Matthew Loudon

  General Notes:

BIOGRAPHY: Matthew LOUDON, Cumberland County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Joe Patterson
OCRed by Judy Banja
[Minor editing by L. B. Hagen, March 2005]

Copyright 2004. All rights reserved.

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From Biographical Annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania,
Chicago: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905, pages 27-30
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Page 27

MATTHEW LOUDON. On Dec. 4, 1751, the proprietaries of Pennsylvania issued to John Hopkins a warrant for 150 acres of land. This warrant was transferred to Matthew Loudon, and on it were surveyed to him, on March 26, 1767, two adjoining tracts, one containing 172 acres and 67 perches, and the other 48 acres and 67 perches. This land lies on the slopes of the ridge between New Kingstown and Hogestown, in what is now Silver Spring township, but was then East Pennsboro. At the time the warrant was issued, it was bounded on the west by lands of Joseph Junken, and on the east by lands of William Walker.

Matthew Loudon was a younger brother of James Loudon, and with him came from Scotland in 1754. According to some accounts there was also a brother John. These three brothers settled in the Raccoon Valley, in what is now Perry County, early in 1755. They were soon afterwards driven away by the Indians, and came to the south of the Kittatinny Mountains, where they remained for five years, waiting for the Indian hostilities to subside. When peace was restored, John and James Loudon ventured back to their possessions in the Raccoon Valley, but their brother Matthew, having formed new alliances, remained in the Cumberland Valley. While waiting for peace he met in the vicinity of where now is Hogestown, a young lady named Elizabeth McCormick, a daughter of Thomas McCormick. Their acquaintance ripened into love, and they were married, beginning life on the southern slopes of the ridge where he acquired the lands referred to, now (1903) included in the farms owned by Albert Breen and John C. Parker. Here Matthew Loudon's possessions grew with the growth and development of the country. In 1763 he was taxed with 150 acres of land and from year to year this amount rose till in 1787 it reached 350 acres. His personal property increased in the same rapid proportion, and according to the assessment rolls of East Pennsboro Township, he was for a long time in affluent circumstances, and one of the leading citizens of the section.

Matthew Loudon and Elizabeth McCormick, his wife, had children as follows: Mary, Archibald, and Catharine (who died in infancy). Mary, the eldest child, was born in May, 1761, and on March 14, 1782, married Col. James McFarland, by whom she had ten children, four sons and six daughters. Archibald was born on March 17, 1763. Nine years before, as his parents were on their way to America, his cousin, Archibald Loudon, was born at sea. This cousin subsequently lived and died at Carlisle, and their names being similar, the two are apt to be confounded with each other on the records.

Archibald Loudon, son of Matthew, married Margaret Bines, daughter of Thomas and Margaret (Vance) Bines, and began life as a farmer on the ridge a little to the northeast of where is now New Kingstown, and near where his father settled when he came into the Cumberland Valley. He prospered, and being enterprising, he and John Walker, a neighbor, engaged at manufacturing iron at Mt. Holly, Cumberland county, during the years 1800 and 1801. The venture was a financial failure, both partners losing heavily. He continued to live on his farm near New Kingstown until about 1820, when he exchanged it for a


Page 28 CUMBERLAND COUNTY.


farm lying on the Juniata river, opposite Newport, Perry County, and with his family removed to it. Here he died March 22, 1832. His wife died five days after her husband, and the remains of both lie interred in the cemetery of the Silver Spring Church.

