BIO:  Charles L. LONGSDORF, Menallen Township, 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, Page 476

CHARLES L. LONGSDORF, nurseryman, P.O. Flora dale, is a native of Williamsport, 
Penn., born June 15, 1851.  Rev. Alexander Longsdorf, his father, of the 
Evangelical Association, a native of Philadelphia, had been a tailor by trade, 
but entered the ministry, and when but twenty-one or twenty-two years of age, 
preached on his first circuit, in Clinton County, Penn., known as the Sugar 
Valley Circuit; and, after thirty-five years of faithful service, this circuit 
was also the scene of his final labors, the last two years of his ministerial 
work having been there.  He was then placed on the retired list, and died in 
February, 1877, aged sixty-five years.  He and his wife, Rebecca (Keisling) 
Longsdorf, lie buried in the old cemetery at Williamsport, Penn.  At the age of 
twelve years our subject began to work for himself, but, at fourteen, his father 
sent him to the Union Seminary, New Berlin, Union County, for one year.  This, 
with the advantages of the common schools, when young, and one winter at 
Bendersville High School completed his studies.  At the age of fifteen he became 
a clerk for Jacob Pitzer & Son, at Bendersville, Adams Co., Penn., with whom he 
remained eighteen months.  Since then, with the exception of conducting a green 
grocery at Harrisburg for eighteen months, he has been identified with the 
nursery business, either selling or raising nursery stock.  He is now the owner 
of the Oak Hill Nurseries; has forty acres planted in nursery stock, and grows 
largely apple, peach, plum, cherry, apricot and quince.  His business is done 
almost entirely on the wholesale plan; he employs no agents, keeps his own 
books, and personally superintends his grounds.  Mr. Longsdorf was married, 
December 25, 1878, to Elizabeth Wright, and they have four children:  Rebecca 
Alice, Paul Wright, Julia Keyport and Hiram Starr.  Mr. Longsdorf is a 
Republican, takes an active interest in the public affairs of his vicinity, and 
is at present serving his second term as president of the Menallen school board.  
He is a member of the Evangelical Association, and his wife of the Society of 
Friends.