AREA HISTORY: History of Adams County, Chapter XLIV, 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 328-333 CHAPTER XLIV. READING TOWNSHIP. Conowago Creek forms a part of the western line of Reading Township and its entire southern line from the northwest corner of Mountpleasant Township to the line of York County, east of East Berlin. Streams course through the township north toward Bermudian Creek and south and east toward Conowago Creek. There is very little mountain land found in this division of the county; but many prominent hills occur. The soil is exceptionally good and offers to the agriculturist a fair reward for honest, intelligent labor. The elevation at the village of Hampton is 552 feet. In Reading Township the rock exposures comprise purple mud rock, on the county line, coarse-grained trap, light bluish mud rock. Oil was discovered on the Harman farm near Hampton, in April, 1866, and a well bored by Maj. Dyke. Similar indications occur on the Seminary Farm in Berwick Township. A human rib was found in a rock, taken out in August, 1876, at Dick’s place in this township, but as soon as exposed to the air it crumbled to dust. In 1811 the bridge across the Great Conowago at “Blake’s Fording,” on the Carlisle and Hanover road, was built by John Murphy for $4,899. It is 150 feet long and contains five arches. In 1861 John Finley built the covered bridge on the East Berlin and Harrisburg road, over the Conowago, for $2,700. In 1862 Samuel Stouffer erected a covered wooden bridge at “Bear’s Ford” of the Conowago, on the York Springs and Abbottstown road for $2,343. In Reading Township there was only one retailer of foreign merchandise in 1824, viz., Joseph W. Entler, represented by John Blake. John Bosserman was the returning officer of the township. The number of tax payers (1886) is 417; value of real estate, $547,697; number of horses, etc., 469; number of cows, etc., 512; value of moneys at interest, $72,749; value of trades and professions, $8,621; number of carriages, 218; watches, 1; acres of timber land, 1,205. The population in 1800 was 687; in 1810, 732; in 1820, 818 - 413 males, 303 females, 3 slaves and 9 free colored; in 1830, 1,001; in 1840, 1,028; in 1850, 1,252 (2 colored); in 1860, 1,281; in 1870, 1,326 (2 colored), and in 1880, 1,382. Reading Township, through its delegate, P. Myers, voted against adopting the school law of April 1, 1834, in the county convention of November 4, 1834. In later years, however, all objections were withdrawn and the common school system adopted. The assessment of the township was made in December, 1798, and January, 1799, by Christian Bushey, assisted by James Chamberlain, and John Hildebrand. The total assessed value was $126,670.75, on which a tax of 27 cents per $100 was collected by Christian Bushey and John Picking. The single men of the township, denoted by letters S. M., were taxed $1 each. George Asper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $777 Henry Asper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Frederick Asper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 791 Frederick Asper, Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307 Jacob Asper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410 John Asper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Abraham Asper, weaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Frederick Asper, joiner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Abraham Arnold, joiner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Peter Aughenbough, s. m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Aughenbough . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,432 Anthony Aughenbough. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 853 Jacob Albert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,164 Benjamin Bokwalter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,477 John Beaker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 864 John Bowman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312 Daniel Brown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,604 Christian Bushey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,086 Harman Bleaser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384 Henry Breasal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 John Bushey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 873 John Bowar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Nicholas Bushey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,795 Peter Bushey, s. m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Thomas Burns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294 Benjamin Beatty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,516 William Beatty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Samuel Beatty, s. m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Bleack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 998 John Beatty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Jacob Brough . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,520 John Chamberlain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,063 James Chamberlain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,547 Jacob Crisswell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 620 Thomas Crisswell, s.m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Abram Chronister . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 John Chronister . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Henry Chronister . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,567 Henry Chronister, Jr., cordwinder, s. m. . . . . . . . 15 Michael Cole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,130 Michael Cole, Jr., s. m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 George Cole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 John Cameron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Anthony Deardorff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,700 John Deardorff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,668 Lawrence Detter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,376 Anthony Deardorff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,180 Peter Deardorff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 771 Patrick Daley, s. m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Ehrhart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 820 Samuel Fleming, s. m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Widow Fox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,064 Frederick Fleager, blacksmith . . . . . . . . . . . . 374 John Fox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 722 Chris. Foglesong, cordwinder . . . . . . . . . . . . . 648 Borias Fahnestock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238 Daniel Fahnestock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400 Abram Flacher, tailor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 John Guslar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,285 John Guslar, s. m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . David Griffith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Fred Gelwicks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419 Henry Gross . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274 Martain Getts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Jacob Gardner, tanner, s. m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 James Heastot, tanner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Michael Harbolt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,309 John Hubler, s. m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Philip Heanaman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,383 Adam Heartzel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Jacob Hollinger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Philip Hobaugh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 869 Nehemiah Howell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Henry Hull . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 908 William Hodge, Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 969 Richard Hanna, s. m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . George Herman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401 Andrew Hardman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400 Conrad Heans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 796 Ulrich Huver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,300 Jacob Hubble, s. m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Hildebrand, tanner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,210 Joseph How, s. m., blacksmith . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Valentine Hollinger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Isaac Hemis, cooper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Benjamin Harlocher, clock-maker . . . . . . . . . . . 132 William Johnston* . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,941 Martain John . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 709 George Jones, weaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Philip Kimmel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,056 Michael Kimmel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 941 Jonas Kimmel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639 Jacob Kimmel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Isaiah King, mason . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346 Christian King, cordwinder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 883 Abram King, s. m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Leonard King, s. m., mason . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 Valentine Knob . