BIO: Joseph Totton, Cumberland County, PA

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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.

438  BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES:

  COL. JOSEPH TOTTON, proprietor of the oldest and most reliable 
livery, feed and sale stables, Mechanicsburg, one of the representative 
men of Cumberland County, was born in Dillsburg, York Co., Penn., July 
8, 1823, son of John and Hattie (McClure) Totton.  John Totton, by 
trade a shoe-maker, was born in Portadown, Ireland; enlisted in the 
English Army and had served nine years (during the French war) when he 
was brought to America in the war of 1812, but refused to fight the 
Americans and became a citizen, settling in Dillsburg, York Co., Penn., 
where he was married.  He died in Dillsburg in 1847, aged sixty years, 
and his widow died in 1849, aged fifty-eight, a member of the 
Presbyterian Church.  The family consisted of six children - two sons 
and four daughters.  Joseph, who is the eldest, acquired an education 
in a little schoolhouse in Dillsburg, and then learned shoe-making, and 
remained in his native town until 1854; then went to Shippensburg, but 
in 1857 located in Mechanicsburg, where he engaged in the manufacture 
of boots and shoes until the breaking out of the late war of the 
Rebellion, when he raised the Cumberland Guards, which became Company 
H, Seventh Pennsylvania Reserves, and Mr. Totton was elected captain, 
and subsequently lieutenant-colonel.  He remained with the regiment one 
year, when, being compelled to resign owing to impaired health, he 
received an honorable discharge.  He came home, and a year later opened 
a livery stable and established his present business.  In 1873 he was 
elected sheriff of Cumberland County, and resided in Carlisle three 
years during his term of office, since which time he has resided in 
Mechanicsburg.  Mr. Totton married at Dillsburg, June 8, 1848, Miss 
Lydia Wagoner, who was born in East Berlin, Adams Co., Penn., daughter 
of Samuel and Lydia (Oiler) Wagoner, the former a blacksmith, born in 
Adams County, and the latter born in Hanover, York Co., Penn.  Mr. and 
Mrs. Totton have had eleven children, nine now living:  David E., born 
in Dillsburg, York Co., Penn. (is a farmer in Silver Spring Township); 
Ellen, born in Shippensburg, Penn. (is the wife of Talbot Crain, and 
resides in Hogestown, this county); Anna M. (resides with her parents); 
Maggie (with her parents); Joseph, Jr. (book-keeper for C. N. Owen, 
Mechanicsburg); John and Frank (who both assist their father in the 
business).  Mrs. Totton is a member of the Presbyterian Church.  Mr. 
Totton is a member of Mechanicsburg Lodge, No. 215, I. O. O. F., and of 
Wilde Encampment, Mechanicsburg, and is the oldest member of the I. O. 
O. F. in the town, having been connected therewith forty-one years; is 
a member of the G. A. R., Carlisle Post, No. 201.  Mr. Totton is one of 
the leading business men of the place.  He is of Irish descent on his 
father's side, and Scotch on his mother's side.