450 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY marked impress upon his age. He, however, for this locality was beyond his time, but his spirit yet lives amongst us, and will grow until in time it shall have reached its full developed stature in the current and progressive movement of our age. POWNALL FAMILY. Levi Pownall, sr., of Salisbury, was born in Bucks county, in the year 1755. He was the son of Simeon Pownall, and the great-grandson of George and Eleanor Pownall, who emigrated to this country with William Penn, in the year 1682, and whose son, George Pownall, jr., was born in Bucks county in the same year. Levi Pownall was united in marriage with Elizabeth, the daughter of Joseph and Martha Buckman, in the year 1782, and having removed to Lancaster county in the year 1784, he first erected a tannery at Simmonstown, (in Sadsbury township,) where he carried on the manufacture of leather for some years. He next purchased what is known as the Christiana tract, which had been patented by Philip Pownall in the year 1702, on which he resided a number of years, and was engaged in agricultural pursuits ; and in the way into churches ; and it would be difficult to-day to find an intelligent churchman who would not concede that conscience is the guide of man. This might be regarded as a vast innovation upon the opinions of the past. The world moves, and we move with it. Opinions also move steadily onward, and the views of one age are no special index of what those of the following age may °be. The case cited, is but one of the instances of the rise of the human mind over the inherited beliefs of the past, and the banishment, of the same amidst the superstitions of dark ages. Rationalizing influences are felt and prevalent all around upon men of every class and grade in society, and are heartily cherished by those still clinging to the truth of revelation. But with all this liberalizing movement that falls in with the current of the age, there is in our county but few who feel bold enough to step aside from the cherished faith of the church, and avow themselves unbelievers in revelation. To do so, requires more than ordinary courage, especially in view of the fact that the American mind has not yet attained to that ultima level of toleration which will even be willing to extend equal respect and honor to the Christian, Mohammedan, Jew and Infidel. An intelligent class exists, however, amongst us, many of whom, members of our churches, have already touched this height of toleration, and are ready to accredit equal honesty, candor and respect to all sincere opinions that may be, and are entertained. When all our people reach this, a progress will have been made, indeed, and one that should seem as likely to usher in the halcyon days of the long delayed millennium. OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 451 year 1803 he purchased what is known as the Pownall tract, comprising about three hundred acres of land in the valley, about one mile south of Christiana, a large part of which land was purchased from William Penn, (in England), by John Kennerly, in the year 1691. The original patent for this tract was signed by William Penn, and is now in the possession of Joseph D. Pownall, esq., of Sadsbury, and is beyond question the oldest title in Lancaster county. He was a liberal-minded and generous man, and a worthy and exemplary member of the society of Friends. He had three sons, Joseph, Levi, and Simeon, and two daughters, Elizabeth and Catharine. His son Joseph was joined in marriage with Phoebe, the daughter of Joseph, and grand-daughter of Joseph; sr., and Elizabeth Dickinson. Levi and Simeon were united in marriage with Sarah and Maria, the daughters of Thomas and Eleanor Henderson, of Sadsbury, and the grand-daughters of Hattil and Abigail Varman, of Leacock. He departed this life in the year 1840, in the 85th year of his age. His grandsons, Moses and Joseph D. Pownall, have served at different times in the Legislature of Pennsylvania, and held various other public trusts. George Whitson, late recorder of deeds for Lancaster county, and Thomas. Griest, late assistant assessor of internal revenue, were both married to the grand-daughters of Levi Pownall, sr.; and his grandsons, Levi, Ambrose and Simeon, still hold the original properties in the valley, where he spent the remainder of his useful and eventful life. His grandson, Henry Pownall, one of the present prison inspectors of Lancaster county, was married to Deborah, the daughter of Isaac and Deborah Walker, of Sadsbury. Moses Pownall, the son of Joseph and Phoebe Pownall, and the grandson of Levi Pownall, sr., was born in Sadsbury township, in the year 1815. He inherited from his ancestors the old homestead at Solesbury, in Bucks county, which had .been purchased from William Penn before his first arrival to the province, in 1682. He was married in the year 1838, to Susannah, the second daughter of Asahel and Sarah Walker, of Sadsbury. He purchased the homestead of his grandfather Dickinson, in Sadsbury, and was commissioned a 452 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY justice of the peace in 1846. He was elected a member of the Legislature in the year 1851, and. reelected for 1852. He was the Whig candidate for canal commissioner in 1853. He was an enterprising and serviceable man in the community, and did much to improve the neighborhood. He and Wm. Noble established the town of Christiana. He died on the 13th of February, 1854, in the 38th year of his age. His only son, J. D. C. Pownall, still holds his property in Sadsbury. . PRICE, S. H., a member of the Lancaster bar, admitted in 1852. He was elected to the Legislature in the years 1857-58. PYFER, COL. FREDERICK S., was born November 24th, 1832, in Martic township, Lancaster county. His father, also named Frederick, was by birth a Prussian, and his mother a descendant of one of the oldest families of the county. After passing through the schools of his district, he went to the Marietta Academy, taught by Prof. Wickersham, where he continued two years and six months. He went for a short time afterwards to the Normal School at Millersville. He taught the boys high school at Columbia for three years, at the same time reading law, and completed hie legal studies in the office of Isaac E. Hiester. He was admitted to the bar in 1857. He began the practice of the profession in 1860, and was chosen chairman of the Democratic county committee, a position he retained up to the breaking out of the rebellion. Upon the breaking out of the war, he enlisted as a private in April, 1861, for the three months service. The company in which he was serving, being soon afterwards attached to the 1st Pennsylvania volunteers, he was commissioned Regimental Quartermaster, with the rank of First Lieutenant. He served the period of 6 enlistment, (three months) and then returned home. He immediately set to raising a company for three years, which formed a part of the 77th Pennsylvania volunteers, and he immediately was chosen captain of the same, it being company K of the regiment. The regiment was sent west to the army of the Cumberland, and participated in all the battles of that division, from Shiloh till' the battle of Chicka- OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 453 mauga, in September, 1863; when he was taken prisoner with nearly the whole regiment. He was ill the battles of Shiloh, Chaplin Hills, Murfreesboro, Laverque, Liberty Gap, besides numerous minor engagements. After the of Murfreesboro he was unanimously elected Lieutenant-colonel of his regiment by the officers, and commissioned by the Governor of Pennsylvania. He was at the time the junior captain of the regiment. He was confined in Libby Prison for nearly nine months, suffering all the privations incident to such a condition, and coming away with a broken-down constitution, not yet recuperated. He was released on parole until exchanged in June, 1864. Upon resuming his command it was found that his health was too much impaired to be able to endure the hardships of the active campaign then in progress under General Sherman, in his march to the Atlantic. He was therefore detailed by general orders to preside as president of a general court-martial at Nashville, Tennessee, in which capacity he acted until he was mustered out of service upon the expiration of his term of enlistment, February 4th, 1865. Upon returning to Lancaster, he resumed again the practice of his profession, in which he has since been steadily engaged. In October, 1871, he was elected Mayor of the city of Lancaster, a position he now holds. - R - RAMSEY, DR. DAVID,* was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, on the second day of April, 1749. He was the youngest child of James Ramsey, a respectable farmer, who had emigrated from Ireland at an early age, and by the cultivation of his farm, with his own hands, provided the means of subsistence and education for a numerous family. He was a man of intelligence and piety, and early sowed the seeds of knowledge and religion in the minds of his children. He lived to reap the fruit of his labor and see *From National Portrait Gallery. 454 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY his offspring grow up around him, ornaments of society and props of his declining years. The early impressions which the care of this excellent parent made on the mind of Dr. Ramsey, were. never erased. He had the misfortune to lose an excellent and amiable mother very early in life; but that loss was in some measure repaired by his father, who took uncommon pains to give him the best education that could then be obtained in this country. He was, from his infancy, remarkable for his attachment to books, and for the rapid progress he made in acquiring knowledge. At six years of age he read the bible with facility, and it is said was peculiarly delighted with the historical parts of it. When placed at a grammar school his progress was very remarkable. It was no uncommon thing, says a gentleman who knew him intimately at that time, to see students who had almost arrived at manhood taking the child upon their knees in order to obtain his assistance in the construction and explanation of different passages in their lessons. Before he was twelve years of age, he had read more than once all the classics usually studied at grammar schools, and was in every respect qualified for admission into college, but being thought too young for collegiate studies, he accepted the place of assistant tutor in a respectable academy in Carlisle, and notwithstanding his tender years acquitted himself to the admiration of every one. He continued for upwards of a year in this situation, and then went to Princeton. On his examination he was found qualified for admission into the junior class, but in consequence of his extreme youth, the faculty advised him to enter as a sophomore, which he did, and having passed through college with high reputation, he took the degree of bachelor of arts, in the year 1765, being then only sixteen years of age. Having completed the usual college course at sixteen, he was enabled to devote some time to the general cultivation of his mind before he commenced the study of physic ; and he spent nearly two years in Maryland as a private tutor in a respectable family, devoting himself to books and enriching his mind with stores of useful knowledge. He then commenced the study of physic, under the direc- OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 455 tion of Dr. Bond, of Philadelphia,.where he regularly attended the lectures delivered at the college of Pennsylvania, the parent of the celebrated medical school which has since become so distinguished. Dr. Rush was then professor of chemistry in that college ; and this led to a friendship between Dr. Rush, the able and accomplished master, and Ramsey, the ready, ingenious and attentive student, that was fondly cherished by both, and continued to strengthen and increase to the latest moments of their lives. For Dr. Rush, young Ramsey felt a filial affection; he regarded him as a benefactor, while he entertained the highest veneration for his talents. He never had any hesitation in declaring himself an advocate of the principles introduced by Dr. Rush in the theory and practice of medicine; and in his eulogium on Dr. Rush, a last public tribute of respect to the memory of his lamented friend, he declares that "his own experience had been uniformly in their favor ever since they were first . promulgated;" and adds a declaration, that in his " opinion Dr. Rush had done more to improve the theory and practice of medicine than any one physician either living or dead." Dr. Ramsey was graduated bachelor of physic—a degree at that time uniformly conferred—early in the year 1772, and immediately commenced the practice of physic at the "Head of the Bohemia," in Maryland, where he continued to practice with much reputation for about a year, when he removed to Charleston. Dr. Rush, in a letter written September 15th, 1773, after stating that he would recommend Dr. Ramsey to fill the opening which then existed at Charleston, thus proceeds : " Dr. Ramsey studied physic regularly with Dr. Bond, attended the hospital and public lectures of medicine, and afterwards graduated bachelor of physic with great eclat. It is saying but little of him to tell you, that he is far superior to any person we ever graduated at our college; his abilities are not only good, but great ; his talents and knowledge universal. I never saw so much strength of memory and imagination united to so fine a judgment. His manners are polished and agreeable, his conversation lively, and his behavior to all men always without offence. Joined to all these, he is sound in his OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 457 principles; strict, nay, more, severe in his morals; and attached, not by education only, but by principle, to the dissenting interest. He will be an acquisition to your society. He writes, talks, and what is w ore, lives well ; I can promise more for him, in everything, than I could for myself." Such was the character of Dr. Ramsey at the commencement of his career in life. On settling in Charleston he rapidly rose to eminence in his profession and general respect. His talents, his habits of business and uncommon industry, eminently qualified him for an active part in public affairs, and induced his fellow-citizens to call upon him on all occasions when anything was to be done for the common welfare. In our revolutionary struggle he was a decided and active Whig, and was one of the earliest and most zealous advocates of American independence. On the 4th of July, 1778, he was