AREA HISTORY: History of Adams County, Chapter XXXIX, 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 298-303 CHAPTER XXXIX. LIBERTY TOWNSHIP. The streams of Liberty Township comprise Miney Branch of Tom’s Creek, which enters the parent stream near the junction of the Fairfield road and Emmittsburg Turnpike; Tom’s Creek, which flows south in the center of the township; Friend’s Creek, a tributary of Tom’s Creek; Flat Run, in the western districts; and Middle Creek, which crosses the northeastern sections. There are several minor streams dancing and splashing along through all seasons. There are several beautiful valleys such as Fountain Dale, on Miney Branch, Friend’s Creek, Tresler Creek, Tom’s and Flat Run valleys, and Cave Hollow. The mountains are Raven Rock, 1,290 feet above the level of the Atlantic, Beard’s Hill, Haycock Knob, McKee’s Hill and Hamilton Hill, north of the Hill and Rebil farms, all forming a landscape worthy of the South Mountain region. There is a stone in Liberty Township, close to the Maryland line, that is called the “hominy stone.” The Indians used to pound their hominy in it, so tradition says. Liberty must have been a famous camping ground for the Indians, as arrow- heads were plenty in former years, and some few can yet be found. The Mason and Dixon mile-stones are represented by seven in Liberty Township, viz.: one on the old Savage farm, now owned by Jacob Topper; one on Judge McDevitt’s farm, now owned by John Donohue; one on the old Horner farm, now owned by Benjamin Keilholtz; one in Adam Tresler’s garden - a five-mile stone; one at the junction of Samuel Martin’s and Isaac Tresler’s lands; one at the corner of Jerome Tresler’s and Jacob Miller’s lands, and one on the lands once owned by Elias Harbaugh. There is a five-mile stone with “coats of arms,” on the Waybright farm below “Harper’s Hill.” The Head-Light Copper Mine, on the Emmittsburg & Waynesboro Pike between Fountain Dale and the “Clermont House,” is an important industry. Here a concentrator and other mining machinery were erected in September, 1884, and copper mining in the county first assumed a permanent form. The burning of the Mont Alto Furnace, May 19, 1866, led to firing a large area of the South Mountain, and the consequent destruction of timber and charcoal. In 1858 J. K. Taylor & Bro. erected a covered bridge over Miney Branch, on the road from Nunemaker’s mill to Fairfield, for $1,190. The population of Liberty Township in 1810 was 1,079; 535 males, 491 females, 7 slaves, and 46 free colored. In 1820, 1,027, including 2 slaves and 43 colored; in 1830, 1,097; in 1840, 768; in 1850, 722 (5 colored); in 1860, 756 (5 colored); in 1870, 860 (22 colored); and in 1880, 892. The number of tax payers (1886) is 297; value of real estate, $300,326; number of horses, etc., 253; number of cows, etc., 288; value of moneys at interest, $26,878; value of trades and professions, $8,105; number of pleasure carriages, 105; gold watches, 4; silver watches, 2; acres of timer land, 3,016¾. The original settlements of the township are known as Cochran’s Tract on the east, Porter’s Tract on the west and McKesson’s on the north. They settled here in the last half of the last century. In the last quarter of the eighteenth century there came the Zimmermans, Martins and Overholtzers, who located on part of the Cochran Tract; the McDevitts and Krises on the Porter Tract, and the Eikers and Toppers on the McKesson Tract. That portion of the township belonging to the “Manor of Maske,” was entered by Alexander McNair, Jean Gibson and George Sypes in April, 1741; William Gibson in October, 1736; James and Hugh Ferguson in September, 1741; Benjamin McCormick in October, 1736; William McGinley, or McKinley, in April, 1741, and Samuel Pedian in May, 1741. H. McDevitt, delegate from Liberty Township in the convention of November 4, 1834, voted against the adoption of the school law. The assessment of Liberty Township was made in 1801 by John Morrow, Thomas McKee and Matthias Waybright. The valuation was $122,483, on which a tax of 23 cents on $100 was collected by Isaac Moore and William Bigham. John Agnew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,215 David Agnew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,274 Widow Martha Agnew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 John Agnew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 614 James Agnew and Abram Krise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 John Adair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,156 Jonathan Adgey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Robert Arman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,400 Hugh Bigham . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . William Bigham . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,621 Thomas Bigham, distillery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,763 Michael Bosserman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,289 William Bigham, M. C. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 882 David Bryan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Michael Braner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230 John Beard, cooper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270 Christy Baker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . George Byars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 Daniel Boyle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 520 Fred. Bard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Michael McBranar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Thomas Bigham, M. C. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 William Buchanan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 John Bigham . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,266 Robert Cunningham . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,298 James Cochran* . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,810 Hugh Christy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Henry Coy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 David Cunningham . