Category: Gettysburg Residents
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Elizabeth Thorn: The Pregnant Grave Digger of Gettysburg
In her waning years, Elizabeth Thorn wrote for the Gettysburg Compiler an account of her experiences at the Battle of Gettysburg. Her husband, Peter, had joined the 138th Pennsylvania, leaving her pregnant and with three children at home. Her only male family member was her aged father. The Thorns were the caretakers of the Evergreen…
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Lewis Bushman: From Farming to War Impact
Lewis Bushman was definitely his father’s son. Born in 1833 as the first child to George Andrew Bushman and Mary “Polly” Kepner, Lewis followed in his father’s footsteps in just about every way he could, and like his father, he would own a farm that the battle would make famous. Lewis was just six years…
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Exploring the Lives of Mary Kepner and Anna Wolf: George Bushman’s Wives
If it’s hard getting to know George Andrew Bushman through normal searching, it’s nearly impossible to learn about his wives, Mary Kepner and Anna Wolf, even through deeper research. Both of these women were married for significant times to a prominent and powerful man—a man who was active in local politics, served as a sheriff…
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The Legacy of George Bushman: Gettysburg’s Forgotten Farmer
If you search online for George Bushman of Gettysburg, you’d be forgiven for believing that he was, more or less, a farm . . . or better said, a guy who had a farm that became famous. You’ll find next to nothing on who he was and what he was like as a man. Since…
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Reverend Michael Bushman: A Gettysburg Legacy
Perhaps the most prominent manmade structure associated with July 2, 1863, is the home of Reverend Michael Bushman. The brother of Emanuel Paul Bushman and the uncle of Sadie Bushman, Michael Bushman (1812–1893) was a prominent figure in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, known for his leadership in the German Baptist Brethren Church and his ownership of a…
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Aunt Polly Culp: Gettysburg’s Beloved Figure of the Civil War Era
Elizabeth Culp, known to the locals as Aunt Polly Culp (no, we don’t know why), was intertwined in most of the major families of Gettysburg and familiar to almost everyone. Born to Heinrich Reiff and Barbara Eyster in 1780, she was the oldest of at least eight children. She grew up in Rockland Township, Berks…
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The Curious Deaths of Peter Culp and Jonas Ebbert
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…
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Jacob Culp: Steward of Adams County Alms House
Jacob Culp was related to the other Culps featured on this site. All of them descended from the German couple Christophel Kolb and Maria Caterina Leise. Their name became Culp within a generation, and one of the children of that couple owned the farm that included the hill now known as Culp’s Hill. Jacob was…
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Uncovering Julia M. Culp: The Untold Story of a Gettysburg Nurse
Julia M. Culp is forever linked to her brother John Wesley Culp. Wes’s July 1 nighttime visit to his sisters Anna Eliza and Julia is the source of stories and legends handed down through the ages and the place in history where Julia shows up most often. But who was Julia? Julia M. Culp, born…
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Remembering Keller Culp: A Union Soldier’s Sacrifice at Andersonville
Known to friends and family as Keller, Benjamin Keller Culp was another cousin of John Wesley Culp whose fate added to the Culp family tragedy. Born on May 31, 1844, in Adams County, Pennsylvania, Keller’s life was profoundly shaped by the tumultuous events of the American Civil War. In the summer of 1862, responding to…