BIO:  Elias ROTH, Oxford Township, 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 501

ELIAS ROTH, architect and builder, New Oxford, was born at Roth’s Mills, in 
Butler Township, Adams County, Penn., July 21, 1829, a son of Jonas and Barbara 
(Kauffman) Roth, natives, former of York County, and the latter in the vicinity 
of East Berlin.  The parents came to the neighborhood of Roth’s Mills about 
1825, and the father was occupied as a farmer through life.  They reared nine 
children:  Maria, Elias, Jeremiah, Henry, Abraham, Reuben and Sarah (twins), 
Leander and Susanna, the latter died in infancy) all of whom, except Susanna, 
attended public schools and received a fair education.  Leander, who is now 
practicing in York County, studied medicine, and graduated at the Philadelphia 
Medical College.  Elias was gifted with unusual ability in the art of mechanism, 
and without instructor (while working on a farm, and before he was twenty years 
of age) was making furniture which found a ready sale.  His first attempt at 
building was the barn on the home-farm, still standing, which he put up when 
twenty-one years of age, from which time he engaged regularly in the business.  
For thirty-five years he has been the leading architect and builder in Adams 
County, and has furnished designs for thirty churches, located in Adams, York, 
Franklin and Montgomery Counties, Penn., and Frederick County, Md.  He has 
erected one-half of these, notable among which are the Reformed Church at New 
Chester and the Lutheran at the Pines, the Reformed and Lutheran Churches at 
Emmittsburg, Md., the Reformed Church and public school building at Waynesboro, 
the Lutheran, Reformed and Methodist Churches at New Oxford, the Reformed, 
Lutheran, Methodist and Catholic Churches at Hanover, York County.  All the 
principal houses erected in New Oxford since 1860 were designed and built by 
him.  He has invented and manufactured a saw-file set and jointer that has 
revolutionized the art of saw-filing, and to date has sold over 30,000.  He came 
to New Oxford in 1860, and two years later was married to Sarah Shane, and to 
them were born ten children, six of whom are living, viz.:  Anna M., Harry G., 
Kate E., Jennie S., Cora B. and John E.