Archibald Loudon and Margaret Bines, his wife, had children as follows: (1) Elizabeth McCormick, the eldest child, married James Bell, and by him had four children, only two of whom lived to grow to maturity. (2) John McCormick, born Sept. 18, 1792, married Nancy Giffin, who died Aug. 29, 1834. He died Sept. 16, 1880, and both are buried at Silver Spring. They left no children. (3) Matthew, born in December, 1794, married Sarah Fulton, in 1840, by whom he had four daughters. After his marriage he lived for some time in Perry County, but subsequently moved West and settled in the State of Missouri. Late in life he returned to Perry County, and died there on April 21, 1855. (4) Margaret, born Sept. 15, 1796, married Henry Ewalt, and by him had two sons and one daughter, viz.: William Henry, born in March, 1827, died in February, 1875; Loudon Bines, born April 16, 1836, died Nov. 30, 1903; and Margaret, born Sept. 21, 1838. Henry Ewalt died Jan. 11, 1871, in the seventy-first year of his age, and his wife died Feb. 5, 1874, in her seventy-eighth year. Both are buried at Silver Spring. (5) Thomas Bines, born in June, 1799, married Martha Irvine, in February, 1830. He died at Middlesex, Cumberland County, Dec. 31, 1848, and his wife died while on a visit at Hogestown Nov. 27, 1879, aged about eighty years. Their remains lie buried in the Silver Spring graveyard. They had no children. (6) James, born Feb. 22, 1802, married, in 1836, Mrs. Ann Englehart, and settled in Harford County, Md., where he died leaving no children. (7) Mary Ann, born May 1, 1804, never married. She died at Hogestown, at the home of her sister, Mrs. Margery B. Snowden, Oct. 26, 1848. (8) Margery Bines, born Sept. 30, 1808, married, in 1832, Dr. Isaac Wayne Snowden, and had the following children: Nathan Randolph, born Oct. 7, 1833, died in August, 1900; Archibald Loudon, born Aug. 11, 1835; Margaret, born Jan. 10, 1838, died March 25, 1854; Sarah Gustine, born April 5, 1841; and Maud Loudon, born March 31, 1848. Dr. Isaac Wayne Snowden died June 4, 1850, and his wife died Jan. 25, 1888. Both are buried in the cemetery of the Silver Spring Church. (9) William McCormick, born Nov. 12, 1812, married Eliza Patterson, went West and settled in Missouri. Three children, two daughters and a son, were born to them. Both parents are dead, and their remains are buried at Hannibal, Missouri.

Matthew Loudon's first wife, Elizabeth McCormick, died at a date not now known, and he afterward married Ann Copenger, by whom he had five children. He died Jan. 10, 1801, at the age of seventy-two years, and his wife, Ann Copenger, died Feb. 17, 1829. He and his two wives lie buried in the same grave in the cemetery of the Silver Spring Church. The Carlisle Weekly Gazette, Jan. 14, 1801, contained the following notice of his death: "On the 10th instant at his farm in East Pennsboro, Mr. Matthew Loudon. None who knew this man will hesitate to say that he possessed the moral and social virtues in an eminent degree. As a husband, a father, a neighbor and a member of society, both civil and religious, his actions were the testimonials of sincerity and real friendship, and strongly indicated the goodness of his heart. His


Page 29 CUMBERLAND COUNTY.


remains were interred in Silver Spring graveyard on the 12th instant, accompanied thither by an uncommonly large and respectable number of his relations and neighbors who were sensibly affected by the loss of this worthy citizen."

Matthew and Ann (Copenger) Loudon had issue as follows: (1) Elizabeth married Thomas Carothers and by him had five children: John, who went to Missouri and died there in 1855; Matthew, who died young; William, who went to Texas, and it is not known what became of him; Thomas, who went South, married and settled in Texas; and Nancy, who married a son of James Armstrong, of Carlisle, and had two sons who located at Columbia, Pa. (2) John Loudon married Polly Hoge, daughter of John Hoge, and moved to Ohio in 1816. (3) James, born April 1, 1781, married Mary Pinkerton, and had one son named Matthew. James Loudon died Jan. 27, 1847, and his wife died May 19, 1857, and both are buried in the Silver Spring burying ground. (4) Catharine, born Feb. 15, 1783, married Andrew Carothers, of Carlisle, and by him had three sons, as follows: John C., who went to Missouri, and there married a Miss Carothers, who died without children; Matthew, who married a Miss Wilson, moved to Shelbyville. Mo., and had a large family of children; and James, who settled in California. Mrs. Catharine (Loudon) Carothers died Jan. 19, 1820, and her husband afterward married Mrs. Isabella (Creigh) Alexander, widow of Samuel Alexander. Andrew Carothers died July 27, 1836, and was buried by the side of his first wife in the cemetery of the Silver Spring church. His second wife died June 4, 1861, in the seventy-fifth year of her age, and is buried in the Old Graveyard at Carlisle. (5) Ann, born Oct. 29, 1785, was a deaf mute, and died unmarried Jan. 18, 1845, at the home of her brother James at Roxbury, in Monroe Township, and her remains are buried at Silver Spring.

