My Genealogy Hound

JOHN B. LANDIS is descended on his father’s side from French Swiss Huguenots who suffered greatly through religious persecution, the large, blackbearded John, or “Hans,” having lost his head for his faith at Zurich in September, 1614.

On his mother’s side his great-great-great-grandfather, Ludwig Moler, arrived in this country with his family on Aug. 29, 1730, having sailed from Rotterdam in the ship “Thistle,” of Glasgow, Colin Dunlap, master. He took and subscribed the Declaration and Adjuration drawn up Sept. 21, 1727, to be signed by the Palatines who came as settlers.

Mr. Landis’s family is of the Lancaster county line of that name. His grandfather, Abraham, and his father, Jacob, were wheelwrights. He was born on his father’s farm in Upper Allen township, Cumberland county, on Aug. 21, 1841. His early education was received in the common and Normal schools, and at the age of seventeen he commenced teaching, still continuing his studies. In April, 1860, he commenced the study of medicine with Dr. Philip H. Long, of Mechanicsburg. Pa. The Civil war coming on, he enlisted Aug. 9, 1862, becoming a private in Company F. 130th Regiment, P. V. I., and was promoted to corporal. He participated in the battles of Antietam — at Bloody Lane, on Sept. 17, 1862, where his brother David was wounded — and Fredericksburg, on Dec. 13, 1862, where, in the charge of Marye’s Heights and near the stone fence, he received a shell wound in the right shoulder. He was sent to Point Lookout Hospital, Maryland, was discharged from the service on Feb. 12, 1863, for disability, and returned home. Later, however, he again entered the service, and on Sept. 13, 1864, was commissioned Captain of Company A, 209th Regiment, Pennsylvania Infantry, commanded by Col. T. B. Kaufman. Soon after the regiment’s arrival at Bermuda Hundred Front, on Sept. 29, 1864, he was placed in command of Fort Carpenter, the first outwork on the south bank of the James river. His garrison consisted of one hundred infantry with three lieutenants, and a battery of brass pieces commanded by Lieut. Abel S. Chappell, formerly of the British artillery service. Two months later he rejoined his regiment at Meade Station, in front of Petersburg. In the battle of Fort Steadman, on March 25, 1865, his Company captured nineteen of the enemy with their captain. On April 2, 1865, in the assault upon and capture of the works on the Petersburg front, he recovered his regiment’s flag through a cross fire from a Confederate fort on the left, and on the night of that day was the only captain left in the regiment, the killed, wounded, absent and special details accounting for all the others. Capt. Landis was in other minor engagements, was with the regiment in the Grand Review of the armies in Washington City on May 23, and 24, 1865, and was mustered out of the service of the United States on May 31, 1865, returning home. In 1866 he was appointed military instructor at the White Hall Soldiers’ Orphans’ School, and in April, 1867, received the appointment of deputy collector of Internal Revenue for the Fifteenth District of Pennsylvania, which he resigned on Sept. 30, 1876, to enter the Carlisle Deposit Bank, accepting the position of cashier. The next year he resigned from the bank on account of impaired health, and after a year’s rest entered the law office of Henderson & Hays, of Carlisle. He was admitted to the Bar of Cumberland county in 1881, and associated himself with A. D. B. Smead, Esq., in the practice of the law. This partnership continned until Capt. Smead entered the United States service at the breaking out of the Spanish-American war. In April, 1899, he associated with himself his son Merkel, then admitted to the Bar. He has been Secretary and Treasurer of the Carlisle Gas & Water Company since July 1, 1882. He has also been Treasurer of the Hamilton Library Association since 1883. He is a Trustee and Clerk of the Session of the First Presbyterian Church of Carlisle, a Trustee of Metzger College, a Director of the J. Herman Bosler Memorial Library, and a Trustee and Treasurer of the Todd Hospital of Carlisle. Captain Landis is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and of the Pennsylvania Commandery of The Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States.

Capt. Landis was married, on June 9, 1870, to Miss Barbara H. Merkel, daughter of Hon. Levi and Susanna (Martin) Merkel. Mrs. Landis, a lady of many excellent and lovable qualities, died on Saturday, Aug. 20, 1898. Capt. Landis’s family now consists of Norman, of Flemington, N. J., married to Katherine Brokaw Ramsey, of that place; Merkel, a member of the Cumberland County Bar; Naomi and Olive, at home; and Kenneth, absent at Lehigh University.