Andrew Danner

Andrew Danner was born on 16 August 1824, the offspring of a German family which had settled in Frederick County, Maryland in the 18th century. Regrettably, no evidence has been discovered to prove which Danner was his father; but Frederick County was his place of birth. While his death certificate lists an age at death that places h is birth in 1822, three of four census records all place his birth in 1824-25 and the third - the most recent census - even later. In general, dates and other information recorded closer to the actual event are more reliable than what someone said 80 years later.

Before the Civil War, Andrew migrated to Boonsboro in Washington County, where he worked as a farm laborer in the employ of others. He married Ruanna Weast, daughter of Henry and Susan (Huffer) Weast. She bore him three children and died on May 25, 1856. On November 6, 1856, Andrew married Ruanna's younger sister, Susanna or Susan Ann Weast. She bore him eight children more.

Andrew enlisted in the Union Army when 39 years old and a husband and father of seven, on 24 February 1864. He was assigned to Company H, 1st Calvary Regiment, Potomac Home Brigade. The regiment was commonly known as Cole’s Cavalry. Andrew served ably and diligently and was promoted to Corporal by his Regimental Commander on 1 August of the same year.

On the 5th of June, the entire regiment had joined the greater part of the Army of the Potomac at Piedmont, Virginia and routed the Confederates in an important victory for the Union. From there, and before the month was over, they participated in skirmishes at Tye River Gap, Lexington, Buchanan, and Lynchburg.

Later that summer, Cole’s Cavalry was assigned to Merritt’s Cavalry Division of the Army of the Shenandoah. From then and through the fall of 1864, they were almost constantly engaged at points in Virginia and western Maryland, including Hagerstown. In the winter of 1864-65 and through the spring, they were assigned to protect the B&O Railroad in western Virginia, where trains had been attacked and burned by Mosby’s Rangers. The war soon drew to a close, and Andrew Danner was mustered out at Harpers Ferry on 28 June 1865.

Andrew’s service record describes him as 5’ 6¼” tall with a dark complexion, hazel eyes, and black hair. It mistakenly lists his age at enlistment as 29 rather than 39. His military occupation specialty was cooper; coopers are best known for being makers of casks and barrels, but they also made and repaired wagon wheels. Andrew came to be known in his community as “a splendid horseman, having learned the art of handling and riding horses during his army service”.

After the war, Andrew and his wife, German-descent Susana Weast, had four children more for a total of eleven. He remained active all his life and was mentioned in several social news articles in Hagerstown’s Daily Mail. On 22 July 1895, at the age of 71, he was mentioned as having “worked on the straw stack after a steam thresher on Saturday as warm as the weather was and seemed to stand the work very well”. On 7 February 1900, when Andrew was 75, the news was published that he had “lost the sight of his right eye, caused by a spawl striking him while working on the pike ”. A spall is a fragment or chip of stone, and “the pike” presumably is the National Pike, now known as Route 40. In the fall of the same year, Andrew went hunting and “killed two hogs that netted 775 lbs. The largest weighing 401 lbs.” He was still hard at work at the age of 82 and died while laboring in a cornfield on the Levi Beachley farm, his wife Susanna at his side.

Andrew Danner was also remembered as “a member of the United Brethren church, Otterbein congregation, in the ‘Neck,’ and was regarded as a most excellent old man who aimed to live a Christian life and who had many friends.” The Neck is a rectangular area of land south of Williamsport, Maryland and southwest of Downsville which forms a bend in the Potomac River.

The certificate of transcript of record of death appearing in Susanna's U.S. pension file lists Coffmansville, Maryland as the place Andrew died, but no such place appears on Maryland maps although it does appear in one published history of Washington County as being "in the community of Downsville".