BIO: Augustus Babb, Cumberland County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Bookwalter Copyright 2009. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/ ______________________________________________________________________ History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania. Containing History of the Counties, Their Townships, Towns, Villages, Schools, Churches, Industries, Etc.; Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men; Biographies; History of Pennsylvania; Statistical and Miscellaneous Matter, Etc., Etc. Illustrated. Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co., 1886. http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/beers/beers.htm ______________________________________________________________________ PART II. HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY. PENNSYLVANIA. CHAPTER XXXIX. BOROUGH OF MECHANICSBURG. 405 BOROUGH OF MECHANICSBURG. REV. AUGUSTUS BABB, retired clergyman, has been pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Mechanicsburg, for the past fifty-three years. His great-grandfather was born in Germany and came with his wife to America, settling in Berks County; they had four sons and three daughters, who lived to be men and women; his son, Mathias Babb, was the first to enlist in Gen. Heister's company (afterward governor of Pennsylvania). During the war of the Revolution he was a coppersmith and tinsmith; married Miss Rosanna Bierley, and had three sons and five daughters. John, the eldest, born in Reading, Penn., was also a coppersmith and tinsmith; married Miss Barbara Ann Henritze, a native of Reading, Penn. He was a member of the Lutheran, and she of the German Reformed Church. They had a family of three sons and four daughters: John, Mary, Barbara, Augustus, Sarah, Mathias and Roseanna, all born in Reading, Penn. Augustus, the subject of our sketch, was born January 19, 1810, and, when fourteen, was apprenticed to learn the cabinet-maker's trade until he was nineteen, when he entered the manual labor school at Germantown, Penn. Some fourteen months later he entered Gettysburg Gymnasium, which became a theological seminary; there he finished a regular course, and in May, 1833, was licensed to preach in Pendleton County, Va., and began his ministrations in Augusta County, Va. Four years later he came to Mechanicsburg, and two years later was appointed, by the West Pennsylvania Synod, missionary for Clearfield, Jefferson, Armstrong, Clarion and Venango Counties, holding that position four or five months, when, owing to a fall and subsequent ill health, he was appointed pastor of Blairsville, Indiana County, Church, where here mained until 1845; then returned to Mechanicsburg Church, remaining here until 1851, when he became agent for the Pennsylvania College at Gettysburg; a year later he resigned to accept the pastorship of Somerset Church, Somerset County, where he had four churches in charge. In 1856 he returned to this county and took charge of the church at Centerville until 1860, when he went to Turbotville, Northumberland Co., Penn., to preach in German and English. During a Thanksgiving sermon, after Lincoln's election, he gave offense to the Democratic brethren by saying that our form of government was a Republican form of government; so, in 1863, after the battle of Gettysburg, he took charge of his farm in Hockersville; this county, where he farmed, and preached at different places, until 1870, when he took charge of Blairsville, until 1875, when he returned to his farm, and two years later came to Mechanicsburg, where he has since resided. He married, June 27, 1833, Miss Mary A. Hoffman, a native of Franklin County, Penn., daughter of James Hoffman, a teacher. Mrs. Babb died August 11, 1838. Our subject was married, on the second occasion August 6, 1840, to Jane Logue, born in Carlisle, daughter of Joseph and Nancy Ann (Jumper) Logue, former of whom died at Fort Niagara in the United States service, September 19, 1813. Mrs. Babb died June 20, 1872. Our subject is one of the oldest ministers living. His life has always been one of activity, and through his efforts many have been brought to Christ; and his name will be handed down to posterity as one who did his duty as a Christian, a minister for the cause of Christ, and worshiper of God "who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believed in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."