BIO:  George Ensminger, 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/
_______________________________________________ 

History of York County, Pennsylvania.  John Gibson, Historical Editor.
Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886.
_______________________________________________ 

Part II, Biographical Sketches, Conewago Township, Pg 94

GEORGE ENSMINGER, Esq., was born in Manchester Township, eldest son of Samuel 
Ensminger and grandson of John Ensminger, great-grandson of Conrad Ensminger, and 
great-great-grandson of Heinrich Ensminger, who came from the Palatine by the 
ship “Samuel, of London;” landed at Philadelphia, Penn., August 17, 1733, and 
settled near Lewisberry, this county.  George Ensminger, Esq., the subject of our 
sketch, lived in Dover Township from the time he was three years old, and was 
educated in the public schools of said township and worked on the farm until 
August 12, 1863, when he joined the army and became a member of Company I, One 
Hundred and Forty-third Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers.  He participated in the 
battles of Haymarket and Wilderness.  In the latter he was unfortunately captured 
by the Confederates, was a prisoner of war at Danville, Va., Andersonville, Ga., 
and Florence, S. C., for a term of nine months and twenty-two days.  After being 
paroled joined his regiment, and was mustered out with the regiment June 12, 
1865; returned home and worked on the farm till the fall of 1869; traveled west 
to Ohio and Michigan, and returned to the oil region of Pennsylvania and worked 
in the oil fields till the fall of 1870; returned to York County, worked on the 
farm till the spring of 1872.  He entered the York County Academy under the 
instructions of Profs. Ruby and Heiges; taught school in the winter and went to 
school at the York County Academy during the summer, and taught the summer of 
1874 as assistant teacher to Prof. Ruby.  Moved to Conewago Township in the 
spring of 1875 and taught school.  Was elected justice of the peace in 1877, but 
did not take up his commission.  Was elected justice of the peace again in the 
spring of 1880 by the votes of both parties; followed surveying and conveyancing 
in connection with his office, teaching school in the winter till the spring of 
1884, teaching twelve terms in succession, when he was appointed United States 
Storekeeper and Gauger, in which vocation he is at present (1885) engaged.  The 
genealogy of the Ensminger family is as follows:  Heinrich Ensminger, father of 
Conrad Ensminger and others; Conrad Ensminger, born in 1745, and father of John 
and others, died July 13, 1783, buried at Quickel’s Church; John Ensminger, 
father of Samuel, Jacob, John, Henry, Elizabeth and Mary, born in 1783, died in 
1862; Samuel Ensminger, father of George (the subject of this sketch), Samuel, 
Albert W. and Jacob W., was born March 9, 1811, died April 9, 1879.