The lives of Reverend John Wible and his wife, Elizabeth Wible (Stallsmith), appear to have passed without generating a lot of notice. The reverend worked at the Christ’s Lutheran Church (which played a prominent role in the battle). Elizabeth was from a long-running family in the area. They had no children. They turn up in ordinary press reports: John helped with the estate of Jacob Bender, a relative; he helped with the estate of Elizabeth’s father; he was a delegate to a convention on better observance of the Sabbath, widely attended by clergy and interested Church members from all over the county.

The reverend passed away in 1857, leaving Elizabeth a widow for thirty-five years. We may never have known either of them if the war hadn’t come to their farm in Straban Township, north of Gettysburg.

Early Life and Family

John Wible (b. 1800) was born to Stephen Wible (1775–1813) and Anna Maria Magdalena Troxell of Adams County. He was the third child and second son of his parents who had four girls and two boys and was ordained as a Lutheran minister. Elizabeth Stallsmith (b. ca. 1808) was the third child of ten of John Stallsmith and Mary Catherine Knop of Straban Township. John and Elizabeth married on 17 August 1826 in Straban Township. A contemporary marriage notice reports: “On [17th] Mr. John Weibel to Miss Elizabeth Stallsmith, daughter of Mr. John Stallsmith – both of Straban township”, officiated by Rev. John Herbst. This confirms their marriage date and families. (The notice spells his name “Weibel,” a common variant of Wible.)

Residence and Wible Farm

In the 1830–1860 period John and Elizabeth lived on a farm in Straban Township just northeast of Gettysburg. Period maps and accounts place their property on the east side of the Harrisburg Pike (now Route 34) near the junction of present-day Shealer Road. (On the map, Harrisburg Road is the vertical road; Hanover Road is at lower right.) The farm is explicitly identified in local historic inventories as “Elizabeth Wible Farm” in Straban. In fact, one historian notes that Elizabeth Wible’s house “still stands” on this property, although the original barn no longer survives. (The Adams County plans list the site as a former Straban Township historic district.)

Church and community roles

Rev. John Wible served as a Lutheran clergyman in the area. Genealogical records describe him as “an ordained Lutheran minister.” His marriage was officiated by a Reformed minister, but family sources and church registers (Lutheran Quarterly, etc.) associate him with the German Lutheran community in Gettysburg/Straban. In civic life he was an active community member: for example, he is named as administrator of a neighbor’s estate (Jacob Bender) in 1852, a role typically given to respected citizens. In local directories and notices he is usually styled “Rev. John Wible,” confirming his clerical status.

Civil War on the Wible Farm

During the July 1–3, 1863 Battle of Gettysburg, Elizabeth Wible (John having died in 1857) was the 55-year-old widow living on the farm. Confederate accounts report that part of Maj. Gen. Edward Johnson’s division bivouacked and treated wounded there. In particular, the barn and fields of Mrs. Wible’s farm became a field hospital for Johnson’s men. For example, a Louisiana infantry officer noted that “Captain Louis A. Cormier [Co. A, 6th La. Inf.] lay in Elizabeth Wible’s barn on her farm two miles northeast of Gettysburg” as he died of wounds. Another eyewitness account lists Elizabeth Wible’s barn and grounds among several hospital sites used by Confederate surgeons.

At least 44 Confederate wounded who died at Gettysburg were buried temporarily on the Wible farm. According to one post-battle report, Lt. Valentine W. Southall (23rd Va. Inf.) was “buried on the farm of Mrs. Wible, in a fence corner near the house.” Likewise, Louis Thibeaux of Green’s La. Battery was noted as buried “back of [the] barn.” Contemporary sources say their bodies (and at least one other, Pvt. John L. Simmons of the 8th La.) remained on the farm until 1872, when they were disinterred and reinterred at Richmond’s Hollywood Cemetery. In short, the Wible farm was directly involved in the battle’s aftermath: it served as a Confederate field hospital site and burial ground for the wounded.

Later History of the Farm

After John Wible’s death in 1857, Elizabeth Wible continued to reside on the farm. She appears to have run the property alone (with no surviving children) through the war and into the late 19th century. Elizabeth Wible died in 1892 (no local obituary found, just a brief mention in the paper), and by the early 1900s the Wible name was no longer attached to the farm. The 1903 Gettysburg directory lists a “Mrs. Mary E. Wible (widow of John)” in town, but that refers to a different Wible family (Elizabeth herself was already deceased). In any case, the farm property seems to have passed to other owners around the turn of the century.

Today the old Wible farm is recognized as a historic site. Adams County planning documents explicitly list the “Elizabeth Wible Farm” as a former Straban Township historic district. The original farm house still stands on Shealer Road; modern photos (and the 2013 account above) confirm that the Wible house survives, though much altered. The 19th-century barn no longer exists (neighborhood histories note that surviving Gettysburg barns of that era were gradually torn down in the early 1900s). No deed records have been found in this review to show who bought or inherited the farm after Elizabeth’s death, but its legacy lives on in battlefield histories and local preservation lists.