My Genealogy Hound

SAMUEL LINE HUSTON. In the first paragraphs of this history it is stated that the Hustons were among the earliest settlers of East Pennsboro, Cumberland county, in the part of that township that has since been erected into Silver Spring. Samuel Huston was the most prominent of the name and had issue five sons and five daughters. His eldest daughter was named Margaret. She married John Huston, a son of Christopher Huston, of the same locality, and a probable relative, although there is a family tradition that they were not relatives. About the year 1790 John and Margaret Huston moved from their East Pennsboro home to a tract of land in West Pennsboro township which John Huston had purchased from James Carothers in 1778. When John Huston bought this land it was within the bounds of West Pennsboro township, but in 1785 Dickinson township was formed from West Pennsboro and after that it came within the bounds of Dickinson. In 1860 Penn township was formed from Dickinson and after that this particular farm lay within the boundaries of Penn. John Huston was born in 1744, his wife being a little younger, and both were in the eighties when they died.

John and Margaret (Huston) Huston had eight children, as follows: Jonathan, James, John, Samuel, William, Ann, Isabella and Mrs. Kinkaid. John Huston died in 1828, and his wife died in 1831. The remains of both are buried in the cemetery of the Big Spring Presbyterian Church at Newville, but their graves are unmarked.

John, the third child of John and Margaret (Huston) Huston, was born in 1795. He grew up on the farm in Dickinson township, and was trained to the business of farming, hut while yet a mere boy did teaming on the road. At the breaking out of the war of 1812 his brother James enlisted in Capt. James Piper’s Company, which marched from Cumberland county by way of Pittsburg to the Canadian frontier. John was returning from Pittsburg with his father’s team and met the company on the way. He found his brother too ill to be of much service to his country and offered to take his place and was accepted. James brought the team home and John served as a soldier until the end of his company’s enlistment. He saw the British ship, which Commodore Perry captured brought into the port of Erie and used to describe to his children how their decks were covered with the blood and brains of the slaughtered. His brother James afterward died at home, unmarried.

On Feb. 22, 1822, John Huston married Elizabeth Weakley, Rev. George Duffield, pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Carlisle, performing the ceremony. Elizabeth Weakley, whose name appears on some records Eliza was a daughter of Samuel Weakley and Hester Lusk, his wife. Samuel Weakley was born Oct. 11, 1751, and was a son of James Weakley, and Jane, his wife, who were among the earliest settlers on the Yellow Breeches, in what is now Dickinson township. John and Elizabeth (Weakley) Huston began their married life in Dickinson township, and always lived there. In January, 1817, his father, John Huston, Sr., bought of Robert Lamberton a farm containing 109 acres of land lying in the northern part of Dickinson township, which in the distribution of his estate came into the possession of his son John. Here the son John Huston and Elizabeth Weakley, his wife, spent the greater portion of their lives, and here were born to them the following children: James, Sidney W., John Williamson, Samuel and Caroline Creigh. John Huston died on April 2, 1869, his wife, Elizabeth Weakley, died Feb. 4, 1851, and both are buried in the graveyard of the Dickinson Presbyterian Church in Penn township.

John Williamson, the third child of John and Elizabeth (Weakley) Huston, was born Feb. 20, 1828, on the farm which his grandfather purchased from Robert Lamberton in 1817. He grew to manhood on the paternal homestead and always engaged at the honorable occupations of tilling the soil, except about four years when he wagoned to Baltimore and Pittsburg for his father. On Oct. 20, 1856, he was married to Sarah Jane Line, by Rev. William W. Fells, pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church of Carlisle. Sarah Jane Line was a daughter of David and Sarah (Myers) Line, David Line, her father, being a son of William and Mary (Bear) Line. This William “Lyne” served in the Revolutionary war in Capt. Roland’s Company of Associators of Leacock township, Lancaster county, associated on the 5th of July, 1775. He was a Swiss and a son of George and Salome (Zimmerman) Lyne, who also served in the Revolutionary war in the same Company with his son William Lyne.

Mr. Huston began his married career upon the farm on which he was born and which he afterward purchased. This farm is still in the possession of his heirs. In 1872 he purchased a farm in North Middleton township, a short distance to the northeast of Carlisle, and moved to it. Here he continued to live until his death, May 4, 1900, and his remains are interred in Ashland cemetery, at Carlisle. His wife survives him and lives in Carlisle with her two daughters, Lillie and Sara.

John Williamson and Sarah Jane (Line) Huston had children as follows: Martha, Lillie, Alfred, Samuel Line, Sarah and Mary. Alfred died when about fourteen years of age. There were also five older children who died while very young. Of the surviving children, Martha married J. Brown Kelly Dec. 12, 1900, and is living near Oakville, where her husband is engaged at farming. Mary M. the eleventh child, graduated at Metzger College in June, 1899, married Earl B. Hertzler Jan. 1, 1902, and lives near Churchtown, Monroe township, where Mr. Hertzler is engaged in farming. Mr. and Mrs. Hertzler have one son, named J. Vernon Hertzler. Lillie and Sarah are unmarried and at home, Lillie being engaged at teaching music; she graduated in the collegiate course at Metzger College June 17, 1887.

Samuel Line Huston, the ninth child and the subject of this sketch, was born Aug. 1, 1870, on the ancestral homestead in Dickinson township. He was reared upon the farm in North Middleton, and in his youth attended the country district school. Later he attended the public school of Carlisle and graduated from the Carlisle high school in 1888. On leaving the high school he spent a year in Dickinson College, which completed his scholastic education. He then settled down to work upon the farm and at growing and shipping water cress and has been so engaged ever since. In the summer of 1897 he broke away from farm duties a sufficient length of time to make a trip to northwestern Ohio, where he visited relatives and friends. He traveled the entire distance going and coming, about 1,000 miles, on his bicycle, and made good use of his opportunity to see and study the country. On May 23, 1901, he was married to Elsarene James, by A. N. Hagerty, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Carlisle, nearly eighty years after his grandfather was married by a pastor of the same church. Elsarene James is a daughter of Wilmer James, M. D., and Mary A. Strohm, his wife. Dr. James was a son of Eber James and Sarah (Edge) Garrett, of Willistown, Chester county, and Mary A. Strohm was a daughter of the late George Strohm, coachmaker, of Plainfield, and Eliza Longnecker, his wife. Mrs. Elsarene (James) Huston is of the eighth generation of a James line who trace their descent back to a James progenitor who came from England with William Penn on his second voyage to America and settled in Chester county. After completing the course of the public schools she entered Harrisburg Business College and graduated in stenography and typewriting. Afterward she held a position in Harrisburg, assisting in the compilation of the State Archives, afterward in Philadelphia, and then for three and a half years was stenographer, typewriter and assistant bookkeeper for the Newville Knitting Company.

In the spring of 1902 Samuel L. Huston took charge of the farm in North Middleton, his mother moving to Carlisle and it is there that he and his little family now reside. They have issue one child, a daughter, born June 17, 1904, and named Mildred Huston.