My Genealogy Hound

SAMUEL ELMER BASEHORE. The name Basehore in the past three hundred years has been changed many times. Originally it was LeBaiseur. The family were French-Huguenots, and during the Reformation were persecuted on account of their religious convictions, and some of them fled to England. One Jaque LeBaiseur and family were members of the French Protestant Church at Norwich, England, as early as 1614. One was selected by William Penn to assist in locating and laying out the “great town” of Philadelphia. In a letter to James Harrison, dated Aug. 25, 1681, Penn names William Crispin, John Bezar and Nathaniel Allen, as commissioners delegated to make the survey. They arrived at Upland late in that same year and the following spring entered upon their duties as soon as the river was cleared of ice. An account against Penn for the performance of this work, settled in 1713, contains the name of John Beazor as one of the acting commissioners. Evidently another branch fled to the Palatinate, or some other Protestant part of Germany, whence several of the name came to Pennsylvania. The emigrants of this branch were Brethren or Dunkards, a faith to which hundreds of their descendants cling to the present day. It is not within the province of this biographical sketch to deal exhaustively with all the different branches of this great family, but in a general way it may be stated that the Boeshors who settled in America experienced their full share of the hardships and dangers incident to the early settlement of the country. A Jacob Bashore appears upon the records of Lancaster county in 1735, and the name of a Baltzer Boeszhaar appears upon the records of Earltown, Lancaster county, as early as 1739. A Matthias Boeshor lived in the Swatara Valley, now Berks county, as early as 1748, and near Fort Swatara had a personal encounter with an Indian, in which he was wounded.

It is a matter of record that the Basehores of Lancaster and Berks counties fought for American liberty and independence. A John Basehore was a member of the Revolutionary committee of Bethel township. He belonged to the Fourth District Associated Battalion of Militia, and in 1775 was a delegate to the Revolutionary Convention at Lancaster. He was killed by the Indians near the headquarters of the Indian Chief Shekellimy, a short distance below Milton, in 1778.

Peter Basehore was Ensign in Capt. Valentine Shouffler’s Company, Colonel Greenawalt, and a George Beasore was Sergeant in Captain Thomas Koppenheffer’s Lancaster County Associators, and in 1777 was commissioned a Second Lieutenant. A George Boeshor settled in Swatara, now Bethel township, Lancaster, now Berks county, at a very early date in the history of the country. On Jan. 3, 1733, he received a patent for 100 acres of land on a branch of Mill Creek; on March 8, 1734, a patent for 100 acres in Leacock township, Lancaster county, and afterward patents for several more tracts in Swatara township, where he resided. This George Boeshor was the great-great-great-great-grandfather of Samuel Elmer Basehore, the subject of this sketch. He had a son Michael, who had four sons, viz.: Johannes, Daniel, Johan Michael and Johan Jacob.

Daniel Boeshor, Michael Boeshor’s second son, was born Sept. 16, 1752, in Swatara, now Bethel township, Berks county. In 1772 he married Anna Maria Wolf, who was born March 6, 1749, in Amsterdam, Holland, daughter of Paul Michael Wolf, who immigrated from Holland and settled in Bethel township in 1755. Daniel Boeshor owned a farm in Bethel township which he sold to Daniel Bordner, and in the spring of 1791 removed to the part of East Pennsboro that is now Hampden township, Cumberland county, where he purchased a farm known as the “Rye Gate Tract,” the greater portion of which is included in the farm now (1905) owned by David H. Logan, here he lived and engaged at farming during the rest of his lifetime. He was a member of the religious sect known as the German Baptists, and one of the first meetings of that denomination in Cumberland county was held at his home. Daniel Boeshor died in East Pennsboro township Dec. 13, 1822. His wife, Anna Maria Wolf, died June 19, 1817, and their remains are interred in the family burying ground on the “Rye Gate Tract.” Daniel and Anna Maria (Wolf) Boeshor had four children, viz.: Michael, John, Christina and Elizabeth. Christina, the older of the two daughters, married George Rupp, and became the mother of Isaac Daniel Rupp, the noted historian and genealogist.