appointed to deliver an oration before the inhabitants of Charleston. In this oration, the first ever delivered on the anniversary of American independence, he bodily declares that "our present form of government is every way preferable to the royal one we have lately renounced." In establishing this position, he takes a glowing view of the natural tendency of republican forms of government to promote knowledge, to call into exercise the active energies of the human soul ; to bring forward modest merit ; to destroy luxury and establish simplicity in the manners and habits of the people; and finally to promote the cause of virtue and religion. In every period of the war Dr. Ramsey wrote and spoke boldly and constantly; and by his personal exertions in the Legislature, and in the field was very serviceable to the cause of American liberty. The fugitive pieces written by him from the commencement of that struggle, were not thought by himself of sufficient importance to be preserved, yet it is well known to his contemporaries that on political topics no man wrote better than Dr. Ramsey, in all the public journals of the day. For a short period he was with the army as a surgeon, and he was present with the Charleston ancient battalion of artillery at the siege of Savannah. From the declaration of independence to the termination of the war OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 457 he was a member of the Legislature of South Carolina. For two years he had the honor of being one of the privy council, and with two others of that body was among those citizens of' Charleston who were banished by the British authorities to St. Augustine. In consequence of an exchange of prisoners Dr. Ramsey was sent back to the United States, after an absence of eleven months. He immediately took his seat as a member of the State Legislature, then convened at Jacksonsboro. It was at this assembly that the various acts confiscating the estates of the adherents to Great Britain, were passed. Dr. Ramsey being conciliatory in his disposition, tolerant and humane in his principles, and the friend of peace, although he knew well that the conduct of some of those who fell under the operation of these laws merited all the severity that could be used towards them, yet he remembered also that many others were acting from the honest dictates of conscience. He could not, therefore, approve of the confiscation acts, and he opposed them in every shape. Dr. Ramsey continued to possess the undiminished confidence of his fellow-citizens, and was in February, 1782, elected a member of the Continental Congress. In this body he was always conspicuous, and particularly exerted himself in procuring relief' for the Southern States, then overrun by the enemy. On the return of peace, he returned to Charleston and commenced the practice of his profession; but was not permitted long to remain in private, and in 1785 was again elected a member of Congress from the Charleston district. The celebrated John Hancock had been chosen president of that body, but being unable to attend from indisposition, Dr. Ramsey was elected president, protem, and continued for a whole year to discharge the important duties of that station with much ability and impartiality. In 1786 he again returned to Charleston and reentered the walks of private life. In the State Legislature and in the Continental Congress, Dr. Ramsey was useful and influential. He was a remarkably fluent, rapid, and ready speaker ; and though his manner was ungraceful, though he neglected all ornament, and never addressed himself to the imagination or passions of his audience, yet his style was so simple and - 32 - 458 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY pure, his reasoning so cogent, his remarks so striking and original, and his conclusions resulted so clearly from his premises, that he seldom failed to convince. He was so ready to impart to others his extensive know. ledge on all subjects, that whenever consultation became necessary, his opinion and advice were looked for as a matter of course, and it was always given with great brevity and perspicuity. Thus he became the most active member of every association, public or private, to which he was attached. In general politics he was thoroughly and truly republican. Through the course of a long life his principles suffered no change ; he died in those of his youth. Always disposed to believe his opponents to be the friends of the country, he endeavored by his language and example, to allay party feeling, and to teach all his fellow-citizens to regard themselves as members of the same great family. Through the whole course of his life, he was assiduous in the practice of his profession. Whenever his services were required, he never hesitated to render them promptly at every sacrifice of personal convenience and safety. In his medical principles, he was a rigid disciple of Dr. Rush, and his practice was remarkably bold. Instead of endeavoring to overcome diseases by repeated efforts, it was his aim to subdue them at once by a single vigorous remedy. This mode of practice is probably well adapted to southern latitudes where disease is so sudden in its approach and so rapid in its effects. In the treatment of the yellow fever, Dr. Ramsey is said to have been uncommonly successful ; and it is well known that he effected several remarkable cures in cases of wounds received from poisonous animals. Those who knew him best, and had the experience of his services in their families for forty-two years, entertained the most exalted opinion of his professional merits. His widely-extended reputation induced many strangers, who visited Charleston in search of health, to place themselves under his care ; and they always found in him the hospitable friend as well as the attentive physician. We proceed to consider Dr. Ramsey as an author. It is in this character he ,is best known and most distinguished OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 459 His reputation was not only well established in every part of the United States, but had extended to Europe. Few Yuen in America have written more, and perhaps no one has written better. The citizens of the United States have long regarded him as the father of history in the New World; and he has always been ranked among those on whom America must depend for her literary character. He was admirably calculated by nature, education and habit, to become the historian of his country. He possessed a memory so tenacious, that an impression made on it could never be erased. The minutest circumstances of his early youth, facts and dates relative to every incident of his own life, and all public events, were indelibly engraven on his memory. He was, in truth, a living chronicle. His learning and uncommon industry eminently fitted him for the pursuits of an historian. He was above prejudice, and absolute master of passion. "I declare," says he in the introduction to his first work, "that embracing every opportunity of obtaining genuine information, I have sought for truth, and have asserted nothing but what I believe to be fact. If I should be mistaken, I will, on conviction, willingly retract it. During the whole course of my writing, I have carefully watched the workings of my mind, lest passion, prejudice, or party feeling should warp my judgment. I have endeavored to impress on myself how much more honorable it is to write impartially for the good of posterity, than to condescend to be the apologist of a party. Notwithstanding this care to guard against partiality, I expect to be charged with it by both of the late contending parties. The suffering Americans, who have seen and felt the ravages and oppressions of the British army, will accuse me of too great moderation. Europeans, who have heard much of American cowardice, perfidy and ingratitude, and more of British honor, clemency and moderation, will probably condemn my work as the offspring of party zeal. I shall decline the fruitless attempt of aiming to please either, and instead thereof, follow the attractions of truth whithersoever she may lead." From these resolutions the historian never departed. From the beginning to the close of the war, Dr. Ramsey 460 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY was carefully collecting materials for this work. After it was completed it was submitted to the perusal of General Greene, who having given his assent to all the statements made therein, the history of the revolution in South Carolina was published in 1785. Its reputation soon spread throughout the United States, and it was translated into French, and read with great avidity in Europe. It was ever the wish of Dr. Ramsey to render lasting services to his country; and being well aware that a general history of the Revolution would be more extensively useful than a work confined to the transactions of a particular State, want of materials alone prevented him in the first instance from undertaking the former in preference to the latter. When, therefore, in the year 1785 he took his seat in Congress, finding himself associated with many of the most distinguished heroes and statesmen of the Revolution, and having free access to all the public records and documents that could throw light on the events of the war, he immediately commenced the history of the American Revolution. Notwithstanding his public, duties, he found time sufficient to collect from the public offices, and from every living source, the materials for this valuable work. With Dr. Franklin and Dr. Witherspoon, both of them his intimate friends, he conferred freely and gained much valuable information from them. Anxious to obtain every important fact, he also visited Washington, at Mt. Vernon, and was readily furnished by him with all the information required relating to the events in which that great man had been the chief actor. Dr. Ramsey thus possessed greater facilities for procuring materials for the history of the Revolution than any other individual of the United States. He. had been an eye witness of many of its events, and was a conspicuous actor in its busy scenes. He was the friend of Washington, Franklin, Witherspoon, and a host of others who were intimately acquainted with all the events of the war ; and it. may be said with perfect truth, that no writer was ever more industrious in collecting facts, or more honest in relating them. The history of the American Revolution was published in 1790, and was received with universal approbation. It is not necessary to OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 461 analyze the character of a work that has stood the test of public opinion and passed through the crucible of criticism. In 1801 Dr. Ramsey gave to the world his life of Washington ; as fine a piece of biography as can be found in any language. It will not suffer in comparison with the best productions of ancient or modern times. Indeed, our biographer had one great advantage over all others—we mean the exalted and unrivaled character of his hero—a character " above all Greek, above all Roman fame." In 1808 Dr. Ramsey published his history of South Carolina, in two volumes, octavo. He had, in 1796, published an interesting " sketch of the soil, climate, weather, and diseases of South Carolina ;" and this probably suggested the idea of a more minute history of the State. No pains were spared to make this work valuable and useful. The author was himself well acquainted with many of the facts he has recorded ; and by the means of circular letters addressed to intelligent gentlemen in every part of the State, the most correct information was obtained. Many important facts thus preserved, must otherwise have been soon forgotten ; and by this publication the author fully supported the reputation he had so justly acquired. The death of his wife, in 1811, induced him to publish a short time afterwards, the memoirs of her life. This interesting little volume, which, in addition to the life of Mrs. Ramsey, contains some of the productions of her pen, is very generally read, and has been extensively useful. In addition to the works already mentioned, Dr. Ramsey published " an oration on the Acquisition of Louisiana ;" " A review of the improvements, progress, and state of medicine in the eighteenth century," delivered on the first day: of the . new century; "A Medical Register, for the year 1802 ;" "A dissertation on the means of preserving health in Charleston ;" " A biographical chart, on a new plan to facilitate the study of history ;" and " A Eulogium on Dr. Rush." All these works have' merits in their several departments; and particularly the Review of the Eighteenth Century, which contains, perhaps, as much medical information in a small space as can be found in any production of the kind. He had also committed to the press, a short time before his death, " A 462 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY Brief history of the Independent or Congressional Church in Charleston." To this church he hid from his youth been strongly attached, and this little work was meant as a tribute of affection. The increasing demand for the history of the American Revolution induced the author, several years before his death, to resolve to publish an improved edition of that work. In preparing this, it occurred to him that a history of the United States, from their first settlement as English colonies, including as much of the Revolution as is important to be known, brought down to the present day, would be more interesting to the public as well as more extensively useful. After completing this up to 1808, he determined to publish it in connection with a universal history, hereafter to be mentioned. Had not death arrested his progress, he would have brought this work to the end of the late war. But the last and greatest work of the American historian yet remains to be mentioned. He had for upwards of forty years been preparing for the press a series of historical volumes which, when finished, were to bear the title of " Universal History Americanized, or a historical view of the world from the earliest records to the nineteenth century, with a particular reference to the state of society, literature, religion and form of government in the United States of America."