BIO: Samuel N. Eminger, Cumberland County, PA

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Copyright 2009.  All rights reserved.
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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.

412  BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES:

  SAMUEL N. EMINGER, ex-clerk to the county commissioners, 
Mechanicsburg, is a native of Cumberland County, born in Silver Spring 
Township, February 19, 1829.  His grandfather, Andrew Eminger, born in 
Germany, but who came to this country at a very early date, was a 
soldier in the Revolutionary war; he married Miss Christiana Bruner and 
settled in Silver Spring Township, this county.  Our subject's father, 
David Eminger, married Magdalena Miller, born in Franklin County, 
Penn., and had a family of seven boys and four girls.  He was elected 
director of the poor in 1838, and afterward ran as a Masonic candidate 
for the Legislature, but was defeated in the anti-Masonic raid by 
twelve votes.  Samuel N. attended the schools of Mechanicsburg and 
afterward at Eminger's schoolhouse, Silver Spring Township, and was one 
of the students in the first Cumberland Valley Institute, under Mr. 
Franklin Gillan, when it was opened on the Van Huff property, now 
opposite Eckel's drug store.  He attended two years.  In 1844 he 
learned the trade of coach-maker under his brother-in-law, George 
Hauck, and from 1849 to 1851 traveled in Virginia and the Carolinas, 
Tennessee and Florida.  He returned to Mechanicsburg and bought the 
first patent and brought the first wire tooth sulky rake into 
Cumberland County about 1852, and started to manufacture them in 
company with George W. Miller, but subsequently sold his interest to 
Frederick Seidle who had then a factory in Mechanicsburg.  In 1855 Mr. 
Eminger was nominated deputy sheriff under Sheriff Bowman.  He resigned 
in the fall of 1856 and was elected register of wills in the fall of 
1857, serving three years.  He was appointed by Judge Graham jury 
commissioner, and served three years.  In 1864 he was appointed special 
agent of the Treasury Department under Andrew Johnson.  He resigned on 
the 1st of March, 1868, and his resignation was accepted in June 
following.  From this time till 1873 he was with D. M. Osburn & Co., 
who were engaged in manufacturing reapers.  From that time (1873) on, 
he was in the sheriff's office till 1877; served as deputy register 
under Martin Guswiler, and after, until elected clerk to the county 
commissioners in 1879, which office he filled until 1885.  He married, 
September 4, 1856, Rachel, daughter of George and Mary (Halbert) 
Singheiser, by whom he had four children, three living:  Arabella 
(married to D. A. Ulrich, of Upper Allen Township, this county); H. 
Foster, and Luella (a graduate of the high school).  During the war Mr. 
Eminger enlisted in Company F, First Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, 
when they were called temporarily for the defense of Pennsylvania; was 
elected lieutenant and promoted to quartermaster.  The company served 
only for a short time.  Mr. Eminger is a member of Eureka Lodge, A. Y. 
M., Past Master by service, and also of the I. O. O. F., No. 215.  In 
politics Mr. Eminger is a Democrat, and has for many years been 
strongly identified with the politics of the county.  He has twice been 
chairman of the Democratic County Committee, and has been a delegate to 
many of the State conventions.  In 1878 he was elected councilman of 
the North Ward and served three years, notwithstanding that this was a 
Republican ward.