| Notes |
- Author of Genealogy of the Meyer Family. 1890.
Henry — author of this book — was born in Miles township, Centre County, Pa., Dec. 8, 1840. It is not considered good taste for one to "blow his own horn." I shall, therefore, be very brief. I was brought up on father's farm doing such work as usually falls to the lot of farmer boys; and during the Winter season attended, two or three months in a term, the common schools of the neighborhood. In the Spring of 1860 I left home to learn the millwright trade with John Todd, then residing at Potters Mills, Pa., — a trade which both father and grandfather had followed before me. Whatever spare time I had was generally devoted to reading, and the study of mathematics or other subjects that had a bearing on my trade. Sometime in August, 1862, I returned home and on the 19th of that month enlisted in the army for "three years or during the war." A number of my old comrades enlisted about the same time and we were a few days later organized at Camp Curtin, Harrisburg, Pa., as Company "A" of the 148. Regt. P. V. We went through the usual disciplinary stages of the volunteer soldier, and first got down to serious business at Chancellorsville, Va., May, 1863. There was in me a slight leaven of the military spirit, and the boom of cannon, the shriek of the shells, the roar of the musketry, the cheer of the Union Soldiers and the yell of the Rebels reverberating through the deep woods raised my enthusiasm to the highest pitch, and I felt as though I could myself vanquish a whole regiment of the enemy! That was while we lay on the picket line in an opposite direction and at a tolerably safe distance from the disturbance. But later on after a better acquaintance with the serious work before us, when those shrieking missiles began to come uncomfortably close and streams of mangled boys in blue came passing by us to the rear, then, well then, it must be confessed, my ardor abated very considerably. That was the mental and moral experience, I believe, of most of the soldiers. I was in every battle in which the regiment was engaged until my discharge, among which were those of Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Auburn Mills, Mine Run, the Wilderness and Po River or Laurel Hill, besides several skirmishes of lesser note. Never being in the hospital I took in all. I was slightly wounded at Chancellorsville, but more seriously at Po River, May 10, 1864; a minnie ball passing through my left hand near the wrist which necessitated amputation and which operation was performed May 17, 1864. by A. F. Sheldon, Surgeon in charge of Campbell Hospital, Washington, P. C. I was discharged at my own request in September following, came home and entered the Rebersburg Select School then in progress. The mutilated condition of my corporeal part rendered my trade useless to me and it became necessary to mark out a new course for the future. I taught school during the following Winter ('64 and '65), went to school again the next Summer and thus continued teaching and going to school alternately for several years. In 1866 I attended the Union Seminary, New Berlin, Pa., and in the Fall of 1868 I entered the Keystone State Normal School at Kutztown, Pa., graduating with first honors the Spring following. I assisted Supt. R. M. Magee in the Centre County Normal School for a number of years. In May, 1S75, I was elected County Superintendent of Common Schools of Center Co., for a term of three years, and was re-elected without opposition to the same office May, 1878. In the Fall of 1882 I was elected a member of the State Legislature, which, for reasons that need not be stated here, was in continuous session from Jan. 2, 1883, to Dec. 6, same year. I was married at Unionville. Centre Co., Pa., Jan. 18, 1872, to Martha Jane, daughter of Thomas J. Taylor ; and have lived ever since at Rebersburg. Pa. Roth myself and wife joined the Evangelical Church Feb. 6, 1874. Elected Justice of the Peace Feb. 18, 1890. Children .—Infant son, dead, Nov. 11. 1872; Hannah Jane, born Jan. 11, 1876; Henry Taylor, born Oct. 3, 1882; Mary Matilda, born Aug. 14, 1885; Sarah Ellen, born Sept. 1, 1887; Robert William, born Aug. 14, 1889.
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1840 - 1925 (84 years)
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