¹ The mind of Dr. Ramsey was perpetually grasping after knowledge; and the idea so well expressed by Sir Wm. Jones, " that it would be happy for us if all great works were reduced to their quintessence," had often occurred to his mind. It was a circumstance deeply lamented by him that knowledge, the food of the soul, should be in such a great measure confined to literary and professional men; and he has often declared, that if men of business would only employ one hour in every twenty-four in the cultivation of the mind, they would become well informed upon all subjects. It had also forcibly suggested itself to his mind, that all of the histories that had been written were chiefly designed for ¹ This work was published after his death, by Carey & Lee, in nine volumes, in connection with his history of the United States, in three-more, making in all twelve volumes. OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 463 the benefit of the old world, while America passed almost unnoticed, and was treated as unimportant in the scale of nations. With a view, therefore, of reducing all valuable historical facts within a small compass, to form a digest for the use of those whose leisure would not admit of more extensive reading, this great work was undertaken. The labor of such an undertaking must have been great, indeed; and when we remember the other numerous works which occupied the attention of the author and the interruptions to which he was constantly exposed from professional avocations, we are at a loss to conceive how he found time for such various employments. But it has been truly said of him, that "no miser was ever so precious of his gold as he was of his time," he was not merely economical, but parsimonious of it to the highest degree. From those avocations which occupy so great a proportion of the lives of ordinary men, Dr. Ramsey subtracted as much as possible. He never allowed for the table, for recreation, or repose, a single moment that was not absolutely necessary for the preservation of his health. His habits were those of the strictest temperance. He usually slept four hours, rose before the light, and meditated with his book in hand until he could. see to read. He had no relish for the pleasures of the table. He always ate what was set before him ; and having snatched his hasty meal, returned to his labors. His evenings only were alloted to recreation. He never read by the light of a candle; with the shades of the evening he laid aside his book and his pen, and, surrounded by his family and friends, gave loose to those paternal and social feelings which ever dwell in the bosom of the good man. The great merit of Dr. Ramsey as a writer, is now generally acknowledged. We are sure that we but embody the opinion of literary men in this country when we say, that as an historian Ramsey is faithful, judicious and impartial; that his style is classical and chaste; and if occasionally tinctured by originality of idea or singularity of expression, it is perfectly free from affected obscurity or colored ornament. Its energy of thought is tempered by its simplicity and beauty of style. As a man, the mind of Dr. Ramsey was cast in no commo- 464 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY mould ; his virtues were of no ordinary stamp. He distinguished for philanthropy, enterprise, industry and perseverance. He was altogether regardless of wealth and free from ambition; and his active philanthropy only made hint an author. He was an enthusiast in everything which tended to promote the moral, social, intellectual and physical state of his country. Want of judgment in the affairs of the world, was the weak point of his character. In common with most eminent literary men, he had studied human nature more from books than actual observation. Hence, resulted a want of that sober judgment and correct estimate of men and things so essentially necessary to success in worldly pursuits. This was the great defect in his mind ; as if to show the fatal effects of a single error, this alone frustrated all his schemes, and through the whole course of a long and useful life, involved him in perpetual difficulties and embarrassments from which he was never able to extricate himself. As illustrative of this part of his character, it will be sufficient to mention the zeal and perseverance with which he proposed and urged the promotion of a company for the establishment of the Sumter Canal in South Carolina, a work of great utility, but attended with the most ruinous consequences to the individuals who supported it. In society he was a most agreeable companion ; his memory was stored with almost an infinite fund of interesting and amusing anecdotes, which gave great sprightliness and zest to his conversation. Ile never assumed any superiority over those with whom he conversed, and always took peculiar pleasure in the society of young men of intelligence and piety. Dr. Ramsey was killed with the .bullet of a maniac, and the narrative of this occurrence is thus detailed : A man by the name of William Linnen having been thrown into prison, it was on his trial represented to the court, that he was under the influence of mental derangement. Dr. Ramsey and Dr. Benjamin Simons were appointed by the court to examine and report on his case. They concurred in opinion that Linnen was deranged, and that it would be dangerous to let him go at large. He was therefore removed to OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 465 prison, where he was confined until exhibiting symptoms of returning sanity he was discharged. He behaved himself peaceably for a time, but was heard to declare that he would "kill the doctors who had joined in that conspiracy against him." On Saturday, the 6th of May, Dr. Ramsey was met in Broad street, about one o'clock in the afternoon, within sight of his own door, by the wretched maniac who passed by, and taking a large horseman's pistol, charged with three bullets out of a handkerchief in which it was concealed, shot the doctor in the back. The perpetrator was arrested, committed to prison, where he remained confined as a maniac until his death. Dr. Ramsey lingered two days, and died on the 8th of May, 1815. RAMSEY, WILLIAM, a member of the Legislature in the years 1805, 1806, 1807 and 1808. RATHVON, GEORGE, a lieutenant in the army of the American Revolution, born 1750 ; mustered into the service under Capt. Nathaniel Page, in Colonel Mathias Slough's battalion of Lancaster county militia, August 24th, 1776. Being a superior mechanic, he was detailed in 1777 to make guns for the army, in the factory of William Henry, esq., at Lancaster. Died in 1819. RATHVON, LEONARD, a colonel in the Revolutionary army. Born in 1748. Chiefly employed in the commissary and mustering service in Lancaster county, during the war. Died in 1814. RATHVON, SIMON S., was born at Marietta, Lancaster county, April 24th, 1812., His father was Jacob Rathvon, a gunsmith, who settled in that town in 1810, and died there in 1839. His mother was Catharine Myers, of York county, who died at Marietta in 1825. His grandfather was George Rathvon, the subject of the above sketch, and his grandmother was a Kramer, of Warwick township. His great grandfather was Christian Rathvon, who, with a brother, named George, emigrated from South Germany, or Switzerland, about the year 1740, and settled in Conestoga township, near Conestoga Centre, where the original residence is still pointed out, and from whom all in this country of that 466 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY name have sprung. It may he necessary here to say, that the name was originally spelled Rathfong, and that it has no relational affinity with the Rathbones, Rathburns, Rathbuns, or Ruthvens, which are of English or Scotch origin, unless one may have been derived from the other in Europe before their migration to America. The g, at the end of the name, is now universally disused, although many retain the f in preference to the v. It is stated, on the authority of an emigrant from the canton of Berne, in Switzerland, that the name still exists there, and this the only accessible evidence, in support of the supposition, that country is the fatherland of the subject of this sketch and his progenitors. There was nothing in the early career of the subject of this sketch to distinguish particularly him from the other boys among whom he mingled. Inheriting a delicate constitution from his mother, at the age of eight years he was sent to a day-school, kept by a John Smith, in his native town, where he continued two quarters, learning the alphabet and spelling in one syllable. After an interval of three months, he was sent two quarters to Samuel Ross of the same place, but did not make more than a very ordinary progress. In the winter of 1821-22 he attended two quarters at the school of George Briscoe, where he made more progress in one month than he had during the whole previous periods put together, and left school in the spring, able to " read, write, and cypher"—at least as far as compound addition. Although possessed of industrious habits, a retentive memory and ordinary perceptions, he did not seem to have a very clear appreciation of the advantages of an elemental education, until too late in life to avail himself of the usual opportunities of obtaining it, and therefore, at ten years he hired himself to different farmers in east and west Donegal and Rapho townships, among whom he spent five years doing farm work, alternating it during the spring sea son with working along the Susquehanna river at such labor as boys of his age could perform. On the 9th day of July, 1827, he bound himself an apprentice to John Bell, tailor, of Marietta, for five years—without stipulating for any schooling—and served him to the best of his ability to the end of OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 467 the term. Bell was by no means a man of letters, and therefore his immediate opportunities for intellectual culture were very limited. Moderately fond of reading, he was kindly furnished with books by Jacob Grosh, esq., and Mr. Abraham N. Cassel, from their private libraries, which was continued for two or three years. A few weeks after the expiration of his term of service with Mr. Bell, through a combination of circumstances which he could not resist at the time, he commenced the tailoring business on his own account, in his native town, on the first of September, 1832, although he was not yet twenty-one years of age. In a month or six weeks after this event, he became a member of a thespian society, and was elected its secretary, and also took a prominent part in its representations on the stage. Here he came in social contact with some of the literary men of the town and vicinity, and then, too, he became conscious of his own literary deficiencies, and he availed himself of all the opportunities for intellectual improvement which it afforded. Perhaps his whole subsequent scientific and literary advancement, received its first impulse from his connection with this society, and his social intercourse with these men. New planes of thought, new avenues of intelligence, and new standpoints for meditation seemed to be opened to him, and without always possessing the discriminating ability to sift the wheat from the chaff, still he made progress in intellectual culture, at least. This relation continued until the first of November, 1833, when he disposed of his establishment, and went to reside in Philadelphia; where he remained, principally in the employ of Thomas McGrath, until May 20th, 1834, when he returned to his native place, and reestablished himself in business. At Philadelphia he fortunately fell into good hands, by the selection of a boarding house conducted by three intelligent Quaker ladies, who were sisters. The house contained none but orderly inmates, and these were of different degrees of intelligence, but from all of whom our subject was enabled to learn something, or to receive a valuable impression. On the 27th of May, 1834, Mr. Rathvon was married to Catharine Freyberger, whose family had only been removed 468 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY two generations from the fatherland, (the Grand Duchy of Baden,) in the vicinity of Heidelberg, being the consummation of a long prior engagement. Commencing married life with little more than twenty dollars in his purse, and with no dependencies, save Providence and his own energies, many of its earlier years were but a series of struggles to sustain a family—which collimated in seven sons and four daughters—and to maintain an intact integrity. On the 1st of September, 1839, he discontinued business again in Marietta, and took a situation in the store of a brother who was in the dry goods business in Lancaster city, where he continued until the 1st of March, 1841, when he returned to his native place and commenced business there for the third time. He continued in business with reasonable success until the 1st of November, 1848, when he removed with his family and located permanently in the city of Lancaster, and went into the employ of Mr. F. J. Kramph, merchant tailor, on the corner of North Queen and Orange. streets, as foreman and book-keeper, and continued in his employ until his death, on the 18th of April, 1858. In the summer of 1842, at Marietta, he commenced the collection of insects and the study of entomology, so far .as it was compatible with his attention to his usual occupation, which was his sole reliance for the support of his family. Prior to that period, however, as early as 1837, under the inspiration of Josiah Holbrook, a Lyceum of Natural Science had been established in Marietta, and our subject be-tame a member of it, and made a collection of minerals and a small one of birds. Trifling as these things may seem, yet they were valuable intellectual and moral aids in elevating his mind above mere sensual indulgence. In 1844 his first literary composition was published in the columns of the Argus, a weekly newspaper of the place. While in the employ of Mr. Kramph, he became a writer of moral and miscellaneous essays, and also of practical contributions to entomology, which were published in the Farm Journal, the Marriettian, and various other papers. In March, 1859, he purchased the stock in the establishment of his late employer, and commenced the business of OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 469 a merchant tailor on his own account, devoting such intervals from labor as he could conveniently command, to the pursuit of his specialty in natural history, and in various literary pursuits; and his miscellaneous writings, over the pseudonym of GRANTELLUS, as well as over his own proper signature or initials, have appeared from time to time in the various newspapers of Lancaster city and county. He has. for years been in the habit of contributing articles for many of the leading scientific and literary journals of the country. Several of his papers upon entomology have been published in the State and national departments of agriculture. Near the close of 1850, and after a conflict