My Genealogy Hound

JACOB M. LONGSDORF, one of the prominent retired farmers owning a pleasant and comfortable home in Mechanicsburg, Cumberland county, was born April 9, 1836, in Silver Spring township, Cumberland county, son of George and Elizabeth Longsdorf.

George Longsdorf was born in 1800, in Silver Spring township, and belongs to one of the county’s fine old families, whose ancestral history will be found elsewhere. He was the father of eight children: Margaret S.; William Zeigler, deceased; Henry, deceased;: Emanuel; George A., deceased; Jacob M.; John, deceased; and Sarah, wife of John Kast, of Nebraska.

Jacob M. Longsdorf passed his youth on the farm, and attended the district school in the old log school-house in Silver Spring township, during the winter seasons, until his eighteenth year, and he remained with his father until his marriage. After this event he settled on a part of his uncle Adam Longsdorf’s farm, the old Longsdorf homestead in Silver Spring township, operating that farm for five years, and then moved to New Kingstown, where he remained until 1870. In this year he removed to the borough of Mechanicsburg, where he bought a small tract of ten acres, and there engaged in a nursery business, growing and handling nursery stock extensively and successfully until 1898. At this time he disposed of his stock, but retained his little farm, on which is a good dwelling, barn and numerous sheds. Mr. Longsdorf has been a very industrious man, and has met with excellent success in all of his efforts.

On Dec. 22, 1859, Mr. Longsdorf married Mandilla Williams, of Silver Spring township, born in York county, Nov. 10, 1836, daughter of John W. and Wilhelmina L. Williams. They have no children. Both he and wife are members of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, in which he has been a deacon for eighteen years, and an active worker in the Sunday-school. In politics he is a Democrat, and for three years he was elected a member of the borough council of Mechanicsburg, from a Republican ward, this being a pretty fair indication of the esteem in which he is held by his fellow citizens.