Christian Philip Humrich (1831-1905)

Christian P. Humrich was born on March 9, 1831 as the eldest son of John Adams, a provisions merchant and farmer, and Mary Ann Zeigler Humrich in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He was educated first by a Miss Rebecca Wrightman in one of the new primary schools in the town opened under the state free school laws, and then went on to the Dickinson College Preparatory School in 1847. He entered the College proper in 1848 with the class of 1852. While there he was active in the Belles Lettres Society and became a member of Zeta Psi fraternity. He graduated with his class in the summer of 1852 and immediately began law studies in the office of Robert Henderson in Carlisle.

Humrich passed the Cumberland County bar in the winter of 1854 and began a local law career that would last for many years. His practice was briefly interrupted when he served as the company captain of Company I of the militia's First Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, a unit organized on September 11, 1862 and mustered out just twelve days later. Back in Carlisle, Humrich also participated in civic affairs, serving for almost forty years as a public school director of the borough of Carlisle and sitting three times on the town council. As one of the Republican Party organizers in a predominately Democratic county, he was not able to advance further, losing three countywide races over the years. He also was active in the local fire companies, serving as member, president, and chair of the board of trustees of the Good Will Hose Company between 1859 and 1889.

Humrich married Amanda Rebecca Zeigler of nearby North Middleton Township and the couple had nine children, six of whom survived to full age. In long family tradition, he attended the First Lutheran Church in Carlisle. Christian Philip Humrich died at his home 149 West Louther Street, Carlisle on June 5, 1905 at the age of seventy-six.