HISTORY: Warner Beers, 1886, Part 2, Chapter 33, Cumberland County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Bookwalter Copyright 2009. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/ ______________________________________________________________________ History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania. Containing History of the Counties, Their Townships, Towns, Villages, Schools, Churches, Industries, Etc.; Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men; Biographies; History of Pennsylvania; Statistical and Miscellaneous Matter, Etc., Etc. Illustrated. Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co., 1886. http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/beers/beers.htm ______________________________________________________________________ PART II. HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY. PENNSYLVANIA. CHAPTER XXXIII. SILVER SPRING TOWNSHIP. 336 HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY. SILVER SPRING TOWNSHIP was formed from East Pennsborough in 1757. It contains about thirty-five square miles, part slate and part limestone land, and is bounded on the north by the North Mountains, on the east by Hampden, on the south by Monroe Township and a small portion of Upper Allen and Mechanicsburg, and on the west by Middlesex Township. The township is named after Silvers' Spring, a limpid body of water which rises in it, and which was called after James Silvers, who, with his wife Hannah, came into this valley about 1730 or 1731. He took out a warrant in October, 1735, for a tract of land, containing 532 acres, which adjoins the old Silvers' Spring Church, and extends into the loop of the Conodoguinet Creek, embracing land now owned by Mr. Kauffman, Mrs. Briggs, Mr. Bryson and Mr. Long. Here Mr. Silvers settled and lived. But, although the springs was called originally after James Silvers, common consent seems to have changed the name both of the spring and of the township to the more appropriate designation of "Silver Spring." This spring is one of the most beautiful in the Cumberland Valley. It rises from out limestone rocks, spreads into a large and somewhat circular crystal sheet, and, after serving several mills, empties itself into the Conodoguinet Creek. This Conodoguinet Creek flows just north of Hogestown, in such circuitous loops or bends, that, although the general direction of the creek through the township is east and west, it is often here more nearly north and south; and although the township is only five miles across, the course of the creek measures more than twice that distance. The windings of the creek enclose the farms of James McCormick, J. C. Sample and Samuel Senseman. This portion of the township adjoining Silver Spring and Hogestown was settled at a very early period. About 1730 John Hoge bought a large tract of land, including that on which Hogestown stands, and settled upon it. There were other settlers here in 1733, and the records show that the land between this and the river was, at least, partially occupied at this date. Most of these early settlers seem to have located on the slate land - on account of the spring, leaving the richer lands, called "barrens," unoccupied. These early settlers were all Presbyterians. The old church was erected here at about this time. The congregation is spoken of as "over the river." No road had yet been built. It was not until November 4, 1735, that the court of Lancaster County appointed a commission of six men, among whom was James Silvers, to lay out a road from Harris' Ferry toward the Potomac River. They reported February 3, 1736, but their view was opposed "by a considerable number of the inhabitants on the west side of the Susquehanna in those parts," and another commission of viewers was appointed, who reported May 4, 1736, that "they had reviewed the easternmost part of said road and found it very crooked and hurtful to the inhabitants, and therefore altered it and marked it. From the ferry near to a southwest course about two miles, thence westerly course to James Silvers', thence westward to John Hoge's meadow," etc. This road was nearly identical with the turnpike, and as it passed James 337 HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY. Silvers' place, it would locate his house on Mrs. Brigg's farm, now occupied by George Messinger.* ORIGINAL SETTLERS. Of the early settlers of this portion of Silver Spring we have some interesting reminiscences. Two Loudon brothers, James and Mathew, came from Scotland; one settled in Sherman's Valley, but was driven out by the Indians. Mathew Loudon came to Silver Spring, married Elizabeth McCormick about 1760, and settled on the tract now occupied by the Cathcart heirs. The Hoges lived upon their property, but not where the town now stands, and the McCormicks, northeast of the town, on the Conodoguinet Creek. The Irwins also owned tracts just southwest of the present town. The McCormicks now own a large brick house, just east of town, which belonged to the Hoges. Of this latter family there were two brothers, David and Jonathan. David lived just across the spring south or southeast of the town; Jonathan, just across the run, northeast, along the pike. Of the