Capt. John Hamilton of Fermanagh

A Patriot of the American Revolution for PENNSYLVANIA with the rank of CAPTAIN. DAR Ancestor # A050207

Walker Township History

INTERESTING FACTS AND HISTORY OF WALKER TOWNSHIP, JUNIATA COUNTY, PA

Another prominent early settler and landowner was John Hamilton, whose family was from Chester County, PA. Mr. Hamilton acquired 400 acres of land and, in 1772, began building a stone house upon it. In part of the house, he opened the first store in Walker Township in 1774. He called the house “Fermanagh” after the township which at that time was Fermanagh (not Walker) and was still part of Mifflin County. (This land became part of Juniata County in 1831, and part of Walker Township, not Fermanagh, in 1822). John’s grandson, Hugh Hamilton, completed the final addition to the house in 1869. Heirs of the Hamilton Family owned and occupied the house until 1896 when it was sold to John McMeen. This is the stone farmhouse between Centre and Locust Run presently owned and occupied by Charles and Shirley Saner. At the opening of the Revolutionary War, John Hamilton was the captain of a company of local volunteers who served in several campaigns during the War. In 1787 Captain John of “Fermanagh” moved to Harrisburg and died in 1793.

Churches were important to the early settlers. In 1790 in a tent on the site of the old graveyard (Adams Cemetery), the Presbyterians started meeting. Land was bought in 1792 and the first church in what is now Walker Township was built on that site. This church building was used until about 1840. The United Presbyterian Church descending from this original congregation is now located along William Penn Highway (Route 22) in Mexico, PA. In 1801, a meetinghouse for use by all denominations was built on land owned by the John Hamilton heirs. The Island Grove Campground is still in existence and hosts evangelistic meetings each summer. Other early churches include the Free Springs German Baptist Church near Van Wert and the Evangelical Church at Locust Run which were both built in 1861. Today about a dozen churches can be found in Walker Township, which has an estimated population of over 2,600 people. In addition, the large population of Amish in Walker Township meet and worship in homes.

HAMILTON, JOHN, son of John Hamilton, was born June 17, 1749, in New London, Chester county, Pa.; died August 28, 1793, at Harrisburg, Pa.

Under the will of his father he inherited a "plantation and fulling-mill, bought of James Long, on Shearman creek, in Cumberland county" (Perry county). He was educated principally in the celebrated academy of Rev. Mr. Alison, Chester county. When upon a visit to his patrimonyt in the Juniata region, he was attracted to the superior excellence of a tract of land called "Fermanagh" now in Juniata county. He purchased it.

On the Shearman's creek farm Hugh Alexander was his adjoining neighbor; he became attached to his daughter, and at twenty-three years of age he married her; established himself at "Fermanagh," and erected a large stone mansion. This house is standing. It has been occupied by himself, his son John and a grandson, Hugh Hamilton.

He became, by successful industry and in right of his mother, Jane Allen Hamilton, of great fortune for his day. The inventory of personal property at his death, in 1793, makes his effects in money £7,500. At that moment he had active enterprises of various kinds in full operation--at Lost creek, at Fermanagh, in Shearman's Valley and at Harrisburg.

He was one of the original lot holders at Harrisburg. One of his largest houses was that at the southeast corner of Market square; another on his lot, Front street and Raspberry alley. In 1792 he employed at his warehouse and stores, on what is now Mulberry street, between Second and Third streets, "as many as fifteen mules and a far greater number of horses, upon which he sent nails and salt and other merchandise to Pittsburgh." Sending nails to Pittsburgh at this date would be reversing the usual course of trade.

He was one of the last of those in the interior who held slaves, a half dozen in all. All but one continued in the family unitil the death of his widow, not as slaves, but as free laborers on the farms.

Mr. Hamilton was a sergeant in Capt. Gibson's company, Col. Wilson's battalion of Cumberland county associators, in 1776; captain of a company in Col. Samuel Lyon's battalion in August, 1777; and also captain in Col Buchanan's battalion in 1778, and was out in two campaigns, 1776 and 1781.* In the family records of the McAlisters, of Lost creek, Juniata, one of whom married a granddaughter of Capt. Hamilton, we have the following narrative: "The American army, December, 1776, shattered, disheartened and decreasing daily, were making precipitate retreat across Jersey into Pennsylvania, before the victorious army of Howe and Cornwallis. In this gloomy hour a meeting of the people was called at the farm of Mr. Hugh McAlister, near the present town of Mexico, to consult and devise measures to reinforce Washington and the army. All the neighbors below the Narrows met. John Hamilton, of Fermanagh, was made chairman. *One of the companies was called the Light Horse.

It was unanimously agreed to raise a company of mounted men. All were young men, with younger families, but they did not hesitate. They agreed to march. Hamilton pledged himself to start immediately, then McAlister and Sharon. The former was chosen captain, the latter lieutenants, and in two days they were off, more than eighty strong, riding the first day to the mouth of the Swatara, over snow many inches in depth. They reached camp, on the Pennsylvania side, below Trenton, the day after the Hessians were captured." 

None but men with their whole hearts in the cause would have made such a dreary march in a most inclement winter, unless thoroughly in earnest. This was the sentiment that actuated all the frontier settlers. In 1793 Harrisburg was scourged by a pestilence resembling yellow fever, an epidemic that then prevailed at Philadelphia, Baltimore and New York. One of its victims was Mr. Hamilton. He married, in December, 1772, Margaret Alexander, born March 17, 1754, in Shearman's Valley, Cumberland, now Perry county, Pa.; died August 22, 1835, at "Fermanagh," Juniata county, Pa., daughter of Hugh Alexander and Martha Edmeston.

• Believe to be John Hamilton b. 1748 d. 1793.
• Burial:
• Harrisburg Cemetery
• Harrisburg
• Dauphin County
• Pennsylvania, USA

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