John Boeshor (or Basehore) second son of Daniel and Anna Maria (Wolf) Boeshor, was born in Berks county, Dec. 17, 1776. He married Mary Bricker, of Allen township, Cumberland county, daughter of Peter and Mary (Barr) Bricker. (Peter Bricker was born in Lancaster county, son of Peter Bricker, Sr., a native of Switzerland.) After their marriage John Basehore and wife lived at “Rye Gate,” and it was Mrs. Mary (Bricker) Basehore who gave the alarm to the neighbors when Lewis the Robber, in the spring of 1820, attempted to rob their home, which is referred to at greater length in a history of Lewis the Robber. John Basehore died Jan. 28, 1856; his wife, Hilary Bricker Basehore, died Oct. 1, 1853. John and Mary (Bricker) Basehore had children as follows: John, Polly, Samuel, Peter and Elizabeth.

Samuel Basehore, second son of John and Mary (Bricker) Basehore and grandfather to the subject of this sketch, was born on the “Rye Gate Tract,” in East Pennsboro, Dec. 26, 1805, and he grew to manhood and always lived in that locality. On Jan. 21, 1830, he married Barbara Moltz, also a native of East Pennsboro, born Oct. 6, 1810, daughter of Jacob and Catharine (Olewine) Moltz. Jacob Moltz was born in Manor township, Lancaster county March 4, 1784, and settled in East Pennsboro at an early date. His father, George Moltz, came from near Wurtemberg, Germany, and settled in Lancaster county about 1750. Samuel Basehore died Oct. 23, 1876; his wife died July 29, 1879. To Samuel and Barbara (Moltz) Basehore eleven children were born, four of whom died in infancy. Those who grew to maturity were, John L., Jacob A., Catharine E., Samuel Augustus, Mary A., Susan R., and Margaret Ellen. John L. removed to Iowa, was a Captain in the Sixth Iowa Cavalry in the Civil war, and was killed in line of duty Oct. 1, 1864. Jacob A. engaged at farming in Cumberland county; during the Civil war he served as a private in Company B, 147th P. V. I. Catharine E. died unmarried, March 20, 1887. Mary A. married Joseph Hursh. Susan R. married Joseph Erb. Margaret Ellen married Simon Eberly.

Samuel Augustus Basehore, son of Samuel and Barbara (Moltz) Basehore, was born on the homestead in East Pennsboro, now Hampden, township, March 22, 1839. He was reared on the farm and educated in the public schools, and in the academies at Newville and White Hall. In September, 1862, he responded to the Governor’s call, and did service in the Antietam campaign in the First Regiment, Pennsylvania State Militia. Like all his ancestors he engaged at farming, which he followed until the spring of 1897, when he quit and removed to Mechanicsburg, where he has since been living, retired from the active duties of life. He was twice married. On Dec. 3, 1861, he married Ella Barbara Gleim, who bore him the following children: Frank G., Annie B., Wilmer A., Edgar E., and John G. Ella Barbara (Gleim) Basehore died April 24, 1872. Samuel Augustus Basehore married for his second wife, Emma L. Gleim, sister to his first wife. She was born on May 25, 1849, in Monroe township, Cumberland county, and was the youngest daughter of John and Anna (Stambaugh) Gleim. The ancestors of both the Basehores and the Gleims came from adjoining countries in Europe. Rev. John Godfried Gleim, the great-grandfather of John Gleim, came to America from Wiesbaden, Germany, in 1754, and settled at Germantown, Pa., where he died Oct. 20, 1757. The Gleims were people of great prominence and influence in their native country. Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim, born at Ermsleben, near Halberstadt, Germany, April 2, 1719, was one of the most eminent German poets of his time, and helped to inaugurate the golden age of German literature. George Christian Gleim, son of Rev. John Godfried Gleim, was born April 7, 1736, and came to America with his father. He was an active participant on the side of the Colonies in the Revolution, and in the Battle of Germantown was severely wounded in the head and face by the sabre of a British dragoon.

