Fulton County PA Archives News.....Shoemaker, Anthony - Family January 4, 1900
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Donald Buncie http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00034.html#0008389 December 19, 2023, 5:36 am

The Fulton County News. (McConnellsburg, Pa.) January 4, 1900
BAD BANK NOTE. CONSTABLE AFTER HARRISONVILLE MAN.
INTERESTING HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY BY T. J. THOMPSON OF THIS PLACE.
On a Wednesday evening, eighty years ago August, 1820, a man driving two horses, may
have been seen on the Pennsylvania turnpike crossing Rays Hill and Sidelinghill
mountains, on his way east.
As he began the descent of Sidelinghill, he was shielded from the warm rays of the
August sun by the towering mountains west of him; and alighted to rest his tired
horses a few minutes and to quench his thirst from the clean crystal water that came
trickling down the bank.
Reaching the valley below, he looked ahead, only to see another hill, Greenhill rise
before him. Slowly his horses traveled across it, and as the shades of night were
gathering about him he was glad when he found himself in sight of the Travelers'
Inn, kept by John Karr, at Lickingcreek Bridge (now Harrisonvllle, six miles west of
McConnellsburg). Here he asked lodging for himself and his tired horses and soon
found pleasant accommodations.
In the morning, before breakfast, the traveler asked Mr. Karr for the amount of his
bill, and being informed, he gave Mr. Karr money to take amount of bill from, and in
making change, Mr. Karr, the Innkeeper, gave the traveling man a three dollar bank
note.
The note which is now in possession of the writer of this, is about five inches long
by two and a half wide. On the face is a picture of a ship on water, and the
following inscription, "The President, Directors, & Co., of the Bank of Wilmington
and Brandywine promise to pay to Guph Jones or bearer on demand THREE DOLLARS.
Wilmington. January 4, 1815, John Way, President; Daniel Bynns, Cashier. Across the
right end of the face is printed in plain capitals the word DELAWARE; and across the
left, THREE.
The traveler said he did not like that bank note, and did not want to take the
three-dollar note, but Mr. Karr, our traveler says, went and got the paper, to show
me that this note is pure money. I then took it.
On Thursday morning  Aug. 8, 1820, our traveling man passed through Bedford county,
Pa., (now McConnellsburg, Fulton county), on his way, across the Cove mountain,
toward his home in Millerstown, Adams county, Pa., where he was known as James
Lyons.
Early the following Monday morning, in looking over his money, he did not feel
satisfied with the three-dollar note he had received of Mr. John Karr. He took a
sheet of writing paper, wrote on it a letter, enclosed the note, folding the sheet
so that it formed a letter, without envelope ready for the mail. After sealing it
with a red wax wafer, he addressed the said letter to Anthony Shoemaker,
McConnellstown, Bedford county, Pennsylvania, and mailed it at Emmittsburg. The
postage was twenty cents.
Mr. James Lyons, in his letter to Mr. Shoemaker, who was then a Justice of the
Peace, in McConnellstown, informed him of his doubts about the genuineness of the
note, and instructed him to send the constable after him (Mr. John Karr) as soon as
possible.
We have nothing to show that the constable was sent after Mr. Karr, nor have we any
evidence to disprove the statement made by him, to Mr. Lyons, when he gave him the
note, “that it was pure money," neither do we know why this note has been left
folded up in Mr. Lyons' letter for almost 80 years; but one thing we do know, that
while the three men, prominent in the long ago history, Mr. John Karr, Innkeeper, at
Harrisonville, then known as Licking Creek Bridge; Mr. James Lyons, traveler, and
Mr. Anthony Shoemaker, Justice of the Peace, have - as Joshua of the Bible says -
"gone the way of all the Earth."
The three-dollar note, is in a good state of preservation, considering it is 85
years since it was issued.
Do any of the old residents of our county have any recollection of Mr. John Karr,
Innkeeper at Licking Creek Bridge in 1820?
The Anthony Shoemaker, the Justice mentioned above was born Oct. 10, 1833, and died
in McConnellsburg, December 10, 1833. His two sons, Anthony, Jr., and David
Shoemaker, both now dead were engaged in business in McConnellsburg a number of
years, Anthony, Jr., being Justice of the Peace, a long time. They were both
official members of their respective churches Anthony and family, Presbyterian, and
David and family, Methodist.
Anthony, Jr., died in McConnellsburg, in 1874 in his 74th year, and David in
Chambersburg about 1892 or ‘93.
Their mother lived to a good old age, making her home with her son David, In
McConnellsburg. The writer visited her when she was one hundred years of age -had a
season of prayer together. She died In 1872 or ‘73 in her one hundred and first
year.
Rev. George Shoemaker married in McConnellsburg, to Miss Blanche Baldwin, sister of
Rev. Amos Baldwin, a son of David Shoemaker, and grand-son of Anthony Shoemaker,
Sr., of our story. George Shoemaker's mother's maiden name was Nancy Harris. Anthony
Shoemaker, Sr., was great-grandfather of U. Grant Shoemaker and sisters living on
their farm near our town - the only members left of the many Shoemaker families
formerly composing prominent business people of our town.
A coincidence that might be mentioned in connection with the above is the fact that
this article was written in the house once owned and occupied by Anthony Shoemaker:
and the Editor of the News lives in the house in which the mother and son David
lived when the mother died in her 101st year.

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