between the George lands and the Harmony farm. Of Daniel Lob it is said that he brought the first log for the erection of the Grindstone Hill Church in 1766. At that time there was no timber in the neighborhood and the pine logs of which the first church was built were obtained a number of miles away. Two congregations, one Lutheran, the other Reformed, united in building the church, and they still worship alternately in its successor. On a set day the members of both congregations united in hauling the logs to the ground, not on wagons as would now be the method, but by dragging them. Naturally there was great rivalry as to who should deliver the first log. Although Lob was first the credit was denied him because he brought his log a part of the way on the previous evening and the honor went to John George Cook, who was, I believe, a member of the Reformed congregation. It was a very primitive building that these early pioneers erected. The logs were hewn on two sides and sunk into each other at the corners. A few panes of glass placed between the logs at different places served as windows. There was no gallery but logs were placed in position so that they might make one in the future. At a later period slabs were placed across these gallery logs and when the church was crowded some of the men occupied seats on the slabs, to which they gained access by a ladder. There was no ceiling under the roof. A graveyard was laid out north of the Chambersburg and Waynesboro road and the church stood between the road and the graveyard. This church was used by the two congregations until 1833, when the present brick church was built. In my youth a part of the foundation walls of the old church could still be traced. Soon after the erection of the church a school-house was built, which was still standing in my boyhood. It ceased to be used for school purposes, except occasionally in the summer, after the introduction of the public school system. Previous to the civil war it was sometimes used for the contests of a debating society organized in the neighborhood, of which I myself was a member and had for one of my antagonists the Rev. Dr. Harvey W. McKnight, for many years president of Pennsylvania College at Gettysburg.

The identity of John George Cook, who was awarded the credit for bringing the first log to the ground for the first Grindstone Hill Church, presents a problem that I am unable to solve. The name occurs frequently in the lists of early German emigrants but I know of no John George Cook in the Grindstone Hill settlement. It may be that he was a son of George Adam Cook or Koch, who settled at the site of Altenwald, it is claimed by his descendants, in 1753. George Adam Cook was born in Germany, probably in the Palatinate, July 22, 1719, and died on his plantation, August 17, 1785. I have not ascertained the name of his wife, but his children were George, Adam, Michael, Jacob, John, Christian, Daniel, Peter, Catharine, wife of Peter Bonbrake, Barbara, wife of Jacob Snyder, Mary, and Margaret. George Cook, the eldest son of George Adam, was probably the John George Cook who was the log winner, John being the prefix to more than one of the Christian names of the sons in many of the early families. The only one of the sons of George Adam Cook of whom I have personal knowledge was Peter Cook, who lived until 1859. He inherited the old Cook homestead at Altenwald. His son, John B. Cook, was the father of Jeremiah Cook, a member of the Franklin County Bar and at one time editor of the "Franklin Repository." Jeremiah Cook's daughter, Helen, is the wife of Walter K. Sharpe, Esq. The Cook homestead is still owned and occupied by a member of the family. Peter Bonbrake, who married Catharine Cook, was a son of Daniel Bonbrake, who died in 1790. He owned the land adjacent to and including the ground on which the Grindstone Hill Church was built, which he deeded to six trustees of the German Presbyterian congregation at Grindstone Hill, October 27, 1798. The church land was a triangular piece of ground and contained 51 acres and 144 perches. Peter and Catharine Bonbrake's son, Adam, was living on the old Bonbrake homestead, southeast of the church, in my youth. E. J. Bonbrake, Esq., and Dr. H. X. Bonbrake, of Chambersburg, are descendants of Conrad Bonbrake, a brother of Peter.

I might prolong these desultory sketches until I had written a book, including such old families as the Hermans, Fet

terhoffs, Giesemans, Gifts, Essicks, Stengers, Lochbaums, Tritles, Waldburns, Frys, Eylers and Benedicts, but I must refrain because I have a telepathic message from Mrs. Zarger saying it is dinner time.

THE TERRITORY OF NORTH HAMILTON IN PIONEER DAYS.

BY CHARLES M. DEATRICH.

The large territory which in 1752 was named Hamilton, when the township was created, was so called after James Hamilton, Colonial Governor of Pennsylvania, 1748-1754, when its name first appeared on the records of Cumberland county. Originally and until 1818 it embraced the territory of Saint Thomas, east of Campbell's Run. It is bounded on the north by Letterkenny township, on the east by Greene and Guilford, on the south by Guilford and Antrim, and on the west by Peters, with the Conococheague on the East, Campbell's Run on the west, and Back Creek which now divides it from Saint Thomas on the west, the latter flowing through the Central Part, together with interior streams, rushing musically through their channels, from the Kittochtinny Mountains on the north to the Pine clad hills of the Southern border. The pioneer settlers wisely thought the territory when made arable for the pursuits of agriculture, would be an attractive place for desirable homesteads, because of its diversity of scenery, its mountains, valleys, fields, meadows and water courses.

But, it is not alone the grandeur of the North mountain scenery, the picturesqueness of field, woodland and meadow, and playful murmuring of clear streams of this section, rushing through their channels to Back Creek and the East Conococheague, although poetic and pleasing to the original Scotch-Irish settlers, that makes the territory of North Hamilton, Letterkenny and that part of Saint Thomas East of Campbell's Run, formerly belonging to Hamilton, so interesting as a narrative. The historic record of the pioneers and their sons tells of dauntless warrior deeds, privations and hard

A paper read at the November meeting of the Society, held on the evening of November 22, 1907, at the residence of Hon. A. N. Pomeroy.

ships endured, combined with feats of noble daring, of trials and triumphs, successes and failures, the vicissitudes of life wrought in that formative period. These were incident to the history of that section in the provincial days, when laws were simply orders given by those possessing but brief authority, there being no military system in the early days of the old French war. Between fighting wild Indians after Braddock's defeat in Western Pennsylvania, and farming and erecting homes, the settlers were kept busy. They had to prepare to meet the incursions of hostile bands of the six nations, who inspired by the boldness which victory brought to them, raided the country, hunting and fishing and carrying into captivity the persons, or had hanging on their belts the scalps of the pale faces, whom they said cheated them in land deals; broad acres of which they were the possessors, and miles of forest had stretched far beyond the rolling blue of the Kittochtinnies, which in the Indian tongue means endless mountain.

Thus, because of no military system, the people formed companies, called Associators or rangers, built forts and blockhouses, for their common defense against the uprising of the savages. The second company, called rangers or associators, was organized under Captain Joseph Armstrong in 1755, and was composed of members of the families of the North Mountain region now embraced in the townships of Hamilton, Letterkenny and Saint Thomas. From less than three dozen families there was enlisted under Captain Joseph Armstrong a company of seventy men, showing that all the male members of the families were of good fighting stock. Captain Armstrong owned a plantation in what is now the Edenville settlement. His home had been what is now the Rhea farm of the Wilson heirs. The same plantation consisting of about 700 acres also embraced the present estate of John F. Gelwicks, whose grandfather, Frederick Gelwicks, bought it from Capt. Armstrong. In Captain Armstrong's company, thus formed after Braddock's defeat, there were five persons each of the name of Barnett, and Shields. There were Scotts and Mitchells, Stuarts, Armstrongs, Irvins, McCamants, Browns, McCamishs, Caldwells,