Free Genealogy Biography of David Eberhart
Pennsylvania Volunteer of the Civil War
David C. Eberhart
David C. Eberhart was born in Mercer County, Penn., November 19, 1826. His parents, Abraham and Esther (Ammond) Eberhart, were natives of Pennsylvania and of German descent.
Paulus Eberhart, the progenitor of the Eberhart family in America, came from Wurtemburg, Germany, in 1744, the original seat of the Eberharts (who were reigning dukes for over 300 years), and settled in Baltimore County, Md. It appears from tradition his eldest son Paul was born on the ocean. He settled the manor in Westmoreland, Penn., where the grandfather and father of the subject of this sketch were born, and where a number of the old members of the family are buried.
Sergeant Lawrence Eberhart, of Frederick County, Md., one of the family, distinguished himself in one of the engagements with the British, in South Carolina, during the Revolutionary war, by rushing to the rescue of Col. Washington, who was beset by a British officer and some dozen dragoons, and handing the colonel his sword, thus enabling that officer to cut his way out [see Romances of the Revolution. by Bunce]. He died in Frederick in 1840, aged ninety-five years. Abraham, the father, died at Chicago Lawn, Ill., in 1880, aged eighty-four years, where the mother is living at this writing (1884) aged eighty-four years.
David C. is the third son of a family of seven sons and three daughters; grew to manhood on a farm in Mercer and Venango Counties; received an academic education, and at the age of twenty-one began the study of dental surgery; also studied medicine awhile at Middlesex, Penn., and at Warren, Ohio, and practiced that profession at New Bedford, Penn., a few months.
In 1850 he went to Baltimore, Md., where he practiced dentistry for two years, studying theology in the meantime, and was licensed to preach in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and assigned to Shrewsbury Circuit. His health failing, he abandoned the itinerant ministry, and resumed the practice of dental surgery, preaching only occasionally.
He was appointed chaplain of the Eighty-seventh Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, 87th Regiment, in February, 1863; was captured at Winchester, Va., June 15, 1863; taken to Castle Thunder, transferred to Libby Prison, released and rejoined his regiment October 7, 1863, and was mustered out in October, 1864, and resumed the practice of dental surgery at Shrewsbury.
He was married, in 1854, at Shrewsbury, to Mary E. daughter of Dr. James Gerry, and had born to him five children, two of whom are now living: James Gerry, a distinguished minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church, in Illinois, and Zelia C. His wife died in 1867, aged thirty-two years.
He was next married, in 1872, at Shrewsbury, to Wanetta I, daughter of William D. Benton, of Maryland, and they have had two children: Winona S. and David Cleon. Dr. Eberhart is Past Master, and now secretary, of the Masonic Lodge at Shrewsbury; is chaplain of Post No. 342, G. A. R.; was justice of the peace from 1874 to May, 1884; school director four terms; chief burgess in 1876. He is an active Sunday-school worker, having been superintendent of a Sunday-school for twenty years.
Source: York County, Pennsylvania Biographical History, John Gibson, Chicago: F.A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886.
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