Biographical History of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

This biographical volume covers prominent individuals in the communities of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania; particularly those who served in public office. Though not an exhaustive work, it does include a great deal of useful information for historical and genealogical research. There is no index, but names are listed alphabetically. Some of the accounts are lengthy and detailed, others are brief.

Surnames:
Agnew, Albright, Amweg, Anderson, Andrews, Armstrong, Atlee, Bachman, Baer, Bailey, Baker, Baldwin, Balmer, Barber, Bare, Barton, Bauman, Bausman, Baxter, Beates, Bec k, Bentz, Beissel, Bethel, Billingfelt, Black, Blunston, Boehm, Bomberger, Bowman, Boude, Boyd, Boyer, Brady, Brandt, Breckbill, Breneman, Brinton, Brisbin, Brooks, Brown, Brubaker, Brush, Buchanan, Buckley, Burrowes, Buyers, Caldwell, Cameron, Carpenter, Carter, Cassel, Cassidy, Chambers, Champneys, Clark, Clarkson, Clemson, Clinton, Cochran, Coleman, Coates, Collins, Cope, Conyngham, Cooke, Cowden, Cooper, Craig, Crumbaugh, Cunningham, Darlington, Davies, Deering, Denues, Dickey, Dickinson, Dieffenderffer, Diller, Dixon, Doner, Douglass, Duchman, Duffield, Dunlap, Dysart, Eberman, Eberle, Eberly, Eby, Eckman, Edie, Edwards, Ehler, Ehrenfried, Eichholtz, Ellmaker, Erb, Eshleman, Evans, Ewing, Fahnestock, Ferree, Fisher, Fogle, Fondersmith, Foreman, Ford, Fordney, Forney, Forrey, Foster, Franklin, Frazer, Frey, Fry, Fulton, Gara, Garber, Gatchell, Galbraith, Geist, Gest, Getz, Gibbons, Gibson, Gilchrist, Gish, Gleim, Good, Gotschalk, Greist, Grey, Grimler, Groff, Groh, Grosh, Grubb, Haines, Haldeman, Hambright, Hamilton, Hamaker, Hand, Harbaugh, Hartman, Haverstick, Hawthorne, Hayes, Heinitzsch, Heitler, Henderson, Hendrickson, Henry, Herr, Hershey, Hess, Hertz, Hibshman, Hiestand, Hiester, Hipple, Hoff, Hoffman, Hoffmeier, Holl, Hood, Hollinger, Hopkins, Hostetter, Housekeeper, Houston, Howell, Hower, Huber, Hubley, Humes, Hunsecker, Hurford, Huss, High, Jacks, Jackson, Jacobs, Jenkins, Johns, Jones, Kauffman, Keenan, Keene, Keller, Kemper, Kendig, Keneagy, Kennedy, Kerfoot, Keys, Kieffer, Kimmel, King, Kinzer, Kirk, Kittera, Kline, Konigmacher, Kramph, Kready, Kreider, Kreiter, Krug, Kucher, Kuhn, Kurtz, Kyle, Landis, Lane, Latta, Lauman, Lebkicher, Leech, LeFevre, Lehman, Libhart, Light, Lightner, Lindley, Linville, Livingston, Long, Lovett, Lowery, Mackey, Marsteller, Martin, Mathiot, Maxwell, May, Mayer, McAlister, McCamant, McCleery, McClure, McCulloch, McEvoy, McGowan, McGrann, McLenegan, McMillan, McSparren, Mehaffey, Mercer, Michael, Miller, Miles, Mitchell, Mohler, Montgomery, Moore, Morrison, Mosher, Muhlenberg, Musgrove, Musser, Musselman, Myers, Nauman, Neale, Nevin, Nissley, Noble, North, Ober, Old, Orth, Overholtzer, Owen, Parke, Parr, Passmore, Patterson, Paxson, Pearsol, Peelor, Pennel, Peters, Porter, Powell, Pownall, Price, Pyfer, Ramsey, Rathvon, Rauch, Rawlins, Reed, Reddig, Reichenbach, Reigart, Reinhold, Reinoehl, Reist, Reiszel, Reynolds, Rhine, Richards, Righter, Ringwald, Roath, Roberts, Robinson, Rogers, Rohrer, Roland, Ross, Rowe, Royer, Rutter, Sample, Sanderson, Saunders, Schaeffer, Schaum, Schwartz, Scott, Seldomridge, Seybert, Shaw, Shaeffer, Shelley, Shenck, Shenk, Sherer, Shippen, Shirk, Shoch, Shreiner, Shultz, Shulze, Shuman, Slaymaker, Slokom, Slough, Smilie, Smith, Spencer, Sprenger, Stauffer, Steacy, Steele, Stehman, Steigel, Steinman, Stevens, Stoner, Stoek, Stoey, Strickler, Strohm, Stubbs, Stuart, Styer, Summy, Swarr, Swift, Taylor, Thompson, Urban, Varmann, Varnes, Vondersmith, Wade, Walker, Wallace, Walton, Warfel, Watson, Weaver, Webb, Weidman, Welsh, White, Whitehill, Whitelock, Whiteside, Whitson, Wickersham, Wiley, Wilson, Williams, Witmer, Withers, Wood, Work, Worley, Worrall, Worth, Wright, Wylie, Yeates, Zahm, Zecher, Zeller, Zimmerman.

