AREA HISTORY: Melsheimers, Hanover, York County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis Copyright 2006. 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. _______________________________________________ DISTINGUISHED ENTOMOLOGISTS – Page 593 Says Dr. H. A. Hagan, professor of entomology in Harvard College at Cambridge, Mass.: “The Melsheimers of York County, Penn., have been considered by the English entomologist Th. Say, to be the fathers of entomology in the United States.” Dr. Carl Zimmermann the distinguished scientist, in order to know all that could be learned of the elder Melsheimer, visited Hanover in 1834, before the time of railroads. From his manuscript diary was found the following: “From York, Penn., I walked eighteen miles to the southwest to Hanover, where I arrived January 7, 1834. Introduced to a Mr. Lange, the editor of the Hanover Gazette, I was informed that the older Melsheimer died twenty years before. Mr. Lange had been well acquainted with him, and the widow and several children are still living in the town. The following I copied out from the obituary in the Hanover Gazette: “Friedrich Valentin Melsheimer, minister of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hanover, died June 30, 1814, in consequence of a lung disease of thirty years’ duration, sixty-four years, ten months and seven days old. He was born September 25, 1749, at Negenborn, in the dukedom of Brunswick. His father, Joachim Sebastian Melsheimer, was superintendent of forestry to the duke. F. V. Melsheimer was sent, in 1756, to school in Holzminden; in 1769 he went to the university in Helmstredt. He received, 1776, the appointment as chaplain to a regiment, which he accompanied to America, and arrived July 1st, in Quebec. In 1779 he came to Bethlehem, Penn., and married, June 3, Mary Agnes Mann, by whom he had eleven children. From August 19, 1789, he was minister in Hanover, Pa.’” Dr. Zimmermann called on Mrs. Melsheimer, and was told by her and her daughter that after his death his eldest son, John Friedrich Melsheimer, succeeded his father as minister, whose love for natural history he had inherited, together with his collection and library. Rev. J. F. Melsheimer is the entomologist quoted so often by Th. Say, in his American Entomology by Anthicus bicolor. The father, F. V. Melsheimer, was in correspondence with the well known German entomologist, A. W. Knoch, in Brunswick, who states in the volume before mentioned that up to 1801 he had received from him over 700 American insects. He gives still very valuable descriptions of twenty-three species. F. V. Melsheimer published the well known catalogue, “Insects of Pennsylvania,” in 1806. It contained sixty pages. This is a work much sought after, but now very rare. It contained a description and classification of 1,363 species of beetles, the first work of the kind ever published in America. Dr. Knoch of Germany printed a book in 1801, dedicated to F. V. Melsheimer; it is now in the Harvard Museum. Rev. John Melsheimer died about 1830 and his brother, Ernst Frederick Melsheimer, M. D., inherited the collection and library of father and brother who had done so much for entomological science. He removed to Davidsburg in Dover Township. The celebrated Dr. Zimmermann, when on his visit to Hanover, went to Davidsburg to visit Dr. Melsheimer, and in his diary is found the following: “The house rudely constructed with boards, painted red, stood all alone in the middle of the forest. His wife was at the spinning wheel. The reception was indeed a very cordial one, and when he heard that his father’s book was well known, and mentioned in German, English and French works, which he never dreamed of, he became animated and talked with great interest on entomological matters and books.” Dr. Zimmermann wondered at this and soon found that Dr. Melsheimer himself was a devotee of the science as well as his deceased father and brother. They looked over the collection of specimens which were kept in good order, and all the labels of his father’s handwriting were correctly attached. Twice more in 1839, Dr. Zimmermann visited Melsheimer in company with Rev. D. Ziegler, of York, who then began to turn his attention to entomology. In 1842 the Entomological Society of Pennsylvania was formed, and Dr. Melsheimer, of Davidsburg was chosen president in 1853. The only survivor of this society now is Dr. J. G. Morris, of Baltimore. The object of this society was to publish a catalogue of the known coleopteran of the United States. Pastor Ziegler and Dr. Melsheimer were co-laborers in this important work, and the book was soon after published, and is now very valuable in scientific circles. The work was revised by the late Prof. S. S. Haldeman and J. L. LeConte in 1853, and published by the Smithsonian Institute at Washington. Dr. Frederick, Ernest Melsheimer, the third of the name who won fame in the science of entomology, died at Davidsburg, March 10, 1873, aged ninety-one years. He was born in Hanover, 1782, and graduated in medicine in Baltimore. His father, brother and himself were known throughout Europe by the great naturalists. The Melsheimer Collection of entomological specimens was sold by Dr. Melsheimer in 1864, to the distinguished naturalist Prof. Louis Agassiz, who also bought the collection then owned by Rev. D. Ziegler. They are now highly prized and are in the museum at Harvard College, Massachusetts. The Melsheimer collections, when sold, filled 41 wooden boxes 10½ x 14 inches and 2 inches high, each one lined inside with Helianthus pith. The price paid was $250. It contained, netto, 5,302 species with 14, 774, specimens. Of this number 2,200 species belonged to the United States; 1,894 species from Europe; 422 from Brazil;. 8 from Mexico; 9 from West Indies; 4 from Siberia; China, 74; Java, 8; Africa, 39; Australia, 14. The others insects were, Hymenoptera, 148 species; Hemipteran, 28; European Diptera, 90; Lepidoptera, none. The contents of the Ziegler collection were, after the same report, netto, 5,302 species, with 11,837 specimens. United States Coleoptera, 1,794 species with 6,262 specimens. From Europe, 1,729 species; Brazil, 378; Mexico, 34; West Indies, 40; Siberia, 21; China, 55; Java, 12; Africa, 110; Australia, 14, besides Lepidoptera, Orthoptera, Neuroptera, Hymenoptera, Diptera. The Ziegler collection filled a cabinet with 45 boxes in three rows. The boxes are a little smaller than the Melsheimer ones, the bottom of plain wood, the cover with a pane of glass. Every species had a square written label on the pin, with the name and the locality. Among the former citizens of Hanover who held official position were associate judges, Jacob Rudisill, Henry Slagle, John L. Hinkle and David Newcomer whose biographies appear in the chapter on the “Bench and Bar” in this work. A sketch of Congressman Jacob Hostetter, appears in the chapter on “Historical Biography.” Other citizens of note in Hanover who are now deceased were Dr. Henry W. Wampler, W. D. Gobrecht, Christian Henry and Jacob Wirt; Adam, Philip, Marks, Jacob Forney, and Matthias N. Forney, Jacob Eichelberger, George Nace, Henry Danner, Elder Metzger, Dr. J. P. Smith, D. P. Lange and Dr. Culbertson. Jacob Tome, the great financier, who now resides at Port Deposit, Md., was born in Hanover, August 13, 1810, of very humble German parentage. Michael Africa, the grandfather of Hon. J. Simpson Africa, secretary of internal affairs, of Pennsylvania, in 1783, lived near Hanover.