with the merely worldly man, Mr. Rathvon identified himself, through re-baptism, with the New Jerusalem church—perhaps better known outside of that organization, as the "Swedenborgian church"—having for some years previously been, to some extent, a reader and receiver of its fundamental doctrines.. His father was of Moravian stock, his mother of Lutheran, but his own earliest religious instruction was in the Presbyterian church. It was not common in his childhood and youth, for parents to inculcate any special doctrinal truths. That was left to the Sunday-schools and the church. But before reaching any definite theological conclusion, he passed over what he has always since considered a rugged, a dark, and a dangerous way. Indifference, "nothingarianism," nominal universalism, skepticism, pantheism, deism, and so-called rationalism, all, by turns, suggested themselves to his mind as the ultimatum of religious truth. But his mental organization was such, that he could not divest his mind of the doubts usually involved in these and many other forms of mere materialism. He was also more or less influenced by that superficial and uncharitable assumption which condemns a creed because its receivers are faithless to its teachings. If the sentiments involved in the various isms were unsatisfying to his mind, so were also those of popular orthodoxy. Therefore, when the doctrines of the new church were presented to him, his first impression was that they were beautiful, if true; and then that if they were not truer they ought to be true; and, finally, that they were the truth, 470 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY so far as he was able to comprehend the truth. Although convinced that they are the truth, without qualification, yet he is just as fully convinced that no man rationally and practically believes any farther than he truly understands. Our subject, on his own individual account, has never solicited social or political position, power or place, and, indeed, through deafness, which gradually came upon him after 1841, he has felt himself quite incompetent for the discharge of many duties which otherwise he might discharge with ability. Nevertheless, he has for forty years been a member of different organizations, and has been honored with the confidence and respect of his fellow-citizens. In 1831, and while he was yet an apprentice, he was elected a member of a volunteer company, and served in that capacity for eight years, during the last four of which he was its commander, holding his captain's commission from Joseph Ritner, Governor of Pennsylvania. He was, in addition to others named, a member of the borough council, and secretary of the thespian society, the amateur band of Marietta, and a performing member in both the latter ; a member of the board of common schools, of the select council, a trustee of the Children's Home, in Lancaster city. He is now professor of entomology in the "Pennsylvania Horticultural Society," corresponding member of the "Academy of Natural Sciences "" of Philadelphia, and of the " American Entomological Society ;" honorary member and entomologist of the " Fruit Growers' Society " of Pennsylvania, and of the " Agricultural and Horticultural Society " of Lancaster county; an honorary member of the "Diagnothian Literary Society " of Franklin and Marshall college, and of the "Page Literary Society" of the State Normal School, at Millersville; secretary and leader of they, New Jerusalem Society," chairman of the library committee of the "Mechanics' Society," and treasurer of the "Linnaean Society " ¹ of Lancaster city. In several of these he is an ¹ Mr. Rathvon was one of the founders and incorporators of the " Linnaeean Society" of Lancaster county, and was one of its most active and punctual members, never having been absent from a single meeting since its first organization in 1861. No other member has been instrumental in contributing so largely and so continuously to its museum, its OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 471 active working member. He is also a member of Lodge N o. 43, A. Y. M.; of Chapter 43, R. A. M.; of " Goodwin Council," No. —; and of " Lancaster Commandery," No. 13, of Knights Templar, and of the " Empire Hook and Ladder Company." If wealth and political or social distinction, however, be the only evidences of a successful career in this • world, then the life of the subject of this memoir can scarcely be claimed as a success. He is still delving quietly and unostentatiously, in his. professional calling, and in his usual literary and scientific pursuits, making no higher pretension than a mere amateur in these. He is now in his sixtieth year, with his usual energy and health, and has seen most of the companions of his youth one by one pass away; himself, his wife, and eight children, still surviving—five sons and three daughters. Without any very special patronage, and with nothing but untiring industry, he has not only supported and moderately educated his large family, but has accumulated a library of nearly a thousand volumes, costing nearly two thousand dollars ; a clever mineralogical collection, and nearly ten thousand species of insects of different orders, but mainly coleoptera ; besides a comfortable home. Perhaps, after all, such an example from the lower walks of life, will be as a beneficial to posterity as one of more transcendent talents and a higher social and pecuniary position. Those in humble life are often overawed by the commanding abilities of many occupying positions so far above theirs, and they are also often deterred from making any attempt to archives, and its library; scarcely a month passing in which he has not read one or more papers on natural science before it, or in some way contributed to its material support. Much of that persevering thought and carefulness of details so necessary in sustaining a society of this kind, and the patient labor of carrying its resolves into effect, has devolved on him, and perhaps no society has made any more cheerful, constant, and unselfish working member. He was also one of the founders of the " Lancaster County Agricultural and Horticultural Society ;" and of the Lancaster Farmer, a monthly periodical established under its auspices, and devoted to its interests. He was its senior editor from its very beginning, and no number of that journal has appeared in which he has not been a contributor to its columns. Although, professedly, neither an agriculturist or horticulturist, and without any immediate 472 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY alter or better their condition, simply because they have not a more advantageous starting point If it is impossible for all men to distinguish themselves,. at least all may be better than they are, and achieve more if they will. Perhaps nothing has contributed more to the success of our subject, so far as his life has been a success, than his industry and perseverance, supported by an integrity that never repudiated or evaded a pecuniary, social or domestic responsibility, or an obligation ; and that alone' ought to infuse into others, in like circumstances, sufficient encouragement to " go and do likewise." As a scientist, S. S. Rathvon is an ardent student and lover of nature. In the department of entomology he is especially distinguished, as he is also in the kindred sciences. As a writer upon entomological subjects, he is justly entitled to rank amongst the first investigators of the science in the whole country. He is diligent and devoted in the pursuit of his favorite studies, and perhaps there is no instance in America of, such an incessant, self-sacrificing pursuit of knowledge, under adverse circumstances, as his has been. After the ordinary business labors of the day are past, he spends every night almost in his study until twelve, two, three, and four o'clock in the morning enveloped in study; and then retiring for a few hours he rises and breakfasts, and is at his place of business by the usual hour in the morning. His are the ardor and application of a Cuvier, or a Humboldt, and but for his surroundings and obstacles, a high niche in the temple of fame could have been achieved. pecuniary interest in these vocations, yet he has always given the weight of his influence, so far as it might be useful to every enterprise that had for its object the welfare and the advancement of these departments of human labor ; and this, too, Without any pecuniary reward. He has been for more than twenty years a member of the Hew Jerusalem Society of Lancaster, and for two-thirds of that period has been its " leader" in public worship and the superintendent of its Sunday-school; and has uniformly been punctual in the discharge of the duties devolving upon him in these capacities. Seeing that, for the greater part of the time, he stands almost isolated in this community, deprived of the sustaining influence of larger religious communities, our subject exhibits a consistent adherence to religious principle, that is not always met with where there are no ulterior worldly ends to accomplish. OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 473 Fortune seems not to have bestowed upon him the conditions necessary for the highest scientific attainment, yet he has far outstripped others more favorably circumstanced. His has been the school of difficulties, and nobly has he risen, despite his surroundings, and achieved a higher degree of moral worth than otherwise he might have been able to attain. It is in this latter particular that he has risen to the perfection of manhood, and exhibits a shining example of high moral tone but seldom attainable by man. In this he is a nobleman, indeed ; and but few know the great superiority and high moral sublimity of this true example of Christian manhood. Nobler sentiments than imbue his whole life and conversation, never influenced a Socrates, a Seneca, or a Confucius ; and not in act only, but in thought does this high moral standard pervade his feelings. N o action that he feels to be wrong, could he be induced to commit. Unkind feelings he entertains towards no specimen of mankind ; no slander ever falls from his lips ; nor does he give utterance to any ungenerous remarks, it matters not how any one may have injured him. Perfectly unselfish in all his actions, his efforts instead of being incited by sinister motives, are prompted, alone by a desire to elevate mankind, and diffuse generally the principles of morality. If there be one man in our county who has endeavored with all his soul to take up into the whole substance of his being, constitution and actions, the moral excellence of Christ's teachings and example, as recorded in the Evangelist, that man is the subject of our notice. He has done this so far as weak and erring humanity is capable. Not for the applause of the world is his conduct shaped; his own internal sense of right is his guiding star. What popular opinion may be, he cares not ; only so far as it accords with the promptings of that informed monitor of his bosom, does he give it audience. He, however, condemns no man who may differ with him in opinion, freely permitting others to enjoy their own sentiments as their consciences may dictate. His example and life are worthy of imitation, and if a higher reward than mere earthly be the lot of devoted aspiration to the subject of our notice, a large inheritance will be his portion. - 33 - 474 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY RAUCH, RUDOLPH F., was elected Prothonotary of Lancaster county in the year 1842. RAWLINS, JOHN, elected a member of the Legislature in 1853. REED, ELIAS, emigrated from Germany about the year 1761, and first settled with his family in Bucks county, pa. A few years afterwards he removed with his family to the valley of the Wyoming, where he took up four hundred acres of land. He did little more, however, than build a log cabin for himself and family, and a stable for his horses and cattle, when he was compelled, by the hostility of the Indian savages, to return to Bucks county, leaving behind him his horses and cattle. His log cabin and stable were burned as soon as his family had fled to save their lives. He had four sons, one of whom enlisted under Gen. Wayne, and served under him during the whole period of the Revolution. REED, JOHN K., a banker of Lancaster city, and a man of estimable and highly honorable character. He was in 1851 elected prothonotary of Lancaster county, and in October, 1870, elected one of the board of county commissioners. He was elected commissioner by the vote of both political parties. REED, PETER, youngest son of Elias Reed, came and settled in the town of Lancaster, (now city), about the year 1783. As a citizen he was highly honored and much respected, and held several important offices in the county of Lancaster. REED, PETER, jr., son of the last named, was elected high sheriff of Lancaster county, in 1836, and held the same for three years. REED, THOMAS, one of the first 1egislative delegates from Lancaster county in 1829. REDDIG, JACOB, of West Cocalico township, was born October 7th, 1794. His grandfather emigrated from near Manheim, in Germany, and settled in Lancaster county at an early day. His father was named Jacob, and died in 1854, aged 84 years. The subject of this notice followed the mercantile business from the age of eighteen years up till OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 475 1862, when he retired and has since been living in retirement upon one of his farms. He was elected a member of the Legislature in the year 1837. *REICHENBACH, JOHN CHRISTIAN WILLIAM, was born January 26, 1749, in Swartzburg-Rudolstadt, Upper Saxony, Prussia. Little is immediately accessible in reference to either his ancestry or his youth, but from the fact that he received a liberal scientific and classical education, for that period, the inference is, that his family occupied an easy, if not a distinguished social position in his native country. This is rendered further probable from the fact that he graduated, or at least attended the university at Marseilles, in France. In 1785 he left Germany, and spent some years in travel, or engaged in some learned occupation. At all events, he reached Lancaster, Pennsylvania, about 1780, and was immediately appointed professor of mathematics and German literature in Franklin college, then just going into operation. Soon thereafter he married Mrs. Elizabeth Graeff, formerly Miss Schwartz, by whom he bad a number of children, all of whom are dead, and some of whom he survived. In addition to his duties as professor in the college,¹ and also for some years subsequently, he practiced surveying and gauging, in the county of Lancaster. He was originally a member of the Moravian denomination, and sometimes preached lay sermons in their church in Lancaster, and otherwise made himself generally useful. About the same time that Reichenbach arrived in Lancaster, Henry von Beulow, a German nobleman, and a native of Prussia, who in his early years had adopted the military profession, also arrived there, and spent some time in it. Von Buelow had embraced the peculiar theological and philosophical views of Emanuel Swedenborg. Reichenbach and Buelow soon became acquainted, and socially and intel- ¹ Franklin college was originally located in North Queen street, Lancaster, near James street, and for many years was known as the "barracks," the " old stone house," and subsequently as "Franklin row." It was suspended finally for the want of pecuniary resources, and it is probable that Reichenbach only engaged in the occupation of surveyor and gauger after its suspension. * Contributed by S. S. Rathvon. 