On January 1, 1913, the Gettysburg Compiler reported the deaths of both Peter Culp and Jonas Ebbert—men who had a curious link that the Compiler failed to note. From Carroll County, Maryland, just across the state border, Jonas passed on Christmas Day, while Peter died suddenly two days later at his home on Water Street in Gettysburg. How were these two linked?

Peter was the son of Johannes Peter Culp and Anna Weaver; Johannes Peter was the son of Peter Culp and Elizabeth Reiff, commonly known around town as Aunt Polly. Peter and Aunt Polly had bought the original Culp farm from Peter’s father Christophel Culp, the first Culp in Gettysburg. The farm included at least part of what became Culp’s Hill. The elder Peter Culp died in 1841; and Aunt Polly sold the farm to her son Henry whereupon she moved to 206 York Street to enjoy what should have been quiet later years surrounded by kids and grandkids. Instead, war came to town, the Culp farm wound up behind Confederate lines where it became a field hospital, and Aunt Polly’s house became hospital, as well, where she nursed many of the men herself.

The younger Peter did not follow in the footsteps of the farming Culps. Instead, he became a carpenter and did much of his work out of his home on Water Street. He married Margaret Steinour, and together they had six girls and two boys. Peter was also prominent in town service—he served as both school board treasurer and school director; he also spent time as a constable, and at the time of his death, he was tax collector for the borough. One of his obituaries described him as “pleasant and cordial” with “a wide circle of friends.” Of course, that same obituary effected a bit of an “I told you so” for Peter’s having failed to take heed of his ailing heart, thus dying suddenly.

But what of Jonas Ebbert and the link with Peter Culp? Jonas’s death notice was more spare than Peter’s.

Jonas’s notice gives us a hint in telling us that he was the undertaker for General John Reynolds who was killed on the morning of July 1, 1863. General Reynolds is the link: the Culp family oral history, which has made its way to Find-a-Grave, says that Peter Culp guided General Reynolds to the Seminary where General John Buford was overseeing the work of his cavalry against General Henry Heth’s Confederates.

So two days apart, the man who guided General Reynolds to the battle that took his life and the man who then embalmed General Reynolds passed away.