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Smith Christy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594 Samuel Caldwell, saw-mill and distillery . . . . . . . 1,155 Alex. Caldwell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Clark† . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,361 Joseph Clark, blacksmith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Marshall Christy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 James Caldwell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 Robert Caldwell, weaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430 William Caldwell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 607 David Clogstone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 800 William Reed for Henry Cowley . . . . . . . . . . . . . 750 Stephen Caldwell, blacksmith . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 John Carpenter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 William Cochran . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Carpenter, Sr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 Peter Carpenter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,267 Arthur Cloherty at Sam. Pedling’s . . . . . . . . . . . James Clark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 John Crowle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 John Cochran at R. Scott’s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Henry Crabbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 John Cutshall at Col. William Reed’s . . . . . . . . . John Demon at Jacob Heagy’s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Joseph Eckhart, grist-mill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,642 Jacob Eversole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562 Valentine Eversole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . David Echart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Benjamin Elder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 William Ferguson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 902 Hans Farley at James McCreary’s . . . . . . . . . . . . James Fagan, cord winder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Thomas Gorley‡ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,568 John Gilliland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jacob Heggy, distiller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,626 John Herman, cord winder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 David Howle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 Valentine Heffely . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Jacob Harbaugh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 William Hill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,350 John Hill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 640 Martin Hill at William Hill’s . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Holliday, fuller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Christian Keggerice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Abram Krise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,390 Solomon Kiphart, saw and grist-mill . . . . . . . . . . 2,721 Widow Karr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 671 John Karr at Widow Karr’s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jacob Kissioner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 John Lowman at George Lowman’s . . . . . . . . . . . . George Lowman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,354 William Low . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 William Loudon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,008 Samuel Loudon at William Loudon’s . . . . . . . . . . . Matthew Longwell (D. Wilson) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,578 Thomas McKee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,782 John McElroy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,305 John McCulley, school teacher at the Bull-frog . . . . William McShirrey, weaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Barnabas McShirrey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595 Martin Myars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 814 Widow Sarah Moore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 John Morrow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,724 Jacob Mundorff, saw and grist-mills . . . . . . . . . . 1,314 Isaac Moore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,323 Isaac Moore for Joseph McGowesey . . . . . . . . . . . 1,166 Alex. McCracken . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 593 Patrick Mooney at McCracken’s . . . . . . . . . . . . . William KcKission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,820 Alexander McKission± . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,776 Patrick Mooney . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 Rossa McGuire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 William McMillan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,214 John McGinley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Robert McClive, Jr., weaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 John Martin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,840 Henry Martin at John Martin’s . . . . . . . . . . . . . James McCreary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,330 Thomas McGurgan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500 John McGurgan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Alexander McNair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,103 Samuel McNair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Robert McCreary, joiner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 James McKinley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,130 William McKinley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 760 William Morrow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310 Philip Nunnemaker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Christian