Tag: Gettysburg education
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Civil War Stories: Juliann Benner’s Courage on the Homefront
If Henry Benner was a war hero and civic leader, his sister Juliann Benner was his equal on the homefront and in a couple of different communities. She endured the death of her other brother, the capture of Henry, the severe wounding of her husband, and the deaths of several children, all while supporting her…
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The Legacy of Dr. John O’Neal in Gettysburg’s History
Dr. John O’Neal had many occasions to visit the John Rose family shortly after the battle—he treated their daughter for a nervous condition and he became one of the best sources about Confederate burials in the town and surrounding farms. History mostly remembers him for his work reuniting Southern families with the remains of their…
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Lloyd Watts: Pioneer of Black Education in Gettysburg
Lloyd Watts was a pioneer that history has mostly forgotten principally because his deeds were in the furtherance of education rather than battlefield glory. In 1834, the commonwealth legislature passed the Pennsylvania Free School Act, which provided free schooling for all children, including black children, ages 6 and above. This groundbreaking legislation marked a pivotal…
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Julia Eyster Jacobs: A Legacy of Faith and Family
These days, no ink is spilled on Julia Eyster Jacobs, wife of Dr. Michael Jacobs. Likewise, little has been said or written in decades about their daughter, Mary Julia. But these were powerful women, steeped in deep faith who made tremendous sacrifices for their beliefs. The first time we find mention of Julia Eyster is…
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Memories of Gettysburg: Reverend Henry Eyster Jacobs and the Changing Landscape
Reverend Henry Eyster Jacobs took after his father, Dr. Michael Jacobs. He followed him into the Lutheran clergy; he was a teacher, a writer, and a keen observer of the era he lived in. The oldest of four, he was born in 1844 when his parents had been married for 11 years; his father was…
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Dr. Michael Jacobs: Far More than Gettysburg’s Unsung Weatherman
At the conclusion of July 3, 1863, Dr. Michael Jacobs noted dryly in his weather record, “The thunder seemed tame, after the artillery firing of the afternoon.” Of course, the artillery barrage of that afternoon was likely the largest that had occurred in history to that point. Similarly, the thunderstorm was a prelude to a…
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Who Was Reverend David Jacobs?
Casual students of Gettysburg frequently know the name Dr. Michael Jacobs. Lesser known by far is his brother Reverend David Jacobs, but it is the latter’s influence that put Michael where he was in 1863 to record the weather of the battle and publish the first history of the battle. So who is Reverend David…
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The Life and Legacy of Dr. J. Lawrence Hill
Dr. J. Lawrence Hill was a nineteenth-century man. Almost every man of the era had to diversify economically—farmers kept woodlots to sell wood, pigs to sell meat, cows to sell milk, and crops of all sorts to sell. Professionals had to diversify similarly. Dr. Hill spent most of his life in Adams County, where he…