Notes:
BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF DAUPHIN COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
CONTAINING
Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens, and Many of the Early Scotch-Irish and German Settlers
ILLUSTRATED
1896
Chambersburg, PA
J.M. RUNK & COMPANY
Publishers
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History of Dauphin County.
GENEALOGICAL MEMOIRS.
Volume III
By Luther Reily Kelker, The Lewis Publishing Company, New York and Chicago, 1907
Page 1-20
Transcribed by Nancy Piper for Genealogy Trails
Benjamin Franklin Meyers (Page 5-7)
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN MEYERS, the well known editor, lawyer, politician, author and successful business man, is a descendant of a family who originally came from Germany, from which country such numbers of our enterprising and progressive citizens trace their ancestry. His grandmother on the father's side, however, was the daughter of a North of Ireland man.
Jacob Meyers, great-grandfather of Benjamin F. Meyers, was a native of Lancaster, now Lebanon county, Pennsylvania, and about 1785 purchased a tract of wild and unsettled land in . the region of what is now the borough of Meyersdale, Somerset county. He did not settle here, but sent his sons?Christian, Jacob, Henry and John?to look after the property. All these sons settled on farms cleared from this purchase.
John Meyers, grandfather of Benjamin F. Meyers, was a farmer and miller, which occupations he followed throughout the active years of his .life. He married a Miss Dickey, whose father came from the North of Ireland, and they reared a large family, among whom was a son named Michael. D.
Michael D. Meyers, father of Benjamin F. Meyers, was born in 1809, in Somerset county, Pentaylvania, and died in 1867. He was educated in the township schools, and followed the occupation of farmer, from which he derived a comfortable livelihood. He attended the Reformed church, and in politics was first a Whig and later a Democrat. He married, in 1832, Sarah Schaff, born 1811, died 1886, a member for many years of the Reformed church, and a descendant of John Schaff, the original owner of large tracts of land in Somerset county, who came from the Palatinate, Germany. Their children were: Benjamin Franklin, of whom later. Carolyn, deceased, was the wife of Josiah Humbert, of Somerset county. William Henry Harrison, died at the age of five years. Uriah, died at the age of two years. James M., still living on the home farm near Gebhart, Pennsylvania; he married Lucinda Sanner and they reared a large family.
Benjamin F. Meyers was born on the home farm in Milford township, Somerset county, Pennsylvania, July 6, 1833. He attended the schools of New Centreville, Somerset Academy, Joseph J. Stutzman, principal, and in 1851 entered Jefferson College at Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. After two years of study in that institution he left to enter Yale College, but infirm health prevented him from becoming a student thereof. He had previously taught in the county schools, namely: New Centreville, where he was first a pupil ; a boys' school in Somerset, in 1853, having among his pupils such notable characters as George F. Baer, president of the Reading railroad ; Rear Admiral Picking, U. S. N.; Major John R. Edie, U. S. A., and , also a select school in Somerset. He read law in the office of Gen. William H. Koontz and was admitted to the Somerset county bar at the November term, 1855. He formed a partnership with Daniel Weyand and conducted business under the firm name of Weyand & Meyers.
Before admission to the bar and while yet a minor, Benjamin F. Meyers spent a year in Illinois, engaged in journalism, and met Lincoln, Douglass and other eminent men. In August, 1857, he removed to Bedford, Bedford county, Pennsylvania, and became editor of the Bedford Gazette. He was also admitted to the Bedford county bar and practiced his profession. In 1868 he became editor of the Harrisburg Daily and Weekly Patriot, which he made the leading Democratic organ of the state. He edited both papers until 1873, when he sold the Gazette, removed to Harrisburg and devoted his energies to the Patriot. In 1891 he disposed of the Patriot and purchased the Star-Independent, a consolidation of two Harrisburg papers?the Star and the Independent? and has been the owner and editor ever since. (See The Press Vol. I). In 1875-76 was President of Pennsylvania Exchange Association.