Galbreaths there were also two brothers, Andrew and John. Andrew lived just below Bryson's (now Eberly's) farm, and John, up the creek, north of Bryson's farm. Mr. Oliver's family lived west of Hogestown, on the ridge, and were intermarried with the McCormicks. Wm. Walker owned two farms which joined the Oliver farms. He married Betsy Hoge. Reese also owned a farm beyond the ridge, joining the Loudon tract, which was purchased by Archibald Loudon in 1788. Immediately west of that was Mr. Christopher Herman's farm, while the Junkin tract (owned by Joseph and Benjamin) laid just south. The Irwins' lands near joined the Hermans', Loudons' and Armstrongs' tracts. There were four Irwin brothers, William, Armstrong and John Irwin, all of whose tracts joined, and James, who owned the land which now belongs to Mr. Huston, where the mill is on the Conodoguinet Creek. An old mill stood where the iron bridge now spans the creek, known originally as Kreider's mill, the farm of Kreider's brother was opposite, and the Coble tract, belonging to Daniel and David, lay just north of this latter. Below the iron bridge joining the Kreider farm was Ashleys, and just below it, down the creek, were the two Bell farms (David and Robert), now owned by Benjamin and Samuel Voglesong. Just north of Hogestown, on the road leading to Sterritt's (originally Croghan's) Gap, was the Trimble farm, while recrossing the iron bridge, just joining the Douglas farm, was the old Carothers' farm, belonging to John Carothers, who, with his wife and whole family, was poisoned by a jealous domestic, Sallie Clark.** Of the four sons, John (who married Sallie Hoge) was afterward sheriff, and Andrew, who was crippled by the poisoning above mentioned, became one of the leading lawyers of Carlisle. Martin Herman, a native of Germany, landed in Philadelphia July 12, 1752, and settled in Cumberland County on the 15th of April, 1771, on a tract of land called St. Martins, in Silver Spring Township, which farm has been in the possession of that family for a period of 115 years. Besides the names of the early settlers whom we have mentioned, were the Walkers, Clendenins, Hustons, Trimbles, Semples, Fishers, Waughs, Mathers, Barnhills, Beltzhoovers, Hendersons and McHoes, and on the south side of the creek were the Trimbles, Longsdorfs, Kellers, Kasts, Kings, Slonechers, Junkins, Hoges and others. SOME EARLY EVENTS. During the Indian wars, from 1753 to 1758, there were many murders and depredations throughout the valley. In Rupp (p. 128) we find: "May 13, *See Rev. T. J. Ferguson's Historical Discourse on Silver Spring Church. **This incident was made the subject of a poetical effusion by Miss Isabella Olliver, a volume of whose poems was issued from the press of Archibald Loudon, of Carlisle, in 1805. 338 HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY. 1757, William Walker and another man were killed near McCormick's fort, at Conodoguinet." The following account, as it concerns Silver Spring, we take from a former sketch: "The early settlers were much annoyed by Indians, and consequently settled in groups as much as possible for self-protection. One of these was at a place called Roaringtown, on the bank of the Conodoguinet, where there is a very fine spring. It is on the farm now owned by Samuel Adams, two miles west of Hogestown. Mr. John Armstrong, one of the old citizens, born about 1760, whose wife was a daughter of Jonathan Hoge, frequently told us that he could see from his house, near the Stony Ridge, groups of Indians prowling about through the barrens several miles distant; also wild animals, which were another source of annoyance to anxious mothers, whose children would stray from home. An uncle of Judge Clendenin, late of Hogestown, went, in company with two others from his father's residence, in the northeast part of the township, where Emanuel Neidich now resides, to watch a deer lick, some two miles up along the mountain foot, on the farm where Michael Garman now lives, and whilst waiting, in the dusk of evening, for the deer to come down from the mountain to drink, and lick the salt placed there to attract them, they were fired upon by Indians in ambush, who severely wounded Clendenin. They fled for home, but his strength failing from loss of blood, his companions secreted him in the bushes and made their escape. He was found in the morning cold and lifeless." It was one of the members of the Bell family, mentioned elsewhere of whom the following is told: "Among the many achievements," says Loudon "against the Indians in our wars with them, few exceed that performed by Samuel Bell, formerly owner of the noted farm on the Stony Ridge, five miles below Carlisle, which was as follows: Some time after Gen. Braddock's defeat, he and his brother, James Bell, agreed to go into Shearman's Valley to hunt for deer, and were to meet at Croghan's, now Sterritt's, Gap, on the Blue Mountain. By some means or other they did not meet, and Samuel slept all night in a cabin belonging to Mr. Patton, on Shearman's Creek. In the morning he had not traveled far before he spied three Indians, who at the same saw him. They all fired at each other; he wounded one of the Indians, but received no damage, except through his