Indiana-Huntingdon County PA Archives Obituaries.....Peelor, David February 28, 1895 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Rosalie Sommer rosaliesommer@comcast.net January 11, 2007, 10:08 am Indiana Weekly Messenger, Indiana, Pennsylvania March 6, 1895 DAVID PEELOR DEAD The Interesting Story of a Busy and Well-Spent Life. David PEELOR died at the home of his son-in-law, Rev. D. H. CAMPBELL, at Mount Union, Huntingdon county, on Thursday, February 28, aged 83 years, 4 months and 8 days. [b. 20 Oct 1811 calculated date] Few men were better or more favorable known in this county than David PEELOR. He is the last of the four prominent surveyors of this county to depart, Wm. Evans, Thompson McCREA and Edmund PAIGE having died some years ago. He was a man of integrity and honor and his evidence in courts when land titles were in dispute was given much weight. Though always a slender, light man, his weight never exceeding 125 pounds, he was a man of great endurance, and he was a man of great endurance, and but few men could keep up with him in the woods. It was not unusual for him to walk from his father's home in Armstrong township to Hollidaysburg in a single day, a distance of 63 miles. The founder of the PEELOR family in America was Johannes PEELOR, who, with his wife and several children, came from Rotterdam on the good ship Maley, Captain Hodgsen, Master, landing in Philadelphia on the 21st day of September, 1727. Johannes PEELOR settled in Chester county soon after his arrival in this country. David PEELOR, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a grandson of Johannes, and married Fannie KAUFFMAN, who was a cousin of the late Isaac KAUFFMAN, of near Davidsville, Somerset county. The grandfather, David PEELOR, was a farmer, and with his wife, moved from Chester to Indiana county about 1782. They were among the earliest settler in that region which but then was a little else than a vast wilderness, and was there, in 1787, on the clearing Grandfather PEELOR made, within six miles of this place, that Jacob PEELOR, father of our David, was born. When Jacob PEELOR was a small boy his father, David PEELOR, was waylaid and killed by the Indians within a hundred yards of his cabin in this county. Fanny KAUFFMAN PEELOR lived to the ripe age of 106 years, and the subject of the sketch remembered her quite well. Jacob PEELOR, the father of the deceased, owned a farm, a saw mill and grist mill on the pike, six miles west of Indiana, and died at the age of 90 years. The ancestors of Mr. PEELOR on the maternal side came from Ireland. John BOTHEL and his wife [David's maternal grandparents] emigrated from Londonderry, Ireland to this country, and went to Conocoheague, Franklin county, Pa., but afterwards moved to this county, making their first settlement within two miles of Indiana, but afterwards moving onto the tract of land adjoining that of David PEELOR, the elder. Their name in the old country was BOTHWELL, and they were a branch of the famous family of that name, but in the months of the rough and ready settlers of the New World the name was soon contracted to BOTHEL, and so it has been pronounced and written since. Mr. PEELOR's grandmother BOTHEL lived to be 93 years of age. One of her children, Jane BOTHEL, married Jacob PEELER, and the first child born to them was our David PEELOR. Mr. PEELOR's mother, Jane BOTHEL PEELOR, died at the age of 83 years. She was a bright, intelligent woman, and often told her son David of an unpleasant experience she had with the Indians in her childhood days. When she was quite a little girl her mother left her and her little brother James alone in the house while she hurried to the nearest neighbor on some errand of importance. The two children amused themselves during the mother's absence playing hide- and-seek around the house, and it was while spying cautiously about that they saw three bit Indians fantastically decorated with war paint and armed with guns, tomahawks and knives, emerge from the clearing. In their freight the children crawled under the bunk or bed that was fastened to the wall of the cabin and pulled down the cover over the front to hide themselves. The savages came into the house and ransacked the place for something to eat, and, after gorging themselves with the stolen food, greased and arranged their hair, and then left without discovering the children, whose palpitating little hearts thumped almost loud enough to make them fear the attention of the Indians would be directed to them by the noise. These