BIO:  P. D. W. HANKEY, Gettysburg, Adams County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

Copyright 2005.  All rights reserved.
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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, Page 355

P. D. W. HANKEY, farmer, Gettysburg, was born in Frederick County, Md., August 
11, 1830, a son of Jacob and Elizabeth (Schriver) Hankey, natives of Baltimore 
County, Md., and of German descent, their ancestors some way back being among 
the early German families of this State.  Isaac Hankey, grandfather of our 
subject, was a wheelwright, and his maternal grandfather, Philip Schriver, a 
farmer by occupation, served as a soldier in the war of 1812.  Jacob Hankey, 
also a farmer, was the father of eight children, seven of whom grew to maturity.  
P. D. W. is the eldest child, and his boyhood was spent in the rural districts, 
where he attended school and assisted his parents on the farm.  Subsequently he 
entered Pennsylvania College, Gettysburg, where he graduated in the class of 
1853.  The same year he accepted a position as principal of Mount Pleasant 
Seminary, Berks County, Penn., which position he held eight years.  He had a 
taste for literary pursuits, but on account of failing health he was compelled 
to give up, in the main, the profession of teaching, which he did very 
reluctantly, and at the advice of his physician he engaged in farming, though he 
taught a portion of the time.  In all he taught probably some seventeen years, a 
portion of which time he served as superintendent of schools of Adams County, in 
connection with superintending his farm, which consists of 254 acres of well-
improved land.  Mr. Hankey for a period furnished supplies for schoolhouses and 
dealt in school furniture.  In 1886 he sold off his stock and farming utensils, 
and moved to Gettysburg, to engage in the machine business.  In 1875 he was 
married to Anna E. Hartman, a daughter of Henry Hartman, of German descent, and 
to them have been born two children:  John Bright, named after the great English 
statesman, and Norma Grace.  The parents are members of the Lutheran Church.  
Mr. Hankey is a Republican in politics and has served as school director.  He is 
a member of the Masonic fraternity.