AREA HISTORY: History of Adams County, Chapter XXXVIII, 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 296-298 CHAPTER XXXVIII. LATIMORE TOWNSHIP. The streams of Latimore Township are Bermudian Creek, which runs east by south across the southern part of the township, and Latimore Creek, a native stream, which enters Bermudian Creek near the old Wolford Farm, west of Mechanicsville. This creek, with its two northern branches and west fork, drains the entire central and northern districts of the township. Mud Run forms the southern boundary of Latimore. The sulphur springs, near the line of Huntington Township, and numerous petty streams are found within the limits of the township. The South Mountain runs across the northern part of the township, making the line separating it from South Middleton Township in Cumberland County very distinct. The soil of the township is generally fertile, but owing to the long years it has yielded to the husbandman, recourse has to be had to fertilizers. Blue shale, arenaceous, is found on Bermudian Creek, one mile and a half southwest of Mechanicsville; dolerite, greenish arenaceous shale, three miles southeast of York Springs; quartzose conglomerate, two miles southeast of York Springs; variegated sandy mud rock, red quartz conglomerate, bog ore with large quartz pebbles embedded, float ore near west line of Latimore, red shale, reddish argillite with green spots and streaks, hard finely laminated argillite, sandy argillite, red sandstone, laminated fine grained red sandstone, quartz, dolerite, fine grained syenite, hard blue argillite or mud rock. The Carlisle & Hanover pike road, built in 1810, runs through the western part of the township. In 1833 John Walsh built a covered wooden bridge over Latimore Creek for $900. In 1853 John Finley built the Bermudian bridge on the Dillsburg and East Berlin road, near Bosserman’s mill, for $1,360. The number of tax payers in Latimore Township (1886) is 401; value of real estate, $480,206; number of horses etc., 379; number of cows etc., 423; value of moneys at interest, $83,569; value of trades and professions, $12,202; number of carriages, 154; acres of timber land, 1,613. The population in 1810 was 666; in 1820, 855-421 males, 425 females and 9 free colored; in 1830, 1,011; in 1840, 1013; in 1850, 1,138 (22 colored); in 1860, 1,197 (11 colored); in 1870, 1,230 (6 colored), and in 1880, 1,282. Mechanicsville, the only village in this township, was founded in 1800, by Joseph Griest, but after a career of eighty-five years, is still classed with the smaller hamlets of southeastern Pennsylvania. The Union Church and school are the only buildings erected by public enterprise here; but around the village there is a number of houses of worship. Latimore Township through its delegate, in convention of November 4, 1834, voted against adoption of the school law. In noticing the original township from which Latimore was detached, particularly Huntington, the names of the greater number of the pioneer tax payers of this township are given. The Alberts, Bowerses, Burkholders, Moorheads, Neelys, Pilkingtons, Robinetts, Roofs, Griests, Smiths, Gardners, Wiermans, Trumps, Zeiglers, Higases, Hartmans, Everetts, Coxes, Comlys, Beals, Chronisters, Days, and other pioneer names are found on the assessment roll of Huntington. The roll of tax payers of Latimore in 1807 contains, together with the above names, the following list of “taxables:” Jonathan Asper, freeman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $40 John Blosser, weaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Thomas Bonner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,216 Henry Bushong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,990 George Bott . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348 Samuel Comly, schoolmaster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,548 Francis Coulson, squire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 768 Coulson’s heirs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,350 Peter Diehl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,336 Abram Deardorff, wheelwright . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 William O’Day, blacksmith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,418 Sylvanus Day, Jr., nailer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Sylvanus Day, Sr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 944 Joseph Donaldson, carpenter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Isaac Deardorff, hotel* . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8,890 Widow Catherine Eleker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,969 Daniel Fickes, weaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,410 Michael Forner, miller† . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,310 Samuel Fetter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,600 William Fickle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,820 John Frank, carpenter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Dan Funk, non-resident . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 John Garrison, Sr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,794 Amos Garrison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Josiah Garrison, wheelwright . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 John Garrison, Jr., saddletree-maker . . . . . . . . . 2,050 Thomas Godfrey, miller and distiller . . . . . . . . . 1,056 William Godfrey, Sr., non-resident . . . . . . . . . . 3,000 Fred Hinkle, cordwainer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Isaac Hass, distiller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,970 Philip Haines, carpenter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Christian Hoscht . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,430 Dave Johnston, tailor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 633 John John, wheelwright . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466 John John, Jr., wheelwright . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Martin Kitch, blacksmith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 John Knisely, miller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Jacob Kinet, cooper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 960 Samuel Lobaugh, weaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Andrew Lobaugh, hotel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,939 Peter Lobaugh, freeman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Abram Lobaugh, schoolmaster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Jacob Lorin, non-resident . