John Stoner Beidler was the patriarch of a prominent Wrightsville family.
Guest post: The Beidlers of Wrightsville Meet General John Gordon
When I wrote my book, Flames Beyond Gettysburg, I extensively quoted the 1863 diary of businessman and lumber merchant John Stoner Beidler, who lived and worked near Wrightsville, PA. One of his descendants contacted me via email and shared some family history.
Today’s post is from Ken Maxwell, a descendant of the Beidler Family. Here is his story:
The Beidlers were prominent residents of Wrightsville, York County, Pennsylvania, in the 1800s. They owned a large lumber mill along the Susquehanna River, a large hardware store, and many properties throughout Wrightsville and Hellam Township, including a large farm in Hellam. To give you an idea of where Wrightsville is located, it is about 60 miles west of Philadelphia, on the west bank of the Susquehanna River, and a major bridge crosses the river into Columbia on the east side.
During the Civil War, the U.S. government contracted with the Beidler Lumber Company to supply lumber to rebuild the bridge, and the work was completed. In June 1863, as the Confederate troops attempted to invade the North through Pennsylvania towards Harrisburg, Brigadier General John B. Gordon led a brigade of Georgians in Jubal A. Early’s division into Wrightsville. The Union Militia led by Colonel Jacob G. Frick set the mile-and-a-half bridge on fire to stop the advance of the Confederates, but in doing so, also set parts of Wrightsville on fire. Gordon’s troops manned a bucket brigade, saving the borough, but this would be as far north that any Confederate army would go, and Gordon’s brigade would turn back and fight at Gettysburg. While Gordon was in Wrightsville, he set up his command in the Beidler’s large residence up the hill from the bridge and had a ready meal waiting for him on the dinner table as the Beidlers fled as dinner was served. John B. Gordon later became a U.S. senator and the governor of Georgia.
John Stoner Beidler’s Front Street home at the time of the burning of the Columbia Bridge.
As the railroads brought immense change to our nation after the Civil War, so did family fortune. The U.S. government never paid the Beidlers for the lumber used to rebuild the mile-and-a-half bridge that was burned down and had stopped the Confederates from advancing toward Harrisburg. The railroads had changed how lumber could be delivered, therefore reducing the once lucrative business along the river and changing the face of Wrightsville. Before the turn of the century, the Beidlers moved to Orange County, Florida, and started an orange plantation.
A young Claude N. Beidler, son of Harry Beidler and grandson of John Stoner Beidler, the one who built the large businesses in Wrightsville, was an adventurous young man. He had joined the U.S. army, was at one time a soldier of fortune and also became a Florida state trooper out of Miami.
On January 9th, 1904, retired Governor John B. Gordon, while visiting his son in Miami, Florida, suddenly died. So, who was one of the men assigned to Escort General, senator and Governor Gordon’s body back to Atlanta, Georgia? Yes, Claude N. Beidler. Claude was now escorting the body of the man that took over his family home in June 1863. What a strange twist of history!
Picture of Claude N. Beidler. in his Miami trooper uniform
Miami Herald article showing Claude Beidler escorting the deceased John B. Gordon
From
John Gibson’s History of York CountyPennsylvania, 1886
| The subject of this sketch is one of the most prominent and active of the business men of Wrightsville, and is now engaged in the hardware business. For many years he carried on the lumber business in Wrightsville, and his trade extended throughout York and Adams counties in Pennsylvania, and Frederick and Harford counties in Maryland, and from his extended business connections he is well and favorably known throughout this whole region of country. He has recently placed the lumber business in the hands of his oldest son, Harry B. Beidler, and devotes his attention to the hardware business.Mr. Beidler was born in the year 1836, on the farm now owned by him about two miles from Wrightsville, in Hellam township. This farm has been in the uninterrupted possession of the Beidler family since the year 1744, having been conveyed, in that year, by patent from John Penn, Thomas Penn and Richard Penn, to Ulrich Beidler, the great-great-grandfather of John Beidler, and has been transferred from one generation to another of his descendants until it reached the present owner.
Ulrich Beidler, above mentioned, was one of the first of the German settlers of the Creitz Creek valley, though we have no record of the exact date of his arrival. The records of the family show that he and his wife Barbara left three sons and three daughters. One of the daughters, Anna, was married to Henry Strickler, and was the maternal ancestor of many of the Stricklers now living in the valley. Barbara, another daughter, was married to Jacob Blasser. We have no record of the descendants of the other daughter, Frena, or of the two younger sons, Peter and Jacob, though it is more than probable that descendants of Jacob Beidler, who it is known left children, may be found. The oldest son of Ulrich Beidler, Daniel Beidler, and who inherited the home farm, married, and with his wife Barbara, had a family of one son and eight daughters, all of whom lived to grow up and become heads of families of their own. Of the daughters, Barbara was married to Joseph Erb, of Warwick township, Lancaster county, Magdalena, to Jacob Witmer, of Cumberland county, Anna, to Daniel Flury, Frena to Jacob Grove, of Hawkins county, North Carolina, Elizabeth to Nathan Barns, of Washington county, Pennsylvania, Mary to Melchoir Bringalf, and Catharine to ___________ Berntheisel. Daniel Beidler, the second, the only son, who was born March 6th, 1770, married Susanna Fitz, and on the death of his father, Daniel Beidler the first, came into possession of the homestead, paying to his sisters their respective shares of their father’s estate. He had six children, namely, Jacob, born in 1804, Barbara, born in 1805, Daniel, born in 1807, Baltzer, born in 1808, Anna, born in 1809, and John, born in 1810. John died when less than a year old, and before the death of his father. Daniel Beidler, the second, died suddenly, at York, August 5th, 1816, and the farm passed into the possession of his widow, Susanna, and his children, Jacob, Barbara, Daniel, Baltzer and Anna. With the exception of Baltzer these all died without having married. Jacob died in 1824, Anna in 1861, Susanna (widow of Daniel Beidler, the second,) in 1862, Daniel in 1872, and Barbara in 1880, leaving Baltzer Beidler the only survivor and sole heir to the estate left by his father, Daniel Beidler, the second. Baltzer Beidler was married in 1834 to Elizabeth Stoner. They had but two children, John, the subject of this sketch, and Susan, who was born August 11th, 1838, and died May 10th 1842. Mrs. Elizabeth Beidler died January 12th, 1841, in the 27th year of her age. Baltzer Beidler died May 4th, 1884, aged 75 years, 10 months and 6 days, when the estate passed to John Beidler, the only heir. John Beidler, the only son of Baltzer and Elizabeth Beidler, was born in Hellam township, York county, February 10th, 1836, and received a common school education. For a short time in early manhood he engaged in teaching in the public schools of the county. In the year 1859 he was married to Miss Mary E. Bahn, of Hellam township, and soon after his marriage he removed to Wrightsville and engaged in the lumber business. At this time Wrightsville was the centre of a large lumber trade, and wagons came from all points south and west for a distance of 20, 30 and 40 miles, to the number often of as many as thirty in a single day, to be loaded at his yards. A few years ago Mr. Beidler opened a large hardware store at the corner of Front and Locust streets, and he has since placed the lumber business in the hands of his son, Harry B. Beidler. Mr. Beidler has one daughter and three sons living, Cordelia S., Harry B., Daniel and Elmer J. His residence is in Hellam township, adjoining the borough of Wrightsville. |
