BIO:  Levi Chronister, York County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

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History of York County, Pennsylvania.  John Gibson, Historical Editor.
Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886.
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Part II, Biographical Sketches, Franklin Township, Pg 105

LEVI CHRONISTER was born in Adams County, Penn., in 1831, a son of Jonas and 
Margaret (Sowers) Chronister, of Adams and Cumberland Counties, Penn., 
respectively.  His grandfather was a native of Adams County and a farmer, which 
occupation he followed until his death in 1836.  His farm contained about 400 
acres, and was situated in Reading Township, Adams County.  He was drafted for 
the army in 1812.  Jonas Chronister was a farmer and teamster.  He owned several 
town lots in Hampton, Adams County, and a farm of thirty acres on which he lived.  
He died from an apoplectic stroke April 3, 1881, aged seventy-seven years.  A 
brother of subject’s grandfather was killed in the Revolutionary war.  Levi 
Chronister remained on the farm until his seventeenth year.  When the common 
school system was adopted in Pennsylvania he was one of the first teachers in 
Reading Township, Adams County, where he taught twenty-one terms.  In 1852 he 
entered Dickinson College at Carlisle, Penn., where he attended two session, 
about 300 students being then there.  Before going to Carlisle he worked at 
blacksmithing, but being disabled by a kick from a horse, he in 1851 learned the 
trade of a wheelwright, at which he worked eleven summers, teaching school in the 
winter.  He was elected justice of the peace in Reading Township, and held that 
office for fourteen years.  In 1868 he moved to Franklin Township, where he 
engaged in teaching school, settling up estates, fire insurance, and served as 
justice of the peace.  He was married, in 1856, to Amanda Picking, daughter of 
William S. Picking, of Dover Township.  They have had two children:  Albert W. 
(deceased) and William P.  Mrs. Chronister died in 1864.  In 1868 Mr. C. married 
Susannah Mumper, daughter of George Bollinger, of York County.  Mr. Chronister 
has taught school for thirty-seven winter terms.