same Indians, after going several miles farther, captured two white men, Fergus MOOREHEAD and James KELLY, whom they surprised while bathing in a small stream that ran through a tract of land on which these men were making an improvement. The Indians carried MOORHEAD and KELLY to Canada, from whence they afterwards escaped and returned to complete their improvement. Many of their descendants now live in this county. The subject of this sketch was born on the old PEELOR farm, five miles west of Indiana, October 20, 1811. He learned the science of surveying from his uncle in Lancaster county before he was 18 years of age and afterwards located here. He was twice elected County Surveyor of this county and also served two terms as Register and Recorder. He was Chief Draughtsman in the Land Office at Harrisburg for three years and for three years and from 1863 to March 1894, he was located at Johnstown, where he had charge of the lands of the Cambria Company. Wile in the Land Office at Harrisburg the rebels maid a raid into Pennsylvania and threatened the Capital City. All the clerks in Mr. PEELOR's department left, leaving him alone in charge of the many valuable papers and maps. Gov. Curtin sent an order to Mr. PEELOR to box up all the documents and ship them to Philadelphia. Within hearing of the rebel artillery he accomplished his task, with the assistance of his little son Harry and his daughter Anna. Mr. PEELOR had three brothers and four sisters, and those now living are Mrs. Samuel McCARTNEY and Mrs. James B. EVANS, both of Indiana, and Mrs. Samuel ELDER, of East Wheatfield. David PEELOR was married twice, first in 1839, to Rachel A. HUNTER, of Center county, by whom he had four children, namely; William Edward, who for a long time was a trusted employe of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, but who died some years ago; a twin sister of William Edward, who died at the age of three months; James Harvey, a Union soldier, who was shot at the battle of Fair Oaks and died from the effects of the wound, leaving some descendants; a boy, who died at the age of four months. After the death of his first wife, he married Mrs. BROWN-CAMPBELL, a widow, and by her had two children, namely; Harry, who died in Johnstown in April 1892, and Anna, intermarried with Rev. David H. CAMPBELL, of Mount Union, Huntingdon County. Many instances could be cited of Mr. PEELOR's expertness as a surveyor. In the spring of 1847 he located a batch of 52 surveys [52 large tracts of land on the top and eastern side of the Allegheny mountains, extending from Gallitzin to Kittanning Point. He was engaged seven weeks on this survey, and ran, and examined the marks on all lines. There had been two sets of warrants granted by the Commonwealth, laid on the same land in the same year, and surveys had been made and returned in each set one purporting to have been surveyed in February and the other in November, 1794, and the question to be determined in a suit then pending in the United States Court at Pittsburg was which batch of surveys had been first actually run, marked and located on the ground. Mr. PEELOR's thorough examination, made by blocking the trees and counting the growths or rings, showed that one set of marks counted 52 and the other set only counted 51 growths, which conclusively established that the trees counting 52 growths had been marked by the original surveyor in the spring [February], 1794, while the other set, showing but 61 rings, was of the survey made in the autumn [November, 1794 - one growth or ring having been added by nature between February and November. In woodcraft he had few superiors. He was in Johnstown at the time of the great flood, and after floating about several hours was rescued. He was the first man in this country to suggest the idea of the electric telegraph, but he was poor and his ideas were utilized by Mr. MORSE, the successful inventor. The same is true of the telephone and long before the world knew anything of the great invention Mr. PEELOR put up and used an experimental line. There again his want of means interfered, and others put his ideas into practical use. Mr. PEELOR was a kindly, good man, without a known enemy and, though he had lived more than the allotted age of man, thousands of people in Indiana and adjoining counties, where he was best known, will regret to hear of his death. SOURCE: Indiana Weekly Messenger, Indiana, Pennsylvania March 6, 1895 This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/pafiles/ File size: 9.4 Kb