BIO: Samuel Eberly, 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.

408  BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES:

  SAMUEL EBERLY, retired lumber merchant, director of the First 
National Bank, Mechanicsburg, is a representative of one of the oldest 
families in Cumberland County.  He was born on the old family farm in 
Monroe Township, February 24, 1822, son of Samuel and Elizabeth 
(Hocker) Eberly, former born on the same farm in Monroe Township, 

409  BOROUGH OF MECHANICSBURG.

and latter born in Harrisburg, Penn.; she was a granddaughter of Andrew 
Sholl, who emigrated from Germany in 1745, and settled near Richland 
Station, in what is now Lebanon County, but was then (1745) Lancaster 
County.  Samuel Eberly, Sr., father of our subject, was a farmer in 
early life, but later became a machinist and helped build the first 
Potter threshing machine in the year 1828 or 1829.  He died in 1845, 
aged fifty-seven years; his widow died in 1861, aged seventy-five, a 
member of the German Reformed Church.  They had eight children, four 
daughters and three sons living to be men and women.  Samuel, who is 
the eldest son, attended school until he was twelve years old, when he 
engaged in farming until he was seventeen, when he came to 
Mechanicsburg and learned the carpenter trade, which he worked at here 
three years, afterward assisted his father in the manufacture of 
threshing machines until 1846, when he formed a partnership with 
Abraham Staufer and built a foundry.  He engaged in that business until 
1854, when he sold out to his partner and erected a saw-mill, soon 
after adding a planning-mill, forming a partnership with Frederick 
Seidle and Benjamin Haverstick, of Mechanicsburg.  In 1862 he closed 
out the mill.  Mr. Eberly then served in the army bridge corps as a 
carpenter in the Army of the Potomac for three months; then returned to 
Mechanicsburg and bought and sold old iron until 1870, when he and 
Samuel Hinkle engaged in the lumber business at Rowlesburg, W. Va.  
Five years later they bought a saw-mill at Rowlesburg, and took into 
partnership John M. Senseman, under the firm name of Eberly, Hinkle & 
Co., and this business they continued until November, 1884, when Mr. 
Eberly sold out his interest to Hinkle, Senseman and his nephew, John 
A. Hosteller.  January 24, 1850, our subject married Miss Rebecca 
Brown, born in Adams County, Penn., but who moved to North Middleton 
Township, this county, with her parents, John and Susannah (Krysher) 
Brown.  Mr. and Mrs. Eberly are members of the Church of God.  They had 
one son, Albert, who died in infancy.  Mr. Eberly is a member of the I. 
O. O. F., No. 215 Mechanicsburg Lodge.  He has lived to see this county 
undergo many interesting and important changes; for when he came to 
Mechanicsburg, it was but a small place, and his foundry was the first 
manufactory here.  He is purely a self-made man, learning early in life 
to depend on his own resources.  His success has been the result of a 
long life of untiring energy and pluck, combined with strict integrity 
and honor.