476 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY lectually affiliated, and this soon led to a theological arid philosophical affiliation. The latter had brought with him from Germany a number of the works of Swedenborg, for gratuitous circulation and for sale. On examining these doctrines, Reichenbach embraced them and avowed them openly. He afterwards translated and published several works on the doctrines of Swedenborg—otherwise called the " New Church,"—one of which was entitled. Agathon, which was published in both English and German, from the Latin manuscripts of Von Buelow, copies of which are still extant. Reichenbach was an extensive writer, and at his death, left a large mass of manuscript, which never was subsequently utilized, and finally became extinct through age, mould and mice. These consisted of theological and philosophical speculations, Latin. and Greek translations, solutions of mathematical problems, and sacred and sentimental poems. It is fair to infer, that some of his compositions must have been published under pseudonyms, not now recognizable in the Halcyon Luminary, the Dawn of Light, and other new church publications of his day. He led a peaceable and useful life, universally respected, in the companionship of Damish, Eckstein, Carpenter, Bailey, Ehrenfried and others, who composed the little band of " Receivers," after the return of You Buelow to Europe, and at last was gathered to his fathers on the 15th of May, 1821, in the 73d year of his natural life. How deeply impressed he was with the Swedenborgian doctrine of the resurrection, may be inferred from the inscription on his tombstone : " By a process which they call death, the earthly part sunk here precipitated; The nobler part, by our good Lord, rose heavenly sublimated. REIGART,¹ ADAM, was an innkeeper during the American Revolution, keeping his house on the west side of North Queen street, near Centre Square. His hotel was the Whig headquarters during the Revolution, and here the supreme ¹ It was at the house of Adam Reigart that the lots were drawn in order to determine upon which one of the British officers, held as Prisoners of war at Lancaster during the Revolution, the execution of the lex talionis should take place in retaliation for the murder of Captain Rudy, who had been executed at New York in violation of military law. OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 477 Executive Council held its sessions when in Lancaster. He was Lieutenant-colonel of a regiment under the command of Colonel George Ross, and marched with his regiment to Amboy, in New Jersey, and served with it until the regiment was discharged. He was in various encounters which his regiment had with the British daring his service as one of its commanding officers. He was elected a member of the Legislature for the year 1780. REIGART, EMANUEL, son of Adam Reigart, was a tanner and currier by occupation, and carried on this business quite extensively. He was elected repeatedly a member of the Legislature, being a member during the sessions of 1813, 1814, 1815, 1817. He was cotemporary as a legislator in 1814-16 with James Buchanan, when the latter was making his first debut in political life. In 1821 he was elected sheriff of Lancaster county. He also served once in the office of `coroner. REIGART, EMANUEL C., son of Emanuel Reigart, was born in Lancaster in the year 1797, and was for many years one of the leading and influential men of the city. He read law with Amos Ellmaker, and was admitted to the bar April 19th, 1822. Belonging to one of the old and influential families of the county, Mr. Reigart soon took a leading rank in his profession, and for many years was recognized as one of the ablest lawyers of the city. In 1834 he was nominated and elected to the Legislature, on what was known as the Anti-Masonic ticket. While in the Legislature he submit- The drawing of the lots was conducted by Colonel George Gibson, and the lot fell upon Captain Sir Charles Asgill. As soon as Gibson perceived upon whom the lot had fallen, he remarked to Captain Stake (pointing to Asgill), there is your prisoner. Asgill was immediately ordered under the command of Captain Stake, who, upon the solicitation and pledge of honor of Major Gordon, another British officer, surrendered Asgill to his keeping for a few days. When Major Gordon was conducting Asgill away from the place where the lots had been drawn, the latter partially fainted and fell prostrate. Major Gordon upbraidingly remarked to him : "For God's sake don't disgrace your colors." Through the interposition of lady Asgill, the mother of Sir Charles, the French Minister used his influence with Washington and obtained his release, and thus rescued him from being executed, as otherwise he would have been, in obedience to the lex talionis. 478 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY ted a minority report in favor of the school law of 1809, instead of that of 1834. On the 24th of February, 1885, he delivered a speech, favoring the resolution offered by Mr. Stevens for the suppression of Masonic oaths.¹ On November 14th, 1843, Emanuel C. Reigart addressed a letter to Henry Clay (then the prominent candidate of the Whigs for the presidential nomination), interrogating him as to his connection with the institution of Free Masonry. To this Clay replied, that he had joined the order in early life, but that he had entirely retired from connection with the lodge for upwards of nineteen years. In 1837-38 Mr. Reigart was a member of the State Constitutional Convention and took a prominent part therein, generally cooperating with Thaddeus Stevens—also a member of the Convention—on important questions. With him were associated in this convention, from .Lancaster county, Henry G. Long, William Hiester, Lindley Coates, Jeremiah Brown, James Porter, Dr. Cochran, and Joseph Konigmacher. In 1846 Mr. Reigart was the Native American candidate for Congress from Lancaster county, and in 1847 he was the Native American candidate for Governor, against Shunk, DeMocrat, and Irwin, Whig, and received 11,000 votes in the State. When a young man, Mr. Reigart enlisted in 1814 in the company raised by Captain Edward Shippen, which marched for the defense of Baltimore. In the same company were James Buchanan, Molton C. Rodgers, Dr. F. A. Muhlenberg, and in fact the elite of Lancaster. At a mass meeting held in Lancaster in 1848, Mr. Reigart nominated Thaddeus Stevens for Congress, which was the first public nomination Mr. Stevens had ever received for that position. In the year 1848 Mr. Reigart retired permanently from the practice of the profession. In 1851, having been appointed commissioner by President Fillmore, to attend the ¹ The Anti-Masons were opposed to the administration of extra judicial oaths, such as were alleged by them to be imposed upon Masons, and they desired the enactment of a law that would prevent such oaths from being administered. They feared that these oaths would come In conflict with the administration of justice. No oaths, they argued, should be allowed to be administered that might in any wise conflict with those of a judicial character. OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 479 world's 'Fair in London, he fulfilled the duties of this appointment, and next made a tour of the continent, visiting all the places of interest that delight the intelligent tourist. The latter part of Mr. Reigart's life was spent in retirement, and in the management of his extensive estate. A few years before his death he was appointed by Judge Cadwallader, United States Commissioner for this district, a position he held at the time of his death. He died December 20th; 1869. Mr. Reigart was a man of considerable benevolence. He was the founder of the Lancaster Athenum, having endowed the institution with $2500. A few years before his decease he gave to the Howard Association $1000, to be used for the relief of the poor of the city of Lancaster. REIGART, HENRY M., was elected commissioner of Lancaster county, in the year 1822. He was afterwards postmaster of the city of Lancaster. REIGART, FRANKLIN, J., a native of Lancaster, and a man of considerable intellectual vigor. He studied civil engineering, and served in this business under Mr. Gay, from 1834 till 1836, on the Columbia and Philadelphia railroad. He aided in the location of the Harrisburg and Lancaster railroad. He was surveyor for Lancaster, and published the first map of the city. He was the first to get up meetings to start the Lancaster gas works, and also for the new, markets. He was appointed clerk of quarter sessions in the year 1839. He served for some years as an alderman, and also for some time as recorder of the city of Lancaster. He is now engaged as patent agent in Washington city. REINHOLD, JESSE, was elected a member of the Legislature in the year 1855. REINOEHL, A. C., is a native of Lancaster county, and a graduate of Franklin and Marshall college, Pennsylvania: He served with credit to himself in the war of the rebellion. After retiring from the army he read law, and was admitted to the bar in 1866. In 1867 he was elected a member of the Legislature, and twice reelected in the years 1868 and 1870. In the year 1871 he was appointed deputy secretary of the commonwealth. 480 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY REIST FAMILY. Peter Reist, the founder of this family, was a native of Switzerland, whom religious persecution first drove to the Palatinate, and afterward to America. While in the Palatinate he married his wife, whose maiden name was Anna Clara Boyer. He arrived in Lancaster county in the year 1723, and became. a convert to the Mennonite faith. He built himself a cabin near Kissel Hill, which was claimed by a man named Witmer. He relinquished possession of this and went about two miles northwest, where he took possession of six hundred acres of land. Two hundred acres of this tract is yet in possession of John and Jacob Reist, great-great-grandsons of the first settler. Peter Reist had five sons and two daughters. The sons were Peter, Christian, Abraham, Jacob and John. Peter settled in Lebanon county, Pennsylvania, and Christian died without heirs. Abraham acquired considerable property and left numerous descendants. Abraham H. Reist, of Lancaster, is his great-grandson. Among his descendants are the Reists of Shaefferstown, Lebanon county, and those in Linglestown, Dauphin county, and in Canada are also of them. His blood flows in the Reigarts, Swarrs, Bears, Stauffers, Hostetters and Hersheys, of Lancaster county: Jacob Reist was killed on Braddock's field, July 9th, 1756. JOHN REIST retained the old homestead, with four hundred acres of land, on. which John Reist, his great-grandson, yet resides. John had five sons and three daughters, viz : Christian, Abraham, Jacob, John, and Peter. Christian retained the old homestead, and Abraham procured an adjoining tract of land. Ezra Reist, prison inspector, is the latter's grandson. Jacob died unmarried ; and John left a son in Erie county, New York, named John Reist, a Reformed Mennonite clergyman. Peter settled between Oregon and Millport. .One of Peter's sisters was married to a man named Kauffman, and settled in Virginia ; another was married to a man named Bomberger, grandfather of Rev. Christian Bomberger. The other sister married a Hostetter, the father of Henry Hostetter, a member of the Legislature in 1827-Rev. Charles Hostetter, a Mennonite clergyman, is a grand-Bon of Hostetter, first named. OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 481 PETER REIST ¹. had two sons, John and Jacob, and one daughter, the mother of the wife of Greybill Bear, of Mount Joy, and Joseph Brubaker's wife, of Warwick. John was a well educated and talented young man. He was commissioned a justice of the peace of Manheim township, and died at the early age of thirty-two years. He was a surveyor, and with Jacob Hibshman and Charles Montelius, laid, out the towns of Warwick and New Ephrata, now called Lincoln. Joseph Ritner, afterwards Governor of Pennsylvania, was .a hireling for some time in the employ of Peter Reist, then being a poor young man. When he became Governor he paid his old friends in Warwick township a visit, and spent a night with Jacob Reist, who had been oft his playmate when in the employ of Peter, his father. He made numerous observations, and remarked the great changes that had taken place on the farms since he had lived in that section. Ritner,² on that occasion conversed freely on politics. Having been for years a prominent Democrat, he remarked the great strength of the Masonic order, and said that he believed, had he been a Free-Mason, he would have been nominated for Governor by the Democrats at the time 'Wolf was made their candidate. His conscientious scruples, however, prevented his being a Free-Mason. The Reists were all originally Democrats, but left the ¹ Peter Reist was an ardent Democrat, and when the news came that Jefferson was elected President over Burr in 1800, happening to be in Lancaster, and expressing his joy at the result, the Federalists fell upon him, and he with difficulty made his escape to his home. ² When Joseph Ritner was elected Governor in 1835, being free and untrammeled of pledges, he chose his cabinet officers without any previous bargaining. He had concluded in. his own mind to tender the Secretaryship of State to Amos Ellmaker, of Lancaster. Mr. Ellmaker declined the position, but at the same time recommended Thomas H. Burrowes, who had studied law in his office, and to whom he felt attached. He assured the Governor that Mr. Burrowes was fully -competent for the position, and if any assistance would be needed he would cheerfully render him any aid. This recommendation of Mr. Ellmaker made Thomas H. Burrowes Secretary of State, and was the foundation of his prominence as a Pennsylvania school man. Had Mr. Ellmaker recommended Henry G. Long or Emanuel C. Reigart, Mr. Burrowes would never have been Secretary of State. The word of an influential man is therefore potent. 