BIO: Thomas Raub BURGNER, Cumberland County, PA 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 116-119 _____________________________________________________________ NOTE: Use this web address to access other bios: http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/zeamer/ THOMAS RAUB BURGNER, one of the prominent citizens of West Pennsboro township, is a native of Lebanon county, Pa. He was born in East Hanover township, that county, July 14, 1838, and his parents were Jacob and Anna Maria (Raub) Burgner, who also were natives of Lebanon county. The earliest American ancestors of both the paternal and maternal lines of the family first settled on the banks of the Schuylkill river, near the mouth of the Tulpehocken, and from there gradually drifted westward. Jacob Burgner was born in 1811, and died near the place of his birth on July 13, 1886. He was a carpenter and contractor, a skillful workman, and remarkable for his great energy and industry. He was long in the employ of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Co. as building foreman. Anna Maria Raub was born in 1818, in Fredericksburg, Lebanon county, where her ancestors for several generations had lived. She died on Dec. 26, 1899, and she and her husband are buried at Walmer's Church, in Union township, where the Burgner grandparents are also buried. Jacob and Anna Maria (Raub) Burgner had children as follows: Thomas Raub, Matilda, Franklin, Charles Henry, Jacob, John, David, Emma, Milton and Solomon. Thomas Raub, the eldest child and the subject of this sketch, owing to the delicate health of his mother, when yet a babe was put with his maternal grandparents and with them spent his childhood and youth. When six years old he started to the country district school, not because of any special desire to go, but because his grandfather, with a switch in hand, persuaded him. His first teacher was a man named Horace Dasher. Following him came Daniel Uhrich, who was a graduate of Mercersburg College. Uhrich was his teacher for several years, and under him he made good progress. He remembers him as a natural instructor and a good disciplinarian, but as receiving a salary of only $16 a month. On reaching his seventeenth year Thomas R. Burgner was apprenticed to the milling trade with Solomon Shaeffer, at Harpers, on Indian Town creek, a stream which had so much fall that the mills along its banks were all propelled by overshot wheels. After completing his apprenticeship he worked as a journeyman for eighteen months in the same mill. He next CUMBERLAND COUNTY. 117 worked for a short time as journeyman in a mill at Jonestown, Lebanon county. From Jonestown he came to Cumberland county and rented the Eckert mill, situated at the mouth of the Green Spring, on the Conedoguinet creek, and started in business for himself. After two years he went from Eckert's to the Trindle Spring, to a mill owned by one Samuel Benson, and which possessed a special interest for him in that his, father, when a young man, had helped to build it. By this time the war of the Rebellion was on, there came a call for troops to defend Pennsylvania from invasion by the Confederates, and he enlisted for the emergency. He joined the company of Capt. Daniel Shelly, of Shiremanstown, which went (never officially mustered) into service as Company A of the 1st Regiment Pennsylvania Militia, Col. Henry McCormick, which was a part of the body of 35,000 untrained and patriotic men which under Gen. John F. Reynolds crossed into Maryland and took position to the right of Gen. McClellan's army, while the result of the battle of Antietam hung trembling in the balance. Upon this memorable occasion Mr. Burgner was made quartermaster and assigned the difficult and important duty of distributing rations to his regiment after the men had been without food for two days, and all this time lying in line of battle in an advanced position. While this army of emergency men did not come into actual conflict with the enemy the experience was a taste of war that afterward led many of the participants to volunteer for the war. Among this number was Thomas Burgner. Immediately upon being discharged from the militia service he enlisted, Oct. 17, 1862, in Company C, 3d Pennsylvania Artillery, 152d Regiment inline, for three years or during the war. This regiment was formed specially for the seacoast heavy artillery service, and with a view of making it part of the garrison of Fortress Monroe. Thirty-one of his comrades were from the vicinity of Mechanicsburg and Shiremanstown, and his company, almost entirely, was made up of men from Cumberland county. The regiment was assigned to the Department of the Virginia, afterward the James, and belonging to the artillery arm of the service was divided up and distributed to different points on the peninsula and about Richmond, as the operations of the army required. Two companies of it participated in the famous engagement at Chapin's Farm, and others were engaged at Petersburg, Sailor's Creek, and Appomattox. Early in 1863, soon after getting to the front, Mr. Burgner was recommended for the position of military librarian, whose chief duties were to take care of the historical collections and artillery school stores at Fortress Monroe. He passed a regular examination before a board of United States army officers, was appointed to the place, and faithfully discharged its duties until the end of his term of enlistment. During that time he also held the position of recorder to general courts martial and military commissions, and as such recorded many secrets of the gravest character. He was discharged on Oct. 19, 1865, at the expiration of his term of service. On returning home from the army Mr. Burgner for a period of two years engaged in the mercantile business at Shiremanstown with Daniel Rupp, and then for two years more sold nursery stock for Henry S. Rupp, of Shiremanstown. He then returned to the milling trade and for six years was head miller for Thomas B. Bryson, at the Silver 118 CUMBERLAND COUNTY. Spring. Next he and John G. Krall purchased the Hays Mill, located on the north side of the Conedoguinet creek, in Frankford township, and for two years operated it. After two