BIO: JOHN B. LANDIS, 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 444-446
  _____________________________________________________________

  NOTE: Use this web address to access other bios:
  http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/pa/cumberland/zeamer/

  
    JOHN B. LANDIS is descended on his father's side from French Swiss
  Huguenots who suffered greatly through religious persecution, the large,
  blackbearded John, or "Hans," having lost his head for his faith at Zurich in
  September, 1614.
    
    On his mother's side his great-great-great-grandfather, Ludwig Moler,
  arrived in this country with his family on Aug. 29, 1730, having sailed from
  Rotterdam in the ship "Thistle," of Glasgow, Colin Dunlap, mas-
    
    CUMBERLAND COUNTY.  445
  
  ter. He took and subscribed the Declaration and Adjuration drawn up Sept. 21,
  1727, to be signed by the Palatines who came as settlers.
    
    Mr. Landis's family is of the Lancaster county line of that name. His
  grandfather, Abraham, and his father, Jacob, were wheelwrights. He was born
  on his father's farm in Upper Allen township, Cumberland county, on Aug. 21,
  1841. His early education was received in the common and normal schools, and
  at the age of seventeen he commenced teaching, still continuing his studies.
  In April, 1860, he commenced the study of medicine with Dr. Philip H. Long,
  of Mechanicsburg, Pa. The Civil war coming on, he enlisted Aug. 9, 1862,
  becoming a private in Company F, 130th Regiment, P. V. I., and was promoted
  to corporal. He participated in the battles of Antietam - at Bloody Lane, on
  Sept. 17, 1862, where his brother David was wounded - and Fredericksburg, on
  Dec. 13, 1862, where, in the charge of Marye's Heights and near the stone
  fence, he received a shell wound in the right shoulder. He was sent to Point
  Lookout Hospital, Maryland, was discharged from the service on Feb. 12, 1863,
  for disability, and returned home. Later, however, he again entered the
  service, and on Sept. 13, 1864, was commissioned Captain of Company A, 209th
  Regiment, Pennsylvania Infantry, commanded by Col. T. B. Kaufman. Soon after
  the regiment's arrival at Bermuda Hundred Front, on Sept. 29, 1864, he was
  placed in command of Fort Carpenter, the first outwork on the south bank of
  the James river. His garrison consisted of one hundred infantry with three
  lieutenants, and a battery of brass pieces commanded by Lieut. Abel S.
  Chappell, formerly of the British artillery service. Two months later he
  rejoined his regiment at Meade Station, in front of Petersburg. In the battle
  of Fort Steadman, on March 25, 1865, his company captured nineteen of the
  enemy with their captain. On April 2, 1865, in the assault upon and capture
  of the works on the Petersburg front, he recovered his regiment's flag
  through a cross fire from a Confederate fort on the left, and on the night of
  that day was the only captain left in the regiment, the killed, wounded,
  absent and special details accounting for all the others. Capt. Landis was in
  other minor engagements, was with the regiment in the Grand Review of the
  armies in Washington City on May 23 and 24, 1865, and was mustered out of the
  service of the United States on May 31, 1865, returning home. In 1866 he was
  appointed military instructor at the White Hall Soldiers' Orphans' School,
  and in April, 1867, received the appointment of deputy collector of Internal
  Revenue for the Fifteenth District of Pennsylvania, which he resigned on
  Sept. 30, 1876, to enter the Carlisle Deposit Bank, accepting the position of
  cashier. The next year he resigned from the bank on account of impaired
  health, and after a year's rest entered the law office of Henderson & Hays,
  of Carlisle. He was admitted to the Bar of Cumberland county in 1881, and
  associated himself with A. D. B. Smead, Esq., in the practice of the law.
  This partnership continued until Capt. Smead entered the United States
  service at the breaking out of the Spanish-American war. In April, 1899, he
  associated with himself his son Merkel, then admitted to the Bar. He has been
  Secretary and Treasurer of the Carlisle Gas & Water Company since July 1,
  1882. He has also been Treasurer of the Hamilton Library Association since
  1883. He is a Trustee and Clerk of the Session of the First Presbyterian
  Church of Carlisle, a Trustee of Metzger College, a Director of the J. Herman
  Bosler
    
    446  CUMBERLAND COUNTY.
    
  Memorial Library, and a Trustee and Treasurer of the Todd Hospital of
  Carlisle. Captain Landis is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and
  of the Pennsylvania Commandery of The Military Order of the Loyal Legion of
  the United States.
    
    Capt. Landis was married, on June 9, 1870, to Miss Barbara H. Merkel,
  daughter of Hon. Levi and Susanna (Martin) Merkel. Mrs. Landis, a lady of
  many excellent and lovable qualities, died on Saturday, Aug. 20, 1898. Capt.
  Landis's family now consists of Norman, of Flemington, N. J., married to
  Katherine Brokaw Ramsey, of that place; Merkel, a member of the Cumberland
  County Bar; Naomi and Olive, at home; and Kenneth, absent at Lehigh
  University.