AREA HISTORY: History of Adams County, Chapter XLI, Adams County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis Copyright 2005. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/adams/ _______________________________________________ History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co., 1886 _______________________________________________ Part III, History of Adams County, Pages 312-314 CHAPTER XLI. MOUNTJOY TOWNSHIP. The streams of this township are Rock Creek, which forms its western line; Alloway’s Creek, separating it from Germany; Two Taverns’ Run, White Run, Plum Run and other small streams flowing westward into Rock Creek, and six or seven rivulets into Alloway’s Creek. All flow south from the watershed to swell the rivers of Maryland. The surface rolls heavily in parts; but as a whole the township may be classed as a level country. The altitude at Two Taverns is 428 feet above Atlantic level. The outcrops are blue mud rock, bluish sandstone and copper rock, reddish sandstone, on Baltimore road, argillaceous red sandstone, laminated red sandstone, fine-grained yellowish green sandstone, laminated greenish sandy shale, fine-grained argillaceous reddish sandstone (near Two Taverns). In 1872 and in 1874 Spanish silver dollars were found on the Ephraim Fiscel farm. In 1841 John Camp erected a covered wooden bridge across Rock Creek, at Horner’s mill on the Taneytown road, for $2,000. In 1871 a flood swept this away, and a new one was built the same year. The number of tax payers (1886) is 348; value of real estate, $466,812; number of horses, etc., 419; of cows, etc., 534; value of moneys at interest, $54,614; of trades and professions, $6,545; number of pleasure carriages, 183; acres of timber land, 1,791. The population in 1800 was 663; in 1810, 700; in 1820, 935, including 22 free colored; in 1830, 991; in 1840, 1,032; in 1850, 1,098 (3 colored); in 1860, 1,111 (6 colored); in 1870, 1,172, and in 1880, 1,296. The entries of land made prior to 1742, in Mountjoy Township, were as follows: William Smith, April, 1739; Robert Linn, April, 1740; Adam Linn, May, 1741; Robert McKenny, May, 1740; William McKenny, April, 1741, and Gabriel McAllister, April, 1741. The total assessed valuation of the township in 1799 was $95,562, taxed at the rate of 27 cents on $100. Samuel Hunter, assisted by James McIllhenny and William Houghtelin, made the assessment. Samuel Hunter and David Horner collected the tax. John Adair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,086 William Adair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,592 Samuel Adair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,087 William Agnew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 624 Andrus Ashbaugh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 764 Francis Allison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,342 Robert Black* (died in 1799) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 726 James Black . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,960 Ulrich Black . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 Adam Black . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 John Bower, owner of a grist-mill of two buhrs . . . . . 2,234 James Barr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,232 Samuel Bingham . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,560 Peter Bercan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 846 John Bear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442 Joel Bowman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Peter Baumgartner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 959 John Cross, grist-mill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,280 Isaac Darbry, Sr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 846 Isaac Darbry, Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 522 Samuel Davidall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 902 Abram Davidall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 John Davidall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 590 Jacob Diehl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,776 John Freet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 John Forney . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 Henry Forney . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 976 Henry Forney, Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Justice Ferdno . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 936 Michael Fry or Frey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 795 Conrad Frezer, tavern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 William Gibson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514 George Green . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216 William Guinn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 625 Andrew Guinn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Hugh Guinn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 George Heagy, blacksmith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 932 John Heagy, Sr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,704 David Horner † . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,915 Alander Hunter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,306 Robert Hutchison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 816 Francisco Helm, Sr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 708 Joseph Hunter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,494 Samuel Hunter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 714 Alexander Horner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,976 David Horner, Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 878 William Houghtelin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 984 Isaac Hulick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,064 Winder Hulwick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 981 John Heagy, Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 Jacob Klutz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470 Barny Kerr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Samuel Little . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Thomas Larimore, Sr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 796 Thomas Larimore, Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 730 John Little . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 706 Henry Little . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,265 Adam Little . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Andrew Little . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,224 Abram Leightewalter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,832 Samuel Linn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,804 Daniel Long . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Baltzer Lower . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Robert McKinney . