BIO: Henry K. Peffer, 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 XXXVIII.

                          BOROUGH OF CARLISLE.

390  BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

  H. K. PEFFER, editor and proprietor of the daily and weekly sentinel, 
is a native of Cumberland County, Penn.  His parents were Adam and Mary 
(Kerr) Peffer, also natives of the same county.  Adam Peffer was of 
German parentage; Mary Kerr of Scotch descent.  He was born in South 
Middleton Township January 13, 1827; was raised on a farm; and at the 
age of twenty four immigrated, in 1853, to Warren County, Ill., where 
for ten years he was engaged in farming.  At the expiration of that 
time he took up his residence in Monmouth, Ill., where he formed a law 
partnership with Col. James W. Davidson, which continued for three 
years.  In 1862 he was elected to the Legislature as a representative 
from Warren County, and at the expiration of his term received the 
unanimous nomination of his party for State senator.  He was also, at 
the same time, named as one of the presidential electors on the 
McClellan ticket in 1864.  In the fall of 1865 he removed 

391  BOROUGH OF CARLISLE.

with his family to Carlisle, Penn., where, after spending a year in 
Texas and the Southwest, he permanently located.  In 1871 he received 
the nomination of his party for State senator - the senatorial district 
then embracing Cumberland and Franklin Counties.  In that year the 
Democracy was unsuccessful, the entire ticket, with one or two 
exceptions, being defeated.  In 1872 he was admitted to the Carlisle 
bar, but shortly after took charge of the Valley Sentinel, which was 
then published at Shippensburg.  In 1874 the Sentinel was removed to 
Carlisle, when he became sole owner of the paper.  In 1881 the daily 
evening Sentinel was issued from the office of the weekly, and was the 
first daily paper ever issued in Cumberland County.  In 1848 Mr. Peffer 
was married to Jane Mary, daughter of Nathaniel Weakley.  His family 
consists of following:  Mary, William, Charles, Adam and Kitty, all of 
whom are residents of the county.

1880 Carlisle, Cumberland County census -
Henry K. Peffer, 53 
Jane May Peffer, 52 
William H. Peffer, 23 
Charles Peffer, 21 
Adam Peffer, 19 
Kate Peffer, 4