BIO:  Joseph S. GITT, New Oxford, Adams County, PA

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History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania
Chicago:  Warner, Beers & Co., 1886
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Part III, History of Adams County, Pages 494-495

JOSEPH S. GITT, civil engineer, P. O. New Oxford, is descended from one James 
Gitt, who, with his wife, Mary Magdalena, came to this country, he from Ireland 
and his wife from Germany, about the year 1740, and settled in the “Pigeon 
Hills,” near Hanover.  His memory was a most retentive one, and to him his 
descendants are indebted for many reminiscences.  The red man still occupied the 
land, and the site of Hanover was still a primeval forest.  At that date he was 
a constable in the service of his Britannic Majesty.  Hanover was controlled by 
the British, and the town in its early settlement was known as a “town of 
refuge,” or “rogues harbor.”  William, their only son, was born in a cabin among 
the hills, October 15, 1746.  Five years later his parents came to Hanover, and 
the father disappeared and was never heard from.  His son purchased a farm in 
Adams County, and was there married to Magdalena, who was born November 13, 
1757, and died October 14, 1826.  Mary, the wife of James Gitt, was born 
September 27, 1720, and lived to the remarkable ago of one hundred and three 
years.  William and Magdalena Gitt were the parents of Jacob, George Henry, 
William and Daniel, and left seventy grand and great-grandchildren to represent 
them.  William and Magdalena, grandparents of Joseph S., died on the farm of 
Daniel Gitt, in Adams County, he at the age of ninety-eight years, and she when 
upward of eighty years.  Our subject was born near McSherrystown, Penn., 
September 9, 1815, a son of Daniel and Lydia Gitt, the former born near New 
Oxford, this county, the latter, a daughter of David and Catherine Slagle, and 
now living at the advanced age of eighty-eight years.  Daniel and his wife 
resided more than half a century upon the spot where they first settled; then 
moved to McSherrystown and finally to Hanover, in York County.  The children, 
Joseph S., Henry, David, Maria, Permelia, Alexander, Nathaniel, Howard, Walter 
and Belinda were born and reared in this county, and are all living but three.  
Joseph S. was educated at Gettysburg College, and in 1836 was rodman on the “Old 
Tape-worm” Railroad.  He taught school near his father’s farm two years, and was 
editor and proprietor of the Herald, Democrat, Planter and Weekly News, at 
Hanover for four years.  In March, 1841, he was married to Anna M. Bachman, and 
one daughter, Alice L., now the wife of Frederick G. Stark, jeweler at Hanover, 
was born to them in that borough.  In 1846 Mr. Gitt removed to Carlisle, and 
commenced the publication of the Pennsylvania Statesman, a semi-weekly 
Democratic paper, and also the American Democrat, which he sold four years 
later, and moved back to Hanover and published a campaign paper, and also 
conducted a book-store and bindery.  The absorbing topic of that day was the 
building of the Hanover Branch Railroad, and he was engaged as assistant 
engineer upon that line continually until its completion, when he moved to 
Media, Delaware Co., Penn., and accepted a position as chief engineer of the 
Philadelphia & Westchester Railroad.  When the Gettysburg & Littlestown 
Railroads were built, he assumed charge of them in a similar capacity, and later 
performed his first service on the Western Maryland Railroad.  He afterward 
performed a similar service on the European & North American Railroad, from 
Bangor, Me., to New Brunswick; later he assumed the same position of the 
Harrisburg & Potomac and Hanover & York Railroad; also on the Bachman Valley 
Railroad, the Emmittsburg, Md., Railroad, the Berlin branch, and numerous 
surveys for proposed lines, traveling, while making these surveys, 48,580 miles, 
he is still engaged by the Hanover Junction, Hanover & Gettysburg Railroad, but 
will soon retire from active service.  Four children, the one above mentioned, 
Luther B. (deceased) was born at Carlisle; Maria L. was born at Hanover, and Ada 
M. (deceased) born at New Oxford, comprised the family, of whom Maria L. is the 
wife of William G. Smyser, civil engineer, now located at Topeka, Kas.  During 
his busy life Mr. Gitt has been a very successful man, and will now retire with 
a competence honestly earned.  He was the first president of the borough council 
of New Oxford, and has been a member continuously up to date.  For nearly forty 
years Mr. Gitt has been a member of the I. O. O. F., and with his wife a member 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church.  In politics he is a Republican.  He is 
liberal and progressive in all affairs of public benefit and improvement.  He is 
also a trustee and on the building committee of the new Methodist Episcopal 
Church in progress of erection in New Oxford.