Haldeman family.

Jacob M. Haldeman, a major early 19th century Pennsylvania ironmaster, was born in Manheim, Lancaster County, on March 4, 1781. He was the grandson of Jacob Haldeman, a Swiss immigrant and a member of the county Committee of Public Safety at the breaking out of the Revolution. Around 1806 Jacob M. Haldeman moved to New Cumberland at the mouth of Yellow Breeches Creek in Cumberland County, where he purchased a forge and added a rolling and slitting mill. New Cumberland became a major river port where coal and lumber from up river was off-loaded for Cumberland Valley points and grain, flour, whiskey and iron were exported by arks to Port Deposit. Haldeman then built a large merchant grist mill which for a while engrossed much of the grain trade of the Cumberland Valley.

Haldeman operated these works until 1826, when they were abandoned. He moved to Harrisburg in 1830 but continued to be involved in the iron industry. By 1836 he owned one-third of the Mary Ann and Augusta Furnaces near Carlisle, and he was one of the incorporators of the Chestnut Hill Iron Ore Company at Columbia in 1851. Jacob M. Haldeman died in Harrisburg on December 15, 1857.

Jacob's son Richard Jacobs Haldeman was born in 1831. He married a daughter of Republican Party boss Simon Cameron. Richard Haldeman was editor of the Harrisburg PATRIOT AND UNION and served in Congress (1869-73) and in diplomatic posts. He died in 1886.