Capt. Alexander Peebles Sr., was a blacksmith and farmer whose homestead of 1774 sits on what is now known as Cramer Rd., Southampton Township (formally Hopewell Twp.), Shippensburg. He was my paternal 4th great-grandfather through my great-grandmother Abbie (Highlands) Baker, whose dad, Wm. Isaac was a son of James Highlands & Mary Elizabeth Peeples (1797-1871), a daughter of Capt. Alexander. In 1751 the captain’s father Nathaniel (about 1720-1779) immigrated from Peeblesshire, Scotland with his own father, Andrew (about 1690-1778), progenitors of the Peebles family in Pennsylvania.
An Alex Peebles is believed to have early been given titles and the Peebles coat of arms by Charles I in 1621.1 Our own Alexander’s Pennsylvania property consists of more than 200 acres (his land grant application, originally requesting 300 acres, being dated 22 Oct. 1766) adjoining then properties of “Charles Roddy on the East and Wm. Plumpsted on the West”. Virginia’s own progenitor, David Peebles (D:1659), as with our Andrew, perhaps a cousin, was born in Fife, Scotland as had been our Capt. Alexander Peebles’ great -grandfather, also named Alexander (1675-1750). Sailing to Virginia, David was granted land along James River (1649), dying about 10 years later and 40 years before the birth of our Alexander Sr.’s grandfather, Pennsylvania’s immigrant Andrew Peebles. Many early immigrants, such as Virginia’s David Peebles, arrived as a result of troubles from Oliver Cromwell in Peeblesshire.
Capt. Alexander, his brothers, and his sons were members of the early Middle Spring Presbyterian Church. Many served as Patriots during the Revolutionary War, for which Alexander Sr. volunteered. He served in the 1st Battalion Cumberland County Militia under Col. James Dunlap (founded Bellefonte, PA), reporting with the men to Gen. George Washington Aug. 1777 at Chester and was present at the Battle of Brandywine that Sept. Fighting with Capt. Alexander at Sunbury was Stephen Cisna of Bedford, husband of Mary Gardner of Centre Church congregation, Perry Co. Alexander also fought in the French and Indian War.
Much later, in a period of flourishing cabinet making in PA, the Peebles family of Shippensburg were known in the trade.2 One such was John Peebles, a son of Revolutionary War Capt. William Peebles and cousin to the descendants of Capt. Alexander Sr. Ultimately, John relocated to Ohio where his own son John Geddes Peebles introduced the railway to the village of his namesake Peebles, Meigs Twp., Adams Co., OH (1881).3
The Peebles family is more recently remembered by townspeople and descendants interested in preserving his homestead. Alexander Peebles Sr.’s homestead, pictured above and center w/ Lena (Beidel) Wiser/Cramer (Mrs. Clarence Cramer Jr.; step-mom to Michael, Loretta, Steve, Gary Cramer). Pictured at right are Ted Wiser’s brothers Steve & Tracy Wiser, Lena’s sons through her first marriage. The boys are warming themselves at the hearth in the old Wash House/Summer Ktchen (Jan. 1969); the visible “long flap” helps with smoke.4
The homestead holds long, enduring memories for those who lived there. In 1838, George McCormick (father-in-law of Capt. James Kelso), purchased Alexander Sr.’s homestead from the widow of son Alex. McCormick became the 1st of a small stream of new owners. Others include the Cramer family. In Sept. 2022, I spoke with Lena Wiser/Cramer’s son, Ted Wiser and his wife Ruth (she actually descends from Capt. Alexander through Georgia Highlands, Mrs. Carl Goodhart, and so found herself living on ancestral property). Ted and Ruth, farmers, became proprietors of the Lollipop Shop, King St. Ted stated that in the 1960’s the township decided to give Cramer Road its present name “simply because” the Cramer’s and their family were its most long term and pronounced residents, the Brechbiel family were the only others living along the road. The Cramers were the last family to own the Alexander Peebles, Sr. farm.
Ted fondly recalls his hogs and the festivities of collective family butchering about 20 hogs in preparation for Thanksgiving meals on Cramer Road, where he farmed most of his life. Some of his results went to a local feed market, others for manufacturing in Harrisburg, and “some barley” went to Allentown for making beer. He kept most of the corn to feed his cows. Below is a layout of the farm as surveyed in 1787.5 Below right is an outside view of the Wash House/Summer Kitchen furnished by Tracy Wiser.
The Peebles surname survives locally in Peebles Rd., which runs south from about the intersection of Rtes. 641 and 696, to Cramer Rd.; and Peebles Run River, 6.4 miles outside Shippensburg proper, near Newburg. Known for its fishing, Peebles Run River is where our Capt. Alexander’s brother, Capt. (later Colonel) Robert Peebles, settled after the Revolutionary War.
Snuff was once a luxury item among upper classes which was also prescribed by doctors before its’ less desirable potential side effects were known. As a luxury item it was taxable in the first US Federal tax of 1794. Snuff mills, were less common than fulling and other mills.
[1] See, online, “The Line of Descent of Hannah Peebles [through David’s immigration to VA] and John Wright” by Mary Elizabeth Matthews Olson. Of interest is “Study of the Peebles Family of Virginia” by Lou Poole.
[2] See, for instance, John Peebles in the Gardner Digital Library’s “Henry Connolly: Cabinet and Chair-Maker”; and in the CCHS 2017 book, “Cabinetmakers of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Vol. I, 1750-1825”, Mary Lou Schaumann;
[3] See Wikipedia. Also see “Personal Recollections” of PA/OH by John Geddes Peebles as excerpted online at Wikitree.
[4] Photo at top is courtesy Preservation PA; family photos are courtesy Tracy Wiser.
[5] Courtesy Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. C173, page 100.