Overholtzer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,032 Peter Oyler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 William Porter, saw-mill³ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,281 Jeremiah Porter³ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221 Richard Porter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 John Patterson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,806 Hugh Patterson with J. Patterson . . . . . . . . . . . William Patterson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280 John Peden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,264 Samuel Peden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,470 Samuel Peden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Charles Quay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Nathaniel Randolph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,024 Joseph Randolph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Adam Reeder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -0 John Robison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,389 John Rutter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Sohn Ramsey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 948 William Reid, two mills** . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,346 Patrick Reid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,827 John Stuart*† . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,030 William Stuart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,379 William Scott . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Robert Spear*† . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,336 Fred. Shulley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,303 William Stuart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,050 George Seacrist, joiner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383 Peter Sullingar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250 Robert Scott*† . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,748 Daniel Sprinkle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Richard Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Jacob Shingletaker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Matthew Steen, weaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Widow Stammers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 John Spear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 784 Abram Scott*² . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,550 Thomas Spear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Jacob Stoner, grist-mill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,120 Robert Stuart at William Stuart’s . . . . . . . . . . . Widow Thompson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 James Tudor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 William Twinbough . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 Philip Twinbough . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Samuel Thompson at Widow Stammer’s . . . . . . . . . . Isaiah White, mill owner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,241 James White, saw-mill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,055 Samuel Whitman at John Agnew’s . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Matthias Waybright, saddler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500 Thomas Wilson, mason . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Jacob Waybright . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,012 Stophet Wimar, blacksmith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 David Waugh†† . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,146 William Waugh, saw and grist mills . . . . . . . . . . 1,470 Peter Wolf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367 * One negro, $190. † One negro, $120. ‡ One negro, $100. ± Three slaves, $306. ³ Two slaves, $165. ** Slave, $-00. *† One slave, value $80. *² One, slave, value $130. †† One slave, value $50. On Flat Run near the Maryland line, on what is known as the old Reed farm, the Zimmermans, a Swiss family (who subsequently Anglicized their name into Carpenter), settled in 1765. In his family was a little girl nine years old; this child was carried off by two Indians. A neighbor heard the Indians coming, and, hiding near the trail, recognized the little girl, but could not rescue her. Pursuit followed but resulted in nothing. Ten years after the whites fought a bribe at Shamakin, and captured from them a young white woman and her half-breed boy; she was brought to her parents and subsequently married one of the Loman boys. Her half-breed boy died in 1826, at Adam Rader’s house, on the Overholtzer farm, near where his mother was made captive. She died at ninety years of age on her husband’s farm, sold to James Wilson, and by him to the Bollingers. Two of her daughters married into the Zimmerman family; one married John Clark, who owned McDevitt’s mill, and a fourth married John Light, from Falling Waters, Va. CHURCHES, CEMETERIES, ETC. The Reformed Church of Liberty, in the valley between Raven Rock and Haycock Knob, was built over sixty years ago, and a burial ground established just west of the south fork of Miney Creek. The new Dunkard Church is unlike the former substantial stone building. It is a neat frame house on the east side of the road southeast from the brick schoolhouse, which stands just south of the Reformed Church. Among the number buried in the old cemetery were the following old residents: Hiram Stein, 1865; Peter Stein, 1853; Nancy Stein, 1860; Susan Stein, 1855; Rebecca Leaser, 1849; Abram Derr, 1855; Elias Harbaugh, 1851; Joseph Harbaugh, soldier, 1863; Catherine Hafleigh, 1858; Harry Ferguson, 1850; Nancy Shover, 1834; Jacob Shover, 1872; Jacob Harbaugh, 1842; Samuel Barkdoll, 1838; Magdalene Harbaugh, 1824; Mary Gump, 1833; John Boyd, 1834; Thomas King, 1844; Eleah Miller, 1875; Nancy Fitz, 1874; Isaac Warren, 1867; Samuel Martin, 1884. The old military association, known as the “Liberty Riflemen” was a thorough organization in 1828.