Colonel Henry Clay Bolinger, 7th Regiment, Pennsylvania Reserves Photo Courtesy of the PA Reserve Volunteer Corps Historical Society

     Henry C[lay] Bolinger, colonel of the Seventh regiment, was born at Pottsgrove, in Northumberland county, on the 29th of May, 1828. He was the son of a carpenter, who removed to Centre county, where he educated his son in the public schools. At the age of seventeen Henry was employed as clerk in the store of Mr. George Furst, at Buck creek, where he remained four years, then returned to his father's shop, and worked at carpentering; he afterward visited the south-western states, and in 1854 settled at Lock Haven, in Pennsylvania, as deputy sheriff of Clinton county; subsequently he was appointed deputy prothonotary, which office he held at the beginning of the war, in 1861. Under the first call for troops, Mr. Bolinger was appointed recruiting sergeant, and on the 24th of April, when the Rifle Guards of Lock Haven were organized, he was elected first-lieutenant. The company became part of the Seventh regiment; Captain Chancy A. Lyman, its commander, was commissioned major, and Lieutenant Bolinger was promoted to the captaincy. On the 5th of May, 1862, just before the Reserves sailed to the Peninsula, Captain Bolinger was elected Lieutenant-Colonel; and on the 4th of July was promoted to the colonelcy, made vacant by the resignation of Colonel Harvey.

...Colonel Bolinger and all the prisoners captured in the Wilderness were sent to Richmond. When, in their barbarous practices, the rebel authorities sent fifty National officers to Charleston, in South Carolina, to be placed under the fire of the United States fleet, Colonel Bolinger was chosen one of the number. The prompt retaliatory measures of the Government induced the rebels to retract their inhuman resolution and to release the officers by exchange. Colonel Bolinger returned home, and was mustered out in August, 1864. Soon after leaving the service he removed with his family to the State of Illinois.1

1. 1. Sypher, History of the Reserves, pg. 512-514.

First Lieutenant George H. Bemus, Co. F, 9th Regiment, Pennsylvania Reserves (Seated on the left with other men affiliated with the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. This photograph was taken sometime between 1865 and 1867. Photo Courtesy of the PA Reserve Volunteer Corps Historical Society

     Colonel George Hamlin Bemus was born 01 May 1831 in Pine Grove, Pa., and died 28 Dec 1896 in Corry, Pa. He married Juliana Prendergast Bemus 09 May 1854, daughter of Daniel Bemus and Jane Brooks. She was born 08 May 1836.

He was educated at the Fredonia Academy; subsequently studied law with the Hon. Madison Burnell at Jamestown, N.Y. and admitted to practice in Nov. 1853. He practiced in Jamestown, N.Y., Meadville, Penn. and in Wenona, Wis. In the latter town, he was elected Judge of Probate and was also a Director in the Transit R.R. Co. In April 1861, he enlisted in a company formed at Meadville, Penn. and was elected 2d Lieut. His company was attached to the 9th Penn. Reserves and served in the army of the Potomac. He served as Aide-de-camp to Genrls. Seymour and C.F. Jackson, and was in the seven days fighting before Richmond; and in the Battles of South Mountain, Antietam and Fredericksburg, in the latter he was seriously wounded, having to leave the Army. Later on he raised a company which was attached to the 58th Penn Militia, of which he was made Colonel. His Regiment took part in the capture of Genrl. John H. Morgan, and he was the officer who had charge of the prisoner. He resigned from the Army in 1863, and in 1864-65 was elected to the Penn. Legislature. He afterwards practiced law in New York City, Petrotia, Penn. and Allegheny Co. N.Y. Owing to disabilities incurred in the army he has of late not been engaged in active business.1

1. 1. The Bemis History and Genealogy" by Colonel Thomas Waln-Morgan Draper,1900, published San Francisco, California, copies in the Library of Congress.

Captain Samuel Evans, 3rd Brigade Quartermaster, Pennsylvania Reserve Division Photo Courtesy of the PA Reserve Volunteer Corps Historical Society

     CAPT. SAMUEL EVANS, now one of the venerable residents of Columbia, has long been one of the best known citizens of Lancaster county, where he is looked upon as the most reliable authority in matters pertaining to local history. His efforts in gathering and preserving data of interest and consequence have been both laborious and successful--all the more so that he has ever aimed at accuracy in every particular, a fact which invests his articles with especial value. Capt. Evans was born Jan. 20, 1823, near Marietta, this county, in the stone mansion on what is now Col. James Duffy's park farm.

Major Samuel Evans, his grandfather, was born near Landenburg, Chester Co., Pa., of Welsh and Irish extraction, and became a man of importance in his time and place. He was captain of the 8th Company, in the Chester, County Battalion, commanded by his father, Col. Evan Evans, and he participated in the battles of Trenton, Princeton and Brandywine. He was mustered out of the service holding the rank of major, having been but twenty-one years old when given that rank. He was one of the judges of the Chester court, and served several years as a member of the State Legislature. Major Evans married Frances Lowrey, youngest child of Col. Alexander and Ann Lowrey, the former of whom owned and lived upon the present Duffy farm. Mrs. Lowrey was of English extraction.

Alexander Lowrey Evans, father of Capt. Samuel, was given advantages for education such as but few voting men of his day received. He was a college graduate, and became a fine classical scholar. Possessed of rare abilities, he displayed in his writings literary attainments of a high order. Like his father, he had a taste for military life, but had no opportunity for seeing active service. He was an ardent Federalist, but he never sought political honors. His death occurred in July, 1839. In 1822 he married Hannah Slaymaker, youngest daughter of Hon. Amos and Isabella (Fleming) Slaymaker, of Salisbury, the former of whom was an ensign in the Revolutionary war, and a member of Congress in 1811 and 18l2. Mr. Slaymaker was a charter member and one of the promoters of the Philadelphia and Lancaster turnpike, which was built in 1792, and which was one the first built in the country. He was also one of the proprietors of the Philadelphia and Pittsburg stage line, which was established in 1800. Mrs. Slaymaker's father, James Fleming, who was of Scotch-Irish extraction, inherited the military ardor of his race, and served in Capt. David Buyer's company; he was at the battle of Long Island.

Capt. Samuel Evans remained at the place of his birth until he was fifteen years old, and during his boyhood attended regularly the best schools of the neighborhood. In April, 1838, he was apprenticed to Israel Cooper, a Quaker, one of the prominent builders of Columbia, with whom he remained six years. For one year after reaching his majority he continued in that locality, and then for eighteen months he followed his trade successively in New York, Pittsburg, St. Louis and New Orleans. Returning to Columbia, he engaged in building there and in Lancaster, and also followed the lumber business along the river.