BIO: PETER MARTIN HEISER, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania
   
  Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Joe Patterson
  OCRed by Judy Banja

  Copyright 2004.  All rights reserved.
  http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/copyright.htm
  http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/pa/cumberland/
  _____________________________________________________________

  >From Biographical Annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania,
  Chicago: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905, pages 491-492
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  NOTE: Use this web address to access other bios:
  http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/pa/cumberland/zeamer/


      PETER MARTIN HEISER, yard-master for the Northern Central Railroad at
  Bridgeport, Cumberland county, and an honored survivor of the Civil war, was
  born Jan. 1, 1842, in Harrisburg, Pa., a son of Peter and Elizabeth (Martin)
  Heiser.
      
      Peter Heiser was born in Lancaster county and in boyhood learned
  shoemaking. In young manhood he went to Harrisburg and there married
  Elizabeth, daughter of Frederick Martin, later moving to Carlisle, where he
  died in January, 1893. His first wife passed away in Altoona, in 1854. The
  children of Peter Heiser by two marriages were: Peter Martin, of this sketch;
  Catherine, deceased, wife of William Folk, of Harrisburg; Mary, Mrs. John
  Weiley, deceased; Martha, Mrs. James Johnson, deceased; and Frederick and
  Charles, both of whom died in infancy.
      
      When Peter Martin Heiser was three years old his parents moved to
  Philadelphia, and at the age of nine years he came to Bridgeport to make his
  home with his maternal step-grandfather, Frederick Arnold. He attended school
  at both places, altogether not regularly, as he had to assist his grandfather,
  who was a switchman on the Cumberland Valley Railroad, and at the age of ten
  years
      
      492  CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
      
  was able to successfully throw the switches. When fifteen he went to
  Lancaster, to learn the tailor's trade, but after a year's trial gave it up
  and went to Lititz, where he learned shoemaking, which he followed in
  Lancaster one year. In 1861 he entered the Union army for service in the
  Civil war, enlisting in Company B, 1st Pa. Reserves, for three years, and
  re-enlisted for the same period. He was assigned to Company A, 190th P. V.
  I., and participated in the larger number of the battles of the Army of the
  Potomac, except the ones fought while he was lying in hospital, suffering
  from a wound in his left elbow received at the battle of the Wilderness. He
  was in hospital at Fortress Monroe and later at Washington, D. C. Mr.
  Heiser's military life was one of constant danger. His command was attached
  to the 25th Army Corps, and he served under many famous men and gallant
  commanders, one of these being Gen. Meade, at Gettysburg. He took part in the
  famous battles of Mechanicsville, Malvern, Hill, Fredericksburg, Spottsylvania
  Court House and Drainesville, besides many others.
      
      After the close of the war Mr. Heiser returned to his home and resumed
  his shoemaking business, until 1866, when he entered the employ of the
  Cumberland Valley Railroad Co., with which he continued until 1868, when he
  transferred to the Northern Central, as car inspector. In 1889, he was
  promoted to the responsible position of yardmaster at Bridgeport, which he
  still holds, and is a trusted and valued employe.
      
      At Lancaster, in 1866, Mr. Heiser was married to Mary C. Jeffries, of
  that place, a daughter of Augustus and Amelia (Hambright) Jeffries, the
  latter of whom died in 1900; the former still survives, at the age of
  eighty-five years. Mrs. Heiser died in July, 1903. She was a consistent
  member of the Episcopal Church at Lancaster. She was the mother of the
  following named children: Amelia Elizabeth, Mrs. C. Leyden, of Lancaster;
  Susan, Mrs. G. W. Handyshell, of Bridgeport; Jennie, Mrs. S. I. Stouffer, of
  Bridgeport; Charles A., who died in 1902; and Frank, who died in 1901.
      
      Mr. Heiser is a member of the Moravian Church, which he joined at Lititz.
  In politics he votes independently in local matters, but is a Democrat in
  national affairs. Fraternally, he belongs to the Royal Arcanum, the I. O. O.
  F. (at Harrisburg), and the Jr. O. U. A. M. (at Lancaster).