News: John M. Wolf Turns 85, 1917, native of Adams County, PA

Contributed or use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

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PROF. JOHN M. WOLF READY TO OBSERVE BIRTH ANNIVERSARY

VETERAN SCHOOL TEACHER WILL BE 85 YEARS OF AGE TOMORROW:  HAS LIVED IN HANOVER MANY YEARS.

BEGAN TEACHING EARLY

John M. Wolf, who has taught school in York and Adams counties for sixty-two years, and is said 
to be the oldest public-school teacher in Pennsylvania in point of service, will observe the 
eighty-fifth anniversary of his birthday at his home 310 East Middle street, here tomorrow.  He 
was born June 27, 1832 in Hamilton township, Adams county.  In his remarkably long service as 
an instructor he was absent from the class room less than a week.  He enjoys good health and 
his intellectual faculties remain unimpaired.

When only 15 years of age he took charge of the school he was attending as a pupil.  Possessed 
of marked ability, an excellent disciplinarian and an untiring worker, Mr. Wolf is one of the 
most successful and widely known teachers in southern Pennsylvania.  He has been principal of 
the public schools of Abbottstown, New Oxford, Littlestown, Goldsboro and Hanover.  Throughout 
this section almost everybody has gone to Wolf or his children.  Five of the latter were school 
teachers, one daughter having taught thirty years.

For twenty-two years the veteran teacher was a Justice of the Peace and he laid down the law 
with as firm a hand as he wielded the birch.  He attended the first teachers’ institute held in 
Adams county in 1854, and was a regular attendant at these meetings for half a century.  Prior 
to 1869 there were no female school teachers in this section.  Mr. Wolf once had a handless 
pupil named A. B. Myers whom he taught to write excellently with the stumps of his arms.  This 
prodigy later became a school teacher and in 1906 was elected recorder of deed in York county.

Early in the Civil War Mr. Wolf was an enrolling officer, and at the time of the battle of 
Gettysburg narrowly escaped capture by Confederates.  He heard Abraham Lincoln deliver his 
immortal address at the dedication of the National Cemetery in Gettysburg Nov. 19, 1863.  Soon 
thereafter he entered the service of the War Department as a clerk in the Provost Marshall 
General’s office in Washington.  There he saw many of the war time celebrities.  When Lincoln 
was assassinated Mr. Wolf was dining in a restaurant adjoining Fords’ Theatre and witnessed all 
the excitement.  

Mr. Wolf is a staunch Republican and has frequently held minor political offices.  When eight 
years of age he attended a Whig meeting at East Berlin.  About this time he saw General William 
Henry Harrison, ninth President, pass through Abbottstown on horseback enroute to Philadelphia.  
He attended both the Lincoln inaugurations and saw nearly all the presidents since then.  He 
cast his first vote for Gen. Winfield Scott, Whig candidate for president, in 1862.

Squire Wolf is the father of ten children, six of whom are living, as follows:  Mrs. D. D. 
Ehrhart, Mrs. S. L. Bixler, Miss Emily K. Wolf and Ernest O. Wolf, of Hanover; Mrs. George W. 
Dunn, of Littleton, Colo., and Charles M. Wolf, of East Berlin, Pa.  His wife died in 1890.  
His is a long-lived family, as his grandfather Wolf attained the age of 101, and his mother 95.

While his name indicates his German ancestry Prof. Wolf is strongly pro-Ally.  He is a master 
of the Pennsylvania-German dialect and formerly used it for contribution to newspapers.  For 
many years he acted as a pension agent.  The veteran pedagogue is frequently visited by former 
pupils, and while living in retirement his picturesque figure tall in statue, erect in bearing, 
wearing a high silk hat and carrying a cane is often seen and always respected on the streets 
of Hanover.

The Evening Sun extends its congratulations and wishes Mr. Wolf many happy returns of the day.

The Evening Sun – Tuesday, June 26, 1917