Matthew Loudon made his will April 6, 1799, and left his estate, subject to certain allowances, to his sons, John and James, to be divided between the two by the judgment of seven men appointed by his executors. To his son Archibald, he, some years before, had given what he considered his portion. In 1822 James' land was purchased at sheriff's sale by Thomas Carothers, his brother-in-law, who in March, 1827, conveyed it to Andrew Carothers, Esq. Matthew Loudon, James Loudon's son and only child, was born March 7, 1812. He married Catharine Myers, by whom he had three children: John Myers, Elizabeth and Alfred James.

Matthew Loudon never wandered far from the place of his birth. In 1845 he purchased from the Forney estate a farm near the village of Hogestown, and upon it engaged at farming while health and strength remained to him. He was a quiet unostentatious man and much respected for his integrity and modest worth. From early in life he was a member of the Lutheran Church at Trindle Spring, and for many years one of its deacons, also a trustee, in which capacity he was serving at the time of his death. He died Oct. 30, 1885, and his wife died April 18, 1893, in the seventy-seventh year of her age. Their remains lie buried in the cemetery of the Trindle Spring Church.

John Myers, the oldest child of Matthew and Catharine (Myers) Loudon, was born May 27, 1841. He married Lyde J. Ellis, who is of English descent, and they became the parents of the following children: Margaret Ellis, born Dec. 12, 1875; Mary Catharine,


Page 30 CUMBERLAND COUNTY.


born April 17, 1880; John Matthew, born June 24, 1882; Lillie Bell, born April 17, 1886, died Dec. 18, 1901; Miriam Cristobel, born Sept. 12, 1889. John Myers Loudon was a farmer, and up to his death engaged at farming on a place belonging to the Loudon heirs, not far from where he was born, in Silver Spring Township. He died Aug. 6, 1894, and since his death his widow and children continue the work, and maintain intact the unity of the family. Margaret Ellis, the eldest daughter, married Albert Clouser, lives in York, Pa., and has had the following children: Mary Elizabeth, born Aug. 9, 1893 Charles, born May, 1894, died August, 1894; John Horace, born May 1, 1898; and Almbert, born Feb. 17, 1903.

Miss Elizabeth, the second child of Matthew and Catharine (Myers) Loudon, was born Sept. 16, 1843. She resides in Mechanicsburg. Alfred James, the third and youngest child of Matthew and Catharine (Myers) Loudon, was born Aug. 7, 1847, and grew to man's estate on the farm on which he was born, and on which he has always lived. He was bred a farmer, and was limited in education to the curriculum of the country district school, but he is of a spirit that keeps him in close touch with public affairs, and with the most advanced ideas in his private vocation. He has been a Knight of Pythias since 1871; a Mason since 1873, and a Patron of Husbandry since 1882. He is a Republican in politics, and has long been regarded a party wheelhorse in his section of the county. He frequently figures in county conventions and occasionally in State conventions as a delegate. For nine consecutive years he was school director, each time elected by a good majority, notwithstanding the strong anti-Republican bias of his district, and in 1902, he was a nominee for county commissioner but was defeated by only a small majority. On Feb. 19, 1885, he was married to Mary Ellen, daughter of the late Simon Seiler, of Hogestown, and their children were: Matthew James, born Dec. 28, 1885, died May 21, 1888; Simon Seiler, born April 28, 1888; Archibald Pinkerton, born Nov. 11, 1892; Charlotte Elizabeth, born Feb. 25, 1896; Mary Marguerite, born Feb. 26,
1897. The family are regular attendants of the Presbyterian church at Silver Spring, and are universally respected for their high character and good neighborly qualities.

Matthew married Ann Copenger. (Ann Copenger died on 17 Feb 1829 in Cumberland Co., PA..)