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324 Ludwig Moyers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,388 Peter Martin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,340 William Maginniss, weaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 George Moyers, miller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,485 Joseph Moyers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,754 Stoffie Mondy, carpenter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Nimrod Maxwell, hotel-keeper and deputy postmaster, also mills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,155 Jacob Misteler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,326 Thomas McCreary, non-resident . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 Philip Moyers, non-resident . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,7-0 James Ocker, freeman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Benjamin Ocker, miller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 John Palmer, cabinet-maker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Richard Puncker, carpenter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 George Pupp, cordwinder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Jacob Phillips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,700 Elias Pearson, Sr., non-resident . . . . . . . . . . . 450 Isaac Pearson, non-resident . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,188 Thomas Pearson, non-resident . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367 Jacob Roof, cooper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,448 Abram Rode, blacksmith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Jesse Russle, wheelwright . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 John Rutter, cooper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,489 Michael Ripperton, nailer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 945 Joseph Reynolds, miller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Michael Shriver, weaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,100 Samuel Smith, saw-mill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,584 Nicholas Siever, cordwinder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 John Studebaker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Margaret Shutlz, widow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470 Philip Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 971 Henry Smith, freeman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . George Gabriel and Emanuel Smith, non-residents . . . . 5,740 Stephen Speakman, non-resident . . . . . . . . . . . . 720 John Trump, non-resident . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,750 Chris Trump, wheelwright . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Widow Eliza Tudery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Moses Vansyoc, mason . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,178 Enoch Vansyoc, cooper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 William Wilson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Conrad Weaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,965 William Wiesley, non-resident . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,188 John Zeigler, weaver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Leonard Zeigler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,675 Martin Zeigler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Widow Mary Zeigler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 610 * Mill in Maryland included, $3,000. † Mills valued at 2,530. The total assessed valuation was $211,830, on which a tax of 10 cents per $100 was levied. The greater share of valuation and taxation was allotted to the families named before the list as among the old residents of Huntington Township. In 1804 one Ludwick Fridley sold his mill on Bermudian Creek, in the Adams County portion of Warrington Township, to Gabriel Smith, and subsequently to Michael Forner, thus making a second sale and accepting bonds in each case. On June 1, 1804, Forner cautioned persons against buying those bonds, then held by Emanuel Smith, inn-keeper. CHURCHES AND CEMETERIES. Mount Olivet Reformed Church dates back to March 19, 1745, when a Reformed and Lutheran congregation was organized. For nine years services were held in private houses until April 15, 1754, when Jacob Lischey and Rev. Mr. Bager dedicated Long Green Union Church. In 1795 the church known as “Lower Bermudian” was erected on the site of Long Green Cabin, and in this the Lutherans worshiped, as well as the Reformed Society, until 1871, when the new church of Mount Olivet was built, by the latter, near the site of the “Lower Bermudian.” The Lutheran Society was organized in March, 1745, as related above, and the history of the buildings is the same as that of the Reformed Church down to 1871. After the separation of that year the Lutherans continued to worship in the “Lower Bermudian” until December 6, 1879, when their new building, “Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church,” was completed and dedicated. This building stands almost on the site of the buildings of 1754 and 1795, and is the sole property of the society, the interest of the Reformed Society therein having been purchased between 1871 and 1878, when the new building was begun. The Union Church of Mechanicsville is a modern institution when compared with the Bermudian Churches. The Albright Association and Dunkards have regular appointments here, and at intervals other Protestant denominations meet here. The German Baptist Church, known as Latimore Church, near Deardorff’s mill, is one of the old meeting-houses of the township. For years past this has been one of Rev. Adam Brown’s appointments. The United Brethren in Christ have a mission in the northeastern part of the township, and near their church is the society’s cemetery. The Friends have a meeting-house and cemetery southeast of York Springs on the Bermudian. Eastward still, near Mechanicsville, is another cemetery. Sunny Side Cemetery, on the south side of Bonner’s Hill, was established in 1878 on lands donated by Col. Bonner. It contains twenty-four acres. MISCELLANEOUS. The old postoffice, known as Bermudian, is in charge of E. H. Troupe. William Yount is postmaster at Latimore postoffice. See Part III, pp. 117, 118.