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Civil War Blog

A project of PA Historian

A Brief History of the B. F. Miller G.A.R. Post #393 at Fisherville

| November 30, 2015

Fisherville is a small community in Upper Dauphin County, near Halifax Borough, that in 1883 formed a local G.A.R. post.  Much of the history of that post has been lost over time and now needs to be re-created through available resources, among those resources, the Harrisburg and other archived newspapers and the national Grand Army […]

George W. Etter – Was He a Civil War Soldier?

| November 16, 2015

George Washington Etter (1838-1915) is buried at the Halifax United Methodist Church Cemetery in Halifax, Dauphin County.  There is a larger headstone on his plot which includes birth and death information for him and for his wife Catharine [Lebo] Etter, but at the foot of the plot, there is a smaller stone with a G.A.R. […]

John W. Simonton – President Judge, 12th Judicial District of Pennsylvania

| August 30, 2012

John W. Simonton, the presiding judge at the trial of Keiper and Rowe, the two Halifax National Bank robbers and murderers of bank cashier and Civil War veteran Charles W. Ryan, was himself a Civil War veteran, having served as a Private in the 1st Pennsylvania Infantry (Militia of 1862), Company K.  The biography and […]

Isaac Lyter, Bank Teller – Another Look

| August 28, 2012

Isaac Lyter (1844-1912) was previously featured here as part of a series of posts on the Halifax Bank robbery.  The following biographical sketch is from the Biographical Encyclopedia of Dauphin County, published in 1896 by J. M. Runk and Company of Chambersburg.  While it sheds little light on his military service, additional interesting information is […]

Civil War Burials in the Halifax United Methodist Church Cemetery (Part 5 of 5)

| August 23, 2012

The Halifax United Methodist Church Cemetery is located at the corner of Rise Street and Wind Hill Drive in Halifax, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.  The graves of twenty Civil War veterans are easily located in this cemetery.  A prior post described the cemetery and showed old maps with its location noted.  Today, Part 5 of a […]