October 17, 1889: Who Knew? Fagleysville Man a Contender for President of the United States.

By Margaret Leidy Harner from her book One Day at a Time: A Social History of Boyertown, PA

October 17, 1889: The Civil War hero and former Governor of Pennsylvania Gen. John F. Hartranft has died. The distinguished Brigadier General of the Army of the Potomac and Governor of Pennsylvania from 1873 to 1879, was born in Fagleysville on December 16, 1830, and lived for several years in the 1830’s at the Union House Hotel, where his father Samuel was the proprietor.

A civil engineer and lawyer, Hartranft was a colonel in a Montgomery County regiment of volunteers and fought in the 1st and 2nd Battles of Bull Run, the battles of South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Vicksburg and many others, and he commanded the forces that defeated General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Fort Stedman. General Ulysses S. Grant conferred on him the rank of Major General for that victory.

General Hartranft was elected the 17th Governor of Pennsylvania in 1872, and served two terms. At the Republican National Convention in 1876, he was a contender for his party’s nomination for President of the United States, which eventually went to Rutherford B. Hayes from Ohio, who had served with Hartranft during the Civil War in the same army corps. Hayes was elected President in that election.

(A man from Fagleysville came that close to the Presidency of the United States.) In 1886, Hartranft was awarded the Medal of Honor for valor during the First Battle of Bull Run in 1861.

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