Cohill History Web Page - The following provides some of the Cohill History:
COHILL HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD – Source History OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, MARYLAND. (PICTURES WILL BE ADDED LATER)
Andrew Arnold Cohill was a man possessed of many natural endowments. He achieved great results, where others had failed, and his genius in his particular line of work, enabled him to overcome all obstacles, and to master difficult situations that frequently arose. He was a skillful manager of men, and was never harsh nor angry with them, but attained better results by a kind word. He enjoyed their fullest confidence and esteem.
He was born in Huntingdon, Pa., where he passed his boyhood. His opportunities for educational advantages were very meagre, but during the short time when he was enabled to. attend school, he gave close application to his books.
He served an apprenticeship at the carpenter trade, which in a measure, helped to develop his natural talent for civil engineering, in which profession he won fame. He solved the most difficult problems mentally in less time than it took others to figure them out by the pencil process. He planned and superintended the construction of the majority of the dams and bridges built in his day between, Harrisburg and Hollidaysburg, along the Juniata River, and between Wrightsville and Lock Haven on the Susquehanna. He also constructed dams and locks on the Kanawha River, at Charlestown, W. Va. His operations covered many states, both east and west. At one time he was in charge of the Pennsylvania Canal; he was active in his profession to the time of his - death, which occurred in Williamsport, Pa., in 1894. Andrew A. Cohill removed from Huntingdon to Williamsport, Pa., in 1867, and made the latter place his home for the rest of his life.
He was a life-long Democrat and a member of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. Cohill was twice married. He married first Mary Jane Mapes, in Elmira, N.Y. She was a daughter of Seliah Riley and Elizabeth Yocum(Ketchum) Mapes, of Goshen, Orange Co., N. Y. Mrs.
Cohill died in 1861, at the age of twenty-five Years. Andrew A. and Mary J. Cohill were the parents of two children Edni=und Pendleton; and Haskins G., Born at Riee’s Landing, Pa., in 1857; who married Annie Van Buskirk, and has children. Thomas, Andrew, and Maurice; they reside in Pittsburg Pa.
Mr. Cohill second wife was Miss Egan, of Greensburg, Pa.; they were the parents of the following children: 1. Andrew Arnold, Jr., born in 1867 in Williamsport, Pa.; he married first Susan Louden, who died, and he afterwards married :Miss Good. They reside in McKeesport, Pa., and have the following children: Andrew Arnold;
John Louden; and Victoria; 2. Maud, born in 1870; married Milton Hines, an artist, and designer of stained glass windows; they reside in Brooklyn, N. Y.; 3. Thomas Wierman, born in 1873, married Grace King, of New York City, and has two children; they reside near Pittsburg, Pa:
Edmund Pendleton Cohill was only six years old when his mother died, and he went to live with his maternal grandmother, Elizabeth Y. Mapes, in Great Bend, Pa. He attended the public schools until he was seventeen years old, when he went to Harrisburg to become a clerk in the office of T. T. Wierman, chief engineer of the Pennsylvania Canal Company. Here he remained h\'o years, making' his home with Mr. Wierman.
While in the city he attended night school, and took a course in short hand, telegraphy and bookkeeping. In 1874 he accepted the position of private secretary to George M. Ball, general manager of the Empire Transportation Company, Williamsport, Pa. In 1875 he was sent to Baltimore, as cashier for the same Company. This position he held for one year. At the expiration of that period he went to Hancock, Md.. and soon after became a partner of Samuel Rinehart in the mercantile business and manufacture of sumac. Upon the retirement of Mr. Rinehart in 1880, Mr. Cohill became sole owner of the business. In addition to the above, Mr. Cohill is interested in and promoter of many other industries. In I886, he began the cultivation of fruit in a small way, which he increased from time to time, until he organized the Tonoloway Orchard Co., of which he was elected president; he still holds that position. Mr. Cohill also assisted in the organization of the Hancock Bridge Company. When the beautiful structure which spans the Potomac at Hancock was in the course of construction, he gave it his personal attention. He has acted as treasurer of the above company ever since its organization. He was also one of the organizers of the Hancock Bank and was its president for six years, resigning in 1905. He helped to organize the First National Bank of Hancock and has served as it vice – president ever since. He has been president of the Maryland State Horticultural Society ever since June 1905; is vice-president of the Russell Creek Coal Co., of Wise Co., Va., and a director in the American Angora Goat Breeders' Association.
Mr. Cohill is a man of great popularity and the number of his friends is legion. Politically he has been devoted to the interests of the Democratic party and his efforts for the success of his party are justly appreciated by his fellow voters. He has served- as a member of the School Board of Washington County for the past six years, and has been recently appointed for a second term of six years.
Mr. Cohill is a member of the Catholic Church, of the Catholic Benevolent Legion and of the Knights of Columbus.
Edmund P. Cohill married, in Hancock, October 23, 1876, Mary Ellen Rinehart, the ceremony being performed by the Rev. Charles Domer, rector of the Roman Catholic Church of Hancock. Mrs. Cohill is a daughter of the late Samuel Rinehart, of Hancock. She was born in Hancock, and has spent nearly all of her life there; she received her education at the Convent of the Visitation, at Frederick City, Md. Edmund P. and Mary E. Cohill are the parents of the following children: 1. :Marie Agnes, born August 11. 1877, died June 12, 1905; 2. Louise E., born July 10, 1879; was educated in the public schools and at St. Agnes' College. Mount Washington. Md.; 3. Samuel Rinehart. born January 22. 1881, was educated in the public schools. For six years he was in the grocery business in McKeesport, Pa.. but is now engaged in the insurance business in Hancock; 4. Leo A., born September 29. 1885, who, after leaving public school, took a course in horticulture at the Agricultural College. College Park. Md. He is now the manager of 300 acres of land belonging to the Tonoloway Orchard Co.; 5. William Joseph, born January.