482 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY party at the same time that James Buchanan joined it Simon Reist, grandson of Peter, was one of the nine men in 1855, who organized the Republican party in Lancaster county. Jacob Reist was somewhat an active politician in his day, and is now living, a man of advanced years, in Petersburg, Lancaster county. He had four sons, Simon, Peter, Levi and Isaac ; also, five daughters, Elizabeth, married to Samuel Royer ; Anna, married to Greybill Bear; Catharine, married to Henry L. Landis ; Barbara, married to A. D. Greybill, and Levina, married to H. H. Oberholtzer. Isaac died single, and Simon died. in 1862, near Lancaster, leaving four sons, Henry, Linmeus, John and Simon. REIST, LEVI S., of Warwick township, was born April 13th, 1817. He was raised upon a farm, and has been engaged in agricultural pursuits all his lifetime. In politics he has always been a leading man in his district, and in 1848 was one of the delegates from Lancaster county to the State convention of the Whig party that nominated a canal commissioner, and chose presidential electors which elected General Taylor President of the United States. In 1851 he was elected a justice of the peace for his township, a position he filled for ten years. He was elected in 1859 one of the board of county commissioners,¹ a position he held for three years. In 1866 he was one of three who signed a call for a ¹ The office of county commissioner was, during the rebellion especially, one of grave responsibility. New duties devolved upon th board which required rare judgment to discharge with entire satisfaction. The commissioners, together with two of the judges of the court, were constituted a board of relief for distributing aid from the public funds to the widows and families of soldiers in destitute circumstances. The commissioners were required to procure arms, and have them in readiness for defense along the border, if occasion should require. The first muskets received by them, were old flint-locks that were lying idle in the State arsenal at Harrisburg, and which they had altered into percussion locks by Henry E. Leman, gunsmith, of Lancaster. They were furnished at another time with one thousand ne muskets, for which the county gave bonds. They were frequently solicited to furnish quarters for soldiers in the national service, and o several occasions did so ; at one time on the fair grounds, and on other occasions soldiers were quartered in the court house and in the churches of the city. In the beginning of the war the commissioners offered a. OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 483 meeting, which laid the foundation of the Lancaster Agricultural and Horticultural Society, and was the first. president of the same. He aided actively in the establishment of the Lancaster Farmer, in January, 1869, and during the first year was on the editorial corps, and has ever since been one of its leading contributors. REITZEL, JOHN, was appointed Recorder of Deeds in 1821. REYNOLDS, JOHN, a native of Lancaster county, was the editor of the Journal for many years before its union with the lntelligencer. After his retirement from editorial life, he moved to Cornwall, and assumed the management of the iron works at that place. He was chosen guardian of the minor children of Thomas B. Coleman. He remained the manager at Cornwall until about 1847, when he returned to Lancaster. In 1822 he was elected a member of the Legislature, and reelected in 1823. He died in Baltimore, May 11th, 1853, in the 67th year of his age. He is the father of General John F. Reynolds and James L. Reynolds, esq. *REYNOLDS, MAJOR GENERAL, JOHN FULTON, was born in Lancaster, Pa., on the 21st of September, 1820. He was educated in the schools of his native city, and in 1837 was bounty of fifty dollars for one regiment of ten companies for nine months. Instead of ten companies fourteen companies were raised. Muskets were distributed to the citizens by the commissioners, who were enrolled pro tempore for the preservation of law while the drafting process was being performed at the court house, in Lancaster, during the year 1863. This was deemed necessary on the part of the authorities, in order to repress strong indications of riot that were manifesting themselves upon the occasion referred to. The reason of this was, that as great difference of sentiment prevailed amongst the people of the North as to the justice of the war against the South, many were unwilling to be compelled to fight in a cause that they regarded unjust and unconstitutional. Those amongst whom the riotous proceedings were manifested, were generally the German inhabitants of the city, many of whom were in principle opposed to the war policy of the government. A few citizens were arrested, but order was again restored, when a number of the inhabitants of the city were armed with muskets, and so detailed about the court house as to intimidate an outbreak. *Contributed by J. M. W. Geist., 484 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY appointed a cadet at West Point. He graduated from the Military Academy in 1841; in July of the same year he was appointed brevet second lieutenant in the Third. Artillery, and was ordered to Fort McHenry, Baltimore ; three mouths later he was promoted to a second lieutenancy ; early in 1843 he was ordered to St. Augustine, and at the close of the year was transferred to Fort Moultrie. In 1845 he was sent to Corpus Christi, and afterwards to Fort Brown. In June, 1846, he was promoted to first lieutenant, and marched with his battery, accompanying General Taylor's army, into Mexico; was engaged at the battle of Monterey, and two days thereafter was breveted captain for gallant conduct. On the 21st of February, 1847, he was in the battle of Buena Vista, and received the brevet of major for meritorious services. At the close of the Mexican war he was sent to the forts on the coast of New England, where he remained four years, when he was appointed a staff officer to General Twiggs; and in 1853 went to New Orleans, but in the following year returned to the east, and was stationed at Fort Lafayette, until he was attached to an expedition which was sent across the plains to Utah. He reached Salt Lake City in August, 1854 ; in March, 1855, he was promoted to a captaincy, and sent across the mountains to California. During the year he remained on the Pacific coast, he engaged in expeditions against the Indians, commanded posts, and at one time was on a board to examine candidates for admission into the army from civil life. In December, 1856, he arrived at Fortress Monroe, and in the summer of 1858 was placed in command of battery C, of the Third regiment, and was ordered to cross the plains with his command, to Utah. 'The battery was one of the most efficient in the service, and hence Secretary Floyd sought to destroy it, by mounting it and sending it across the Rocky Mountains. The company however, arrived in safety at Fort Vancouver, in December, 1859. In September, 1860, Major Reynolds was appointed commander of cadets at West Point ; in May, 1861, he was a pointed lieutenant-colonel of the Fourteenth Infantry, and. sent to New London, Connecticut, to recruit his regiment to OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 485 its maximum strength for service in the rebellion.¹ In August he was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general of volunteers, and was ordered to command Fort Hatteras ; but, at the request of Governor Curtin, General Reynolds was assigned to the command of the first brigade of the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps. He marched and fought with his brigade on the peninsula, and in Pope's campaign. General Pope says in his report : "Brigadier-General John F. Reynolds, commanding the Pennsylvania Reserves, merits the highest commendation at my hands. Prompt, active and energetic, he commanded his division with distinguished ability throughout the operations, and performed his duties in all situations with zeal and fidelity." After the retreat of General Pope to the defences around Washington, it became apparent that the enemy contemplated an invasion of Maryland, and probably of Pennsylvania. Governor Curtin; therefore, on the 4th of September, 1862, issued a proclamation calling out 75,000 of the State ¹ The period of the Southern rebellion was one that called forth a tone of sentiment in Lancaster county which cannot, with due propriety, as it seems to us, be passed over in silence. A state of feeling existed, that it is to be hoped will never again be experienced. After the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency, in 1860, the Southern States, one after another, prepared to put their long asserted resolves into execution ; and in December of that year, South Carolina payed an ordinance of secession, severing her allegiance from the Federal Union. This step was looked upon by our people as an ebullition of anger that would amount to nothing ; and when any one happened to express his fears that the event betokened something serious, he was met by the remark, "Q this will soon blow over," or, "we can whip them in two weeks," and language of that character, all going to show that no adequate idea was entertained of the magnitude of the difficulties that were threatening the country. When at length the bulletin board, on the morning of April 13th, 1861, told the sad news that Fort Sumter had been fired upon, it was surrounded by a crazed multitude, as it would have seemed, and threats were in every mouth almost, that the Southern States should be wiped out of existence. Even to intimate a doubt of the speedy downfall of the rebellion, was accepted by the infuriated as evidence of treasonable sentiments; and a remark made by an individual in presence of some citizens: "Gentlemen, this will be a three years war," was met with such replies as, " Why, man, you are crazy," or, " O my God, this means nothing, it will be all over in a month." The feelings of those favorable to the war, became speedily embittered towards such as intimated the least doubt as to the success of the 486 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY militia, and on the 12th General Reynolds was relieved from, the command of the Reserve Corps, and. ordered to proceed to Harrisburg, at the request of the Governor, to organize and command these forces. He received the men, who were pouring in incessant streams to the Capital, organized them into brigades, and marched them up the Cumberland valley to protect the borders of the State. After the battle of Antietam the militia was disbanded, and General Reynolds rejoined the Army of the Potomac, and assumed command of the first corps ; he rendered distinguished service at the battle of Fredericksburg, and carried the enemy's works on the left. He was appointed military governor of that city, and his administration of affairs was so vigorous and equitable, that the loyal citizens rejoiced in the establishment of the authority of the United States in their midst. His troops were present, but were not called into action at the battle of Chancellorsville. When General Meade moved the army struggle. The great majority of the people appeared, and were in reality, in favor of the prosecution of the contest for the restoration of the Union. No intimation that the abolition of slavery was an object, was made by any of the war partisans; and when one opposed to the War would claim that it was prosecuted for the purpose of freeing the negroes, this was ever indignantly denied. The fact need not be concealed, that a considerable number of the people felt averse to the prosecution of such a war, as they regarded all difficulties between the two sections as capable of being settled without a collision of arms. But the larger number of those who entertained such opinions were careful to conceal them, as it was perceived that in the midst of the excitement their persons and business were in jeopardy by the expression of opinions then very unpopular. The people were speedily divided into those favorable. to and those opposed to the war. The shrewd and designing of the latter division, simply allowed their opinions to be known by those who agreed with them. They, as a consequence, were popular with both parties, for they could easily vary their sentiments to suit the company in which they might happen to be. But there are always those who are bold enough to express their real opinions, whether they be popular or the contrary. Upon this small band the popular venom poured itself: All who as a consequence expressed any sentiment that did not accord with the popular opinion, were denounced as traitors, and deserving of being executed. They were required to meet frowning looks in all their meanderings,:and hear offensive and insulting remarks at many a corner as they passed the streets. Oft would the man of honest opinions cross the street sooner than encounter one whose hatred of him and his opinions he felt was intense. Men that had been bosom friends for OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 487 from Frederick into Pennsylvania, expecting each hour to encounter the rebel force, he selected General Reynolds, his bosom friend, and the man of all others in whom he reposed the most implicit confidence, to lead the advance wing, composed of three corps, the First, Third, and Eleventh. Morning and evening, frequently during the day, and in the still .hours of night, these two distinguished soldiers, Pennsylvania's 'noblest contributions to the army, could be seen in close consultation and earnest discussion. The commanding general communicated fully all his plans and intended movements to his companion, and heard with deep interest the comments of the great soldier. Reynolds, in turn, with the whole ardor of his noble nature, entered into the work assigned him ; he led forth his troops, marching at the head of the great army as a patriot going out to battle for the honor of his country and the liberty of his race. When, on the morning of the 1st of July, he rose to the summit of the hills in front of Gettysburg, he saw at a glance, years before the war, would pass and repass without exchanging recognitions, because of diversity of political sentiment. Relations, and even members of the same family, quarreled over the question