Abraham Hiestand

  Noted events in his life were:

• Family History. ^818,819 The Hiestand's are a Mennonite family, which has been represented chiefly in the Franconia and Ontario conferences of the Mennonite Church. The progenitor of the North American Hiestands was one Abraham Hiestand, a member of the Reformed Church in Switzerland, who was born about 1703 and as a young man immigrated to Pennsylvania. While living in eastern Pennsylvania he and his wife united with the Mennonite Church. A deacon in the Lancaster Conference bore the name Hiestand, as did Preacher Jacob Histand of the Franconia Conference and his well-known grandson, Bishop A.O. Histand of Doylestown, PA. Paul W. Histand, a nephew of the latter, was pastor of the Trevose Heights Mission.

The Hiestand farm is near Salunga, east of Spooky Nook Road, west of Pennsylvania Malleable Factory, South of 283 and North of the Railroad tracks. The 1727 immigrant Jacob Hiestand warranted this land on 14 May 1735 as 300 acres, which were surveyed for him on 14 April 1735, in Hempfield Township from the Penn family Proprietors of Pennsylvania. The land passed to his second son Abraham Hiestand and then to his son Johannes. This farm along with the Hiestand family cemetery located on it remained in the Hiestand family until 1943 when the 108 acres was sold. The remaining 95 acres was sold in 1974, to the Armstrong Cork Company. This company built a large warehouse on the farm but the family cemetery and old farm buildings are still preserved

• Property. Buttonwood Tree House

In 1937, telephone linemen who were sent to install phone lines in the “Chicken Pie Place” Restaurant in Hellam, York County found an arched German fruit cellar hewn from solid rock. The Buttonwood Tree House, which takes its name from the large buttonwood tree in the front yard, was built like a fortress, on solid rock, with walls 24 inches thick. The original house was built in approximately 1760. It was remodeled sometime between 1810 and 1820. The house is located 8 miles east of York City. It sits midway between York City and Columbia.

A prominent businessman in York and Lancaster Counties, Abraham Hiestand bought the building in 1830. Hiestand also owned the Old York Inn, which was another known Underground Railroad stop in York County. Sarah Wilson, Hiestand's daughter inherited the property and owned it from 1865 to 1899. She continued to help fugitives in the latter days of the Civil War.

It was in the hidden cellar that fugitive slaves were hidden. The means of entry into the cellar was via a fireplace in the living room. In the living room fireplace, a hole large enough for a large person to slide down into the otherwise completely walled in cellar was concealed. When strangers were present a log fire was kept burning in the fireplace and the hole was covered with stones.

Abraham married Susanna Borneman, daughter of Henry Borneman and Margertetta (Mararetta) Seasholtz (Seesholtz). (Susanna Borneman was born on 2 Feb 1788 in New Hanover Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania and died on 5 May 1861.)