BIO: CALEB S. BRINTON, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Joe Patterson OCRed by Judy Banja Copyright 2004. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/ _____________________________________________________________ >From Biographical Annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Chicago: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905, pages 187-188 _____________________________________________________________ NOTE: Use this web address to access other bios: http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/zeamer/ CALEB S. BRINTON. In 1854 Caleb Brinton came to East Pennsboro, Cumberland county, and for a period of ten years resided upon a farm owned by the late Richard J. Haldeman, just south from West Fairview. For some years prior to his coming to Cumberland he had resided in Dauphin county, near Harrisburg, but he was born and reared in Chester county, Pa. From the information in hand the lineage is not clearly established, but it is reasonably certain, that Caleb Brinton was a descendant of William Brinton, who in 1684, landed at Newcastle on the Delaware. That early Brinton ancestor came from Birmingham, England, and, it is said, was already an old man with long white hair when he came. Instead of remaining in the settlement at the landing place, he pushed into the wilderness and located on the Indian trail, twelve miles back from the river, where, during the first winter of his stay, he would have starved had not the Indians helped him out with game. The public records show that he subsequently acquired a large amount of land in that locality, and was quite prominent as a citizen and as a member of the Society of Friends. He had a son William, who had four sons, from whom sprang the many Brintons now scattered over Chester, Lancaster and Cumberland counties. Ever since their first settlement in America the Brintons have been known as an intellectual, progressive family, holding well-defined convictions upon all public questions and possessing the courage to advocate and promote what they believed to be right and proper. The family name of Caleb has come down through many generations, and is one of the signs that blaze the lineage through more than two hundred and twenty years of descent. The Caleb Brinton who settled in Cumberland county in 1854 married Lydia Alleman, by whom he had children as follows: Martin is mentioned below; John, who was born in Dauphin county, near Harrisburg, in 183 5, died in 1897, leaving a family who continue to reside in that city; Ellen, who married P. M. Hershey, resides in Harrisburg; Susan married Joseph DeWitt Sprout, of Cumberland county, and both have died, leaving two sons who reside in Harrisburg; Caleb, who during the Civil war entered the Union army from Illinois and rose to a position on the staff of Gen. John A. Logan, now lives at Helena, Mont.; George was for many years in business in 188 CUMBERLAND COUNTY. Harrisburg, where he still lives, but is now retired from active business engagements; Elizabeth, who married Dr. B. F. Jones, of Cornell, Illinois, died in 1894; Henry N. is an active business man of Harrisburg. Martin Brinton, the eldest child of the family, was born Feb. 22, 1832, in Dauphin county, near Harrisburg. He spent his youth and young manhood upon the farm, and received his education in the country district school. In 1862 he married Nancy, daughter of Daniel and Lydia (Stoner) Dietz, and granddaughter of George Dietz. Nancy Dietz's parents were natives of York county, where her father and paternal grandfather were born on the same farm. In 1837 while yet a citizen of York county, Daniel Dietz bought from Alice Carothers a farm in East Pennsboro township, which her grandfather, William Carothers, in 1762, purchased from the proprietaries of the Province, and moving to it there lived out the rest of his clays. He died Jan. 10, 1860 at the age of sixty-two; his wife, Lydia Stoner, died Aug. 31, 1866, at the age of sixty-eight, and their remains are buried in the graveyard of the Brick Church near West Fairview. Martin Brinton began his married life in the lower end of Hampden township, where he lived until 1868, when he bought, on the south side of the Conedoguinet creek in East Pennsboro, what had been long known as the Bowman farm, which he farmed continuously for a period of thirty-four years, and which lie still owns. In 1892 he retired from farming, and since then has been living in Camp Hill borough. To Martin and Nancy (Dietz) Brinton have been born the following children: Caleb S.; John, who is a clerk in the Census Bureau in Washington, D. C.; George, who is an employe of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company at Harrisburg; Martin, who is a draughtsman with the Westinghouse Electrical Manufacturing Company at Pittsburg; Anna, who married Charles L. Bowman, and resides in Camp Hill; and Christian, who is a draughtsman with a manufacturing company in the city of Chicago. Caleb S. Brinton was born on the farm in East Pennsboro, Aug. 20, 1868. His youth was passed upon the farm and in attending the country district school known as Brinton's School. He made rapid progress in his studies, and early became ambitious for a thorough education. In 1884 he entered the Cumberland Valley State Normal School, and a year later was graduated from that institution. He then taught in the public schools of Cumberland county for two years and afterward for three years was principal of the Second ward schools of Altoona. In 1886, in a competitive examination, he won an appointment to the West Point Military Academy, but upon reporting for entrance failed because of defective eyesight. He next prepared for college in Dickinson Seminary, and entered Bethany College, in which institution he completed the course to the end of the junior year, when he was compelled to withdraw because of his health. Subsequently, he was elected to the chair of English Literature and History in the Faculty of the Cumberland Valley State Normal School, which position he held for three years. In 1893 he registered as a student-at-law at Carlisle, and at the same time entered upon a course in the Dickinson School of Law. He graduated from the Dickinson Law School in 1895, and was admitted to the Cumberland County Bar. He immediately entered upon the practice of his profession at Carlisle, where he has actively engaged in it ever since. Shortly after his admission to the courts of Cumberland county. He was also admitted to the Supreme and Superior Courts of State, and he is now in the enjoyment of a lucrative, and steadily increasing law practice. Mr. Brinton is a Republican in politics, and has ever since his early manhood taken an active interest in the affairs of his party. In 1895 he was elected chairman of the Republican county committee, and the campaign which followed resulted in the election of Arthur R. Rupley as district attorney, and the entire Republican ticket. In the following year he was nominated for the Legislature, but through a split in his party, and an independent candidacy, he was defeated by a small majority. Since then he has applied himself assiduously to the promotion of his law business, but has incidentally given sufficient attention to politics to be considered one of the active Republicans of the county. His regularity has never been questioned, and in 1903 he was appointed postmaster at Carlisle, which office he acceptably fills at present. On July 10, 1896, Caleb S. Brinton married jean Elizabeth Gardner, daughter of John W. and Frances (Wagner) Gardner, of Harrisburg. The husband and wife comprise the family. They are members of St. John's Episcopal Church, of Carlisle, and reside in a beautiful home at No. 612 South Hanover street.