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Notes

-------------------- 44. Abner HART-00508 (Metal Worker, Farmer), 29 Oct 1838 at Whips Cove Fulton Co., Pa.; died 13 Feb 1901 at Whips Cove Fulton Co., Pa.; buried at Sideling Hill Baptist Cem. Fulton Co., Pa.. Abner Hart was the youngest in his family. After his brother in law Isaac Powell was killed on the Gettysburg Battlefield Abner decided not to answer the draft call. There were many young men who took refuge in the mountains at that time. There is a rock overhang on the Eastern side of Sideling Hill mountain West of Needmore, Pa. It is near a solid square formation called the "Rockhouse". The rock overhang would hold some heat from the daytime sun and the young men would crawl under it with some blankets for protection.The various families would take turns carrying some food up to their family members. There are foot trails along the tops of the mountains which are little changed since the time of Columbus. Abner Hart would walk the trail along the top of Sideling Hill Mountain and peer over into the Whips Cove Valley. If he saw the large bed sheet on the clothesline at his home he knew it was safe to come home for a meal and a little rest. Before the present Jerusalem and Whips Cove Churches were built in the 1880's there was only a school house for a place of public worship. It stood between the two present day Churches mentioned. One night Abner Hart had been seen in the vicinity of the school house by Captain Hull the draft law enforcement officer. As Abner lay quietly in the narrow crawl space under the school house floor he could hear Captain Hull and his men walking about overhead. Captain Hull was the only Republican in Whips Cove at the time and he was not too popular politically. He lived on the farm later owned by Nathan and Jane Mellott. In the 1930's this house was occupied by the Harry Hanks family. It was just South of the Clarence Engle home. On another occasion the Hart family came out of the school house after a Sunday morning service and saw Captain Hull watching fronm the top of a nearby hill. Abner tried to keep the outline of his mothers skirts between him and Captain Hull as he made his way into the Hart carriage. So up the road through Flickerville and on to their home they went and they were not pursued. The Civil War was coming to a close and Captain Hull would live among his neighbors afterward. The peace of that wartime Sunday morning in Whips Cove was not disturbed. Late in the fall of 1864 Abner Hart was threshing wheat on his father's barn floor. This barn stood close to the little Tonoloway Creek in what is in 1996 known as Pa. State Gamelands #65. The house site is referred to as the Nettie place by some of the local people. As Abner was threshing with the flail he saw Captain Hull and some other men coming across the creek on horseback. A man's horse reared its head just in time to take a bullet from a squirrel rifle, instead of the rider. Since the men were not injured the incident was probably reported as a horse dead and buried and no terrible manhunt followed. Abner in the meantime had scurried out the barn door toward Town Hill mountain and would not be seen in public until after the war ended. A close call would take place when a search of Abner's parents home was made. The soldiers searched the house from top to bottom and probed the straw ticks on the beds with their swords. One man peered into the attic area and saw nothing amiss up there. What was not obvious to the casual observer was that a false wall had been constructed in the attic just one rafter back from the end. Abner had concealed himself behind this false wall and was crouching there. Onions had been stored up there in the attic and the dust had been disturbed and Abner nearly choked as he suppressed a cough. When the peace of Appomattox came Abner worked at home for a time but soon decided to go West. He had Hart relatives in Hartford City Indiana. He worked there for a few years and married Louisa Lavina Cline on 30 Jan 1874 in Hartford City, Blackford County, Indiana. The story of Abner's 2 daughters being born in his fathers house in Pennsylvania and his later divorce have been covered in the notes on his wife. As far as Abner's later life is concerned he was a metal worker but not a full fledged blacksmith as was his brother Ephriam. Abner worked on farms as a laborer and his oldest daughter Alice would accompany him as they walked over the "Lockings" where Town Hill Mountain joins Sideling Hill Mountain. This was the trail over into the Licking Creek Valley. There were friends and relatives needing harvest hands and Alice would help the farmwives in the kitchen. It was likely on these long walks over the mountain that Abner would tell his daughter about the times he had walked these trails during the then recent war. My grandmother Alice said she always felt happiest when coming back across the mountain toward her Aunt Rachel Hart's home. A glimpse of Abner's personality is given by a letter from Jonathan Cope written from the Cope farm in Chester County Pennsylvania, in the 1890's. He is asking Ephriam Hart to try and hire 3 or 4 farm laborers to come to Chester County for the Fall harvest on the train. Jonathan Cope knew the people in Whips Cove well as he had lived there as recently as 10 years before. Anyway at the end of his letter he adds "Tell Abner he can come too if he leaves his mouth at home". Abner built a small house across the creek from his fathers home. He hoped for a reconciliation with his divorced wife until he died. This home was comfortable but lonely as far as his young daughter was concerned. In Abner's last illness he was taken to his brother Ephriam's home for the required care. Abner had been in his grave 50 years when one day my grandmother Alice asked me: "How would you like your potatoes tonight? I replied "Oh just with salt"! She looked very thoughtful and said "My father always liked them that way". Abner HART-00508 married Louisa Lavina CLINE-00509 (MRIN-00179) (Homemaker), (the daughter of John CLINE-00677 and Elizabeth BURTON-00678) 30 Jan 1874 at Hartford City, Blackford Co., Indiana; 18 Jan 1857 at Nottingham Twp. Wells Co., Indiana; died 14 May 1918 at Monroeville, Indiana; buried at I.O.O.F. Cem. Monroeville, Indiana. They had the following children: + 109 i Alice Rosetta HART-00103. + 110 ii Melissa Jane HART-00510. ----------------------