who moved to Canada. Isaac had three sons : Henry, Samuel and Isaac, who live in Lebanon county. Magdalena Erb, daughter of John, and grand-daughter of Nicholas Erb, married a man named Gingrich, whose family moved to Erie county, Pa. OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 197 John Erb, son of Jacob, and grandson of Nicholas Erb/ had several sons , one of them, named after himself, who lived in Elizabeth township, near Durlach, was a miller and farmer, and kept the tavern where, for many years, the. elections were held ; was a prominent politician from 1825 to 1840 ; filled the office of County Commissioner from 1833 to1836, where his economical management of county affairsmade him popular. He was also a candidate for sheriff in. 1833 on the same ticket with Gen. David Miller. He had: four children : Hiram, now residing in Lebanon county ,. John B., residing in Litiz ; Henry B., residing near Schceneck ;and a daughter, married to Geo. Steinmetz, residing on. the old place, now in Clay township. His sons are all intelligent and well to do men; John B. follows surveying and scrivening, and served many years as a justice of the peace while living in Clay township. ESHLEMAN, DAVID G., was born and raised in Strasburg township,¹ Lancaster county. He graduated at Dickinson College, Carlisle, in the year 1840. He entered, as a student of law, the office of John R. Montgomery, esq., and was admitted as a member of the bar in 1842. After coming to the bar he was not long in establishing himself in his ¹ Strasburg township was established before or about the time of the creation of the county of Lancaster. As it was established, it included the township of Paradise, which has since been cut off. The part that still retains the original name was settled chiefly by Swiss Mennonites, who emigrated by way of Holland, from 1710 to 1725. The descendants of the early settlers are still to be found in the township, such as the Herm, Groffs, Eshlemans, Brenemans, Neffs, Lefevres, Kendigs, Brackbills, Brubakers, Buckwalters, Leamans, Howrys, Millers, Lantza, Hostetters, Myers, &c., &c. The buildings and improvements of all new communities seem to pass through formations similar to the geological primary, secondary, and tertiary, before they become permanent. In this county we have pretty generally reached the tertiary period. Many buildings of the secondary period remain, however, and occasionally we find remaining one of the primary period. Of this class there are several of minor importance in the township of Strasburg, three of which are deserving of notice. One of them, perhaps the oldest large house in the county, is situate about a mile east of the borough of Strasburg, and in the occupancy of Abraham Eshleman. The old portion of the house was finished in the first decade of the last century, and the " new end " was finished in. 198 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY, profession, to the duties of which he has applied himself with great assiduity up to the present time. He was one of the representatives from Lancaster county, in the Legisla. ture, during the sessions of 1848 and 1849. Mr. Eshleman has always been a close and industrious student, and he justly ranks amongst the best read members of the Lancaster bar. His mind is of a juridical cast, and his opinions, upon critical points of law are frequently sought by the other members of the profession. In 1871 he was the Democratic candidate for judge of the several courts of Lancaster county. EVANS, DAVID, was born in Manheim. township, February 21st, 1827. His father was of Irish, and his mother of German descent. He was sent by his parents to the common schools of the. neighborhood, and acquired a knowledge of the branches then customary to be taught, viz.: reading, writing and arithmetic. When about thirteen years of age, he attended a quasi select school, taught by a man named Sutherland, and here, he began the study of the advanced branches of an education. He worked on the farm and also aided in the butchering business, which was the trade of his father. He early evinced a great fondness for reading, and pro- 1741. It is at present occupied by the fifth generation, as a family residence, of the family now represented by Jacob .Eshleman, of Paradise, Dr. Isaac S. Eshleman, of Philadelphia, Dr. Frank Eshleman, of Downingtown, Dr. Abram Eshleman, of Strasburg, Benjamin Eshleman, of East Lampeter, and David G. Eshleman, esq., of Lancaster. On the adjoining farm stands an old mill, one and a half stories high, with a saw-mill attached. The first pair of French burrs introduced into Lancaster county are still in use in that mill. The mill was built in the early part of the last century, by Jacob Eshleman, and although of such . diminutive and insignificant appearance now, that it would scarcely attract the notice of a traveler, it was considered of sufficient consequence, at the time of its erection, to be called " Eshleman's big mill." About one and a half miles south of the borough of Strasburg, on the road to New Providence, just beyond the residence of the late Jacob Neff, stands the old mansion house of the Neff family. This house was erected in the second decade of the last century. It stands upon knoll, which rises abruptly from the banks of Beaver creek, and is remarkable on account of its position and its antiquated and venerable appearance. OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 199 cured for himself and read some of the most valuable and useful books. When about twenty years of age, he began teaching common schools, which pursuit he followed for some years. Not long after this, he entered as a student, the Strasburg academy, then taught by Rev. D. McCarter. The last year be attended at this institution, he was employed in the capacity of an assistant teacher, and taught the lower classes. After leaving this place, he attended for some time at the White Hall academy, in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, and next entered the Sophomore class in Franklin and Marshall college, where he graduated in 1858, obtaining a division of the Marshall honor with a classmate named Theodore Fisher. His theme on commencement day, was " the Constitution of the United States." He began teaching in Perry county, Pennsylvania, in September of .the same year in which he graduated. He was married in the following month, and in February, 1859, was appointed. County Superintendent of Common Schools of Lancaster county, in the room of Rev. John S. Crumbaugh, deceased. He was elected to the same office in May, 1860, by the Directors' Convention, and thrice reelected in the years 1863, 1866 and 1869. He held the. office up to the 1st of June, 1872.¹ EVANS, JAMES, was born in Little Britain township, Lancaster county, in 1791. In 1812 he moved to the borough of Lancaster, and in 1814 entered into partnership with his brother, Robert, in the dry goods business, and so continued to act as partner with him up to 1824. Prior to removing to Lancaster he had himself engaged; in the vicinity, of his birth, in the mercantile business, individually, for about one year and a half. In 1824, having established a wide reputation for business sagacity, he was elected cashier of the Lancaster Bank. Dr. F. A. Muhlenberg was at that time President of the Bank. This position of cashier Mr. Evans held for a number of years. March 7th, 1842, he was elected President of the same Bank, and this office he held ¹ When Mr. Evans entered upon the duties of his office, in 1859, the average salary of male teachers in the county was $27.87, and of female teachers $24.18. In 1870 the average salary of males was $38.85, and of females 34.44