BIO: Henry C. Babble, Cumberland County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Bookwalter Copyright 2010. 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 L. MIDDLESEX TOWNSHIP. HENRY C. BABBLE, proprietor of the Carlisle Springs, P. O. Carlisle Springs, was born in York County, Penn., May 15, 1829. In 1837 he moved to Cumberland County, and hired out on a farm until 1850, when he began to learn the tanner's trade, at which he remained three years. He then married, March 16, 1853, Phoebe Worts, who bore him ten children, nine now living: Emma L., Margaret J., Mary A., Sarah C., Clara E., Susie E., William H., Samuel C. and Tolbert Mc. After marriage he came to Middlesex Township, this county, and worked four years on a farm. In 1857 he bought an old tannery at Sportsburg, Silver Spring Township, this county, and conducted it for twenty-six years. October 3, 1882, he moved to Carlisle Springs, and bought the tannery from Samuel Sample, which he has since conducted. He tore down all the old buildings and erected new ones. He also runs a chopping- mill, and corn and rye mill in connection, the machinery being all operated by steam power, the engine being an eight horse-power of the Geiser man- 499 MIDDLESEX TOWNSHIP. ufacture. He also owns the building in which he resides, a large two- story frame structure. His first wife died October 26, 1873, and March 2, 1876, he married Elizabeth Swartz. Mr. Babble made his start in life by gathering chincapins, a small nut growing like chestnuts, when a boy in York County, and selling them in Dover. He owns seventeen acres in Silver Spring Township, and thirty-six acres (and ten unseated) where he lives at Carlisle Springs. He has labored hard, and can now boast of having as much as the average man. He and his wife are members of the Reformed Church. Mr. Babble also owns two residences in the village of Carlisle Springs. He turns out of his tannery, on an average, each year 1,300 hides, which are shipped in the rough, principally to Philadelphia and Boston. The tannery is 36x51 feet, two stories in height, with an L 30x14 feet; the bark-shed is 24x50 and the mill-room 24x22, and the engine-room 16x18 feet; leach- room, 16x24; new bank barn, 36x50, 16 feet 2 inches in the square; scale-house, 16x22 feet.