BIO:  Michael SMYSER, 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, York Borough, Pg 46

COL. MICHAEL SMYSER, the eldest son, was born in 1740, and was long and 
extensively known as a highly respectable farmer and tavern keeper in what is 
now West Manchester Township, near the site of his father’s home.  He owned a 
farm of 200 acres.  Though not favored with a liberal education, he was known as 
a man of discriminating mind and sound judgment.  He was early associated with 
the Revolutionary patriots, and was a useful man in the councils of that day, as 
well as on the field of battle.  He was one of a committee of twelve from York 
County, who raised money in 1773 to send to the inhabitants of Boston, when the 
port of that city was closed by the British, collecting £6 12s 1d from his own 
township.  If the American cause had failed, every one of that committee would 
have forfeited his life on the scaffold of the enemy.  He joined the Continental 
Army as a captain in Col. Michael Swope’s regiment of York County volunteers, 
and was captured by the enemy in the engagement at Fort Washington, north of New 
York City, on the 16th of September, 1776.  Several months of distressing 
imprisonment followed, during which time he was unremitting in his efforts to 
alleviate the sufferings of others, and bold and animated in the advocacy of his 
country’s cause.  After his release and return home, in 1778, he was elected a 
member of the house of representatives of Pennsylvania from York County, and 
from that time to 1790 was seven times re-elected to the same position.  From 
1790 to 1795 he represented his county in the State senate, being the first 
person to fill that position under the State constitution of 1790.  Here, his 
warm attachment to our political institutions enabled him to act with honor to 
himself and his constituents.  After the war he turned his attention to 
agricultural pursuits, and kept a tavern.  He died in the year 1810, and his 
remains are interred near those of his father in the graveyard of the First 
Lutheran Church of York.  He left three sons and four daughters, namely:  Peter, 
Elizabeth, Sarah, Jacob, Mary, Michael and Susan.