BIO: Joseph Elcock, 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/
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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
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                                PART II.

             HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY. PENNSYLVANIA.

                             CHAPTER XXXIX. 

                        BOROUGH OF MECHANICSBURG.

411  BOROUGH OF MECHANICSBURG.

  JOSEPH ELCOCK, retired merchant, Mechanicsburg, has been identified 
with Mechanicsburg since the fall of 1866.  He was born on the old 
homestead farm of his father near the "Half Way House," in Warrington 
Township, York Co., Penn., November 13, 1813; son of Richard and Mary 
(Wagoner) Elcock.  Richard Elcock was born in Ireland and came alone to 
America when nineteen years old, settling in York County, Penn.; was a 
weaver by trade, but followed farming in York County, where he was 
married, and lived to be seventy-two years old; his widow lived to be 
about seventy-four; they were Presbyterians.  They had five sons and 
two daughters.  Joseph, the youngest, attended school and worked on his 
father's farm until he was sixteen, when he went to what is now 
Franklingtown, York Co., Penn., where he learned the tailor's trade.  
Three years later he started West on foot, and was gone twenty weeks.  
Settlements were few and far between, and Mr. Elcock went as far as 
Oberlin, which was then a town three years old.  To give some idea of 
his pluck as a boy, he cleared $9 a month while gone by working at his 
trade, buying and selling watches, etc.  He returned home and worked at 
his trade in York and Cumberland Counties, but subsequently managed his 
father's farm until the spring of 1838, when he took charge of the 
"Half Way House": owned by his father, which stood on the old York road 
between York and Carlisle.  Our subject was married here, October 10, 
1838, to Miss Elizabeth Stroninger, who was born in York County, Penn., 
daughter of Daniel Stroninger.  Mr. and Mrs. Elcock left the hotel in 
1840, and moved to their farm near Mount Pleasant, where Mrs. Elcock 
died September 9, 1850.  To this union were born six children:  Mary 
A., wife of David Biddle, a merchant of Mechanicsburg, a member of the 
firm of T. J. Elcock & Biddle; Jacob R., who resides in Kansas, married 
to Miss Christianna, daughter of Daniel Kahm; John, engaged in the 
manufactory at Bement, Ill., married to Miss Ferrins; Theodore, 
unmarried, traveling in the West; Thomas J., of T. J. Elcock & Biddle, 
merchants, Mechanicsburg; Eliza J., wife of David Myers, a farmer 
residing near Mount Pleasant, York Co., Penn.  On January 1, 1852, 
Joseph Elcock, our subject, married Miss Mary Branamon, born near 
Bowmansdale, Cumberland Co., Penn., daughter of Jacob and Mary (Ginter) 
Branamon.  Mr. Branamon was a miller and farmer, and he and his wife 
were old settlers of York County, Penn., members of the Church of God.  
Mr. and Mrs. Elcock have had four children, two living:  Lillie, wife 
of Samuel Hauck, a hardware merchant and manufacturer, a member of the 
firm of Seefert & Hauck, Mechanicsburg, Penn.; Samantha Lizzie, born 
February 20, 1854, died August 13, 1879; Sarah Ellen, born September 4, 
1858, died March 29, 1881; and Anna F., residing at home with her 
parents.  Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Elcock have been members of the Church of 
God for the past forty-four years.  Our subject remained on his farm in 
York County, engaged in pottery manufacturing and farming until 1855, 
when he opened a store in Mount Pleasant, and ran this in connection 
with his farm and pottery until 1866, when he came to Mechanicsburg and 
engaged in mercantile trade.  From 1875 to 1878 he conducted a 
furniture store.  He engaged in the plow manufacturing business in 
1878, and patented the Cumberland Valley Plow, and also the "Self-
sharpening Cumberland Valley Plow," which business he continued until 
June, 1883, when he sold out to the present manufacturer, Robert 
Shapley.  Mr. Elcock helped organize the Second National Bank of 
Mechanicsburg, and is still a director of this bank.  He is purely a 
self-made, practical man, full of activity and life.  He never used 
tobacco in any form, and was never under the influence of liquor.  When 
a boy he drove teams from his father's farm, in York County, to 
Baltimore, Md., hauling flour to merchants in that city (this was 
before the railroads were built).  Mr. Elcock is of Irish and German 
descent; his mother's people came from Germany to America in an early 
day.