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Below is a family biography included in the Biographical Annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania published in 1905 by The Genealogical Publishing Company.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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HON. MARTIN C. HERMAN. In 1754 there came from Germany to America, one Martin Herman. He landed at Philadelphia but remained there only a few years. From Philadelphia he moved to the part of Lancaster county which is now included in Lebanon and married Anna Dorothea Boerst. There he remained for some years and engaged at farming, but in 1771 he came to Cumberland county and purchased a tract of land near where the village of New Kingstown now stands, and made his home upon it for the remainder of his days. He died in 1804 at the age of seventy-two years; his wife, Anna D. Herman, died in 1824, at the age of eighty-seven years, and their remains are buried in the Longsdorf graveyard near Kingstown Station, in Silver Spring township. Martin and Anna Dorothea (Boerst) Herman had four sons, viz.: Christian, John, Jacob and Martin.

Christian Herman, eldest of the above family, was born Oct. 20, 1761, in Lancaster county. When the War of the Revolution began he was yet a young man, but he enlisted in the Continental army, and served at Valley Forge and Germantown, and was under Washington in the various engagements and marches which led up to the siege of Yorktown and the capture of Cornwallis. After the close of the war he went to his home near New Kingstown, and engaged in farming. In 1793 he married Elizabeth Bowers, of York county, who bore him eleven children, eight of whom lived to manhood and womanhood, and were married and raised families. Christian Herman died Oct. 23, 1829; his wife, Elizabeth (Bowers) Herman, died on Feb. 18, 1848, at the age of seventy-five years, and the remains of both are interred in the Longsdorf Grave Yard near Kingstown Station. The eight children of Christian and Elizabeth (Bowers) Herman, who grew to maturity, were: John, Jacob, Martin, Christian, David, Mary (who married Michael G. Beltzhoover, of Cumberland county), Anna (who married Dr. Jacob Bosler, who settled at Dayton, Ohio) and Eliza (who married Abraham Bosler, of Cumberland county). Martin Herman, the third son in the above family, was born on the Herman homestead near New Kingstown, July 10, 1801, and like his ancestors before him followed the occupation of farming. By the will of his father, Christian, Herman, he acquired title to the farm that his grandfather, Martin Herman, had purchased in 1771, and upon it he lived throughout his entire lifetime. In February, 1827, he married Elizabeth Wolford, who was born in 1802, daughter of Peter and Elizabeth (Albert) Wolford, of York county. Peter Wolford was a prominent citizen in his day and at one time represented York county in the State Legislature. Elizabeth (Wolford) Herman died July 30, 1852, in the fiftieth year of her age; Martin Herman died May 22, 1872, in the seventy-first year of his age, and their remains rest in the Longsdorf Grave Yard near Kingstown Station. Their children were: Margaret, who married Ezra M. Myers, of Adams county; Margery A., who married Rev. A. W. Lilly, of York county; Mary J., who married Crawford Fleming, of Carlisle; P. Wolford, who became a farmer, and came into possession of the Herman mansion farm which he owned and occupied for many years; and David B., who studied law and was admitted to the Cumberland county Bar, and who went West and while in charge of a cattle ranch on the North Platte river, Neb., was killed by Indians, May 20, 1876, his body being brought home and buried in the Longsdorf Grave Yard near Kingstown Station.

Martin Christian Herman, the fifth child and second son of Martin and Elizabeth (Wolford) Herman, and the subject of this sketch, was born on the Herman ancestral farm in Silver Spring township Feb. 14, 1841. He remained at home attending the country district school and assisting his father on the farm until he was sixteen years of age when he entered the York Academy, then in charge of Prof. George W. Ruby. There he continued for one year. In September, 1858, he entered Dickinson College, from which institution he graduated June 26, 1862. In a prize contest during his junior year at college he won the silver medal for oratory and through his entire course was conspicuous for his ability and scholarship. On Jane 24, 1862, he delivered the seventy-sixth anniversary address of the Belles-Lettres Society of Dickinson College.

In January, 1862, Mr. Herman registered as a student-at-law with B. M. McIntyre & Son, at New Bloomfield, Perry county. In April of the following year, he transferred his registry to William H. Miller, Esq., of Carlisle, and continued his law studies with him until Jan. 13, 1864, when he was admitted to the Cumberland county Bar. He immediately entered upon the practice of his profession at Carlisle, and continued at it until 1874, when he was elected President Judge of the 9th Judicial District, consisting of Cumberland county. He was not yet thirty-four years of age when, on the first Monday of January, 1875, he took his seat upon the Bench, but he administered the duties of his high office so conscientiously and carefully that at the close of his term his party re-nominated him without opposition. He was unsuccessful at the general election, and upon retiring from the Bench resumed the practice of the law, soon being in command of a large and lucrative business. Against his wishes his party nominated him for President Judge in 1894. He reluctantly accepted, but the general trend of political sentiment was against his party and he, with nearly all of the ticket, was defeated by a small majority. While arguing in a will case in court on March 4, 1895, he was stricken with a paralysis which proved the beginning of the end. He rallied from its effects sufficiently again to give his practice some attention, and, at times, his family and friends had some hope, but the stroke had irreparably shattered his strength, and he died Jan. 19, 1896, of pneumonia. He was a man of most excellent character, a lawyer who was a credit to his profession, and in temperament and in training thoroughly qualified for the responsible position which he so long filled, and the duties of which he discharged with a conscientious dignity and impartiality that won the respect of the public in a high degree. One of the Carlisle papers, at the time of his decease, commented editorially as follows:

“In the death of ex-Judge Herman this community loses an honored and useful citizen. Born in this county; always living in it; sharing in its political contests, and through struggles and heated rivalries rising to a proud eminence at its learned Bar, his name became entwined in the memories and hearts of its people as few names of its history have. He was a man of pronounced convictions, contending loyally and earnestly for the rights of his clients, yet so fair and just and courteous in all his relations with men that the persons were few who did not respect and honor and love him. Yet honorable and upright as he was in his professional and business relations, within the sanctity of his home he was a still more exemplary character. His kindness, his gentleness and devotion to those of his own household were more marked than any of the high qualities that in the struggle of his life won him the praise and admiration of the world. He was not only an able lawyer, an upright judge and a distinguished citizen, he was also a husband and father in the most loving and tender sense.”

On Jan. 5, 1873, Martin C. Herman was united in marriage with Josephine Adair, of Carlisle, who was a daughter of S. Dunlap and Henrietta (Gray) Adair, and was born in Cumberland county. She is a member of an old representative family of this section and her father, S. Dunlap Adair, was for a long time a prominent lawyer at the Cumberland county Bar. The earlier generations of Hermans were Lutherans, but the Adairs were Episcopalians, and after their marriage Judge Herman, out of respect for his wife’s religious preferences, united with the Episcopal Church, and served as vestryman in it. Judge and Mrs. Herman had children: J. Adair, Henrietta G., Joseph B., and Bessie H. There were also two sons who died in infancy. The family reside in a pleasant and hospitable home at No. 132 West High street, Carlisle.

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This family biography is one of numerous biographies included in the Biographical Annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania published in 1905 by The Genealogical Publishing Company. 

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