In politics Mr. Meyers is a Democrat, and has been honored with many important offices. In 1863 he was elected a member of the general assembly from Bedford county. That year the state was redistricted and his district made solidly Republican. Notwithstanding this Mr. Meyers was re-elected, but through some complications with the return of the army vote he was refused his seat by a strictly caucus action of the party to which he was opposed. In 1870 he was a candidate for congress from the sixteenth Pennsylvania district, comprising the counties of Adams, Bedford, Franklin, Fulton and Somerset. He was elected in spite of an adverse political majority of upwards of two thousand, and became a matter of the forty-second congress. In 1872 he was a candidate for e-election, but the nomination of Horace Greeley, as the Democratic candidate for president so weighted down the party that the Democracy was everywhere defeated; Mr. Meyers, although unanimously renominated, was beaten by about fourteen hundred, running about six hundred ahead of his party ticket. In 1895 he was offered as a sacrifice to the overwhelming Republican majority of Pennsylvania. In the face of certain defeat, his loyalty to his party was such that he consented to be its candidate for state treasurer. The appointive offices held by Mr. Meyers were postmaster of Harrisburg, appointed by President Cleveland in 1887, held office five years, three of which were under President Harrison, and state printer three years, (under contract) 1874 to 1877. In 1864 he was delegate to the national convention that nominated General McClellan; in 1880 district delegate to national convention that nominated General Hancock; in 1884 delegate at large to national convention that nominated Grover Cleveland; in 1896 delegate at large to national convention that nominated William J. ? Bryan ; in 1904 district delegate to national convention that nominated Alton B. Parker. Mr. Meyers is treasurer of the Democratic state committee and has held the office three terms.
Mr. Meyers has been actively and prominently identified with other business enterprises, as follows: Wilkes-Barre Electric Street Railway system, of which he was the founder; Citizens' Passenger Railway Company of Harrisburg, of which he is president; Central Pennsylvania Traction Company of Harrisburg, of which he is vice-president; Columbia and Montour Electric Railway Company, of which he is president; Carlisle and Mt. Holly Railway Company, of which he is president; Brelsford Packing and Storage Company of Harrisburg, of which he is president; and the United Telephone Company, a large company conducting business in Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland and Virginia, with principal offices in Philadelphia, of which he is a director. Mr. Meyers is a member and warden of St. Stephen's (Episcopal) church of Harrisburg; was for years a member of the Board of Missions, Diocese of Central Pennsylvania, and at present is a member of the standing committee of the Diocese of Harrisburg. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. He was initiated into the mysteries of Freemasonry at Bedford in 1866, and is a past master of that lodge. His chapter degrees were conferred by Standing Stone Chapter, R. A. M., Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. The remaining degrees of the Scottish Rite were conferred by the various bodies of Harrisburg Consistory. He is a member of Zembo Temple, A. A. 0. N. M. S. and of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, both of Harrisburg. Notwithstanding, his business and political successes, Mr. Meyers' tastes are decidedly literary. He has written much for papers and periodicals, mostly under a non de plume, and is the author of a volume entitled "A Drama of Ambition" and other pieces in verse. He has other literary work in course of preparation.\
Mr. Meyers married, April 4, 1854, Susan C. Koontz, born July 2, 1833, daughter of Jacob Koontz, and sister of General William H. Koontz (see Koontz ancestry). Mrs. Meyers was educated in the Somerset public and private schools, and is a member of the Protestant Episcopal church. The children of this marriage were:
Rosa S., married Ellis L. Mumma, a street railway contractor of Harrisburg. Their first born child, Winifred, a beautiful and talented young lady, died of typhoid fever at the age of twenty. They have one child living, Benjamin Meyers Mumma.
Edwin K., died January 13, 1898; he was state printer for eight years, and a member of the Harrisburg common council. Three children survive him, namely: Meredith, Susan C. and Benjamin F.
Henry S., of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Susan Irene, married Benjamin F. Africa, of Huntingdon, now of Harrisburg, a son of J. Simpson Africa; they have two sons, J. Simpson and Benjamin M. Africa.
William Koontz, a graduate of Yale law school, and a member of Dauphin county bar. He married Mary Hunter, and their children are:. Mary Elizabeth, William Koontz, Jr., and Winifred Meyers.