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Biography of General John Gibson

Gibson, General John, was born in Lancaster city, Pennsylvania, on the 23rd of May, 1740. Having received an excellent education, at the age of eighteen he made choice of a military career as the most congenial to his tastes. His first service was under Gen. Forbes, in the campaign that resulted in the capture of Fort Duquesne (now Pittsburg), from the French. When the peace of 1763 was concluded between the French and English, he settled as a trader at Fort Pitt. Shortly afterwards, war broke out anew with the Indians, and he was taken prisoner by them at the mouth of Beaver creek, while descending the Ohio river in a canoe, together with two men in his employ, one of whom was immediately burned, and the other suffered the same fate on reaching the mouth of the Kanawha river. Gibson, on this occasion, owed his life to the partiality of an aged squaw, who chose him as her adopted son, in lieu of her own whom she had lost in battle. He was necessitated to remain many years with the Indians, where he became immediately conversant with their language, habits, manners, customs and traditions. It has been a subject of extreme regret by many, that he should have held these matters in such slight esteem as to deem his collections unworthy of being transmitted to posterity; for it is evident that in the present state of antiquarian research, they would throw light upon many questions that are now agitated among scientific men. No man of his attainments and ability to set forth his observations, has had equal opportunities for coming to a correct knowledge of the Indian character, unless his friend, the Rev. Heckewelder, is to be excepted. Upon the termination of hostilities, he again settled at Fort Pitt.

In 1774 he acted a conspicuous part in the expedition against the Shawnee towns, under the command of Lord Dunmore, and was particularly active in the negotiation of the peace that followed, and which restored many prisoners to their friends after long years of anxious captivity. It was on this occasion that the celebrated speech of Logan, the Mingo chief, was delivered, and the circumstances connected with its delivery are of sufficient interest to account for their recital in this sketch, such as they were detailed by Gen. Gibson himself a short time before his death. When the troops had reached the principal town of the Shawnees, and while active preparations were being made to put everything in readiness for the attack, Gen. Gibson, with an escort and flag of truce, was despatched to the Indians with authority to treat for peace. .As he approached he perceived Logan, (whom he had previously seen), standing in the path, and he addressed him with the familiar greeting: " My friend Logan, how do you do ? I am glad to see you." To this, Logan, with a coldness of manner and brevity of expression which clearly betokened his feelings, replied: " I suppose you are," and immediately turned away. After explaining the object of his embassy to the assembled chiefs, (all of whom were present except Logan), he found them all sincerely anxious for peace. Whilst the terms of reconciliation were being discussed he felt himself plucked by the skirt of his capote, and turning around he saw Logan at his back, standing with his face convulsed with rage, and by signs beckoning to follow him. What to do he was at first in doubt, but reflecting that he was at least equal to his antagonist, being armed with dirk and side pistols, and in muscular strength his superior, and considering, above all, that any betrayal of fear in this emergency, might prove detrimental to the negotiation, he followed in silence, while Logan with quick steps led the way to a copse of woods at some little distance. Here they seated themselves, and the stern and fearless chief was instantly suffused in a torrent of gushing tears, but as yet no word was uttered, and his grief appeared inconsolable. As soon, however, as he had regained the power of utterance, he delivered the speech in question, and desired it to be transmitted to Lord Dunmore, in order to remove all suspicion that might be entertained in reference to a treaty, in the ratification of which a chief of his importance had not participated. Accordingly, the speech was translated and sent to Lord Dunmore without delay. Gen. Gibson could not positively say that the speech, as given by Jefferson in his Notes on Virginia, was verbatim as he had penned it; but he was inclined to think from certain expressions which he remembered, it was so; that it gave the substance, he was confident. Gen. Gibson, however, believed that it was not in the power of a translation to do justice to the speech as delivered by Logan ; a speech to which the language of passion, uttered in tones of the deepest feeling, and with gestures at once naturally graceful and commanding, together with a consciousness on the part of the hearer that the sentiments proceeded immediately from a desolate and broken heart, imparted a grandeur and force inconceivably great. Indeed, as compared with the original, he even regarded the translation as but lame and insipid.

On the breaking out of the revolutionary war, Gen. Gibson obtained the command of one of the Continental regiments, and was with the army at New York and during its retreat through New Jersey; but during the remainder of the war -he was detailed on the western frontier, a service for which his long sojourn among the Indians had peculiarly qualified him. In 1776 he was a member of the convention which framed the Constitution of Pennsylvania, and was afterward appointed a judge of the court of common pleas of the county of Allegheny, and a major general of the militia. In the year 1800 he received from President Jefferson the appointment of Secretary of the Territory of Indiana, and this position he retained until the territory was admitted as a State into the Union. Laboring under an incurable -cataract, which had for a long time afflicted him, he now retired to Braddock's Field, the residence of his son-in-law, Geo. Wallace, esq., and there died April 10th, 1822, having sustained through life the character of a brave soldier and an honest man.

More Information on Lord Dunmore and his War