BIO: William Rittenhouse Gorgas, 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 XXXVIII. BOROUGH OF CARLISLE. 376 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. HON. WILLIAM RITTENHOUSE GORGAS, now of Harrisburg, is a native of Cumberland County, born on the homestead in Lower Allen Township, May 8, 1806, a son of Hon. Solomon Gorgas, a native of Ephratah, Lancaster Co., Penn., born January 22, 1764, the eldest of three sons and one daughter, viz.: Solomon, Jacob, Joseph, and Maria, who married Hon. Charles Gleim, of Lebanon County, Penn. The father of Hon. Solomon Gorgas was Jacob Gorgas, a native of Germantown, Philadelphia Co., Penn., whose father, John Gorgas, emigrated from Holland about the year 1700, and located in Germantown. John Gorgas was naturalized by an act of the Legislature in about 1708 or 1709. Jacob when a young man located at Ephratah, where he married a Miss Mack, and to them were born the four children named above. He was a clock-maker and farmer. Solomon, his eldest son, who, too, was a watch and clock-maker, was married to Miss Catherine Fahnestock, a native of Chester County, Penn., and to them were born four sons and three daughters: Daniel F., born September 30, 1792, died January 17, 1848; Christina, born July 27, 1794, died September 21, 1804; Mary, born July 7, 1797, married to Peter Bernhart, and died June 17, 1875; Sally, born January 18, 1800, married to Samuel Bowman, and died in August, 1878; William R.; Joseph M., born June 12, 1809, and died May 13, 1852; and Solomon Perry, born August 31, 1815, now a resident of Mechanicsburg. The father, in 1804, removed to Cumberland County, locating in Lower Allen Township, and kept the first tavern and store in that section of the country. He was a man of sound judgment, and was practical, being self-made and self- educated. In 1821-22 he served as a member of the Legislature from Cumberland County, being a Democrat in politics. His death occurred September 21, 1838, and that of his widow August 9, 1853. Both were identified with the German Seventh-day Baptist Church. Our subject grew up on a farm and worked with his father until the latter's death, obtaining such schooling as the neighborhood afforded, when he took charge of the farm. Beginning with the year 1836, he was three successive times elected a Democratic member of the Legislature from Cumberland County, being a member during the celebrated "Buck-shot war." In 1842 he was elected a member of the State Senate, and served for a period of three years, after which he returned to his farm. Mr. Gorgas was one of the original members and directors of the Merkel, Mumma & Co. Bank, which became a State Bank, and finally the present First National Bank of Mechanicsburg, of which he is still a director. Since 1845 he has been a director of the Harrisburg National Bank, and of the Harrisburg Bridge, Company. He is a director of the Harrisburg Market Company and the City Railway Company, and president of the Harrisburg Burial Case Company; and also president of the Allen and East Pennsborough Fire Insurance Company. In 1877 Mr. Gorgas moved to Harrisburg, and in 1882 he received the Democratic nomination, by his party in that city, as their representative to the State Legislature, and, notwithstanding the city was Republican by a majority of 500, he was only defeated by eighty-eight votes. March 5, 1840, Mr. Gorgas was married to Miss Elizabeth Hummel, of Harrisburg, a native of that city, and a daughter of David and Susan (Kunkel) Hummel, and to this union have been born eight children: David H., who died at the age of sixteen years; Kate F., unmarried; Susan K., who died at the age of five years; William L., now a clerk in the Harrisburg National Bank; Mary E., unmarried; Solomon R., a physician and surgeon, who graduated at Jefferson Medical College, and was resident physician at the Philadelphia Hospital eighteen months; Elizabeth E., who died at the age of nine years; and George, a druggist, of Harrisburg, and a graduate of the College of Pharmacy, Philadelphia.