BIO: Eli B. BRANDT, 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. 406 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES: ELI B. BRANDT, physician and mayor, Mechanicsburg, was born on the old homestead farm of his father and grandfather in Monroe Township, five miles south of Mechanicsburg, April 16, 1829, son of George and Barbara (Beelman) Brandt, the former of whom was born on the old home farm in Monroe Township, and died in 1875, aged eighty-four; and the latter, born in Upper Allen Township, this county, died in 1835, a member of the Lutheran Church. They had a family of four sons and three daughters, of whom Eli B. is the youngest. Our subject worked on his father's farm, attending and teaching school during winters until he was twenty-one, when he began the study of medicine with Dr. L. H. Lenher, of Churchtown, Monroe Township, and graduated from the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Penn., in 1855. He located first at New Cumberland, this county, thence went to Shiremanstown and to Mechanicsburg in 1868, where he has since engaged in the practice of his profession. Dr. Brandt married in Harrisburg, Penn., February 12, 1856, Miss Margaret C. Mateer, who was born in Lower Allen Township, this county, daughter of William and Mary (Porter) Mateer, both born and raised in Cumberland County, Penn. Dr. and Mrs. Brandt have had seven children two now living: Mary, wife of Oliver Yohn, dealer in pianos, organs and other musical instruments; and Arthur D., unmarried and remaining with his parents. Dr. Brandt enlisted as surgeon of the Thirty-first Pennsylvania Volunteers May 29, 1863, and was mustered out in August, 1864. He was elected president, in 1861, of the Allen and East Pennsborough Society for the recovery of stolen horses and mules and the detection of thieves; re-elected in 1869, and has held the office ever since. He is a member of the Cumberland County Medical Society, of which he has been president and secretary, and is also a member of the State Medical Society, and of the American Medical Association. He has lived to see Cumberland County and towns undergo many interesting and important changes. His grandfather, John Brandt, was among the earliest settlers of Cumberland County. The family is of German descent. The Doctor stands high in the estimation of all who know him. He was elected mayor in 1878-79-80, and again in 1884 and 1885. He was a delegate to the national convention at Chicago in 1868, and a delegate to Philadelphia in 1872. He was nominated Republican State senator of the Twentieth Senatorial District in 1874.