John Frederick Hartranft (December 16, 1830 – October 17, 1889) was the governor of Pennsylvania from 1873 to 1879 and a Union General who received the Medal of Honor for his actions during the American Civil War.
Hartranft was born in Fagleysville in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, near Pottstown. He attended Marshall College in Virginia and received his degree in civil engineering in 1853 from Union College in Schenectady, New York. He briefly...
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John Frederick Hartranft (December 16, 1830 – October 17, 1889) was the governor of Pennsylvania from 1873 to 1879 and a Union General who received the Medal of Honor for his actions during the American Civil War.
Hartranft was born in Fagleysville in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, near Pottstown. He attended Marshall College in Virginia and received his degree in civil engineering in 1853 from Union College in Schenectady, New York. He briefly worked for two railroads in eastern Pennsylvania before returning home to Norristown to assist his father in the real estate and stage line businesses. In 1854, he was appointed deputy sheriff of Montgomery County. That same year, he married Sallie Douglas Sebring. They had six children, but three died in infancy.
Hartranft was active in the Norristown fire company and the local Freemason lodge. Hartranft was admitted to the bar in 1860, and rose to the rank of colonel in the Pennsylvania Militia.
In April 1861, Hartranft raised a Montgomery...
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