BIO: REV. JOHN E. KLEFFMAN, 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 527-528 _____________________________________________________________ NOTE: Use this web address to access other bios: http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/zeamer/ REV. JOHN E. KLEFFMAN, who since the fall of 1903 has been located at Carlisle, as pastor of the Grace U. B. Church, is a young man of energy and ability and is putting these qualities to good use in his sacred calling. His ancestry were German. His grandfather, Christian Kleffman, was born in the part of Germany called Westphalia and was reared a farmer, which pursuit .he followed all his life. He had a daughter named Mary, who married Frederick W. Kottcamp and came to America, settling at York, Pa. At the earnest request of this daughter, Christian Kleffman, his wife, Catherine Mary, four sons and another daughter, also came to America. All of them settled at York, and became industrious and worthy American citizens. Both par- CUMBERLAND COUNTY. 527 ents died in York, after having lived there about seventeen years. Albert Henry Gottlieb Kleffman, one of the four sons, was the father of our subject and was eighteen years old when he came to America. He had been brought up to farming, but on coming to this country he engaged at various kinds of work and finally got to manufacturing brick, at which he continued until in 1893, since which time he has lived retired. In youth he was a member of the Lutheran Church, but after settling at York he affiliated with the First U. B. Church of that place, of which he has been a member for fifty years. Rev. Mr. Kleffman's maternal ancestry were also German and lived in the same community from which his paternal ancestry came. His great-grandmother was totally blind from childhood. Her son, Herman Henry Druhman,. married Anna Mary Spangler, and strange as it was, all the children were called after the family name of Spangler. To this union were born six daughters and one son. All the daughters came to America and were married here, while the son, receiving the Spangler homestead, is still living upon the same. In the year 1881 the grandparents came to America and went to Kansas, where they lived with their youngest daughter until from old age they passed into the beyond. They lived to the ages of eighty-five and eighty-seven years, respectively. Anna Catherine Louisa Spangler was brought to America in the year 1854 by her father, at the tender age of fourteen years. Her father intended to remain here and had negotiated for the purchase of a farm near the. city of York, but after six months he became homesick, gave up his intention of buying a farm and returned to the Fatherland, leaving the daughter here in the care of friends. The mother of our subject often related that she went and prayed in secret that the way might be opened so she could make her home permanently in America. Thus were her prayers answered. Although a member of the Lutheran Church in the Fatherland she immediately united with the First U. B. Church of York and remained a member of the same until death. She died Sept. 12, 1888. The parents of Rev. Mr. Kleffman were married in the year 1859, by Rev. J. C. Smith, then pastor of the First U. B. Church. To this union were born ten children, of whom eight died in infancy and childhood. The two who grew to maturity were John E., our subject, and Edward H., now living in York, Pennsylvania. Rev. John E. Kleffman was born April 11, 1866, in York, Pa., where he passed his childhood. He received his early education in the public schools of his native place and later in the Hess school of Spring Garden township, his father having moved a short distance outside the city limits. Here he continued up to the age of fourteen. He then for two years more attended the York County Academy, in the city of York, and afterward, from sixteen to nineteen, worked at weaving. At the age of nineteen he entered Lebanon Valley College, at Annville, Pa., from which institution he was graduated at the age of twenty-three. He continued his studies at the Union Biblical Seminary, at Dayton, Ohio, where he remained two years, and at the age of twenty-five had completed his preparation for the ministry of the U. B. Church, in which he has ever since been laboring. He was received into the Second U. B. Church as a member at the age of thirteen by Rev. J. C. Smith, who was the officiating clergyman at the marriage of his parents, and had administered 528 CUMBERLAND COUNTY. the rite of holy baptism upon him in his childhood. Mr. Kleffman was granted Quarterly Conference license at Annville, Pa., on April 28, I888, Rev. Isaiah Baltzell, of precious memory, being the presiding elder. He was granted Annual Conference license at the Conference held in Baltimore, Md., March 1, 1889, Bishop Nicholas Castle, D. D., presiding. He was ordained to the office of an elder in the church at the Conference held in the Second U. B. Church, Feb. 24, 1892, Bishop E. B. Kephart, D. D., presiding. His first partorate was at Hanover, Pa., where he remained three years, during that time erecting a church near Jefferson Borough, Codorus post office, York county. The following year he was located at Greencastle, Pa., then three years at Scotland, Franklin Co., Pa., whence he was transferred to Gettysburg, where he remained two years. Then for four years he was at Duncannon, Pa., and from that pastorate came to his present charge. During the last year of his stay at Duncannon he erected a new church there, and did effective work throughout the period of his pastorate at that place. He has been much esteemed in the various communities in which he has been called to labor, and has made many friends in Carlisle during the brief period that he has resided in that place. On May 11, 1893, in York, Rev. Mr. Kleffman was married to Miss Ella A. Lucking, by Rev. C. A. Burtner, assisted by Rev. M. J. Heberly. Mrs. Kleffman is a daughter of Henry and Mary E. Lucking. She received her education in the schools of York and graduated from the York high school in the class of 1887. Her ancestors were German and lived in the same locality where Mr. Kleffman's ancestry lived. Her father came to this country in the year 1854 at the age of eighteen years, and located at York, Pa., where by industry and care he has become an influential and highly respected citizen. He has been a member of the First U. B. Church about fifty years. The intimate relations of the families is observed in the fact that the Lucking homestead was within several hundred yards of the Spangler homestead. Mr. and Mrs. Kleffman have one child, Albert Henry, eight summers old. The patriotism of the Kleffman family is of a genuine type, as was evinced by the number of representatives they had on the side of the Union in the Civil war. The father of our subject served as a private in Company H, 200th Regiment, P. V., in 1864 and 1865; an uncle, Casper H. Kleffman, was in the service earlier, participating in many important engagements, and was wounded in the battle of Chancellorsville. The other uncles, Charles Oerman and Frederick W. Kottcamp, also battled bravely in that great struggle for the nation's life. The citizen's devotion to his country is measured by his willingness to suffer and die for it.