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,418 Jacob Knob, s. m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Michael Krugh, cordwinder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 David Kilmer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 971 Henry Kilmer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 791 Michael Keener, blacksmith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 John Lighty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,278 John Lighty, s. m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Mathias Lighty, s. m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Isaac Latshaw, Sr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,387 Isaac Latshaw, Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,026 Philip Leace, s. m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Leonard Leace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,268 Philip Levich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 760 Benjamin Lighty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 635 Widow Leamer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Jarrit Long . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,282 David Myers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,200 Henry Myers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 John Malone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,658 Widow Malone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,439 Jacob Moore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 925 Robert McCurdy, s. m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Peter Musselman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480 Jacob Mishlar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431 Jacob Miley, s. m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,156 John Miley, s. m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,156 George Millar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 620 Adam Moser, wagon-maker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 John Mheelman (or Wheelman) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Nicholas Myers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,901 Henry Myers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,182 Henry Martzall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Jacob Myers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,265 John Myers, inn-keeper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,156 James McFarland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,886 William McFarland, s. m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Myers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 646 Robert McCorkle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,108 Nicholas Myers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,006 Widow McCurdy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584 James Malagin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 John Niebman, tailor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 619 Henry Nell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,140 Jacob Nell, s. m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Neely, Sr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 614 James Neely . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594 Thomas Neely . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 603 John Overholtzer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,818 Christian Overholtzer, s. m., miller . . . . . . . . . 30 Samuel Overholtzer, s. m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Overholtzer, Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339 John Oblanis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,275 Alexander Oblanis, s. m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 John Picking, Jr., s. m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Henry Picking, s. m., mason . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 John Picking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,143 Henry Picking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 804 Jacob Picking (deceased) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360 John Posserman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,163 Abram Posserman, s. m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Robert Pollock† . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 624 James Pollock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 728 David Pollock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561 John Pollock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573 Simon Pechar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,397 Peter Painter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 Fred Ryder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 968 Jacob Rowdebush . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 664 Peter Raffelsberger, blacksmith . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Jacob Raffelsberger, blacksmith . . . . . . . . . . . 190 Jacob Roof, s. m., blacksmith . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Patrick Russell, weaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Philip Sawrbough, s. m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . David Sawrbough . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 869 Jacob Slider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,042 Frederick Slider, s. m., weaver . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Christian Sipe, cooper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Nicholas Sriver, carpenter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Daniel Slagle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418 Daniel Switzer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Philip Sriver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281 Lawrence Spring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,048 Mathias Stulliberger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Paul Troup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,438 John Troup, tanner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 James Twineam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 855 Nicholas Vance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 856 Jacob Vance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 John Vance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 629 Paul Wolf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,289 Henry Wolf, s. m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . David Weaver, tailor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 564 David Weaver, Sr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 874 Adam Wolf, weaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 William Weakly‡ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,693 James Weakly, s. m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Wilson, s. m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Valentine Walshe, s. m. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . George White . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 614 George Wollot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329 Daniel Yother, blacksmith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 * Including one slave. † Also spelled Pollick. ‡ Two slaves valued at $100. CHURCHES. The Union Church, a meeting-house for Presbyterian, German Reformed Lutheran and Methodist worshipers, was built here in 1844, and in that year the old school building, which was, indeed, more church than school, was ridded of its periodical, god-like visitors, and left at the disposal of the mischievous urchins of forty years ago. Prior to the erection of the old schoolhouse, the Union church, which stood in St. Paul’s or the Pines grave-yard, was the place of meeting. The United Brethren Society worshiped in the Union Church until their new building was dedicated, January 30, 1859, by Rev. J. S. Smith and Rev. Benjamin Albert, preacher, who succeeded Rev. C. Weyl. The Methodist Episcopal Society, organized in 1851 by Rev. Mr. Ulrich, continued worship in the old Union building. The German Baptist Society, said to be one of the oldest organizations of this faith in the county, erected a house of worship in 1861 just north of the village on the pike road. Rev. Adam Brown, referred to in other pages, has served this society for many years. The Upper Conowago German Baptist Church was razed in 1882, and a new building erected on the ground, and is known as Mummert’s Meetinghouse, near East Berlin. The building committee comprised Jesse Massmore, Elias Hollinger, William Stoner, Joseph E. Bowser and P. S. Baker. HAMPTON. This village was surveyed and platted in 1814 for Dr. John B. Arnold and Daniel Deardorff; but the settlement of the immediate neighborhood antedates its survey by years. The first lot was sold in 1814, and a house erected thereon by David Albert. This is an old postal town, as shown in the records of postmasters, given in the general history. In August, 1885, Lewis C. Geiselman, a merchant of the village, was appointed postmaster, vice Henry Meyers, who held the office under the late administration. The hotel is known as the “Washington House.” The elevation of the village above the ocean level is estimated at 552 feet, and its population at 200. ROUND HILL. This is the name given to a group of houses near the line of Huntington Township, forming the center of a rich agricultural district. MISCELLANEOUS. John Blake offered a reward of $10 for the return to him of a seventeen-years- old negro girl, who ran away from his home in Reading Township, three miles from Berlin, November 21, 1803. During the high water of June, 1825, Jacob Hollinger’s wife and three children, of Reading Township, were drowned at Walsh’s mill, about two miles from Berlin. About the same time Samuel Hilt, engaged on the new bridge at that place, was also drowned.