of the war. After an election, the vulgar of the winning party were always loud in their taunts and insults of their discomfited partisans. A. member of the defeated party, on a morning after the election, was sure to hear plenty of such remarks as : " the copperheads hang their heads this morning." This condition of feeling continued during the whole war, and had the mob in some cases been permitted to have taken their way, the houses of citizens who did not favor the war would have been burned over their heads. But there were always men of influence in the war party who prevented acts of this kind from being perpetrated. They knew the obnoxious individuals, and felt convinced that their sentiments were as honest and equally patriotic as their own. They simply differed as to the manner of settling the national difficulties. At a time during the rebellion when a couple of regiments were encamped near Lancaster, loud threats were made against ex-President Buchanan, and had not a few leading citizens interposed, his residence might have fallen a victim to the rage of a heated soldiery, and himself subjected to such indignities as have disgraced the annals of history. This long period of war was sufficient to unfold to an observer almost a complete philosophy of democratic society. Before the braking out of the war, Democratic leaders hastily penned resolves for conventions, denouncing all coercion of the Southern States. They stood upon the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions, and no coercion should be sanctioned. But no sooner was the call for soldiers issued, than these same leaders were mustering in 488 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY as his practiced eye viewed the country around him, that. there, on the rocky hills, must be fought the great battle, which was to decide whether the honor of the Northern people should be preserved inviolate, or whether their cities, and country, and villages should be sacked and destroyed, by the invading foe. Arriving nearer the town, at eleven o'clock in the forenoon, he found General Buford's cavalry division already skirmishing with the Confederate troops, who appeared two miles to the westward. Reynolds, with his accustomed boldness to attack, did not hesitate as to his duty, or wait for instructions ; he was an accomplished soldier, and knowing that it was Meade's determination to fight the enemy on the first advantageous ground in his front, immediately advanced to the support of Buford's cavalry, and engaged the enemy. The First corps pushed forward through the town to occupy a hill on the west side, near Pennsylvania college, where it encountered Heath's division of Hill's corps of Con- men for the conquest of the South. Unfortunate is that country that can have no better class of leaders. Again the oaths went up, loud and long, upon the part of many of the mob, that they would not go to the war " to fight for negroes." The next news, however, that came was, that these same swaggering oathsmen were drilling and enlisted for the struggle. All this is simply evidence of the value of the asseverations of that class of people. Again, it was but a common occurrence to meet one high in standing and authority denouncing the abolition crusade to his friends, and the same day addressing a company of departing soldiers for the war, and urging upon them to press forward in the holy work in which they were engaged. Fame should, as it ever does, consign the names of all such, to the lowest depths of infamy, despite the miserable honor that they may conceive attaches to their party posts or official positions. The stern vindicator of right implanted in the breasts of true humanity", measures out deserved honor, regardless of the mob's disapprobation or approval, and the tribute so awarded is genuine and enduring. Time, however, moved onward, and the war closed. Instead of being of three years' duration, it lasted over four years. Entire alienation between individuals and friends continued up to that period and for some time afterwards. But owing to the pressing business of society (the war being no longer the engrossing subject of conversation,) the old remembrances gradually became effaced, old friendships were renewed, and the hatred that had been felt by one towards the other, vanished and passed away, it is hoped, forever. The war is now over for some years, and all the hatreds engendered in the commotions, are forgotten. May such a time never again overtake the American republic. OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 489 federate troops. The .battle opened with artillery, in which the enemy at first had the advantage. Reynolds rode forward to change the position of the batteries ; the rebel infantry immediately advanced, pushing forward a heavy skirmish line, and charged upon the guns, expecting to capture them. General Reynolds ordered up Wadsworth's division,. to resist the charge, and rode at the head of the column to direct and encourage the troops ; but his gallantry made him a conspicuous mark for the deadly bullets of rebel skirmishers, and he was shot through the neck, and fell mortally wounded, dying before he could be removed from the field. The loss of their brave. leader, personally the most popular officer of his rank in the army, might well have seriously affected the behavior of the men, but the spirit with which his presence had inspired them did not perish at his death ; his corps, led by the senior officer, General Doubleday, repulsed the enemy in a gallant charge, while the fighting for a time became a hand-to-hand struggle, during which the rebel General Archer and his whole brigade were captured and sent to the rear. General Reynolds was charged by some military critics with rashness in prematurely bringing on the battle of Gettysburg; but it would, perhaps, be more just to say, that he had but little direct agency in bringing it on ; that it was unavoidable ; that it was forced upon us by the rebels ; that if they had not been held in check that day, they would have pressed on and obtained the impregnable position which our troops were enabled to hold ; and that, most of all, the hand of Providence, who gave us at last a signal victory, guided the arrangements of that memorable day. General Reynolds was one of America's greatest soldiers; the men he commanded loved him dearly ; he shared with them the hardships, toil, and danger of the camp, the march, and the field ; devoted to his profession, he was guided by those great principles which alone can prepare a soldier to become the defender of the liberties of a free people. He nobly laid down his life a sacrifice on his country's altar, at the head of his brave corps, that victory might crown the - 34 - 490 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY efforts of those who followed him to fight the great battle of the Nation. He fell, valiantly fighting for his country. Still more, he died in the defence of the homes of his neighbors and kinsmen. No treason-bleeding soil drank his blood' but all of him that was mortal is buried in the bosom of his own native State. His body was carried to Lancaster and buried in the family enclosure in the Lancaster cemetery, on the 4th of July, 1863. Over his remains the family have erected a handsome and substantial marble monument, commemorative of the patriotic services of the deceased. On the south side, surmounted by the military emblem of the sword and belt, is the inscription—" John Fulton Reynolds, Colonel of the Fifth Infantry United States Army, and Major General of Volunteers. Born September 21st, 1820. Killed at the Battle of Gettysburg, while commanding the Left Wing of the Army of the Potomac, July 1st, 1863." On raised panels immediately below, are the words " Chancellorsville," " Gettysburg." On the north, under the national coat-of-arms, are the words " Rogue River" and " Mechanicsville." On the west, the American flags, crossed over "Gaines' Mills," "Second Bull Run" and " Fredericksburg." And on the east, the military emblem of the cannon, with the Mexican battle-fields on which the deceased won promotion, " Fort Brown," Monterey," and " Buena Vista." REYNOLDS, SAMUEL H., was born at Brier creek, in Columbia county, Pa., November 20th, 1831. In the spring of 1832 his father, Thos. Reynolds, left his farm and removed to Danville, to engage in the mercantile business with his older sons. The subject of our notice being too young to enter the store, was sent to school, and soon afterwards admitted to the Danville academy. At the age of fourteen he entered the Freshman class at Dickinson college, Carlisle, Pa., where he graduated in 1850 with honor. In the fall of 1850 he went to Bellefonte, and took up his residence with his brother, W.F. Reynolds, a wealthy bachelor, to whose generosity and wise counsel he owes much of his success in life. Here he began the study of law under the instruction of Hon. James T. Hale, and was admitted to the bar in 1853. In 1854 be OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 491 made a tour of inspection through the West, in order to look out a suitable location for the practice of his profession. A short residence in St. Louis convinced him that his native State afforded as fair an opportunity for a lawyer as the far famed El Dorado of the West, and he returned to Bellefonte to decide upon some new departure. A friend suggested to him that Lancaster city, although crowded with legal ability, was a place where he might succeed. Accordingly, he prepared himself with letters of introduction to leading men, and set out for his new home. He reached Lancaster an entire stranger, (he knew no one in the city or county,) and reconnoitered the situation, and but for the friendly advice and sincere words of encouragement which he received from the late Hon. Thaddeus Stevens and Col. Reah Frazer, it is doubtful if he would have remained. His choice, however, was fixed; and accordingly, on the first of September, 1855, on motion of Reah Frazer, he was admitted to the bar at Lancaster, and at once commenced the practice. During the winter of 1855-56 he lost no time in making acquaintances in the city and county. His sparkling oratorical powers, together with his amiable manners, shrewd sagacity and business tact, soon attracted clients around him, the numbers of which have, year by year, rolled in upon him in an augmenting column. In 1856 the great political battle between Buchanan and Fremont was fought. Mr. Reynolds being an enthusiastic Democrat, rallied to his party standard, and being an eloquent speaker, was called upon to address meetings all over Lancaster county, and also in other sections of the State. The acquaintance thus made, and the brilliancy exhibited by him in the campaign, proved of immense value to him in his subsequent career. Although his party in the county was in a vast minority, its members became. strongly interested in his success, and ever afterwards remained ardently attached to him. In 1857 he was elected city solicitor, a position he held with credit to himself for several years. In 1858 he married a daughter of Wm. B. Fordney, esq., one of the leading lawyers of Lancaster. In 1866 he was the Democratic nominee for Congress from the Lancaster district. 492 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY In May, 1872, he was nominated at Reading by the Democratic State Convention as a delegate at large to the Constitutional Convention. He has served some nine years as a member of the Lancaster school board. So admirably has he succeeded in his professional career, that he now ranks amongst those who transact the largest and heaviest legal business before the Lancaster bar, if, indeed, he be not the present crowning summit of success. There are but few instances of such a rapid rise in the profession as is exhibited in his career. As a lawyer engaged in a trial, Mr. Reynolds is quick, ready and strategical, and brings a dexterity to bear upon the management of his cases that often baffles his legal adversary. He has already grappled with the ablest attornies of Pennsylvania. But it is in his efforts before the jury where his abilities shine most conspicuous. Here, it is useless to prevaricate, he caps the climax. In his speeches he has command of language elegant and ornate, his unstudied sentences often presenting the roundness and beauty of the most finished composition. As a political speaker, he towers high above any other man in Lancaster county, and but few surpass him elsewhere. With the people he is remarkably popular, and but for his politics, his voice would be heard upon the floor of the national Congress. RICHARDS, LUTHER, was born December 17th, 1809, in the borough of York, Pennsylvania. He removed, when a young man, to Lancaster, learned the printing business, and in 1834, in partnership with Geo. W. Hamersly, began the publication of the Examiner and Herald. This they published up till 1839, when they sold the same to R. W. Middleton. In 1851 he was elected register of wills of Lancaster county. Much of his time since he has been deputy register, which position he now fills. RIGHTER, WASHINGTON, of Columbia, was born in West Chester, December 9th, 1799. He was for about three years a student of the West Chester Academy, the first institution of the kind ever started in that borough. He removed to Lancaster county in 1830. He had learned the tanning business in West Chester, and afterwards entered OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 493 into partnership with his master for about four years. After coming to Columbia, he first started a currying shop, and afterwards, in 1834, engaged in the lumber business, which he has steadily pursued up to this time. He was elected clerk of the orphans' court of Lancaster county in the fall of 1842, and held the same for three years. He was never an aspiring politician, and the office he obtained was tendered him without solicitation. In business, Mr. Righter has been quite successful. RINGWALD FAMILY. Jacob Ringwald, the founder of the family of this name in Pennsylvania, emigrated from Wirtemberg, where the family is still numerous, shortly before the year 1750. In an old family record, the origin of the name is ascribed to the incident of a remote ancestor being lost in a forest, from which he was rescued by persons attracted by his stentorian shouts. He made the " woods ring," and Ringwald was applied to him as a cognomen. Jacob Ringwald, soon after his arrival in this country, was apprenticed to a blacksmith, at or near the present site of Bareville, Lancaster county, about four miles west of the town of New Holland, and in the immediate vicinity of the first settlement made in Earl township, by Hans Graff. At this period the district was already peopled by Mentzers, Kinzers, Rolands, Dillers, Seegers, Luthers, Sprechers, Weidlers and Bitzers families, which have since become numerous. After the completion of his apprenticeship, Jacob Ringwald established himself as a blacksmith, in the same vicinity, and married Barbara Wagner, who, in the homely and industrious fashion of the time, assisted her husband in laying the foundation of his future fortune, by working the bellows while he fashioned the iron on the anvil. The sturdy blacksmith soon became well known in the community, receiving due honor for the zealous industry and piety with Which he practiced to the very letter, the maxim often on his lips, the same couplet being a favorite saying among the Italians, Work as if you would live forever. Pray as if you would die to-morrow. 