BIO:  Martin Luther Duhling, York County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

Copyright 2005.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/york/
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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, Manchester Township, Pg 133

MARTIN LUTHER DUHLING, justice of the peace, was born in Manchester Township, 
April 9, 1820.  His father was Martin Duhling, a native of England, and his 
mother, Barbara Quickel, born in York County.  Until his fifteenth year, our 
subject remained on the farm, and then learned the pottery trade, which he 
followed twenty years.  He was educated at the public schools, and at seventeen 
years began teaching, and taught thirty-two winters in York County.  At twenty-
one years of age he married Elizabeth A. Bentz, daughter of John Bentz, of 
Manchester.  They had seven children, four of whom are now living:  William H., 
of York, now of Edgar, Clay Co., Neb.; Sarah Catherine, wife of George Mathias, 
of New Cumberland; Emma S., wife of Stephen Copenhefer, miller, at Hellam, and 
Lillian Jane, at home.  The three who died were John Clay, thirteen years; Annie, 
two years; Maria, wife of H. M. Everhart, twenty-six years.  Mr. Duhling formerly 
belonged to the Lutheran Church, but left it in 1868 to connect himself with the 
United Brethren Church, in which he is assistant class leader.  Since 1870 he has 
been secretary of the Quarterly Conference.  In 1844 he was captain of the 
militia of Hellam District.  He was a member of the Manchester Borough Council in 
1880, and in 1884 again elected for three years, and has been secretary of the 
council for ten years.  Being elected justice of the peace on Manchester Township 
in 1863, he has held that office nearly twenty-two years.  Since 1857 he has also 
been engaged in butchering, and with the exception of ten years has followed it 
ever since.  He attends also to surveying and conveyancing.  August 23, 1864, he 
enlisted in Company D, Two Hundredth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, and served 
until the end of the war.  When the regiment was properly organized, he was 
elected first lieutenant, while his son was elected captain.  His company served 
in the Army of the Potomac, and participated in the battles in front of 
Petersburg.  At Fort Steadman he was wounded by a piece of shell striking him in 
the left leg; he lay in the hospital about eight days, but could not do any duty 
for fifteen days.  The company was raised by him and his son, and it was his 
express wish that his son should be its captain.  It left Harrisburg with 104 
men, and returned with only seventy.  In politics Mr. Duhling is a Republican.  
In 1870 he took the census for Manchester Township and Borough, and from 1860 to 
1866 he was postmaster at Manchester.  His children, with the exception of the 
youngest, have all been teachers in the public schools.