My Genealogy Hound

WILLIAM ALEXANDER HUMRICH, the fourth and youngest son of John Adams and Mary Ann Humrich, was born in their first home on the northwest corner of Louther and Hanover streets, Carlisle, July 9, 1839. In the spring of 1842 the family removed to what is now 147 West Louther street, where he grew to manhood, attending the public schools in the meantime. He was placed on his father’s farm in North Middleton township, about two miles north of town, where he learned the art, trade and mystery of farming, and this has been his pursuit during most of his life.

In 1862 he became a member of Company A, of the 130th Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, and took part in the battle of Antietam, where he was wounded in Bloody Lane, by being struck by a piece of shell; and was with the Union forces in the mud campaign against Fredericksburg. After the war he visited the oil regions in northwestern Pennsylvania, where he spent nearly five years in the oil business, engaged in its different departments, including the refining of oil and its various extracts. He there saw fortunes made and lost in a short time; was on the site of Pithole City when the first building was erected, witnessed it grow to a city of ten thousand population, and abandoned by its people when the oil wells failed. He returned to his native place about 1870, and engaged in the fruit and green grocery business, in the building in which he was born, and was fairly successful. During the Centennial year (1876) he became the owner of the big steer Romeo, fed in West Pennsboro township, this county, and, giving up the grocery business, made arrangements to exhibit him at the Philadelphia Centennial, and subsequently on the Granger grounds near that city, where he spent the entire summer and fall of that year. After this venture he returned to his home in Carlisle and again devoted himself to farming and the keeping of a dairy, in which he is now engaged.

On Sept. 23, 1879, Mr. Humrich was married to Mrs. Emma C. Humrich, the widow of his brother, John A., deceased, and has since resided on a part of the old homestead. They have had no children.