BIO: Jacob Plank, Cumberland County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Bookwalter Copyright 2010. 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 LII. MONROE TOWNSHIP. JACOB PLANK, the veteran plow-maker, was born within four miles of Reamstown, in the northeastern part of Lancaster County, October 15, 1792. Here his father, Nicholas Plank, who was one of five brothers and four sisters, was possessed of a small tract of land, thirty acres in extent, and followed the occupation of a weaver. His grandfather came from Switzerland. When Jacob was in his fifteenth year his father died at the age of forty-five years. In 1809 Jacob engaged himself with Fred Gerhart to learn the business of wheelwright or wagon-making. He set in on his apprenticeship on Christmas day, 1809. In the summer of 1810 Mr. Gerhart sold his property in Lancaster County, and moved to Cumberland County, which then bore the same relation to Lancaster County as the far West does to Pennsylvania now-a-days. Mr. Gerhart bought a property lying along the road leading from Mechanicsburg to Williams' Grove, in the lower part of what is now Monroe Township. Jacob Plank was induced to accompany Mr. Gerhart to Cumberland County by a promise that three months should be taken off his term of apprenticeship, making the term two years and three months. Mr. Gerhart, while yet in Lancaster County, made old-fashioned wooden plows, and a Mr. Zeigler, a blacksmith, left the same neighborhood in Lancaster County, and came to Cumberland a year prior to Mr. Gerhart's coming, made known the fact that Mr. Gerhart, "a good plow-maker," was coming to set up business near his (Zeigler's) shop. Mr. Gerhart brought with him, besides Mr. Plank, a Mr. Burkholter, a journeyman, who assisted in making plows. After arriving, the demand for plows was so great that Mr. Gerhart prevailed upon Mr. Plank to stop working at wagon-making and assist at plow-making. In the spring of that year George Lutz, a wagon-maker, who then lived a short distance west of where Churchtown now stands (the same place at which George B. Lutz, son of John, and grandson of George Lutz, is extensively engaged in the business of manufacturing wagons and buggies, etc.), hearing that Mr. Gerhart had brought some journeymen with him from Lancaster County, came to see if he could not employ the services of some. Mr. Plank then had eleven months to serve before his term of apprenticeship would expire, and consequently could not go, but Mr. Lutz stipulated with him that he should go as soon as his apprenticeship was completed. The following April, 1812, he was free, and on Easter Monday he set out on foot to find Mr. Lutz's workshops, passing what is now Churchtown, which at that time was a place without a name, and consisted only of one house and a blacksmith shop, standing where the hotel is situated, and a log house standing where the store property of John N. Plank, son of Jacob Plank, is at present situated. Mr. Plank helped to build another log house in this same village. It was erected by Judge William Line, and two days were required for the raising of it. The time, however, was mostly occupied at playing "long bullets," a game that was very popular in those early days, and consisted in casting a bullet weighing a half or three-quarters of a pound, the man throwing it the farthest winning the game. The first work that Mr. Plank engaged at with Mr. Lutz was to make a new wagon, for which he received the sum of $9. In the year 1813 he made his first grain cradle without any instructions from any one, merely using another cradle for a pattern, after improving it to some extent. He sold this cradle for $7, which was considered a big price. The year following he made two more, and the next year he made four. He remained with George Lutz over three years, and left him July 4, 1815, to enter the employ of Adam Stoneberger, who lived eight miles above Carlisle, in Frankford Township. Mr. Stoneberger's business was principally that of making wagons, but he also made wooden plows and grain cradles, and had Mr. Plank work at the latter. He worked with Mr. Stoneberger until 1817, when he went to the south side of the county and worked several months at plow-making for Mr. Adam Heensey, after which he returned to Mr. Stoneberger's, and remained until February, 1818. He then went to Mount Rock, to work for Mr. Samuel Spangler at plows and remained until the following August. November 28, 1818, he married Mary Reifsnyder, whose parents lived on the State road, one mile east of Newville. The next day he rented a house with the privilege of erecting a house on the property for his use. That same fall he built his shop, and in the spring of 1819 moved to his new home and engaged in the business of plow-making in his own name, having made a reputation as a plow-maker for himself while with Mr. Spangler at Mount Rock. He made 106 plows here, but remained only a year, as he bought a property, containing 100 acres, near the ridge in South Middleton Township. Here me moved in the spring of 1820, built a large shop, and carried on the business of plow-making extensively. In 1835 he applied for a patent on his invention of a plow, which was granted June 2, 1836, and upon it are to be found the autographs of Andrew Jackson, then President of 514 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES: the United States; John Forsyth, Secretary of State; B. F. Butler, Attorney-General, and as witnesses the names of William P. Elliott and John Goodyear, Jr., the latter being at one time prothonotary of Cumberland County. This is a rare old document, and one which he prized very highly, and in order that it might be cared for, a few weeks prior to his death in 1879, he presented it to his grandson, A. W. Plank, the inventor of the celebrated Plank, Jr., plows. Mr. Plank continued in the plow business until 1844, when he bought a farm in the lower end of Monroe Township. His son Samuel had a shop on the same place; owned and carried on the business of wagon-making and plow- making. Samuel Plank remained on the place until the year 1852, at which time he bought the property in Churchtown, built a large shop, and carried on plow-making successfully until 1879, when he retired from active business. During the time he manufactured plows he invented the Plank Shifting Beam Plow, which has plowed more acres in the Cumberland Valley than any other plow manufactured in the State. He made other valuable improvements in the plow, and retired from the business. He was succeeded by his son, A. W. Plank, who continued to manufacture the shifting beam until he found it necessary to get up a new plow, which he did on four different patents, each plow proving a success. These plows are noted for being easily conducted and turning all kinds of soil. Jacob Plank lived to be eighty-seven years old, and was highly successful, and was pleased to see his son and grandson successful in their plows. It will be fifty years June 2, 1886, since his plow was patented, and there are at this time many of the Plank Coulter Plows in use in this county. No farming implement has ever gained a stronger and more lasting reputation in the Cumberland Valley.