BIOGRAPHY: James Barton STACKPOLE, Mifflin County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Patty Frank Copyright 2006. All rights reserved. http://files.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://files.usgwarchives.net/pa/mifflin/ http://files.usgwarchives.net/pa/mifflin/1picts/runk1897/runk-bios.htm __________________________________________________________________________ The Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of the Juniata Valley, Comprising the Counties of Huntingdon, Mifflin, Juniata, and Perry, Pennsylvania. Chambersburg, Pa.: J. M. Runk & Co., 1897, Volume I, pages 417-418. __________________________________________________________________________ JAMES BARTON STACKPOLE (5), born at McVeytown, Pa., March 1, 1831, and died at Nashville, Tenn., March 23 1865, was a descendant of one of the earliest settlers of the Juniata valley. He was a son of James Stackpole (4) and Catherine (Setzler) Stackpole, who had eight children: John H.; William H.; James Barton (5); and E. H. H. Stackpole, late superintendent of public grounds at Harrisburg, Pa., all deceased; Mary, who died in infancy; Margaret, deceased, second wife of David McCorkle, of McVeytown, Pa.; Sarah D. (Mrs. Lorenzo D. Rambler), of Elyria, O.; and Hannah Catherine, wife of Edmund Conrad, proprietor and publisher of the McVeytown Journal. James Stackpole (3), the grandfather of these children, was married to Dorcas, a daughter of Thomas Holt, to whom the land on the north and west side of the Juniata river, west of Lewistown, containing 360 acres, and extending from Lewistown to the Pennsylvania Railroad bridge, was warranted, August 29, 1762; the land adjoining, on the north side of Kishacoquillas creek, on which Lewistown now stands, containing two hundred and one and four-tenths acres, being warranted, July 2, 1762, to Dorcas Buchanan, the first white woman to come to this part of the country. She was the mother of Thomas Holt, and previous to this date, had become a widow, and married Arthur Buchanan. The land east of the Dorcas Buchanan tract was taken up by Col. Arthur Buchanan, her step-son, about the same date, as well as other land on the opposite side of the river, by William and Armstrong Buchanan. Dorcas Buchanan died January 22, 1804, aged ninety-three years, and her remains were interred in the first cemetery laid out it Lewistown, at the corner of Brown and Water streets, where the grave is now marked by a rude stone. James Stackpole (2), father-in-law of Dorcas Holt, the grand-daughter of Dorcas Buchanan, came to the Juniata valley from Carlisle previous to 1776. He was one of the few settlers who did not flee from the valley because of the incursion of the French and Indians, and their destruction of Fort Granville, situated a short distance west of Lewistown, Pa., on July 30, 1756. He had others, by petition "to the Hon. Robert H. Morris, Esq., Lieutenant, Governor of the Province of Pennsylvania," read in general council August 21, 1756, called for troops to protect them while gathering in their harvests, from the attacks of the Indians and their equally save French allies, and other renegades, who were harassing this section of the province. In early life James Barton Stackpole (5) removed to Lewistown, Pa. and engaged to learn printing in the office of the Lewistown Gazette, under George Frysinger, Sr., proprietor and publisher. He turned his attention subsequently to various occupations, among others to navigation on the Pennsylvania canal, then the most important means of transportation, and to railroading on the Pennsylvania Central; in the latter employment he met with an accident by which he was partially crippled in his right hand. He was also employed as a sub-contractor during the construction of the Mifflin and Centre County Railroad. On November 29, 1853, James B. Stackpole was married to Eliza. A., daughter of Daniel Switzer. The children composing their family are: George F. and James S. Stackpole (6), the present publishers and proprietors of the Lewistown Gazette; Mary C., wife of Lewis N. Slagle, ex-treasurer of Mifflin county; and Harriet E., wife of C. Edwin Woodruff, government mail clerk on the Pennsylvania Railroad; all residing at Lewistown, Pa., Frederick Switzer, father of Daniel Switzer, and grandfather of Mrs. Eliza A. (Switzer) Stackpole, came from Switzerland to America some time subsequent to 1700, but the exact date is unknown. He was one of the earliest settlers in the Juniata valley, and in what is now Juniata county. James B. Stackpole (5) was a member of Company C, Seventy-eighth Pennsylvania Volunteers, and died of smallpox, that dread disease of army life, March 23, 1865, at Nashville, Tenn., where his remains are interred in the National cemetery. Thomas Holt, great-grandfather of James Barton Stackpole, and first husband of Dorcas Buchanan above mentioned was of the family of Sir John Holt, chief justice of England, who died in 1709. He fell in love with a young lady not of the nobility. Their union was opposed by the Holt family, and the girl whose maiden name is given by tradition as Dorcas White, was spirited out of an upper window of her father's residence, about 1730, by direction of the Holt family, and by them sent to America, in order to prevent her married to Thomas Holt. A year after, on learning of the whereabouts of his lady love, Thomas Holt came to America, married her, and settled at what is now Carlisle, Pa., occupied as a silversmith. About 1750 he left home for the purpose of visiting Philadelphia, but was not hear from by his family thereafter; the supposition was that he was either killed by Indians on this way to Philadelphia, or that finding at that place a summons to go to England at once on urgent family business, he departed, and was drowned in the foundering of the ship upon which he took passage. He left behind his wife Dorcas and three sons, John, Thomas and Henry. About 1754 Dorcas and her son Thomas settled in the Juniata valley, near the mouth of the Kishacoquillas creek, and in close vicinity of the Indian village of Chief Jacobs, which occupied the site of Ohesson, the village of "Kissikahquelas," a Shawnese chief, the latter having moved to the Kishacoquillas valley about twenty-three years before, where he died in 1756. Ohesson was afterwards called Old Town (now Lewistown) by the white settlers; the same name was given to a similar settlement at or near Frankstown, Pa., made about the same time. During the French and Indian disturbances, Dorcas Holt returned to Carlisle, and while at that place, waiting for the war troubles to subside, she married Arthur Buchanan, with whom she returned to the land on the Juniata river, on which she had previously settled, and which was subsequently warranted to her. Sir Richard Stackpole, of Pembrokeshire, England, is said to have been knighted by William the Conqueror, and probably built Stackpole Court, the present seat of the Earl of Cawdor. Sir Elidyr Stackpole went to the Crusades with Richard the Lion-hearted in 1189. Sir Robert went over to Ireland with "Strong Bow" about 1168, and founded a family. It was from him that James Stackpole (1) descended, who came to America in 1680, and settled in what is now Rollingsford, N. H., dying there in 1736. James Stackpole (2), who was a resident of Carlisle, Pa., in 1750, was one of his family. His sons, John and James (3) served in the Revolutionary war, the former in the Third Pennsylvania Regiment, Continental Line, and the latter in Capt. George Hays' Company of Cumberland County Militia.