BIO:  WILLIAM ALEXANDER HUMRICH, 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/
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  >From Biographical Annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania,
  Chicago: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905, pages 793-794
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  NOTE: Use this web address to access other bios:
  http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/zeamer/

 
    WILLIAM ALEXANDER HUMRICH, the fourth and youngest son of John Adams and
  Mary Ann Humrich, was born in their first home on the northwest corner of
  Louther and Hanover streets, Carlisle, July 9, 1839. In the spring of 1842
  the family removed to what is now 147 West Louther street, where he grew to
  manhood, attending the public schools in the meantime. He was placed on his
  father's farm in North Middleton township, about two miles north of town,
  where he learned the art, trade and mystery of farming, and this has been his
  pursuit during most of his life.

    In 1862 he became a member of Company A, of the 130th Regiment of
  Pennsylvania Volunteers, and took part in the battle of Antietam, where he
  was wounded in Bloody Lane, by being struck by a piece of shell; and was with
  the Union forces in the mud campaign against Fredericksburg.

    After the war he visited the oil regions in northwestern Pennsylvania,
  where he spent nearly five years in the oil business, engaged in its
  different departments, including the refining of oil and its various
  extracts. He there saw fortunes made and lost in a short time; was on the
  site of Pithole City when the first building was erected, witnessed it grow
  to a city of ten thousand population, and abandoned by its people when the
  oil wells failed. He returned to his native place about 1870, and engaged in
  the fruit and green grocery business, in the building in which he was born,
  and was fairly successful. During the Centennial year (1876) he became the
  owner of the big steer Romeo, fed in West Pennsboro township, this county,
  and, giving up the grocery business, made arrangements to exhibit him at the
  Philadelphia Centennial, and subsequently on the Granger grounds near that
  city, where he

    794  CUMBERLAND COUNTY

  spent the entire summer and fall of that year. After this venture he returned
  to his home in Carlisle and again devoted himself to farming and the keeping
  of a dairy, in which he is now engaged.

    On Sept. 23, 1879, Mr. Humrich was married to Mrs. Emma C. Humrich, the
  widow of his brother, John A., deceased, and has since resided on a part of
  the old homestead. They have had no children.