BIO: Henry EWALT & Hiram K. SAMPLE, 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 165-169 _____________________________________________________________ NOTE: Use this web address to access other bios: http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/zeamer/ HENRY EWALT. The records of Cumberland county show that a John Ewalt purchased from Edward West, on Jan. 6, 1796, 200 acres of land lying on the Juniata river. In the deed conveying it is stated that John Ewalt was "of Juniata township." John Ewalt, then, was a citizen of Juniata township, Cumberland county (since 1820 Perry county), as early as 1796. Nothing has been ascertained from any source to fix more definitely the time of his coming, nor where he had previously lived. There is a tradition that he came from the vicinity of the Trappe, Montgomery county, but as this is entirely without support it is hardly safe to unqualifiedly accept it. The name Ewalt is of German origin and in Germany persons bearing it have long been prominent as poets, theologians and professional men. The first appearance of the name in America was in 1733, when a Ludwig Ewalt and family arrived in Philadelphia. In September, 1753, a John Ewalt came, and the Provincial records show that on May 2, 1758, there was a John Ewald, a soldier "in Captain John Blackwood's company of the Pennsylvania regiment." He was thirty-six years old; born in Germany; enlisted on May 16, 1758, and was a laborer. Prior to enlisting in Blackwood's company he belonged to Clapham's Provincials. There was also a John Ewalt in Peters township, now Franklin county, as early as 1763, who after a few years' residence there removed to Bedford county, where in the early days he was a man of influence and prominence. He died Nov. 12, 1792, leaving a family of nine children, among them a son named John. According to tradition the Bedford John Ewalt, to escape religious persecution, fled from Germany to Holland and from Holland to America. The land which John Ewalt purchased from Edward West lay at the lower end of the present town of Newport, on the south bank of the Juniata. According to the best information at hand he lived there continuously from some time prior to 1796 down to the time of his death. While there is nothing on the records to indicate that he ever lived in the Cumberland Valley there is a strong probability that prior to settling on the Juniata he spent some time there. His 166 CUMBERLAND COUNTY. first wife was Mary Sample, daughter of a John Sample who died near where now is Hogestown, in October, 1794. The Samples were among the first settlers of that section and it does not appear that the family of John Sample ever lived anywhere else. Consequently it is a natural inference that John Ewalt in his younger days either resided in that vicinity, or that he, through some special circumstances, was thrown into association with the Sample family. When John Ewalt settled on the Juniata he was not yet thirty years of age. That part of the State was then thinly populated, settlements were a long way apart, but he soon figured in public affairs, his name standing associated with those of persons of known influence and prominence, an indication that he was a man of intelligence and force of character. Along about 1800 he was a member of the board of poor directors for Cumberland county and as early as 1807 was advocated at public meetings and in the newspapers for county commissioner, an office that he held in the years 1810, 1811, 1812 and 1813, a period during which the building of public bridges was agitated. Both in the newspapers and on the records he is frequently referred to as "Col. Ewalt," a title he probably acquired through being connected with the militia. Col. Ewalt's principal business was farming, but like many farmers in his day he also engaged in distilling. He frequently bought and sold real estate and during the twenty-five years of his greatest activity was taxed with variable amounts of farm and mountain land, which one year reached in the aggregate 530 acres. His business qualifications and credit were of the best, and in November, 1814, he was elected a director of the Pennsylvania Agricultural and Manufacturing Bank, of Carlisle. He died at the house of John Koch, in Juniata township, on Saturday morning, Feb. 25, 1826. He had been ailing but was able to move about, and on the evening before set out from his home to go to a store a few miles distant. On the way he was suddenly attacked with a chill so violent that it was with great difficulty that he was enabled to reach the home of Mr. Koch. The chill continued unabated and was succeeded by a stupor that ended in death. A newspaper report of the incident ends by saying: "He was lamented by all who knew him." His remains, it is generally supposed, are buried in the Presbyterian graveyard at Middle Ridge. His first wife died ten or twelve years before he did and her remains are buried at the same place. After the death of his first wife, Col. Ewalt married Mrs. Catharine Fahnestock, widow of Dr. Daniel Fahnestock, who long was a practicing physician and prominent business man of Juniata township. His second wife survived him, but by her he had no children. John Ewalt and Mary Sample, his wife, had the following children: Jane, Sarah, Eliza, Henry and Susan. Jane married Joseph Tate, of Juniata township, where she and her family lived all her lifetime. Some of her descendants are still in that locality. Sarah married Robert Marlin, of Juniata township, and remained there for some years. Subsequently the Marlin family went to Oregon, where Mr. Marlin died, after which his widow and children drifted southward and settled in Alameda county, Cal. Eliza married Joseph Trimmer, of Perry county, and for a longtime lived in the vicinity of Newport. Susan married a Mr. Coleman, who after several years mysteriously disappeared. Henry Ewalt, the only son of Col. John and Mary (Sample) Ewalt, and sub- CUMBERLAND COUNTY. 167 ject of this sketch, was born May 10, 1800, on his father's farm on the banks of the Juniata, where now is the town of Newport. Here he was reared and trained to the honorable vocation of farming. In 1826 he married Margaret Loudon, a daughter of Archibald and Margaret (Bines) Loudon. Margaret Loudon was born Sept. 15, 1796, near where is now the village of New Kingstown, in Cumberland county; but in the spring of 1820 her parents moved to a farm lying on the north bank of the Juniata river, opposite Newport, and in easy sight of the Ewalt home. Here this young couple met, and married, and passed the first years of their wedded life. Mary (Sample) Ewalt had an unmarried brother named John, who in his life acquired title to a considerable portion of the land which originally was included in the Sample homestead. John Sample died in February, 1824, leaving this land by will to his nephew, Henry Ewalt, on condition that he pay his four sisters each a certain amount of money. In this way Henry Ewalt became possessed of this land, and it remained in his possession till his death. The land is located on the north side of the Conedoguinet creek, in Silver Spring township. It is one of two farms included in a deep southward bend of that crooked stream and reaches entirely across the base of the peninsula, from the creek on the west to the creek on the east. Here Henry Ewalt did his best work and here he remained longer than anywhere else in the seventy-one years of his life. He moved to this place in 1832 and by years of close application and hard work made of it a productive farm and a pleasant home. He erected buildings on an elevated point where they command a delightful view of the most beautiful section of the valley, and where they form a conspicuous landmark to observers many miles distant. In the spring of 1863 he quit his farm and retired to a home in Hogestown, where he lived out the balance of his days. He died Jan. 11, 1871; his wife died Feb. 5, 1874, and their remains are buried in the cemetery of the Silver Spring Church. Henry Ewalt was a man of strong personality and a central figure in the community in which he lived. He was greatly admired for his honor and integrity, for his word was his bond. In manner he was unaffected, frank and cheerful. His kindness was proverbial, and his strong sympathy and sociability made fast friends of his neighbors, who delighted in his companionship while he lived, and fondly cherished his memory after he was gone. He was fond of riding on horseback, and practiced the habit till late in life. When his team would go to the mountain for wood or rails he would mount his riding horse and ride along and superintend the work. When the family had an errand to the store it generally fell to his lot to do it, and he invariably did it on horseback. And when time lay heavily on his hands from nothing to do, he would ride over to where his neighbor was plowing and with him compare notes and exchange news, and wherever he went there was life and good cheer. Henry and Margaret (Loudon) Ewalt had children as follows: William Henry, Loudon Bines and Margaret. William Henry, the eldest child, was born in March, 1827, in Perry county, and remained with his parents on the farm during all of his single days. In 1860 he married Martha Oliver, daughter of Dr. J. G. and Jane (Carothers) Oliver, and a member of one of the old representative families of Cumberland county. To them the following children were born: Jennie Oliver, Margaret Loudon Grace, Walter Buchanan, and Ailsie 168 CUMBERLAND COUNTY. Carothers. Margaret Loudon died March 6, 1892, and Walter Buchanan died Sept. 26, 1890. On June 9, 1887, Grace Ewalt married Rev. T. J. Ferguson, pastor of the Silver Spring Presbyterian Church, and to their union have been born the following children: Margaret, Mary McCormick and Virginia. After marrying, William Henry Ewalt for several years engaged at farming, and after that at the mercantile business in Hogestown and Mechanicsburg. He died in Mechanicsburg in February, 1875, and he and his two deceased children are buried at Silver Spring. Loudon Bines Ewalt was born April 16, 1836, in Silver Spring township, Cumberland county, and spent nearly all of his lifetime there. He died Nov. 27, 1903, in Mechanicsburg, unmarried, and is buried at Silver Spring. Margaret Ewalt was born in Silver Spring township, Cumberland county, Sept. 22, 1838. On Dec. 16, 1863, she was married to Hiram K. Sample, of Allegheny county, Pa., Rev. William H. Dinsmore performing the ceremony. After her marriage she removed with her husband to Allegheny county, where they always afterward lived. HIRAM K. SAMPLE was born July 19, 1828, on a farm which bordered on the Allegheny river opposite the city of Pittsburg, Allegheny Co., Pa. He was the fifth son of John and Margaret (McCord) Sample, and a grandson of James Sample, who was born in Cumberland county, Pa., March 25, 1756, on the old Sample homestead known as Chambers Sample farm. James Sample was a soldier in the Revolutionary war and in return for his services received from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania a tract of land lying north and west of the Allegheny river, in Allegheny county, to which he moved in 1789 or 1790, he being one of the first settlers in that district. Hiram K. Sample received a common school education and worked on his father's farm until 1852, when he learned the trade of iron roller and had charge of the muck rolls in the mill of Stewart Lloyd & Co., from 1852 until 1857, when he again resumed farming. At the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion he went with the 139th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, and was in the commissary and mail department for three years. In politics, he was a stanch Republican, and he was elected a member of the State Legislature from the 5th District, Allegheny county, in 1872 and 1873, and again represented his district in 1885 and 1887. Mr. Sample was an earnest Christian and a charter member of the Millvale Presbyterian Church. He died Feb. 25, 1898, in the house in which he was born, having been in failing health for a number of years. He was a kind, loving husband and an indulgent father. His disposition was bright and cheery, and he always had a smile and a kind word for all with whom he came in contact. He was loved, respected and looked up to in the neighborhood in which he lived, and many were the disputes and family quarrels, among the people employed in the mills, referred to him, and which he disposed of in a manner satisfactory to all parties concerned. In his public life he was likewise noted for his integrity and good sound judgment. A leading attorney at the Pittsburg Bar recently said of him, "He was the only strictly honest politician I ever knew." Five children were born to Hiram K. and Margaret (Ewalt) Sample, as follows: Harry Ewalt, born Nov. 30, 1864, attended Pittsburg Academy and graduated from the Iron City College. He is now engaged in the printing and publishing business. He married Lillian M. Robinson, Oct. 15, 1889, and to their union have been born the fol- CUMBERLAND COUNTY. 169 lowing children: Hyde K., Marjorie, Ethel, Harriet Isabel. Margaret Alice, born Oct. 13, 1866, attended Millvale public schools and graduated from Brook Hall Seminary, Media, Pa. On Oct. 24, 1889, she married Dr. Frank L. Ardary, by whom she had two children, Robert S. and Miriam. Mr. Ardary died June 2, 1894. Mary Stewart, born Aug. 14, 1869, was educated in the public schools and at Brook Hall Seminary. On Nov. 27, 1895, she married Samuel Morrow, and now resides in Oakland, Pittsburg. Hyde Glenn, born March 24, 1875, attended the Millvale public schools and Park Institute, and graduated from the Western University of Pennsylvania in 1896. In 1899 he graduated from Pittsburg Law School, and the same year was admitted to the practice of law in Pittsburg. Clyde W., born Feb. 7, 1878, was educated in the Millvale public schools, East Liberty Academy and the Western University of Pennsylvania. In 1903 he graduated from the Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia, and is now practicing medicine in the city of Pittsburg.