7, 1888. When but ten years old he invested the few dollars that he had saved in an angora goat, and has since achieved much success in the breeding of that species. He wrote to leading authorities on the subject, and procured the best books pertaining to the. subject of angora goats, and today, although he is but eighteen years of age, he ranks with the best breeders of angora goats in the country. He owns 250 head, sixty of which are considered to he the finest in the United States. His goats have taken first prize at all fairs at which he has exhibited them, including first prizes at the World's Fair, at St. Louis. In 1904. he received the first prize from the New York Evening Mail,a handsome silver cup- for the finest doe exhibited at the Herald Square show. He owns a full sister to the doe that was sold at Kansas City for $600, and a full brother to the buck that was sold in the same city for $1,400. He imported nine goats from Switzerland and one from South Africa. Carl Hagenback, owner of' the. famous Hagenback circus, has on exhibition in his show .several goats that were sold to him by this young man. He lectures to the students of the Maryland Agricultural College on angora goats. 6. James Andrew, born July 21 1889. 7. Marguerite Cecelia, born December 17, 1891, died July 21, 1892; 8. Suella, born August 14, 1893.
Samuel Rinehart, the father of Mrs. E. P. Cohill, was born in Greene Co., .Pa., June 9, 1813. He was a son of Barnet Rinehart, who was also born in Greene Co., Pa. The Rinehart family is of German origin. Bennett Rinehart emigrated from Germany, and settled in Greene county, where he was slain by the Indians. His son, Barnet Rinehart. father of Samuel Rinehart, was a colonel in the War of 1812. He died in Greene county in 1845. He married Sarah Hook, a daughter of James Hook, who was a colonel in the Revolution, and one of Greene County's earliest settlers. The Hooks were of Scotch origin. Barnet and Sarah Rinehart were the parents of seven children.
Samuel Rinehart, son of Barnet and Sarah Rinehart, left home when he was but fifteen year, old, and ,with a pack upon his back journeyed through the country on foot, finding his first employment at Point of Rocks, Md. He was employed in hauling logs out of the Potomac for four months, when John S. Washington, a storekeeper at Point of Rocks, gave him employment as a clerk. At the end of six months he was made superintendent of a lumbering firm at Harper's Ferry, where he remained about two years. He was then appointed a division assistant superintendent on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, with headquarters at Sharpsburg. He remained in this position for three years, and then engaged as a clerk in the Antietam Iron Works, under John McP. Brinn. This business, however, did not suit him, and he soon returned to the canal as section "boss:' four miles east of Hancock.' After six months he changed his location to Cumberland, where for the next year and a half, he was a contractor's superintendent.
By this time he had concluded to settle somewhere, and, selecting a place twenty-five miles west of Hancock, opened a Store. Here he remained two years, and then removed to the mouth of Cacapon Creek, where he traded another year. The suspension of the canal inflicted upon him a heavy financial loss. A year later, in 1842, he began business at Hancock, starting with a few goods obtained on credit. This small beginning was improved by close attention to business and untiring energy. Prosperity came, and he gradually amassed a competence. He remained in Hancock until 1860, when he went to St. Joseph, Mo., where he engaged in the banking business with Col. Thomas Harbine. In 1861, he relinquished his interest in the bank, returned to Hancock, and resumed business as a merchant. From 1856 to 1858, he was interested in a tannery in Fulton county, Pa. In 1872, he built a sumac and citron-bark mill at Hancock. which he continued with much success until about 1876, when he took as a partner E. P. Cohill, who, after Mr.
Rinehart's retirement in 1880, took charge of the business. Mr. Rinehart's business undertakings likewise included canal contracting, warehousing,' the control of a line of boats, and farming.
In politics he was an Old-Line Whig, and later a Democrat. He was a candidate for County Commissioner in 1881, but was defeated. He married, in November, 1838, Eliza Bevans, daughter of Thomas and Ann Bevans, of Washington County. Samuel and Eliza (Bevans) Rinehart had seven children: Thomas Barnett, Edward;
Sarah Anna; .James; Charles; Samuel; and Mary Ellen (Mrs. E. P. Cohill).
Mrs. Cohill's, mother, :Mrs. Eliza (Bevans) Rinehart was a daughter of Thomas and Ann (Parsons) Bevans, those families were among the earliest settlers of Washington County. having come to America about five generations ago. They were of Scotch-Irish origin. Thomas Bevans was a farmer and slave-holder, and a prominent citizen of Washington County. The children or Thomas and Ann Bevans were: James, who was killed among the Indians in the West; Mary, who married Dr. O'Donnell; Eliza (Mrs. Thomas Rinehart); Ellen, who married White Watkins; Eveline, who married James Bevans; and Thomas. Jr., who died in Baltimore. Md.
Mr. and Mrs. Edmund P. Cohill reside in the old Rinehart mansion, a family dwelling which dates back more than eighty years.