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,000 James McIllhenny . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,344 Samuel McIllhenny . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 996 Jesse McAllister ‡ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,947 William McIllhenny . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,200 John Miller, Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Thomas McKeon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444 Samuel McKeon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Nicholas Miller, saw-mill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,040 Nicholas Mark, saw-mill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 993 James McAllister . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,114 John McKillopp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 903 Mosico McIvain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 620 Robert McIntyre, weaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Jacob Ocher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376 Widow Penter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 822 Isaac Paxton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,267 Adam Rohrbaugh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418 Isaac Roberson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 853 Joseph Riffle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,011 Samuel Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,676 John Stuart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 936 Michael Sower, weaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306 Joseph Stocksleger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,384 John Shrider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 James Stewart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,029 Frederick Stoner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,004 Michael Stoltz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,292 William Stoltz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Robert Stewart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 734 James Stewart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Peter Snider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 Joseph Stealy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550 Nicholas Sheely . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 854 Jacob Sheely . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 George Shultz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283 George Starry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,116 James St. Clair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,000 Peter Sell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,274 Jacob Sell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 840 George Slonecker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Robert Sturgeon, weaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Adam Sell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Widow Slentz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230 Tobias Starry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Orbin Tance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373 Jacob Wurtz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 992 Robert Wilson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,462 Charles Wilson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,746 Robert Young . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 996 Widow Yother . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,110 *Including saw-mill and one grist-mill of two buhrs. †Two slaves, value $100 each. ‡One slave value, $186. The single men of the township in 1799 were John Adair, Andrew Ashbaugh, Jacob Barnhart, Peter Forney, Andrew Horner, Francis Helm, Jacob Helm, James Hunter, William Moore, Archibald McKillopp, Samuel McKeon or McCune, Henry Stoltz, Robert Young, William Vance and Ludwick Miller. Each of these young men had to pay $1 in addition to taxes on any property he may have held. Mountjoy Township, from the earliest times, has been always identified with the military affairs of the county. The early Revolutionary enterprises of the settlers are referred to in the history of the county. Daniel Benner, Sr., of this township, who died in February, 1882, was one of the last three survivors of the three companies who marched from this county to the Canadian frontier in 1814. Peter Smith, of Mountpleasant, and Michael Lauver, of Fairfield, are the other two. William F. Baker was the only resident of Mountjoy Township who responded to the first call for troops in April, 1861. He was mustered into Company E, Second Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. The Mountjoy Rangers (cavalry) was the first company organized for the war in the township, with Capt. Horner, commander. CHURCHES. Mark’s German Reformed Church of Mountjoy Township was erected in 1789 during the pastorate of Rev. George Troldenier. The original members were John Tawney, Samuel Fry, David Little, George Heagy, Nicholas Marks, John Mayer, Francis Stallsmith, Michael Hoke, Peter Moritz, Daniel Heck, Andrew Little, Philip Schlentz, George Fehl, Andrew Eschbach, Michael Moritz, John Heagy, Samuel Huff, John Troxell, Jacob Klein, Jacob Baumgartner, Jacob Wirth, Adam Tawney, John Miller, John Rohrbach, Michael Frey, Justus Frotanaut, Henry Fourer, Jacob Troxel. The first baptism was that of Samuel Bernheisel, November 5, 1789. Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church, Two Taverns, was organized in 1876 with the following named members: Michael Schwartz, George Hoffman, Baltzer Snyder, D. Wilson, Samuel Schwartz, Em. Rudisill, J. Shanebrough, John May, George Carl, D. Trostle, John Rudisill, George Sherman and John Snyder. The membership is 140. The building, which is frame, was completed that year at a cost of $2,000. Rev. E. J. Metzler, the present pastor, organized this congregation. St. James Reformed Church was built in 1851, shortly after the society was organized, and continued in use until 1878, when it was rebuilt and enlarged. The dedication of the new edifice took place in September, 1878. The United Brethren Church, below Hoke’s gate, on the Baltimore Turnpike, was dedicated December 5, 1869, by Rev. Mr. Young. TWO TAVERNS. This hamlet on the Baltimore Turnpike dates back to the beginning of settlement, when a few of the Marsh Creek settlers located lands in the neighborhood. The little place has been a post town, in one form or another, for almost a century; but not until modern times was an office established here. The first murder committed in Adams County after the year 1800 was that of Henry Heagy, by James Hunter, at Two Taverns June 23, 1817. A number of men had assembled in Larimore’s meadow, among whom were the murderer and his victim. Hunter was hanged, January 3, 1818, near the forks of the Emmittsburg and Taneytown roads.