Death
of Philip Harpst
Philip Harpst died at his residence in Vallonia at 4 o’clock p.m.
Sunday, Oct. 16, aged 85 years, 4 months, and 1 day. The deceased was born
near Tyrone, Huntingdon County, this state, and was the son of Daniel
Harpst a soldier of the Revolutionary war a member of Gen. Wayne’s
Pennsylvania brigade.
The subject of this notice came to Meadville in the spring of 1839
by stage from Stormstown Centre County, and has resided here ever since.
He lived to see Meadville rise from a small village to a flourishing city.
He was a shoemaker by trade but has not applied his trade for many years.
He was high constable of Meadville in 1847.
Philip Harpst was always a very patriotic man and was ever on hand
on the Fourth of July or other days when demonstrations were to be made
and was found among the canoneers firing the salutes. It was during one of
these occasions July 4, 1858 that he was crippled for life losing three
fingers by the premature discharge of a cannon on the old fair grounds,
near where the Erie depot now stands. He was ramming a cartridge home when
it exploded, carrying him, ramrod in hand, some fifteen feet. From the
effects of this shock he never fully recovered.
Mr. Harpst served as a tipstaff in the court house in Meadville for
upwards of 40 years. He was an uncompromising Republican, and was always
found at the polls on election day. He held a number of offices of trust
in Vallonia where he resided for the past 30 years. He was the father of
11 children, six of whom are now living. His wife Sarah Cole Harpst, died
last May in the 85th year of her age, a notice of which was published The
Tribune at the time. By the death of these aged people two more of the
early pioneers of Meadville have passed away.
Meadville
Evening Republican Oct. 17, 1898.
Submitted
by Dan Fay