George Christian Gleim married Elizabeth Opple, of Germantown, who died in 1772. To this marriage two children were born, the older of whom was named Frederick. George Christian Gleim afterward married Anna Maria Matthias, daughter of Benjamin Matthias, by whom, among other children, he had a son Christian. Christian was Ensign in Capt. Thomas Walker’s Company in the War of 1812, and in 1821 was elected sheriff of Dauphin county. Frederick Gleim was born Aug. 16, 1762. He married Elizabeth Keller, who was born Oct. 24, 1773, daughber of Jacob and Barbara (Landes) Keller, and of Swiss ancestry. Jacob Keller’s father was Jacob Keller, who was born in Rhodenflue, Canton of Basel, Switzerland, Nov. 14, 1706; and his mother, Elizabeth Inhofen, was born in Wintersinger, Canton of Basel, Feb. 2, 1708. They married in their native country, and sometime between the years 1725 and 1730 came to America and settled near Ephrata, Lancaster county. They were members of the religious sect known as the Seventh Day Baptists. Jacob Keller, the elder, died March 10, 1794; his wife died May 24, 1787, and their remains are buried in the Cloister cemetery at Ephrata. Frederick and Elizabeth (Keller) Gleim were the parents of John Gleim, the maternal grandfather of Samuel E. Basehore, whose name introduces this sketch. John Gleim was born Oct. 6, 1803, in Lancaster county. When he was five years old his parents moved to Cumberland county, where he grew to manhood, and on May 17, 1829, married Anna Stambaugh, who was born Jan. 15, 1811, in York county. He died March 31, 1878, and his wife Anna March 27, 1892. Samuel Augustus and Emma (Gleim) Basehore had three children, viz: Samuel Elmer, Bessie Irene, and a daughter who died in infancy. Bessie Irene is at present a student at The Woman’s College at Frederick, Maryland.

Samuel Elmer Basehore, the only son of Samuel Augustus and Emma (Gleim) Basehore, and the special subject of this biographical sketch, was born on the old homestead in Hampden township, Oct. 3, 1875. He attended the public schools of his native township until he was ten years of age; then the public schools of York for two years, after which he attended the public schools of Mechanicsburg, graduating from the High School of that town June 1, 1893. On leaving the public schools, he entered Franklin and Marshall Academy, at Lancaster, and in September, 1894, Franklin and Marshall College, from which institution he was graduated, on June 9, 1898, with the degree of A. B. Having completed his college course, he now entered upon a three-years’ course in the Dickinson School of Law, at Carlisle, and graduated from that institution in June, 1901, with the degree of LL. B. While in the Law School he was business manager of The Forum, the legal magazine published by the school, and a member of the Dickinson Chapter of the Delta Chi Fraternity. On the completion of his studies at the law school the degree of A. M., in course, was conferred upon him by both Dickinson and Franklin and Marshall Colleges. He was admitted to the Cumberland county Bar June 5, 1901, and to practice before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania June 2, 1902. Immediately upon his admission to the Bar he began the practice of his profession at Mechanicsburg, where he has continued ever since. He is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association; of the Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revolution, and of the Cumberland County Historical Association. Fraternally he is a thirty-second-degree Mason, being secretary of Eureka Lodge, No. 302, F. & A. M., Mechanicsburg; M. E. H. P. in Samuel C. Perkins Chapter, No. 209, R. A. M., Mechanicsburg; and a member of the Harrisburg Council, No. 7, R. and S. M.; Pilgrim Commandery, No. 11, Knights Templar, Harrisburg; a member of the Harrisburg Consistory, S. P. R. S.; and a charter member of Zembo Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., Harrisburg. He has held the position of secretary of the borough of Mechanicsburg for several years. He is a member of the Reformed Church, is unmarried, and resides with his parents.