clothes by the balls. Several shots were fired on both sides, for each took a tree; he took out his tomahawk and stuck it into the tree, behind which he stood, so that, should they approach, he might be prepared. The tree was grazed with the Indians' balls, and he had thoughts of making his escape by flight, but, on reflection, had doubts of his being able to outrun them. "After some time the two Indians took the wounded one and put him over a fence, and one took one course, and the other another, taking a compass, so that Bell could no longer secure himself by the tree; but by trying to ensnare him they had to expose themselves, by which means he had the good fortune to shoot one of them dead. The other ran and took the dead Indian on his back, one leg over each shoulder. By this time Bell's gun was again loaded; he then ran after the Indian until he came within about four yards from him, fired and shot through the dead Indian and lodged his ball in the other, who dropped the dead man and ran off. On his return, coming past the fence where the wounded Indian was, he dispatched him, but did not know he had killed the third Indian until his bones were found afterward." HOGESTOWN. This village is situated on a small stream known as "Hoge's Run," which rises at the Stony Ridge, and empties into the Conodoguinet Creek at a beauty- 339 HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY. ful grove called "Sporting Green." It was called after John Hoge, who owned all the land on which the town is built and a large tract surrounding. The old stone tavern was for years the only house, and was owned by the Hoge family. The first house built after that was a small log one near the old road, and was erected about 1820. The McCormicks and the Hoges had a stockade at a very early date. John Hogue (or Hoge) married Guintheleum Bowen (said to have been a descendant of the royal family of Wales), who, after her marriage, still retained and was known by her maiden name. It is stated that it was the money obtained from the sale of her jewels which purchased their lands. NEW KINGSTON. New Kingston is a post village in Silver Spring Township, on the pike, six and a half miles east of the county seat. The Cumberland Valley Railroad runs within half a mile of the place. The first owner of the lands upon which the town is built was Joseph Junkin, Sr. He came from Counties Down and Antrim, Ireland (his lands lying on both sides of the line), about 1736 or 1740. At Oxford, Chester County, he met and married a Scotch girl, Elizabeth Wallace, and soon after crossed Harris' ferry, into the wilderness of Cumberland (then Lancaster) County. He took up a tract of 500 acres, which includes the site upon which New Kingston is now built, and erected the stone house that still stands, east of the town, on what was afterward known as the Walker tract. He had a number of children, among whom were Joseph and Benjamin, who afterward owned a portion of this land. Joseph (born in 1750), built the house now owned and occupied by H. W. Kanaga, in 1775-77, in which he resided until he removed to Mercer County in 1806. He was a captain in the Revolutionary war, fought at Brandywine, and was wounded in a skirmish shortly after. The date of the original patent of this land to Joseph Junkin, Sr., was about the year 1740, and, after his death it was divided into three parts. One tract was owned by John Carothers, who in 1814 sold it to John King. In the spring of 1818 King laid out the village, which was called after him, Kingston, a name which it retained. A postoffice was established here in 1851, called New Kingstown. The three stone houses were built long before the town was laid out, but in 1818 a number of dwellings were erected, probably six, by John Wynkoop, Henry Miller, George Williams, Thomas Ashley, Henry Monesmith and John Shoemaker, and possibly one other. These houses were all log buildings. The second tract was owned by Joseph Junkin, Jr., the son of the original patentee, who built the stone house above referred to, in the western portion of the town. The building of this, it is said, had been delayed on account of his absence as a captain in the Revolutionary war during the period of its erection. This tract and property he sold in 1805 to Joseph Kanaga, Sr., after whose death it descended to his son, Joseph Kanaga, Jr., who, after the town was laid out, built the first frame house for a store. It is now owned by Henry W. Kanaga, the grandson of the original purchaser. The brick house in Kanaga's addition was built by H. W. Irvin. The third tract was owned by Benjamin Junkin, Jr., also a son of the original patentee, who is said to have built two other houses - the hotel, and the dwelling which he occupied until his death. Part of this tract came into the possession of John King, by whom it was conveyed (1830) to Peter Kissinger, who, in 1841, laid it out into the town lots which now compose the greater part of New Kingston. The town is conveniently situated on the pike road which leads from Car- 340 HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY. lisle to Harrisburg, amid the cultivated farms of this beautiful portion of the valley, and is not distant from the railroad, which passes