494 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY By perseverance and prudence, Jacob Ringwald steadily increased in wealth, and in a few years surpassed his neigh. hors, by becoming the purchaser of a farm near the eastern end of New Holland, which is well known for its fertility? and for a remarkably large and fine spring of water. He subsequently purchased another near Churchtown, both properties being selected with the wisdom of an accomplish. ed judge of land, and with especial reference to their well-watered meadows—this being a point of great importance in the last century. Once during the Revolutionary war, a party of Virginia troops were encamped upon the New Holland farm, where Jacob Ringwald continued to reside, and it is remembered, as an evidence of their imperfect equipment, that they were armed chiefly with spontoons, a home-made weapon resembling the Scottish halberd. Of three children born unto Jacob Ringwald and his wife Barbara, the eldest. George, died in infancy ; the second, Martin, born in 1763, lived to be the parent of eleven children ; while the third, Jacob, born in 1765, was the father of fourteen sons and four daughters, these two brothers being the ancestors of the entire Ringwald family of Lancaster county. Jacob Ringwald, the elder, the founder of the family, died about the close of the last century, his wife surviving him until the year 1805. His eldest and surviving son, Martin, inherited and resided upon the Churchtown farm, near Churchtown ; and the youngest, Jacob, inherited the property at New Holland, upon which he lived until 1825. At an early age he married Catharine Diller, a member of the numerous family of that name in Earl township. Living in an exclusively German neighborhood, and connected closely with them by bonds of blood and custom, Jacob Ringwald became imbued with the American spirit of progress. He battled strongly with the conservatism of his neighbors, and vigorously combated the popular disposition to perpetuate the exclusive use of the German language. A Lutheran church had been erected in New Holland, at least as early as the year 1748. As was general with this denomination, a parish school was attached, which was substantially free; for while all parents who were. OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 495 able to do so, paid for the tuition of their children, all were entitled to entrance, and the deficiency in funds was supplied by the congregation. For a. long period the German language was exclusively used in this school, but Jacob Ringwald was an active advocate of the introduction of the English tongue, which innovation was accomplished in 1807. Under the impulse of the same feeling which prompted him to this action, he anglicized the family name to Ringwalt. Conscious of the defects in his own early education, Jacob Ringwalt turned his attention most intelligently and indefatigably to supplying such deficiencies, and his children still remember the habit of rising at a very early hour to secure leisure and quiet for reading and study before commencing the laborious avocations of the day. The Edinburg Encyclopedia, whose ponderous volumes were the grand storehouse of the learning of that time, was one of his favorite books, and in the scarcity of literature, was a complete library in itself. Many members of the Lutheran church at this period, were bitterly opposed to the threatened intrusion of the English tongue into the regular church services, and Jacob Ringwalt's earnest efforts to secure the advantage of English preaching once a month, excited such antagonism, that he finally and in consequence relinquished his membership in the Lutheran church and joined the Episcopalians. The Rev. Joseph Clarkson, as minister of the Episcopalian church, became a favorite friend and frequent guest at his house, and after him Jacob Ringwalt named his eighth son, Joseph Clarkson Ringwalt, who has been for many years a resident of Cincinnati, Ohio ; a successful merchant and an exemplary citizen. Interested in all public movements, Jacob Ringwalt held the position of colonel of a regiment of militia, this form of military training being formerly very popular in Lancaster county. In 1811 he was elected to the State legislature, but this public service was not congenial to his tastes, and after serving one term he again devoted close attention to the varied avocations of agriculture for which he bad a strong inclination, and in which his energy and intelligence won remarkable success. Nothwithstanding the burden of a family, eighteen of his children reaching 496 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY maturity, he rapidly acquired wealth. His children were sent to schools at Harrisburg and elsewhere, to acquire a more general education than was possible at home, while their father vigorously prosecuted an extensive business. His well-tilled lands and handsome buildings grew into such value, that he was offered for them what was considered a very large sum in those days ; but shortly after, he became one of the sufferers in the disastrous monetary revulsion of 1817, and his property was sold under most unfavorable circumstances. He then rented a portion of the former estate and continued to reside upon it for several years. Jacob Ringwalt subsequently abandoned this farm in, Lancaster county, (which was then rented for a short time by his son Samuel), and removed into Cumberland county. In this new home, when about sixty years of age, he .assumed the management of the immense estate of Judge Duncan, comprising sixteen farms of several hundred acres each he himself residing upon and reserving the product of the splendid property known as the "Judge Watts farm," long famous for having the largest barn in the United States. Jacob Ringwalt continued in these successful agricultural employments until he was accidentally injured in the prosecution of his labors; his health subsequently failed, and he died December 24th, 1828, in the sixty-third year of his age. Catharine Diller, his wife, survived him, dying in 1858, and being the mother, grandmother and great-grandmother of one hundred and two descendants. His second, son Samuel, already mentioned, was at one time deputy sheriff and brigade inspector of Lancaster county, whence he removed to Downingtown, Chester county, where he still resides, devoting his great energy to agriculture, which is, in that district, in a very advanced condition. The eldest surviving and youngest sons of Jacob Ringwalt, viz : Samuel and Lewis Ringwalt, were both actively engaged in the war of the rebellion, the former having served as Gen. George G. Meade's brigade quartermaster, and received the highest encomiums from the hero of Gettysburg for his gallantry and efficiency. Lewis Ringwalt being a member of Sheridan's celebrated cavalry, having been M OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 497 forty-two skirmishes and engagements, was killed near Winchester, consistently ending a brilliant and Courageous career in bravely defending an ambulance of wounded men, ROATH, EML. DYER, was born October 4th, 1820, in the city of Lancaster. His father was a mechanic ; (" his great-grandfather, Philip Brenner, was from Baden, and an early settler along Chicques creek, now in East Donegal township, and owned a large tract of land.") At the age of four years his father died ; his mother, after the death of his father, moved with her family of four sons to the village of Maytown, East Donegal township. After having somewhat qualified himself, he taught school from 1846 to 1854, was a member of the first teachers' institute held in Lancaster, January, 1853, and having settled in Marietta borough in 1857, he was nominated and elected a member of the Legislature. In 1861, when the tocsin of war sounded throughout the land, his military ardor rose, and applying to Governor Curtin, he received orders to raise a company for service ; succeeding in this, he named his company " Union Fencibles," being composed of men from different counties, joined the 107th regiment of Pennsylvania volunteers, Col. Zeigler ; he marched to the front with 98 men, always engaged in active service with his regiment, and participated in the following battles, viz: Cedar Mountain, Rappahannock Station, Thoroughfare Gap, second Bull Run, Chantilly, (took command of regiment;) South Mountain,¹ (second in command ;) Antietam, (second in command,) slightly wounded; Fredericksburg, (brigade charged rebels out of their works;) below Fredericksburg, two days under fire; Chancellorsville, May 3d and 4th, 1863, (left in Wilderness on skirmish line, with five companies surrounded with rebels, ¹ While scaling the mountain, General Duryea rode up and remarked, " Captain Roath, will you let those vagabonds enter your State, desecrate your firesides, and enslave you?" The reply was, " No, never ; we would rather die freemen; three cheers for Pennsylvania," which was given with a will. The General then asked : " Will the colors of the Keystone go to the top ?" Being answered in the affirmative, he proposed three cheers for the same, which made the mountain echo amidst the discharge of musketry ; the Fifth Reserves, Col. Fisher, and others, took up the cheering. The day ended with a glorious victory, and a happy meeting on the mountain top. 498 - BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY but eluded their grasp;) Gettysburg, July 1st, 2d and 3c1 took part in first day's fight under the lamented Reynolds; and in the famous charges on the left, second day (took command,) and third day, in centre; Cemetery Hill, detailed to support battery, (wounded first day;) the crossing at Rappahannock, August 1st, 1863, commanded right wing; Mine Run, commanded advance guard, &c., three days; Spottsylvania Court House, North Anna, Bethsaida, " reinforced skirmish line on Richmond road, and took command, charged and retook a strong position of the enemy, and compelled them to withdraw the battery that made such terrible havoc by enfilading our lines ;" Tolopatomy, Shady Grove Church, White Oak Swamp, had charge of the skirmish line, nine companies, repulsed the enemy on their advance without support, complimented from commanding General; Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad, June 17 and 18, 1864, took railroad and drove enemy into fort, afterwards blown up; Weldon Road, August 18 and 19, 1864, on the 19th, after having sharp fighting on the advance, was taken prisoner, and after remaining in the prison pens o Richmond, Salisbury and Danville, over six months, was exchanged and, sent to Annapolis; honorably discharged by the War Department, March 5, 1865; after expiration of ser vice, was breveted Major, Lieutenant-colonel and Colonel, for meritorious service. Returning to his home in Marietta borough, he was again elected a justice of the peace; in 1866, was again nominated and elected a member of the Legislature. ROBERTS, ANTHONY E., was born in Chester county, Pa., October 29th, 1803. On his father's side he is of Welsh descent, and on that of his mother, German.' His early opportunities for the acquisition of learning being limited, his attainments in this particular were confined to the common branches of an education, but such as he was enabled to possess himself of; he has known admirably how to apply to practical life. He began his career in life by becoming & clerk in a store in New Holland, which position he filled fo several years. In this situation he may be said to have laid the foundation of his success, as therein he made the favorable OF LANCASTER COUNTY - 499 acquaintance of a large number of the people of the county, of Lancaster, and his pleasant and engaging manners made him hosts of friends of both parties. While serving as clerk, he was frequently the representative of his party in the county conventions, and thus he came to form the acquaintance of the leading men of his party, and, indeed, of the whole county. In 1839 he was nominated and elected high sheriff of Lancaster county, it being his first effort for the position. He discharged the duties of the office with success, and by his amiable manners still continued to add recruits to his hosts of friends all over Lancaster county. He early became one of the active Anti-Masons of the county; and even when the party was on the wane, his standing with its staunch leaders was always excellent, as he was believed ever to have been true to the principles of the organization. In 1843 he was, therefore, nominated by the Anti-Masons as their candidate for Congress in opposition to Jeremiah Brown, but his party being on the decline, he suffered a defeat. He had entered into the mercantile business in New Holland, in partnership with Elijah McLenegan, and this business he still prosecuted by his subordinates when official business required him to dwell in Lancaster. In 1849 he was appointed by General Taylor marshal of the eastern district of Pennsylvania, which office he filled up to the coming in of the Pierce administration in 1853. It was during the time that. Mr. Roberts was marshal, that the exciting trials occasioned by the Christiana riot came off in Philadelphia, and upon these occasions he showed himself an efficient officer in the. discharge of his duties. In 1854 Mr. Roberts was nominated by the American party as a candidate for Congress, and was elected; and after serving two years was again elected for a. second term. During his first congressional term, he served as a member of the building committee. Mr. Roberts has been a member of the Lancaster school board, and has filled many other honorable positions in the gift of the people. The success of Mr. Roberts in life, may be attributed to his remarkably genial and friendly disposition, as few surpass him in this particular. He is, besides, one of the most