years they dissolved their partnership, and on April 1, 1876, Mr. Burgner leased what formerly was known as the Lindsey Mill, in West Pennsboro township, which he has been operating continuously ever since. Mr. Burgner is an intelligent, progressive man, and a vigorous independent thinker. He devotes much time to reading and studying the current literature of this time, also that relating to his business, and consequently is well informed on all up-to-date ideas and inventions. He is a member of the Pennsylvania Millers' Association, which covers all of the country east of the Ohio river, and for the past seven years has been one of its board of directors. He is one of the active spirits of the organization and frequently appears upon the program of its proceedings, having in late years delivered a number of addresses which have been published in the trade journals and extensively circulated throughout the country. Chief among these productions are "Credit, or Pay as You Go," and "Eastern Field for Eastern Millers." In politics, he is a Republican and takes an active interest in. public affairs. He is not an office-seeker, but was elected county auditor in 1875 and again in 1878, and through his rigid care and discrimination substantial reforms were accomplished. Thomas Burgner was married, on Dec. 1, 1857, to Miss Lizzie Eckert, of Newville, a daughter of John Eckert, of Cumberland county, who in 186o moved to Morgan county, Va., and died there in 1880 at the age of eighty years. To their union the following children have been born: Mary Agnes; John E., who for more than twenty-five years has been in the West and has now charge of a large mill at North Platte, Neb.; Alice, who is married to Simon W. Brehm and lives at Uniontown, Pa.; Francis Henry, who died in infancy; Lizzie A., who is married to Mervin J. Shambaugh, and lives in York, Pa.; Emma C.; Ida Margery; Rebecca Ray; Thomas U. S.; Carrie Lucretia; and Arthur LeRoy. Three of the daughters, Alice, Lizzie and Rebecca, have been successful teachers in the public schools of Cumberland county. There are some incidents in the life of Thomas R. Burgner that his biographer thinks of sufficient importance to lay before the reader in this connection: While the Pennsylvania Militia, exhausted from marching and lack of food, were lying within hearing distance of Antietam's guns, orders came that the commissariat should enter the neighboring houses and prepare coffee and food for the command. This was done, in some instances against the protests and opposition of the occupants. About three o'clock in the morning, while making great quantities of coffee, in a Maryland farmer's kitchen, Quartermaster Burgner was honored with a call from Gen. Reynolds and Col. McCormick. They had been riding around most of the night, studying the situation, and sniffing the aroma of the Quartermaster's steaming coffee, had stopped in to sample it. They drank of it heartily and pronounced it the best they had ever tasted. Coming from such judges he considered it high praise. In the performance of his duties at Fortress Monroe events that have become imbedded in our national history came under his immediate observation. For about one year there lay in Hampton Roads three Russian ships of war, most advantageously an- CUMBERLAND COUNTY. 119 chored in case of conflict between them and some British ships of war that lay there at the same time. The presence of these Russian battleships was a token of that country's friendship for our government and a warning to England to keep hands off. This was understood by the officers and men at the Fort, and the Russian officers were highly favored by the Americans. Upon one occasion they were tendered a banquet which lasted from 8 P.M. of one day to 4 A.M. of the next. Of this banquet, by reason of his official presence, Mr. Burgner saw much that did not appear in the newspaper reports of the affair, and which with him will always be an interesting reminiscence. During the early part of the year 1865 Mr. Burgner's eyes were greeted with a sight that seared itself into his memory for life. It was a group of some of the most conspicuous characters in the great conflict, in a peace conference. Alexander H. Stephens, John A. Campbell and Robert M. T. Hunter, Confederates, had met President Lincoln and Secretary Seward on the boat "Sylvan Dell," anchored about a hundred feet out from the union wharf. The distinguished party had come out upon deck and were engaged in conversation near the stern of the boat, in full view of those upon shore. There stood the tall spare form of President Lincoln, in sharp contrast with that of Mr. Stephens, Vice-President of the Southern Confederacy, discussing one of the weightiest problems of history, while those who beheld them, knowing what was the subject that was being considered, were awed into silence. After Jefferson Davis was captured he was confined in Carroll Hall, Fortress Monroe, in close proximity to the post library in the same building. By order of Gen. Nelson A. Miles, Davis was given the use of the library, and it became a part of Mr. Burgner's duties to carry to him such reading matter as the distinguished prisoner called for. He was a great reader, his preference being memoirs and autobiography. Members of his family frequently called to see him and Mr. Burgner was the officer charged with admitting them, also to the post library while on their visits. In this way he saw much of Mr. Davis, and had good opportunity of studying him. He was calm and dignified in his bearing, and courteous and polite to all, irrespective of rank and authority. His appearance impressed everyone who saw him with the fact that he was a man of great power, a mortal of more than ordinary mould. While Mr. Burgner is not a product of the schools, he had ten six months' terms in the common schools during the period of his youth. The common schools of that day were models of discipline and attention. The training received during his three years of army life was varied and far-reaching, being gained under the guidance of able men. The tokens of high regard held by him from his superiors must always remain a source of gratification to him and his family.