to the South. It has a hotel, postoffice, stores, three churches, schools and a population of between 300 and 400 inhabitants. Silver Spring Lodge, No. 598, I. O. O. F., was organized April 20, 1867, with twenty charter members. Its present membership numbers about fifty, and the officers are now (September 15, 1886): R. E. Anderson, P. G.; J. D. Bishop, N. G.; H. W. Morrison, V. N. G.; W. H. Humer, Sec.; Jacob Mathias, Asst. Sec.; J. A. Senseman, Treas. THE FIRST COVENANTERS' COMMUNION IN AMERICA. Nearly all of the early Scotch-Irish who came into this valley were Presbyterians, reared in connection with the synod of Ulster, but there were some Covenanters among them, even at the early date. They were not numerous at this time in Ireland, where some secession churches were then being established. In this valley there were only a few clusters of families scattered here and there in different in different localities, and at first without any fixed place of worship. Sometimes, without an ordained minister, they met at each other's houses. They could not and did not fraternize with the Presbyterianism around them. At about this time two places of worship were established - one at Paxtang, east of the river, and the other on the Stony Ridge, in Silver Spring Township. When the weather allowed they met in the "tent," as it was termed, and, when it was not propitious, in their cabins. This "tent" was pitched in a shady grove, and consisted simply of an elevated platform for the minister, a board nailed against a black oak tree to support the Bible, a few rude benches for seats, and some boards overhead to protect the speaker from the sun and rain. Thus accommodated they worshiped for hours at a time, and their communion services sometimes lasted nine hours. Rev. John Cuthbertson, a Scotchman by birth, from Ireland, preached for the first time in the valley on Wednesday, August 21, 1751 or 1752, at Walter Buchanan's, near the present new Kingston, midway between Carlisle and the river. His text was, Proverbs VIII, 4: "Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man." He also baptized Joseph Glendenning, John M'Clelland and Jane Swansie, infant children of residents of that neighborhood. August 23, 1752, Mr. Cuthbertson held his first communion in America. It was at Stony Ridge, or the Walter Buchanan or Junkin "tent," in Cumberland County. The communicants came to the table singing the Twenty-fourth Psalm. About 250 persons communed, and this comprised very nearly all the Covenanters in this county, for the place was central, the season pleasant, and they gathered in from their different settlements, the Covenanters also of adjoining counties. This was the first time that the followers of Cameron ad Cargill ever gathered at the communion table in the new world or outside the British isles. Their next pastor was Rev. Matthew Lind, of the Covenanter congregation at Aghadoe, near Coleraine. He came in December, 1773; locating at Paxtang, and assumed the pastorate of that church and of the Stony Ridge. Walter Buchanan was the only elder in Stony Ridge when Mr. Lind was installed. About that time Joseph Junkin was ordained. He lived upon the present Kanaga farm; built his present stone house, and had the "tent" upon it during his life time. Still later it was known as "Widow Junkin's tent." This little church was always a colony, surrounded by a population which had no sympathy with them. Later, when the Germans came in, they literally crowded out the Irish, and in a few years both congregations were completely ex- 341 HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY. terminated - so completely that there is scarcely a tradition of their existence left among the present inhabitants. The Bells, and the Swansies, and the Junkins attached themselves to the Big Spring congregation; but in time they, too, passed away, and not a single descendant of the original stock is now known to reside in the neighborhood. The late Dr. Robert G. Young, of Mechanicsburg, in speaking, in a manuscript note in our possession, of some account of this Covenanters' "tent," says: "The description of this tent is strictly correct, as handed down to us, but there is inaccuracy in the location. The writer of this note, now in his sixty-seventh year, during his boyhood and youth was familiar with its location, and his recollection is corroborated by that of an old citizen, formerly a resident of that vicinity. Our statement is that 'Widow Junkin's tent' was about 300 yards from the turnpike road, near to the foot of the Stony Ridge, and almost directly opposite to an old stone house, at the time occupied and owned by Mr. Thomas Bell, in which he had for many years kept a hotel for the accommodation of the traveling public. The 'old citizen' above mentioned says that this 'tent' was an object of nearly every day observation while he resided in the vicinity of New Kingston, and that it disappeared about the year 1830. The recollection of the writer confirms his statement. My paternal grandfather attended divine services when held here, being a descendant of that branch of the Presbyterian Church familiarly called the Covenanters." THE SILVER SPRING CHURCH AND CEMETERY. The church at