My Genealogy Hound

HON. WILBUR F. SADLER, one of the distinguished citizens of Carlisle, Pa., was born in Adams county, this State, Oct. 14, 1840, and the family from which he comes is along the oldest in his natal county.

In 1746 one Richard Sadler came from England to Pennsylvania. He settled in what is now Adams county, and in 1750 there pre-empted land, upon which he spent what of life remained to him, and which is still in possession of some of his descendants. He died in 1764, and his remains lie interred in the burying-ground of Christ Church, in Huntington township, Adams county. This Richard Sadler had a son named Isaac, who married a Mary Hammersly, and Isaac and Mary (Hammersly) Sadler had a son whom they named Richard, in honor of his grandfather.

Richard Sadler (2) was a farmer, as were most of his ancestors. He married Rebecca Lewis, and early in life removed to Center county, where he lived for fifteen years, returning then to Adams county, where he died at the age of eighty-two. He was a man of strong personality and rare intellectual endowments. During his young manhood he was an Episcopalian, and his wife was a Presbyterian, but in after life both joined the Methodist Church. Richard and Rebecca (Lewis) Sadler had the following children: John L., Joshua, William R., Isaac, Elizabeth, Rebecca and Nancy. Of these children: John L. Sadler, the eldest son, became a farmer, went West and died at Galesburg, Ill., leaving a family of one son and four daughters.

William R. Sadler was also an enterprising farmer and followed that occupation in his native county throughout life. His interest in public affairs brought him into political prominence early in life and he was elected to the Pennsylvania State Senate, where he made a creditable record. He died near York Springs, Adams county, while yet in the full flush of young manhood, leaving two children, a son and a daughter. The son, John Durbin Sadler, was a youth of great promise, and was educated at Dickinson College. At the outbreak of the Civil war he entered the army, was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in the 1st Regiment, Pennsylvania Reserves, and was killed at the Battle of South Mountain, Sept. 15, 1863.

Isaac Sadler was possessed of business qualities of a high order and became a man of wealth and position. In his retirement he made his home in Carlisle, and died there in September, 1886, at the age of eighty-three.

Elizabeth Sadler married Solomon Bender, and died in Chambersburg, leaving one son, Rev. H. R. Bender, who is filling a charge as pastor in New York State.

Rebecca Sadler was twice married, first to Leonard Marsden, by whom she had one child. After his death she married Max Shelley, a large land owner of York. Pa., but had no children by him.

Nancy Sadler married John Appleman, of Middletown, Md., where both she and her husband died and are buried.

Joshua Sadler, the second son, was born at the ancestral home in Adams county, and was reared to farming, which useful occupation he followed all his life. He married Harriet Stehley, a daughter of John Stehley, of Adams county, and by her had two sons. Wilbur F. and John L. About the year 1841 Joshua Sadler moved into what is now Penn township, Cumberland county, and there spent the balance of his days. He died in December, 1862, at the age of sixty-one years. His wife died in January, 1868, and the remains of both are interred in Ashland cemetery, at Carlisle.

Wilbur F. Sadler, elder son of Joshua and Harriet Sadler, was born in Adams county Oct. 14, 1840, and grew to manhood upon the farm in Penn township, Cumberland county. In his youth he attended the public schools of his neighborhood and the academy in the village of Centerville, and subsequently he pursued his studies in Dickinson Seminary, at Williamsport, Pa., from which institution he graduated in 1863. On returning home from school, in the summer of 1863, he found southern Pennsylvania overrun by the Confederate army, and immediately enlisted in an emergency Cavalry Company to assist in repelling the invaders. He continued in the army until the fall of that year, when the regiment with which he was connected was mustered out of service. He then turned his attention to the law, and under the preceptorship of A. B. Sharpe and J. M. Weakley completed the prescribed course of study, being admitted to the Cumberland county Bar in 1864. He began practicing at Carlisle, and by close attention and hard work soon acquired a large and lucrative business, which kept steadily growing until his elevation to the Bench, in 1884.

Although deeply absorbed in his profession, Mr. Sadler found time to take an active interest in politics, and early in his career became an influential factor in the affairs of the Republican party. In 1868 he was nominated for State Senator in the district then composed of Cumberland and York counties. He was not elected, but made a showing that contributed very materially to his reputation as a party leader, and ever afterward was kept at the front politically. In 1871 he was elected district attorney, and three years later was the Republican nominee for president judge of the Ninth Judicial District. Besides attending to his legal practice he engaged extensively in business enterprises, was director in different corporations, director and president of the Farmers’ Bank, director of the public schools of Carlisle, trustee of Dickinson College, and filled other positions of trust and responsibility. In 1884 he was elected president judge, carrying Cumberland county by a majority of 1,325, while the Republican candidate for President lost it by a majority of over 900. After his election as Common Pleas judge he was twice a candidate for Supreme Judge, and although not successful he each time came within a few votes of being nominated. After his retirement from the Bench he devoted himself to his practice, and, his reputation as a lawyer and counsellor having become widespread, his services were much called for from a distance as well as from within the confines of his own county. He associated with him two of his sons, who are both young men of acknowledged ability, and have had a thorough practical training for the law. On June 8, 1904, he was again nominated for president judge of the Ninth Judicial District of Pennsylvania, and was elected Nov. 8th.

In 1871 Wilbur F. Sadler married Miss Sarah E. Sterrett, daughter of Rev. David Sterrett, a Presbyterian minister then living in Carlisle. To this union were born four children: (1) Wilbur F. has long been engaged in projecting and constructing street railways, at which he has achieved success and distinction. He resides at Trenton, N. J., where he is prominently identified with enterprises in his line. (2) Lewis S. was educated at Yale College and the Dickinson School of Law at Carlisle, graduating from the latter in 1895, since when he has been actively engaged in the practice of his profession, and is regarded as one of the most industrious and competent young attorneys at the Bar. For one term he was attorney for the Carlisle borough council. In June, 1902, he married Miss Mary Bosler, daughter of the late James W. Bosler. (3) Sylvester B. graduated from Yale in 1896 and from the Dickinson School of Law in 1898. He and his brother Lewis are partners with their father in the practice of law, and through their reputation as able, industrious and thoroughly trained lawyers the firm commands a large and constantly increasing business. Sylvester B. is professor of Criminal Law in the Dickinson School of Law, and author of a book on criminal procedure published by the Lawyers’ Co-operative Publishing Company, of Rochester, N. Y. He is a member of the borough council, and takes a live interest in everything that pertains to the good of the community. (4) Horace T. graduated from the Dental Department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1901. After completing his course he spent a year in the city of Philadelphia, and then located in Carlisle, where he is now engaged in successful practice.

Mrs. Sadler died Jan. 10, 1895. A deeply pious and devoted wife and mother, her death naturally was a heavy blow to her family, but it did not disturb the sacred filial associations of the bereaved, for the beautiful residence on West College street, Carlisle, continues to be their home in common, and only as new relations in life arise and demand it do they leave it. Judge Sadler and his sons are justly numbered along the representative citizens of Cumberland county. They grace the honorable professions of which they are members, are public-spirited and progressive, and are deservedly very popular with the masses.