Silvers' Spring, now known as the "Silver Spring Presbyterian Church," was probably, in its inception, the first church established in the valley. The earliest mention made of this congregation, in which they are first spoken of as the "people over the Susquehanna," is in October, 1734. Later they are called "East Pennsborough," and finally "Silvers' Spring." The present stone church, which is built only a short distance from the spring, and is surrounded by a handsome grove of trees, was built in 1783. A wooden one had been erected here, according to Rupp, forty years before. Its inception was at a time when no public road had yet been made through the valley, but when the thoroughfares were the bridle-paths of the Indians. It seems that there was a still earlier building, but not upon the site of the present ones, for Col. A. Loudon Snowden states, in an address at the centennial anniversary, in 1883, that although the present church is now less than "a mile, in a direct line, from the creek, the original log structure in which our ancestors worshiped was much nearer the stream than the present building.* Indeed, the traditions which my father received from some of the old settlers, and gave me, make the location within a very short distance from the same, a little way above where Sample's bridge now stands." The pastors of this church have been Revs. Samuel Thompson, 1739-45; Samuel Caven, 1749-50; John Steel, 1764-76; Samuel Waugh, 1782-1807; John Hayes, 1808-14; Henry R. Wilson, 1814-23; James Williamson, 1824- 38; George Morris, 1838-60; Wm. H. Dinsmore, 1861-65; W. G. Hillman, 1866-67; W. B. McKee, 1868-70; R. P. Gibson, 1872-75; T. J. Ferguson, 1878. *We have already entered into a period of fabulous antiquity. "The church edifice which preceded the present one," says Dr. Nevin, in his history of "The Churches of the Valley" [published in 1852], "and which was the first meeting-house at Silvers' Spring, was, we have been informed by one who learned it from his grandparents, a small log building, near the place where the present house stands. No record of the building of that house, or of the organization of a church in it, can be found; and, as the members of the congregation at that time are, of course, all dead and gone, it is impossible to tell with certainty when these things were done. It is, however, far more than probable, from the note which we have already given, and from the epitaphs which are found in the cemetery, that the old log building, in which the first settlers in what is now the eastern part of Cumberland County, with its beautiful landscapes and thriving villages, assembled for the worship of God, was erected about one hundred and twenty years ago." [Churches of the Valley, p. 75.] 342 HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY. A burial place in the grove is connected with the church, and some of the inscriptions can be read with dates as early as 1747, if not earlier still. Within a few years past a handsome memorial gothic chapel has been erected in the grove by the McCormick family. The circular grove of trees in which these churches stand is one of the most beautiful which can be found in the valley, and we do not wonder that the beauty and the hallowed associations of this spot gave birth to the following poem, from the pen of an unknown author, which was published about thirty-five years ago in the Gazette, a paper published in Mechanicsburg: SILVER SPRING. "Twas on a quiet Sabbath, One warm midsummer day. When first, with childish eagerness, I trod its moss-grown way; Yet paused with every footstep, Lest my coming might intrude On the spirit-haunted trysting-place Within its solitude. For, where the grass grew tallest In a myrtle-covered dell, And softest, deepest shadows From waving branches fell, Lay, in unbroken stillness, Old Scotland's exiled dead, O'er whose mysterious slumbers An hundred years had fled. No pompous, proud mausoleum Or sculptured marble tomb Threw round this spot a mockery Of dark, funereal gloom; But through the tangled walnut boughs, Half veiled, but not concealed, Like a sentinel on duty, An old church stood revealed. A beaten, narrow, thread-like path Wound through the thick green wood, And, following where it seemed to lead, I, in a moment stood Beside a rill so beautiful, Of coloring so rare, I surely thought the sunshine Had been imprisoned there. A ledge of gray, uneven rocks Rested against the hill; And from their veins the water gushed With such a gleeful trill - Such liquid, silver, soothing sounds - I almost held my breath, Lest e'en a whisper might disturb The harmony beneath. The quiet dead, the old stone church, And myrtle-covered dell, Each had its tale of thankfulness For living love to tell; What wonder, then, that pleasant Recollections always cling Around the sunny Sabbaths I spent at Silver Spring. 343 HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY. MISCELLANEOUS. The Cumberland Valley Railroad passes through the southern portion of the township, in a west by northerly direction from Mechanicsburg, till within a short distance of Middlesex Township line, when it takes a sudden southwesterly course. The postoffices in Silver Spring Township are New Kingstown and Hogestown.